Tourism as Everyday Life: an Inquiry into The Villages, Florida.

While tourist spaces are most traditionally associated with decidedly transitory and commercial enterprises like amusement parks or resort districts, the logic of tourism is permeating into other arenas of socio-spatial design. One of the more intriguing aspects of this trend is evident in the development of themed planned communities. Unlike the theme park where visitors are implicitly asked to ‘exit reality’ to take part in a collective fantasy, the themed planned community is a heterotopia with a much more pronounced ‘permanent’ quality. In a housing market driven by private capital, theming strategies associated with tourism are being increasingly utilized by developers for distinguishing their properties. The paper is grounded by a discussion of a particular themed planned community: The Villages, Florida. The Villages is a ‘mature adult’ community of over 30,000 inhabitants located in Central Florida, USA. Based upon fieldwork in the community, the themed tourist landscape and the tensions inherent in the marketing and construction of a ‘hometown’ ideal within a complex context of regional growth are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]