Local Cultures Reloaded: Late Modern Mediatization of Tourism and the Modern Turn in the Interpretation of Space

The paper discusses the cultural change caused by mediatization. This change can be described as a change in the patterns of perception, as a change in the relationship between the empirical and the imaginary components of human experiences. The first part of the paper presents this change in connection to the cultural processes of tourism: a change in the relationship of real touristic destinations and the experience of travelling is analyzed. By doing so, the paper presents an interpretation of tourism from the point of view of Media Theory. The second part of the paper discusses the genealogy of the “modern experience” (a term by John Urry). Cultural tendencies that can be considered as roots of the mentioned cultural change are presented. The analysis of these tendencies lets the author conclude that the change of perceptional patterns is rooted in spatial perception, as it was shaped in the big cities in the late 19th century.