Joe Pankowski Reading Response 5

I like the piece of the essay where Navas talks about tourism and how it is driven by peoples need to let other people know where they have visited. They do this by finding that monument that encapsulates a culture, region, or experience in their mind and the collective mind of our society, and then document themselves standing in front of it as proof that they are expert travelers. These monuments or famous scenes come to mind when you think or hear certain locations, for example when I think or hear Paris right away the Eiffel tower comes to mind. Any well known location has this universal image that may or may not be totally factual but they have it and it helps people identify with that place. Where I'm from, Omaha, Nebraska there is this deep desire by the people who are from there and live there for Omaha to be one of these recognized universally known non-places. They desperately want people to recognize the Omaha skyline just as well as the Chicago skyline, for example when ever there is a new building being built in Omaha's downtown it's the first story covered on the local news. Another example is the last mayor in Omaha had a pedestrian  suspension bridge built across the Missouri River basically to add something new to the Omaha post card picture. Also when ever a movie is filmed in Omaha, Omahans will go see the movie just to see their city being used as a hopeful universally known city. I think this is an example of a locality wanting to become global. Communities like Omaha, see how places and experiences are universally reproduced and watered down and they see that as success.

Here is a link to Omaha's website citing the movies filmed in Omaha.

http://www.visitomaha.com/film-office/past-films-in-omaha/