Miscommunication and cultural values in conflict: Reflections on morality and tourism in Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper looks at a touristic culture that has emerged in Labuan Bajo, Western Flores, Indonesia, and how this becomes the space in which people of differing cultures communicate and miscommunicate. The paper explores the meeting of different cultural values in this touristic space, and how what has emerged as a "touristic culture" is something different, but related to the Florenese culture from which it has departed. Various categories and notions have taken on distinct and different meanings in the context of tourism, and these become the source of conflicting values and ambiguous moral relationships between tourists and locals.