Discours du tourisme diasporique : l’exemple d’une visite louisianaise en Acadie

Abstract

This article examines the discourse of diasporic tourism around the 2019 World Acadian Congress, held in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (Canada). These Congrès mondiaux are an opportunity to bring together members of the Acadian diaspora, an ethnic and linguistic minority from Eastern Canada scattered across several regions of North America and around the world. In particular, we examine the lived experiences of members of a delegation from Louisiana as they "return" to the land of their ancestors. The processes of diasporic identification to which their interviews testify are based on "moments" when memory and geographical distance are erased during heritage visits, on the recognition of doxical elements of a shared identity that allows one to feel at home with the other, and on the desire to transform the symbolic ties that unite the diaspora into transnational economic partnerships.

Keywords

• Acadia
• diaspora
• identity
• Louisiana
• heritage tourism