ABSTRACT

The number of North Americans buying second homes in Mexico has increased in recent decades. However, this type of mobility is poorly studied, although the second home owners’ influence is important to acknowledge and becomes particularly important due to the North Americans’ cultural, economic and social capital. Still, the Mexican state does not see the second home owners as a resource and as ‘producers’, but only as consumers of different Mexican objects, food, etc. The chapter addresses this research gap and proposes rather than only perceiving North American second home owners as part of tourism development, they need to be recognized as significant and powerful actors – actors who have the capacity to contest the Mexican state’s definition of what is considered a tourism place and space, as they not only define tourism activities but also what it means to be considered Mexican. In this way they unintentionally participate in reshaping and reconfiguring public policy and Mexican culture/identity construction. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the role of the North American second home owners and their impact on the planning and regulation of Mexican state policies, and how they might reconfigure practices and/or meanings of Mexican national culture and thus the construction of the reality of tourism in Mexico. This chapter will, from a sociological approach, attempt to understand public policy based on the theoretical framework elaborated on “social construction of reality”.