has ecotourism made Maasai into guardians of wildlife?
The large majority of tourists come to Africa to see wildlife. However, with the rise of ecotourism a short cultural visit to an African people is now often included. The resulting interaction between international tourists and local people takes place through the tourist bubble. Even though ecotourism explicitly advertises the authentic experience of highly personalised contact with local people, that which is perceived as authentic is often based on stereotypes. The authentic other is the one of the tourist magazine. Building upon ideas relating to wildness, naturalness, exotic practices and primitiveness, local people produce a performance reflecting Western expectations, desires and fantasies. In Maasai communities near Masai Mara (Kenya) the influence of this bubble on daily life produces interesting paradoxes. Access to tourism money has brought social opportunities as well as setbacks and intensified land issues, but it has also changed the way local people portray and perceive
