I think you write it for people so they will know and understand and care about the issues affecting their lives. And so he continues to espouse his belief that tourism is a strategy that many towns adopt without understanding that its costs can be as great as its benefits. In it, he takes a critical look at the industry that has transformed so many towns throughout the West. He says that in scrambling for tourist dollars, a community loses sight of what made it a community in the first place. Like the actor who becomes his character off stage as well as on, a community takes on whatever characteristics it thinks will attract tourists.
Residents buy into an artificial identity, losing their integrity in the process.
It's Santa Fe, N.M., a town where, he muses, he's not exactly a celebrated figure. Rothman, who lived in Santa Fe for a time, knows the city well. And the city knows him. The Anglos recognized that visitors preferred experiences that were easy to understand, and so they emphasized stereotypes that now even residents have come to accept as reality. Santa Fe's commitment to the created image results not only in an identity that Rothman calls fraudulent, but also one that is fixed and inflexible in the face of change.