Constructing tourist experience and conservation-oriented semiotic governance in a Balinese Monkey Forest: a geosemiotic perspective

This study explores the construction of tourist experience and conservation-oriented semiotic governance in a Balinese monkey forest. In the context of ecotourism, few studies examine the role of semiotic resources in mediating the relationship between tourism activities and conservation-oriented semiotic governance narratives. The data are in the forms of observation data, photographed signs and interview data. The analysis draws on Scollon and Scollon’s geosemiotic perspectives on the interaction among visitors, staff and monkeys, together with the visual and place semiotic elements of the signs. The findings demonstrate that the construction of tourist experiences and conservation-oriented semiotic governance is achieved through geosemiotic resources that operate simultaneously in verbal and non-verbal forms. Public signs are not merely informational but also semiotic regulators that mediate the production of the constructed social place and staged authenticity practices. Multilingual interactions relate to management’s efforts to provide directions and explanations to tourists with diverse linguistic backgrounds. English indexes openness to international interaction, while Indonesian indicates the accessibility of domestic visitors and the forest supervisory authority, and Balinese functions as a marker of local identity and cultural conservation. The geosemiotic configuration constructs this forest as a socially produced place that integrates tourism, local culture and monkey conservation.