Tourism, national identity, and the images on postage stamps: the case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Since the early twentieth century, Saudi Arabia has developed from a collection of religiously-inspired tribal conquests into a modern nation-state. Religious tourism–the centuries-old Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj)–is a central pillar of its identity. Taking the postage stamps of Saudi Arabia as a case study, this article shows how the country’s austere Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam gradually evolved to embrace the use of pictorial images on postage stamps to define and promote national identity, religious tourism, and even of late, non-religious tourism. The Holy Kaaba and the mosques of Mecca and Medina, palm trees and camels, royal portraits, airplanes and oil rigs, wildlife, pre-Islamic antiquities, folklife, and women have all been among the categories of images enlisted to achieve these ends.