Gauguin and tourism imagery in the Moana

The influences of Gauguin paintings are steeped in the way the tourism industry visually markets the Moana Pacific region.

These two images of Moana tourism advertisements highlight the visual similarities between the two, informed by the visual aesthetic of Gauguin’s paintings produced during his time in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands in the late 19th century.

‘Princess Cruise Exotic Adventures’ (1982) advertisement was primarily aimed at Europe and American audiences touring the Global South labelled as ‘exotic’ by way of capitalising on Gauguin’s myth of ‘paradise’. The ‘Beautiful Sāmoa’ (2019) advertisement infuses the composition and colour wave of Gauguin’s paintings and was primarily aimed at the Sāmoan diaspora who since 2015 became the dominant demographic for tourism in Sāmoa, where tourism campaign features fewer white models every year.