This book investigates how the globalized tourism industry commodifies human emotion and intimacy through the specific cultural lens of Argentine tango. Maria Törnqvist, a sociologist, utilizes ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative analysis to examine the intersection of personal experience and market forces. She argues that the tango scene functions as an 'intimate economy' where emotional labor is exchanged, regulated, and exported to international participants. The text provides a framework for understanding how global mobility transforms local cultural practices into accessible, yet highly structured, emotional commodities.

Experts in sociology and tourism studies identify this work as a significant contribution to the study of emotional labor in globalized markets. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous analytical lens for examining the intersection of culture and commerce.