Additionally, tourism is an extremely visual phenomenon. Given the old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words,” images are often considered the most important aspect of promotions. These representations are powerful in instantly creating an impression of a place in the viewer’s mind. In fact, it has been argued that the image of a destination plays a key role in potential tourists’ decision-making process.3 Early tourism imagery included illustrations and black-and-white photographs; today it is dominated by vivid full-color photographs and video files. These images depict characteristics of the place, including attractive landscape vistas and iconic scenes, as well as tourists participating in activities and enjoying themselves there—such as relaxing on the beach, hiking in the forest, or dining at sunset.
There are some very obvious and standardized messages conveyed in place promotion (e.g., fun or relaxation), but there are also subtler messages embedded in them as well. A number of key themes are used to convey ideas about places, generate interest, and play upon potential tourist motivations for travel. These themes include excitement and adventure, tradition and timelessness, fantasy and romance, pristine and unspoiled, or exotic and different.
One of the most common tourism representations of place is an empty natural landscape—such as a deserted beach or an undisturbed forest—without people or evidence of people. This emphasizes the naturalness and authenticity of the destination; it implies an earlier time, when life was slower, simpler, and people had a closer connection to their environment. As such, it is targeted at tourists who live in places with the opposite character: namely, overcrowded urban areas with the fast pace of modern life. While this has typically been intended for the traditional major tourist-generating regions of northeastern North America and Northwestern Europe, it can now also apply to the emerging generating regions in parts of East and South Asia. Clearly, this plays upon the tourist inversions discussed in chapter 2 in terms of creating a sense of contrast with those places and activities that make up tourists’ daily lives.
Moreover, this type of representation invites potential tourists to imagine themselves in that place. The setting is provided and some suggestions might be made about what could be done there, but everything else is left open. This allows viewers to tap into their own dreams and desires and fill in what they want from the experience. This helps create a demand for the imagined experience and encourages tourists to visit that place for the purpose of turning fantasy into reality.
Representations clearly play an important role in shaping ideas about a destination and attracting visitors. Accordingly, destinations at all geographic scales are concerned with these issues. Tourism boards or convention and visitors’ bureaus (e.g., Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau) may be responsible for a local destination’s image. Large destinations may have state- or regional-level agencies (e.g., Tourism Western Australia), while most countries now have some type of national tourism organization or association (e.g., Tourism Authority of Thailand). These organizations typically concentrate on creating a national tourism brand identity that can be promoted to an external or foreign audience, although there may be efforts to promote domestic tourism as well. In some cases, small and/or relatively similar destinations may work cooperatively through regional (supranational) tourism organizations to promote a specific destination region (e.g., Caribbean Tourism Organization, open to any country with a Caribbean coast; Walk My Alps, consisting of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland). The resources available for place promotion vary widely based on the size of the destination, level of overall economic development, and the extent to which tourism development is a priority.
Types of Representations
As long as people have traveled, they have represented the places they experienced through written descriptions and visual illustrations. These representations have proliferated exponentially since those times, as all parts of the world have become more accessible, more people have had the opportunity to travel, and new forms of media have allowed us to vicariously experience places in a multitude of ways. Many of these representations have no overt connection to tourism and are not explicitly intended to encourage visitation to the place depicted. Yet, these representations must be considered alongside the less ambiguous promotional representations. Both have the potential to create distinct impressions of places in the minds of their audience, which factors into demand for travel as well as destination choice. Moreover, there may be an explicit relationship between popular media and place promotion. A film may highlight a place as a means of advertising, similar to product placement, or a place may draw upon popular literary, film, or even music references in its promotions.
Popular Media
Literature—including plays, poetry, and prose—was one of the earliest representations of other places to popular audiences. This medium has been credited with creating some of the powerful ideas of places discussed above. For example, far-off and exotic tropical islands frequently played an integral role in literature, not only providing the setting but also distinctly shaping the events of the story. William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (early seventeenth century) was written at a time in which reports were coming back from parts of the world that were being “discovered,” and his story contributed to the mythology of these places. Although it is unclear whether the setting for the play is an island off the coast of Africa or in the Caribbean, the specific location is less important than the idea of the place represented to audiences who would never have any direct experience with the tropical island environment. These ideas have persisted over time in works such as Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719), Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883), and Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954). Although these novels may not be read as widely as they were in the past, the stories and themes nonetheless remain familiar to us today. In fact, they are often updated and given modern twists, such as in Alex Garland’s The Beach (1996).
Literature has also played a role in shaping ideas about distinct places, and consequently in creating a demand for experiences there. For example, the Lake Poets (i.e., William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, and Robert Southey) played an instrumental role in popularizing England’s Lake District during the time period in which domestic tourism was expanding. In particular, Wordsworth’s poetry is considered to be intimately connected to the region. Having lived most of his life among the lakes, he was often inspired by the landscape, which was represented in his work. In one of his most well-known works, “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” (1804), he reflected on a sight he encountered along Ullswater Lake. The readers of such works often became interested in experiencing these places for themselves, and new developments in tourism at the time, such as the railroad, increasingly allowed them to do so. Similarly, in the American context, authors such as Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper helped popularize the Hudson River Valley. Also at a time in which tourism was developing in the region, stories such as Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans (1826) described real places that their readers might know or be able to experience for themselves.
Literature continues to represent places and shape ideas of them. Indeed, many avid readers will argue that written descriptions constitute some of the most powerful conceptions of place because they work in concert with their imagination. However, the rise of visual media has, to some extent, superseded the importance of literature. While novels still represent places, it is often the film adaptations of those novels that reach the widest audience. That the visual is extraordinarily important is evidenced by the fact that new versions of such novels are produced with images from the film replacing the original cover art. In the example of Alex Garland’s The Beach discussed above, the novel was a best seller in Europe but had relatively little impact on the American market. Yet, the story is widely known today among American audiences from the movie version starring Leonardo DiCaprio (2000). After more than a decade, the film continues to inspire touri
sm, and rather than seeking the places that might have inspired Garland to write the story, tourists have flocked to the place in which the movie was filmed (figure 12.2).
Figure 12.2. Maya Bay, on Thailand’s Phi Phi Leh Island, served as one of the film locations for The Beach. Even the official tourism website for the province (Krabi Tourism, “Maya Bay, Krabi—Thailand,” accessed May 25, 2011, http://www.krabi-tourism.com/phiphi/maya-bay.htm) cites the “horde of day-trippers” who now flock to the once unknown beach. (Source: Wesley Mills.)
In addition to influencing the way we think about places, films may also encourage or discourage us from visiting these places for ourselves. This has become such an important representation that tourism promoters will often seek to capitalize on the publicity that films generate. For example, following the release of Baz Lurhman’s film Australia (2008), the country’s national and regional tourism associations began to use the film images of Australian actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in their promotions.
In some cases, the place plays such an important role in the film that tourists seek to re-create the characters’ experiences by visiting featured sites. For example, visitors to New York City often seek out iconic spots such Tiffany & Co., prominently featured in the classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), or Katz’s Deli, made famous by Meg Ryan’s “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in When Harry Met Sally (1989). In other cases, epic films highlighting dramatic landscape scenery often create a demand for experiences in such places, even though tourists do not expect to replicate the experiences of the film. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example, stimulated a demand for tourism to New Zealand based on the unique natural landscapes that provided the setting for the action of the film.
Interestingly, movies can also create an interest in and demand for tourism in a place, even when the movie was not actually filmed at that location. For example, The Last Samurai (2003) highlights attractive scenes from the Japanese countryside but was actually filmed in New Zealand. Parts of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies were filmed on islands in the region and contributed to the already powerful imagery of the tropical island theme. Yet, the fourth installment was, in fact, not filmed in the region but in Hawaii. However, as with The Tempest, the actual location of the tropical island in the film becomes less important than the ideas created about the place, and the title of the series continues to promote the Caribbean regardless.
At the same time, an unflattering representation of a place in a film can change viewers’ ideas of that place and convince them they have no desire to visit. Such movies often portray tourists getting caught up in a violent local conflict (e.g., Beyond Rangoon [1995], in which an American tourist finds herself in the middle of Burma’s 1988 uprising) or finding themselves—deservedly or not—stuck in the miserable conditions of a foreign prison (e.g., Brokedown Palace [1999], in which a pair of young American tourists are accused of drug smuggling and imprisoned in Thailand). In other examples, the stark portrayal of a place in a film might contrast with generally glorified representations of that place. For example, Paris is typically associated with romantic imagery of lovers walking down the historic boulevards or kissing on a bridge over the Seine. However, the action film Taken (2009) shows a much darker side of the city—and a much scarier idea of traveling abroad—when the young American tourists are kidnapped to be sold in the sex trade.
Serialized television shows can serve a similar purpose in creating ideas about general place types, such as the tropical island theme re-created in the fantasy series Lost, as well as specific places, such as New York City scenes featured in the rom-com series Sex and the City. While these shows may not be the primary motivation for tourists to visit that particular place, they still may shape patterns of tourism. In the case of Hawaii, regular viewers of Lost might visit show film locations, such as the beach containing the “wreckage” of Oceanic flight 815. In the case of New York City, viewers might seek the places frequented by Sex and the City girls, including the building shown as Carrie’s apartment, the Jimmy Choo boutique, or Magnolia Bakery.
Finally, travel-themed television programs blur the boundaries between these types of popular media, the more specific travel-related media, and explicit place promotions. For example, Rick Steves’ Best of Europe series highlights different aspects of destinations throughout the region and is essentially a visual representation of the type of information that is included in his tourist guidebooks. In addition, the Travel Channel hosts many programs that have become increasingly specialized to focus on certain components of destinations, such as food in Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods. Although most shows are primarily intended for entertainment purposes, there may also be an instructive aspect in which prospective travelers to the featured destination might be able to use the programs to help them plan their own trip.
Representations of place in any of these media have the potential to create a demand for tourism. However, much of the audience for these media will not have the opportunity to visit the places represented and will therefore only experience them vicariously through representations. As such, this will contribute to the creation of suppressed demand (see chapter 2).
Travel Literature
Few written records have been preserved from the earliest eras of travel; however, starting with the Age of Exploration in the Elizabethan Era, explorers and adventurers kept logs and journals of their journeys, some of which were later published. This practice continued with the next wave of scientific travelers. In fact, their “authority” was often contingent upon their published accounts of the places they visited. The primary purpose of published travel journals was to convey information and descriptions about the new places being explored. One of the most well-known examples of this type of account is Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle: Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World (1839). In this text, Darwin described the geography, geology, biology, and anthropology of the places that he visited, including Brazil, the Galápagos Islands, New Zealand, Madagascar, and St. Helena.
As travel and tourism continued to evolve, a new type of text also evolved, with elements of other genres. Travel literature might include the “objective” descriptions of earlier scientific accounts, as well as stories reminiscent of the adventure novels discussed above, and the advice found in the tourist guidebooks that also emerged in the early nineteenth century. Travelogues became a popular genre of English-language literature at this time, particularly in England but also in the United States.
Some of the first examples of travel literature came from established authors of both fiction and nonfiction, including the likes of James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mark Twain. The well-known writers of this period had the time and the means to travel when both were still scarce for much of the population. They also had connections with publishing houses and were household names that would generate interest in and ultimately sell their books. Such writers sought out new places to experience and were among the first tourists to visit these places. Still intended to be informative about other places, these books were also clearly written to be entertaining. They helped fulfill readers’ sense of adventure and satisfy their curiosity about places they might not have the opportunity to visit themselves.
Yet, these narratives were also extraordinarily influential in generating new attitudes toward travel. The written accounts of early tourists’ journeys were one of the first ways in which the majority of the population was exposed to the idea of travel for pleasure, which helped tourism to come to be seen as a normal activity. As tourism began to open up to a wider market, these written accounts of what other places were like encouraged travel. Although not strictly intended to be promotional, they had the power to influence what destinations tourists chose, what activities they participated in, and what expectations they had for their experiences.
For example, during the prolific career of Anthony Trollope, one of the Victorian Era’s most recognized English novelists, he also wrote travel narratives based on his experiences across the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, Africa, and Iceland. He described the places he encountered and his experiences—good and bad—with these places. His personal writing style gave readers the impression he was speaking directly to them as they planned a (real or imagined) trip of their own. In Central & South America with the West Indies (1858), Trollope wrote the following about hiking in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica to view the sunrise: “As for the true ascent—the nasty, damp, dirty, slippery, boot-destroying, shin-breaking, veritable mountain! Let me recommend my friends to let it alone.”4 After publication, this work was frequently cited in other books on the region. In particular, one of the early published travel guides, The Pocket Guide to the West Indies (1910), cited Trollope’s narrative as one of the “volumes which, in the opinion of the writer, should prove most useful and interesting to those contemplating a visit to the West Indies.”5
With this precedent, the new generations of tourists who traveled for pleasure also wrote letters, kept journals, and made sketches over the course of their journey, for their own record as well as for the purpose of publishing their own travel narrative. As a result, these books were increasingly written by tourists for other tourists. Because the places visited were becoming more familiar to readers, there was less need for these writers to provide the same extent of detailed descriptive information. Instead, they gave greater emphasis to their experience of place. As writers highlighted the specific sights they saw and provided advice based on what they did, potential tourists could essentially follow the itineraries that had been laid out by those who went before them.
An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism Page 36