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Before the destination itself can be defined or evaluated, researchers in tourism are already embedded in the complex and inescapable problem of the image (Hunter 2008, p. 355). It follows that tourist destination images have been investigated extensively in tourism studies, and various forms of “image analysis” have been carried out by tourism researchers since at least the early 1970s (Pike 2002). A major portion of research to date has been concerned with the photographic representations which make “tourism representations real in an immediate way” (Hunter 2008, p. 357). Although this is in line with a common view that the visual is central to the tourist experience, the concerns already raised above should be kept in mind about the privileged status assigned to the visual. Indeed, there is an inevitable gap between what can be seen and what can be imagined, between picture and interpretation. It so happens that this gap also is a characteristic feature of the tourist experience. Image & destination Tourist destination images can be found practically everywhere, but many of us are likely to associate them with the likes of tourist guidebooks, tourism advertisements, articles in newspapers containing information on travel and vacationing, films or programmes on TV of other places and environments, and, of course, the brochure which “has been identified as the single most important thing in tourism marketing” (Hunter 2008, p. 357). To this we may add the Internet (or “the Web”) that today in fact has almost become something of an important tourist destination in itself. Tourist destination images, whatever their form and wherever they are to be found, are an inevitable and essential part of tourist imaginationings. This is due to the fact that they facilitate and communicate messages about places in terms of their tourism attractiveness and various tourist amenity values. It is through tourist destination images that a location somewhere on the face of the Earth is able to become a particular kind of place, namely a potential destination for tourists. In as much as any other consumer decision, travel decisions begin with evoking sets of potential destinations and considering options before eventually deciding where to go. This involves a pre-engagement with one or several tourist destinations through images and various imaginings. A 14
variety of sources could be used in this early stage of scanning and computing information where a pre-image of the destination is formed, ranging from, say, the Internet to friends who have already visited the destination. This illustrates a common assumption among tourism researchers “that the image of a tourism destination is a key factor in destination site selection” (Hunter 2008, p. 356). Image 2.1: Pre-engagement with a destination. 11 That a pre-engagement involves images in one form or another is also well in line with what is usually presented as a unique characteristic of the destination and the tourist product in general: you cannot simply have a little tourist experience in situ preceding a purchase. What you can do instead, however, is to read about the destination, look at pictures of it, and talk to your friends about the prospect of travelling there. Whatever sources you will use, you will be able to spur and feed your tourist imaginationing with thoughts, dreams, expectations, and facts that will become ingredients in your own travel considerations. Is it a nice place for me? What kind of experiences may it offer for me, for us? Are there any particularly interesting attractions? Is Iceland similar enough to home, so one does not get lost, but also sufficiently different so as to offer change? Questions like these illustrate what the pre-engagement phase is about for an individual potential tourist. The following tourist imaging of Reykjavík is an example of what a person flicking through a daily newspaper in Stockholm in the autumn of 2008 could have come across in this phase. A daily newspaper is a medium which implicitly or explicitly often contains sections on travel and tourism. 11 www.visitorsguide.is/.../Images/island_blue.jpg (retrieved 2009-04-13). 15
Page 2 and 3: © Icelandic Tourism Research Centr
Page 4 and 5: Table of Contents 1. Introduction .
Page 6 and 7: esearch but also “education and c
Page 8 and 9: Tourism images have had a longstand
Page 10 and 11: gradually expanded and become more
Page 12 and 13: Tourism - an earthly business For u
Page 14 and 15: Image 1.3: The Island of tourism &
Page 17: 2. Image & destination The actual a
Page 21 and 22: consequences for how she or he will
Page 23 and 24: either the textual or the visual, a
Page 25 and 26: Composed of numerous small encounte
Page 27 and 28: materiality. Yet, you are able to r
Page 29 and 30: demand it is mediated by investment
Page 31 and 32: tourism reflects broader social and
Page 33: signification, not the least in tou
Page 36 and 37: usiness and market to potential cus
Page 38 and 39: ound to cross traditional disciplin
Page 40 and 41: sightseeing and whatever activities
Page 42 and 43: Social science research is carried
Page 44 and 45: environment. If they had, they were
Page 46 and 47: Our argument is that it is importan
Page 48 and 49: able to cross the minds of many tho
Page 50 and 51: Eight on my list is the heritage of
Page 52 and 53: The cartography of tourism imaginat
Page 54 and 55: Images of Iceland as a tourist dest
Page 56 and 57: Whatever the specifics and forms of
Page 58 and 59: Are you dressed in the road map of
Page 60 and 61: Summing up It has often been lament
Page 62 and 63: A challenge for tourism theory and
Page 64 and 65: carved in stone, they are not given
Page 66 and 67: some of the things that signalled t
Page 68 and 69:
Tourist was in fact that “we are
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globalisation gets attributed excep
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do so on the basis of its own speci
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Arguing for or against the idea of
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pushed many economies towards crisi
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Whatever new ideologies of tourism
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The IPCC Reports are based on reach
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As evidenced by the Davos Declarati
Page 84 and 85:
supports the position that signific
Page 86 and 87:
“voluntary compensation is still
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terms of both adaption and mitigati
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Pratt and Watts 2000, p. 840). What
Page 92 and 93:
co-creator of tourist spaces” (Ek
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can researchers use photography and
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latter, in order to set the scene f
Page 98 and 99:
Even though the Earth is mentioned
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[M]ost significant phenomena that t
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social science when it presents its
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They further argue that “[t]ouris
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meaning and matter. The research ag
Page 108 and 109:
REFERENCES Aramberri, J. (2009). Th
Page 110 and 111:
Franklin, A. (2004). Tourism as ord
Page 112 and 113:
Jóhannesson, G.Þ. and Huijbens. E
Page 114 and 115:
Shaw, G. and Williams, A. (2004). T
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