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Images of Iceland as a tourist destination, as they appear through branding, in promotion or other material is, of course, not the same as images that particular tourists may have or construct. In a recent study Bjarnadóttir investigated destination image and Iceland as a tourist destination, through Danish tourists who have visited Iceland and tour guides working in Iceland. According to her, the study shows that: [M]ost of the tourists expected to experience nature in Iceland, and most tourists were definitely not disappointed. According to the guides, nature, purity and diversity are strong motives for the destination image of Iceland. Surprisingly for many tourists, the Icelandic society is more modern than they thought. /…/ Before their visit, the Danish tourists´ destination image of Iceland had to do with nature, hot springs, volcanoes, and, in some cases, cultural phenomena such as Icelandic sagas and history. The nature became the middle of the tourist experience, although different parts of nature appealed to different tourists. Aurora borealis, purity, The Golden Circle, black fields of lava, waterfalls and the constant change of scenario are some of the parts mentioned by the Danish tourists (Bjarnadóttir 2007, p. 103). The powers of cartographic tourism and tourist representation should now be clear. The cartography gives the tourist product a tangible quality which it, in certain ways, lacks itself. By ontologically transforming the intangible tourist experience, bounded and fixed to certain locations, into a mobile form, comes an imaginative ability to attract and influence tourist behaviours, experiences, motivations and consumption elsewhere. Even “nothing” is possible to map: A certain “nothing” was also mentioned to be part of the touristic experience and left a permanent mark on the tourists´ post visit image of Iceland. This “nothing” refers to the Icelandic landscape, which is somewhat different from what the Danish tourists are used to. The naked wilderness and the scattered population contrast the manmade surroundings and heavily populated cities of the world. “Nothing” becomes something positive and desirable and boosts the tourists´ experience of nature (Bjarnadóttir 2007, p. 103). It therefore comes as no surprise that research on tourism destination images, or what is also referred to as “destination imagery”, has traditionally been assigned an important role and function in the travel purchase decision making. The map of tourist imagination again meets the territory of tourism so that: 50
the individual traveler’s satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a travel purchase largely depends on a comparison of his [sic] expectation about a destination, or a previously held destination image, and his [sic] perceived performance of the destination (Chon 1990, p. 3). A pre-image of a destination is then a map that will be further interpretatively processed through tourist experiences of the actual encounter with the territory of a tourist destination. Yet, lurking behind is a rather static spatial imagery which suggests a clear division between a cartographic pre-image here and tourist experiences of a destination there. Image 3.5: Here & there. 25 As it turns out, it may well be that the tourist and the tourism researcher are very much alike when it comes to how they in practice produce knowledge through “cartographic reason” (Olsson 2007) and manage to trespass between here and there. Tourism research While research methodology can be considered to be universal for all science, various fields of research have also developed their own traditions and emphasis in relation to their respective concerns. Hence, tourism research is in general aligned with the methodology of social science and with tourism theory in particular. Here we will consider tourism research methodology in relation to a tourism theory in which mobility and geographical methodology is central. 25 http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rro/lowres/rron227l.jpg (retrieved 2009-04-15) 51
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 and 18: 2. Image & destination The actual a
Page 19 and 20: variety of sources could be used in
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 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
Page 70 and 71: globalisation gets attributed excep
Page 72 and 73: do so on the basis of its own speci
Page 74 and 75: Arguing for or against the idea of
Page 76 and 77: pushed many economies towards crisi
Page 78 and 79: Whatever new ideologies of tourism
Page 80 and 81: The IPCC Reports are based on reach
Page 82 and 83: As evidenced by the Davos Declarati
Page 84 and 85: supports the position that signific
Page 86 and 87: “voluntary compensation is still
Page 88 and 89: terms of both adaption and mitigati
Page 90 and 91: Pratt and Watts 2000, p. 840). What
Page 92 and 93: co-creator of tourist spaces” (Ek
Page 94 and 95: can researchers use photography and
Page 96 and 97: latter, in order to set the scene f
Page 98 and 99: Even though the Earth is mentioned
Page 100 and 101: [M]ost significant phenomena that t
Page 102 and 103: social science when it presents its
Page 104 and 105:
They further argue that “[t]ouris
Page 106 and 107:
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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