Untitled

108 contestation
to explore the relationship between advertising
and the editorial content of newspapers, to
examine the construction of destination images in
newspaper and magazine articles, and to study the
historical development of destinations using timeseries
data gathered from entries in guidebooks
published over selected periods.
Content analysis, allied to interpretative analysis,
offers great potential in the study of a field such
as tourism which is represented in many media
forms. The vast variety of tourism promotion and
publicity delivered by books, press, radio, art, film
and television lends itself to synchronic and
diachronic study using the theoretical and methodological
approaches of content analysis.
References
Berelson, B. �1952) Content Analysis in Communication
Research, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press. �The
seminal book on the theory and methodology of
content analysis.)
de Sola Pool, I. �ed.) �1973) Handbook of Communication,
Chicago: Rand McNally.
Further reading
Gerbner, G. �1958) `On content analysis and
critical research in mass communication', Audio
Visual Communication Review 16: 9±32. �Provides a
seminal statement on the importance of taking
into account external factors constraining the
development of messages.)
Seaton A.V. �1990) The Occupational Ideologies of
Travel Page Editors, Sunderland: Business Education
Publications. �Attempts to explore the
relationship between tourism advertising and
the editorial policy of travel page editors by using
content analysis.)
contestation
A.V. SEATON, UK
Contestation is the social process through which
interest groups handle dominance/subjugation
issues in the politics of tourism, or in policy making
anywhere. Special interest groups cultivate iden-
tities and niches for themselves, particularly at the
issue level. Under the pluralisms of postmodernity,
natural, social, cultural or economic realities are
constantly redefined, and regularly decentred,
detotalised and destabilised through such oppositional
contestation.
contingent valuation
KEITH HOLLINSHEAD, UK
Contingent valuation is a research methodology
used to estimate the economic value of a tourist
amenity or resource not sold through conventional
markets. It produces an economic value for a good
by asking subjects to respond to a scenario
describing the current amenity or resource,
plausible changes to the amenity or resource to
better serve the guests, and how much they are
willing to pay for it. Variations include personal
interviews, questionnaires, bidding games and
public referenda.
See also: environmental valuation
continuum model
JOHN C. CROTTS, USA
A continuum is a structure or process that is, or
should be regarded as, continuous �that is,
connected in time or space). Thus, such a model
is a representation of a structure or process which
normally occurs uninterruptedly between two
points or poles. In a general sense, the growth
and democratisation of tourism can be viewed
as a continuum through time, commencing with
the emergence of tourism as an elite social activity
and ending only when it has become fully
democratised.
More specifically, a number of tourism theories
are based upon continuum models. For instance,
the development of destinations is often conceptualised
as one such model, the most widely cited
example being Butler's �1980) destination life cycle
model, which represents the continuous linear
evolution of tourism areas through identifiable
stages from exploration to decline or rejuvenation.