Social media-based analysis of cultural ecosystem services and heritage tourism in a coastal region of Mexico

Understanding spatial patterns of visitation and benefits accrued to different types of natural and cultural heritage tourists may have important implications for the sustainable management of their destinations. We investigate cultural services accrued to local, domestic and international visitors to the Usumacinta floodplain, a coastal region with one of the highest biological and cultural diversities in Mexico. We combine analysis of social media photographs and high-resolution land cover mapping to identify different cultural services and their association with specific ecosystem and land cover types. Hotspots for international tourists are spatially restricted to well-known and accessible sites. Locals are 2.2–2.5 times more likely than international visitors to be associated with aesthetic appreciation and birdwatching. Locals upload more photographs of coastal lagoons, mangroves, beach and sea. Results are analyzed in light of land cover changes in the region and provide valuable information to decision makers for improved tourism management and conservation strategies.     

Seeing history: a visual assessment of the historic-grounding of Old Western tourist towns

Despite the significant role that the visual plays in the experience of tourism, few studies have specifically examined the visual appearances of heritage tourist destinations. This study sought to analyze how historically grounded the visual appearances were of two heritage tourist towns in the state of Arizona: Tombstone and Jerome. These towns were both mining towns that experienced historic booms during the days of the American Old West and survive today as tourist destinations. This study utilized a detailed visual comparison of historic and contemporary town photographs in order to assess the relative historic-grounding of building exteriors and streets. It also incorporated the findings of interviews with tourists and town residents regarding their perceptions of visual historic-grounding. Study findings offered a means to assess and compare visual historic-grounding. Additionally, they suggested that while visual historic-grounding was important to visitors, it was one of several factors influencing their perceptions of the town's historic appearance: visual appeal, personal reflections, engaging activities, and previous visitor expectations of the American Old West (often grounded in filmic-representations) worked together to visually communicate a general impression of history within each town.     

Visual attention toward tourism photographs with text: An eye-tracking study

This study examines consumers' visual attention toward tourism photographs with text naturally embedded in landscapes and their perceived advertising effectiveness. Eye-tracking is employed to record consumers' visual attention and a questionnaire is administered to acquire information about the perceived advertising effectiveness. The impacts of text elements are examined by two factors: viewers' understanding of the text language (understand vs. not understand), and the number of textual messages (single vs. multiple). Findings indicate that text within the landscapes of tourism photographs draws the majority of viewers' visual attention, irrespective of whether or not participants understand the text language. People spent more time viewing photographs with text in a known language compared to photographs with an unknown language, and more time viewing photographs with a single textual message than those with multiple textual messages. Viewers reported higher perceived advertising effectiveness toward tourism photographs that included text in the known language.     

Exploring spatio-temporal changes of city inbound tourism flow: The case of Shanghai,China

Knowledge on spatio-temporal changes of inbound tourism flow is important for destination economy, cultural communication and city image. This paper proposes a novel research framework for the spatio-temporal distribution and changes of inbound tourism flow by, first, using R-HDBSCAN clustering algorithm to extract tourism area of interest (AOI), second, by utilizing several key indicators adopted from the complex network theory literature to study the structure of inbound tourism flow with a case study example from Shanghai, China. The results show, first, that tourism in Shanghai is highly concentrated on the most popular AOI clustered in the city center relatively close to each other and, second, that, the inbound tourism flow network of Shanghai has small-world characteristics, while the distribution of its AOI (nodes) and tourist routes (edges) has general power law features, which has been influenced by the World Expo.     

Interpreting Tourism at Olympic Sites: A Cross‐cultural Analysis of the Beijing Olympic Green

An examination is made of tourism at Olympic sites by reflective analyses of experiences gained at the Beijing Olympic Green. An account of experiences at the site, accompanied by photographs, was analysed through different cultural lenses to reveal distinctive characteristics of the setting and divergent interpretations of tourist behaviour. The findings enhance understanding of the role of Olympic sites as tourist attractions and the importance of photography as part of the tourist experience and as a research tool. The study demonstrates the utility of post‐experience interpretations when informed by relevant theoretical frameworks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Photograph Presentation Order and Range Effects in Visual-Based Outdoor Recreation Research

Visual-based research methods are commonly used to provide an empirical basis for formulating evaluative standards related to recreation use levels. Visual research methods applied in this context are subject to several potential measurement biases. This article examines two such potential biases in visual-based recreation research methods: order effect bias and range effect bias. In a lab setting, respondents evaluated recreation photographs from Rocky Mountain National Park regarding the acceptability of people at one time (PAOT). Results indicated photo presentation order and the PAOT range depicted both had an effect on photograph acceptability ratings. Potential methodological revisions to the visual-based method are discussed.     

Mapping Cilento: Using geotagged social media data to characterize tourist flows in southern Italy

New sources of geotagged information derived from social media like Twitter show great promise for geographic research in tourism. This paper describes an approach to analyze geotagged social media data from Twitter to characterize spatial, temporal and demographic features of tourist flows in Cilento - a regional tourist attraction in southern Italy. It demonstrates how the analysis of geotagged social media data yields more detailed spatial, temporal and demographic information of tourist movements, in comparison to the current understanding of tourist flows in the region. The insights obtained from our case study illustrate the potential of the proposed methodology yet attention should be paid to biases in the data as well as methodological limitations when drawing conclusions from analytical results.     

Situating the tourist gaze: from appropriation to negotiation

For decades, scholars have emphasized the power of the Western tourist gaze to construct Third World destinations as the ‘Exotic Other'. Scholars have also shown that ‘Third World’ tourism fuelled by media fantasies of the Other represents neo-colonization in the twenty-first century. However, considering all its intentions/claims of impartiality, tourism research has generally travelled in only one direction (from the West to the East). In this study, conducted in Goa and Puducherry, focusing on the social contexts in which people are viewed and photographed, we ask – what do the ‘Third World’ people think of Westerners gazing at them, and their surroundings? How do Western tourists react when photographed by domestic tourists? What are the power relations within which the photographer and the photographed are located? We recognize that no simplistic analyses are possible in the postcolonial context. Directing a critical lens at the tourist gaze, this essay moves from an understanding of the gaze as appropriating to that of the gaze as negotiated.