Representing protected areas: a critical discourse analysis of tourism destination building in a Greek travel magazine

Abstract

The present paper examines the way protected areas are constructed as tourism destinations by the information sources (i.e. a Greek travel magazine) that are consumed by potential visitors to such areas. Specifically, it explores what form of tourism is proposed for virtual visitors, whether it is ecotourism (i.e. both tourism and environmentalism) or simply a naturebased one (i.e. exclusively tourism). Examining the way a Greek travel magazine builds protected areas as tourism destinations, and consequently what expectations are created for readers and potential visitors to such areas, the focus of the present paper is on whether the media contribute to the failure on the part of visitors to protected areas, who are the majority of the people engaging in ecotourism activities, to incorporate environmentalist besides tourism pursuits in their travel experiences. The analysis suggests that the travel magazine cultivates the view that other protected areas (with a tradition in mass tourism) are suitable for nature-based tourism, others (with great ecological interest) for environmentalism, but few for ecotourism. This means that visitors to protected areas will probably have a difficulty in combining tourism with environmentalist pursuits, rather than in developing environmentalist concerns in general.

Review of critical discourse analysis in tourism studies

“…Subsequently, in the analysis of discourse from visitors' books, Stamou and Paraskevopoulos () confirmed that the good intention of the industry to establish ecotourism awareness among tourists fails because of the difficulty of achieving duality in real life. The same result is reached by Stamou and Paraskevopoulos (), but the examined discourse is from magazines. This finding proves that the discourse is actually dominated by the economic dimension because of the nature of the tourism industry.…”

Tourism and self-Orientalism in Oman: a critical discourse analysis

“…CDA can trace its roots to Habermas and the Frankfurt project of 'critical theory'. This approach has been adopted by a number of scholars in relation to aspects of tourism (Feighery, 2006(Feighery, , 2011Small, Harris, & Wilson, 2008;Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2006;Yan & Santos, 2009). While a full discussion of CDA is beyond the scope of this paper (I have provided a detailed account elsewhere; Feighery, 2006), the following provides a brief outline of the approach.…”

Validation of cognitive image dimensions for rural tourist destinations

“…The origin and nature of rural tourism mean that it has its own particular characteristics that differentiate it from other forms of tourism. This issue constitutes a factor of increasing appeal in terms of tourism demand, with the volume of tourists seeking this type of tourism on the increase (Hall, 2004; Rodrigues et al, 2010; Stamou and Paraskevopoulos, 2006). Such tourists value ‘rurality’ as a differentiating element for their holidays and associate it with high quality and ‘unspoiled’ scenery, with peace, quiet, and, to some extent, solitude, and with the personal attention which rural tourism can offer their guests (Lane, 1994).…”