Using Visitor-Employed Photography to Investigate Destination Image

Abstract

Given the dominant use of visuals in destination image promotion and the call for more pluralistic approaches in tourism analysis, the purpose of this research note is to illustrate the utility of visitor-employed photography (VEP) to elicit tourist destination image. An image study conducted at a heritage site provides an example of VEP applied in this context. Challenges associated with using VEP mainly were logistical (for visitors) and resource based (for researchers). Benefits to using this method for image assessment were high response rate (95%), unprompted visitor-generated themes and visuals, and enjoyment expressed by respondents. The VEP method provided highly visual records of what best captured the visitors’ images of the site, which then can be compared to pictures used in current promotional efforts. Results provide initial support of the usefulness of VEP to generate images of a tourist attraction and to facilitate meaningful practical and theoretical integration of visitor-determined images with destination-determined images.

Revealing Cultural Ecosystem Services through Instagram Images: The Potential of Social Media Volunteered Geographic Information for Urban Green Infrastructure Planning and Governance

“…This research is related to works of other methodologies that utilise images such as Visitor Employed Photography (VEP), in order to obtain an understanding of people's perceptions of parks and natural environments by interpreting their photographs (Mackay & Couldwell, 2004). Even though the image-taking method is controlled in VEP, this VGI method is in line with the idea that photographs can be analysed to identify a sense of place, attachment, aesthetics and other factors pertaining to the human-environment interaction in natural spaces (Garrod, 2007;Mackay & Couldwell, 2004;Stedman et al, 2004).…”

El uso de GPS para el análisis del comportamiento espacio-temporal de los turistas. Pre-test en el Valle de Boí

“…Estos aspectos precisan de técnicas como la observación directa participada o no participada (Hartmann,1988;Keul y Küheberger,1997;Galí y Donaire, 2006, los diarios espacio-temporales (Thorthon et al, 1997), el análisis de las fotografías realizadas por los turistas (Mackay y Couldway, 2004;Garrod, 2008;Donaire y Galí, 2011;Stylianou-Lambert, 2012), o los habituales cuestionarios post-visita o entrevistas cualitativas (Royo, 2009). Las investigaciones futuras deberían tratar de complementar los resultados obtenidos con los GPS con los obtenidos a través de estas otras metodologías.…”

Identifying Impressive Landscape Objects Based on Geotagged Photographs (A Case Study of Self-Portraits and Ordinary Photos)

“…The self-portraits including selfie is a new way in touristic looking in tourism activities [14]. The selfie studies usually consist of people behavior towards time and spaces.…”

“…As the forest did not have a direction map, respondents were divided into three groups, each guided by a forest guard. Although this procedure had the risk of respondents being influenced by other people [14], this option was deemed the best choice for safety reasons.…”