Using volunteer-employed photography to inform tourism planning decisions: A study of St David's Peninsula, Wales

Abstract

Tourism planning is widely considered to be a highly political process, particularly when tourism is only one of a number of possible land uses and there are numerous stakeholders, with a diversity of interests, all trying to influence the outcome. The winners are typically those holding power, while the losers are often the destination community, who lack sufficient power to influence planning decisions. New tools are therefore needed to empower wider stakeholder participation in the tourism planning process, and volunteer-employed photography (VEP) appears a promising option. This paper discusses the use of VEP to inform tourism planning on St David's Peninsula in Wales. As part of a National Park, the area attracts a large tourist numbers and is subject to relatively strict planning regulations, resulting in many land-use conflicts. Volunteers from two stakeholder groups -local residents and tourists -were given cameras and photo diaries, and asked to use it to comment on what they do and do not appreciate about the area, existing planning problems and ways to avoid future planning problems. Through this case study, the paper will examine the appropriateness of VEP as a tool for assisting tourism planning. The major finding is that a richer, deeper and more valuable dataset can be generated through the participation of host communities and visitors using the VEP approach. As a means of visually representing participants' views, VEP can be a powerful data collection and analysis tool, making a significant addition to the tourism planning toolkit at the local level.

A Study of the Commercial Application of Big Data of the International Hotel Group in China: Based on the Case Study of Marriott International

“…[9] adopted the method of volunteer-employed photography to acquire data information. It was employed to judge the impression of tourists on the tourist destination, either positive or negative, find out the existing planning issues in the destination and feasible solutions so as to gradually better and improve tourists' impression.…”

Designing Coastal Management Strategies for Populations with Distinct Needs: The Case of Learning Disabilities

“…Haines-Saah et al, 2013), in tourism studies and stakeholder participation projects (e.g. Balomenou & Garrod, 2014), in environmental research (e.g. Lawler & Patel, 2012) and in disability research (e.g.…”

“…The approach used in this study involves a triangulation of research (Balomenou & Garrod, 2014) that cross-references the data from different points: pre-fieldwork talking mats, photo fieldwork and follow-up interviews. Furthermore, it triangulates between data from the LD group, from the general population and from informal interviews with various gatekeepers.…”

La localización espacial de los atractivos turísticos de un área metropolitana: diferencias entre material turístico institucional, guías turísticas y contenidos generados por los usuarios

“…Varios autores apuntan a las redes sociales como instrumentos capaces de identificar nuevas relaciones entre lo físico y lo digital, lo que mejora el conoci-La localización espacial de los atractivos turísticos de un área metropolitana: diferencias entre material turístico institucional, guías turísticas y contenidos generados por los usuarios D. , 2014). La localización de las distintas instantáneas proyectadas por un destino permite incorporar un elemento cualitativo al debate, mostrando aspectos como la imagen que el espacio visitado pretende difundir o las experiencias vividas por los turistas (Balomenou y Garrod, 2014). Este es el objetivo principal del artículo, comparar la localización espacial de las imágenes proyectadas por un mismo destino según tres fuentes: folletos turísticos oficiales, guías de viaje y contenido generado por los usuarios.…”