An Introduction to Visual Research Methods in Tourism

Tijana Rakić, Donna Chambers, Donna Chambers, Tijana Rakić

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780415570046
• eBook ISBN: 9781135146139
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

An Introduction to Visual Research Methods in Tourism is the first book to present, discuss and promote the use of a range of visual methods in tourism studies. It introduces methods ranging from the collection of secondary visual materials for the purposes of analysis (such as postcards, tourism brochures, and websites) and the creation of visuals in the context of primary research (such as photography, video and drawings), to the production of data through photo-elicitation techniques. The book promotes thoroughly underpinned interdisciplinary visual tourism research and includes an exploration of many key philosophical, methodological and inter-disciplinary approaches. Comprised of five parts: introduction; paradigms, academic disciplines and theory; methods; analysis and representation; and conclusion. This volume informs and inspires its readers through a reliance on theory, examples from tourism studies conducted in various geographical locations and through key pedagogical features such as annotated further readings, practical tips boxes and concise chapter summaries.

This book will be of interest to experienced visual tourism researchers, scholars wishing to incorporate visual methods in their studies of tourism for the very first time, as well as students on undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral programmes who are contemplating the incorporation of visual methods in their studies of tourism.

Part 1

Introduction

1 Introducing visual methods
to tourism studies

Tijana Rakić and Donna Chambers.

Introduction

An increasing focus on the visual, visuality and the use of visual methods has been evident across a wide range of disciplines and fields of study for quite some time now (e.g., Banks 2001, 2007; Banks and Morphy 1997; Crang 2003; Deveraux and Hillman 1995; Edmonds 1974; Elkins 2008; Emmison and Smith 2000; Hall 1997; Harper 1989, 2002, 2003, 2005; Hill 2008; Hockings 2003; Loizos 1993; Manghani et al. 2002; Mirzoeff 1999, 2002; Mitchell 1994; Pauwels 2000, 2004; Pink 2001, 2006; Pink et al. 2004; Prosser 1998; Prosser et al. 2008; Prosser and Loxley 2008; Rogoff 2000; Rose 2007; van Leuween and Jewitt 2001; Taylor 1994; Stanczak 2007; Wiles et al. 2008). In the context of tourism research a significantly greater focus on the visual has also been seen (e.g., Crouch and Lübbren 2003; Crouch et al. 2005; Crang 1997; Urry 2002; Selwyn 1996; Jaworski and Pritchard 2005), although discussions surrounding visual research methods have only just recently surfaced (e.g., Feighey 2003; Rakić and Chambers 2009; Rakić and Chambers 2010). Nonetheless, there is a growing recognition of the merits of visual methods within the study of tourism which has, arguably, resulted both from the increasing legitimisation of qualitative research, and the willingness of tourism researchers to explore innovative approaches to research.

Despite the recent popularity of visual methods in tourism research, until the publication of this volume there was no textbook-length publication that could have been used as a reference point by tourism students, early career researchers and established academics. As a result, tourism researchers wishing to employ visual methods needed to refer exclusively to methodological publi cations outside their field of study. While referring to texts outside one’s field of study or discipline as well as experimenting with new methods and approaches to research can undoubtedly be advantageous and rewarding (particularly given the fact that in this process researchers often expand their horizons and create new knowledge), without access to a single reference text linking visual methodologies and their development in the wider social sciences and humanities to potential modes of application in the studies of tourism, the task of locating the relevant literature and developing new, thoroughly underpinned visual approaches to tourism research might prove to be challenging. A number of visual studies in tourism, some of which are remarkably interesting (whether relying on analysis of visual materials collected from secondary sources, on the creation of visual data in the field or elicitation techniques), inevitably seemed to be somewhat experimental – with some researchers failing to appropriately acknowledge their philosophical position, [inter]disciplinary location, and the influence these might have exerted on their choices of visual method[s], techniques of analysis and representation of research findings.

In an attempt to promote thoroughly underpinned visual tourism research while at the same time providing [inter]disciplinary bridges which researchers are encouraged to cross, this volume includes a discussion of issues ranging from questions surrounding the main philosophical approaches, [inter]disciplinary location, research quality criteria, a range of different types of visual methods and different data analysis types to recommendations for potential approaches in publishing visual research findings. Since this is an introductory text, what it does not seek to do is to explore all the answers to all the questions surrounding visual methods in tourism studies. Instead, as this chapter and the remainder of the volume reveals, this text focuses on certain key issues which we and the contributors believe are of importance for tourism scholars who are already using visual methods, for those who are wishing to incorporate visual methods for the very first time as well as for students on undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral level courses who are perhaps also contemplating the incorporation of visual methods in their studies of tourism.

Visual methods and tourism research

Why should tourism researchers and students seek to incorporate visual methods in their studies? In a recent publication, we argued that there are many reasons for which visual methods are particularly relevant for the studies of tourism (Rakić and Chambers 2010). We placed particular emphasis on the fact that ‘much of tourism is about images’ and therefore visual methods can play a central role in allowing researchers to access and create knowledge about phenomena which cannot be as readily accessed with the sole use of the more traditional non-visual methods (ibid.). We also emphasised that a subsequent inclusion of visual data in publications can allow tourism researchers to convey findings which cannot be as easily conveyed with the sole use of text, graphs and numbers, as well as that some types of visual research outputs can also enable researchers to share some of the knowledge about tourism with audiences beyond the academic world (ibid.). In addition, given that tourism is a complex field of studies informed by a wide range of disciplines, paradigms and methodological approaches (see Chapters 2 and 3 of this volume) and that tourism can only be studied if ‘disciplinary boundaries are crossed’ (Graburn and Jafari 1991 in Holden 2005: 1), visual methods might also be perceived as being particularly relevant for tourism research precisely because these can effectively be used within different [inter] disciplinary, philosophical and methodological approaches.

While a wide range of different visual methods have been used in tourism, a broad division between three different types of visual methods can be made in that visuals can be: (1) collected from secondary sources and later studied by relying on analyses such as content or semiotic analysis; (2) created for the purposes of a research project by either the researchers or their research participants; or (3) used to create data by using techniques of elicitation.

Namely, tourism researchers can for example collect and study previously published [secondary] visual data such as postcards, stamps, travel photographs and videos posted on the Internet and social networking sites, images of destinations, tourists, locals, cultural and natural attractions included in guide-books, promotional campaigns, brochures, travel blogs, travel supplements, television programmes, films and artwork to name just a few examples. A great number of remarkably interesting tourism studies which have analysed visuals which researchers have collected from secondary sources are regularly published (e.g., see Pritchard and Morgan 2003; Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier 2009). In addition to studying visuals from secondary sources, tourism researchers can also, as a part of their primary research, decide to create visual data themselves in the form of researcher-created photography, film, video or drawings which can later be analysed as data, used as illustrations, or to create [audio]visual research outputs such as photo-essays, short videos or documentaries. In this context of researcher-created visual data, it is interesting to note that there are many tourism researchers who are already doing visual research without realising it (see also Kroeber 1994 in Banks and Morphy 1997: 4 for a similar comment for anthropologists), by for example taking photo graphs while on fieldwork or drawing maps of visitor movements at a popular visitor attraction, some of which visual data they later use as [visual] fieldwork notes, to present some aspects of their research to their colleagues and students, or as illustrations in their publications. What many of these tourism researchers still do not realise is that such researcher-created visuals can be used, not only as illustrations, but also as legitimate ‘data’ which, in case this fits the research aims and objectives, can also play a more central role in their projects (e.g., Larsen 2005; Rakić 2010). In a similar vein, research participants can also be the ones to create primary visual data such as photography, video and drawings that are later used for analysis and representation of research findings (e.g., Garrod 2008; Son 2005; MacKay and Couldwell 2004). Finally, visuals created by researchers, research partici pants or those collected from secondary sources can also be used to elicit data in the context of an interview by using elicitation techniques such as photo-elicitation (e.g., see Jenkins 1999; Andersson Cederholm 2004).

Thus, the potential of visual methods to contribute to the creation of new [visual and textual] knowledges about tourism is undoubtedly immense. That said, while visual methods will be suitable for a very wide variety of tourism research projects, and some studies will even necessitate their use (such as for example the studies of postcards or the studies of photographing practices of tourists at a particular place), there will also be projects for which visual methods, or a particular visual method, will not be suitable. Sarah Pink discussed this in the context of visual ethnography, where having arrived on site she felt that it was not appropriate to use researcher-created video as she had originally proposed to do and decided to use photography instead (2001).

Therefore, although applicable in a very wide range of tourism studies, there will also be studies within which it will not be possible to incorporate a particular visual method due to the nature of the particular research topic or context. In fact, as this volume and particularly Part 3 will demonstrate, visual methods are rarely used independently of other methods such as for example interviews and observation in the context of visual ethnographic fieldwork (e.g., Pink 2001) and analysis of both text and images in the context of semiotic analyses of secondary materials such as promotional materials or guidebooks (e.g., Rakić and Chambers 2007). Even if in the early stages of a research project tourism researchers propose to incorporate a particular visual method which seems ideal for its use but which in the latter stages is discovered to be not as ideal as originally believed, in most cases it will still be possible to conduct the research by relying on a different visual research method or on the remainder of the proposed [non-visual] methods.

The book and its chapters

This volume aims to present, discuss and promote the use of a wide range of visual methods and data, including still images (such as photographs, postcards, draw ings, postage stamps) and moving images (such as video) within the context of tourism research. In this regard it is informed by perspectives from a range of disciplines including anthropology, geography, psychology and sociology and fields of study such as film, media and visual studies. The volume is therefore interdisciplinary in nature, something which is reflected not only in its content but also in the range of [inter]disciplinary backgrounds of the contributors to this volume. This being the case, it might also prove to be a valuable reference point for studies beyond tourism.

In its recognition that not only is tourism informed by a wide range of disciplines and fields of study and that visual methods can be incorporated within different philosophical, disciplinary and methodological approaches, following this introductory chapter in Part 1 written by the editors, this book includes the much needed Part 2, Paradigms, academic disciplines and theory. Its two chapters, each of which is written by one of the editors, provide a robust philosophical and interdisciplinary discussion and serve as an under pinning for the remainder of the volume. Even though discussing what can often be complex questions of philosophy and [inter]disciplinarity, these chapters are written in an uncomplicated style which makes them accessible to a wide readership.

Chapter 2, Philosophies of the visual [method] in tourism research, written by Tijana Rakić, engages with the main philosophical issues which would ideally need to be considered in the context of visual tourism research. The chapter contains both an explication of some of the key philosophical positions or paradigms such as positivism, postpositivism, critical theory and constructivism as well as a discussion of debates surrounding the ‘realistic’ attributes of visuals, the blurred ontological and epistemological boundaries and the modes in which these influence and inform different ways of thinking about, and incorporating, visual methods in tourism research. An overview of the main modes in which constructivism informed the visual aspects of her doctoral research about the Acropolis in Athens serves to elucidate the theoretical discussions in the chapter.

Chapter 3, The [in]discipline of visual tourism research, written by Donna Chambers, builds on the philosophical and methodological discussion from Chapter 2 and turns its focus on to epistemological issues of knowledge creation in visual tourism research. Through an exegesis of journal articles published in the mainstream tourism journals, she explores the breadth of discipli...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Part 1 Introduction
• Part 2 Paradigms, academic disciplines and theory
• Part 3 Methods
• Part 4 Analysis and representation
• Part 5 Conclusion
• Index