Email this article “In fair Verona, where we lay our scene”. A multimodal analysis of the tourist gaze on Verona in travel blogs
Abstract
The increasing presence and popularity of online travel blogs has recently added another layer to tourism discourse studies and to destination marketing, eliciting interest in research on user-generated content in tourism. Such blogs have been recognized as valuable sources of information as they are based on actual travel experiences; as a consequence, they can generate digital word-of-mouth communication to prospective visitors, potentially influencing their destination choices. This paper aims to investigate tourist perceptions and representations of Verona from a multimodal perspective, in order to explore the tourist gaze (Urry 1990) on the city, with an additional focus on its relation to the popular imagery of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. To this purpose, a number of blog entries about Verona from two travel blog platforms (TravelBlog, Travellerspoint) and individual non-professional blogs were analyzed, for a total of 100 entries published from 2010 to 2018. A quantitative-qualitative mixed approach will be adopted to analyze the language used in the blogs as well as the accompanying images, also drawing on Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar model (2006).
References
Andrlic, B. and De Alwis A.C. 2016, Social Media in Destination Marketing, in “International Journal of Management and Applied Science” 2 [4], pp. 121-125.
Banyai M. and Glover T.D. 2012, Evaluating Research Methods on Travel Blogs, in “Journal of Travel Research” 51 [3], pp. 267–277.
Berger I.E. and Greenspan I. 2008, High (on) Technology: Producing Tourist Identities through Technologized Adventure, in “Journal of Sport Tourism” 13 [2], pp. 89-114.
Bosangit C., Dulnuan J. and Mena M. 2012, Using Travel Blogs to Examine the Postconsumption Behavior of Tourists, in “Journal of Vacation Marketing” 18 [3], pp. 207-219.
Bergmeister F. M. 2015, Shaping Southeast Asia: Tracing tourism imaginaries in guidebooks and travel blogs, in “ASEAS – Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies” 8 [2], pp. 203-208.
Cappelli, G. 2008, Expats’ Talk: Humour and Irony in an Expatriate’s Travel Blog, in “Textus: English Studies in Italy” 21[1], pp. 9-26.
Cesiri, D. 2019, The Construction of the Territorial Image in Tourism Websites: the Case of the Veneto Provinces, “Altre Modernità” 21, pp. 158-176.
Cohen E. 1972, Towards a Sociology of International Tourism, in “Social Research” 39 [1], pp. 164-182.
Dann G. 1996, The Language of Tourism, CABI Publishing, Wallingford.
Dann, G. 2007, Revisiting the language of tourism: what tourists and tourees are saying, in De Stasio C. and Palusci O. (eds), The Languages of Tourism: turismo e mediazione, Unicopli, Milano, pp. 15-32.
Dann G. and Parrinello G. 2007, From Travelogue to Travelblog: (Re)-Negotiating Tourist Identity, in “Acta Turistica” 19 [1], pp. 7-29.
D’Egidio A. 2014a, The Language of Tourists in English and Italian Travel Blogs and Trip Reports: a Corpus-based Analysis, in “Lingue Culture Mediazioni / Languages Cultures Mediation” 1 [1-2], pp. 145-161.
D’Egidio A. 2014b. The Tourist Gaze in English, Italian and German Travel Articles about Puglia: A Corpus-based Study, in “ICAME Journal” 38, pp. 57-72.
Denti O. 2015, Gazing at Italy from the East: a Multimodal Analysis of Malaysian Tourist Blogs, in “Lingue Culture Mediazioni / Languages Cultures Mediation” 2, pp. 47-68.
Garrod B. 2008, Understanding the Relationship Between Tourism Destination Imagery and Tourist Photography, in “Journal of Travel Research” 47 [3], pp. 346-358.
Francesconi S. 2007, English for Tourism Promotion: Italy in British Tourism Texts, Hoepli, Milano.
Francesconi, S. 2012, Generic Integrity and Innovation in Tourism Texts in English, Tangram Edizioni Scientifiche, Trento.
Haldrup M. and Larsen J. 2003, The Family Gaze, in “Tourist Studies” 3 [1], pp. 23-45.
Hennig-Thurau T. and Walsh G. 2003, Electronic Word-of-Mouth: Motives for and Consequences of Reading Customer Articulations on the Internet, in “International Journal of Electronic Commerce” 8 [2], pp. 51–74.
Herbert, D. 2001. Literary Places, Tourism and the Heritage Experience, in “Annals of Tourism Research” 28 [2] pp. 312–333.
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen T. 2006, Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, London/New York.
Lange-Faria W. and Elliot S. 2012, Understanding the Role of Social Media in Destination Marketing, in “Tourismos: an International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism” 7 [1], pp. 193-211.
Larsen J. 2006, Picturing Bornholm: Producing and Consuming a Tourist Place through Picturing Practices, in “Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality” 6 [2], pp. 75-94.
Lipovšek E. and Smiljka K. 2014, Journeys beyond Pages: the Use of Fiction in Tourism, in “Broj” 14, pp. 51-59.
Litt E. 2012, Knock, knock. Who’s there? The Imagined Audience, in “Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media” 56, pp. 330–345.
MacCannell, D. 1999 [1976]. The Tourist: a New Theory of the Leisure Class. University of California Press, Berkley and Los Angeles.
Pan B., MacLaurin T. and Crotts J.C 2007, Travel Blogs and the Implications for Destination Marketing, in “Journal of Travel Research” 46, pp. 35–45.
Puhringer S. and Taylor A. 2008, A Practitioner's Report on Blogs as a Potential Source of Destination Marketing Intelligence, in “Journal of Vacation Marketing” 14 [2], pp. 177-187.
Seaton, A.V. 1999, War and Thanatourism: Waterloo 1815-1914, in “Annals of Tourism Research” 6 [1], pp. 130-158.
Urry J. 1990, The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, Sage Publications, London.
Urry J. and Larsen J. 2011, The Tourist Gaze 3.0, Sage Publications, London.
Webb C. 2016, Visitors to Verona. Lovers, Gentlemen and Adventurers, I.B. Tauris, London/New York.
Wenger A. 2007, Analysis of Travel Bloggers’ Characteristics and their Communication about Austria as a Tourism Destination, in “Journal of Vacation Marketing” 14 [2], 169-176.
Wilson, J. 1990. Politically Speaking. The Pragmatic Analysis of Political Language, Basil Blackwell, Oxford/Cambridge/Massachusetts.
Xiang Z., Schwartz Z., Gerdes J.H. and Uyzal, M. 2015, What can Big Data and Text Analytics Tell us about Hotel Guests Experience and Satisfaction?, in “International Journal of Hospitality Management” 44, pp. 120–130.
Zhang Y. and Hitchcock M.J. 2017, The Chinese Female Tourist Gaze: a Netnography of Young Women’s Blogs on Macao, in Current Issues in Tourism 20 [3], pp. 315–330.
Full Text: pdf
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
