Introduction - Tourism and Visual Culture: Theories and Concepts - page 2

a sensual undertaking dominated by visual
imagery. The contributors to this topic are
specifi cally interested in how visuality can be
embraced not only in research and critical refl ec-
tion, but also in teaching and learning, and how
awareness of visuality as a recurring and domi-
nant theme in tourism can be enhanced and
used to best effect.
At a practical level, advertising agencies
rely on a variety of print and broadcast media,
i.e. visual images, to promote products, city-
scapes and landscapes and, uniquely in the
case of tourism, ethnoscapes in the form of peo-
ple's lifestyles and daily routines. On the con-
sumer side, other forms (souvenirs, postcards)
contribute to personal social toolkits essential in
placing the touristic experience, in shared mem-
ory banks (Burns and Lester, 2003). Despite the
fact that there has been signifi cant recognition
of the importance of visual data in tourism, 1
there are many aspects of 'the visual' in tourism
that are empirically under-researched (Feighey,
2003) and as Burns and Lester (2003) have
previously posited in quite forceful terms, it is
nothing short of astounding that visual images
are not used more as both research data and as
teaching material within tourism.
Academia's understanding of it as an indus-
try and social phenomenon is nuanced, complex
and draws on suffi ciently interesting theoretical
bases to reinforce the idea proposed by Adrian
Franklin (2004), that tourism is a 'relentless
force' that is 're-ordering society'. In his view,
the way we act in our everyday lives is becom-
ing more like that of a tourist: wanting to live
near easily available Italian or Vietnamese food,
the urge to take photos of the most mundane
subjects, going out for drinks mid-week and not
just at weekends . . . it may not exactly fi t every-
body's personal profi le but the data tell us that
the service economy is expanding in ways that
stretch far beyond the needs of holidaymakers:
we are all tourists now! In an essay by the
eminent sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (2005)
provocatively called 'tourists and vagabonds',
he describes tourism as 'the only acceptable
form of human restlessness', which in a way has

to be a precursor to his idea of 'liquid modernity'
in which society and technology changes so fast
we never have time to catch up and assimilate
new ways of being before the next idea comes
along. Francesco Bonami, who curated the
2005 Hayward exhibition mentioned above,
even goes so far as to say 'Whether we travel or
not, the modern world increasingly forces us to
conform to modes of behaviour that mimic the
rituals and structures of tourism and the psy-
chology of the tourist.'
If we accept the premise outlined at the
start of this introduction, that tourism is a form
of mobility framed by sets of cultural, economic
and political phenomena, with its meanings and
applications loaded with ambiguities and uncer-
tainties (Franklin and Crang, 2001), then we
also have to accept that the rapid growth of the
Internet, multimedia and digital images has
exposed tourists and host communities to a
bewildering array of interpretations and histo-
ries of place and culture. So, this topic is not so
much the nuts and bolts of how the industry
works as a sector, but is intended to explore the
more nuanced debates about what tourism
means in modern/postmodern society. The fi rst
question to arise (and one that is not suffi ciently
addressed) is simply 'why is there so much tour-
ism?' This seemingly disarming question can be
answered in several ways. First, a basic history of
tourism will offer us economic and circumstantial
answers related to increased post-war leisure
time, cheap holidays and the potent mix of tech-
nology, willingness to travel 'abroad' and the
money to do it. Second, more economic answers
related to post-war and post-colonial national
development initiatives and market diversifi ca-
tion including interventions from the World
Bank and various donor agencies. However, in
more recent times we have entered the more
complicated arena of seeking answers related to
the social (rather than economic) drivers of
tourism where the general consensus is that for
the advanced economies, it is an integral and
essential part of the postmodern condition.
The 'smoothie' produced by blending diverse
elements from politics, culture and ideology

1 See Chalfen, 1979; Uzzell, 1984; Albers and James, 1988; Dann, 1988, 1996; Edwards, 1996; Crang, 1997;
Markwell, 1997; Morgan and Pritchard, 1998; Markwick, 2001; Pritchard, 2001; Echtner, 2002; Garlick,
2002; Echtner and Prasad, 2003; Burns, 2004; Scarles, 2004; Palmer and Lester, 2007.