Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
spaces are imaged symbolically, for example in place names and the architecture of the urban
landscape. 'Male-oriented' heritage landscapes have been studied by Edensor and Kothari
(1993) and by Knox and Hannam (2007), and it is clear that 'masculine' imagery, in terms of
monuments and myths, serves to support a gendered representation of tourist places. A similar
conclusion is suggested by Goss (2005) in his consideration of Hawaiian 'aloha' imagery, and
its importance in defi ning the territory, which he sees as based on the notion of heroic mascu-
line travellers being greeted by hula-dancing island maidens. Imagery also relates to places of
safety and places of potential danger, with different outcomes for women and men in terms
of their propensity to visit, and of their behaviour during visits ( Jordan and Aitchison, 2008).
Images of indigenous peoples and of tourists are also gendered. Marshment (1997) has
researched the issue of representation in holiday brochures for package tours and concludes
that, while holidays are not sold as gender-specifi c, and sex is not specifi cally offered to tour-
ists through visual imagery, nevertheless gender does form part of the construction of the
meaning of holidays, through the use of gendered attitudes to women's bodies (the use of
pictures of attractive women wearing swimsuits, for example). Pictures of indigenous people
are included in brochures as part of the (gendered) tourist gaze; thus, women picking tea
promote an image of traditional, picturesque activity, rather than of poverty and paternalistic
economic structures.
Pritchard and Morgan (2000) suggest that representations of gendered subjects present
them as exotic commodities to be consumed as part of the holiday. Dole (2002) has studied
the magazines that provide 'women's indispensable guides to travel', in which an image of fun
and adventure, but also of gendered expectations, is presented for female North American
travellers, while Jordan (2007) notes the dominance of the 'beach' or 'bikini' body as the
desired form in the magazine imagery of female tourist bodies (see also Schlüter, 2010).
Hannam and Knox (2010) discuss the gendered 'saucy postcard' imagery of women and note
that such imagery suggests women tourists are both conventionally young and beautiful
(sexy) or else overweight, overbearing and frumpy.
Future perspectives
In terms of the tourism industry, research must continue to expose the gendered inequalities
of access to employment and the exploitation of women employees through massage parlours,
the hotel industry, drugs and traffi cking. There is also a need to address the male dominance
of governments, which enact legislation relating to tourism that disproportionately impacts
women. In the light of continuing developments in ecotourism and adventure tourism, it is
essential that women's voices are heard and that gendered interrelationships with natural
environments (and the ways in which they are culturally constructed) are understood and
factored into future developments. In addition, there has been little research on the gendering
of non-leisure tourism provision and its focus on the professional/commercial business
man
traveller. It is time that the 'maleness' of conference and business tourism was opened to
detailed study in the light of changing gender relations in the workplace.
In terms of the demand for tourism activities, more research is needed on the gendered
tourist; her (or his) motivations, behaviour, experiences and decision-making, and on the
differences between different sectors of the tourism industry, and different groups of tourists,
in these respects. Research so far conducted on female tourists has tended to focus on the solo
tourist, or on decision-making between heterosexual couples, but little is known of women's
or men's experiences within
family
tourism. We know that women generally continue their
traditional domestic roles in food and clothing management when on family holidays, but to
