Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
travelers take up the roles of actors, cast members,
guides as directors, stage managers, and so forth
(Edensor, 2000). The performance turn highlights
how tourists experience places in multi-sensuous
ways that involve bodily sensations and affect.
Through the lens of the performance turn, tourism
is an activity accomplished through performance.
However, some literature examines how tourists
are not only audience members, but also perform-
ers. Edensor (1998) explores how tourists at the
Taj Mahal perform walking, gazing, photograph-
ing and remembering, while Bærenholdt. Haldrup,
Larsen and Urry (2004) examined the performances
involved in strolling, beach life and photography.
The Internet can serve as a platform for dis-
playing a variety of individuals' activities includ-
ing tourism and tourists, and many travelers post
their travel diaries and photos online. Molz (2012)
indicates that there are no clear-cut statistics on the
number of travel blogs published online. A website,
i.e., Travelblog.org, one of the most popular travel-
related web 2.0 sites, reports that it has over 200,000
members and hosts over five million photos, as well
as more than 600,000 blog entries. Another simi-
lar travel blog hosting site (Travelpod.com) claims
that more than 75,000 'travel experiences' from 181
countries are shared on its site in any given week.
These statistical snapshots suggest that travel blog-
ging has become a popular practice (Molz, 2012).
As performance turn, travelers are performers in
how they choose to walk, photograph, sing, and
so on. If the tourism stage is transferred on to the
Internet, how do these travelers perform their expe-
riences via blogs and social media?
participants' travel blogs online by reading the sto-
ries published, looking at their photographs, paying
careful attention to the back-and-forth comments
posted by other readers, and joining the partici-
pants' networks on social media. The study was
conducted from May 2012 to November 2013. The
Atlas.ti 6.0 was used to data analysis.
4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the data collection and analysis, the
following discussion addresses three key sets of
findings: (a) social connections, (b) conspicuous
consumption, (c) and identity formation.
4.1
Social connections
These travelers are standing for significant shifts in
how they use mobile technologies every moment to
engage with each other and the world while on the
move. In the present study, all participants took
digital devices with them while traveling, and they
uploaded their travel photos and stories of their jour-
neys to their blogs and social media. Hookway (2008)
also points out that blogs capture a “tight union
between everyday experience and the record of that
experience”. For example, a female participant who
has travel to 10 countries over eight years wrote:
I took a laptop and posted travel experiences and
photos on my blog or facebook almost every day
while I was on the road. I wanna tell my friends and
family what did I do while traveling
(Informant C)
Travel blogs or social media do not merely docu-
ment daily activities, but rather serve as nodes of
travel connection and social interaction between
travelers and their family members and friends in
a virtual space. A male participant who has been
travelling for over five years interprets them thus:
3 METHODOLOGY
The present study employed a qualitative approach
using netnography and in-depth interviews to
explore travelers' online sharing behaviors. Taiwan-
ese bloggers and users of social media (Facebook,
Twitter, Line etc.) who focused on documenting
their travel experiences over a two-year period were
potential participants. Recruitment of participants
was conducted through a snowballing sampling
technique and resulted in 32 participants who
consenting to participate. The participants were
twenty-one females and eleven males with an aver-
age age of 36 years (range: 20 to 51); their educa-
tional backgrounds ranged from college to doctoral
degree. Their travel experiences occurred over three
years, and most took digital devices such as laptops,
cameras, smartphone or iPad on the road to record
their travel experiences. The researcher contacted
each participant and scheduled a time that was con-
venient for the interviewee that lasted between 20
minutes and 2.5 hours. The researcher also reviewed
I think the fee of international phone call is very
expensive. I can keep in touch with my family and
friends on the blog. I can share my travel photos
online immediately after I return to the hostel.
My family can confirm that I am safe and secure
when they see the photos on my blog and Facebook
(Informant E)
As a network of friends, families, and col-
leagues extends across geographical space, social
life now involves multiple forms of co-presence
established through physical travel, online inter-
actions, and mobile communications (Larsen,
Urry & Axhausen, 2006). Another female inform-
ant regarded travel photos on her Facebook as a
way to keep in touch with her friends:
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