The Camera as an Educational Tool: Reflective Photography for Examining Impressions and Perceptions about a Destination

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1 The Camera as an Educational Tool: Reflective Photography for Examining Impressions and Perceptions about a Destination Ana Isabel Rodrigues 1 1 Departamento de Ciências Empresariais, Instituto Politécnico de Beja, Portugal. ana.rodrigues@ipbeja.pt Abstract. Destination image is one of the most explored topics in tourism studies. Based on competitive environments, marketers should take into consideration the perceived strengths and weaknesses of their destinations in order to develop an adequate positioning strategy. This study aims to explore the key- elements of a particular destination that could improve its competitiveness and contribute to strengthening its image. Another goal emerges from this study: exploring the benefits of image- based methodologies, such as reflexive photography, in tourism educational environments. A group of tourism students will participate in a field experience, involving reflective thought, critical dialogue and action, aiming to examine their impressions and perceptions about a destination. It is believed that educational tools like this could provide sufficient stimulation to engage learners in knowledge discovery, and simultaneously develop new skills. Additionally, key- ideas about tourism will emerge, which could be valuable for improving the image of this particular destination. Keywords: Tourism, Destination Image, Educational Tool, Visual- Based Research, Reflexive Photography, Tourism Students. 1 Introduction The place of image in society has been the centre of an extensive debate worldwide, mainly in the last century. Since tourism is an economic sector that provides the largest contribution for the development of some countries, the importance of assessing perceptions, ideas, and impressions about destinations soon emerges as a topic of utmost worldwide interest. Tourism industry generates intangible products characterized by a constant appeal to dreams, imagery, emotion and sensations; where the notion of service gave place to a new era, that of experience and dreams (Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Jensen, 2001); where the tourist must travel some distance to consume the tourism product. Therefore, the nature of tourism activity implies that image, from a demand or supply perspective, is assumed as a relevant factor for achieving destination success. With this in mind, image study and particularly the image of places or destinations rapidly became an important sub- field of tourism studies and has become a vigorous research area with forty years of research (Rodrigues, Correia & Kozak, 2012). Terms such as organized representations, sum of beliefs, ideas, complex combination, and overall impression or attitude have been used to define it (e.g. Crompton, 1979; Echtner & Ritchie, 1991; Gartner 1986). More recently, in the 2000s, a still greater number of researchers agree that destination image is an overall impression or a combination of attributes (King, Chen & Funk, 2012; Rolo- Vela, 2009), reinforcing this idea of the holistic nature of image constituted by multiple attributes. Image and destination image are, in fact, a bubble of perceptions, impressions or sensations about different elements or components of a destination. In sum, destination image is more and more a gestalt impression, a total rather than its parts, a more holistic impression, based on combinations and interactions of attributes. Due to this multiple and complex nature of destination image construct, more and more based on emotions, sensations and feelings, a need for alternative approaches in measuring it emerged in the following decades. While at the beginning of this research field (1970s, 1980s and 1990s), the image of destinations was assessed mainly through a quantitative approach (Gallarza, Saura & García, 2002; 65

2 Pike, 2002), alternative methods based on qualitative techniques started to be proposed in the 1990s and 2000s. By the mid- 1990s, some researchers started to demonstrate the benefits of using a qualitative approach (e.g. Jenkins, 1999; Reilly, 1990; Ryan & Cave, 2005). Consequently, various qualitative techniques started to be used such as free elicitation, focus group, open- ended questions, in- depth interviews, and content- analysis (Gallarza, Saura & García, 2002). In line with this new approach, pictorial materials were used progressively in qualitative studies and visual stimuli such as travel photography started to be used as a methodological approach (e.g. Greaves and Skinner, 2010; MacKay & Fesenmaier, 1997). In fact, the employment of photographs has been widely recognized as a valuable analysis method, particularly in DI studies (Jacobsen, 2007). 2 Visual Methods in Destination Image Research The use of visual medium for research was first proposed by Collie in the field of anthropology and social scientists started to realize that interviews respond to photographs without hesitation (Hurworth, 2003). In fact, the adoption of photography as a research method has been successfully addressed by a number of academics (e.g. Caldarola, 1985; Schwartz, 1989; Wagner, 1979).This stage marked the beginning of employing photographs to extract information from people, particularly the use of photographs to provoke a response, which became known as photo- elicitation technique (Harper, 1984, 2002). Photography and tourism are widely considered to be inherently linked (Garrod, 2009) and techniques such as reflective photography and photo- elicitation started to be adopted in tourism research, specifically in destination image studies (MacKay, 2005 for more detailed information). The use of visual methods in assessing destination image is embraced by image- based tourism research (MacKay, 2003). It seems important to highlight that alternative means of research reporting, such as the use of pictorial elements, lies in a shift of consumer behaviour theory regarding information processing. The discursive or descriptive information processing mode gave birth to a form of imagery processing that is characterized as a processing mode in which multisensory information is represented in a more gestalt form in the working memory, where imagery is evoked by sensory experiences (McInnis & Price, 1987). Holbrook & Hirschman (1982) named it as the experiential view, the consumption act or the hedonic consumption (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982), where images are assumed as an important stimulus in a multisensory consumption act. The first studies using the visual as an approach and also as a method of analysis dates back to the 1980s. For instance, Uzzell s (1984) work proposed an alternative approach to analyse the photos contained in holiday brochures besides the typical semiotic analysis. This approach, named as structuralist, assumed that the meaning of a medium lies within the cultural system in which the advertisement is situated and not on the media themselves. Attention here is focused more on the consumer who interprets, understands, and imposes meaning on the advertisement (Uzzell, 1984, p.82), and not only on a common content analysis, which assumes that a frequency of a specific item is indicative of its significance to the overall message. This work was a turning point since it endeavoured to achieve a more cognitive analysis of images, not only based on semiotic techniques and, based on the principle that it is the consumer who interprets, understands and imposes meaning on images, actively participating in the process. In this line of thought, Albers and James s (1988) work offer some guidelines for studying the relationship between photography, ethnicity, and travel through the analysis of pictures in postcards. This was a prominent study since it was one of the first in tourism research that not only highlighted the use of pictures a mean of communication, but also proposed some methodological approaches in analysing them. In the same year, Dann 66

3 (1988) conducted a study based on nine summer brochures featuring Cyprus, in which pictures, maps and their accompanying descriptions were analysed and conclusions extracted about the language of social control employed by tour operators as they seek to define situations for their potential clients. These are some examples that intend to illustrate what Feighey (2003) named as the pictorial turn in tourism research. As a consequence of a new cycle in terms of destination image research explained in the previous section, alternative methods for measuring the construct soon came to light. New methodological procedures based on qualitative methods were proposed, particularly visual- based studies (Jacobsen, 2007). 3 Participants, Data Collection and Analysis This study will specifically use reflexive photography as a visual technique to extract data. Photographs produced by the participants correspond to reflexive photographs (Harrington & Lindy, 1998). This term was coined by Harper (1987) and interviews that go along with these photographs are usually named photo- elicitation interviews. Therefore, in order to examine the perceptions of a group of tourism students about a small city located in the Alentejo region of Portugal, called Beja, reflexive photography will be adopted as the research technique. A volunteer sample of students will be recruited from the 2 nd year of Tourism Graduate Course at the Polytechnic Institute of Beja and disposable cameras will be at their disposal during the month of May 2016 to take pictures that would illustrate their impressions about the tourist experience in Beja. The goal of this study is to examine and determine to the degree, as far as possible from a critical and constructive perspective, to which the students formulate their opinions regarding the strengths and weaknesses of a tourist experience in this city. It is important to highlight the fact that these students are currently in the 2 nd year of their three year Graduate Course, a reflective and critical opinion is of utmost importance at this stage. The participants will be also asked to record their thoughts while taking the pictures and later participate in a structured photo elicitation interview and a final focus group. Two fundamental questions will be explored within the context of this reflexive photography study: (a) What is the range of student s impressions considering the stage of their learning process?, (b) What meanings do these students give to their impressions about the strengths and weaknesses of a tourist experience in Beja?, and (c) What could be done in the future in order to improve the quality of Beja as a tourism destination and consequently its image? Similar to Harrington & Lindy (1998) procedure, the students who agree to participate in this study will be required to engage in the following: (a) participating in a theoretical session about photos and tourism and project briefing, (b) taking photos with disposable cameras in groups and recording their thoughts and impressions in a standard reporter s notebook for three hours, (c) participating in a structured photo- elicitation interview taking place a maximum of one week, (d) participating in a focus group interview as a final stage of the study. Before the beginning of the study, participants will be asked to address the following question: Take pictures that will illustrate your impressions of the strengths and weaknesses of a tourist experience in Beja or that will help to describe your impressions. In addition, participants will be asked to record in their notebooks the number of the photograph, the primary theme of focus of the photograph, what the photograph meant to them and what was the reason and opinion for taking that photo regarding what they have learned in their tourism graduate course. After completing the exercise, participants will be asked to arrange their photographs in a manner that would be best illustrate the sum of their experience or in a manner in which they would feel at ease discussing their photographs with the researcher during the photo elicitation interview. In these 67

4 interviews, participants will be asked to provide a detailed verbal explanation of each photograph in their perception portfolio. Finally, after completing their explanation, participants will be asked to add any impressions or opinions that they were not able to express visually in a photograph or if they had developed additional impressions that came to mind since taking the photographs. At the end of the photo elicitation interview, participants will have to explain their rationale for their sequential arrangement of the photographs. As the objective of this study is to explore impressions and opinions based on photographs, a more interpretative technique is needed to analyse the data, such as content analysis. Content analysis was used as a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context (Krippendorff, 1980; Bardin, 1979). From this perspective photographs, videotapes, or any other item that can be made into text are amenable to content analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994: 240). Content analysis allows the researcher to validate theoretical issues to strengthen comprehension of the data and has come into wide use in tourism studies in recent years (for more information see Stepchenkova and Mills, 2010). 4 Limitations and Conclusion The present study need to be qualified in light of some limitations. First, the study is limited to a student s group opinion. To overcome this limitation is important to stress the goal of this study, which aims to assess the opinion of this particular group of respondents. However and in conclusion, it is expected that this study will achieve two main goals. Firstly, identifying and examining important aspects, positive and negative, that could improve the image of a small city in the interior of Portugal, contributing to create a better and more competitive destination image in the future; secondly, a discussion of emerging pedagogical methods and models will be undertaken to demonstrate that teachers have access nowadays to a suite of tools which enable them to support greater learner choice, creativity, reflective thought and self- direction for students. Acknowledgments. The author would like to thank to the group of students from the Tourism Graduate Course of the Polytechnic Institute of Beja, who agreed to participate in this study. Referências Albers P. C. & James W. R. (1988). Travel Photography: a Methodological Approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 15, Bardin, L. (1979). Análise de Conteúdo [Content Analysis]. Lisboa, Edições 70. Caldarola, V. (1985). Visual Contexts: a Photographic Research Method in Anthropology. Studies in Visual Communication, 11 (3): Crompton, J.L. (1979). An Assessment of the Image of Mexico as a Vacation and the Influence of Geographical Location upon that Image. Journal of Travel Research, 17 (4), Dann, G. M. S. (1988). Images of Cyprus projected by tour operators. Problemy Turystyki, 11 (3), Echtner, C. & Ritchie, B. (1991). The Meaning and Measurement of Destination Image. Journal of 68

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