William Cannon Hunter

Projected Destination Image: A Visual Analysis of Seoul

Abstract Massive development projects and tourism promotion campaigns are transforming Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea, into a global tourist city. In Seoul, tourism brochures are ubiquitous and free to the visitor and showcase certain attractions and experiences. They project a synecdochical image of the city to visitors and potential visitors using photographs. This paper describes an examination of the photographs found in tourism brochures using a visual methods content analysis. The aim is to develop an understanding of the explicit and implicit messages being conveyed in promotional photographs and to draw conclusions regarding the connection between the representation and the physical reality of the city. The analysis indicates a clear and potentially memorable destination image. However, it is unclear whether the projected destination image accurately reflects the conscious intentions of tourism planners. It is recommended that tourism marketers take a closer look at the visual destination image they project and its connotations. It is also suggested that destination image should be designed to be representative of the actual interests and experiences of residents and visitors.

Understanding resident subjectivities toward tourism using Q method: Orchid Island, Taiwan

The pursuit of sustainable destination tourism should begin with an understanding of resident subjectivities. Residents are concerned with good governance and cultural integrity, and they are aware of their role as stakeholders in tourism in their communities. In this study, residents of Orchid Island, Taiwan, were interviewed using Q method in order to evaluate their subjectivities toward tourism. Forty-two statements regarding a theoretically and historically defined discourse of tourism were sorted by 34 respondents. This forced-choice method revealed four types of subjectivities, which are distinguished as Culture Broker, Cultural Conservative, Cultural Purist and Pragmatic Governance. The results show how the respondents perceived tourism in their destination. They agreed upon certain core issues regarding destination tourism, while contesting other issues. Respondents held strong views concerning how government policy affects their community and how tourism and culture shape each other. It is concluded that many issues in tourism research are highly relevant to residents of small tourism destination communities. This implies that tourism research should focus on understanding and coordinating resident subjectivities so as to inform government planning and decision-making, especially in indigenous communities or small islands.

The good souvenir: representations of Okinawa and Kinmen islands in Asia

Representations of indigenous Okinawa shisa (Japan) and Kinmen wind lion totems (Taiwan) are popular tourist souvenirs. They are also commonly used in destination tourism promotion as logos or mascots. Some tourism research describes these practices as exploitative and damaging to local culture. Other research suggests that resident consensus, local production and government sponsorship can produce a good souvenir that benefits local identity and economy. This paper reports on a semiotic analysis of these cultural representations as found onsite at these two destinations. Photographs are interpreted as index, icon and symbol according to Peirces semiotics compared. Seven types of representations were found that indicate complex relationships between original totems and their variations. The representations are the same for both destinations. This comparative research finds that each type of representation has a unique place in the tourism economy, but all are held together as a coherent whole by the form and location of the original totems. The good souvenir is a product of creative marketing and sponsorship and vigilant preservation of cultural heritage. The original totem form should be immutable; its value and significance increases over time. As commercial duplications proliferate, government policy should protect the originals and fix them in their physical locations.