The use of photography by the contemporary tourist

Abstract

Nowadays, it is the exception and not the rule that you see a tourist without a camera in his/her hands ready to take photographs of places that the tourist is visiting. Literature (Hutnyk, 1996 & Sontag, 1977) has acknowledged that tourism and photography have been complementing each other for many years. This dissertation reports research into the relationship between tourism and photography. The research aims were to: analyse the nature of this relationship ; explore the effects of photography on the tourist. 220 questionnaires (26 – for the pilot study and 194 – actual questionnaires) were distributed to a convenient cohort of foreign and local individuals. The classification and interpretation of that data focusses on the key themes – photography, culture, visual culture and tourism. The data helped the author to appreciate the importance of photography in tourism for the respondents who participated in this study. The results showed that photography does not play a part in the choice of destination or the time of year in which the individual travels in. This being said, the vast majority of the respondents found taking photographs while they are on holiday as being something which they consider important or very important. The study suggests that further research should explore how images of iconic places and buildings in other countries which are used for branding and promoting the culture, heritage and social life of a particular country amongst potential tourists. Such a study could explore how such marketing images help in attracting people to a particular place. Therefore a further area of research could be the aspect of photography in tourism marketing and advertising. Finally, given the technological age that we are living in and the importance that the concept of self-identity has been gaining amongst adolescents and young adults, conducting a study on the importance of the selfie as a form of social communication.