Roles of photography play in Tourism industry with relevant examples.
Answers
On the other side of the coin, many tourist destinations also present their destination images to their target tourists through photographs (Jenkins, 2003). Hence, images and photographs are crucial marketing communication materials that are used to promote tourism activities by many marketers (Cederholm, 2004).
Photography endorses good memories about travel destinations and reflects travelling
experiences through pictures (Berger, Denk, Dittenbach, Pesenhofer, & Merkl, 2007). Taking a
photograph becomes a part of tourism activities which are rooted deeply in tourists’ experiences(Cederholm, 2004). When travelling, most tourists take photographs of the destinations and
share both photographs and their travel experiences with others (Groves & Timothy, 2001). In
the same vein, travel destinations present their destinations through photographs on their
brochures and postcards to attract tourists (Garrod, 2008). Consequently, there is an internal link
between photography and tourism (Lo et al., 2011).
Jenkins (2003) presents a photo tourism concept called the circle of representations by
illustrating that there is a relationship between tourism destinations’ photographs as iconic
photos and tourists’ photographs as regular photos. These sources of photographs provide
information and influence each other. For example, many tourist destinations use photographs
on their brochures, billboards, and web sites to advertise their location images and attract
tourists to go to their destinations (Cao et al., 2010). In the same vein, tourists also use
photographs and images as a crucial tool to determine destination choices (Garrod, 2008).
Moreover, Berger et al. (2007) report that individuals use photographs to recall their
personal memories and experiences of the places they traveled. Photographs also illustrate the
variety of perspectives that tourists have of destination images, which can be seen as a unique
visual experience of each individual (Lo et al., 2011). Some photographs also capture the beauty
and uniqueness of the destinations such as beach photographs. These photographs, when they
are embedded with geographical location tags, can be used as a visual database to provide
information and suggest a destination recommendation to tourists (Cao et al., 2012).