Question:
Describe about the Urry Concept of Tourist Gaze to Understand Tourist Experiences?
Tourist Gaze mentions the dynamics related to the development of tourists experience, along with tourism social organization complexity and process systematic nature (John 1995). It also permits in articulating what the different experiences of tourist from their day to day life and also mentions different ways in which both the consumption and production of goods and services of tourist holds wide implications for building the social relations (John 2002). The process social organization includes various components that includes safe selection of the images related to the place one sees, along with narratives that mention about the uniqueness of culture, history, along with heritage, and different performance practices by which experiences of the tourist could be embodied, and the professional network that could offer services for ensuring about the specific experience of tourist (John 2002).
All these developments could be related with the emergence of the commoditization, tourism as well as consumerism of the cultural practices and places (Young-Sook 2001). Urry’s concept discusses that gaze is considered as the organizing principles that tries to structure about the encounters between the tourists, places and the individuals who has visited those places, and it also support in creating the experiences, and in this manner it can be make the trip memorable and implicates the individuals into the systematic set of the social relations by the competition for attracting the tourist (Young-Sook 2001).
The tourist gaze also suggests that the experience of tourist includes the specific ways of viewing the things (John 2002). Myths and the images related to what has to be seen tend to be striking, extraordinary, distinctive, and unusual (Vida 2006). These narrative and the visual depictions related to destination of tourist are promoted strategically by the help of marketing industry in contrast with the daily routine along with work schedule of the people (Robinson and Picard 2009). All these imaginaries are stored by the help of signs that mention the specific fantasy (Robinson and Picard 2009). A photo of the couple giving kiss to each other on the Paris streets is not for capturing the behavior of the youth on the busy streets; rather it can be captured for defining the romantic Paris (Robinson and Picard 2009).
Similarly, the photo of the Grand Canyon not only mention about the geological data, rather it also gives one the idea about the natural beauty which is unmatched (John 2002). These gazes support one in creating the traveler’s anticipation about they could encounter with during their trip and these things moves the desires of tourist to experience all these imaginaries (Robinson and Picard 2009). Various gazes try to organize the anticipations including the many experiences from health pleasure to romance (John 1995). Organizations having all these experiences also signify the various socialites along with both solitary and private for gathering the conviviality as well as festivity (Robinson and Picard 2009). The tourist gaze concept define by Urry implies something different for the experience of tourist, as it becomes endowed with the significance and is remember as something different (John 2002).
In terms of history, the tourist gaze starts with the organizational changes in the innovation of travel within the communication technology, travel infrastructure developments, economy transformations, along with travelers changing taste (Vida 2006). On the trip for attaining the pleasure, the Imperial Rome elites include the road networks along with variant hospitality providers (Robinson and Picard 2009). By the end of middle ages, the hospices network as well as huge production of handbooks based on religion tries to inspire to spread the pilgrimages in the 15th century, and it’s already noted by the historians about the prevalence of the daily organized tours from the Holy land to Venice (Vida 2006).
What is actually known as the Grand Tour has flourished between the aristocracy sons (Robinson and Picard 2009). They have actually traveled for the reason of political leadership by educating oneself about the way of life along with languages (Robinson and Picard 2009). Beginning in the sixteen century, historians started noting about the slow transformation in their knowledge attained through travelling, as it give them opportunity for conversation and purpose to view something’s with their own eyes and observe the things (Edward 2005). The idea development about the scientific knowledge includes the rise of the professional classes, guidebooks, enhancement in rail system, and increase in packaged tours, along with camera invention, which tries to facilitate the tourism. All these factors become the base in the emergence of the industry of tourism, along with increase in income of the population and travel started becoming available to many people (Robinson and Picard 2009). In throughout the century, the tourism scale has grown continuously, and has even entered into the international economy (Edward 2005).
Tourism has also taken the central element in the globalization process, which has tried to subsume the huge travelers from different parts of the world; it also includes the current outer space (Tim 1998). It starts from the small towns and has moved to the metropolitan centers or from the remote locations to the international areas, which are on the map of tourist, and all these places compete for increasing tourist flow through inventing and through exploring oneself for the purpose of attracting the tourist (Tim 1998). Its noted that places that were unlikeable has also developed the infrastructure for tourist through the help of jails, concentration camps, along with military sites to the places that are related to the mass murder, neighborhood where poverty stick or having the industries (Edward 2005). All such places has entered into the global network of the tourist centers of information, restaurants, tour guides, museums, outlets of mass media, tour operators, agencies for tourist, programs based on travel, and transportation companies (Robinson and Picard 2009). They hope to enter into the international order by the culture, tourism, as well as social life of the people and places that ahs too commoditized (Robinson and Picard 2009).
In the basic concept of Urry ‘Tourist Gaze’ commoditization relates to the people and places that are involved with their ability to represent by the help of myths and images in the way they could attract the tourist (John 2002). Representation of the tourist relies over the chosen components of heritage, way of living, history, culture, and different features related to landscape and townscape. All these elements are captured through the help of maps, photos, and blogs of travel, news, and souvenirs. These type of media helps in their specific manner of viewing the destination of tourist to be internationally dispersed (Robinson and Picard 2009).
As more tourist sports all over the world start competing to become the destination for tourist, then in that case tourist gaze will be more perfected with the efforts of marketing for increasing the destination potential (Robinson and Picard 2009). All these efforts include the array of particular services and institutions, which cover up research centers, consultancy companies, and departments of university (John 2002). All these professionals work with coordination in order to develop the signs, which seek towards transcending the gaze that could captured by the images of tourist and could produce the concept of destination (Robinson and Picard 2009). This entire process was constructed and implies as destination branding.
In the increasing competitive international market of tourism, the destination branding of tourist is considered as the agenda for creating the different as well as compelling location that could be differentiated confidently from the other competitors (Robinson and Picard 2009). All these efforts cover up the criteria, which could help in evaluating the specific brand effectiveness, and also actively push the brand towards forefront of attention of people, and devise the measures and procedures for the purpose of protecting the brand from losing its attraction (Robinson and Picard 2009). It’s evident that the state and the city governments should try to participate actively in the efforts for motivating the opportunities. This could be visible within the increasing competition in order to host the visible international events like World Expos, Olympics, as well as World Cup.
Government view these events like the budding opportunity for the purpose of building, as well as redesigning the physical as well as social environment in order to make it compatible through the tourist concept to explore for the promotion (Robinson and Picard 2009). The flow of tourist is quite engulfed through the technological surveillance and procedure of security that tries to preempt all the available acts of violence that is against the tourist and in this manner it can ensure about the uninterrupted flow of tourism.
The Urry’s concept of tourist gaze has proved to be quite influential concept. Nevertheless, there are many critics who suggest that it stress over its representation and includes the visual power that has western bias (Robinson and Picard 2009). Therefore, the important thing that is required is the historically comparative as well as cross cultural studies with an aim to construct the experiences of tourist that pay attention towards the practice dynamics and act in various context of tourism.
References
Edward, B. 2005. Culture on Tour. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
John, U. 1995. Consuming Places. London: Routledge.
John, U. 2002. The Tourist Gaze. 2nd ed. London: Sage.
Jonas, L. 2005. Families Seen Sightseeing. Performativity of Tourist Photography. Space and Culture, 8(4), pp. 416-434.
Robinson, M. and Picard, D. 2009. The Framed World: Tourism, Tourists, and Photography. Farnham, UK: Ashgate
Tim, E. 1998. Tourists at the Taj: Performance and Meaning at a Symbolic Site. London: Routledge.
Vida, B. 2006. Christian Pilgrimage Groups in Jerusalem: Framing the Experiences through Linear Meta-Narrative. Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, 7(1), pp. 101-128.
Young-Sook, L. 2001. Tourist gaze: Universal Concept? Tourism, Culture & Communication, 3(2), pp. 93 – 99.
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