Conducting Content Analysis

User Generated

qrzv195

Writing

Inholland University of Applied Sciences

Description

The reputation of a destination can match (or not) the visual material that promotes it. But since a destination is marketed not only by its destination marketing organization but also by each tour operator selling it, promotional communication becomes challenging. So in fact there seems to be little control over a destination’s marketing.

You are going to perform a content analysis of a destination of your choice and analyze how your destination’s promotional image material compares among four sources.Below is the suggestion on how to approach this assignment.

1. You can, for example, analyze the DMO’s desired image and compare it with three tour operators selling the destination as well and conclude how these match. Then you give suggestions on how these (non-)matching images can be better coordinated.

2 Or you can compare four social media sources and analyze how these portray the destination differently, why and what that means for a destination’s image.

3. Another option is taking four different promotional expressions from the same promotion campaign, for example one promo video, one VisitX.com website, one tour operator and one social media channel (all part of the same campaign),and analyze the online image by comparing the image material of all four sources. You see, the choice for your sources depends on your objective. You can be creative here. As long as the comparison and choice of sources make logical sense. Describe this well.

Sources can be: promotional video, brochures, destination websites, tour operator websites, social media channels, news paper articles, travel guide books, TV travel programs, promotion campaigns, etc, etc.

Steps of conducting the content analysis

1. Introduce the topic and destination, use course literature, explain what is content analysis and how to perform one.

2. Perform the content analysis. Quantify concepts, group them in themes, etc.

3. Draw conclusions from the analysis and give recommendations accordingly. It depends on your objective and research design to whom the recommendations are directed.

I attached here an example of extensive Content Analysis ( we dont have to do that extensive , but it is recommended to follow their approach to the analysis ) , also the ppt of the lecture on Content Analysis ).


Unformatted Attachment Preview

Minor Destination Development Swen Waterreus  Colorado State University – Content Analysis writing guide ▪ See PDF or https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/guide.cfm?guideid=61 Saunders et al (7th edition): Ch 13.12 p.608-613  Govers & Go (2005) – Projected destination image online: Website content analysis of pictures and text. (Dubai Case)  Hunter, W.C. (2008). A typology of photographic representations for tourism: Depictions of groomed spaces.  Kim et al (2009). Web Marketing in Food Tourism: A Content Analysis of Web Sites in West Texas  See BB Analysis of contents of this course ☺ Let me introduce… To work! 1. 2. 1. Don’t believe me! Think for yourself! What’s in a theory? 3. 1. Examples of Content Analyses The Assignment To work! 4. 5. 1. Just do it! (start on assignment) – bring laptop! The aim of this lecture & assignment is twofold:  To analyze secondary material (images, text, video, etc) in a systematic, analytical, structured and detailed way  To gain more knowledge about the way your destination is communicated to tourists in existing material made by the tourism industry ▪ Link to the Individual Assignment  Content analysis is an analytical technique that codes and categorizes qualitative data in order to analyze them as if they were quantitative (Saunders, 2016: p.608)  Defined as a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences/conclusions from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use (Krippendorf, 2004).  The focus can be on texts, but just as well on data in the form of: works of art, images, maps, sounds, signs, symbols, websites, video, speeches, etc! Important is the relation between content & context. Context = purpose of the document    Also useful in the interpretation or analysis of products of communication, for example: ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪  Newspapers Television Radio Books Letters Diaries Public documents – minutes/annual reports Can be useful for analysis of both primary and secondary data     Useful tool for understanding how destinations, but also (tour) organizations ‘see’ and ‘present’ themselves, their products/services, etc By looking at images & textual material Understanding the meaning attached to pieces of information Understanding the purpose of the text/images ▪ Tour operators’ offer of travel products in ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ catalogue or website Destination promotion material or entire campaign (by either DMO or TO) Travel articles in newspapers or travel magazines Travel guide books Travel programmes on television But NO social media! (random!)  Imagine… Central Question = “What is the image of Amsterdam among Chinese tourists?” 1. 2. What kinds of data could help answer this question? Specify how to analyze each of them  Imagine… Possible Sub Questions = “What is the image of Amsterdam as portrayed through Chinese: - travel guide books - postcards - tour operator catalogues / etc ? 1. Develop/come up with an analysis strategy for analyzing these data      Colorado State Uni Saunders Article Govers & Go (Dubai) Article Hunter (Photographic representations) Article Kim (Food tourism websites) QUANTITATIVE ▪ the purely quantitative where frequencies are counted within categories > Conceptual analysis We will focus on a combined approach – why? QUALITATIVE an approach that focuses on meaning in which interferences are drawn from data and the data is considered in a qualitative approach > Relational analysis   Photographs are a powerful and plentiful medium for tourism destination promotion.  It could be said that their representational power functionally transforms a place into a destination—a commodity.  Only too late do some realize that short-term economic gain can confiscate a social identity and a way of life.  …helping promotional agents to be more conscious of the intended and accidental effects of photographic representations on tourists and on the destination before it is too late and local people are left vigorously struggling to retrieve their already compromised identities.  … the need for effective food tourism marketing is evident. However, little research has been conducted to examine food tourism marketing on the World Wide Web  …investigate the effective use of Web marketing in food tourism that would affect tourists’ destination decisions.  Dubai  Dark tourism in Dutch newspapers  The Aussie outback  Online image Algarve Portugal    20 websites 505 images and 93.000 words combined Split in motifs and themes ▪ Identif & freq objects ▪ Identif of arrangement   Conclusions: ▪ Dubai fails to reflect true ▪ ▪ Identif of context ▪ Results ▪ ▪ Images: 8 themes experiential/non-exper ▪ Mainly on facility/activity ▪ No cultural heritage ▪ Text: Desert, little on senses ▪ identity through imagery Main focus on physical aspects of Dubai No design of experience Mainly airports focus on culture/heritage (???) Even DMO focuses on ‘the gaze’ instead of experiential representation!  Research question = “How is the phenomenon of Dark Tourism communicated, portrayed and understood by Dutch written media?” Het Parool: 89.000 copies & social democratic background Trouw: 91,000 copies & protestant background De Volkskrant: 305,000 copies & catholic background  From all the written and image material ▪ Keywords ▪ Themes ▪ Groupings  Dark tourism: ▪ Disaster / prison / “dark” museums / cemeteries as attraction / tourism and crime / commemoration monuments or events Nr. Category Nr. of articles found 1. Cemeteries as attraction / funerary excursions / sightseeing 40 2. Disaster tourism 4 3. Visiting dangerous areas 2 4. Prison visit 4 5. Battlefield tourism, incl re-enactments 4 6. Dark museums 3 7. Dark destinations 1 8. Funeral culture general 15 9. Cemeteries and literature 1 10. Tourism and crime 1 11. Suicide tourism 1 Volkskrant Lemen Voeten Quest Roermond cemetery NL Zentral Cemetery, Vienna Sapanta, Rumania Holy Land Foundation NL Pere Lachaise, Paris Najaf cemetery, Iraq Sapanta, Rumania Staglieno, Genua Morne l’eau cemetery, Guadeloupe Mariners cemetery, Corsica Capuchin catacombs, Palermo Colon cemetery, Cuba Sagada sarcophaguses, Philipines Invaliden cemetery, Berlin Nazca burial site, Peru Jewish cemetery, Prague Necropolis of Glasgow Skogskyrkogarden, Stockholm San Michele, Venice    Lively interest in dark phenomena in Netherlands Lively interest in cemeteries as attractions, but that in combination with tourism is very rare Dark Tourism as such not encountered  Australia: research from Charles Darwin University → examination of the marketing approaches of State and Territory Tourism Organizations for outback destinations  Why? → strong outback image, for example, Western Australia promotes itself as having “the real outback” and the Northern Territory is the “heart of the outback” and also “Australia’s real outback”  Each region markets itself as the ‘true outback’ and as having the best, biggest and most desirable attractions for visitors.  Analysis of State and Territory Tourism Organization (STOs) to website content, to identify the ways in which the outback is portrayed (or ‘sold’) to potential visitors.  Defining the set of data for analysis (the specific web pages/brochures) & reading through the material.  Deciding which criteria to use for the analysis – themes/elements ▪ ❑ ❑ In this example: 1. Spirituality and mysticism 2. Exploration and discovery 3. Plentitude/Abundance 4. Exclusiveness Recording the frequency and combinations of these themes/elements in different sources & meaning that is assigned Comparing across regions – different outbacks - to identify common layers of meaning and combinations of elements ❑ Exploration and discovery - All regions emphasized the opportunity for visitors to ‘explore’ and ‘discover’ their destinations:  Plentitude (overwhelming multitude of impressions). Language projecting images of vastness, expansive grandeur, and unbounded spaces filters through in the materials for all regions ▪ “Visitors are invariably awestruck by the profound impact of space, the myriad of stars in the night sky” ▪ “Go camping and see stars which stretch forever…”  Exclusiveness: Within this theme diversity within exclusive elements (especially landscapes, flora and fauna) was brought forward to enhance the perception of exclusiveness: ▪ “As well as being home to a huge number and wide variety of bird species...” ▪ “And on its coast lie some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, untouched coral atolls…”  A further observation is the high frequency use of the words ‘red’ (soils, rocks, skies at sunsets, and so on) and ‘rugged’ (plains, rocks, islands, and so on).     All areas were promoted more or less the same No distinctive character of each area New promotion/marketing campaigns were started Six destinations – each with their own character What is the current image of destination Algarve as portrayed by Dutch tour operators?       Introduction Research questions Methodology Results Conclusion Recommendations  Selection of sources  Selection of pictures  Identify concepts  Grouping / themes  Frequencies  What can you make out of this?  Any Recommendations? Slight adjustments. Use these criteria rather than the study handbook. Individual assignment 3 – Content analysis of image of the destination • The student has selected a minimum of four different sources for the content analysis • The student structured the paper in the correct manner: Introduction, central question, methodology, results, conclusion, recommendations, literature list, attachments • The student has formulated a clear objective for this content analysis • The student explains the content analysis approach using the course material provided during the classes (combination of quantitative AND qualitative approach!) • The results are presented in a visualized manner using tables and graphs • The analysis includes conclusions that explain how the information helped to get more in-depth information about the destination • The student has included pictures, signs or other visual materials in the attachments.  Around 1500 WORDS (excl tables used) Use of tables Referencing to course literature Analyzed images in appendices Destination of your choice  Purpose = online image of destination X     YOU MAY ANALYZE:  Destination of choice (known to you?) ▪ Enough image material ▪ DD related or not  Anything else! > discuss with me WHATEVER SOURCE (4) ▪ Tour operators’ offer of travel ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ products in catalogue or website (whatever language) Destination promotion material or entire campaign (by either DMO or TO) Travel articles in newspapers or travel magazines Travel guide books Travel programmes on television social media……. Promotion videos  You’ve seen by now that CA can be used for a number of applications and has various theoretical substantiations. You may create your own version for your own purpose. As long as….  Justify + explain!   The case studies shown are just one way of applying the CA method. Don’t just copy, create! 5. To work! What do you want to do? How will you do it? Objective? Central question? What are your steps? Don’t forget to use course material on BB for the theoretical account of CA.  Start with a schematic outline of your assignment and define the parameters 1098-3058/05 $20.00 + .00 Copyright  2005 Cognizant Comm. Corp. www.cognizantcommunication.com Information Technology & Tourism, Vol. 7 pp. 73–89 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. PROJECTED DESTINATION IMAGE ONLINE: WEBSITE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF PICTURES AND TEXT ROBERT GOVERS* and FRANK M. GO† *Flemish Center for Tourism Policy Studies, University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium †Centre for Tourism Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands This study analyzes how destination identity is projected through the use of photographic imagery and narratives in an online environment in the context of marketing a fast growing tourist destination such as Dubai. Twenty Dubai-based websites, covering various sectors of the industry, were content analyzed in terms of the photographic material and textual representations presented. Results confirm that there are, as expected, considerable discrepancies in the way the private and public players project Dubai’s identity. Private sector organizations, in particular hospitality and transport, are product oriented and projected images relate primarily to the specific facilities and tourist activities on offer. In contrast, the destination marketing organization focuses on the projection of cultural identity and heritage. Key words: Destination image; Identity and culture; Content analysis; Online marketing social activity. However, photography selectively extracts from this multifaceted expression and reduces it to a series of icons. This distorts the identity and trivialises the place and contributes to the consuming nature of tourism. (p. 80) Introduction Although only sporadically investigated (Albers & James, 1988; Cohen, 1988; Fairweather & Swaffield, 2002; Garlick, 2002; Human, 1999; MacKay & Fesenmaier, 1997; Markwell, 1997; Sternberg, 1997), the relationship between photography and tourism has received some interesting coverage, such as for instance by Human (1999) who characterizes the relationship as “ambivalent.” Tourism can indeed be categorized as a form of hedonic consumption, where the experience is an end in itself (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982; Leemans, 1994; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998). Sternberg (1997) in fact “argues that tourism planning has as its central challenge the design of effective touristic experiences, and can find conceptual sources for this task in iconography” (p. 951). Also Garlick (2002) “takes up this question of Many destinations visited by tourists have a strong identity and sense of place, which is embodied in the history . . . (culture) . . ., physical form and Address correspondence to Robert Govers, Flemish Center for Tourism Policy Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium, W. de Croylaan 42, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. Tel: +32 (0)16 322 794; Fax: +32 (0)2 700 4045; E-mail: RGovers@geo.kuleuven.ac.be 73 74 GOVERS AND GO what role photography plays in determining the nature of touristic experience” (p. 289). According to Sontag (2002) this is a critical issue as “photographs, in teaching us a new visual code, alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe” and at the same time, “photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mode” (p. 3). Hirschman and Holbrook (1982, p. 92) emphasize the importance of multisensory, fantasy, and emotive aspects of experiential or hedonic products such as tourism (the “three Fs”: fantasies, feelings, and fun; Holbrook, 2000, p. 178; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Consumers build up emotional arousals and mental multisensory imagery, either historic (i.e., based on prior experiences) or fantasy imagery, based on what they (expect to) taste, hear, smell, see, or feel when consuming experiential products. Gretzel and Fesenmaier (2003, p. 51) argue that, in order to improve future tourism marketing strategies, sensory tourism information should be communicated, either through new emerging technologies such as virtual tours (possibly incorporating the development of sensors for taste, smell, and touch) or using traditional forms such as metaphors and narratives. Narratives about places are the basis for creating destination image and are enhanced by photographic material. Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) also argue that in the hedonic consumption perspective “the researcher is concerned not so much with what the product is as with what it represents. Product Image, not strict reality, is a central focus” (p. 93). For experiential products such as tourism, consumers try to organize a complex sequence of events and their reactions to these events (and the information gathered) into a meaningful whole. Understanding this is the province of narrative psychology, which contends that people have the natural propensity to organize information about experiences in story format. It also suggests that people relate their interpretations of experience to others by narrating, or telling stories (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2000; Padgett & Allen, 1997; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998). Ideally, therefore, narratives included in marketing material for tourism destinations should represent such rich tourism experiences and reflect multisensory, fantasy, and emotional cues. Incorporating photographic material may contribute significantly to this. But what is exactly the tourism product or experience that these narratives represent, if not a flight on a certain day to a certain country, with a hotel room for a certain number of nights and a city tour somewhere along the way? When tourism destinations are defined at the level of countries, some help in answering this question is provided by Hall (1996). He phrases the question as follows. “But how is the modern nation imagined? What representational strategies are deployed to construct our common-sense views of national belonging or identity? . . . How is the narrative of the national culture told?” (p. 613). Of the many aspects that a comprehensive answer to that question would include, Hall selected five main elements. First, there is the narrative of the nation, as it is told and retold in national histories, literatures, the media, and popular culture; secondly, there is the emphasis on origins, continuity, tradition, and timelessness; a third discursive strategy is the invention of tradition; a fourth example is that of the foundational myth; and lastly the national identity is also often symbolically grounded on the idea of a pure, original people or “folk” (Hall, 1996, p. 613). Competing in the tourism market forces tourist destinations to decide whether and which elements of national, local, and regional culture would contribute best to the attraction system of the destination. And next, which elements of the attraction system would most appropriately represent through the projected images of the destination in question. This article studies to what extent these identities and images are reflected in the online narratives and pictures that are used to market the fast growing tourism destination of Dubai. In projecting destination identity, “authenticity” has been a predominant issue. The tourist is said to enjoy the pseudoevent (Boorstin, 1993), that is, inauthentic, contrived attractions, and disregard the real world. “Over time the images generated within tourism come to constitute a self-perpetuating system of illusions, which may appear as quaint to the local inhabitants as they do to the tourists themselves” (Duncan, 1978, p. 277, cited by Urry, 2003, p. 10). As Urry (2003) indicates, “the search for authenticity is too simple a foundation for explaining contemporary tourism. There ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION are multiple discourses and processes of the ‘authentic’” (p. 11), which are likely to expand further in the future as a result of the continuous contest between the Internet revolution and the evolution of the cultural identity of a destination. This aspect of destination image can be examined through the content analysis of online publications about destinations. Amongst others, it can provide destinations better insight into the way in which they incorporate the authentic in relation to the identity of place in the online image projection to enhance the experiential nature of tourism. However, a priori, we can identify that in marketing a destination there seems to be a tension between the desire to project imagery that provides an authentic identity of place, but at the same time commoditizes it for tourism consumption, reflecting desirable experiences (or staged authenticity) (Cohen, 1988, p. 371). As Fairweather and Swaffield (2002, p. 293) put it: “When visitors encounter settings of experiences that differ markedly from their expectations, created through projected images . . . (through marketing, media, social interaction, arts and literature) . . . , their evaluations can be very negative” (p. 293). Therefore, to guarantee a satisfying comprehensive tourist experience, what is projected should be in line with what is really there (i.e., a reflection of the location’s “complete real identity,” or in Hall’s terms: the dominant “narrative of the nation”). This article examines, amongst other things, this tension between cultural identity and commerce. In particular, there is a desire within the cultural community and public sector to project imagery that represents an authentic identity of place, whereas commercial interests are keen to stage authenticity (Cohen, 1988, p. 371) to represent desirable tourist activities, or convenient commodities for consumption. As a result, the authors expect their investigation into the use of imagery and narratives by the tourism industry in Dubai to show differences between public and private institutions and different sectors of the industry, in terms if the images that they project online and the related perceptions of relevant decision makers. Consequently, the article will build on “one of the most important questions” already raised in the early 1980s by Boulding (1983): “What do our decision makers read? That is, what 75 kind of image of the world do they have?” Investigating what is projected by various actors in the industry would give us insight into what part of the image of the world that they have, they want to “appropriate” (Sontag, 2002, p. 4). If, as according to Sontag (2002, p. 3), “the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the world in our heads—as an anthology of images” (p. 3) (i.e., “to collect photographs is to collect the world”), the presentation of these collections as assembled by tourism actors would represent their view of the world as they would like us, the public, to see it. As Boulding illustrates: “It may be that a small nuclear catastrophe, for example, in the Middle East, would shock people to the point where there would be a restructuring of the human image and the national image.” Boulding must have been anticipating Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations (Huntington, 1993) using this example, as this article will illustrate the impact recent events in the Middle East have had on the way the tourism industry in Dubai projects its destination image. Taking this into account, different actors in the tourism industry, public agencies versus private sector-specific companies, are hypothesized to have different objectives in terms of projecting a destination image that will favorably affect their intended positioning and ultimately their customers’ buying behavior. The authors anticipate that decision makers within public agencies will utilize imagery and narratives that tend to be focused on authentic cultural identity, while private organizations might in fact try to avoid that, focusing more on commoditized experiences. As Long (1997) puts it, “The issue is how actors struggle to give meaning to their experiences through an array of representations, images, cognitive understandings, and emotional responses.” Purpose The relationship between cultural identity, projected image, commercialization, tourism experience, and perceived image is depicted in Figure 1. For a detailed discussion of this model see Govers and Go (2004). Firstly, any destination image should be anchored to some extend on a true destination identity (Go. Lee, & Russo, 2004; Onians, 1998; 76 GOVERS AND GO Figure 1. Tourism destination image formation model. Originated from the basic idea of the 5-gap service quality analysis model by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985, p. 44) and major contributions from Baloglu and McCleary (1999) and Gartner (1993). Van Rekom & Go, 2003). The tourism development strategy formulates a tourism product, commercializing the offering using this identity and the authenticity of place (staged or real), which results in a projected tourism destination image. This is done through the use of planned marketing and communication, using narratives, as well as produced imagination and expressed meanings beyond the control of destination management, such as for instance in the media, literature, arts, or computer-mediated environments. In all these cases the use of photographic imagery is essential in order for these, what Gartner (1993) calls “induced destination image formation agents” (“overt” as well as “covert”) (pp. 197–201), to be effective. As discussed earlier, the importance of photographic material also seems to be increasing, and rightfully so, considering the fact that they are representing an experiential product. Urry (2002) clarifies and extends the argument that tourism experiences have a fundamental visual character, drawing an analogy with Foucault’s concept of the gaze. Particularly the interactive nature of the Internet adds whole new dimensions to the possibilities of projecting destination images. However, the importance of textual descriptions in this environment should still not be underestimated. This is illustrated by the role of literature and written media. In Figure 1, this projected destination image forms the basis for a perceived destination image in the mind of the consumer, which is mediated by the person’s identity (i.e., self-congruity; Baloglu & McCleary, 1999; MacKay & Fesenmaier, 2000; Sirgy & Su, 2000), potential temporal environmental or situational influences (Gartner & Hunt, 1987) (or Autonomous Agents according to Gartner, 1993, pp. 201–203), and the direct or indirect interaction with other consumers (word of mouth/mouse; Riedl, Konstan, & Vrooman, 2002; or Solicited or Unsolicited Organic Agents in Gartner’s terminology, 1993, pp. 203–204). What re- ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION sults is a set of personal expectations that the tourist formulates about a particular destination. The level to which these expectations are met or exceeded during the actual tourism experience is what is referred to as tourist satisfaction (Govers & Go, 1999). Lastly, during the tourism experience, where the guest consumes the tourism product and interacts with the host, the perceived destination image is also affected (through what Gardner. 1993, pp. 204–205, refers to as Organic Agents). In other words, tourists will adjust their perceptions of places if what was experienced consuming the tourism product did not correspond to their perceived destination image, even if the latter turned out to be realistic. The lack of understanding of the experiential nature of tourism amongst the tourism industry decision makers (Gretzel & Fesenmaier, 2003) can easily lead to a mismatch. This means that the way the tourism product is delivered is often not a true reflection of a destination’s identity (or just a poor abstraction of all its multisensory, fantasy, and emotive aspects) and fails to incorporate the full potential of the prospective rich tourism experience. This article in particular will address issues related to the image as communicated by the host (the top half of Fig. 1) by examining how destination identity is projected through the use of photographic imagery and narratives in an online environment. Background This study investigated the case of Dubai, one of the seven Emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is strategically positioned on the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, South of the Arabian Gulf. As a Gulf state, like so many other nations in the Middle East, the UAE has faced many challenges trying to maintain its impressive economic prosperity over the last few years following recent events, which dramatically impacted its geopolitical environment. Particularly, the second Gulf War has shown the tremendous impact that the spread of global media has on projecting destination image. Everyone will recall the rivalry between regional and international (read American/European) news broadcasters and their differences in the way in which events were 77 reported. Huntington’s (1993) Clash of Civilizations seemed to have turned into reality. Two Gulf Wars, September 11, and the ongoing destabilization of the Middle East have probably not improved the Gulf region’s image in the West. But Dubai and its leadership have wisely taken advantage of this raised level of attention, illustrating to the world the rapid development of the Emirate, the high level of modernization, but at the same time not shying away from its identity and heritage. In fact, Dubai is using the focus of attention on the region, the renewed global interest in Islam and Arabic culture, and the attention that Dubai gets as a rapidly modernizing global hub in the Middle East as a means to maintain and publicize its identity and heritage. It raises a key issue: namely, how Dubai might be able to maintain its Islamic identity and heritage while globalizing its economy at the same time? In fact, tourism development in Dubai is not a matter of tourism dollars supporting the rest of the economy at the cost of losing the identity and authenticity of place. Quite the contrary, the oil dollars and income from trade, which are reinvested in a tourism infrastructure in order to diversify the economy, has created the opportunity to preserve the local heritage for the sake of tourism in a state that was rapidly globalizing anyway. Tourism in Dubai has only recently expanded, rapidly gaining significance over the last 5 years, as the oil to non-oil ratio of the gross domestic product has decreased from almost 36% in 1990 to less than 10% in 2001 (Government of Dubai-Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, 2002). Dubai was the fastest growing tourism destination in the world in 2002, with growth rates of over 32% (growing 10 times faster than the rest of the world). Even in 2003 the UAE realized 10% growth despite the Gulf War, welcoming close to 6 million international tourist arrivals (AbdelGhaffar, 2004). Since the 1990s hotel capacity in Dubai has quadrupled (UAE Ministry of Information and Culture, 2001), and in 2003 “the tourism sector’s contribution to Dubai’s GDP exceeded 17 per cent and its indirect impact reached a whopping 28 per cent” (Rahman, 2004). To sustain its growth, Dubai is in full swing to implement a well-orchestrated long-term vision, which includes all major components needed to 78 GOVERS AND GO fulfill the tourism industry growth strategy aiming for 15 million visitors by 2010 (Jenkins, 2004). One of the most remarkable projects is The Palm. The Palm involves the creation of the world’s largest two man-made islands known as The Palm, Jumeirah and The Palm, Jebel Ali, at a cost of US$1.5 billion each. Located just off the coast of the city of Dubai, the two palm tree-shaped islands will increase Dubai’s shoreline by a total of 120 km and create a large number of residential, leisure, and entertainment opportunities. The significance of the concept of designing the islands in the shape of palm trees is that it was inspired by Dubai’s own heritage, with the date palm and water long considered to be the most important sources of life, providing the UAE people with food, shelter, and simple boats, laying the foundations for trade, which has eclipsed the oil industry as the major source of Dubai’s prosperity. Also, Arab Eclectic will be the signature architectural style on the Palm (Dubai Palm Developers LLC, 2003). To attract the additional visitors, second home owners and residents to Dubai, other major investment projects are under way. Among them are mix-use mega-projects such as: • Dubai Festival City, which spans over 1600 acres on the banks of Dubai’s historic Creek. • Dubailand, a US$5 billion project to create the region’s 2 billion square feet tourism, leisure, and entertainment capital, host to the Global Village fun-fare, which, with over 3 million visitors in 2003, is the biggest attraction at the annual Dubai Shopping Festival (Stensgaard, 2003b). • Dubai Marina, a cluster of towers along a 3.5km man-made marina. • The World, 260 islands protected by an oval breakwater and positioned to form the shape of the world map. Among the 67 new hotel properties that are planned for the UAE in the next few years (Stensgaard, 2003c), the most remarkable ones are: • Madinat Jumeirah, a 900-bedroom Arabian resort designed using local UAE architecture and interior design. • Hydropolis, the world’s first underwater hotel. • Al Maha Desert Resort expansion in Dubai’s new desert conservation reserve. • Atlantis The Palm, a US$1 billion copy of the same resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas to be located on the cresent of Palm Island. Anticipating increased travel demands, intermodal transport systems have also been taken into account. Besides a rapidly expanding modern road network infrastructure, a luxury cruise terminal, planned railway connections across the Arabian Peninsula, and a magnetic monorail public transport system in Dubai, the government of Dubai has committed to a major expansion plan of US$4 billion for Dubai International Airport and its affiliated divisions (Rahman, 2003). In line with this projected growth of the Dubai travel hub, Emirate Airlines announced the largest ever aircraft order at the 2003 Paris Air Show on top of the orders already registered in 2001 at the Dubai Air Show, bringing the total order book to US$26 billion (Stensgaard, 2003a). As Cooper (2003) puts it: “This vision of modern Arabia is somewhat different from the view often presented by the Western media which understandably focuses on regional tensions rather than regional success stories.” In an effort to try to change this situation, the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation has embarked on a campaign reflecting the contrast between modern Dubai as an attractive global business hub and the respect for tradition, heritage, and local culture at the same time. In 11 roughly 1-minute Cultural Voyage Vignettes that precede the Dubai Duty Free and International Airport advertisements on CNN International, the government tries to create a global awareness for the rich cultural identity of the UAE people. Short interviews with real local Emirati reflect traditions such as: henna body painting; incense burning; pearl diving on a dhow; falconering in the sand dunes by Emirati men; the building of dhows; calligraphy; the traditional liwa band consisting of local Emirati men dancing to live music; Arabic poetry and song writing; existing traditional Bedouin herding camels in the desert; and lastly a small episode on the Bastaqya, the restored historical buildings along the Dubai creek, which was where trade originally began (Mansson, 2003). Particularly with respect to the “conservation of local architecture” and the “harmonious urban ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION development that combines authenticity and synchronism” (Anonymous, 2003), the government of Dubai and the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, and Dubai Municipality in particular, have made considerable efforts by restoring many of the typical barasti houses. These houses are characterized by the square wind tower or baadgeer, open on four sides to catch gusts of wind and funnel them inside as a form of air conditioning, with the highest of these located above the bedroom. Registration of the historical buildings as world heritage sites with ICOMOS Unesco is also “followed up with urgency . . . as it will raise the importance of these buildings to the international level and help boost tourism” even further (Anonymous, 2001). All these examples of tourism development where heritage and the “sense of place” have been taken into account, in terms of building the infrastructure and product development, as well as the marketing, are a good example of tourism being a vehicle for preservation (Go et al., 2004). Also, it instigates some level of appreciation for the local culture with tourists whose primary reason for visiting a location is not for the local culture (but often the sun, sea, sand, & shopping in the case of Dubai). As Van Rekom and Go (2003) argue, this form of “staged authenticity” (McCannell, 1973), “is a strategy that can work, both in publicity campaigns designed to foster identification with (and of) a distinct local community and campaigns to promote active citizenship” (supported by Onians, 1998). As Van Rekom and Go (2003) indicate, the staged or emergent authenticity therefore seems to “fit with the way in which the local identity is constructed, imagined and experienced by the local community members” and is at the same time used as a way to react to recent geopolitical events in a positive way to promote Dubai’s rapid development as a global hub, but at the same time not denying its roots. This article analyzes to what extent these efforts are also reflected in the projected imagery of Dubai online. 79 adult Web surfers have shopped for travel-related services on the Internet in the last 6 months, according to Nielsen//NetRatings (2004). Although the Middle East has a relatively small but growing online population (5 million, less than 1%), the UAE has the highest penetration rate in the region with close to 28% of its residents having online access, compared to 24% on average in Europe in 2002 (Greenspan, 2002). Lacking regional data for 2003, NUA Internet Surveys & Nielsen NetRatings even reported close to 40% penetration in the UAE in 2002 (CyberAtlas, 2003; NUA Internet Surveys, 2002)). Therefore, the many recent regional and local initiatives to bring the tourism industry into the online marketplace (such as my travelchannel.com on MSN Arabia, online booking at emiratesairline.com, reserving your dinner at diningindubai.com, or booking your tour with one of the online local tour operators) are timely. This is supported by the Emirate’s drive to take up a strategic position in the new economy, endorsed by the creation of Dubai Internet City, an e-commerce free zone. The observations above show that it is bearing fruit. However, much more pertinent in this context is Dubai’s dependency on international visitors when it comes to sustaining its tourism industry’s growth. European tourists constitute a large and growing market segment, being the number one source market, representing 25% of the total market in 2002 (Bin Sulayem, 2003) and having generated over one third of the total number of 9 million guest nights in 2001 (UAE Ministry of Information and Culture, 2003, p. 152). On average, these tourists spend a whole day longer in Dubai, compared to any other visitor. As illustrated above, many of these Europeans are online and using the web for travel and tourism purposes extensively. Therefore, considering the advancement of Dubai in the online market place and the importance of the European market, it is timely to study the destination image that Dubai is projecting online internationally. Data Collection Methodology Particularly in tourism, and its related information-intensive industries and products, the potential of the Internet has been proven. Nearly 60% of To sample the data, an online search was conducted to locate Dubai-based tourism company websites, by screening the links detailed on local portals containing tourism directories, such as: the 80 GOVERS AND GO government of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (www.dubaitourism. co.ae); the Dubai E-Government Portal (www. dubai.ae); AME-Info (www.ameinfo.com); UAE Interact (official website of the Ministry of Information and Culture in the UAE at www.uaeinteract. com); and Emirates Internet & Multimedia (the national Internet provider at www.emirates.net.ae, part of the national telecommunications company Etisalat). Lastly, a search on the keyword “tourism” was conducted on the complete list of websites registered in Dubai as provided by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (www. adcci.gov.ae/pls/uaesites/uae_web_sites_emirates. search). Twenty websites were located and saved in a Favorites folder, using Microsoft Internet Explorer’s “Offline Web Pages” tool. The maximum number of three links deep from the websites’ homepages was downloaded to hard disk, following only links within the same website, without specifying a disk space usage limit and including downloading of images. From the 20 websites, a total of 3600 JPEG and GIF files were collected; 2,550 small images of less than 10 kilobytes were immediately deleted under the assumption that those would include only thumbnails, buttons, icons, lines, banners, and other design elements. Of the remaining 1050 images, 74 were doubles of the same image on the same website and were therefore overwritten during cataloguing. Of the 976 viewed images, still another 38 images were deleted as they consisted of banners, backgrounds, and navigation menus. Another 433 images were excluded from the analysis for various reasons. These included: 11 images of bad quality, which were difficult to analyze; 5 images of cargo at an airport or seaport, irrelevant to the locality; 8 images representing irrelevant business settings, not showing specific related facilities available in Dubai; 11 images of irrelevant objects not related to tourism in Dubai; 84 images consisting of logos, banners, and ads; 48 geographic maps; 6 images of nonbranded aero planes in flight and cars on non-Dubai roads; 83 images of other countries; 72 images of other Emirates; 42 press-related images; 44 images representing text; and 19 images of unknown individuals without context or within an irrelevant non-Dubai-related context. The remaining 505 images included in the analysis were distributed as depicted in Table 1. Subsequently every page on every site was manually browsed and superficially scanned for its textual content. All full text paragraphs of two or more sentences were cut and pasted into a separate word document for every website. Most web pages were included, except for: pages that relate to other Emirates; press sections; listings of hotel information, if not on the hotel website itself; listings of brief destination-related facts (e.g., exchange rates, telephone numbers, seasonal temperatures, holidays, languages, visa information, etc.); and bullet pointed sections, unless part of a larger piece of text. From the 20 websites, a total number of 92,485 words was collected, distributed as depicted in Table 1. In total: 15 tour operators, 3 hospitality management companies, the Dubai destination marketing organization, and airport website were analyzed. Only the destination marketing organization is a pure government organization, but two tour operators, one hospitality management company, and the airport are semigovernment, part of government control structures, but managed as private entities. Not surprisingly, the destination marketing organization and the semigovernment hospitality management company had the most text and images on their websites, which corresponds to the total website size, being the largest two as well (16,709 words/48 images/30 MB, and 14,373 words/48 images/74 MB, respectively). The airport website had the most images (56), but not as much text and an average website with 17 MB. Apart from one tour operator with a website of 18 MB (and 40 images), all other websites were smaller than 6 MB, six of them being smaller than 1 MB. Content Analysis of Pictures The need for tourism researchers to embrace image-based research has been contended by Feighey (2003). The 505 images included in the analysis were content analyzed in terms of motifs (objects or appearances) and themes (or focal themes), as applied in other studies of tourism photography (Albers & James, 1988; Markwell, 1997; Sternberg, 1997). Content analysis of motif ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION 81 Table 1 Sample Distribution Tour operator No. of websites No. of images No. of words Air transport No. of websites No. of images No. of words Hospitality No. of websites No. of images No. of words Destination marketing organization No. of websites No. of images No. of words Total No. of websites No. of images No. of words Private Semigovernment 13 255 26,075 2 47 16,156 15 302 42,231 1 56 5,398 1 56 5,398 1 48 14,373 3 99 28,143 2 51 13,770 15 306 39,845 was performed at three levels as suggested by Sternberg (1997, pp. 957–959): first, identification of the actual objects (setting up what is staged); second, identifying the arrangement (which objects are shown together, or clustering); and third, identifying the contextualization (or the surrounding context). In the first instance, all the motifs appearing in every image were listed. Then, with each image being a case, for each object a separate dichotomous variable was created in SPSS to indicate if the specific object appeared in the picture or not (0 = no, 1 = yes). This allowed for measurement of distribution and frequency, but also for analysis of variance, treating the variable as interval scale. In the second instance, correlations between these variables were calculated that would indicate if objects often appear together (positive correlation) or not (negative correlation). By doing this objects were clustered by the level at which they correlate, identifying arrangement. Lastly, the arrangements were correlated with contexts (e.g., desert, sea, creek) to identify contextualization and finally the focal theme of the image. In a final note it needs to be emphasized that tourists appearing in the images, were not treated as “objects” but as “subjects” (Gallarza, Gil Saura, 4 151 35,927 Government Total 1 48 16,709 1 48 16,709 1 48 16,709 20 505 92,481 & Calderon Garcis, 2002, p. 64). In none of the images analyzed were tourists the focal appearance. As indicated above, the few images where this was the case were excluded from the analysis as press release-related material (many websites have a press section). Rather, the appearance or absence of tourists in images was used as a way to distinguish between tourist gaze (Urry, 2002) or experience (or performance) (Fairweather & Swaffield, 2002; Garlick, 2002; Urbain, 1989). Fairweather and Swaffield (2002) propose an interesting metaphor in this respect, using the graded experience of the Elizabethan theater, “in which some of the audience become active participants, some choose to remain detached spectators, and others move between the two. Furthermore, watching others in the audience perform becomes part of the experience” (p. 294). In order to operationalize this, for arrangements in which tourists appeared, the focal theme was defined as being experiential, and in case of absence of any tourists, the focal theme was defined as representations or reflections of objects and activities. Content Analysis of Text As Dann (1996) has argued, the visual and textual contents of brochures are important in aiding 82 GOVERS AND GO a conceptualization of place. It can be assumed that the same accounts for web pages. To analyze the textual element of the websites, the authors made use of CATPAC, which is a self-organizing artificial neural network software package used for content analysis of text. “CATPAC is able to identify the most important words in a text and determine the patterns of similarity based on the way they are used in the text” (Woelfel, 1998, p. 11). In simple terms, CATPAC produces a frequency table and proximity matrix for the most commonly used words in the text. Proximities between the words are based on their co-occurrences within a sliding text window chosen by the researcher. (Standard size is 7 words; i.e., CATPAC moves a window of 7 words across the text and calculates word proximities based on the number of times words are found together within these frames. It Table 2 Content Analysis Results (N = 505) Contextualization Motif Dining (restaurant, bar, disco) Airport facilities Staff Modern shops/shopping malls Spa facilities Old fort Four wheel drive Local Emirati men Camp/picnic area Camels Sunset Artifacts (e.g., Arabic coffee pots, jewelry, jugs) Falcon Mosque Belly dancer Henna body painting Local Emirati girls/women Skyline Traditional Dhow boat Traditional architecture (e.g., Barasti houses, museum, wind towers, old Arabic doors) Hotel exterior Palm trees Watersport Swimming pool Beach Gardens Hotel interior (non-F&B, i.e., rooms/ lobby) Golf Golf club Souq Horse races Meeting, incentive, conference, exhibition facilities Sport Wildlife Limousine Monuments Frequency (% of Images in Which Motif Appears) Arrangement (Average No. of Motifs in Images That Include This Motif) 12.5% 10.3% 4.6% 4.6% 2.6% 1.6% 9.1% 8.3% 5.0% 4.2% 1.6% 1.14 1.52 2.22 1.73 1.23 1.25 1.67 2.45 2.24 2.57 2.38 1.6% 1.2% 1.0% 1.4% 1.2% 1.4% 8.7% 4.8% 2.13 2.50 2.80 3.57 3.17 1.43 1.59 2.20 4.8% 7.3% 6.7% 5.5% 3.6% 3.6% 2.0% 1.70 1.76 2.62 1.71 2.44 2.39 2.80 3.8% 3.6% 1.8% 2.8% 2.6% 1.11 1.78 2.56 1.57 1.15 2.0% 1.6% 1.4% 1.2% 0.8% 1.20 1.63 1.43 2.00 2.25 Context in Which Cluster of Motifs Often Appears % of Images in Which Context Appears mountains desert 3.2% 16.0% creek 9.1% sea 8.1% ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION 83 Figure 2. Focal themes of images through clustering of motifs (italic items are contexts). would go beyond the object of this article to explain the detailed working of the program here, as the above explanation is a simplification, but for a good overview please refer to Woelfel and Stoyanoff, 1993.) Among others, Gretzel and Fesenmaier (2003) and Ryan (2000) have advocated CATPAC to be a valuable tool for content analysis. To obtain the results described underneath, five documents were content analyzed by CATPAC, one for each sector of the industry and one for the total population. Those words appearing with a minimum frequency, covering at least 2.5% of the analyzed content, were included in the results (ranging from 24 to 28 unique words, depending on the specific content of the text being reviewed). To determine patterns of similarity and central concepts, several hierarchical cluster analysis methods were applied to the proximity table produced by CATPAC to test coherence of the several clustering solutions. As a result the name “Dubai” was excluded from analysis as this was obviously the most central word in all texts (representing 11.9% of all words included in the analysis of the total text, compared to the second most frequent word representing 3.7%). As Dubai correlated with al- most every other concept in the text, it distorted the cluster analysis. Because it is quite obvious that the analysis relates to the case study Dubai, there seamed to be no harm in excluding this word from the procedure, allowing better clustering results on the rest of the data. The outcomes reported are based on Ward’s method. Results The content analysis of pictures and text was conducted separately. Nevertheless, results were strikingly similar. First reported are the results of the content analysis of the pictures, followed by the results of the CATPAC analysis of the text, after which the conclusion pulls observations together. Pictures Table 2 lists the results of the content analysis according to motifs, arrangement, and contextualization. Motifs are clustered together with other motives with which they seem to often appear together (Fig. 2). The most frequent appearing motif was “dining,” followed by “airport facilities.” The most frequently appearing context was that of a 84 GOVERS AND GO desert setting. Tourists appeared in 24% of the images, which suggested that in general terms the experiential nature of tourism was not often reflected in the projected imagery. Figure 2 shows the clustering of motifs and contexts using bivariate correlations as well as the authors’ interpretations. There seemed to be eight logical focal themes, which could then each be split into experiential or nonexperiential themes depending on the presence or absence of tourists in the images. Table 3 lists the 14 focal themes (the themes of “hospitality” and “old & new” had no experiential dimension), their frequency and significant differences in distribution across sectors of the industry. Only “cultural experience” was not significant at all and “reflections of old & new” and “heritage experience” were only significant at 10%. As earlier suspected, only 26% of images were experiential in nature. Most frequent focal themes were “reflections of modern Dubai,” “hospitality facilities,” “leisure/recreational facilities & activities,” “reflections of culture,” and “outdoor activities,” together making up almost two thirds of the total number of images. That suggests that what is projected is very much facility/activity based. This was particularly true for the hospitality and transport sectors. Although they also had many experi- ence based images, these images show tourists making use of the leisure/recreational facilities and modern airport facilities, respectively. In fact, the hospitality and transport sectors had no images related to heritage, the outdoors, or contrasts of old and new Dubai whatsoever, and very few cultural images. The promotion of the rich culture, heritage, and identity of Dubai is therefore clearly left to the destination marketing organization and to some extent the tour operators. In it (see the Culture cluster in Fig. 2) we can recognize some of Hall’s (1996, p. 627) elements of national identity, such as the emphasis on origins, continuity, tradition, and timelessness (henna painting, falconry); the foundational myth (camels and camps in the desert); and the idea of a pure, original people or “folk” (the Emirate men and women as depicted in these images), but also the invention of tradition (belly dancers). The fifth of Hall’s elements, the narrative of the nation, can partly be found in the focal theme “Heritage.” Tour operators, although involved in cultural activities and the only ones projecting some heritage experiences, were primarily involved in outdoor activities, which represent mostly what is called wadi- and dune-bashing (the idea of taking a four wheel drive car to its limits in small river Table 3 Focal Themes and Differences Between Tourism Sectors in Dubai (N = 505) Focal Theme Leisure/recreational facilities & activities Experience modern Dubai Reflection of modern Dubai See, sun, sand experience Reflections of heritage Reflections of culture Outdoor activities Outdoor experience Reflections of old and new Heritage experience Hospitality facilities Leisure/recreational experience Sea, sun, sand facilities & activities Cultural experience Reflection of Dubai Facility and activity based Experience based Frequency Hospitality Tour Operators DMO Air Transport (N = 505) (N = 99) (N = 302) (N = 48) (N = 56) 11.7% 3.8% 17.4% 3.4% 9.1% 11.5% 10.1% 4.2% 2.2% 2.0% 13.1% 9.1% 8.5% 3.8% 40.2% 43.4% 26.1% 10.1% 2.0% 7.1% 2.0% 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 35.4% 30.3% 19.2% 1.0% 8.1% 64.6% 35.4% 10.6% 0.3% 16.2% 3.3% 10.9% 15.2% 14.9% 6.6% 3.6% 3.3% 8.9% 4.3% 7.6% 4.6% 46.0% 42.1% 22.5% 8.3% 0.0% 20.8% 10.4% 27.1% 16.7% 12.5% 2.1% 0.0% 0.0% 4.2% 4.2% 2.1% 2.1% 64.6% 27.1% 18.8% 23.2% 28.6% 39.3% 0.0% 0.0% 5.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.6% 1.8% 0.0% 5.4% 44.6% 26.8% 35.7% F p 2.8 45.3 9.3 3.3 12.6 6.2 8.8 4.0 2.5 2.3 20.7 25.6 7.8 1.2 0.04 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.06 0.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.33 ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION beds in the mountains or on sand dunes). Lastly, when performing analysis of variance between private, semigovernment, and government organizations, there also proved to be a significant difference in the projection of the “reflections of heritage” theme (F = 12.3, p = 0.000). This focal theme was present in 27% of the imagery used by government, compared to 9% and 4% for private and semigovernment organizations, respectively. Text Table 4 displays the frequency list of unique words in the total text covering all websites. Based on the cluster analysis using the CATPAC proximity table, only four small clusters were identified: Arabian Desert Experience, Jumeirah International World(class) Hotel Facilities, Golf Club, and Shopping Center. The other 14 most frequently found words could not clearly be clustered, probably because they were used in different contexts, in different Table 4 Frequency List of Unique Words in All Text Word Freq. % Desert International Hotel City World Arabian Golf Available Facilities Club Jumeirah Guests Experience Emirates Day Beach Tour Shopping Water Enjoy Traditional Group Resort Offers Centre Service 298 290 280 232 229 222 219 192 178 176 174 172 166 162 155 153 151 147 146 143 142 137 131 130 120 116 6.4 6.2 6.0 5.0 4.9 4.8 4.7 4.1 3.8 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.6 3.5 3.3 3.3 3.2 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.0 2.9 2.8 2.8 2.6 2.5 85 parts of the text, coming form different types of sector-specific websites. This assumption is quite plausible as analysis of the website texts per sector resulted in the identification of clear central concepts within each of the four documents, but different ones for different sectors (Table 5). The most commonly used word in all the text was, not surprisingly, the word “desert,” which was also part of one of the most important central concepts, the Arabian Desert Experience. Although this can be interpreted as a reference to Hall’s (1996, p. 627) “foundational myth,” it is at the same time the only central concept in the overall textual analysis that initially can be linked to Hall’s five elements of identity (two more can be found in Table 5 as being projected by the tourist board: the narrative of the nation of life in Dubai and the Arab origins). Another important central concept in the complete text was the combination of Jumeirah’s International World (class) Hotel Facilities (Jumeirah is the geographical area of Dubai where most of the resort hotels are situated). More of interest though was the differences in website content between the various tourism sectors. This is shown in Table 5. In line with the results from the content analysis of images on these same websites, it can be observed that the promotion of the rich culture, heritage, and identity of Dubai is clearly left to the destination marketing organization and to some extent the tour operators. The latter, although involved in cultural activities and the only ones projecting some heritage experiences, were primarily involved in outdoor activities and incentives. The transport and hospitality websites primarily focused on facilities and activities. Although it was positive to observe that the hotels also refer to guest experiences, this refers particularly to dining experiences. What was striking is that although there was limited reference to the experiential nature of tourism; no multisensory references, based on what we would (expect to) taste, hear, smell, see, or feel when consuming these experiential products, were found in the texts. The words “water,” “desert,” and “enjoy” probably came closest. It must be noted in this respect that, of course, pictures used on websites are an important part of the online projected destination image, as visual 86 GOVERS AND GO Table 5 Central Concepts of Website Content for Various Tourism Sectors Sector Central Concepts Related Words Transport (5,398 words) The airport Infrastructure Facilities VIP facilities International airport with special facilities available in 3 terminals Gate(s) & business lounges Duty free facilities & services located in concourse Car (parking & limo service) at an X amount of DHS (local currency) cost per day, first-class lounge & hotel rooms & (business & medical) center Tourist board (16,709 words) Purpose Heritage Modern Dubai Cultural origin Facilities Outdoor With chairman Sheikh Maktoum promote international tourism for the city of Dubai Traditional life around the desert and the creek World-class modern shopping centers for visitors Middle East, Arabian Gulf, United Arab Emirates Golf club and available tourist facilities Bird species and water Hospitality (28,143 words) Properties 1 Properties 2 Dining Health club Jebel Ali golf resort, shooting club & spa Jumeirah international hotels & beach club have world-class facilities available to guests Experience & enjoy dining in the bars & restaurants located close to the rooms or otherwise open for day visitors Body & skin treatment Tour operators (42,235 words) Sightsee tour Incentives Desert safari Other activities Experience city tour: shopping, camels & the desert World-class hotels & traditional Arabian adventures for groups and your guests Enjoy sand dunes drive & Arabic dinner at night International golf club and water sports, tours, and services in the Emirates Note: italic text was added by authors for clarity of reading. cues. But even when taking into account the results of that part of the study, there was a general lack of reference to other sensory cues and emotions. They say that “one picture is worth a thousand words,” but a picture and description of a hotel room, restaurant, or airport gate, for instance, is not going to tell us much about the actual tourism experience that one can expect at that particular unique destination, in terms of all the multisensory emotions that will be generated. Conclusion The results of this research clearly show that the way Dubai projects its imagery as a tourism destination lacks creativity and “cross border” thinking between tourism sectors and therefore fails to coherently reflect its true cultural identity. Most of the projected imagery is fragmented in nature and product based, showing facilities and activities on offer. Those experiential-type images that are found are those of fragmented experiences that relate directly to the specific product offered by particular sectors (i.e., “dining experiences” or “experience modern shopping facilities”). Therefore, these experiential-type images contribute largely to the commoditization and consuming nature of tourism. The use of photography to design effective (holistic) tourism experiences, as suggested by Sternberg (1997) and Garlick (2002), seems to be very limited. The experiential nature of the “consumption of place” is almost completely unrecognizable when interpreting what is projected by tourism websites, and representation of the identity of place, its culture, and heritage is left to government, destination marketing organizations, and, in part, tour operators. Although the government is trying to react to recent events with projects and campaigns that are meant to illustrate the rich heritage of Dubai, private sectors, and particularly the hospitality and transport sectors, seem to avoid references to the local culture and heritage. Therefore, both private sector and public sector appear to be working across purposes. Especially in the case of the airport website this is peculiar as it is most heavily involved in the media campaigns promoting Dubai’s heritage. But even when it comes to the way culture, heritage, and ONLINE DESTINATION IMAGE PROJECTION identity are projected by the destination marketing organization, “gaze”-type images are the norm, as opposed to experiential representations. Hirschman and Holbrook (1982, p. 92) emphasize the importance of multisensory, fantasy, and emotive aspects of experiential or hedonic products such as tourism. Yet, the way the tourism industry projects images of its tourism product offering, such as on destination marketing websites (Gretzel & Fesenmaier, 2003), is still focusing on communicating lists comprised of functional attributes such as price, distances and room availability. The design is based on a model of a rational and information seeking consumer which often results in simple activity based descriptions that reflect the supply side . . . rather that an actual consumer’s perceptions of tourism experiences. It is argued that this lack of an experiential mindset within the tourism industry is due largely to a lack of understanding of the nature of tourism experiences. (p. 50) This conclusion is supported by the research findings presented in this article. One of the key tourism challenges seems to be that the focus of private industry decision makers is on maintaining tourist satisfaction levels in their own very specific subdomain. The part of the image of the world that they have is often only related to the specific facilities and convenient commodities that they offer for consumption. They are not aiming to project tourism experiences that are embedded in a local context, nor are they concerned with the destination’s identity or how it should be projected. Therefore, they often fail to incorporate the full potential of the prospective rich tourism experience, which would match the tourists’ perceived destination image and the experience delivery that the tourists expect. It should be emphasized here, however, that this dilemma is not particular to online presentations but most likely also exists in paper catalogues and other media; it is a strategic dilemma, not a technical problem, and there is no easy solution. However, the Internet particularly seems to provide opportunities for improvement. Gretzel and Fesenmaier (2003) successfully showed that sensory information regarding consumer perceptions of places can be researched and bundled into sensory themes following specific 87 patterns of association, which “can be used to define coherent experiences sought after by certain groups of travellers.” This proves that there is a world of opportunities for the tourism industry to use the learning of the hedonic consumption domain to improve the way in which the destination’s identity is reflected in the tourism product offering and the way it is communicated, in order to provide the rich tourism experience that the tourist is looking for, based on a shared cultural identity that has been projected by the destination (among others through the media, websites, art and literature, historical narratives, and prior experience with a culture, other than one’s own). If a “balanced encounter” between hosts and guests does not take place, tourists are likely to adjust their perceived destination image and even lower their expectations, based on their actual tourist experience. But what may be worse, at least from a tourist destination perspective, is that they are likely to misinterpret and share perceptual inferences with other strangers, thereby creating a self-perpetuating spiral of misrepresentation in the image formation process. Therefore, it is crucial that both the design of a shared cultural identity and the construction of tourist scripts are rooted in a sense of place. Ultimately, the quality of a tourist experience and sustainable host communities depends on the intelligent alignment of the perceived destination image and projected identity. How this can be done is a challenging topic for future research. Biographical Notes Robert Govers is currently serving as tourism economics research coordinator at the Flemish Center for Tourism Policy Studies. Prior to this he worked in Dubai as a senior lecturer in tourism and marketing. Robert graduated with a Master’s degree in Marketing from the Rotterdam School of Management, but also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Management. After his studies he was a Research Associate for the Centre for Tourism Management in Rotterdam, where he is currently completing his Ph.D. on the topic of destination image. Frank Go currently holds the Bewetour Chair of Tourism Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands. Prior to that he served within business faculties at universities in Canada 88 GOVERS AND GO and Hong Kong. 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Running head: CONTENT ANALYSIS

1

Content Analysis of DMO and Tour Operators from Peru
Institution Affiliation
Date

CONTENT ANALYSIS

2

Table of Contents
1.

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. 3

2.

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3

3.

Research Questions ............................................................................................................................... 4

4.

Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 5
4.1. Data collection ................................................................................................................................... 5
4.2.

Category Development and Coding .............................................................................................. 5

4.3.

Construction of aggregated image maps ....................................................................................... 5

Results ................................................................................................................................................... 6

5.

5.1. Attributes frequencies ........................................................................................................................ 6
5.2.

Aggregated image maps ................................................................................................................ 6

5.3.

Representation of Peru regions ..................................................................................................... 7

6.

Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 7

7.

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 7

8.

Recommendations ................................................................................................................................. 8

9.

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 10

10.

References ....................................................................................................................................... 14

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CONTENT ANALYSIS
1. Abstract
Following the arrival of online media communication technologies, tourists fancy using
the online media to determine the destination to tour. This content analysis aims to identify how
destination identity is projected through the use of images in marketing Peru as a tourist
destination. In this regard, photographs of Peru taken from its official tourism website and
https://www.gadventures.com, https://www.inkayniperutours.com,
https://www.intrepidtrave...


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