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Guidebooks and the Representation

of 'Other' Places

Bouke van Gorp

Department of Human Geography and Planning,

Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University,

The Netherlands

1. Introduction

Tourism destinations do not simply exist. In what can be described as processes of symbolic

transformation (Dietvorst & Ashworth, 1995), destinations are created and recreated by both

tourists and tourism texts. Postcards, brochures, souvenirs, travel magazines, websites,

advertisements and guidebooks all play their part in these processes. Tourism texts imbue

places with meanings and create sights that tourists should see (Crang, 2004). These

meanings attached to destinations can be part of wider circuits of culture and reproduce

images or ideas from the literature, movies or news media. Such processes of symbolic

transformation, or 'sacralization'(Crang, 2004; 71), turn ordinary places into destinations to

visit and sites into 'must-see-sights'.

Tourism texts are the focus of this chapter. These texts are important for tourists because of

the somewhat intangible and experimental nature of tourism (Osti et al., 2009) and because

of the time lag that often exists between purchase and consumption, as "the product, the

experience and destination, is normally purchased prior to arrival" (McGregor, 2000; 29).

Wong and Liu (2011) thus characterise a trip as a high risk purchase involving both disposable

income and free time. Searching for information, both before the purchase and during the trip,

helps to reduce the risks. Tourists turn to both internal and external information sources when

planning a vacation (Osti et al., 2009; Wong & Liu 2011). Internal sources are the knowledge

and attitudes that people have acquired in the past through personal experience with a

destination (or similar destinations). Unless tourists visit the same place over and over

again, their knowledge from firsthand experience is limited. Therefore, tourists also turn to

external sources of information, namely, mediated or 'second-hand' experiences from friends

and family or media and tourism texts (Adams, 2009). Traditionally, tourists turned to

intermediaries such as travel agencies, brochures and guidebooks for help. Today, their

information search might also include the Internet and social media.

Guidebooks or travel guides are still an important source of information that tourists value.

According to Wong and Liu (2011), guidebooks have a competitive advantage over other

information sources as they are both tangible and accessible at any time and place.

Guidebooks are designed to be used during the trip, in situ (Koshar, 1998; Beck 2006), but

can be used before and after the trip as well (Jack & Phipps, 2003; Nishimura et al., 2007).

Another possible advantage of guidebooks over freely obtainable tourism texts, such as

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

websites or brochures, is that because tourists have to pay for guidebooks, they perceive

them to be more reliable and useful (Lew, 1991).

This chapter focuses on how guidebooks turn places into destinations and sites into must-

see-sights. This symbolic transformation is about making these sites unique and imbuing

them with meaning. The tourist's interest therefore centres on what is distinctive, and

different from his or her daily life. The first section of this chapter describes how tourism

texts transform places into destinations and influence tourist behaviour. The second section

discusses the main characteristics of guidebooks. The third section focuses on how

guidebooks transform nearby places into destinations that tourists should visit and which

strategies of 'othering' guidebooks use in this transformation process. The findings in this

chapter are based on a literature review and analyses of guidebooks. Over the years, the

author has performed several content and semiotic analyses of guidebooks sold by the

Dutch automobile association (ANWB) or in bookstores in the Netherlands. The majority of

these guidebooks (see list at end of references), although written in Dutch, are translations

or translated editions of German-, French- or English-language guidebooks.

2. Symbolic transformation of destinations

2.1 Tourism texts and tourists' practices

The importance of tourism texts is not limited to helping tourists choose a destination. These

texts also raise expectations about the destination and, as such, might influence tourists'

satisfaction with the destination (Wong & Liu, 2011). Moreover, these texts also guide the

tourist at the destination, they: "do not just describe places, but set normative

agendas"(Crang, 2004; 77). Tourism texts tell tourists what to see and where to go, either by

explicit recommendation or by implicit selection of the information. Tourism texts thus

influence the practices of tourists (Bockhorn, 1997; Dietvorst, 2002; Gilbert 1999; Jenkins,

2003; McGregor, 2000). This influence of tourism texts on the behaviour of tourists is best

understood as an hermeneutic circle (Urry, 1990) and is illustrated by the concept of the

'circle of representation' (Jenkins 2003; 308). Tourism texts - created both by official tourist

boards and by authors of guidebooks, blogs and the like - and mass media in general project

images of destinations. Potential tourists are lured and inspired by these images. Tourism

texts thus create expectations of what a tourist should encounter and experience. At the

destination, tourists visit the sights that they know from the tourism texts, and bring along

their cameras to record their visit. At home, these pictures are shown to friends and family

and will influence their perception of the destination. In this way, the reproduction of these

images continues (Jenkins, 2003).

Nelson (2007) emphasises that the circle of representation can lead to rather 'unchanged'

tourist representations over long periods of time. Today's representations of the Caribbean,

recycled through the circle of representation, can be traced back to the early beginnings of

tourism in the area. The narratives of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century travel writings

were used by subsequent travellers and tourists and helped to shape their expectations of the

area. Some travel writers explicitly referred back to earlier writings they took with them on

their journey and compared their personal experience with the accounts of other writers.

Moreover, authors and editors of guidebooks, who did not necessarily travel themselves, used

the travel writings as a source of information. Nelson (2007) thus demonstrates the continued

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

recycling of the earliest tourist representations of the area. As a result, regardless of changes in

writing style, print and photography technologies, today's tourist representations of the area

still carry the same imagery of the Caribbean as early travel writings.

The influence of tourism texts might be rather strong: many tourists photograph sights in

exactly the same way that these icons or landscapes are portrayed on postcards, in

brochures or in guidebooks (Jenkins, 2003). McGregor (2000), in his research on the

relation between tourists and tourism texts in Tana Toraja, found that the texts also

influenced the way tourists experienced aspects of Tana Toraja that they encountered

while traveling in the area. As a destination, Tana Toraja can be divided in four realms:

the Known, the Imagined, the Unknown, and finally, the Unseen. This distinction is based

upon the amount and kind of information (text and/or pictures) available to tourists.

Known sights are the most important sights to see; these sights can be considered to be

known to the tourists before they set off to the area. Guidebooks provide much

information and pictures about these sights. The difference between Known and Imagined

sights is that guidebooks include no photographs of the latter. Tourists thus know that

they need to see these sights, but can only imagine what they look like. The Known and

the Imagined sights are those that tourists seek out. The Unknown comprises sights to

which tourists were indifferent because they were mentioned only briefly in the

guidebooks. The Unseen is not discussed in tourism texts and is not observed or

experienced by tourists (McGregor, 2000). This distinction was also applied in an analysis

of tourism texts for three cities in the Netherlands: Maastricht, Enkhuizen and Amersfoort

(Van Gorp, 2003). These tourism texts were translated into a map of the city showing the

Known and Imagined sights, popular paths, and the parts of the city that remained

outside of the tourists' experience. This map closely matched a map depicting the sights

that tourists in these cities reported having visited.

Specific groups of tourists, often referred to as backpackers or travellers, might claim that

they look beyond the tourist gaze, that they try to travel off the beaten paths. These

groups try to discover the 'real places', seek authentic experiences and refuse to

participate in mass tourism. Such tourists fit the profile of tourism as sketched by

MacCannell (1976) in Urry (1990). In his view, tourism is a quest for authenticity. To a

certain degree, these tourists visit different places or seek out different sights than mass

tourists would. However, they seem to be caught up in their own particular gazes and

discourses on destinations, as research by, for example, Jenkins (2003), Law et al. (2007)

and McGregor (1999) has demonstrated. These groups of tourists might escape the circle

of representation projected at mass tourists, but they do not escape the one targeted at

themselves (travellers, backpackers).

2.2 Othering

Both the projected images in tourism texts and the tourists' images of a destination are the

result of selection. According to Bockhorn (1997), a tourist image is a simplified, schematic

and constructed reproduction of the destination. Part and parcel of this selection is the

tourist gaze. Urry's (1990) notion of the 'tourist gaze' - the way tourists see and look at a

destination - has been very influential in tourism research. Subsequent publications have

applied this concept to capture both the relation between tourism texts and tourists and the

selectivity of projected and perceived tourist images. As a representative of the selectivity of

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

tourism images, researchers following Urry's line of thought have wondered about the

direction of the tourist gaze. Tourism, according to Urry (1990), is about escaping from work

and daily routines and seeking different experiences. The gaze is therefore directed to what

is different from home and daily practices: the extraordinary or the spectacle. Tourists gaze

at things that are out of the ordinary experience of their daily lives. Jenkins (2003; 310-311)

cites Hollinshead who noted that the tourist gaze is directed at "fun and/or pleasure and

the consumption of things, seeking difference, appropriating other people, places and other

pasts, and the pursuits which commodify things". Tourists thus gaze at 'other' landscapes

and 'other' people, and seek out 'other' experiences.

Because tourism texts help to structure the tourist gaze, these texts can be expected to focus

on what is distinctive. These texts, as a result, present destinations as 'counter images', as

the 'other' or opposite of the tourist's place of origin (Goss, 1993). Such counter images are

most obvious in the way that tourism texts present non-Western destinations to Western

tourists. Western tourists set out to find 'exotic others'. Tana Toraja in Indonesia is such an

exotic place, "a place of incredible and unusual architecture peopled by an exotic tribe that

has remained many of its barbaric traditions" (McGregor, 2000; 36). Guidebooks direct

attention to local funeral traditions, graves, and past warfare. The people of Tana Toraja

thus become slightly cruel and barbaric 'others'. Another common way of depicting

indigenous people is by presenting them as 'p rimitive' and in harmony with nature. In this

way, visiting such places fulfils Western tourists needs to experience a simpler time and

place (Hinch, 2004).

The Western tourist gaze also seeks pristine nature, untouched by humans. The Caribbean

thus is presented "as an earthly paradise with bright skies, clear blue waters, soft white

sand, and lush green vegetation" (Nelson, 2007; 1). Caribbean nature, in such tourism texts,

is a stereotypical rainforest: green and dense, with an occasional waterfall and low-

hanging-clouds, providing a romantic atmosphere. The local population or evidence of their

lives are not shown in these pictures, as this information does not fit the romantic tourist

gaze, which looks for 'pure' or 'authentic' nature. Such untouched or pure nature is,

however, there for tourists to discover and admire (Nelson, 2005). In their analysis of Third

World marketing for tourists, Echtner and Prasad (2003) identify two different kinds of

'pure nature'. Sea/sand destinations are presented as pristine, lush tropical areas, whereas

the "pristine nature in frontier destinations is not harmless and soft (as in sea/sand

countries) but described as wild and savage" (Echtner & Prasad, 2003; 666). These two types

of destinations each require their own specific narratives, not just describing nature but also

describing the local people and possible attractions for tourists. Frontier destinations are

presented as uncivilised areas where nature and natives are savage, untamed or primitive.

Tourists will be on expedition, possibly encountering dangerous animals such as lions.

Sea/sand destinations are paradise, with a smiling, serving local population, luxurious

resorts and beautiful soft nature (Echtner & Prasad, 2003). A third cluster of destinations

found by these authors is the Orient. The representation of these destinations follows the

line of orientalism. Here, tourists set out to discover the past. Marketing of these

destinations centres on past glory, exemplified by ancient buildings. The tourist gaze on

these destinations includes local people in simple (traditional) dress, often peasants, who are

described as "unchanged and exotic remnants of another time" (Echtner & Prasad, 2003;

669). The representation of India in the Lonely Planet guidebook, analysed by Bhattacharyya

(1997), fits this Oriental myth. Moreover, Lonely Planet presents India as difficult and

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

dangerous: one might get sick or robbed, infrastructure can be poor and poverty may upset

the backpacker. This information might be read as an attempt to echo the adventures of the

first explorers. Meanwhile, this representation makes the Lonely Planet guidebooks the

undisputed companion for the trip (Bhattacharya 1997).

Representations of the 'exotic other' relate to sexuality as well. The myth of island paradise,

according to D'Hauteserre (2004; 239), also conveys images of "island women merely

awaiting Western men's attentions and affections". McGregor (2000; 36) quotes Silver (1993;

303) who feels that "guidebooks and brochures depicting the developing world "tend to

portray predominantly what Westerners have historically imagined the Other to be like"".

As such, tourism has been characterised as a continuation of colonial forms of interaction

(D'Hauteserre, 2004; Echtner & Prasad 2003). The tourist representations of the Caribbean

still centre on the view from onboard an approaching ship, the way early European visitors

(explorers and later travellers) got their first impression of the islands (Nelson, 2010). The

representation of the 'other', moreover, implies the continuation of unequal relations

between Western tourists and local populations, as exemplified by Lonely Planet's depiction

of India's local population either as something to gaze upon or as serving tourists

(Bhattacharyya, 1997). D'Hauteserre (2004) emphasises that this continuation is not just the

result of the representation of the 'exotic other'. The symbolic transformation of places into

destinations also authorises these transformations and thereby controls the future

development of tourism in these areas.

For tourism within the Western world othering is also common. Images of the exotic other

are used in the tourist representation of Australia as a paradise and an adventure (Waitt,

1997). The Mediterranean is similarly presented as an exotic place: exotic gardens, palm

trees, villages with narrow, colourful streets and houses with shutters (Dietvorst, 2002).

Representations of Malta on postcards fit this exotic Mediterranean image of sun and sea.

However, over the years, Malta has managed to add a layer to this representation that

conveys heritage, implying a certain authenticity (Markwick (2001).

Hopkins (1998) studied the representation of the countryside east of Lake Huron, Canada. In

the nearly two hundred tourist brochures he analysed, Hopkins discovered a number of

recurring 'place myths': the natural environment, heritage and community and, to a lesser

degree, escape, adventure and fun. The countryside thus becomes 'other' by representing it

"as some place other than urban, some time other than the present, as some experience other

than the norm" (Hopkins, 1998; 78). References to 'other time' and 'other place' can be found

in tourist representations of, for example, Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Scotland

thus becomes a remote place of tartan and kilts, of misty landscapes with castles and lochs

populated by pipers and highland dancers (Scarles, 2004). Ireland has long been presented

as a place in the past with heritage and culture and apart from modern society (O'Leary &

Deegan, 2005). The Netherlands is reduced to Holland, a land of seventeenth-century

cityscapes and idyllic rural landscapes with windmills, cheese and tulips (Van Gorp &

Béneker, 2007). An additional focus on the heroic struggle against water makes the

Netherlands an 'other place', with houses built on poles and land below sea level.

Tourist representations of Western cities use similar strategies to transform these cities into

sights to see. Gilbert (1999) found three different elements in tourist representations of

European cities since the mid-nineteenth century. The first element is longevity: traces of the

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

past make the city a sight to see. The second, and seemingly opposite element is modernity.

Cities are presented as modern places where modern life can be observed. The

representation of some cities combine these first two elements and so the tourist gaze also

focuses on how ancient and modern times are combined. The third element Gilbert (1999)

mentions is the city as the site of power. This third option is not open to every city, but

many cities can boast some (present or past) power. Their wealth or position in the world

system is something that can be gazed upon and is what makes such cities 'others'. The

tourist representation of cities thus equally centre on 'other time' (the past), 'other place'

(power) and 'other experience' (modern life). Section three of this chapter will elaborate

further on the way in which guidebooks represent nearby places as 'others'. First, section

two will sketch a number of shared characteristics of guidebooks by focusing on the kind of

information that guidebooks provide.

3. Guidebooks

3.1 Analysing representations in guidebooks

Guidebooks are one of many possible sources of information to which tourists could turn

and many tourists continue to bring guidebooks on their trips. The range of guidebooks is

large, especially for long-established destinations (see text box 1). Many of these guidebooks

seem to aim at the mass market of tourism or at tourists in general rather than at niche

markets of special-interest tourism. The remainder of this chapter will focus on these non-

specialised guidebooks. Such guidebooks can be purchased in ordinary or online bookstores

or from national automobile associations. Although many of these guidebooks seem to

target the generic tourist, there are many subtle differences (Gilbert, 1999). Even non-

specialised guidebooks are not written for 'the tourist' in general. Different series and

publishers aim at specific segments of this market, based on the motivations, values, needs

and demographic or socioeconomic characteristics of the targeted audience (Lew, 1991; 126;

Jack & Phipps, 2003; 291). In the selections they make, guidebooks follow their own

traditions and attempt to align with their readers' expectations (Agreiter, 2000; Van der

Vaart 1998). Tourists, on the other hand, will choose their guidebook based on the

publisher's reputation (Laderman, 2002).

The literature on guidebooks mentions several predecessors of today's guidebooks. Jack and

Phipps (2003) trace the instructional character of guidebooks back to seventeenth-century

travel handbooks and travel writings in Germany. Michalski (2004) describes the relation

between current guidebooks and different strands of nineteenth-century guidebooks that

attempted to familiarise strangers, not necessarily tourists, with cities such as New York and

San Francisco. Michalski (2004; 198) found a transition in guidebooks available for visitors to

San Fransisco in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, "from guides which are

indicative to guides which are increasingly interpretative". The early nineteenth-century

resource guides tried to provide useful knowledge about the wealth and resources of the

city for visitors and immigrants to become acquainted with the city. After the 1830'-s,

experiential guides become more common. These guides, characterised by more picturesque

descriptions, focused more on city life (Michalski, 2004).

The development of the guidebook is also closely associated with the rise of mass tourism.

"The guidebook has been seen as a key element in the development of the figure of the

'tourist', following a prescribed route through a landscape of selected and ready-interpreted

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

sites and monuments"(Gilbert, 1999; 282). Murray and Baedeker are therefore viewed as the

founding fathers of this genre of tourist texts (Koshar, 1998). As a result of the association of

guidebooks with mass tourism, guidebooks have been discarded by many scholars. The

mass tourist came to be viewed as a pitiful figure, ready to be duped by its guidebook and

condemned to a superficial acquaintance with the places he or she would visit – quite the

opposite of (self)exploring travellers. Guidebooks, as a result, were viewed as superficial

and one-dimensional (Gilbert 1999; 281; Koshar, 1998). Until the 1990'-s research on

guidebooks was thus limited. Similar to other tourism texts, guidebooks are indeed

selective. Their content, though not a "mirror image", is also not "purely fantasy"

(Michalski, 2004;188). Guidebooks are part of broader discourses on places (Bhattacharryya,

1997; Gilbert, 1999). They show how society wishes to gaze upon certain places and how

sites are transformed into sights to see (Siegenthaler, 2002; Michalski, 2004).

Guidebooks, thus, offer a framework for perceiving the destination, and, as such, they are

a form of popular geographical knowledge that can be analysed (Bhattacharryya, 1997;

Gilbert, 1999). Since the 1990'-s guidebooks have been a topic of research in the field of

cultural studies. Authors from different disciplines and backgrounds have used content,

semiotic, discourse or narrative analyses to deconstruct the representations that

guidebooks offer. This 'tradition' has resulted in a plethora of cases studied, focusing on

the following:

• one destination in one specific guidebook, such as Bhattacharryya's (1997) analysis of

Lonely Planet India;

• one destination in several guidebooks at one point in time, such as Agreiter's (2000)

analysis of six Italian guidebooks on Munich, Van der Vaart's (1999) analysis of four

guidebooks on Athens, Van Gorp & Béneker's (2007) analysis of four guidebooks on the

Netherlands and Van Gorp's (2003) analysis of both guidebooks and brochures on the

Dutch cities of Amersfoort, Enkhuizen and Maastricht;

• one destination in several guidebooks over time, such as Gilbert's (1999) analysis of

Imperial London in guidebooks and Van der Vaart's (1998) analysis of mostly Dutch

guidebooks on Paris, published between 1952 and 1997.

The analyses of guidebooks might focus on how these places, in general, are represented, or

they might be directed at a specific element in these representations. Beck (2006), for

example, analysed the narratives of World Heritage in series of well-known guidebooks,

such as Lonely Planet, Eyewitness and Fodor's, for Greece, the UK and the Russian

Federation. Laderman (2002) deconstructed the discourses on the Second Indochina War in

guidebooks on Vietnam for English-speaking tourists. Siegenthaler compared the tourist

gaze on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese guidebooks published between 1948 and 1997.

His analysis focused on how guidebooks dealt with the memories of the Second World War

and the atomic bomb. In section three of this chapter, the focus will be on the representation

of nearby places in guidebooks. The question is what strategies of 'othering' guidebooks

apply to transform places that may be physically and culturally nearby (for the readers of

the guidebook) into destinations to visit. To answer that question, section three will draw

upon results from many of the guidebook analyses mentioned above. These results will be

augmented with findings from content analyses of Dutch-language guidebooks for

Germany and Belgium.

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

Text box 1. A variety of guidebooks

3.2 Information offered by guidebooks

To familiarise the readers further with the genre of guidebooks, this section describes the

information that guidebooks offer. The next section turns to some style characteristics that

are shared by many guidebooks. Guidebooks for the generic mass tourist do not exist.

Differences between series of guidebooks can be noted in the overall lengths of the

guidebooks and in their lay-outs. The relative amounts of illustrations and text, the use of

In August 2011 a search for the most recent guidebooks for London on the booksellers

website Azone.com resulted in 149 unique titles (to be) published between November

2010 and May 2012. This list includes 19 thematic guidebooks such as London's City

Churches or London's Parks and Gardens. The list also included 17 guidebooks solely about

consuming London (eating, drinking, shoping and sleeping), such as Michelins Red

Guide London 2012 and London's Riverside Pubs: A Guide to the Best of London's Riverside

Watering Holes. A number of these guides are also or solely available as e-books. The

large publishers of guidebooks, such as Lonely Planet, Time Out and Eyewitness, have

several different guidebooks on offer. Only some of the guidebooks were explicitly

aimed at niche markets, such as Let's Go Budget London: the Student Travel guide , KidsGo!

London: Tell Your Parents Where to Go or Time Out Gay and Lesbian London. Nevertheless,

some of the thematic guides can also be seen as catering for a more specific audience of

culturally motivated tourists.

The market of Dutch-speaking tourists is smaller than that of English-speaking tourists.

A search for Dutch-language guidebooks on London on both the bookseller's website

Bol.com and the website of the Dutch automobile association (ANWB) resulted in a list

of 13 unique titles published in 2010 and 2011: Kidskompas Londen , Capitool reisgids

Londen, Marco Polo Londen, ANWB Navigator Londen, 100% Londen, ANWB Extra Londen,

Capitool Compact Londen, Wat & Hoe Londen, 100x Londen, National Geographic reisgids

Londen, Michelin Groene Gids Weekend Londen, Londen van Shakespeare voor 5 duiten per dag,

Capitool Mini Londen. The Capitool series (translated edition of Eyewitness) thus offers

three guidebooks for this destination, ranging from the pocket-sized mini guide to the

detailed regular guidebook. Among these 13 titles are two guidebooks that seem to aim

at specific niche markets: one guide for those travelling with children (Kidskompas ) and

one themed guide about Shakespeare's London.

For another popular holiday destination among the Dutch, the Provence (France) there

are at least 12 unique titles for sale on the same websites, although most of these

guidebooks describe both the Provence and the Côte d'Azur. The guidebooks are

Capitool Provence & Côte d'Azur and Capitool Compact Provence & Côte d'Azur, ANWB

Navigator Provence Côte d'Azur, ANWB Extra Provence , and ANWB Goud Provence, Côte

d'Azur, Merian Live Provence, Trotter Provence, Michelin Groene Gids Provence, 100%

Provence & Côte d'Azur, 100x Provence - Côte d'Azur, Lannoo Provence, Insight guide

Provence. If second-hand guidebook are incluced, the range of titles gets even bigger:

National Geographic Provence, Kosmos Wegwijzer Provence, Marco Polo Provence, Wat & Hoe

Provence, ANWB Geogids Provence, and ANWB in geuren en kleuren Provence.

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

full-colour pictures, and the structure of the information differs between the popular

series of guidebooks. However, the series seem to largely agree on the kinds of

information that tourists require. Four types of information can be distinguished in tourist

guidebooks. First, guidebooks introduce a destination, sketching its main characteristics

and offering some background information. Second, guidebooks list and describe the

sights to see. Third, they offer information about where to eat, sleep or shop. Fourth,

guidebooks provide their readers with detailed travel tips and advice. Some series of

guidebooks, such as Capitool and ANWB Navigator, even offer information on how to

use the guidebook itself. These four types of information will be discussed in more detail

below. The series of guidebooks differ in the relative attention given to each of these four

types of information, as demonstrated in figure 1 and 2. The category 'else' in this figure

includes the table of content, indexes and maps.

Fig. 1. The structure of guidebooks - the relative amounts of the four types of information in

recent editions of Dutch-language guidebooks for Belgium and Germany. Note that the

length of these guidebooks varies. ANWB Extra Flanders is a thin guidebook of only 120

pages. It does not present the whole of Flanders, but limits itself to the area west of Antwerp

and Brussels. The Capitool and Michelin guidebook each combine information on Belgium

and Luxemburg in a single edition of 351 and 623 pages, respectively. The guidebooks for

Germany are even longer, ranging from 462 pages for ANWB Navigator to 608 pages for the

Capitool and 830 for the Michelin guidebook.

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

Fig. 2. The structure of guidebooks for cities, including the relative numbers of pages

devoted to the different types of information in recent guidebooks for both London and

Amsterdam. Marco Polo guidebooks offer relatively more background information.

However, in terms of the number of pages, this background information is limited

compared to the other guidebooks, as the Marco Polo guidebooks are the shortest of those

compared here. Marco Polo London has only 136 pages and Marco Polo Amsterdam 140,

whereas the other guidebooks for Amsterdam are approximately 270 pages long and those

for London vary between 350 and 500 pages.

3.2.1 Background

Guidebooks usually start with an introduction of the city or region as a whole. This

introduction sketches the main characteristics of the place. In many series, this short sketch

is followed by more background information. This background information usually contains

an historical overview - mentioning dynasties, wars and revolutions (Bockhorn, 1997). Some

of the guides also offer a section on arts and culture, which might include folklore, famous

poets, painters and writers, and architecture.

3.2.2 Sightseeing

The next section of the guidebook typically focuses on the must-see-sights. Some series

rank these sights. Michelin's Green Guides distinguish between three-star sights, which

are highly recommended (deserve a trip on their own); two-star sights, which are

recommended (deserve a detour); interesting sights, which are awarded a single asterisk,

and sights. ANWB Extra Flanders (2010) lists twelve highlights and ANWB Navigator

Germany (2006) contains a two-pa ge list of highlights and a list of 15 experiences not to

miss. Guidebooks began ranking sights in the first half of the nineteenth century:

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

"Adopting a Murray convention, Baedeker in 1844 first used asterisks to mark those

extraordinary sites that hurried travelers were to see, and later he added a second asterisk

to 'especially stellar attractions' and then extended the system to hotels and restaurants"

(Koshar, 1998; 331). According to Koshar (1998), this ranking of sights reflected the

popularisation of tourism from elite travellers on extended Grand Tours to less well-to-do

tourists on shorter trips to nearby places . New (and faster) modes of transportation

ensured that these tourists could visit more places in the same amount of time. Because

their time and money were limited, they did not have time to see everything, and

efficiency became important. In 1858, Murray therefore avowed to describe what ought to

be seen and not all that may be seen (Koshar, 1998). Sections in contemporary guidebooks,

such as 24 Hours in London (Marco Polo London, 2009), Weekend Breaks (Michelin Green

Guide London, 2006) or Amsterdam in four days (Capitool London, 2007) anticipate this

time constraint, providing suggestions for 'hurried tourists'. However, ranking the sights

not only sets priorities for tourists under time pressure, it also influences tourists'

experience at each site. Bockhorn (1997) states that the use of asterisks signals the amount

of enjoyment that tourists should derive from a site.

The sights that are described by guidebooks are usually grouped together in regions, cities

or neighbourhoods. Different series of guidebooks might create different geographical

entities within the same city or country. The German ADAC Niederlande (2004), for

example, creates 5 'themed' regions, whereas the Capitool Nederland (2002) uses a simpler

division into West, North, East and South that will more closely match the mental map Dutch

tourists have of their nation (see table 1). Michelin's Green Guide used to discuss sights in

alphabetical order rather than by geography. However, the most recent Dutch edition for both

Germany and Belgium – Luxembourg divide the county into identifiable regions.

ADAC Capitool Lonely Planet

1) Holland

North and South Holland 1) Amsterdam 1) Amsterdam

2) Waddenzee

Wadden Islands, Friesland,

Groningen

2) West

North and South Holland,

Utrecht, Zeeland

2) Noord-Holland and

Flevoland

3) IJsselmeer

Flevoland, Utrecht and the

cities Kampen, Zwolle,

Giethoorn

3) North and East

Wadden Islands, Groningen,

Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel,

Flevoland, Gelderland

3) Utrecht

4) Zuid-Holland and

Zeeland

5) Friesland

4) East

Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland 4) South

Brabant, Limburg

6) Groningen and Drenthe

5) Burgundian South

Limburg, Brabant, Zeeland

7) Overijssel and

Gelderland

8) Brabant and Limburg

Table 1. Tourist regions in the Netherlands according to three different guidebooks: ADAC

Niederland (2004), Capitool Nederland (2002) and Lonely Planet The Netherlands (2004).

The names of Dutch provinces are given in italics.

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

Overall, guidebooks for London identify roughly the same neighbourhoods. However, the

delineation of the areas differs. Text box 2 shows the different borders three guidebooks

draw around the area they call 'Southbank'. The size of the area differs remarkably both in

all four cardinal directions. None of the guidebooks truly explains the 'geography' or map

that it creates. These areas are not presented as social constructions but as 'real' places to be

discovered. In the usually short sketch of the area, its unique features, functions or

atmosphere is described (see text box 3).

Text box 2. Southbank (London) according to three different guidebooks

Text box 3. (B)ordering Northern Germany – characteristics of a region

3.2.3 Consumption

The third kind of information that guidebooks offer, either in a separate section or combined

with the sightseeing information, is aimed at consumption. It tells tourists where to eat,

drink, sleep or shop. These sections might start off with some general comments on hotels,

food, eating habits and the like in the area. This introduction is usually followed by

suggested hotels and restaurants in different price ranges. Guidebooks also list a number of

shops, bars, and other entertainment venues for tourists. Guidebooks usually provide

information beyond the address, prices and services offered. They also evaluate the

Michelin Green Guide (2006): The area between Westminster bridge and Waterloo

bridge, Florence Nightingale Museum and National

Theatre

Capitool Reisgidsen (2007): The area between Lambeth bridge and

Blackfiarsbridge, in the south bordered by Lambeth

Road – Imperial War Museum – Garden Row.

Lonely Planet City Guide (2008): The area between Westminster bridge and

Towerbridge, in the south bordered by

Westminsterbridge Road, Borough Road, Great

Dover Road, Tower Bridge Road.

ANWB Navigator Germany (2006; 70): Northern Germany consists of the Länder

Niedersachsen, Sleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, plus the city-states of

Hamburg and Bremen. The landscape is rather flat, sometimes a little slanting and

stretches along the entire coastline. Outside the busy harbor cities, that were once

members of the Hanseatic League, lays a vast rural area.

Capitool Germany (2011; 418): Northern Germany has a very diverse landscape, that

varies from sandy beaches along the shores of the North- and East Sea coast to the

moraine hills of Sleswig-Hollstein and the heaths of Lüneburger Heathlands. Nature

lovers will like the lakes of Mecklenburg and the Harz Mountains, whereas those who

are interested in history and architecture will enjoy the Renaissance castles along the

Weser and the gothic brick buildings in the former Hanseatic cities. In both Goslar and

Hildesheim, historical buildings remind visitors of the past glory of these cities.

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

establishments, using rather interpretative styles, as text box 4 indicates. The relative

importance of this section (and thus its relative size) differs for different series of

guidebooks (see figures 1 and 2). Michelin Green Guides focus more on sightseeing,

whereas Lonely Planet guidebooks contain relatively large sections on consumption.

Text box 4. Evaluation of accommodation in Amsterdam (Southern Canal Belt)

3.2.4 Advice and travel tips

Finally, the guidebooks offer practical advice on topics such as climate (what is the best time

of the year to visit), currency and exchange rates, public transport, language (useful phrases)

and other essentials. Part of these travel tips might be offered in the beginning of the

guidebook, but the majority can be found in the last section of the guidebook. Guidebooks

also contain maps to ensure that tourists can find their way. In some series of guidebooks,

detailed street plans are included in the sightseeing section; in other series, all maps are

placed in the back of the guidebook (part of the 'else' ca tegory in figures 1 and 2).

3.3 Guidebooks as substitutes for a personal tourist guide

This combination of information more than covers tourists' information needs as described

by Smecca (2009; 110). Tourists have three fundamental information needs: a need for

orientation in foreign places, an interest in the place's social and cultural history, and finally

a need to save both money and time. The above presentation of the content of guidebooks

demonstrates that guidebooks cater to these information needs. Tourists can learn about the

history and culture of their destination from their guidebook; they are told which sights

they must see; and the maps help them to navigate from their hotels to the sights and back.

Because the authors of guidebooks have evaluated the quality of hotels and restaurants,

finding a place to eat or sleep is easy. The risk of spending too much money is reduced, as

tourists know exactly what is offered. This is what Baedeker envisaged with his guidebooks.

He allegedly sought to create a guidebook that would make the traveller as independent as

possible from all sorts of local tourism entrepreneurs such as hotel owners (Koshar, 1998).

The information that guidebooks offer moreover free tourists from another local tourism

The Seven Bridges Hotel is evaluated by both Capitool Amsterdam (2009) and Lonely

Planet City Guide Amsterdam (2008). Capitool Amsterdam (2009; 174) writes the

following: "Located in a former merchant house dating from the 17th century, one of the

best kept secrets of the city. A perfect sanctuary for those looking for peace and quiet.

Only eleven rooms, with a view of the canals or the garden. Decorated with antiques

and breakfast served in the rooms". Lonely Planet Amsterdam (2008; 217) described this

hotel as follows: "private, sophisticated, intimate, the Seven bridges is one of the city's

loveliest little hotels on one of the loveliest canals. It has eight tastefully decorated

rooms (with lush oriental rugs and elegant antiques). The urge to sightsee may fade

once breakfast, served on fine china, is delivered to your room". Although the

guidebooks disagree on the number of rooms available, they both use several adjectives

to describe the hotel. They describe more than the simple facts and both try to convey

the atmosphere of the hotel. The reader might begin to imagine himself or herself

staying in this hotel.

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

entrepreneur: the personal tourist guide (Jack & Phipps, 2003). The role of this modern

personal tourist guide, according to Cohen (1985), has four components. By showing

instrumental leadership, the guide first ensures that the tour will go smoothly. As a

pathfinder, the guide has to lead the way, ensure that access is granted and bear

responsibility for the behaviour of the tourists in his or her care. Second, social leadership

refers to the guide's role in maintaining the morale and good atmosphere in the group of

tourists (Cohen, 1985). Third, the outer-directed mediatory sphere represents the personal

guide as "a middleman between his party and the local population, sites and institutions, as

well as touristic facilities" (Cohen, 1985;13). Finally, the communicative mediatory sphere

represents the guide as a cultural broker, selecting sights to see and describing and

interpreting them to the tourists. In her analysis of Lonely Planet India, Bhattacharyya

(1997) demonstrates how this guidebook performs all but one component of the role of a

personal tourist guide. As a book, Lonely Planet India cannot be a social leader, responsible

for the morale and cohesion of the party. The afore mentioned 'usual' content of guidebooks

supports the three remaining components of the personal tourist guide's role. The

sightseeing section replaces the personal guide as a cultural broker. An introduction to the

area and background information on history and culture, the travel advice and the section

on consumption substitute the personal guide as both a middleman and a pathfinder. These

sections offer suggestions on where to eat or sleep, on itineraries, on some behavioural

guidelines and sometimes even on useful sentences in the local language.

The voice of guidebooks seems to echo the personal tourist guide. On some occasions,

guidebooks explicitly direct tourists rather than only describing a destination. ANWB

Navigator Germany (2006; 75) thus instructs readers to "Stroll through the city centre near the

Neuer Markt and visit Schloss Jever" in Jever. Like personal tourist guides, guidebooks

address tourist directly as if they were engaged in a conversation. In its Food and Drinks

section, ANWB Extra Flanders (2010; 25) thus advises readers on dining out in Flanders: "…in

plainer localities you could stick to the main course – you will never leave the establishment

still feeling hungry". Bhattacharyya (1997; 375) calls this the voice of an implicit narrator "the

reader is frequently referred to with second person pronouns and it is not hard to imagine the

texts as the narrator's chat to the reader over a bottle of beer". Some guidebooks, such as the

Marco Polo and Lonely Planet series, even contain a short section with insider tips where the

Insider, like a personal guide, shares his or her favourite places to see or go. Although these

examples might evoke the idea of a conversation between a tourist guide and tourists, the

authors of most guidebooks stay out of sight (Bhattacharrya, 1997; Laderman, 2002).

Guidebooks thus speak with certain authority (Bhattacharryya, 1997). The information in

guidebooks is presented as a fact. There seems to be no alternative reading of history or

place than the one offered by the guidebook. The information is to be taken for granted "as a

straightforward, self-evident description of reality, rather than as a socially constructed

representation" (Bhattacharyya, 1997; 376). According to Koshar (1998; 326), travel in itself

offers enough uncertainty, so guidebooks were not designed to "bewilder the

reader/traveler or to introduce the potential for a multiplicity of meanings while viewing

particular touristic sites". Guidebooks need to offer "clarity, precision and 'scientific'

accuracy"(ibid). The implied objectivity of such descriptions signals reliability to the

readers, and this authoritative and directional voice eventually differentiated the modern

guidebooks from travel writing (Gilbert, 1999, Koshar, 1998, Smecca, 2009).

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

The authoritative voice is also reflected in the consumption section of many guidebooks,

which not only describes the location or the menu of hotels and restaurants, but also

evaluates the quality of the rooms, food or service. These evaluations are likewise presented

as facts or as Bhattacharyya (1997; 375) puts it, "any reasonable person is expected to agree

with the evaluation" (see also text box 4). Another example of the authoritative voice is the

use of stars to rank the sights in importance. The text on the back cover of the Green Guide

Belgium and Luxembourg (2011) demonstrates that Michelin sees its ranking system as a

selling point of the guide and praises its practicality. The text does not explain who ranked

these sights and why a certain sight was awarded two or three stars. The editorial of the

Green Guide Germany (2011), however does assure its readers that the guidebook's

author(s) continuously evaluate and judge the importance of each site and thus reevaluates

its rankings. This approach is presented as another selling point.

Thus far, different characteristics of guidebooks have been discussed. However, little

attention has been paid to what guidebooks actually gaze at and what they present as sights

to see. The next section of this chapter will focus on attempting to shed some light on how

guidebooks transform places that are culturally and / or physically nearby into places to

visit and sights to see.

4. Othering what is nearby

4.1 Introduction

Although new markets and destinations are opening up and air travel makes more far-flung

destinations feasible, the majority of tourists stay rather close to home. Of the 36.4 million

holidays taken by the Dutch almost half were spent in the Netherlands (CBS, 2009) and

more than 60% of their 3.8 million short trips were spent in the neighbouring countries of

Germany (38%) and Belgium (29%). Popular destinations for Dutch tourists' 14.6 million

long holidays were France (16%), Germany (14%), Spain (10%), Austria (8%), Belgium(6%)

and Italy (6%) (CBS, 2009). These popular destinations for Dutch tourists might be slightly

more familiar, through firsthand experience (because these destinations have been popular

for a long time) but also because they receive more attention in, for example, news media or

education. Guidebooks have to transform these countries, which are culturally and

physically rather close to the audience, into destinations. As shown in the first section of this

chapter, such symbolic transformations focus on what is distinctive, what deviates from the

everyday life of the tourist.

Strategies for othering have been studied in the context of tourism, perhaps most

prominently in examining how the Global South or Orient are represented for Western

tourists. Section 1.2 of this chapter presented some examples of how places in the West

become tourist destinations. Hopkins (1998) demonstrated that othering, or what he called

'alterity', could be achieved by three different 'routes': 1) stressing that a destination is an

'other place'; 2) referring to 'other times'; and 3) emphasising that the destination offers

'other experiences'. Van Gorp and Béneker (2007) demonstrated that these three routes

offer a useful framework to deconstruct tourist representations within the Western world.

Gilbert's (1999) strategies used by European cities also match this distinction. Focusing on

the longevity and past glory of cities places them in an 'other time'. Presenting them as

truly modern creates 'other experiences', as does the combination of old and new. Cities

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

presented as sites of power become 'other places', places where people can admire royal

palaces, luxury townhouses of tradesmen or shiny new headquarters of international

firms.

4.2 Other times - Places packed with monuments and museums

Whereas the earliest guidebooks had an eye for industry, economy and ethnography, later

editions and series focused more and more on monuments and museums (Koshar, 1998;

Michalski, 2004). What tourists ought to see in Germany, according to Murray, thus became

"statues and monuments, historical buildings such as Gothic cathedrals and castles, and

ruins [..] scenic natural beauties and their counterparts, sublime natural disasters" (Koshar,

1998; 327). This 'repertoire' of sights to see in guidebooks has not changed much since then.

Van der Vaart (1999) analysed four guidebooks for Athens (ANWB, Standaard, Michelin

and Capitool). The sections on Athens in these guidebooks focused primarily on

monuments and museums or artefacts in museums (see figures 3a+b). Places, meaning

squares, streets and neighbourhoods, accounted for the smallest amount of written

(approximately 20 to 25%) and visual information (in the range of 5 to 25%) of the three

kinds of sights identified by Van der Vaart (1999). A comparison by the same author of

guidebooks for Paris published between 1952 and 1997 shows that the emphasis on

monuments and museums has increased over time to the detriment of representations of

Paris as a city of Parisians, of creativity and sensuality. Van der Vaart (1998; 204) calls these

processes 'petrification' and 'fossilisation': guidebooks focus more and more on stone

(monuments, museums) and less on people. The people who figure in the guidebooks

belong to the past. Both trends place destinations in 'other time', an undefined glorious past.

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. The tourist gaze on Athens in four guidebooks. The percentages of pages of text (a)

and of illustrations (b) devoted to either monuments, museums or art, and places (streets,

squares and neighbourhoods) are shown. After: Van der Vaart (1999)

Petrification and fossilisation are thus possible strategies for transforming places into

destinations that might be used in recent edition of Dutch-language guidebooks for

Germany and Belgium. The author therefore performed a content analysis on three

guidebooks for both Belgium and Germany: ANWB Extra Flanders (2010), Capitool Belgium

& Luxemburg (2010), Michelin Green Guide Belgium & Luxemburg (2011), ANWB

Navigator Germany (2006), Capitool Germany (2010) and Michelin Green Guide (2010).

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

Dutch (translated) editions were used. For the analysis, a sample of three regions was

selected: two regions in Germany and one region in Belgium. The Capitool guidebooks were

used as a reference for the delineation of these regions. For Belgium, the Capitool section

'Middle and Eastern Flanders' was chosen, which covers a vast region stretching between

Antwerp and Brussels to the west and the Dutch province of Limburg to the east. For

Germany, two different regions, as defined by the Capitool guidebooks, were selected:

Reinland-Pfalz & Saarland in the west and Bayern in the south. To establish whether

petrification can be observed in today's guidebooks, the photographs included in the

information on the selected regions were categorised. Table 2 summarises the results for the

German regions. Overall, it is clear that the section(s) on Bayern are lengthier than those on

Reinland–Pfalz & Saarland. This result can be explained partly by the relative size of the

areas and partly by Munich, which receives substantial attention. Moreover, table 2 shows

that the majority of photos in these sections present 'other times' in the guise of monumental

Reinland Pfalz & Saarland Ba

ANWB

Navigator Capitool

Michelin

Green

Guide

ANWB

Navigator Capitool

Michelin

Green

Guide

Monumental

buildings and

streetscapes

13 31 5 30 84 10

Monumental

interiors 1 15 0 15 45 5

Museum collectio

26 1 24421

Statues 0 7 0 6 13 1

Modern buildin

s0 0 0 4 2 2

Rural and natural

areas 4 4 3 5 11 6

Industr

01 1 0 1 0

Peo

le 1 0 2 9 10 1

Else 3 2 0 5 12 1

Total number of

hoto

hs 24 60 12 97 219 27

Number of pa

es 8 24 67 41,5 82 146

Table 2. Petrification – In guidebooks, Germany still is a country of "statues and

monuments, historical buildings such as Gothic cathedrals and castles, and ruins" as Koshar

(1998; 327) indicated. Natural beauty receives some attention. Findings of a content analysis

of photographs in three guidebooks on Germany: ANWB Navigator Germany (2006),

Capitool Germany (2010) and Michelin Green Guide (2010).

buildings and streetscapes, monumental interiors, museum collections and statues. 'Stone'

thus figures prominently in these guidebooks. This finding is reinforced by the relatively

few photos of people and of rural or natural areas included in the guidebooks. From a Dutch

perspective, a focus on landscape would certainly help to turn Germany into an 'other

place': the hills of Reinland-Pflaz and Saarland or the mountains in Bayern offer a different

view than what Dutch tourists experience at home. Indeed, pictures of mountains and lakes

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

and of the vineyards lining the Mosel are present, but they are rather rare compared with

pictures of historical buildings and artefacts on display in museums. Because, in this

analysis, photos were only ascribed to one category, there was a bit more greenery present

in the guidebooks than Table 2 indicates. The photos were ascribed to a category based on

the focus of the camera. Greenery in such photos was no more than a setting for 'stone', a

castle or church.

Some differences between the guidebooks were notable as well. Firstly, the Capitool

guidebook contains many more photos than the other guidebooks (note that illustrations

other than photos were not even included in this analysis). The Michelin Green Guide has

the most text pages overall. This guide does, however, use a larger font than the other

guidebooks. Secondly, ANWB Navigator seemed more interested in monuments of industry

and engineering and presents a number of pictures of antique cars, fighter jets and bicycles,

all of which are part of the collections of museums in Munich. As a result, the photographic

representations of the city of Munich differ remarkably between the ANWB Navigator and

the Capitool guidebook. The Capitool guidebook presents Munich as a city of past wealth:

important buildings, lush baroque or rococo interiors, and works of art. This representation

of the city concurs with the representation of Munich in Italian guidebooks: a city full of

churches, museums and castles (Agreiter, 2000).

The guidebooks on Belgium show evidence of petrification as well (table 3). Again the

guidebooks gaze on monumental buildings and cityscapes and highlight museums.

Compared with the photographs of the German regions, there are relatively more photos of

people in the Belgium sample. These photos depict people having a drink inside or outside a

bar or visiting a flea market. Such photos show the present and not some distant 'other

time'. As such, fossilization is less prominent in these guidebooks. Table 3 also shows that

the Capitool guidebook and the Michelin Green Guide present middle and eastern Flanders

differently. Eighty per cent of the photographs in the Capitool guidebook depict

monuments or museums. In the Michelin guide, this number is 40%, but 'stone' is also

represented in four photographs of modern buildings. The Michelin guidebook depicts

Brussels and Antwerp as cities with both monumental and modern buildings. These cities,

then, do not belong to 'other times' entirely. They are examples of cities where the old and

new coincide, a well-known strategy according to Gilbert (1999).

Petrification and fossilisation are not solely a matter of what photographs editors put in

their guidebooks. These trends result from selections of the sights to see and the information

that is given about these sights. The texts of the sightseeing sections of guidebooks are thus

equally important. From the selected German and Belgian regions three places were

sampled for a closer look at the texts: Antwerp, the Moseltal and Berchtesgadener Land.

These three very different places are included in all three available guidebooks. ANWB

Extra Flanders dedicates 12 pages to Antwerp including information on events,

consumption and a detailed map. Capitool also spends 12 pages on Antwerp, but the

analysed section only consists of sightseeing information. Michelin's Green Guide section on

Antwerp is 32 pages long but it includes detailed streetmaps and information on where to

eat, sleep and have a drink. ANWB Navigator Germany rates Moseltal 4 (on a five-point

scale) for its picturesque qualities and dedicates two pages to the area. It advises tourists to

take a boat ride and see the valley from the river. The Capitool and Michelin guidebooks

both suggest a trip by car along the valley. Michelin awards the valley three stars and

spends six pages describing the sights to see in this valley and its immediate surroundings.

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

The Capitool guidebook only spends one page on explaining the area and the sights along

the route. Berchtesgadener Land is considered almost equally beautiful as the Moseltal. The

area is awarded two stars by Michelin, which dedicates 6 pages to the area (including

information on consumption). ANWB Navigator rates this area also 4 for its picturesque

qualities and 5 for outdoor activities. Like Capitool, ANWB Navigator dedicates two pages

of information to this area. The content analysis first focused on what kind of sights the

guidebooks write about in Antwerp, Moseltal or Berchtesgadener Land. Following Van der

Vaart's (1999) analysis of guidebooks on Athens, four categories of sights to see were

identified in the guidebook passages on Antwerp: monuments, museums, places and else.

Monuments as a category include buildings, historical or modern. Places encompass

squares, streets, neighbourhoods and villages. The analysis furthermore categorised the

kind of information offered about these sights.

Middle and Eastern Flanders: Brussels, Antwerp, Limburg and Flemish Brabant

ANWB Extra Capitool Michelin Green Guide

Monumental buildings and streetscapes 2 46 6

Monumental interiors 0 26 1

Museum collection 0 30 0

Statues 0 15 0

Modern buildings 0 2 4

Rural and natural areas 0 3 1

Industry 0 0 0

People 1 15 3

Else 0 9 2

Total number of pictures 3 146 17

Number of pages 14 72 170

Table 3. Petrification - Emphasis on buildings, streetscapes, interiors and art collections in

photographs in guidebooks on the Belgian provinces of Brussels, Antwerp, Limburg and

Flemish Brabant. Findings of a content analysis of three guidebooks on Belgium: ANWB

Extra Flanders (2010), Capitool Belgium & Luxemburg (2010), Michelin Green Guide

Belgium & Luxemburg (2011).

Antwerp

ANWB Extra Capitool

Michelin Green

Guide

Monuments 9 15 22

Museums 8 12 14

Places 7 9 12

Else 2 0 3

Total sights 26 36 51

Table 4. Sights to see in Antwerp according to three guidebooks of Belgium: ANWB Extra

Flanders (2010), Capitool Belgium & Luxemburg (2010), Michelin Green Guide Belgium &

Luxemburg (2011).

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

The guidebooks show remarkable similarities in their choices of sights to see in Antwerp.

All three guidebooks start at Grote Markt and then move to, for example, Onze Lieve

Vrouwe Cathedral, Vleeshuis, Sint Pauluskerk, and the city's central train station. Museums

are an important part of what Antwerp has to offer tourists, and again, the guidebooks

largely agree on what is interesting: the eight museums mentioned by ANWB Extra also

appear in the other two guidebooks. Table 4 shows that the majority of the sights to see in

Antwerp are monumental buildings and museums. For Antwerp, today's guidebooks

follow the pattern described by Van der Vaart (1998, 1999). Approximately a quarter of the

sights are places such as Grote Markt, Cogels-Osylei and the Diamant neighbourhood. The

information that guidebooks offer about the sights to see in Antwerp centres on the history

of the sights, the appearances of monuments and places (architecture and interior) and the

collections in museums (see figure 4). Petrification and fossilization are thus the most

pronounced in the written information, the same goes for fossilization. If people are

mentioned, they usually are the owners, architects or painters, and they are usually people

who lived in the past. A few exemptions from this fossilization stand out, such as the short

description of the Diamant neighbourhood in the Michelin Green Guide, which mentions

both its history and the current situation.

Fig. 4. Petrification and fossilisation in the written information about sights to see in

Antwerp. Guidebooks most frequently offer information on the architecture or building

style, followed by information on museum collections and information on the history of the

sights. This graph does not represent the length or relative amount of these types of

information, but rather the number of times a certain kind of information was offered.

Petrification might be more pronounced in texts on cities because of the high density of

buildings inherent in cities. Even if just a small percentage of these buildings are worth

seeing, this results in a large number of sights to see in a city. If petrification is strong, then

even in rural or natural areas guidebooks would predominantly gaze at buildings. To check

this, the Moseltal and Berchtesgadener Land were selected. As table 5 shows, there are more

pronounced differences between the guidebooks in their gaze on the Moseltal and

Berchtesgadener Land. Capitool's gaze at the Moseltal most clearly demonstrates

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

petrification. The sights to see in this valley are six castles and one chapel. The information

on these sights is brief and mainly focuses on the history of the castles. Michelin's Green

Guide lists both castles and churches but also villages. The written information is mainly

short and describes the appearances or the history of the sights. The few people who are

mentioned are people from the past: the founder of a medieval hospital and a painter. The

best places to view the river and the vineyards is a recurring theme in the text in this

guidebook. This guidebook then partly turns its gaze to spectacular landscapes or natural

beauty. The ANWB Navigator does things differently. It claims that the best way to see or

experience the valley is by boat. It then first gives readers advice on this boat trip. The

destination of the boat trip is Cochem, and this town and its castle are the only sights

mentioned. The text continues with information on the easiest way to get a good view of the

river and town and gives advice about visiting the vineyards in the area. In this specific

sample, the level of petrification thus differs between the guidebooks. The limited

information about people in these texts makes it difficult to tell if fossilization is an issue.

Moseltal Berchtesgadener Land

ANWB

Navigator Capitool

Michelin

Green

Guide

ANWB

Navigator Capitool

Michelin

Green

Guide

Monuments 1 7 14 2 2 4

Museums 0 0 2 1 0 1

Places 1 0 10 0 2 3

Else 2 0 2 1 3 4

Total sights 4 7 28 4 7 12

Table 5. Sights to see in the Moseltal and Berchtesgadener Land, according to three

guidebooks of Germany: ANWB Navigator Germany (2006), Capitool Germany (2010) and

Michelin Green Guide (2010).

The findings for Berchtesgadener Land are slightly different (see table 5). The Capitool

guidebook in this case seems to focus less on monuments and museums. Two of the selected

sights are villages and two others are lakes (Königssee and Hintersee). Overall, the

guidebook seems to gaze at the landscape. It calls this area one of the most beautiful areas of

Europe and uses words like 'idyllic' and 'picturesque' to describe the villages and their

location. Besides such scenic information, the guide includes some historical and art

historical facts. ANWB Navigator focuses less on the landscape. It describes four sights to

see: Königliches Schloss, Kehlsteinhaus, Dokumentation Obersalzberg and the salt mines.

The written information focuses on the history of these sights and of the area. Michelin's

Green Guide selects a variety of sights: the Schloss, Kehlsteinhaus, the salt mines and three

lakes. Its information is mixed (history, architecture, museum collections). Similar to the

information on the Moseltal, the views, and the best spots to get a good view of the area are

important. In the text of all three guides few people are mentioned and those who are

mentioned, Prince Rupprecht and Hitler, lived in the past.

Nearby places thus become destinations packed with monuments and museums for the

tourist to admire. The most important strategy that guidebooks use to transform nearby

places into destination is by placing these places in an 'other time', more specifically: in the

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

past. This gaze is apparent in what the guidebooks select as sights to see and what they offer

in terms of written information about these sights. It is also apparent in the photographs

that are included. The focus on 'stone' and on past times and past people were termed

'petrification' and 'fossilisation' by Van der Vaart (1998). Although his analysis was

completed more than ten years ago, this aspect of guidebooks does not seem to have

changed much. The only parts of guidebooks that could possibly counterbalance this

emphasis on stone, past times and past people is the background information offered in the

introduction. In this section, guidebooks sketch the main characteristics of the area they

describe. They may provide information about the natural and cultural landscape (Michelin

Green Guides), about the current political situation (Michelin Green Guides and ANWB

Navigator Germany) or about today's society in general (Navigator Germany). However, a

relatively large part of these background sections is dedicated to describing the region's

history, its rulers and its famous poets, painters and scientists (ranging from 44% of the

pages providing background information in the ANWB Navigator Germany to 65% in the

Michelin Green Guide Germany).

4.3 Othering through stereotypes and clichés

Guidebooks can use other strategies to create 'other place', 'other time', or 'other

experiences'. One well-known way of othering is the use of stereotypes and clichés, which

are oversimplified, one-sided representations of people and of the country or region

(anything but the people), respectively (Dekker et al., 1997). Stereotypes and clichés usually

express difference and thus establish 'other place'. When related to local food and drinks,

they might represent 'other experience'. Occasionally stereotypes place people back in time,

still cherishing age-old habits and wearing traditional dress. Stereotypes and clichés may be

the result of 'uploading' or 'downloading' (Boisen, Terlouw & Van Gorp, 2011). Uploading

is the transformation of a local characteristic or peculiarity into a regional or even national

trait. The reverse process is downloading: national or regional traits are 'transported' into

every place in that area. The Dutch cliché of the struggle against water (living in a delta and

defending land from water) can serve as an example of downloading. Water has become

part of the tourist gaze on the Netherlands as a whole; as a result wa ter is omnipresent in

pictures in guidebooks about the Netherlands, even when representing the areas situated on

the drier, sandy soils in the east and south of the country (Jansen, 1994 in Van Gorp &

Béneker, 2007). The well-known Dutch icons, tulips, cheese, windmills and clogs, provide an

example of uploading. Although tulip bulbs are grown in a specific area, souvenir shops all

over the country sell tulip items as well as 'Gouda' cheese and Delftware (Van Gorp &

Béneker, 2007). In a slightly different process one place comes to stand for a regional or

national characteristic. Amsterdam is the epitome of tolerance, a city where anything goes:

the red-light district, soft drugs, and gay bars. Lonely Planet City Guide Amsterdam

captures this gaze on Amsterdam in three pictures using the slogan "have a vice time". The

'vice time' is really part of this guidebook's gaze at Amsterdam. It discusses 'tolerance' in

detail, presents the red-light district as a sight to see and even evaluates a number of coffee

shops (not for coffee) in its consumption section. Part of this gaze at vice or tolerance might

be typical for Amsterdam. However, it is national legislation that tolerates coffee shops and

allows gay couples to marry. The Capitool guidebook on Amsterdam therefore feels little

need to discuss these topics at great length, except for the red-light district, which is

recognised as a sight to see. Amsterdam's tolerance, moreover, might be on its way to

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

becoming a true stereotype. It does not fit the images that are deemed appropriate for

marketing the city (Kavaratzis & Ashworth, 2007). Meanwhile, the red-light district has

changed, tolerance is not what it once was, policies on soft drugs are changing and

Amsterdam is no longer the most gay-friendly city. Both guidebooks on Amsterdam

mention these changes.

According to Agreiter (2000; 38), Italian guidebooks on Munich use many stereotypes and

clichés to present the city. Munich is the city of festivals, specifically Oktoberfest, and the

Münchners are a beer-drinking, lederhosen-wearing, partying lot of people who love their

city above all. Munich is an important destination in the selected Dutch-language

guidebooks of Germany in terms of the number of pages used to describe the place and its

must-see-sights (25 to 34 pages). Oktoberfest is mentioned by the Capitool Germany, but

only a few times in the whole guidebook and twice in the section on Munich. Overall this

guidebook gazes mainly at monuments and museums, and not so much at 'locals'. Michelin

Green Guide Germany provides its readers with slightly more Oktoberfest and Biergarten

information, but this event still is not the centre of attention. The ANWB Navigator

guidebooks starts its introduction of Munich by stating that th e city has a traditional, beer

and lederhosen image, but that this stereotype does not do justice to the excellent shopping

opportunities, the trendy bars and the museums. The use of this stereotype in guidebooks

on Germany as a whole is thus limited.

Analysis of four guidebooks for the Netherlands by Van Gorp & Beneker (2007) demonstrated

that stereotypes and clichés were used in the symbolic transformation. The guidebooks

contained pictures of clogs, tulips, cheese and windmills, and these icons figured prominently

on the covers of the guidebooks. The icons were, however, not as omnipresent in guidebooks

as they were on the official tourist board website Holland.com. Compared with the total

amount of pictures provided in these guidebooks, these stereotypes were few. A content

analysis of two guidebooks for France, and three each for Germany and Belgium concurs with

these findings. Some pictures of stereotypes and clichés are present. They are, however, not

omnipresent and do not outnumber pictures of monumental buildings. Thus, France, in the

Lonely Planet and Capitool guidebooks, is not a country populated by beret-wearing men

playing 'petanque' or carrying a baguette under their arm. In fact, the 672 pages thick Capitool

guidebook has only two pictures of men with berets and two of people playing petanque.

There is one cliché on which both guidebooks linger in quite substantial detail: French cuisine

and French wine. Both guidebooks have many pictures and written information describing

local varieties of wine and regional foodstuffs. Gastronomy is part of the tourist gaze on

France. Guidebooks present Belgium as 'the land of beer', which is the title of a two-page

section in Michelin Green Guide Belgium and Luxemburg. This means that all three

guidebooks have a page or two of written information on brewing, beer varieties and

breweries that tourists can visit. Pictures of people having a drink (mostly a beer) inside or

outside a bar are included in the guidebooks. Overall, the guidebooks mention the love for the

good life in Belgium, represented by beer, chocolate and frites, but this is not their main focus.

4.4 Other strategies

Van der Vaart (1998) noticed yet another trend in the Paris guidebooks published from 1952

to 1997, namely, a process he called 'virtualisation'. Over the years, guidebooks have begun

to place greater emphasis on the 'atmosphere' and less emphasis on the actual physical

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

place. This atmosphere might be what the tourist gaze eventually embodies: it is a way of

looking at a place. It creates expectations of what to experience. Virtualisation is a way of

othering, because it tries to create experiences that cannot be experienced at home or in

everyday life: "..come enjoy hospitable Munich and its people that always feel like having a

drink on one of the Italian like squares"(Michelin Green Guide Germany, 2010; 556).

Michelin Green Guide Belgium and Luxemburg (2011; 266) states the following about

Antwerp: "the city has retained the special charm of Flemish cities and at the same time is

highly dynamic". The atmosphere of places can also refer to 'other times', mostly 'old days'.

For example, ANWB Extra Flanders (2010; 43) writes the following about the Vlaeykensgang

in Antwerp: "this old neighbourhood with its old alleyways and tiny houses, saved from

demolishing, takes visitors back to the old days. Especially lovely on a summers eve when

the carillon plays". There are more examples of virtualization in the guidebooks, which are

found more often in introductions to areas or cities than in the information on sights to see.

The introductions of the Moseltal are telling: "The Moseltal, littered with picturesque

villages and renowned for its wines, is an enchanting region. The river winds around the

bases of many castles and between the Rheinlandische mountains of the Eifel and Hunsrück

and runs through vineyards dating back to the Roman era" (Michelin Green Guide, 2010;

371). A similarly enchanting picture is drawn by the Capitool Germany (2010; 345): "it is one

of the most beautiful areas of Germany. Magnificent, romantic castles, overlooking endless

vineyards where delicious white grapes ripen, line both shores of the river". As these

examples demonstrate, virtualisation can also be used to create 'other place'.

A very different strategy guidebooks use to create alterity is expressing the variety or

diversity of the destination. The destination offers a variety of experiences, of places, of

sights. Capitool Belgium & Luxemburg (2010; 10) thus acclaims: "Visitors to Belgium and

Luxemburg are often taken by surprise by the huge variety of experiences and sights these

countries offer". Germany is presented in the same series as a country of 'sharp contrasts'

and a country that will impress visitors with its diversity. Such comments might be viewed

as a means to overcome stereotypes and clichés. ANWB Navigator Germany (2006) and

Michelin Green Guide Germany (2010) explicitly stress the varied landscape of Germany.

Part and parcel of the way landscape has been used in nation building is a specific

geographical blindness: the nation's landscape is perceived to be very diverse, whereas

other countries are viewed to lack such differences in their landscape (Renes, 1999). The

guidebooks can be seen to adjust this cliché in an attempt to draw tourists to the area.

However, variety might be part of the tourist gaze. Variety implies that tourists will have a

variety of experiences along the way. In this, tourism is clearly different from everyday life

and its routines. Variety or diversity might also become the tourist gaze, when no other

specific label seems to fit all of the must-see-sights and experiences. The Marco Polo

guidebook on London seems to use variety as its tourist gaze on London. "The essence of

London? Its many faces of course."(Marco Polo, 2009; 7).

4.5 Othering lost in translation?

Translations of guidebooks are common, especially for the smaller language markets. The

guidebooks in Dutch mentioned in this chapter (such as Capitool, ANWB Extra, ANWB

Navigator, Michelin Groene Gids) were originally published in English, German or French.

Othering, however, poses a challenge when guidebooks are translated to new audiences:

"Each culture has its own values and beliefs which contribute to moulding the perception of

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

'the other' and thus to creating prejudices and stereotypes"(Smecca, 2009;109). Few tourists

would be flattered by gazing upon their fellow countrymen through international lenses.

Smecca (2009) compared the English and Italian editions of guidebooks on Sicily and found

that only one guidebook used mostly faithful translations. Other series edited the texts to their

audiences' knowledge, expectations, values and beliefs. In detail, Smecca (2009) demonstrates

the differences between the English and Italian language editions of Lonely Planet. Sicily

becomes an 'other place' for the English or international readers of this guidebook because the

book stresses stereotypes and clichés like the Mafia, crime and dislike of rules, the sunny

weather, friendly people and the importance of family. Sicily is also presented as being in an

'other time', "an island trapped in a time warp, living in old traditions and classical

recollections, and uninterested in progress and change" (Smecca, 2009; 112). The island and

its people are more familiar and less different for the Italian audience. To be considered a

reliable source for Italian readers, the guidebook therefore needs to be more accurate, for

example, in its comments on the climate, and should skip some comments on politics. In the

Italian translation, certain passages were also lost because they contained obvious

stereotypes or because they might even be offensive to Italian readers. The relatively brief

information about soft drugs in the Capitool guidebook on Amsterdam might be another

example of things that were lost in translation. Although Capitool is a Dutch series, it was

originally written and published in English as the Eyewitness travel guides. The Dutch

audience of this translated edition obviously does not need to travel all the way to

Amsterdam to go to a coffee shop, and if this audience is interested in coffee shops they are

more likely to know the relevant legislation. However, a detailed comparison with the

original Eyewitness guidebook would be necessary to draw conclusions on this matter.

Translating guidebooks to the home market is not the only time when differences might be

evened out. For nearby places othering might not always be the only strategy. Agreiter

(2000; 37) found that although Italian guidebooks on Munich used stereotypes and clichés,

they also present "the Münchner" as the readers' Northern relatives. The inhabitants of

Munich thus are "bayerische Italiener" or "italienischer Bayer" who appreciate the same

things in life, such as parties, and good food, and are equally hospitable and cheerful. The

similarity might make the Italian tourist feel at home and welcome in Munich.

5. Conclusion and discussion

Guidebooks are an important source of information for tourists and have specific advantages

over other tourism texts. Similar to other tourism texts, guidebooks structure the tourist gaze.

They influence tourists' expectations and behavior. What tourists gaze at is a selection of place

characteristics and features that guidebooks have deemed fit for sightseeing. As tourism,

according to Urry (1990), is about escape from work and daily routines, the selection of sights

to see is based on 'othering'. Destinations are presented as places that are different from home

and every-day working life. Othering is well documented for the way non-Western

destinations are presented to Western tourists and, to a lesser degree, in how places within the

West are presented to Western tourists. From the literature we can conclude that othering can

take different shapes: the destination may be some 'other place', situated in an 'other time',

populated by 'other people' and offering 'other experiences'.

This chapter focused on the way guidebooks transform places that are culturally and

physically nearby into destinations. In this particular case, othering is mainly about 'other

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

time'. Guidebooks gaze at monuments and monumental streetscapes, at artefacts and pieces

of art on display in museums, and at an occasional statue. Most of these sights to see are

objects created in and thus representing past times, usually a golden age. They are thus

intrinsically linked to past people, their creators, owners or users. This specific tourist gaze

of guidebooks is reflected in the sights they select, in the information they offer about these

sights and in the pictures the guidebooks contain. As a result, guidebooks seem to be filled

with mostly historical facts and architectural and art-historical details.

Two questions arise from these findings. The first is how this focus on monuments and

museums can make one destination different from another. The second is how this focus

makes the destination different from the place the tourist comes from. To start off with the

latter question, tourists might live in areas packed with monuments and museums

themselves. However, in their everyday routines they may not stop to gaze at gables or

admire buildings. They might not even visit museums or monuments at home. For many

people visiting museums and experiencing heritage in general is what they do on holiday

(Munsters, 2001). It is the activity and experience that makes the difference. Regarding the

first questions, the repertoire of castles, churches and museums is clearly the same in

Belgium as in Germany. Van Gorp (2003) noted the same phenomenon in her research on

three Dutch cities: overall, the tourist gaze is directed to similar stuff in each of these

cities. However, the appearances and the settings differ: medieval hilltop castles in

Reinland-Pfalz, baroque interiors in Bayern and gothic churches in Antwerp - in essence,

they are all unique. Moreover, it is not the duty of the guidebook to sell the destination.

Usually a tourist has chosen where to go and then buys the guidebook to plan the trip in

more detail.

A second strategy of othering that is occasionally applied by guidebooks is the use of

stereotypes and clichés. These very selective and simplified images could help to

transform nearby places into destinations. Stereotypes and clichés are present in

guidebooks but are not omnipresent. As guidebooks have many more pages to fill than a

brochure or website does, they can go beyond the stereotypes and clichés (Van Gorp &

Béneker, 2007). A limited use of stereotypes and clichés might also be typical of

representing nearby places. The audience can be expected to have some firsthand or

mediated experience of the place and people. They would not accept obvious stereotypes

or clichés. On the other hand, research by the Dutch Clingendael Institute (Dekker et al.,

1997, see also Dekker, 1999) has demonstrated that Dutch youth in general have rather

negative and selective images of Germany and Germans. A similar research on the

perception of Belgium demonstrated that the Dutch youth have less pronounced negative

stereotypes of Belgium. The research, however, also demonstrated that Dutch youth have

limited knowledge of Belgium (Aspheslag, 2000). Stereotypes and clichés might also be

used by guidebooks as a way to draw the reader in. The guidebooks describes the

stereotype and then go on to deny it or use the stereotype to further explain the people or

country.

Two other strategies were found: virtualisation and emphasising diversity. A focus on the

atmosphere directs the tourist gaze to other senses and to the intangible aspects of a place.

Virtualisation can take any shape of othering, as it offers 'other experiences', partly by

setting places back in time or stressing how different they are. Diversity is something that

the guidebooks mention in their introduction to the area. The implied variety of experiences

Guidebooks and the Representation of 'Other' Places

to be had is why this is considered a means of othering. Perhaps stressing variety is another

way to draw readers in. If the country is varied, the guidebook will also be varied. However,

these last two strategies were not used as frequently as the focus on monuments and

museums.

This analysis has demonstrated that non-specialised guidebooks share certain

characteristics, such as the kinds of information they feel tourists need and some strategies

of othering. The samples from Antwerp showed that guidebooks even largely agree on the

sights that tourists should see. The analysis, however, also demonstrated that guidebooks

differ in length, lay out, structure, and regionalisation. They even differ in their degree of

using strategies for othering. Although this analysis was based on a small sample, these

findings concur with earlier analyses of guidebooks.

This chapter was restricted to tourism texts and thus to what tourists are instructed to gaze

at. The circle of representation teaches us that tourists seek out the sights that they are

instructed to gaze at and that tourism texts thus influence the perception of places tourists

visit, even when those places are nearby. To determine whether monuments and museums

represent the sole interest of and reason for Dutch tourists to travel to Germany and

Belgium can only be determined with additional research.

6. Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Tine Béneker for her helpful comments on drafts of this

chapter.

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The guidebooks referred to in this chapter

ADAC Reiseführer Niederlande (2004)

ANWB Extra Vlaanderen (2010), fifth edition by ANWB. Concept by DuMont Reiseverlag

(2009)

ANWB Navigator Duitsland (2006), first edition by ANWB. Concept by AA Key Guide (2005)

ANWB Navigator London (2006), first edition by ANWB. Concept by AA Key Guide London

(2004)

Capitool Reisgidsen Amsterdam (2009), tenth edition by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek.

Concept by Eyewitness Travel Guides –Amsterdam (2009)

Capitool Reisgidsen België & Luxemburg (2010), by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek.

Concept by Eyewitness Travel Guides – Belgium & Luxembourg (2009)

Capitool Reisgidsen Duitsland (2011), tenth edition by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek.

Concept by Eyewitness Travel Guides – Germany (2011)

Capitool Reisgidsen Frankrijk (2005), fifteenth edition by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek.

Concept by Eyewitness Travel Guides –France (2005)

Strategies for Tourism Industry – Micro and Macro Perspectives

Capitool Reisgidsen London (2007), sixteenth edition by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek.

Concept by Eyewitness Travel Guides – London (2007), London

Capitool Reisgidsen Nederland (2002), fourth edition by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek &

Dorling Kindersley

Lonely Planet City Guide Amsterdam (2008)

Lonely Planet City Guide London (2008)

Lonely Planet France (2005)

Lonely Planet The Netherlands (2004)

Marco Polo Amsterdam (2008), Aktualisierte Auflage by Mairdumont

Marco Polo London (2009), twentyseventh edition by Van Reemst Uitgeverij / Unieboek.

Concept by Mairdumont (2008)

Michelin Green Guide London (2006)

Michelin Groene Gids België – Luxemburg (2011), Dutch edition by Uitgeverij Lannoo

Michelin Groene Gids Duitsland (2010), Dutch edition by Uitgeverij Lannoo

Michelin Groene Gids Nederland (2001), Dutch edition by Michelin Reisuitgaven.

... Needless to say, we don't have the confines in this article to fully and graphically translate what was done in this regard. Nevertheless, we adopted a strategy oft-used in the making of touristic guides to analyze the extracted body of images and photographs (Gorp, 2012): by symbolically transforming one place, which isn't touristic by default, into another place, now touristic and denoting a nuanced representation of reality amongst many possible others, these images hold an important role within the tourism apparatus throughout the world. Images derived from the first two aforementioned channels marked the presence of some typical strategies used to transfigure a place into "another". ...

... Images derived from the first two aforementioned channels marked the presence of some typical strategies used to transfigure a place into "another". The first one was petrification, throwing a place to "another time" by extolling its historical monuments and glorious past (Gorp, 2012) -in Porto's case, the frequency of images depicting the tower of Clérigos (of the clergy), São Bento's train station and the Port wine cellars was considerable 7 . The second was virtualisation, the creation of ambiance in and around a physical place, trying to take the viewer there by imagining, and seeding the desire to travel to a destination in order to fulfill an experience which is meant to be but isn't quite so yet (Gorp, 2012)in our research, we found a recurrent "human approach" to this kind of strategy (Barthes, 1997: 115), framing persons, much like the potential tourists, in their daily touristic activities, like sipping a glass of Port besides the Douro river (the watercourse which bathes Porto, flowing toward its end here, in the Atlantic ocean). ...

... The first one was petrification, throwing a place to "another time" by extolling its historical monuments and glorious past (Gorp, 2012) -in Porto's case, the frequency of images depicting the tower of Clérigos (of the clergy), São Bento's train station and the Port wine cellars was considerable 7 . The second was virtualisation, the creation of ambiance in and around a physical place, trying to take the viewer there by imagining, and seeding the desire to travel to a destination in order to fulfill an experience which is meant to be but isn't quite so yet (Gorp, 2012)in our research, we found a recurrent "human approach" to this kind of strategy (Barthes, 1997: 115), framing persons, much like the potential tourists, in their daily touristic activities, like sipping a glass of Port besides the Douro river (the watercourse which bathes Porto, flowing toward its end here, in the Atlantic ocean). Akin to this strategy is the unavoidable backdrop of stereotyped landscapes with which distinction is attained, in regards to the tourists' country of origin; through simplified and enhanced imagery of places and geography, ones which the eye can quickly glimpse and be enraptured, "another" physical locale is created, reaching out an invitation to whomever is checking (Gorp, 2012). ...

Tiago Miranda

This article is the outcome of a research in Sociology about tourism in the city of Porto in the year of 2015, viewed through the emerging city break modes of travel. We endeavored to understand, through the foreign tourists' gazes as well as from images that shape the city as touristic, whether Porto was an "authentic" city, unlike any other, in the context of rampant growth tourism has seen there and in Portugal during the first two decades of the twenty-first century, subject to a larger European circuit. The most relevant conclusions point toward the touristic and global turn of Porto, with ever-growing visitors, and grappling with potentially nefarious effects derived therefrom; but keeping - in the eyes of the foreign tourist who visits it - its authenticity, unique in its own way, and in the distinct way of each one who experiences and beholds this city.

... Language is crucial to these analyses, and several studies have focused on the language of guidebooks as a means of social control. Linguists have discussed the main rhetorical strategies used for the portrayal of places (Bhattacharyya 1997;Van Gorp 2012) as well as processes of lexical specialization. The many independent studies converge in identifying two main functions of guidebooks: a leading and a mediating function. ...

... The mediating function of guidebooks is mostly realized through the linguistic cross-cultural representation of the "other" (Bhattacharryya 1997;Van Gorp 2012). By presenting "foreign culture in a nutshell" (Dybiec 2008), guidebooks guide the tourist gaze (Urry 2002). ...

Gloria Cappelli

Tourist guidebooks are among the most investigated genres in tourism discourse both for their function and for their linguistic features. Through language, they lead the tourists and their "tourist gaze" (Urry, 2002) in their real or imaginary journey. They also mediate the tourist experience. They contribute to closing the gap between the tourists' culture and the destination's culture (Fodde and Denti, 2005), and make culture-specific knowledge and specialized concepts accessible. Guidebooks for children represent an interesting subgenre in this regard. Children generally do not have well-established cultural filters and needs. Their "tourist gaze" still needs to be built and developed and their expectations about the destination (if any) might be completely different from those of the adult travellers. Moreover, the contents presented must be suitable for their cognitive abilities and general knowledge. In this paper, guidebooks for children are discussed in terms of popularization discourse and accessibility. More specifically, focus is on the structural and linguistic properties which emerge from the need to make new information suitable for the intended reader.

... Central aspect of these discussions is the participants' positioning in relation to (in this case) the mass (McCabe 2005): people want to separate themselves from the mass and/or embrace it. The otheringdiscourse has been identified to take place both between different forms of tourism (Jenkins, 2003;Löfgren, 1999;van Gorp, 2012) but also within charter-based mass tourism (Andrews, 2011;Jacobsen, 1990). The contemporary post-industrial values support the individualist and alternative views even though they would be as much bound by their own circle of representation directed at so called alternative tourists, rather than at mass tourists (Jenkins, 2003;van Gorp, 2012). ...

... The otheringdiscourse has been identified to take place both between different forms of tourism (Jenkins, 2003;Löfgren, 1999;van Gorp, 2012) but also within charter-based mass tourism (Andrews, 2011;Jacobsen, 1990). The contemporary post-industrial values support the individualist and alternative views even though they would be as much bound by their own circle of representation directed at so called alternative tourists, rather than at mass tourists (Jenkins, 2003;van Gorp, 2012). Research has also raised up similarities between the challenges faced by mass tourists and alternative tourists (Kontogeorgopoulos, 2003;Hottola, 2014). ...

Vilhelmiina Vainikka

Open-access: online link: http://etudescaribeennes.revues.org/7609 Mass tourism is a historically significant phenomenon. For decades, it has been a source for stereotypes within academic research and in public discussions. This study addresses stereotypes of mass tourism by giving voice to travel agents and tourist guides working for mass package tour operators. They were asked to comment and reflect on the statements about phenomenon in which they are working. The Finnish socio-cultural context is discussed as well as the positionality and contextuality of the interviewees. In total, 20 interviews were conducted. The results show that there is no one way to understand these stereotypes: Both professional groups contextualized and scaled the universalist statements in multiple ways. In tourism research, more attention should be directed at how the categorization of mass tourism is done as a discursive practice and what kinds of effects it has to the theory and practice.

... According to Otsi et al (2009), potential tourists are taking more time and attention to find information in order to have a quality and unique travel experience. This helps to reduce the risk associated with their decision-making process (Van Gorp, 2012). However, Sri Lanka tourism promotions through printed and digital Medias (Magazines, guidebooks, internet etc.) are limited to promoting product characteristics rather than experiential marketing. ...

Hanshika Herath

This research focuses on responsible tourism photography and its influence on destination image in Sri Lanka. The main purpose of this is to explore and understand responsible photography, identify its attributes, and to recognize the ways tour operators in Sri Lanka and the UK promote Sri Lanka tourism through photographs. Also this research aims to suggest methods of these photographs could be used responsibly in future tourism promotional materials. For this purpose, this research followed visual methodology and content analysis by employing mixed method. For the content analysis, this study has considered tourism photographs represented by tour operators from Sri Lanka and the UK on travel brochures and websites. This research identifies that responsible photography is a method of visually communicating an authenticity, diversity and the compactness in the destination while highlighting the experiences with people, environment, culture, and the bond between the traveller and the community. Based on these, suggestions are made to enhance the responsible photographic representation by emphasizing authenticity and the distinctive experiences that travellers can gain in order to improve the global image for the country as a tourist destination. Key words: Responsible tourism photography, destination image, authenticity, experiential marketing

... This is a curious omission, especially when we consider the wide range of representations that are included on their pages; descriptive text, navigational advice and instruction, tourist information, utilities information, maps, diagrams, tables, index's, photographs and other imagery. This is highlighted further still when we consider the attention the discipline and the wider cultural studies field have given to travel writing and tourist guides, which include many of these aforementioned representational forms, [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and the attention the discipline has given to canals and canal culture in recent years. 33,34 In the field of critical cartography, a similar pattern has emerged whereby maps have been recognised and studied as powerful representations with agency to affect understanding of space, place, culture and politics, [35][36][37][38] as artefacts with more-than-representational performative capacities, 39,40 and more recently as material objects that act in the world, in and of themselves. ...

Mike Duggan

This article introduces inland waterway guidebooks as cultural objects that deserve further attention from cultural geographers who have begun to shed light on inland waterway cultures in recent years. It contributes to the wider disciplines long-standing interests in representations and representational objects, and more recently the interest in studying representations and their relations to everyday forms of practice. Focusing on a popular series of waterway guide, the Collins/Nicholson Waterways guides, I employ textual and visual analysis alongside an autoethnographic account of using these guides to examine what waterway guidebooks are, how they represent waterway spaces and how they are used in the practices of wayfinding on a narrowboat. By doing so I argue that waterway guides are powerful objects of representation that can tell us much about how waterway spaces are represented and how they are experienced with a guide in hand from the perspective of boat users. In laying out these arguments, I build on the notion of the travelling landscape-object to develop a theory of cruising landscape-objects, which I define as waterway guides that both represent, (re)produce and circulate waterway spaces at the same time as they are representational and material objects that can co-constitute wayfinding practices on the water.

Caroline Scarles

Using the example of the Scottish Tourist Board ([STB] now VisitScotland), this article outlines three spaces of mediation involved in the discursive transformation of material landscapes into brochure images. STB marketing personnel occupy the first space of mediation. Market research provides specialist knowledge of consumer expectations and key icons of Scotland that form the dominant ideological foundations upon which positive discourses of place are constructed. Photography occupies the second space of mediation. Directly influenced by marketing discourse, photography becomes a highly selective process as photographers directly mediate landscapes using photographic techniques, knowledge and artistic expertise to convey atmospheres, moods and feelings of place, capturing consumers' attention and encouraging imaginative interpretation. Design and the final presentation of images in brochures occupy the third space of mediation. Bound by design briefs outlining mediated discourse, design mediation occurs as designers apply knowledge, skills and artistic expertise of design practices and create new ways of presenting images in brochures.

Jon Goss

The advertising of tourist destinations plays an important role in the construction of place imagery and in the constitution of social subjects. In other words, destination marketing creates an image of place to be experienced by specific social subjects in particular ways. This is demonstrated through analysis of a series of advertising texts produced by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau and sponsored by the State of Hawai'i in the period 1972-92. The analysis suggests that the 'target audience' has changed during this period along with the projected experience of a Hawaiian vacation, but that the theme of alterity, together with its tropes of paradise, marginality, liminality, femininity, and aloha remain persistent elements of the spatializing discourse. These tropes, and their contradictory components, are analyzed, and it is concluded that, in the advertising discourse, Hawai'i as a place and people is mystified into a signifier of alterity.

Rudy Koshar

The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.

Paul C. Adams

Media and communication are attracting increasing amounts of attention from geographers but the work remains disorganized and lacks a unifying paradigm. This progress report suggests a new paradigm for geographical studies of media and communication and indicates how recent research fits under this umbrella. The report presents recent studies of literature, film and television, digital media, photography, comics, stamps and banknotes. The range of theoretical concerns in this body of work includes performance, agency, materiality, immateriality, networks, politics, emotions and affect. Collectively, these concerns point to communications not merely as transmissions through infrastructure, space and time, but rather as encounters between various human and nonhuman agents. The metaphysical question is exactly what such encounters do to participants – how agents are transformed by other agents' communications. This leads to synthesis in a new paradigm for media/communication geography: the metaphysics of encounter.

Gavin Jack
Alison Phipps

Travel guides are a paradigmatic form of modern travel writing. Recent historical and textual analyses of guides regard them as sites of ideological struggle and indices of shifting cultural understandings about the purpose and nature of travel itself. This article builds upon this text-based research by using ethnographic data to explore the functions and uses of guides in the everyday life of tourism before, during and after actual travel. We place particular focus on exploring guides as forms of apodemic literature1, that is as didactic literature that has important performative and agentic functions. We consider the ways that actual tourists use these guides to do important identity-work and pay particular attention to the historical and sociological specificities of German tourism to Scotland in substantiating this. We conclude by suggesting that travel guides perform important ontological as well as epistemological roles for tourists and that as an artefact of modern culture, their use can also be interpreted in liminal terms when articulated against the wider connections between Modernity, life and death.

Sinéad O'Leary
Jim deegan

Ireland is highly dependent on tourism as an employment and revenue generator. Recent trends, however, suggest that visitors from France, one of Ireland's key source markets, may have peaked. Tourism images are critical to the success of any destination, particularly because of how they affect the level of satisfaction with the tourist experience. Ireland is frequently acknowledged as a successfully branded and marketed tourism destination. Nonetheless, few image studies to date have focused specifically on Ireland, and none has analyzed the image of Ireland as a tourism destination in France. The aim of this study, therefore, was to redress this knowledge deficit. A questionnaire was used to examine the importance of certain destination attributes for French tourists and to determine how French visitors rate Ireland's performance with respect to these attributes pre- and postvisitation. This information was subsequently incorporated into an importance-performance analysis grid.

Jeffrey Hopkins

Geography is currently in the midst of reinterpreting the 'rural'. There are calls within tourism studies, rural geography and cultural geography for further investigation into the new meanings represented in rural places, their emergent rural identities, and the need to take postmodernism and the construction of the rural more seriously. This paper presents a critical interpretation of the format, content and signs used to represent, commodify and promote as countryside a landscape adjacent to the eastern coast of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Following a brief review of the place promotion literature and the postmodern cultural context of contemporary tourism, the socio-semiotic approach employed in the analysis is explained. Using 210 pieces of printed place promotional material, gathered at tourist information booths along a provincially designated tourist route, the slogans, logos (icons), and place myths used to differentiate the rural from the urban are identified, and their role in constructing, commodifying and marketing a symbolic countryside is made clear. It is argued that the tourist landscape signified in the promotional material is a symbolic cultural landscape that draws upon dominant Anglo-American ideals of the countryside to give identity to the material landscape. The advertising discourse is thus a symbolic space where an imaginary, mythical countryside is situated; here the 'rural' is commodified and sustained by 'uneasy pleasures': the tensions created between a consumer's willing suspension of disbelief and their knowledge of an advertiser's persuasive intentions. These signs of the 'post-rural' constitute a 'rural' that is a transferable brand name—a free-floating signifier—used to give meaning, value and character to any place commodity in need of a marketable identity.

Velvet Nelson

Tourism representations can be highly influential and extremely pervasive. This paper investigates the origins of the vivid imagery common in today's Caribbean tourism representations. The 99-year period from 1815 to 1914 was a key era in the development of tourism for the British West Indies with increased geopolitical stability, improved transportation, and increased demand for new tourism experiences. With the growing popularity of travel, as well as the popularity of travel writing as a genre in British literature, more people travelled to the region as tourists and wrote about their experiences. The detailed descriptions and illustrations in travel narratives created popular geographies about the islands. Tourists were both potential consumers and producers of these popular geographies. They frequently read travel literature prior to and during travel, thereby carrying images with them to recreate the experiences described. Some also chose to write their own travel narratives, thereby reaffirming the imagery of the Caribbean. Narratives were further cited in travel guides and regional geographies, effectively extending their influence. This pattern became a cycle of expectation, in which ideas about the region were established and perpetuated. As a result, evidence of past representations may be seen in those of the present.

Marion Markwick

This paper examines the contexts and complexity of consumption of Maltese postcard images at the meta-level. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives on the nature of photography as a system of representation and its associated social function and applies it to the theory and analysis of tourist desire and motivation. Analysis within this framework suggests that while certain stereotypical images of Malta as an exoticized "sun and sea" destination are sustained, imagery has diversified as tourists attempt to penetrate "backstage realities". The co-existence of these images points to the increasingly sophisticated and complex motivations of contemporary tourism and to more complex representational structures and strategies that raise particular and general ethical issues.

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Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224830613_Guidebooks_and_the_Representation_of_%27Other%27_Places