Visual Tourism

ATLAS Special Interest Group
Visual Tourism

The coordinators for this Special Interest Group are:

Nika Balomenou –  Swansea University, United Kingdom

Brian Garrod – Swansea University, United Kingdom

Tourism and photography have been linked since the emergence of the first cameras. Counter-intuitively, however, the use of photographs and other visuals as data in tourism research has not been as frequent or widespread might be expected, primarily due to the negative influence of traditional modes of social science research, proponents of which have tended to brand visuals as tainted media. Over the last 30 years, however, photography and other visual media have slowly but surely become accepted as valid objects of enquiry in the tourism subject area. Visuals are thus establishing a legitimacy as more than transient memories of holiday experiences. A range of visual research methods have also now been developed that can be applied to tourism issues, including photo elicitation, participatory photography and visual semiotics. 

This SIG aims to bring together colleagues who advocate and/or are willing to explore the potential of visuals as data in tourism research. It also aims to bring together a broad range of scholars who are part of an interdisciplinary reconsideration of a ubiquitous phenomenon that connects places, people, images and interpretations on a global scale. 

If you want to contact the SIG coordinator, please fill in the form HERE

If you want to join this SIG, please fill in the form HERE