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
ATLAS SIG Soundbite 9 – Visual Tourism
In the ATLAS SIG Soundbites series the different ATLAS Special Interest Groups tell about their SIG.
There is no soundbite of this SIG yet
Annual review of activities – 2025
The Visual Methods in Tourism Research SIG was initiated in 2020. Since then, we have had to work through a number of structural challenges, as well as the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are proud to report that, despite these obstacles, we are here — and in a position to say that we have now set the foundations for a strong and continuous SIG presence.
In 2025, the SIG is contributing its second dedicated track to the ATLAS Annual Conference. The session brings together eight papers exploring visuality as a way of questioning and rethinking tourism — from participatory methods and aesthetics to critical responses to spatial and community transitions. A co-authored paper from several SIG members is also being presented as part of the track, proposing a framework for ethics and efficacy in visual research, and outlining plans for a curated research database to support the visibility and development of work in this area.
For us, the visual is not simply illustrative. It is a mode of inquiry, an epistemological tool, and a way of engaging with complexity — sensory, political, spatial, and emotional — in tourism research. We remain committed to supporting approaches that put the visual at the centre, not the margins, of academic practice.
Looking ahead, we are planning to propose a visuals-led conference track for 2026. This initiative will invite submissions in non-traditional formats where visuals take precedence over text. Presentations will be encouraged to rely minimally on written explanation, instead allowing visual content — whether photographic, filmic, or digital — to lead. This is about creating space for research to be communicated in forms that match its subject matter, without needing to be translated into conventional academic packaging.
The SIG continues to grow as a space for experimentation — a place where visual research can be developed, challenged, and shared with care. Through our contributions to conferences, publications, and future collaborative projects, we aim to help make visual enquiry a more visible, legitimate, and mainstream part of tourism research. By doing so, we hope to contribute to an academic environment where researchers — including doctoral and early-career scholars — can pursue visual methods with confidence, without having to defend their work against outdated assumptions about what constitutes valid or rigorous research. Our aim is to contribute to a cultural shift, where excellent visual work is recognised for what it is: thoughtful, powerful, and deeply relevant.