Tourism and Visual Culture Theories and concepts

Book excerpt: Tourism is an essentially visual experience: we leave our homes so as to travel to see places, thus adding to our personal knowledge about, and experience of, the world. The study of tourism as a complex social phenomenon, beyond simply business, is increasing in importance, and by providing an examination of perceptions of culture and society in tourism destinations through the tourist's eyes, this book discusses how destinations were, and are, created and perceived through the "lens" of the tourist's gaze. It is essential reading for researchers and students in tourism and related subjects.