How Guide Books Help Construct The Tourist Gaze Tourism Essay

How Guide Books Help Construct The Tourist Gaze tourism EssayHow guide books help to construct the holidaymaker behold and throttle the way tourists see the city. If you re every(prenominal)y want your life to pass comparable a movie in front of you, just travel, you erect blockade your life. Andy Warhol (1975). Tourism is an master(prenominal) aspect in 21st one C livelihood as it represents a type of escapism an individual can image to add spontaneity in ones mundane r issueine. With mass globalization represent as an ever-growing epidemic, most tourist spots atomic number 18 highly denote in the media creating what has been known as the tourist paying attention.The tourist gaze is summarized very(prenominal) neatly by John Urry (1990), as the process when roves are chosen to be gazed upon because on that point is an anticipation, e particular(a)ly with daydreaming and fantasy, of intense pleasures, both on a different scale or involving different senses from t hose customarily encountered. Such anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as film, TV, literature, magazines, records and videos, which construct and reinforce that gaze This paper will try to explore the different factors of how guidebooks in particular help to construct the tourist gaze and similarly how it may limit the experience one would make of the city. Urry (1990) introduces a wide variety of themes of which will be virtually examined in the process of this essay. To be specific to the question the analysis will be closely related to how guide books and therefore, literature as tumefy as magazines, evoke the different senses that help in instilling the tourist gaze particularly in contemporary capital of the United Kingdom.The tourist experience is very closely mediated by sight, and by the practices of representation that are part and carve up of travel (Crang, 1997). The city of capital of the United Kingdom represents a region full of memorial, culture, authorized architecture and modern marvels all of which can easily be attractively captured as a still image and has been greatly advertised in travel guides.london_mix001.jpgFigure 1 Introductory depiction of multiple aspects in London.The Informative Travelers Guide To London introduced the city of London by subject matter of an image, Figure 1. Spots to visit are chosen because of their value as photographic landmarks. A walk through a city or rather tourism in general becomes in effect a search for the photogenic. (Kubalek, 2008) Photography is a powerful means of evoking ones senses. Figure 1 depicts history, culture, and architecture as well as conveys a sense of patriotism all in one effectively edited shot. The tourist gaze is fashiond as the deliberateer, most likely foreign to the British culture, is thrust into such an exotic world mentally without even having cross the boarder.Tourism is a good deal about the body-as-seen, pageanting, performing and seducing visitors with skill, charm, strength, sexuality and so on. (Urry, 2001) Clearly evident in Figure 1 is a depiction of a British have got in the iconic uniform, which forces the on-looker to envision the ceremony of the changing of the guards. The Changing the precaution at Buckingham Palace is a comprehensive guide book that entails history of the ceremony as well as dissects the facts from the different ranks of the soldiers to the intricacies of his uniform. This example ingest what MacCannell(1992, 1999) calls a reconstructed ethnicity as well as a represent authenticity clearly because this ceremony is a major tourist liking for visitors alike. Not only will they experience an act of British patriotism but as well catch a glimpse of a bailiwick landmark, Buckingham Palace. National histories tell a story, of a people passing through history, a story often beginning in the mists of time (Bhabha, 1990)include in the aforementioned guide book is a list of places of leader within a close vicinity to Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, St James Palace, 10 Downing Street, The Thames, Trafalgar Square and even Hard Rock Cafe, to crap just a few of the great London sights that are a stones throw from Buckingham Palace (Changing of the Guard, 1990) This is an example in how the tourist gaze can pose as a constraint to the visitors experience of the city. Part of the precedent for travelling is to experience the photographs on site, in the real (Dyer, 1995). The book subconsciously guides the tourist and therefore his/her liberty to explore the land is controlled.union-jack-333.jpgFigure 2 The 2012 exceptional Games logoInter content events, premised upon mass tourism and cosmopolitanism, means that issue identity is increasingly conceived of in terms of a location within, and on, a global stage. (Urry, 2001). Visit Britain 2012 is synonymous with images such a s that depicted in figure 2 and highly advertised with articles relating to the highly anticipated 2012 Olympic games. The visit London 2012 homepage opens with a description of the Olympic Park, The London 2012 Games are the catalyst for transforming 2.5sq km of land in east London. What was once industrial, contaminated land has been rapidly transformed over the past three years.. Rochee (2000) describes these sports stadiums as having the power to transform themselves from being mundane places into being there special host city sites that come to occupy a distinct recession within global tourism. The reconstruction of what was once an industrial area into what is envisioned as a place of by-line is another way tourist organizations create the tourist gaze, by stressing this in tourist manuals they represent the bastard that conveys the message.Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, brands are free to soar, less as the spreading of goods a nd ser faults than as collective hallucinations (Klein, 2000 22) Product advertising is evident in many travel magazines one brand in particular that is greatly linked to tourism is the Rimmel franchise. Get the London look Rimmel claims to be authentic, experimental, fun, kind to all and uniquely British, offering value for money, with a dash of London glamour. (Rimmel London) By hiring American talent such as actor, Zooey Deschanel as well as musician, Solange Knowles, they represent brand ambassadors who in turn help in the creation of the tourist gaze especially since the advertising has them set in very stereotypical London scenarios, creating again an idealized and stereotypical representations of the place we are visiting (Martwick, 2001)Young aristocrats took Grand Tours in the 17th century primarily for educational reasons, but only since the 1840s did travel start to be of greater interest for a wider part of European society. (Kubalek, 2008) History plays an important p art of tourism in general as Roche (2000) explains with the example of the 1851 large Exhibition at Londons Crystal Palace, the first-ever national tourist event. Although the British community was only 18m, 6m visits were made to the Exhibition, many using the new railways to visit the national capital for the first time. Timeout London. The best of London (2010), has a comprehensive display of the different museums and attractions of which claim to hold great historical and cultural entailment to the country. Particularly important in the genealogy of nationalism have also been the nameing of national museums and the development of national artists, architects, musicians, playwrights, novelists, historians and archaeologists (McCrone, 1998 Kirshenblatt-Giblett, 1998)Also highly publicized in the guide book mentioned earlier is the ever so popular, London Eye observation wander. The static forms of the tourist gaze, such as that from the balcony reward point, focuses on the t wo-dimensional shape, colours and details of the view that is laid out before one and can be moved around with ones look (Pratt, 1992 222) On the wheel the viewer is able to observe Londons other landmarks, for fount the Houses of Parliament, St Pauls Cathedral even The Gherkin. In a sense it gives the viewer the perception of having some kind of an overview of the city he/she has traveled to (Kubalek, 2008). Although this feeling may be quite rewarding Osborne (2000) explains that the tourist neer quite arrives, never completely connects. The significance of other sights interrupts each sight. Every sight signifies all other sights, most still lacking our visit. Kubalek (2008) gives an example to the previous reiterate by introducing the Southbank, which is the stage for street performers. Being right next to the wheel does the static image of watching the view from the wheel contrast to the more(prenominal) interactive experience of walking down the iconic Southbank? Similar ly the view through the car windscreen (like the view from one of the rotating glass pods) has also had significant consequences for the nature of the visual glance, enabling the materiality of the city or the landscape to be clearly appreciated (Larsen, 2001)The touristic experience reflects, magnifies and distils everyday life, it infuses the mundane, and vice versa, in relation to the developing and maintaining of an individuals social identities. (McCabe, S., 2002) Consumer psychology, geography and business watchfulness studies are essential in the planning of tourism. It is an intentional play by tourist organizations, to make the person believe that their holiday is made by choice, when holiday packages have been planned with great intricacy to benefit the countrys economy. Urry (1990) has found that leisure travel is motivated by a desire to get away ordinary, normal life. The meaningful experiences through travel (MacCannell, 1976) is garnered by a guardedly planned plot that guides the tourist in question on a journey that may seem to be of great spontaneity, but is in actual fact carefully planned by greater powers and so there is clear constraint to the true experience that the tourist encounters.In conclusion, there are many ways tourist guide books create the tourist gaze, be it in ways that may not be seemingly apparent. It is an intricately planned affair of which tourist companies greatly press the economic aspects with the environmental as well as the political as so to produce an experience that will create a dependent relationship between the visitor, the locals as well as the environment. In enunciate to achieve this, as I have explained in the process if this paper, there are apparent constraints that is embedded psychologically in the minds of the tourist by the way the guide book is presented. They are cumulatively lead to places of interest of which due to careful planning will come to benefit the area economically, socially and sustainably. Tourism is a game, or rather a full-length series of games with multiple texts and no single, authentic experience (Urry, 1990)Total words 1720 words