Reflecting the Unseen World: The Relationship of Photographs in Shaping Tourist Perceptions and Destination Choices

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the components of photographs that are important in building the perception of tourists towards any destination. The study quantitatively employs secondary data analysis. An extensive literature review is conducted to identify the components of a photograph that impact the tourist perception. These components were analysed for importance using a quality tool called Pareto analysis. The results of the Pareto analysis is categorised under two heads viz Vital few and useful many. The ‘vital few’ are the components of the photograph which are responsible for 80% of the perception building of tourists for a destination. Whereas useful many is the category in which the components are responsible for only 20% of perception building. As depicted in Table 14.1, Visual Aesthetics in Photographs, Nature and Landscape, Colours in Photographs, Excitement Component, People in Photographs and Display of Archaeological Sites fall under the vital few categories as reported by the past literature. Visual Styles of Processing, Shot Composition, Shot Angle, Shot Density and Shot Scale are the components that fall under the category of many. The results of the study will help photographers and destination marketers to understand what builds the perception of the tourist by looking at a photograph. Thus, they can strategise those components accordingly to increase the tourism of a particular destination.

Citation

Das, R.M., Bajaj, S. and Gupta, S. (2024), "Reflecting the Unseen World: The Relationship of Photographs in Shaping Tourist Perceptions and Destination Choices", Sharma, D., Abdullah, H. and Singh, P. (Ed.) Sustainable Tourism, Part A, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 253-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-979-020241014