Graz Tourism online and offline:
an analysis of authenticity through the tourist gaze
DIPLOMARBEIT
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Naturwissenschaften
an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
vorgelegt von
Michael LUXENBERGER
am Institut für Geographie und Raumforschung
Begutachterin: Ph.D Annalisa Colombino
Graz, 2016
Statutory Declaration
I, Michael Luxenberger, hereby declare that this thesis has been written independently and without assistance from third parties. Furthermore, I confirm that no sources have been used in the preparation of this thesis other than those indicated in the thesis itself.
Graz, May 15th, 2016
!
Michael Luxenberger Acknowledgements/Danksagung
First of all, I would like to thank you, Annalisa Colombino. It was great to have you as my supervisor and to know that I could contact you anytime and to be sure that you will reply immediately. Also thank you for your patience and help when I struggled with finding some documents or ideas. Without your help, feedback and advice this thesis would have never been realised.
Weiters möchte ich mich noch bei Graz Tourismus und insbesondere bei Richard Windischbacher und Nadja Albrecht für die Kooperation bedanken, denn ohne deren Zustimmung wären die Analysen von Instagram und der beiden Führungen gar nicht möglich gewesen. Ein weiteres Dankeschön gilt natürlich auch den FührerInnen der Altstadtführung und der Bustour.
Einen besonderen Dank möchte ich natürlich auch meinen Freundinnen und Freunden aussprechen. Christina, Hanna und Anna, die mehr oder weniger vom ersten bis zum letzten Tag bei universitären als auch freizeitlichen Aktivitäten mich begleitet und motiviert haben, aber auch deren Feedback zur Arbeit abgegeben durften und sogar mussten. Danke auch an Matthias und Monika, ohne die meine Motivation des Öfteren verloren gegangen wäre. Mein Dank gilt außerdem auch Florian und Hanna, die mich hin und wieder bei meiner Analysearbeit unterstützt haben und auch kräftig Fotos geschossen haben. Auch ein Danke an all jene, die ich hier nicht erwähnen konnte, aber mich in diesen letzten Monaten begleitet und unterstützt haben.
Zu guter Letzt gilt ein Dankeschön auch meinen Eltern, die mich in meiner Studienzeit immer unterstützt haben und wohlwollende Worte zur Ermutigung und Motivation gefunden haben.
Danke! Thank you!
Content
List of Figures ...... III
List of Abbreviations ...... V
1 Introduction ...... 1
2 The production of an authentic tourist gaze ...... 4 2.1 Introduction ...... 4 2.2 Authenticity ...... 4 2.3 The tourist gaze ...... 5 2.4 Socio-cultural aspects of tourism and commodification ...... 6 2.5 City marketing and social media ...... 8 2.6 The tourist gaze and social media ...... 10 2.7 Product Lifecycle of tourist places and social media ...... 11 2.8 Conclusion ...... 12
3 Vision and Performance in Tourism ...... 14 3.1 Introduction ...... 14 3.2 Vision and Geography ...... 14 3.3 Photography and Tourism ...... 15 3.4 Tourist Gaze and Guided Tours ...... 17 3.5 Performances and Tourism ...... 18 3.6 Conclusion ...... 20
4 Methodology ...... 21 4.1 Introduction ...... 21 4.2 Research Questions ...... 21 4.3 Preparation and Analysis ...... 22 4.3.1 Analysis of the ‘online’ tourist gaze ...... 23 4.3.2 Analysis of the ‘offline’ tourist gaze ...... 24 4.4 Conclusion ...... 25
5 Graz Tourism – a chronological overview ...... 27 5.1 Introduction ...... 27 5.2 Graz Tourism in numbers ...... 27 5.3 Graz – A city of dust ...... 28
! I! 5.4 Graz 2003 – European Capital of Culture ...... 29 5.5 Graz – A city of design ...... 31 5.6 Conclusion ...... 32
6 Analysis of the Instagram Account of Graz Tourism ...... 33 6.1 Introduction ...... 33 6.2 Instagram – A social media for photographs ...... 33 6.3 @visitgraz ...... 34 6.3.1 @visitgraz hosts @ihavethisthingwithgraz ...... 35 6.3.2 @visitgraz reposted pictures ...... 38 6.3.3 The pictures taken and posted by @visitgraz ...... 41 6.4 Conclusion ...... 44
7 Analysis of the Historic City Walking Tour ...... 47 7.1 Introduction ...... 47 7.2 The created tourist gaze ...... 47 7.3 The tourist guides’ performances ...... 52 7.4 Tourist Performances ...... 55 7.5 Conclusion ...... 56
8 The City Bus Tour with the open-top bus ...... 58 8.1 Introduction ...... 58 8.2 The created tourist gaze ...... 58 8.3 The tourist guides’ performances ...... 61 8.4 The tourists’ performances ...... 62 8.5 Conclusion ...... 63
9 Combination of the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ tourist gaze ...... 65 9.1 Introduction ...... 65 9.2 Cluster of small and local businesses in the inner city ...... 65 9.3 More of a tourist’s gaze ...... 66 9.4 Conclusion ...... 67
10 Conclusion ...... 68
11 Bibliography ...... 70 11.1 Literature ...... 70 11.2 Internet Sources ...... 72
! II! List%of%Figures%
Fig.5.1: Advertising Graz in phase 1 of the marketing process ‘Graz – European Capital of Culture’ Source: Graz Tourism 29
Fig. 5.2: The official logo of Graz in 2003 Source: Graz0003 30 Fig. 5.3: Poster in Vienna to promote Graz 2003 Source: Graz Tourism 30 Fig. 5.4: Official logo Graz as a UNESCO City of Design 31 Fig. 6.1: The official account of Graz Tourism on Instagram 34 Fig.6.2: The portal at Landzeughaus with the heraldic animal of Styria 35 Fig.6.3: Wooden facade of the K&K bakery at Hofgasse 35 Fig.6.4: View on the Kunsthaus from the Schlossberg 36
Fig.6.5: The arm of the statue ‘Lichterschwert’ and the reflection of the Uhrturm 36 Fig.6.6: The Uhrturm in Graz 37
Fig.6.7: Reposted picture taken by @republic_of_travellers 38 Fig.6.8: Reposted picture taken from the account of @visitsteiermark 38 Fig.6.9: Winning picture of the Advent-Challenge taken by @belinda_gs 39 Fig.6.10: Picture posted by Graz Tourism promoting the UNESCO Heritage of Graz historic city 39 Fig.6.11: The historic city and the typical red roofs 40 Fig.6.12: An advertising picture of Graz Tourism on Instagram 40 Fig.6.13: View over the city from the Schlossberg 41 Fig.6.14: A sign at a stall at the main square offering local agricultural goods 41 Fig.6.15: Restaurant offering asparagus and ice coffee 42 Fig.6.16: Entrance of the chocolate manufacture at Riegersburg 42 Fig.6.17: The long table in Graz every summer 43 Fig.6.18: A snap from the street festival LaStrada 44 Fig.6.19: The synagogue in Graz 44 Fig.6.20: Snap of the CSD parade in Graz 45
! III! Fig. 7.1: The HCWT and its route through the city – adapted from Google Maps (2016) 47
Fig. 7.2: Tourists and guide at stop N°3 with the view on the Uhrtrum – 48 Photo: Florian Maksymiw Fig. 7.3: Stop N°4 of the tour showing the facade of the Herzogshof Photo: Florian Maksymiw 49 Fig. 7.4: Tourists performing at the marble snowman Photo: Johanna Majcen 54 Fig.9.1: Logo of the project: Grazer Innenstadt – So richtig echt Source: Graz Tourismus 65
! IV! List%of%Abbreviations%
CBT City Bus Tour
ECOC European Capital of Culture
EU European Union
HCWT Historic City Walking Tour
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation
! V! 1 Introduction
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”
Bill Bryson
Traveling and touring has become part of our everyday life and is seen as a need to free our mind of daily stresses and strains. At first traveling was a burden and troublesome, but as soon as transportation and mobility have become easier it belongs to an educated and open mind to tour through different cities, countries and cultures. Tourists’ and travellers’ motivation for leaving their well-known surroundings is to gain experiences and insights into the daily life of others. Therefore, gazing and experiencing has become crucial when exploring other places. As a traveller, one wants see, hear, smell, taste and more importantly, feel the daily life of the visited places. As a result tourist agencies around the world created different guided tours and events for visitors to experience the visited culture. However, soon the question arose, if these presented folklores and cultures represent reality and if these presentations of the local life are ‘authentic’, in the sense of real and genuine. In this thesis, I focus my research on the second largest city of Austria, Graz. Graz has become an important tourist place in Austria and developed from a place of production into a place of consumption. Especially in the last 10-15 years Graz has eagerly changed its appearance and created an image of a multifaceted city, for instance, became European Capital of Culture in 2003 and is declared as UNESCO City of Design. Therefore, I wanted to find out how Graz Tourism promotes this multifaceted image and how these images are presented in the Internet and the different guided tours. This study focuses on the created tourist gaze in two different ‘worlds’, namely, on the official Instagram account of Graz Tourism and two different guided tours – the Historic City Walking Tour and the City Bus Tour. The focus of the Internet analysis is on the social media application Instagram because it has turned into an important advertising and communication platform for marketers. The reason for analysing guided tours is that as a researcher, one has direct insight into to creation process of the gaze by participating the tour and observing the tour guide’s performance (see Chapter 3). This research method is called participant observation and I was inspired by Laurier (2010) and Kearns (2010) who outlined this method in their works. Consequently, two main research questions arose in regard to my topic - Graz Tourism online and offline: an analysis of authenticity through the tourist gaze – namely:
! 1! • How does Graz Tourism present the city online on Instagram? Further, is the created gaze authentic?
• How does Graz Tourism present the city offline by guiding tourists through the city? Is the created gaze authentic?
With these two questions in mind, I conducted my study and analysis. For a better understanding of the thesis I want to shortly summarise the following chapters. In Chapter 2 I define different important terms and theories, which are crucial for the understanding of the analysis I present in my thesis. I discuss MacCannells (1973) definition of authenticity, which is followed by Urry’s and Larsen’s (2011) tourist gaze. This chapter also deals with socio- cultural aspects of tourism and the commodification of culture as well as the role of city marketing and the importance of the Internet and social media in regard to city marketing and tourism. Chapter 3, then, concentrates on the role of vision and performances. The chapter critically reflects the role of visual material in geography and describes the importance of tourist’s performances (e.g. photography and behaviour) and tourist authorities’ performances (e.g. prescribing tourist movements). The following chapter, Chapter 4 provides information of the methods I employed and offers a definition of the term ‘authenticity’ I consistently use throughout my paper. Further the chapter describes the reason for this thesis and my preparations for the analysis and fieldwork. I also point to the work of the main scholars who inspired me for conduction my research. Chapters 5-9 are the analysis chapters of the thesis. Chapter 5 focuses on Graz and Graz Tourism’s evolution over the last 25 years and gives a chronological overview of the different images Graz has been entitled with. In addition, the chapter includes statistics that displays the development of overnight stays in the city as well as a comparison of the main tourist regions of Austria. The next chapter then, deals with the Instagram analysis of the official account of Graz Tourism. The beginning of Chapter 6 introduces Graz Tourism’s account and continues with three different series of pictures: the pictures taken by residents of Graz, the reposted pictures and finally, those which were uploaded and taken by Graz Tourism themselves. Chapter 7 analyses the HCWT and illustrated the created tourist gaze and prescribed path of the tour and shows then, in which ways the guides and tourists acted and performed during the guided tour through the inner city. Chapter 8 is the last analytical chapter and deals with the CBT through Graz and is similar to the structure of chapter 7. First it displays the created gaze, then the performances of guides and tourists. Chapter 9, the last chapter of the analysis, offers a short discussion on possibilities of combining the ‘online’ and
! 2! ‘offline’ tourist gaze and how to motivate tourists and participants to create a more ‘authentic’, in sense of realistic and genuine, image of the city. Chapter 10, finally, concludes the thesis and summarises the main arguments of the thesis. It displays the creating process of the gaze and if these gazes are authentic in regard to MacCannell’s (1973) concept of ‘staged-authenticity’ and summarises the concepts of a combined ‘online’ and ‘offline’ gaze for improving Graz’s tourism.
! 3! 2 The production of an authentic tourist gaze
2.1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the main themes and concepts I use in my thesis about the tourist gaze and authentic tourist experiences. It gives the reader an overview of the actual views and opinions of researchers in the field of cultural and socio-geography concerning tourism and urban marketing. It starts with a section on the idea of ‘authenticity’, followed by an explanation of the concept of the ‘tourist gaze’. Finally, the chapter ends with a short summary of the main aspects of city marketing and it illustrates why Instagram is an important tool used in urban marketing.
2.2 Authenticity
Williams explains that places are not automatically tourist places (2009: 183). He argues that the process to turn a place into a tourist place is not only physical, but also culturally informed. According to Williams, tourist places have two main functions. Firstly, tourist places have to offer fun, excitement, spectacles and memory and secondly, they also have to reflect “authentic” cultural values such as local beliefs, traditions and behaviours. MacCannell compares authenticity in tourist settings with religious pilgrimages:
The motive behind a pilgrimage is similar to that behind a tour: both are quests for authentic experiences. Pilgrims attempted to visit a place where an event of religious importance actually occurred. Tourists present themselves at places of social, historical and cultural importance. (1973: 593)
According to MacCannell’s (1973) definition of authenticity in tourism, tourists will only gain authentic impressions of their tours when they are able to experience ‘real life’. Consequently, MacCannell applies Goffman’s concept of ‘front stage’ and ‘back stage’ to tourist places and explains that tourists often seek to gain insight into the ‘back stage’; namely to access the real life of the visited societies. MacCannell, however, is aware of the fact that it is not always possible to offer tourists the chance to enter the ‘back stage’, the real and authentic life, and therefore, he coined the idea of ‘staged authenticity’. The idea of MacCannell’s staged authenticity is based on Goffman’s front-back dichotomy, but MacCannell (1973:597) created a continuum with six steps from Goffman’s front to back stage (see Tab. 1.1). He depicts the graduation from the front stage to the back stage, in other words, from a created reality that is ‘inauthentic’ to the ‘authentic real life’.
! 4! Table 2.1. Goffman’s front-back dichotomy by MacCannell (adapted from MacCannell, 1973:598)
Stages Description Examples Stage 1 (Front stage) Social space tourists attempt to access and cross to get behind (i.e. “real”, “authentic” place) Stage 2 Front stage that is Restaurant offering sea decorated like a back stage; food with a fish net on the totally obvious front stage, wall but decorated with replicas of back stage to recreate the “real” atmosphere
Stage 3 Front stage completely Moon walk experience for designed as a back stage TV show and its audience
Stage 4 Back region that is open to official revelations of the outsiders details of secret diplomatic negotiations
Stage 5 Back stage that may be Visits to factories cleaned up or altered because tourists are permitted an occasional glimpse Stage 6 (Back stage) Social space tourists aim to enter and motivates their touristic motivation
In sum, according to MacCannell, the tourists’ motivation for tours is their interest in gaining insight in the back stages of places and real life experiences. However, in Urry’s (1990) point of view, authenticity is not the main aspect for tourists. Tourists are searching for experiences that differ from their everyday life. Urry’s work, therefore, focuses on the binary division between the ordinary daily life and the wished-for extraordinary life in tourist experiences.
2.3 The tourist gaze
In consideration of the binary ‘ordinary life’ and ‘extraordinary life’, I introduce here the concept of the ‘tourist gaze’, notably coined by Urry (1990). The tourist gaze is, simply explained, made of the physical presence of the tourist in a destination and the activation of the tourist’s expectations and mental images. These expectations and mental images are influenced by pictures and information the tourist gets before leaving home through, for instance, tourist promotion materials and other media (i.e. documentaries, movies, words of
! 5! mouth, the Internet etc.). What I want to highlight here is that, basically, this means that the real place as well as the pictures and information that tourists have of a place, compose the subjects gaze. In other words, the tourist gaze can be defined as a simple and distant view on a place in which the tourist appears and by showing up, the tourist subject activates the nature, history and social relations of the place. At the same time the tourist activates its mental images of the place that were inspired by the place marketers. Apart from the mental images, Urry (1990) underlines the importance of the social and cultural background of the tourist subject. According to Urry and Larsen (2011), this gaze is socially structured and professionally developed by experts for tourists and compare the gaze with language. Urry and Larsen (2011:2) argue that, “[j]ust like language, one’s eyes are socio-culturally framed and there are various ‘ways of seeing’.” It can be argued that we see the world through specific filters that are socially and culturally framed. As a result, the tourist authorities try to inform and influence how tourist will see and imagine their future holiday destinations by creating place promotional images specifically targeted to tourists to attract them. In so doing, tourist authorities and place marketers propose and shape very sanitised images of tourist destinations. Namely, images are positive and that do not reflect ‘unwanted’ socio-cultural aspects that, inevitably, are part of any place (e.g. poverty, criminality, unemployment, pollution, etc.). This is important, as the tourist gaze is often romanticised – because it is often informed by these tourist imaginations, created through various media by the tourist industry - and there is no space for bad habits and criminals at those gazed sites. Importantly, the tourist destinations create these romanticised images of themselves because of economic reasons. Tourism in fact is considered as a sector that can create jobs and contribute to the economic prosperity of a place. The tourist gaze is responsible for the realisation of a tourist place and the tourist place and its advertisers for the gaze. This means that there exists a strong correlation and these two factors depend on each other. Without knowing the tourists’ expectations it is hardly possible to create a tourist place that attracts tourists and a place without being marketed in a specific way will not appear in the tourist gaze. Consequently, it has to be said that there exists a strong correlation between creators and gazers.
2.4 Socio-cultural aspects of tourism and commodification
What I have tried to introduce so far is that tourist destinations and the tourist gaze have a strong connection to some (selected and romanticised) cultural aspects of a place. However, as Urry (1990) highlights, the tourist gaze has also a great impact on the society of visited tourist destinations. Urry and Larsen (2011:60ff) explain that the impact of tourism on a host society always depends on the visited tourist destinations and its size, as well as the object which tourists gaze at, the character and the organisation of the tourist gaze. ! 6! The size of the tourist place and the amount of host population are an important factor of the social influence on tourists. Urry an Larsen (2011:61) discuss the difference between New Zealand and Singapore and say that the social influence of tourism in Singapore has large side effects, for example, as it fosters the building hotels and demolition of typical Chinese shops whereas, New Zealand due to its size and population, is able to allow more tourists access the country without harming the host population. Also the objects that tourists gaze at have an impact on the host society. Urry and Larsen (2011:61) differ between physical objects and lifestyle and ethnicities. It is argued, that the tourist gaze upon physical objects, for instance, landscapes/townscapes, buildings and historical artefacts is less intrusive than observing locals’ private lives. For example, the observation and exploration of the Uhrturm and Schlossberg in Graz is less intrusive than tourists who observe a nomad population and their daily life in Morocco because there are social contacts and exchanges. Williams (2009:137), moreover, explains the socio-cultural relations in tourism by pointing to how tourism is a phenomenon that commodifies places. He explains that people and places are framed by social values and are defined by these aspects. Due to these social frameworks each place is able and tries to sell its uniqueness to be attractive to tourists and that their touristic goods, for instance, souvenirs, transport accommodation and more importantly, in modern tourism, experiences, can be traded on the international market. In short, a place has to define its culture capital (all cultural goods that can be consumed by tourists) and sell it as unique good, which can only be bought and experience at that specific place. Further, he quotes Meethan, who argues that commodification appears primarily in images, which are distributed in different travel brochures and other media and alternatively, how the tourist experiences the local culture that is presented at the destination. The presentation of the local culture through media is crucial because this creates parts of mental images of the tourist place. However, if the reality does not correlate with the promotion material due to a too mystified, romanticised and alienated picture, tourists will leave as unsatisfied ‘consumers‘. As a logical consequence, it must be said that the idea of commodification, though, struggles MacCannell’s concept of authentic experiences because sometimes the created images show mystified and fantastic realities. Consequently, to satisfy the tourists, the creators of tourist places have to adapt the reality to their created one. Cohen (1988) comments this also critically and argues that the commodification of the host’s culture leads to staged-authentic experiences for tourists. He sees the risk that cultural events, for example, sports events, rituals and handcrafted goods becoming a projection of the tourists’ imagination rather than a projection of the reality. Besides, Cohen (1988) points out that at some point in time the created and exaggerated customs and rituals of the host society might
! 7! not be seen and experienced by locals and tourists as an inauthentic anymore and become real. Ergo, according to these scholars, the tourist gaze and the commodification of tourist places have a strong impact on the visited society and culture. It does not only bring a rise of the local economy, but it also has its impact on the commoditised goods and culture. By forcing and exaggerating local traditions and habits there is a risk of losing the original meaning of such folklore events. In the next section on city marketing and social media will explain why these changes sometimes have to be accepted or at least have occured in recent times.
2.5 City marketing and social media
Even if the commercialisation of cities and their culture runs the risk of compromising what can be seen as the ‘authentic experiences’ for tourists this very process has become crucial for contemporary cities and is today broadly called by some scholars as ‘city marketing’. Before going into detail, I want to highlight the diversity of connotations of the definition of ‘place marketing’ and ‘place branding’. Skinner (2010) tries to define the different terms and explains that ‘place marketing’ has become a necessary tool for cities when their traditional industry declined. This declination of the heavy industries forced places to create and re- create their image. Further she states that due to this rapid growth of importance of ‘place marketing’, several scholars in their disciplines coined the terms ‘place branding’ and ‘place marketing’ with different connotations. In this thesis ‘place marketing’ and ‘place branding’ are used as defined in Skinner (2010:919) urban marketing section:
[…] place marketing is based on the understanding that urban places are in competition with each other, and with roots in human geography, there are many papers considering the role marketing and branding can play, particularly to urban regeneration.
In short, ‘place marketing’ stands for managing the place and ‘branding’ is linked to promotional activities. Stevenson (2008: 93-133), moreover, explains that since the 1980s urban regions have started to find their specific place in a more and more globalised world and try to promote their uniqueness and creativity. She further explains that today places had to change from places of production to places of consumptions. This means that the city’s economy experienced a transition from industry-based to service-based. Therefore, city marketing and place branding has become an important instrument to fulfil this change because tourism is often seen as a way to replace the old manufacturing industry. Stevenson (2003) and other researchers such as Konken (2000) argue that the economic globalisation
! 8! forces cities, especially former industrial towns, to concentrate on developing a greater service sector, rather than production. This means that the city has to focus on service units such as gastronomy, beauty and health care as well as parts of the financial sector. Apart from consumption and attracting tourism, another main goal of city marketing is to create a new city image and identity. San Eugenio Vela (2013) argues that identity is a very important element in the marketing process of cities and regions. He further adds that city marketing has undergone an evolution from unplanned short-time strategies to selling places, in which process the marketing was strongly connected to only advertising the place itself. Nowadays, he argues that marketing has reached a new stage, whereby branding, rather than marketing, is important to places to promote themselves and communicate their identities:
The current situation is defined by the branding of places, with the emphasis placed on the brand and its capacity to differentiate and position certain spaces with the principal aim of projecting an image towards an external audience, the aim being to move beyond the attraction of tourists in order to also draw in talent, investment capital, infrastructure etc. (San Eugenio Vela, 2013)
To summarise, the marketing strategies have been altered in the last few years and moved from a short-term and unplanned advertising strategy to an image-creating instrument. Not only is San Eugenio Vela (2013) explaining that the city marketing has also to focus on the local people, investors and business, but also Stevenson (2003), Gold and Ward (1994) underline their importance. Then, without including and touching the residents’ spirit the image-change cannot be enforced. Hence, neither will investors spend their money in the region or city, nor will residents be able to identify themselves with their living place and the broader local economy will suffer from that. This is also underlined by Stevenson (2008), who argues that tourists and visitors will feel even more welcomed and be able to experience the tourist place more authentically, if the locals can identify themselves with their surroundings. More generally, Zhou and Wang (2014) define city marketing as another method for managing places and a principle of place management. They see it as a planning and design mechanism in which several department of the city’s government (tourism, public relations and economic development) try to satisfy the city target market (residents, businesses and potential future residents). Zhou and Wang (2014), moreover, argue, similarly to San Eugenio Vela (2013) that city marketing has experienced a great development and highlight the value of the Internet and social media. According to them, by using social media in marketing the advertisements shift from a one-way transmission to a participative medium. Social media allows city marketers and their targeted audiences to communicate and exchange ideas more easily.
! 9! However, the Internet and social media websites do also bring some risks for tourist places. According to Urry and Larsen (2011) the Internet and also online communities can harm touristic places due to the fact that the Web 2.0 is more transparent and allows the immediate and direct evaluation of landmarks, hotels and other touristic services immediately. So, today not only is the tourist industry able to review and evaluate tourist sites, but also the customers themselves can exchange their experiences and thoughts.
2.6 The tourist gaze and social media
City marketing and tourist industries have become highly influenced by the Internet and social media. However, what is actually meant by social media and why is this medium declared as so powerful? As Zhou and Wang (2014) describe social media is a platform that allows its users to write, post and comment their views, opinions, share pictures and present the users’ actual life. The most famous social media and networks are definitely platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. However, recently another networking site has experienced a rise of users and importance. This social media network is known as Instagram. Users can share and post pictures and categorise them by using “hashtags”. These so-called “hashtags”, for example, ‘#graz and #austria, do not only help to categorise the uploaded pictures, but also help other users to find them. Many marketing companies have also discovered this function and therefore, Instagram has been experiencing a growth in advertising business. Also city marketers and tourist agencies are using Instagram to promote their tourist sites. For instance, the city of Graz (graz.at on Instagram) has a weekly competition, which is called “Foto der Woche,” in which they ask their Instagram followers1 to post their pictures of Graz and categorise them with the hashtag “FotoderWocheGraz”. Every Friday, then, Graz announces a winner and re-posts2 the picture they liked the most. By doing this, Graz encourages locals and tourists to look for special and noteworthy sites, buildings and other events of interest. Apart from weekly competitions, this social media service offers also the chance to influence the tourist gaze and lead tourists to gaze at sites, which the tourist subject would not have seen as an object to look at because the city marketers and other travel brochures do not promote these sites. However, if locals and other visitors post pictures of non- promoted sites by using, for instance, the ‘#graz’ the touristic gaze can be broadened. In
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1!Instagram followers are people who like one’s pictures and to stay up to date there is the possibility to follow another account and so the pictures of other people show up in the “news feed”. 2 With re-posting is meant that an Instagram user posts a posted picture of another user and gives credit to the original “uploader”.!! ! 10! regard to authenticity, it can also be said that it supports the authentic experience of tourists because non-marketed places are less likely to present the ‘real life’ of locals, rather than staged-authentic events. Urry and Larson (2011:12), in fact, explain that people are not able to gaze automatically at specific sites/sights and that gazing has to be learnt. Further, they quote MacCannell who believes that almost every object has the potential to be a touristic sight, but it needs someone who points at it and declares it as noteworthy. This aspect highlights the usage of Instagram for advertising a tourist object. So, Instagram supports marketers to form the tourist gaze and let the subjects focus on objects they might have never gazed upon.
2.7 Product Lifecycle of tourist places and social media ! As mentioned before, the social media services are supportive in terms of creating new tourist sites. Further, I want to argue that such networking services as Instagram can also be useful in regenerating and recreating older tourist places. Williams (2009: 27-50) exemplifies the development of places as tourist centres by showing the devolution of Britain’s seaside resorts based on Butler’s (1980) model of the cycle of evolution of tourist areas (see Tab.1.2.). The basis of this model is the product lifecycle, which comes from the marketing theories, which shows the development of a new product in the market place. By applying this model to tourism Butler (1980) defined five different stages known as the exploratory stage, involvement stage, development stage, consolidation stage and finally, the stagnation stage (for further detail and explanation see Tab 1.2.). Williams (2009) adds to Butler’s five-staged model another stage, called the post- stagnation stage, in which he describes what tourist places could do to avoid their downfall. He, for instance, suggests rejuvenation and recreating new attractions to become a place of interest again, even for tourists who have already been at the destination. This stage and the one before are those stages at which point a tourist place has to regenerate the tourist gaze completely to stay competitive with other places. In this process social media services, especially Instagram, could be used in the rejuvenation process similar to the process of creating a new tourist site.
! 11! Table 2.2 Butler’s model of cycle of evolution of tourist areas (adapted from Williams, 2009: 28-9)
Stages Description Examples Stage 1 exploratory stage a place at the beginning of becoming a place of interest for tourists; not many visitors, locals start to build suitable infrastructure (e.g., accommodations) Stage 2 involvement stage locals invest more in infrastructure; emerging of a season; start of image campaign Stage 3 development stage internal and external investment in infrastructure; creating marketing strategies and promoting place and image for their target audience; increasing of overnight-stays due to promotion and word of mouth Stage 4 consolidation stage tourist infrastructure fully developed and tourism important part of local economy; tourists outnumbers locals in main season; promotion and investment is used for competition with same- levelled destinations Stage 5 stagnation stage capacity levels have been reached; place should aim to attract re-visitors by investing in infrastructure and refurbishment of tourist sites
2.8 Conclusion
In this chapter I illustrated the main aspects and ideas of authenticity, the tourist gaze and recent city marketing strategies in relation with social media. I have argued that tourists try to have authentic experiences when visiting a specific place. I also tried to explain that it is almost impossible to gain these complete authentic experiences by discussing and showing in table 1.1., how the construction of authenticity proceeds in various stages and acquires different forms (see page 2). Further, by introducing Urry’s concept of the tourist gaze, which is one of the main concepts that runs through my thesis, I pointed out that the tourist gaze is constructed and framed by several factors. These factors are mainly our own mental image of a tourist place, more importantly pictures and information we gained through media and
! 12! our social and cultural background. Additionally, I also tried to summarise some impacts that the construction of the tourist gaze might have on the host society and which problems could be created for example, the loss of the origin of cultural good such as handicrafts and events due to the commodification of places. Moreover, I have tried to highlight that city marketing is an important factor in tourism to create a city’s image and to attract investors, future residents as well as tourists. In a time of deindustrialisation and globalisation, cities have to find their place in the world and try to be competitive by focusing on their cultural goods and creating their uniqueness. I also emphasised the importance of the Internet and especially social media networks, which have a great impact on contemporary advertising strategies. These social media sites support a faster communication between addresser and addressee. Apart from a simplified communication, social media sites like Instagram can support tourist agencies in developing a specific tourist gaze or even create and regenerate a (new) tourist object.
! 13! 3 Vision and Performance in Tourism 3.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on vision, photography und performances in tourism. At the beginning I discuss the role of vision in geography and geographical research. Then, the chapter turns to with the development of photography and its relation to tourism. Further on, I investigate on Urry and Larsen’s (2011) and Edensor’s (2000, 2001) ideas about how the gaze is influenced by several performances, either enacted by tourist authorities or the tourists themselves.
3.2 Vision and Geography
We know that vision plays an important role in our human lives and that it is one of the most important senses to perceive information and make meaning. Our life is mostly defined and based on visual elements. Further, as Sturken and Catwright (2009:1) argue, “[H]earing and touching are important means of experience and communication, but our values, opinions, and beliefs have increasingly come to be shaped […] by the many forms of visual culture […]”. This statement underlines, once more, the importance of vision and therefore, visual methodologies have become an important element in geographical research as well. For Crang (2005), for instance, geographers have long represented ‘reality’ through their work with maps, pictures, charts and other visual material they produce. However, he also highlights the fact that pictures and visual material can be influenced and carries of other meanings then often expected. He points to the subjectivity of photography; namely, that photographic representations can construct different truths about places, especially in tourist photography. This is because photographs, despite the fact that they look like a precise and detailed ‘picture of reality’, they are shot through the photographer’s perspective and, in the tourist business, they often serve to produce a specific and partial representation of a destination. In particular, Crang (2005:138) describes tourist photography as representation of pleasure and asks the question about how the world is represented in those pictures and if the representations are authentic? Not surprisingly, the answer he gives in his paper is that these pictures do not reflect a real place, rather they do focus on the positive aspects of places such as sunshine, cleanness and stereotypical scenes, for which the places are known. His conclusion, then, is similar to Cohen’s (see Section 2.4) as he argues that tourist photography “[i]llustrates and helps to shape the desires of tourists – what they want to see – and thus play[s] a vital role in shaping flows of tourists, even if ‘inaccurate’. These images do not just reflect reality but actually shape it” (Crang 2005: 139). Bartram (2010) as well understands geography as a highly visual discipline because of the importance of maps and other visual material geography has been working with. Also
! 14! Oldrup and Carstensen (2013) and Urry and Larsen (2011) emphasise the importance of visual material in geography. Additionally, these scholars write about the difficulties geographers sometimes experience by analysing visual imagery. Therefore, Bartram (2010) finds the most explicit critical words and points to the fact that research in geography has often been uncritical in using and interpreting visual imagery (but see, e.g. Rose (1996). Before the so-called ‘cultural’ and ‘visual’ turns3 in social sciences, geographers have long seen an image as a direct copy of reality without questioning the production process (Bartram 2010 and Oldrup and Carstensen 2013). Researchers as Bartram (2010), Oldrup and Carstensen (2012) and Rose (1996) are known for having provided guidelines in the critical interpretation of visual material in geographical research. (For further discussion on how pictures are encoded and decoded and how these visual material can be analysed see the chapter on methods and chapter N°5 that represents my analysis.)
3.3 Photography and Tourism
Before heading into the analysis of the Instagram account of Graz Tourism, I offer a short overview of the evolution of photography and tourism, and how the tourist gaze is connected to photography. Urry and Larsen (2011: 155-215) describe the development and importance of photography in tourism and also focus on the performances of marketers and tourists in tourism photography. The two scholars state that photography is a crucial instrument for developing the tourist gaze. “[T]ourists, […], feel obliged to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable in the encounter” (Urry and Larsen 2011:155). This quote shows how intertwined gazing and taking pictures has become in tourism and that these acts influence each other. But how and why has photography become such an important aspect in the tourist experience? Oldrup and Carstensen (2012) see photography as productive as photographs can transfer more emotions of a moment and place than words may do. In other words, as it is commonly argued, ‘pictures say more than thousand words’ and this may be the reason why tourists more often gaze through their cameras rather than simply using their eyes. Tourists want to keep their experiences and moments alive and by looking at photos over and over they are able to revive the experienced emotions again, and or convey them also to other people. However, Urry and Larsen (2011:156) argue, as already mentioned before, that pictures are not as innocent media as we often perceive them:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3!describes!a!movement!in!the!1970s!in!which!culture!itself!has!become!an!important!aspect!in! humanities!and!social!sciences.!It!strengthened!the!existence!of!cultural!studies!and!supported! new!fields!of!studies!in!,!for!example,!politics.!In!addition,!the!new!media!such!as!television!and! radio!as!well!as!the!new!advertising!strategies!strongly!influenced!this!shift.! ! 15! We need to think of photographs as corporeal, travelling, ageing and affective, rather than as bodiless, timeless, fixed and passive. And we stress that such photographs are not objective or innocent but produced within asymmetrical power relations and the need to ‘situate tourism representation politically, examine what they include and exclude, and expose whose interests they serve’. Both tourism organisations and tourists invest much energy in photographs. (Urry and Larsen, 2011: 156)
This quote underlines, once more, that photographs have become an instrument to influence and promote the gazing process and especially, if tourist organisations and marketers publish them, it is important to remember that these professionals aim to achieve a specific goal (i.e. attract tourists in a place). By looking at the development of photography, Urry and Larsen (2011:158) explain that already in the 19th century photographers used special light effects and filters to make their pictures more picturesque and enjoyable. Nowadays, there exist many programmes to alter photographs (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) and make them flawless. Especially the digitalisation of photography supported this process. Therefore, these romanticised pictures are used by tourist marketers to promote their tourist places and even indicate to potential tourists which places and sites are worth gazing at and photographing. Urry and Larsen (2011:176) describe this as a training process of the tourist eye by place marketers. In other words, marketers show tourist what sites are worth to be gazed upon. Moreover, along at the same time with the digitalisation of the photography the ‘internetisation’ occurred. The rise of the Internet, the digitalisation and mobile phone photography, concur to the nearly immediate editing, distribution and sharing of images/photographs. Urry and Larsen (2011:181) speak of a “[l[ive postcard of happenings”, similarly to what Instagram does. As mentioned in Chapter 1, Instagram allows its user to change photographs with several filters and to share and post them in other social media. Kobilke (2014) discusses how and why companies should use Instagram and explains that the ultimate contact with users can endorse the product the company want to sell. In writing about tourism, Urry and Larsen (2011) underline her argumentation by saying that professional photographs are of high value in framing the tourist gaze and the immediate exchange between tourist marketers and tourists. However, scholars are also aware of the fact that photographs, which are taken by tourists, could possibly harm the myths that tourism marketing created about a place. Therefore, many tourist marketers, nowadays, often use photographs taken by tourist for their campaigns to offer on the one hand an more ‘authentic’ tourist gaze of the place and on the other to influence the myth.
! 16! 3.4 Tourist Gaze and Guided Tours
Pictures and other advertising material influence tourists and their gazes. Visual marketing materials have a strong impact on tourists’ eyes and their ideas, as they suggest which sites and places are worth gazing at and need to be photographed. However, apart from picturesque sites on postcards, in city guides and Instagram, also street signs and especially guided tours are highly influential on the tourist gaze. Urry and Larsen (2011) often describe different power relations in tourism and such guided tours and street signs, which should guide tourists and visitors to the different sights of a city, are a perfect example of an uneven power relations in the tourist experience. By following street signs and especially in taking part in guided tours tourist authorities attempt to dominate the tourists’ gaze. As Edensor (2001:69) explains these ‘scripted performances’ of guided tours and signs do not only influence the tourists’ gaze, but also their movements and performances within a visited place. In other words, these guided tours are staged and according to MacCannell’s (1973) idea of staged authenticity (see Chapter 1) not as ‘authentic’ as tourists sometimes probably perceive them. Edensor (2000:324) describes tour guides as if they were movie actors, and points to the fact that “[c]ast members are often required to wear outfits and expressions that are harmonised” with the staged scene, for instance. Simply, tour guides do not only lead tourists and their gazes into specific directions, but also have to fulfil stereotypes and expected actions to satisfy the tourists’ expectations. Moreover, Edensor (2000) similarly to Urry and Larsen (2011), points to the uneven power relations between tourist authorities and the tourists themselves and argues:
[…] the stage management of space and the choreographing of movement also helps to reveal the spatial and social controls that are mobilized to assist and regulate performance. Directors are most evident in organized tours where tour guides and managers suggest places for photographic and gazing performances, and provide scripted commentary. (Edensor 2000: 326)
Another positive effect of tourists following (street) signs and participate in guided tours is, as highligthed in the quote, the spatial and social control attempted by tourist organisations. By selecting and organising specific routes, authorities in the cities can arrange the tourist experience through the city and guide the visitors towards clean, safe and picturesque settings. Edensor (2001:69) also underlines this by arguing, “[a]t Taj Mahal, stage management is the work of a host workers from cleaning teams, stone-masons and other artisans, gatekeepers, police, gardeners and guides who maintain its upkeep. To retain its allure of perfection […]”. Further, Urry and Larsen (2011) argue that guided paths and city tours do not only focus on the eyes but also on other senses. Both see, nowadays, the demand of a full body ! 17! experience based on tasting, listening, touching and seeing instead of only seeing. The same is true also for museums and other exhibitions as well. In other words, tourists today seem not to be satisfied with a simple gaze at a specific artefact or place, they need to experience, for example, the taste of food and beverages and listen to the local sounds and music.
3.5 Performances and Tourism
In the previous section, I pointed to how guided tours work and that, because of uneven power relations between tourist authorities and tourists, guided tours and street signs tend to be prescriptive and shape the tourist gaze. Furthermore, Edensor (2000, 2001) and Urry and Larsen (2011) see different stages and forms of performances in tourism and coin the term ‘staged tourism’. Edensor (2000:327) defines two main spaces, ‘enclavic’ and ‘heterogeneous’ space, in which different tourist performances are staged. These different spaces strongly influence the tourist authorities’ and the tourists’ behaviour. Edensor (2000: 327) defines the ‘enclavic space’ as an area which is a typical representation for a tourist place in the western parts of the world, for example, theme parks such as Disneyland. These places are carefully planned and strongly controlled and financially supported by different institutions (e.g. national ones). This means that tourist authorities are in control of the place and can strongly influence the tourists’ behaviour and gaze. Another important feature of an ‘enclave’ is that locals and tourists do have as little contact as possible and authorities, for instance, are able to control admission. By comparing this definition of a tourist place with MacCannell’s idea of ‘authentic’ representation, ‘enclavic spaces’ can be categorised in stages 1-3 (see Chapter 2) of MacCannell’s ‘front-back stage continuum’. ‘Heterogeneous Spaces’, on the contrary, are in non-Western countries where tourism more ore less emerged rather than was planned. In those places, locals and tourists have social contacts on a regular basis. The tourist infrastructure, for example, hotels and shops, is mostly family business and does not have as high standards (e.g. warm water and private bathrooms) as in ‘enclavic’ places (Edensor 2000: 331). Edensor (2000) further says that ‘heterogeneous spaces’ are also performed at a specific degree, but these performances are less planned and more spontaneous and, in regard to MacCannell, more authentic than in the ‘enclaves’. Edensor (2001), then, analyses several ways in which staged-tourism can appear. First, he defines four different ways of performances for tourists, namely: • rituals: national festivities (e.g. Independence Day) and performed festivals (e.g. Aufsteirern) show and reproduce social ideas and conventions of a visited society
! 18! • designed and themed spaces: these spaces are perfectly planned and only performed; in MacCannell’s terms known as staged-authentic; perfect examples are ‘Disneyland’ and Irish Pubs which should represent ‘Irishness’ outside of Ireland • media and tourist places: films and television have a strong impact on the tourist’s perception of a landscape; tourists often want to visit scenes and land/townscapes they know from movies (e.g. Game of Thrones ‘scenescapes’ in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Dubrovnik, Croatia) • commodification of culture: already mentioned this process in Chapter 1 and in the section before; typical process of fulfilling some stereotypes and expectations tourist have about a specific place (e.g. clothing, handed crafts, music); hotels and tourist agencies also often host ‘authentic’ folk music evenings Moreover, Edensor (2001) does not only focus on performances done by tourist authorities, but also by tourists themselves. He says, “[B]esides the increasingly staged nature of tourism, tourist space is also (re)produced by tourists, who perform diverse meanings about symbolic places […]” (Edensor 2001:71). Also Urry and Larsen (2011) argue that tourist performances are socially and culturally framed. By investigating the different performances of tourists, following differences can be identified (Edensor 2001:73): 1. directed performances: tourists follow their guide books and tourist guides and stay most of the time on given tracks and gain information and understanding of the site from e.g. info-boards and guides 2. identity-oriented performances: tourism is also an identification process; some do not want to be identified as ‘tourists’ and therefore, do not follow suggested paths; these tourists try to get in touch with locals and by walking the ‘off-scene’-ways they make ‘counter-cultural’ experiences; an example for such tourists can be backpacker-tourists 3. non-conformist tourist performances: in general, tourists escape prescribed paths and act against conventions; Edensor (2001) described ironic performances, in which tourists make funny faces in front of a sight and state how boring it is; another performance could be resistant and tourists complain about the plans of tourist authorities; performances can also be improvised, especially if tourists enter real ‘backstages’, for example, sexual intercourse with locals or taking drugs; finally, tourists can also take on some involuntary roles, if there are misunderstandings between authorities and tourists and tourists become unsatisfied with their experiences
! 19! 3.6 Conclusion
At the beginning of this chapter I focused on the role of vision and visual material in geographical research and reminded that for a long time geographers have tended to produce and use images uncritically. Then, I highlighted how more recently, after the cultural and visual turns in social sciences, scholars have recognised that images are far from being neutral object and that they are always created with a specific purpose and from a specific subject position. Therefore, in analysing visual imagery, it is important to think about the origin, the photographer as well as the targeted audiences of photos. Further, I argued that photography has become a crucial instrument in tourism for forming the tourist gaze. I specifically highlighted that ‘pictures could say more than thousand words’ because they are able to convey emotions and memories of special days and experiences of tours and holidays. Finally, I concluded with a section of performances in tourism. I argued that, today, tourism and tours are mostly planned and performed at different stages and that most of the experiences can bee seen as ‘inauthentic’ according to MacCannell’s work. However, due to different social and cultural frameworks, as it is argued by Urry and Larsen (2011) and Edensor (2000,2001), tourists sometimes escape the ‘guided’ path and borders of performances and react spontaneously or unconventionally at some stages of the tourist experience.
! 20! 4 Methodology
4.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the methods I employed to analyse the tourist gaze created by Graz Tourism. In the following sections I discuss my research questions, which are at the core of my thesis. Then, I continue with a discussion of my the preparations of the fieldwork and then I illustrate how I conducted the fieldwork itself. This is followed by an explanation on how I conducted the analysis of the Instagram account of Graz Tourism and the offline analysis of two different guided tours (HCWT and CBT). In the end, I summarise the methods that are at the basis of the collection of data, whose analysis I present in the remainder of the thesis.
4.2 Research Questions
In general, I wanted to find out how and in which ways Graz Tourism presents the city and how they communicate the multifaceted city of Graz. As explained in Chapter 5, Graz has multiple images, e.g. UNESCO City of Design, belongs to the UNESCO Heritage, City of Human Rights and is declared as ‘Genusshauptstadt’. Therefore, by researching and gaining more information about Graz as a tourist city, the following questions became the most important and interesting ones:
• How does Graz Tourism present the city online on Instagram and is the created gaze authentic?
• How does Graz Tourism present the city offline by guiding tourists through the city and is the created gaze authentic?
First of all, I want to define the term authentic and clarify, why an ‘authentic’ image of a city is crucial. In Chapter 2 I described ‘authenticity’ with MacCannell (1973) definition by saying that ‘authentic’ experiences are close to ‘real life’ experiences. The Oxford Dictionary (2016), for example, describes authentic as “undisputed origin and not a copy” or as “made or done in the traditional, original way, or in a way that faithfully resembles an original”. So, in regard to this thesis and its focus on tourism, these analysis questions should help me to find out, if these gazes and experiences tourists gain are as realistic as possible. In addition, sometimes I use this term ‘authentic’ as a synonym for ‘genuine’ and ‘official’. Moreover, I focus on ‘authenticity’ because the image of an ‘authentic’ city is important for a cities prosperity. As described in Chapter 2, it is crucial to create an ‘authentic’ image of a city because a city needs to satisfy tourists that they will come and visit again. Nonetheless, it is
! 21! also important to be ‘authentic’ to attract entrepreneurs who invest money in the city as a location for business and commerce. When analysing the online gaze, I focused on the social media app Instagram because it has become an important player in marketing, particularly since the social media photo- sharing app has been part of Facebook. Klie (2015) highlights that Instagram allows marketers and users to communicate and not only to present their products, but also to share and show what their customers can do with their products. Therefore, in my research I analysed the official Instagram account by looking at Graz Tourisms’ posted pictures and used hashtags (more information on the analysis in section 4.3.1). To find answers for the second question, I used Edensor’s (2000, 2001) and Urry’s and Larsen’S (2013) works and their argumentations on directed performances and tourist performances as an inspiration. While participating in the different guided tours (HCWT and CBT), I observed the guides’ and tourists’ behaviour and performances and tried to compare the created gaze to MacCannell’s definition of authenticity, which he defines as ‘real life’ (see Chapter 2). For answering the question of authenticity, I orientated my research towards MacCannell (1973) and Urry and Larsen (2011). Further, the idea for conducting my study and the observations during fieldwork were taken from Laurier et al (2001, 2008) and Laurier (2008, 2010), Kearns (2010) and their ethnographic approach (for further details see section 4.3.2). Therefore, I did not interview any tourists or tourist authorities to gain further insights into the creating process of the gaze on Instagram and the prescribed gaze of the guided tours. So, the outcome of my analysis focuses on the experiences and perception of tourists when looking at the official Instagram account and taking part in different guided tours.
4.3 Preparation and Analysis
The foundation for this thesis was laid during a geographical excursion in Morocco, when we discussed different aspects of staged-tourism. I started to read Urry’s and Larsen’s (2011) work and Edensor’s (2000,2001) articles about tourist gazes and performances in tourism. At first, I wanted to focus on guided tours and travel brochures only, but a friend who specialised herself in social media and marketing argued that tourist agencies are just starting their strategies for social media platforms such as Instagram. Therefore, I started searching for geographical papers on social media and their role in constructing and advertising images of cities in regard to tourism. However, I could only find papers dealing with city marketing and the Internet’s great influence on a city’s image and development process (comp. Skinner (2008), San Eugenio Vela (2013) and Zhou and Wang (2014)). This encouraged me to start my research project and to ask for Graz Tourism’s support. After finalising the idea of the research project and talking to Richard Windischbacher and Nadja Albrecht from Graz Tourism, we agreed on analysing their official Instagram
! 22! account to investigate Graz Tourisms’ ‘online’ tourist gaze. Therefore, I had to search for geographical research methods for analysing visual material and found out that in recent times there has been developed a more critical view on visual material in geography. This is also underlined by Oldrup and Carstensen (2012: 224): “[I]n urban studies, sociologists, human geographers and others have been developing methodologically innovative research using visual methodologies.” Further they state that geography has always been a visual discipline but its main focus was on representation and reflection of the real world rather than a critical approach to visual representations (detailed information in section 4.3.1). The analysis of the ‘offline’ tourist gaze then, focuses on the HCWT and the CBT. The inspiration for this fieldwork was taken from Urry’s and Larsen’s (2011) chapter 8 about tourist performances and Laurier’s (2008) and Laurier et al’s (2008, 2010) ethnographical studies about people’s behaviour while driving a car or in a Café. In regard to the tour analysis, I decided to focus on observations, namely, participant observations. Laurier (2010) and Kearns (2010) outline the purposes and execution of this method. Laurier (2010:116) says, “[P]articipant observation […] is ubiquitous and we can all already do it. From the moment we are born we are, in various ways, observing the world around us and trying to participate in it.” Moreover, I think this method is the most suitable due to the fact that the process of observation is the main part in guided tours. Kearns (2010:242) underlines this by arguing:
Observation is the outcome of active choice rather than mere exposure. Our choice – whether conscious or unconscious – of first what to see and second how to see it means that we always have an active role in observation process. Following Mike Crang, I wish to argue for observation as a way of ‘taking part in the world, not just representing it’.
Especially the final part of this quote perfectly represents my idea of the ‘offline’ analysis. By taking part in the guided tours I was able to gain perfect insight into the process of creating the tourist gaze and experience the tourists’ reactions and performances directly. This is, in my opinion, a more direct way to reach out to the world, rather than interviewing tourists and tourist authorities.
4.3.1 Analysis of the ‘online’ tourist gaze
The analysis of the Instagram account was at the beginning very difficult to structure and I questioned myself how to put the pictures in order. Therefore, I started to read different papers and studies in the field of geography that deal with visual material and started to look for a definition of visual elements and the importance of vision in our culture. All of the scholars agreed that vision and visual material is the most important sense and element in
! 23! western cultures. In Sturken and Catwright’s (2009) and Rose (2012) work they define the development of vision and culture and say that our beliefs and values are shaped by different forms of visual culture and this impact will even increase in the future. Reasons for this are the introduction of photography and video and other media. Interestingly, recently scholars such as Crang (2005) and Bartram (2010) highlight that pictures do not only have the function of representation, but also influencing people and their perception and view on, for example, places. Crang (2005: 131) says, [R]epresentations have impacts on the world in terms of how they shape action by people – they are performative, not just reflective of reality; they shape the world as well as depict it.” After reading Crang (2005), I was then looking for methods to analyse the Instagram account of Graz Tourism and found Rose (1996) and Bartram (2010) guidelines for analysing visual material in geography. They suggested keeping the selection of pictures small, but analysing the selected once in detail. It was also advised group the selected pictures in so- called series and to analyse the most representative ones. When I was done with selecting and grouping the pictures in following groups: • Pictures posted on Graz Tourism’s account by residents • Reposted pictures • Pictures posted by Graz Tourism itself I looked at the table of questions offered by Rose (1996: 285) for the analysis which is divided in three categories, namely, questions about production, questions about the text and question about audiences. The questions about the production ask which technologies were used and where and when it was made. Rose (1996:286) remarks that these question help little in creating meaning, but helps to get more information about social identities and relations (e.g. class, gender and sexuality). The questions concerning the text focus on the picture itself. These questions discuss what is shown, how is it arranged, which colours are represented, the angle and if it is part of a series as well as the genre. The last category, the questions about the audience, focus on questions, for example, where and how would the text have been displayed originally, how is it circulated and who is addressed. So, these guidelines offered by Rose (1996) and Bartram (2010) helped to structure my analysis the official Instagram account of Graz Tourism and to illustrate how the ‘online’ tourist gaze is created and how it has developed.
4.3.2 Analysis of the ‘offline’ tourist gaze
The analysis of the ‘offline’ tourist gaze is divided into two chapters, namely, the analysis of HCWT (Chapter 7) and the CBT (Chapter 8). Both are structured the same way. I start with a discussion of the created tourist gaze and then describe the tourist guides’ and tourist performances. As written in section 4.2, I orientated my research towards Urry and Larsen
! 24! (2011) and Edensor (2000,2001) and to gain more information about the method of participant observation I read several papers of Laurier et al (2001, 2008), Laurier (2008, 2010) and Kearns (2010). Kearns (2010:245) supports my research method by saying:
The approach has been adopted and adapted by geographers seeking to understand more fully the meanings of place and the context of everyday life. […] Developing a geography of everyday experience requires us to move beyond reliance on formalized interactions such as those occurring in interviews.
Moreover, Laurier (2010) helped me to define my role as a participant observer during the guided tours. Laurier (2010) argues that it is important that the participant observer should have been involved and be part of the things s/he is observing to be a good observer. Importantly, for this thesis, I took part in the guided tours of Graz in order to collect the data (observations, mainly) that I present in chapters 7 and 8. Then, he underlines that the researchers should be part of the community they observe and should not expose their role to gain the full experience. Further on, he highlights taking notes, to keep one’s own mind on the observations and to prevent oneself from drifting off. So, during my fieldwork I tried not to exclude myself from the tourists and did not inform the tour guides about my aims and goals, except when they realised that I was taking notes and asked me why I am that interested, I stated that my participation is part of a university project. Also interesting was the reaction of the tourists as soon as they saw me taking notes, they were less likely to talk to me and share their opinions they had during the tours. Apart from taking notes and small talking with tourists, I also took pictures of highlighted gazes by the guides, but also tried to take pictures of the guides’ performances as well as those of tourists. These pictures in combination with my notes helped me to comment on the experiences of the guided tours and to exemplify the created gaze.
4.4 Conclusion
The division of the tourist gaze into an ‘online’ and ‘offline’ part helped me to see if Graz Tourism focuses on different elements and aspects on their official account on Instagram and the guided tours they offer. It also compared newer marketing strategies and new presentation styles of a city with older ones and I started wondering if it is possible to connect the online presentation with the offline one. Further, I was interested if there is a difference between these two parts in regard to the grade of ‘authenticity’, in other words, the grade of realistic representation.
Moreover, the different theories and guidelines is discussed above in regard to the analysis of the Instagram account, helped me to create a detached view of the pictures and supported
! 25! my analysis of the tourist gaze. However, also the short conversation with Nadja Albrecht and the local Instagrammer Carina Spielberger (@ihavethisthingwithgraz) was very supportive and guiding in the analysis process of the account. Especially, the conversation with Carina Spielberger who was hosted by Graz Tourism on their Instagram account helped me in forming the hashtag analysis and the get a clearer view on the development the ‘online’ gaze created by Graz Tourism. The analysis of the guided city tours was very challenging at first. I was not sure how I want to investigate on the created tourist gaze. First, I was convinced that I should not only participate in the different guided tours, but that I also should conduct interviews with the participants of the guided tours and even to support my study with a questionnaire. But, after having read several research projects, e.g. Laurier (2008), and the definition of the participant observation method, this seemed to be the most suitable methodology to analyse Graz Tourisms’ offered guided tours. By having done so, I think it was a well-thought decision because of pretending to be a participant of the tour I gained much more ‘authentic’ impressions of the guides’ and tourists’ actions. In the following chapters, I discuss the outcome of my studies and compare the results of the analysis with MacCannell’s (1973) continuum (see Chapter 2). Chapter 6 focuses on the ‘online’ tourist gaze, which is created by Graz Tourism on their Instagram account. Two more chapters follow then; namely, Chapter 7 deals with the HCWT and describes the created gaze as well as the performances of guides and tourists. Similar to Chapter 7 is Chapter 8, which focuses on the CBT. Finally, the analysis is ended with possible ideas for improvements of the gazes and if there is a possibility to connect the ‘online’ gaze with the ‘offline’ one.
! 26! 5 Graz Tourism – a chronological overview
5.1 Introduction
In this chapter I discuss the development of the image of Graz. In the last few decades, Graz has experienced a rise in overnight-stays and an extraordinarily growth in tourism. The chapter summarises the years before 2003, then briefly dwells on the year 2003 in which Graz was nominated ‘European Capital of Culture’ and finally, the chapter focuses on the recent multiplication of Graz’s image (e.g. ‘UNESCO City of Design’ and ‘First European City of Human Rights’).
5.2 Graz Tourism in numbers
Before discussing the different marketing strategies adopted by Graz in the last decades, I illustrate the touristic development in Graz. The data focus on the years 1990- 2014 and display the change in overnight stays in the last 25 years. They show that in the 1990s the amount of overnight-stays rather fluctuated (cfr. Chart 5.1.). Just five years before Graz was nominated European Capital of Culture the amount of overnight-stays became more stable. Moreover, after 2003 the chart shows the constant growth in overnight stays, which, overall, reached over one million overnight-stays in 2014. It is not surprising that,
Overnight*stays.in.Graz.(1990*2014).. Source:.Statistik.Land.Steiermark.(2016). 1.200.000!
1.000.000!
800.000!
600.000!
400.000! Overnight*stays.
200.000!
0! 1990! 1991! 1992! 1993! 1994! 1995! 1997! 1999! 2000! 2001! 2002! 2003! 2004! 2005! 2007! 2009! 2010! 2011! 2012! 2013! 2014! 1996! 1998! 2006! 2008! Years.
Chart5.1..The.development.of.overnight*stays.in.Graz.(1990*2014).Source:.Statistik.Land.Steiermark.(2016).
! 27! after 2003, the overnight stays dropped again. Compared to other ‘European Capitals of Culture’ this phenomenon is not unusual. Many people come to participate and visit the city which is hosting this European event, but usually do not come back in the next years. The logical reason then is that in the following years the overnight stays cannot reach the level of the event year. By looking at the data it can be assumed that the event in 2003 created a sustainable growth in tourist numbers in Graz and further, the marketing strategies and image-change- process of the city have been successful. The Table 5.1. illustrates the rise of overnight-stays in Graz compared to other tourist cities in Austria. Each year, after 2003, Graz has experienced a growth in overnight-stays and visitors, which is definitely a sign of a successful marketing strategy. Table 5.1. Overnight-stays in the main federal states’ capitals (Source: tourmis.info, 2016)
Vienna Salzburg Innsbruck Graz Linz 1995 6.986.504 1.570.000 1.005.526 479.439 542.000 2000 7.704.331 1.646.615 1.196.944 620.922 579.683 2003 7.942.195 1.719.694 1.120.461 832.385 583.911 2009 9.842.827 2.060.192 1.175.837 788.221 738.555 2014 13.524.266 2.634.694 1.489.874 1.029.022 775.514
Even by comparing the overnight-stays in the main cities of Austria, it can be said that Graz has definitely profited from the event in 2003 and has been more successful than Linz, which was one of the ‘European Capitals of Culture’ in 2009 (see. Tab. 5.1.). However, comparing Graz and Linz and arguing that Graz has been more successful overall is very vague due to the different sizes of the cities and the touristic infrastructure. Also remarkable and noteworthy is that Graz was not in the Top 4 destinations in the 1990s, but it has become a place of interest since the early 2000s.
5.3 Graz – A city of dust
Graz, the actual second biggest city of Austria was known as a typical industrial town or, as mentioned in Chapter 2, as a place of production. At that time, the city was known as a ‘city of dust’ because of its fine dust issues (which are still problematic especially during winter) and without any specific and outstanding cultural-tourist sites because it was a typical industrial place. The companies in Graz were focusing on the automobile industry and processing resources from the surroundings. This can also be guessed by looking at Chart 5.1. and Table 5.1.: the overall overnight-stays in Graz ( in 1990s, especially 1993-98) were far behind the well-known Austrian cities such as Vienna and Salzburg.
! 28! The situation in the 1990s became better when Graz was nominated as a ‘European Capital of Culture4’ (ECOC) for 2003 and just before the new millennium started, Graz became part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1999 (Graz 2016). The whole inner city with the red roofs, Schlossberg and Uhrturm as well as Eggenberg Palace are part of the UNSECO Heritage and have become a landmark of the city. Since then numbers of tourists began to rise and Graz has strengthened its place in the Austrian tourism and has become a cultural hotspot for modern art and design.
5.4 Graz 2003 – European Capital of Culture
After a struggling decade and known as an industrial town with bad air conditions, Graz was nominated as the ‘European Capital of Culture’ in 2003. This was the chance to create a new image and turn the city into a modern one, ‘a city of the 21st century’. This is also underlined by Griffiths (2006) by
Fig..5..1:.Advertising.Graz.in.phase.1.of.the.marketing.process.‘Graz.–.European. saying that the Capital.of.Culture’.Source:.Graz.Tourism main concerns of host cities were to gain economic benefits such as increasing number of visitors, changing image, to revitalise urban spaces and the establishment of a new sector, namely the creative industry one. Before 2003 then, Graz invested money to create new landmarks such as ‘Murinsel’ and ‘Kunsthaus’.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4!This!cultural!event!was!introduced!in!the!mid!1980s!by!the!European!Economic!Community!(EEC),!now! the!EU,!to!promote!European!cultures!and!more!importantly!the!promotion!of!the!shared!cultural!values.! This!event!is!meant!to!highlight!the!importance!of!a!greater!integration!and!the!value!of!a!European! federacy.!Apart!from!the!political!sense,!the!founders!of!this!event!wanted!to!foster!struggling!middleM sized!European!cities!and!help!them!to!create!new!images!and!support!their!transforming!process!from! places!of!production!to!places!of!consumption!(see!Chapter!1).!For!further!details!see:!Mittag!(2008),! Quenzel!(2008),!Griffiths!(2006)!and!European!Commission!(2016).! ! ! 29! Apart from changing the physical appearance of the city, the marketing strategies changed as well. According to a strategy plan of Graz Tourism (2000),
Fig..5..2:.The.official.logo.of.Graz.in.2003. the main marketing process was divided into two Source:.Graz0003 main phases. The first one advertised the destination Graz and lasted from December 2001 to June 2002. During this time the marketers focused on advertising Graz on television, printed media as well as in cinemas. The ads showed well- known places of the city, for instance, the Schlossberg and Old City, but they also marked the space where something new was going to exist. (see Fig. 5.1.) In Fig. 5.1. the marketers highlighted the area in which the ‘Murinsel’ was going to be placed with the slogan, “In Graz there is an island, which does not even yet exist” (In Graz gibt es eine Insel, die gibt es noch gar nicht). The second phase, which also also reached the international visitors and tourist market, and which was more intensive than the first one, started in August 2002. It included national and international promotion tours as well as advertising the event via printed media, television and radio. Besides, this campaign included the launching of the logo (see Fig. 5.2.). Another interesting fact about the national campaign is that the marketers played with the ‘rivalry’ between Vienna and Graz. The two cities often try to argue why they represent Austria better than the other one. So, the marketers placed an ironic poster in Vienna, which said, “Welcome to Vienna, the most beautiful suburb of Graz” (see Fig. 5.3.). According to the official website of ‘Graz 0003’ the main goals of the year 2003 was to promote this event and to develop a brand and make Graz known as a creative and cultural hotspot within Austria and Europe. The hompage also highlighted that the starting point for Graz as a ‘European Capital of Culture’ was ideal to strengthen Graz’s visibility and its creative and cultural sides and potentials. By comparing the
Fig..5..3:.Poster.in.Vienna.to.promote.Graz.2003. goals of Graz authorities and the statistics (see Source:.Graz.Tourism Chart 5.1. and Tab. 5.1), Graz has been able to create a continual growth in tourism and the event in 2003 clearly influenced the appearance of the city and laid the foundation for more recent developments, which I discuss below.
! 30! 5.5 Graz – A city of design
After 2003 Graz’s government aimed to keep the new created image as a city of culture, design and art and to establish a creative scene, which had the potential to foster the local economy and tourism. By looking at the overnight-stays (Chart 5.1. and Tab 5.1.) Graz’s
Fig..5..4:.Official.logo. government has fulfilled its goals to create a continual growth in Graz.as.a.UNESCO.City. tourism, but also its residents started to identify themselves with the of.Design image of a creative city and the creative scene began to rise (Stadt Graz, 2016). Since the Kunsthaus was build at Südtirolerplatz the creative scene got a creative hotspot. Around the modern art museum many little creative shops and businesses have been established and created a ‘creative cluster’. The establishment of a creative cluster in the city helped the marketers to apply for the title as a ‘UNESCO5 City of Design’. In 2011 UNESCO awarded Graz with the title and now the city is part of a creative cities network around the world. These cities (e.g. Berlin, Montreal and Buenos Aires) agreed to promote designers and the creative scene and promised to give them specific public places for exhibiting their works as well as to promote contemporary architecture (UNESCO, 2016). In Graz, for instance, the Kunsthaus and Joanneumsviertel (museums quarter in the inner city of Graz) host special design events and, once a year the Designmonat (month of design) takes place. During this event, Graz invites local, national and international designers, artist and other creatives for staging their works at several exhibitions (Creative Industries Styria, 2016). However, not only do designers and artists have the opportunity to present their works, Graz also hosts many other festivals related to the creative industry (e.g. Styriate6, Diagonale7, LaStrada 8and Elevate9).
Apart from the UNESCO title, Graz entitled itself (since 2001) as the first European ‘City of Human Rights’. This title and the image of a humanitarian city is more a political statement than a touristic one. Nevertheless, a city which claims to include in in its agenda on equality of women and men and claims to be open for all different lifestyles (see pamphlet of Stadt Graz, 2016) has the potentiality of attracting people that belong to so-called minority groups, for instance, people of the LBGT community. However, according to a survey, which was conducted by Der Standard (2011), only a quarter of locals were aware of the fact that Graz is even focusing on human rights to strengthen its image. In my view, this is definitely a lost
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5!UNESCO!is!a!strand!of!the!United!Nations!(UN)!to!guarantee!peace!worldwide!by!promoting!education,! intercultural!dialogues,!protecting!and!preserving!human!rights,!freedom!of!speech,!heritage!and!culture.! 6!Styriate!is!a!music!festival!in!Graz!focusing!on!classical!music! 7!Diagonale!is!an!Austrian!film!and!film!music!festival!hosted!in!Graz.!This!takes!place!every!March.! 8!LaStrada!is!an!international!theatre!festival!which!takes!place!in!public!places!and!streets.! 9!Elevate!is!a!festival!dealing!with!contemporary!music!and!political!discourse!! ! 31! potential and could be taken in consideration in future projects. Not only on political and city agenda projects, but also in a touristic sense because, nowadays, many people can identify themselves with an open minded society and lifestyle (further LGTB tourism would represent a further diversification for cities as Graz). Therefore, in my opinion, branding and marketing Graz as an open minded city which welcomes all different lifestyles would, first of all, suit perfectly the image of a cultural and creative melting pot and also foster the tourist industries. Another marketed image of Graz is that of a ‘Genusshauptstadt’ (Capital of Gusto). In Styria and, generally overall Austria, food and beverages are of high cultural importance and there is no tourist advertising material without reference to the local food. Styrians are said to be very proud of their agricultural goods, for example, their wines, which are produced in the southern part of the federal state as well as the different meat production places in the northeast and northwest (Genussregion Österreich 2016). Therefore it is no surprise that there are many tourist sites that deal with food and beverage and areas such as the ‘Südsteirische Weinstraße’ (Southern Styrian Street of Wine) invite people to enjoy the landscape and taste some of their wine and food. The idea of promoting local cuisine and wine was imported to and adopted by Graz and Graz Tourism and the city now offers specific city tours and events, which focus on food and drinks. Furthermore, many restaurants offer special menus with ingredients and drinks that are produced in Styria (Graz Tourism, 2016). One of the main events regarding the image of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’ is ‘Die Lange Tafel’ (The long table) each year in July, the main square is turned into an open-air restaurant and guests can enjoy a five-course dinner with great wines and music.
5.6 Conclusion
This chapter gave a short overview of the development of tourism in Graz in the last 25 years. It shows that Graz was not a city of interest for tourists, but since the late 1990s and particularly the event of the ‘European Capital of Culture’ in 2003, Graz has managed to change its image of an industrial town to a creative and cultural hotspot in Austria as well as in Europe. The main factors of this development are the several titles the city has received, e.g. Graz- UNESCO City of Design and UNESCO World Heritage. Not only are these titles of high importance, but also by introducing the ‘creative industries’ Graz supports and fosters its local creative business and scene. Another interesting factor in the marketing strategies is the idea of the ‘Genussregion’. This concept ties the city and its surroundings closer together and promotes the Styrian region as well. It can be argued that the marketing and image change process have been very successful in the last decades and Graz has become a place of interest in the tourist marketplace. In the following chapters I want to analyse how these processes are presented nowadays. I will focus on the latest marketing strategies on Instagram (as described in Chapter 1) and on guided tours offered by Graz Tourism. ! 32! 6 Analysis of the Instagram Account of Graz Tourism 6.1 Introduction
This chapter analyses the official Instagram account of Graz Tourism and which ‘online’ tourist gaze is being created. I clarify which sites of Graz are presented; how it is done and which identifiers or the so-called hashtags are used. Before focusing on the images posted on the official Instagram account, the chapter shortly introduces Instagram and how this application can be used in marketing strategies.
6.2 Instagram – A social media for photographs
As already mentioned in Chapter 2, Instagram is a social media application for smartphones to share, post and alter photographs. In addition, users can follow other users, see which pictures they upload and interact (e.g. by liking pictures, sending messages and commenting on pictures) with other users. Another important element of this app are so-called ‘hashtags,’ marked with the sign #. By using ‘hashtags’ users can categorise and look for images that have been uploaded with the same hashtag (#) (i.e. identifier of the categories). Kobilke (2014) describes Instagram as a free photo and video-sharing app in which visual media can easily be adapted and shared online via different social media channels (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) and e-mails as well. Further, she argues that Instagram has become so successful because of its retro- and vintage filters. These filters help users to romanticise their photos and, after altering their pictures, these images look like photos taken with a Polaroid camera in the 1970s and 80s. This is, according to Kobilke (2014:14), one of the main reasons why Instagram has become so successful: “[S]o, this app connects nostalgia, which some people, nowadays, are seeking for, with modern technology” 10 . Additionally, she sees Instagram as a pioneer in the so-called ‘visual-social-media’ trend. Namely a dtrend that embodies an increasing communication via videos and pictures due to the fact that people, nowadays, can process visual materials more easily. Kobilke highlights the increase of visual social media use by adding that “a picture says more than thousand words”. By looking at the official Instagram website the company defines itself as:
a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. We're building Instagram to allow you to experience moments in your friends' lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos. (Instagram, 2016)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10!Translation:+So!verbindet!die!App!Nostalgie,!nach!der!sich!die!Menschen!sehnen,!mit!der! Modernität!der!Technik.! ! 33!
In short, Instagram is a social media network and an app through which pictures and videos can easily be adapted, posted and shared, and where other people can comment, like and follow other users’ work. This is, however, not the only way Instagram is used today. In sections 2.5. – 2.7, I illustrated the development of and relation between marketing strategies and social media with a special focus on the photo-sharing app. To summarise, marketing has become very interactive and marketers try to communicate with (potential) customers to optimise their strategies and products. Further, in regard to tourism, I discussed several aspects of social media and especially photography. I argued that marketers create specific myths about places and therefore, contribute to forming the tourist gaze. However, since
Fig.6.1:.The.official.account.of.Graz. photography and mobile photography has become very Tourism.on.Instagram popular, also tourists and the pictures they take, strongly influence the ‘gazing process’ and can even support or destroy the created myth of a place. In Chapter 2 and 3, then, I highlighted the idea of using tourists’ and/or locals’ pictures and photographs in the marketing process to support the ‘authentic’ gaze that reflect the ‘real life’ and even to create new sites, which might be worth gazing at. Graz Tourism also uses this marketing strategy and has opened the official account called @visitgraz (Fig. 6.1). According to Nadja Ablrecht, the responsible for social media activities, there are two main reasons for opening the Graz Tourism account to other Instagrammers: first, by opening the official account of Graz Tourism to local people and posting photos they take, the pictures create a view which is more authentic and multifaceted. Secondly, the accounts of the local Instagrammer gain more attention as well. The attention might be increasing because of the greater audience @visitgraz has: the account has probably more followers than some Instagrammers from Graz and, if users like the ‘hosted’ images, they might follow the ‘hosted’ account.
6.3 @visitgraz
The official Instagram account of Graz tourism is called @visitgraz (Fig. 6.1.) and regularly posts different pictures of the city. So far, the account has posted 236 pictures and
! 34! has 3179 followers11. Graz Tourism itself, however, only follows only 57 other users. In my opinion, based on new marketing and social media strategies (see Section 2.5) and the latest development of communication between marketers and customers, Graz Tourism should follow more users, especially residents, to gain a better gaze of local Instagrammers and to create more authentic ‘online gazes’. Another positive aspect could be a more intense communication, for instance, liking, commenting and reposting pictures of users the tourist agency follows. This creates, then, a closer tie between tourist authorities and tourists.
6.3.1 @visitgraz hosts @ihavethisthingwithgraz
By further investigation, I found pictures taken by a local Instagrammer called, @ihavethisthingwithgraz12. Graz Tourism was lending
Fig.6.3:.The.portal.at.Landzeughaus.with.the. its account to a resident Instagrammer heraldic.animal.of.Styria @ihavethisthingwtihgraz and allowed this user to post pictures on their profile. The pictures that have been uploaded are clearly located in the historic parts of city. The user focuses on facades, statues and portals, which are also mostly gazed upon during the ‘Historic Centre Walking Tour’ (HCWT). The first picture uploaded by Graz Tourism and taken by @ihavethisthingwithgraz is the green portal with the Styrian heraldic animal (Fig. 6.2.) located in the inner court of the Landzeughaus. The portal is also the starting point of the HCWT (Historic Centre Walking Tour), where the guide shortly explains the main historical aspects of Graz and Styria. In regard to the official Instagram account of Graz Tourism and their
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 11!accessed!24.03.2016! 12 Fig.6.!This!user!is!a!resident!of!Graz!and!her!name!is!Carina!Spielberger.!She!has!been!living!in!Graz!2:.Wooden.facade.of.the.K&K.bakery.at.Hofgasse for!many!years!and!was!asked!by!Graz!Tourism!to!start!with!their!latest!strategy!idea,!namely!to! open!the!account!to!residents.! ! ! 35! latest marketing strategy, it is a perfect link to an online-guided tour of the historic centre. By looking at the following pictures of @ihavethisthingwithgraz a Graz’s resident clearly recognise other sites, for example, the K&K Hofbäckerei (bakery of the K&K monarchy) and Stiegenkirche (see Fig. 6.3.), which during my fieldwork, I was encouraged to gaze at by the guides. However, not only is Carina Spielberger (@ihavethisthingwithgraz) focusing on the historic elements of the city, but also on more recent developments. The host account @ihavethisthingwithgraz presents the Kunsthaus (Fig. 6.4) photographed from the Schlossberg and describes the history of the building. Another picture that represents Graz’s modern and design side is the one that shows parts of the statue “Lichtschwert” and the modern architecture next to it (Fig. 6.5). By closer observation, an interesting element, the Grazer Uhrturm can be sighted, as a reflection in the windows of the building. It can be argued that this combination of contemporary architecture and the statue with the reflection of the Uhrturm is perfectly arranged. It underlines the image of Graz as a cultural heritage and Fig.6.4:.View.on.the.Kunsthaus.from.the. Schlossberg. modern, architectural hotspot, which is able to connect heritage with contemporary creative influences. Rose (1996,2012) and Bartram (2010) also suggest not only looking at the perspective, colours and motives of visual materials, but also at the production of visualised materials, therefore comment shortly on the arrangements and production of the pictures taken by @ihavethisthingwithgraz. Not surprisingly, these pictures were uploaded to Instagram via the mobile app and altered with some filters. The pictures of the hosted photographer are mostly very bright and whited. This has the effect that greyish clouds and darker colours are less visible and the appearances of photographed sites (e.g. facades) become more beautiful and flawless – in other words, romanticised. Another interesting feature of these posted Fig.6.5.:.The.arm.of.the.statue. photographs on @visitgraz taken from ‘Lichterschwert’.and.the.reflection.of. the.Uhrturm. ! 36! @ihavethisthingwithgraz are their angles. The photographer takes pictures from very specific and unusual angles and creates a new gaze upon well-known and iconic sites of the city. The most representative of this series is the one showing the Uhrturm (Fig. 6.6). In advertisements and most of the Uhrturm can be seen from the city’s angle, from the top of the Schlossberg or the bird’s eye view. This picture is taken from the bottom of the Uhrturm, probably next to the stairs to the garden of roses. It offers a detailed look on the Uhrturm and its façade, but also on the fence, which might be ‘overseen’ when walking around on the Schlossberg. As already mentioned, another important aspect of Instagram is the use of hashtags (#). I focus now on discussing which hashtags are used to identify and categorise the pictures on the official account of Graz Tourism taken by @ihavethisthingwithgraz. By looking closer at the use of hashtags, three different categories can be identified. The first group of identifiers concentrates on tourism, especially on tourism in Graz. The most used hashtags are, for example #visitgraz, #urban, #tourism and #urbanexploration. These hashtags clearly highlight the idea of visiting Graz and the possibility of exploring an urban landscape. #urbanexploration gives the reader the feeling that there are many sites and sights to explore in the city and multiple gazes are possible. Further on, ‘exploration’
Fig.6.6:.The.Uhrturm.in.Graz. connotes the meaning of less ‘pre-performed ways’ (see Chapter 3) for tourists; namely, it suggests a more spontaneous and less staged idea of moving around the city. The second category of hashtag identifies the locations in Graz, the name of the site and gives extra information. For example, the hashtags to Fig.6.4 are #kunsthaus, #bluebubble, #friendlyalien, #architecture and #jj_architecture. The first identifier states the name of the building and its function as a museum of modern art, the following ones then show the nicknames residents often use to talk about the Kunsthaus. The last two identifiers further describe the site as an architectural hotspot and refer to the image of Graz as a city of design. The last group of hashtags, which I identified in this series of pictures, are the mostly general ones. By using identifiers, e.g. #instagraz, #graz, the user identifies his or her location and the community of Instagrammers he or she belongs to. So most of the Instagrammers who come from Graz use this hashtag to identify themselves as people from
! 37! Graz. In considering, this group, I have also included hasthags such as #spring, #streetart and #love. These hashtags give further information about the picture, for example, when it was taken, and refer to emotions the user felt when gazing at the site while taking the picture as well as minor elements in the picture (e.g. graffiti).
6.3.2 @visitgraz reposted pictures ! Apart from offering the account to local residentss and posting their pictures online, I also examined the ‘reposting-strategy. To summarise, on Instagram users are allowed to repost pictures of other users by referencing to them. Therefore, reposting is often used by companies for several marketing reasons (for further details see Chapter 2). By looking closer at the official account of Graz Tourism, @visitgraz has been reposting
Fig.6.7: Reposted picture taken by several pictures. In general, these pictures either show @republic_of_travellers typical sites of Graz (e.g. Kunsthaus, Uhrturm), indicate which events take place in the city or ‘typical tourists’ photos’ that picture, for example, great dusk sceneries. The first picture, I want to discuss is a repost (Fig. 6.7) from @republic_of_travellers. I would define it, as described before, as a picture that represents a typical site of Graz, namely the Uhrturm. The interesting aspect about this picture, however, is that it reflects a well- known site of the city, but due to the glass ball and its ‘upside-down effect’, it offers a special view on the site. It is a very creative and an aesthetic image, which has the potential to underline the image of creativity and aesthetics because it is a unusual angle and great idea to focus on a site through a glassball. Another reposted picture (Fig. 6.8), in contrast that was reposted during the Austrian film festival
Fig.6.8.: Reposted picture taken from the account of @visitsteiermark !
! 38! ‘Diagonale’, clearly deviates from the pictures described above. @visitgraz took the picture of the Kunsthaus with the Diagonale-lettering on the BIX13- façade of the art museum from @visitsteiermark. It deviates from other reposted pictures because I would not categorise it as a typical tourist or picture for professionally advertising the city. The composition of light and colours is very dark and further, the angle is neither unusual nor is the lettering fully presented and it could be assumed that a resident or tourist might have taken the picture by passing by the building. Then, he or she posted it online to inform his or her followers about the event. It could be argued that Instagram’s aim is to post imperfect pictures, however, this picture does neither fit in the line of Graz Tourism’s reposted pictures nor to any marketing strategies I described. Due to the fact that this picture is reposted from @visitsteiermark,
Fig.6.9: Winning picture of the which is the official account of Steiermark Tourism, this Advent-Challenge taken by @belinda_gs post does not suite into this series of pictures. Several aspects represent its inauthenticity, namely, the
imperfection of light-shadow composition, the diversity of colours and the angle as well as that it is a repost from another tourist agency. The last picture (Fig. 6.9) from the ‘repost-series’ I want to discuss, illustrates another marketing strategy, I already described in Chapter 2, namely photo challenges. During the Advent 2015 Graz Tourism presented an ‘Advent- Challenge’ and asked Instagrammers to post their pictures of Graz during this time and to use the hashtag #adventingraz as an identifier. The winner of the challenge won biscuits and a voucher of 50€ (Visit Graz on Facebook, 2016). By creating such challenges and related hashtags, Graz Tourism gets
Fig.6.10: Picture posted by Graz access to many pictures posted by residents and Tourism promoting the UNESCO tourists, but also Instagrammers can see different hot Heritage of Graz historic city spots during the Advent in Graz posted by other users and might get more information about events and places which should be visited and gazed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 13!name!of!the!facade!of!the!Kunsthaus.!It!is!filled!with!925!circular!glow!sticks.!It!has!the!effect! that!the!building!can!communicate!with!the!city!and!offers!also!a!place!for!several!lightMart! projects.!(Universalmuseum!Joanneum,!2016)! ! 39! upon. The winning picture (Fig. 6.9) was taken by @belinda_gs and represents a typical element of the Advent in Graz; namely, the ice nativity scene. Every year the artist Kimmo Frosti creates this artwork at the beginning of the Christmas time and is part of the winter highlights in the city (Graz Tourism, 2016).
Fig.6.11: The historic city and the Fig.6.12: An advertising picture of typical red roofs Graz Tourism on Instagram
Further, I also looked at the used hashtags added to Fig. 6.7-9 and tried to compare these identifiers with those used by the pictures of the picture series hosted by @ihavethisthingwithgraz. In general, @visitgraz barely used hashtags for their reposted pictures and if, they clearly belonged to the second group (location identifiers), I identified before. For example, for Fig. 6.8 Graz Tourism used following hashtags: #graz, #kunsthaus #filmfestival. The composition of Fig.6..8 and the use of hashtags could be improved and the film festival much better represented. Overall, the filmfestival ‘Diagonale’ was not presented and promoted at all on this social media platform. For the pictures of @republic_of_travellers none identifiers were used, Graz Tourism only shortly commented on their repost with reference to the user by saying: “Nice one, @republic_of_travellers.” In the 'repost series’, where so-called hashtags were intensively used, was only during the ‘Advent-Challenge’. Each ‘hashtag category’ namely, the touristic, descriptive and general group, were used (e.g. tourism category - #traveleurope, location category - #austria and general one - #christmas).
! 40! 6.3.3 The pictures taken and posted by @visitgraz
The last series of pictures I want to analyse are those taken and posted by @visitgraz. These pictures are not reposted by Graz Tourism and clearly have the aim to advertise tourist sites of Graz and to highlight places, which have to be seen and gazed upon. The first pictures I want to discuss were uploaded approximately two years ago and reflect the beginning of Graz Tourism on Instagram. The first picture (Fig. 6.10.) I want to discuss shows a sign at the city hall that declares the historic city of Graz as part of the UNESCO Heritage. As stated in Chapter 2, Graz has been part of the UNESCO Heritage programme since the late 1990s and one of the most featured and promoted touristic elements in Graz. The following pictures on the social media platform clearly
Fig.6.13: View over the city from the focus on the historic city. Most pictures show the red Schlossberg
roofs, the Uhrturm and Schlossberg. Moreover, at the beginning Graz Tourism has not been using any filters and altering functions of the application. The simple reason for this is that these pictures seem to be taken from a professional photographer or at least with a digital reflex camera. In other words, these pictures (see Fig. 6.11-13.) are too perfect for Instagram and have not been altered to look imperfect. Additionally, as exemplified with Fig.6.11-13 the created gaze on Instagram is not very diversified. Graz Tourism presents the historic town and the Schlossberg only from several different unspectacular angles. To summarise, the created tourist gaze is not very spectacular and too perfect. It creates a feeling of ‘inauthenticity’ and reminds too much of standardized advertising material. However, not only the quality of the
Fig.6.14:.A.sign.at.a.stall.at.the.main. pictures themselves, but also the lifeless and motionless square.offering.local.agricultural.goods. motives of the pictures underline these feelings. In most of the pictures that were posted several months ago users can only see buildings and monuments and no people or vivid actions.
! 41! Apart from showing the UNSECO Heritage parts of the city, Graz Tourism also focuses on the aspect of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’ (see Chapter 5) on Instagram. As written in Chapter 5, Graz is part of the so-called ‘Genussregion’ and supports regional agricultural goods (e.g. wine, fruits and vegetables as well as meat). @visitgraz posts several pictures (Fig. 6.14-16.) showing boards and signs that advertise, for instance, Styrian asparagus, strawberries and chocolate. The first two pictures present advertising boards in the city which either could be from a restaurant or one of the many farmer’s markets in Graz. This underlines, once more, the image of Graz as a city, which supports local and regional agricultural goods. These pictures underline the image of Graz as a city that cares about good food quality and
Fig.6.15: Restaurant offering regional production. The chocolate, moreover, is produced asparagus and ice coffee several kilometres away from Graz at Zotter’s chocolate manufacture in Riegersburg. It is probably the best-known Austrian chocolate and more importantly, Zotter produces its sweets as fair, sustainable and organic, which perfectly fits into the image of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’. Another event that is more or less the main event of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’ image is the ‘long table’ (Lange Tafel) in summer (Fig.6.17). @visitgraz posted a picture of last year’s ‘long table’. The picture shows a glamorous covered table on one of the streets next to the city hall. This picture perfectly represents the idea of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’ because the presented food and beverages are produced in the region and the event is one of the main elements in the summer season. By analysing the Instagram account of Graz Tourism it is also very noticeable that some posted pictures present different folklore traditions and festivals in the city. Therefore, when Graz Tourism became active on Instagram, the first posted pictures by @visitgraz were taken at the beginning of the Advent 2014 and show the Krampus parade in the city and different elements of the
Fig.6.16: Entrance of the chocolate Christmas markets in the city such as the different manufacture at Riegersburg
! 42! handcrafts and ‘Glühwein’ stalls. In addition, it also presents the Christmas lightning of the city. However, not only the Christmas time in Graz is promoted, but also the Easter and spring season. The account shows that not matter which season and weather it is, Graz can always offer some activities. Additionally, on Instagram also some pictures of well-known festivals in Graz are posted. Fig. 6.18 presents the street art festival ‘LaStrada’ (which I also commented on in Chapter 5). However, there are much more festivals and events in Graz than have been presented on Instagram (e.g. LaStrada and Diagonale), for example, music festival (e.g. Springfestival, Elevate and Styriate), flea markets (Annenstraßeflohmarkt) and street food markets. This is a lost potential and should be focused on more because by promoting such festivals in the city, much more younger tourists could be attracted and a broader visitor pool created by promoting such festivals much more on the social media app. Another image of the city that is barely promoted, as I already mentioned in Chapter 5 that discusses Graz’s marketing is the image of the ‘City of Human Rights’. The only two pictures on the official account that could be related to this topic is Fig. 6.19 and 6.20. The first one (Fig. 6.19) shows the synagogue in Graz at the Grieskai and the other one (Fig.6.20) the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade in Graz. These pictures could send out the image of an open city, which accepts all different kind of lifestyles and religious beliefs and equal opportunities for all residents and visitors. Finally, I looked at the development of the use of hashtags and analyse the used identifiers. By starting at
the early-posted pictures, Graz Tourism barely used any Fig.6.17: The long table in Graz every summer identifiers. By analysing the hashtags of the ‘hosted’ pictures, I identified three different categories of hashtags – the touristic group, the descriptive one and the general group. In @visitgraz’s early stage of using Instagram they mainly used general ones. These identifiers did not have any specification for Graz Tourism or were not descriptive. Fig. 6.10, for example, is marked with hashtags such as #ig, #igersgraz, #Graz and #travelgram. These identifiers are very general and a loose connection to Graz Tourism. The effect of ‘hahstaging’ UNESCO or even to tag 14 the UNESCO instagram profile could have a broader effect and reach more people and potential tourists. However, the more pictures were uploaded to the application, the faster the use of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 14!to!tag!someone!in!a!pictures!means!to!identify!a!person/company!which!is!also!active!on! Instagram.!! ! 43! identifiers developed. Another Uhrtrum picture (Fig. 6.12.) is already marked with identifiers from all three categories. @visitgraz identified its picture with touristic ones (e.g. #visitgraz, #travel, #reisen and #holiday), descriptive hashtags (e.g. #Clocktower, #Uhrturm and #Schlossberg) and the general ones (e.g. #igersgraz, #photooftheday #red and #roses). Then I also considered the hashtags used for the pictures showing features of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’, namely for Fig.6.14-17. The identifiers are barely used in any of these pictures and are not very descriptive, and a user can hardly be understand what these pictures should present and mean. There are only used general identifiers (e.g. #igersgraz, #graz) and the comments and description of the picture is in German. Therefore, hardly any potential visitor from outside Austria, Germany and Switzerland could understand it and would not get any idea out of the picture. Moreover, even Fig. 6.17 which shows the event of the ‘long table, is not well categorised. At least the description is written in English, however, it just says that Graz is preparing for a special evening without giving more information about the nicely covered
Fig.6.18: A snap from the street long table in the street. festival LaStrada 6.4 Conclusion
Instagram has reached an important role in many marketing strategies and has also become part of the marketing process of Graz Tourism. By posting and reposting pictures, altering them and identifying them, many users around the world have access to these pictures and can be included into their target group of potential visitors. Graz Tourism has been active as @visitgraz on Instagram for approximately two years now and developed its usage of the application more and more. In the beginning, Graz Tourism posted typical advertising material for attracting tourists. These pictures
were too perfect and obviously taken with a camera of Fig.6.19: The synagogue in Graz high quality and also the angles were not very spectacular or unconventional. In other words, the city was presented very neatly and
! 44! flawless, which is not the overall aim of Instagram. By posting these flawless pictures Graz Tourism could not create a feeling of ‘authenticity’, whereas, as soon as they started to present the city from other angles, used filters and started to repost and finally, even borrowed the account to a resident (Carina Spielberger, @ihavethisthingwithgraz) the pictures became more genuine and seemed to be taken out of a moment and not planned. This development can also be followed according to the likes of their pictures. At first, @visitgraz did not have that many likes for their pictures, but as soon as they changed their online appearance, the pictures became more emotional and it seemed they were taken more spontaneously, and the amount of likes increased. Another effect for gaining more likes and followers on the social media application is definitely the improved usage of so-called hashtags by Graz Tourism. As stated above, in the beginning Graz Tourism hardly used any identifiers for their pictures and if, they were very general and did not specify what was presented in the picture. The longer they used this application for promoting the
city, the better their communication has become. Graz Fig.6.20: Snap of the CSD parade in Graz Tourism started to make use of multiple hashtags, which I categorised in three bigger categories – touristic, descriptive and general group. By using more and different identifiers the pictures appear in many more categories and therefore, can reach much more users on Instagram. The idea of reposting and hosting local Instagrammers has also increased the amount of likes and followers of @visitgraz. By doing so, potential tourists who scroll through these pictures get a much more diverse gaze of Graz and get aware of sights and sites locals often gaze upon. This fosters the feeling of ‘authenticity’ in the sense that it creates a tourist gaze that seems to be influenced by residents and visitors are encouraged to gaze upon places and sites they would not have considered to visit during their stay in Graz. Overall, I believe that Graz Tourism has greatly developed its marketing strategies on Instagram and that they are able to create a more genuine and spontaneous and, somehow ‘authentic’ gaze of the city and less ‘artificial’ gaze of the city.. However, there is still the potential to improve their strategy and to focus on many other aspects and images of the city. As already often commented on, the image of Graz as a ‘City of Human Rights’, ‘Genusshauptstadt’ and ‘City of Design’ could be improved. Moreover, also the places and sites that are shown on Instagram are not very sensational and unusual. @visitgraz should
! 45! try to find a better mix of places that have to be gazed upon during a stay in the city, but there is also a chance to present sites and places that tourists usually would not gaze upon, for example, beautifully designed yards, castles and ruins. Further on, Graz often hosts great festivals, however, in the last two years, barely any pictures of these events have been posted and promoted. This is definitely a lost potential because many young people, nowadays, use Instagram, and by posting and promoting music festivals in the city could attract young people from other cities and countries. To sum it up, the ‘online’ tourist gaze has become more ‘authentic’, genuine, than at the beginning, but still does not totally catch the ‘real’ life of the city. The pictures are often still too standardised and seem little spontaneous. According to MacCannels (1973) six-steps continuum of authenticity (see Chapter 2), I would categorise the whole Graz Tourismus Instagram account somewhere between step 4-5. MacCannel (1973) defines step 4 as a back region that is open to outsiders at specific moments in time and step 5 as a cleaned up back stage area for tourists. For me the account is still too flawless and mostly presents well- known places of the city, which also can be seen in any tourist guide. However, by lending the official account to residents, reposting pictures of tourists and locals and creating more Instagram challenges, the ‘online’ tourist gaze could present a broadened view and become even more interesting, attractive and less artificial.
! 46! 7 Analysis of the Historic City Walking Tour 7.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the ‘offline’ tourist gaze of the analysis, namely, it focuses on the Historic City Walking Tour (HCWT) (see Fig. 7.1) offered by Graz Tourism. This chapter is divided into several sections. The first section focuses on the HCWT and the different stops and created gaze. I explain the different stops and what the tourists were asked to gaze upon. Then, continues with two sections on performances, namely the guides’ performances and the tourists’ performances. I comment on the performances of the guides and the tourists and connect it to the theory I discussed in Chapter 4. Finally, the analysis of the HCWT ends with a conclusion and a comparison to MacCannell’s (1973) continuum of authenticity (see Chapter 2).
7.2 The created tourist gaze
The meeting point (N°1 in Fig. 7.1) of the HCWT is at the Info-Point of Graz Tourism in Herrengasse and the tour starts in the inner yard of the Landeszeughaus. Before the tour begins the tourists are asked to wait in the Info-point where they also have the possibility to look at and buy souvenirs. After the tour guide arrives and welcomes the participants of the HCWT, the guide walks outside in the inner yard of the Landeszeughaus and starts with a short summary of the history of Graz and the building. While talking to the tourists s/he asks the tourists to gaze at specific elements of the facades and architectural elements (e.g. arcades), which were built in two different epochs – mainly renaissance and baroque. All
Fig. 7. 5: The HCWT and its route through the city – adapted from Google Maps (2016) ! 47! guides also explain the function of the Landeszeughaus over time, but also focus on different things. The first guide often leads the gaze at the wells in the yard and even talks about the ovens that are inside the building, whereas, the other guides completely ignore them and talk about a statue in the yard and the ice nativity scene, which is to be found in the yard during Christmas time. However, what all guides perfectly achieve, is to lead the gaze upon the Italian architectural style throughout the whole city. Also interesting about the starting point is that only one guide leads the gaze at the portal with the heraldic animal of Stryia and describes its origin and meaning because it is a very prominent portal in the inner yard. Additionally, the guides also refer to different events (e.g. open air movie nights), which are hosted in the yard during summer. The next stop of the tours is at the corner Schmiedgasse/Landhausgasse (N°2). This stop should exemplify the development of Graz and show a modern traffic concept – a pedestrian and biker-friendly area and more importantly, the tourists should see how the street developed from an old street of smiths into a minor shopping street with good Styrian restaurants and coffee shops. An interesting aspect, here, is that the tourist guides also talk about the museums quarter, namely the Joanneum, but the tour never leads there. I guess that the tours do not lead to the museums quarter because it could spoil the tourist romanticised gaze of Graz. The Andreas-Hofer- Platz is considered to be one of the less nice squares of Graz and, in my view, it does not fit into the image of the UNESCO Heritage. Therefore, the tour guides just refer to the Joanneum instead of
Fig. 7. 6: Tourists and guide at stop N°3 with the view on the Uhrtrum – directly leading the tourists Photo: Florian Maksymiw there.
! 48! To the third stop (N°3), the main square and city hall, the tour passes the Congress and Casino as well as a bank. On the way to the main square, the guides say that the tourists would have a great view on the Schlossberg and the Uhrturm (Fig. 7.2) and should take pictures, but one guide tells the tourists some stories about the Casino, Congress (place for hosting several events) and the development of the bank too. The guides state that the Congress in Graz hosts many formal events, for instance, different balls and classic music evenings. Then, in front of the city hall, the guides ask the tourists to gaze upon the city hall and explain the
Fig. 7. 7: Stop N°4 of the tour showing the facade of the historic development of the city. The tourist Herzogshof Photo: Florian Maksymiw gaze is also led to the red roofs of the surrounding buildings, while explaining that Graz was entitled as UNESCO Heritage in 1999. Additionally, at the main square the tourist groups are confronted with much more ‘real life’ then ever on the tour before. At this place tourists see people from all social classes. It is also interesting that the guides do not ignore it and tourists get some explanations about the drugs scenery in Graz, when asked. Furthermore, at the third station of the city tour, the explanation and created gaze of the different guides deviated once more. One of the guides focuses more on the historical artefacts and facades on the main square and talks about Erzherzog Johann and his great influence on Graz as well as the counter-reformation. During the second tour the tourists gain more information about the architectural structures of the building and are told why some houses have two smaller roofs instead of one. This is then, further connected to a short discussion about the property market and the rising rents in the city. The next stop (N°4) leads into the busiest street of the inner city, namely Herrengasse, in front of the so-called ‘Gemalte Haus’ or also known as ‘Herzoghof’ (Fig. 7.3). The tourists look at the facade while the guides explain the meaning of it. To summarise, it praises the different social groups of the city and the different people are depictured as the old Greek gods. The facade shows the hierarchy of the society during the Habsburg monarchy. After the tourists took pictures and the explanation of the facade is finished, the tour stops for a few minutes in the inner yard of the building, where the tour guides state that
! 49! nowadays, these inner yards are often filled with several smaller shops and Cafés. In addition, one of the guides also underlines the silence in these yards and said, “Can you hear the difference? Just outside of the building we stood on one of the busiest streets of the city and the noises were incredibly loud, but in here, you cannot hear anything of the vibrant city life.” This is one of the few moments where the tour guides also tries to support other senses apart from seeing. The tour, then, goes on to the Glockenspielplatz (N°5), which is also referred to as Bermuda triangle (Bermudadreieck) because of the many bars and restaurants there. Once more the guides highlight the Italian flair and architecture of the surrounding and go into detail about the facades, which represent the different styles of baroque epoch. They also recommend the restaurants and bars in this area and especially to come back during summer time to be able to enjoy the Italian lifestyle of Graz. Anon, the highlight of the tourist gaze is the carillon (Glockenspiel) at this halt. The tourists are asked to gaze upon the carillon (Fig. 7.5) and listen to the sound. During the pauses of the carillon the guides explain the folklore dresses of the figures and give some historical information about its creator, the mechanic and the different sounds of the carillon. The next stop (N°6) of the tour directs the tourists into the yard of the old Jesuits building and the ‘Alte Universität’. In this yard the tourist hear the story of the counter- reformation and how the Habsburg family and Jesuits treated the Protestants at that time and that the fraternity was responsible for the foundation of many schools and the university in the city. One of the guides also summarises the life of Johannes Kepler, the world famous astronom and scientist, who lived in the city for several years until the counter-reformation reached its peak and he left Graz to go to Prague. At this site, the guides highlight the snowman (Fig. 7.6) in the inner yard of the old Jesuits fraternity and annotate the meaning and purpose of the white statue made out of marble and the puddle in front of it. Interestingly, the explanation of the statue deviated several times. One guide gives much more information about its creator and the artist and tells a story about the meaning of mortality, whereas the another guide just jokes about the statue und shortly comments on the puddle and why the snowman is looking into it. The following stopping point (N°7) is just on the opposite site of the street, which is also described as the city’s crown. It is the highest point of the city tour and, more importantly, it is the place where the cathedral and parts of the old castle and today parts of the Styrian government are placed. Therefore, the seventh stop focuses on the Habsburg family and their mausoleum as well as the cathedral. At this point, all guides focus on many different things and the tourist gaze is very diverse and depends on the guide’s interests. The one guide focuses on the statues and the fresco on the wall of the cathedral and explains the meaning of the art work in detail, whereas the second and third tour guide shortly summarise
! 50! the stories of the plagues Graz and its surroundings experienced within one year - grasshoppers, an extreme draught and plundering by the Ottomans. The first and third tour guide also lead the gaze inside the cathedral, but underlined different aspects inside. The first guide focuses again on the many statues and pictures inside the cathedral. In contrast, the other guide tells several stories about the counter-reformation and the fall of the Jesuits fraternity in Western Europe. The guide who does not enter the cathedral, however, underlines the different portals of the main church in Graz and says that the main entrance is never used because of the little space on the west side of the building and only is opened when important people from the Church enter the cathedral. After gazing at the cathedral, the tour just crosses the street to the leftovers of the castle in Graz (N°8). Today these buildings are part of the Styrian government and the Landeshauptmann and other Landesräte have their offices in there. So, the guides try to depicture how the castle could have looked like and finally, lead the tourists to one of the hidden gems in Graz – the double spiral staircase. The guides describe the story of the staircase and who built it. However, only one tourist guide offers the tourists to enter the staircase and tells the tourists the tale of the staircase and gives enough time for tourist performances, for example, to take pictures or to go up- and downstairs and enjoy the site. Besides, next to the staircase there is also an old Jewish tombstone with Hebrew inscription. Two of the guides highlight the tombstone and shortly comment on the history of the Jewish population in Graz. On the way to the next halt the K&K Bakery (N°9), the tour passes the entrance of the ‘Alte Universität’, Schauspielhaus and the Freiheitsplatz. Only one tour guide leads the gaze at the ‘Alte Universität’ and summarises the history of the building. None of them, however, let the tourists gaze upon the Schauspielhaus and support the theatre production in the city and encourage the tourists to see which plays might be performed over the weekend. Moreover, the Freiheitsplatz is a very interesting and historical important square, but this square is totally ignored and not even mentioned. Then, the ninth stop of the tour is in front of the bakery that provided the monarchs of Graz with bread and sweets. The guides talk about the different sorts of bread and sweets the bakery created for the monarchs and finally, go into a detailed explanation of the wooden entrance of the bakery. This place would be a great place to offer a taste of typical Austrian sweets or bread and extend the tourist experience from only gazing. Additionally, from this position the tourists also have a great view on the so-called ‘Stiegenkirche’. The guides make the tourists aware of the church and shortly comment on its creation. By walking down Sporgasse, the tour guides explain that this street is one of the oldest ones in the city and has developed into a shopping street and emphasise all the different little shops and encourage the tourists to walk along the street by themselves after
! 51! the tour to have a closer and more relaxed look at the different shops and houses. During the walk to the next stop (N°10 – Sporgasse/Herrengasse) the guides do not give much information and just let the tourists look around by themselves and dip into the busy street life. This is a very authentic experience and the tour participants have for once more time contact with locals and other people in the street. At the tenth stop, Sporgasse/Herrengasse, of the HCWT, then, the guides show the tourists the way to the best-known department store in Graz - ‘Kastner&Öhler”, and highlight the roof top bar and the great view over the city. Another tour guide also let the tourists gaze upon the house and its facade at the corner Sporgasse/Hauptplatz. He gives detailed information of the facade and tells the tourists a story about the institution of preservation of historic sites and a well-known Austrian jewellery shop. The account narrated by the guide at halt N°10 underlines the importance of Graz as a city that takes care of its image as a UNESCO Heritage site and exemplifies the problem of preserving historic buildings and today’s usage. The following stop of the HCWT leads the tourists via the main square and through a narrow street to the Franziskanerplatz (N°11). Once more the guides highlight the Italian flair of the square and the different restaurants and Cafés. The main attraction at this square, however, is the Franciscan church and therefore, the guides explain the origin story of the church close to the riverside. One tour guide also mentions the old cloister courtyard of the Franciscan fraternity, whereas, the other ones do not even noted its existence. The end of the HCWT is on the oldest bridge of the city (N°12), namely, the Erzherzog-Johann-Brücke. At this point the tour guides explain the expanding process of Graz and that this was the one and only bridge in the city for a very long time. The guides also note that the western part of the city was seen as the ‘bad’ site of Graz and just in the last few decades the image of the western side of the city has changed. Moreover, at the last point of the HCWT the guides also comment on the Kunsthaus and Murinsel and explain their functions. The final halt of the tour perfectly summarises the multiple images of Graz because the tourist gaze shows the red roofs of the old city, the Schlossberg and the Uhrturm as well as the Murinsel and the Kunsthaus. However, one of the guides does not comment on the European Capital of Culture event in 2003 and just says that something cultural was going on and since then the city developed its latest image as a city of design.
7.3 The tourist guides’ performances
As written in Chapter 3, tourism is marked by several performances either enacted by tourist authorities or tourists and that such performances often reveal the uneven power relations between the authorities and visitors. Moreover, I also discussed the fact that both, tourist authorities and the tourists themselves have specific expectations when visiting a foreign city
! 52! and participating in guided tours. Therefore, during fieldwork I observed how the guides performed and reacted to tourists’ questions. At the beginning of the tour the first tour guide welcomed everyone and also asked where the tourists came from. The guide then started the tour and often tried to find some connections between Graz and the tourists’ home country or town. Especially with tourists from Bavaria the guide explained how and why the Styrian dialect as well as different traditions and traditional costumes are very lookalike. By doing so, the guide tried to find a basis to get in touch with the tourists and to create a friendly atmosphere. At the beginning of the tour the guide was very open to questions and willing to give answers and explanations wherever needed, however, as the tour continued the guide more and more blocked questions and started to criticise the organisation of the tour. The guide often pointed out that the guide would show the tourists much more interesting sites of the city and would like to tell much more details and stories about several art works, facades and buildings, but that there were so many restrictions, for example, the several stops of the tour and the time as well. These observations clearly deviate from an expected guides’ performance and gives the participants the feeling that the guide is not satisfied with the organisation of the tour. Besides, it seems that the Austrian Tour Guides and Graz Tourism do not cooperate well. Another unexpected performance of the guide was that the guide did not give tourists enough time for their performances. As already exemplified, after a few moments the guide did not want to answer to tourists’ questions due to time restrictions and did not give them time for taking pictures and other tourist performances. Another unexpected move by this tour guide was that the guide never referred to any of the images of the city. In regard to the Kunsthaus and Murinsel the guide introduced his/her explanations by saying that in 2003 Graz had a cultural project going on which had been more or less successful and that the city hoped to keep the spirit of that cultural event, but the participants have to decide themselves, if they could detect any of that. To summarise the tourist guide’s performance, I would argue that the tour was well-planned, but the guide could not create a very ‘authentic’, in sense of realistic, gaze of the city because the guide focused to much on art works and artefacts and more importantly, these little observations and hints that the guide would organise the tour differently underlined the feeling of an inauthentic experience. The tour guide of another tour I attended organised the tour almost the same, however, did s/he not only refer to the facades and art works the tour passed. This guide was able to lead the tourist gaze also around less known buildings and artefacts and moreover, found a way to connect the scripted stories with anecdotes of his/her own life, for instance, the gap between a flourishing inner city and the and the institution of preservation of historic sites. Besides, the guide also commented on different problems in the city, for examples, the rising rents and the fine dust problems the city experiences from time to time. Compared to
! 53! the other tour guide this one gave the tourists enough time to perform at the different sites and also told them where they should take pictures. So, for example, at the old Jesuits fraternity where the snowman out of marble is placed, the guide pointed to the snowman and told the tourists that they had time for their performances. This tour guide also reacted to every question the tourists had and gave good and short explanations. The guide also recommended some restaurants and bars in the city and took reference to the image of Graz as a ‘Genusshauptstadt’. In addition, s/he constantly highlighted the images of Graz as a UNESCO Heritage and City of Design and that the European Cultural Capital in 2003 fostered and supported the city’s way to a design city. The guide’s performances and the created gaze seemed to be more authentic due to the guide’s anecdotes and references to actual problems of the city. Therefore, s/he created a not too romanticised and perfect picture of the city and by telling different stories and recommending places where the tourists can go. By doing so, the tourists have the feeling to get information from locals instead of someone working for tourist authorities. Another guide I observed welcomed everyone very friendly and shortly introduced him/herself and asked the tour participants to do the same. By doing so, the group become closer and it created a
Fig..7..8:.Tourists.performing.at.the.marble.snowman.Photo:.Johanna.Majcen. friendlier atmosphere. This guide pretty much followed the prescribed ways of the tour, but similar to another tour, s/he highlighted places and sites where tourists should take pictures and also encouraged tourists to walk upstairs the double-spiral staircase and to touch and take pictures with the marble snowman (Fig. 7.4). Additionally, the guide was very interested in the tourists’ opinion of the city and what they have done so far and gave further tips for the rest of the weekend, for example, visiting the Zotter manufacture. This tour guide also pitied that the tour mostly focuses on gazing and listing and that the guide could not offer a taste at the k&k bakery in Hofgasse. Sometimes the guide passed some interesting sites for the tourists, but as soon as there was one question the guide was very happy to give some explanations and at some
! 54! point she also apologised for forgetting some points of interest, but added that the guide had not done this HCWT for a longer time yet. So, in my view, the overall impression of this performance was authentic. The guide followed the prescribed way, but the gaze and explanations were orientated on the tourists’ interests and the guide welcomed the tourists’ questions and also apologised for overseeing some sites of interests. In addition, the way s/he communicated with the tourists and his/her tips for places and sites the tourists should visit before leaving, created a pleasant atmosphere.
7.4 Tourist Performances
In Chapter 3 I did not only comment the guides’ performances, but also described tourist performances. Based on Edensor’s (2001:73) theory three different performances were defined, namely, the directed, identity-orientated and non-conformist tourist performances. I already noted that the lines between these different performance groups are vague and fluent and one single tourist could be performing in any of these groups during one trip. In general, the tourists I observed during the HCWT can be categorised in the directed performances group due to fact that these visitors participate in a guided tour. However, even within the tour, tourists can perform unexpectedly and do not follow the guide’s directions. For example, tourists could criticise the created gaze and information they receive and ask questions about objects they discovered on their guided tour and possibly complain about the organisation of the tour when they feel bored and dissatisfied. The tourist performances during the three different HCWT I identified different actions and performances of tourists that happened unexpectedly or showed that the tourists were not satisfied with the created gaze and the guide’s performance at specific sites. Mostly, the tourists asked the guide for more explanations and specific information at specific sites of the HCWT. A great example for this happened at stop N°8 where the guides focused the gaze on the double spiral staircase and the different parts of the former palace in Graz. At a very prominent place, just on the opposite of the double spiral staircase, an old Jewish tombstone is placed to remind of the Jewish population in the city. Most guides did not comment on this object, however, just before leaving this site, at least one tour participant asked the guide about this tombstone and the Jewish population in Graz. Another site where tourists wanted to gain more information was at the Herzogshof, when the guides were asked about the development of rents in the city and in which district of the city is the most expensive one. The tourists, moreover, did not also want to have more explanations, but also expressed some critical comments, when tour guides did not give them enough time for their performances such as taking pictures, if the gaze upon a site was bad and the place too loud to understand the guide’s explanations. So, at the Jesuits fraternity one tour guide gave not
! 55! enough time for taking pictures with the marble snowman. Then, the tourists claimed that more time is needed for their performances, e.g. taking pictures and touching the snowman as well as gazing into the puddle to see the clock. One participant consistently broke out of prescribed gaze and performance and walked around the sites taking pictures while the guide was talking and forming the tourist gaze. Another point I highlighted in Chapters 2 and 3 is that there exists a strong power relation between authorities, residents and tourists. In regard to performances in tourism, observations and contact between local residents and visitors play an important role and that each group observes each other. So it was very interesting to see how the participants of the tour and people on the street reacted, when they were confronted with each other. In general, the tour mostly stopped at less busy places and the group were never directly confronted with the ‘real life’ of the city, however, for example, when walking from one inner yard to the next, in front of the city hall or Sporgasse, the group was led through busy streets. There, non-participants often looked at the tour group and tried to avoid passing the group closely or even changed the side of street. The tourists, in contrast, carefully observed from time to time people who passed by and talked about them with other group members and did not follow the guide’s gaze anymore. A prominent example for this happened, during the second HCWT I participated, when a gay couple walked by the group the HCWT participants started commenting and arguing about the couple and same-sex-marriage in general. The tour guide had to stop with his explanations and tried to get the group focused again. Similar group discussions were started, when the tour was on its way to the city hall and passed by the area at the main square, where some people sit around and drink their beers. Therefore, it can be said that tourists consistently observed other people during the HCWT and commented on their behaviour. In terms of observation, I would argue that residents and people who are not part of the group are more gazed upon than the other way around.
7.5 Conclusion
The HCWT is part several tours offered by Graz Tourism and leads participants of the tour through the historic city of Graz. By looking at Fig. 7.1 it can be seen that the focus of this tour is on prominent historic sites of the city and shows the tourists different facades, buildings and artworks. Generally, the tour is perfectly planned and worth participating, however, as Urry and Laresn (2011) argue, tourists need much more entertainment and multiple experiences while visiting a city. As I also quoted and underlined in Chapter 3, it is important to offer a multifaceted gaze while leading tourists through a city, for instance, not only focusing on seeing, but also other senses such as tasting, hearing and touching. The tour passes so many Styrian bars and restaurants that could offer a short taste of some typical food and beverages while gazing at a specific site. As already written above, for ! 56! example, the k&k bakery could offer a taste for the tour participants to experience the Habsburg’s favourite sweets, while listening to the guide’s anecdotes. This would also create an unexpected surprise effect because most of the tourists would not expect such tastes during the tour and could increase the satisfaction rate. Moreover, in regard to authenticity, the HCWT is a typical city tour and cannot completely represent and show the ‘real life’ in town. Further, I would even argue that participants of such guided tours are aware of the fact that these tours are prescribed and present historic parts and stories of the city. However, due to the performances of the tour guides and those of the tourists, the HCWT offered more information of the life in the city and also some recent problems Graz has to cope with. Therefore, according to MacCannel’s continuum (see Table 2.1), the HCWT can be categorised somewhere between Stage 4 (back stage opened for outsiders) and Stage 5 (cleaned up and prepared back stage). The tour stops are often excluded from big crowds and the tour has only little contact with residents, but due to the guide’s performances and the tourists’ questions, tour participants gain more insight into the ‘real life’ of the city.
! 57! 8 The City Bus Tour with the open-top bus
8.1 Introduction
This chapter analyses another offered guided tour through the city of Graz, namely, the City Bus Tour (CBT). This chapter is similar structured as the chapter before. The first section focuses on the CBT and its path through the city and displays the created gaze. Then, it continues with two sections on performances, namely the guides’ performances and the tourists’ performances. I comment on the performances of the guides and the tourists and connect it to the theory about performances in tourism, I discussed in Chapter 4. Finally, the analysis of the CBT ends with a conclusion and a comparison to MacCannell’s (1973) continuum of authenticity (see Chapter 2).
8.2 The created tourist gaze
The CBT starts at the Kunsthaus, which is immediately introduced to the CBT participants when the tour starts. At this point of the tour, the guides explain the function of the building and add that this is one of the latest landmarks of the city and that this ‘blue bubble’ and the Murinsel were constructed for the European Capital of Culture event in 2003. While following the Grieskai to the synagogue in Graz the guides often lead the gaze to the Schlossberg and Uhrturm as well as the facades of the buildings that were built between 1850-1900. By passing by the synagogue the guides explain that this religious building was rebuilt in the early 2000s after it was burnt-down under the Nazi regime in 1938. Further, by going over the Augartenbrücke, and leading the gaze once more on the Uhrtrum, the guides highlight the city as colourful and multicultural, which is a perfect link to the image of Graz as a ‘City of Human Rights’. Under this motto the CBT also passes the Augarten where many cultural festivals (e.g. Afro-Austrian party and Augartenfest) take place. In addition, the guides make the tourists aware of two museums there, namely the “Museum der Wahrnehmung” and the “Kindermuseum – Frida und Fred”. On the way to the Fair Centre of Graz the bus goes along Wielandgasse, Brockmanngasse and Conrad-von-Hötzendorfstraße. In these streets the guides highlight different buildings and facades that were created around the 1900s, but also very modern buildings such as the Augartenhotel which represents the recent architectural style in the city and is linked to the ‘City of Design’ image. The CBT guides, especially at the beginning and end of the tour, when the bus goes through the hip and trendy districts Gries and Lend, also highlight this image and ask the tourists to gaze upon current buildings. Similar to the HCWT the CBT passes many buildings that were built by the Habsburg dynasty, for instance, the Finanzamt and the Landesgericht in the Conrad-von-Hötzendorf-
! 58! Straße. By driving along this street, once again, the guides highlight the perfect gaze upon the Uhrturm and then, asks the tour participants to focus on two other buildings, namely on the city’s event hall and the Styria tower. The guides give information about the Fairground and the event hall as well as about the Styria Media Centre that is the main quarter of the Styria publishing house and its firms. At this point of the CBT, the different tour guides also focus on different anecdotes. One guide talks about the Eurovision Songcontest which was hosted by Austria in 2015 and that Graz’’s politicians and tourist authorities were very disappointed that the city was not allowed to host it, whereas another one focuses on the fairground and that this place has always been hosting different fairs over decades and that s/he and his family loved to go there in the past. Besides, the guides also added that football plays an important role in the city and that the stadium is just a few meters away from the fairgrounds. On the way back to the inner city, the path of the CBT leads to one of the latest passive house projects by the architect Markus Pernthaler. The gaze upon this construction site should underline Graz’s activities for a sustainable and green city as well as that the city encourages subsidized housing. After this, the CBT leads into the Münzgrabenstraße. By following this street until Steyrergasse, the tour guides highlight that these houses are just one to two storey buildings and explain that this area was known for its multicultural background during the Monarchy and that many Slovenians inhabited these houses. One tour guide also highlights the signs with the house numbers on it and explains that in the monarchy rectangular signs showed the way into the city centre, whereas the circular signs stood for streets that circulate around the centre. The next main attraction of the CBT is the Herz-Jesu Church. The CBT guides the tourists through the Steyrergasse. On the way to the church, the guides lead the gaze to the Institutes of Physics and Chemistry and give information about the different universities in Graz. While going through the second district of Graz, St. Leonhard, the guides once more highlight the wonderful facades of the houses that were built around the 1850s. Moreover, the guides explain that 60% of the city is green due to the inner yard parks. When arriving at the church, its neo-gothic style is highlighted and the park, which surrounds it and that the people from the neighbourhood enjoy sitting there on sunny evenings. The tour goes then along Sparbersbachgasse to Dietrichsteinplatz and passes the Kaiser Josef Platz and the daily market. The guides explain that there are many streams underneath the street system of Graz and that mostly street names remind of these streams such as the Sparbersbachgasse. One guide also recommends the tour through the canal system that can be booked at Holding Graz. By passing the farmers market at Kaiser Josef Platz the tour participants get information about the farmers in and around the city and the
! 59! image of Graz as a ‘Genusshauptstadt’ is highlighted by saying that Graz has up to 20 farmer’s market where typical Styrian products (e.g. pumpkinseed oil) can be purchased. After leaving this area the CBT’s path leads the tourists into the direction of the Hilmteich and the area where beautiful mansions are built. This part of the tour shows the tour participants the local recreation area with the pound (Hilmteich) and the woods (Leechwald) and the guides also highlight the great combination of old mansions and newer buildings and once more highlight the design element of the city. Then the open-top bus drives by the Botanical Gardens of Graz and passes the main building of the University of Graz, where tourist gain information about the foundation and the name of the university. The guides also highlight the ReSoWi – building (Institutions for law, social studies and economics) because of the architectural design and that many old university buildings were attached with newer ones. After passing the area of the university, the CBT leads back into the inner city through the Paulustor, over the Karmeliterplatz to the cathedral and the opera. At the Paulustor the guides explain that this is one of the last preserved gates in Europe that were built during the renaissance and also one of the two last gates that are still existent in the city. By going through the gate the guides also try to depicture the castle ditch and city walls, when explaining the historical development of the park. On the way to the opera, the guides also highlight the so-called ‘City Crown’ that was also a main attraction at the HCWT, and recommend visiting the ‘double-spiral staircase’. However, compared to the HCWT the guides do not put much focus on the cathedral or mausoleum. Then, the CBT passes the opera and Herrengasse and goes along the Neutorgasse and Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai to the Schlossbergbahn. Along this way, the guides give information about the opera house, by whom it was built and that these architects designed 40 other buildings across Europe, but mainly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Another point of interest was the Herrengasse, which is described as the main street in the inner city, and the Jakominiplatz as the central point of transfer. Along the Neutorgasse, the CBT passes again buildings built during the monarchy such as the old Post building, which offers now offices and students’ appartments. Just on the opposite site the guides highlight the Joanneum museums that were founded by Erzherzog Johann. After giving information about the museum the tour passes the Andreas-Hofer Platz. This square, as already mentioned in the analysis of the HCWT, is one of the less interesting places of the city. At this point the guides explain that this square has become very unimportant, but that it hosted a fish market several decades ago and was then turned into a bus station for commuter busses. However, due to financial reasons this place has not been refurbished and has not got another function. After this square the tour follows the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai and turns into Sackstraße towards the main square. The tour guides encourage the participants to use the
! 60! Schlossberg funicular and once more highlight the wonderful gaze upon the Uhrturm. They also recommend visiting Kastner&Öhler and its roof top bar. While turning into the Murgasse the guides then, ask the tourists to gaze upon the different facades of the houses at the main square and just shortly comment on the city hall. When the CBT reached the bridge next to the Kunsthaus, two of the three tours I attended also shortly passed the Annenstraße and Lendplatz and explained that this quarter of Graz has become a very creative and trendy area and is closely connected to the image of Graz as a ‘City of Design’. Whereas, one tour already stopped on the Erherzog-Johann- Brücke by encouraging the tourists for the last time to look upon the Schloßberg as the old landmark and then the Kunsthaus as a landmark that stands for the change that Graz has experience in recent times. In general, the CBT offers its participant a great overview of the city and leads the tourists through the main inner districts and shows them the different developments of each of them. It also displays a historical overview of the city and by the guides’ lead and anecdotes, the tourists can get an idea how the city has been growing and in which districts new ideas and projects are existing. Moreover, the CBT perfectly shows parts of the multifaceted images of Graz. The tour guides comment on the ‘City of Human Rights’, they often explain the event of the European Capital of Culture and which changes were introduced with this year as well as the image of the ‘Genusshauptstadt’ is highlighted by passing by the farmer’s market and the constant recommendations for restaurants.
8.3 The tourist guides’ performances
As written before, tourism is marked by performances enacted by tourist authorities and tourists. Compared to the HCWT, on the CBT the guides’ performances are different and the anecdotes kept short and simple. One reason for such differences is definitely time. By going around the city with the bus, time for anecdotes and giving information is very restricted and needs a good time-management skills by the guide. They need to carefully plan their explanations and think when to start telling their stories. In general, the tour guides’ time management was good and led the gaze to remarkable sites at the right moment. As a participant you never felt like missing an important element. Nonetheless, the guides behaved very differently and also reacted to unforeseen tourist performances in different ways. One tour guide was only sitting next to the bus driver and constantly telling different stories about the city and his personal life. This guide never reacted to any tourist performances and it seemed that the guide was not interested in the reactions of the tour participants. In addition, when a group of tourists started talking very loudly that the others could not hear anything anymore, while the guide was explaining
! 61! something about the Herz-Jesu church and the canal system, the guide did not react to them and only another tourist asked them to be quiet. Besides, this tour guide also tried to tell different jokes and used sayings that could have hurt different social classes. Further, this guide regularly led the gaze upon different houses street names that are closely connected to important German writers. By passing other houses, the guide often told the participants that one of his/her friends lives here and that s/he would know many stories, but would not tell them because they are too personal. After the guide said that phrase several times, one tourist said to her companion, “Why is the guide then saying this anyway?” Another unexpected performance of one of the guides happened then at the mausoleum, where one of the CBT guides only stated that this imperial building reminds him/her of a minaret, whereas, the guides of the HCWT and the other CBT guides encouraged the tourists to visit this extraordinary building and highlighted the Italian architectural style and the oval roof. Compared to the described tour guide’s performance, the other two guides’ performances were very similar and their reaction to tourists’ performances as well. One group of the CBT participants came from Switzerland and had a local guide with whom they took the tour. While the tour guide was giving some explanations the local participant was speaking at the same time to his companions. The guide used these spontaneous performances of the local participant for jokes, for example, by turning around and saying that the participant could act as a co-commentator and tell the tour participants more anecdotes of a resident and their daily life. Another interesting moment of the three CBT tours I attended always happened when talking about the football stadium of Graz. The guides explained that the stadium was called Schwarzenegger Stadium, but due to some problematic actions by the probably most famous Styrian and a lawsuit, Graz had to look for a new sponsor and a cable TV company and Internet provider, called UPC, signed the sponsoring contract. Recently, the contract ended and a new sponsor was found – Merkur Assurance. However, none of the guides knew that the stadium has already received its new name, but tour participants started reminding the guides of the new name and started a short discussion about football and Schwarzenegger’s actions as a politician in the USA. To summarise, compared to the HCWT the guides’ performances were not that diverse and less spontaneous due to place and time restrictions on the bus. The sites, which are worth gazing upon, pass by much faster than by a walking tour and therefore, the guides are more likely to stick to the prescribed paths and stories given by tourist authorities.
8.4 The tourists’ performances The tourists’ performances on the bus were very different to the HCWT. On the bus the participants who knew each other were sitting together and did not try to communicate with
! 62! other participants of the tour. This grouping supported non-conformist tourist performances, for example, the tour participants often started talking about private events and happenings and other trips they had already taken. However, not only the fact that they were only sitting with people they know supported their group conversations, but also the CBT itself. Tourists were not asked to move from one point to the other, the only thing they had to do was gazing and listening and especially at the end of each tour, the participants seemed to have lost their interest in the tour and also did not follow the tour guides’ directions anymore. As already described before, one tourist group was consistently talking to each other very loudly that other tour participants could not hear the guides’ anecdotes anymore. The tour guide did not ask them to stop talking, so after a while one of the other participants complained about their talking and asked them to stop. This performance then, negatively influenced the atmosphere on the bus and the two groups of participants were annoyed by each other. Moreover, some tourists talked to each other and wondered about some created gazes by one of the guides and asked themselves why such sites were highlighted, however, the participants did not ask for further information. Compared to the HCWT, the tourists on the bus were acting more passively and less interested. Again, one may argue that the more impersonal atmosphere on the bus leads to these performances. Overall, the CBT participants seemed to be satisfied with the explanations they received and were less likely to ask the guide for more information on a highlighted site and also never ask for sites the guides did not comment on at all. For this there are several possible reasons. First of all, the guides of the CBT tour is mostly sitting in the front and turning their backs to the tour participants, which is not supporting tourists’ questions and conversations. Secondly, by going around the city on a bus, the participants do not have enough time for their own gazes and are more likely to follow the guides’ suggestions. Another reason might be that these tourists decided to take the bus tour instead of the HCWT to get an overview of the city without getting detailed information on buildings and other sites. Therefore, it could be speculated that participants of the CBT are aware of the fact that bus tours cannot offer detailed information about different tourist sites and historical facts and are satisfied with getting an overview of the city’s development and history.
8.5 Conclusion
The CBT is compared to the HCWT a less detailed tour through the city and gives a general overview of the city’s development and also highlights recent building projects due to the city’s growth. The tour leads through the inner districts and shows the different functions and beautiful sites of them. This creates a multifaceted image of the city and by the tour guides’
! 63! explanations and anecdotes the different official images of Graz (e.g. UNESCO Heritage, UNESCO City of Design and ‘Genusshauptstadt’) are regularly highlighted and the tourist gaze directed towards sites that support these images (i.e. farmer’s market links with the image of ‘Genusshauptstadt’). It is also remarkable that the performances enacted by the guides and tourists were completely different than during the HCWT. The relationship between the guides and participants was not as close as during the walking tour. As already written before, the reason for such an impersonal atmosphere is the grouping of tourists and that the guide has to sit in the front with the microphone and has to carefully plan his/her speech. However, this did not affect the tourist gaze negatively, and I would argue that the CBT participants are aware of the fact that the CBT offers a less detailed and more general insight into the city’s life. This is also supported by the tourists’ performances because they acted very passively and did not gain for more information at specific sites. The tourists seemed to be satisfied with the created gaze and the general overview of the city. Regarding MacCannell’s (1973) model of staged-authenticity (see. Chapter 2) I would place the CBT somewhere between Stage 4 and 5. According to Tab. 2.1 the tourist gaze is very close to the real life of the city, however, due to the fact that the CBT only offers an overview of the city and tourists do not have contact with locals and the tour guides often advertise museums and other offered tours it creates a less realistic and ‘authentic’ feeling. However, the CBT tour supports the created images of Graz and shows the different sites that represent these images, for example, Kunsthaus, Murinsel and latest building projects represent the City of Design.
! 64! 9 Combination of the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ tourist gaze
9.1 Introduction
This chapter considers and outlines possible marketing strategies and ideas to combine the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ tourist gaze. By doing so, the combination of the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ gaze could have positive effects on several levels. This could foster the economy of the inner city and even create a network of local inner city shops that are closely related to the multifaceted images of the city. In addition, by combining the Instagram account of Graz Tourism and their guided tours, tourists could be more supportive in creating a ‘authentic’ tourist gaze and the hashtag #visitgraz could be better promoted. In the following sections I outline some of my ideas for combining the two different gazes and finally conclude this chapter.
9.2 Cluster of small and local businesses in the inner city
It is not a new phenomenon that inner city businesses are confronted with big shopping malls mostly outside of the city with a good traffic connection and enough parking lots. These malls are often the reason for empty shops in inner cities. However, to prevent such developments social media and neatly planned marketing strategies could create new clusters and networks between smaller shops and potential customers. By promoting these created networks, they could raise more Fig.9 2: Logo of the project: Grazer Innenstadt – So richtig awareness and attract residents and visitors. echt Source: Graz Tourismus While writing on the thesis, I discovered a new project of the city, called “So richtig echt” (Fig. 9.1.) (Graz Tourismus 2016). This is one of the latest marketing strategies that combine a very active ‘online’ and ‘offline’ appearance. Shops, bars and restaurants that are in the inner city can join the network and are promoted online .as well as offline and show their partnership with a sticker (Fig. 9.1) at their entrance. The idea behind this strategy is to support smaller and local businesses and raise awareness for these often old and traditional shops that have coined the inner city of Graz for a long time (comp. Facebook – Grazer Innenstadt). Another aspect of this marketing project is to highlight the individualism and diversity of the inner city shops. In contrast to big malls, where mostly global players are found (e.g. McDonalds, H&M and Zara), inner city shops are part of the local culture and often connected to the city’s image (i.e. design shops and ateliers).
! 65! By analysing the official Instagram account of Graz Tourism and doing fieldwork, this project, however, has never been directly or indirectly mentioned during any of the tours nor on the @visitgraz account. Promoting the project and raising awareness of these local shops could encourage tourists and even locals to stroll through the inner city and walk in these shops, bars and restaurants. This would on the one hand support these inner city shops, but on the other hand show consistence and underline Graz’s multifaceted image, and especially the one of a city of design, which also connotes a sense of individualism.
9.3 More of a tourist’s gaze
As already written in the chapters before, Graz Tourism is able to create a realistic view of the city and the life. However, I also stated that there would be room for improvements. Recent developments on Instagram, such as hosting residents’ pictures and reposting pictures are well-thought strategies to support a gaze that is hardly influenced by tourist authorities. For improving this process, or as a next step, the hashtag #visitgraz should be promoted more efficiently, for example, by encouraging tourists and, more importantly, residents to post and upload their pictures of the city with this hashtag. The easiest way to encourage tourists to participate more actively on Instagram and to use the hashtag #visitgraz is to make the hashtag more visible. It could be printed on the tourists’ tickets for the different guided tours and museum tickets as well as promotion material such as posters, t-shirts and other souvenirs. Besides, tour guides could also remember tour participants of the hashtag and consistently make them aware of picturesque landmarks and gazes and encourage them to do their performances. Moreover, Graz Tourism could also create a weekly or monthly photo challenge and honour the best photo of the week or month taken by a tourist or resident with a prize (e.g. a shopping voucher for one of the inner city shops, bars or restaurants). By awarding the winners with such vouchers, they might be encouraged to visit inner city shops, bars and restaurants they would not have. In the best case, they could enjoy their experience there and visit the location again. Another idea, which would be to create a hashtag for each guided tour. Under these hashtags participants can upload their taken pictures and create a preview of the guided tour. Moreover, Graz Tourism could have insight into these pictures and even start commenting on them and asking for the tourists’ opinion. This could, then, also be used as a platform for improvements and direct exchanges between tourist authority and tourists, which I also highlighted in the sections 2.4 and 2.5, by quoting Zhou and Wang (2014). They describe how the Internet has changed the communication process between producers and customers and that these instant communications have become crucial for both sides.
! 66! Apart from encouraging tourists to upload their pictures, it is also important to motivate residents to participate in creating a realistic image of Graz. When I was talking to the local Instagrammer Carina Spielberger, she told me that she is often organising so-called ‘Insta-walks’. These walks are organised by Instagrammers of Graz and have the goal to explore different places, taking pictures and uploading them on Instagram. It would be a great idea, if Graz Tourism regularly invited local Instagrammers to join different tours and events for promotional reasons. By doing so, the hashtag #visitgraz would also not only present pictures by tourists who have been encouraged to take photos, but also residents who often have a different gaze of the city. This could also support the ‘authentic’, or in other words ‘genuine’ image of the city.
9.4 Conclusion
This chapter has offered some ideas to combine the ‘online’ tourist gaze with the ‘offline’ one and which positive effects such combinations could have. I explained that such combinations could foster the inner cities prosperity in regard to local businesses and such projects like “So richtig echt” could raise awareness of inner city businesses as well as to identify the city as a creative and individualistic one, in comparison to shopping malls outside the city. Further, I underlined the importance of active participations of tourists and residents on social media, especially Instagram. By encouraging and motivating them (with the help of photo challenges, promotion material, etc.) to upload their pictures of their personal gaze, the appearance of the city and the posted pictures are taken out of ‘real life situations’ and create a more ‘realistic’ image of the city rather than pictures from tourist agencies taken for advertising reasons.
! 67! 10 Conclusion
In my thesis Graz Tourism online and offline: an analysis of authenticity through the tourist gaze I explored the creation process of the tourist gaze on two different levels, namely the ‘online’ tourist gaze and the ‘offline’ tourist gaze. The online part focuses on recent developments and the increasing influence of the Internet and social media in marketing processes of cities in regard to tourism. As I also highlighted, Instagram has become an important player in marketing and promoting places. Recent developments show that marketers’ and customers’ way of communication has become much closer and quick and both players are actively participating on social media. Regarding tourism, I offered various discussions on how the Internet and social media as well as a well-planned marketing strategy can affect the image of a city. I also underlined the importance of including tourists in the creation process; especially on the Internet and therefore, Instagram is a perfect and crucial platform for tourists’ participation in the creation process of the ‘online’ tourist gaze. Further, I also shortly commented on the life-product-cycle of tourist places and the effects of social media on its development. As a contrast to the ‘online’ gaze, I also dealt with the ‘offline’ tourist gaze and outlined the importance of vision, other senses and performances enacted by tourist authorities and tourists. In the western-world visual imagery has become crucial and sight the most important sense to create meaning. However, in the process of gazing ‘offline’ Urry and Larsen (2011) highlighted a multifaceted gaze that includes all senses. This is also important to offer visitors and tourists an ‘authentic’, in other words realistic, impression of the city’s life. In addition, I described different performances in tourism and offered an explanation of performances enacted by tourist authorities that create the tourist gaze and lead the tourists through their city by prescribing their paths. The idea is that the authorities can control the tourists’ movements through the city and the tourists’ romanticised view is not spoilt by e bad areas and activities, for example, criminals, less beautiful places and sites and other unpleasant conditions. However, tourists’ performances cannot always be planned precisely because also tourists are free individuals who perform independently. Therefore, I defined different tourist performances, namely, the directed performances, identity-oriented performances and non-conformist tourist performances. After defining and explaining the concepts underlying my analysis and the actual views on this topic by scholars I analysed the city of Graz. I displayed the city’s development from a ‘city of dust’ with focus on heavy industry to one of the latest and fastest growing tourist regions in Austria with probably the most multifaceted images (e.g. UNESCO Heritage and City of Design, ‘Genusshauptstadt’ and City of Human Rights). The thesis also shows the growth in tourism and the development of overnight-stays in the last few years. Then, I analysed the created gaze on Graz Tourism’s official Instagram account and described their
! 68! strategy. The outcome of the Instagram-analysis is that when Graz Tourism started using this social media network, they mainly posted typical advertising pictures. However, the recent strategies by reposting pictures of residents and tourists as well as hosting local Instagrammers supports the creation of a realistic and ‘authentic’ image of the city. Moreover, the account shows different pictures and events that support the multifaceted images of Graz. For analysing the ‘offline’ gaze, I participated in two different guided tours offered by Graz Tourism. The first guided tour was the Historic City Walking Tour (HCWT) that led the tourist gaze through the UNESCO Heritage area and shows the tourists the main sites in the inner district. The gaze is coined by different facades and houses that have played an important role for several centuries. In addition, the guides’ performances and reactions to the tourists’ performances created a realistic view of the inner city and also offered here and there some insights into the city’s life. Besides, also the City Bus Tour (CBT) offered its participants a great overview of the whole city and of Graz’s several districts. Additionally, the multifaceted images of the city were constantly mentioned and exemplified (i.e. Kunsthaus as an example for UNESCO City of Design). In my point of view, the guided tours are well planned, however, could be improved to provide the tourists a more multifaceted gaze that includes all senses not only the sight. During the tours the tourists are rarely asked to listen to some specific sounds or music that is connected to the city nor do they get a chance to have a taste of some typical Stryrian beverages or food. Moreover, I also offered some possibilities to combine the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ gazes and how to motivate residents and tourists to participate in the creating process of the tourist gaze in regard to Instagram. The overall impression and outcome of the analysis of authenticity of the tourist gaze that is created by Graz Tourism online and offline is positive. The tourist authorities of Graz are able to create an ‘authentic’ and realistic image of the city and are able to offer insights into the city’s life. Nonetheless, I would argue that there is still room for improvements, especially in regard to the ‘online’ tourist gaze and their Instagram account. Also the different guided tours could be more interesting and diverse for the tourists, if there is a chance to add other senses to the tourist gaze. Furthermore, the image of Graz as a ‘City of Human Rights’ could be promoted much more and might attract new visitors. In my opinion, Graz is already a very diverse and multicultural city and should not be afraid of showing it and promoting this aspect. Hereby, this thesis outlines the importance and influence of the Internet and social media in regard to promoting and creating tourist places and tourist gazes. Additionally, it highlights the importance of creating an ‘authentic’, in the sense of realistic and genuine, image of the place to guarantee economical prosperity that is connected to tourism.
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11.2 Internet Sources
Creative Industries Styria (2016): official website of Graz-City of Design, http://www.graz-cityofdesign.at/de (accessed 09/02/2016)
Der Standard (2011): offical website and article about Graz as a City of Human Rights, http://derstandard.at/1295570858064/Menschenrechtsstadt-Graz-nahezu- unbekannt (accessed 11/02/2016)
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Genussregion Österreich (2016): official website of the Genussregionen in Austria, https://www.genuss-region.at/genussregionen/steiermark/index.html (accessed 11/02/2016)
Graz Tourism (2016): official website of Graz Tourism - Guided food and beverage tours , https://www.graztourismus.at/de/sehen-und-erleben/gefuehrte- touren/stadtrundgaenge/kulinarische-rundgaenge (accessed 11/02/2016)
Graz Tourism (2016): official website of Graz Tourism - restaurants and bars offering local food , https://www.graztourismus.at/de/essen-und-trinken/restaurants-co/gastro- guide-graz (accessed 11/02/2016)
Graz Tourismus (2016): offcial website of Graz tourism - Christmas Highlights, https://www.graztourismus.at/advent/en/markets-highlights/christmas-markets/the- ice-nativity-scene_adm-2481 (accessed 30/03/2016)
Graz Tourismus (2016): offical website of Grazer Innenstadt - So richtig echt, http://grazerinnenstadt.at (accessed 29/04/2016)
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Land Steiermark (2016): official website of the federal state - Landesstatistik, http://www.statistik.steiermark.at/cms/ziel/103035336/DE/ (accessed 04/02/2016)
Österreich Werbung (2016): official website for statistics in tourism, www.tourmis.info (accessed 04/02/2016)
Stadt Graz (2016): offical PDF document and pamphlet of Graz City, https://www.graz.at/cms/dokumente/10162470_3722317/5ff73b6c/Menschenrechtsst adt-Folder-Web.pdf (accessed 11/02/2016) ! 72!
Stadt Graz (2016): official website of Graz as UNESCO Worldheritage - http://www.graz.at/cms/ziel/622581/DE (accessed 15/02/2016)
UNESCO (2016): offical website of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, http://en.unesco.org (accessed 09/02/2016)
Universalmuseum Joanneum Graz (2016): offical website of the Universalmusem, https://www.museum-joanneum.at/kunsthaus-graz/bix-medienfassade/konzept (accessed 30/03/2016)
Visit Graz on Facebook (2016): official Facebook account of Graz Tourism, https://www.facebook.com/VisitGraz/photos/a.10150588334090897.374790.2171128 65896/10153327084695897/?type=3&theater (accessed 30/03/2016)
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