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The Impact of Travel Blogging on the Tourist Experience

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The Impact of Travel Blogging on the Tourist Experience 1 THE IMPACT OF TRAVEL BLOGGING ON THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE The impact of travel blogging on the tourist experience: An e-ethnographic investigation Marie-Christine Thurm August 2014 Max Spotti Department of Communication and Information Science 2 THE IMPACT OF TRAVEL BLOGGING ON THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5 2. The semantics of travel and blogging ............................................................................................ 10 2.1 Travellers and tourists ................................................................................................................. 11 2.2 The blog genre ............................................................................................................................. 12 2.3 The travel blogger ....................................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Online communities and the blogosphere ................................................................................... 14 3. Conceptual framework .................................................................................................................. 17 3.1 The tourist experience ................................................................................................................. 17 3.2 The process of building knowledge during the pre-trip .............................................................. 19 3.3 The reporting process during the trip .......................................................................................... 21 3.4 Construction of authenticity during the post-trip ........................................................................ 24 4. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 27 5. Results ........................................................................................................................................... 32 5.1 The impact of blogging on the process of travel preparation ...................................................... 32 5.1.1 The work of professional information offices ...................................................................... 32 5.1.2 The work of professional+leisure blogger ............................................................................ 34 5.1.3 The impact of blogging on knowledge building ................................................................... 38 5.2 The impact of blogging on the reporting process ........................................................................ 41 5.2.1 The way of reporting ............................................................................................................ 42 5.2.2 The impact of the blogosphere on the writing process ......................................................... 49 5.3 The impact of blogging on experiencing authenticity ................................................................. 54 3 THE IMPACT OF TRAVEL BLOGGING ON THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE 5.3.1 How the bloggers understand authenticity ........................................................................... 55 5.3.2 How the bloggers construct authenticity for the reader ........................................................ 65 6. Discussion and Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 72 7. Limitations and further research .................................................................................................... 82 8. References ..................................................................................................................................... 84 List of Figures and tables ...................................................................................................................... 87 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 88 Appendix I URL travel blogs ............................................................................................................ 88 Appendix II Interview P1 .................................................................................................................. 88 Appendix III Interview and blog posts LP1 ...................................................................................... 98 Appendix IV Interview and blog posts L2 ...................................................................................... 126 4 THE IMPACT OF TRAVEL BLOGGING ON THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE Abstract The globalized age of modernity is characterized by fluid and complex movements, as stated by Bauman (2010). The changes of this era might influence the way people travel and write about their experiences. Since the appearance of travel blogs is increasing, it is necessary to analyse the effects this dynamic genre has on the tourism experience. The present research aims to find out how the tourist experience process, introduced by Aho (2001), is influenced through blogging. The data is collected from interviews with professional information providers as well as leisure bloggers and their blog discourses which refer to the Netherlands as a destination. It was found that blogging makes the tourist experience more intense. First, during the pre-trip, the preparation stage, tourists had access to more personalized information and gained independence; yet, trust in the provided information is crucial for a successful preparation in this context. Secondly, the reporting process during the trip is quicker, influenced by reader and community, destinations were perceived more attentively and evaluations seem to become more explicit. The blogosphere was found to be a motivating factor; however, in some cases the informants felt stressed. Finally, within the post-trip experiencing authenticity was analysed. Mostly, a constructive and existential authenticity perception, concentrating on the authentic self could be observed. The fluidity of these different stages of the trip supports that blogging is an embodiment of rapid social change. Since the findings suggest an impact on the tourist experience and behaviour, the topic requires further research. Keywords: travel blogs, tourist experience, travel preparation, reporting process, constructivist authenticity, existential authenticity, the Netherlands 5 THE IMPACT OF TRAVEL BLOGGING ON THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE 1. Introduction People have always been on the move; however their motivations differ over time. Conquering, fighting, finding salvation, being a pilgrim or enlarging worldviews were the main goals of travelling during the last centuries. Not only travelling, but also the tradition of writing about travel trips has a long tradition (Shackley, 2006).When conquering the new world, colonial travel literature had a great impact because it let the reader create a certain image of the unknown territories. Imperial ideologies were spread and were the only accounts of life in the conquered countries (Pratt, 1992). A biased report of the experiences started early in history, excluding the perspective of non-western societies and the lower classes (Towner, 1995). In the 17th century travelling was a part of the education for young men of higher classes. Reports of these “Grand Tours” were published and started to form cultural practices of tourism (Inglis, 2000). The tours were very time-consuming and expensive. The common practice of writing down one’s travel experience helped to justify the expense of the trip by providing an informative account to those who stayed at home, and these memoirs formed an intrinsic part of the experience. Tourism pioneers felt the urge to express, compare and to evaluate their different experiences (Steward, 2005). With the first signs of industrialization an important change in lifestyle began. Rapid economic growth and new technologies increased opportunities and made travelling easier. Relaxation became a motivation for travelling too, - first as a luxury for the higher class and subsequently also for the middle class. In the post war period after 1945 there was a ‘take off’ of tourism activity in the Western world; more industrial development and a technological revolution changed peoples’ way of travelling at a high pace (Lickorish & Jenkins, 1997). The press was an important feature of tourism, promoting travel as a common and natural activity of the middle class. Writers started to specialize on travel literature, helping the reader to make decisions about their destination. Travel journalists provided different travel choices by 6 THE IMPACT OF TRAVEL BLOGGING ON THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE writing about their preferences and thus expressing their ideal individual identity. Through the provision of this role model for tourism, these travel journalists also contributed to the identity formation of their reader (Steward, 2005). With the advent of the internet, computer mediated communication quickly became very popular, changing tourism practices again. “The internet empowered the ‘new’ type of tourist to become more knowledgeable and to seek exceptional value for money and time” (Buhalis,
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