Master Programme in Sustainable Management
Class of 2015/2016
Master Thesis 15 ECTS
A critical discourse analysis of the
magazine Gotland 2016
in the context of sustainability
Uppsala University Campus Gotland
Wenjie Hu
Supervisors: Anna Ljung, Jenny Helin
I
Abstract
This master thesis aims to examine texts of an international tourism promotional
magazine Gotland 2016 to figure out whether it will help or on the contrary hinder
sustainable development. Though promoters and writers held the beliefs to sustain
tourism by prolonging tourism seasons and attracting international tourists, to our
bewilderment, they not only failed to stick to its point as such but also expressed the
opposite thoughts and notions among the texts. During the process of the analysis, the
author found out that in Gotland 2016, the images of Visby, oceans scenes, summer,
nature / tourist scenes and exoticism are strengthened while the opposite of these
images are inevitably weakened simultaneously, which obstruct the extension of
tourism seasons as well as lowering expectations for international tourists. This, in the
long run, will hinder continuous development of local area in economic, environment
and social sense. Particularly in this master thesis, social sustainability is discussed with
priority since it is always likely to be overlooked and seen as less important than other
aspects of sustainable tourism. In consequence, it is suggested that the wellbeing of
local communities is equally important as environment protection and economic
growth when promoting tourism development.
Key words: Tourism, Sustainability, Power, Critical Discourse Analysis
II
Summary
An official promotional tourism magazine generally reveal the needs of tourism
destinations and reflect the thoughts of writers. The purpose of this master thesis is to
analyze the texts of Gotland 2016 to probe ideas and thoughts of magazine writers,
examining the relationship between the contents of magazine and sustainable
development of Gotland. As for Gotland 2016, promoters and writers are willing to
prolong tourism seasons and attract international tourists in order to sustain tourism
situation on a consecutive yearly level. Interestingly, through the process of this master
thesis, the author found out that they failed to stick to their original thoughts which
simultaneously hindered sustainable development of Gotland.
To analyze and explain texts of Gotland 2016, Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to
argue the phenomena of empowerment and disempowerment as well as sustainable
concepts revealed in Gotland 2016. A textual corpus collected from Gotland 2016 is
used by means of content and semiotic analysis. Four interviews from two interviewees
were conducted during the process to provide first-hand information from a
professional perspective.
The discussion of the empirical results proves that the empowerment of Visby, oceans
scenes, summer, nature scenes / tourists and exoticism will inevitably weaken the
presence of other places in Gotland, other scenes, other seasons, local residents and the
own characteristics of Gotland. The imbalance of the content presentation hinders
sustainable development of Gotland. It also leads to a phenomenon that ordinary life is
very much missing in Gotland 2016, indicating that over emphasis of environment
usually weakens social parts. In consequence, a healthy and sustainable development
of a tourism destination is supposed to be treated in a holistic manner, combining
economic, environmental and social parts all together, especially social sustainability
that is often overlooked by tourism marketers and promoters.
III
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. The definition of sustainability in the context of tourism 4
2.1 Sustainable tourism 4
2.2 The Model of Sustainable Tourism 5
2.3 Often ignored “pillar”: social sustainability 7
2.4 Sustainable perspectives of Island tourism 9
2.5 Practical tool of examining sustainability 10
3. Power as a lens 11
3.1 Power in general 11
3.2 Power in tourism 12
3.3 Power in pictures 13
3.4 Dichotomy of Power 13
4. Research Methodology 15
4.1 Critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a method 15
4.1.1 CDA 15
4.1.2 CDA and Power 17
4.2 Data Selection and Collection 18
4.3 Data Analysis 20
4.3.1 Content analysis 21
4.3.2 Semiotic analysis 22
5. Empirical findings 25
5.1 Why Gotland makes the case 25
5.2 Textual corpus 27
5.3 Content Analysis 30
5.4 Semiotic Analysis 34
6. Analysis 37
6.1 Dichotomy of power in Gotland 2016 37
6.2 From translation to creation 43
7. Conclusions 45
Acknowledgements 47
References 48
Appendix 57
1
1. Introduction
When it comes to views of island tourism, it is not hard to imagine trippers-packed
summer beaches with tourists happily filling up the seafront area like countless
dumplings in a tiny pot. These island-related images seem to be conventional with three
obvious features: seasonal, populous and domestic. In other words, island tourism is
likely to flourish during summer vacations with typical sun and sand scenes, attracting
tourists to visit from all around the world. Except for globally sought-after island
destinations, however, island tourism at large tends to mainly attract domestic tourists
rather than international tourists.
As time goes by, sun and sand tourism destinations in Europe find themselves difficult
to keep their market share (European Communities, 2003). Moreover, seasonality is
regarded as one of the major problems for Europe’s tourism sector, which is to say for
some of the European tourist destinations, they are largely influenced by alternating of
seasons and are virtually empty except for summer holidays (Złotowski, 2016). This is
getting in the way of continuity of tourism development as well as economic growth.
As a result, tackling seasonality, namely, promoting all-year-round tourism is seen as
an effective way to sustain tourism from economic perspective. One way of achieving
this is by attracting international tourists who have different vacation period and are
available for not-so-peak seasons (Eriksson, 2016a).
How can tourism destinations accomplish this? As an effective channel between
destinations and tourists, tourism promotional magazines, intervening between
vacation industry and vacationing public, play a unique part in marketing travel (Popp,
2012). Thus, international magazines are rightly applied in tourism promoting process.
English, as an international language and a lingua franca, plays a salient role and
becomes increasingly important amid the burgeoning international tourism. Especially
in non-English speaking countries, English availability is highly expected by
international tourists (Traiger, 2008). Good texts communication skills in English are
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of great importance and regarded as a vital medium to any hospitality practitioners
(Kang & Yu, 2011; Otilia, 2013). Under this trend, the sorts of texts that tourism
destinations insert to influence the first impression and anticipatory behaviors of
international tourists are undoubtedly important.
Thus, the researches towards English tourism promotional materials are discerned to be
significant. On the one hand, it exerts consequential impacts on proliferating
international tourists; on the other hand, it wakes up the awareness of destination
marketers and promoters to create materials in a more conscious and holistic manner
instead of only sending out superficial information of tourism attractions. In this master
thesis, the author will therefore conduct a critical discourse analysis (CDA) towards an
international magazine Gotland 2016, a virtually official promoting magazine of island
Gotland, Sweden.
This master thesis attempts to figure out what has Gotland 2016 done to sustain tourism
when it is faced with status nuisance of seasonal tourism as well as needs of attracting
international tourists. The result, however, is beyond expectation. According to the
interviews with officers in charge of promoting local tourism in Gotland, it seems that
they hold the beliefs of sustaining tourism by prolonging tourism seasons and attracting
international tourists among others. Gotland 2016, to our bewilderment, actually fails
to stick to its point as such. Or rather, the thoughts of sustaining Gotland tourism are
not successfully conveyed from good will to magazine contents. And worse to come,
the contents of Gotland 2016 may on the contrary hinder sustainability of Gotland
tourism. How could this happen?
In this study, the contents of Gotland 2016 will be interpreted and decoded to examine
how are sustainable practices are unexpectedly hindered in tourist destination.
Questionable attempts of promoting sustainable tourism will be depicted. During the
process, the author, by using the lens of dichotomy of power, tries to question what is
missing behind the texts of the magazine. By applying this, it is revealed that
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consolidation for some of the images will inevitably weaken or even destroy the rest,
which will consequently destruct the sustainable development of the long-term tourism.
It is noteworthy that we are not virtually searching for texts in Gotland 2016 which
reveal the wrongdoing against sustainability. By examining information delivered by
Gotland 2016, we tend to uncover what is strengthened, what is weakened, and how
can this blemish sustainable development of island tourism.
To quote a sentence from Dei, Karumanchery and Karumanchery-Luik (2004):
The words themselves are innocuous, but they act as a delivery system for the
potentially violating meanings hidden within.
In consequence of this, CDA will be applied to argue the phenomena of empowerment
and disempowerment as well as sustainability concepts revealed in Gotland 2016. A
textual corpus collected from Gotland 2016 will be used by means of content and
semiotic analysis. When it comes to sustainability in the context of tourism, however,
what are we actually talking about?
4
2. The definition of sustainability in the context of tourism
What is sustainable tourism in your mind? Does it mean tourists are supposed to travel
in a green and eco way? Does it mean destination municipalities need to promote
tourism economies as well as protecting natural environment? Does it mean local
stakeholders are expected to cooperate with government in a holistic manner so as to
achieve a win-win situation of living in wellbeing and increase tourism-related
revenues simultaneously? Do these thoughts accurately represent sustainability
concepts in the context of tourism? Partially, yes. Sustainable tourism includes all of
the concepts mentioned above but shall also be interpreted from another angle in this
master thesis: social sustainability.
In this part, the concept of sustainable tourism will be introduced first as an overview.
After that, a typical model of sustainable tourism will be used to illustrate the
uniqueness of sustainable tourism in comparison to sustainability notions in other
disciplines. In addition, social sustainability as a least discernible concept will be put
forward while the lack of consideration for social sustainability by previous researches
will be further emphasized in the perspective of island tourism. Finally, the necessity
of this master thesis will be proved in a practical manner.
2.1 Sustainable tourism
Changing the world is said to be an aspiration. Sustaining the world is said to be a
necessity (James, 2015).
Sustainability can never be regarded as more important since it is directly related to the
survival of human beings: a necessity for human society in time and space. Since the
definition of sustainability that is broadly accepted was put forward in “Brundtland-
Report” in 1987 (Meuser & von Peinen, 2013), almost thirty years have passed and it
is no longer a niche subject (Spindler, 2013). Meanwhile, the idea of sustainability has
gradually been implanted in every aspect of our life including tourism management
5
both theoretically and practically (Lominé & Edmunds, 2007) as well as becoming a
vital agenda item for tourism (Hall & Lew, 1998). As Taleb Rifai, the Secretary-
General of UNWTO, mentioned, the forceful performance in tourism sector contributes
to economic growth and job creation, as a result of which, countries are required to
make plans to realize the development of travel facilitation, human resources and
sustainability (Gomez Sobrino, 2016). Thus, it is clearly noticeable that in response to
economic benefits from the proliferation of tourism and the continuity of tourism
industry, sustainability is one of the core elements that should be engaged in.
Sustainability in tourism is often discussed as sustainable tourism, which can be defined
as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and
environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment
and host communities” (UNEP & UNWTO, 2005). It is closely related to natural
environment and is being socially acceptable and empathetic to tourism destinations in
both culture and environment context (Meuser & von Peinen, 2013). From this
definition, we can still sense the application of universally agreed three pillars of
sustainability, also known as “Triple Bottom Line” (Elkington, 1994): economic, social
and environmental. The stakeholders include external participants such as visitors as
well as internal participants like industrial actors and host communities. It is interesting
to notice that the word environment(-), as is mentioned twice in the short definition of
sustainable tourism cited above, indicates its likelihood of environment being seen as a
basic and core perspective in sustainable tourism. This will be further demonstrated in
the following part.
2.2 The Model of Sustainable Tourism
The Model of Sustainable Tourism is applied to ulteriorly explain what is regarded as
sustainable tourism. In this model, a base and four pillars are adapted in comparison to
three pillars of sustainability: Environment is deemed as the base of sustainable tourism,
over which economy, culture, social and recreation interact together to set up the
6
elements of sustainable tourism. Culture and recreation are newly added pillars and
environment is put in the basic position of sustainable tourism. This implies the concept
of environment is more distinguished than economic and social aspects while recreation
illustrates the uniqueness and challenges of sustainable tourism.
Figure: Model of Sustainable Tourism (Spindler, 2013, p.26)
In his paper, Spindler (2013) emphasized the importance and necessity of sector-
specific additions to the model. For instance, in the Model of Sustainable Tourism, the
involvement of recreation, which is considered to be core activity of tourism, implies
particularity of tourism in the context of sustainability. This supports the notion that
tourism is defined as travelling for pleasure at large (Otilia, 2013). If we google “what
is tourism”, the first piece of explanation we got is that tourism is “the commercial
organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest” (Google, no date).
We can therefore speculate that in general people tend to regard tourism as an “industry”
to meet people’s needs for pleasure through which it becomes the chief player in
7
international commerce and the fastest growing economic sectors in the world
(UNWTO, no date).
Tourism is also characterized by Higgins-Desbiolles (2004) as a powerful social force
that is “harnessed to meet human development imperatives and the wider public good”
(p. 1192), which is seen as a forgotten power of tourism. If conducted in the right way,
tourism can contribute to wellbeing of human society on a big scale. In consequence, it
is necessary to strengthen the bond between tourism and sustainability without ignoring
the fact that tourism industry is originally designed and developed with the core notion
to chase after pleasure, which is regarded as the most intrinsic good in the context of
hedonism (Moore, 2013). This makes it challengeable and even more interesting to dig
the concept of sustainability behind tourism.
2.3 Often ignored “pillar”: social sustainability
Sustainability of tourism is often highly related to environment, the idea of which is
supported by ecotourism, a popular form of sustainable tourism. It represents
sustainable development for many destinations (Meuser & von Peinen, 2013).
Ecotourism has been discussed saliently in the past thirty years, encouraging people to
travel responsively to natural areas that conserves the environment (International
Ecotourism Society, 1990, cited in Honey, 2008, p. 6). In this case, tourism is naturally-
based and is more responsible to environmentalist pursuits, namely promoting tourism
by respecting natural resources and raising environmental awareness of participants
(Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2006). This, however, reveals another phenomenon:
environmental perspective is in general seen in the core and dominant position in
comparison to social aspect in the concept of sustainability. It is supported by Lehtonen
(2011) that compared to the other two pillars of sustainability, the pillar of economy
and society, sustainability is often discussed in the context of environment as well as in
the interaction between economy and environment. Social dimension is seen to be the
least discernible part.
8
It is difficult to foreground social sustainability since “social” is too vague to define.
Generally, social sustainability concept includes basic values of equity and human
rights. It also endeavors to strike a balance between development and harmonious
evolution of society (Sachs, 1999; Polese & Stren, 2000). It is noticeable that the
concept of social sustainability is only seriously taken into consideration in late 1990s
(Hediger, 2000). Moreover, social dimension is often discussed in association with
environmental politics rather than independent social sector, let alone prioritized in
sustainability concept (Colantonio & Dixon, 2011). It is supported by Littig and
Griessler (2005) who argued that social sustainability should signify nature-society
relationships. Thus, it is understandable that social sustainability is only taken as a
“pillar” while environment is chosen as the “base” in the model shown before. However,
recent researches of sustainability also argue that all dimensions of sustainability are
supposed to be social. In other words, sustainable issues are inevitably in connection
with human social life (James, 2015).
Similarly, Spindler (2013) presented six “basic principles” for models of sustainable
development including tourism industry, which are: intergenerational justice, capacity
for regeneration, law of succinctness, reduction in risk, absorption capacity, ecological-
economic value creation (p. 26-27). Except for Principle 1, all of the principles left are
environment- or nature- related, which indicates that sustaining environment and nature
is regarded as the priority of sustainable tourism. The empowerment of environment
part inevitably weakens social perspective. Faced with this dilemma, the concept of
sustainability should not only refer to all kinds of tourism and various types of
destinations, but also deal equally with all perspectives of sustainable tourism. In other
words, we should not ignore social sustainability even if environmental and economic
perspectives are comparatively easier to discern and observe. On the contrary, it is more
significant to study and emphasize social sustainability because of its ambiguity and
potentiality. In the following part, the requirement for researches to focus more on the
area of social sustainability is further stressed in island tourism.
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2.4 Sustainable perspectives of Island tourism
The study of island tourism is special because isolation of islands maintains the study
at a level that is not possible in other tourism destinations (Carlsen & Bulter, 2011). On
the one hand, special features for islands make them become implications of the
paradise and unique cultures; on the other hand, many islands experience more
landscape changes and social shock due to structural weaknesses caused by isolation of
island. Islands often own smaller scale of economy and rely heavily on agriculture.
Meanwhile, their geographical specificity makes them hard to get access to with limited
infrastructure (Carlsen & Bulter, 2011). In addition, islanders are often taken as exotic
dwellers from another life “interrupted” by tourists. All of these factors determine
island tourism to be distinctive from other types of tourism. This uniqueness, in return,
implies that island tourism is more fragile and delicate, which makes it important and
challengeable to discuss island tourism in the context of sustainability.
In sustainable island tourism, indigenous residents are at stake to be placed on the back
burner, which is to say, they often play a minor role in the sustainable development in
island tourism. This also reflects in sustainable island tourism studies that researchers
tend to consider wellbeing of indigenous residents as less important in comparison to
other stakeholders. For instance, in his paper of Challenges to Sustainable Development
in Island Tourism, Nižić et al. (2010) stressed that factors related to environmental
protection and tourist and visitor safety are deemed as main factors in the future
sustainable development of the island. Meanwhile, local communities are asked to
support and integrate instead of being treated as hosts and promotion ambassadors of
the island. But researchers in this area started to realize the interactions between
different stakeholders in island tourism are crucial to steady and long-term development
of island tourism, especially when stakeholders with powers such as governmental
agencies blame other stakeholders for not behaving satisfactorily (Ross & Wall, 1999;
Andriotis & Vaughan, 2003; Ho et al., 2013). Apart from this, site development as well
10
as roles of events, heritage and festivals in island tourism are studied by many
researchers (Ryan, 1993).
2.5 Practical tool of examining sustainability
It is argued by some critics that the endeavors in achieving sustainable tourism has
concentrated on theorizing and policy formulation (Ali & Frew, 2013) which requires
the practical tools to translate sustainable ideas into action (Coccossis 1996; Wright
1998; cited in Ali & Frew, 2013, p. 3). Moreover, tourism research can be perceived
not only as strategies to solve problems but also “as a field that is politically,
economically, culturally and environmentally manageable for a variety of agencies and
structures” (Hannam & Knox, 2005). When it comes to sustainable practice, attempts
have been made by “developing indicators, monitoring, eco-labelling, codes of conduct,
educating the tourist” (Ali & Frew, 2013, p. 3). When conducting those practices, it is
often seen in the context of education, business, media, politics and natural environment
(Horrigan, 2013). The notion of sustainability can also be inserted in the process of
communication such as presenting of textual materials for tourism. The practice of
sustainability in the context of communication is carried out in a comparatively
invisible way in the area of sustainable tourism. The concepts pertaining to
sustainability are implanted inside or extracted from the materials in an intangible way.
In consequence of this, information receivers are likely to absorb sustainable ideas or
the other way around unconsciously. Thus, it is significant to make policy makers aware
of the fact that sustainability can be practiced or detracted in the process of
communication. Tourism research therefore can be conducted to promote a foreseeable
sustainable prospect.
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3. Power as a lens
3.1 Power in general
In this master thesis, the dichotomy of power will be applied to discuss tourism
promotional materials. Power is chosen for its unique status in human society. To tell
it in a simple way: power, by and large, exists in everywhere and influences everything.
The history and theory of power relations are regarded to be almost synonymous with
the history and theory of human society itself (Mann, 2012). In other words, societies
comprise overlapping socio-spatial networks of power (Mann, 2012).
So, what is power? “Power is the ability to pursue and attain goals through mastery of
one’s environment” (Mann, 1986, p.6). Van Dijk (2008) stressed the significance of
power by saying that “society would not function if there was no order, no control, no
checks and balances, without the many legitimate relationships of power” (p.17). In the
literature, there have generally been two contrasting views of power, which are power
as domination and power as empowerment (Haugaard, 2012). By rethinking different
dimensions of power, Mark Haugaard (2012) has come up with a thought that “the
effectiveness of power as domination is parasitic upon power as emancipation” (p.33),
which is to say, power as domination presupposes normatively desirable power.
However, some proponents include Foucault (1982) argued that modern power is
positive but only on an empirical level, making them support both views of power.
Though his unorthodox framework, Foucault rejected traditional top-down models of
power while theorized power to be located in forms, spaces and places, making power
exist on both macro-level and micro-level (Dei et al., 2004). Arguably Foucault
believed that we discipline and are disciplined through the complex of micro-powers.
Standing on a position to combine two views of power, Foucault (1980) worked on the
relationship between power and knowledge, pointing out there is a connection between
12
tacit social knowledge and the reproduction of relations of domination. Furthermore.
Haugaard (2012) denoted that relationship between power and knowledge is the
essence of emancipatory concerted power. Knowledge can be spread by the form of
information while O’Lear (2010) regarded it as an important element to look into when
discussing about the sources of power. Our notions and behaviors can be saliently
influenced by “where we get our information and the quality of that information”
(O’Lear, 2010, p.23). How the information is provided and by whom can be pertaining
to the control of power.
3.2 Power in tourism
To tell its own story, power also exists in an omnipresent manner in the system of
tourists, locals, and brokers (Cheong & Miller, 2000). Power behind tourism
promotional material chooses what and how to present destinations to tourists.
Meanwhile, the approaches of sustainability should recognize the concept of power as
well (Csurgó et al., 2008). Power not only draws the shape of tourism attractions but
also affects how stakeholders react in tourism destinations. Thus, discussions about
power can somehow help us reveal intrinsic motivations of tourism marketers and
promoters, and predict possible outcomes under the influences of power.
It is noteworthy that public or certain group of people such as international tourists
receive a wealth of information presented under the influence of power. For instance,
Cheong and Miller (2000) believed that productive power could generate touristic
knowledge. Besides, tourism marketers and promoters could “regulate the world of the
tourist” (Hannam & Knox, 2005) by control and utilization of information when writing
tourism promotional materials.
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3.3 Power in pictures
Slowly, there comes an argumentation that a culture of writing is transforming to a
culture of pictures (Boehme-Nessler, 2011), which indicates the eminent role of
pictures in the process of knowledge dissemination. Hoye & Kaiser (2007) depicted a
world with “pictorial turn”, where culture is inevitably influenced and dominated by
images. Nevertheless, the amazing power of pictures is no new phenomena. The images
of Mona Lisa, Coca-Cola and Swastika are all vivid examples of unpredictable power
of pictures (Hoye & Kaiser, 2007). In comparison to written texts, pictures are also seen
as latently more effective and reliable in communicating since images seem to be more
realistic and objectively shown what the world is (Corrigall-Brown, 2012). In similar
vein, Eisner (1998) also supported that information which is not able to be constructed
in words can be shown in visual images. Thus, images are assumed to product more
power than written texts due to its straightforwardness and universality. In his work,
Corrigall-Brown (2012) emphasized that pictures had power to legitimize or
delegitimize different groups of people. For instance, when occupying Alcatraz by the
Indians of All Tribes, panoramic images of islands without human presences were used
to delegitimize local communities.
3.4 Dichotomy of Power
The example of Alcatraz mentioned in the last part leads to the idea of dichotomy: “the
presence of one thing logically points to the absence or exclusion of its direct opposite
(most obviously)” (Hannam & Knox, 2005). In this case, the empowerment of
panoramic images disempowers local communities hugely. In similar vein, tourism
landscapes with different histories and identities are selected to be remembered or
forgotten in terms of long-lasting modes of social power as well as inequality
(Alderman & Modlin, 2008). In other words, landscapes that conform to benefits of
local stakeholders will be empowered to strengthen their existence while contrarily the
14
rest of the landscapes are likely to be disempowered as forgotten ones. It is noticeable
that both side of dichotomy of power should be analyzed in the light of their
interrelation and co-constitution (Nordin, 2012). The isolation of dichotomy will only
lead to detraction of analysis. In the coming methodology part, dichotomy of power
will be further discussed in connection with the method of CDA.
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4. Research Methodology
4.1 Critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a method
In this master thesis, the author will apply CDA to code and decode data. The closeness
of CDA and power will be demonstrated to establish a better understanding of data
analysis and discussion by using dichotomy of power as a lens and CDA as a method.
4.1.1 CDA
It is difficult to find a universal definition of Discourse Analysis (DA) since the term
refers to different approaches in a range of disciplines and theoretical traditions (Taylor,
2013). To summarize in a widest sense, DA is a research approach to understand social
life in terms of analysis of languages: written and talk texts, images, symbols and so
forth. (Potter & Wetherell, 2007; Shaw & Bailey, 2009; Taylor, 2013). Schiffrin,
Tannen and Hamilton (2001) summarized three main categories of DA, which are: (1)
anything beyond the sentence, (2) language use, and (3) a broader range of social
practice that includes nonlinguistic and nonspecific instances of language (p.1). In the
same vein, Fairclough (1995) concluded DA into three conceptions: text, discourse
practice and sociocultural practice. It is noticeable that in the area of DA, “text” obtains
broader conception which can be either written, vocal, sign or semiotic, meaning that
text can exist in all sort of medium with verbal or non-verbal forms (Chandler, 1994).
To analyze in a simple way, DA is the analysis of discourse while CDA “takes a critical
stance” (Le & Le, 2009, p. 4), providing descriptions and undertaking social critique
and even intervention (Johnstone, 2008). Though there is another concept in DA called
Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA) analyzing discourse in a positive perspective, we
should not consider CDA as the counterpart of PDA and perceive it as negative analysis
(Le & Le, 2009). The difference between CDA and PDA is that former concentrates on
16
positive side of the discourse while latter tends to reveal discourse in a more critical
way, which does not necessarily mean negative.
Though CDA does not provide a specific direction in discourse studies (van Dijk, 2001)
as interdisciplinary analysis (Le & Le, 2009), Wodak (2001) confirmed the
interchangeable relationship between CDA and Critical Linguistics (CL). As van Dijk
(2001) pointed out, CDA “aims to offer a different ‘mood’ or ‘perspective’ of theorizing,
analysis, and application throughout the whole field” (p. 352). In comparison to
linguistic discourse analysis which chiefly focuses on linguistic text and social
discourse analysis which concentrates more on social nature, CDA synthesizes
linguistic and social approaches (Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2004). In other words,
the concepts of CDA combines both text in use and the presentation of social experience
(Fairclough, 1992), making it “critically oriented discourse analysis across disciplines
and cultures” (Le & Le, 2009, p. 3). Language is also regarded as social practice in the
context of CDA (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997).
Thus, via the usage of CDA, the analysis of promotional magazine Gotland 2016 does
not only focus on linguistic text, but also absorbs the idea of social practices so as to
critically examine sustainable ideas hidden behind the magazine in a practical manner.
However, we need to keep in mind that tourism discourse encodes hedonism as its
special meanings and values (Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2004). In other words,
tourism aims at “commodified pleasure” (Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2004, p.116) and
consuming specific products. This indicates that when tourism discourse analysis is
carried out, the concept of sustainability is not the prior consideration. As a matter of
fact, it is interesting and challengeable to use CDA as the method to perceive and
explore sustainable concepts in the process of tourism.
When conducting CDA, description, interpretation, and explanation are regarded as
three chief tasks for CDA researchers (Blommaert, 2005), which provides us with a
logic path to discuss and analyze data. In other words, researchers are supposed to
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describe materials as well as making the interpretive framework explicit, which ought
to reveal materials based on actors’ cognitive, social and ideological resources. In
Gotland 2016 case, we should be aware of the fact that tourism praises highly of
hedonism. Accordingly, social theory as explanation is put forward to achieve the
movement from non-critical to critical, which is the application of dichotomy of power
in our case. It is worth mentioning that power is not an unfamiliar term in the area of
CDA. In the next part, we will take a closer look at the closeness between CDA and
power.
4.1.2 CDA and Power
The reason to choose power as the object of dichotomy attributes to its close
relationship with CDA. CDA is not a direction of research, as a result of which, it has
no unitary theory framework (van Dijk, 2001). However, the questions presented by
CDA are mostly pertinent to “the way specific discourse structures are deployed in the
reproduction of social dominance” (van Dijk, 2001, p. 353-354), which will
accordingly lead to notions such as power and dominance. Le & Le (2009) regarded
social power, ideology and social practice as the mission of CDA while Wodak (2001)
also argued that CDA is on the feed of relation between language and power. In similar
vein, Fairclough (1989; 2001) stated that the main purpose of CDA is to build up
“consciousness of how language contributes to the domination of some people by others,
because consciousness is the first step towards emancipation” (p. 1; p. 1), which
uncovers the status of power in CDA. Though CDA is used to examine critically “how
language works to position readers in the interests of power” (Janks, 2000, p.177), this
does not necessarily mean power is definitely related to the notion of domination
(Blommaert, 2005) and brings negative results. Rather, the analysis of power in CDA
is suggested to better focus on the effects, the outcome of power, the relationship
between power and actors, and how does the impact of power take place (Blommaert,
2005). In order to understand the importance of “critical”, basic terms which are
18
essential to understand CDA are discussed and analyzed in dichotomy such as power
and empowerment (Le & Le, 2009). Dichotomy is also used to explain the micro-level
and macro-level of analysis as well as accomplishing the combination of power and
CDA. Van Dijk (2001) regarded CDA as a “bridge” to eliminate the “gap” between
micro-level and macro-level while the concepts of two levels are defined as:
Language use, discourse, verbal interaction, and communication belong to the
micro-level of the social order. Power, dominance, and inequality between social
groups are typically terms that belong to a macro-level of analysis (p. 354).
Thus, language use and discourse on the micro-level of social order together with the
analysis of power on the macro-level combine in a holistic manner. More specifically
in macro-level, dichotomy can be perceived as comparison between power and
empowerment in the analysis of the materials. In this master thesis, the mystery of
power and empowerment will be explored via content analysis and semiotic analysis.
It will be introduced in details in later parts.
4.2 Data Selection and Collection
Arguably McKee (2003) pointed out that the questions we ask exert influences on the
information we can find. When selecting and collecting data, we need to clarify the
material we are utilizing. As mentioned before, texts in the context of CDA represent a
broad range of contents instead of merely written texts. Thus, in this master thesis, three
type of texts were used to conduct the research, which were: written texts, pictures and
vocal texts. Written texts and pictures in textual corpus were extracted from Gotland
2016 while vocal texts came from four interviews.
Textual corpus
The textual corpus was collected from English tourism promotional magazine Gotland
2016 that could be found in information center as well as online. It is produced by Glory
19
Days Media AB on behalf of Destination Gotland AB. It was the only English magazine
that could be discovered and was introduced as all-year-round promotional material for
Gotland when the author of this master thesis started to conduct the research. It is noting
that there is no official tourism magazine for Gotland. Though Destination Gotland is
the biggest commercial player who runs state-subsidized domestic ferries between
Gotland and the Swedish mainland (Destination Gotland AB, no date), its tourism
promotional product Gotland 2016 can be seen by far as the magazine most closing to
an official version (Eriksson, 2016b). Gotland 2016 meanwhile has the same Swedish
version which resembles English version except for languages. The print-out of this
magazine can be found in the official visitors’ bureau of Gotland in the Donner House,
Visby. E-version is available on the first page of official visitors’ guide website
http://gotland.com/en/, for which it is well suited for the need of the accurate and latest
information pertaining to tourist destinations (Ma, 2013). In comparison to handouts in
destinations, official websites and e-magazine offer a wider range of information for
those web visitors who are likely to be transformed into destination tourists. Thus, the
ultimate goal of websites information is to attract potential visitors convert into real
destination tourist (Ma, 2013). As the only English tourism promotional magazine for
Gotland, Gotland 2016 offers valuable insights and detailed information for visitors,
both potentially-interested online or already on spot, which is in return expected to draw
potential visitors’ attention as well as wielding latent influence on visitors. Apart from
visitors, local communities including municipality, local business stakeholders and
other residents are main actors involved in the discourse.
Interviews
Semi-constructed and constructed interviews were conducted to local stakeholders and
researchers in two stages, which might shed light on practical and theoretical levels
respectively. Proper structure of questions for interviews were required to figure out
what data were relevant and what data should be collected. Since the interviews were
20
formulated in semi-structured forms during the first stage, there were no fixed questions.
Two interviewees were interviewed twice: A professor who is an expert in cultural
heritage in Uppsala University Campus Gotland and the director of Inspiration Gotland
AB, a destination management organization wholly-owned by the region to promote,
develop and strengthen Gotland as a destination (Inspiration Gotland AB, 2016). The
former was chosen due to Gotland’s status of world cultural heritage while the latter
provided the overview of current tourism situation in Gotland from an official
perspective, which would help understand the textual corpus and data analysis in a
better way. The Interview for professor lasted 40 minutes while the interview for
director lasted 80 minutes. The interviews were recorded after which the data were
transcribed and analyzed, which in return required ethical integrity from researchers
(Saunders, 2009). After that, constructed interviews were conducted to the same
interviewees at the end of researching period. At this time, the author almost finished
analyzing textual corpus which made the whole interviews more directed and oriented.
The Interviews both lasted for 50 minutes. In the process of this master thesis, without
the permission of the interviewees, the content of interviews should not be spread or
reused publicly by any means. Participants’ rights are supposed to be fully informed
during the interviews, making clear that they have the rights to remain anonymous.
4.3 Data Analysis
The texts we use to depict the objects are inevitably subjective to some extent and
are “creatures of our own making” (Gregory & Walford, 1989, p. 2). Thus,
conducting textual analysis helps us dig out the perceptions and sense of values
behind the texts. To support this, McKee (2003) described textual analysis as “a way
for researchers to gather information about how other human beings make sense of
the world” (p. 1). Meanwhile, through textual analysis, we are able to perceive the
limitations and advantages of our sense-making procedures (McKee, 2003), which,
21
in this master thesis, can be comprehended as the perception of patterns and modes
that the locals use to promote tourism.
In comparison to other paradigms in discourse analysis, CDA analyzes not only texts
but also social processes and structures which give rise to the production of texts and
allow relevant actors to interpret and decode during their interaction with the texts
(Kress, 1994). The analysis of texts is not an evident and straightforward process. As
McKee (2003) explained in his book with a metaphor: polices can not see the crimes
committed on the scene, which require them to utilize forensic evidence along with
their experiences to solve the cases. Similarly, we can not see the sense-making process
of the existing data when they are produced, however, through certain types of analysis
we are likely to find out and analyze what is left under the superficial surface of the
data, just like there is always much larger portion of ice under the iceberg.
In view of the above, the author of this master thesis will try to reveal the rest part of
the “iceberg” under the “sea-level” by analyzing the English tourism promotional
magazine Gotland 2016 in two aspects: (1) content analysis; and (2) semiotic analysis.
Content analysis and semiotic analysis will be utilized to analyze materials as well as
providing collective data which will later be used to present power in a dichotomy way.
Though Ellis (2000) argued that the analysis of the texts can be measured to see how
accurately they expose reality, it is noteworthy that this master thesis is not trying to
reveal the reality and accuracy of the description in the magazine. Rather, it endeavors
to ferret out standpoints and notions of sustainability behind the data.
4.3.1 Content analysis
Content analysis is defined as “a family of research techniques for making systematic,
credible, or valid and replicable inferences from texts and other forms of
communication” (Drisko & Maschi, 2016). It came originally from the needs to address
the differences in the content of religious hymns, which ulteriorly spread in the area of
22
sociology and journalism, forming the start of academic content analysis (Krippendorff
& Bock, 2008). Content analysis can be seen as a hybrid research approach. On the one
hand, it requires the coding of unstructured data which is the essence of qualitative
research, while on the other hand, descriptive statistics are often utilized to analyze the
chosen data, which is the characteristic of quantitative research (Drisko & Maschi,
2016). The essence of content analysis is that it is expected to figure out “the
relationship between the frequency of a specific theme and its significance or
dominance” (Hannam & Knox, 2005).
Thus, in this master thesis, content analysis was conducted to witness the frequencies
of three different categories in the chosen magazine, which are “historical sites”,
“natural scenes” and “social life”. This draws on the experience of Bhattacharyya’s
(1997) work: Mediating India an Analysis of a Guidebook. In her paper, Bhattacharyya
analyzed photographs which divided the authentic sights of Lonely Planet India into
three categories: natural world (geophysical or biological settings); historical sites (a
particular building or monument); or social life (a typical scene of sociocultural
significance). The reason for her to choose photographs was that arguably many
scholars considered photographs to be extremely powerful in communicating the
representation of the culture (p. 379). In order to analyze the data, she firstly coded it
into three groups of authentic sights as mentioned above. Then, she recoded the same
data in terms of the existence of people in the photos (Hannam & Knox, 2005).
Similarly, in this master thesis, the author aims to use the same pattern to evaluate the
magazine and figure out how are local communities involved.
4.3.2 Semiotic analysis
Semiotics is generally seen as the science of signs which can be defined as anything
that can represent something else (Berger, 2010). Not only words, but also facial
expressions, hair styles, clothing, pictures and others are signs. Barthes (1972) stressed
the significance of signs by confirming that signs could be found in all cultural
23
productions and were full of complexity. Meanwhile, Hoye & Kaiser (2007) stressed
that semiotic approach was particularly suitable for visual genre. A similar study
conducted by Sun & Luo (2015) examined tourism brochures in Macau casino by
semiotic analysis. They also applied the lens of power to discuss the images of men and
women. However, in their work, Sun & Luo chose to solely reveal and analyze the
information behind the images while excluding the analysis of lexical information.
Nonetheless, we can not ignore the effects of lexical information especially when it is
provided in combination with images, seeing that phrases and sentences can create new
and guiding meanings to images. Thus, in this master thesis, pictures with lexical
explanations as a whole will be analyzed in the way of semiotic analysis. Pictures
together with lexical explanations implanted in the pictures are used and illustrated in
a holistic manner.
While analyzing, Peirce’s theory of signs, the distinction and innovation of sign theories
(Atkin, 2010), are used to conduct analysis. American Pragmatist philosopher Charles
Sanders Peirce is regarded as the founding father of modern sign theory (Metro-Roland,
2011). In his theory, Peirce divided the signs into three categories: icons, indexes and
symbols. Icons are usually portraits and paintings which are signified by resemblance;
indexes are natural and causal signs that are signified by causal connections; and
symbols are general and conventional signs such as words and gestures (Atkin, 2010;
Berge, 2010). In this master thesis, the analysis will focus on one dimension of this
trichotomy: symbols. Symbol, as a sort of sign, is regarded as an element of language
which denotes an arbitrary and conventional relationship between signifier and referent
(Barnes & Duncan, 1992). This master thesis will particularly lay emphasis on how
words can make connections between current images and already existing symbols in
other places.
However, semiotic analysis is criticized for not being able to understand the “unstable
and power-laden nature of social meanings in a complex contemporary global society”
24
(Hannam & Knox, 2005). In consequence, the lens of power is used to complement the
deficiency.
25
5. Empirical findings
5.1 Why Gotland makes the case
“The island of Gotland, situated in the center of Baltic Sea on the eastern periphery of
Sweden, is the largest of the Baltoscandian islands” (Eliason, 2010, p. 5). It is described
on advertisements as “a different land, almost abroad, a ‘limestone Hawaii,’, ‘Sweden’s
Mallorca’” (Ronström, 2008). Since early 1990s, the municipality of Gotland has
started the strategic to transform the island into a sustainable society by 2025, which
covers all aspects of environment (Nilsson, 2014). According to the regional
development program “Vision 2025” adopted by the Municipal Council in 2008,
Gotland was “characterized by proximity, sustainable development and a zest for life”
(Westerén, 2014). The goal of transforming into a sustainable island has been reflected
in many documents and plans of municipality (European Commission, 2010).
Unquestionably, tourism is a non-negligible sector in the sustainable development
process of Gotland. With an average of 1,950,000 passengers and 870,000 guest nights
over a five-year period in comparison with 57,225 permanent residents (Region
Gotland, 2015), tourism along with agriculture is the biggest industry on Gotland
(Celion, 2001). Interests growing in sustainable tourism require Gotland to develop in
a new and environmental way. In consequence, several programs such as fishing
tourism program, networking program and interregional cooperation program have
been done to stimulate tourism to run in a sustainable way (Celion, 2001).
At present, there are two main goals for development of Gotland tourism (Eriksson,
2016b). Firstly, they tend to promote all-year-round tourism; secondly, it is important
for them to take international tourists into account.
Simply in 2014, over 2 million passengers were recorded to travel to or from Gotland
by either ferry or plane (Region Gotland, 2015). The number of travelers remained at
around 100,000 steadily during spring, autumn and winter while during summer time,
26
the number was able to shoot up to approximately 400,000 in July (Region Gotland,
2015), which, unquestionably, could mark Gotland as a seasonal tourism area.
Westerén (2014) discussed that they needed to take the effects of approximately
200,000 tourists visiting during 6-8 weeks in summer time into consideration. This
undoubtedly put strains on water situation, healthcare, sewage and waist systems, and
so forth. Currently, peak season in Gotland is in accordance with school holidays in
Sweden, which indicates the discontinuity of tourism industry in Gotland. According
to Eriksson (2016a), the blankness in off-season exerts detrimental impacts on local
entrepreneurs as well as tourism suppliers which hinders them from making consistent
profits and causes the waste of the infrastructure built for tourism. Therefore, local
municipality along with Inspiration Gotland AB makes efforts to search for new target
groups so as to develop new tourism seasons. Local municipality has established
several plans to promote new travel peak in off-season period (Eriksson. 2016a).
Apart from this, International tourists are regarded as an inspiring new market since
they tend to have diverse holiday periods in comparison to traditional potential tourists
in Gotland (Eriksson, 2016a). Moreover, Gotland is nowadays faced with huge
potential international tourists’ interests that 91 million foreign tourists are targeting
Sweden as their interested destination (Eriksson, 2016b). As a result, Gotland got
around 14,000 non-European visitors in 2015, relatively small number but having
witnessed 100% increase compared to 2014. In other words, international markets still
remain largely unexplored. Thus, under the request of promoting off-season tourism
and sustaining tourism in a long-run, one way for Gotland out is to attract international
tourists. Accordingly, the English written materials provided by Gotland tourism
industry are seen as a medium to take a furtive glance at its endeavors to appeal to
international tourists.
Based on every effort that Gotland has devoted, it is interesting to see how will regional
tourism markets and promoters present pertinent information to potential or on-spot
27
visitors. In this master thesis, the author will therefore conduct CDA towards tourism
promotional magazine Gotland 2016, trying to examine whether the materials conform
to sustainable development notions proposed by the region or not.
5.2 Textual corpus
Textual corpus extracted from Gotland 2016 comprises 21 themes in total, from which
they reveal how destination Gotland perceives, introduces and promotes the island to
visitors. The themes do not involve advertisements which propagate specific profitable
business companies. Instead, the textual corpus presents sceneries and views all around
Gotland. All of the themes are divided into three categories: historical sites, natural
scenes and social life, which are shown in table 1 The themes of textual corpus. Two of
them are pertaining to historical sites; five of them to natural scenes; eight of them to
social life; and the rest of themes are a mix of the three categories mentioned above.
The categories are chronicled in themes and pages.
Theme Page
Historical sites 1. Visby.
2. A modern world heritage city.
P. 10
P. 44
Natural scenes 1. Around the world on one island.
2. Island safari nature and adventure on your doorstep.
3. 800 km coast.
4. Marshland.
5. Autumn.
P. 6
P. 8
P. 12
P. 32
P. 74
Social life 1. Culinary oases.
2. Brewing culture.
3. Gotland by bike.
4. Gotland art week.
5. Crimetime.
P. 14
P. 22
P. 56
P. 62
P. 63
28
6. Gotland excursion planning ahead.
7. Meetings.
8. Sport fishing.
P. 67
P. 70
P.77
A mix 1. Lovely ljugarn.
2. Nikke-di-bukk.
3. An inspiring island.
4. A cultural world heritage site.
5. Country life.
6. A medieval festival.
P.26
P. 28
P. 34
P. 36
P. 48
P. 54
Table 1: The Themes of Textual Corpus
Two themes related to historical sites are all focused on capital city of Gotland: Visby.
It was “once capital of the Baltic Sea and main center of the Hanseatic League” (Glory
Days Media AB, 2016, p. 11). With the historical city walls dating back to the 13th
century as well as buildings and relics from Hanseatic period, Visby is worldly
distinguished for its world cultural heritage Hanseatic Town since 1995 (UNESCO
World Heritage Centre, 2016). According to the inscription of UNESCO (2006), Visby
is entitled as a medieval walled trading town “preserves with remarkable completeness”,
“a townscape and assemblage of high-quality ancient buildings that illustrate
graphically the form and function of this type of significant human settlement” (p.1).
Apart from this, the theme “A medieval festival” is the combination of historical sites
and social life. Every year in the course of late July or early August, Medieval Week is
held in Gotland transforming the region into a hanseatic medieval city back in old times.
92 churches mostly built between 1100s and 1300s all around the island make Gotland
directly back to Middle Ages (Mundt, no date).
It is not surprising that five themes of natural scenes are utterly pertinent to the sea since
Gotland is renowned for its beaches along coastline (Eliason, 2010). Meanwhile,
29
“sunshine”, “beach” and “sea” are still regarded as the major selling points to entice
tourists into Gotland (Eriksson, 2016a).
Every year started from June, Region Gotland will witness various of regional, national
and even international events including Garden Week, Bergman Week, Almedal Week,
Medieval Week, Crimetime Gotland, Gotland Art Week, and so forth (Region Goltand,
2015), which will provoke a great deal of visitation. Thus, miscellaneous “weeks” take
up considerable proportion of social life section. Other activities related to food, drinks
and leisure transportation (bike and cruise ships) are chosen as representatives of social
life as well. Apart from this, meetings and sport fishing are rare themes that are not
summer-related and can be regarded as means of social life to promote off-season
tourism. It is noting that the concept of sustainability is firstly and solely mentioned in
the section of sport fishing as “sustainable fishing”:
To safeguard the island’s population of wild sea trout for forthcoming generations, sport fishermen
are requested to Catch & Release. As a general rule, a maximum catch of one trout per fisherman
per day is recommended on Gotland, with all pike caught in seawater to be thrown back (Glory
Days Media AB, 2016, p. 77).
For several other themes, it is difficult to classify them into specific categories. For
instance, when the village of Ljugarn on the east coast of Gotland is introduced, all of
three categories are involved to sketch images of Ljugarn: cycling and tennis represent
social life; old fishing community represents historical site; and sea stack represents
natural scene. Nikke-di-bukk, which is explained as “kids’ games”, is chiefly depicted
to attract family with children where steam engine along with farm life is characterized
as attractions for kids. There are images of horses and treehouses without existence of
human beings as illustrations. A cultural world heritage site, a theme that is mainly an
introduction of Ingmar Bergman, is employed to popularize the small Baltic Sea island
off north of Gotland, Fårö, the place where Bergman called home. Ingmar Bergman is
a famous Swedish icon who enjoys a glorious status in the world of film and died in
30
Fårö. In this theme, shore of Langhammars that was once filmed by Bergman is shown
in several pictures, where there are typical Fårö scene “rauks”, a kind of monolith that
is created by erosion during ice age (Pergament, 2007). As a result, these themes are
seen as a combination of two or even three categories.
Distribution of three categories can be also discussed in page numbers. It is noticeable
that natural scenes are mainly presented in first several pages while social life comes
afterwards. Themes related to peak tourism season, namely summer vacation, are put
forward in the first place while themes which endeavor to extend off-season tourism
such as Meetings (p. 70), Autumn (p. 74) and Sport Fishing (p. 77) are positioned in the
last few pages.
5.3 Content Analysis
Content analysis of photographs shown among 21 themes in Gotland 2016 is conducted
to decompose data in a macro-level, which means data are utilized in a holistic manner.
There are in total 73 photographs with 21 themes among which data are coded in two
directions. Firstly, all of the photographs are categorized into three groups: historical
sites, natural scenes and social life. Then, identical corpus of photos is recoded based
on the presence of human subjects. Detailed information is depicted in Table 2 Content
analysis of photographs in Gotland 2016.
Human Subjects Historical Sites
(%)
Natural Scenes
(%)
Social Life
(%)
Total
(%)
H1* 1.3 (1) 9.6 (7) 20.5 (15) 31.5 (23)
H2* 0.0 (0) 2.7 (2) 11.0 (8) 13.7 (10)
H3* 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 6.8 (5) 6.8 (5)
NH* 5.5 (4) 15.1 (11) 27.5 (20) 48.0 (35)
31
Total 6.8% (5) 27.4 (20) 65.8 (48) 100.00(73)
H1: human subjects as tourists;
H2: human subjects as local residents;
H3: human subjects with both tourists and local residents;
NH: no human subjects in photograph.
Table 2. Content Analysis of Photographs in Gotland 2016
Historical sites consist of ancient buildings and relics. Interestingly, though there are
different historical sites all around the island, all of the photos in the section of historical
sites are selected from Visby. This phenomenon principally attributes to the status of
Visby: the modern world heritage city. The outstanding status of Visby makes it easily
become representative of historical sites for Gotland. Apart from this, natural scenes
are related to geophysical and biological settings, which involves the images of ocean,
beaches, trees, islands, animals, and so forth. Among all of the photos, there are eight
photos that take up more than one page’s space, half of which turn out to be
ocean/beach-related scenes. This proves that Gotland 2016 eagers to build up the image
of Gotland as a summer vacation paradise with traditional insights of “sunshine”,
“beach” and “sea”. Social life, different from historical sites and natural scenes, is more
human-related with the scene of sociocultural significance. It includes all kinds of
recreational activities all around Gotland, chiefly pertinent to food, drinks, residence
and sports. Though Visby is labeled as world cultural heritage, it seems that this is not
regarded as the backbone of attracting tourists since only 6.8% of photos are related to
Visby historical sites. By contrast, natural scenes are treated as the significant
attractions especially when it comes to the beaches and oceans. 27 out of 73 photos are
pertinent to beaches and oceans which accounts for approximately 37%. According to
Table 2, 65.8 % of photos are pertinent to social life while many of them are related to
natural scenes as well. When recoding in terms of human subjects, almost half of the
photos do not comprise human subjects at all. When it comes to the pictures consisting
32
of human subjects, only 11 pictures involve mainly local residents while 23 of the
pictures build up images of tourists.
However, this quantitative analysis should meanwhile take the quality of photos into
consideration, seeing that some of the photos may not exert identical influence as others.
For instance, there are six pictures included in one page in the theme of Brewing Culture
and five pictures included in half page in the theme of Crimetime. It is not exceedingly
difficult to draw a conclusion that none of them is as significant as the picture in the
theme of Marshland: the nature scene of marshland which unquestionably leaves
readers with deep impressions by means of two pages’ exquisitely-shot photo. In
addition, five pictures in Crimetime are sorted out in the group of “human subjects as
local residents”. However, the photos in Crimetime are portraits devoted to
homogeneous theme that are not likely to be discerned as typical local residents that
are closely related to Gotland (seen in Appendix 3 Figure 5). As a result, the total
number of pictures in social life (48) and human subjects as local residents (10) might
exaggerate their actual impacts seeing that their quantitative roles exceed their
qualitative roles.
Accordingly, Table 3 Content analysis of key photographs in Gotland 2016 is created
to take quality into account in the light that content analysis is the combination of
quantitative and qualitative study. Only key photos taking up over one page (including
one page) can be calculated as valid data. As a result, 12 photos are ultimately chosen
which are capable of leaving core impressions on readers.
Human Subjects Historical Sites
(%)
Natural Scenes
(%)
Social Life
(%)
Total
(%)
H1* 8.3 (1) 16.7 (2) 16.7 (2) 41.7 (5)
H2* 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)
33
H3* 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 8.3 (1) 8.3 (1)
NH* 8.3 (1) 25.0 (3) 16.7 (2) 50.0 (6)
Total 16.6 (2) 41.7 (5) 41.7 (5) 100.0 (12)
H1: human subjects as tourists;
H2: human subjects as local residents;
H3: human subjects with both tourists and local residents;
NH: no human subjects in photograph.
Table 3. Content Analysis of Key Photographs in Gotland 2016
In comparison to Table 2, the most significant change to be perceived in Table 3 lies in
the group of H2, revealing that no human subjects as local residents are shown in the
photos. Meanwhile, the percentages of NH are similar in two tables, both accounting
for half of the amount. That is to say, in the process of popularizing Gotland as a tourist
attraction, local promoters endeavor to establish the image of Gotland as tourist-
oriented and nature-oriented instead of local-oriented tourism. The images of local
residents are overlooked on a big scale while promoters attempt to set up the tourist-
friendly and sparsely-populated images by presenting the overview of a certain scene
without any human subjects inside. This caters for tourists’ dreams of vacation paradise,
where they escape away from crowds and spend their heavenly life on an isolated island.
In addition, the presentations of natural scenes and social life become more equivalent
in numbers, both accounting for 41.7%. Moreover, among 5 photos that represent social
life, many of them are related to natural scenes. It manifests social life images in an
exotic way where people live an ideal life in a distinctive landscape. This, once again,
emphasizes that Gotland 2016 is devoted to lead readers to a nature-oriented world that
is sharply contrary to a hectic and exhausting city life.
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5.4 Semiotic Analysis
In this part, the concept of symbol is applied to conduct a semiotic analysis. In his
research, Metro-Roland (2011) applied semiotics based on three studies with foreign
visitors in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The study not only explained how signs
are symbols of other things but also supported the idea that interpretations of symbols
can lead to actions. In Metro-Roland’s paper, the interpretations of semiotics revealed
visitors’ perception of “how was this city different and unique from other cities” (p. 3).
This is important for development of a tourism destination seeing that the creation and
interpretation of symbols of a place might become the motive power of attracting
tourists. For instance, mermaid for Copenhagen and water city for Venice. In
consequence, it is of core importance to build up its own symbolic images of a tourism
destination. Accordingly, the action of establishing the feelings of exoticism from other
places instead of setting up its own characteristics in Gotland 2016 proves to be an
interesting phenomenon to be discussed with.
35
Figure 1. Lexical information in the pictures
The five screenshots from Figure 1 are extracted from five different photos in textual
corpus, the corresponding themes of which are Around the world on one island, Autumn,
Marshland, Culinary oases, and Visby. Among these photos, four of them belong to
key photos chosen in table 3. It means that four out of twelve, namely, one third of the
key photos are making use of this “trick” to lead readers to somewhere else. When
describing scenes in Gotland, they borrow other scenes that readers are familiar with to
trigger their fantasy or inspire them to make connections with something that is
commonly known. This, in promoters’ opinion, is likely to arouse potential readers’
interests to visit. Among five of the other places that are mentioned in Figure 1, four of
them are selected from reality: Corsica, Maldives, Valencia and Costa Rica, which are
chosen respectively from West Europe, South Asia, South Europe and Mid America.
Corsica and Maldives are worldly famous islands that have long history of tourism, the
images of which are expected to stimulate readers’ imagination towards dreamlike
island life. Valencia, as the third largest city of Spain, is known as sunshine city with
medieval buildings and sun-drenched beaches, happening to be images that Gotland
eager to promote. Costa Rica, unquestionably, also shares similarities with Gotland by
developing ecotourism to diversify its agricultural-oriented economic pattern.
Moreover, Costa Rica is a pioneer in green challenge devoted to becoming the first
carbon neutral country by 2021 as well as building up global ecotourism community
(The International Ecotourism Society, no date). This to some extent establishes eco-
association for Gotland.
Different from the rest of the places, Mordor comes from fantasy rather than real life.
In the epic high-fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, Mordor was the destination of the
Fellowship of the Ring where massive volcanic eruptions make it devastating but also
magnificent (Tolkien, 1954). The photo contained lexical analogy of Mordor is the
illustration of the theme Autumn. It seems that writers of this theme attempt to establish
36
sharp contrast between summer and autumn by charactering autumn as cryptic and
unpredictable. Through metonymy, promoters of Gotland 2016 utilize Gotland’s own
images to guide readers to envisage elsewhere, in reality or in fantasy, trying to add
charm of other places into the image of Gotland. However, is Gotland the one in Baltic
Sea, or is it a second Corsica, or a real-life version of Mordor? Gotland, in this sense,
might fail to be symbolized as Gotland itself.
37
6. Analysis
6.1 Dichotomy of power in Gotland 2016
In his work, Barthes (1972) criticized travel guide as “an agent of blindness” (p.76).
Guidebooks of a tourism destination can easily establish certain sorts of images by
choosing limited types of landscapes and scenes. On the one hand, it will strengthen
and empower what they tend to present; on the other hand, it is likely to overlook and
disempower others. This, in the long run, might lead to discontinuity of tourism and
hinder prosperity and sustainable development of localities. In the following part, the
author will start discussions in the context of dichotomy of power in the light of content
and semiotic analysis of Gotland 2016. It is not elusive to find out the keywords for
Gotland 2016: Visby, Sea, Tourists and others. These words and images can be
perceived in languages and pictures in Gotland 2016 as well as through structure and
layout of it. This discloses the dichotomy of power that will be elaborately showed in
Table 5.
Empower Disempower Remarks
Visby Other places in Gotland Historical sites only Visby
Ocean scenes Other scenes “sunshine”, “beach”, “sea”
Summer Other seasons Page number/proportion/deletion
Natural
scenes/Tourists Local residents
Social sustainability;
Agriculture
Exoticism Own characteristics Symbols-undecipherable
Table 5. Dichotomy of Power in Gotland 2016
Visby VS other places in Gotland
As the capital city of Gotland, the word Visby came up 24 times in Gotland 2016 which
is the third most mentioned word (seen in Appendix 2). When it comes to pictorial
38
discourse, 6.8% of photos are world cultural heritage Hanseatic town of Visby
indicating that promoters do not prone to utilizing world heritage as the highlight of
Gotland tourism. This is confirmed by Eriksson (2016b) that remarkable places of
historic interest are so well-known that promoters tend to forget to introduce them in
their promotional materials. Nevertheless, though there are 92 churches and other
historical sites all around the island, only pictures of Visby are showed in the category
of historical sites. This proves that the images of Visby are fortified which attenuate the
rest of the historical sites as well as places in Gotland. In consequence, it might imply
imbalance of area development, leading to overcrowded tourism situation in Visby and
less attention to the rest of the area.
Ocean scenes / summer VS Other scenes / seasons
Seasonal tourism, meanwhile, is seen as a barricade of sustainable development of
Gotland tourism seeing that the booming tourism takes place merely in the course of
summer period at the present time (Eriksson, 2016a). As a result, business actors in
Gotland can benefit at best from summer time. What is worse, many business
stakeholders come from outside of the island to grab benefits and vacate when summer
carnival is over, leaving locals with spare infrastructure requiring continuous
maintenance (Ronström, 2016a). In order to soften detrimental impacts and gradually
weaken discontinuity of seasonal tourism, Gotland municipality therefore takes several
measures to extend off-seasonal tourism. However, in Gotland 2016, ocean scenes and
summer topics still take up absolute dominant roles. Magazine promoters consolidate
the image of summer vacation paradise by dedicating all of the five themes of nature
scenes and four out of eight pictures that take up more than one-page space to ocean-
related views. The large proportion of disclosure proves that treating Gotland as a
summer resort is still the backbone of promotion. The dissemination for the rest of the
year is until now a missing piece in the jigsaw of tourism promotion.
39
This can be perceived by the order and deletion of themes as well. Among all of 21
themes, only three themes are related to off-season tourism, which are Meetings (p. 70),
Autumn (p. 74) and Sport Fishing (p. 77). Respectively, promoters seek to expand off-
season tourism by attracting business meetings and conferences, building up relaxing
and distinctive autumn scenes, and offering fishing enthusiasts to participate
sustainable sport fishing in Gotland. It is noteworthy that the concept of sustainability
is firstly and solely mentioned in Fishing part, the theme of which not only endeavors
to extend tourism period on a macro-level but also thinks highly of promoting fishing
activity itself in a sustainable manner on a micro-level. Nonetheless, the three themes
mentioned-above are positioned in the very last few pages to make a concession for
already over-advertised summer themes.
Apart from this, Gotland attempts to develop around-Christmas winter tourism period
(Eriksson, 2016a). The integration of Gotland and snow in articles and pictures can be
discerned since the first e-version of Gotland series from 2013. However, in Gotland
2016, it is completely deleted. No signs of winter images can be traced in textual corpus.
It seems that on the one hand Gotland wants to get rid of seasonal tourism label and
promote all-year-round tourism; while on the other hand, they inevitably get stuck in
the stereotype image of summer vacation paradise by means of too much exposure of
oceanic scenes. However, as an island with 800 km of coastline, it is comprehensible
for the municipality to pay more attention to and rely chiefly on oceanic tourism.
Natural scenes / tourists VS local residents
The deletion also refers to the presentation of local communities. There is risk of
overlooking complex cultures, histories and people constituting the places in the
process of commodification of a tourism destination (Hall, 1997). Though host
communities benefit from job creation, income generation and ameliorative
infrastructures (Mitchell & Reid, 2001; Andriotis, 2002; cited in Andriotis & Vaughan,
2003, p. 172), tourism destinations sometimes can be depicted to cater for the needs
40
and benefits of stakeholders who “want to package places” (Hall, 1997, p. 79) instead
of people who live there. In other words, host residents can sometimes find themselves
suffer from sociocultural and environmental costs caused by tourism (Andriotis &
Vaughan, 2003). This phenomenon is reflective in promotional materials from two
perspectives: firstly, the deletion of contents pertinent to local communities; secondly,
insufficient presentation of local communities.
Agriculture is another concept to reveal the tense relationship between nature scenes /
tourists and local residents. Tourism and agriculture are regarded as two main industries
on Gotland, as a result of which, the development of tourism should not take place at
the expense of scarifying agriculture. On the contrary, Gotland should endeavor to
promote it to a better level and cooperate in a win-win situation. Gotland 2014 (Glory
Days Media AB, 2014) published two articles, Locally produced (p. 22) and The sheep
farmer from rute (p. 73), which are related to agriculture. Illustrations of local cooks,
local farmers, farms, crops and sheep are inserted to build up the images of local
communities. Similarly, Gotland 2015 (Glory Days Media AB, 2015) published Local
produce with soul (p. 25) and The rough & smooth of Gotland (p. 39) with images of
farmers, crops and sheep as well. Though Gotland 2013 (Newsfactory Media Group,
2013) did not include agriculture images, it released an article named Another side of
Gotland We love the pace of life here on the island (p. 41) to tell stories of local families.
However, there was no article pertaining to any images of local farmers or local families
at all in Gotland 2016. Local images are sharply disempowered by concentrations on
nature- and tourist- oriented texts.
With the development of agriculture and tourism, less labors are needed in agriculture
and reversely more are required for tourism industry, thus more local residents are
working for tourism (Ronström, 2016b). There are usually three types of images for
local residents in Gotland: servants, local craftsmen and islanders. Locals are therefore
a core part and direct representatives of Gotland tourism. However, the region seems
41
reluctant to show ordinary life of local residents. There are rarely images of islanders
in the magazine. Local residents are shown mostly as people who serve tourists rather
than local craftsmen or islanders. This caters for the thoughts that tourists feel they are
invited if tourism destination images are uninhabited or with other tourists’ images.
Some tourism marketers and promoters believe that tourists would like to go to
somewhere terra nullius without human beings. The images of other tourists are more
favored than indigenous people because potential tourists are believed to gain sense of
identities from former images. As a result, Gotland in the magazine is depicted as an
art gallery. There are no houses for living but only houses to exhibit; no ordinary life
being traced but only extraordinary to highlight; nobody residing but only tourists
visiting……It is said that commonly recognized “Gotlandic images” are narrow street
with cobblestones and uninhabited medieval buildings, Visby wall and Rauk. No
Gotland lives, no common school, no shopping center, and no resident area (Ronström,
2016b).
It is understandable that islands are likely to be tourists-oriented in terms of their special
geographical status. However, it is important to empower local residents, realizing that
to forge a right identity for local residents can “help planners and developers to identify
real concerns and issues for appropriate policies and action to take place, optimizing
the benefits and minimizing the problems” (Andriotis & Vaughan, 2003, p.173). More
importantly, regional markets and promoters are supposed to conduct risk management
for over dependence upon tourism. For instance, Lesbos, a Greek island situated in the
northeastern Aegean Sea, is known for tourism-oriented economy. After the refugee
crisis, the figure of daily refugee arrivals shot up to thousands (Mchugh, 2015), which
gave rise to worries towards its tourist trade (Amin, 2016). Southern villages in Lesbos
are assumed to experience bad tourism seasons because of refugee crisis. Though the
situation in Lesbos is still in limbo, it will be defined by the flow of people from the
island (Amin, 2016), which is slowly becoming the new focus of local municipality
(Ronström, 2016b). As a result, islands marketers and promoters are not suggested to
42
put full dependence on tourism, considering that it highly relies on external and
uncertain elements. Moreover, the vulnerability and fragility of islands tourism requires
more attention towards internal factors such as local communities, which are the
victims as well as rescuer of unexpected crush in tourism industry. Thus, under the
dichotomy between natural scene / tourists and local residents, Gotland is suggested to
build up risk awareness and be conscious that local communities are “spine” of regional
development.
Exoticism VS other characteristics
Gotland collected tourism promotional plans from public and the idea of exoticism won
the case (Ronström, 2016b). The basic idea was to describe one spot of Gotland as
somewhere else. It is reasonable to attract national tourists around Sweden with the idea
to experience exoticism of worldly tourist attractions within one single island. However,
when it turns into an international promotional material, this adapts no longer to the
case. Tourism destinations are suggested to highlight their uniqueness in order to
achieve strong customer loyalty on an emotional level, which will help to create an
advantageous status against rival destinations (Apostolakis, Jaffry, Sizel & Cox, 2015).
Moreover, intangible assets that is pertinent to internal stakeholders with destination
personality traits slowly witness their rise in status compared to tangible assets (Kemp
et al., 2011; Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011; Pereira et al., 2012; cited in Apostolakis et
al., 2015, p. 199). As a result, tourism destinations are suggested to fascinate tourists
by their authentic features instead of showing homogeneity of other places. However,
Gotland 2016 is eliminating its uniqueness by depicting the region as other places. In
this process, the images of other places are strengthened while regional characteristics
are largely disempowered. Unique local culture and heritages which are seen as
competitive advantages (Apostolakis et al., 2015) make concessions to exoticism that
is far away from Gotland.
43
6.2 From translation to creation
English version of Gotland 2016 is translated directly from original Swedish version.
Except for languages, no major changes can be discerned from two versions. In terms
of discussions from exoticism, we can come to the conclusion that direct translation
does not cater for needs and expectations of international tourists. According to a
research by Mechinda, Serirat and Gulid (2009), push motivations of domestic and
international tourists differ significantly in all dimensions. Thus, what is suitable for
domestic tourists may not exert identical influence on international tourists. For
instance, tourist destinations ought to have “trademarks” to strengthen their originality
and superiority so as to compete with other destinations in international market
(Eriksson, 2016b). As a result, they need to label itself with an identity. From this
perspective, the identification of tourist destination varies between domestic tourism
and international tourism. In other words, simple translation of promotional tourism
from original language to universally used English language is not regarded as a valid
way of attracting international tourists. In addition, attachment and familiarity of
tourists are two key factors to gain competitive advantages for both domestic and
international tourists (Mechinda et al., 2009). Even so, attachment is measured by place
identity with symbolic features, which, in line with discussions mentioned-above, is
replaced by exoticism of other places in Gotland 2016.
In consequence, promoting materials for international tourists should develop from
translation to creation, with awareness of what are push motivations for international
tourists. When doing so, it rings a bell with a sentence from Thurot & Thurot (1983):
“Tourism is very much about our culture.” In the culture of tourist destination,
environment, local residents, history and others are all salient factors. It is
understandable that tourists tend to be interested in something shallow and hedonistic.
Thus, position of local people is not inclined to be pushed forward and ameliorated
(Butler & Hinch, 1996) while delightful images such as sun and beaches are presented
44
more often. However, just like Cannikin Law: How much of a bucket filled with water,
does not depend on the highest piece of wood on the side of casks, but rather depends
on the shortest piece on the sides of casks (Zhang, 2011). Similarly, the sustainable
development of a tourist destination depends on the most ignored part of the place. In
Gotland 2016, the missing parts such as places except for Visby, other seasons except
for summer, local communities and so forth are all “short pieces” that will hinder a
smooth and sustainable development for tourism destination. How to fill as much water
as possible in a bucket? Fix the shortest piece on the sides of casks. How to sustain
tourism in Destination Gotland? It might be helpful to pay attention to disempowered
parts revealed from Gotland 2016.
45
7. Conclusions
Now perhaps we can answer this question: what is missing behind promotional
magazines? As a single study for promotional magazine, the author can only draw
limited conclusions (Nordin, 2012). Nevertheless, we can still speculate that one of the
core answer might be: ordinary life is missing. This is not new. As Tu and Su (2014)
argued in another article, tourist destinations are always stereotyped and misplaced by
images and pictures. Especially for islands tourism, marine and coastal sceneries are
often taken for granted as landmarks of islands. In other words, islands are always
presented with uninhabited nature scenes, leaving ordinary life untraced. In Gotland
2016, ordinary life is always hidden and local communities are unfailingly invisible
(Ronström, 2016b). Apart from this, other places outside Visby, views besides “sun and
sand”, seasons besides summer and unique features of Gotland are not totally missing
but somehow weakened by other dominant features.
In consequence, a healthy and sustainable development of a tourism destination is
supposed to be treated in a holistic manner, combining economic, environmental and
social all together, especially social sustainability in local communities that is often
overlooked by tourism marketers and promoters. One practical way of executing
sustainable development of tourism is through valid way of communication.
Promotional magazines can be regarded as a core resource for tourists’ usage
(Bhattacharyya, 1997). Thus, the analysis of communicating bridge Gotland 2016 is
considered as an effective way and channel to probe developing strategies and
sustainable practices of local municipalities. Created by tourism marketers and
promoters, Gotland 2016 grasps the power to depict Gotland and present it to tourists
in a way they want. In other words, they have a supreme command of information to
empower images they desire and disempower the rest. In Gotland 2016, the images of
Visby, oceans scenes, summer, nature/tourists scenes and exoticism are strengthened
while the opposite of these images are inevitably weakened simultaneously. This, in the
46
long run, will hinder continuous development of local area in economic, environment
and social sense. Particularly in this master thesis, social sustainability is discussed with
priority since it is always likely to be overlooked and seen as less important than other
aspects of sustainable tourism. As a result, it is suggested that local residents are
supposed to be involved in tourism development not only as participants but also as
owners and ambassadors. The wellbeing of local communities is equally important as
environment protection and economic growth when promoting tourism development.
As a typical seasonal tourism destination, Gotland sees the necessity to extend its
tourism period to the whole year. Unquestionably, all-year-round tourism may secure
continuity of tourism situation which helps to sustain local economy and attain steady
financial income. However, it does not mean that all-year-round tourism equals to
integrated and sustainable development of tourism industry. Attracting ceaseless
tourists does not necessarily equal to the solution of local tourism development. While
promoting tourism industry, infrastructure, agriculture and local communities all
witness pressure to live and develop. In consequence of this, local municipalities should
strike a balance between economic growth and sustainable development.
Due to time limit, this master thesis comes to an end with many questions unsolved.
Traditional island tourism promoters tend to believe tourists enjoy a place with no
human trace, but is it still true? Do we underestimate tourists? Is culture exploration
also becoming a new trend for tourists? Are they becoming interested in ordinary life
of local communities as well? It leads a path to future research.
47
Acknowledgements
The preparation, research and writing of this master thesis has been a tough and
enjoyable journey in my life. It is not easy to think and write in a second language
especially when it comes to something like master thesis. Luckily, with disinterested
help from many people, I managed to finish it.
My greatest debt of thanks goes to my parents, Jianxin Hu and Chaomin Xu. You have
always been every part of the journey that I have taken. Thanks for supporting me to
study abroad with endless love and unfailing care!
Thank you, Anna and Jenny! You gave me the confidence that this master thesis is
worth writing and helped me do plenty of research as well as guiding me with expert
advice and encouragement throughout the whole process!
I also deeply value the help from two important interviewees: Professor Ronström from
Uppsala University and Director Eriksson from Inspiration Gotland AB. Without your
kind help and first-hand information, it was impossible for me to connect theory with
practice and made it land.
Thank you, my classmates and friends in Visby! You accompanied me through the
whole academic year. Especially in the master thesis process, you read and gave
suggestions to my work with great help!
Thank you, Zhiyi, Bo, and other friends in China! Your encouragements and companies
have provided me with the courage to finish the last pieces of this master thesis when
it seemed tough to complete.
Thank you, Visby. You would always be an inexpressible precious part of my life!
I thank you all for giving me such treasured and unique memories!
48
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Appendix
Appendix 1 Gotland 2016
Figure 1. Cover of Gotland 2016 (English version/Swedish version)
Figure 2. Figure 3.
Where you can find it A closer look
58
Appendix 2 Frequency of words in Gotland 2016
Ranking Word Frequency Ranking Word Frequency
1 Gotland 64 11 City 11
2 Island 42 12 Fårö 11
3 Visby 24 13 New 11
4 Bergman 21 14 Cycling 10
5 Tour- 16 15 Film 10
6 Sea 16 16 Medieval 10
7 World 14 17 Fishing 9
8 Place 13 18 Home 9
9 People 12 19 Landscape 9
10 Restaurant 12 20 Activities 8
59
Appendix3 Figures that are used in Chapter 5. Empirical Findings
Figure 4. Brewing culture
Figure 5. Crimetime
60
Figure 6. Marshland
61
Appendix 4 Key Images of Historical Sites, Natural Scenes and Social Life
Historical Sites
Natural Scenes
62
Social Life
63
Appendix 5 Exoticism
Corsica
Costa Rica
64
Valencia
Mordor
65
The Madives
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