Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim Recent documents in Johan Edelheim en-us Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:41:56 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/23 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/23 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:17:10 PDT Don Fuller http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/22 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/22 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:17:09 PDT D Bruce Armstrong http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/20 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/20 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:03 PDT It is self-evident that tourist brochures are selling a positive and attractive destination to travellers; what is not as self-evident are the hidden messages conveyed by the selection of certain pictures in the brochures produced. By coding each picture appearing in a series of tourist brochures according to their content this research aims at showing how the brochures are overtly aimed at different groups of travellers, while they simultaneously are reinforcing certain hegemonic views of society. The suggestion that hegemonic messages appear is not an accusation, against the producers, of the brochures of covert propaganda, but rather that taken-for-granted views of society as unproblematic truths portrayed in the brochures is not correct - the brochures should rather be viewed as highly sensitive polysemic constructs. Johan Edelheim Critical tourism theory http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/18 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/18 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:02 PDT Johan Edelheim http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/19 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/19 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:02 PDT During the recent years, the role of mass media and its crucial position in the tourism information and decision-making process has increased. The decision to choose one holiday destination over a myriad of available choices is just one of many steps in the tourist's decision-making process. The question rising from this is whether there is a relationship between what is being communicated by the mass media and the tourist's stimulus. Tourism operators on Fiji and other holiday destinations have experienced that the messages the mass media are communicating to the public can have a significant impact on the numbers of visitors to the destination. An event published in the mass media is seen as objective and factual because a third party writes it. However, editorial staff of the media controls what is being published, and it is hard, if not impossible, for the tourism operators to control. This paper uses an analytical approach to discuss the relationship between tourism and the effects of news reports on customers decisions-making and motivations resulting in the tourist's travel behaviour. The findings in this paper indicate that the mass media plays an important role in tourist's decision-making process. Margrete Lexow Critical tourism theory http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/16 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/16 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:01 PDT Johan Edelheim http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/17 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/17 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:01 PDT This paper will pose the question: If a nation's icons are not true representations of that society's culture - then what are true descriptors of that culture?Australia as a Tourist Destination Region (TDR) is defined as having 4 R's; the Roo, the Roof, the Reef and the Rock, as its main attractions. The Roo - the marsupial family of kangaroos and wallabies. The Roof -the exterior areas of the Sydney Opera House. The Reef - refers to the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, the Rock - Uluru, the world's largest monolith remotely situated in the middle of the great continent. All the 4 R's are icons, and recognised worldwide as being images/pictures that describe Australia. Visitors are, through their gaze, to a certain degree, focused on gazing upon these icons, and the inbound tourism industry of Australia is focused on serving inbound tourists these attractions.An Australian is likely to laugh at the images as being too simplified descriptors. A normal response includes suggestions of visits to the outback to experience 'the real Australia', to sit in pubs talking to 'locals' about 'real Australian' professions such as mining or farming. The picture is painted as to say that the tourist would not have experienced more than an overtly staged front-stage if they have not seen more than some of the 4 R's.This paper will claim that neither frontstage nor backstage icons are authentic. If no culture is ultimately authentic then no description of real Australia can have a final value as correct. An alternative definition of the facts is that everything is authentic, as the tourists are the persons who experience the phenomena, if they would not be where they are, those very experiences would not happen. It is therefore the tourists that make the experience authentic. If the latter definition is accepted then all descriptors found in Australia can be seen as 'real' cultural symbols.A suggestion is made that phenomenology as a methodology, might be a tool for researchers and industry practitioners, to take a 'step back' from their normal thoughts and reflect upon the phenomena they are a part of, and how their actions involuntarily form that experience.A brief description of tourism in Australia is made and a media analysis conducted in an attempt to prove the validity of the concepts proposed. It seems to be that true descriptors of the Australian culture are an amalgam of interconnected symbols, each from different settings, but together constituting Australia. Based on that, it seems correct to classify an experience of the 'real' Australia as a fairly liminal one. Every time something is experienced which is determined 'real' by some source, another source is questioning that reality. This is a preliminary work of a larger thesis investigating special interest tourism as a contributor to the formation of cultural identity. Johan Edelheim http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/14 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/14 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:00 PDT Simulations are widely used tools today, not only as analytical applications to support decisions but also for instructional applications in management education. This case illustrates how a subject, based on a computer simulation, has evolved from being 'a waste of time' - according to most stakeholders - to becoming a model that other subjects are benchmarked against. The case will outline how a specific simulation is used and also show why a simulation cannot be taken 'straight off the shelf' and become the tool it has the potential to be, but rather how a continuing process of lecturer and student evaluation and enhancements is needed. Johan Edelheim http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/15 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/15 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:42:00 PDT Johan Edelheim http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/12 http://works.bepress.com/johan_edelheim/12 Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:41:59 PDT This paper suggests that tourist attractions might act as powerful agents in forming and forging people's understanding of national identity. Attractions are often presented in a simplistic manner as objects without further complexity, this understanding hide the fact that images presented to the public might work as social tableaux. An analysis of how attractions are constructed in the social realm by texts surrounding them is here done by highlighting the racial/ethnic context of them. The suggestion that attractions can be understood as narratives in themselves leads the paper to deconstruct the way attractions currently maintain a colonial discourse. A case is presented in this paper, involving a bushranger called Thunderbolt that Uralla, a small town in the New England area of NSW, uses as its main attraction. The paper suggests that a touristic terra nullius is created by the focus on what exists as objects in the present, without a regard for what has existed in the past. The discussion shows how a narrative analysis of tourist attractions can lead researchers to discover a palimpsest of a location's history, still visible through the modern texts about it. Johan Edelheim Critical tourism theory