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The gaze in tourism settings: An ethnographical approach above and beyond the theory of the tourist gaze
Abstract
This paper aims to reflect on the possibilities of analysing gazes within a specific social situation, namely tourist visits to Rio de Janeiro’s favelas . The paper aims to do so outside the line initiated by John Urry’s tourist gaze. In fact, the goal here is to first describe gazes in their interactional aspects. Therefore, this paper focusses less on the idea of structured perception, which is the crux of Urry’s theory, but rather on the effect of the gaze within concrete situations. By referring to a set of rules and norms operating in the agency of what is given to see, what tourists desire to see and what is concealed from their gaze, this paper eventually follows a different approach toward understanding what structures the tourist experiences.
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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an up-to-date review of the gaze, proposing new research agendas with regard to the various gazes actively operating at destinations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study thoroughly and systematically reviewed the existing literature by gathering papers related to gaze research in tourism contexts. Analysis of existing knowledge is centered around the gaze and a triadic framework among three key stakeholders.
Findings
A theoretical schema of the gaze was developed via a thorough examination of existing studies. The framework disclosed the subject of the gaze, be it tourist-initiated and/or host-initiated, and tourist–host interactions. Along with five dominant types (tourist gaze, intratourist gaze, local gaze, mutual gaze and reverse gaze), a triadic framework among stakeholders was further revealed.
Originality/value
The literature review provides meaningful insights into gaze research in the tourism field, representing the first effort to delineate relationships among relevant stakeholders. Further, this study proposes future research priorities related to the tourist–host relationship for destination experience development.
The problem of false consciousness and its relationship to the social structure of tourist establishments is analyzed. Accounts of travelers are examined in terms of Erving Goffman's front versus back distinction. It is found that tourists try to enter back regions of the places they visit because these regions are associated with intimacy of relations and authenticity of experiences. It is also found that tourist settings are arrenged to produce the impression that a back region has been entered even when this is not the case. In tourist settings, between the front and the back there is a series of special spaces designed to accommodate tourists and to support their beliefs in the authenticity of their experiences. Goffman's front-back dichotomy is shown to be ideal poles of a continuum, or a variable.
The concept of ‘the gaze’ brings a philosophical concern for the human subject and human ‘agency’ to tourism studies. Foucault’s concept of the gaze, advocated by Urry, presupposes a narcissistic subject within which there is a deterministic fit between self and society. This article proposes for tourism studies an alternative to the Foucault/Urry idea of the gaze. The second version of the gaze is structured by its understanding, conscious or not, that visibility presupposes invisibility; that in every seeing there is an unseen; a backside, a dark side. I reject Urry’s notion that the motive for tourism is simply to take leave of ordinary, everyday life. I argue that the basis for specifically tourist desire is in the structure of the second gaze as always suggesting something that is missing from it.
Critics of the concept fail to note that staged authenticity is not authenticity but its opposite or negation. This error is illustrated referencing Ed Bruner’s reading of The Tourist in his recent book Culture on Tour.
Dans ce livre, Albert Piette considère l’anthropologie à la lumière de l’ ontologie qui se pose comme une direction théorique et empirique consistant à observer, décrire et comparer des êtres, des présences, des existences.
Les êtres sont les individus présents dans une situation. Ils ne sont pas fixes, ils viennent d’ailleurs et vont continuer à se déplacer.
L’anthropologie se distingue ainsi de ses deux consœurs : la sociologie, qui est l’étude des faits sociaux, et l’ethnologie, qui est l’analyse des diversités culturelles.
L’auteur plaide pour une ontologie réaliste des êtres humains et non humains, qu’il appelle para-humains, observés en situation directe et en temps réel. Son dialogue constant avec la philosophie lui permet de construire une anthropologie de la présence fondée sur l’observation.
This article is about the practices of the gaze enacted in tourist sites. It draws on ethnographic research carried out in the Indian sacred city of Varanasi, on the bank of the ‘holy’ Ganges, to suggest alternative, non-Western ways of conceptualizing and performing sight and the visual. The case study focuses on the Ganga Aarti, a popular Hindu ceremony performed daily on the city’s riverfront. Celebrating the sacred vision of the Ganges, this ceremony can be considered as an expression of the ‘host’ gaze. At the same time, the Ganga Aarti and the quaint city’s riverscape constitute the focus of the tourist gaze, and draw together, in fact, diverse visual traditions and practices. Indeed, I argue that tourist places are to be understood as sites of multiple, situated gazes, where different gazing subjects negotiate different visions, meanings and practices and co-construct, both visually and physically, the tourist space.
The Contact Hypothesis suggests that contact between people of different cultural backgrounds may result in positive and negative outcomes. As people are more likely to develop social contact with their own national group, or those with a similar background, it was posited that Dutch hosts were more likely to develop positive social contact with German tourists than with East Asian tourists. Our in-depth interviews with Dutch tourism-related business participants suggested the opposite. Furthermore, it was found that stereotypes attributed to a culture travel with its people as tourists in different ways, depending on cultural distance. Cultural distance seems to mediate the host gaze in different ways, and new hypotheses have emerged calling for more research on tourism encounters in different geographical contexts.
More than a decade has passed since the concept of “tourist gaze” at the “mad” locals behind bars was introduced. This paper argues that tourists too can become the “mad” behind bars, closely watched by the locals. This new concept outlines the local gaze, which is made up of images and stereotypes about the tourist. The former gaze is reflected in the tourists’ behavior, but it also influences the local gaze, a situation which in turn affects the behaviour of both the host and guest populations. The gazes interrelate and are thus termed “the mutual gaze”. The article will contribute to the discussion of host-guest relations in the under-researched area of backpacker tourism.
The interaction between tourist photographer and local photographee is a dynamic site of identity construction. To date, this interaction has been theorized mainly in terms of the power of the tourist photographer, which has been shown to mediate and commodify local cultures and create new identities amongst those photographed. The present article contributes a change of emphasis by examining the socio-psychological dynamics of the reverse gaze and its role in constructing the emerging identity of the photographer. The reverse gaze refers to the gaze of the photographee upon the photographer as perceived by the photographer. Data from Ladakh, a popular backpacker tourist destination in northern India, illustrates how the reverse gaze of Ladakhis can constitute the emerging tourist self, stimulating uncomfortable social emotions, such as embarrassment. The question raised by the article is, what socio-psychological processes constitute the power of the reverse gaze to position the tourist photographer? The article argues that tourists, when they feel the reverse gaze, are not taking the actual perspective of Ladakhis, but are instead attributing their own critical attitudes toward other tourist photographers to the Ladakhi photographee. Thus the discomfort that a tourist in Ladakh feels when caught in the reverse gaze, it is argued, is a product of that tourist being positioned in the same disparaging way as that tourist usually positions other tourist photographers.
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