Scripted Journeys: Authenticity in Hypermediated Tourism

Tom van Nuenen

Published by De Gruyter 2021

Scripted Journeys

Authenticity in Hypermediated Tourism

Tom van Nuenen

Volume 6 in the series De Gruyter Studies in Tourism

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110700497

Overview
Contents

About this book

The ubiquity of computation in daily life has had decisive influence on the imaginative aspects of tourism. Online knowledge of the world is readily available through mapping services, social media, travel blogs, and online reviews. From booking and Googling, to posting and reminiscing: all stages of one’s trip can be guided and augmented by increasingly connective, personalized, and optimized algorithmic systems.

In the face of this informational abundance, hypermediated tourism is fixated on access to authenticity. Peer to peer accommodation offers tourists a chance to "live like a local." Professional bloggers instruct not just on where, but on how to travel. Review websites aggregate the feedback of millions into "objective," data-driven authentication of destinations. And virtual technologies take users to places they could not dream of reaching physically.

Based on a comparative ethnography of touristic blogs and vlogs, review websites, and video game environments, Scripted Journeys presents a critical analysis of touristic practice in digital ecologies. This hypermediated tourism engages technology as a harbinger of self-possession and waywardness, yet produces its own forms of digital dependence. The resulting "scripted journeys" internalize a tension between authenticity as autonomy and control, and the implicit compliance of making use of technological extensions.

Constitutes the first synthesized, comparative analysis of digitally aided touristic practice
Offers a novel theoretical synthesis of tourism and media studies
Proposes methodological pathways for examining digital spaces and ways of interacting

Author information

Tom van Nuenen, King's College London, UK

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
1 To Boldly Go Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Click to Follow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
3 Raising the Stakes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
4 Enchanted Images Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
5 Playing Around Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
6 Uncanny Immersions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
7 How to be a Tourist Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Academic researchers in tourism studies, sociology, anthropology, geography, hospitality and mobilities studies.
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 220
Illustrations
- Coloured Illustrations: 26
- Tables: 5
Keywords: Tourism; Travel; Authenticity; Platforms; Blogging

eBook

Published: September 7, 2021
ISBN: 9783110700497

Hardcover

Published: September 7, 2021
ISBN: 9783110700435