War Museums and Photography

The use of photographs in museums can reveal how the perceived transparency of photography and the authority of the museum interact with the subjectivity and the political construction of historical narratives. This paper focuses on the medium of photography in five war-related museums in Cyprus and examines how it is used in the context of these museums as a means to construct strong narratives by assuming the role of factual information and by appealing to emotions. More specifically, this paper explores (a) the types of photographs most common in war museums, (b) the context photography is presented in and how it influences meaning, and (c) the relationship between photography, memory and history. It is argued that photography in museums needs to be treated in a more critical and responsible way

a cultural tourism research agenda

The issues associated with accurately defining ‘art and cultural outputs’ as a ‘product’ is one that is familiar to both cultural tourism organisations and academics alike (Fillis, 2006). Those in cultural tourism organisations often reject the materialistic associations of ‘product’ when applied to their sector, as well as the notion of ‘consumer demand’, which does not accurately represent the primary driving force behind art/culture-based production nor does it the ‘relationship’ that exists between art/culture suppliers and art/culture consumers (Lehman & Wickham, 2014). Similarly, traditional marketing literature does not present a clear conceptualisation of how ‘art/cultural outputs’ comply with the traditional ‘product’ concept, and it rarely addresses the circumstances where product creation is not directly linked to customer needs/wants/demands (Kubacki & Croft, 2011). Despite this, effective art/cultural supply chain management (i.e. the production, marketing and consumption of art/cultural outputs) is increasingly recognised as an important driver of economic development, and essential to the development of sustainable art and cultural sectors (Evans, 2009 and Lehman and Wickham, 2014). Given these issues, this paper presents a research agenda for the reconceptualisation of the ‘product’ concept for the cultural tourism context. It will do so through the lens of Levitt’s (1980) Customer Value Hierarchy (see Fig. 1) - a framework that identifies a range of ‘product levels’ that serve to deliver ‘core benefits’ sought by different consumer segments across the art/cultural supply chain

Visitors of two types of museums: A segmentation study

Market segmentation comprises a wide range of measurement tools that are useful for the sake of supporting marketing and promotional policies also in the sector of cultural economics. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on segmenting cultural visitors by using the Bagged Clustering method, as an alternative and effective strategy to conduct cluster analysis when binary variables are used. The technique is a combination of hierarchical and partitioning methods and presents several advantages with respect to more standard techniques, such as k-means and LVQ. For this purpose, two ad hoc surveys were conducted between June and September 2011 in the two principal museums of the two provinces of the Trentino-South Tyrol region (Bolzano and Trento), Northern Italy: the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano (ÖTZI), hosting the permanent exhibition of the "Iceman" Ötzi, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporaneous Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART). The segmentation analysis was conducted separately for the two kinds of museums in order to find similarities and differences in behaviour patterns and characteristics of visitors. The analysis identified three and two cluster segments respectively for the MART and ÖTZI visitors, where two ÖTZI clusters presented similar characteristics to two out of three MART groups. Conclusions highlight marketing and managerial implications for a better direction of the museums. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Contemporary Asian Artistic Expressions and Tourism – An Introduction

This introductory chapter presents and critically discusses the various themes underpinning this book. Firstly, it provides an examination of the notion of ‘contemporary art’, including an overview of the existing definitions and debates in the current literature. Secondly, this chapter discusses the nexus between tourism and contemporary art by providing an overview of the past studies conducted on cultural and heritage tourism. In this section, the various themes underpinning the different parts of the literature on art tourism (e.g. identity, authenticity, commoditisation and capitalism) are considered. Thirdly, a discussion on the relationship between tourism and Asian contemporary art is presented, which also includes a part problematising and questioning terms like ‘Asia’ and ‘Asian art’. Finally, an overview of the different chapters that constitute the backbone of this collection is offered alongside the four themes around which the book is structured

The behaviour of repeat visitors to museums: Review and empirical findings

This study presents a theoretical and operational framework for analysing repeat visit to museums. Starting from the literature on repeat visit in tourism, the specificities of these cultural attractions are made explicit through a review of theoretical and applied works. Consistently with previous contributors, the paper suggests that the analysis of actual past behaviours has to be preferred to the one of attitudes. The application of proper econometric models is also remarked in order to put into account individual profiles. Information coming from three techniques is then used in an integrated way in order to provide a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon. Evidence from an ad hoc survey suggests the necessity to give a greater attention to perceived cultural value during the visit, promoting cultural events during the week and addressed to children, and taking care of those visitors that come from far places also through an integrated tourist supply. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Measuring destination image : a novel approach based on visual data mining. A methodological proposal and an application to European islands

Availability of User Generated Content and the development of Big Data and machine learning algorithms have paved the way to collecting and analysing great volumes of data. We scan imagery data from traveling-related posts on Instagram to identify the key features of the destination image and of its dynamics. Specifically, we exploit a newly introduced Visual Object Recognition tool (Google Cloud Vision) to convert into textual labels the content of about 860,000 travel-related pictures posted on Instagram in Summer 2019 for several European islands. The output, a vector of labels’ frequencies on a very fine-grained scale, is used to proxy the destination image at different points in time. We then introduce the Index of Distance in Destination Image, a metric built on the pictures’ labels ranking, and aimed at providing a quantitative measure of (dis)similarity between destination images. We show that the analysis of labels and the index are fit to compare destinations cross-sectionally and over time, providing a useful tool for researchers, marketers and DMOs. We also deliver evidence on how external shocks (like extreme events linked to climate change) or the organization of events modify the cognitive sphere of the destination image, with repercussions on activities undertaken by tourists and relevant implications for local policies

The reflexive journal: Inside the black box

It was Habermas who commented on the fact that knowledge is never interest free. But it often appears to be on the surface. Journals with their rigorous systems of double blind peer review certainly do their best to avoid partiality and add to the trustworthiness of the process. But their deeply routinised systems contribute to the “black boxing” of knowledge production. This article wishes to examine aspects of interests in knowledge. It does this by three routes of analysis. First it presents data on journal structures and process. Second it finds patterns and trends in knowledge development. Third it critically reflects on the nature of new knowledges produced. In doing so it seeks to make the workings of the black box of Annals more transparent