The Sociotype of the United States and Americans: Mr Brad America and Mrs Pamela America from California

Abstract

Destination images, including national stereotypes, have an important role in international tourism. They are, however, difficult to study in a practical manner. Collage method, an experimental qualitative tool for descriptive survey material analysis, was designed to overcome the handicap, in this case in a seven-nation survey on the sociotype of the United States and its typical inhabitants. A sociotype indicates a consensus between those who stereotype and those who are stereotyped. ‘America’ is a particularly interesting case of a nation which has successfully stereotyped itself by popular media, but is nevertheless unable to utilize the image created in tourism. Testing the method in the survey was rewarding. It produced a detailed collage in a relatively small sample. The collage method has both strengths and weaknesses, some of which are discussed in the article.

Key Words:

• Collage method
• qualitative
• tourism
• sociotype
• United States