Designing visual communication to encourage conscientious tourism

ABSTRACT

This article examines the visual communication potential and efficacy of the Portal to Peru project to prepare future study abroad and other tourists for ethical and conscientious tourism encounters. Portal to Peru is a Website project that provides visitors with exhibits, digital stories and interactive novels, and access to the permanent collection based on the Center for Traditional Textiles (CTTC) in Cusco, Peru. To begin exploring the question of whether and how using the site before going abroad may or may not help prepare eventual travelers to South America to be more informed and thoughtful tourists, we administered a pre-departure survey to a class of Latin American Studies students at a Florida university before their trip to Cusco, and a post-visit survey upon their return, along with having them study the Website for a limited period of time in between. Although preliminary, the results suggest modest gains in certain areas of knowledge and changes in attitudes, although more work is to be done both in terms of testing and in refining the approach the Website takes based on user feedback.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural tourism
• visual communication
• digital heritage
• Latin American traditional arts
• Andean studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the US Department of Education.

Notes on contributors

Natalie Underberg-Goode

Natalie Underberg-Goode is Professor and Assistant Director, Games and Interactive Media, in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media. She is also core faculty in the Texts & Technology Ph.D. program, and affiliate faculty in the Latin American Studies program. Her research examines the use of digital media to preserve and disseminate folklore and cultural heritage, with a focus on digital storytelling and participatory new media design and practice. She is author (with Elayne Zorn) of the book Digital Ethnography: Anthropology, Narrative, and New Media (University of Texas Press, 2013), editor of a special issue of the international journal Visual Ethnography on Exploring Digital Ethnography through Embodied Perspective, Role-Playing and Community Participation and Design, and author of more than 30 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings.

Jesslyn Parrish

Jesslyn Parrish is a PhD Candidate at the University of Central Florida. Her academic background includes cultural anthropology and applied linguistics with research projects focusing on the Deaf community and Sign Language acquisition. Since starting in T&T, she has been researching immersive experiences and blending humanities and programming. Her research focuses on autoethnography and technical communication used for informal learning experiences.