“Dirty pictures” – responsible photographic representation of tourism destinations

ABSTRACT

This study explores the concept of responsible photographic representation of tourism destinations, using a visual content analysis methodology, of images of Sri Lanka presented by tour operators from both Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. The findings show that images projected by small-scale tour operators are more responsible than large-scale tour operators are from both of these countries. The results of this study suggest that visually communicating the authenticity of the destination and the unique experience tourists can have paramount in developing a unique destination image.

KEYWORDS:

• Responsible tourism photography
• irresponsible tourism photography
• dirty pictures
• destination image
• tourism marketing
• South Asia
• Sri Lanka
• authenticity
• experience marketing
• tour operators

Acknowledgments

This research article was derived from my master’s thesis (first author) submitted to Leeds Beckett University, UK. I thank all my lecturers in the Masters in Responsible Tourism Management at Leeds Beckett University, the UK for fostering me to become a researcher in responsible tourism management. Especially I thankful for Dr Davina Stanford from Leeds Beckett University for encouraging and guiding me to conduct this research successfully. Further, I’m thankful for my PhD research supervisors at Auckland University of Technology for all the support and encouragement on my research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.