Natural and Built Photographic Images: Preference, Complexity, and Recall

ABSTRACT

An investigation of the effect of natural versus built images of tourism activities on consumer responses was undertaken, using a selection of tourism promotion photographs. A sample of 156 males and 175 females provided ratings for images including: preference (liking), degree of complexity, consumption vision, and recall. The research provides evidence for consumer preference for natural versus built images, shows the role of complexity as an association to image type, and demonstrates that areas of interest most liked within an image are different by gender. Tourism activity images that are predominantly natural are more likely to be recalled. This study contributes to the application of a new method using areas of interest to pinpoint elements of images that are most interesting.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism images
• consumption vision
• heat maps
• gender
• preference
• complexity
• perceptual mapping
• recall

Acknowledgment

The Centre for Tourism, Sport and Services Research, Griffith University, provided support funding for the data collection component of this research project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beverley A. Sparks

Beverley A. Sparks is a Professor with the Griffith Institute for Tourism, Parklands Drive, Southport, QLD 4215, Australia (E-mail: [email protected]).

Ying Wang

Ying Wang (PhD in Tourism) is with the Griffith Institute for Tourism, Parklands Drive, Southport, QLD 4215, Australia (E-mail: [email protected]).

Authors are listed alphabetically and contributed equally to the research.