Abstract
The current research is based on a socio-historical approach to the cultural role of tourism media in the reconstruction of cultural identities, specifically place-identity. It explores the role of Israeli outgoing tourism guidebooks in the reconstruction of local, Israeli place-identities. Stemming from a multidisciplinary methodological approach to the research of the book publishing industry, 17 titles written in Hebrew for Israeli outgoing tourists are chosen for their cultural stance and a manifest textual referencing of issues regarding Israeli identity. Critical discourse analysis of lingual content is used for exploring the texts’ social actions regarding the Israeli identity by following the inclusion and omission of tourist information and suggested itineraries. Results suggest justification of tourism abroad as the books’ main textual strategy. Six textual tactics are used for reconstructing Israeli tourists’ pre-trip motivations, on-trip tourist roles and behaviors, and post-trip reflections. Israeli outgoing tourism is reconstructed as creating a temporary, playful sphere for reiterating Israel’s predominance in the lives of Israelis even while touring abroad. The cultural significance of tourism media is discussed in conclusion by pointing at the books’ double role in both marketing and cultural construction of a consensual Israeli-Jewish pace-identity amidst global changes.
Highlights
The COVID-19 crisis in tourism has demonstrated even further the importance of tourism media by shifting some of the focus of the tourism industry from physical places to media landscapes while tourism media may have always accompanied the tourism industries’ core operations such as transportation, accommodation, and so forth, nowadays they are many times used for replacing or enhancing the experience of the physical visitation itself. Considering this ever-growing importance of tourism media, the current research focuses on outgoing tourist guidebooks
Rooted in Geertz’s [34] conception of cultural research as interpretive and semiotic, this preliminary inspection of the research field allowed the author to (1) begin sorting out and formulating her interpretation of the texts’ structures of meaning, focusing her research interest on the general topic of the Israeli-Jewish identity in a world of global tourism; (2) to meticulously choose 17 titles to be qualitatively analyzed for the current research
The analysis demonstrates how the justification of Israeli outgoing tourism is accomplished through the construction of tourists’ pre-trip motivations, on-trip roles and behaviors, and post-trip reflections
Summary
The current research, explores what role tourism guidebooks have played in propagating Israeli global tourism, while at the same time constructing Israeli local place identities. It explores the role of Israeli tourist guidebooks as both marketing tools that promote the temporary leaving of Israeli soils, and as cultural actors that at the same time shape local place identities. The analysis follows three distinct moments in the lives of tourists in explaining the overall cultural role of tourism media in constructing tourists’ pre-trip-motivations, on-trip roles and behaviors, and post-trip reflections. It suggests six textual tactics used by the books for justifying Israeli global tourism by shaping Israeli tourists’ motivations, experiences, and reflections. The importance of socio-historical cultural research of tourism media for marketers in designing a culturally-sensitive customer value offer in complex times of global tourism is discussed
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