Selfie-taking as touristic looking

Anja Dinhopl and Ulrike Gretzel

Annals of Tourism Research, 2016, vol. 57, issue C, 126-139

Abstract: This paper reconceptualises the tourist gaze as facilitated by smart phones and social media, with a focus on selfies. It presents selfie-taking as a new way of touristic looking in which tourists become the objects of the self-directed tourist gaze. The paper suggests that the practice of selfie-taking in tourism is constituted by othering, stylized performing and producing/consuming visual culture of the self. Through these processes, tourists are able to ascribe the characteristics they otherwise associate with tourist sights onto themselves. Rather than fetishizing the extraordinary at the tourist destination, tourists seek to capture the extraordinary within themselves. Traditional tourist sights and attractions take on different relative importance.

Keywords: Tourist gaze; Selfie; Tourist photography; Visual culture; Self-directed tourist gaze (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:126-139

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2015.12.015

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