På resa genom turistbroschyrernas Småland

The purpose of this study is to analyze how places can be marketed through tourism brochures. The study is based on a discourse analysis and texts and pictures from three brochures, which come from the region of Småland in Sweden, have been analyzed. The first brochure is from Visit Småland, the second from Vetlanda municipality and the third from Värnamo municipality. With the rise of globalization one of the consequences has been the increased opportunity for tourists to visit places all over the world, which also resulted in a greater competition between places than before. One reaction to this has been the increased marketing of each place unique characteristics in the tourist brochures. To define a place and write texts about a place is hard, because a place consists of human beings and relations which are not static. This means that it is complicated to give the whole picture of a place in a brochure and therefore the producers make a selection of which pictures and texts that should be presented in the brochures. Further on are not all the characteristics of the place attractive, and spots and attractions are therefore being excluded. The question this study examines is what kind of selections that have been made in the brochures from Småland. The analysis showed that the primal subject that all three brochures deal with is the nature. Further on all of them contains information about the places history, the charming little towns, the people, the spirit of the entrepreneurs, and the magical touch of Småland. On of the conclusions, is that the nature is used to attract the tourists, and by the descriptions of the nature it becomes commercialized. Additional there is an inconsistency from the producers, because attractions from outside the geographical region are being presented in the brochures, probably in order to make the actual place even more attractive. The last conclusion made is that there is not only one discourse about Småland. In the brochures there are plenty different descriptions, and all together the brochures are also just one way of talking of Småland as a place