Besökare på Gotland : En studie av relationen mellan förväntningar och upplevelser

A place becomes a place when it means something to someone. A place can simultaneously be experienced by many different visitors and from many different perspectives. Places can be produced and consumed and represent relationships between people or between people and places. This work focuses questions about the visitors’ experiences of a place as well as the intent of their visit. Place image is produced by authorities and tourist organizations in order to give a positive image of the place. Tourists are offered places to visit and base their expectations on the way in which these places are marketed. In addition, the visitors’ own self-images play a part when it comes to choosing places to visit. In an individual’s use of a place, processes are created that have to do with image, experience, and self-image. This work emphasizes primarily three different approaches regarding visitors´ explanations and stories related to their visits. The three approaches include the nature visitors who tell about their visits as a relationship between man and nature; the cultural visitors, to whom the origin of a place and man’s role in it are main elements; and the family visitors whose stories emphasize visits with their children’s wellbeing in mind. In the creation of self-image, it is not only the place where one lives that matters. The human as a visiting tourist with expectations of various sites is another factor that affects self-image. Building and transforming one’s own self-image is an ongoing process and through different approaches to places, a visitor processes his or her self-image