Experiencing vacations : personal construct psychology, the contemporary tourist, and the photographic image

Typescript (photocopy).The objectives set for the study were (a) to contribute to the understanding of contemporary mass tourism from the perspective of the individual tourist, and (b) to provide insights into the influence of the technology of the camera upon the experiences of contemporary tourists. Two assumptions underpinned the study. First, that each person constructs a personal world through the interpretation of events in his or her life. Second, the subordinate concept that the meaning of any visual image is constructed by the observer of the image. The theoretical framework for the collection and analyses of data were derived from the writings of two principal authors. A model of man-as-personal-scientists, an operational definition of experience, and the repertory grid technique were adopted from Kelly's personal construct psychology. Five hypotheses were tested in order to assess changes in a respondent's construing of the events of a vacation. Cohen's phenomenology of tourist experiences provided an additional structure for the analysis of the researcher's field notes. Data were collected during a series of conversations with five respondents engaged in the process of taking international vacations. These data comprised of field notes of each conversation and a series of repertory grid elicitations, analyses, and 'talk-backs'. Grids were analysed using the Planet software suite and a microcomputer. Holiday brochure photographs and tourists' snapshots were used as elements in the grids. The study reported the findings for each respondent in terms of changes to the structure of the Anticipations Grid. In addition, constructs elicited during recollection were compared with those used to anticipate the vacation. The results of the grid analyses were reported back to the respondents in the form of a validity check that stressed the importance of the respondent's own understanding of his or her vacation. In conclusion, the findings of the study were used to examine the value of a Kellian approach to understanding tourist behavior. Cohen's phenomenological model was supported and extended through the proposal of a new three dimensional model. Implications of the study's findings for the tourism industry were discussed