The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat
Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication campaign spot
La mirada turística contemporánea a través de un análisis del spot de la
campaña de comunicación “Mediterráneo en vivo” de la Comunitat Valenciana
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
| 211
January-June of 2023
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
How to cite this article:
Rodríguez García de Herrero, L. (2023). e contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean
live” communication campaign spot.
Doxa Comunicación
, 36, pp. 211-225.
https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n36a1725
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herreros
. BA in Journalism and Film, TV & Media Studies at Universidad Carlos III de
Madrid. After working in media such as
Agencia Efe
, she is currently a professor and researcher at the Communication
Department of that university thanks to a
Formación del Profesorado Universitario
(FPU) contract. She works on a PhD
under the title “Tourism and documentary in contemporary Spain”, and is part of the I+D project “Cinema and TV in
Spain in the digital change and globalization age (1993-2008): identities, reception and production”.
University Carlos III, Spain
[email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-7686-484X
Abstract
:
is work is a textual and audiovisual analysis of the content in the main
spot of the
Agència Valenciana de Turisme,
known as
“Mediterranean
live”
,
which was launched in the 2016 campaign. Under the slogan
“Don’t show me any more postcards”, and seen through the tourist
gaze, the image of a destination where the experiential, the sensory and
the subjective predominate is congured. at image is compatible
with a trend detected in the eld of tourism studies: the interweaving
of tourist promotion in broader networks of discourses, practices, and
mobilities. e hypothesis, in this case, is that the central message
of the campaign presents an important potential for identity in an
internal key, owing to the displacement of the idea of authenticity from
its more ethnographic sense to its more psychological one.
Keywords
:
Tourist promotion; authenticity; dedierentiation;
Comunitat
Valenciana
; tourism studies.
Resumen:
Este trabajo realiza un análisis de contenido textual y audiovisual del
spot principal de la campaña “Mediterráneo en vivo”, lanzada en 2016
por la Agència Valenciana de Turisme. Bajo el eslogan “No me enseñes
más postales” y mediante la mirada turística, se congura la imagen de
un destino donde predominan lo experiencial, lo sensorial y lo subjetivo.
Se trata de una imagen compatible con una tendencia detectada desde
el ámbito de los estudios turísticos: la imbricación de las prácticas de
dicho sector en redes más amplias de discursos, prácticas y movilidades.
Se plantea la hipótesis de que, en este caso, el mensaje central de la cam
-
paña presenta un importante potencial identitario en clave interna,
gracias al desplazamiento de la idea de autenticidad desde su sentido
más etnográco a su sentido más psicológico.
Palabras clave:
Promoción turística; autenticidad; desdiferenciación; Comunitat Va
-
lenciana; estudios turísticos.
Received: 20/06/2022 - Accepted: 10/10/2022 - Early access: 26/10/2022 - Published: 01/01/2023
Recibido: 20/06/2022 - Aceptado: 10/10/2022 - En edición: 26/10/2022 - Publicado: 01/01/2023
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
<p>[Enlace de URL / hc (has AS)]</p>
212
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
1. Introduction
Tourism studies is an interdisciplinary eld that analyses tourism as a social phenomenon (Holden, 2004, pp. 1-6). eir approach
is mainly qualitative and often critical (Ateljevic et al., 2012), following cultural studies standards. Among other issues, this eld
has evaluated the tourist’s motivations, the relationships between visitors and locals -and their consequences- and, especially, the
images around the traveler’s gaze.
e relevant role of visual aspects in building tourist experiences and destinations has been a recurring topic in tourism studies,
often conceptualized as the “tourist gaze” (Urry & Larsen, 2011). e visitor’s way of looking reinforces imaginaries that may aect
the identity of the destination, though in recent decades the centrality of the image has been questioned in favor of performative
and sensitive aspects of travel (Fuentes Vega, 2017, p. 24).
e outsider gazes with a greater disposition to value any object, person or landscape as a sign that evokes a series of discursive
records. en, the tourist place enters a cycle of anticipation, performance, and memory (Urry & Larsen, 2011, p. 119) that feeds
back on itself and that has been studied following Stuart Hall’s circuit of culture, including its consequences on gender or ethnicity
representations (Morgan and Pritchard, 1998). at is why tourism representations on social communication have always been of
great interest to get to know what the tourist’s expectations are.
In a classic work published for the rst time in the 70s, anthropologist and sociologist Dean MacCannell suggested that the main
motivation of the tourist is the search for authenticity (MacCannell, 1999, p. 3). In his opinion, tourists desire to get to know back
regions of the place visited, those regions that are not intended to welcome visitors (as opposed to front regions). at fosters the
assimilation and banalization of those spaces and may be an incentive to start cultural displays that can be described as staged
authenticity.
Later, other authors have considered that staged authenticity presupposes an actual previous authenticity (Cohen, 1988, p. 374),
which is problematic since it assumes an essentialist and monolithic view of a certain culture (Lindholm, 2022). Nowadays, the
most common thesis regarding this issue is that the notion of cultural authenticity is built through a process of negotiation that
includes external agents.
On the other hand, the emphasis on authenticity has left room for the analysis of other tourist motivations, since the idea of travel
inherited from romanticism is inconsistent with some practices, spaces and phenomena typically associated with mass tourism.
is is even more so since the notion of the post-tourist was rst suggested (Feifer, 1985), which is associated with travel’s most
ludic and recreative part.
e post-tourist is aware that his experience does not imply knowledge or access to authentic cultural forms, and he presents a
great tolerance towards pastiche and kitsch cultural forms. at is why it has been noted that the search for the authentic is not the
tourist’s main desire anymore, but rather the escape from routine through a gap in space and time, which is used to deny everyday
conventions (Urry & Larsen, 2011, p. 3).
However, it is possible to argue that authenticity is still an important motivation for the tourist, though not anymore as an approach
to virgin forms of an alien culture. Lindholm (2008) points out that there are two ways of understanding authenticity: rst, a
cultural, collective way, related to tradition; and, second, a subjective, individual way, related to the intimate belief in a sublimation
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
213
of one’s own personality through a certain experience. Both denitions can be related to traveling from a romantic point of view,
but the contemporary tourist would have desisted in many cases from his desire of tasting cultural authenticity in his destination.
Nevertheless, he would keep his interest in living an authentic experience, that may allow the development of his personality away
from the restraints of his routine.
A second disadvantage of MacCannell’s initial approach has to do with the growing diculty of separating tourist spaces and
practices from those that are not in a globalized world. According to Sheller and Urry’s (2006) thesis, it is increasingly necessary to
study tourism in the broader context of mobility studies. us, tourism would not be a specic form of leisure, but more a ux of
people (Anoguénova & Martin, 2021; Mestre Pérez, 2021).
is approach is raised from the doubts around the denition of tourism that have appeared with the boom of post-tourism. e
irony displayed in post-touristic practices has given rise to new practices, such as the touristization and gentrication of places
that used to be seen as ordinary. e borders between the daily and the exotic are blurred when industrial areas, working-class
neighborhoods, urban art, ea markets, or cemeteries are valued from a tourist perspective (Condevaux et al., 2016). In the opposite
way, traditional tourist behaviors such as certain forms of domestic photography have permeated global culture to the extent that
makes it impossible to isolate them or to consider them only in relation to tourism.
erefore, a process of dedierentiation between touristic and non-touristic features has risen (Condevaux et al., 2016), which has
turned some tourist experiences related to exceptionality and commoditization into common social traits.
Another consolidated response to MacCannells ideas is the need for studying not only the agency of the tourist, but also that of the
local communities, as Lyon and Wells remark (2012, p. 7). On the other side, it has been argued that tourism aects the identity of
territories to the extent that there are destinations that are signicant cases of “national self-identication as a destination for the
Other” (Anoguénova, 2007, p. 38), as has been proposed for Spain.
It is no wonder, then, that tourist promotion discourses have been used as a means for nation-building (Moreno Garrido, 2021;
Villaverde, 2021; Zuelow, 2009), both through the explicit nationalism of myths and through so-called banal nationalism (Billig,
2014). e latter refers to the constant circulation of elements that recall the existence of the nation, which goes unnoticed for the
members of a given community due to its routine nature. e existence of that community is taken for granted implicitly, through
deictic elements (“here”, “us”), and is reinforced through the common use of stereotypes (Billig, 2014, pp. 94-99).
Recently, a fertile line of research has pointed out that nation-building processes have a regional analogue. Regions are not natural
unities, that predate modern articial social constructions. ey are built, just like nations, through shared symbols, myths, and
rituals, that occasionally may be imposed from the top down. at can mean, depending on political distinctive features of each
place, a challenge or a reinforcement for the central State. e latter was often the case in 20th century Spain (Núñez Seixas, 2009;
Archilés i Cardona, 2006; Geniola, 2021).
e objective of the present article is to make an approach to the tourist gaze and its notion of authenticity, regarding the present
context of institutional tourist promotion discourses. Since the tourist gaze is reinforced, as said, through its reproduction in
media circuits, this article aims to answer the following questions: how are dedierentiation processes captured in current tourist
promotion? What are the social, cultural, and political consequences of the incorporation of those logics into the marketing of
214
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
tourist destinations? Particularly, which is the relation between post-tourist experiences and identity discourses at local, regional,
and national levels?
In order to make a rst approach to these questions, we will analyze the main spot of the “Mediterranean live” campaign. e
campaign was created by the Rosebud advertising agency, commissioned by the Agència Valenciana de Turisme. It was launched
in 2016 and continued through to 2018, with the aim of promoting the Comunitat Valenciana as a tourist destination. It is one
of the most important tourist destinations in Europe (Marine-Roig et al., 2022), which underlines its need for innovative tourist
promotion. So far, the campaign has been characterized as an example of an imaginary of “the slowing down that points to the act
of traveling, to been there, to the delay in the encounter with the tourist destination, something postcards will never replace” (De
Mingo Rodríguez, 2020, p. 134), as opposed to the usual accelerated routine of contemporary society. On the other hand, it is the
rst major tourist promotion campaign after more than two decades of Partido Popular governments in the Comunitat, and, as will
be argued in Section 3, it coincided in time with a declared rebranding operation, many of whose elements still endure. e slogan
“Mediterranean live” itself is still the main slogan of Valencian tourism, despite the commissioning of later campaigns that dig deep
into similar values, such as the one launched in 2021 under the claim “Whoever has lived it knows it well”.
In this article’s perspective, the main spot of the “Mediterranean live” campaign can be related to the process of dedierentiation
between touristic and non-touristic features, which makes it highly valuable as identity discourse at an internal level. e hypothesis
is that the main spot of the “Mediterranean live” campaign presents common traits with regional identity discourses.
e reason to choose to focus the scope just on the main spot, despite the fact that “Mediterranean live” is a transmedia campaign,
is that it will be contextualized with references and comparisons to other media actions of the Generalitat Valenciana that are not
always as ambitious as 360 marketing strategies but that presented, at least, one spot. Moreover, the main video needs to condense
the ideas and values that are at the core of the campaign: “the communication axis around which the new campaign orbits is the
invitation to discover the authenticity of a land that has in tourism its best ally to show how its locals are: creative, open, welcoming
and diverse” (Invat.tur, 2016).
Otherwise, when evaluating the campaign, a study carried out by the Generalitat Valenciana showed that TV was the media through
which the campaign had reached a larger audience, compared to others such as radio, print press or the Internet: almost 35 million
people as opposed to 16.6, 17.8. and 9.9, respectively (Generalitat Valenciana, 2016d). Taking this into account, it is possible to
conclude that spots were the most important part of the campaign set in motion by Rosebud.
us, the main spot has been considered the most interesting element for a textual and audiovisual analysis. Given that the
questions raised by this research demand qualitative methodologies and deep analysis, it has been considered too ambitious to
include other elements -such as the “Mediterranean live” web or social media actions, though this implies achieving limited results.
2. Methodology
Content analysis, strategy and targets, psychological impact, or social impact are some of the possible approaches when analyzing
advertising (Álvarez Ruiz, 2003). is work analyzes the content and rhetoric of a spot. Audiovisual analysis tools will be used in
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
215
their classic sense: a segmentation, stratication, and organization of elements (soundtrack, image, discourse) that nally allows a
recompositing of the whole, where the main narrative and thematic landmarks are highlighted (Casetti & di Chio, 1991).
On the other hand, as will be discussed, the main rhetorical of the spot consists of the opposition between the denial of the
postcard (through text) and its armation (through image); as such, postcards are central to it. e short shots and the relatively
scarce importance of camera movements in them are an invitation to analyze them with methods usually applied to photography.
Lately, methodological emphasis when studying postcards has been focused on their quality as objects with obverse and reverse
(Lois & Troncoso, 2017) that express dierent forms of mobility (Andriotis & Mavric, 2013). However, there was previously a set of
academic literature on the analysis of their visual representations: from their consideration as a hyperreal plot (Vega de la Rosa,
2011, p. 233) to their association with certain nationalist, colonial or ethnic discourses (Lois & Troncoso, 2017, p. 635), or their role
in destination branding.
In this case, a classication of the images by themes has been proposed, following an adaptation of the categories suggested by
Camprubi et al. (2014) for postcards or tourist promotion images (see Table 1). From this categorization, a content and composition
analysis is proposed, regarding the multidimensional potential of every image (which allows one image to be included in more
than one category, if it displays two or more important elements), but also the composition and the use of eye-catchers, those
elements designed to focus the attention and that take up the main part of the frame (Morgan & Pritchard, 1995).
Table 1. Content description categories for the tourist image
CategoryDescription
Destination iconsCulture, traditions, identity, etc.
Monumental heritageHistorical buildings, monuments, etc.
Nature
Flora and fauna, natural landscapes.
Leisure
Tourist activities.
Services and facilitiesTourist facilities.
Population
People, both local and tourists.
Position
Maps, etc.
Source: Camprubi et al., 2014 (adaptation)
Nevertheless, for decades now many authors prefer to avoid isolating the meanings of images, from audiovisual to postcards, within
semiotics (Lois & Troncoso, 2017). It is argued that it is better to include them in a certain context of production, distribution,
exhibition, and reception. is is particularly so when referring to promotional images, since advertising is always conceived as an
exercise in pragmatics. In this case, the campaign is contextualized within the Generalitat Valenciana’s communication strategies,
leaving to future studies its psychological or social impacts.
216
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
at is why the political and media contextualization of the spot has been considered necessary, and it illustrates other possible
aims of “Mediterranean live” that could accompany that of attracting visitors. In order to do that, the main media actions of the
Generalitat Valenciana during 2016 have been researched, starting with the search for press releases concerning promotional
presentations in the President and Presidencia tabs from the Generalitat Valenciana’s online web archive. ese two departments
encompass news about tourist image, but also about corporate image in a broader sense, both of the Comunitat (region) and the
Generalitat (government).
3. Results
As presented above, “Mediterranean live” was a campaign launched in July 2016 in order to promote the
Comunitat Valenciana
as a tourist destination. e Rosebud advertising agency was the winner of the call for tender presented by
Agència Valenciana
de Turisme
, and created a generic spot of almost one minute, with shorter versions of 30 and 20 seconds intended for dierent
diusion formats, mainly Internet and TV. e spot was put out in Spanish, Valencian, English, French and German; also, dierent
thematic versions were launched.
ey consisted of brief combinations of the main spot discourse, accompanied by images related exclusively with one of the
main tourist brands of the
Comunitat
(the province of Valencia, the city of Valencia, the
Costa Blanca
, the city of Alicante, the
province of Castellón) or related to a specic type of tourism (urban, gastro, cultural, sport or rural tourism) or a specic target
audience (such as the LGBT community). ese pieces highlighted the diversity of the range of tourist activities oered by the
Comunitat
, but with consistency and continuity with the main spot. Rosebud also created commercials for radio, press and a
website, mediterraneoenvivo.com (Agencia Rosebud, 2021; Invat.tur, 2016; Visit Comunitat Valenciana, 2016).
As recognized by its own creators (
Agencia Rosebud
, 2021), the campaign was framed within the context of a series of actions aimed
at improving the image of the autonomous community. e eort in that sense came as the new government of the
Generalitat
Valenciana
(a coalition of the
Partido Socialista Obrero Español
and
Compromís
) sought to distance itself from the corruption trials
that certain gures from the former administration (the
Partido Popular
government) were immersed in. As well as this, there was
a desire to move away from the feeling of excess associated with some events and infrastructure projects that had been undertaken
in the years before the change of administration and the trials.
A search through the archives of the Presidencia and the President tabs at the
Generalitat Valenciana
website was carried out, as
it is these departments that encompass, among other tasks, all generic and touristic institutional communication campaigns. As a
result, 1879 press releases have been examined (933 from Presidencia and 964 from President), including two major communication
actions that are important to understand the context of
Generalitat
’s rebranding.
Firstly, we are referring to a spot for internal consumption, launched through the Internet weeks before the presentations of the
tourist campaign “Mediterranean live” and entitled “
Orgull de ser valencians
1
”
(Generalitat Valenciana
, 2016a). e spot was one
minute long and entirely spoken in Valencian, over Carles Dénia’s interpretation of the “
Malaguenya de barxeta
”, and it contrasted
a recent past characterized by a grey cinematography (“
Durant anys, alguns van creure que havíem de fer coses molt grans per
1
“Pride in being Valencian”.
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
217
demostrar que som grans. Tot ben gran, i buit, i cap a fora
2
”) with a brilliant present where pride “
naix directament de la nostra terra,
naix de la llum intensa i transparent, de l’olor de pólvora i de or de taronger, de la música de banda i del gust de rascar el socarrat...
perquè sabem que després de la tormenta no ve la calma, ve la festa
3
”.
e images of this second part alternate close-ups of a diversity of extras walking around or participating in traditional festivals or
in dierent trades particularly associated with the
Comunitat
(from agriculture in vegetable gardens to the shoemaking industry),
with wide shots of the landscape and with extreme close-up shots of dierent elements with a symbolic meaning: the wrinkled bark
of an olive tree or the bandaged hand of a “
Valencian pilota
” player.
According to
Generalitat
, the video, produced by
Vimema Films
and
Colectivo 17
, was purposed to improve the image of the region.
However, the main target of the message were Valencians themselves, so this is a rebranding process at an internal level: “we need
to love and present ourselves”, stated Ximo Puig, president of the
Generalitat
, during the presentation of the video (
Generalitat
Valenciana
, 2016b).
Secondly, a similar appeal to pride and unity is present in the spot of the “
Tots a una veu
4
” campaign (
Generalitat Valenciana
,
2016c), by the Trumbo advertising agency, presented in September of the same year facing the regional day, 9
th
October, and in
whose images the verb “feel” (“
el dia en que tots sentim la nostra terra amb la mateixa intensitat
5
”) is related to images that appeal
to textures and touch (of wrinkled skin, of soil…).
e main spot of “Mediterranean live” eludes the reference to the recent past, which was strongly controversial and had consequences
on the reception of other campaigns, but includes many of the same strategies started up in “
Orgull de ser valencians
”, despite its
main addressees now not being Valencians themselves, but potential visitors from the rest of Spain and abroad. e importance of
the senses, the reference to “us” and the focus on the authenticity of daily things are some of the main thematic lines in both cases.
e longest version of the spot (56 seconds), available on the ocial tourist Youtube channel of the
Comunitat Valenciana
, has
been taken as the reference for our analysis (Visit
Comunitat Valenciana
, 2016). at one is also the most widely-aired version in
terms of the number of views (close to 600.000 some six years after its launch), despite the fact that other web sites include another
version of 51 seconds with slight changes (
Agencia Rosebud
, 2021).
A female voice over (the same in the Spanish and Valencian versions) reads the following text in the spot and nishes announcing
the destination and main slogan (“
Comunitat Valenciana
. e Mediterranean live”). e text is characterized by the use of a
sentence that works as a refrain (“don’t show me any more postcards”), anaphora (“if they don’t”), two-membered constructions
with parallelisms (“if they aren’t in them, if you aren’t in them”) and the double denial, that intensies a deant eect also related
to the use of imperative verbs and the second person singular:
218
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Don’t show me any more postcards,
if they don’t smell, if they don’t taste.
If they don’t do justice to the life waiting for you here.
Don’t show me any more postcards,
if they aren’t in them, if you aren’t in them.
If they don’t contain all the truth.
Don’t show me any more postcards
if there’s no room for our light, if there’s no room for our sea.
If there’s no room for our live,
Don’t show me any more postcards (Visit
Comunitat Valenciana
, 2016).
e soundtrack, by
Carnivalia
group from Alicante, consists of a percussion piece with drumsticks and bass drums that evokes the
importance in the
Comunitat
of musical groups, and, at the same time, recalls the traditional sound of recrackers. is music sets
the tone for one of the spot’s most important features: fast and fragmented editing, based on a series of cuts that break the spatial
and temporal continuity on the juxtaposition of dierent places. In these cuts, there is a game of synchrony and asynchrony to the
beat both of drumsticks and of bass drums; towards the end, the latter instrument sets the rhythm of a crescendo where we see
seven shots in less than three seconds.
At an image level, shots are between one and two seconds long, with the exception of the last two, which are longer and used to
superimpose the tourist and institutional logos of the
Comunitat Valenciana
. In total, there are 47 shots, mainly composed as xed,
non-stable shots, that is, the only movement in them is the one that makes them unstable since they were taken with a handheld
camera. In some cases, that instability is emphasized since the images are taken from a boat (see shot 30, for instance).
Only ten shots clearly include camera movements. Only two of them were taken with special equipment: the travelling on shot 37
and the drone used to get the extreme wide shot of the Arenal Sound festival on shot 38.
Another two shots use a slight zoom out: shots 32 and 33, which are precursors to the spot’s climax. is optical procedure is used
the same way in both images with the objective of making them rhyme visually: the rst, of cuttleshes drying in the sun on a
clothesline, the second of a square decorated for a local festival. e parallelism between the strings of the clothesline and those
that hold the pennants with the Valencian ag is consolidated with the repetition of the rhythmic phrase from the soundtrack.
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
219
Table 2. Camera movements on the main spot of the campaign “Mediterranean live”
Stabled xed shots
2
Non-stabled xed shots
35
Handheld camera
6
Camera movements with special equipment
2
Optical movements
2
Source: compiled by author
is scarcity of clear camera movements is partly related to the short length of the shots and justies the approach to these images
as conicting postcards. e 47 shots show mainly landscapes, images of tourist and of traditional features.
Contrasting with the voice-over text, the shots where nature predominates are quite representative of the usual composition in
postcards, except for the already stated nuance of the handheld camera: panoramic views, sometimes from above, images of
beaches where two thirds of the frame are occupied by the sea, extreme wide shots that show a village set in its surrounding, etc.
On the contrary, most shots showing people enjoying their spare time use common strategies of domestic photography: looking
at the camera, smiling, and some other standards that have become particularly popular in recent years on social media, such as
pictures of individuals with their back to the camera, looking towards the landscape beyond and directing the viewer’s gaze there
too (shots 14 or 40). In some cases, such as shot 13, of young people sunbathing, there are barely any elements that identify these
characters as foreign visitors: they could just be locals enjoying a dip in the sea.
Shots showing traditional aspects tend to be related to everyday things, and to present a strong taste for synesthesia: a close-up
of tomatoes in a market (shot 10), the grill and implements needed to cook a paella (shot 34), the ltered sunlight through the
branches of trees (shot 29), the close-up of a band member with percussion instruments in action (shot 35), etc.
Of those shots linked to traditional aspects, not all show people, and only two do so in close-up or medium distance shots (shots
18 and 19, of a farmer and a craftswoman). is relative absence of a traditional landscape portrayed from the outside invites the
spot’s recipient to feel like a participant and not merely an spectator of the most everyday aspects of local leisure in the
Comunitat
Valenciana
, which is a common trait in traditional tourist images where the typicality of the locals is commodied from the visitor’s
point of view.
is experiential and sensual approach can also be noted in the almost complete absence of monumental references in this main
spot, though these are actually present in other versions of the “Mediterranean live” spots that are focused on urban or cultural
tourism.
220
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Table 3. Shot classication according to a multidimensional approach (the same shot may appear in more than one category)
Category
Number of shots
(multidimensional approach)
Destination icons
16
Monumental heritage
1
Nature21
Leisure13
Services and facilities
3
Population16
Position0
Source: compiled by author
Table 4. Classication of shots based on the eye-catchers employed in the image
Category
Number of shots (eye-catcher)
Destination icons
14
Monumental heritage
0
Nature19
Leisure5
Services and facilities
0
Population8
Position0
Source: compiled by author
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
221
4. Discussion of research results
To summarise the above descriptive segmentation, it is possible to suggest that the spot implements a double strategy of tourist
dedierentiation. On the one hand, the appeal to everyday experience is, as has been seen, the main category in the count of shots
and their length: an experience the visitor will not see from the outside, but will become part of. Authenticity will not be related to
the typical and picturesque, but to certain performative and sensitive fetishes that need not to be unique or exclusive in themselves.
However, the totality that emerges from the sum of these experiences is presented as unique, a whole that is impossible to
reproduce or understand through media such as the postcard. It is fascinating as it may only be intuited through its fragmented
images by means of the frenetic editing, just like Wasabaugh notes is often the case for audiovisual representations of amenco
(Wasabaugh, 2005). is mechanism reproduces the tourist practice itself, which “is structured through the accumulation of
previously systematized experiences” (Vega de la Rosa, 2011, pp. 190-191).
Although it could be argued that close-up shots that appeal to the touch, taste, hearing or smell are examples of how in the
contemporary tourist experience the sensual gains ground over the visual, these point-of-view shots through which tourists are
invited to immerse themselves in their destination can refer both to the direct sensory experience and to the representation of
these experiences in social networks. In fact, the term “sensorial image” to describe the features of photography on social media
(Bañuelos, 2013, p. 16).
e second strategy refers not to the dedierentiation between visitors and locals, but to the dedierentiation between tourist and
non-tourist spaces. e many images showing details of everyday life in the
Comunitat
are interspersed with panoramic views
that, from a compositional point of view, comply perfectly with the premises of most classic postcards: sunny, crowded beaches
in which a calm, blue sea takes center stage (shots 24 or 31), traditional houses such as the huts of the
Albufera
(shot 2), nature,
general views of towns such as
Peñíscola
(shot 7). e places that would denitely t MacCannell’s denition of front regions of
tourism (those planned to welcome visitors, such as the beaches of
Benidorm
, shot 24) are portrayed, despite their tourist essence,
as being just as authentic as those catalogued as back regions (those not planned for tourists, which makes them particularly
attractive from the point of view of authenticity, such as shot 8, that shows the work in a
Vinaroz
market where crates of fresh
seafood are stocked and sold).
e dedierentiation of characters and tourist spaces allows for an almost perfect interweaving between touristic and identity
characteristics. In this mix, the idea of authenticity continues to hold a privileged position (“if they don’t contain all the truth”),
and is constructed in opposition to the original conception of the post-tourist as a recreational visitor addicted to pastiche (“don’t
show me any more postcards”).
5. Conclusions
It would be possible to read the communication actions launched by the
Generalitat
in 2016 as a place branding strategy (or, more
specically, as a place rebranding strategy). According to Anholt, a country, city or region’s reputation is managed more than built
and, to be eective, the brand image has to have a strong basis in other public policies that support it (Anholt, 2008). Despite these
nuances, his proposal recognizes that places do have brand images, that can be modeled.
222
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
Even so, it would also be interesting to understand initiatives like the “
Orgull de ser valencians
” spot as a discourse that takes part
in what Billig (2014) called banal nationalism (in this case, regionalism). According to the British author, the main tools of these
discourses are deictic elements that take for granted a delimited community (in the case of the spot, the marked use of rst-person
plural) and some playful incorporation of stereotypes (in “
Orgull de ser valencians
”, the nal mention to party would work as such,
despite the declared intention of the spot is facing negative stereotypes).
Continuities between discourse and images from “
Orgull de ser valencians
” and those from the main spot of “Mediterranean live”,
aimed mainly at potential tourists from the rest of Spain and abroad, show how tourist discourses circulate in complex media
environments, where tourist promotion is not perfectly demarcated and national and regional identities are simultaneously
projected inwards and outwards from the communities themselves.
is intertwining of tourist and identity discourse features is not new. It is possible to draw up in this sense a long genealogical
record that explains for example why one of the rst locations to become a nature reserve in Spain -and to be promoted as such-
was Covadonga, the scene of a key battle for Spanish nationalist mythology (Moreno Garrido, 2021). In contemporary discourses,
the building of identities is not mainly around ags and myths, but around daily practices and spaces. By showing them as a
paradigm of authenticity, the predominance of banal nationalism or regionalism over the explicit one is recognized, which almost
questions the “invisibility” of the former that was underlined by Billig.
is prominence of everyday traits is highly correlated with the idea of tourist dedierentiation, in which the ordinary and the
extraordinary, the tourist-oriented aspects and local-oriented aspects are completely merged. “Mediterranean live” is an example
of how contemporary tourist discourses continue to appeal to the idea of authenticity. e dierence with the classical, almost
ethnographic idea of the tourist as an explorer of a fascinating otherness, is that the portrait of this new, dedierentiated authenticity
embraces locals and outsiders to the same extent (Don’t show me any more postcards… if they aren’t in them, if you aren’t in
them). us, contemporary mythication of authenticity and, by extension, of identity, presents the self, its subjectivity and its
experience (just like the tourist’s) as the only possible route to construct a discourse on the journey and, also, the only possible base
for a community project, for the construction of an “us”.
Given the growing importance of traveler-generated content (TGC), online word-of-mouth and other non-induced, unocial
sources of promotion, it would be necessary, in a second approach, to analyze the circulation and reception of this discourse both
among both Valencians and potential tourists, following for example the methodology proposed by Marine Roig et al. (2022, p. 223)
and thus taking into account desire, cognitive and conative elements (users responses in attitudes and behavior).
It is also worth analyzing the inuence of this TGC on the promotional aesthetics adopted by the institutions themselves, since
recent research suggests tourists have more agency in their practices and representations than has long been believed (Paul i
Agustí, 2019). In any case, current research on how destination images are created need to take into account that these images, in
addition to being created by a wide variety of agents and practices, not only have a tourist potential, but also important connections
with social, political and cultural discourses of other natures.
Beyond these possible analyses of the inuence and reception of the discourse of “Mediterranean live”, it is considered relevant to
hypothesize that the main spot of this campaign connects with regional identity discourses and does so through an understanding
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
223
of the tourist gaze in which the traveler aims to contemplate or consume what he visits from the inside, contrary to the external
position usually attributed to the visitor’s point of view.
6. Acknowledgements
English translation revised by Harvey Holtom.
is article is part of the R&D project “Cinema and TV in Spain in the digital change and globalization age (1993-2008): identities,
reception and production” (Ref. PID2019-106459GB-I00) supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Ministerio de Ciencia
e Innovación).
7. Bibliographic references
Anoguénova, E. (2007). El discurso del turismo y la conguración de una identidad nacional para España. En A. del Rey Reguillo
(Ed.),
Cine, imaginario y turismo: Estrategias de seducción
(pp. 33-63). Tirant lo Blanch.
Anoguénova, E., & Martín, A. (2021). Sociedad de consumo, aperturismo y subdesarrollo: El cine del desarrollismo. En
La huella
del turismo en un siglo de cine español (1916-2015)
(pp. 163-178). Síntesis.
Agencia Rosebud. (2021, septiembre 28). Mediterráneo en vivo. Comunitat Valenciana.
Agencia Rosebud
. bit.ly/3BRBk5A
Álvarez Ruiz, X. A. (2003). Publicidad Social: Enfoques y métodos de análisis.
Sociedad y Opinión
,
32
, 129-142.
Andriotis, K., & Mavric, M. (2013). Postcard mobility: Going Beyond Image and Text.
Annals of Tourism Research
,
40
, 18-39. bit.
ly/3WCqvvY
Anholt, S. (2008). Place branding: Is it marketing, or isn’t it?
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy
,
4
(1), 1-6.
Archilés i Cardona, F. (2006). «Hacer región es hacer patria». La región en el imaginario de la nación española de la Restauración.
Ayer
,
64
, 121-147.
Ateljevic, I., Morgan, N., & Pritchard, A. (Eds.). (2012).
e Critical Turn in Tourism Studies: Creating an academy of hope
. Routledge.
Bañuelos, J. (2013). Claves de la fotografía digital contemporánea: Prácticas, competencias, socialización y tendencias. En
Investigar
las redes sociales. Comunicación total en la sociedad de la ubicuidad
(Razón y palabra, pp. 9-18).
Billig, M. (2014).
Nacionalismo banal
. Capitán Swing.
Camprubi, R., Guia, J., & Comas, J. (2014). Analyzing Image Fragmentation in Promotional Brochures: A Case Study of Two Urban
Destinations.
Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research
,
38
(2), 135-161. bit.ly/3Wz7fQd
Casetti, F., & di Chio, F. (1991).
Cómo analizar un lm
. Paidós.
Cohen, E. (1988). Authenticity and commoditization in tourism.
Annals of Tourism Research
,
15
(3), 371-386. bit.ly/3v5PSdZ
Condevaux, A., Djament-Tran, G., & Gravari-Barbas, M. (2016). El antes y el después del turismo. Evolución de los lugares y papel
de los actores del turismo «fuera de lo común». Análisis bibliográco.
Via. Tourism Review
,
9
, Article 9. bit.ly/3W7xBZL
224
| nº 36, pp. 211-225 |
January-June of 2023
The contemporary tourist gaze through an analysis of the Comunitat Valenciana’s “Mediterranean live” communication...
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
De Mingo Rodríguez, A. M. (2020). «No me enseñes más postales»: Ética compensatoria del turismo y simbólica de la desaceleración.
Recerca
: Revista de Pensament i Anàlisi
,
26
(1), 133-153. bit.ly/3PJ5gGM
del Rey Reguillo, A. (2021). El turismo en el cine del primer franquismo (1939-1958). En A. del Rey Reguillo (Ed.),
La huella del
turismo en un siglo de cine español (1916-2015)
(pp. 143-161). Síntesis.
Feifer, M. (1985).
Going Places: e Ways of the Tourist from Imperial Rome to the Present Day
. Macmillan.
Fuentes Vega, A. (2017).
Bienvenido, Mr. Turismo: Cultura visual del «boom» en España
. Cátedra.
Generalitat Valenciana. (2016a, mayo 2).
Orgull de ser valencians
. Youtube. bit.ly/3PGJpzL
Generalitat Valenciana. (2016b, mayo 2).
Puig: «Els valencians som molt més que la corrupció i el balaament dels últims anys»
.
Generalitat Valenciana. bit.ly/3Gb2oPY
Generalitat Valenciana. (2016c, septiembre 29).
Puig apela a «la fuerza de la unidad» de todos los valencianos para recuperar el
orgullo de pertenencia a la Comunitat
. Generalitat Valenciana. bit.ly/3HSNxKZ
Generalitat Valenciana. (2016d, noviembre 27).
La campaña de promoción turística «Comunitat Valenciana. Mediterráneo en vivo»
lidera el ranking de notoriedad con respecto a otras comunidades
. Generalitat Valenciana. bit.ly/3G6odQy
Geniola, A. (2021). Presentación. Esos entrañables auentes de la patria. El «sano regionalismo» del franquismo.
Ayer
,
123
, 13-21.
Holden, A. (2004).
Tourism Studies and the Social Sciences
. Routledge. bit.ly/3hBOM6V
Invat.tur. (2016, julio 21).
Mediterráneo en Vivo, nueva campaña turística de la Comunitat Valenciana
. Invat.tur. bit.ly/3WCNeZ9
Jansson, A. (2018). Rethinking post-tourism in the age of social media.
Annals of Tourism Research
,
69
, 101-110. bit.ly/3HXNRbH
Lindholm, C. (2002). Authenticity, Anthropology, and the Sacred.
Anthropological Quarterly
,
75
(2), 331-338. bit.ly/3Wdt7kv
Lindholm, C. (2008).
Culture and Authenticity
. Wiley.
Lois, C., & Troncoso, C. A. (2017). 10 x 15. Las tarjetas postales como huellas de las prácticas de los turistas.
PASOS. Revista de
Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural
,
15
(3), 633-657.
Lyon, S. M., & Wells, E. C. (2012). Ethnographies of Global Tourism Cultural Heritage, Economic Encounters, and the Redenition
of Impact. En S. M. Lyon & E. C. Wells (Eds.),
Global Tourism: Cultural Heritage and Economic Encounters
. AltaMira Press.
MacCannell, D. (1999).
e Tourist: A New eory of the Leisure Class
. University of California Press.
Marine-Roig, E., Rosell, B. F., & Fuentes, E. M. (2022). La construcción de la imagen del destino en Internet: El caso de la Comunidad
Valenciana.
Espejo de Monografías de Comunicación Social
,
6
, 215-242.
Moreno Garrido, A. (2021). Turismo y nación. El Greco, Cervantes y Covadonga, revisitados (1907-1918). En J. Villaverde & I. Galant
(Eds.),
¿El turismo es un gran invento? Usos políticos, identitarios y culturales del turismo en España
. Institució Alfons el Magnànim.
Morgan, N., & Pritchard, A. (1995). Evaluating vacation destination brochure images: e case of local authorities in Wales.
Journal
of Vacation Marketing
,
2
(1), 23.
Morgan, N., & Pritchard, A. (1998).
Tourism Promotion and Power: Creating Images, Creating Identities
. Wiley.
doxa.comunicación |
nº 36, pp. 211-225
|
January-June of 2023
Lucia Rodríguez García de Herrero
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
225
Núñez Seixas, X. M. (2009). El nacionalismo español regionalizado y la reinvención de identidades territoriales, 1960-1977.
Historia
del presente
,
13
, 55-70.
Paul i Agustí, D. (2019). La localización espacial de los atractivos turísticos de un área metropolitana: Diferencias entre material
turístico institucional, guías turísticas y contenidos generados por los usuarios.
Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràca
,
65
(2), 293-320.
bit.ly/3VgoMvB
Sheller, M., & Urry, J. (2006). e New Mobilities Paradigm.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
,
38
(2), 207-226. bit.
ly/3jaPfgu
Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011).
e Tourist Gaze 3.0
. Sage.
Vega de la Rosa, C. (2011).
Lógicas turísticas de la fotografía
. Cátedra.
Villaverde, J. (2021). ¿Bellezas banales? Un siglo de promoción turística nacional. En J. Villaverde & I. Galant (Eds.),
¿El turismo es
un gran invento? Usos políticos, identitarios y culturales del turismo en España
. Institució Alfons el Magnànim.
Villaverde, J., & Galant, I. (2021). De la industria de los forasteros al gran connamiento: Un itinerario por la historia y la historiografía
del turismo en España. En J. Villaverde & I. Galant (Eds.),
¿El turismo es un gran invento? Usos políticos, identitarios y culturales del
turismo en España
. Institució Alfons el Magnànim.
Visit Comunitat Valenciana. (2016, noviembre 17).
Spot Comunitat Valenciana-#Mediterráneoenvivo (castellano)
. Youtube. bit.
ly/3jaPjNg
Washabaugh, W. (2005).
Flamenco: Pasión, política y cultura popular
. Paidós Ibérica.
Zuelow, E. G. E. (2009).
Making Ireland Irish: Tourism and National Identity since the Irish Civil War
. Syracuse University Press.