Sámi tourism in marketing material: a multimodal discourse analysis
Open Access
- 3 July 2022
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Acta Borealia
- Vol. 39 (2), 115-137
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08003831.2022.2104544
Abstract
The study of tourism marketing communication is an important aspect that contributes to the understanding of how destinations and locals are portrayed. Through the so-called circle of representation, images can spread from tourism marketing to other media, such as tourism photography. Marketing material in the form of 118 brochures, 3000 Instagram posts and a guidebook portraying the Sámi population mostly in Swedish Lapland, but also in Finnish Lapland as well as Finnmark, Norway, have been collected and analyzed. The focus is on pictorial and textual elements and eight previously conceptualized themes have been used to guide the analysis. The focus was on the portrayal of the Sámi Indigenous population. The materials were collected through a direct qualitative content analysis and analyzed through a multimodal discourse analysis. The results show that there is still a tendency to portray the Sámi based on exoticism. This can spread to different media channels, but there are also discrepancies that hint at a gradual change in how Indigenous populations such as the Sámi are presented. The results of this study show the potential for the use of social media channels such as Instagram for Indigenous entrepreneurs and destination management organizations to educate, attract and entice potential visitors.Keywords
This publication has 76 references indexed in Scilit:
- ‘Through the magic of authentic reproduction’: tourists’ perceptions of authenticity in a pioneer villageJournal of Heritage Tourism, 2012
- Whiteness, ethnic minorities and advertising in travel brochuresThe Service Industries Journal, 2011
- Frontiers in Nature‐Based TourismScandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2010
- Limits to Sami tourism development: the case of Jokkmokk, SwedenJournal of Ecotourism, 2009
- Framing Experiences of Aboriginal Australia: Guidebooks as Mediators in Backpacker TravelTourism Analysis, 2009
- Projecting Paradise: The Surf Media and the Hermeneutic Circle in Surfing TourismTourism Analysis, 2009
- The many faces of Macau: A correspondence analysis of the images communicated by online tourism information sources in English and ChineseJournal of Vacation Marketing, 2009
- Tourism and Sámi Identity – An Analysis of the Tourism‐Identity Nexus in a Sámi CommunityScandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2006
- Making Differences in a Changing World: The Norwegian Sámi in the Tourist IndustryScandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 2006
- Ecotourism and indigenous people: positive and negative impacts of Sami tourism.Published by CABI Publishing ,2006