| 1. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-
(författare)
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Digital technocultures in Nature-based tourism
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates the influences of digital technologies on nature-based tourism (NBT) experiences. I acknowledge that the holistic digitalization of human lives increasingly impacts nature-based tourism. Particularly, I argue that it impacts tourists’ experiential valuation of nature, as well as tourists themselves as experiencers of nature in NBT in ways that need to be further understood.Following contemporary consumer-dominant perspectives on tourism experiences, I argue that tourists’ multi-dimensional valuation of experiences depends greatly on ex-situ factors that exist outside service encounters in NBT and within digitally networked lifeworld experienced by tourists, which informs how they value themselves and what they experience. However, such lifeworlds are poorly acknowledged in research on NBT experiences. Building on consumer culture theory, I argue that NBT tourists are cultural agents, and their NBT experiences are highly affected by how their lifeworlds are ingrained in marketplace cultures that discipline what is valuable and experienced in NBT. Such marketplace cultures, which are becoming increasingly digital and technological, can be conceptualized as digital technocultures. More than simply enhancing experiences, as extant literature suggests, digital technology provides lifestyle scripts, ideologies, identity myths, symbolic universes, and stories associated with the everyday, tourism, and consumption of nature. The latter are powerful actors in shaping consumers’ meaning making, sensescapes, emotions, behaviors, and ultimately experience valuations of nature in NBT. Across the four papers and the additional discussion that compose it, this thesis investigates how digital technocultures shape the identity of tourist experiencers in NBT and how they impact the valuation of nature in NBT. The thesis adopts a mix of novel, in-depth, thick, and interpretive methodologies to gain such knowledge. Findings offer thick consumer knowledge and a high-level consumer insight into NBT tourists. In digital technocultures, NBT tourists and their experiences of nature are contested among different digital and disconnected selves. Tourists appropriate digital technocultures and NBT according to identity projects that aim to assemble valued digital “experiencers” and at taking part in valued in e-tribes reflecting them in one’s lifeworld. At the same time, tourists negotiate digital technocultures disciplining their lifeworlds in order to build a valued escapist, liberated and disconnected Self in nature. Moreover, digital technocultures discipline, abstract, and extremify specific aspects of nature. These are sought, desired, imagined, and experienced as digital hyperrealities in NBT. This thesis explores the implications of digital technocultures of experience for NBT, which have so far been insufficiently acknowledged.
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| 2. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Disconnection as a performative act in nature-based tourism experiences
- 2021
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Ingår i: INVTUR2021 online Conference, University of Aveiro, Portugal, May 6-7 2021.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives A large part of the growing body of literature on the use of ICTs and mobile technologies in tourism has examined the adaption and embracement of mobile technologies in tourism and the impact it brings in tourist experiences, often in advocative approaches (Neuhofer, Buhalis & Ladkin, 2012; Buhalis & Foerste, 2015). Nevertheless, an increasing number of authors have been commenting on the disruptive character of these technologies with the research pointing to the tourists’ loss of sense of place, disengagement and alienation caused by the perceived invasiveness of technology on the overall nature-based experience (Silas et al. 2016, White & White 2007, Gretzel 2010, Tribe & Mkono 2017). Although trends related to disconnection have been acknowledged in the form of ‘digital detox’ and ‘digital switch-off’ holidays (Elmahdy, Haukeland & Fredman, 2017; Gretzel, 2014), a relatively limited number of studies has looked into tourists desire to “disconnect” from ICTs and mobile connectivity in nature-based tourist experience (Dickinson et al. 2016; Paris et al. 2015). Current research regarding connectedness and disconnectedness in tourism experiences has followed rather dualistic, dichotomising approaches. For example, research has looked into the enforced disconnectedness as experienced in “technology dead zones” or as deliberate disconnectedness in technology-free zones (Pearce and Gretzel 2012); or technology as a barrier or an opportunity in experiencing the natural environment (Dickinson et al 2016). Dickinson et al. discussed also the dilemma of ‘to use or not to use’ mobile technologies as a “double edge sword” (p. 196) as experienced by users in campsites.ICT and mobile technology use and value creation in nature-based experiences along with the negotiation of tourists’ connectivity is a relatively understudied topic which would require further investigation (Dickinson et al. 2016; Gundersen & Frivold 2008; Vespestad & Lindberg 2011).In this paper, we examine connectedness and disconnectedness in nature-based experiences as positions in a continuum. Instead of examining mobile technology use in nature-based activities as something inherently “good” or “bad” which either advances or destructs the experience, we try to understand the different positioning that tourists can have on a continuum, which embrace both disconnection and connectivity as performative valuing acts (Baka 2015). In doing so, we move from the dominant post-positivist approaches of technology (Munar et al. 2013), which are reflected on how connectivity and disconnection are investigated in nature-based tourism. By adopting a performative view, we examine how and why subjective ideas of disconnection and connection are constructed and performed within the tourist experience of natural areas. This could contribute to answering the question of how disconnection is subjectively negotiated with being connected (Dickinson et al. 2016; Neuhorfer 2016). Methodology Qualitative, semi-structured interviews at international visitors in Fulufjället National Park, Sweden, was the method of data collection. Interviews took place right after their visit to the park and were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. A total of 36 interviewees were part of this research.Main Results and Contributions Preliminary analysis indicate that tourists seek for some control over their connectivity while outdoors in the park. Although a clear articulation of the need to disconnect has been expressed during interviews, this is negotiated from complete disconnectedness to partial one, allowing information, orientation and safety reasons to use it. Furthermore, this negotiated disconnectedness was found to form part of a broader disconnectedness from their every-day life. Disconnecting from their mobiles and technology act as a performance of their escapism from their ordinary lives and work. This is better understood as a performative act of disconnecting from ordinary life and connecting back to nature and the inner self.Limitations This research builds on a limited number of interviews in a single case-study. Further research would be necessitated to explore further the findings. The findings offer also the ground for the development of further quantitative surveys.Conclusions This research contributes to a rather understudied field, that of ICT and mobile connectivity use in nature-based experiences with empirical data from Sweden. The resulting knowledge contributes to a better understanding on the mediating role of ICTs as contributors or destructors in nature-based experiences and visitors value creation in these experiences. At a theoretical level, the research introduces the notion of a continuum in connectedness/disconnectedness in nature-based activities and the understanding of it as a performative act.References Baka, V. (2015). Understanding valuing devices in tourism through “place-making”. Valuation Studies, 3(2), 149-180.Buhalis, D., & Foerste, M. (2015). SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-creation of value. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 4(3), 151-161.Dickinson, J. E., Hibbert, J. F., & Filimonau, V. (2016). Mobile technology and the tourist experience: (Dis)connection at the campsite. Tourism Management, 57, 193–201Elmahdy, Y. M., Haukeland, J. V., & Fredman, P. (2017). Tourism megatrends, a literature review focused on nature-based tourism. MINA fagrapport 32, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.Gretzel, U. (2010). Travel in the network: Redirected gazes, ubiquitous connections and new frontiers. Post-global network and everyday life, 41–58.Gretzel, U. (2014). Travel Unplugged: The case of Lord Howe Island, Australia. In Proceedings of the TTRA Canada annual conference. Yellowknife, Canada, september 24–26. Gundersen, V. S., & Frivold, L. H. (2008). Public preferences for forest structures: a review of quantitative surveys from Finland, Norway and Sweden. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 7(4), 241-258.Munar, A. M., Gyimóthy, S., & Cai, L. (Eds.) (2013). Tourism social media: Transformations in identity, community and culture. Emerald Group Publishing.Neuhofer, B., Buhalis, D. & Ladkin, A., (2012). Conceptualising technology enhanced destination experiences. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 1(1-2), 36-46.Neuhofer, B. (2016). Value co-creation and co-destruction in connected tourist experiences. In Information and communication technologies in tourism 2016 (pp. 779-792). Springer, Cham. Silas, E., Løvlie, A. S., & Ling, R. (2016). The smartphone’s role in the contemporary backpacking experience. Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 9(6), 40–55.Tribe, J., & Mkono, M. (2017). Not such smart tourism? The concept of e-lienation. Annals of Tourism Research, 66, 105–115.Vespestad, M. K., & Lindberg, F. (2011). Understanding nature-based tourist experiences: An ontological analysis. Current Issues in Tourism, 14(6), 563-580.White, N. R., & White, P. B. (2007). Home and away: Tourists in a connected world. Annals of Tourism Research, 34(1), 88–104.
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| 3. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Disconnection in nature-based tourism experiences : an actor-network theory approach
- 2022
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Ingår i: Annals of Leisure Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1174-5398 .- 2159-6816. ; , s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent studies question whether ubiquitous connectivity via mobiles represents an enhancer and facilitator in nature-based tourism experiences or a potential destructor to disconnect from. We argue that extant research approaches cannot fully grasp the complexity of the connectivity-disconnection dilemma, specifically how tourists appropriate, reinterpret, reshape, and negotiate with meanings inscribed in mobiles and how such negotiations link to valuations of nature-based experiences. This research adopts an interpretivist approach and uses actor-network theory to investigate negotiations of connectivity and their experiential meanings through field interviews in Fulufjället National Park, Sweden. Results reveal translations of social connectivity, facilitation of information and orientation as thematic cores of tourists’ embodiments of mobile connectivity. Results also show how the comprehensive tourismscape where such embodiments find meaning contributes to tourists’ definitions of disconnection. Such definitions comprise human and non-human actors on site, off site, and cannot be exhausted by essentialist dualisms between being plugged and unplugged.
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| 4. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-
(författare)
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FOMO – Fear of Missing Out
- 2022
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Ingår i: Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing. - UK : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781800377479
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 5. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-
(författare)
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Guides as Forest Experience Co-creators : Lessons Learned at Fulufjället National Park, Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Managing Visitor Experiences in Nature-based Tourism. - Wallingford : CABI Publishing. - 9781789245714
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter explores the role of tour guides as human experience brokers of naturalness in forest areas. After outlining conceptual discussions around the role and tasks of the guide as experience broker, empirical findings from Fulufjället National Park (Sweden) are presented, showing the guide as a pivotal forest experience co-creator. Implications are discussed, with particular emphasis on how the guide's personal valuations of the forest, background and personal aims are reflected in the guide's pathfinding, storytelling and staging strategies, and on how tourists are positively impacted by unexpected and different ways of valuing, mapping and interpreting the forest landscape.
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| 6. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Instagramming nature-based tourism experiences : a netnographic study of online photography and value creation
- 2020
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Ingår i: Tourism Management Perspectives. - : Elsevier. - 2211-9736 .- 2211-9744. ; 34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this research is to explore the role of online photography in creating experience value in nature-based tourism, and what types of experience value are conveyed through photography-based user-generated content. The paper draws from existing literature in defining tourism experience value as a subjective, inter-subjective and inter-contextual construct, performed by situated valuation practices. Consequently, the paper presents interpretive and participatory netnography as an effective method to investigate experience value, and identifies online photography on Instagram as both a valuing practice and a valuing place. Results show the capability of online photography-based UGC to create multidimensional values from strategic combinations of textual and visual content. Simultaneously, new dimensions of experience value are introduced, which exist beyond single tourism experiential encounters, but critically contribute to an iterative experience valuation. Finally, Instagram posts introduce valuation timelines that can elude linear models of pre/in-situ/post-experience valuation, and assume subjective and fluid connotations.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-
(författare)
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JOMO – Joy of Missing Out
- 2022
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Ingår i: Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing. - UK : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781800377479
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 9. |
- Conti, Eugenio, 1987-
(författare)
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Nature-based tourism and experience value co-creation on Instagram
- 2018
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Ingår i: ISCONTOUR 2018 Tourism Research Perspectives. - 9783746091679 ; , s. 373-378
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social media and mobile-based applications act as an increasingly critical source of experience value creation in tourism and nature-based tourism, as confirmed by the most recent trends in the industry. Although being one of the most popular mobile-based social media, Instagram is still underrepresented in value creation research, and no study has been conducted specifically in nature-based tourism. Moreover, current research on value lack of interpretive methodologies able to grasp the complexity of experience value creation from a phenomenological point of view. This research aims at tackling these gaps by conducting an in-depth investigation on experience value creation on Instagram in nature-based tourism. A combination of different types of qualitative data, obtained through a participatory netnography, will be collected on Instagram, and consequently triangulated and analyzed by means of grounded theory. While assessing the depth of value creation emerging from personal, elicited tourist narratives, in a way not seen yet in similar studies, the results are argued to expand the theoretical understanding of experience value creation in nature-based tourism and service research.
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| 10. |
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