Visual staging of nature-based experiencescapes : Perspectives from Norwegian tourism and event sectors

• Visual elements of the experience setting play a vital role in tourism and special events, given the oculocentric nature these sectors. At the same time, nature is an arena of diverging, often competing resource use interests, which underlines the importance of identifying key resources and analyzing their significance for each economic sector. In this chapter we focus on the way nature-based experienscapes are visually staged in nature-based tourism and event sectors by looking at the case of Norway. The visual analysis was performed on a sample of images collected from the websites of nature-based tourism firms and events. We discuss three main avenues of nature experiencescape representation: (a) nature as a view; (b) nature as a self-testing ground; and (c) nature as a hedonic space.  It can be argued that nature-based experiencescapes are visually staged primarily according to the pre-existing canon of nature representation in general, which is rather divorced from given spatio-temporal specifics of a tour or an event. Reinforced by the endless circulation of images of ‘typical’ and ‘iconic’ Norwegian nature, suppliers tend to stage their visual experiencescape according to a well-established tradition of nature representation.

Nyckelord

nature representation

outdoor events

tourism photographs

visual staging

experiencescape

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