Prosuming Visuality, Authenticity and Urban Exploration within Tourist Experiences

Abstract

This PhD by publication draws on a range of publications from the last five years. These books, papers and chapters explore tourist motivation and experiences in a range of contemporary contexts. The body of work moves from mainstream discussion around sustainability and slow tourism in the tourist decision making process to the use of visual media to explore, understand and co-create tourist spaces, investigating related tourist subcultures and counter-cultural destinations. In particular the work focuses on Urban Exploration and, later, on cold war sites. My papers consider both tourist decision making in relation to planned visits, and the subsequent publication of images of places which have been visited. The work considers authenticity and visuality as components of the dissatisfaction with modern tourism, and the experiences it offers, I argue that this dissatisfaction is driving tourists to understand, engage with and experience tourist sites in new ways, seeking liminality and embodiment within the tourist experience. The study will develop this analysis through four key areas:  A clarification of the role of tourism within advanced societies and as a multidisciplinary field of research.  An evaluation of authenticity, visuality and urban exploration  A critical review of tourist consumption, prosumption and co-creation  A review of the methodologies adopted through the papers submitted for this PhD by publication to explore the mixed-method approaches to data collection and the centrality of visual methodologies and discourses in understanding tourism and tourism geography.  An exploration of the role of real and virtual experiences in deconstructing and reconstructing urban tourist experiences to evaluate the factors which influence and inform tourist decision making.