WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE WE ARE: TOURISM IN A SOCIETY OF UBIQUITOUS CONNECTIVITY By James Robert Collison A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Park, Recreation, and Tourism Resources 2011 ABSTRACT WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE WE ARE: TOURISM IN A SOCIETY OF UBIQUITOUS CONNECTIVITY By James Robert Collison In a world where pervasive information and communication systems seem to negate the need for travel, it would appear that tourism might no longer be necessary. Yet, tourism researchers examining international arrivals around the world know that tourism continues to be a dominant economic force for many countries. For individuals that engage in tourism today, the experience has dramatically changed as the ability for tourists to be connected to their social networks means they are never truly “away” on their journeys. Conversely, people are now being made aware of new attractions, events, and restaurants in their local community through online user-generated tourism reviews, thereby becoming tourists in their own “home” locale. With this blurring of “home” and “away,” resulting from the presence of ubiquitous connectivity and access to information resources, a new paradigm of the study for the touristic experience is needed. In this dissertation, the changing nature of the touristic experience is examined through a phenomenological and self-reflexive approach, beginning with the common history that travel and communication share which later diverged with the advent of telecommunication systems. Since the development of mobile telecommunication, ubiquitous connectivity, and Internet-based resources, there has been a transition from communication connecting place-to-place nodes to it connecting person-to-person nodes. The result has been a reunification of the social experiences created through communication and travel; however, academic studies in these fields remain separate. Herein, the commonalities that exist between these two fields are noted and discussed. It is argued that the academic study of the social effects of tourism and telecommunication can be unified through the lens of the emerging “mobilities” paradigm, and the five travel characterizations which comprise that paradigm (Urry, 2002; 2007). Initially, an understanding of the linkages between the fields of tourism and communication can be gleaned by examining two focal areas that have been studied separately, but which have produced similar results: the motivation to engage in social connection, and the meaning of authenticity. In addition, the blurring of the “home” and “away” dichotomy resulting from the use of telecommunication in tourism has led to a need to abandon that dichotomy in favor of understanding the touristic experience through the framework of encapsulated (e.g. engaged / mentally involved) and decapsulated (e.g. disengaged / mentally distant) states. Finally, the applied use of mobile communication in the tourism experience through the development and application of location-based services lends further support for the need to study tourism and communication through a unified paradigm, rather than as separate fields of study. Based on the preceding information, it is suggested that the mobilities paradigm can serve as the desired paradigm to research and promote understanding of the commonalities between the social experiences of tourism and communication. However, a reformulation of the primary divisions within the original mobilities paradigm is suggested for the purposes of simplification and the removal of tautological concepts: Urry’s “corporeal” and “object” travel are combined into a common “physical travel” segment, “virtual” and “communicative” travel are combined in a common “communicative travel” segment, and the segment of “imaginative travel” retaining its current definition. Finally, based on this restructured mobilities paradigm, suggestions for future research opportunities, implications and applications are provided. DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my wife and closest friend, Jennifer Noel Collison. Her love and support provided the strength for me to work through the highs and lows of my decade of advanced education. I owe her more than a lifetime of gratitude. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When a student sets out to complete a Doctorate of Philosophy, some naturally take longer than others. It would appear that I took an unnaturally long time to complete my program. However, there were many that supported me along my long and wandering journey, and those are the folks whom I wish to thank and acknowledge here. First and foremost are the wonderful people who make up my committee. Dr. Don Holecek served not only as the chair of my committee, but was an unwavering supporter, even before my arrival as a student in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Resources Ph.D. program. When times were tough, and doubts were cast, Dr. Holecek offered constant support and compassion. I am forever grateful for his guidance and support over the years. Dr. Gail Vander Stoep and Dr. Christine Vogt served not only as valued members of my committee, but also as outstanding professors in the Park, Recreation, and Tourism Resources department that provided challenging and interesting coursework which helped shape the direction of my studies. Both were kind in my more difficult moments, and willingly offered support when it was needed. Dr. Cliff Lampe has been an outstanding asset to my committee, and took on the challenge of being a member after having known me only a very short period of time. His support, suggestions for coursework, and drive to bring out the best in me was appreciated as I finished out the final years of my program. For him, and all of my committee, I am extremely appreciative. Additionally, I wish to thank the department chair for Community, Agriculture, Recreation, and Resource Studies, Dr. David Wright, for his intellectual and financial support of my research, much of that occurring behind the scenes and without my prior knowledge. His v contributions and support speak highly of himself in addition to much of the support I received from the faculty and staff of Michigan State University. Outside of Michigan State University were many individuals who supported me with kind words, offers to review my work, and chats about life in the academy. My thanks here go to all those wonderful folks: Dr. Troy Hicks, Dr. Craig Klugman, Dr. Roger Coles, Dr. Patty Janes, Dr. Lynn Dominguez, Dr. Todd Paxton, Dr. Mary Wisnom, Mr. Chris Dunlap, Ms. Ashley Lusk, Ms. Katie Payne, Mr. David Sennett, Ms. Sheryl Johnson, Ms. Lori Bucco, Mr. Eric Johnson, and Ms. Katie Johnson. Finally, there is my family. I thank my mother and father, Robert and Marsha Collison, for their unending love and support throughout this long journey. Although he may not have understood what I was doing, I also thank my wonderful corgi Tywyn who stayed by my side throughout the entire dissertation process, and reminded me to take breaks to play on occasion. Thanks, also, to my father-in-law and mother-in-law, Doug and Marianne Chalifour, for keeping strong through the years, and I thank Margot Briese – my German grandmother-in-law – for believing in me. Last, but most certainly not least, is my wife Jennifer Collison. For eleven of our thirteen years of marriage, I have been a graduate student while she was the breadwinner of our family. Despite that burden, she never once waivered in her love and support, always expressed her belief in my capabilities, and was quick to defend me when I could not speak for myself. Thank you, my love. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix   LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................ x   KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ xi   CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1   The Challenge of Modern Tourism Research ............................................................................. 3   Mobile Communication .............................................................................................................. 6   The (Re)Convergence of Travel and Communication ................................................................ 8   Statement of Problem ................................................................................................................ 10   Purpose of the Research ............................................................................................................ 11   Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 11   Research Goals.......................................................................................................................... 12   Delimitations ............................................................................................................................. 12   Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 13   Definitions................................................................................................................................. 13   Organization of the Dissertation ............................................................................................... 15   CHAPTER 2 MOTIVATION FOR CONNECTION ......................................................................................... 16   Theories of Motivation in Tourism ........................................................................................... 17   Plog’s Allocentric-Psychocentric Model .................................................................................. 19   Pearce’s Travel Career Approach ............................................................................................. 23   Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs .................................................................................................. 25   The Need for Social Connection ............................................................................................... 27   Applying Motivation for Connection in Tourism and Communication ................................... 30   Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 35   CHAPTER 3 THE ISSUE OF AUTHENTICITY .............................................................................................. 37   Early concepts: Goffman, Boorstin, and MacCannell .............................................................. 39   Diverging Views: Cohen........................................................................................................... 42   Multiple Forms of Authenticity ................................................................................................ 44   Attempts to Redefine Existential Authenticity ......................................................................... 49   Criticisms and Suggested Reformulations of Authenticity in Tourism .................................... 51   Authenticity in Computer-Mediated Communication .............................................................. 54   Applying Authenticity in Tourism and Computer-Mediated Communication ......................... 56   The Future of Authenticity........................................................................................................ 57   CHAPTER 4 HOME AND AWAY .................................................................................................................... 60   Travel and Communication: A History..................................................................................... 62   The Meaning of “Home” .......................................................................................................... 67   vii Being a Tourist .......................................................................................................................... 68   The Connected Individual ......................................................................................................... 71   The Blending of Home and Away ............................................................................................ 78   The Death of Distance and the Continued Need for Corporeal Travel..................................... 83   Encapsulation and Decapsulation ............................................................................................. 86   The Negative Effects of Mobile Technology on the Tourism Experience ............................... 88   The Positive Effects of Mobile Technology on the Tourism Experience ................................. 92   Understanding the Modern Tourist ........................................................................................... 96   Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 100   CHAPTER 5 LOCATION-BASED SERVICES .............................................................................................. 101   Defining Location-Based Services ......................................................................................... 103   Satellite Positioning Technologies .......................................................................................... 105   Non-satellite Positioning Systems .......................................................................................... 111   An Early Location-Based Service: Geocaching ..................................................................... 113   Location-Based Services With Gaming Elements .................................................................. 115   Augmented Reality in Location-Based Services .................................................................... 122   Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 124   CHAPTER 6 FUTURE DIRECTIONS ............................................................................................................ 127   Ubiquitous Electrification ....................................................................................................... 128   ICT’s Transition From Spectacle to Mundane Ubiquity ........................................................ 130   Additional Considerations and Challenges ............................................................................. 132   Mobilities, Redefined .............................................................................................................. 136   Implications and Applications ................................................................................................ 142   Future Research Possibilities .................................................................................................. 145   Revisiting the Research Goals ................................................................................................ 147   Final thoughts.......................................................................................................................... 149   BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 152   viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The Five Forms of Mobilities in the Mobilities Paradigm ............................................ 10   Table 2: Nine Core Features of a Flow Experience ..................................................................... 31   Table 3: Three Types of Authenticity in Tourism Experiences ................................................... 49   Table 4: Categories and Examples of Location-Based Service Applications............................ 105   Table 5: Summary of Proposed Changes to Travel Types in the Mobilities Paradigm ............. 141   ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Psychocentric to Allocentric Continuum ............................................................... 20   Figure 2: Pearce's Travel Career Pattern ....................................................................................... 24   Figure 3: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ....................................................................................... 26   Figure 4: Principles of Satellite Positioning ............................................................................... 108   Figure 5: A Foursquare “Tip” ..................................................................................................... 118   Figure 6: Archived Virtual Items in a User's Gowalla Passport ................................................. 120   Figure 7: A Gowalla "Trip” ........................................................................................................ 121   Figure 8: Yelp.com's Augmented Reality "Monocle" ................................................................ 123   x KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS A-GPS: Assisted global positioning system CMC: Computer-mediated communication GPS: Global Positioning System GLONASS: Global Navigation Satellite System HCI: Human-computer interaction ICT: Information and communication technology LBS: Location-based services RFID: Radio frequency identification SNS: Social network service TCP: Travel Career Pattern VFR: Visiting friends and relatives WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Western society is a culture on the move. From the earliest days of history, humankind has sought to venture out into previously unknown lands in order to expand personal opportunity and enhance knowledge. Initially, we traveled in order to find food sources, safe places to live, and other factors necessary for basic survival. Later, the most ambitious of our kind would head off into completely unknown areas with the aim of expanding our geographic knowledge. The resulting accounts of these trips would eventually lead for the desire for “secondary” explorers to want to see these places for themselves. These were, in effect, the first tourists. Concurrently, humans sought to find ways to transfer knowledge that did not require engaging in a face-to-face conversation and the memorizing and retelling of lengthy oral traditions. Writing, painting, music, and other forms of communication came about in order to preserve knowledge and culture so that it could be passed on to succeeding generations with minimal degradation over time. Still, these early forms of communication were bound by the limits of geography or physical space. If one wished to read a book, view a painting, or listen to an opera, that person needed to find a way to bring him or herself into physical proximity to that informational object. In other words, physical travel was a necessary part of communication. The two were effectively inseparable. That changed in the middle of the 19th century with the development of the telegraph. For the first time, the speed of a message being transferred over a distance was not limited to the pace of a human courier, a horse-bound rider, or a steam locomotive. Once two locations had been connected by a thin piece of wire, it became possible to move a message across the landscape at 671,000,000 miles per hour: the speed of electromagnetic energy, and better known 1 as the speed of light. Knowledge could now be transferred at the fastest possible speed known to humankind. A speed so great, that it effectively permitted a person to spread knowledge and influence to more than one location at the same time. A person could be in two - or more - places at once. What was revolutionary 150 years ago, has become commonplace – some would say even mundane – in the modern day. We progressed from the age of wired telegraph, to the further developments of wireless telegraph, two-way radio transmission, telephones and their resultant long-distance cables, to satellite connections, computers connected via the Internet, and mobile telephony. Yet, despite these advances, we are still a society physically on the move. We continue find the need to connect with others physically, face-to-face. We still wish to see distant lands with our own eyes, and experience great events for ourselves. This, in spite of the fact that some would argue that the need to travel is no longer justified since knowledge of these people, places, and events could be had without transferring one's self from one locale to another. Perhaps more unusual is that we now find people carrying nonphysical communications systems with them, and using those tools to maintain connections with prior networks, even in the midst of producing new networks and connections while they are on the move. While earlier eras of travel required that a person temporarily abandon their established social connections, the technologies involved in communication have become so inexpensive, and so ubiquitous, that a person is never really “gone” when they leave the place they call home. In addition, access to unique, previously unknown information about one’s self identified “home” location has created the situation where a person can easily think of themselves as a traveler in their own town. In essence, the boundaries between “home” and “away” have become blurred, with both concepts arising concurrently at any given moment. 2 The Challenge of Modern Tourism Research This has created a somewhat problematic situation for the sociological aspects of tourism research, since what defines a “touristic experience,” becomes a challenge under this nebulous dichotomy. Prior ideas of tourism and what defines the touristic experience come initially from the discussion of Thorstein Veblen's 1899 work, "The Theory of the Leisure Class," which provided some of the first real analysis of tourists, with particular regard to the wealthy individuals going on European "Grand Tours" which were popular at the time (Veblen, 1899). Tourism studies - as a unique academic field - is relatively new, and as such studies related to tourism (and the related concepts of proximity and mobility) who often came from sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and economists who were creating their own concepts of what made a "touristic experience." Ultimately, the majority of authors considered being "away" as what defined a touristic experience, with the general terms of being "more than 50 miles from home, for purposes other than work or business." It took until much more recently with the work of sociologist John Urry, who examined the earlier works of Boden and Molotch, and Robert Putnam, where he noted that studying a touristic experience required an understanding of social aspects of "home" versus "away" and how virtual co-presence plays into that (Urry, 2002a; Urry, 2003). He noted that, "mobile electronic devices makes it possible for people to leave traces of their selves in informational space,” an idea which has served as a focal point in understanding how simultaneous moments of “home” and “away” can occur, owing to mobile information and communication technology (ICT). Urry's work has largely served as a foundation for current studies on the social aspect of the tourism experience (Ballantyne, Packer & Axelsen, 2009; Jansson, 2007). However, since 3 this blending of “home” and “away” has occurred, Urry has actually declared that the concept of “tourism” no longer exists (Urry, 2003). The husband and wife team of Peter White and Naomi Rosh White have also been prominent in the tourism research community for their development of defining the tourist experience through the notion of “home” and “away” in ethnographic research. As White & White's foundational study of tourists in New Zealand notes, the idea of "home" vs. "away" has become increasingly complicated compared to decades past, as geographic separation no longer mandates that the tourist also be separated from prior social and emotional connections (White & White, 2007). As such, White & White include the previously developed phenomenological concept of "life worlds" in their definition of the “touristic experience,” which are the shared, constructed social environments in which an individual lives (Schutz & Luckmann, 1980). This “life world” additionally maintains a distinction from physical worlds, which is the geographic, or proximity-based environment an individual lives in, and it is also this proxemic "world" that the aforementioned researchers believe holds less importance than it had in the past (White & White, 2008). White & White also include the concept of the "deterritorialization of relationships," in this “home” versus “away” aspect, in which they argue modern communication services have permitted strong interpersonal relationships to remain salient in spite of physical distance. It is their belief that this deterritorialization of relationships has implications toward how "home" is defined (as "home" can be thought of as being an emotional state), and thus impacts how the nature of "away" is perceived. White and White based this sub-concept on Williams and McIntyre's definition of "deterritorialization of relationships" (Williams & McIntyre, 2001). Zhao's concepts of "co-presence, " "telepresence," and "telecopresence" also influenced White & 4 White's definition of the touristic experience (Zhao, 2003). Zhao defined "telecopresence" as people engaged in reciprocal interaction carried out through an electronic communications network. Later work by Jansson takes a different approach, suggesting a new framework for considering the arbiter of co-presence - the mobile communication devices - noting that they may be involved with creating a new dialectic: encapsulation and decapsulation (Jansson, 2007). In his research, Jansson argues that mobile communication can assist with an encapsulating experience - where tourists play along with the "role" prescribed to them by the tourist site - but more likely creates decapsulation, as the moments of co-presence draw tourists out of "the moment" and back into their prior world of familiarity. As such, he suggests that encapsulation and thus being "away" and having a touristic experience - might only occur for those who choose to have a full escape from their lives at home: turning off the cell phone and computer, and leaving their watches behind. Jansson further disagrees with Urry’s assertion that “tourism is dead,” by suggesting that it is merely redefined, and no longer can be considered as explicitly being a sense of “away.” This assertion is further supported by the work of Gale, who notes that tourism experiences can occur in “home” environments, thus bringing the sense of “away” into the “home” setting (Gale, 2009). When taking a sociological approach to the study of the touristic experience, it may be prudent to subscribe to ideas put forth by Jansson and Gale that “home” and “away” can no longer be considered discrete entities since they are not exclusive situations. Instead, it may be more apt to move toward the idea of encapsulation / decapsulation to define the touristic experience, which leans toward studying the mindful engagement in a destination, no matter whether that locale is near or far from the traveler’s primary residence. In addition, it may be 5 useful to consider the concept of “mental propinquity” - that is the mental sense of nearness when considering how far away a traveler feels they are from their social network of friends, family, and colleagues. Mobile Communication The study of communication has a long and varied history, and more recent research has certainly placed a strong emphasis on mobile information and communication technology (ICT). There has been much work which has examined mobile ICT from the perspective of the technical engineering involved, the ergonomics of product design, and the development of the networks required to make such technologies function. However, it is the social science of mobile communication that has the strongest correlation to the sociological aspects of tourism. From a purely definitional perspective, mobile ICT is any information and communication technology that has been expressly designed to be used by a person away from a fixed location (Jensen, 2000). It should be noted that this does not include any technology that happens to have been “made mobile,” such as the use of desktop computers in non-traditional settings, nor does this internet communication technologies which would not be portable without non-human assistance (for example, an aircraft’s communication system - while technically a mobile communication system - does not apply as a person could not use that technology without the aircraft being present). Mobile ICT is comprised of a range of technologies that typically consist of devices such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, pagers, laptop computers, and handheld computers. In addition, global positioning system (GPS) receivers are often also included in the group of mobile ICT owing the use of GPS data to provide salient information transient individuals (GPS is used both alone and as a complementary technology to other forms of mobile ICT). 6 While mobile, wireless communication has been around since the turn of century with the use of low-power continuous wave (Morse code) communications between amateur radio operators in the early 1930’s, it has really only been with the advent of the cellular telephone and its use by the general public that the social effects have begun to be studied (Jensen, 2000; Ling, 2008). Starting in the mid-1990s, researchers in Scandinavia began to examine the social effects of cellular telephone use as the use of those devices began to skyrocket. On the forefront of this research has been Rich Ling, a researcher with Telenor in Norway. His work, based on the sociological foundations of Emile Durkheim and Erving Goffman, has largely focused on how mobile communication - with particular regard to the cell phone - has mediated both virtually copresent and physically co-present communication (Ling, 2008). He notes that mobile communication can be used as a form of ritual interaction, which does not require that a person be in the same physical location for that ritual to occur. As an example, a person may have a ritual of phoning his/her parents each morning, but that ritual may occur regardless of whether the person is in a work or leisure setting; home or away. The social impact of mobile communication has also been the primary work of James Katz who developed the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University, and also founded the Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communication (SSSMC). One of Katz’s primary contributions to the inquiry of the social effects of mobile communication has been the introduction of apparatgeist theory, which he has defined as the rhetoric and meaningmaking that occurs among the users of mobile communication, owing to perpetual contact (Katz, 2008a). Katz firmly believes that apparatgeist gives the world a community of people which are free to “act and communicate together without restriction over time” [as quoted in (Holmes, 2005)]. Katz’s theory of apparatgeist, along with Ling’s work on ritual interaction in mobile ICT 7 has formed the basis for much of the mobile communication theory now used in when studying the social effects of mobile ICT. The (Re)Convergence of Travel and Communication As noted earlier, the majority of human history has consisted of a time where travel and communication were effectively one and the same. In fact, it was not unheard of for the two terms to be used interchangeably, such as in the phrase “the Trans-Siberian Railway was the only communication between Moscow and Russia's Far East.” However, with the development of the telegraph came the functional separation of communication from travel. Delivering a message no longer required the physical transport of a person or communication object to its intended receiver. Since the exchange of information occurred so rapidly and with an experience arguably less rich - from a sensory perspective - compared to face-to-face interactions, the sociological impacts of communication took a very different turn from the sociological impacts of travel. In addition, these communication tools were often physically fixed to a location, requiring a person to visit a telegraph operator, stand by a telephone, or simply be proximate to other communications equipment. If one lacked access to these communication nodes, then one needed to recognize the temporary abandonment of access to that network. Such as it was that traveling often meant disconnecting from a person's primary social network, with perhaps the sporadic telephone calls back home. The advent of the miniaturized technology and portable energy sources has freed these communication technologies from their fixity and permitted the same freedom of movement originally afforded to their analog precursors. These technologies, which connect social networks in their own right, are now as flexible as the social networks created through face-to-face interactions. This has created the blending of instant, simultaneous communication networks 8 being able to move through the same physical space as prior travel-dependent networks. The technologies of transport have also advanced significantly, to where it is possible to travel to the other side of the world in only a day’s time. We can only expect that the speed of physical transport will only continue to increase (although it remains unlikely physical transport will reach the same speed as communication technology). The result is that the combined sociological impact of travel and communication must once again be considered when examining either discipline. The two fields have, once again, converged. It is clear, though, that prior paradigms and approaches from either field are unable to sufficiently capture the range of impacts across both disciplines. What is proposed, then, is that this combined concept of travel and instantaneous communication be considered under John Urry's proposed post-disciplinary "mobilities" paradigm (Urry, 2002a; Urry, 2007). This paradigm suggests that there are actually five different mobilities which fall within its realm, as shown in Table 1. There is first the idea of corporeal travel, which are the physical transits of people from one location to another. This could be for reasons of work, but it could also be for reasons of pleasure. The second mobility involves the travel of objects from one place to another, such as the giving and receiving of souvenirs or presents. Thirdly, there is the idea of imaginative travel which occurs in the mind of a person consuming various forms of print, visual, or auditory media. The concept of virtual travel exists as the fourth mobility, occurs in real time and transcends social and geographical distance through the use of virtual, computer-generated environments. Finally there is the mobility of communicative travel. This last mobility is the “travel” which occurs through the exchange of messages via phone, telegraph, fax, or computer. Here, again, the travel occurs instantaneously, however it tends to exclude the same richness of cues present when interacting face-to-face. 9 Table 1: The Five Forms of Mobilities in the Mobilities Paradigm Mobility Type Description Corporeal Travel Travel of people for work, leisure, family life, pleasure, migration, and escape. Object Travel Physical movement of objects to producers, consumers, and retailers; also sending/receiving of presents. Imaginative Travel Images of places and peoples appearing in one’s mind from interaction with media and associative objects. Virtual Travel Travel to virtual spaces Communicative Travel Travel through person-to-person messages via email, SMS, telegraph, and telephone. (Urry, 2007). Statement of Problem In examining the current body of tourism research, there is a definite awareness that changes in information technology and communication are having profound impacts on the discipline of tourism studies. Yet, it seems that much of that research is reactive in nature and is primarily concerned with the use of information technology being used from a business and marketing viewpoint. While some research has been conducted which examines the sociological and psychological impact of communication technology during the tourism experience, it has typically been focused on specific software and hardware. Due to the rapid pace of technological change, these studies can have a reduced impact by the time the results are made available to the public. Therefore, it is imperative that tourism researchers find new, forward-thinking methods which attempt to examine what the combined effect of mobile communication and tourism will be in the future, and not just the impacts assessed at the present. It is this author's assertion that the mobilities paradigm can provide this framework. 10 Purpose of the Research The purpose of this dissertation is to provide an examination of concepts related to tourism and information and communication technology (ICT) in order to provide additional support and encouragement of the use of the mobilities paradigm when examining the sociological impacts of modern tourism. The currently separate fields of tourism and communication have much that they can learn from each other, and are historically - and now currently - intertwined. As such, it is the author's hope that this dissertation might assist in being a guide for future tourism scholars seeking to understand the roles and meanings of tourism in a society of perpetual and ubiquitous connectivity. Methodology The examination of how the fields of tourism and communication intersect requires a high-level exploration of the topic, and thus lends itself ideally to qualitative methods of inquiry. In particular, this dissertation is most closely examining a holistic overview of the lived phenomenon of the connection between these two fields, and therefore the method employed was that of a phenomenological approach (Patton, 2002). This research aims at getting to a “deeper understanding of the nature or meaning of our everyday experiences” (p. 104), through the effects of these combined fields, which supports the rationale for the method chosen. In addition, the author finds that many of his own experiences were relevant in attempting to assess and explain the changes being encountered within this phenomenon. As such, the usual exclusion of the researcher from the research was deemed undesirable, and therefore the additional method of self-reflexive inquiry (Etherington, 2004) was for sections of the research where it was deemed most appropriate. 11 Research Goals The goals for this research - in support of the dissertation’s purpose - are as follows: 1. Examine the commonalities that currently exist between tourism and communication, with regards to understanding the motivation for participation in either activity. 2. Illustrate the commonalities in the concept of authenticity that exists between tourism and communication. 3. Fully demonstrate that the combined, concurrent notion of home and away has led to a new form of study convergent on the mobilities paradigm 4. Present the practical application of tourism and communication through the new role of location-based services. 5. Develop and discuss proposed changes to the current description of the mobilities paradigm. 6. Discuss future impacts and directions for the modified mobilities paradigm in tourism. Delimitations This research is focused on cultures with well-developed communication and tourism infrastructures. When less developed cultures are discussed, it is noted appropriately in the text. As the subject of human communication covers a wide range objects, devices, and methods to convey information from one individual to another, the term “communication” in this document is used interchangeably to refer to telecommunication systems, with a specific focus on information and communication technology, mobile communication systems, and computermediated communication. As specific forms of communication are addressed, they are noted accordingly. Finally, the mobilities paradigm is designed to address all forms of physical and communicative human movement, including diasporas, refugees, and military transport. The 12 research presented here is focused on mobilities as it relates to the movement of tourists and the act of communication through telecommunication modes. Limitations The main limitation of this research is that it does not address gender, racial, or economic differences that may occur within the represented societies. In addition, little attention is paid to older methods of communication still in use, such as postal mail and published media. Definitions For the purposes of this research, it is important to provide clear and specific definition of the terms used in this dissertation. The following terms are defined, in alphabetical order, to clarify their use: Absent Presence – A specific form of copresence where a person’s social contacts are perceived to be easily accessible, but communication is not currently taking place. The resulting ability of those distanced relations to potentially make immediate contact and insert themselves into a person’s reality gives them affective abilities (Gergen, 2002). Copresence – A sense of nearness and connected which may occur when individuals are in physical proximity to each other, or through awareness of the ease of being able to communicate with another person at any given moment. Copresence represents both a location and a relation (Urry, 2007, p. 178). Cues – Verbal and non-verbal signals which transmit metadata about a communication interaction. Vocal intonation, facial expressions, formality of language, body posture, and eye contact are examples of cues (Woodworth, Hancock & Goorha, 2005). 13 Human-Computer Interaction – The field of study focused on understanding how people engage with computer hardware and software. The design of user interfaces, usability of systems, and the social effects of engaging with these technologies are among the subfields that are researched (Ficarra, Lozano, Nicol, Kratky & Cipolla-Ficarra, 2011). Information and Communication Technology – Computer and telecommunication technologies considered together (Black & Black, 2006). Mobile Communication – Telecommunications technologies and systems in which devices used to engage in communication are not fixed to any particular location (Katz, 2008a). Multi-locality – The effect arising from the use of telecommunication systems, which creates the perception of being in two or more locations at the same time (Caron & Caronia, 2007). Node – A terminal point within a network. In communication networks, this can be a person, object, or a place (Wellman, 2001). Social Network Service – A web-based service that allows individuals to construct a public profile within a bounded system, develop a list of contacts that identifies social connection, and view their own list of connections and lists of the connections of others (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Telecommunication – The science and technology of transmitting information electronically by wires or radio signals with encoding and decoding equipment (Black & Black, 2006). Virtual – Representative of the real, but not real itself (Black & Black, 2006). Refers primarily to computer-generated environments in this dissertation. 14 Organization of the Dissertation Beyond the introduction section of this dissertation, four initial chapters will include discussion of the mobilities paradigm as it applies to tourism and communication. Chapter 2 will be focused on the commonalities in the motivation for engaging in tourism and communication, grounded on the concepts related to why people wish to be with one another. A common link based in the recently developed field of positive psychology provides additional insight. Next, chapter 3 will be focused on the issue of authenticity, and what constitutes an authentic experience in both tourism and communication. The discussion in Chapter 4 addresses the unification of the fields of tourism and communication by focusing on the transition of “home” and “away” into a blended concept. Then, Chapter 5 is focused on the practical application that comes from the concurrent use of mobile technology in a tourism setting through the lens of the developing field of location-based services. Finally, Chapter 6 will conclude the dissertation with a discussion of the future role of the mobilities paradigm in tourism and communication. 15 CHAPTER 2 MOTIVATION FOR CONNECTION When a person engages in a travel excursion, they usually do not do so completely unaware of what is enticing them to head out on their journey. It could easily be conceived that there are factors at a distant location that are drawing them to that place, or alternatively there may be factors at home or in their own lives that are driving them to get away (Dann, 1977). Similarly, it is not typical for a person to pick up his/her mobile phone, fire up his/her instant messaging client, or start up a new e-mail message without having some kind of impetus to do so (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1995). In short, we have reasons – motivations – for the actions we take in our lives. Humans have rationale for wanting to connect with individuals, places, and phenomena. It is this concept of motivation, and specifically the motivation to connect with people and places, that is the focus of this chapter. The concept of motivation has been widely studied in the tourism and leisure literature (Dann, 1977; Dann, 1981; Gnoth, Zins, Lengmueller & Boshoff, 2000; Iso-Ahola, 1982; Pearce, 1993), and it has been regarded as the key factor that underlies all tourist behavior (Iso-Ahola, 1982; Pearce, 2005). However, the study of motivation in tourism can be a difficult one. Wang (2000) notes that tourism rarely has one motive, and the combination of motivations can be complex, stratified, and multidimensional. Identifying them all can be a near-impossible task. Similarly, there has been a focus in the growing field of computer-mediated communication on understanding why individuals might engage in a medium that has been colloquially regarded as more impersonal than engaging in face-to-face interactions (Walther, 1996). As noted in the introduction to this dissertation, there are strong similarities between the concepts of tourism and communication; essentially that they are relatives in the same area of study. So, when individuals 16 engage in travel to meet other people (i.e. to engage in face to face interactions), understanding why they would choose that method of communication over the quicker, and often less expensive telecommunication methods becomes important in trying to understand the sociology and psychology of our species, and what individuals aim to gain from these interactions. Motivation, itself, relates to the psychological functions that govern the direction, persistence, and intensity of human behavior (Kanfer, 1995). Although there has been extensive study of motivation, it suffers from the problem that it cannot be directly observed, and relies on assumptions made from observed behaviors, or through the self-reports of subjects under study (Iso-Ahola, 1999). There are also no theories of motivation that are regarded as universally accepted (Iso-Ahola, 1999), although certain models and approaches have received more attention than others. In the sections that follow, this chapter will outline some of the motivational theories which have been used in the course of tourism studies and a few of the related concepts as they have been tied into communication. A historical overview of these earlier motivational theories will be presented, and the discussion will then transition into the common area that physical and communicative travel share: the desire for social interaction. Based on that concept, the benefits of social connection, as derived from tourism and computer-mediated communication, will be explored in the unifying and newly emerging field of positive psychology. Theories of Motivation in Tourism Despite the fact that the tourism and communication research communities have accepted no universally agreed-upon motivational framework, it is useful to discuss those theories of motivation which have been extensively used over the years. In the context of tourism research, the complex nature of attempting to understand the motivations behind an individual engaging in 17 travel has resulted in numerous attempts to organize the myriad concepts of motivation into coherent theory. One early example of tourism-specific motivational theory was presented by Graham Dann (1977). He suggested that there were largely two factors which enticed travelers to head out for specific destinations. He termed these two factors “push” and “pull.” Push factors were those socio-psychological, intrinsic motivations that would get a person headed out on an excursion. The concept of “escape” is an oft-cited example. Pull factors were those attributes of a destination (extrinsic factors) that draw a person toward that specific destination (Crouch, Perdue, Timmermans & Uysal, 2004). In addition, Dann argued that the motivations that played into these factors were anomie and ego-enhancement. He felt that, “it should be clear that not only does travel represent the fulfillment of certain basic needs in the potential tourist, but that in so doing it offers an alternative world to that which he daily lives.” (1977). Since Dan's initial presentation of his theory, the concept has gained additional support through successive research (Bogari, Crowther & Marr, 2004; Crompton, 1979). Seppo E. Iso-Ahola took a different view (1982; 1999), and argued that a motivation for tourism exists purely as a psychological concept and that social aspects should largely be disregarded. He was concerned with a concept he termed “optimal arousal,” in which an individual seeks to achieve a sense of balance in his/her arousal, which exists somewhere between pure boredom and over-excitement. Iso-Ahola believes that people seek situations that are appropriately novel. That is, they do not seek to find situations which are completely foreign, nor do they seek situations which are totally well known. He felt that this included the idea of perceived freedom from constraints which would lead to the optimal arousal condition. The idea of seeking some form of escape, which is then complemented by the tourist seeking the right level of excitement from a touristic experience (Hall & Page, 2005). Iso-Ahola also notes that the 18 optimal level of arousal can change depending on what level of arousal is desired. For example, if a person is seeking a thrilling experience, they might choose to engage in a safe, yet exciting experience, such as riding a roller coaster (Iso-Ahola, 1999). Conversely, if the level of stimulation they desire is one to achieve an effect of relaxation, then the optimal experience may be an activity such as meditation. This latter concept has been applied to studying the role of tourism as a restorative activity with positive results (Kler, 2009). Plog’s Allocentric-Psychocentric Model When considering theories of motivation as it relates to tourism, an oft-used point of central focus is in examining the traveler's decision to choose one destination over another. While destination choice models and destination lifecycle models had existed in the numerous varieties in tourism research, an early and commonly cited model is the allocentric-psychocentric model developed by Stanley Plog (2001; 1974). Plog's model was formulated to try and explain why particular destinations would see increases and decreases in their popularity over time. Based on a sample of 1600 respondents, Plog hypothesized that travelers existed on a continuum made up of five psychocentric groups, generally spread out across a normal distribution, as is illustrated in Figure 1. In the far left tail of this distribution, were the psychocentrics, which tended to be low activity travelers who preferred familiar destinations and activities, and might be the type to partake in organized tour packages. Moving up the scale, were the larger portion of near-psychocentric travelers, followed by mid-centric travelers, and then the near-allocentric travelers. In the far right tail of the bell curve, were the allocentric travelers. These were travelers regarded as deliberately seeking out non-touristy areas, who enjoyed high-energy activities, and who would specifically seek meeting and dealing with people from foreign cultures. 19 Figure 1: The Psychocentric to Allocentric Continuum (Plog, 1974; 2001). Based on these five types of traveler personalities, Plog felt that destinations themselves existed in the mind of the traveler somewhere along that same continuum. For example, he considered theme parks to be highly psychocentric destinations, whereas remote and generally inaccessible destinations, such as Africa, were placed on the allocentric side of the continuum. In the more highly populated mid-centric area, one could find destinations that met a mix of safety and adventure, such as visits to the Caribbean, Europe, and Mexico. Plog theorized that destinations would initially attract allocentric travelers who were seeking new, and novel experiences, which would then attract mid-centric, and eventually psychocentric travelers as the destination reached a broader mind share. In short, Plog believed that the allocentric traveler provided influence on the future travel decisions of those further toward the psychocentric end of the scale, since they acted as a the “advance team” into new tourism destinations, and could provide feedback to other, less-adventurous travelers. Although Plog would revisit his theory decades later, it has largely remained unchanged over the years with the exception of attempting 20 to change the terminology from psychocentric-allocentric, to a range of dependable-venturer (Plog, 2001). Although Plog's model has been extensively cited in tourism literature, it has not been without its criticism. Bob McKercher did his own examination of the model and found that the reality of traveler’s destination choice did not match what had been theorized (McKercher, 2005). He noted that researchers were finding that a destination did not attract one particular type of traveler personality, but it tended to have both allocentric and psychocentric travelers visiting the area at the same time. The only difference was that each engaged in different activities and visited different sites at that particular location. McKercher also took issue with Plog's idea that highly-psychocentric destinations were relatively unpopular, having fallen into decline after their heyday of bringing in mid-centric travelers. In fact, it was found that many psychocentric destinations were thriving (McKercher, 2005). While Plog's model may not have been an accurate portrayal of the reality of destination choice, a later re-examination of the model found that his concept did match the desires of travelers. Litvin (2006) tested Plog's model by asking travelers in Singapore, “where did you go on your most recent vacation?” and “if you could visit any destination in the world, including places you may have already visited, where would you go?” The results of his study matched McKercher’s when looking at where the respondents had gone on their most recent vacation; they skewed heavily toward the psychocentric end of the continuum. However, when plotting the results from the “ideal vacation destination” question, the line was a near-perfect bell curve, exactly as Plog's model had hypothesized (Litvin, 2006). Litvin had found that although Plog's model may not accurately show a destination’s actual visitation pattern or area lifecycle, he did find that the model accurately portrayed the desires – the motivations – for people seeking to 21 travel to a destination, if there were absolutely no constraints standing in their way. Not only did this provide a confirmation of Plog's model, but also it showed that the psychocentric skewing of visitation around the world does not accurately reflect the desires of the traveling population. It would appear that travelers would complete travel to more allocentric destinations, if perceived barriers to access and information were removed. This idea that people will engage in more adventurous (i.e. risky) behavior when perceived constraints are removed has also been found by those studying risk-taking in individuals. Wilde (2001) developed the concept of a Risk Homeostasis Theory (RHT) which states that, “in any activity, people accept a certain level of subjectively estimated risk to their health, safety, and other things they value, in exchange for the benefits they hope to receive from that activity. In any ongoing activity, people continuously check the amount of risk they feel they are exposed to, they compare this with the amount of risk they are willing to accept, and try to reduce any difference between the two to zero” (p. 5). When applying this theory in the context of tourism, it can be logically deduced that people would seek out more allocentric (risky or more dangerous) destinations and activities should some of the constraints be reduced or removed. Since travelers perceived as being psychocentric rely upon information from other travelers before making their own travel decision, it can be surmised that easier and more rapid access to information would push travelers toward excursions that would have previously been classified as an allocentric destination. This is just the kind of role that computer-mediated communication, in the form of mobile information and communication technology, can provide in the tourism context. 22 Pearce’s Travel Career Approach A final example of a motivational model for tourism activity, comes by way of Pearce (1993; 2005), who created the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) which is loosely based on the earlier contributions of Maslow (1954) and his Hierarchy of Needs theory (discussed later in this chapter). The concept of the TCL is that a person's motivation to engage in travel changes over time as they gain additional traveling experience. Pearce believes that there are five levels of motivational needs that a traveler takes into consideration when planning an excursion, and that the levels which gain the greatest focus depend upon how much travel experience the traveler already has. He sees the needs for relaxation existing at the lowest level of the ladder, progressing up to safety and security needs, followed by relationship needs, self-esteem and development needs, and situated at the highest level are fulfillment needs (Pearce, 1993). Although the TCL gained some traction among tourism researchers, it was met with some criticism, especially among those who focused on the use of the term “ladder” and the apparent fixed hierarchical nature of the model (Pearce, 2005). In particular, it was felt that the use of five levels created too much simplicity in trying to explain the tourism experience and that the model seem to lack any form of empirical validity (Ryan, 1998). Based on these criticisms, Pearce revisited his model and made a conceptual readjustment to develop the Travel Career Pattern (TCP) approach (Pearce & Lee, 2005). The TCP retains the same five core areas presented in the TCL; however, it was reformulated into a concentric series of layers as shown in Figure 2. The innermost portion of the model contains the core motives, which contains the concepts of novelty, relaxation, and social relationships. Moving outward from the core, Pearce felt those with less travel experience would place a moderate importance on self-actualization and selfdevelopment, and those with a bit more travel experience would place a moderate importance on 23 Figure 2: Pearce's Travel Career Pattern (Pearce & Lee, 2005). host-site involvement, and getting out into nature. The least important motives for any level of travel experience were isolation and nostalgia (Pearce, 2005; 2005). Pearce additionally stressed that the model did not require travelers to exist in only one of the motivational layers, but that the travelers employing mid-level motives automatically also included the core level motives, and those employing the outermost level of motives automatically included the mid-level and core motives. So, the need for core motives is never eliminated, but a traveler tends to expand his/her pattern of motives into the outer layers as he/she gains additional traveling experience. For the purposes of this dissertation, it is especially important to note that the TCP regards social relationships as one of the core motivations for all types of travelers. In fact, in a study of Korean travelers, Pearce found that the desire to be with family and friends and to receive feelings of belonging rank highly among those respondents as a motivation for engaging in a travel experience (Pearce, 2005; 2005). Because this need for social relationships is a core 24 requirement that also exists in realms outside of the tourism experience, attention is now turned to the motivational model which inspired the TCP, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs The theory of general human motivation that is one of the oldest, and arguably one of the most studied, is the “Hierarchy of Needs” theory developed by Maslow (1954). Maslow's idea is that there is a sequence of five needs that an individual must achieve in order to have a satisfying and happy life, as illustrated in Figure 3. He positions the most basic needs at the lowest level and reserved these for functions a person requires for physical survival. Hunger, thirst, and other physiological needs were in this lowest level. These were then followed by the needs of safety, such as avoiding danger and outside threats. Assuming that basic survival needs had been fulfilled, Maslow theorized that the next higher level would contain the needs related to social relationships: those which would provide friendship, love, and affection. These were followed by esteem related concepts that would allow for a sense of achievement and self-respect. He reserved his highest level on the hierarchy for the fulfillment of one's greatest potential: the concept of self-actualization. A common misconception of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is that they represent a fixed structure where one level of needs must be fully achieved before an individual can advance to the succeeding level. However, nowhere in Maslow's depictions of his theory does he indicate that kind of rigidity, and later scholars have been quick to point out that his model is not one of structured personal growth but, “describes a pattern of motivational forces” (Pearce, Filep & Ross, 2011, p. 10). Maslow noted that lower levels would likely dominate the attention of the individual until that need was met, but he did not surmise that it would be the exclusive focus, and prevent the achievement of higher need levels (Holden, 2005). Despite the fact that a true 25 Self Actualization Esteem: Self-esteem and social esteem Relationships: Love, affection, family, friends Safety: Feeling of control and security Physiological: Food, water, sex, and shelter Figure 3: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1954). hierarchy does not exist with this model, in particular since some of the needs on differing levels may be achieved concurrently, it is still regarded as an important theory since it emphasizes the development needs of humans, with an focus on achievement within the individual (Hall & Page, 2005). From the perspective of tourism research, the motivations that would drive a person to engage in travel largely arise once the third level of the hierarchy is reached – although travel by refugees and asylum-seekers could be regarded as fulfilling the lower-level needs (Urry, 2007). 26 Therefore, it can be surmised that the motivations for tourism – pleasure travel – begin with the need for social connection, starting at the “Relationships” level. This matches with Pearce’s own idea in the TCP that social relationships represent one of the core motivations in his tourism model, which is applicable to all travelers in their course of their travel career. Similarly, in the study of communication, it is well-established that one of the primary reasons that infant children engage with other people in their environment is for the purposes of social connection (Oudeyer & Kaplan, 2006), which serves as a purpose for motivation in all communication – computermediated or otherwise – throughout their course of life (Viherä & Nurmela, 2001). Social contact is, quite simply, a basic need for humans (Urry, 2002a). The Need for Social Connection The prior sections of this chapter have shown that social connectedness lies at the heart of tourism motivation and communication motivation theories. Therefore, it is especially important to understand why that need for social connection appears to be so vital. Researchers have focused on this issue and concluded that the physical and mental health of humans rely upon being connected with others. In Robert Putnam's seminal work Bowling Alone (2000), he explores the history of social engagement in the United States as well as the impacts that engagement has on the various domains of life. He notes that social interaction has numerous positive benefits, including the ability to reinforce healthy norms. In particular, he notes that “socially isolated people are more likely to smoke, drink, overeat, and engage in other health-damaging behaviors” (p. 327). However, beyond the peer pressure effects, he notes that research has suggested that social isolation has “measurable biochemical effects on the body” (p. 327). Putnam mentions that socially isolated animals have developed more hardening of arteries compared to socially 27 engaged animals, that lonely animals and humans have shown decreased immune response and increased blood pressure, and that over a dozen studies conducted around the world have shown that “people who are socially disconnected are between two and five times more likely to die from all causes, compared with matched individuals with close ties with family, friends, and the community.” (Putnam, 2000). This has also been confirmed by those who have examined the effects of isolation as having hugely negative effects on cardiac health (Garbarino, 2011). Even more directly phrased, House, Landis, and Umberson mentioned in their study of social relationships and health (1988) that, “more socially isolated or less socially integrated individuals are less healthy, psychologically and physically, and more likely to die.” With the need for relations between persons clearly being a desired and beneficial “good,” it is useful to portray the acquisition and dissemination of social relationships as a form of capital. Although the idea of “social capital” has earlier roots (Coleman, 1988), it was the previously mentioned work by Putnam which really pushed the concept of social capital into the mainstream (Minnaert, Maitland & Miller, 2009). Putnam, however, focused most of his attention on the idea of social capital when applied at the community level and saw it as something that was on the decline in the United States. There is also an individually based form of social capital, which itself can be divided into two separate classes: bridging social capital and bonding social capital (Putnam, 2000). Bridging social capital is representative of social connections between people who are loosely connected, such as those people who might be referred to as “acquaintances.” Conversely, bonding social capital are connections between emotionally close individuals, such as those people a person may refer to as their friends or family (Steinfield, Ellison & Lampe, 2008). These concepts, themselves, are based upon the 28 earlier work of Mark Granovetter (1973; 1983) who referred to these similar concepts as “weak ties” and “strong ties.” Acquisition of both forms of social capital is considered to be beneficial. In the role of tourism, the acquisition and dissemination of bonding social capital largely occurs in the “visiting friends and relatives” (VFR) segment of tourism, which is arguably one of the most dominant forms of tourism (Moscardo, Pearce, Morrison, Green & O'Leary, 2000). Although engaging in VFR tourism is often for the purposes of explicitly visiting friends or relatives at a particular destination, it is also sometimes the case that the friend’s or relative’s home is simply used as a form of free lodging, especially if those people are located in an area already popular with tourists (Moscardo et al., 2000). In these cases, the building of social capital may not be a primary motivation for engaging in the touristic activity, but it still ends up being a side effect simply because the traveler and the traveler’s friends/family still end up interacting with each other. However, the desire for face-to-face social activities with individuals regarded as being “strong ties,” has been found to be responsible for a substantial portion of trips conducted by individuals and households, resulting in the development and maintenance of bonding social capital (van den Berg, Arentze & Timmermans, 2010a). While the act of communication inherently results in the acquisition or dissemination of social capital, the subject encounters some controversy when focused on computer-mediated communication. Putnam (2000) saw the use of information technology as being a socially isolating experience, since he saw it as removing individuals from interacting with those who were corporeally present. Therefore, he saw these technologies as destroying social capital, rather than building it. However, it seems that these concerns may have been unfounded. When Steinfeld, Ellison, and Lampe conducted an analysis of users of the social network site Facebook, they found that intensity of Facebook activity in the first year of use strongly 29 predicted bridging social capital outcomes in subsequent years. In other words, using a social network site provided social capital benefits, which in turn lead to benefits for psychological health (Steinfield et al., 2008). However, they were quick to point out that an earlier study produced results showing that simply being online was not sufficient to create social capital. Instead, a person who was online also needed to be involved in a socially focused activity (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007). Based on the information presented, it can be ascertained that tourism is a useful activity for the creation and dissemination of bonding social capital, and that computer-mediated communication is useful for the creation and dissemination of bridging social capital. Combined, these two fields allow for a holistic development of social capital, which in turn supports the mental and physical benefits accrued from these kinds of interactions. In fact, these fields are seeing a form of unification with regard to social development in the newly emerging field of positive psychology. It is this latter field to which this dissertation next turns its attention. Applying Motivation for Connection in Tourism and Communication Attempting to research and apply the positive benefits of an activity to the betterment of the human condition is somewhat of a recent phenomenon. The study of individual behavior and response has largely been in the domain of those who research psychology. For most of the history of that discipline, the focus has been on understanding why individuals act the way they do, and for those who act outside of social norms, to attempt to understand how all those people can be returned to a state of normalcy (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). As a result, the idea of researching and applying psychological concepts to increase quality of life and life satisfaction among psychologically stable individuals has largely been ignored. 30 Table 2: Nine Core Features of a Flow Experience Core Feature Description Challenge-skill balance There is a match between perceived skills and challenge Action-awareness merging Deep involvement leads to automatic behaviors and spontaneity; there is no awareness of self as separate from the actions one is performing Clear goals There is a strong sense of what one is going to do Unambiguous feedback Clear and immediate feedback that the person is doing his/her activity well and is succeeding in his/her goal Concentration on task Total concentration on the task at hand Loss of self-consciousness Concern for the self disappears and the person becomes one with the activity Time transformation Time disorientation or a loss of time awareness Autotelic experience An intrinsically rewarding experience involving a deep sense of enjoyment (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). One of the most prominent developments in trying to explain what activities and mental states lead to better and happier lives, was put forth by Csikszentmihalyi (1990) with his study of what he termed “flow”. He felt that a human being’s search for happiness is something which is “built into our genes for the preservation of the species, not for the purpose of our personal advantage” (p. 17). As such, he regarded “flow” as the feeling of pleasure which is experienced when there is a balance struck between a person's sense of challenge in a particular activity and their current set of skills. If people engage in an activity which is perceived to exceed their skill 31 level, then they experience anxiety. However, if they engage in an activity where their skill set significantly exceeds the demands of that act, then the person becomes bored. It is only when the balance is achieved between skills and challenge that flow exists. Ultimately, Csikszentmihalyi identified nine core dimensions which construe the flow state, as shown in Table 2. The concept of flow proved to be fertile ground for research across a wide range of domains. Since the introduction of this concept, flow has been studied in education (Enriquez, 2001), video games (Chen, 2007; Cowley, Charles, Black & Hickey, 2008), computer-mediated environments (Finneran & Zhang, 2005; Wu & Chang, 2005), and with regard to various aspects of the tourism experience (Gnoth et al., 2000; Jaworski & Pritchard, 2005; Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier, 2009a). Csikszentmihalyi, himself, saw the topic to be a continuing source of inspiration, and produced a total of three texts dealing with this concept (1990; 1993; 1997). With his strong desire to research and report on concepts related to human happiness, there was a natural proclivity to encourage the negatively focused field of psychology to move toward more positive applications. With the start of a new millennium, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi along with psychologist Martin Seligman produced a framework document outlining the need for a new field of “positive” psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). They saw that the increases in prosperity in the Western world were potentially leading to a greater gap between the wealthy and the poor, and therefore could potentially push worldwide society into chaos. It was their belief that the scientists and researchers who study in the social and behavioral sciences should have a commitment to find ways to allow people to flourish, no matter where they live, or what their socioeconomic status may be. They stated that, “the aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst 32 things in life to also building positive qualities.” (p. 5). Previously, the only psychology which had been focused on self-improvement and the general betterment of society, fell under the term “pop psychology” (Garbarino, 2011). Therefore a more scientific endeavor was needed. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi also felt that, “the field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).” (p. 5). Since that founding document, positive psychology has found itself concerned with three primary areas. First, there is focus on hedonism or pleasure-based happiness, and applying that concept to the past, present, and near future. There is also a focus on engaged or “eudiamonic” happiness. Finally, there is the less developed area of study focusing on how organizations can aid in happiness and well-being (Pearce et al., 2011). However, as the field is still developing, it is worth noting that definitions are changing, and there is not yet a universal agreement on the framework for the science of positive psychology (Biswas-Diener, 2010). It was natural, then, that since tourism and computer-mediated communication were both shown to increase social connections – and therefore happiness and positive emotions – that they were natural fits for research alongside this emerging field. In tourism, it was Sebastian Filep who had first noted that the study of positive emotions in tourism was scarce (Filep, 2009). In a later, expanded work, Filep worked with Pearce to layout initial groundwork on the areas of tourism which could benefit from a positive psychology focus. Some of the thematic areas they identified included shopping research in the tourism setting, the role of humor in tourism, engagement with sites of cultural heritage, and the benefits of engaging in volunteer tourism (Pearce et al., 2011). They additionally noted, that while the study of positive psychology in tourism is currently a qualitative affair, there have often been strong statements made by 33 governments and even by some academics as to the obligations of tourism to society. However, those obligations have largely been phrased in terms of economics, and not as to how tourism can benefit the well-being of the individual (Pearce et al., 2011, p. 61). As additional researchers have noted that social relationships are pivotal in providing emotional support, and that socialization tends to lead to optimal experiences (i.e. flow) (Fave, 2011), tourism, with its strong motivational component coming from the desire to seek and maintain social relationships, makes it an ideal field to explore in the positive psychology context. However, because earlier research has shown that computer-mediated communication can lead to flow-style optimal experiences, it has therefore also been the focus of developments as related to positive psychology. Kanis and Brinkman (Kanis & Brinkman, 2009) did a study of flow-related activity through use of a mobile communication tool designed exclusively for the sharing of positive emotions between the users that were physically separate (PosiPost). They found that quick-loading mobile applications provided the ease-of-use which created low mental friction and made engaging in the application a desirable activity. Based on their findings and based on recent trends in mass media journalism focusing on poor uses of mobile communication technology (i.e. cyber bullying), they saw the need for additional positive psychology research as it relates to computer-mediated communication and human-computer interaction. Tomas Sander took the idea of working with human-computer interaction in the positive psychology context a bit further and suggested a new sub-field of study to be called “positive computing” (Sander, 2010). He defined this as, “the study and development of information and communication technology that is consciously designed to support people's psychological flourishing in a way that honors individuals’ and communities’ different ideas about the good life” (p. 330). Sander notes that computer applications which are highly automated can aid in the 34 experiencing, remembering, and re-experiencing of good moments, which can then assist individuals in developing an optimistic outlook on life. He feels that human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers have an imperative to explore uses as to how computers can support people living in line with their personal values. (p. 337). The exploration of tourism and computer-mediated communication, united under the heading of positive psychology, is clearly a new phenomenon. However, as Filep (2009), Pearce (2011), and Sander (2010) have noted, the newness of this field makes it ripe for exploration. In addition, Research in this area becomes somewhat easier to justify, as even Aristotle had noted that the highest and most important goal for human beings is happiness (Kanis & Brinkman, 2009). Conclusion As mentioned in the introduction to this dissertation, the fields of tourism and communication find unity under the larger umbrella of mobilities. They share the common trait in that they serve to connect people with each other, and also to other places and events. Studies of “motivation for travel” and “motivation for participating in computer-mediated communication” has shown that there is a strong need for people to feel socially connected in order to flourish psychologically, and even physiologically. Ultimately, corporeal travel and communicative travel achieve the same ends by providing the means for social engagement. Continuing this research of mobilities in the context of positive psychology furthers one of the primary goals of science: to continue toward the improvement of life satisfaction and well-being for humankind. Beyond the motivations for connection, there are additional aspects that are sought out – or even deliberately modified – when engaging in touristic or communicative experiences. 35 Again, the commonalities between tourism and communication speak to their unification under a common heading. One such additional common aspect is the somewhat ambiguous concept known as “authenticity.” It is this issue that is examined in the next chapter. 36 CHAPTER 3 THE ISSUE OF AUTHENTICITY When considering a discussion on authenticity, particularly in the realm of tourism, it is not difficult to have one's thoughts turn toward one of the most prominent tourism sites in the world: the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida. The author has his own direct experiences with this location, as it was the site of many summers of employment during his undergraduate years, in addition to being a childhood vacation destination creating numerous pleasant memories. The issue of authenticity arises in that here is a place which is a commonly desired location for leisure, and yet it is a place that is wholly constructed out of the ideas of a multinational company and its somewhat eccentric founder. Considering this location does not have what some may consider a “true” historical basis (after all, it simply arose out of a large patch of swampland), the idea that this place might have any form of authenticity becomes difficult to negotiate in one's mind. This becomes especially challenging since humans often do not seek to be deliberately misled into feeling that they are experiencing reality, when in fact they are not (Shepherd, 2002). The author is also quickly reminded of his own experience in his few months of employment working at the Epcot theme park within the resort. Occasionally, as he wandered through the World Showcase portion of the park, he could hear guests commenting that the Worlds Fair-style pavilions dedicated to specific countries did not represent the “real” experience of visiting those countries. However, this was readily admitted in the education the author received from his employer on the history of the park. He had been told that the World Showcase pavilions were not designed to be an accurate reflection of those countries, but rather they were 37 to represent the physical manifestation of one's memories had they visited that country in the past. That concept has also been noted by sociologists from Duke University, who mentioned that, “especially in World Showcase, Epcot seems designed for nostalgic adults and the desires that are peculiar to them. In this sense the German beer hall, posters for Parisian follies, and pseudoscientific rides bring to mind the idea of the historicism, as opposed to the historical, and that they form an illusion to a present out of history which may as well be a past removed from real history.” (Klugman, Kuenz, Waldrep, Willis & The Project on Disney, 1995). While the pavilions themselves may not be fully accurate - that is to say authentic - representations of the portrayed countries, they are still producing real experiences for the guests, and the authentic emotions which accompany those experiences. This issue of the authentic becomes increasingly blurry when one transitions to virtual spaces. Here is a place where a person is able to present alternative versions of himself/herself, and in a way which may feel more authentic to that person than how they see themselves portrayed in the physical world. Yet, while that person may see his/her virtual self as being a more accurate representation of who he/she is, another person encountering that virtual identity may feel that he/she has been misled upon finding out that the virtual representation is not an accurate depiction of that user's self in the real world. As such we have a situation with one identity, but that identity is envisioned as authentic by the creator, and as inauthentic by others. Such is the paradox that virtual worlds have created. The challenging issue of authenticity as it applies in tourism experiences and in computer-mediated communication is examined in this chapter. First, how the term “authenticity” has been defined in these specific contexts will be explored. This is followed by a discussion of how authenticity is conceptualized in mixed real and virtual environments, and 38 then the chapter concludes with an examination of what role authenticity is expected to play in the highly mediated tourism environment of the future. Early concepts: Goffman, Boorstin, and MacCannell The ideas of what makes a person, place, or experience “authentic” dates back to the Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle, who believed that the highest form of personal excellence could only be achieved by living according to one's “true self” (Schlegel, Hicks, King & Arndt, 2011). The term itself – authenticity - originates from the Greek word “authentes” which means originator or creator, and therefore refers to something genuine or true, as opposed to something simulated, forged, or imaginary (Krösbacher & Mazanec, 2010). Since those ancient times, it has been a regular topic of philosophers to debate the nature of reality and what constitutes the authentic experience in life. However, it was not until Goffman's (1959) seminal work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, that the concept of authenticity as it would later be applied in tourism began to take shape. Goffman believed that people acted out roles in their daily lives that were presented through personal “regions.” He theorized that people would change their behavior according to perceived social norms, making adjustments for their age, gender, and race, when engaging in the “front region” of their lives (p. 110). This region was publicly viewable, and these “performances” in the front region would typically occur at any point that a person was in a group setting, or even simply in an environment where they felt another may notice his/her behavior. In contrast, Goffman also defines the “back region” or “backstage,” as the private area of life where personal flaws can be hidden or adjusted, and the means for maintaining the appearance required for the front region could be appropriated (p. 114). It was in this back region that Goffman felt a person was his/her authentic self, and represented the truest expression of his/her emotions and desires. However, since there were unspoken moral and 39 social agreements as to how members of society should behave, the back region was to remain hidden, and life was to be lived out as a performance on the front stage. Following on the ideas of Goffman, Boorstin (1962) produced the first assessment of authenticity in the modern tourism experience. He argued that tourism was a trivial and superficial activity where danger, adventure, and struggle had been replaced by fabricated environments. He felt that tourists were nothing more than passive hedonists who sought these contrived locations and thrived on inauthentic “pseudo-events.” They had become sightseeing onlookers, unwilling or unable to experience the reality of the travel experience directly. He illustrated this by pointing to the Hilton hotel chain, which employed such similar designs and amenities around the world that the tourist was separated from the aspects of the local environment and culture which differentiate it from that tourist’s home (p. 106). The tourist sought comfort in the inauthenticity of the hotel's design. It was Boorstin's contention that the experience of travel had simply become a commodity, and tourists outright demanded these superficial presentations. When MacCannell introduced his work, The Tourist (1976), he parlayed the ideas that Goffman and Boorstin had presented into his own concepts as to how the person on vacation encounters his/her tourism experience. MacCannell rejected Boorstin's idea that tourists specifically wanted pseudo-events and artificial environments. He believed that the modern tourism experience was a form of pilgrimage to seek out authentic experiences, which modern society has caused to be removed from a person's everyday life (p. 589-593). He saw tourist desire as the want to temporarily leave behind the modern experience of alienation, and being filled with nostalgia, to seek out the authentic in dissimilar people and places. As a result, MacCannell felt that this authenticity could only be experienced in primitive destinations: in 40 places where time and cultures had apparently stood still, and therefore had not been impacted by the authenticity-stripping nature of modernity. This idea has also been referred to as Western society’s “paradox of authenticity.” Since the past is considered more authentic precisely because it is the past, the present is therefore moving away from authenticity, and as a result, is increasingly of less interest to the modern tourist. Yet, as the future is perceived to be even less authentic than the present, as our present moves into the past, it achieves authenticity since it will then represent a more primitive time (Shepherd, 2002). MacCannell also built upon Goffman's ideas of front and back regions by introducing the concept of “staged authenticity” (p. 91). He observed that many tourism destinations created constructed realities similar in concept to the adjustments people make for themselves when in a “front region” environment. As such, what may have the look and feel of an authentic experience is, in fact, only an approximation. MacCannell additionally felt that staged authenticity was an inevitable condition. As the authentic, primitive cultures became the target of tourism, they would see the need to cater the products of their culture toward the desires of the tourists. Therefore, cultural rituals and places would lose their inherent meaning for the locals, and become commoditized experiences and objects. So what was once “authentic” becomes increasingly “staged” for the tourists by way of hegemonic acculturation (Wearing, Stevenson & Young, 2010). It was as a result from that assertion that MacCannell believed that tourists had no choice but to experience the inauthentic, saying, “Tourists make brave sorties out from their hotels hoping, perhaps, for an authentic experience, but their paths can be traced in advance over small increments of what is for them increasingly apparent authenticity proffered by staged tourist settings. Adventurous tourists progress from stage to stage, always in the public eye, and greeted everywhere by their obliging hosts” (MacCannell, 1976, p. 106). MacCannell felt that 41 the back “stages” of a tourism destination - infrastructure systems, business areas, etc. - were deliberately kept out of view from tourists, to shield them from the ordinary, mundane aspects of day-to-day life at that location. However, if tourists were to have a chance encounter with these back stages, it was only at that moment that they might briefly experience the authenticity of that location. If it was later discovered that tourists were being exposed to these areas, the host community would typically aim to change the environment in such a way so that the backstage was hidden, and once again tourists were trapped in the inauthentic front stage (p. 105) Diverging Views: Cohen Following the publication of MacCannell's work, discussion about the role of authenticity in tourism became more prominent, and previously expressed views were examined with greater scrutiny. Cohen (1979b; 1988) argued that there were problems with Boorstin and MacCannell's view of authenticity, as both were assuming that all tourists behaved in a similar manner and had similar motivations for engaging in a touristic experience. Cohen contended that tourism is the expression of people’s desire to experience cultural, social and environmental differences in other places around the world, and he felt that the strength of this desire was not consistent across all tourists. He also believed that while some would be seeking a more contrived encounter, and others would be seeking a non-touristic encounter. Cohen would additionally use this idea to further develop his concept of different tourist typologies (1979a). Cohen also began to take issue with the idea of authenticity being a fixed concept inherent to an object or culture. Rather, he felt that authenticity was a process of negotiation between the host and guest. He noted that when the tourists are attempting to seek out what they consider to be “authentic,” the locals are rarely asked which traits of their own culture they 42 consider to be authentic (Cohen, 1988, p. 374). Therefore it is this “agreement” between the tourists and the hosts in which what is considered authentic can be determined. Additionally, Cohen considered the idea of negotiation as allowing for previously inauthentic objects to become authentic over time. For example, a cultural group may produce a type of souvenir that originally had meaning in the host society, but has since been modified in order to cater to the desires of the tourists (following Boorstin’s prediction). When that object was originally produced, it would be considered an inauthentic duplicate of the original item. However, as that souvenir is continually produced over a number of years, it would gain its own native credibility as an authentic object from that culture. It was this negotiation of authenticity over time which Cohen termed, “emergent authenticity” (1988). He also felt that the commoditization of objects could be considered a positive trait, as opposed to a destruction of the original authentic. He noted that objects which are replaced by modern-day incarnations might find continued life in the form of a souvenir, which is representative of that particular culture. As a result, an object which would have disappeared into history, remains an active part of embodying that group's culture (1988). This additionally has the tangential benefits of retaining the original tools and methods used to produce that object, the continuation of narratives associated with that object, along with the production of the object itself. Others would also later note that this same concept of emergent authenticity could be applied to constructed places which are symbolic of imaginary environments, such as Disneyland or Walt Disney World (Wang, 2000). Cohen’s concept that there is no single definition for the tourist, and that there is no single authentic tourist experience, was reaffirmed by the work of Urry (1995; 2002b). Urry also agreed in the postmodern viewpoint that tourism destinations typically produced objects and 43 events specifically for visual consumption by tourists (2002b). These things which had been gazed upon could then be captured through photographs, allowing the tourists to relive their experience at a later time (2002b). He saw this “tourist gaze” as being focused through the use of signs and symbols designated to direct tourists to parts of the destination landscape which had been designed especially for them, and to separate them away from parts of the everyday experience of the locals. In essence, this was in agreement the earlier concepts of front and backstage areas. Multiple Forms of Authenticity As the discussion of authenticity in tourism increased in fervor among researchers, the idea that there may be multiple forms of authenticity began to take shape. Among the first to recognize this were Pearce and Moscardo (1986) who felt that it was important to distinguish between the authenticity of the place, the authenticity of the locals being gazed upon, and the authenticity of the experience framed in the mind of the tourists. This idea was also later supported by Selwyn (1996), who agreed with MacCannell that tourists seek the authentic, but Selwyn felt it was important to recognize that authenticity itself has two aspects: one which deals with a person's feelings and emotions, and another which deals with knowledge (p. 7). He would term these two forms “hot” authenticity, and “cool” authenticity. Selwyn's concept of hot authenticity is derived partially from MacCannell's implied concept of relationship authenticity (Lau, 2010) and also from an understanding of Cohen’s concept of negotiated authenticity. He felt that authenticity, in this sense, came about as tourists experienced a sense of inclusion and feeling like they were truer to their notion of “self” during the tourism experience. He felt that hot authenticity created an “alienation-smashing feeling,” which could only be determined by the tourists themselves and not by the tourism developers or 44 any particular “expert” on the visited culture (p. 21). What one tourist might regard as a valid hot authenticity experience, another might find contrived and distancing. In addition, Selwyn felt that contrived locations could achieve a symbolic authenticity, such as the visitor’s center at the Hiroshima Peace Park, which is promoted as the only structure near ground zero of the 1945 nuclear bombing which survived the attack (p. 23). However, all of the promoters and locals are aware that only a tiny portion of that structure actually survived the blast, and nearly all of the building that exists today is a reconstruction (Brown, 1996). However, this “real fake” is true enough to the original object, that is considered to have authenticity (in this case, falling under the heading of hot authenticity). The concept of cool authenticity was promoted by Selwyn as being the fixed, factual authenticity ascribed to an object, place, or ritual (p. 27). He equates this type of authenticity to the definition of authenticity that a museum curator gives two objects in that museum's collection. Through a system of verification by experts, the objects are affirmed as products which originate from a specific culture and/or a specific time period, and therefore are genuine, non-symbolic artifacts. There is no negotiation with this type of authenticity; either things are genuine, or they are not. Selwyn agrees with Cohen's concept of emergent authenticity (p. 29), but he notes that the object, place, or ritual in question would not achieve cool authenticity until experts had recognized that a form of authenticity had emerged. Selwyn's division of authenticity into two separate areas paved the way for Wang (1999; 2000) to establish his breakdown of authenticity in tourism as it is largely regarded today. Wang agreed that there were fundamentally two different kinds of authenticity: that which was ascribed to objects, and that which was ascribed to experiences. Within the category of authenticity as it 45 was ascribed to objects, he theorized that there were two sub-forms which he termed “objective authenticity” and “constructive authenticity.” Objective authenticity is the historical, museum-like authenticity which had been described by Boorstin, MacCannell, and under the banner of “cool authenticity” by Selwyn. This is the authenticity that arises from the knowledge – the epistemological experience – that an object, place, or ritual is the genuine item it purports to be. Since this form of authenticity comes about through expert verification, there is no argument as to whether a tourists believes an object is authentic; those with knowledge related to that object have already made that determination, and the “authentic” designation can only change if new information comes to light which reveals the object to be a fake. The second sub-form of object-related authenticity Wang called “constructive authenticity” (2000). This is a form of authenticity which is projected upon the visited objects by the tourists themselves. It is the authenticity which arises from the combination of expectations, beliefs, and ideas within tourists which they see as symbolically embodied in the objects they're visiting. This constructive authenticity also places tourists in roles as performers (Smith, MacLeon & Robertson, 2010). Visitors understand that they are potentially engaging in environments which have been specifically constructed for their enjoyment, and they may not have objective authenticity. However, in playing the part of “tourists” and allowing themselves to enjoy the artificial nature of this staged environment, they create this negotiated authenticity in their minds and are able to have a pleasurable experience. Tourists have become what John Urry would later call post-tourists: they are players in the game, and are aware the game is being played (Urry, 2002b). 46 When Wang turned his attention to authenticity as it is applied to experiences, he categorized these under the heading of “existential authenticity” (1999). These were experiences of authenticity that were felt within the self. These could arise from solitary experiences and could also result from interactions with others. He described these as intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences of authenticity (Wang, 2000, p. 66). Intrapersonal existential authenticity was considered possible when people were experiencing what they felt were the truest representations of themselves. Wang mentions that these types of experiences might come about when a person is engaging in a challenge which must be overcome, and if that person’s abilities match the challenge, they will find themselves in a “flow” experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), which then leads to feelings of intrapersonal existential authenticity (p. 68). Conversely, interpersonal experiences of existential authenticity came in the seeking of authenticity in human relationships. Wang notes that: “Tourists are not merely searching for the authenticity of the Other. They are also looking for the authenticity of, and between, themselves.” (p.68). In some cases, this might be a type of cohesive experience between members of a family engaged in the same tourism experience. In other cases, this represents the between-persons feelings of authenticity which are inexperienced by loosely knit members of the same tourism cohort (Richards & Wilson, 2004). It is surmised that there is pleasure in not just seeing the sights but also in seeing them in the context of a tour group (Wang, 2000, p. 70). In particular, it is also felt that interpersonal existential authenticity can be experienced between the tourists and representatives of the toured culture. This is especially evident when tourists are asked to participate in local rituals, as is exemplified in this description of visitors engaging in traditional Cuban dances: 47 …the dance performance transforms their reality. For many tourists, the dance becomes their entire world at that particular moment. Time and tensions are suspended. The discrepancies of the real world are postponed. As performing dancers, tourists access the magical world of liminality which offers spiritual and aesthetic nourishment. Tourism, in moments of dance performance, opens the door to a liminal world that gives relief from day-to-day, ordinary tensions, and, for Cuban dancers and dancing tourists particularly, permits indulgence in nearecstatic experiences (Daniel, 1996, p. 789). In summation, Wang has organized the concept of authenticity into two forms that were related to the interpretation of objects, and one form that was interpreted in relation to experiences. Wang theorized that objective authenticity arose from the knowledge that a particular artifact was genuine and true as determined by experts. He also theorized that constructive authenticity came about in a negotiation of the mind of the tourist, as they ascribed authenticity to an object based upon its intention. As such, if an object is a reproduction of an original, and the original simply isn't available, then the tourist may decide that the reproduction achieves authenticity since it is designed to be as genuine as is possible. This type of authenticity can also be applied to objects representative of imaginary environments, such as the fantastical environments presented at Disney theme parks. Finally, Wang has a category of authenticity set aside for experiences, in the form of existential authenticity. These are the feelings of “true self” that a person may experience within themselves, the feelings of unity and cohesiveness within their travel party, or the feeling of social connection to the guests and/or their environment arising from participation in that setting. It is this form of existential authenticity that will be shown to have a strong connection to authenticity as it has been examined in computer-mediated 48 Table 3: Three Types of Authenticity in Tourism Experiences Object-related authenticity Activity-related authenticity Objective authenticity refers to the authenticity of originals. Correspondingly, authentic experiences in tourism are equated to an epistemological experience (i.e., cognition) of the authenticity of originals. Existential authenticity refers to a potential existential state of Being that is activated by tourist activities. Correspondingly, authentic experiences in tourism are to achieve this activated existential state of Being within the liminal process of tourism. Existential authenticity has little to do with the authenticity of toured objects. Constructive authenticity refers to the authenticity projected onto toured objects by tourists or tourism producers in terms of their imagery, expectations, preferences, beliefs, powers, etc. There are various versions of authenticity regarding the same objects. Correspondingly, authentic experiences in tourism and the authenticity of toured objects is in fact a symbolic authenticity. (Wang, 2000). communication, and will be discussed later in this chapter. These three forms of authenticity proposed by Wang are summarized in Table 3. Attempts to Redefine Existential Authenticity Although Wang’s three conceptualizations have become the jumping off point for most tourism studies in authenticity since 2000, that has not prevented researchers from trying to further define and refine ideas of authenticity, in particular with regard to existential authenticity. One such example was introduced by Taylor (2001), who was attempting to find a good way to differentiate between two different kinds of tourist encounters with the native Maori of New Zealand. In one experience, tourists were given the opportunity to watch Maori rituals and dances, but purely as observers. Taylor recognizes that while these rituals and dances are authentic representations of cultural events the Maori have held for centuries, he notes that the 49 self-fulfillment tourists might hope to experience from a purportedly authentic experience would not necessarily arise. These were symbolically authentic, but not emotionally engaging. In contrast, he makes note of a different Maori experience where tourists are encouraged to learn the dances for themselves, and then participate alongside the Maori. Taylor felt that this kind of engagement produced a stronger connection for the tourists between themselves and the Maori, thus producing a more fulfilling sense of authenticity. Since two different experiences were using the same term – authenticity – it was suggested that that this second, more intensive form should be relabeled as “sincerity” (Taylor, 2001, p. 23). Although this suggestion is not without merit, subsequent literature did not adopt this term, and instead preferred to use Wang's concept of existential authenticity to address similar experiences. Additional researchers, often in attempt to address issues tangentially related to authenticity, have developed terminology and ideas that describe the process of being in an existentially authentic situation, or describing the person experiencing the existential authenticity. Jansson (2007) theorized a reformulation of the approach to the tourism experience by proposing a dialectic of encapsulation / decapsulation. This concept will be addressed more fully in the next chapter; however, it is important to note that Jansson felt that tourists who were in the encapsulated state would be fully immersed and engaged in their environment, irrespective of the objective authenticity of the setting. If tourists were in a symbolically authentic environment – which he called a “scripted environment” (Jansson, 2007, p. 12) - and were willingly playing the parts of the participants, then they might experience Csikszentmihalyi's concept of “flow” and thus find themselves in an encapsulated state. The described experience is similar to the explanation for existential authenticity, although Jansson never uses that term. 50 Later, the term “theoplacity” is suggested as a replacement term for existential authenticity in tourism; although that has not taken hold either (Chhabra, 2010). Wearing, Stevenson, and Young (2010) made their attempt at further refining the concept of existential authenticity through the introduction of a term to describe a person in that state. And earlier term that had been applied to the tourist was the “flâneur,” which was used to describe the disengaged person traveling through a landscape and simply acting as an observer to the environment (Urry, 2002b). Therefore, it was suggested that a separate term was needed to describe the person who was reflectively engaging in their environment as a participant. Since the terms “tourist” and “traveler” had been inadvertently imbued with negative and positive connotations respectively (p. 116), Wearing, Stevenson, and Young suggested the term “choraster” as a description for this existentially-engaged, non-local person. The authors note that the term originated with Plato's concept of the “chora,” which describes, ”a space that is occupied and given meaning by the people who make use of and interact in it” (p. 11). As with Taylor’s earlier suggestion of “sincerity,” the “choraster” concept has merit in describing an aspect of existential authenticity, but the use of the term “choraster” to describe someone engaged in an existentially authentic experience has yet to be adopted by the wider research community. Criticisms and Suggested Reformulations of Authenticity in Tourism Reisinger and Steiner (2006) made one of the strongest criticisms of the study of authenticity in tourism when they suggested that, despite the prominence of the topic in tourism studies, the topic should be abandoned since there was no consensus as to what the concept represented. They felt that objective authenticity was difficult to define, since the authenticity remains only as long as no other expert challenges it (p. 69). Therefore, what may seem authentic 51 could later be determined to be inauthentic, even though objective authenticity had been regarded as an immutable quality. In addition, they felt that constructive authenticity was not a rational interpretation, since the viewpoint is not supported by brain science (p. 80). They suggest that neurological advances indicate that people develop an understanding of things largely from the activity of well-worn neural pathways. Therefore, apparently “new” concepts of authenticity are actually a simple recombination of prior neural connections. The resultant “construction” in constructive authenticity is minor. That besides, Reisinger and Steiner argued that if postmodernism is correct, then authenticity vs. inauthenticity is irrelevant and whether an object fits in either category doesn’t matter to the tourist. As an alternate approach to authenticity, the authors suggest that tourism scholars should embrace the philosophical concepts of Heidegger, which would say that everything people experience through their senses is real and authentic in itself (p. 80). This establishes a fixed notion of authenticity, and the concepts that had been considered previously under the label of “authenticity,” should be changed to use alternate terms. Since authenticity has been so heavily debated in tourism, Reisinger and Steiner felt that their concept was more appropriate for an academic discipline. The immediate counterpoint to Reisinger and Steiner's assertion was that tourism scholars didn't necessarily believe that tourism represented a single discipline (Tribe, 1997; Tribe, 2000), but rather was a multidisciplinary field which, therefore, allows itself to retain a more fluid structure (Belhassen & Caton, 2006). The author of this dissertation shares this view. It was also suggested that it would be irresponsible for a field to simply abandon a concept that clearly mattered such a great deal to a tourist's personal experience. However, researchers need to be clear as to which version of authenticity they are discussing in their studies: objective, constructive, or existential (Belhassen & Caton, 2006). 52 Criticisms were also put forward in response to an apparent “rallying cry” in Reisinger and Steiner's piece. In it, they had contended, “tourists who can embrace all experiences, good or bad, authentic or not, as the gifts of tourism are likely to have far more pleasant experiences than those who travel with a head full of expectations that are bound to be disappointed somewhere along the line” (Reisinger & Steiner, 2006, p. 80). It was agreed that this was a nice sentiment, and it would be enjoyable to believe that this kind of thinking could take place. However, it was suggested that it would be naïve to assume that tourists would no longer compare their expectations with their actual experiences, and have a resulting emotional response (Belhassen & Caton, 2006, p. 855). Finally, it was noted that objective authenticity effectively retains its immutability, since it takes more than one expert to take an object previously regarded as authentic and simply declare it as being inauthentic. Instead, as any good scientific process demonstrates, if new information reveals an object to be a fake, then that fakery is accepted to be the reality of that object for its entire history, not simply from the point when the new information was discovered (Lau, 2010). It was also further suggested that an expert needn't necessarily be required to determine objective authenticity, as “the tourist who traveled on a mail boat in the Bahamas would not need to consult an expert to be quite certain that he/she was sharing an objectauthentic slice of local life” (Lau, 2010, p. 483). The determination of objective authenticity aside, it was also found in a study of 194 Generation Y respondents (those born between 1978 and 2000) that objective authenticity still mattered in the tourism experience, particularly in cultural or heritage tourism (Chhabra, 2010). Therefore, the desire to experience the objectively authentic appears to remain unwavering despite declarations from postmodernists. 53 Authenticity in Computer-Mediated Communication When making the transition of the discussion of authenticity as it relates to tourism into its relation with computer-mediated communication, the object-related concepts become less relevant due to the intangibility of the medium. There may be instances when a person is interested in whether they are using an authentic model of a computer, or debate whether the program/device they’re interacting with represents an authentic, potentially self-aware personality (Nass & Moon, 2000; Nass & Steuer, 1993; Reeves & Nass, 1996). However, for the purposes of this dissertation, the authenticity focus will be on that which is experienced between two or more persons engaged in communication through an information technology-based medium. In particular, the focus will be on how people present their self-identity to others through these communication channels. The expression of self is a primary focus when discussing the nature of authenticity in computer-mediated communication (Bargh, McKenna & Fitzsimons, 2002; Turkle, 1995). An important difference between interactions that occur through technological mediums, as compared to those interactions that take place face-to-face, is that there is less overall information available to the communicating parties. For example, in a text-based chat the ability to gauge responses from eye contact, vocal intonation, and body movement are completely removed from the conversation. The loss of these nonverbal “cues” is immediately apparent to those engaged in the conversation, and it is not necessarily rectified by a change to audio-based or video-based modes, since transmission equipment can alter audio quality, and video cameras do not represent the same lines of sight individuals would have in face-to-face communication (Culnan & Markus, 1987). These additional constraints may result in a message from a sender not being correctly interpreted by the receiver. Therefore, an increasing importance is placed 54 with each person on communicating the full, complex nature of the message with minimal misinterpretation. This can be especially challenging when the conveyed message is intended to represent the expression of one’s authentic, “true” self. A full literature review of the psychological basis behind the notion of “true self” is far too extensive for presentation within this dissertation. However, it is important to know that the idea of one's true self is regarded as the most important self-concept that a person possesses (Schlegel, Hicks, Arndt & King, 2009; Schlegel et al., 2011). An understanding of one's own true self is considered one of the most important factors in life satisfaction, and is akin to reaching the point of self-actualization (Maslow, 1954). Among the factors that constitute a person's “true self” are the characteristics, roles, and attributes of that person's personality, which the person in question feels is an accurate portrayal of their innermost thoughts, emotions, and beliefs (Rogers, Dorfman, Hobbs & Gordon, 1951; Schlegel et al., 2011). It is important to note that what a person believes is an accurate self-concept is more important than the objective accuracy of that self-concept. In fact, a strong understanding of what a person believes is their “true self concept” has such a strong effect that a study by Schlegel, Hicks, King, and Arndt demonstrated that, “a person with a well-defined but inaccurate true self-concept could have [greater life satisfaction] than an unclearly defined but accurate true self-concept” (2011). Since computer-mediated communication reduces the number of cues available between people, some individuals will play with their self-presentation in an attempt to “try on” new personal identities (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2011; Turkle, 1995) Although it is possible to present oneself in an inauthentic manner in computer-mediated communication, when the specific medium is through social network sites, an accurate portrayal of one's self gains greater importance as a person typically is seeking to create an online version 55 of previously established offline social connections (Lampe, Ellison & Steinfield, 2006). Therefore, when developing the requisite “profile page” that social network sites employ (boyd & Ellison, 2007), a person typically lists activities, beliefs, previous residences, and prior educational settings in order to make themselves more easily located by people who may have known him/her in the past (Ellison et al., 2007). As such, there is an imperative to be as accurate as possible – that is, to be as authentic to one's true self as possible – when engaging in this mode of communication. Applying Authenticity in Tourism and Computer-Mediated Communication The idea that the expression of one's true self - which leads to potential self-actualization, and therefore an authentic representation of one's self - holds true regardless as to whether that expression is occurring through computer-mediated communication or through an experience that Wang would define as “existential authenticity” (1999; 2000). Therefore, it is proposed that an experience of existential authenticity that occurs between a tourist and the environment, a tourist and their traveling group, or a tourist and the host culture is no different than the experience of authenticity that is experienced by a person in online realms. Authenticity, regardless as to whether it is experienced face-to-face or via an electronic medium retains its central importance to self-concept, and further demonstrates the strong linkages between the experience of corporeal communication (travel) and communicative travel (computer-mediated communication). Further demonstrations of these linkages have already been borne out through research. In a study of users of the online travel community Virtual Tourist and those engaging in the social aspects of Google Earth, Jensen (2010) found that users were reporting a feeling of existential authenticity when engaging in these environments. He also indicated that the 56 knowledge gained in these virtual spaces augmented later instances of physical travel. As such, these travelers who were combining simulated spaces with real spaces were finding a strengthened, more existentially authentic experience in their travels, compared to earlier adventures. Finally, it is suggested that this blending of the virtual and the physical will lead to greater instances of objective and constructive authenticity. As previously indicated, these forms of authenticity are largely dependent upon knowledge. If a person is at a site which a culture considers to be historic or sacred, that person will have no frame of authenticity without knowing what that authenticity represents. A lack of information makes one part of the earth just like any other, but additional information gives rise to context, appreciation, and added value to visitors (Sandvik, 2010). In some instances, this additional information comes in the form of interpretive signage. However, it can be expected that more of this information will be delivered through mobile information and communication technologies. The continued desire for objective and constructive authenticity will remain, and the opportunities for existential authenticity will be enhanced. The Future of Authenticity This chapter received the title, “The Issue of Authenticity” with good reason. As has been outlined in the preceding pages, authenticity has been a contentious subject in tourism for the entire period of its discussion. Despite that there remains no universally accepted academic definition of authenticity, or how many divisions of authenticity should exist, it still retains its importance as a topic of inquiry. As people negotiate what authenticity means to them in tangible and virtual spaces, continued research in this area assists with gaining greater insight into core elements of the human condition. The earlier concepts of physical and virtual spaces existing as 57 separate spheres will continue to fade away through natural attrition, as younger generations who have been living in these spheres for their entire lives – and regarded them as part of a single reality (Sandvik, 2010, p. 139) – gain additional influence in society. In addition, as noted in the section on Google Earth, virtual experiences can aid in the enjoyment, and add value to, corporeal experiences. As continued advances are made in “augmented reality” technologies, the mental shift from treating the virtual and physical as separate worlds will accelerate toward treating them as one reality by the wider population. Therefore, it is important to recognize that how authenticity is addressed in tourism, and how it is addressed in computer-mediated communication, will be vital to understanding the concept of authenticity in this unified reality of the mobilities research paradigm. Despite its contentious nature, and seemingly fluid interpretations, authenticity remains a vital point of study for those seeking to understand the experience of tourism, as is wellsummarized in the following quote: From an economic perspective, tourism is, in a sense, an industry of authenticity. Tourism involves both the supply and consumption of the commodity of authentic experiences. Existential authenticity becomes a commodity, or a commoditized experience, only in the context of modernity. Existential authenticity' is thus commercially transformed into the packaged experience of "sun, sand, surf, and sex", of the Garden of Eden, the idyllic rustic life, and so on. All these offerings are culturally sanctioned and socially constructed. Existential authenticity is indeed an implicit selling point of the products of tourism. In this sense, tourism is a "dream industry," and buying a holiday is buying a chance to have a dream come true. Thus, metaphorically speaking, modernity uses one hand to take 58 people to existentially inauthentic situations, but at the same time it uses the other hand to show pictures of a dream which promises people "salvation" and, as a result, keeps them in its tracks (Wang, 2000, p. 71). One seemingly existential outcome from this blending of the virtual and physical is that it has changed our mental concept of displacement. When we are “away” we still have access to our friends, family, and coworkers. When we are “home,” we find that we have access to resources that allow us to engage in our local community as if we, ourselves, were visitors. It is this changing concept of what it means to be “home” and “away” that is addressed in the next chapter. 59 CHAPTER 4 HOME AND AWAY In 490 BC, a rather momentous occasion occurred in the history of travel for the purposes of communication. It was in that year that the army from the city of Athens found itself heavily outnumbered, and engaged in a bloody battle with the Persians near the small Greek town of Marathon. Unbelievably, the Athenian army managed to defeat their oppressors, and thus wished to communicate this great news back to the Greek capital as quickly as possible. Lacking any form of telecommunication, the message would have to be delivered in person: a task that was given to a soldier by the name of Pheidippides. Wanting to speedily convey this news, Pheidippides ran the entire length of the 24 miles of pathway from the battleground at Marathon to the city of Athens. Upon arriving in the capital he announced, “Rejoice. We are victorious!” Immediately afterward, he died from exhaustion (Bradley, 2007). Although Pheidippides died in order to hastily convey this message of triumph, his journey did result in the popular 26.2 mile running race that bears the name of the Greek battle site (Heinrich, 2002). Unfortunately for Pheidippides, and for most of human history, our ability to communicate has been directly tied to our fastest mode of transportation. This meant that our messages would only travel as fast as the quickest man, horse, pigeon, or boat (Ellard, 2009). Consequently, information had a tendency to travel slowly across the landscape. When the “shot heard around the world” occurred at Lexington and Concord to begin the American Revolution in 1775, it took numerous days for all of the American colonies to be aware that they were at war, and over a month for England to know of the overseas uprising (PBS, 2004). Similarly, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, it took 12 days for that message to reach England. This required using the farthest-reaching telegraph lines on either side of the Atlantic 60 Ocean, but still required a fast ship to travel the distance between the communication linkages from Newfoundland to Ireland (Hearn, 2004). Not even 150 years since that tragedy, we are now able to witness important events from anywhere in the world, delayed mere milliseconds from the moment they occur. Owing to the enormous advances in telecommunication technology, and the resulting time-space compression (Harvey, 1989), the effect of distance on human connection and information has reduced to nearly no distance at all, and the need for physical travel would seem to have disappeared. Yet, humans are still very much on the move. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the business volume of tourism equals or surpasses oil exports, food products, or automobiles. They also note that from 1950 to 2010, international tourism arrivals expanded at an annual rate of 6.2%, growing from 25 million to 940 million arrivals per year (UNWTO, 2011). With the improved levels of telecommunication connectivity, and bolstered by increased use of the Internet and mobile communication technologies, it may appear paradoxical that travel and tourism continues to rise. In addition, the pervasiveness of modern information technology has created an environment where one has the ability to nearly always be able to contact their home social network when away from their residence, and also be able to tap into the knowledge of strangers in their home communities and become aware of opportunities previously unknown. In essence, what was previously considered “away” can feel like “home,” and we also can have the sense of feeling like a tourist – a sense of being “away” – even when still located in our home community. It is this blurring of the “home” and “away” dichotomy, and the effects therein, that will be explored in this chapter. The chapter begins with an overview of the history of travel and communication: from their common beginnings, through their divergence resulting from the development of effective 61 telecommunication systems, to their reunification and the resulting multi-locality of individuals. The nature of what it means to be “home” and the opposing construct “away” will then be examined, along with understanding the experience of a person in the “away” state: the tourist. This is followed by an exploration into the current issues arising from the ubiquitous connectivity of tourists, and the positive and negative situations that result. The chapter will conclude with an assessment of whether the need for corporeal travel still exists. Additionally, an overview of a possible way for holistic exploration of the topics in this chapter will be addressed through the emerging mobilities paradigm. Travel and Communication: A History When examining the history of the links between travel and communication, one has to begin with our oldest form of interpersonal communication and sociability: the face-to-face interaction (Dijst, 2009). In the pre-literate times, if a person had a message that he/she wished to convey to another person, it meant that the person wishing to express his/her message needed to physically relocate themselves near the intended recipient in order to have him/her hear the message. To communicate was to travel. As a result, it is a commonly held idea that the spread of information was somewhat fixed in the years prior to advanced transportation and telecommunication systems. However, the mobility of people and information is actually quite old (Cresswell, 2010). Prior to 1750, it was not uncommon to have hunters, gatherers, soldiers, artisans, and shepherds traveling between towns, regions, and continents. Traders of goods moved extensively around the known world and exchanged cultural ideas and concepts in addition to their wares. For most of human history, people have existed in this semi-transient state. It was not until after approximately 1750 that people began to establish settled 62 communities, resulting from fixed capital and states that required the use of immobile labor forces (Wellman, 2001). With the development of written language, and later improved upon with the development of the printing press, it became possible to transfer ideas from one person to another without both individuals being proximate to each other (Urry, 2007). However, it still required that the written message had to be physically transported over the landscape. In addition, there was still the problem that non-proximate communication was, by nature, asynchronous. Delivered messages required considerable time for their transfer, and therefore exchanges between individuals could extend over a period of months (Elliott & Urry, 2010). In the early 1800s, two factors began to dramatically change the nature of communication, and begin the separation of travel from the communicated message. First came the development of trains and the associated network of railway transport. The effect was dramatic. In 1839, one English commentator suggested that trains were effectively compressing time and space and that, with a rail network all over England, everyone would sit nearer to another by two-thirds the time that currently separates them (Urry, 2007). Trains not only had the effect of shrinking the perceived distance between locations, but also concurrently expanded the perceived “reach” from a particular location. The year 1839 was also significant in relation to the second major change of this period, as this was the year that the first commercial electric telegram was developed by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke for the Great Western Railway (Urry, 2007). With the arrival of the telegraph, the ability to have synchronous, proximally distant communication was now possible. It was the start of a true “telecommunications” system, where the speed of transmission was only limited by the speed of electrical current traveling through a wire (Ling, 63 2008; Wellman, 2001). The development of the railroad system and the telegraph immediately changed the significance of community and the roles of business in the lives of that time. These faster transportation modes reduced the need to always be physically proximate to places a person needed to access (Dijst, 2009). In addition, the telegraph allowed businesses to quickly disseminate market price information, and then use the railroads to quickly move their products to market (Mosco, 1995). While the railroad had improved the ability for physical items to move quickly from place to place, the advance of telecommunications with the telegraph still presented one major problem: it still required that someone physically lay out a wire to connect each point of communication. In effect, a one-time form of travel was still required for the system. It even had the problem of only being able to connect points on the same expanse of land, until a method had finally been developed for shielding telegraph wire from the effects of ocean water, and thereby finally allowing transoceanic telecommunication (Hearn, 2004). The major shortcoming for the telegraph was that it required knowledge of Morse code in order to transmit or receive a message. The invention of the telephone in 1876 changed that requirement, and person-to-person telecommunication using the human voice was finally possible (Cairncross, 1997/2001). The last major hurdle for telecommunication – the need for two points to be physically connected by a wire – was finally eliminated with the invention of the wireless telegraph, and later by its successor in the early 1900s: radio (Cairncross, 1997/2001). Two points on the Earth were now able to synchronously communicate with each other, without anyone or anything having previously traversed the points in between. The developments in the speed and flexibility of transport, and the ability to communicate over distances only further increased with time. The development of the 64 automobile separated the need for people to adhere to train schedules, and allowed people the ability to transcend the distance individually, and on their own schedules (Willson, 2010). Even then, ideas of distance were slow to change. In 1948, a study of elderly people living in Wolverhampton, England defined the concept of a “close relative” as being: “someone who lived within 5 minutes walking distance, being a measure of the distance a hot meal could be carried from one dwelling to another without reheating” (Larsen, Urry & Axhausen, 2005, p. 11). It was in that same year, however, that Bell Telephone Laboratories announced the invention of the transistor: a device which permitted the miniaturization of technologies, and heralded the beginning of mobile technologies (Elliott & Urry, 2010). By the early 1980s, the child of radio communication and landline telephones – the mobile phone – became commercially available (Ling, 2008; Pfaff, 2010). With the advent of mobile phones, in addition to the ever increasing use of landline phones, the interconnectivity of people around the world was increasing at an astounding rate with the overall volume of international telephone calls increasing at least a factor of ten between 1982 and 2001 (Larsen, Axhausen & Urry, 2006). During this time period, the perceived distances between locations shrank to the point where the concept of “near” and “far” began to fade away. Sometimes business workers even found that it was faster to get information from someone on the other side of the globe than it was to get information from someone a few blocks down the street (Janelle, 2000). By the 1990s, geography researchers had determined that communication had trivialized most graphs of time against distance, and began to examine other measures such as cost-space convergence and the cost of moving a message over a given distance (Mosco, 1995). Whether or not two points on Earth could telecommunicate synchronously ceased to be a question. The 65 1990s were also considered by Urry (2007) to be the major moment of change that altered how people interact and connect with each other. He imbues this time with such significance due to a number of important events. First, he notes that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of apartheid in South Africa opened up a significant part of the globe to fairly unrestricted communication systems. Secondly is the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee, which provided an easier point-and-click interface to the Internet, and as a result helped accelerate the adoption of that telecommunications medium. Finally, Urry notes that the Gulf War of 1991 showcased the speed and quality of real-time, 24-hour news coverage from a distant part of the globe. It became the first major war where the general public was able to witness sorties - as they happen - from thousands of miles away (2007). The period from 1990 to 2000 also brought about the extensive switch from analog to digital communications, and the use of database-powered systems (Urry, 2007, p. 275). Clarity, quality, and the ability to synthesize information were dramatically altering how people and societies were interacting with each other. The early forms of global connectedness achieved through sailing merchants paled in comparison to the shrinking notion of distance, and the rise of globalization achieved through these technologies (Lagerkvist, 2008). Although most of these advances were occurring in “Western” portions of the world, even developing nations began making leaps forward sometimes passing right by older forms of technology, such as the landline telephone, in favor of the more advanced mobile telephone (Adams, 2011). The idea that a person might become disconnected from any other place or person on Earth was becoming a thing of the past, and the idea of what place might be considered “home” began to be more difficult to define. 66 The Meaning of “Home” As the development of rapid transportation systems and telecommunications changed how a person perceived locations as being “near” or “far,” trying to understand what it means to be “home” also began facing its own challenges. Understanding the concept of home as it relates to tourism makes this especially challenging, as understanding tourism only becomes conceptually possible when there is a place that can be considered home, and therefore there are areas of contrast that can exist outside of the home as toured spaces that can be considered “away” (Hui, 2008). The importance and effect of understanding “home” was known even as far back as 1678 by the Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer. He described a sickness that was characterized by symptoms such as insomnia, heart palpitations, anorexia, fever, and most importantly: the persistent thinking of home. He, and other physicians for the next few centuries, believed that this intense longing for home was a very real disease which could result in the death of the patient. They termed this affliction “nostalgia” (Pallasmaa, 2008). While we now know that nostalgia is not a life or death condition, the idea of “home” does retain important notions of self-concept, which are vital to life satisfaction and self-actualization (Pocock, 2011). While common knowledge might place the idea of home as being the place where one lives and/or works, the phenomenology Alfred Schultz established in 1944 indicates that the experience of home is a combination of familiarity with local norms of behavior, as opposed to other behaviors which may be regarded as strange (and therefore not “home”) (Uriely, 2010). This concept of home being a socially constructed idea with interwoven symbolic and emotional attachments (Pocock, 2011), agrees with later researchers who noted that home is not a matter of residential geography but emotional geography (White & White, 2007). Even those who study human migration have noted that leaving one's homeland behind is no longer an actual leaving of 67 one's home, but rather establishing a home in a second location. Modern communication and media has significantly reduced the sense of distance perceived by migrants, so they now see themselves as having “homes” in many locations, and not feeling particularly removed from any of them (Larsen, Urry & Axhausen, 2006; Mascheroni, 2007). When extending this concept to the wider population of tourists, the idea of “home” – and therefore “away” – appears to become an impossibility as, “homes may become internalized through global travel as self-reflective constructs, through which travelers extend their vision beyond national boundaries, replace the physical home with an internal sense of belonging, and therefore feel at home in the whole world” (Pocock, 2011, p. 37). Being a Tourist If a person can feel at home in the entire world, then there is the challenge of understanding what it means to travel, and therefore what it means to be a tourist. Beckstead (2010) noted that the promise of travel lies in the possibility for personal transformation, and that this comes from crossing the boundaries of the familiar to the unfamiliar, and back again. This accordingly gives the individual the chance to experience novel and interesting situations which fulfill the human desire for the new and unique. However, it can be argued that the new and unique it is more difficult to encounter when access to the old and familiar is ever-present through our telecommunication networks. It is additionally important to understand what a “tourist” is not. A tourist is not someone who has been forced into the act of traveling, such as those who are trying to escape political oppression, or those who have been forced out of their homes by natural disaster (McCabe, 2009). Nor is a tourist the type of person that we would associate as being a “pilgrim.” The motivations of pilgrims are typically associated with religious devotion, and tourists are 68 associated with more hedonistic types of behavior. Still, it is certainly possible for pilgrims to act in the role of tourists, and some tourists may experience moments of spirituality which may make them feel as if they are pilgrims. The roles, however, retain their separate notions and concepts of identity. Despite the potential for the anytime connection to our family and friends, we can apply the notion of travel – and therefore enacting the role of a tourist – to locations that produce a sense of difference within the individual. In other words, an individual mentally engages the “feeling” of tourism when they encounter a place where they socially perceive a difference from what they know in day-to-day life (Crang, 2011). Through slight or dramatic differences from their regular experiences in life, a person may sense that he/she is taking on the role of an outsider, which exists, separate from the local culture. This can be sensed in the ways that others around him/her are engaging him/her, or even directly observed by the tendency of some cultures to avoid engaging with the obvious foreigner (Beckstead, 2010). Netto (2009) examined the how tourism researchers have attempted to define the concept of “tourism,” and ultimately proposed the following definition: “Tourism is the phenomenon caused by the departure and return of human beings from their place of habitual residence, for reasons that can be revealed or concealed. It presupposes hospitality, encounters and communication with other people, companies which offer services and technology so that the act of coming and going is possible. It generates sensorial and psychological experiences as well as positive and negative effects on the economical, political, environmental and socio-cultural environments.” (p. 59) 69 While Netto’s definition takes the common viewpoint that tourism is experienced away from a person's “place of habitual residence,” this runs counter to other researchers who indicate that tourism can be experienced in one’s place of residence (Larsen et al., 2006; Mascheroni, 2007). In particular, homes can become “legitimate” sites for tourism, if one is returning to a previous home after being away from that location for a period of time. New structures, people, and events that have established themselves in that location, become mixed with the previously familiar and results in a touristic experience for the returning individual (Hui, 2008). This can even lead to the unsettling experience where a long-term traveler is returning to their place of residence, only to have the sensation of being “homeless” (Pocock, 2011). If the de-differentiation which used to set apart tourism can be experienced at home (Gale, 2009), and the tourist can feel at home in the entire world, then what is “tourism?” The idea of the “tourist gaze” no longer seems to be separating itself from everyday life make it increasingly difficult for those who research tourism to understand what it means to be engaged in that role (Larsen, 2008; Sheller & Urry, 2004). It was from the recognition of this situational blending that sociologist John Urry came to the conclusion that “tourism” is dead (2002a). He noted that: “tourism sites proliferate across the globe as tourism has become massively mediatized, while everyday sites of activity get redesigned in ‘tourist’ mode, as with many themed environments” (Urry, 2002b, p. 161). By this contention, Urry is indicating that it is simply impossible to consider a concept like tourism when it seems to apply equally to home and away situations. This is clearly a problematic issue, and requires a further understanding and examination of what it means to have these co-mingling “home” and “away” situations. However, a vital component in understanding this blended environment comes from an examination of the 70 individual engaging in that situation. Attention is now turned to this modern, connected individual and how they are defined and enact their role as a tourist/non-tourist. The Connected Individual Urry's statement about the “end of tourism” depends upon the presence of constant telecommunication capability, and the resulting ability to access one's social networks while traveling, in order for that statement to retain its validity. The ability to never be entirely out of contact has shown to be a central aspect of modern life, with a large number of people now equipped with mobile phones and portable computers that enable this level of connection. While Chapter Two of this dissertation discussed the idea of “connection” from the concept of human social connectedness, the following section addresses connection as the ability to participate in telecommunication while mobile. However, it should be noted that the prior concept of human social connectedness still applies, as that is a major factor in why people use telecommunication systems. This section will address what it means to be a “connected individual” by noting the changing node of connection in telecommunications systems, what it means to have ubiquitous connectivity, and through the introduction of the term “network capital.” One of the major shifts that has come with modern information and communication technologies has been the decoupling of place from being a required node in telecommunications systems (Dijst, 2009). With the most historically common telecommunications system - the landline telephone - a person would call the specific place where a phone was located, with the hope that the person who picked up the receiver was the individual he/she was trying to reach. However, it was common knowledge that anyone else near the phone might answer, and that the person the caller was trying to reach might have to “come over to the phone” in order to engage in conversation. It was just as likely, though, that the person might not be anywhere near the 71 called telephone, and the conversation would have to take place at a later time (Ling, 2008). With the development of the mobile phone, there was a shift in the node of connection; a person no longer had to call a place, but would directly call an individual (Dijst, 2009; Hannam, Sheller & Urry, 2006; Ling, 2008; Urry, 2007). This change to a person-based network has reduced or eliminated the delays in contact encountered in place-based systems, to where there is now immediate, mobile connectivity in what Wellman (2001) has called “networked individualism.” The person has become the portal in modern telecommunications, and even young people living with their parents are using this to their advantage by using mobile phones to circumvent prior restrictions that parents would sometimes place on the use of landline telephones (Ito, 2005b). With a person instead of a place as the node of connection, there is a greater sense of individual freedom. The primary device that has enabled this shift to a person-based system has been the mobile phone. Initially, the common rationale for having a mobile phone was to ensure the ability to contact help in the event of an emergency situation (White & White, 2008). However, as the associated technology costs declined, this exclusive role faded away to where mobile phones had become the dominant mode of telephone-based contact (by number of subscriptions) in 2002 (Dijst, 2009). The mobile phone has advanced beyond the old voice-based system of connectivity, and is additionally a node on the Internet with multiple forms of auditory, textbased, and even visual telecommunication being possible. These devices, and their connections, have led to an embedding of perceived intelligence in the world at large, which was termed “ubiquitous computing” by technologist Mark Weiser (Ellard, 2009). Through the use of mobile phone connections and wireless Internet connections (which are sometimes one and the same), “ubiquitous computing” is further enabled through this 72 “ubiquitous connectivity.” This combination of powerful portable computing and persistent connectivity has changed the person into a form of “digital nomad” (Larsen et al., 2005). A person is able to carry their documents, music, photos, and videos on themselves and thus permits the retrieval of affective content at any time during the day (Elliott & Urry, 2010). In addition, he/she is able to use his/her connectivity to engage in new affective experiences with others (Burns & O'Regan, 2008). As such, it has been noted that the primary importance of these new developments in information and communication technology comes from people's ability to use these devices to engage in meaningful social interactions (Minghetti & Buhalis, 2010). These new forms of connected social interactions have created their own interesting situations, with a blending of spaces and contexts in life. First, there comes the challenge to the former distinctions of public and private space. Previously, telecommunication conversations between individuals would occur within private homes or within the walls of offices at work. Now, the ability of a mobile phone to be used in any location has resulted in moments where private situations are broadcast out to the public (Pfaff, 2010). This also changes the times and places that people had originally designated as being specific to “work activities” and “personal activities” (Jansson, 2007). This can create the uncomfortable situation of blending life domains to where Goffman’s (1959) prior idea of the “front stage” becomes a “double front stage” that a person is having to negotiate between the person he/she is speaking with on the phone, and the people that are physically proximate in the environment (Ling, 2008; Turkle, 2008). This level of connectivity also alters how we perceive the presence of others and how we project our own presence into the world at large. Instead of completely removing ourselves from contact with the people in our social networks, there is instead a sense of “ambient presence,” or “absent 73 presence” where everyone – and even ourselves – feels persistently connected to those we know (Ling, 2008; Mascheroni, 2007; Urry, 2007). This concept of a “sense of nearness” achieved through telecommunication to those who are not physically proximate has been defined as “electronic propinquity” (Korzenny, 1978; Walther & Bazarova, 2008), “virtual proximity” (Paris, 2010), “symbolic proximity” (White & White, 2008), and more commonly as various forms of copresence. Zhao (2003) developed a taxonomy of copresence based upon the four factors of embodiment, immediacy, scale, and mobility. Traditional face-to-face interactions he gave the term “corporeal copresence,” and if two individuals were speaking to each other through a device, he referred to this as “corporeal telecopresence.” On the other hand, he considered additional options of copresence if the “other” was a communicative robot or software-based agent. If communication was with a physically present communicative robot, then this was called “virtual copresence,” and if it was with a software-based agent, then this was called “virtual telecopresence” (p. 446). Zhao additionally noted that it was important to distinguish between “telepresence” and “telecopresence.” Telepresence involves a one-way interaction, such as with those watching a baseball game on television. From the point of view of people watching television, they are telepresent at the baseball stadium. However, the people in the baseball stadium are completely unaware of the television viewers. With telecopresence, both sides of the interaction are aware of each other, such as those engaged in a telephone conversation, video chat, or instant messaging computer session (Zhao, 2003, p. 447). For the purposes of this dissertation, virtual copresence, virtual telecopresence, and telepresence will not be addressed, as the primary focus is on how individuals engage with each other when they are together and when they are apart. Therefore, the term “virtual copresence” will be altered from Zhao’s definition and be used to refer to what 74 he had termed “corporeal telecopresence,” and others have called “virtual proximity.” Zhao’s definition of corporeal copresence will be used as is. It should also be noted that copresence has been regarded as both a location and also a relation when can be imbued in objects (Larsen et al., 2006). In addition to being physically proximate to someone or engaging with them through a telecommunication system, copresence can additionally be achieved through the use of letters, photographs, money transactions, and exchanged gifts. These objects can convey a symbolic connection to an individual when directly communicating with them is not possible (Mascheroni, 2007; Urry, 2007). These objects and telecommunication connections reshape the experience of moving through space and place, as individuals are able to transport their interpersonal relationships and their associated meanings along on their journeys (Larsen et al., 2006). This sense of familiarity can then bring a sense of a “mooring of place” in unfamiliar locations (Paris, 2010). When engaging in a virtually copresent interaction, people have proven to be highly resilient in finding satisfactory communication methods. In a study by Walther (2008), people were found to naturally prefer telecommunication systems with greater amounts of available information (visual, auditory, textual), a concept which had been earlier been identified by Zhao (Zhao, 2003). However, if access to these preferred methods was restricted, the respondents were still found to have effective and satisfying communication. People still desire the richer informational experience, but will adjust their expectations accordingly if they are still able to have some form of social connection through less desirable means (Walther & Bazarova, 2008, p. 627). The sense of being near to someone else was the most important matter for participants in the study. 75 The ability to connect with anyone at any time has, as a result, changed how even ordinary actions can occur. For example, it is becoming increasingly common for fixed meeting times for personal or social contact to fall into disuse in favor of negotiated meeting times. Rather than setting up a common meeting time in advance, friends will call each other on their mobile phones to arrange times and places for getting together. Typically, these meetings are set to occur in the very near future. Calls placed by those “running late” may alter where and when the final meeting will take place. While ultimately involving more points of contact than simply setting up a meeting place and time in advance, this type of negotiation permits more fluid, flexible, and ad hoc forms of meeting between personal friends (Urry, 2007). These points of contact prior to a physical meeting, and those that occur immediately afterward, has been termed the “augmented flesh meet” (Ling, 2008). In this sense, people are able to begin having their social interactions prior to a face-to-face contact, and then continue the conversation for a while after the individuals need to physically depart. While the individuals have their richest form of engagement when together, they are able to fluidly plan, and then immediately relive, their interactions in ways that were not possible without the advent of ubiquitously connected technologies. These technologies, therefore, amplify physically copresent and virtually copresent interactions, making each situation a more engaged experience for the participants, rather than one form of connection acting as a replacement for the other (Larsen et al., 2006; Wellman, 2001). These changes in human communication have been regarded as very positive by some, with the assertion being that once people are familiar with the available technologies and their associated ubiquity, it will simply be another avenue for engaging in everyday social practices (Willson, 2010). In particular, Ling (2008) feels that people will find that they no longer need 76 physical symbols of the people they love – which he terms “totems” – since perpetual contact negates the need for these types of objects and the roles they once fulfilled. However, not all individuals readily and willingly adopt these new forms of communication. Katz (2008b) noted that his research assistant Nina Aversano encountered a businessman from Mexico City who stubbornly refused to get himself a mobile phone even though he had twice found himself the victim of kidnapping and being held for ransom. When other individuals who had chosen not to adopt mobile communication methods were examined, it was found that they were not nonadopters per se, but what has been described as “parasitic adopters.” While these individuals did not personally own mobile communication devices, they justified their non-adoption by indicating that they were frequently traveling with others who did have such a device, and that it could be borrowed when mobile telecommunication was necessary (Katz, 2008b, pp. 435). For those who engage in mobile communication, the ability to do so represents a form of “network capital” (Larsen et al., 2006; Larsen et al., 2005). These are the objects, systems, and resources that an individual has which permits them to engage in interconnected relations, whether those are by telecommunication methods or through physical transport. As with social capital, increased network capital is largely a desirable goal. It represents the increased mobility of a person, his/her ideas and emotions, and his/her access to the ideas and emotions of others (Hall, 2005). Larsen (2006) identified seven elements that comprise network capital: 1. Movement competencies - Can walk, read signage, arrange meetings, etc. 2. Location-free information and contact points - sites where communication and info can arrive and be processed, irrespective of place 3. Communication devices - access to the devices and technologies 4. Appropriate, safe, and secure meeting places - both en route and at the destination 77 5. Physical and financial access - to email, Internet, telephone 6. Time/money/resources to manage and coordinate with others. 7. Friends and family members at-a-distance - which can offer hospitality, cheap lodging, and maintenance of social networks through intermittent visits. When network capital intersects with social capital, this is referred to as “network sociality” (Mascheroni, 2007). This represents not only the social capital achieved through the use of telecommunication networks, but also that social capital which has been achieved through the use of physical networks such as cars, trains, and airplanes. It is the combination of informational and physical transport infrastructures that provide for the development of social capital in our increasingly mobile society (Willson, 2010). The modern individual, and therefore the modern tourist, engages in network sociality and the development of network and social capital through the previously outlined persistent and ubiquitous connections. However, as indicated previously in this chapter, this has changed the notion of what it means to be a tourist, with Urry (2002a; 2007) going so far to argue that the concept of tourism itself no longer exists. Much of Urry's argument stems from the contention that concepts of “home” and “away” are now difficult to distinguish from each other. A further examination of what it means to be in this blended “home and away” state will now be explored. The Blending of Home and Away When considering the spheres of travel and communication in modern society, their convergence has resulted in a significantly altered definition of experience. The concept of tourism, which had been largely differentiated by the concepts of “home” and “away,” has been changed by the presence of telecommunication which therefore makes differentiation of this activity is more difficult to discern (Mascheroni, 2007). Previously, the idea of “away” has been 78 conventionally understood to indicate absence and distance from places and relationships, with travel giving this kind of distance literal meaning (White & White, 2007). However, the availability of mobile communication technologies has produced a respatialization of experience (Mascheroni, 2007) where it is now possible to take along one’s home social network, and thereby introduce a sense of familiarity to a previously unknown physical location. Conversely, there has been an increased development of entertainment-focused options in local communities and the creation of software utilities that encourage local discovery. This has turned the “tourist gaze” toward the places previously regarded as home, and thereby exoticize those areas (Larsen, 2008). While one might argue that the disappearance of “home” and “away” has resulted in travelers experiencing a sense of existential placelessness, it is suggested that the introduction of mobile communication into the realm of tourism has, instead, resulted in the creation of a doubling of place (Mascheroni, 2007). This combination has resulted in travelers being able to achieve what was once thought impossible: to be in two places at once. In this case, they are at their physical location on the road or at home, and also “reside” in the virtual spaces of the telecommunication networks they employ (Paris, 2010). As people travel, they no longer find themselves in a situation of feeling distant, because although great physical separation may occur, travelers are still emotionally near their friends and family back home, and connected through the virtual “traces of self” which exist online (Elliott & Urry, 2010; Larsen et al., 2006). The use of mobile communication technologies allows travelers to affirm their social connections at a distance, thereby allowing them to be physically absent from friends and family, and yet socially present (White & White, 2008). 79 A particularly relevant example of remaining socially connected while engaged in a tourism experience was experienced directly by MIT professor, Sherry Turkle (2008). A call had arrived for Turkle’s daughter on her daughter’s cell phone as they were preparing to head out for dinner while on a trip to Paris. The caller was a friend back in Boston who was asking whether they could head out to lunch the next day. Turkle’s daughter simply indicated that the day requested wouldn’t be possible, but suggested a day later in the week. Turkle noted that, “her friends has no idea that her call was transatlantic. Emotionally and socially, my daughter has not left home” (p. 123). The ability to remain socially connected with friends and family, as with Turkle’s daughter, has resulted in some travelers viewing access to mobile telecommunication systems as being a vital part of tourism planning (Mascheroni, 2007). In White & White’s (2005; 2008) study of vacationers in New Zealand, most of their respondents felt that continued communication with people back home was an integral part of their tourism experience, and lack of access to communication services was a reason to avoid visiting a particular location. Similarly, in studies of long-term, independent student travelers (known in most places around the world as “backpackers”), they noted that access to telecommunication systems provided a sense of “mooring” if they felt they were drifting too far away from home. In addition, the use of e-mail and social networks often represented their only real “address” that other people could use to reach them while they were on their journeys (Paris, 2010). If anyone back home needed to contact one of these backpackers, online methods were typically the only recourse. The previously mentioned New Zealand study additionally supported the idea that emotional connections to people back home were a major factor in making contact, and that the method of telecommunication altered depending on how desirous it was to convey emotion. For 80 example, vacationers would choose to use texting (SMS) services if the goal was simply to let another person know he/she was being kept in mind, or to share an emotionally lightweight experience. However, if communication of emotion was desired, then travelers tended to switch over to voice telephone operation, as phone conversations were viewed as being more effective in transmitting emotion (White & White, 2005; White & White, 2008). Ito’s (2005a) study of Japanese teenagers using picture messaging additionally supported the idea of using telecommunications for emotional conveyance. In this case, she found that particularly among boyfriend/girlfriend pairs, they would use picture messaging to establish a shared emotional bonding experience when they couldn’t be physically proximate. The shared photos typically did not represent any kind of extraordinary scene, but were simply intended to reflect what the other person was seeing with their eyes throughout the day. This way when the couple was finally able to be corporeally copresent, they would be able to discuss the day’s events as if they had actually been side-by-side the entire time. Finally, a study by van den Berg, Arentze, and Timmermans (van den Berg, Arentze & Timmermans, 2010b) also supported the idea that emotionally rich telecommunication methods were preferred with socially close individuals. In their case, they found that people who had known each other at least 15 years would have reduced e-mail contact compared with other relationship durations, but higher telephone contact frequencies. The emotional richness of voice communication appears to be a primary motivator in choosing telephonic telecommunication when contacting socially close, non-proximate people. An additional purpose for it engaging in telecommunication during tourism is for the production and dissemination of travel narratives. Previously, if tourists wished to share stories of their adventures they might write a letter or send a postcard to potentially interested parties. Today, however, experiences can be shared immediately, and can take on all forms of audio and 81 visual media (Burns & O'Regan, 2008; Jansson, 2007). The “tourist gaze” becomes a shared gaze, with virtually copresent individuals able to provide feedback well before tourists’ return to their homes. Currently, it appears that social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace are the preferred choices for uploading and sharing tourism content while on the go (Wearing et al., 2010). If tourists choose to wait until they get home to post content, it was revealed in a survey of nearly 450 college age respondents in the United States that most would post trip content to social network sites within a week of completing their trip (Murphy, Gil & Schegg, 2010). In addition to understanding the rationale behind why tourists engage in telecommunication activities while traveling, and thereby blending the concepts of home and away, it is important to understand the proposed ideas as to how telecommunication and corporeal travel interact. Larsen, Urry, and Axhausen (Larsen et al., 2006) note that there are two competing theses. The first is that telecommunications acts as a substitute for corporeal travel, and that people will choose the faster method of telecommunication over the much longer process of physically traveling to a location. The second, counter-thesis is that telecommunications serves as a complement to physical travel making the planning and coordination of that experience more efficient. This theory, then, would indicate that physical travel would potentially increase in volume since it would be easier to engage in that activity (Larsen et al., 2006, p. 54). As noted in the earlier statistics from the UNWTO, the everincreasing rise in tourism arrivals would indicate stronger support for the latter theory. This blurring of the distinction between “home” and “away,” not only appears to reflect a general trend among the traveling population, but an outright willingness for media-enabled travelers to bring these originally disparate concepts together (Mascheroni, 2007). Although people may appreciate the ease of making an emotional connection with someone familiar while 82 apart, tourism still holds its appeal in being an experience that differs from “home” (Burns & O'Regan, 2008). Distance, however, does not matter as much since being “away” – and engaging in a touristic experience - may only be a trip to a new section in the local grocery store (Beckstead, 2010). Future tourism researchers should consider the hyper-connected tourist as simply being a single point of connection with reality, as opposed to the intersection of separate real and virtual realms (Mascheroni, 2007). The Death of Distance and the Continued Need for Corporeal Travel When considering that “home” and “away” seem to concurrently coexist, the idea that there would be any kind of a need to physically relocate from one place to another appears illogical. As telecommunication methods increase in audio and visual richness, it would seem difficult to justify the financial and environmental costs of moving people around the globe. It was resulting from these rapid advances in telecommunication that led Frances Cairncross of The Economist to declare the “death of distance” (Cairncross, 1997/2001). Her assertions, however, were not met without challenge. Olson and Olson (Olson & Olson, 2000) declared that Cairncross was wrong, and that distance was “in several essential respects immortal” (p. 140). Their study of proximate and distance-based collaborative work groups found that the telecommunication methods employed by the distance-based group didn’t result in the same levels of efficiency and ease-of-work compared to the proximate group. While Olson and Olson believe that telecommunication technology can progress to being as good as interaction in faceto-face settings, they note that access to shared objects, differences in time zones, and resolving cultural differences will still likely require that collaborative groups physically meet on occasion (p. 163). For these cooperative work settings, distance appears to remain a salient issue. 83 While workgroups may require corporeal travel in order to effectively operate, this would seem to be less of a concern for the casual traveler. After all, it is certainly possible to see the paintings of the Louvre, listen to an orchestra from Berlin, experience a virtual bungee jump in New Zealand, and cook up an authentic Swedish meatball recipe all from the comfort of one’s own home. In addition, friends and relatives who live in far off places can be reached virtually with a full set of auditory and visual cues via computer-based video chat. Finding a reason to engage in the expensive and time-consuming nature of travel would appear difficult to locate. A few reasons have been put forward as to why people still engage - and will still engage - in corporeal travel. First, there is the simple notion that physically copresent interactions are “thick with information” (Boden & Molotch, 1994). Physically copresent interactions go beyond words to include facial gestures, body language, voice intonation, and “a thousand other particulars” (p. 259). Losing even a portion of those “particulars” tends to result in a less satisfying interaction (Elliott & Urry, 2010), and therefore in-person contact is likely to remain the preferred method of communication when possible (Wellman, 2001). There is also the issue that physical copresence is sometimes obligatory (Dijst, 2009; Larsen et al., 2006; Larsen et al., 2006). Five particular areas were noted as having this type of requirement (Larsen et al., 2006). First, there are legal, economic, and family-related obligations, such as weddings and funerals. Then, there are the normative expectations of presence, typically defined as spending “quality time” with others. Next, there are sometimes object-based obligations, such as signing a contract or working on a physical project. There are also eventsbased obligations. Attending a live concert, play, or political rally usually requires being physically present in order to have a fully unfiltered experience. Finally, there are the obligations of place. These are physical locations that can only be experienced directly, such as returning to 84 her childhood home or enjoying the meal and atmosphere of a specific restaurant. This latter obligation certainly held true for the great psychologist Sigmund Freud, who upon visiting the Acropolis in Athens became overwhelmed by its presence and was in disbelief at finally seeing this fabled structure he had heard about since childhood (Urry, 2007, p. 251). Finally, the development of inexpensive and efficient telecommunications systems has actually given rise to an increased need for physical travel. In addition to the concept of timespace compression (Harvey, 1989), these technologies have also created “time-space distanciation” (Larsen, 2008). This is the geographical spreading of a person’s social network. Since telecommunication has become cheaper and easier to use, the ability to stay in touch with our friends and family who have moved to other locations is also much easier to do. While these distanced contacts are not physically encountered as frequently as what may have occurred in times past, research is showing that when distant friends and family members do physically meet up, the meetings tend to last quite a bit longer: an concept called “Cetaris Paribus” (Larsen et al., 2005; Larsen et al., 2006). It has been argued that Boden and Molotch’s (1994) theory of the “compulsion for proximity” also supports the need for periodic face-to-face meetings, as even regular phone calls and emails are not considered powerful enough of an interaction in order to maintain strong social ties (Larsen, 2008). The perception that there would be an associated rise in travel to visit strong social ties – known in tourism research as “visiting friends and relatives” (VFR) travel – has borne out in reality with a growth and proliferation in that form of travel (Uriely, 2010). Although the use of the ubiquitous telecommunication systems has not resulted in the death of distance, and instead has helped give rise to increased visitation among strong social connections, there has been some concern as to what effects these technologies are having upon 85 the tourism experience. To better understand these issues, a reframing of the tourism experience must first be examined, which will then be followed by a discussion of the concerns of technology use in the tourism experience. Encapsulation and Decapsulation To provide a better understanding of the tourism experience, it is suggested that an alternate approach, separate from the idea of “home” versus “away,” be considered. The prior sections in this chapter have shown that the combination of ubiquitous connectivity through mobile communication and experiencing corporeal reality has made the prior methods of distinguishing what makes a touristic experience more problematic. Aligning with the idea presented in the prior chapter that authenticity is largely an inward, existential property experienced by the individual, and not an outwardly objective or subjective property away from the individual, a similar type of existential concept is suggested for understanding tourism: encapsulation and decapsulation. Initially suggested by Jansson (Jansson, 2007), the concept of encapsulation and decapsulation revolves around how immersed an individual is when experiencing his/her environment. Jansson specifically applied this concept to tourism, and noted that the encapsulated tourist was someone who fully appreciated the nature of the environment he/she was touring, and attempted to engage in the environment in the most immersive way possible. If a tourist was in an encapsulated state, he/she would likely be referred to as a choraster rather than a flâneur (Wearing et al., 2010), would likely be engaging in an experience of “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), and perhaps feeling a sense of existential authenticity (Wang, 1999). Encapsulation is a process that exists and is constructed at the personal and collective levels, and both spatially and temporally (Beckstead, 2010). Should also be noted that while encapsulation is 86 predominantly an internal state of being, the production of encapsulation can certainly be encouraged through the theming of tourism sites, and encouraging active participation by visitors (Jansson, 2007). The opposite state from encapsulation is decapsulation. Tourists who are in a decapsulated state are mentally removed from the idea that they are engaging in any form of a tourist experience. They are brought back to the existential state of feeling as if they are in a typical, day-to-day experience, and merely observers of the world around them. They have been removed from the otherworldly, liminal state that is tourism. Occasionally, decapsulation can be the state chosen by tourists. For example, a serious amateur photographer often tries to find unique viewpoints of an environment that the typical individual may not notice. As such, he/she may try to avoid being “caught up” in the experience, and therefore miss a great photographic opportunity (Jansson, 2007). In addition, decapsulation can be caused by external events. The threat of natural disaster at a tourism site, a phone call notifying a traveler of a family emergency, or a destination failing to live up to expectations can all result in dissolution of the liminal state (Beckstead, 2010). When including the role of mobile communication in the tourism experience, there is a chance for greater encapsulation, but also the risk of causing decapsulation. This is an important situation to consider, as being in an encapsulated state is arguably the desired state for tourists, as it is the most likely to lead to “flow,” authentic experiences, and therefore greater satisfaction with the tourism experience. In order to better understand the impact of these technologies on the tourism experience, the potential negative and positive effects of mobile devices, and their associated connectivity, will next be explored. 87 The Negative Effects of Mobile Technology on the Tourism Experience While manufacturers of the latest cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, and laptop computers are quick to point out the wide range of benefits their products may provide, the negative effects from using these devices tend to receive less attention. Yet, as with most things or ideas that produce a benefit in our lives there are trade-offs to be considered, and the use of mobile technologies in the tourism experience is no exception. The social effects of using ubiquitously connected mobile devices tend to be among the initial impacts encountered by users of these technologies, and the people around them. Having a constant level of connectivity with one’s social networks creates an environment where one has to negotiate whether those who are corporeally copresent have greater or less primacy of attention over those who have virtual copresence. Although the typical response from participants in research studies has been that face-to-face conversations take precedence, the observed reality is that cell phone calls and incoming e-mail/text messages tend to interrupt and grab the attention of the receiver away from the people around them (Turkle, 2008). Mobile technologies, while increasing overall social cohesion across entire social networks, appear to do so at the expense of the physically copresent (Ling, 2008). Additionally, these technologies can be used to purposefully avoid interaction with the physically present. This isn’t a new concept, as books and magazines have long been used as a way to ignore others in a socially acceptable way (Urry, 2007). However, modern society’s overwhelming presence of mobile devices, and the use of those which allow semi-focused attention to the environment while still ignoring others (such as the iPod), have created an environment where the person may never fully be engaged in the world around them (Burns & O'Regan, 2008). Finally, there is the issue of noise coming from the alert tones of the various devices, and the disconcerting experience of constantly hearing one- 88 sided conversations as others are using their cell phones. This has been seen as a large enough issue that in 2005 British group travel organization Adventure Company became the first commercial travel organization to ban their customers from taking mobile phones to “once-in-alifetime” locations such as Machu Picchu in Peru, and the Taj Mahal in India (Burns & O'Regan, 2008). While these technologies clearly can have a negative effect on the people surrounding the user of those technologies, they can also have a negative effect on the user themselves. One such issue is that devices with ubiquitous connectivity – such as the mobile phone – have brought about persistent, individually-associated surveillance that was once only perceived to exist with those living under strict government regimes (Katz, 2008b; Pfaff, 2010). As our current technologies can have weak levels of encryption and privacy protection, those with sophisticated monitoring technologies could invade a person’s privacy causing emotional distress, and in the worst case scenario might use that information to restrict or deny personal freedoms. In addition to the possible security threats, there are the social expectations that come from being “always-on.” When a person is known to have a mobile communications device, they are expected to always be reachable through that connection. When another person attempts to make contact and they are unable to reach his/her intended person, this can result in negative attitudes toward the intended recipient for not fulfilling their end of the communication bargain (Urry, 2007). If the recipient is not reached but a voicemail message or text message was left, there is an expectation that the message will be responded to fairly quickly. In Ito’s research of Japanese teenagers (2005b), she found that the general expectation was that a message should be responded to within 30 minutes, unless there was a valid reason for not doing so, such as being asleep. 89 Finally, there is the problem that it is difficult for a tourist to feel “away” if there is the constant expectation to be in touch with people back home (White & White, 2008). The respondents in White & White’s study of New Zealand’s vacationers indicated that while being in contact with friends, family, and colleagues back home could be positive, it also could sometimes bring emotional challenges and negative situations from home/work directly into their tourism experience (White & White, 2007, p. 98). As such, this can destroy the liminality of the experience and lead to a decapsulated state (Beckstead, 2010). Even if contact with home does not bring about negative situations, the increased sense of being “always at home” through these technologies can be in direct conflict with the typical traveler’s desire to see, touch, and experience new things (O'Regan, 2008). This can have a particularly disastrous effects on the independent “backpacker” style of tourist, in that if he/she is exclusively using backpackerrelated online forums to gain new information, and only associating with contacts he/she has made on the road through online social networks, then he/she is excluding himself/herself from the individuals who do not have access to this kind of technology (which can be fairly common in economically depressed countries). This ends up being antithetical to the allocentric style of travel typically favored by backpackers (Burns & O'Regan, 2008). In a related fashion, the same technologies can produce a shielding of distance, to where we have a reduced understanding of just how far we’ve traveled on our adventures, which can also induce the decapsulated state (Ellard, 2009; Jansson, 2007). The use of mobile communications and their associated devices may also further some of the negative aspects related to globalization. As these technologies become increasingly common, those who have the technologies begin to believe that everyone has access to these items and systems, and also tend to believe that people have adopted the same social norms that 90 relate to the use of these technologies (Willson, 2010). Areas of the world that are late in the adoption of these technologies can find themselves in the position of adopting what the earlier typically Western - cultures have done in relation to social norms. This creates a hegemonic situation, which could be said to be reinforcing imperialism (Wearing et al., 2010). Those cultures which have not yet adopted the associated technologies might find themselves in a form of “mobile digital divide,” which can leave those people in a form of social exclusion, separated from the worldwide conversation (Ohmori, 2009). However, despite concerns of the mobile digital divide, it is important to note that lack of access to basic mobile communications – such as the cell phone - is far less severe than what it is for access to the Internet. Even while some areas of the world, such as Africa, are slowly working towards getting reliable and widespread Internet access, many places already have in place a good cell phone system that even economically depressed individuals are able to access (Katz, 2008b). Finally, there are some potential environmental and social concerns that can arise from the use of telecommunication technologies. As discussed earlier, the rapid growth and ease of using telecommunications and social network systems has led to the spreading of our social networks over a wider geographic area. This, in turn, has led to an increased desire to travel to these distanced contacts, since the maintenance of strong bonds requires intermittent face-to-face contact. This rise in transport has been producing 14% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions: currently the second fastest growing source of such emissions. That amount is anticipated to double by 2050 (Elliott & Urry, 2010). With the presence of greenhouse gases being a strong contributor to global warming, and potential limitations on future access to petroleum creating problems with fueling our transport technologies, it is suggested that the ease 91 of physical mobility around the world may not be with us forever, and that virtual mobility initially contributed to the problem (Elliott & Urry, 2010; Urry, 2007). As a general social concern, there is the potential problem of boosterism and a misguided focus on technological determinism when examining these new technologies. As a historical example, US business textbooks heavily promoted the use of written letters and memos as a more effective means of conducting business, rather than talking over the phone or meeting faceto-face. The concept was “oversold” in the same fashion as some computer-mediated communication has had done today, in that authors in the “popular press” have tended to argue that these methods are superior substitutes for copresent interaction. This has been suggested without considering what is lost by using these methods (Boden & Molotch, 1994). It is also important for those researching these technologies not to fall into the trap of technological determinism. Occasionally, the idea is put forward that these technologies create a new behavior in people, rather than taking the approach that these new technologies simply allow previously constrained behaviors to flourish (Pfaff, 2010). While these new developments certainly have an impact on the world, making assumptions of cause-and-effect may be a naïve approach. Fortunately, for all of the real and potential negative impacts of mobile communication and the associated technologies, there are some areas of positive impact that should also be explored. Those areas will be addressed in the following section. The Positive Effects of Mobile Technology on the Tourism Experience While the use of mobile technology and telecommunications in tourism has led to a few concerns, there have been a number of positive effects that have altered social interaction between individuals, and engagement in the tourism experience. In particular, benefits related to improvements in productivity from time compression, the development of an expanded set of 92 self, a deepening of social relationships, and the development of better tourism experiences all point to the beneficial role that these technologies and systems can play. One of the most often cited and directly obvious benefits of mobile telecommunication technologies is the ability to do more than one thing at a time, a.k.a. “multitasking.” When attempting to socialize with one’s networks of friends, family, and colleagues, telecommunications allows an individual to compress more socialization opportunities into the same block of time since the time-consuming nature of travel can be avoided (Larsen et al., 2006). This is also in part from the shift from place-based communication nodes to person-toperson nodes, developing new “sociabilities on the move” (Urry, 2007, p. 172). As people shift into these roles of being socially connected while in motion, places that used to be considered zones of unproductivity - such as cars, buses, trains, and waiting rooms - now become places where the maintenance of social networks can occur, and “wasted time” becomes less of a nuisance (Larsen et al., 2006). A person who uses mobile telecommunications may also find that they experience an expanded sense of self; that they are more intimately connected and integrated into the wider world. Ellard (2009) noted that the ability to move our virtual selves at light speed permits rapid connections to people, places, and cultures that dramatically alter our conceptions of time, space, and distance between ourselves and other places in the world. He sees this type of connectivity as developing a richer mental experience in the individual, and therefore affecting positive change to human mental states (p. 236). Having this level of connection can also lead to greater validation of one’s own ideas. As soon as a person has a thought or feeling, he/she is able to broadcast it out to his/her entire social network and receive validation or feedback in very short order (Turkle, 2008). Finally, there is the simple notion of feeling like one is part of a larger 93 community. Urry (2007) noted that even Henry David Thoreau appreciated hearing the sounds of the freight train - the major “communication network” of his day - from his cabin on Walden Pond as it made him feel like he was connected to the larger world, in spite of his remoteness. With the ability to quickly connect with one’s social contacts, it is understandable that mobile telecommunications and computer-mediated communication can lead to a deepening of relationships (Mascheroni, 2007). Devices such as the mobile phone, as well as the use of microblogging services like Twitter and the status update functionality of social network sites, allow for instantaneous, brief social contact which can act as a reminder of simple affection toward another (Dijst, 2009). The systems serve as the “in between” moments of contact, when social connection is desired but time constraints prevent longer engagement. In the White & White (2007; White & White, 2008) case study of New Zealand vacationers, respondents indicated that it was very important for them to be regularly engaged in contact with friends and family as to know that they were not being forgotten, and also to be kept abreast of events at home. They wished to know that they still had salience in the lives of people at home, and that the people at home still had salience in their lives even though they were abroad (White & White, 2007, p. 95). Social relationships can also be deepened in moments when corporeal copresence is not enough. Boden and Molotch (1994) note that etiquette requires a separate communication (such as a written “thank you” note or a phone call) after being invited to a dinner party, as a face-toface spoken “thank you” at the conclusion of the event would simply be too easy. In this case, the act of using this additional form of communication deepens the social relationship precisely because it is more difficult. Ultimately, the use of mobile communication can lead to better tourism experiences. One of the most prominent examples comes from the ease of access to information about a tourism 94 destination available via Internet connectivity on mobile phones. Today’s “smartphones” can feature global positioning system (GPS) guidance, language translation guide, lists of attractions, restaurants, and lodging, and provide access to the most current timetables for local transportation (Paris, 2010). The sociocultural friction that tourists used to experience in foreign locales has been dramatically reduced (Jansson, 2007). One particular Internet resource that has proven beneficial for some are user generated online videos, such as those featured on YouTube. In a recent study by Tussyadiah (2009b), she found that tourists would use YouTube videos to determine if a sight was worth seeing at their intended tourism destination. In addition, she found that people were using these videos to imaginatively travel to destinations they dreamed of visiting, and others were using the videos to bring back memories of a trip they had experienced to the destination shown in the video. Finally, the use of these telecommunication technologies and the Internet can be used to effectively promote certain kinds of tourism. In Paris’ (2010) study of the independent backpacker market, he found that online use has led to a mainstreaming of that form of tourism. This occurred because information about this mode of travel is more easily accessible and concerned parents of the typically young travelers tend to be more at ease since they are aware of what this form of travel entails. While the use of mobile technologies can provide great benefits, it is wise to consider that many of the users of these technologies do not necessarily feel constrained by feeling that the use of these devices is integral to their tourism experience. As Turkle (2008) indicates, “It is not exact to think of people as tethered to their devices. People are tethered to the gratifications offered by their online selves. These include the promise of affection, conversation, and a sense of new beginnings” (p. 125). 95 Understanding the Modern Tourist Although new technologies will come and go, and there will continue to be a negotiation in understanding the positive and negative aspects therein, one factor has remained constant as a key element in the tourism experience: the tourists, themselves. Yet, with this blending of “home” and “away,” and a shift to understanding the tourism experience as floating between the realms of encapsulation and decapsulation, there have additionally been shifts in the perceptions and desires of tourists. An overall societal shift that also affects tourists has been the change from what Castells (2010) refers to as a “space of places,” to a “space of flows.” This is the concept that the organization of human life and interaction is less focused around geographic spaces, but rather is outlined as a “network society” (Cresswell, 2010) which is focused around “flows of capital, flows of information, flows of technology, flows of organizational interaction, and flows of images, sounds, and symbols” (Castells, 2010, p. 442). Other terms which have been used to describe this style of life include “individualization,” “reflexive self-identity,” and “liquid life” (Elliott & Urry, 2010). As tourists experience reality as a combination of virtual and physical worlds, and can choose their engagement in the “scripting” of the tourism environment (Jansson, 2007) and thus decide to what extent they experience existential authenticity, it has been suggested that a new term to be adopted for this type of individual: the post-tourist (Wearing et al., 2010). This concept additionally fits with the apparatgeist theory put forth by mobile communication researcher James Katz, who suggests that tools of mobile communication should “transcend the personal physical limits of being human” and allow for a “transcendent state of connectedness with others” (Katz, 2008b, p. 442). These post-tourists exist within multiple 96 concepts of mobilities - physical travel, communicative travel, and imaginative travel - and must find ways to acknowledge and negotiate the spaces (O'Regan, 2008). One element of negotiation that arises from this is the idea that connectedness matters to the post-tourist, and the degree to which that person is able to engage in his/her mixed physical/virtual world is entirely dependent on his/her access to working communications technology (Turkle, 2008). Physical spaces for tourism now have an additional layer of information laid on top of them arising from the needs of the post-tourist. These people find themselves asking, “if there is cellular coverage, is it 3G, EV-DO, EDGE? If there is Wi-Fi coverage, visit with a provider I can use? If there is no Wi-Fi, what part of town can I get myself to where I might find some?” (Brewer & Dourish, 2008, p. 965). Connectedness appears to have become as essential an element to the tourism experience for the post-tourist, as are the old essentials of food and lodging. The post-tourist also inhabits a world where distance is increasingly losing its relevance. The spread and distanciation of social networks has created an unusual paradox: we now have people making connections via telecommunication to people at a distance in mere seconds, while later they will spend hours in cars and airplanes just to see close friends and relatives for a few brief moments (Larsen et al., 2006; Larsen et al., 2005). This shows that the old idea of a “close” friend or family member is not someone who lives within walking distance of a transported hot meal. It is no longer accurate to assume that geographical nearness is equal to emotional nearness. Increasingly, we are finding that people live with weak social ties in their immediate vicinity, and their strong social ties are located farther away. Once again, this demonstrates that the compression of time and space afforded by telecommunications has led to a world that feels 97 smaller, and yet our social networks are more spread out across the physical landscape (Larsen et al., 2006). The spread and distanciation of social networks is also increasingly leading to leisure travel becoming necessary social travel (Larsen et al., 2006). As post-tourists find themselves spread away from “strong tie” contacts, there is the necessity to travel in order to keep the strength of those connections alive through VFR tourism. In many cases, post-tourists desire this form of travel. However, not all individuals have peaceful relationships with strong tie social network members, with these less-positive relationships most likely to be encountered in ties with family members. However since there are some family life events which require corporeal copresence, travel may occur in order to appease a few of the social network members, or to simply to allow post-tourists to manage perceptions of themselves directly. These are quite literally “guilt trips.” Still, VFR tourism has benefits for post-tourists in that if friends and relatives are located in desired touristic destinations, there is often the lure of free accommodation to accompany the benefit of maintaining social ties (Larsen et al., 2006). In addition, some post-tourists may desire the perceived enhancement of authenticity to their travel, as they can experience the host culture directly through the eyes of people to which they are emotionally close, and can provide a trusted, “insider’s” approach to the destination (Urry, 2007, p. 247). Besides the distanciation of social networks and the associated rise in VFR travel, two additional interesting trends have developed. The first is that there has been observed a huge increase in the number of “very weak” social ties that have resulted from the mass levels of connectivity in modern society. In Elliott and Urry’s (2010) review of the literature, they note that sociologist Barry Wellman found that the median number of people in a person’s “personal 98 community network” is 23 individuals, but there are between 200 and 1500 very weak ties. However, when social researcher Kay Axhausen examined how people interact with these massive social networks, he found that - among Europeans - people would initially connect through “friending” on social network sites or have them listed in email contact lists, but very little effort was made to reach out to most of these very weak ties afterward (Elliott & Urry, 2010, p. 50). This fits with prior theories that people are unable to have meaningful social relationships with more than approximately 150 individuals at a time, a theoretical constant known as “Dunbar’s number” (Dunbar, 1992). Secondly, it has been observed that what mode a person uses to contact members of their social network reflects those members’ placement within an individual’s social structure. For example, if a person had important news to share, the strongest ties in the social network would receive the announcement by phone, whereas those that were weaker ties may receive less immediate contact through e-mail or even postcards (Dijst, 2009). This is in agreement with earlier research that showed that there was a desire for additional emotional feedback from strong ties, typically leading to choosing richer and more immediate communication modes (White & White, 2008). The post-tourist represents a fundamental change in how we understand humans in the tourism experience. No longer are they moving physically away, and being both geographically and emotionally distanced from their social networks. Friends, family, and colleagues form an “absent presence” alongside the post-tourist, and occasionally have the ability to directly interact and change the tourism experience from afar. The post-tourist exists within multiple mobilities: physical travel, communicative travel, and imaginative travel. They are “hypermobile,” and must acknowledge these multiple mobilities and manage them (O'Regan, 2008). Additionally, those who study tourism must acknowledge the hypermobile nature of the post-tourist, and it is 99 through the concept of “mobilities” introduced in the first chapter, and further refined in the final chapter of this dissertation, that the author asserts this might best be achieved. Conclusion The blending of “home” and “away,” the transition of viewing tourism experiences to encapsulated or decapsulated, and the study of tourism as a component of the mobilities paradigm represents a fairly dramatic shift in how the touristic experience is understood. However, this shift in conceptual understanding accompanies the related dramatic shifts of a person not just existing in a physical reality, but in a virtual reality as well. While older notions of tourism and life experiences may have viewed these spaces as being separate and distinct, an increasingly common point of view - especially among younger generations - is that these worlds are not separate, but are in fact deeply intertwined and part of one consistent, holistic reality (Benckendorff, Moscardo & Pendergast, 2010). As the world shifts, so must the study of tourism. Beyond the conceptual level, there are combinations of tourism and mobile communication that are leading to new, applied uses. Prominent among these new developments is the advancing field of location-based services, combining geographical coordinate information and rich information resources to create a real, physical world filled with virtual signs and information. It is this applied use of mobile technology in the tourism space that is explored in the next chapter. 100 CHAPTER 5 LOCATION-BASED SERVICES For the majority of human history, getting lost on occasion was simply a fact of life. Over the thousands of years that people have traversed Earth, they simply relied upon landmarks, preestablished routes, and observations of wind, wave, solar, and celestial patterns in order to determine their approximate position (Ellard, 2009). Unfortunately, this type of wayfinding was highly inaccurate and people could easily find themselves in a location where they did not intend to be. The situation became more dire once out on the open water of the world’s oceans. From here, figuring out one’s location relative to a North-South axis – known today as latitude - wasn’t terribly difficult. Early astronomers had carefully made records of the position of the sun and stars throughout the year, and a navigator making reference to these records could establish the latitude of the ship in fairly short order (Sobel & Andrewes, 2003). The far more difficult problem was figuring out the ship’s East-West position, better known today as longitude. Since the Earth rotates in an East to West direction, lines of apparent longitude shift by 15° to the West every hour. Consequently, in order to determine longitude, a ship’s navigator needs to know the exact time he is making his coordinate measurements. If the navigator has a clock synchronized with the time at a known line of longitude (also known as a meridian), and then compares that time against the apparent time where the ship is located, he is able to determine the ship’s longitudinal position. For example, if a navigator’s clock says that the time is noon, but it takes one hour before the sun reaches its highest point in the sky at the ship’s current position, then the navigator knows that he is 15° West of the known line of longitude where his clock was 101 synchronized (Ariel & Berger, 2006). Obviously, if the navigator had insomuch as a slightly inaccurate clock, the resulting longitudinal information will be highly suspect. Fortunately, English clockmaker John Harrison was successfully able to produce a highly accurate, seaworthy clock, and received a monetary award from King George III for his solving of the longitude problem in 1773 (Sobel & Andrewes, 2003). The establishment of an accurate way to find both latitude and longitude allowed for significant advancements in world exploration, cartography, and eventually to the ability for tourists to safely travel to far-off lands without fear of being unable to return home. Even to this day, the use of time as a way to establish location carries its importance, as it is through the measurement of time and time delays that the modern, satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) is able to establish a coordinate fix (Küpper, 2005). Naturally, being able to know one’s location is fairly important in general day-to-day activities, but takes on even greater importance when a person is in an unfamiliar location. Tourists, by their nature of typically being away from places of familiarity, are well served by having accurate maps and other navigational aids. While a tourist may have previously sought out a local person in the host community to assist with finding his/her way, the modern tourist now has access to a range of combined navigational and locally relevant information through the use of mobile technologies. A large portion of these resources fall under the heading of “location-based services,” which is the topic that will be explored in this chapter. The chapter begins with a general overview of what comprises “location-based services,” followed by a discussion of the various positioning technologies that are used. This is followed by an examination of the early uses of information and communication technologies when combined with positional data. Two specific applications of location-based services – game 102 based services and augmented reality applications - will then be discussed in greater detail. The chapter concludes with an exploration of future trends in location-aware tourism services. Defining Location-Based Services While the term “location-based service” (LBS) is being encountered more frequently in discussions of mobile communications, a precise definition of the term has yet to be established, and the concept is often used interchangeably with terms such as “location aware service,” “location related service,” and simply “location service” (Küpper, 2005). In general, a LBS is a service which combines a device’s position or location information with supplemental information / data in order to provide geospatially relevant information to the user (Küpper, 2005; Spiekermann, 2004). Once a device is aware of its location in physical space, it can then deliver information and resources to the user that are specific to that location, and also filter out any information that is not relevant to that location. In research related to these types of services, LBS is often considered to be a subset of “context-aware services,” which are services designed to automatically adapt their behavior to changing conditions (Küpper, 2005). Services that automatically adapt to weather conditions, news events, and calendar appointments are examples of other context-aware - but not location-based - mobile services. Location-based services may also be broken down into whether they are person-oriented or device-oriented. With person-oriented LBS, the focus of the application is on the location of the person using the device, and providing specific information about that location. In particular, person-oriented LBS typically allows the person being located to control the LBS directly (Spiekermann, 2004). Some examples of person-oriented LBS applications include the automatic delivery of severe weather alerts for a person’s current location, receiving coupons for a nearby business, and participation in reality-based virtual games. In contrast, device-oriented LBS 103 applications might be used to locate an individual external to the person controlling the LBS, but may also be used to locate an object (like an automobile), an entire group of people, or the site of an event. Examples of device-oriented LBS applications include those intended to locate children, pets, stolen cars, computers, and other objects. A key element of the device-oriented LBS is that the person or object that is located typically does not have direct control of the LBS service (Spiekermann, 2004). In addition to person and device orientation in LBS, these services can additionally be divided into push/proactive and pull/reactive types of services (Küpper, 2005; Spiekermann, 2004). With a push/proactive LBS service, no active participation by the user of the LBS is required. The mobile device is continuously updating its positional information, and then delivers content automatically when the user enters or exits a specific geospatial zone. For example, if a person was running an electronic tour guide application, he/she may receive a text message when he/she is near a landmark that the guide application has indicated as being important (Küpper, 2005). A similar example, which has been directly encountered by the author, are notifications when crossing international borders that voice and data costs for mobile telecommunications services are going to be very expensive if their use is continued. In contrast to the push/proactive services, pull/reactive services are directly initiated by the user. In this context, the user of the LBS service starts their device, has the device acquire its current location, and then uses that locational information in order to acquire locally relevant information. For example, a person may use an application on their mobile phone to bring up current movie show times, and then use that same program to locate the nearest theater (Spiekermann, 2004). Table 4 lists examples of push/proactive and pull/reactive services and separates them among person-oriented and device-oriented divisions. 104 Table 4: Categories and Examples of Location-Based Service Applications Push/Proactive Services Pull/Reactive Services Ex. 1: You get an alert from an application that a friend is now near you. Ex. 1: You make a request from a “friend finder” application to see who is near you. Person-Oriented Communication Ex. 2: A message is sent to you requesting permission for a friend to locate you. Information Ex. 3: You receive a severe Ex. 2: You activate a restaurant weather alert for the city you are in. review application to find wellreviewed diners that are nearby. Entertainment Ex. 4: You are informed that you have just lost your “mayorship” in a location-based game. Ex. 3: You “check in” to various locations trying to earn reward badges, points, and “mayorships.” Commerce / Ads Ex. 5: A nearby coffee shop pushes you a coupon to stop in and try their drinks. Ex. 4: You launch a group couponing application to see if there are any great deals in the city you are visiting. Ex. 6: You get an alert that your package has been delayed in shipment. Ex. 5: You sent a request to your cell phone to have it inform you where you last left it. Ex. 7: You get an alert that your child has left school. Ex. 6: You request information on where your taxicab fleet is located around the city. Device-Oriented Tracking Adapted from (Spiekermann, 2004 p. 15). Satellite Positioning Technologies All LBS-enabled devices and applications require two key components: a database that contains information which has geographic coordinates attached to it (also known as 105 “geocoding”), and some method for a device to figure out where it is physically located in space. Databases and geocoded information are fairly straightforward, as the addition of coordinate information simply involves adding another field or two to the database structure. However, the ability for a device to determine where it is located on Earth is a far more complex affair. Some technologies are satellite-based and work all over the world, but others rely on alternate methods since satellite signals have difficulty penetrating buildings. As LBS requires the “location” component in order to be effective, it is important to understand the operation and applicability of various positioning technologies. The first, and most well known, satellite-based positioning system is the Global Positioning System (GPS). Based on a network – or “constellation” - of 24 orbiting satellites, GPS was originally developed for use by the United States military forces (Kakaletris, Varoutas, Katsianis & Sphicopoulos, 2007). The first satellite in the GPS constellation was launched in February 1978, with others following soon after. Unfortunately, the program suffered from continuous technical and political setbacks that delayed all 24 of the satellites from getting into orbit in a timely manner, including the Challenger space shuttle disaster (Küpper, 2005). It was not until 1995 that GPS was formally declared to be in full operation, but its use was still largely restricted to the military. Besides the high costs associated with the new technology, GPS was also ineffective for many civilian applications because the signal was intentionally degraded through a system called “Selective Availability” in order to avoid having the system be used to create weaponry with precise targeting abilities (Peters, 2004). However, it was recognized that GPS could have significant benefits for civilians in addition to the military. Therefore, in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order that Selective Availability should be removed in four years. 106 On May 1, 2000, Selective Availability was switched off, and GPS went from being accurate down to the area of roughly 100 meters to accuracy within a zone of approximately 20 meters (Ariel & Berger, 2006). The operation of GPS is made up of three segments: a space segment, a control segment, and a user segment. The space segment is made up of the constellation of 24 satellites that orbit the earth every 12 hours, along six orbital paths (Küpper, 2005, p. 163). The control segment is made up of five monitoring stations around the world which have been placed so that every satellite can be observed and controlled 92% of the time (Küpper, 2005, p. 163). These stations check on the operational status of the satellites, make needed corrections to their orbits, and make sure the onboard clocks are keeping accurate time. Finally, the user segment consists of the devices that receive the transmitted signals from the GPS satellites. As these communications are one-way, the privacy of GPS users is ensured (Kakaletris et al., 2007). The reason that the control segment needs to guarantee accurate timekeeping on the satellites is based upon how the GPS system determines where a user is located. The 24 GPS satellites are distributed fairly evenly around the world, so that a large number of them are typically “visible” to a GPS user at any given time. When a GPS user switches on their GPS receiving device, it begins to search the sky for satellites that are currently above the horizon. When it successfully finds a signal from one of the satellites, it makes note of what clock time is being reported by that satellite. As additional satellites are located, the receiver will note the clock time reported by those satellites, which will differ by a few nanoseconds since the distance to those satellites will vary with respect to each other, and the speed of the signal coming from the GPS satellite is limited to the speed of light. Consequently, closer satellites will indicate an earlier time, and satellites that are farther away will indicate a later time. Based upon the times 107 being reported by the various satellites, the GPS receiver will use a process of trilateration (the intersection of virtual spheres) in order to determine the position of the user. After two satellites are acquired, the virtual signal spheres of the satellites will intersect in a circle. As shown in Figure 4, after a third satellite is acquired all three spheres will intersect at two points: one on the ground, and one far out into outer space. Since the point in space can automatically be discounted, the position of the user can be determined based upon the point on the ground. As the signals from additional satellites our acquired, the accuracy continues to improve. Figure 4: Principles of Satellite Positioning. Adapted from (Roth, 2004). Currently, the GPS system operates with two levels of service: the Standard Positioning Service (SPS), and the Precise Positioning Service (PPS). The SPS is the basic level of service that the vast majority of GPS users encounter. The PPS is the highly accurate military signal, which is used by ground troops and also within guided military weaponry. Use of the PPS 108 system can be used by civilians with permission of the US military, and is considered on a caseby-case basis (U.S. Naval Observatory, 1994). GPS continues to be funded and operated by the US Department of Defense. Because GPS is entirely under the control of the United States, this has raised some concern in the government’s of other countries that the US may disable their ability to use GPS, particularly in times of war. As a result, other satellite-based navigation systems have been developed, with a few already in basic operation. The most successful of these alternate satellite navigation systems is the Globalnaya Navigationaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Global Navigation Satellite System – GLONASS) developed originally by the Soviet Union. GLONASS began operation in 1996 with 43 satellites (Moskvitch, 2010), but with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and a three to four year estimated lifespan for the satellites, the system fell into disrepair and had only nine functional satellites as of February 2004 (Roth, 2004). However, Russian President Vladimir Putin had made restoring GLONASS a top priority of his administration, and slowly began getting satellites back into orbit (Moskvitch, 2010). In February 2011, satellite number 24 was put into orbit, thereby returning GLONASS to worldwide coverage (BBC, 2011), but three of those satellites later veered off course, so the system is still does not provide full coverage (Moskvitch, 2011). This has not altered plans to get GLONASS devices into the hands of customers, since in April 2011, Russian mobile phone carrier MTS launched the first GLONASS-equipped smartphone. Unfortunately, GLONASS-enabled devices are currently more expensive than those that use GPS, so the Russian government intends to introduce a 25 percent import duty on phones that do not use the Russian navigation system (Moskvitch, 2011). 109 A second alternate satellite navigation system, called “Beidou” (“Compass,” in English), has been developed by the Chinese government. The system began with the launch of three geostationary satellites between 2000 and 2003 to provide very basic positioning (BeiDou, 2010), with additional satellites launched up until 2011 when a total of 10 satellites have been placed into orbit, thus providing full coverage for the Asia-Pacific region (Alex, 2010). The system is expected to continue advancing toward worldwide coverage, with a total of five geostationary satellites and 30 non-geostationary satellites in place by 2020 (BeiDou, 2010). Besides having a system that cannot be disabled by a foreign government, China is developing the Compass system to use less expensive technologies in consumer devices, thereby allowing for the creation of cheaper, navigation-equipped devices compared to GPS. The system additionally allows the sending and receiving of 120-character text messages. (Alex, 2010). A final alternate satellite navigation system, known as Galileo, is under development by the European Union. Although the system was intended to start launching satellites in 2006, and have full operational ability by 2008 (Roth, 2004), none of the satellites have been launched as of 2011 (Amos, 2011). Concerns regarding cost overruns, technology contractors, and other political issues among European Union member states have contributed to the significant delay. However, €3.4 billion has been committed to the initial stage of the project, and the first two Galileo satellites are expected to launch in October 2011, with an expected total of 18 in orbit by 2015. By then, proponents of the Galileo system hope to have acquired additional funding, expects to have a fully operational constellation of 24 satellites in orbit by 2016 (Amos, 2011). Since GLONASS, Compass, and Galileo all have yet to achieve worldwide coverage, GPS currently remains the only viable option for satellite-based positioning for use in LBS. However, there are methods aside from the use of satellites that can be used to determine 110 position. This is especially important because satellite signals have difficulty penetrating buildings, and can produce errors in dense urban centers since the signals can bounce off and/or be absorbed by tall buildings (Küpper, 2005). These non-satellite positioning systems will be explored in the next section. Non-satellite Positioning Systems When GPS was first introduced for public use it required receivers that were very expensive, and consumed a great deal of power. However, the developers of mobile phone networks also created their own form of positioning technology, which allowed for the semiaccurate determination of location for a mobile phone user. These positioning technologies were successful enough that in the late 1990s these technologies became the driving force behind the E-911 mandate in the United States, which required cell phones to transmit their location information during 911 emergency phone calls (Küpper, 2005). As for the technical aspects of the positioning technologies: a number of different methods are used in cellular positioning, although most rely on a combination of the known location of cellular transmission towers, time differences in signal delivery between the mobile device and the towers that it is connected to, and then using the time difference information to triangulate the location of the user. (Küpper, 2005; Roth, 2004). An additional method of determining position without the use of satellites is to use the location of a Wi-Fi access point to determine the location of devices that are connected to it. Known as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) or Wi-Fi Positioning, this essentially replicates the system used by cellular telephone towers, but relies on Wi-Fi access points instead (Küpper, 2005). In this scenario, Wi-Fi access points have their geographic coordinates stored in centralized databases that are accessed via the Internet. When a mobile device connects to a Wi- 111 Fi access point and tries to determine its position, and application on the mobile device notes which Wi-Fi access point it’s connected to, and then requests the geographic coordinates for that access point from the centralized database (Skyhook Wireless, 2011). Although this method doesn’t provide a high degree of accuracy, it can locate a device within the couple hundred-foot transmission radius of the Wi-Fi access point. More advanced WLAN location systems may also use the time delay and triangulation method that the cellular systems employ in order to get more accurate positioning. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is yet another method that can be used to determine the position of mobile devices. This system relies upon a series of RFID readers that are present in the environment, and an RFID tag (also called a transponder) that is located within the mobile device (Küpper, 2005). The transponder is “sensed” by the RFID readers in the immediate area, and through the combination of time delay triangulation and a pre-established database of the locations of the RFID readers, the location of the mobile device is able to be determined. The largest drawback of an RFID positioning system is that the RFID transponders and RFID readers must be part of the same system; not all RFID readers are able to access all RFID transponders. Therefore, this system is best employed in highly integrated environments, such as a hospital. The major benefit, however, is that RFID transponders require no power source to operate. Therefore, these transponders can be placed in nearly any device or object without any concern of access to electricity (Küpper, 2005). Finally, there is a system that uses a combination of non-satellite positioning and the GPS satellite-based positioning system: Assisted GPS or A-GPS. This system is able to provide the accuracy of GPS, but has the benefit of being able to determine position very quickly, and also use less power than a standalone GPS system. When a device that uses A-GPS is determining its 112 position, it first uses cellular positioning methods to quickly determine an approximate location. That estimate of location is then passed on to the GPS-exclusive portion of the system, which accesses an internal database and calculates where the GPS satellites are likely located in the sky for the current time of day and approximate location (Küpper, 2005). This dramatically shortens the amount of time required for the GPS system to determine its location, and therefore also reduces the amount of power consumed since little energy is spent “searching” the sky for the satellites. Since this system has the high accuracy of GPS, but is able to use cellular systems to accelerate the determination of location, A-GPS has become the primary technology used in mobile phones to determine location (Küpper, 2005). An Early Location-Based Service: Geocaching The benefits derived from a location-based service arise from the ability to combine a variety of information with positional data, which is then applied within different contexts. Most LBS applications are focused around community services, traffic telematics, fleet management, value added services, mobile marketing, and mobile gaming (Küpper, 2005, p. 8). While most of these LBS applications have come about in recent years – arising from the increased use of location-aware mobile phones – there is an entertainment-oriented LBS which has been in place for over a decade, and has a direct ability to influence tourism: geocaching. The idea for geocaching came about as a result of the removal of Selective Availability from the GPS service on May 2, 2000. Since consumer GPS receivers suddenly had increased accuracy, a computer consultant named Dave Ulmer decided that he wanted to put the newly refined technology to the test. So on May 3, 2000, he placed videos, books, software, a slingshot, and a logbook with pencil in a black bucket, and then hid it in a forest near Beaver Creek, Oregon (Peters, 2004). He then made note of the bucket’s geographic coordinates, and broadcast 113 those coordinates in a message on an online forum. He then challenged others to use their GPS receivers to find his bucket. If they found the bucket, the finder was asked to sign the logbook, but could take one of the other items as a prize. Within a month, the bucket was located for the first time, and the idea proved so intriguing that other GPS enthusiasts began hiding items of their own, and then announcing the coordinates online. The activity became so rapidly popular that on September 2, 2000, a site dedicated to listing these “geocaches” was launched at geocaching.com (Peters, 2004, p. 8). Not only had a new activity been created, but arguably the first game-oriented, location-based service. Since the launch of geocaching, it has gone from being a service that required the combined use of an Internet enabled computer and a handheld GPS receiver, to a standard LBS application that can be used on most location-aware mobile phones. In addition, since geocaching uses location as a fundamental aspect, and often assists in helping people discover new places around the world, it has found a natural form as a motivation to engage in tourism. Among geocaching enthusiasts, it is not uncommon for them to partake in road trips to a wide range of locations in order to hunt down particularly challenging caches, or incorporate the seeking of geocaches into a pre-established vacation (Peters, 2004, p. 9). Tourism marketers have noticed this drive for exploration that comes with geocaching, and some destination marketing organizations have created there own caches for tourists to find, which often leads them to interesting locations around the community (Çeltek, 2010). Despite the longevity and popularity of geocaching – an estimated 30,000 participants in late 2006 (Katz, 2008b) – is not the most commonly mentioned application when discussing entertainment-oriented LBS in 2011. That has largely been the providence of the various “checkin” services/games, which will now be explored. 114 Location-Based Services With Gaming Elements One of the distinct advantages of LBS applications is the ability to infuse a physical space with information from virtual sources. For example, one easily envisioned usage is to provide virtual “signs” in an environment where establishing physical signage might be less desirable, or impossible. This ability to add additional information to a physical environment can also be used to create engaging experiences and rewards in places that traditionally feel ordinary. This process of adding virtual rewards for activities that are taking place in the real world environment is a process known as “gamification” (McGonigal, 2011) or “game as life – life as game (GALLAG)” (Burleson, Ruffenach, Jensen, Bandaru & Muldner, 2009). The intention is to provide immediate rewards for activities that are typically beneficial to the user, but do not traditionally show physical rewards along the way. A category of games known as “serious games” has been a pioneering area in making this kind of application of game elements in real-world settings. For example, the Serious Games Institute developed a game called DiaBetNet that encouraged children who were diabetic to gain a greater understanding of their blood sugar levels. After taking a blood sugar reading, the diabetic child was asked to guess his/her current blood sugar level. The more accurate their guess, the more points the child received in the game. As the child’s guessing improved, he/she could advance to a more challenging level within the game (the child needs to guess with greater accuracy). The end result gave children a better understanding of their blood sugar levels, and how previous activities - such as what foods they ate - would impact how accurately they could guess their blood sugar level later on, and hopefully lead to better health overall (Burleson et al., 2009). 115 A more lighthearted, and travel-oriented approach to gamification comes in the form of an iPhone game called “Jetset,” which is a cartoon simulation of an airport security line (McGonigal, 2011, p. 104). The player of the game takes on the role of a TSA security agent whose job it is to make sure that no banned items or suspicious passengers make it through the security checkpoint. In addition, they need to make sure they are doing their job efficiently, so that the virtual passengers do not miss their flight, and yet not so quickly that they let a “bad” passenger slip through. The game is entertaining on its own, and takes a satirical look at modern air travel. However, the game takes on an entirely different level of engagement if you play it while physically at an actual airport. Using the iPhone’s internal GPS to determine the player’s location, it is only at an airport that the player is able to advance to higher levels within the game, and it is the only situation where players can earn virtual “souvenirs,” which are specifically themed to the airport location (for example, it is only at the Albuquerque airport that player can earn a virtual green chile pepper). While this kind of game doesn’t have the same potential life-saving benefit of DiaBetNet, it has the potential of turning a mundane, occasionally dreaded experience into something that is enjoyable. As games researcher Jane McGonigal notes, Jetset might not permanently resolve the ongoing frustrations of airport security and boarding, but it reminds us of our power to improve our own experience. And for that reason, it’s an excellent signal of the role that location-based games can play in improving our quality of life in the future. (McGonigal, 2011, p. 105) Although Jetset is an excellent example of a location-based game that can be used in the tourism experience, a commonly cited example of game-enhanced LBS applications are in the class of services colloquially referred to as “check in” style services. With these applications, a person launches an application on their mobile phone, and then virtually “checks in” to place 116 where they are currently located (typically, a prominent public location, such as a restaurant, bar, nightclub, theater, or event venue). Typically, the user’s friends are then able to see where he/she is located on their devices, and the user is also listed among those “checked in” to other users of the same application that are physically copresent at the same location (Cuddy & Glassman, 2010). These services are covered through a wide range of mobile applications: BrightKite, Loopt, SCVNGR, Google Latitude, and the “Places” feature of Facebook are among the plethora of “check in” style services flooding the mobile marketplace. However, the most commonly used “check in” LBS applications are Foursquare and Gowalla. Foursquare launched in March 2009, and describes itself as a mobile friend finder, social city guide, and nightlife “game thing” (Cuddy & Glassman, 2010). Foursquare enables its users to check in to a location via a smartphone application, or by text message. Checking in not only shares the user’s location with his/her friends, but also awards the user virtual points, provide access to local discounts, and gives the user the opportunity to earn virtual trophies, called “badges” (Foursquare, 2011). Badges are typically awarded based upon the user’s check-in habits. For example, if a user checks in to ten locations labeled as “movie theater,” then they are awarded the “zoetrope” badge. Other badges can be awarded based on collective behavior, such as the “swarm” badge that is awarded when 50 or more Foursquare users check into the same venue within a two-hour span (Thompson, 2011). Foursquare also features the ability to become the “mayor” of a particular location, if that user is the person who has checked into that venue most frequently in the prior 60 days. Mayorships have no real-world relevance, although some locations have provided discounts or other benefits to their “mayor,” since that customer is clearly among that business’ most loyal patrons (Lindqvist, Cranshaw, Wiese, Hong & Zimmerman, 2011). 117 Figure 5: A Foursquare “Tip” (Siegler, 2010). Foursquare additionally provides tourism-specific benefits. Although virtual points are awarded for every check-in, bonus points are awarded for first time visits to specific locations and first time visits to new categories of locations (museums, coffee shops, etc.) (Lindqvist et al., 2011). The service also allows a user’s Foursquare contacts to leave hints and tips for them at various locations. If a user checks into a location, and one of their Foursquare contacts have left a tip at that location or a nearby location, then that information is automatically pushed to the user’s mobile phone. This has led some tourism marketing organizations and other corporate entities to create their own presence on the Foursquare service. For example, if a user becomes a “friend” with the History Channel on Foursquare, they can receive location-specific historical information as they check into cities all over the United States (Siegler, 2010). An example of this is shown in Figure 5, where a user has checked into a lighting shop in New York City, and receives a tip that a nearby business is the home of the first ever elevator installed by the Otis 118 Elevator Company. This has the effect of layering relevant information onto the place where the tourist is located, and provides an enriched experience that would be more difficult if the tourist needed to look up local, historical information each time he/she stopped at a new place. Since its founding in 2009, Foursquare has become the most popular “check in” style LBS in the world, with over 10 million users and averaging over 3 million check-ins every day (Foursquare, 2011). Despite the astounding number of users, and their partnering with over half a million businesses, Foursquare is not the only “check in” service with good usage numbers. A slightly different competitor, Gowalla, is also an active participant in this space. Like Foursquare, Gowalla was launched in 2009 with the intent of helping people discover, capture, and share places with each other (Cuddy & Glassman, 2010). It takes a similar approach as Foursquare, in that a Gowalla user is able to check into various locations, and then that information can be shared among their Gowalla contacts, as well as among those physically present. Gowalla differs in that there is no gameplay benefit for repeatedly checking into a particular location (such as the “mayor” feature of Foursquare). However, a Gowalla user will receive a “stamp” for checking into a location - many of which have custom artwork - and might be randomly issued a virtual item, which is typically related to that spot. For example, checking into a coffee shop might reward the user with a virtual espresso machine. When a user receives a virtual item, they have the option of adding its to their own virtual collection of souvenirs (as shown in Figure 6), or they can drop it off at another location for someone else to pick up (Cuddy & Glassman, 2010). The history of where an item has been picked up and dropped off is attached to each item, and a Gowalla user who interacts with that item can see its own travel history. On occasion, these virtual items can lead to real world rewards through partnerships, 119 Figure 6: Archived Virtual Items in a User's Gowalla Passport. From the author’s collection. such as with the New Jersey Nets basketball team that gave away 500 free tickets to their final regular-season game in 2010 to Gowalla users checking into locations near their home basketball arena (Cuddy & Glassman, 2010, p. 340). Gowalla has also used business partnerships to enhance one of their other differentiating factors: the ability to establish a collection of spots into groupings they call “trips.” For example, the National Geographic Society collaborated with Gowalla to produce 15 different city walking tours around the world, each with 8 to 15 spots. If a Gowalla user checks into all of the spots 120 Figure 7: A Gowalla "Trip.” From the author’s collection. associated with a particular trip, they would then earn a special National Geographic digital pin that would be attached to their Gowalla user profile (Palatucci, 2010). This provides Gowalla users with an easy-to-access guided tour, and the benefit of being issued a virtual reward upon completion. An example of a list of trip spots for a tour of “Michigan Agricultural College” (the former name of Michigan State University) is shown in Figure 7, which additionally shows an example of a custom “stamp” attached to the Spartan Stadium entry. Despite the allure of trip-related services, and the vast array of virtual awards available, Gowalla remains a much smaller competitor in the LBS space, with nearly one million users reported as of February 2011, compared to Foursquare's 10 million users (Siegler, 2011). As a result, Gowalla is focusing on having their expanded feature set as a benefit which can be used alongside Foursquare's services, and has opened up their application to permit checking in to Foursquare directly from the Gowalla program. Consequently, a user that checks in through the 121 Gowalla application can gain the benefits of both Gowalla and Foursquare. Gowalla has additionally added in the ability for users to create “highlights” (similar to Foursquare's "tips). This functionality expands upon Gowalla's current mission: not to be a direct competitor to Foursquare, but to take on the role of a “social atlas” for users (Siegler, 2011). While Foursquare, Gowalla, and other similar location-based services have the ability to enhance tourism experiences through ease of place discovery and the benefit of virtual rewards, they face the current challenge of low usage. In a report issued in November 2010, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project noted that only four percent of Americans that are online are using location-based services, based upon a survey of 2,065 Internet users (Zickuhr & Smith, 2010). The report did not indicate why nonparticipants didn’t engage in these services, although it was suggested that a combination of privacy concerns and lack of knowledge as to whether the respondents’ phones were capable of using such applications factored into the reduced numbers. Despite usage of these services being fairly low, both Foursquare and Gowalla continue to report ever-increasing participation, and the slow but continuous rise likely indicates that the services are not merely a passing fad (Cuddy & Glassman, 2010). Augmented Reality in Location-Based Services Although “check-in” style LBS systems with game elements are a prominent example of current LBS usage, the use and development of “augmented reality” systems is another area which is starting to see application in the consumer space, and with potential benefits for tourists. As with all LBS applications, augmented reality relies upon knowing the user’s current geographic coordinates. Then, the augmented reality system acquires information about the local space, and then overlays virtual information on top of the real world (Champion, 2011, p. 157). 122 An example of this is some of placing virtual information on top of a real world image, is sometimes referred to as the “enchanted window” system. In this instance, a person would take their smartphone, hold it up in front of them, and activate the augmented reality application. The Figure 8: Yelp.com's Augmented Reality "Monocle" (Chan, 2011). application switches on the smartphone’s rear-facing camera, essentially giving the user the same view of the world on their smartphone’s screen, as they are seeing directly in front of themselves with their own eyes. Once the augmented reality application has determined the user’s position, the program overlays virtual signage on top of the live image coming from the camera. The resulting effect is that the user sees virtual information directly combined into the actual landscape, and thus providing additional information and context that is not possible otherwise (Champion, 2011, p. 187). An example of this type of augmented reality can be seen in Figure 8, which shows the “monocle” feature of the iPhone application connected to the Yelp.com review service. For all of the hyperreal benefits of the “enchanted window” system, it is not without its challenges. Like most LBS systems, this type of augmented reality relies upon GPS in order to determine its position. Unfortunately, while GPS can give the latitude and longitude of an individual, it is unable to determine which direction a person is facing. Directional information 123 requires that the mobile device have a built-in compass, which can be easily affected by nearby magnetic fields. Therefore, the augmented reality application may not perfectly overlay the virtual information on top of the real world image, if it has an erroneous compass direction reported by the device (Champion, 2011, p. 188). In addition, augmented reality systems currently do not take into account the presence of objects around the individual. An augmented reality system being used by a tourist visiting a city might deliver information about a business located one block away, but whose real-world visual identification is obscured by another building. The resulting effect is that the virtual sign in the augmented reality application is located in the correct direction, but is placed on top of the wrong structure, as the desired business lies beyond the building directly in front of the tourist (Champion, 2011, p. 188). Augmented reality applications have also been put to use in location-specific settings, with some museums using this ability to enhance interpretation of exhibits. In these instances, tourists are able to load a location-specific application on their phone, point his/her smartphone’s camera at a particular exhibit, and then the program uses image recognition to determine the tourist’s location in the museum, and which exhibit they are viewing. Additional information can then be delivered to the tourist, enhancing beyond what is currently available on fixed signage, and perhaps even deliver the information in the tourist’s native language (Rothfarb, 2011). These museum-based examples highlight one of the few current instances where LBS is dependent on locational methods that are not related to GPS usage. Conclusion Location-based services represent a useful, applied combination of mobile information and communication technologies that can be used to enhance the tourism experience. Users of programs like Foursquare and Gowalla are not only made aware of additional opportunities that 124 surround them, but are also rewarded for participating in local exploration. This can lead to additional knowledge of venues and events in a person’s place of residence, thus giving them the sensation of being a tourist in their own community. Similarly, access to this kind of information can accelerate knowledge acquisition in a foreign destination, and thus give an individual a level of knowledge which previously was only the domain of a local resident. While the current use of location-based services is fairly low, it is expected that their use will continue to rise, as people become aware of the benefits of using these services, and as they acquire devices that can make use of the services. Currently, most of these applications require the use of a “smartphone”: a phone that is equipped with GPS, wireless Internet capabilities, and the ability to install and run additional applications. As of July 2011, it is estimated that 35% of American adults own a smartphone device, and that percentage is only expected to rise (Smith, 2011). Consequently, it can be expected that as more smartphones enter the marketplace, there will be an associated rise in the use of location-based services. In addition, it is expected that there will be more applications that make use of location specific features, and will be integrated an element of the application, rather than existing as a stand-alone location-based program. Finally, it is expected that there will be a continued decline in the cost of GPS equipped devices. While mobile technologies have nearly always decreased in cost over time, there is the additional push which will come from the development of competing satellite navigation systems. Once GLONASS, Compass, and Galileo are fully operational and integrated into consumer devices, the added competition with GPS devices will likely push costs further down. This has the advantage of bringing more location-equipped devices into the marketplace, and thereby increasing the number of devices that can make use of location-based services. This should correspondingly lead to the additional development of location-based services, many of 125 which can be expected to be directly relevant to tourism since enhanced information in unknown settings is an obvious benefit to that type of experience. Location-based services represent the most current, and most visible combination of mobile communication and tourism, and that combination is not likely to come undone. As a result, new approaches need to be taken in the examination of tourism and mobile communication. This issue and other future issues are addressed in the next chapter. 126 CHAPTER 6 FUTURE DIRECTIONS In the introductory chapter to this dissertation it was stated that a primary purpose of this synthesis of research was to understand how tourism and information and communication technology (ICT) interact with each other, and how their associated fields of study can learn from each other. The author believes that this takes on increasing importance as previous concepts of “virtual worlds” and the physical world do not exist in separate spaces, but are intertwined aspects of one holistic reality. While the concept may take a while to be broadly accepted in society, it is already taking hold among younger generations (Benckendorff et al., 2010), and therefore it is likely only a matter of time before the idea of separate realms fades away. This combined sense of reality and its resulting effects is but one concept that needs to be considered when examining the future directions of tourism and ICT. This chapter begins by discussing a prior technology that once held the same sense of wonder that ICT holds today, but has since become part of everyday life. This serves as an apt metaphor for understanding the effects ICT may have on society in the future. The discussion then shifts to additional considerations and challenges that arise from ubiquitous connectivity in the tourism experience, which have not yet been covered in earlier chapters. That section is followed by a reconsideration of the mobilities paradigm, and some suggested alterations to the currently promoted model. The chapter concludes with a discussion of potential areas of research for future tourism, ICT, and mobilities scholars to explore. 127 Ubiquitous Electrification An understanding of what role the combination of tourism and ICT will have in the future can be partially understood through a brief examination of dramatic changes that have occurred to society in previous periods. Some of these changes have already been discussed in this dissertation: the arrival of the telegraph, the telephone, and the rise of the Internet-connected computers have all had a dramatic effect on how we communicate with each other, and how much time is required for that communication to transpire (the older asynchronous modes, versus the instantaneous nature of modern telecommunication). It has also produced the pronounced effect of altering the touristic experience through the blurring of the prior notions of “home” and “away.” There has been, however, a previous technological development which was said to herald a new dawn for humanity, and improve lives for everyone, and provides a useful metaphor for understanding the changing nature of ICT in society. That development was the electrification of homes and businesses, and the related development of electric lighting. The arrival of electrification and electric lighting for the masses amazed people in the late nineteenth century, and was regarded as a fantastic innovation for society. Vincent Mosco (1995) notes that a reporter at the 1894 Chicago World’s Fair was astounded by the displays of electricity and lighting that were present throughout the fairgrounds. The newness and spectacle of the lights prompted the reporter to describe the scene with a dramatic flair: Look from a distance at night, upon the broad space it fills, and the majestic sweep of the searching lights, and it is as if the earth and sky were transformed by the immeasurable wands of colossal magicians and the superb dome of the structure that is the central jewel of the display is glowing as if bound with wreaths of stars. It is electricity! When the whole casket is illuminated, the 128 cornices of the palaces of the White City are defined with celestial fire… the thunderbolts are harnessed at last. (Unnamed author as cited in: Mosco, 1995, p. 17) Electricity and electrical lighting were incredible spectacles of the modern age. In the 1880s, crowds would gather to see arc lighting in shop windows, and stand around the gates of lighted mansions. However, Mosco notes that by 1925 electricity and lighting had shifted from being a fantastic spectacle to an essential part of operating a business and conducting life. Although the dramatic wonder of the technology had faded away, it saw increasing application in work, military, social, and cultural life (Mosco, 1995). It had transitioned into a “mundane technology,” a technology which is so commonplace that the novelty has worn off, and is now “fully integrated into, and [is] an unremarkable part of, everyday life” (Dourish, Graham, Randall & Rouncefield, 2010, p. 171). Although electricity has transitioned into a mundane technology, it certainly does not mean that it has lost its impact on society. People experience moments of distress when power is lost to their home, and travelers are often in shock when they wander into human settlements that still lack electricity. Although certainly less prevalent today, there are likely still a few locations around the world where an “electrical divide” still exists. In addition, a mundane technology like electricity still finds new ways to be incorporated into people’s lives. It can change social interactions, and have both good and bad effects on society (Dourish et al., 2010). There are practical considerations, and there are ethical considerations that come with the use of electricity. But all of these concerns apply to any technology - new or mundane - although understanding and examining the interactions between a new technology and aspects of society gain increasing 129 significance and power once they have blended into the background of everyday life (Mosco, 1995). ICT’s Transition From Spectacle to Mundane Ubiquity Ubiquitous information and communication technology (ICT) - commonly encountered in the form of mobile telecommunication systems and devices - is currently in the latter stages of being a “spectacle.” It has faded from being a novel system of interaction that was exclusive to those who could afford the great expense associated with the technology and needed to use it on a regular basis. Quickly, though, it transitioned into a technology that nearly anyone could afford, but was often set aside for specialized roles such as for use in emergency situations when one was traveling by automobile (Küpper, 2005). Today, mobile telecommunications - in the form of cell phones and smartphones - has become a technology that is pervasive among all ages and many socioeconomic segments, and is even becoming a common technology in some of the poorer nations in Africa (Katz, 2008b). Still, we have reasons to continue the study of ubiquitous information and communication technology since it, like electricity, is becoming a mundane technology that will also likely see its greatest effects once it has become integrated into the more nuanced aspects of society. Tourism is clearly one of those aspects of society, as it comprises a significant portion of what John Urry (2007) refers to as the new “mobilities paradigm.” Yet, there are concerns of a “digital divide” that occurs not only in the general population, but also in the field of tourism itself (Minghetti & Buhalis, 2010). There is the belief that there will be great hindrances to some societal groups, because they do not have the same level of access to ICT as other societal groups. In addition, there are concerns of a “secondary digital divide,” in which people have access to new technologies, but find it so confusing that 130 they are unable to use it effectively (Minghetti & Buhalis, 2010). These are valid concerns in the present time, and they should certainly be addressed. However, it should be noted that these are far from being permanent conditions. Just as any sort of “electrical divide” faded over time, so will the digital divide. People will have access to ICT nearly anywhere they need it, and the engineers who work in user interface design and the study of human–computer interaction will continue to make advances that will make ICT use a natural, “low mental friction” experience. This is not a situation where there will always be “haves” and “have nots,” but rather “haves” and “have-laters” (Kelly, 2010). While studying the “divides” in ICT use and acceptance in tourism matters for the moment, there additionally needs to be focus on what will happen once ICT is fully ubiquitous around the world. Technologist Kevin Kelly (2010) notes that the largest positive and negative effects of a technology have occurred when everyone has access to that technology: automobiles led to suburbia, traffic jams, and urban sprawl; cameras led to photography, photojournalism, and a rich descriptions of distant lands (p. 274). Looking to the future, advances in transportation, the development of alternative energy engines, computerized traffic management systems, and Internet connectivity in every possible object will lead to a vastly different daily experience than the present. As an example, Google has been actively developing automobiles that are able to successfully drive themselves in traffic alongside human drivers, without needing to embed additional sensing systems in roadways, or create other infrastructure improvements (Markoff, 2010). Add in future vehicles that could communicate with each other via wireless data links and manage traffic situations automatically via a centralized routing database connected to the Internet, and the result could be far fewer accidents and an increased willingness for private, long haul travel. Looking ahead, researchers will need to focus on what 131 will happen as travel becomes cheaper and faster, and Internet connectivity finds its way into everyday objects. Additional Considerations and Challenges Earlier in this dissertation, a few of the potential effects of combined ICT and tourism were discussed. In areas related to motivation, it was noted that the use of social media and the act of traveling to meet someone aided in meeting an individual’s “hierarchy of needs” requirement for social interaction. In addition, it was discussed that both fields have separately been making great contributions to the newly emerging field of positive psychology, with both assisting in making good lives even better. The chapter on authenticity discussed how they use of ICT in the tourism setting has the potential to create a more existentially authentic experience. However, this situation also has the possibility of mentally drawing people out of their touristic experience and placing him/her in a decapsulated state, as was mentioned in the chapter on the blurring of “home” and “away.” Finally, the chapter on location-based services discussed a current, applied use of ICT in the tourism experience, and the potential of getting better, customized information directly to the tourist, and possibly engaging them even further through the process of gamification. Although numerous positive and negative effects of the use of ICT in tourism have been explored, there are other considerations and challenges that also merit discussion. The first of these is the recognition of the erosion of privacy. Inherently, the idea of decreased privacy in society can bring on thoughts of dread, feeling like one is under constant surveillance, and an overall sense that personal freedoms have been reduced or eliminated. Yet, there are problems with having too much privacy: namely, that it can impede the spread of truthful information (Solove, 2007, p. 182). Privacy makes it easier to hide the misdeeds of another person. This can 132 make it difficult for employers to hire honest workers, and has the potential of placing people in harm’s way if they had only known that the person they were interacting with was not to be trusted. It is the same reason that there have been calls for “transparency” in government operations (Lathrop & Ruma, 2010). The idea that the era of privacy is over has been gaining increasing prominence in the press. In January 2010, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a conference audience that if he were to re-create his famous social network site again, he would make user information visible to the public by default (Kirkpatrick, 2010b). Zuckerberg’s statement seems less shocking now than even a year ago, as people are becoming far more comfortable with sharing their private details with those that extend beyond close friends and family. With the advent of ubiquitous communication, and the ease of sharing information among many people, it has become increasingly difficult to keep personal information hidden. While the result has been that an individual will sense that he/she has less personal privacy, it should also be noted that nearly everyone has less personal privacy. Consequently, as awareness spreads that everyone has quirks and “flaws,” it becomes harder to criticize someone about those traits when we know that we are less-than-perfect, ourselves. The end of privacy may not be such a bad concept as it has the potential of leading to the overall betterment of society. As was noted by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place” (Kirkpatrick, 2010a). The elimination of privacy certainly has significant impacts on day-to-day life, and as a result will have impacts on tourism. A negative concern is that identity theft may become easier, and that travelers who have that theft occur while they are abroad may have greater difficulty in pursuing legal recourse. In addition, there is the possibility that scam artists might use personally 133 identifiable information in order to increase their success rate. However, that same personally identifiable information can lead to greater customization of the tourism experience. Lodging operators would have a better sense of the needs and demands of their guests, and that could potentially lead to a greater number of satisfied customers. As more information becomes available, the need for “one size fits all” tourism begins to disappear. When looking to the future of tourism, it is important to consider why people will continue to travel even as telecommunication methods improve. Right now, there are problems with having all of the nonverbal communication cues transmit effectively across a distance (Olson & Olson, 2000). However, it should not be assumed that these will remain a problem. ICT will continue to advance and improve, and the idea that we may have three dimensional, fully audio-visual, and realistic-looking communication methods should not be dismissed. Although it has been discussed that there will always be certain situations that require physical copresence - weddings, funerals, maintaining strong social ties, legal obligations, concerts, etc. there remains the question as to why a person might engage in physical travel for less demanding situations. The rationale to travel comes from those remaining situations that ICT will find difficult or impossible to mitigate: time and extreme distance. The first of these is the simple constraint of time. The ability to communicate with anyone in the world in a synchronous manner has not eliminated the need to consider each communicator’s place during his/her local time of day. If a tourist from New York City is visiting a friend in Tokyo, calling home and actually speaking with someone becomes a challenge. Due to locations on opposing sides of the planet, there are only a few times in each 24 hour span where both parties are likely awake, and not engaged in work or other activities (Harvey & Macnab, 2000). Despite all of the advances of modern communication, there is 134 simply no way to defy physics, bend space-time, and have a simultaneous conversation easily. Although issues of temporal accessibility can be resolved by simply making sure that both parties are in “near enough” time zones, if one party already has to physically travel in order to make the change to a better time zone, it is likely that he/she will simply travel the remaining few miles to see the other person face-to-face. Similarly, while most telecommunication systems transmit their messages at the speed of light, they are accordingly unable to exceed that speed. On Earth, this doesn’t present a problem as everything is close enough to each other that the tiny delay required to transmit a message around the world is not perceived to exist. However, people - and tourism - are not likely to remain fixed to Earthly travels forever. In 2012, Virgin Galactic is expected to start their first suborbital flights of Earth as the world’s first commercial space tourism enterprise (David, 2011). Those journeys will still be relatively close, but the extension of journeys toward the moon and beyond are not outside of the realm of possibility for occurring within the next century. Unfortunately, once we leave Earth significant delays in communication can occur. For example, it takes 1.3 seconds to transmit a message to the moon (double that in order to make the round trip). While that form of delay is fairly manageable, if we were to get travelers to our nearest planetary neighbor - Mars - the round trip communication delay is six minutes at best, and 42 minutes at worst, depending on where Earth and Mars are positioned in their respective solar orbits (ASA, 2011). Based on the most current scientific knowledge, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Therefore, once we move beyond Earth, humanity will once again be consciously aware that all forms of communication require some form of travel, and the future tourist on Mars will have to wait until they get home to share their adventures with their Earthbound social networks. 135 Mobilities, Redefined The challenges of understanding how ICT and tourism will interact in the coming years is an area ripe for study, and will provide numerous opportunities for academics interested in those subjects. The current challenge for academics, however, is attempting to understand where this topic “fits” among the various fields of inquiry. Throughout this dissertation, it has been suggested that attempting to define tourism as its own discipline is misguided, as Tribe (1997; 2000) has repeatedly suggested. Whether the business aspects of tourism or the social science aspects of tourism are being discussed, neither carries unique aspects which are not derived from, or can apply to other topics of study. When there are people who call themselves “tourism scholars,” they tend to describe their research has “tourism and…”. So, we have those who study “tourism and economics,” “tourism and marketing,” “tourism and geography,” “tourism and sociology,” etc. Each associates tourism in the context of another discipline, but finding a set a core concepts that ties together those subjects of inquiry is difficult to do. One suggestion that has been put forth is the idea of not placing tourism at the apex of a discipline, but as a component within a larger paradigm: the mobilities paradigm. The mobilities paradigm was introduced by John Urry (2002a), and has since been explored by a number of other scholars (Canzler, Kaufmann & Kesselring, 2008; Crang, 2011; Cresswell, 2006; Gale, 2008; Hannam et al., 2006; Larsen, 2008; Paris, 2010; Sheller & Urry, 2004). Unfortunately for the field of tourism studies, few of those scholars directly identified as being associated with tourism-related departments. In fact, following a recent survey of 67 academics in tourism studies, it was noted that, “…whilst the mobilities paradigm has enrolled scholars, journals, and books it has not successfully recruited mainstream tourism studies allies and it remains a network largely outside of tourism with only a small network overlap” (Tribe, 2010, p. 31). 136 As was outlined in the introduction, the mobilities paradigm covers a wide range of human activity that occurs while a person or that person’s ideas are in motion. It is the contention of mobilities scholars that it is the act of movement, and the structures that support that movement, which separates the mobilities paradigm from other aspects of life. The people described not only include tourists, but also refugees, commuters, the homeless, academic trailing spouses, and the movements of military forces (Urry, 2007, p. 10). The structures of mobilities include airports, highways, destinations, telecommunication systems, and mass media. While the mobilities paradigm clearly encompasses far more than what would be studied within the field of tourism, it fully contains “tourism studies,” and removes the academic scattering effect that has been present thus far (Hannam, 2009). This paradigm “recognizes the interconnected mobilities of a variety of individuals, including leisure shoppers, second home owners, entrepreneurial migrants, business travellers, ‘gap year’ students and a whole host of other people voluntarily on the move” (Gale, 2008, p. 2). When Urry defined the types of mobilities, he indicated that there were five: “corporeal travel” of people for various purposes; “object travel” of items moving to producers and consumers (also the movement of souvenirs); “imaginative travel” created in the mind through the consumption of print, audio, and visual media; “virtual travel” created in the world of the computer; and “communicative travel” which occurs as messages are sent person-to-person via any number of methods (Urry, 2007, p. 28). While Urry dedicates full chapters in his 2007 text to each of these five forms, and firmly believes in the self-containing nature of each, it is the author’s contention that Urry needlessly diversified the paradigm. The mobilities paradigm, like any paradigmatic approach, needs to be able to address the full range of issues that fall under its scope. However, one challenge in defining a paradigm is 137 that one must not be over-zealous in breaking down the paradigm into discrete, top-level categories. It is the author’s belief that the top level of segmentation in the mobilities paradigm should represent the specific types of mobilities that exist, defined by the types of travel that they represent. This results in a reduction of Urry’s five types of mobilities down a suggested three. The first two types of mobilities that Urry defines - corporeal travel and object travel - are effectively the same, depending upon whether the researcher is examining the viewpoint of the host or the guest. If the guest is being considered, then they are clearly engaging in corporeal travel as they are a physical body moving from one location to another. However, if the view is reversed to that of the host, then any item - including a tourist that is visiting - represents “object travel” from his/her point of view. Urry states that objects carry with them elements of their original culture, and transfer them to a new place (Urry, 2007, p. 51). For example, when a person in Michigan receives a teacup from a friend who is living in London, then that teacup brings a little bit of British culture with it. Yet, if that same British friend visits his/her Michigan connection, they effectively become a type of “object” that also brings a little bit of British culture along for the ride. The contention is that people may also be regarded as cultural objects, and therefore the movement of people may also be considered as “object travel”. While there is an understandable concern about this potentially being a dehumanizing approach, there is no loss of humanity if the study of people is kept separate from the study of objects further on in the breakdown of conceptualizing the mobilities paradigm as two sub-subfields. However, it should be recognized that both objects and people - in their engagement of physical movement across the landscape - represent one cohesive form of mobility, and thus should be represented as one primary mobility under the proposed heading of “physical travel.” 138 The second area where Urry ideally should have combined his forms of mobilities are in the final two he mentions: virtual travel and communicative travel. Both forms are intended to cover the various methods of telecommunication, but differ in the perceived “destination.” In virtual travel, the destination is located in a virtual space, such as Google Earth or other simulated environments like Second Life. In communicative travel, the destination is another person, but the “travel” occurred through a telecommunications medium, such as the telephone, fax, or various person-to-person computer-mediated communication methods. While corporeal and object travel are both physical forms of travel, virtual and communicative travel both represent electronic forms of travel where people can effectively be in two or more places at once (where they are physically located and where their message is being received). The major flaw in his recent separation of virtual and communicative travel is that communicative travel can occur within a virtual travel environment. Urry’s exploration of virtual travel only discusses the nature of the virtual space and how interacting in that space differs from the physical world (Urry, 2007, p. 162). When he switches to communicative travel, he discusses the effects of a person achieving multi-locality resulting from the high-speed nature of telecommunication (Urry, 2007, p. 175). However, it is highly likely that a person will communicate with another real person while in a virtual environment, and not just communicative agents in the software of the virtual world. In this respect, both individuals in the virtual space are engaging in virtual travel and they are engaging in communicative travel, since they are both in a virtual space and have achieved multi-locality with respect to each other. The lack of exclusivity between these two forms of travel that Urry proposed makes them a messy proposition with which to contend. Since it’s the author’s belief that these highest levels of the division within the mobilities paradigm should represent the specific types of travel, and that 139 both Urry’s concepts of virtual travel and communicative travel are effectively the same form of travel (travel achieved through telecommunication) it is suggested that these be combined into one grouping. Further, since “communicative travel” can realistically encompass both forms, that is the name suggested for use. The one form of travel that the author believes Urry correctly identified is that of “imaginative travel.” All of the other earlier forms of travel discussed involve the movement of things or ideas from one place to another. With imaginative travel, there is only a solitary journey which takes place in the mind of the “traveler.” When a person is reading a book, watching a movie, listening to a piece of music, holding a souvenir, or visiting a website, they are mentally transported to a different place (Urry, 2007, p. 169). Some may find themselves in a fantasy world, while others may be dreaming of, or remembering, an actual place. This is similar to tourists who buy a bottle of wine from their destination so that they may think upon, and imaginatively traveled back to, the location represented by that wine. Imaginative travel is distinctly different from physical travel and communicative travel, and therefore should retain its primary division within the mobilities paradigm. In summary, the author believes that Urry’s concepts of “corporeal travel” and “object travel” should be combined into “physical travel,” that “virtual travel” and “communicative travel” should simply be regarded as “communicative travel,” and that “imaginative travel” should retain its status as a separate travel form within the mobilities paradigm. Therefore, this combines Urry’s five forms of travel down to a proposed three, as Table 5 summarizes. It should also be noted that while no tourism or mobilities scholar has directly suggested this form of recombination, a very similar concept has been expressed in the study of communication. Martin 140 Table 5: Summary of Proposed Changes to Travel Types in the Mobilities Paradigm Urry’s Travel Types Description of Travel Corporeal Travel Travel of people for work, leisure, family life, pleasure, migration, and escape. Object Travel Physical movement of objects to producers, consumers, and retailers; also sending/receiving of presents. Imaginative Travel Images of places and peoples appearing in one’s mind from interaction with media and associative objects. Virtual Travel Travel to virtual spaces Communicative Travel Travel through person-to-person messages via email, SMS, telegraph, and telephone. Suggested Travel Types } } } Physical Travel Imaginative Travel Communicative Travel (Based on Urry, 2007). Dijst (2009) has described three forms of presence, which he calls corporeal presence, connected presence, and mental presence (p. 62). These closely match the author’s suggestion of physical travel, communicative travel, and imaginative travel as the three primary divisions within the mobilities paradigm, and feels that this lends support to making the change. Whether or not the author’s reconstruction of mobilities is adopted, the ideas presented in this dissertation provide a stepping-stone toward future research opportunities. From this, and other topics that have been addressed in this dissertation, suggestions for future research will be discussed. 141 Implications and Applications Within any domain of inquiry, there is the perpetual question of, “why should this particular area be researched?” While there is always the readily available response that any search into the human condition is a valid one, that isn’t the type of response which is likely to get projects funded. Therefore, it is vital to recognize who would benefit from a particular kind of research - in this case, the research into the social effects of mobile information and communications technology in tourism, i.e. the newly emerging field of mobilities. There are a number of stakeholders who could benefit from increased research in the domain of the social effects of mobile information and communications technology within tourism. First, and most obviously, is the academic community of tourism researchers. As stated previously, the quest for the expansion of understanding of the human condition is a valid reason in and of itself, and it is this curiosity which can frequently drive the academic into their course of study. Beyond expanding knowledge in the field of tourism, much of this information is additionally pertinent to those studying communications, computer science, information & media studies, anthropology, psychology, and sociology. Outside of the academic sphere are public and private agencies which have a stake in the affected people and technologies. Numerous technology companies, especially those which have a hand in the mobile information and communications technology industry, have a desire to know precisely how their customers are putting their products to use. The inherently mobile nature of their equipment naturally means that these items will find themselves in touristic situations. By understanding how these devices are being used, the related companies can work to produce better technologies for their consumers to use. Nokia is among the leaders in the private research of the social effects of mobile information and communications technologies, 142 which operates a subsidiary of the company under the banner of Nokia Research. As Nokia already provides an extensive portfolio of cellular telephones in worldwide distribution, owns and manages a variety of mobile computing operating systems, and acquired the navigation and mapping company Navteq, it has a very high interest in understanding the social impacts of those technologies. Nokia Research has been publishing its own studies for a number of years, and readily shares its information with the academic community. However, it also notes that it is always looking for new information, and would be a likely consumer of studies generated by academics at universities. Additionally, there are companies like Microsoft, which recently launched a Tourism Industry division within their company as part of their Worldwide Public Sector Group. As with Nokia, Microsoft aims to better understand the human-computer interactions of its technologies. The final group of stakeholders which would benefit are those directly in the tourism industry. Travel agents and booking operations need to understand how to get information to their customers during their excursions, and what approaches ensure the greatest success. Additionally, destinations are seeking out new ways to make guests aware of the services, attractions, and amenities available, and how to best get out that information when dealing with individuals who are unfamiliar with the “lay of the land,” and who may be using outdated travel guides as their source of information. The same guests also have a desire to know how they can contact help (for information purposes or safety purposes), how to contact friends and relatives, and how to get directions to where they need to go. An understanding of the social effects of mobile information and communications technology can ease these concerns, and create a better overall experience for the guest. 143 Aside from the affected stakeholders, there are also the actual implications that have arisen resulting from the research presented in this dissertation. First, there is the dominance of the role of authenticity in the tourism experience, irrespective of the challenges that the term has encountered among tourism scholars. Objective authenticity is a desirable goal, where possible, and subjective authenticity is something which can also be advocated by the host site, in recognizing the illusion it is trying to present, without passing it off as being objectively authentic, and thus losing the trust of guests should they find out “the truth.” More importantly, though, should be the goal of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and host communities to work toward empowering guests to have existentially authentic experiences. A common linkage found in the research is that many existentially authentic experiences arise from being directly engaged in the host community and its cultural experiences. Therefore, hosts who focus on the involvement of guests - and not merely presentations to the guests - are more apt to create these kinds of experiences. In addition, conveying the “why” behind cultural traditions and institutions helps inform guests and enables them to appreciate the culture in a manner similar to the host community members themselves. This has the benefit of not only creating existential authenticity but also aids in the production of satisfaction with the experience. It also has the potential of leading toward Maslow’s concept of self-actualization. A final implication is the necessity for DMOs to look into getting involved with the rising use of location-based services (LBS). Even though the latest statistics put LBS usage at only four percent of smartphone users (Zickuhr & Smith, 2010), the increasing presence and development of devices which employ positioning technologies and geocoded information accessible through ubiquitous networks indicates that that these kinds of services will only increase in usage. It is entirely possible that current LBS services such as Foursquare and Gowalla will not be the 144 dominant services in use five or ten years into the future. However, services that provide LBS information will continue to exist - and thrive - and it is vital for DMOs to make a jump into these services early on as to not find themselves in the position of “catching up” to understand the usage scenarios for the technology later on. Resolving potential challenges while the technology is still in the “early adopter” stage will permit easier transition and fewer issues when these kinds of services become more widely adopted. Future Research Possibilities Engaging in tourism research under the banner of the mobilities paradigm provides for some exciting and interesting opportunities. The recognition that the real and the virtual are part of one reality, and that ubiquitous, always-on communication will be a part of nearly every tourism experience in the future creates new opportunities for understanding the roles that tourism and the hyper-connected individual will play in society. One area that has the potential for generating a significant benefit for society lies in the study of mobilities/tourism from a positive psychology perspective. Both the social connections which are made through communication and those made through tourism are in the very early stages of being examined in the roles they play towards producing improved lives and better psychological health. Current research has largely focused on applying this perspective in theory, with little quantitative research occurring. While there are colloquial examples of using social networks and tourism (communicative and physical travel in the mobilities paradigm) to produce greater life satisfaction, additional examples are needed. This would serve not only to benefit business interests which desire the promotion of tourism and/or communication services, but it could also point the way toward activities and methods of engagement which can assist people in leading happier, and more satisfying lives. 145 In association with continuing the research into the positive psychological benefits of physical and communicative travel, it would be useful to further examine why some individuals choose to reject some of the advances which have been made, with particular regard to mobile information and communication technologies. This does not refer to the person who chooses to leave their mobile phone or computer behind while on vacation, but rather the individual who chooses not to have access to mobile information and communications technology in any part of their daily lives. It has been observed that some nonusers are maintaining reluctance to acquire mobile communication means, even when they have experienced theft or other negative situations which may have been prevented (or at least mitigated) had they had access to a communication means. Conversely, there is the situation that even the Amish - a group well known for its avoidance of modern technology - extends an exception for the mobile phone, as they do not see it as being an isolating luxury item (Katz, 2008b). Rather, the Amish see the mobile phone as a method to achieve stronger community bonds, and therefore accept its use. Finally, there needs to be additional research which looks beyond the individual telecommunication and computer-mediated communication devices and services that are used in the tourism experience. It is too easy to get caught up in the latest social network or digital gadget and examine its specific use in tourism, without looking at the broader scope as to how it affects the nature of tourism. As noted by Mokhtarian (2009) in her research on social networks and telecommunications, “Technological changes are outpacing the ability of research to keep up. As a result, there is almost always a lag of some years between the introduction and/or modification of new technologies, and an evidence-based understanding of their effects” (p. 430). It is certainly possible to understand some of the broader concepts based upon the study of specific technologies and services, so long as experiments are not declared as failures when the 146 broader effects of these technologies and services are not immediately understood. Later metaanalysis of the specific studies may cast light on the more subtle changes in human behavior. In addition, by applying this research within the community of scholars that are focused on the mobilities paradigm, there is the potential of greater cross-communication between those who are approaching the study of people on the move from sociological, psychological, communication, and anthropological perspectives. As these groups work together, knowledge has the potential to be created faster, and with fewer isolated redundancies in research. Revisiting the Research Goals As indicated in the first chapter of this dissertation, there are six research goals for this dissertation. In summation, here are the goals and how they were achieved: 1. Examine the commonalities that currently exist between tourism and communication, with regards to understanding the motivation for participation in either activity. In the second chapter of the dissertation, the role of motivation in both tourism and communication was thoroughly examined, and resolved that they both converge upon the common point that motivation for connection through travel or communication comes about through the desire for social contact with other people, places, and cultures. In addition, it was illustrated in the chapter that both can additionally contribute to and understanding of human social connectedness through the emerging field of positive psychology. 2. Illustrate the commonalities in the concept of authenticity that exists between tourism and communication. The issue of authenticity was examined in the third chapter of the dissertation, and united tourism and communication as combining under the banner of existential authenticity. As this was the form of authenticity which was most directly attributed to a person sensing a 147 feeling of “true self,” it added additional support toward the prior chapter’s concept of motivation, since the notion of “true self” supported motivational needs which exist at higher levels in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In short, the examination of authenticity yielded additional support of the common links between communication and tourism, and thus contributed toward support of studying both fields under a common paradigm. 3. Fully demonstrate that the combined, concurrent notion of home and away has led to a new form of study convergent on the mobilities paradigm In the most extensive chapter of the dissertation, the fourth chapter on the changing nature of “home” and “away” contained supporting information that the prior home/away dichotomy has blurred, and a more useful approach in research might be to consider the encapsulated/decapsulated mental states. This argues against the idea that “tourism is dead,” but provides support that the increased role of mobile information and communication technology and ubiquitous connectivity in the tourism setting has led to the need to reconceptualize how researchers understand what it means to be a “tourist” and what constitutes a touristic experience. 4. Present the practical application of tourism and communication through the new role of location-based services. The fifth chapter of the dissertation contained the description of the technologies which permitted location-based services were developed, and followed with the examples of two of the most prominent services at the time of writing: Foursquare and Gowalla. This direct, applied combination of tourism and mobile communication demonstrates one application of this combination, and provides foundational examples of what kinds of services that tourism providers can expect with which to be engaged in future years. 148 5. Develop and discuss proposed changes to the current description of the mobilities paradigm. The current chapter contains the description of the original forms of travel within the mobilities paradigm, as proposed by John Urry, and then goes on to support the rationale behind reducing the number of primary categories from five to three. In particular it was noted that the corporeal and object travel modes should simply be regarded as “physical travel,” that virtual and communicative modes should be grouped as “communicative travel,” and that “imaginary travel” should retain its independent designation. 6. Discuss future impacts and directions for the modified mobilities paradigm in tourism. This current chapter also detailed the implications and applications of the research presented in this dissertation, and followed with a section for proposed future research for tourism and/or communication scholars. Through the examples listed herein, the author hopes that a suitable base for future research and application of the revised mobilities paradigm has been achieved. Final thoughts The concept of what it means to engage in tourism has changed a great deal since the arrival of telecommunications systems, and the transition from being connected to places to being connected to people. Being “home” or “away” no longer represents the concrete dichotomy that it used to. Wherever we go, we sense the “absent presence” of the people in our social networks. Our friends, family, and colleagues are a phone call, text message, e-mail, or Facebook post away. Tourism does not mean that we need to leave the people we love behind, and our level of interaction is only constrained by our willingness to make the connection. Similarly, we are able to use the thoughts and advice of strangers to investigate new places in our 149 hometowns and other locales of familiarity. We travel physically through space, communicatively through our technologies, and then imaginatively through our memories. There are, of course, concerns about becoming too reliant on the technological means that have given rise to ubiquitous connectivity. As far back as 1909, E.M. Forster wrote a story called “The Machine Stops” that is eerily applicable to 21st century life. The story envisions a society of people who live in isolated, honeycomb-style rooms, their world brought completely to them through audio and video technologies. The story is a dystopian fiction, and naturally things do not end well for humanity. It serves as a caution against our dependence on technology, and that physical human interaction is necessary to survive (Forster & Mengham, 1909/1997). Fortunately, as mentioned earlier in this dissertation, there is already research showing that ubiquitous connectivity is not leading to isolation, but is leading to the ability for people to maintain social bonds over greater distances. If those social bonds are strong, then there is a motivation to partake in physical travel on occasion, as there seems to be an intrinsic notion that the maintenance of strong bonds requires occasional physical copresence. When travel cannot occur, however, the lightweight methods of contact permitted through modern technology assist in keeping those bonds alive, when they may have faded away in the past. Ubiquitous connectivity is preserving and enhancing our need for social connectedness, rather than destroying it. To examine tourism in a society of ubiquitous connectivity is to examine tourism in the current reality, and to prepare for the realities of tomorrow. Although some may rail against the pervasiveness of technology in our lives, there should be no belief in the illusion that these advances might someday be reversed. Society will take its developments and build on top of 150 those to create technologies, methods of communication, and modes of travel that we cannot yet envision. As noted by technologist Kevin Kelly, There is nothing we have invented to date about which we’ve said, “It’s smart enough.” In this way the ubiquity of…technology is insatiable. 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