Master Programme in Sustainable Management

Class of 2015/2016

Master Thesis 15 ECTS

A critical discourse analysis of the

magazine Gotland 2016

in the context of sustainability

Uppsala University Campus Gotland

Wenjie Hu

Supervisors: Anna Ljung, Jenny Helin

I

Abstract

This master thesis aims to examine texts of an international tourism promotional

magazine Gotland 2016 to figure out whether it will help or on the contrary hinder

sustainable development. Though promoters and writers held the beliefs to sustain

tourism by prolonging tourism seasons and attracting international tourists, to our

bewilderment, they not only failed to stick to its point as such but also expressed the

opposite thoughts and notions among the texts. During the process of the analysis, the

author found out that in Gotland 2016, the images of Visby, oceans scenes, summer,

nature / tourist scenes and exoticism are strengthened while the opposite of these

images are inevitably weakened simultaneously, which obstruct the extension of

tourism seasons as well as lowering expectations for international tourists. This, in the

long run, will hinder continuous development of local area in economic, environment

and social sense. Particularly in this master thesis, social sustainability is discussed with

priority since it is always likely to be overlooked and seen as less important than other

aspects of sustainable tourism. In consequence, it is suggested that the wellbeing of

local communities is equally important as environment protection and economic

growth when promoting tourism development.

Key words: Tourism, Sustainability, Power, Critical Discourse Analysis

II

Summary

An official promotional tourism magazine generally reveal the needs of tourism

destinations and reflect the thoughts of writers. The purpose of this master thesis is to

analyze the texts of Gotland 2016 to probe ideas and thoughts of magazine writers,

examining the relationship between the contents of magazine and sustainable

development of Gotland. As for Gotland 2016, promoters and writers are willing to

prolong tourism seasons and attract international tourists in order to sustain tourism

situation on a consecutive yearly level. Interestingly, through the process of this master

thesis, the author found out that they failed to stick to their original thoughts which

simultaneously hindered sustainable development of Gotland.

To analyze and explain texts of Gotland 2016, Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to

argue the phenomena of empowerment and disempowerment as well as sustainable

concepts revealed in Gotland 2016. A textual corpus collected from Gotland 2016 is

used by means of content and semiotic analysis. Four interviews from two interviewees

were conducted during the process to provide first-hand information from a

professional perspective.

The discussion of the empirical results proves that the empowerment of Visby, oceans

scenes, summer, nature scenes / tourists and exoticism will inevitably weaken the

presence of other places in Gotland, other scenes, other seasons, local residents and the

own characteristics of Gotland. The imbalance of the content presentation hinders

sustainable development of Gotland. It also leads to a phenomenon that ordinary life is

very much missing in Gotland 2016, indicating that over emphasis of environment

usually weakens social parts. In consequence, a healthy and sustainable development

of a tourism destination is supposed to be treated in a holistic manner, combining

economic, environmental and social parts all together, especially social sustainability

that is often overlooked by tourism marketers and promoters.

III

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. The definition of sustainability in the context of tourism 4

2.1 Sustainable tourism 4

2.2 The Model of Sustainable Tourism 5

2.3 Often ignored “pillar”: social sustainability 7

2.4 Sustainable perspectives of Island tourism 9

2.5 Practical tool of examining sustainability 10

3. Power as a lens 11

3.1 Power in general 11

3.2 Power in tourism 12

3.3 Power in pictures 13

3.4 Dichotomy of Power 13

4. Research Methodology 15

4.1 Critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a method 15

4.1.1 CDA 15

4.1.2 CDA and Power 17

4.2 Data Selection and Collection 18

4.3 Data Analysis 20

4.3.1 Content analysis 21

4.3.2 Semiotic analysis 22

5. Empirical findings 25

5.1 Why Gotland makes the case 25

5.2 Textual corpus 27

5.3 Content Analysis 30

5.4 Semiotic Analysis 34

6. Analysis 37

6.1 Dichotomy of power in Gotland 2016 37

6.2 From translation to creation 43

7. Conclusions 45

Acknowledgements 47

References 48

Appendix 57

1

1. Introduction

When it comes to views of island tourism, it is not hard to imagine trippers-packed

summer beaches with tourists happily filling up the seafront area like countless

dumplings in a tiny pot. These island-related images seem to be conventional with three

obvious features: seasonal, populous and domestic. In other words, island tourism is

likely to flourish during summer vacations with typical sun and sand scenes, attracting

tourists to visit from all around the world. Except for globally sought-after island

destinations, however, island tourism at large tends to mainly attract domestic tourists

rather than international tourists.

As time goes by, sun and sand tourism destinations in Europe find themselves difficult

to keep their market share (European Communities, 2003). Moreover, seasonality is

regarded as one of the major problems for Europe’s tourism sector, which is to say for

some of the European tourist destinations, they are largely influenced by alternating of

seasons and are virtually empty except for summer holidays (Złotowski, 2016). This is

getting in the way of continuity of tourism development as well as economic growth.

As a result, tackling seasonality, namely, promoting all-year-round tourism is seen as

an effective way to sustain tourism from economic perspective. One way of achieving

this is by attracting international tourists who have different vacation period and are

available for not-so-peak seasons (Eriksson, 2016a).

How can tourism destinations accomplish this? As an effective channel between

destinations and tourists, tourism promotional magazines, intervening between

vacation industry and vacationing public, play a unique part in marketing travel (Popp,

2012). Thus, international magazines are rightly applied in tourism promoting process.

English, as an international language and a lingua franca, plays a salient role and

becomes increasingly important amid the burgeoning international tourism. Especially

in non-English speaking countries, English availability is highly expected by

international tourists (Traiger, 2008). Good texts communication skills in English are

2

of great importance and regarded as a vital medium to any hospitality practitioners

(Kang & Yu, 2011; Otilia, 2013). Under this trend, the sorts of texts that tourism

destinations insert to influence the first impression and anticipatory behaviors of

international tourists are undoubtedly important.

Thus, the researches towards English tourism promotional materials are discerned to be

significant. On the one hand, it exerts consequential impacts on proliferating

international tourists; on the other hand, it wakes up the awareness of destination

marketers and promoters to create materials in a more conscious and holistic manner

instead of only sending out superficial information of tourism attractions. In this master

thesis, the author will therefore conduct a critical discourse analysis (CDA) towards an

international magazine Gotland 2016, a virtually official promoting magazine of island

Gotland, Sweden.

This master thesis attempts to figure out what has Gotland 2016 done to sustain tourism

when it is faced with status nuisance of seasonal tourism as well as needs of attracting

international tourists. The result, however, is beyond expectation. According to the

interviews with officers in charge of promoting local tourism in Gotland, it seems that

they hold the beliefs of sustaining tourism by prolonging tourism seasons and attracting

international tourists among others. Gotland 2016, to our bewilderment, actually fails

to stick to its point as such. Or rather, the thoughts of sustaining Gotland tourism are

not successfully conveyed from good will to magazine contents. And worse to come,

the contents of Gotland 2016 may on the contrary hinder sustainability of Gotland

tourism. How could this happen?

In this study, the contents of Gotland 2016 will be interpreted and decoded to examine

how are sustainable practices are unexpectedly hindered in tourist destination.

Questionable attempts of promoting sustainable tourism will be depicted. During the

process, the author, by using the lens of dichotomy of power, tries to question what is

missing behind the texts of the magazine. By applying this, it is revealed that

3

consolidation for some of the images will inevitably weaken or even destroy the rest,

which will consequently destruct the sustainable development of the long-term tourism.

It is noteworthy that we are not virtually searching for texts in Gotland 2016 which

reveal the wrongdoing against sustainability. By examining information delivered by

Gotland 2016, we tend to uncover what is strengthened, what is weakened, and how

can this blemish sustainable development of island tourism.

To quote a sentence from Dei, Karumanchery and Karumanchery-Luik (2004):

The words themselves are innocuous, but they act as a delivery system for the

potentially violating meanings hidden within.

In consequence of this, CDA will be applied to argue the phenomena of empowerment

and disempowerment as well as sustainability concepts revealed in Gotland 2016. A

textual corpus collected from Gotland 2016 will be used by means of content and

semiotic analysis. When it comes to sustainability in the context of tourism, however,

what are we actually talking about?

4

2. The definition of sustainability in the context of tourism

What is sustainable tourism in your mind? Does it mean tourists are supposed to travel

in a green and eco way? Does it mean destination municipalities need to promote

tourism economies as well as protecting natural environment? Does it mean local

stakeholders are expected to cooperate with government in a holistic manner so as to

achieve a win-win situation of living in wellbeing and increase tourism-related

revenues simultaneously? Do these thoughts accurately represent sustainability

concepts in the context of tourism? Partially, yes. Sustainable tourism includes all of

the concepts mentioned above but shall also be interpreted from another angle in this

master thesis: social sustainability.

In this part, the concept of sustainable tourism will be introduced first as an overview.

After that, a typical model of sustainable tourism will be used to illustrate the

uniqueness of sustainable tourism in comparison to sustainability notions in other

disciplines. In addition, social sustainability as a least discernible concept will be put

forward while the lack of consideration for social sustainability by previous researches

will be further emphasized in the perspective of island tourism. Finally, the necessity

of this master thesis will be proved in a practical manner.

2.1 Sustainable tourism

Changing the world is said to be an aspiration. Sustaining the world is said to be a

necessity (James, 2015).

Sustainability can never be regarded as more important since it is directly related to the

survival of human beings: a necessity for human society in time and space. Since the

definition of sustainability that is broadly accepted was put forward in “Brundtland-

Report” in 1987 (Meuser & von Peinen, 2013), almost thirty years have passed and it

is no longer a niche subject (Spindler, 2013). Meanwhile, the idea of sustainability has

gradually been implanted in every aspect of our life including tourism management

5

both theoretically and practically (Lominé & Edmunds, 2007) as well as becoming a

vital agenda item for tourism (Hall & Lew, 1998). As Taleb Rifai, the Secretary-

General of UNWTO, mentioned, the forceful performance in tourism sector contributes

to economic growth and job creation, as a result of which, countries are required to

make plans to realize the development of travel facilitation, human resources and

sustainability (Gomez Sobrino, 2016). Thus, it is clearly noticeable that in response to

economic benefits from the proliferation of tourism and the continuity of tourism

industry, sustainability is one of the core elements that should be engaged in.

Sustainability in tourism is often discussed as sustainable tourism, which can be defined

as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and

environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment

and host communities” (UNEP & UNWTO, 2005). It is closely related to natural

environment and is being socially acceptable and empathetic to tourism destinations in

both culture and environment context (Meuser & von Peinen, 2013). From this

definition, we can still sense the application of universally agreed three pillars of

sustainability, also known as “Triple Bottom Line” (Elkington, 1994): economic, social

and environmental. The stakeholders include external participants such as visitors as

well as internal participants like industrial actors and host communities. It is interesting

to notice that the word environment(-), as is mentioned twice in the short definition of

sustainable tourism cited above, indicates its likelihood of environment being seen as a

basic and core perspective in sustainable tourism. This will be further demonstrated in

the following part.

2.2 The Model of Sustainable Tourism

The Model of Sustainable Tourism is applied to ulteriorly explain what is regarded as

sustainable tourism. In this model, a base and four pillars are adapted in comparison to

three pillars of sustainability: Environment is deemed as the base of sustainable tourism,

over which economy, culture, social and recreation interact together to set up the

6

elements of sustainable tourism. Culture and recreation are newly added pillars and

environment is put in the basic position of sustainable tourism. This implies the concept

of environment is more distinguished than economic and social aspects while recreation

illustrates the uniqueness and challenges of sustainable tourism.

Figure: Model of Sustainable Tourism (Spindler, 2013, p.26)

In his paper, Spindler (2013) emphasized the importance and necessity of sector-

specific additions to the model. For instance, in the Model of Sustainable Tourism, the

involvement of recreation, which is considered to be core activity of tourism, implies

particularity of tourism in the context of sustainability. This supports the notion that

tourism is defined as travelling for pleasure at large (Otilia, 2013). If we google “what

is tourism”, the first piece of explanation we got is that tourism is “the commercial

organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest” (Google, no date).

We can therefore speculate that in general people tend to regard tourism as an “industry”

to meet people’s needs for pleasure through which it becomes the chief player in

7

international commerce and the fastest growing economic sectors in the world

(UNWTO, no date).

Tourism is also characterized by Higgins-Desbiolles (2004) as a powerful social force

that is “harnessed to meet human development imperatives and the wider public good”

(p. 1192), which is seen as a forgotten power of tourism. If conducted in the right way,

tourism can contribute to wellbeing of human society on a big scale. In consequence, it

is necessary to strengthen the bond between tourism and sustainability without ignoring

the fact that tourism industry is originally designed and developed with the core notion

to chase after pleasure, which is regarded as the most intrinsic good in the context of

hedonism (Moore, 2013). This makes it challengeable and even more interesting to dig

the concept of sustainability behind tourism.

2.3 Often ignored “pillar”: social sustainability

Sustainability of tourism is often highly related to environment, the idea of which is

supported by ecotourism, a popular form of sustainable tourism. It represents

sustainable development for many destinations (Meuser & von Peinen, 2013).

Ecotourism has been discussed saliently in the past thirty years, encouraging people to

travel responsively to natural areas that conserves the environment (International

Ecotourism Society, 1990, cited in Honey, 2008, p. 6). In this case, tourism is naturally-

based and is more responsible to environmentalist pursuits, namely promoting tourism

by respecting natural resources and raising environmental awareness of participants

(Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2006). This, however, reveals another phenomenon:

environmental perspective is in general seen in the core and dominant position in

comparison to social aspect in the concept of sustainability. It is supported by Lehtonen

(2011) that compared to the other two pillars of sustainability, the pillar of economy

and society, sustainability is often discussed in the context of environment as well as in

the interaction between economy and environment. Social dimension is seen to be the

least discernible part.

8

It is difficult to foreground social sustainability since “social” is too vague to define.

Generally, social sustainability concept includes basic values of equity and human

rights. It also endeavors to strike a balance between development and harmonious

evolution of society (Sachs, 1999; Polese & Stren, 2000). It is noticeable that the

concept of social sustainability is only seriously taken into consideration in late 1990s

(Hediger, 2000). Moreover, social dimension is often discussed in association with

environmental politics rather than independent social sector, let alone prioritized in

sustainability concept (Colantonio & Dixon, 2011). It is supported by Littig and

Griessler (2005) who argued that social sustainability should signify nature-society

relationships. Thus, it is understandable that social sustainability is only taken as a

“pillar” while environment is chosen as the “base” in the model shown before. However,

recent researches of sustainability also argue that all dimensions of sustainability are

supposed to be social. In other words, sustainable issues are inevitably in connection

with human social life (James, 2015).

Similarly, Spindler (2013) presented six “basic principles” for models of sustainable

development including tourism industry, which are: intergenerational justice, capacity

for regeneration, law of succinctness, reduction in risk, absorption capacity, ecological-

economic value creation (p. 26-27). Except for Principle 1, all of the principles left are

environment- or nature- related, which indicates that sustaining environment and nature

is regarded as the priority of sustainable tourism. The empowerment of environment

part inevitably weakens social perspective. Faced with this dilemma, the concept of

sustainability should not only refer to all kinds of tourism and various types of

destinations, but also deal equally with all perspectives of sustainable tourism. In other

words, we should not ignore social sustainability even if environmental and economic

perspectives are comparatively easier to discern and observe. On the contrary, it is more

significant to study and emphasize social sustainability because of its ambiguity and

potentiality. In the following part, the requirement for researches to focus more on the

area of social sustainability is further stressed in island tourism.

9

2.4 Sustainable perspectives of Island tourism

The study of island tourism is special because isolation of islands maintains the study

at a level that is not possible in other tourism destinations (Carlsen & Bulter, 2011). On

the one hand, special features for islands make them become implications of the

paradise and unique cultures; on the other hand, many islands experience more

landscape changes and social shock due to structural weaknesses caused by isolation of

island. Islands often own smaller scale of economy and rely heavily on agriculture.

Meanwhile, their geographical specificity makes them hard to get access to with limited

infrastructure (Carlsen & Bulter, 2011). In addition, islanders are often taken as exotic

dwellers from another life “interrupted” by tourists. All of these factors determine

island tourism to be distinctive from other types of tourism. This uniqueness, in return,

implies that island tourism is more fragile and delicate, which makes it important and

challengeable to discuss island tourism in the context of sustainability.

In sustainable island tourism, indigenous residents are at stake to be placed on the back

burner, which is to say, they often play a minor role in the sustainable development in

island tourism. This also reflects in sustainable island tourism studies that researchers

tend to consider wellbeing of indigenous residents as less important in comparison to

other stakeholders. For instance, in his paper of Challenges to Sustainable Development

in Island Tourism, Nižić et al. (2010) stressed that factors related to environmental

protection and tourist and visitor safety are deemed as main factors in the future

sustainable development of the island. Meanwhile, local communities are asked to

support and integrate instead of being treated as hosts and promotion ambassadors of

the island. But researchers in this area started to realize the interactions between

different stakeholders in island tourism are crucial to steady and long-term development

of island tourism, especially when stakeholders with powers such as governmental

agencies blame other stakeholders for not behaving satisfactorily (Ross & Wall, 1999;

Andriotis & Vaughan, 2003; Ho et al., 2013). Apart from this, site development as well

10

as roles of events, heritage and festivals in island tourism are studied by many

researchers (Ryan, 1993).

2.5 Practical tool of examining sustainability

It is argued by some critics that the endeavors in achieving sustainable tourism has

concentrated on theorizing and policy formulation (Ali & Frew, 2013) which requires

the practical tools to translate sustainable ideas into action (Coccossis 1996; Wright

1998; cited in Ali & Frew, 2013, p. 3). Moreover, tourism research can be perceived

not only as strategies to solve problems but also “as a field that is politically,

economically, culturally and environmentally manageable for a variety of agencies and

structures” (Hannam & Knox, 2005). When it comes to sustainable practice, attempts

have been made by “developing indicators, monitoring, eco-labelling, codes of conduct,

educating the tourist” (Ali & Frew, 2013, p. 3). When conducting those practices, it is

often seen in the context of education, business, media, politics and natural environment

(Horrigan, 2013). The notion of sustainability can also be inserted in the process of

communication such as presenting of textual materials for tourism. The practice of

sustainability in the context of communication is carried out in a comparatively

invisible way in the area of sustainable tourism. The concepts pertaining to

sustainability are implanted inside or extracted from the materials in an intangible way.

In consequence of this, information receivers are likely to absorb sustainable ideas or

the other way around unconsciously. Thus, it is significant to make policy makers aware

of the fact that sustainability can be practiced or detracted in the process of

communication. Tourism research therefore can be conducted to promote a foreseeable

sustainable prospect.

11

3. Power as a lens

3.1 Power in general

In this master thesis, the dichotomy of power will be applied to discuss tourism

promotional materials. Power is chosen for its unique status in human society. To tell

it in a simple way: power, by and large, exists in everywhere and influences everything.

The history and theory of power relations are regarded to be almost synonymous with

the history and theory of human society itself (Mann, 2012). In other words, societies

comprise overlapping socio-spatial networks of power (Mann, 2012).

So, what is power? “Power is the ability to pursue and attain goals through mastery of

one’s environment” (Mann, 1986, p.6). Van Dijk (2008) stressed the significance of

power by saying that “society would not function if there was no order, no control, no

checks and balances, without the many legitimate relationships of power” (p.17). In the

literature, there have generally been two contrasting views of power, which are power

as domination and power as empowerment (Haugaard, 2012). By rethinking different

dimensions of power, Mark Haugaard (2012) has come up with a thought that “the

effectiveness of power as domination is parasitic upon power as emancipation” (p.33),

which is to say, power as domination presupposes normatively desirable power.

However, some proponents include Foucault (1982) argued that modern power is

positive but only on an empirical level, making them support both views of power.

Though his unorthodox framework, Foucault rejected traditional top-down models of

power while theorized power to be located in forms, spaces and places, making power

exist on both macro-level and micro-level (Dei et al., 2004). Arguably Foucault

believed that we discipline and are disciplined through the complex of micro-powers.

Standing on a position to combine two views of power, Foucault (1980) worked on the

relationship between power and knowledge, pointing out there is a connection between

12

tacit social knowledge and the reproduction of relations of domination. Furthermore.

Haugaard (2012) denoted that relationship between power and knowledge is the

essence of emancipatory concerted power. Knowledge can be spread by the form of

information while O’Lear (2010) regarded it as an important element to look into when

discussing about the sources of power. Our notions and behaviors can be saliently

influenced by “where we get our information and the quality of that information”

(O’Lear, 2010, p.23). How the information is provided and by whom can be pertaining

to the control of power.

3.2 Power in tourism

To tell its own story, power also exists in an omnipresent manner in the system of

tourists, locals, and brokers (Cheong & Miller, 2000). Power behind tourism

promotional material chooses what and how to present destinations to tourists.

Meanwhile, the approaches of sustainability should recognize the concept of power as

well (Csurgó et al., 2008). Power not only draws the shape of tourism attractions but

also affects how stakeholders react in tourism destinations. Thus, discussions about

power can somehow help us reveal intrinsic motivations of tourism marketers and

promoters, and predict possible outcomes under the influences of power.

It is noteworthy that public or certain group of people such as international tourists

receive a wealth of information presented under the influence of power. For instance,

Cheong and Miller (2000) believed that productive power could generate touristic

knowledge. Besides, tourism marketers and promoters could “regulate the world of the

tourist” (Hannam & Knox, 2005) by control and utilization of information when writing

tourism promotional materials.

13

3.3 Power in pictures

Slowly, there comes an argumentation that a culture of writing is transforming to a

culture of pictures (Boehme-Nessler, 2011), which indicates the eminent role of

pictures in the process of knowledge dissemination. Hoye & Kaiser (2007) depicted a

world with “pictorial turn”, where culture is inevitably influenced and dominated by

images. Nevertheless, the amazing power of pictures is no new phenomena. The images

of Mona Lisa, Coca-Cola and Swastika are all vivid examples of unpredictable power

of pictures (Hoye & Kaiser, 2007). In comparison to written texts, pictures are also seen

as latently more effective and reliable in communicating since images seem to be more

realistic and objectively shown what the world is (Corrigall-Brown, 2012). In similar

vein, Eisner (1998) also supported that information which is not able to be constructed

in words can be shown in visual images. Thus, images are assumed to product more

power than written texts due to its straightforwardness and universality. In his work,

Corrigall-Brown (2012) emphasized that pictures had power to legitimize or

delegitimize different groups of people. For instance, when occupying Alcatraz by the

Indians of All Tribes, panoramic images of islands without human presences were used

to delegitimize local communities.

3.4 Dichotomy of Power

The example of Alcatraz mentioned in the last part leads to the idea of dichotomy: “the

presence of one thing logically points to the absence or exclusion of its direct opposite

(most obviously)” (Hannam & Knox, 2005). In this case, the empowerment of

panoramic images disempowers local communities hugely. In similar vein, tourism

landscapes with different histories and identities are selected to be remembered or

forgotten in terms of long-lasting modes of social power as well as inequality

(Alderman & Modlin, 2008). In other words, landscapes that conform to benefits of

local stakeholders will be empowered to strengthen their existence while contrarily the

14

rest of the landscapes are likely to be disempowered as forgotten ones. It is noticeable

that both side of dichotomy of power should be analyzed in the light of their

interrelation and co-constitution (Nordin, 2012). The isolation of dichotomy will only

lead to detraction of analysis. In the coming methodology part, dichotomy of power

will be further discussed in connection with the method of CDA.

15

4. Research Methodology

4.1 Critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a method

In this master thesis, the author will apply CDA to code and decode data. The closeness

of CDA and power will be demonstrated to establish a better understanding of data

analysis and discussion by using dichotomy of power as a lens and CDA as a method.

4.1.1 CDA

It is difficult to find a universal definition of Discourse Analysis (DA) since the term

refers to different approaches in a range of disciplines and theoretical traditions (Taylor,

2013). To summarize in a widest sense, DA is a research approach to understand social

life in terms of analysis of languages: written and talk texts, images, symbols and so

forth. (Potter & Wetherell, 2007; Shaw & Bailey, 2009; Taylor, 2013). Schiffrin,

Tannen and Hamilton (2001) summarized three main categories of DA, which are: (1)

anything beyond the sentence, (2) language use, and (3) a broader range of social

practice that includes nonlinguistic and nonspecific instances of language (p.1). In the

same vein, Fairclough (1995) concluded DA into three conceptions: text, discourse

practice and sociocultural practice. It is noticeable that in the area of DA, “text” obtains

broader conception which can be either written, vocal, sign or semiotic, meaning that

text can exist in all sort of medium with verbal or non-verbal forms (Chandler, 1994).

To analyze in a simple way, DA is the analysis of discourse while CDA “takes a critical

stance” (Le & Le, 2009, p. 4), providing descriptions and undertaking social critique

and even intervention (Johnstone, 2008). Though there is another concept in DA called

Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA) analyzing discourse in a positive perspective, we

should not consider CDA as the counterpart of PDA and perceive it as negative analysis

(Le & Le, 2009). The difference between CDA and PDA is that former concentrates on

16

positive side of the discourse while latter tends to reveal discourse in a more critical

way, which does not necessarily mean negative.

Though CDA does not provide a specific direction in discourse studies (van Dijk, 2001)

as interdisciplinary analysis (Le & Le, 2009), Wodak (2001) confirmed the

interchangeable relationship between CDA and Critical Linguistics (CL). As van Dijk

(2001) pointed out, CDA “aims to offer a different ‘mood’ or ‘perspective’ of theorizing,

analysis, and application throughout the whole field” (p. 352). In comparison to

linguistic discourse analysis which chiefly focuses on linguistic text and social

discourse analysis which concentrates more on social nature, CDA synthesizes

linguistic and social approaches (Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2004). In other words,

the concepts of CDA combines both text in use and the presentation of social experience

(Fairclough, 1992), making it “critically oriented discourse analysis across disciplines

and cultures” (Le & Le, 2009, p. 3). Language is also regarded as social practice in the

context of CDA (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997).

Thus, via the usage of CDA, the analysis of promotional magazine Gotland 2016 does

not only focus on linguistic text, but also absorbs the idea of social practices so as to

critically examine sustainable ideas hidden behind the magazine in a practical manner.

However, we need to keep in mind that tourism discourse encodes hedonism as its

special meanings and values (Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2004). In other words,

tourism aims at “commodified pleasure” (Stamou & Paraskevopoulos, 2004, p.116) and

consuming specific products. This indicates that when tourism discourse analysis is

carried out, the concept of sustainability is not the prior consideration. As a matter of

fact, it is interesting and challengeable to use CDA as the method to perceive and

explore sustainable concepts in the process of tourism.

When conducting CDA, description, interpretation, and explanation are regarded as

three chief tasks for CDA researchers (Blommaert, 2005), which provides us with a

logic path to discuss and analyze data. In other words, researchers are supposed to

17

describe materials as well as making the interpretive framework explicit, which ought

to reveal materials based on actors’ cognitive, social and ideological resources. In

Gotland 2016 case, we should be aware of the fact that tourism praises highly of

hedonism. Accordingly, social theory as explanation is put forward to achieve the

movement from non-critical to critical, which is the application of dichotomy of power

in our case. It is worth mentioning that power is not an unfamiliar term in the area of

CDA. In the next part, we will take a closer look at the closeness between CDA and

power.

4.1.2 CDA and Power

The reason to choose power as the object of dichotomy attributes to its close

relationship with CDA. CDA is not a direction of research, as a result of which, it has

no unitary theory framework (van Dijk, 2001). However, the questions presented by

CDA are mostly pertinent to “the way specific discourse structures are deployed in the

reproduction of social dominance” (van Dijk, 2001, p. 353-354), which will

accordingly lead to notions such as power and dominance. Le & Le (2009) regarded

social power, ideology and social practice as the mission of CDA while Wodak (2001)

also argued that CDA is on the feed of relation between language and power. In similar

vein, Fairclough (1989; 2001) stated that the main purpose of CDA is to build up

“consciousness of how language contributes to the domination of some people by others,

because consciousness is the first step towards emancipation” (p. 1; p. 1), which

uncovers the status of power in CDA. Though CDA is used to examine critically “how

language works to position readers in the interests of power” (Janks, 2000, p.177), this

does not necessarily mean power is definitely related to the notion of domination

(Blommaert, 2005) and brings negative results. Rather, the analysis of power in CDA

is suggested to better focus on the effects, the outcome of power, the relationship

between power and actors, and how does the impact of power take place (Blommaert,

2005). In order to understand the importance of “critical”, basic terms which are

18

essential to understand CDA are discussed and analyzed in dichotomy such as power

and empowerment (Le & Le, 2009). Dichotomy is also used to explain the micro-level

and macro-level of analysis as well as accomplishing the combination of power and

CDA. Van Dijk (2001) regarded CDA as a “bridge” to eliminate the “gap” between

micro-level and macro-level while the concepts of two levels are defined as:

Language use, discourse, verbal interaction, and communication belong to the

micro-level of the social order. Power, dominance, and inequality between social

groups are typically terms that belong to a macro-level of analysis (p. 354).

Thus, language use and discourse on the micro-level of social order together with the

analysis of power on the macro-level combine in a holistic manner. More specifically

in macro-level, dichotomy can be perceived as comparison between power and

empowerment in the analysis of the materials. In this master thesis, the mystery of

power and empowerment will be explored via content analysis and semiotic analysis.

It will be introduced in details in later parts.

4.2 Data Selection and Collection

Arguably McKee (2003) pointed out that the questions we ask exert influences on the

information we can find. When selecting and collecting data, we need to clarify the

material we are utilizing. As mentioned before, texts in the context of CDA represent a

broad range of contents instead of merely written texts. Thus, in this master thesis, three

type of texts were used to conduct the research, which were: written texts, pictures and

vocal texts. Written texts and pictures in textual corpus were extracted from Gotland

2016 while vocal texts came from four interviews.

Textual corpus

The textual corpus was collected from English tourism promotional magazine Gotland

2016 that could be found in information center as well as online. It is produced by Glory

19

Days Media AB on behalf of Destination Gotland AB. It was the only English magazine

that could be discovered and was introduced as all-year-round promotional material for

Gotland when the author of this master thesis started to conduct the research. It is noting

that there is no official tourism magazine for Gotland. Though Destination Gotland is

the biggest commercial player who runs state-subsidized domestic ferries between

Gotland and the Swedish mainland (Destination Gotland AB, no date), its tourism

promotional product Gotland 2016 can be seen by far as the magazine most closing to

an official version (Eriksson, 2016b). Gotland 2016 meanwhile has the same Swedish

version which resembles English version except for languages. The print-out of this

magazine can be found in the official visitors’ bureau of Gotland in the Donner House,

Visby. E-version is available on the first page of official visitors’ guide website

http://gotland.com/en/, for which it is well suited for the need of the accurate and latest

information pertaining to tourist destinations (Ma, 2013). In comparison to handouts in

destinations, official websites and e-magazine offer a wider range of information for

those web visitors who are likely to be transformed into destination tourists. Thus, the

ultimate goal of websites information is to attract potential visitors convert into real

destination tourist (Ma, 2013). As the only English tourism promotional magazine for

Gotland, Gotland 2016 offers valuable insights and detailed information for visitors,

both potentially-interested online or already on spot, which is in return expected to draw

potential visitors’ attention as well as wielding latent influence on visitors. Apart from

visitors, local communities including municipality, local business stakeholders and

other residents are main actors involved in the discourse.

Interviews

Semi-constructed and constructed interviews were conducted to local stakeholders and

researchers in two stages, which might shed light on practical and theoretical levels

respectively. Proper structure of questions for interviews were required to figure out

what data were relevant and what data should be collected. Since the interviews were

20

formulated in semi-structured forms during the first stage, there were no fixed questions.

Two interviewees were interviewed twice: A professor who is an expert in cultural

heritage in Uppsala University Campus Gotland and the director of Inspiration Gotland

AB, a destination management organization wholly-owned by the region to promote,

develop and strengthen Gotland as a destination (Inspiration Gotland AB, 2016). The

former was chosen due to Gotland’s status of world cultural heritage while the latter

provided the overview of current tourism situation in Gotland from an official

perspective, which would help understand the textual corpus and data analysis in a

better way. The Interview for professor lasted 40 minutes while the interview for

director lasted 80 minutes. The interviews were recorded after which the data were

transcribed and analyzed, which in return required ethical integrity from researchers

(Saunders, 2009). After that, constructed interviews were conducted to the same

interviewees at the end of researching period. At this time, the author almost finished

analyzing textual corpus which made the whole interviews more directed and oriented.

The Interviews both lasted for 50 minutes. In the process of this master thesis, without

the permission of the interviewees, the content of interviews should not be spread or

reused publicly by any means. Participants’ rights are supposed to be fully informed

during the interviews, making clear that they have the rights to remain anonymous.

4.3 Data Analysis

The texts we use to depict the objects are inevitably subjective to some extent and

are “creatures of our own making” (Gregory & Walford, 1989, p. 2). Thus,

conducting textual analysis helps us dig out the perceptions and sense of values

behind the texts. To support this, McKee (2003) described textual analysis as “a way

for researchers to gather information about how other human beings make sense of

the world” (p. 1). Meanwhile, through textual analysis, we are able to perceive the

limitations and advantages of our sense-making procedures (McKee, 2003), which,

21

in this master thesis, can be comprehended as the perception of patterns and modes

that the locals use to promote tourism.

In comparison to other paradigms in discourse analysis, CDA analyzes not only texts

but also social processes and structures which give rise to the production of texts and

allow relevant actors to interpret and decode during their interaction with the texts

(Kress, 1994). The analysis of texts is not an evident and straightforward process. As

McKee (2003) explained in his book with a metaphor: polices can not see the crimes

committed on the scene, which require them to utilize forensic evidence along with

their experiences to solve the cases. Similarly, we can not see the sense-making process

of the existing data when they are produced, however, through certain types of analysis

we are likely to find out and analyze what is left under the superficial surface of the

data, just like there is always much larger portion of ice under the iceberg.

In view of the above, the author of this master thesis will try to reveal the rest part of

the “iceberg” under the “sea-level” by analyzing the English tourism promotional

magazine Gotland 2016 in two aspects: (1) content analysis; and (2) semiotic analysis.

Content analysis and semiotic analysis will be utilized to analyze materials as well as

providing collective data which will later be used to present power in a dichotomy way.

Though Ellis (2000) argued that the analysis of the texts can be measured to see how

accurately they expose reality, it is noteworthy that this master thesis is not trying to

reveal the reality and accuracy of the description in the magazine. Rather, it endeavors

to ferret out standpoints and notions of sustainability behind the data.

4.3.1 Content analysis

Content analysis is defined as “a family of research techniques for making systematic,

credible, or valid and replicable inferences from texts and other forms of

communication” (Drisko & Maschi, 2016). It came originally from the needs to address

the differences in the content of religious hymns, which ulteriorly spread in the area of

22

sociology and journalism, forming the start of academic content analysis (Krippendorff

& Bock, 2008). Content analysis can be seen as a hybrid research approach. On the one

hand, it requires the coding of unstructured data which is the essence of qualitative

research, while on the other hand, descriptive statistics are often utilized to analyze the

chosen data, which is the characteristic of quantitative research (Drisko & Maschi,

2016). The essence of content analysis is that it is expected to figure out “the

relationship between the frequency of a specific theme and its significance or

dominance” (Hannam & Knox, 2005).

Thus, in this master thesis, content analysis was conducted to witness the frequencies

of three different categories in the chosen magazine, which are “historical sites”,

“natural scenes” and “social life”. This draws on the experience of Bhattacharyya’s

(1997) work: Mediating India an Analysis of a Guidebook. In her paper, Bhattacharyya

analyzed photographs which divided the authentic sights of Lonely Planet India into

three categories: natural world (geophysical or biological settings); historical sites (a

particular building or monument); or social life (a typical scene of sociocultural

significance). The reason for her to choose photographs was that arguably many

scholars considered photographs to be extremely powerful in communicating the

representation of the culture (p. 379). In order to analyze the data, she firstly coded it

into three groups of authentic sights as mentioned above. Then, she recoded the same

data in terms of the existence of people in the photos (Hannam & Knox, 2005).

Similarly, in this master thesis, the author aims to use the same pattern to evaluate the

magazine and figure out how are local communities involved.

4.3.2 Semiotic analysis

Semiotics is generally seen as the science of signs which can be defined as anything

that can represent something else (Berger, 2010). Not only words, but also facial

expressions, hair styles, clothing, pictures and others are signs. Barthes (1972) stressed

the significance of signs by confirming that signs could be found in all cultural

23

productions and were full of complexity. Meanwhile, Hoye & Kaiser (2007) stressed

that semiotic approach was particularly suitable for visual genre. A similar study

conducted by Sun & Luo (2015) examined tourism brochures in Macau casino by

semiotic analysis. They also applied the lens of power to discuss the images of men and

women. However, in their work, Sun & Luo chose to solely reveal and analyze the

information behind the images while excluding the analysis of lexical information.

Nonetheless, we can not ignore the effects of lexical information especially when it is

provided in combination with images, seeing that phrases and sentences can create new

and guiding meanings to images. Thus, in this master thesis, pictures with lexical

explanations as a whole will be analyzed in the way of semiotic analysis. Pictures

together with lexical explanations implanted in the pictures are used and illustrated in

a holistic manner.

While analyzing, Peirce’s theory of signs, the distinction and innovation of sign theories

(Atkin, 2010), are used to conduct analysis. American Pragmatist philosopher Charles

Sanders Peirce is regarded as the founding father of modern sign theory (Metro-Roland,

2011). In his theory, Peirce divided the signs into three categories: icons, indexes and

symbols. Icons are usually portraits and paintings which are signified by resemblance;

indexes are natural and causal signs that are signified by causal connections; and

symbols are general and conventional signs such as words and gestures (Atkin, 2010;

Berge, 2010). In this master thesis, the analysis will focus on one dimension of this

trichotomy: symbols. Symbol, as a sort of sign, is regarded as an element of language

which denotes an arbitrary and conventional relationship between signifier and referent

(Barnes & Duncan, 1992). This master thesis will particularly lay emphasis on how

words can make connections between current images and already existing symbols in

other places.

However, semiotic analysis is criticized for not being able to understand the “unstable

and power-laden nature of social meanings in a complex contemporary global society”

24

(Hannam & Knox, 2005). In consequence, the lens of power is used to complement the

deficiency.

25

5. Empirical findings

5.1 Why Gotland makes the case

“The island of Gotland, situated in the center of Baltic Sea on the eastern periphery of

Sweden, is the largest of the Baltoscandian islands” (Eliason, 2010, p. 5). It is described

on advertisements as “a different land, almost abroad, a ‘limestone Hawaii,’, ‘Sweden’s

Mallorca’” (Ronström, 2008). Since early 1990s, the municipality of Gotland has

started the strategic to transform the island into a sustainable society by 2025, which

covers all aspects of environment (Nilsson, 2014). According to the regional

development program “Vision 2025” adopted by the Municipal Council in 2008,

Gotland was “characterized by proximity, sustainable development and a zest for life”

(Westerén, 2014). The goal of transforming into a sustainable island has been reflected

in many documents and plans of municipality (European Commission, 2010).

Unquestionably, tourism is a non-negligible sector in the sustainable development

process of Gotland. With an average of 1,950,000 passengers and 870,000 guest nights

over a five-year period in comparison with 57,225 permanent residents (Region

Gotland, 2015), tourism along with agriculture is the biggest industry on Gotland

(Celion, 2001). Interests growing in sustainable tourism require Gotland to develop in

a new and environmental way. In consequence, several programs such as fishing

tourism program, networking program and interregional cooperation program have

been done to stimulate tourism to run in a sustainable way (Celion, 2001).

At present, there are two main goals for development of Gotland tourism (Eriksson,

2016b). Firstly, they tend to promote all-year-round tourism; secondly, it is important

for them to take international tourists into account.

Simply in 2014, over 2 million passengers were recorded to travel to or from Gotland

by either ferry or plane (Region Gotland, 2015). The number of travelers remained at

around 100,000 steadily during spring, autumn and winter while during summer time,

26

the number was able to shoot up to approximately 400,000 in July (Region Gotland,

2015), which, unquestionably, could mark Gotland as a seasonal tourism area.

Westerén (2014) discussed that they needed to take the effects of approximately

200,000 tourists visiting during 6-8 weeks in summer time into consideration. This

undoubtedly put strains on water situation, healthcare, sewage and waist systems, and

so forth. Currently, peak season in Gotland is in accordance with school holidays in

Sweden, which indicates the discontinuity of tourism industry in Gotland. According

to Eriksson (2016a), the blankness in off-season exerts detrimental impacts on local

entrepreneurs as well as tourism suppliers which hinders them from making consistent

profits and causes the waste of the infrastructure built for tourism. Therefore, local

municipality along with Inspiration Gotland AB makes efforts to search for new target

groups so as to develop new tourism seasons. Local municipality has established

several plans to promote new travel peak in off-season period (Eriksson. 2016a).

Apart from this, International tourists are regarded as an inspiring new market since

they tend to have diverse holiday periods in comparison to traditional potential tourists

in Gotland (Eriksson, 2016a). Moreover, Gotland is nowadays faced with huge

potential international tourists’ interests that 91 million foreign tourists are targeting

Sweden as their interested destination (Eriksson, 2016b). As a result, Gotland got

around 14,000 non-European visitors in 2015, relatively small number but having

witnessed 100% increase compared to 2014. In other words, international markets still

remain largely unexplored. Thus, under the request of promoting off-season tourism

and sustaining tourism in a long-run, one way for Gotland out is to attract international

tourists. Accordingly, the English written materials provided by Gotland tourism

industry are seen as a medium to take a furtive glance at its endeavors to appeal to

international tourists.

Based on every effort that Gotland has devoted, it is interesting to see how will regional

tourism markets and promoters present pertinent information to potential or on-spot

27

visitors. In this master thesis, the author will therefore conduct CDA towards tourism

promotional magazine Gotland 2016, trying to examine whether the materials conform

to sustainable development notions proposed by the region or not.

5.2 Textual corpus

Textual corpus extracted from Gotland 2016 comprises 21 themes in total, from which

they reveal how destination Gotland perceives, introduces and promotes the island to

visitors. The themes do not involve advertisements which propagate specific profitable

business companies. Instead, the textual corpus presents sceneries and views all around

Gotland. All of the themes are divided into three categories: historical sites, natural

scenes and social life, which are shown in table 1 The themes of textual corpus. Two of

them are pertaining to historical sites; five of them to natural scenes; eight of them to

social life; and the rest of themes are a mix of the three categories mentioned above.

The categories are chronicled in themes and pages.

Theme Page

Historical sites 1. Visby.

2. A modern world heritage city.

P. 10

P. 44

Natural scenes 1. Around the world on one island.

2. Island safari nature and adventure on your doorstep.

3. 800 km coast.

4. Marshland.

5. Autumn.

P. 6

P. 8

P. 12

P. 32

P. 74

Social life 1. Culinary oases.

2. Brewing culture.

3. Gotland by bike.

4. Gotland art week.

5. Crimetime.

P. 14

P. 22

P. 56

P. 62

P. 63

28

6. Gotland excursion planning ahead.

7. Meetings.

8. Sport fishing.

P. 67

P. 70

P.77

A mix 1. Lovely ljugarn.

2. Nikke-di-bukk.

3. An inspiring island.

4. A cultural world heritage site.

5. Country life.

6. A medieval festival.

P.26

P. 28

P. 34

P. 36

P. 48

P. 54

Table 1: The Themes of Textual Corpus

Two themes related to historical sites are all focused on capital city of Gotland: Visby.

It was “once capital of the Baltic Sea and main center of the Hanseatic League” (Glory

Days Media AB, 2016, p. 11). With the historical city walls dating back to the 13th

century as well as buildings and relics from Hanseatic period, Visby is worldly

distinguished for its world cultural heritage Hanseatic Town since 1995 (UNESCO

World Heritage Centre, 2016). According to the inscription of UNESCO (2006), Visby

is entitled as a medieval walled trading town “preserves with remarkable completeness”,

“a townscape and assemblage of high-quality ancient buildings that illustrate

graphically the form and function of this type of significant human settlement” (p.1).

Apart from this, the theme “A medieval festival” is the combination of historical sites

and social life. Every year in the course of late July or early August, Medieval Week is

held in Gotland transforming the region into a hanseatic medieval city back in old times.

92 churches mostly built between 1100s and 1300s all around the island make Gotland

directly back to Middle Ages (Mundt, no date).

It is not surprising that five themes of natural scenes are utterly pertinent to the sea since

Gotland is renowned for its beaches along coastline (Eliason, 2010). Meanwhile,

29

“sunshine”, “beach” and “sea” are still regarded as the major selling points to entice

tourists into Gotland (Eriksson, 2016a).

Every year started from June, Region Gotland will witness various of regional, national

and even international events including Garden Week, Bergman Week, Almedal Week,

Medieval Week, Crimetime Gotland, Gotland Art Week, and so forth (Region Goltand,

2015), which will provoke a great deal of visitation. Thus, miscellaneous “weeks” take

up considerable proportion of social life section. Other activities related to food, drinks

and leisure transportation (bike and cruise ships) are chosen as representatives of social

life as well. Apart from this, meetings and sport fishing are rare themes that are not

summer-related and can be regarded as means of social life to promote off-season

tourism. It is noting that the concept of sustainability is firstly and solely mentioned in

the section of sport fishing as “sustainable fishing”:

To safeguard the island’s population of wild sea trout for forthcoming generations, sport fishermen

are requested to Catch & Release. As a general rule, a maximum catch of one trout per fisherman

per day is recommended on Gotland, with all pike caught in seawater to be thrown back (Glory

Days Media AB, 2016, p. 77).

For several other themes, it is difficult to classify them into specific categories. For

instance, when the village of Ljugarn on the east coast of Gotland is introduced, all of

three categories are involved to sketch images of Ljugarn: cycling and tennis represent

social life; old fishing community represents historical site; and sea stack represents

natural scene. Nikke-di-bukk, which is explained as “kids’ games”, is chiefly depicted

to attract family with children where steam engine along with farm life is characterized

as attractions for kids. There are images of horses and treehouses without existence of

human beings as illustrations. A cultural world heritage site, a theme that is mainly an

introduction of Ingmar Bergman, is employed to popularize the small Baltic Sea island

off north of Gotland, Fårö, the place where Bergman called home. Ingmar Bergman is

a famous Swedish icon who enjoys a glorious status in the world of film and died in

30

Fårö. In this theme, shore of Langhammars that was once filmed by Bergman is shown

in several pictures, where there are typical Fårö scene “rauks”, a kind of monolith that

is created by erosion during ice age (Pergament, 2007). As a result, these themes are

seen as a combination of two or even three categories.

Distribution of three categories can be also discussed in page numbers. It is noticeable

that natural scenes are mainly presented in first several pages while social life comes

afterwards. Themes related to peak tourism season, namely summer vacation, are put

forward in the first place while themes which endeavor to extend off-season tourism

such as Meetings (p. 70), Autumn (p. 74) and Sport Fishing (p. 77) are positioned in the

last few pages.

5.3 Content Analysis

Content analysis of photographs shown among 21 themes in Gotland 2016 is conducted

to decompose data in a macro-level, which means data are utilized in a holistic manner.

There are in total 73 photographs with 21 themes among which data are coded in two

directions. Firstly, all of the photographs are categorized into three groups: historical

sites, natural scenes and social life. Then, identical corpus of photos is recoded based

on the presence of human subjects. Detailed information is depicted in Table 2 Content

analysis of photographs in Gotland 2016.

Human Subjects Historical Sites

(%)

Natural Scenes

(%)

Social Life

(%)

Total

(%)

H1* 1.3 (1) 9.6 (7) 20.5 (15) 31.5 (23)

H2* 0.0 (0) 2.7 (2) 11.0 (8) 13.7 (10)

H3* 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 6.8 (5) 6.8 (5)

NH* 5.5 (4) 15.1 (11) 27.5 (20) 48.0 (35)

31

Total 6.8% (5) 27.4 (20) 65.8 (48) 100.00(73)

H1: human subjects as tourists;

H2: human subjects as local residents;

H3: human subjects with both tourists and local residents;

NH: no human subjects in photograph.

Table 2. Content Analysis of Photographs in Gotland 2016

Historical sites consist of ancient buildings and relics. Interestingly, though there are

different historical sites all around the island, all of the photos in the section of historical

sites are selected from Visby. This phenomenon principally attributes to the status of

Visby: the modern world heritage city. The outstanding status of Visby makes it easily

become representative of historical sites for Gotland. Apart from this, natural scenes

are related to geophysical and biological settings, which involves the images of ocean,

beaches, trees, islands, animals, and so forth. Among all of the photos, there are eight

photos that take up more than one page’s space, half of which turn out to be

ocean/beach-related scenes. This proves that Gotland 2016 eagers to build up the image

of Gotland as a summer vacation paradise with traditional insights of “sunshine”,

“beach” and “sea”. Social life, different from historical sites and natural scenes, is more

human-related with the scene of sociocultural significance. It includes all kinds of

recreational activities all around Gotland, chiefly pertinent to food, drinks, residence

and sports. Though Visby is labeled as world cultural heritage, it seems that this is not

regarded as the backbone of attracting tourists since only 6.8% of photos are related to

Visby historical sites. By contrast, natural scenes are treated as the significant

attractions especially when it comes to the beaches and oceans. 27 out of 73 photos are

pertinent to beaches and oceans which accounts for approximately 37%. According to

Table 2, 65.8 % of photos are pertinent to social life while many of them are related to

natural scenes as well. When recoding in terms of human subjects, almost half of the

photos do not comprise human subjects at all. When it comes to the pictures consisting

32

of human subjects, only 11 pictures involve mainly local residents while 23 of the

pictures build up images of tourists.

However, this quantitative analysis should meanwhile take the quality of photos into

consideration, seeing that some of the photos may not exert identical influence as others.

For instance, there are six pictures included in one page in the theme of Brewing Culture

and five pictures included in half page in the theme of Crimetime. It is not exceedingly

difficult to draw a conclusion that none of them is as significant as the picture in the

theme of Marshland: the nature scene of marshland which unquestionably leaves

readers with deep impressions by means of two pages’ exquisitely-shot photo. In

addition, five pictures in Crimetime are sorted out in the group of “human subjects as

local residents”. However, the photos in Crimetime are portraits devoted to

homogeneous theme that are not likely to be discerned as typical local residents that

are closely related to Gotland (seen in Appendix 3 Figure 5). As a result, the total

number of pictures in social life (48) and human subjects as local residents (10) might

exaggerate their actual impacts seeing that their quantitative roles exceed their

qualitative roles.

Accordingly, Table 3 Content analysis of key photographs in Gotland 2016 is created

to take quality into account in the light that content analysis is the combination of

quantitative and qualitative study. Only key photos taking up over one page (including

one page) can be calculated as valid data. As a result, 12 photos are ultimately chosen

which are capable of leaving core impressions on readers.

Human Subjects Historical Sites

(%)

Natural Scenes

(%)

Social Life

(%)

Total

(%)

H1* 8.3 (1) 16.7 (2) 16.7 (2) 41.7 (5)

H2* 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0)

33

H3* 0.0 (0) 0.0 (0) 8.3 (1) 8.3 (1)

NH* 8.3 (1) 25.0 (3) 16.7 (2) 50.0 (6)

Total 16.6 (2) 41.7 (5) 41.7 (5) 100.0 (12)

H1: human subjects as tourists;

H2: human subjects as local residents;

H3: human subjects with both tourists and local residents;

NH: no human subjects in photograph.

Table 3. Content Analysis of Key Photographs in Gotland 2016

In comparison to Table 2, the most significant change to be perceived in Table 3 lies in

the group of H2, revealing that no human subjects as local residents are shown in the

photos. Meanwhile, the percentages of NH are similar in two tables, both accounting

for half of the amount. That is to say, in the process of popularizing Gotland as a tourist

attraction, local promoters endeavor to establish the image of Gotland as tourist-

oriented and nature-oriented instead of local-oriented tourism. The images of local

residents are overlooked on a big scale while promoters attempt to set up the tourist-

friendly and sparsely-populated images by presenting the overview of a certain scene

without any human subjects inside. This caters for tourists’ dreams of vacation paradise,

where they escape away from crowds and spend their heavenly life on an isolated island.

In addition, the presentations of natural scenes and social life become more equivalent

in numbers, both accounting for 41.7%. Moreover, among 5 photos that represent social

life, many of them are related to natural scenes. It manifests social life images in an

exotic way where people live an ideal life in a distinctive landscape. This, once again,

emphasizes that Gotland 2016 is devoted to lead readers to a nature-oriented world that

is sharply contrary to a hectic and exhausting city life.

34

5.4 Semiotic Analysis

In this part, the concept of symbol is applied to conduct a semiotic analysis. In his

research, Metro-Roland (2011) applied semiotics based on three studies with foreign

visitors in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The study not only explained how signs

are symbols of other things but also supported the idea that interpretations of symbols

can lead to actions. In Metro-Roland’s paper, the interpretations of semiotics revealed

visitors’ perception of “how was this city different and unique from other cities” (p. 3).

This is important for development of a tourism destination seeing that the creation and

interpretation of symbols of a place might become the motive power of attracting

tourists. For instance, mermaid for Copenhagen and water city for Venice. In

consequence, it is of core importance to build up its own symbolic images of a tourism

destination. Accordingly, the action of establishing the feelings of exoticism from other

places instead of setting up its own characteristics in Gotland 2016 proves to be an

interesting phenomenon to be discussed with.

35

Figure 1. Lexical information in the pictures

The five screenshots from Figure 1 are extracted from five different photos in textual

corpus, the corresponding themes of which are Around the world on one island, Autumn,

Marshland, Culinary oases, and Visby. Among these photos, four of them belong to

key photos chosen in table 3. It means that four out of twelve, namely, one third of the

key photos are making use of this “trick” to lead readers to somewhere else. When

describing scenes in Gotland, they borrow other scenes that readers are familiar with to

trigger their fantasy or inspire them to make connections with something that is

commonly known. This, in promoters’ opinion, is likely to arouse potential readers’

interests to visit. Among five of the other places that are mentioned in Figure 1, four of

them are selected from reality: Corsica, Maldives, Valencia and Costa Rica, which are

chosen respectively from West Europe, South Asia, South Europe and Mid America.

Corsica and Maldives are worldly famous islands that have long history of tourism, the

images of which are expected to stimulate readers’ imagination towards dreamlike

island life. Valencia, as the third largest city of Spain, is known as sunshine city with

medieval buildings and sun-drenched beaches, happening to be images that Gotland

eager to promote. Costa Rica, unquestionably, also shares similarities with Gotland by

developing ecotourism to diversify its agricultural-oriented economic pattern.

Moreover, Costa Rica is a pioneer in green challenge devoted to becoming the first

carbon neutral country by 2021 as well as building up global ecotourism community

(The International Ecotourism Society, no date). This to some extent establishes eco-

association for Gotland.

Different from the rest of the places, Mordor comes from fantasy rather than real life.

In the epic high-fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, Mordor was the destination of the

Fellowship of the Ring where massive volcanic eruptions make it devastating but also

magnificent (Tolkien, 1954). The photo contained lexical analogy of Mordor is the

illustration of the theme Autumn. It seems that writers of this theme attempt to establish

36

sharp contrast between summer and autumn by charactering autumn as cryptic and

unpredictable. Through metonymy, promoters of Gotland 2016 utilize Gotland’s own

images to guide readers to envisage elsewhere, in reality or in fantasy, trying to add

charm of other places into the image of Gotland. However, is Gotland the one in Baltic

Sea, or is it a second Corsica, or a real-life version of Mordor? Gotland, in this sense,

might fail to be symbolized as Gotland itself.

37

6. Analysis

6.1 Dichotomy of power in Gotland 2016

In his work, Barthes (1972) criticized travel guide as “an agent of blindness” (p.76).

Guidebooks of a tourism destination can easily establish certain sorts of images by

choosing limited types of landscapes and scenes. On the one hand, it will strengthen

and empower what they tend to present; on the other hand, it is likely to overlook and

disempower others. This, in the long run, might lead to discontinuity of tourism and

hinder prosperity and sustainable development of localities. In the following part, the

author will start discussions in the context of dichotomy of power in the light of content

and semiotic analysis of Gotland 2016. It is not elusive to find out the keywords for

Gotland 2016: Visby, Sea, Tourists and others. These words and images can be

perceived in languages and pictures in Gotland 2016 as well as through structure and

layout of it. This discloses the dichotomy of power that will be elaborately showed in

Table 5.

Empower Disempower Remarks

Visby Other places in Gotland Historical sites only Visby

Ocean scenes Other scenes “sunshine”, “beach”, “sea”

Summer Other seasons Page number/proportion/deletion

Natural

scenes/Tourists Local residents

Social sustainability;

Agriculture

Exoticism Own characteristics Symbols-undecipherable

Table 5. Dichotomy of Power in Gotland 2016

Visby VS other places in Gotland

As the capital city of Gotland, the word Visby came up 24 times in Gotland 2016 which

is the third most mentioned word (seen in Appendix 2). When it comes to pictorial

38

discourse, 6.8% of photos are world cultural heritage Hanseatic town of Visby

indicating that promoters do not prone to utilizing world heritage as the highlight of

Gotland tourism. This is confirmed by Eriksson (2016b) that remarkable places of

historic interest are so well-known that promoters tend to forget to introduce them in

their promotional materials. Nevertheless, though there are 92 churches and other

historical sites all around the island, only pictures of Visby are showed in the category

of historical sites. This proves that the images of Visby are fortified which attenuate the

rest of the historical sites as well as places in Gotland. In consequence, it might imply

imbalance of area development, leading to overcrowded tourism situation in Visby and

less attention to the rest of the area.

Ocean scenes / summer VS Other scenes / seasons

Seasonal tourism, meanwhile, is seen as a barricade of sustainable development of

Gotland tourism seeing that the booming tourism takes place merely in the course of

summer period at the present time (Eriksson, 2016a). As a result, business actors in

Gotland can benefit at best from summer time. What is worse, many business

stakeholders come from outside of the island to grab benefits and vacate when summer

carnival is over, leaving locals with spare infrastructure requiring continuous

maintenance (Ronström, 2016a). In order to soften detrimental impacts and gradually

weaken discontinuity of seasonal tourism, Gotland municipality therefore takes several

measures to extend off-seasonal tourism. However, in Gotland 2016, ocean scenes and

summer topics still take up absolute dominant roles. Magazine promoters consolidate

the image of summer vacation paradise by dedicating all of the five themes of nature

scenes and four out of eight pictures that take up more than one-page space to ocean-

related views. The large proportion of disclosure proves that treating Gotland as a

summer resort is still the backbone of promotion. The dissemination for the rest of the

year is until now a missing piece in the jigsaw of tourism promotion.

39

This can be perceived by the order and deletion of themes as well. Among all of 21

themes, only three themes are related to off-season tourism, which are Meetings (p. 70),

Autumn (p. 74) and Sport Fishing (p. 77). Respectively, promoters seek to expand off-

season tourism by attracting business meetings and conferences, building up relaxing

and distinctive autumn scenes, and offering fishing enthusiasts to participate

sustainable sport fishing in Gotland. It is noteworthy that the concept of sustainability

is firstly and solely mentioned in Fishing part, the theme of which not only endeavors

to extend tourism period on a macro-level but also thinks highly of promoting fishing

activity itself in a sustainable manner on a micro-level. Nonetheless, the three themes

mentioned-above are positioned in the very last few pages to make a concession for

already over-advertised summer themes.

Apart from this, Gotland attempts to develop around-Christmas winter tourism period

(Eriksson, 2016a). The integration of Gotland and snow in articles and pictures can be

discerned since the first e-version of Gotland series from 2013. However, in Gotland

2016, it is completely deleted. No signs of winter images can be traced in textual corpus.

It seems that on the one hand Gotland wants to get rid of seasonal tourism label and

promote all-year-round tourism; while on the other hand, they inevitably get stuck in

the stereotype image of summer vacation paradise by means of too much exposure of

oceanic scenes. However, as an island with 800 km of coastline, it is comprehensible

for the municipality to pay more attention to and rely chiefly on oceanic tourism.

Natural scenes / tourists VS local residents

The deletion also refers to the presentation of local communities. There is risk of

overlooking complex cultures, histories and people constituting the places in the

process of commodification of a tourism destination (Hall, 1997). Though host

communities benefit from job creation, income generation and ameliorative

infrastructures (Mitchell & Reid, 2001; Andriotis, 2002; cited in Andriotis & Vaughan,

2003, p. 172), tourism destinations sometimes can be depicted to cater for the needs

40

and benefits of stakeholders who “want to package places” (Hall, 1997, p. 79) instead

of people who live there. In other words, host residents can sometimes find themselves

suffer from sociocultural and environmental costs caused by tourism (Andriotis &

Vaughan, 2003). This phenomenon is reflective in promotional materials from two

perspectives: firstly, the deletion of contents pertinent to local communities; secondly,

insufficient presentation of local communities.

Agriculture is another concept to reveal the tense relationship between nature scenes /

tourists and local residents. Tourism and agriculture are regarded as two main industries

on Gotland, as a result of which, the development of tourism should not take place at

the expense of scarifying agriculture. On the contrary, Gotland should endeavor to

promote it to a better level and cooperate in a win-win situation. Gotland 2014 (Glory

Days Media AB, 2014) published two articles, Locally produced (p. 22) and The sheep

farmer from rute (p. 73), which are related to agriculture. Illustrations of local cooks,

local farmers, farms, crops and sheep are inserted to build up the images of local

communities. Similarly, Gotland 2015 (Glory Days Media AB, 2015) published Local

produce with soul (p. 25) and The rough & smooth of Gotland (p. 39) with images of

farmers, crops and sheep as well. Though Gotland 2013 (Newsfactory Media Group,

2013) did not include agriculture images, it released an article named Another side of

Gotland We love the pace of life here on the island (p. 41) to tell stories of local families.

However, there was no article pertaining to any images of local farmers or local families

at all in Gotland 2016. Local images are sharply disempowered by concentrations on

nature- and tourist- oriented texts.

With the development of agriculture and tourism, less labors are needed in agriculture

and reversely more are required for tourism industry, thus more local residents are

working for tourism (Ronström, 2016b). There are usually three types of images for

local residents in Gotland: servants, local craftsmen and islanders. Locals are therefore

a core part and direct representatives of Gotland tourism. However, the region seems

41

reluctant to show ordinary life of local residents. There are rarely images of islanders

in the magazine. Local residents are shown mostly as people who serve tourists rather

than local craftsmen or islanders. This caters for the thoughts that tourists feel they are

invited if tourism destination images are uninhabited or with other tourists’ images.

Some tourism marketers and promoters believe that tourists would like to go to

somewhere terra nullius without human beings. The images of other tourists are more

favored than indigenous people because potential tourists are believed to gain sense of

identities from former images. As a result, Gotland in the magazine is depicted as an

art gallery. There are no houses for living but only houses to exhibit; no ordinary life

being traced but only extraordinary to highlight; nobody residing but only tourists

visiting……It is said that commonly recognized “Gotlandic images” are narrow street

with cobblestones and uninhabited medieval buildings, Visby wall and Rauk. No

Gotland lives, no common school, no shopping center, and no resident area (Ronström,

2016b).

It is understandable that islands are likely to be tourists-oriented in terms of their special

geographical status. However, it is important to empower local residents, realizing that

to forge a right identity for local residents can “help planners and developers to identify

real concerns and issues for appropriate policies and action to take place, optimizing

the benefits and minimizing the problems” (Andriotis & Vaughan, 2003, p.173). More

importantly, regional markets and promoters are supposed to conduct risk management

for over dependence upon tourism. For instance, Lesbos, a Greek island situated in the

northeastern Aegean Sea, is known for tourism-oriented economy. After the refugee

crisis, the figure of daily refugee arrivals shot up to thousands (Mchugh, 2015), which

gave rise to worries towards its tourist trade (Amin, 2016). Southern villages in Lesbos

are assumed to experience bad tourism seasons because of refugee crisis. Though the

situation in Lesbos is still in limbo, it will be defined by the flow of people from the

island (Amin, 2016), which is slowly becoming the new focus of local municipality

(Ronström, 2016b). As a result, islands marketers and promoters are not suggested to

42

put full dependence on tourism, considering that it highly relies on external and

uncertain elements. Moreover, the vulnerability and fragility of islands tourism requires

more attention towards internal factors such as local communities, which are the

victims as well as rescuer of unexpected crush in tourism industry. Thus, under the

dichotomy between natural scene / tourists and local residents, Gotland is suggested to

build up risk awareness and be conscious that local communities are “spine” of regional

development.

Exoticism VS other characteristics

Gotland collected tourism promotional plans from public and the idea of exoticism won

the case (Ronström, 2016b). The basic idea was to describe one spot of Gotland as

somewhere else. It is reasonable to attract national tourists around Sweden with the idea

to experience exoticism of worldly tourist attractions within one single island. However,

when it turns into an international promotional material, this adapts no longer to the

case. Tourism destinations are suggested to highlight their uniqueness in order to

achieve strong customer loyalty on an emotional level, which will help to create an

advantageous status against rival destinations (Apostolakis, Jaffry, Sizel & Cox, 2015).

Moreover, intangible assets that is pertinent to internal stakeholders with destination

personality traits slowly witness their rise in status compared to tangible assets (Kemp

et al., 2011; Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011; Pereira et al., 2012; cited in Apostolakis et

al., 2015, p. 199). As a result, tourism destinations are suggested to fascinate tourists

by their authentic features instead of showing homogeneity of other places. However,

Gotland 2016 is eliminating its uniqueness by depicting the region as other places. In

this process, the images of other places are strengthened while regional characteristics

are largely disempowered. Unique local culture and heritages which are seen as

competitive advantages (Apostolakis et al., 2015) make concessions to exoticism that

is far away from Gotland.

43

6.2 From translation to creation

English version of Gotland 2016 is translated directly from original Swedish version.

Except for languages, no major changes can be discerned from two versions. In terms

of discussions from exoticism, we can come to the conclusion that direct translation

does not cater for needs and expectations of international tourists. According to a

research by Mechinda, Serirat and Gulid (2009), push motivations of domestic and

international tourists differ significantly in all dimensions. Thus, what is suitable for

domestic tourists may not exert identical influence on international tourists. For

instance, tourist destinations ought to have “trademarks” to strengthen their originality

and superiority so as to compete with other destinations in international market

(Eriksson, 2016b). As a result, they need to label itself with an identity. From this

perspective, the identification of tourist destination varies between domestic tourism

and international tourism. In other words, simple translation of promotional tourism

from original language to universally used English language is not regarded as a valid

way of attracting international tourists. In addition, attachment and familiarity of

tourists are two key factors to gain competitive advantages for both domestic and

international tourists (Mechinda et al., 2009). Even so, attachment is measured by place

identity with symbolic features, which, in line with discussions mentioned-above, is

replaced by exoticism of other places in Gotland 2016.

In consequence, promoting materials for international tourists should develop from

translation to creation, with awareness of what are push motivations for international

tourists. When doing so, it rings a bell with a sentence from Thurot & Thurot (1983):

“Tourism is very much about our culture.” In the culture of tourist destination,

environment, local residents, history and others are all salient factors. It is

understandable that tourists tend to be interested in something shallow and hedonistic.

Thus, position of local people is not inclined to be pushed forward and ameliorated

(Butler & Hinch, 1996) while delightful images such as sun and beaches are presented

44

more often. However, just like Cannikin Law: How much of a bucket filled with water,

does not depend on the highest piece of wood on the side of casks, but rather depends

on the shortest piece on the sides of casks (Zhang, 2011). Similarly, the sustainable

development of a tourist destination depends on the most ignored part of the place. In

Gotland 2016, the missing parts such as places except for Visby, other seasons except

for summer, local communities and so forth are all “short pieces” that will hinder a

smooth and sustainable development for tourism destination. How to fill as much water

as possible in a bucket? Fix the shortest piece on the sides of casks. How to sustain

tourism in Destination Gotland? It might be helpful to pay attention to disempowered

parts revealed from Gotland 2016.

45

7. Conclusions

Now perhaps we can answer this question: what is missing behind promotional

magazines? As a single study for promotional magazine, the author can only draw

limited conclusions (Nordin, 2012). Nevertheless, we can still speculate that one of the

core answer might be: ordinary life is missing. This is not new. As Tu and Su (2014)

argued in another article, tourist destinations are always stereotyped and misplaced by

images and pictures. Especially for islands tourism, marine and coastal sceneries are

often taken for granted as landmarks of islands. In other words, islands are always

presented with uninhabited nature scenes, leaving ordinary life untraced. In Gotland

2016, ordinary life is always hidden and local communities are unfailingly invisible

(Ronström, 2016b). Apart from this, other places outside Visby, views besides “sun and

sand”, seasons besides summer and unique features of Gotland are not totally missing

but somehow weakened by other dominant features.

In consequence, a healthy and sustainable development of a tourism destination is

supposed to be treated in a holistic manner, combining economic, environmental and

social all together, especially social sustainability in local communities that is often

overlooked by tourism marketers and promoters. One practical way of executing

sustainable development of tourism is through valid way of communication.

Promotional magazines can be regarded as a core resource for tourists’ usage

(Bhattacharyya, 1997). Thus, the analysis of communicating bridge Gotland 2016 is

considered as an effective way and channel to probe developing strategies and

sustainable practices of local municipalities. Created by tourism marketers and

promoters, Gotland 2016 grasps the power to depict Gotland and present it to tourists

in a way they want. In other words, they have a supreme command of information to

empower images they desire and disempower the rest. In Gotland 2016, the images of

Visby, oceans scenes, summer, nature/tourists scenes and exoticism are strengthened

while the opposite of these images are inevitably weakened simultaneously. This, in the

46

long run, will hinder continuous development of local area in economic, environment

and social sense. Particularly in this master thesis, social sustainability is discussed with

priority since it is always likely to be overlooked and seen as less important than other

aspects of sustainable tourism. As a result, it is suggested that local residents are

supposed to be involved in tourism development not only as participants but also as

owners and ambassadors. The wellbeing of local communities is equally important as

environment protection and economic growth when promoting tourism development.

As a typical seasonal tourism destination, Gotland sees the necessity to extend its

tourism period to the whole year. Unquestionably, all-year-round tourism may secure

continuity of tourism situation which helps to sustain local economy and attain steady

financial income. However, it does not mean that all-year-round tourism equals to

integrated and sustainable development of tourism industry. Attracting ceaseless

tourists does not necessarily equal to the solution of local tourism development. While

promoting tourism industry, infrastructure, agriculture and local communities all

witness pressure to live and develop. In consequence of this, local municipalities should

strike a balance between economic growth and sustainable development.

Due to time limit, this master thesis comes to an end with many questions unsolved.

Traditional island tourism promoters tend to believe tourists enjoy a place with no

human trace, but is it still true? Do we underestimate tourists? Is culture exploration

also becoming a new trend for tourists? Are they becoming interested in ordinary life

of local communities as well? It leads a path to future research.

47

Acknowledgements

The preparation, research and writing of this master thesis has been a tough and

enjoyable journey in my life. It is not easy to think and write in a second language

especially when it comes to something like master thesis. Luckily, with disinterested

help from many people, I managed to finish it.

My greatest debt of thanks goes to my parents, Jianxin Hu and Chaomin Xu. You have

always been every part of the journey that I have taken. Thanks for supporting me to

study abroad with endless love and unfailing care!

Thank you, Anna and Jenny! You gave me the confidence that this master thesis is

worth writing and helped me do plenty of research as well as guiding me with expert

advice and encouragement throughout the whole process!

I also deeply value the help from two important interviewees: Professor Ronström from

Uppsala University and Director Eriksson from Inspiration Gotland AB. Without your

kind help and first-hand information, it was impossible for me to connect theory with

practice and made it land.

Thank you, my classmates and friends in Visby! You accompanied me through the

whole academic year. Especially in the master thesis process, you read and gave

suggestions to my work with great help!

Thank you, Zhiyi, Bo, and other friends in China! Your encouragements and companies

have provided me with the courage to finish the last pieces of this master thesis when

it seemed tough to complete.

Thank you, Visby. You would always be an inexpressible precious part of my life!

I thank you all for giving me such treasured and unique memories!

48

References

Alderman, D.H. & Modlin, E.A. 2008, “(In)Visibility of the Enslaved Within Online

Plantation Tourism Marketing: a Textual Analysis of North Carolina

Websites”, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 265-281.

Ali, A. & Frew, A.J. 2013. Information and communication technologies for

sustainable tourism, London: Routledge.

Amin, L. 2016. “Lesbos: a Greek island in limbo over tourism, refugees - and its

future”. Retrieved May 14, 2016,

from http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/mar/24/lesbos-greek-island-in-limbo-

tourism-refugee-crisis-future

Andriotis, K. & Vaughan, R.D. 2003, “Urban Residents' Attitudes toward Tourism

Development: The Case of Crete”, Journal of Travel Research, vol. 42, no. 2, pp.

172-185.

Apostolakis, A., Jaffry, S., Sizel, F. & Cox, A. 2015, “The role of uniqueness in

destination branding: The case of historical Portsmouth harbor”, EuroMed Journal of

Business, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 198-213.

Atkin, A. 2010. “Peirce's Theory of Signs, by Thomas L. Short”, Mind, vol. 119, no.

475, pp. 852-855.

Barnes, T.J. & Duncan, J.S. 1992. Writing worlds: discourse, text and metaphor in the

representation of landscape, London: Routledge.

Barthes, R. 1972. Mythologies. 1957. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and

Wang, pp. 302-306.

Berger, A.A. 2010. Tourism in Japan: an ethno-semiotic analysis. Bristol: Channel

View Publications.

Bhattacharyya, D.P. 1997. “Mediating India: An Analysis of a Guidebook”, Annals of

Tourism Research, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 371-389.

Blommaert, J. 2005. Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Boehme-Nessler, V. 2011. Pictorial law: modern law and the power of pictures (1st

ed.). New York: Springer.

Butler, R. & Hinch, T. 1996. Tourism and Indigenous People. London: International

Thomson Business Press.

49

Carlsen, J. & Butler, R. 2011. Island tourism: sustainable perspectives. Wallingford:

CAB International.

Celion, L. 2001. “Sustainable tourism on Gotland”. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from

http://www.regione.toscana.it/documents/10180/71044/Gotland%20(eng)%20eurome

eting%202001/d12c17ac-338a-4254-b06a-fb7335f0d382

Chandler, D. 1994. Semiotics for Beginners. Abingdon: Routledge.

Cheong, S.M. & Miller, M.L. 2000. “Power and tourism: A Foucauldian

observation”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol27, no.2, pp.371-390.

Colantonio, A. & Dixon, T.J. 2011. Urban regeneration & social sustainability: best

practice from European cities, (1st ed.). Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Corrigall-Brown, C. 2012. “The Power of Pictures: Images of Politics and

Protest”, American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 56, no. 2, pp. 131-134.

Csurgó, B., Kovách, I. & Kučerová, E. 2008. “Knowledge, Power and Sustainability

in Contemporary Rural Europe”, Sociologia Ruralis, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 292-312.

Dei, G. J. S., Karumanchery, L.L. & Karumanchery-Luik, N. 2004. “CHAPTER

THREE: Theorizing Power: Rupturing Dichotomies”, Counterpoints, vol. 244, pp.

59-80.

Destination Gotland AB, no date. “Destination Gotland AB”. Retrieved May 26,

2016, from http://www.destinationgotland.se/en/about-us/destination-gotland-ab/

Drisko, J.W. & Maschi, T. 2016. Content analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Eisner, E. 1998. The kind of schools we need: Personal essays. NH: Portsmouth.

Eliason, S. 2010. Geotourism highlights of Gotland. Tallinn: NGO GEOGuide

Baltoscandia.

Elkington, J. 1994. “Towards the Sustainable Corporation: Win-Win-Win Business

Strategies for Sustainable Development”, California Management Review, vol. 36,

no. 2, pp. 90-100.

Ellis, J. 2000. Seeing things: television in the age of uncertainty. London: I.B. Tauris.

Eriksson, D, Tourist manager, Inspiration Gotland AB, Visby, March 18, 2016a,

Tourist information center, Visby. Personal interview.

Eriksson, D, Tourist manager, Inspiration Gotland AB, Visby, May 26, 2016b,

Tourist information center, Visby. Personal interview.

50

European Commission. 2010. “Moving towards total sustainability of an island,

Gotland - SE”. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from

http://ec.europa.eu/ourcoast/index.cfm?menuID=8&articleID=99

European Communities. 2003. Using natural and cultural heritage to develop

sustainable tourism in non-traditional tourist destinations. Luxembourg: EUR-OP.

Hall, C.M. 1997. “Geography, Marketing and the Selling of Places”, Journal of

Travel & Tourism Marketing, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 61-84.

Ho, J.A., Chia, K.W., Ng, S.I. & Ramachandran, S. 2013. “Problems and Stakeholder

Responsibilities in Island Tourism: The Case of Tioman Island in Malaysia”, Journal

of Hospitality & Tourism Research.

Horrigan, D. 2013. “Sustaining Sustainability”, in Jenkins, I. & Schröder, R. (eds),

Sustainability in tourism: a multidisciplinary approach. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler,

pp. 210-220.

Hoye, L.F. & Kaiser, R. 2007. “Branding a symbol: Context and meaning across

cultures”, Intercultural Pragmatics, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 51-69.

Fairclough, N. 1989. Language and Power. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Fairclough, N., 1995. Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language, (2nd

ed.). Harlow: Longman.

Fairclough, N. 2001. Language and Power (2nd ed.). London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. 2003, Analyzing Discourse. London: Routledge.

Fairclough, N. L. & Wodak, R. 1997. “Critical discourse analysis”, in van Dijk, T. A.,

(ed.), Discourse Studies. A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Vol. 2. Discourse as Social

Interaction, London: Sage, pp. 258–284.

Foucault, M. 1980. Power/knowledge. Brighton: Harvester Press.

Foucault, M. 1982. “The subject and power”, Critical inquiry, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 777-

795.

Glory Days Media AB, 2014. “Gotland 2014”. Retrieved May 5, 2016,

from https://issuu.com/glorydaysmedia/docs/gotland_eng_web

Glory Days Media AB, 2015. “Gotland 2015”. Retrieved May 5, 2016,

from https://issuu.com/glorydaysmedia/docs/destination_gotland_2015_eng

51

Glory Days Media AB, 2016. “Gotland 2016”. Retrieved April 23, 2016, from

https://issuu.com/glorydaysmedia/docs/destination_gotland_2016_eng

Gomez Sobrino, R. 2016. “International tourist arrivals up 4% reach a record 1.2

billion in 2015”. Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://media.unwto.org/press-

release/2016-01-18/international-tourist-arrivals-4-reach-record-12-billion-2015

Google, no date. “What is Tourism”. Retrieved April 19, 2016,

from https://www.google.com.hk/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=strict&q=what+is+tourism

Gregory, D. & Walford, R. 1989. Horizons in human geography. London: Macmillan.

Hall, M. C. and Lew, A. A. 1998. Sustainable Tourism: A geographical Perspective.

Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman.

Hannam, K. & Knox, D. 2005. “Discourse Analysis in Tourism Research A Critical

Perspective”, Tourism Recreation Research, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 23-30.

Haugaard, M. 2012. “Rethinking the four dimensions of power: domination and

empowerment”, Journal of Political Power, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 33-54.

Hediger, W. 2000. “Sustainable development and social welfare”, Ecological

Economics, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 481-492.

Higgins-Desbiolles, F. 2006. “More than an ‘industry’: The forgotten power of

tourism as a social force”, Tourism Management, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 1192-1208.

Honey, M. 2008. Ecotourism and sustainable development: who owns paradise? (2nd

ed.). Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

Inspiration Gotland AB, 2016. “About us”. Retrieved April 14, 2016, from

http://gotland.com/en/about/

James, P. 2015. Urban sustainability in theory and practice: circles of

sustainability. Abingdon: Routledge.

Janks, H. 2000. “Domination, access, diversity and design: A synthesis for critical

literacy education”, Educational Review, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 175-186.

Johnstone, B. 2008. Discourse analysis. London: Blackwell.

Kang, N. & Yu, Q. 2011. “Corpus-based Stylistic Analysis of Tourism English”,

Journal of Language Teaching and Research, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 129-136.

Kress, G. 1994. Text, Discourse and Context: Representations of Poverty in Britain.

London: Longman.

52

Krippendorff, K. & Bock, M. A. 2009. The content analysis reader. Sage.

Le, T. & Le, Q. 2009. “Critical Discourse Analysis: An Overview”, in Le, T & Short,

M., (eds.), Critical discourse analysis: an interdisciplinary perspective. Hauppauge:

Nova Science Publishers, pp. 3-15.

Lehtonen, M. 2011. “Social sustainability of the Brazilian bioethanol: Power relations

in a centre-periphery perspective”, Biomass and Bioenergy, vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 2425-

2434.

Littig, B. & Griessler, E. 2005. “Social sustainability: A catchword between political

pragmatism and social theory”, International Journal of Sustainable Development,

vol 8, no.1-2, pp. 65-79.

Lominé, L. & Edmunds, J. 2007. Key concepts in tourism. New York: Pelgrave

Macmillan.

Ma, Y. 2013, “The research on tourism English multimedia digital material based on

VOD”, in Y. Yang & M. Ma (eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference

on Green Communications and Networks 2012 (GCN 2012), Berlin Heidelberg, pp.

767-773.

Mann, M. 1986. The Sources of Social Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Mann, M. 2012. “Societies as Organized Power Networks”, in Mann, M. & ebrary, I.

2012, The sources of social power. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Mchugh, J. 2015. “Greek Migrant Crisis 2015: Lesbos Refugees Stranded by The

Thousands, Ferries Off the Island Completely Booked”. Retrieved May 12, 2016,

from http://www.ibtimes.com/greek-migrant-crisis-2015-lesbos-refugees-stranded-

thousands-ferries-island-2060136

McKee, A. 2003. Textual analysis: a beginner's guide. London: Sage.

Mechinda, P., Serirat, S. & Gulid, N. 2009. “An examination of tourists' attitudinal

and behavioral loyalty: Comparison between domestic and international tourists”,

Journal of Vacation Marketing, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 129-148.

Metro-Roland, M.M. 2011. Tourists, signs and the city: the semiotics of culture in an

urban landscape. Burlington: Ashgate Pub.

Meuser T. & von Peinen, C. 2013. “Sustainable Tourism ‘Wish you weren’t here’”, in

Jenkins, I. & Schröder, R., (eds), Sustainability in tourism: a multidisciplinary

approach. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler, pp. 85-102.

53

Moore, A. 2013. “Hedonism”. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter

2013 ed.). Retrieved April 5, 2016, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hedonism/

Mundt, A. No date. “Medieval Week”. Retrieved April 23, 2016,

from http://www.destinationgotland.se/en/to-do/discover-gotland/medieval-week/

Newsfactory Media Group, 2013. “Gotland 2013”. Retrieved May 5, 2016,

from https://issuu.com/newsfactory/docs/gotland2013_eng

Nilsson, J. 2014. “Eco-Municipality”. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from

http://www.gotland.se/73074

Nižić, M.K., Ivanović, S. & Drpić, D. 2010. “Challenges to Sustainable Development

in Island Tourism”, South East European Journal of Economics and Business, vol. 5,

no. 2, pp. 43-53.

Nordin, A. 2012. “How soft is ‘soft power’? Unstable dichotomies at expo

2010”, Asian Perspective, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 591-613.

O’Lear, S. 2010. Environmental politics: scale and power. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Otilia, S.M. 2013. “ENGLISH: THE LANGUAGE OF COMMUNICATION IN

TOURISM”, Analele Universităţii Constantin Brâncuşi din Târgu Jiu : Seria

Economie, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 306-309.

Pergament, D. 2007. “The enchanted island that Bergman called home”. Retrieved

May 23, 2016,

from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/travel/07cultured.html?_r=0

Polese, M. & Stren, R. 2000. The Social Sustainability of Cities: Diversity and the

Management of Change. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Popp, R.K. 2012. The holiday makers: magazines, advertising, and mass tourism in

postwar America, (1st ed.). Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. 2007. Discourse and social psychology: beyond attitudes

and behaviour. London: Sage.

Region Gotland, 2015. “GOTLAND IN FIGURES”. Retrieved March 2, 2016, from

http://www.gotland.se/86116

Ronström, O. 2008, “A DIFFERENT LAND Heritage Production in the island of

Gotland”, The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures. Vol.2. no.2.

54

Ronström, O. University Professor, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, Visby,

March 21, 2016a, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, Visby. Personal interview.

Ronström, O. University Professor, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, Visby, May

11, 2016b, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, Visby. Personal interview.

Ross, S. & Wall, G. 1999. “Evaluating ecotourism: The case of North Sulawesi,

Indonesia”, Tourism Management, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 673-682.

Ryan, C. 1993. “Island tourism: issues, problems — and some answers”, Tourism

Management, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 405-406.

Sachs, I. 1999. “Social sustainability and whole development: Exploring the

dimensions of sustainable development”. in Egon, B. & Thomas, J. (eds),

Sustainability and the social sciences: A cross-disciplinary approach to integrating

environmental considerations into theoretical reorientation, Zed Books, London, pp.

25-36.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. 2009. Research methods for business

students, (5th ed.). Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D. & Hamilton, H.E. 2001. The handbook of discourse

analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.

Shaw, S. E. & Bailey, J. 2009. “Discourse analysis: what is it and why is it relevant to

family practice?” Retrieved May 11, 2016,

from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2743732/

Spindler, E. A. 2013. “The History of Sustainability the Origins and Effects of a

Popular Concept”, in Jenkins, I. & Schröder, R., (eds), Sustainability in tourism: a

multidisciplinary approach. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler, pp. 9-32.

Stamou, A.G. & Paraskevopoulos, S. 2004. “Images of nature by tourism and

environmentalist discourses in visitor books: a critical discourse analysis of

ecotourism”, Discourse & Society, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 105-129.

Stamou, A.G. & Paraskevopoulos, S. 2006. “Representing protected areas: a critical

discourse analysis of tourism destination building in a Greek travel

magazine”, International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 431-449.

Sun, Z. & Luo, W. 2015. “Gendered construction of Macau casino: a social semiotic

analysis of tourism brochures”, Leisure Studies, pp. 1-25.

Taylor, S. 2013. What is Discourse Analysis? Bloomsbury Academic.

55

The International Ecotourism Society, no date. “EcoDestinations - Costa Rica”.

Retrieved April 29, 2016, from https://www.ecotourism.org/costa-rica

Thurot, J.M. & Thurot, G. 1983. “The ideology of class and tourism confronting the

discourse of advertising”, Annals of Tourism research, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 173-189.

Tolkien, J.R.R. 1954. The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin.

Traiger, C. B. 2008. “Tourists’ English expectations: Discourse analysis of attitudes

towards language and culture on travel websites”, PhD Thesis, the University of

Arizona.

Tu, H. & Su, S. 2014. “How Tourist Destinations Could Be Stereotyped and

Misplaced by Structural Forces? - A Case of Penghu Archipelago, Taiwan”, SHS Web

of Conferences, vol. 12, pp. 1019.

UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2006. “(Cycle 1) Section II Summary”. Retrieved

February 29, 2016, from

http://whc.unesco.org/archive/periodicreporting/EUR/cycle01/section2/731-

summary.pdf

UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2016. “Hanseatic Town of Visby”. Retrieved

February 29, 2016, from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/731

UNWTO, no date. “Why Tourism”.Retrieved April 19, 2016,

from http://www2.unwto.org/content/why-tourism

UNEP & UNWTO, 2005. “Making Tourism More Sustainable - A Guide for Policy

Makers.” Retrieved March 2, 2016, from

http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx0592xPA-TourismPolicyEN.pdf

Van Dijk, T. A. 2001. “Critical Discourse Analysis”, in Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D. &

Hamilton, H.E., The handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 352-371.

Van Dijk, T.A. 2008. Discourse and power. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Westerén, H. 2014. “Gotland: Sustainable tourism during a short summer period

Challenges and solutions”. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from

http://www.westestonia.ee/fileadmin/failid/maindomain/dokumendid/konverents/Han

na_Westerin_Gotland_B7_Nov_2014-3.pdf

Wodak, R. 2001. “What CDA is about - a summary of its history, important concepts

and its developments”, in Wodak, R., Meyer, M. & ebrary, I. (eds), Methods of

critical discourse analysis. London: Sage, pp. 1-13.

56

Zhang, Y. 2011. “The Rethinking of the Competitive Strategy Based on the Cannikin

Law”, Journal of Ningbo Institute of Education, pp. 29.

Złotowski, K. 2016. “EU can stay a world leader in tourism by promoting less popular

destinations”. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from

https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/eu-can-stay-world-leader-

tourism-promoting-less-popular-destinations

57

Appendix

Appendix 1 Gotland 2016

Figure 1. Cover of Gotland 2016 (English version/Swedish version)

Figure 2. Figure 3.

Where you can find it A closer look

58

Appendix 2 Frequency of words in Gotland 2016

Ranking Word Frequency Ranking Word Frequency

1 Gotland 64 11 City 11

2 Island 42 12 Fårö 11

3 Visby 24 13 New 11

4 Bergman 21 14 Cycling 10

5 Tour- 16 15 Film 10

6 Sea 16 16 Medieval 10

7 World 14 17 Fishing 9

8 Place 13 18 Home 9

9 People 12 19 Landscape 9

10 Restaurant 12 20 Activities 8

59

Appendix3 Figures that are used in Chapter 5. Empirical Findings

Figure 4. Brewing culture

Figure 5. Crimetime

60

Figure 6. Marshland

61

Appendix 4 Key Images of Historical Sites, Natural Scenes and Social Life

Historical Sites

Natural Scenes

62

Social Life

63

Appendix 5 Exoticism

Corsica

Costa Rica

64

Valencia

Mordor

65

The Madives