Nature-based tourism firms and other stakeholders often compete for the same resources. Knowledge of and access to resource bases are therefore essential for firms' success. Nature-based tourism firms operate in nature areas, which, for the Nordics, may include human-made objects and intangibles. In this study, we therefore adopt a broad approach towards the concept of natural resources and include human-made, social, and cultural resources, termed resources in nature. Based on 558 survey responses, we analyse the dependence on resources in nature for three types of nature-based tourism firms in Norway. Intangible resources, such as silence, views, and other sensory qualities, are generally the most essential resource group for the firms, together with special biotopes and unique and iconic landscapes and areas. Cultural resources are also of certain importance to the firms. This study contributes to knowledge-based management and the prioritization of resources essential for the nature-based tourism industry.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Destination image plays a key role in helping people decide where to travel and affects satisfaction, likelihood of return visits and word of mouth. While photography is not the only way of projecting and perceiving an image, 'a picture paints a thousand words'. The rise of social media and usergenerated content has made the image formation process more complex, and has reduced the extent of control that tourism suppliers can exert on the image they wish to project. It is thus necessary to further investigate whether tourists reproduce the commercialised image in what the literature calls the 'hermeneutic circle of representation' or capture and share their own impressions. This study constructs a categorisation scheme for conducting photography-based image analysis to compare images of two Norwegian destinations as projected by destination management organisations with those shared by Instagram users (perceived image). Results indicate that this circle of representation is not hermeneutic.
Destination image plays a key role in helping people decide where to travel and affects satisfaction, likelihood of return visits and word of mouth. While photography is not the only way of projecting and perceiving an image, 'a picture paints a thousand words'. The rise of social media and usergenerated content has made the image formation process more complex, and has reduced the extent of control that tourism suppliers can exert on the image they wish to project. It is thus necessary to further investigate whether tourists reproduce the commercialised image in what the literature calls the 'hermeneutic circle of representation' or capture and share their own impressions. This study constructs a categorisation scheme for conducting photography-based image analysis to compare images of two Norwegian destinations as projected by destination management organisations with those shared by Instagram users (perceived image). Results indicate that this circle of representation is not hermeneutic.
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