Photography and travel brochures: The circle of representation

The power of the visual image to inspire travel to distant places is well exploited by the myth-makers in tourism marketing and is important for understanding tourist behaviour. This paper explores the relevance of the 'circle of representation' concept to understanding one particular group of tourists: backpackers. First it reviews previous research on visual images and tourist photography, then it presents findings of research investigating the visual images of Australia promoted to and perceived by backpacker travellers. Specifically, the paper investigates evidence for the 'hermeneutic circle' whereby tourists (backpackers) reproduce the iconic images of destinations in their personal photographs. Brochure photographs projected to backpacker tourists and their own photography choices during travel are found to be part of a cultural 'circle of representation' or perhaps a 'spiral of representation' through which the iconic images of Australia are perpetuated.