Tourism and the Media

Tourism is inextricably linked to the historical development of diverse forms of media and of mediations as such. “Media” is a concept inclusive of communicative intermediary products that come in the form of print (such as books and magazines), visual (paintings, photographs) and audiovisual (film, the Internet). If the media act as vehicles of socio-cultural messages, “mediations” refer to the ways these messages are communicated and the very act of their communication (such as transmission). To understand how this communication takes place in relation to tourism we need to examine its context and the actors involved in the production and consumption of messages. An increasing globalization of the media diffused tourist-orientated messages beyond national boundaries, ultimately assisting in the globalization of tourist service provision.