Alternative Literature and Tourist Experience: Travel and Tourist Weblogs

The paper explores and initiates the examination and discussion of the cultural and promotional power of weblogs and blogging. Travel blogging is a form of digital story-telling. In the past tourism was considered a luxury of a few select people. Travel narratives were published and publicised in the form of brochures, monologues, newspaper accounts, novellas, novels, sketches and paintings. As the world evolved and travel became available to greater groups in society, these written staples captivated and inspired generations. The later part of the 20th century has ear marked the coming of age of Internet technology and traditional forms of tourist communication are being transformed into a more modern electronic version. The Internet has fostered a recent resurgence in journaling of travel adventures and self publication. Blogs are a visual and written descriptive of the day to day excursion of a tourist society. The purpose of this paper is to examine this form of narrative in a modern age and initiate arguments of the discussion within three initial paradigms: (1) tourism as a language, (2) tourism as a place of experiences in space and time and (3) the authenticity of tourism.