The sense, landscape and image. How the tourist destination is replicated in postmodernist times

Abstract

Policy makers, practitioners and analysts have focused on the psychology to induce consumers to new products. These new eye-catching packaging products in tourism and hospitality industries and beyond are commercialized to thousands of home thanks to the media. We are living in times, digital times where organic image plays a pivotal role in arousing emotions and experiences, although these experiences were not authentic. Following this discussion, initialized some time ago by D. Maccannell and other sociologists, the present paper explores the philosophical roots of image to expand the current understanding about our ocular-centrism. At time, tourists select a destination, they are moved by “the wish of majority”, but once destination is maturated, its attractiveness declines. What seems to be interesting to discuss here is the connection between perceived safety (risk) and attraction (organic image). Following I. Kant’s contributions, we present a conceptual model to understand how the dilemma of safety leads consumers to visual pollution.