Using the Tourist Gaze to Promote Italy: a Research Project 11th – 14th September 2013 Angela D’Egidio Angela D’Egidio University of the Salento, Lecce, Italy September 13th, 2013

What is the Tourist Gaze? 2 The gaze: the most important tourist activity within the tourist experience. In other words, the gazing process is what constitutes tourism. Objects suitable for the tourist gaze include unique objects, which are “famous for being famous” (Urry, 2002:12) and out-of-the-ordinary, which tell tourists that what they are looking at is extraordinary and worth seeing, or unfamiliar aspects not typically encountered in daily life. “Model of perception tourists adopt while performing the practice of ‘sightseeing’ (Francesconi 2007: 47) It is evident in travel blogs.

Travel Blog as a Genre A form of digital story-telling. Travel bloggers freely choose WHAT, WHAT NOT to write, and HOW to express their perceptions. Travel blogs  the basis for the analysis of the TOURIST GAZE about FLORENCE and LECCE. 3

AIMS/HYPOTHESES 1.Show how Italian, American, British, Australian, Canadian and international travel bloggers perceive and experience Italy as a tourist destination (Florence and Lecce); 2.To what extent the INSIDER and OUTSIDER Tourist Gazes on Italy are different; 3.Outline a model of insider T.G. and a model of outsider T.G.; 4.Understand how the model of outsider gaze may be embedded in the translation of travel guides/websites of Florence and Lecce Tourist Boards into ELF REMEDIATION, RECONTEXTUALIZATION, REFORMULATION. 4

Methodology 1.Six comparable corpora of travel blogs describing itineraries including Florence and Lecce (websites: TravelPod, TravBuddy, Turistipercaso); 2.Wordsmith 6.0; 3.Two word frequency lists of each corpus: whole itinerary/Florence or Lecce; 4.Stop lists and lemma lists; 5.Normalization of data; 6.Contrastive analysis of lemmas/words 5

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 6 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS AmUKAusCanNon-Nat REAL (Gallerie dell’Accademia) 51%75%64%72%60%75% COPY (Piazza della Signoria, Piazzale Michelangelo) 51% (also Bargello) 25%45%28%40%25%

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 7 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS Appearance/ExteriorityAmUKAusCanNon-Nat SIZE24%32%10%31%66%35% Examples: “per ammirare l'imponente David di Michelangelo; “…l’immenso e colossale David; “It's about 15 feet tall and huge” (Am. Corpus) ; “ He was bigger, taller than I had expected standing 4 metres high.” (Aus. Corpus); “I've seen pictures before, but didn't realize that the statue is about 3 times my height!” (Can. Corpus); “I didn't think he was that big (13 feet tall…) (Non-Nat. Corpus).

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 8 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS Appearance/ExteriorityAmUKAusCanNon-Nat MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE9%32%30%50%34%64% Examples: “come diavolo ha fatto Michelangelo a creare un simile capolavoro da un semplice pezzo di marmo; “it was all carved from one block of marble- a completely new technique for the time.” (Am. Corpus) ; “…was carved by M. from a single block of marble at the age of 29!!!” (Br. Corpus); “ how he had managed to do it in one huge piece of marble.” (Aus. Corpus); “Michaelangelo carved David out of one solid block of marble, and it is known over the world for being incredibly realistic and perfectly proportional.” (Can. Corpus); “It’s made from one piece of white marble”. (Non-Nat. Corpus).

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 9 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS Appearance/ExteriorityAmUKAusCanNon-Nat DETAILS0%24%30%31%55%35% Examples: “The best example of this (in our opinion) was the detail of the veins in the right hand and the lack of veins in the left hand.” (Am. Corpus) ; “David, naked in near totality (excepting the leather sling clutched nonchalantly over his left shoulder)” (Br. Corpus); “ His wavy, curly hair, smooth face and eyes that stared blankly back at the crowd.” (Aus. Corpus); “I was absolutely taken back by the amount of detail present in this tall man. His hand clearly had the hard knuckles of a strong man and were laced with thick veins which ran throughout the rest of his body. His muscles were immaculate and no detail was forgotten.” (Can. Corpus); “It is so detailed, with veins on his arms. The muscles on his legs…”. (Non-Nat. Corpus).

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 10 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS Appearance/ExteriorityAmUKAusCanNon-Nat EMOTIONS/AWE23%45%31% 77%36% Examples: “Ci fa rimanere proprio a bocca aperta”; “It was a very emotional experience”; “it was one hour spent in awe”; “immediately you are awe-struck by David”. (Am. Corpus) ; “Truly amazing” (Br. Corpus); “ I remember being in awe of the statue”; “impressive” (Aus. Corpus); “I sat mesmerized by the statue”; “I was really surprised”; “I was super impressed” (Can. Corpus); “It left me quite speechless”; “I am surprised”, “What an impressive statue” (Non-Nat. Corpus).

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 11 Examples: “almost breath-taking in person”; “Whatever you have seen in books doesn't prepare you for the moment that you walk into the room.”; “You think it looks awesome in photos, right? And it does, but: it is even MORE amazing in person.”; (Am. Corpus) ; “ is outstanding when seen in person.”; “He was bigger, taller than I had expected” (Aus. Corpus); “I've seen pictures before, but didn't realize that the statue is about 3 times my height! I'm not sure why I thought it was smaller”; “I didn't realize until today that it's about four metres tall.” (Can. Corpus); “I didn’t think he was that big” (Non-Nat. Corpus). Outsiders: higher degree of distortion of reality expectations

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 12 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS AmUKAusCanNon-Nat PICTURES9%22%23%31%55%14% Examples: “peccato non si possano fare foto”; “You are not even allowed to take a picture of the statue, but I did anyway. (cuz I'm sneaky like that!) ”. (Am. Corpus) ; “as usual in Italy no photography is actually permitted within the Academia either. So aside from a few “sneakies” (Br. Corpus); “Got my illegal photo of the Statue of David” (Aus. Corpus); “tons of people sneaking illegal photographs (Ness got some great ones)” (Can. Corpus); - “Out-of-the-ordinariness” and “unfamiliarity”

Analysis – Wordlist Florence - David 13 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS KnowledgeAmUKAusCanNon-Nat OTHER STATUES (The unfinished Prisoners) 9%18%23%12%22%28%

14 INSIDERSOUTSIDERS KnowledgeAmUKAusCanNon-Nat OLD BRIDGE4%21%22%21%7%27% Analysis – Wordlist Florence – Ponte Vecchio Examples: “the bridge over the Arno built in The bridge used to be populated by grocery and meat stalls, but in 1593 the Medicis, the ruling family of Florence”. (Am. Corpus); “This bridge was built in 1345 and is the only bridge over the Arno that wasn't destroyed during the second world war.” (Br. Corpus); “This bridge was built in 1345 and was lucky to survive the retreating Nazi's decision to destroy all of Florence's bridges. The shops built upon the bridge have been occupied by jewellers since 1593 to this date. ” (Aus. Corpus); “the old bridge or the Ponte Vecchio. The bridge was the only bridge which the German troops didn’t destroy when they retreated from the city during the Second World War - they did destroy the buildings…”(Non.Nat. Corpus);

Analysis – Wordlist – whole itinerary “TOURISTS”NEGATIVE PERCEPTION NEUTRAL PERCEPTIONS AMERICANS57%43% BRITISH71%29% AUSTRALIANS62%38% CANADIANS60%40% NON-NATIVE64%36% 15 ITALIANS26%74% TOURISTS/TOURISTY vs. LOCAL/LOCALS

Analysis – Wordlist – whole itinerary 16 TOURISTS/TOURISTY vs. LOCAL/LOCALS Touristy: “if you describe a place as ‘touristy’, you do not like it because it is full of tourists or full of things for tourists to buy and do” (Collins COBUILD Dictionary (2009) NEGATIVE CONNOTATION

Analysis – Wordlist – whole itinerary 17 TURISTICO “Lasciamo l'albergo e ci rechiamo per un giro turistico vario.”; “Data la levataccia dopo un veloce giro turistico della zona, decidiamo di cenare e andare a letto. “abbiamo pranzato con un buon menu’ turistico a 13 euro a testa primo, secondo contorno e caffe’.”; Fatto il biglietto a 6 euro a testa, prendiamo anche l’ audioguida a parte a 5 euro che ci accompagna per il percorso turistico.

Analysis – Wordlist – whole itinerary “LOCAL/LOCALS”Being immersed in the host culture Food & Drink SocialisingRelaxation AMERICANS57%41%7%5% BRITISH77%21%11%1% AUSTRALIANS52% 14%4% CANADIANS63%44%17%4% NON-NATIVE52%45%15%5% 18 TOURISTS/TOURISTY vs. LOCAL/LOCALS Italian corpus: only 2 occurrences; “del posto”: 5 occurrences.

Analysis – Wordlist – whole itinerary 19 Being immersed in the host culture: “It made me feel like a local”; “walking with the Italian locals”; sit outside a small bar/café and feel like a local” (Am. Corpus); “It was filled with local people, probably on their lunch breaks.”; “I want to get out here and explore the region, culture and lifestyles of the locals. (Br. Corpus); “with a plan to try and do what the locals do.” (Aus. Corpus); “enjoying local life”; “daily market where the locals can find all their needs”; “the locals flock here for lunch” (Can. Corpus); “That's why I love to follow the locals to their favorite restaurants and eat like they eat.”; “I did go out of the touristic area and ventured out in the area were the locals live…”(Non.Nat. Corpus).

Analysis – Wordlist – whole itinerary 20 Food & Drink: “I went into a local bakery/restaurant”; “we decided we were going to go to a local bar and have some drinks.”; “we had pastas, pizza, good local draft beer and gelato for dessert” (Am. Corpus); “so we checked out a local café”. (Br. Corpus); “Once again we chose one of the local cafes to dine in.”; “Thankfully most of the restaurants actually have local food” (Aus. Corpus); “a nice assortment of the local-favorite boiled variety including beef”; “We had a simple lunch of local hams, salamis, cheeses” (Can. Corpus); “They had an excellent selection of local wine”; “Remember that tasting the local specialties is an important part of the experience.” (Non.Nat. Corpus).

Conclusions 21 Global/outsider gaze is different from the local/insider gaze Outsiders: 1.Higher degree of distortion of reality; 2.More critical, analytical, detailed; 3.Need to explain. Insiders: 1.Less attention to details; 2.Take for granted. IN TRASLATION RECONTEXUALISATION REFORMULATION

Thank you for your attention 29th August – 1st September 2013 Angela D’Egidio, University of Salento (Lecce, Italy) Any Questions?

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