Tales from the field: video and its potential for creating cultural tourism knowledge.

Abstract

This chapter promotes innovative qualitative approaches in general and the use of visual methods in particular within cultural tourism research. It does this because a great number of cultural tourism researchers seem to have long had a preference for quantitative rather than qualitative research methods and a tendency to use a 'standardized scheme or pattern' in their respective research projects. Throughout the chapter, it argues that researcher-created video, an innovative visual research technique in the social sciences and humanities can be used alongside traditional qualitative research methods in creative ways in order to create new, visual knowledges in the field of cultural tourism research. The mode by which researcher-created video is used in research is influenced, among other things, by different theoretical approaches and therefore the first part of the chapter explores the current state of cultural tourism research.