Representation of Reitdiephaven

On one beautiful day, I was happily surprised when I looked out of my window. Although, I had already heard on the weather forecast that it would start snowing, I didn’t expect the city to look this beautiful. Today, Reitdiephaven was on my program which I expected to look even better in this white landscape. In the booklet it looked already great with the different colours of the houses in the shape of lighthouses.

What I hadn’t thought of was that with this weather, there were no busses to take me there so it became quite an adventure to get there. On my way, I saw people ice skating on the street! When I got there, the haven was as beautiful as I had expected from the booklet. Parents were pulling their children on sleighs and there was another tourist couple taking pictures at the haven. I felt like I had to take a photograph as well, as proof to my friends.

The circle of representation (after Hall 1997: 1) is a theory that perfectly reflects what happens here. The circle for tourist destination images shows how individuals are influenced by the image that is projected of a certain destination and how they follow this circle. Individuals perceive a certain image, visit the icon and then take a photograph of it. The image was provided to me by marketers of the booklet, and then I couldn’t wait to see it with my own eyes and to show it to my friends in a photograph. The other tourists that were there did the same thing, so I think it can be concluded that I was not the only one following this circle, and this was definitely not the only spot in Groningen where tourists behave like this.

Family enjoying the snow and ice at Reitdiephaven

Colourful Reitdiephaven

Reference:

1) Jenkins, O. (2003). Photography and travel brochures: The circle of representation. Tourism Geographies, 5:3, 305-328.