CBC Research Showcase, 8 th June 2011 Modes of engagement with a national landscape: Perception and representation of Exmoor National Park and impact on the local tourism economy Tim Wilkinson

Awareness of National Parks in England and Wales Relatively high awareness (GfK NOP, 2007)

National Parks ever visited in England and Wales Relatively low visitation (GfK NOP, 2007)

This project Historical Geography Human Geography/ Sociology Media Studies Tourist Studies Tourism geographies Tourist motivations analysis Non- visitor research National Park Movement Narrative/ Discourse analysis Study of representational practice Exeter University Place reproduction History of tourism non-representational theory: practice, performance, embodiment Exmoor landscape Dan James, Sustainable Economy Officer

Insights from Tourist Studies and Tourism Geography Concrete, practical, physical reasons for non-visits:  Lack of transport, lack of time, competition from other activities  Quantifiable Intrinsic-terminal reasons for non-visits:  Abstract needs, personal values, enduring beliefs, social constraints  Qualities Representations shape, and are part of, tourist practice  Mediating texts like guidebooks, websites, television and film and newspaper articles reproduce tourist places in certain ways Encoded into representation are discourses and cultural narratives  These select and omit various parts of the physical referent, legitimising and excluding certain sorts of tourist practice (Prentice and Davis 1995)

Modes of Engagement with a National Landscape Working towards generating data about intrinsic terminal/personal reasons for non/visits to Exmoor will provide academic insights into relationships and engagements with national landscapes Tourist perceptions of Exmoor are part of a longer socio-cultural history which has established a repertoire of ways of seeing and ways of being-in the ‘natural environment’ Interactions between tourists, representations and Exmoor-as-a-physical place result in various modes of engagement with Exmoor and these can be seen to rework past social, cultural and political identities and praxes

Methodology Phase 1: Study of representations of Exmoor contemporary online promotional images historical tourist representations, films, mass media, social media  Aim: to link discourses/narratives about Exmoor to modes of engagement with Exmoor Phase 2: Study of modes of engagement with Exmoor focus groups with under-represented groups ethnographic work at gateway towns (e.g. Minehead, Barnstable)  Aim: to understand how representational practice shapes physical engagements/ visitation behaviour

Thank you – any questions? Research presented here was conducted during an ESRC Studentship under its Capacity Building Clusters Award (RES ) in partnership with Exmoor National Park Authority. For more information about this project and the work of the Centre for Sport, Leisure and Tourism research, see Tim Wilkinson,