A less than viral relationship: the irrelevance of sound for tourism promotion

Abstract

Sound is not viral. From audiences to media, exclusively audio content is not widely shareable. Society tends to focus on image and screens rather than in the acoustic dimension of life. In the tourism scope, videos and photos are still the dominant standards when a specific location needs to be promoted. This exploratory study addresses the intersection between sound and tourism, using scientific texts as a tool to understand scholars’ generic focus in this field of studies. Using the highly accessed database Web of Science, this chapter presents data from 57 scientific publications. Results suggest that publications in this area have risen over the latest years. China (as a country) and Europe (as a continent) emerge as frequent landscapes of research. Sound is often regarded as a tool to measure tourists’ satisfaction. Future research should promote wide-range observations towards audio and its vital importance in everyday life. Scholars should be able to question and evaluate institutions about their motivations, strategies, and policies to enhance tourism promotion.