PHOTO LIBRARY

Every photo tells a story…

A key component of this project is utilizing photovoice methodology as a way to share stories about daily life, tourism, culture, and people. Participants chose their medium between using their phone camera, digital camera, or Polaroid camera in how they wanted to share their story.

The research team had no “set script” but rather let different themes organically emerge from stories and photos. In addition, utilizing three “mediums” empowers community members and provides a sense of choice and autonomy in how they document and display their stories of tourism.

Varied photo methods created a wide array of formats, displays, and interpretation of tourism from participant views. Importantly, the University research team developed a close relationship with participants over a 2.5-year period as they moved from being strictly participants to “co-researchers” in our mutual understanding of the tourism landscape across time and space.

We plan to broaden our scope and continue to work with marginalized communities in tourism “hotspots”. We have developed a Facebook community page where we encourage other travelers to share their stories of tourism and culture in Vietnam.