Images of Women in Tourist Catalogues in Semiotic Perspective

Abstrakt

The article attempts to read semiotically a transmission of informational and promotional character in the form of tourist catalogues, focusing primarily on representations of women. The starting point for the analysis of content has become a theoretical discussion about the importance of catalogues for the tourist experience. A sociolinguistic paradigm proposed by Graham Danna has been adopted as a fundamental framework. The research project was to analyse the content (images) of catalogues published by the largest Polish tour operators. The women in the photographs were divided into two basic categories: tourists (alone, in couples, with a family or in a group of friends) and non-tourists. It was shown that the images of women to a large extent duplicate patterns of gender representations rooted in the Euro-American culture. The catalogues themselves precondition the way of spending the holiday by tourists who seek to adjust their individual experience to the canons presented in promotional and informational materials.