Here it is; the last blog! In the first I have promised
three objectives, out of which I have discussed two. So the last question
remains: Did I experience this trip differently in comparison to previous
because of the gained knowledge?
The answer is yes.
Although we had a tight schedule and could not decide on our
own, I did experience it differently because of the knowledge as well. When I
was walking in Amman, passing all the cafés, shops, restaurants, I thought about
urban tourism. When I was shopping for souvenirs, I thought about whether it
was staged authenticity. At the dead sea I thought about the gaze and all the
senses. At the US AID I also thought about the gaze. And in general, every time
someone grabbed his/her camera, I thought about the gaze. Huh, why then?
The camera can be seen as an extension of the eye, with
which one records an object in a specific way. Hence, with a photograph the view
(hence, the tourist gaze) can be framed. When looking at everyone’s pictures, I
noticed some had a different focus (although most of them were ordinary
touristic pictures), which can be explained by this theory (Urry, 1990).

Conclusively: during this module as well as in Jordan I have learned that
tourism exists in many forms; muscular tourism, urban tourism, mass tourism,
techno tourism, just to name a few…
It all has its own characteristics and
therefore, everyone can experience the joy of travelling!
References
Robinson, M., & Picard, D. (Eds.). (2009). The Framed World: tourism, tourists and photography. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Edensor, T. (2009). Tourism. Elsevier
Urry, J. (1990). The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies, theory, culture & society.
Robinson, M., & Picard, D. (Eds.). (2009). The Framed World: tourism, tourists and photography. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Edensor, T. (2009). Tourism. Elsevier
Urry, J. (1990). The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies, theory, culture & society.