Travel agencies provide exciting opportunities for tourists to gain new experiences, allowing them to learn more about foreign countries. However, travel agencies also have a role in creating and maintaining problematic aspects of the tourism industry. Thailand is a country with one of the most prominent tourism industries in the world, which has also created a plethora of problems. The purpose of this study is to understand how Swedish travel agency websites portray Thailand from the standpoint of post-colonial theory. More specifically, Orientalism is the main theoretical framework used in this thesis because of its specific focus on the effects of European imperialism and colonization on Asia. A number of prior studies that use Orientalism and post-colonial theory are also referred to in examining the tourism industry. The empirical data for this study was collected from 7 Swedish travel agency websites and analyzed using critical discourse analysis. The results showed that the themes present in the data resemble elements of Orientalism discussed by Edward Said. These themes are ‘othering’, ‘exotification, ‘discovering the unknown’, ‘entitlement’, ‘paradise’, and ‘authenticity’. The themes exemplify the power dynamics between Thailand and Sweden created by tourism and suggest that Orientalist ideas continue to be perpetuated outside of their original contexts. The findings were consistent with the findings of prior studies. This study provides insight into the effects of Orientalism beyond the colonial era, and into aspects of modern life, like tourism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-229200 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Teng, Naomi |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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