Abstract
As one of its main resources, weather is an integral part of tourism. Yet little is known about how individual tourists experience the weather and how it affects the subjective perception of their holidays. The weather appears to have a prominent place in language and the use of the weather in narratives of tourists can provide insight into how the weather affects tourist experiences. Based on a qualitative analysis of online travel blogs written by Dutch tourists, 16 weather themes could be distinguished, representing how the weather was narrated about by tourists. Moreover, different impact themes emerged describing how the weather impacted the tourists: tourists revealed positive, negative or neutral evaluations about the weather impacts. The findings of this study can be used for future research on tourist behaviour and how specific weather types and impacts influence the decision making of tourists in terms of itineraries and activities.
Introduction
Weather is an integral part of tourism (Becken, 2010; Limb and Spellman, 2001) and is embedded in the holiday experience. Becken (2010) showed in her study among travellers in New Zealand that the weather has relatively little impact on holiday satisfaction but does affect travel itineraries and activities. While the linkages between weather and tourism are evident, how the weather influences individual experiences of tourists remains largely unanswered. Studying the impact of the weather on experiences of tourists is necessary in order to better understand the role of one of the most important but least controllable aspects in the field of tourism.
Although the role of the weather in tourist experiences and tourist holiday satisfaction has been studied (e.g. Becken, 2010; Becken and Wilson, 2010; Morabito et al., 2005), to the knowledge of the authors, how this is reflected in holiday narratives has not been studied yet. Knowledge about this could enhance destination marketing activities that will be increasingly sensitive towards the actual impact of the weather on people’s holidays, especially given changing climatic circumstances (de Freitas, 1990; Hamilton and Lau, 2005; Hein et al., 2009; Matzarakis, 2006; Matzarakis et al., 2007; Scott et al., 2009).
This article investigates how tourists use the weather to describe their experiences during their holidays on online travel blogs. Although tourist experiences are a thoroughly studied topic (Uriely, 2005), studying tourist experiences by analysing travel blog content is a relatively new, unobtrusive but increasingly used methodology (Banyai and Glover, 2011; Bosangit et al., 2009; Carson, 2008; Enoch and Grossman, 2010; Law and Cheung, 2010; Pan et al., 2007; Pudliner, 2007; Schmallegger and Carson, 2008; Volo, 2010). This article presents the results of a study that aimed at: (1) gaining insight into the types of weather that are mentioned in online travel blog postings; (2) gaining an understanding of how the weather impacts tourists and their holiday experience; and (3) verifying how weather and weather impacts are evaluated by tourists.
The article is organised as follows. First, the link between weather and tourism is further emphasised. Next, key findings of studies on tourist experiences are related to the emerging use of weblogs as a tool for communication and self-expression. Then, the methodology employed in this study is outlined, after which the results are given, illustrated by a number of quotations as found in travel blogs. Finally, the results and implications of the study are discussed.
Climate and weather in tourism studies
Climate and weather highly impact on a destination’s attractiveness (Andrade et al., 2011; Matzarakis et al., 2007) and the climatic circumstances of a destination are among the reasons why people travel to holiday destinations. Climatic circumstances are an essential resource for tourism (de Freitas, 2003) and define the potentials and limitations of a tourist destination. Moreover, prevailing climatic conditions are used to sell a destination (Becken, 2010). While climate refers to long-term, average trends in weather patterns, people sense concrete, highly variable weather features (Becken, 2010). However, climate and weather are often confused. For example, tourists are provided with climate information by tourism agencies, websites and guide books, presented to or interpreted by them as weather information (Becken, 2010). Since tourists partially base their destination choice decisions on these climate data (Hamilton and Lau, 2005), this may result in misinterpretations, false expectations and possible disappointments.
Aesthetic and physical aspects such as sunshine, wind, rain and temperature influence tourist experiences of a holiday destination (Becken and Hay, 2007) and weather can add to the ‘authenticity’ or ‘uniqueness’ of a tourist experience; mist in the mountains limits possible vistas that were anticipated for, but an opening in the clouds granting a peek into a valley might be experienced as even more impressive than when seen on a bright sunny day. Physical weather experiences (Andrade et al., 2011; Hein et al., 2009; Knez et al., 2009; Morabito et al., 2005) have been studied, focusing on thermal comfort or a combined physiological experience of temperature, humidity, wind and radiation. These numerical studies are criticised, since they ‘often have been too narrow or too vague in their approaches in relation to the commonly wide scope of leisure traveller activities and interests’ (Denstadli et al., 2011: p. 937). Also, they do not account for psychological experiences of the weather, therefore falling short on how these physical perceptions are experienced and translated into subjective, psychological experiences.
Tourist and weather experiences
Tourist experiences have been an important topic of study in the field of tourism since the 1960s (Uriely, 2005). The tourist experience has been defined by Page et al. (in: Volo, 2010: p. 299) as ‘a complex combination of factors that shape the tourist’s feeling and attitude towards his or her visit’. Similarly, Larsen (2007) defines tourist experiences as ‘past personal travel-related events strong enough to have entered long-term memory’ (p. 15). He argues that the formation of tourist experiences is based on three factors: expectations, events and memories. Kim (2010) found that people remember extraordinary events better and recall them more vividly than events that are perceived as ordinary. Moreover, Clawson and Knetsch (in Kim, 2010) noted that experiences have value only when they are stored and remembered through the process of recollection. People are able to recall significant events vividly, although these memories may not be factually correct. Yet, in the case of tourist experiences it is all about this perceived reality. They tend to be remembered in a narrative form (Pudliner, 2007) and are reproduced, for example as stories told to friends and family (Zehrer et al., 2011). According to Wirtz et al. (2003), memories of tourist experiences are the most important predictor of the desire to experience the same again. Tourist experiences thus are not only consumed during the holiday, but also afterwards by reproducing the experiences as stories, which gives the tourist a chance to make sense of the events he experienced (Bosangit et al., 2009).
Consequently, if the weather significantly impacts tourist experiences, it is likely to be present in the memories and narratives of tourists. Since experience formation occurs by converting experiences into ‘experiential symbols of words for the purposes of description, comparison and communication’ (Fischhoff, 2004, in Stewart, 2007, p. 57), language used to describe the weather then gives insight into people’s experiences and meaning of the weather (Stewart, 2007). Harley (2003) and Stewart (2007) provide evidence about the role and representation of the weather in language. Harley (2003) studied how British people talk about the weather and found weather extremes, weather comparisons and weather as an ‘object in time’ to be popular topics. He showed that the weather is an important metacognitive tool used in the autobiographical memory. Thus, the weather ‘can provide a framework for accessing and structuring memory’ (p. 115). Stewart (2007) studied weather-related adjectives to describe the weather. He found evidence for a latent structure of 143 English language adjectives pertaining to several ways people are affected by or evaluate weather circumstances such as ‘threatening, severe, violent’, ‘bright and clear’ and ‘hot and summery’. Thus, the weather appears to have a prominent place in language and the use of the weather in narratives of tourists can provide insight into how the weather affects tourist experiences.
Experiences and language: travel blogs
Since the last decade people increasingly use the Internet to disseminate personal experiences. Writing, reading and maintaining weblogs in general has been termed the ‘blogosphere’ (Carson, 2008) and is recognised as having its own dynamic of information flows, enabling writers to express themselves and to influence and inform people from around the globe. Jones and Alony (2008) define weblogs as ‘personal journals which are published online, and are frequently updated with links to similar and related topics, often from other bloggers’ (p. 3). Weblogs are user-generated content (UGC) (Schmallegger and Carson, 2008) just as other social media such as Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Since 1999, the number of this type of ‘consumer to consumer media’ (Volo, 2010) has increased to over 100 million, although ‘the exact number of blogs is impossible to state at any given point in time’ (Schmidt, 2007: p. 1409).
Travel blogs, as one manifestation, contain tourism and travel-related content. Narratives of travellers have existed for centuries, but they have become increasingly digitalised and are nowadays a common way to inform others about holiday experiences (Volo, 2010). Volo states that ‘travel blogs have become very popular in the cyberspace, becoming an interesting virtual arena in which tourists share experiences, moods and feelings’ (p. 298). Bosangit and colleagues (2009) state that travel blogs can be considered expressions of travel consumption. Writing on travel blogs is a way to express oneself and share positive and negative travel experiences (Schmallegger and Carson, 2008). Travel blogs are a form of digital storytelling (Pudliner, 2007), forming ‘rich narratives that contain details of experiences and have a great deal of potential to inform research’ (Bosangit et al., 2009: p. 62). Filep (2008) even states that ‘qualitative study of travel blogs […] is useful in uncovering new layers of satisfaction that could not have been discovered through dominant approaches’ (p. 4). Yet the body of research that employs weblogs as a data source is only just emerging and researchers across several disciplines are discovering its promising applicability.
Two lines of research can be distinguished that use weblog content within the context of tourism. The first line studies how weblog content affects destination choice and tourist product attitudes (Carson, 2008; Pan et al., 2007; Volo, 2010). These ‘travel review sites’ (e.g. zoover.nl and tripadvisor.com) function as a source for destination choice and influence how destination images are formed by ‘Word-Of-Mouse’ (Crotts, 1999, in Law and Cheung, 2010). The second line is concerned with the content of personal travel blogs (e.g. travelpod.com and, in The Netherlands, waarbenjij.nu), studying this content through narrative and content analyses (Bosangit et al., 2009; Pan et al., 2007). These blogs have a more personal nature, since they are built up from stories of people’s activities, social meetings and experiences. Scholars then are studying how people tell their travel stories and how the stories reflect the experiences of people. McCabe and Foster (2006) state that ‘a person’s identity can be communicated through narrative’ (p. 195). What is written on travel blogs thus can reveal much about its writers and how they perceive themselves as individuals, as part of a social network, as experiencing their environment and how they perceive this environment as a factor that has an impact on their holidays, activities and tourist experiences.
The enormous increase in Internet use and consumer-to-consumer communication via weblogs provides researchers with an unobtrusive method to collect a wealth of data that can be used for an analysis of several – in this case tourist related – issues via user-generated content such as narratives, pictures and videos (Volo, 2010). These data are less impacted by biases (such as social desirability) and provide a more ‘authentic’ insight into people’s experiences (Banyai and Glover, 2011).
Weblogs are often publicly available on the Internet and the content is freely accessible. Since research on online data is relatively new, not much precedent exists concerning ethical issues that might arise, but Jones and Alony (2008) provide some thoughts concerning the scientific use of online content. First, the study of online weblogs can be considered as being another form of social scientific research, hence implying the need for informed consent. However, the blog writing population is extensive, dynamic and often anonymous, making it complex to apply informed consent. Second, online weblog content can be seen as a freely accessible product in the public domain of the Internet, that can be studied and reproduced, within the boundaries of copyright. Given the often personal nature of the content of weblogs, researchers should be aware though of the intrinsic value of this information and consider whether it is ethically correct to use this without asking the writers. We have chosen not to inform the travel blog authors because the content of travel blogs is freely accessible and put online consciously. Moreover, because tourist experiences are personal phenomena, studying an a political, impersonal phenomenon (the weather) was not expected to infringe any moral practices.
Methodology
This article is based on a qualitative study aiming to gain insight into how the weather affects the experiences of people during their holidays. Travel weblogs were used as the main source of data. We used postings on the Dutch weblog www.waarbenjij.nu. This site enables travellers to keep in touch with friends, family and other travellers during their time abroad. The content of the website is freely accessible. We had no specific interest in a continent or country – the weather is present everywhere – and there was no aim to employ a representative sample. This is common for exploratory qualitative studies that are mainly focused on in-depth analyses (Boeije, 2009). However, given the enormous amount of blog content available on the website, a selection had to be made. A total of 200 unique postings with weather-related text was selected. Randomised selection was employed using a tool for selecting random samples on www.randomizer.org. 1
The website www.waarbenjij.nu is divided into eight parts, each containing blogs about a certain part of the world. In total 245 countries are represented. Randomly, 200 times of any number between 1 and 245 was selected. After this, the most recent posting (on top of the first page) was selected and fully read. If a country was selected twice, then the second entry was selected too, etcetera. In order to have enough content, the postings qualified for selection when they contained at least 300 words. If not, the next posting was selected. If no weather-related text was found, the next posting was used. The data were gathered in June/July 2011.
The spiral of analysis
Few robust methodological guidelines currently exist to study online blogs. Previous studies have used content analysis (Banyai and Glover, 2011), frequency analysis (Pan et al., 2007), semantic network analysis (Pan et al., 2007) or a narrative approach (Bosangit et al., 2009). Such methods have also been proven successful to study more conventional qualitative data sources such as interviews, books and other ‘classic’ verbal communication.
Here we followed the stepwise methodology called ‘the spiral of analysis’ (Boeije, 2009). The spiral of analysis is based on concepts originating from the `Grounded Theory' of Glaser et al. (1968), of which constant comparison (compare parts of text, relate them to other text parts and put them into perspective of previous experience), open coding (‘breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualizing and categorizing data’ (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 61, in Boeije, 2009)) and axial coding (‘a set of procedures whereby data are put back together in new ways after open coding, by making connections between categories’ (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 96, in: Boeije, 2009)) are the most important.
The spiral of analysis was first employed to categorise weather types and count the number of occurrences, second to discover emerging themes of how the weather impacts the tourists and third to categorise valuations of the tourist experiences that were influenced by the weather. Since there was no a priori categorisation objective, the narratives themselves formed the basis for emerging categories. Since all ‘analyses are limited and filtered through the lens of the researcher’ (Hutchinson and Samdahl, 2000: p. 245) any limitations of the findings of these analyses lie in this lens. Besides, the role of subjectivity is essential in qualitative research. It enables to bring the data to a higher level as compared to numerical, quantitative studies (Boeije, 2009). For the analysis the software program ATLAS.ti (Version 6.2) was used.
Results
General overview of the sample
Narratives written by a total of 184 travellers were selected (some narratives originated from the same traveller). About 61% was female, while 39% was male. Most travel blog writers were 25 years or younger (54%). Average trip duration was 21 weeks: travel blogs appear to be commonly used during relatively long holidays. It has to be noted though that a few extremely long holidays (up to five years) have amplified the average holiday length.
Weather types
The first research question pertained to a variety of weather types that are described on travel blogs. A wide range of weather aspects were found in the travel blog content (Table 1). The content analysis that was performed resulted in 16 weather codes. Tourists describe the weather in more ways than just in meteorological weather features. By far most often mentioned was ‘rain’ (or a lack thereof), followed by thermal perceptions (‘warm/hot/cold weather’), ‘sun/sunshine’ and ‘wind’. One type of weather was coded as ‘contrast’, pertaining to both variability of the weather and to comparisons between different types of weather.
Weather codes found in travel blog content.
Weather impact themes
Next, the focus turned to the way the weather impacts tourists and their holiday experience. A slightly altered categorisation of weather aspects as compared to the results of the coding displayed in Table 1 emerged. While the former coding was aimed at categorising all words and phrases that were weather related, here the goal was to identify the weather aspects that were relevant in the experiential context in which they were used. For example, the code ‘temperature’ appeared meaningless, unless it pertained to cold or hot weather, resulting in two weather codes (high temperature/heat and low temperature/cold).
Coding just ‘experience relevant’ weather aspects resulted in a smaller absolute number of used codes. Rain, for example, was coded 82 times (as opposed to 187 times in the first round). Also, more than once it was found that the impact was a combination of two or more weather types, accounting for the complexity of both experiences and weather impacts. A total of eight impact themes emerged: ‘behaviour/adaptation’, ‘aesthetics/environment’, ‘satisfaction’, ‘physical’, ‘emotions/moods’, ‘thermal’, ‘changes/variation’ and ‘neutral’ (Table 2).
Emerging weather and impacts themes (number of times found).
Tourists not only perceive typical and more frequently studied weather features such as hot or cold weather, rain or sun but also write about humidity, thunderstorms, mist and the variability of the weather. Furthermore, tourists not only write about the weather in meteorological expressions but also use more subjective terms such as nice, good, bad, favourable or unfavourable weather. This is in line with the findings from previous studies (Denstadli et al., 2011; Stewart, 2007). Accounts of the weather thus often imply a valuation, a notion of subjectivity and are described as an experiential phenomenon. Moreover, tourists link the experienced weather with their plans, activities, previous experiences and expectations and evaluate the weather in this subjective, situational context. This is exemplified by the variety of ways the weather is described to have an impact on tourists and their experiences. We found that the 16 weather themes impact on tourists in 30 different ways. These could be meaningfully categorised in eight impact themes illustrated below.
Behaviour/adaptation
The weather both enables and obstructs tourist behaviour in terms of activities and travel plans: ‘it appeared they could not go hang gliding at all. The reason is the wind was too unpredictable’ (Female, Fiji, about New Zealand). Besides, it causes tourists to protect themselves in order to stay safe: ‘suddenly it started to rain heavily, so we quickly took shelter somewhere’ (Female, Uruguay).
Aesthetics/environment
Weather affects the beauty of the environment and atmosphere: ‘the rain on the lake, with after 10 minutes the sunshine made the lake very mystical’ (Female, Armenia). Also, it affects the atmosphere in a negative way: ‘it is also raining, which does not do any good for the appearance.’ (Female, Congo Brazzaville).
Satisfaction
Certain types of weather, such as sunshine and, to a lesser extent, warm weather positively influence tourist satisfaction in terms of comfort and satisfaction: ‘our porch was overlooking the sea […], where in the morning it is lovely to enjoy our breakfast in the sun!’ (Female, Mozambique). The opposite seems true for weather types such as rain and cold. Heat is experienced as enjoyable but also as uncomfortable: ‘so the conclusion is that Gyeongju is a beautiful city, but not with this kind of weather’ (Female, South Korea).
Physical
Related to this is the physical impact of the weather, which can materialise in getting wet, exhaustion and sweating: ‘it is very warm to ride a bike, so I am sweating as if I was in a sauna’ (Female, Micronesia), but also in pain and getting hurt: ‘the thunder was so loud, that it hurt my ears’ (Female, Bangladesh).
Emotions/moods
Next, the weather evokes emotions and affects the mood of tourists. Thunderstorms make people scared, while sunshine (and sunset) evokes happiness: ‘all day long [surfing] and then ending with a beautiful sunset […]. It was one of those beautiful moments to consider yourself lucky’ (Female, El Salvador). Furthermore, rain, mist and cloudy weather result in disappointment: ‘unfortunately it is raining and we were very disappointed’ (Female, Canada). Also, variability in the weather can give a sense of feeling lucky, while extreme weather is impressive: ‘after one hour we get a strong 5 bft (sometimes even 6 bft) from the North-west. Waves are becoming higher, Piet Hein is impressed’ (Male, Canal Islands).
Thermal
Thermal effects are considered a special type of physical impact that pertain to experiencing both heat and cold. These are often related to comfort: ‘the weather luckily changed and especially in the evening and night there was a cooling wind’ (Male, Georgia). Interestingly, extreme high and low temperatures are related to discomfort: ‘during the evening we played a game of risk and then we went to bed because it was very cold!’ (Female, Fiji, about New Zealand).
Changes/variation
People also give notion to changing weather circumstances, whether it is due to themselves travelling or due to changes in the weather. Tourists tend to be impacted by contrasts in the weather and compare different types of weather and climates: ‘when I arrived in El Salvador it was muggy and warm, but here you are in the mountains and it is a bit fresh’ (Female, El Salvador).
Neutral
Finally, the weather paradoxically is impacting on tourist experiences because it has no impact: ‘we enjoyed Rio very much despite the not so good weather’ (Female, Brazil). This might be a sign of the adaptability of people and their ability to create a ‘personal microclimate that is acceptable’ (de Freitas, 2003, p. 50).
Evaluations of weather experiences
As argued earlier, the weather as a phenomenon does not exist in isolation. Its impact and significance become meaningful by the experience of people, their perceptions and evaluations. The importance of a positive or negative evaluation of an experience in which the weather plays a role was argued to shape the holiday experience. In total 141 positive evaluations and 117 negative evaluations were identified. Also, 166 times the weather was found in narratives, but there was no evaluative account of the weather or its impact (Table 3). This might signify the role of the weather as a contextual tool (see also Harley, 2003).
Evaluations (nr.) per weather theme.
The type of evaluations that were found in the narratives often fit the overall impression that warm sunny weather is experienced as good weather while cold, rainy weather is evaluated as bad weather. Yet, our results make clear that on the level of specific experiences within a holiday, the impact is rather diverse. Rain is mostly negatively evaluated: ‘yesterday evening we thought to have reached to worst part of our trip, but this morning it got even worse…because now it also rains’ (Male, San Marino). It also has a positive aesthetic value (e.g. the sights of waterfalls) and the physical impact of extreme weather appears to have both positive and negative impacts: ‘we have enjoyed the amazing sights en spectacular thunderstorms, an incredible spectacle above the lake, hills and dark clouds!’ (Female, Rwanda). Besides, heat/high temperature is often negatively evaluated, which is logical given the uncomfortable physical impact found earlier: ‘it is very hot here and despite the swimming we were feeling more dirty every the hour’ (Male, Malaysia). It seems that tourists specifically tend to write about heat or high temperatures when it affects them negatively and that warm weather has its limits in terms of comfort. On the other hand, positive accounts of hot weather were found in terms of favourable weather or pertaining to the presence of sunshine: ‘how lucky are we with the weather. The sun is shining bright and it is plain warm’ (Male, Alaska). Other negatively evaluated weather themes are humidity, clouds (‘unfortunately it was cloudy that day, so no Everest for us.’ (Female, Tibet)), mist and low temperatures/cold. On the other hand, wind, sunshine, but also thunder/lightning and variability of the weather are evaluated more often positively than negatively: ‘here it is significantly cooler, more rain showers and even a bit cold. But I am not complaining, it is enjoyable, finally not being in the heat’ (Female, Sri Lanka).
Conclusion and discussion
The weather has a significant and complex impact on tourists and their holiday experiences. Tourists write extensively about the weather on online travel blogs. The main objective of this article was to better understand the role of the weather in tourist experiences by employing qualitative analyses of online travel blog narratives. We provided an extensive overview of the impacts and by doing so, complement the growing body of research about climate, weather and tourism. We have argued that the fact that the weather is mentioned and evaluated in travel blog narratives and thus is consciously written down implies that the weather indeed influenced the tourist experiences that are described (Volo, 2010) and that these weather impacts have been stored in the long-term memory (Larsen, 2007) as part of the tourists' experience. The purpose of the study was exploratory and intended to create a more complete image of tourist weather experiences. More specifically, we intended to fill the gap of empirical evidence on tourist sensitivities for the weather (Denstadli et al., 2011) and provide ‘observational data to determine the actual responses, perceptions, needs, reactions and expectations of vacationers’ (de Freitas, 2003: p. 52) that was called for.
A wide range of weather aspects was mentioned in the narratives on online travel blogs. We found a total of 16 weather types. It shows that the weather is experienced in an even more widespread way than is assumed in previous studies that focused on the impact of weather and climate on tourism (e.g. Becken and Wilson, 2010; de Freitas, 1990; Denstadli et al., 2011). Accounts of the weather often implied a valuation, a notion of subjectivity and were described as an experiential phenomenon. Tourists experience a combination of weather aspects and evaluate them as favourable or unfavourable in relation to their plans and/or expectations. To date, many studies – although implicitly assuming – have barely taken into account this evaluating step in the process of weather experiences. The weather themes that emerged in this study thus add to the current understanding of how tourists perceive the weather as a phenomenon and think and write about it.
While the weather themes that were written about on the travel blogs varied widely, the ways the weather has an impact on tourists and their experiences diverged even more. Sixteen weather themes impacted on tourists in 30 different ways, categorised in eight impact themes: ‘behaviour/adaptation’, ‘aesthetics/environment’, ‘satisfaction’, ‘physical’, ‘emotions/moods’, ‘thermal’, ‘changes/variation’ and ‘neutral’. We can conclude that the impact of the weather derives its true meaning by the experience of people and their perceptions.
Looking at how tourists evaluate the weather and its impact on them, it became clear that the evaluations varied considerably in direction – positive or negative – per weather type and per impact. As a consequence, the impact and evaluation of the weather in relation to experiences on a ‘within holiday level’ can have a significant impact on the behavioural and psychological dynamics of tourists during their holiday. Moreover, it would be worth looking into how these specific experiences add up and affect the evaluation of a holiday as a whole.
This article provides an insight in the complex linkages between weather and tourism and adds to the current knowledge in tourism climatology (de Freitas, 2003; Matzarakis et al., 2007). The methodology of qualitative analysis (Boeije, 2009) proved to be applicable for studying online blog content, taking advantage of the fact that the studied narratives were written down completely voluntarily. This nonobstructive characteristic of the current methodology gives access to data that are free from common biases constraining more conventional research methods. However, qualitative analysis has its own limitations and the results of this study should take these into account. First, the results are based on a relatively limited, unrepresentative sample of the tourist population. Second, only travel blog narratives written by Dutch tourists were included. It may be that people from other cultures or countries have a different perception and impact of the weather, since differences between home climate and holiday climate vary. Also, words to describe weather experiences may vary between cultures (see also Stewart, 2007). Similar studies in other countries could provide a comparison with the results found here. Another limitation concerns the type of holidays tourists write about on blogs. The average holiday length of over 20 weeks is not very typical (average holiday length for Dutch tourists is between 6 and 7 days (www.cbs.nl) and the dynamics of the impact of the weather could be different: longer holidays imply a higher chance of experiencing a variety of weather types, more options to make up for a period of bad weather, but also a higher chance of experiencing unfavourable weather. The results from this study thus should not be directly extrapolated to all types of tourists and holidays.
However, an important advantage of this study is that it takes into account many more holiday situations and thus accounts for a wide array of holiday activities that are impacted by weather circumstances. The weather has an impact on many specific holiday situations and on many different activities tourists engage in. Much about these specific impacts is to be discovered and we suggest further research that focuses on linking specific holiday purposes to the experience of the weather and how this is evaluated by tourists. The impact themes found in this study can provide a starting point for this. Another advantage of the methodology employed in this study is that it has the opportunity to include all weather types and is not constrained to a geographical location, although given the enormous availability of travel blog content, focusing on specific touristic areas certainly is possible (e.g. Volo, 2010). Future research then could address particular destinations, providing insight into differences in weather experiences between destinations. This might be relevant since it could be possible that, for example, in more unstable climates, weather experiences diverge from experiences at destinations with less weather variability.
We employed an analysis of narratives but did not intend to verify why or how specific weather-related words or phrases were used, for example as a tool to provide context to the story or to function as an object in time (Harley, 2003). Besides, many accounts of the weather did not involve an evaluation in terms of positive or negative and often narratives did not report any weather circumstances, impacts, or experiences. These have therefore not been taken into account. So, the motive of writing or not writing about the weather remains unknown. Was the weather not relevant for these tourists or do they not even notice the weather? Both are possible and other studies indeed found that people differ on ‘weather salience’ (i.e. their perceptual sensitivity to and interest in weather circumstances (Stewart, 2009)).
Online (travel) blogs appeared to be a wealthy data source for several types of qualitative research. The results of this study provide evidence for the usability of weblogs for studying the weather in a more phenomenological way and therefore complements literature with a more quantitative approach (Andrade et al., 2011; de Freitas, 1990; Morabito et al., 2005; Scott and Lemieux, 2010). Understanding how the weather is experienced by tourists is essential for the tourism industry (Becken, 2010). Marketing activities can use this knowledge to promote tourist destinations among specific target groups and for specific activities. Also, given the increasing pressure on tourism organisations to provide safety and security information, knowledge about weather impacts can be useful as a basis for tailor-made weather information and related safety policy. Furthermore, the findings of this study can be used for future research on tourist behaviour and how specific weather types and impacts influence the decision making of tourists in term of itineraries and activities. For example, as concluded by Denstadli et al. (2011), bad weather results in tourists moving on faster. Specific knowledge on what actually is perceived as ‘bad weather’ can help in explaining the weather–behaviour link. To conclude, perceptions and evaluations of how the weather impacts on people’s holidays should be taken into account in order to better understand the content of tourist experiences. To shed more light on the complex role of the weather in these experiences, qualitative analyses of travel blog content appears to be very valuable and deserves further attention.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.