Sex Sells

Sex Sells


The aim of this study is to critically investigate how sexual images influence tourists and the tourist gaze.

Tourism is a significant economic activity and is part of the entertainment industry for tourists. Tourism is also seen as a "sexy" business as it is glamorised and sexual imagery is used to sell the products. This then reflects on sexual advertisements. Sex is also seen as part of the entertainment industry (pornography) and also as an economic activity, such as prostitution (Ryan and Kinder, 1996).

Advertising is used to attract people's attention, to make the consumer physiologically excited. The consumer associates excitement with specific products being advertised (Carroll, 2009). Many organisations use advertisements with images of women with light brown skin referring to "exotic" products. Sex appeal can create humour, shock and arrest a consumer's attention; this sex approach is still the strongest tool advertising has to attract the target market (Pritchard and Morgan, 2001).

The tourist gaze is people's perception of a particular destination or attraction (Urry, 1990). Advertising and pleasure seeking are separate categories, yet individuals gaze at imagery, which prompts the desire to seek destinations of a sexual nature. The tourist gaze can be used when relating to sexual imagery as the images will be gazed upon by consumers and will encourage pleasure and arousal when imagining the destination. Not everyone associates sexual images with sex; there are many interpretations to 'pleasure', 'arousal' and 'sexy' (Pritchard and Morgan, 2001).

Travel behaviour can have an effect on the destinations tourists travel to. Ryan and Kinder (1996) split tourism into three categories and also three sectors showing that gender, sex and sexuality can influence the sectors of tourism impacts, marketing and also travel behaviour and motivation. As tourism and sex are linked, sexual imagery in advertising tourism products affect how tourists perceive destinations and where they will decide to travel.

Due to the evolution of the internet, advertising destinations has been made easier. The internet plays a significant role, not only in the promotion and packaging of sex and tourism but of a new type of global surveillance of bodies, race and desire (Gabriel, 1998, 2000: Ware and Back, 2002). Tourists can update images of their tourist experience on online blogs, where the tourist captures the moment or scenery which act as non personal mediators for the tourist experience and can be accessed for experience of the virtual gaze (Tussyadiah and Fesenmair, 2008).

Gender is an important issue for advertisements and although the above statement does not mention provocative male images, Club 18 - 30's campaign shows how gender is kept as close to equality as possible, "Images of women still dominate and they appear more frequently as sex objects throughout" (Pritchard and Morgan, 1996). This shows that gender is considered, even in sexual imagery and can make a difference.

Gay tourism is a very lucrative market for the travel industry, there are many destinations for gay tourists, such as Brighton, although only 4% of gay consumers require a 'gay - themed holiday' (Weiss, 2001). This shows that there is a large marketing sector for gay advertising; Gran Canaria is very popular for gay tourists and also with heterosexual tourists. The advertisements for Gran Canaria vary depending on the target market, for mass tourists such as families images are subtle, whereas for the gay market and the heterosexual market sexual images are used to appeal and arouse the consumers.

Stag parties are very popular events; Amsterdam is an excellent example of a destination using 'sex' as a marketing tool; the Red Light District being the main selling point. Club 18- 30 introduced a core campaign for 'sun, fun and sex.' Brochures were launched using sexual imagery and slogans; 'Beaver Espana' campaign was a controversial, provocative promotion. Although this campaign created significant offence to the non-targeted audience, the press interest resulted sales rocketing by 30% (Pritchard and Morgan, 1996). This is one example that sex does sell.

To conclude, many tourism organisations need to advertise their products appropriately in order not to offend other consumers. The tourist gaze has been adapted to sexual imagery in advertising and shows the image people gaze at creates different perceptions of destinations. If people gaze at a sexual image relating to a destination, the first impression will almost always be a provocative view, this could result in the consumer being encouraged to visit the destination if they are the correct target audience, but could also offend the wrong market, and therefore the tourist gaze is influenced by sexual imagery (Urry, 2002). The evolution of the internet and technology is forever enhancing, and people can view other tourist's experiences, enabling viewers to experience the virtual gaze (Tussyadiah and Fesenmair, 2008). Club 18 - 30's campaigns prove sex does sell.


Reference:

Pritchard, A, and Morgan, N. (2001) Advertising in tourism and leisure. Oxford: Butterworth - Heinemann

Ryan, C & Kinder, R (1996): Sex, tourism and sex tourism - fulfilling similar needs? In Tourism Management, Vol. 17, No. 7, pp. 507-518

Urry, J (2002). The Tourist Gaze. 2nd Edition. London: Sage

Advertising is a major tool used in promoting a destination, and the research of this conference paper has shown that. The sources that have been used are well thought through and have been expanded on with some good knowledge about imagery and how it links in with tourism. I agree with the fact that people think tourism can be believed as a sexy business and that advertisement has glamorised it and also the use of sexual images has as well.

The fact that advertising was mentioned is good because it does grab people attention and it is the most popular way of promoting a destination. Let's face it if it weren't for advertising many of today's destinations would not exist. In particular is the fact that the use of sex appeal and that it is a major tool used in advertising. In more recent years the holiday brochures and images of destinations if the Internet, are of both men and women who's skin is either olive or of a tanned colour. I do not always believe that the pictures are of a woman though. As it has already been said, tourism and sex are linked, then this means that sexual imagery in advertising tourism products affects how tourists perceive or look at a destination and then this will impact on their decision as to whether they will travel or not.

The Internet does play a major role, not only in the promotion and packaging of sex and tourism but nowadays tourists can load images of specific tourist experiences on a number of things, including online blogs and social networking sites, which thus will increase the number of people that see them. Also is the fact that the images are shown from a personal experience and not the pictures you usually see in everyday magazines.


Other markets such as gay tourism are rewarding markets for the travel industry. Although it has been said years ago the word 'gay' was never used as people thought that it was disgusting, it has all changed now and there are specific destinations where gay people go. I think that it could be hard for destinations to try and target them selves as both a destination for families and for gay people. I agree with the fact that advertisement for a certain destination, contrast depending on the target market, but I feel that destinations may fail when it comes to getting the balance right.

Sex does sell when it comes to events such as stag and hen parties and, things like the club 18-30 holidays, I agree with all of that, as this is because sex or sexual activities/entertainment is the main thing that these sorts of people are looking for. It is also right that the markets that who are not been targeted such as families or those of the mature age, will not enjoy seeing these images, and promotions, so may be having the advertisements shown after the watershed on the television will may make it better.

In conclusion, many tourism organisations need to advertise their products appropriately in order not to offend other consumers as was just mentioned above. Advertising is the most powerful tool when it comes to promoting a destination, and the evolution of the internet and technology is forever enhancing, and people can view other tourist's experiences, enabling viewers to experience it from another person's point of view.

As the author of the conference paper mentions advertisers in the tourism industry as well as in other sectors make extensive use of sex appeals in order to trigger viewers' imagination. Although these might attract viewers' attention it is argued that since today's consumers are bombarded with advertisements containing sexual elements they are likely to be ignored, or the product or brand recall might not be as effective as for those adverts using other appeals, such as humour or emotional (Clow and Baack, 2010). Furthermore, whilst sexually oriented adverts might be attention grabbers, if the sexual element is highly controversial, it may result in distracting the viewer from remembering the brand, product or service advertised (Clow and Baack, 2010). Since adverts are mainly generated with the aim of making the target audience aware of the brand and develop a positive attitude towards it (Hackley, 2005), using sexual appeals could not be as effective as using other appeals.

It is also suggested, as mentioned in the conference paper in relation to the 'sun, fun and sex' campaign, that sexual appeals in advertisements could result in being offensive, especially for people outside the main target market, and lead to creation of strong negative feelings towards the company (Clow and Baack, 2010).
On the other hand, if the target audience finds the advert interesting and amusing and the sexual element works, there could be an increase in sales (Clow and Baack, 2010) as consumers tend to associate themselves with characters and situations portrayed in advertising images; if the advert using the sexual appeal seeks to emphasize the sex feature at a particular destination, like Amsterdam, as suggested by the author, it might result successful.

Sex appeals should therefore be used to make the advert interesting, providing that it is suitable for the product or service advertised and by taking into account ethical issues.
The question is to what extent a destination's image associated to sex is attractive. As the author of the conference mentioned companies may have to design different campaigns in order to make a destination appealing to different markets, although a strong provocative campaign may still have a negative influence on the destination's image.



Clow, K., Baack, D. (2010) Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing communications (4th edn.) London: Pearson


Hackley, C. (2005) Advertising and Promotion: Communicating Brands, London: SAGE Publications