Reporting on the utility of volunteer employed photography as part of a multi-method approach to explore Irelands destination image.

This research paper examines the utility of volunteer employed photography (VEP) as a tool to explore destination image as part of a multi-method approach. Haywood (1990:25) argues that on day-to-day basis photography is a source of much pleasure and fun and that as cameras accompany virtually every tourist the images they capture says something about the tourist and how they interpret the world around them. In a tourism context, the central role played by photographs in the construction of tourism destination image has also been well documented (MacKay and Fesenmaier 1997; Markwell 1997; Scarles 2004; Tasci and Gartner 2007). Bearing that in mind the aim of this paper is to answer the following research question. How effective is volunteer employed photography (VEP) as a methodology to examine destination image and how can it be used alongside auto ethnography to inform destination marketers regarding destination image construction? To answer this question the following research objectives were formulated; (1) Define volunteer employed photography as a research tool (2) Combine VEP with auto ethnography in a multi-method approach to explore how Ireland as a destination is represented in the personal photographs taken by American tourists? In depth interviews were conducted with twenty three American tourists at two stages of their experience of Ireland as tourists, pre-travel and post-travel. Adopting visual auto-ethnography, a selection of images from the library of photographs on the Fáilte Ireland website was shown to tourists as part of a pre-visit in-depth interview. VEP was then used to collect images taken by the respondents using their own cameras while experiencing Ireland as a destination. Analysis of these images would suggest when used to examine destination image construction using auto ethnography techniques, VEP proves to be a more relevant indicator of destination image. VEP images used in this study indicate that as a means for informing future constructed images of Ireland, VEP is a more reliable informant of what American tourists like about Ireland.