From Wilhelm Tell to Heidi to cuckoo clocks: the representation and interpretation of Switzerland in different language guidebooks

Abstract

Given the selectivity involved in guidebook construction, the inevitability of a framework of interpretation imposed by the writer, the extent of power and control guidebooks can have over tourists, and the guidebooks’ role as one of the most important sources of information for tourists, the underrepresentation of the study of guidebooks in the academic literature is very surprising. The purpose of this study was to explore what different language guidebooks on Switzerland communicate about the country, and to assess how they differ in their representations and interpretations of the tourist destination. The study was conducted on seventeen English, American, German/Swiss, Spanish and French guidebooks. Content analysis was used to identify and compare stereotypical images addressed in the guidebooks as well as any emphasises on cover photos, coverage of cantons, and common eating out, accommodation and nightlife listings. While the thesis initially aimed at investigating national stereotypes about Switzerland, as the research progressed, it became apparent that the guidebooks also frequently embody stereotypical images of their ‘home cultures’. The study findings indicate that guidebooks contain a large number of ‘subjective’ auto- and hetero- stereotypes. Partly, wider theories on national stereotypes can be supported in that the stereotypical images in the guidebooks present contradictory images, with the most characteristic image involving its own opposite. Furthermore, intragroup similarities and intergroup differences are also accentuated in the guidebooks. The guidebook writers frequently and explicitly recognise and confess to their own ethnocentricity. However, contrary to common theoretical beliefs, the content analysis showed that the guidebook authors do not necessarily favour ‘in-groups’ (i.e. the home cultures of the guidebook writers), but instead – in case of the guidebooks – tend to present ‘in-groups’ in a more negative light than ‘out-groups’ (i.e. the Swiss nation). The political and/or economic competiveness of a country does not seem to be a crucial factor in terms of its positive or negative representation in guidebooks either. Moreover, national stereotypes in the guidebooks on Switzerland are not necessarily particular or ‘exotic’, but are also apparent for other countries. All these discrepancies show that the existing theories on (national) stereotypes are insufficiently nuanced with respect to stereotypes in guidebooks. These basic theories need to be extended and put into perspective when applying them to stereotypical images in guidebooks, since the processes involved in guidebook writing and reading are very complex.