The Destination as a Backdrop: Photographic Motivation and the Displacement of Tourist Experience

DOI

https://www.doi.org/10.59256/ijrtmr.20260606005

Published In

Volume 6, Issue 6 (2026)

Published Online

November-December 2026

Pages

35-44

Article Type

Original Article

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Tourists now photograph almost everything they see, but little is known about what this habit costs them on site. This study examines whether prioritizing photography displaces time and attention that tourists would otherwise devote to the destination, what we call “photographic displacement”. Building on the tourist gaze and the experience economy, the researchers surveyed 340 tourists at destinations in Tamil Nadu, India, between March 2025 and October 2026, and tested a six-path model through covariance-based structural equation modelling in IBM SPSS Amos 32. The measurement model was reliable and valid, and the structural model fitted the data well (chi-square/degrees of freedom = 2.10; comparative fit index = 0.969; root mean square error of approximation = 0.048; standardized root mean square residual = 0.045). Standardized path coefficients (β) showed that photographic motivation was associated with photographic priority (β = 0.536), which was associated with time displacement (β = 0.441) and experiential displacement (β = 0.231). Time displacement was negatively associated with destination exploration (β = −0.353), experiential displacement was negatively associated with overall tourist experience (β = −0.226), and exploration was positively associated with it (β = 0.369); all paths were significant at p < .001. Bootstrapped indirect effects showed that the time route (β = −0.058) and the attention route (β = −0.052) both reduced overall experiences, with a small total indirect effect of −0.110. The study splits up two costs of tourist photography, one in minutes and one in attention. For site managers, the findings suggest that photography and exploration can complement one another, for example through fixed photo points and interpretation that guides visitors beyond them