‘Never short of a smile’: A Content Analysis of Travel Guidebooks

A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Recreation and Leisure Studies - Tourism Policy and Planning. The purpose of this study is to analyse and describe how travel guidebooks communicate information on socio-cultural, environmental, and other destination specific issues. The republic of Perú was the case study area for this research. Destination data was collected through interviews with tourism representatives in Perú, Destination Management Organisation (DMO) website analysis, and participant observation. This data was analysed to provide a coding scheme for the current issues and impacts in Perú relating to tourism. This coding scheme was used to analyse the content of the most commonly used commercial guidebooks for Perú (Lonely Planet, South American Handbook, Rough Guide) to understand if and how guidebooks are addressing current issues in Perú tourism.