Photography Exhibitions as a Visualization of Cultural Identity: an Interactive Tool for Tourism Attraction

Abstract

Graphic design plays the role of reflecting cultural, geographic, and social identities, which is characterized by sustainable progress. This serves the overarching purpose of the design; keeping pace with the intellectual and technological progress, which as a result necessitates adapting tourism awareness campaigns so that they encourage viewers to physically arrive at the showcased scenes thereby easing the spread of information and also easing the decision to go on a variety of tourist trips. This paper showcases the importance of photography and incorporating it into the design of tourism posters in specific, but also how the importance of promoting specific sites and artifacts at mobile exhibitions outside of Egypt helps identify tourist regions in Egypt to targeted audiences such that an overall awareness of the region's sites and its cultural, recreational, and medicinal activities are promoted. This exhibition represents the first phase of identifying the Siwa Oasis region as one of the most important oasis regions in Egypt for its unique nature and subcultures. Under the title of Exploring Egypt, this exhibition intends to rotate to different cities and to incorporate visual representations of other tourist attractions across Egypt, with its first stop having taken place at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. This paper displays the exhibited works while presenting some of the feedback received alongside an analysis of this feedback to assess the impact of the works on raising awareness of the Siwa Oasis region and on encouraging attendees to visit the region and participate in activities. Key Words: digital photography, cultural tourism, tourism posters, visual representations, social identity, geographic identity, tourism awareness, sustainable progress.

Keywords

• digital photography
• tourism posters
• visual representations
• tourism awareness
• sustainable progress