Travel videotapes offer an up-to-date image of foreign and domestic places. They can be a valued addition to your curriculum. Starting in this issue, I want to occasionally examine the nature of these tapes, and review specific tapes to provide a perspective on the world these tapes present.
Travel videotapes offer a mixture of experiences. Focusing upon what a tourist might want to see would seem to be a simple operation, yet the choices videotape producers and directors make illustrates how un-simple this is. The basic factors that seem to divide the tapes into groups are the image of tourist desires, age of the tourist, personality of the host, and inclusion of background information.
Tourist Desires. Each tourist video reflects a different interpretation of what tourists might want to see. Take for example the Video Visits Great Britain [International Video Network] tape versus the Rand McNally Mexico tape or the Travel Tips series from Republic. The Video Visits tape is a tour of the great old buildings, with a significant amount of history. It is extensive in its coverage and quite focused. It offers little, if any, fluff. The Rand McNally tape offers singing, dancing, art, and history. It is exciting and presents a constantly changing perspective on Mexico. The Travel Tips videotapes from Republic, hosted by Laura MacKenzie, offer full tourist information on what to see, how to travel, where to watch out for what criminal activity, and what to wear. One is for the sedate, one for the person who wants it all, and one is for a person who really is likely to be going soon.
Age of the Tourist. The age of the tourist seems to be important by itself. One might compare any of the Gunther Less Journey to Adventure tapes with those of the Lonely Plant group. Less takes an old fashioned approach to travel. His tapes reflect his decades old travel show experiences. He shows the quaint, the interesting, and the slightly less than modern. He can talk serious issues with the mayor of a small Irish village, but normally focuses on light activities and scenes. He also throws in some young women, as in a singing group, but always in a nice, old fashioned way. Lonely Planet puts a postmodern young person on the road. The places visited are those an 18-25 year old would want to see. Yes, there is a famous building in odd spots, but he would rather check out the shopping bazaar or where you can get a massage ( in Morocco he becomes permanently stretched). The trip is exciting. The sites are not those of the tour guides. Real people are prevalent, not officials and guides.
Personality of the Host. The host is an essential part of the tape. Gunther Less and the various Lonely Planet hosts are not separate extras, they are an intimate part of the travel experience. Those tapes with specific, identified hosts tend to provide more intimate travel pictures. The Video Visits series relies upon narrators. Some of the personal touch is lost. In the end, it all depends upon what you want. I have found that specific hosts can turn students off to a video and reduce learning about a place.
Background Information. The choice of the director and producer over background information seems to vary a bit. Fodor's seems to like to make sure that significant background information is a part of their tapes. This helps make them more useful as classroom tapes, but their goal is likely to make a serious traveler who would buy their tapes more informed about where she or he is going. Fodor's Germany tape, for example, brings in the importance of the reunification and the differences between the American image of Germany and the real Germany. One could be going to drink beer and see the Rhine, but Fodor's assumes you want much more. They assume a tourist's level of intelligence above some of the others. While equaled in some tapes, many provide less. To include some background is very constant, but Fodor's, some of the Video Visits tapes, and those from the PBS Travels series are among those that provide more.
As you can tell, these tapes have valued contributions to make, but they do vary in nature.