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Study Abroad: Tour Guides and Tourist Gaze

           As Americans studying abroad, our "tourist gaze" is shaped in many different contexts and can be influenced by media, prior knowledge of a country, or even through comparing and contrasting the newly explored country to our own (Urry, Larsen 4). A significant way in which the gaze is shaped can also be through the use of a tour guide, which I found to be very pertinent to my gaze of each city or country we visited.

           Since gazing is often the result of conditioned experiences, it is also important to note that without the use of a tour guide, I would have viewed these places solely through the lens of an American- the way in which I was taught to perceive them. Often times I found the tour guides to be useful in not only providing a deeper understanding of a place, but reshaping my gaze to be inclusive of perceptions now based off of facts and information provided by the tour guide, rather than my conditioned gaze as an American. I found that the tour guides had such a positive impact on my ability to really push myself to view everything through their lens, rather than what I have been previously been taught about a place.

            Throughout this blog post, I will be diving into a deeper discussion of tour guides and the power they hold in shaping our gaze as tourists. During our time studying abroad, I found that each tour guide utilized their own unique way of providing knowledge of the specific places we were touring- relating to us, storytelling, animated personalities, etc.- ultimately shaping the way I understood and perceived historical sites and the cultural significance behind these countries during our time studying abroad. 

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