The importance of walking in Savannah, Georgia’s ghost walk tours is examined in Glenn W. Gentry’s article, “Walking as Negotiation of Performance”. The author claims that walking delivers “not only a greater sense of place but also a greater agency and sense of control over performance” (Gentry 236). The author’s main thesis is that walking delivers a higher sense of agency and control over performance, in addition to a greater sense of place.
The research problem reported in the article is the significance of walking in negotiating the interaction between tourists and locations. The research theory emphasizes that walking entails interacting with a place through several senses, which enhances one’s feeling of place (Gentry 225). Participant observation, controlled and unstructured interviews with tour guides, and open-ended surveys with visitors constitute the methodology utilized in the study (Gentry 229). Over the course of six nights, 411 tourist groups received the surveys (Gentry 229). To create categories of responses, the survey results were evaluated using content analysis.
The study’s conclusions emphasize that walking tours in provide visitors a deeper understanding of the places they see and enable them to have a closer look. The storytelling on the excursions is suggested to be negotiation between the tour leader, the visitors, and the surrounding environment, giving the covered areas additional depths of significance (Gentry 233). Additionally, walking tours give visitors more influence over the tour’s tempo and their part in the narration (Gentry 233). The primary implication of this study is that walking enhances the tourism experience in many ways.
The article concludes by acknowledging the importance of walking in Savannah, Georgia’s ghost tours. The author reaffirms the fact that walking is a crucial component of a ghost walk tour experience since it fosters a sense of place. The study’s findings corroborate that walking delivers a better sense of agency and control over performance in addition to a greater sense of place. The article argues that further study be done on how walking affects the tourism experience.
In my view, a possible critique of the study is that it relies heavily on its qualitative methods. Even though these techniques produce a wealth of qualitative data, quantitative techniques like statistical analysis would be helpful to provide a more thorough understanding of the phenomenon.
Works Cited
Gentry, Glenn W. “Walking with the Dead: The Place of Ghost Walk Tourism in Savannah, Georgia.” Southeastern Geographer, vol. 47, no. 2, Project Muse, 2007, pp. 222–238. Web.