This thesis investigates the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism advertising. The analysis is focused on case-studying Iceland due to the importance of tourism for the country’s economy and due to its successful tourism marketing campaigns.
The thesis aims at analyzing the appeals and visual rhetoric techniques utilized by Iceland during the COVID-19 pandemic and further comparing them the ones from 2019. The comparison to pre-COVID-19 advertising, demonstrates what is the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on Iceland’s tourism advertising. What is more the study examines whether the pandemic shapes new values and desired tourism behavior and thus fills a research gap defined by Zenker and Kock (2020).
The data consists of 7 official tourism advertisements of Iceland from 2019, 2020, 2021, published on their official YouTube channel, and the website: The joyscroll. The data is presented in the form of screenshots in the appendixes of this thesis.
The data is analyzed via mixed methods, incorporating qualitative content analysis (QCA) of the appeals in combination with critical visual analysis (CVA). The CVA is further focused on the three dimensions of landscape, people, and heritage.
The analysis shows that there is an evident change in both the preferred advertising appeals and in the visual rhetoric techniques utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic. What is more the analysis highlights the importance of emotional appeals and humor and the formation of a new value to Icelandic tourism – mental health.
