Tourist clusters from Flickr travel photography

• We explore tourists’ digital photos shared on Flickr, using a case study.
• We identify 4 groups of tourists using cluster analysis.
• Results show that each group is interested in a selection of potential sights.
• Results demonstrate that tourists share a particular way of looking at sights.

During decades researchers have been interested in investigating the most salient elements of tourists' pictures, without considering whether there might be different patterns of photographer behaviour. Considering this background, this paper aims to examine the common features of the tourist-photographer's gaze. By analysing a sample of pictures of a Pyrenees destination (Boí Valley) uploaded in Flickr, the authors first identify the attributes of photos; and second, by means of a cluster analysis, determine the existence of four groups of tourist photographers. The analysis reveals that although all photographers share common features in their pictures, there are other elements which define different photographer's behaviour.