Conceptualizing the selves of tourism

Abstract

A profusion of touristic experiences of the last 20 years has generated a variety of means of theorizing, analysing and marketing tourism. This paper has sought to recentre the analysis on the ideas of a conceptualization of the self through the tourism experience. Predominant current conceptualizations of tourism as commiditized escapes have been re-examined and recontextualized in the light of feminised post structural viewpoints to bring a richer understanding of tourist experience(s). The potential for changes in self and identity through cross-cultural interactions is discussed. The approach taken is person centred, rather than those focussed on economics, marketing or management. Nevertheless we demonstrate the usefulness of such a people orientated perspective for all aspects of the tourism industry. At the same time the threads of an interactive, person centred approach are being woven together to emphasise the importance of interactions -personal, communal and cultural in the tourist enterprise and to position the selves and identities of tourists and hosts at the ethical centre.

Alternative Literature and Tourist Experience: Travel and Tourist Weblogs

“…Wearing and Wearing (2001) and Galani-Moutafi (2000) convey that travel, 'passages' into the openness of our world, fosters self reflection. Interaction unlocks the potential for dialogue between host and guest.…”

Chasing a Myth? Searching for ‘Self’ Through Lifestyle Travel

“…Or as Gergen (1991: x) suggests, self refers to "our ways of understanding who we are and what we are about." Wearing and Wearing (2001) emphasise that self-understandings are housed in our physical body and include emotions, which furthers an understanding of self towards materially embodied subjective perceptions of "I".…”

“…Holland (1997: 171) notes that two poles with a continuum in between can be seen in contemporary academic discussions on self, with the range including "an extreme essentialist view that pays no attention to the socially positioning power of discourse and an extreme ephemeralist position that has no interest in the embodied self." With regards the latter "ephemeral" Foucauldian view, also referred to as "discourse determinism" (Wearing & Wearing, 2001), criticism is launched at the idea that text has total power to "set strict limits to what people are able to think, or deeming consciousness to be so fully constituted by social and cultural relations that mental life becomes a kind of precipitate of collective existence, losing its independence" (Seigel, 2005: 21). In counterargument, although Giddens (1991: 2) asserts that "the self is not a passive entity," to attribute the individual a Romanticised "total freedom" from the power of discourse would be far overstating the case (Finnegan, 1997).…”

“…With the notable exception of Wearing and Wearing (2001), most tourism research on personhood employs identity as its orienting concept (Desforges, 2000). Whilst the permeability of self and identity as concepts allows them to sometimes merge into each other (Seigel, 2005) and they are described as co-terminus (Collinson & Hockey, 2007), self can be distinguished from identity.…”

The comfort of strangers: tourists in the Australian Outback

“…These interpretations can assist in managing the anxieties associated with travellers' roles as 'temporary strangers' in unfamiliar environments (Greenblat and Gagnon, 1983, p. 92). Social interactions with signifi cant others, signifi cant reference groups and the generalised other in the form of cultural values are also integral to the process of negotiating a tourist identity (Wearing and Wearing, 2001;Moore, 2002).…”