Freedom in mundane mobilities: caravanning in Denmark

Abstract

Freedom is a widely discussed and highly elusive concept, and has long been represented in exoticised, masculinised and individualised discourses. Freedom is often exemplified through the image of a solitary male explorer leaving the female space of home and familiarity and going to remote places of the world. Through in-situ interviews with families caravanning in Denmark, the primary aim of this study is to challenge existing dominant discourses surrounding the subject of freedom within leisure and tourism studies. Secondly, we shed further light on an under-researched medium of mobility, that of domestic caravanning. This serves to not only disrupt representations of freedom as occurring through exoticised, masculinised and individualised practices, but to give attention to the domestic, banal contexts where the everyday and tourism intersect, which are often overlooked. This novel repositioning opens up new avenues in tourism studies for critical research into the geographies of freedom in mundane, everyday contexts.

The challenge of proximity: the (un)attractiveness of near-home tourism destinations

“…Yet, a too-overt focus on otherness could neglect the significance of familiarity in tourism. We found familiar and comfortable social environments to be important to many proximity tourists in Friesland, in line with findings on camping tourists elsewhere (Blichfeldt, 2004;Collins & Kearns, 2010;Mikkelsen & Cohen, 2015) and secondhome tourists (M€ uller, 2006). Thus, tourism policy should be sensitive to the importance of mundane activities in tourism, doing nothing as a way to 'vacate' (Blichfeldt & Mikkelsen, 2013) and the often strong attachments tourists develop to the destinations they visit.…”

“…Moreover, some tourists appear to go on a vacation to create an environment in which familiarity and routine play an important role (e.g. Mikkelsen & Cohen, 2015). More generally, it has been theorized that people prefer a comfortable balance between familiarity and unfamiliarity (Cohen, 1979;Edensor, 2007), with certain destinations and activities falling within people's bandwidth of unfamiliarity (Spierings & Van Der Velde, 2008) and others not.…”

“…Most people spend vacations relatively near home, within their countries of residence (UNWTO, 2008). Also, while the exotic is not always physically distant, otherness is not always sought; it is sometimes even consciously avoided (Mikkelsen & Cohen, 2015).…”

Mobile technology and the tourist experience: (Dis)connection at the campsite

“…The setting represents a place where many people choose "to engage with a simpler, "past time", that is devoid of the technological devices that proliferate in their day-to-day lives" (Dickinson et al, 2013, p.16). It is a shared experience (Dickinson et al, 2016) that has been broadly analysed through three lenses: freedom (Hardy, Gretzel & Handon, 2013Hardy et al, 2013Mikkelsen & Cohen, 2015), social bonding and engagement with nature (Garst, Williams, & Roggenbuck, 2009;Hassell et al, 2015). The main motivation is re-creation, aligned with notions of escape, but research also points to the value of camping in individuals' identity projects (Garst et al, 2009;Hassell et al, 2015;Vespestad & Lindberg, 2011).…”

“…Camping has remained very popular in Europe with many tourists involved (17% of the total overnight stays in the EU (EuroStat, 2012)) and campsites account for a large proportion of beds in the study destination area (approximately 50%, Purbeck Heritage Committee, 2002). Despite this camping tourism remains under researched (Mikkelsen & Cohen, 2015). It can be the main holiday, a second or third holiday, or a weekend away.…”