Conspicuous Souvenirs: Analysing touristic self-presentation through souvenir display

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Holiday travel offers the opportunity for self-definition and enhancement of social prestige. Due to the growing importance of self-expressive values within the ongoing course of individualisation, tourists increasingly make use of their travel experience to self-present in a positive way. Yet, tourism studies have not investigated what tourists actually want to communicate about themselves when representing their travel experience through the display of souvenirs. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews, this study examines touristic self-expression and exposes the self-concepts attached to and communicated through the display of souvenirs as material symbols of travel experience. Results show that tourists often have a clear intention to express positive self-messages when showing their souvenirs to others. Souvenirs are used to represent personal character traits, social affiliation to in-groups and neo-tribes, and to demonstrate individual travel history. This article adds to the discussion of individual ascription of meaning to the tourist experience and souvenirs, and gives an insight to the function of souvenirs for self- expression and social exchange.
Original languageEnglish
JournalTourist Studies
Volume20
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)485-504
Number of pages20
ISSN1468-7976
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12.2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.

    Research areas

  • Business psychology - holiday travel, prestige, self-presentation, social exchange, sourvenirs, tourism

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Meanings of democracy
  2. The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard: A Systematic Review of Architectures
  3. Das Kreischen der Sirenen1
  4. Kognitiv anspruchsvoller Unterricht
  5. Gelli Baff – Superabsorber, der wieder flüssig wird
  6. Development of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard
  7. Pickle-Ball. Teil II: Umsetzung in der Schule.
  8. Sound science or social hook
  9. Non-material contributions of nature expressed by former tourists of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
  10. Different Subcultures in Residential Groups in Germany – Implications for Participation and the Victimization of Children and Young People
  11. Crossroads of cloth
  12. Koproduktives Stadtmachen als Motor der Quartiersentwicklung?
  13. (Voluntary) Health Care Management in SMEs
  14. Unter Druck und Zwang
  15. Ad Hoc Expert Panels: Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs)
  16. Schätzen - Die Kunst des Messens ohne Messgerät
  17. Selbstbild und Selbstvertrauen
  18. Can rare arable plants benefit biological pest control potential of cereal aphids in croplands?
  19. Systematisch zur (E-) Learning Excellence
  20. Mehr Gender-Strategie tut gut
  21. Arbeitsmaterial zu "Die Chroniken von Narnia - Der König von Narnia"
  22. Transformative pedagogy for sustainable entrepreneurship and technology innovation: The case of EIT climate KIC training
  23. Editorial
  24. Optimal Harvest Licensing when Harvest Success is Uncertain
  25. Do student ratings of classroom management teil us more about teachers or about classroom composition?
  26. A New and Rapid Method for Monitoring the New Oxazolidinone Antibiotic Linezolid in Serum and Urine by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Integrated Sample Preparation
  27. Growth and phycocyanin synthesis in the heterotrophic microalga Galdieria sulphuraria on substrates made of food waste from restaurants and bakeries
  28. Vertiefungsrichtung Ernährung
  29. Landscape diversity and the resilience of agricultural returns
  30. Gesprochene Schulsprache in der Primarstufe
  31. What are community energy companies trying to accomplish? An empirical investigation of investment motives in the German case
  32. Selbst is(s)t der Mann - Essen kochen in der Jugendarbeit
  33. Von der Suderburger Wiesenbauschule zur Modelluniversität
  34. Exports and productivity