TY - JOUR

T1 - Conspicuous Souvenirs

T2 - Analysing touristic self-presentation through souvenir display

AU - Kuhn, Friedericke

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2020.

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Business psychology

KW - holiday travel

KW - prestige

KW - self-presentation

KW - social exchange

KW - sourvenirs

KW - tourism

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091681350&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1468797620956935

DO - 10.1177/1468797620956935

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 20

SP - 485

EP - 504

JO - Tourist Studies

JF - Tourist Studies

SN - 1468-7976

IS - 4

ER -