Framing a Relational Typology of Tourism Shopping Space by Affective Atmosphere: Thinking with Assemblage

ABSTRACT

Shopping venues are important resources to improve the tourist experience in a destination. Previous studies mainly take reductionist understandings of the functions of destination shopping venues. It ignores the tourist shopping process where multiple human and non-human actors assemble the tourism shopping space (TSS) and shape the venue’s function relationally. By reviewing the conceptual connection between assemblage and affective atmosphere, we propose a relational typology of TSS defined by its affective atmosphere, thus approaching the functions of destination shopping venues in dynamic. This typology is visualized as a coordinate system with two spectrums: the atmosphere at the action propensity ranging from buying to sightseeing, and the atmosphere at the emotional propensity ranging from familiarity to novelty. It is substantiated by the case of Chinese outbound tourists’ shopping in four different shopping venues in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Our ‘assemblage-affect-atmosphere’ framework fosters cross-disciplinary insights between tourism shopping and consumption geography. Additionally, it provides destination managers with a relational perspective, enabling understanding and intervening in the functioning of destination shopping venues aligned with market and technological shifts.

摘要

购物场所是提升游客在目的地旅游体验的重要资源。已有研究主要对目的地购物场所的功能采取了还原主义的理解。它忽略了游客购物过程，在此过程中，多个人类和非人类行动者拼装旅游购物空间（TSS），并关系性地定义购物场所的功能。通过回顾拼装体与情动氛围之间的概念联系，我们通过情动氛围提出了旅游购物空间的关系类型学，从而动态地探讨目的地购物场所的功能。这一旅游购物空间的关系类型学被可视化为一个坐标系，两个坐标轴由情动氛围的两个谱系组成: 从购买到观光的行动倾向氛围，以及从熟悉到新奇的情感倾向氛围。通过中国出境游客到访德国法兰克福四个不同的购物场所的案例对此进行了证明。我们搭建的“拼装体-情动-氛围”的研究框架培育了旅游购物与消费地理之间的跨学科思维。它还为目的地管理者提供了一种关系思维，以跟随市场和技术的变化，理解和干预目的地购物场所的功能运作.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective atmosphere
• tourism shopping space
• affect
• assemblage
• familiarity
• novelty

关键词:

• 情动氛围
• 旅游购物空间
• 情动
• 拼装体
• 熟悉
• 新奇

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant [number 42371235, 42271242, 41901166]; and [China Scholarship Council] under Grant [number 201406380039].

Notes on contributors

Dan Zhu

Dan Zhu is an associate professor in Glorious Sun School of Business & Management, Donghua University, Shanghai, China. Her research interests include tourism shopping, Chinese outbound tourism, and tourist consuming behavior.

Honggang Xu

Honggang Xu is a professor of School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China. Her research interests include sustainable tourism development, tourism geography and complexity theory in tourism.