Visiting a Cathedral: The Consumer Psychology of a ‘Rich Experience’

Abstract

Research was undertaken into the experiential nature of a visit to a cathedral as heritage visitor attraction. Qualitative data from focus group discussion exposed the nature of the consumption experience prior to, during, and after the visit. The experience was romantic and primarily emotional, a product of affective and reflective processes. Personal narratives are posited as a useful paradigm for conceptualising the predispositions with which subjects arrive for their visit. Implications for visitor management are that promotional and interpretive literature should emphasise connection with human continuity, rather than human works; and the imposition of an obligatory admission charge sits uneasily alongside visitors’ perception that a cathedral is public territory.

Keywords:

• Cathedral
• Heritage
• Consumption
• Narrative
• Romantic
• Psychology

Notes

[1] Lincoln Cathedral, Marketing and Interpretation Action Plans for Lincoln Cathedral.

[2] Ibid., 3.

[3] Finn et al., Tourism and Leisure Research Methods, 119.

[4] Betjeman, John Betjeman: Collected Poems, 106–8.

[5] Winter and Gasson, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism’, 177.

[6] Holy Bible: John 2: 13–16.

[7] Urry, The Tourist Gaze; idem ‘The Tourist Gaze and the "Environment"’.

[8] Voase, ‘“Consuming” Colourful Characters’.

[9] Jacobsen, ‘Roaming Romantics’.

[10] Urry, The Tourist Gaze, 45.

[11] Winter and Gasson, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism’, 182.

[12] Voase, ‘The Imagination Rediscovered’.

[13] Bourdieu, Distinction.

[14] Urry, The Tourist Gaze, 89.

[15] Car[ugrave] and Cova, ‘Revisiting Consumption Experience’, 280–81.

[16] Macdonald, ‘Cultural Imagining among Museum Visitors’.

[17] McIntosh, ‘Into the Tourist’s Mind’.

[18] Goulding, ‘The Museum Environment and the Visitor Experience’.

[19] Voase, ‘Rediscovering the Imagination: Investigating Active and Passive Visitor Experience in the 21st Century’.

[20] Altman and Chemers, Culture and Environment.

[21] Willis, ‘Paying for Heritage’.

[22] Shackley, ‘Space, Sanctity and Service’, 347.

[23] Winter and Gasson, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism’; and ICOMOS, To Be a Pilgrim.

[24] Shankar et al., ‘Understanding Consumption’, 429.

[25] Chatman, Story and Discourse, 9.

[26] Shankar et al., ‘Understanding Consumption’, 431.

[27] Ibid., 434.

[28] Escalas, ‘Narrative Processing’, 168.

[29] Phillips and Baumgartner, ‘The Role of Consumption Emotions in the Satisfaction Response’, 243, 251.

[30] Mattila and Wirtz, ‘The Role of Preconsumption Affect in Postpurchase Evaluation of Services’.

[31] Holy Bible: Acts of the Apostles, 9.

[32] Kluckhohn, cited in Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilisation, 7.

[33] Renfrew, Before Civilization, 220–22.

[34] Renfrew, Social Archaeology, 18.

[35] Winter and Gasson, ‘Pilgrimage and Tourism’, 182.

[36] Holy Bible: John 4: 21–24.

[37] Voase, ‘Rediscovering the Imagination: Meeting the Needs of the “New” Visitor’.

[38] Adaval and Wyer, ‘The Role of Narratives in Consumer Information Processing’.

[39] Holy Bible: Romans 6: 23.

[40] See, for example, Davies, ‘A Loss of Vision’; and Bennett, ‘Museums and “the People”’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard Voase

Richard Voase, University of Lincoln.