Everyday life and water tourism mobilities: mundane aspects of canal travel

ABSTRACT

Tourism is frequently construed as unusual and extraordinary in contrast to the routines and predictability of work and home life. However, the tourism spaces are co-created through practices that are simultaneously mundane and unusual. Yet everyday touristic practices are seldom researched, especially regarding water tourism. The mundane strategies of creating the boatspace form an important part of the tourist experience of everyday life on canals of England. Movements of bodies in the space, gastronomic experiences, and hygiene practices studied here via ethnographic fieldwork (participant observation and semi-structured interviews with leisure boaters) become defining characteristics of the leisure boaters’ everyday. We show that spatial practices, temporal structures, and search for ontological security are essential elements of domesticating and co-creating the emergent boatspace, where physical and social space are negotiated between various actors.

摘要

旅游活动, 与例行的、呆板的工作和家庭生活不同, 经常被解读为奇异而非同寻常的经历。然而旅游空间是由既寻常又奇异的实践共同创造的。而日常的旅游实践很少被研究过, 尤其是有关水上旅游的日常旅游实践。平时船内空间划分的策略形成旅游者体验英格兰运河水上日常生活的重要部分。本文运用民族志的方法 (对休闲划船者的参与观察与半结构访谈) 研究了身体在船上空间中的移动、船上的烹饪体验以及船上确保卫生的做法, 这些成为休闲划船者日常生活的明确特征。我们的研究表明, 空间实践、时间结构以及对实体安全的追求成为船上空间日常化与共同创造的必要要素, 而这些实体空间与社会空间是各种行动者协商的结果。

KEYWORDS:

• Mundane
• tourism mobilities
• everyday life
• boating
• canals
• narrowboat
• food
• hygiene
• ethnography

关键词:

• 平凡
• 旅游移动性
• 日常生活
• 划船
• 运河
• 长条船
• 美食
• 卫生条件
• 民族志

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Tim Edensor and Ben Bowles for their comments on various drafts of this article as well as to the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions that really helped to strengthen the paper. The lead author would also like to thank all the interviewed boaters and other people she has met while on and near the canals of Manchester and the Pennines.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maarja Kaaristo

Maarja Kaaristo is a Ph.D. Researcher and an Associate Lecturer at School of Tourism, Events and Hospi-tality Management, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University. Her main research interests include mobilities, materialites and sensory experiences in tourism. She has a MA in ethnology from University of Tartu, Estonia.

Steven Rhoden

Steven Rhoden is Principal Lecturer for Tourism and for Research and Business Engagement at School of Tourism, Events and Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University. His primary research focus is the transport experiences of tourists/leisure passengers. He has a Ph.D. in tourism management from Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.