‘Personal memory tourism’ and a wider exploration of the tourism−memory nexus

Abstract

This paper investigates the varied intersections between tourism and memory. It begins with a brief consideration of the parallel developments between the emergence of the ‘memory boom’ and that of the ‘tourism boom’, as well as the academic fields of memory studies and tourism studies, respectively. Memory is a crucial factor in choosing a destination; it impacts on the tourist experience at the destination and on the sharing of the experience with others after the trip, notably through narration, photography, and memory objects, such as souvenirs. Both memory and tourism rely on media and representation and on audience and consumption; both are allied with processes of identity formation. It is argued that tourism drives the memory boom as much as memory drives tourism. Bartoletti's [(2010). “Memory tourism” and the commodification of Nostalgia. In P. Burns, C. Palmer, & J.-A. Lester (Eds.), Tourism and visual culture (pp. 23–42), Vol. 1. Wallingford: CABI] conceptualization of ‘memory tourism’ as overlapping but distinct from ‘heritage tourism’ and Timothy's [(1997). Tourism and the personal heritage experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 24(3), 751–754] concept of ‘personal heritage tourism’ are discussed as foundations for what is then defined as ‘personal memory tourism’. The latter revolves around travel associated with personal memories – not only the revisiting of places associated with happy memories, but also the return to sites of personal trauma and suffering in a quest for healing.

Keywords:

• tourism
• memory
• nostalgia
• heritage
• identity
• experience
• personal memory tourism

Notes

The URL of this discussion group is http://www.linkedin.com/groups?search=&answerCategory=myq&gid=3015393&memberID=117736932&goback=.gmp_3015393, but it has since been removed by linkedin.

Bertram M. Gordon (Mills College, California) and Josef Ploner (Leeds Metropolitan University, UK) deserve special mention and appreciation for their perceptive and constructive input that has shaped my thinking on this topic.