Looking for Experience at Vittangi Moose Park in Swedish Lapland

Abstract

The study aims to enrich our knowledge of the nature and practices beyond the experience of the encounter between visitors and wild animals in a tourist setting such as a moose park. Drawing upon Walter Benjamin's distinction, the paper argues that the experience at Vittangi Moose Park is an Erfahrung, that is, a set of knowledge that becomes meaningful through its shared nature. The experience is created through a bodily and visual transaction between visitors and moose. Through touching, feeling, and feeding the moose, visitors wish to understand the animal and aim to establish a dialogue with it. By taking pictures and sharing them with friends and family at home, visitors not only consume places, landscapes, and experiences but also produce and reproduce them. The bodily and visual experiences thus come to represent a totalizing multi-sensual event in which the visitor experiences the animals actively, expressively, reflectively, and imaginatively.

Key Words:

• experience
• wildlife tourism
• Lapland
• bodily encounter
• visual culture

Acknowledgements

The author sincerely thanks the following persons: Lars Björk, owner of Vittangi Moose Park, for his enduring patience, trust, and support. Håkan Lundström: thank you for the many stimulating discussions we had together. Ileana, Lars’ mother: you became my Swedish teacher and shared many of your personal stories. Thank you very much. A special thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their time and valuable comments.