| Two models of tourism behavior were developed by applying concepts from symbolic interactionism and dramaturgical analysis. Adopting a pragmatist approach, one model portrayed tourists as creative individuals who, while operating within a socially-defined environment, reformulate symbols in the process of interaction. In this case, meaning, including self-knowledge, is not fixed but emerges as an outcome of the interaction. In the second model tourism was conceived as a form of compensatory behavior in which the symbolic character of a destination is used instrumentally in pursuit of a pre-determined goal.;It was proposed that place-identity may be an outcome of the tourism process in both of the models. This concept, which was developed in environmental psychology, has evolved from an association with a sense of embeddedness in the home environment to a belief that it may incorporate a more active form of self-maintenance through interaction in spatially-dispersed settings.;A study was conducted which involved in-depth interviews in the home of respondents. It sought to examine the biographical importance of "meaningful" places and focussed on the importance of places visited as a tourist. The interviews were complemented by an analysis of the meaning of objects, displayed in the respondent's home, which had been acquired at the place under discussion.;It was found that tourism provides an opportunity to achieve a sense of both integration and differentiation and that, for some people, a self-definition can only be confirmed in a particular place, away from the home environment. Tourism places were shown to be meaningful, refuting etic interpretations of the superficial quality of tourism experiences.;The most meaningful places were dominated by environments experienced in childhood and such places served to demonstrate to individuals where they are from. Meaningful tourism places seemed to help people identify what they have become. They defined the favored socio-spatial environment of adulthood. Similarities between childhood places and tourism places included the way both may provide a sense of continuity as spatial anchors in a changing world and their ability to act as hiding places or places to which one can escape. The symbolic importance of tourism places was confirmed.;These findings and evidence of tourism experiences as "epistemic acts" were considered in relation to the tourism models. It was suggested that distinctions between an interactional mode of behavior and acts of self-presentation in a tourism context may have been overemphasized. |
