Seeking The Self In Imagined Places

This thesis discusses individual experience in culture tourism and its interaction with the social image of a destination. Individual experience derives from both personal impressions during travel as well as expected images of a tourist destination. Social factors such as politics, economy, and history are constructing the image through market advertising, political publicity, and more comprehensive social narratives. This socially-constructed image not only serves as a source of destination information for potential tourists, but also aims to fulfill certain goals of the information providers. On the tourists’ side, individuals rely on the image to form an imagined place as the "Other," and develop a need to visit this "Other." The "Other" is an identity in contrast with the "Self;" therefore traveling becomes an action that affirms the "Self" through comparison with the imagined destination.Tourism research has examined the construction of the tourist destination images, the influence of the image both on tourist expectation, travel experience, and destination development. Researchers also pay attention to tourism authenticity and destination culture changes over time. However, their analyses focus more on the social aspects, such as social power structure, cultural image competition among different groups, and interaction between tourists and locals. They also discuss tourists’ experiences and feelings during travel. However, individual mental processes during traveling are not sufficiently researched, especially what tourists see and their complex feelings in front of certain scenic areas. This is the micro-process of the interaction of tourists and destination which can provide new perspectives for previous social analysis of tourism.Therefore, this thesis is going to discuss tourists’ experiences from the individual level, and the discussion will be put into a framework of anthropological analysis of the ritual and personal experience. The thesis argues that firstly, the social mechanism that constructs a destination image is another form of the individual, and in constructing the individual’s needs it is also able to fulfill and serve these needs. The destination image creates a need that enhances the individual’s awareness of "Self" by contrasting it with the "Other;" traveling is therefore the mechanism of seeking the "Self." Secondly, the individual’s interaction with the locals of a destination is conducted on a broader social level between the tourists as a group and the locals as another, and afterwards on a level of personal interaction during traveling. It is the individual who is in the active position of constructing a staged representation of the destination, rather than the locals, who simply react to the tourism market. Thirdly, the individual’s perception of a destination is determined by the socially-constructed image, but the individual’s potential to challenge and reshape the image exists in the "present" experience. Lastly, destination culture identity will be represented as values, arts, and material heritage on the global stage. Modern destination culture identity adopts the image of the "Other" but does not tie to fixed groups and territory; rather, it might be identified and developed continually by new groups of people.