This book looks at how it is we do tourism and learn to be tourists when we are on holiday. Tourism is a dynamic way of being that may facilitate or hinder intercultural exchange. It draws on empirical work and a range of theoretical frameworks, arguing that tourism matters precisely because of the lessons it can teach us about everyday life.

This book asks the question; why is it that tourism matters? It looks at how it is we do tourism and learn to be tourists when we are on holiday. Tourism is a dynamic way of being that may facilitate or hinder intercultural exchange. The ways in which we do tourism and the places in which we are tourists raise practical, material and emotional questions about tourist life. This book draws on both empirical work and a range of theoretical frameworks, arguing that tourism matters precisely because of the lessons it can teach us about living everyday life with others.

Section One – Living the Tourist Life
1. Why Tourism Matters
2. The Give and the Take
3. Doing Being Tourists
Section Two - Packing the Travel Bag
4. Packing
5. Packers of Culture
6. Bag-sized Stories
Section Three - Unpacking the Travel Bag
7: New Habits
8: Exchanging Stories
9: Changing Spaces
Section Four – After Tourism
10: The Return to Routine
11: Conclusions