Tourist Identity Expression through Postmodern Consumption - A Focus on the Home-Exchange Phenomenon

Abstract

Postmodern society has facilitated the expansion of alternative, non-institutionalized travel trends, which oppose mainstream tourism by providing consumers with a broader range of opportunities for self-actualization. Home-exchange presents special interest, as it is neither a new nor a small trend in independent tourism, yet has received little attention from the academic research society. By temporarily exchanging homes, consumers have a unique opportunity to organize custom tailored trips without soliciting the services of travel mediators. The main purpose of this study is to examine the home-exchange phenomenon using the concepts of motivation, lifestyle and identity expressions of the tourism consumers. In-depth interviews with home-exchange participants from two countries (Canada and Sweden) provided the empirical data for a deeper understanding of this trend’s practices. The findings indicate that the home-exchange phenomenon to some extent could be understood as an expression of emancipation from the traditional tourist image, and as such homeexchange plays a role in the identity construction of postmodern travelers. That fact underpins the call for the development of new traveling activities, through which tourism consumption can be mobilized by tourism providers exposing consumers’ self-identity.