Relationship between interaction participants

As the chosen travel style reflects the individual characteristics, preferences, and situations of interviewees, individual factors have already been shown to indirectly impact social interactions with other visitors. Several other aspects such as individual attitude, nationality, or language can impact both the occurrence and the process of social interactions between visitors more directly. In addition, commonalities between interaction participants and a mutual likeability also directly impact the interaction process. This section corresponds to the influential factors labelled

‘individual characteristics’ and ‘interaction participant relationship’ as included in Figure 5.5 and looks first at individual attitudes and sociability, followed by the impacts of nationality and language and finally the role that likeability and commonalities play for the interaction process.

Individual attitudes and sociability

The personal attitude towards social interactions with other visitors and the importance placed upon them often aligned with the sociability of interviewees.

Those that described themselves as more extroverted personalities during this holiday frequently emphasized the importance of social interactions with other visitors as well as the high number of interactions that had occurred so far – the majority of these were backpackers.

“Oh, very important. Of course. I mean, what’s travelling without meeting people, right? That’s the whole reason I’ve been doing this, meeting new people, and every day I meet new people and it’s fantastic!”

Female backpacker (Netherlands)

On the other hand, many free independent travellers assigned a lower importance to interactions with other visitors, sometimes while classifying themselves as more introverted personalities and sometimes by referring back to their group constellation.

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“It’s just the natural way we are. At home we’re not people who have lots of friends, we’re quite content with our own company. But sometimes if you develop, talk to someone, it’s quite enjoyable but other times it’s, it’s quite...a pain, having to speak to other people.”

Female mature FIT (UK)

“I won’t say it’s too important, just what we found, with other people, we haven’t had much interaction with them. Ahm, just because we’re together, it’s mostly just us, having a few short conversations but nothing, nothing more.”

Female young FIT (USA, exploratory)

Young FITs especially showed less interest in contacts with other visitors, while – as mentioned in Section 4.2 – mature FITs were more open towards social interactions with other visitors even though they too frequently travelled with company.

Although the process of social interactions did not differ strongly between these two visitor segments, Chapter 6 (perception, evaluation and impact of interactions) will refer to this in greater detail.

“I do enjoy it, because it can heighten the experience. (..). I look at, ah, enjoyable interactions with humans as, ahm, sort of...positive add-ons rather than what I’m looking for. If it happens it happens, if it doesn’t happen I’m still enjoying the moment, so it’s not an essential but it’s a nice treat.”

Female mature FIT (Canada)

“I love talking to people and meeting new people, it’s interesting and fun and I always get recommendations. (…) I’m travelling with my husband and it’s always fun to have someone else to talk to, not always the same person for such long time.”

Female mature FIT (Germany, exploratory)

“It’s not very important to us, we travel together and we talk to each other, and, and we don’t need to talk to other people, other people who travel.”

Male young FIT (Switzerland)

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“I can meet people everywhere, but since we’re only here for a short time I want to use the things the country can offer me, or the locals, or the specific experiences, this is what is important.”

Female young FIT (Germany, exploratory)

Specific reference to sociability during this particular holiday proved to be of great importance. Single travellers often reported that their sociability while travelling was not necessarily representative of their usual behaviour.

“What I seen a bit more that is, if you’re travelling on your own you become very social, you become much social than if you’re at home and... (…) When you’re alone you start talking very fast and to a person you don’t know, and if I’d do that in Germany or in Belgium, I would never do that.”

Male backpacker (Belgium)

Another aspect most frequently mentioned by backpackers is the impact of the current mood or energy level. Single travellers especially reported that, due to their high number of social interactions that comes with continuous stays in shared settings, they often welcomed a period with less sociability.

“Sometimes it’s nice to just have a few days on your own. Not always, yeah, I really thought I wouldn’t be, because I really like to talk to people, but (…) at home, you have that already, you’re alone at home, and here you have people talking to you all day.”

Female backpacker (Netherlands, exploratory)

The impact of individual attitudes and sociability is especially applicable to visitors travelling as backpackers. Interactions with other visitors are seen as a core aspect of the visitor experience of this often extroverted visitor segment, however the demands that come with these continuous interactions also sometimes lead to periods when a more introverted approach is taken towards other visitors. Free independent travellers assign a lower importance to contacts with other travellers, due to them frequently travelling in company and classifying themselves as less extroverted. This contributes to them not only experiencing fewer but also shorter interactions.

173 Nationality and language

Nationality was a factor repeatedly mentioned, especially by younger long-term visitors, both as encouraging and discouraging social interactions. Interviewees with a longer travel duration mentioned that they often entered into interactions with other visitors when realizing that they were speaking the same language or were from the same country, whereas those with a shorter length of stay sometimes actively avoided travellers from their home country.

“But it’s fun to meet someone from home and talk Swedish; you want to speak your home language as well a little bit.”

Female backpacker (Sweden)

“I do. It’s kind of silly, I don’t know why, I just... You don’t want to be at home when you’re away, right?”

Male backpacker (Sweden) about why he actively avoids other Swedish travellers

Apart from impacting the actual occurrence of interactions, nationality in connection with language and language skills has been reported to contribute to the interaction process both positively and negatively, depending on whether it enhances understanding or not.

“Yeah, it’s easier to explain yourself in Danish, so maybe the conversation goes a bit deeper. (…) We talked more about home, so it was more personal, and it’s also easier to say what you think and how you feel. So this was more personal than conversations in English.”

Male young FIT (Denmark)

“Unfortunately, the challenge I’m finding here is there’s a lot more, we’re finding more Germans or Dutch or Belgians who don’t speak any English, and they’re uncomfortable having a conversation, so very often these conversations are quite short.”

Female young FIT (USA, exploratory)

Nationality and therefore language, as well as language skills, can strongly affect the process of social interactions. If the communication process is hindered by language related difficulties, interviewees reported that their interactions were short and

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lacked in topic variety. Language skills can therefore be regarded as basic requirements that form the foundation of a social interaction. If this requirement is fulfilled, a number of other factors can then contribute to the process of an interaction. The lack of language skills however was not reported very frequently by interviewees, as the large majority of them spoke fluent English. Language skills can thus be assumed to impact the interactions of non-English speakers more severely.

Likeability and commonalities

So far, this chapter has looked at a number of variables that contribute to interactions in terms of duration and conversation topics; however a mutual likeability is an underlying basic requirement for any interaction whose process is intrinsically motivated. This has already been touched upon in Section 5.5, and without this likeability, there is often no motivation to continue further with an interaction.

“Yeah, if there is a certain sympathy you would talk more than if you think, yeah, okay (laughs). It’s not worth going on with the conversation, yeah, I think it’s about sympathy, liking each other.”

Female young FIT (Austria, exploratory)

“Oh, mostly it’s really just, ahm, having a connection? And liking each other? When talking is easy and interesting, yeah.”

Female backpacker (Netherlands, exploratory)

This likeability or connection frequently depends upon commonalities between interaction participants. These can be limited to the commonality of being travellers in the same country, but more often extend to a personal level. The lack of commonalities on the other hand can negatively impact the interaction process by providing no common grounds on which a conversation can be based.

“So sometimes you meet people and they like to talk about the same thing or they have the same interest, and then you have good conversations.”

Female young FIT (Germany, exploratory)

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“You’re sort of all in the same boat, you’re all really interested in travelling, just a big interest to have in common, especially for an American. (…) And, so, that’s already something in common, so there’s no one that you’re really gonna hate.”

Female young FIT (USA)

“The difference is that I’m a little bit older (…) because a lot of people travelling alone, they, ah, are in a life changing situation, so, ah, and I’m, I don’t, I’m not so interested in these discussions or conversations, we don’t have much in common.”

Female backpacker (Germany)

Although commonalities often contribute to a more personal interaction, a lack of commonalities can, under certain circumstances, function in much the same way.

Many interviewees emphasized the value they place upon meeting people from different cultures (see Section 4.4.1), therefore showing interest in unfamiliar aspects of other travellers’ experiences.

“I always find, when people talk about themselves, I always ask when I’m interested, (…) for example they do something completely different, and say something interesting about something that I would never do like this, then I like to ask more.”

Male backpacker (Germany, exploratory)

These examples all refer to the relationship between interaction participants and whether or not it is perceived similarly by all individuals. Depending on likeability, commonalities or interest, interactions can last longer, become more personal and show a high intrinsic motivation.

176 5.7 Conclusion

This chapter has identified a variety of previously unknown or unconfirmed relationships within visitor-visitor social interactions by illustrating their processes as well as the connections to their respective contexts. The chosen travel style and individual attitude of visitors towards contacts with other travellers have been found to be the main determining factors when it comes to social interaction occurrence and process. They initially contribute to the environmental and therefore personal interaction contexts and antecedents. These two factors in turn strongly impact the interaction participant selection, the duration of social interactions, as well as the conversation topics – aspects that are again interconnected, as the possible duration determines the conversation topics that can be brought up during a particular timeframe. Reasons for terminating interactions are again connected to environmental and personal context. Individual circumstances such as interaction participants being tired are part of voluntary reasons for ending an interaction, while the termination of others is forced, for example when an organized activity comes to an end. At the core of the interaction process however stands the relationship between interaction participants. Without an intrinsic interest in each other, based upon likeability, commonalities, or interests, interactions often do not proceed to a more personal level and are sometimes terminated earlier than necessary. These factors, in combination with the language skills required to successfully navigate the interaction process, therefore are crucial requirements for positively perceived social interactions with other visitors. Chapter 6 will now look closer at the perception and evaluation of these reported social interactions, followed by the impacts they can have on the visitor experience.

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