Working with difference and familiarity

The evidence presented here indicates that a distinction between the ‘familiar’ and the ‘different’ is too simplistic because, from a total of 107 tourists

interviewed, just eight mentioned only aspects of familiarity, while just 23 mentioned only aspects of variety on their holidays. Therefore, in contrast to the literature, the overwhelming trend identified by interviewees was not familiarity or difference but hybridity, where the majority (76 tourists) adopted a dynamic approach by combining familiarity and difference in innovative ways that allowed them to vary the amount of risk that they were willing to tolerate in any given situation.

This finding shows support for Warde and Martens (2000) whose work on eating out found that diners’ experiences were based around elements of familiarity combined with an infinite number of small variations. For example, you return to your favourite restaurant and adhere to the same broad

conventions relating to table manners and ordering procedures. However, on this occasion, you may choose to wear a new outfit, go with a different dining companion, or order a different sauce with your steak. The findings presented here suggest that tourists, too, are adaptable and resourceful individuals who

are capable of combining elements of familiarity and difference in a variety of ways in accordance with their needs and preferences on any occasion.

I would argue that every tourist has to decide on the degree to which he or she wants to trade-off the risk inherent in a different experience, with the safety inherent in a familiar one. However, this study illustrates that this is not an either/or decision, and this is where neat distinctions between Plog’s

(1974) allocentric and psychocentric traveller, and Fischler’s (1988) neophobic and neophilic eater, collapse for the majority of respondents. Instead, the interviewees’ experiences show that we can be both, because tourists can choose to combine safe and familiar elements from the home setting – or from other holidays – with as many different and adventurous experiences as they are comfortable with. Indeed, the fact that some aspects of our holiday are familiar may actually give us a firm base from which to experiment with other, different foods or activities.

The degree to which such novel elements are incorporated in the holiday will depend partly on an individual’s personality and understanding of their own identity, in addition to structural constraints, as discussed in Chapter 7. For example, some of us are inherently more psychocentric or allocentric than others and some of us – such as families with young children – may be more restricted in the degree of holiday adventurousness that we are able to

incorporate. However, if we resist the urge to view the familiar and different as entirely dichotomous concepts and, instead, view them as dynamic entities that form part of a continuous spectrum, we can see that people do not have to occupy fixed positions on this spectrum. Instead, they may choose to adopt

different positions at different times in response to changing circumstances. For example, interviewees such as X20 (30s, female, secretary, Lancaster University) explained that they liked to take different types of holiday at different times.

RS: When you had your caravan, did you like to go to different parts, or would you go back to the same place every year?

X20: It depended, because we’d go away for weekends so we’d quite often go back to the same place on a weekend, but if we went away for longer than a weekend, then we’d go to somewhere different.

One reason for taking several different kinds of holiday in a year is that it allows people to satisfy the desire for both the new and the familiar. As was the case with H48, the farming family who liked to visit the Lake District (p.184), it appeared that those with short or infrequent holidays were more likely to opt for a higher degree of familiarity because their vacation

opportunities were limited and they wanted to be sure of having a good time. By contrast, those who were able to take more than one holiday a year often chose to make one of those holidays a ‘safe’ break – based around familiar foods or destinations – while the other holiday was used to allow them to experiment a bit more with different foods or destinations. For example, H54 (party of 4, Lake District, self catering) had a timeshare in the Langdale Valley, to which they returned every year. However, in between their visits, they

RS: Do you generally tend to take holidays in the UK then, or abroad as well? Or a bit of a mixture?

1: [Laughs] I'm laughing because this year so far we've been to…

Ecuador and the Galapagos, we've been to Italy skiing… We've been to France, we've been sailing to France – so that was two separate

occasions – we've been to Italy again, to the mountains to stay with friends on a walking-type holiday –

3: We took the car to France.

1: [Nodding] We took the car to France, yes. And we're going to Croatia when we get back from here. We'll be going to Tenerife in October, so when you say ‘When do you take holidays?’ it kind of – well, we're retired, so we go away a lot.

Despite this, the entirely familiar and the entirely different holiday were rare. For example, the repeat caravan holiday to Exmoor which appears, in essence, very similar to life at home, is almost certain to have some small element of difference, even if this is only the deliberate decision to indulge in a few forbidden treats from home. Equally, the holiday that appears almost entirely adventurous is likely to have some familiar aspects from the home setting. For example, H1 (party of 3, Exmoor, staying at Butlins) had to incorporate some familiar foods from the UK while on safari in South Africa because one of their party had a strong dislike of what he considered to be ‘foreign food’ (p.182).