Traveling the world - Identity and travel biography

Concepts of personhood in tourism studies, such as identity subjectivity, and the: self are supplemented in this paper through an empirical approach to identity and tourism consumption. Anthony Giddens' analysis of contemporary self-identity is developed into a research strategy based around travel biographies. Using material from in-depth interviews with British tourists, the paper looks at the processes through which tourism consumption is mobilized for self-identity. It addresses its uses in constructing new identities, and the ways in which these identities are affirmed and contested in the public sphere. While a concern,vith self-identity should not displace other theorizations of tourism consumption, it nevertheless furthers understanding of tourist practices.