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

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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...