A Journey of a Lifetime: The Relationship between Leisure, Pleasure and Harm in ‘Extra-Ordinary’ Tourist Spaces.

• In Event: Deviant Leisure and Consumer Culture

Abstract

This paper will develop the concept of ‘deviant leisure’ in relation to the rapidly growing volunteer/eco/adventure tourism industry. Often marketed around such notions as ‘experiencing nature’, ’saving animals’

and ‘having an adventure’ in ‘extra-ordinary’ spaces, the paper specifically unpacks the relationships these experiences have with leisure and harm. On the one hand, they can be characterised as identity-forming leisure activities with elements of social good. On the other hand, these seemingly positive tourist experiences can engender a range of social, economic and environmental harms.



Drawing on original primary qualitative research exploring tourist motivations and behaviour, and contextualised within a range of interdisciplinary literature, this paper seeks to contribute to the growing knowledge base that critically examines the nature of leisure experiences in relation to harm. A final aim of this paper is to theorise these “niche” experiences in the broader context of neo-liberal capitalism and its attendant culture of conspicuous consumption.

Author

• Jo Large, Teesside University