ABSTRACT
The importance of narrative communication in shaping the character and quality of tourist experiences has been demonstrated by a large and varied body of research (for an overview, see Bruner 2005). To be clear from the outset, the story form that I here identify as ‘narrative’ – a recognisable linear literary sequence that includes a beginning situation, a complication or crisis, struggle, reversal, and concluding transformation (see Bruner 1991; Campbell 1968; Propp 1968) – has been identified as a crucial tool for facilitating and analysing a wide range of specific factors in tourist activities, including the lure of self-discovery (Noy 2004), opportunities to address environmental concerns (Campbell 2002), place marketing and branding (Lichrou, O’Malley and Patterson 2010), visitor motivations (Poria, Reichel and Biran 2006), and the quality of visitor interactions (McCabe and Foster 2006). It has also been seen as an effective communication medium for a wide variety of interpretive forms, ranging from interpretation of Indigenous cultures (Hall 2007), mobile digital applications (Epstein and Vergani 2006), and tourism information systems (Gretzel 2006). Narrative has also been identified as a crucial element of the archaeological and historical discourse (e.g. Landau 1993; Silberman 1995; White 1990) on which most heritage tourism narratives are based. To tell an unfolding story – rather than merely recite a collection of facts or statistics – is to cultivate a potentially powerful subjective emotional engagement, while simultaneously offering a subtle meta-narrative about the inevitability of certain kinds of cause and effect (Bruner 1991).
