ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a form of tourism, roots or genealogy tourism, which has until now been a neglected topic with only a few exceptions (Nash 2002; Stephenson 2002; Timothy 1997; see Ch. 7). The quote that forms the title of this chapter was provided by one informant in this study, explaining what had motivated her to travel over 3,000 miles from her home in the USA, to visit a small village on the west coast of Ireland, from where her ancestors had emigrated some 150 years earlier. Her response was both direct and, in its own way, self-evident and challenging – how could it be otherwise? What this also signalled was a neglect of a related topic, that of accounting for individual motivations and experiences of travel and how these relate to notions of self and identity (Desforges 2000; Edkins 2001; Elsrud 2001; Galani-Moutafi 2000; Li 2000; Nash 2002; Stephenson 2002; Suvantola 2002). This does not include defined genres of travel writing, travel documentaries or other media forms, or for that matter issues concerning consumer choice or satisfaction of the tourism product. Rather of interest here is the role of travel in the biographical and narrative construction of selfidentity. However, to begin to address these issues, they need to be seen in the context of a globalized and increasingly mobile world.
