ABSTRACT
The idea of the home, as a place of security, refuge, com fort, family and simple shelter, is one of the m ost enduring, pan-cultural desires. But what if ‘hom e’ becomes diverse places? Past homes and other homes are significant generators of travel and tourism , as people are drawn to and seek out places that hold special, personal, and often m ore ‘authentic,’ meaning (cf. Oakes, this volume). These types of tourists have been considered distinctly from the m ajority of tourists who are m otivated to travel m ore by recreation, education, general curiosity, and escape than by an existential calling. Erik Cohen (1979a) suggested that the majority of mass tourists are either fully centered (in a psychological sense) in their physical home, and therefore travel mostly for recreation and curiosity; or they are largely decentered, and travel because it serves as a tem porary distraction from an already alienated hom e existence.
