ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on materiality as a way of mediating tourist experiences of place. It argues that flat' visual images of destinations and activities, such as brochure images and photographs may encourage individuals to engage in tourism but these images tell us nothing about the actual experience of tourism. In effect, people do not experience images, they experience other people and the materialities of place; architecture as buildings, parks and cities; doorways and staircases, paths and rivers; buses and trains, rocks and sand. The chapter also argues that the schematic devices such as maps, the urban environment and the egg sculptures are all forms of materiality that collectively mediate our experiences of the world. The egg hunt provided the impetus for the research but the eggs are merely one part of the overall encounter with materiality. Advertised as the largest ever Easter egg hunt, the eggs were located in twelve egg zones' around Central London.
