ABSTRACT
A certain kind of orientation can be associated with experiencing mobility, mobilizing experience. For de Botton, tourism is less about going places than about a certain way of experiencing the world, where destination places even become so troublesome that travelers would have liked not be “faced with the additional challenge of having to be there” (de Botton 2002, 23). Seen in this way, tourism is less about movement and going places than a “mind-set we travel with” (de Botton 2002, 242, emphasis in original); an excitement of mobility as potential (motility: Kesselring 2008). For de Botton, places become burdensome destinations lled with strategic thinking, whereas space is open for the exible and more joyful tactics of walking the city. This is parallel to de Certeau’s way of thinking (1984), with obvious links back to Simmel and Benjamin. Yet, what is it in this “mind-set” that is associated with travelling, tourism, and mobility?
