The international journal of tourism research tập 12, số 05, 2010 09 + 10

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 409–417 (2010)
Published online 2 December 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.760

Towards an Understanding of
International City Break Travel
Gerard Dunne1,*, Sheila Flanagan1 and Joan Buckley2
School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Faculty of Tourism and Food, Dublin Institute of
Technology, Dublin, Ireland
2
Department of Management & Marketing, University College Cork, Ireland

1

ABSTRACT
This paper explores city break tourism and, in
particular, the distinctive characteristics of this
form of travel. The city break is examined and
compared with other types of trips. The
research follows a sequential mixed methods
approach involving both a visitor survey and
in-depth interviews. The findings show the
international city break trip to have a number
of distinctive characteristics. These are
summarised into five main areas
(5 Ds) — duration, distance, date flexibility,
discretionary nature and destination travel
party. These distinguishing features provide a
useful insight into one of the most important

yet least examined travel segments in tourism
research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.
Received 1 April 2009; Revised 30 October 2009; Accepted 2
November 2009

Keywords: city break, trip characteristics,
secondary holiday, discretionary trip.
INTRODUCTION

T

he focus on cities for leisure breaks, particularly international leisure breaks, has
become a contemporary travel phenomenon that has resulted in the enhancement and
*Correspondence to: Dr. Gerard Dunne, Tourism Marketing Lecturer, School of Hospitality Management and
Tourism, Faculty of Tourism and Food, Dublin Institute of
Technology, DIT, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin 1, Ireland.
E-mail:
An earlier version of this paper was originally presented
by the author at the Tourism and Hospitality Research in
Ireland Conference, 16-17 June 2009, Dublin. This was
also published as part of the Proceedings of Contemporary Issues in Irish and Global Tourism and Hospitality.

rejuvenation of many urban areas throughout
Europe. Cities are moving centre stage, providing a leisure experience that is both diverse and
immediate. According to IPK International’s
European Travel Monitor, European city
tourism grew by 20% in 2005, compared with
an increase of just 3% in sun and beach holidays
(Freitag, 2006). However, while urban tourism

in general has received increased academic
interest over the past two decades (e.g. Buckley
and Witt, 1985; Jansen-Verbeke, 1986; Ashworth
and Tunbridge, 1990; Ashworth, 1992; Law,
1993, 2002; Page, 1995; Mazanec, 1997; Judd and
Fainstein, 1999; Pearce, 2001; Hall and Page,
2002; Wöber, 2002 and Selby, 2004), analysis of
the specific visitor groups that make up urban
tourism demand has been less forthcoming.
With a few notable exceptions, little research
specifically relating to city break travel currently
exists. Indeed, most of the commentary on the
subject has tended to emanate from industry
sources or consultant reports. Little academic
research explicitly addressing city break travellers and city break trip taking currently exists.
This indicates a significant gap in the urban
tourism knowledge base.
CITY BREAKS — A DISTINCTIVE
TYPE OF TRIP
A city break represents a distinctive type of
holiday, one that Trew and Cockerell (2002, pp.
86) define as, ‘a short leisure trip to one city or
town, with no overnight stay at any other destination during the trip.’ This definition importantly highlights the ‘city only’ nature of the
trips and provides a basis on which to segment
such visitors. Indeed, segmenting visitor
markets along the lines of type of trip can be
very effective, particularly for destination management bodies. Such breakdowns generally
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

410
offer potentially more valuable data than
traditional socio-demographic classifications
which, as Bieger and Laesser (2000, pp. 56)
point out, are ‘increasingly less helpful for the
segmentation of guest groups.’ As researchers
begin to recognise the significance of type of trip
in understanding visitor behaviour (Hudson,
1999; Bloy, 2000; Sung et al., 2001), it has become
more important to focus attention on the characteristics of different holidays and highlight
the distinctiveness between them. Sirakaya
and Woodside (2005) describe type of trip
(including aspects such as travel party and
duration) as being a crucial factor in people’s
travel decision process. Examining the city
break trip in terms of its distinctive elements is
therefore both useful and important in the
context of urban tourism research.
GROWTH OF CITY BREAK TRAVEL
There are a number of factors that can be attributed to the rising popularity of city break holidays in Europe. First, the increased availability
of low cost air travel with its emphasis on short
haul, point-to-point journeys is undoubtedly a
significant contributor. This development has
made a wide range of city destinations accessible at lower cost. Second, there is the increased
tendency of Europeans to take additional but
shorter holidays. This is an important characteristic according to Trew and Cockerell (2002)
who point out that in some European countries, the overall leisure intensity — i.e. the
proportion of the population travelling at least
once a year — is reaching a ceiling. At the same
time, the total number of trips taken per market

continues to grow, as people opt for two or
more trips a year in place of, or in addition to,
their main annual holiday.
Another reason for the growth relates to
people’s changing perception of cities as travel
destinations. For contemporary travellers, the
city has increasingly become viewed as, not
just an entry, exit, or transit point, but a desired
destination in its own right.
Finally, the increasing role of the Internet in
the travel decision-making process has also
contributed greatly to the city break phenomenon. The ease with which people can access
information and make bookings online has
greatly facilitated this form of travel. The
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

G. Dunne, S. Flanagan and J. Buckley
uncomplicated nature of most city break trips
(the majority consisting of just two components, transport and accommodation) reduces
the risk element commonly associated with
booking holidays online.
These factors have all contributed to the
steady growth of ‘city only’ holidays and have
resulted in city break travel delivering much
welcome intra-regional traffic at a time when
Europe’s market share of global tourism is
falling. The city break phenomenon has helped
to popularise and regenerate several European
cities, breathing new life into many beleaguered post-industrial urban economies. It has
also given rise to a number of ‘new’ city destinations that have emerged in response to the

enthusiastic demand for additional city break
locations. Tallinn, Bratislava and Riga are
among a new group of cities in recent years to
have established themselves on the European
city break travel map. The value of this form
of tourism is not lost on the product providers
within the cities themselves. Accommodation
suppliers in particular appreciate the propensity of city break travellers to book rooms at
weekends, thus complementing the weekday
occupancy that they traditionally receive from
business travellers. In addition, the all–yearround arrival pattern commonly associated
with city breakers is seen as a significant positive factor for businesses that operate in such
a seasonal industry.
CONCERNS IN RELATION TO
CITY BREAKS
The city break phenomenon, although generally
welcomed by urban tourism destinations, has
nonetheless received a measure of criticism
from certain quarters in recent years. Some of
this relates to the type of tourists commonly
attracted to this form of travel, particularly
where low cost airlines are involved. For
example, in recent times, residents and homeowners of Deauville in Normandy tried to stop
the arrival of cheap Ryanair flights from London,
believing that such a development would
encourage an influx of downmarket, short break
travellers to their traditionally upmarket resort
town. Similar criticisms have also been raised in
other destinations, particularly in a number of
emerging Eastern European cities where stag

Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 409–417 (2010)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr


Towards an Understanding of International City Break Travel
parties and other relatively invasive forms of
tourism account for a significant proportion of
the city break traffic.
One of the most pressing issues relating to
city breaks concerns the impact the phenomenon is having on regional and rural tourism.
There is a fear in some quarters that popular
city destinations are ‘taking’ potential tourists
from more traditional non-urban holiday areas.
This is certainly the case in Ireland where significant dissatisfaction exists among regional
tourism bodies at the perceived loss of business because of the increasing popularity of
Dublin city. According to a report by the Irish
Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) on
visitor distribution in Ireland, between 2000
and 2005, the number of nights spent by international holidaymakers in Dublin increased by
39%, while the number of bednights spent in
the rest of the country declined by almost 11%
(ITIC, 2006). This highlights a fundamental
change in the spatial spread of visitors in
Ireland and one which is clearly worrying the
country’s tourism authorities. However, a critical question seems to be whether or not cities
are actually ‘taking’ visitors from other regions,
or whether it is just a case of fewer people
wishing to visit rural or regional destinations.
Another criticism commonly levelled at city
break travel relates to the green issue. Significant attention is now being focused on airlines,

particularly low cost carriers, in terms of their
contribution to carbon emissions globally.
Non-essential, supplemental trips such as city
breaks are increasingly being disapproved of
by a growing environmental lobby. As governments begin to levy green taxes on the transport sector, and as people become increasingly
aware of their carbon footprint, it will be interesting to see if this has an impact on the demand
for city break travel.
METHODS
In examining the distinctiveness of the international city break market to Dublin, it was
decided to use a combination of quantitative
and qualitative methods. Within the combined
methods design, a sequential triangulation
approach, as outlined by Miller and Crabtree
(1994), was considered particularly suitable.
This consists of conducting two phases to the
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

411

research project, with the results of the first
phase essential for the planning of the next. A
quantitative study was undertaken first (Phase
One), which provided essential data in relation
to the characteristics of city break visitors and
their trips, in addition to information necessary to carry out the second phase. Phase Two
involved an in-depth qualitative analysis that
examined aspects of city break visitor’s consumer behaviour. Both phases combine to
provide a unique insight into city break travel
characteristics and behaviour.
Phase One involved a face to face survey

carried out in Dublin where 1000 overseas visitors were intercepted over a 12-month period
at locations across the city centre. From this
sample, two main visitor cohorts were identified and separated. These were city break
holidaymakers (n = 379) and non-city break
holidaymakers (n = 416). The former were
defined as leisure visitors who were visiting
the city only. The latter consisted of leisure
visitors who were visiting Dublin as part of a
wider holiday (i.e. the city was just one part of
their trip).
Having isolated both visitor segments, it
was possible to carry out a comparative analysis. This proved very useful in identifying distinctive characteristics and features of the city
break market. It should be noted that only
commercial city breaks were considered; therefore, people visiting family and friends were
not included. In addition, only those who
visited the city for the entirety of their trip
were deemed to be city breakers (as per Trew
and Cockerell’s definition).
Phase Two consisted of 40 in-depth interviews with city break visitors to Dublin. The
purpose of this phase was to uncover insights
from ‘thick descriptions,’ in the visitors’ own
words, in relation to their travel behaviour.
These thick descriptions, as outlined by Geertz
(1973), consist of detailed information about
the process being examined from the viewpoints of the participants in the process.
Drawing on data from Phase One, it was possible to develop an accurate sampling frame
based on the characteristics of city break visitors to Dublin. The interviews were carried out
at three locations around the city, at different
times of the year and at different times of the
week. Interviews lasted between 25 minutes

Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 409–417 (2010)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr


412
and 1 hour, and were recorded. They were
later transcribed and subsequently analysed
using a qualitative approach involving data
reduction, data display and conclusion
drawing/verification, as outlined by Miles and
Huberman (1994 ). From this, a number of
themes connected to people’s travel behaviour
emerged. The detailed information collected
from the interviews consisted of data not just
relating to the interviewee’s city break but also
to their last main holiday. This allowed direct
comparisons to be made in relation to people’s
wider trip-taking behaviour.
In analysing the results from both phases of
the research, a number of distinctive features
of city break travel became apparent. These
were characteristics that emerged from both
the quantitative and qualitative data sets and
were categorised into five main areas. These
are conveniently referred to as the 5 Ds of city
break travel. Although primarily relating to
the situation in Dublin, they are reflective of
city break travel in a wider context also.
THE 5 Ds OF CITY BREAK TRAVEL
The five characteristics (5 Ds) will now be discussed in an effort to shed light on the factors

that make city break trips distinctive as a
type of holiday. The five specific features are:
Duration, Distance, Discretionary nature, Date
flexibility and Destination travel party.
Duration
The first distinctive feature relates to the length
of the trip. The findings in this research support
the common view (Law, 2002; Trew and Cockerell, 2002) that city breaks generally consist of
short-stay trips. The results from Phase One
show how city break visitors stay for noticeably shorter periods compared with other
leisure tourists — 55% stated their trip consisted of three nights or less — compared with
just 6% for non-city break holidaymakers.
However, it would be wrong to assume that
all city breaks are short breaks; clearly they are
not. Some people come on city based holidays
for longer durations, and indeed, there is evidence to suggest that longer city break trips are
growing faster than average (Trew and Cockerell, 2002). However, in general, the findings
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

G. Dunne, S. Flanagan and J. Buckley
show most city breaks being short, usually
three nights or less. The results point to three
main explanations for this. First, city breaks
tend to be secondary trips, often supplementing a person’s main holiday. In this regard,
they tend to be of a shorter duration as they
are complementing rather than replacing a
bigger trip. Second, as Burtenshaw et al. (1991)
and Law (1993) point out, many people are
able to see and experience what they want, in
most cities, in a few days. This was confirmed

in the Phase Two interviews where a number
of people, although generally indicating their
approval with Dublin as a destination, also
pointed out that a few days or a weekend in
the city was adequate to satisfy their city break
requirements.
It’s a nice city and we’ve really enjoyed it
but in the end of the day the three days
is enough, we’ve seen what we wanted to
see. (James, London)
This was echoed by people who visited the
city for concerts or sports games which, by their
nature, tend to be short-term events. The third
reason relates to the international trend towards
shorter, but more frequent leisure trips. This
trend has been one of the most significant developments in European travel in recent years, and
the city break phenomenon is testimony to this.
Cities, as destinations, lend themselves easily to
short break travel. For time-pressed travellers,
cities can be reached directly, reducing or eliminating transfer issues commonly associated
with longer holidays. In addition, attractions
and amenities are generally clustered or located
close together, resulting in little time spent
moving around the destination. Thus, for many
people, cities represent the ideal short break
holiday destination.
Distance
The second distinctive characteristic relates to
the distance people travel to take such holidays. City break visitors tend to come mostly
from nearby source markets. This fact is very

much evident in Dublin where 80% of the city
break market comes from Britain, a statistic
that is much higher than the overall figure
for British holidaymakers into Dublin (50%).
Urban tourism demand in many other
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 409–417 (2010)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr


Towards an Understanding of International City Break Travel
European cities follows a similar trend. Because
of the limited duration of most city break trips
people don’t like to spend much time getting
to and from the destination. The increased
availability of low cost point-to-point flights
has improved matters greatly in this regard.
Page (2002) refers to the development of
regional air services outside the main national
gateways as having contributed significantly
to the rise of secondary urban trips. Cheap frequent access from a range of airports in neighbouring markets has been a key feature of most
city break destinations. For example, the
number of air routes into Dublin is highest
from Britain. Ryanair alone flies to 17 different
British airports from Dublin. The impact of this
cheap air access is reflected in the holiday
arrivals statistics, which show growth in air
travel to Dublin far exceeding that of ferry
services. As Table 1 shows, there has been a
significant shift in mode of entry by British
visitors over the period of 1997 to 2007. The

figures highlight a swing of 36% from sea to
air transport. Low cost airlines have had a
huge influence on this shift.
Table 1. Route of entry % from Britain (2007 versus
1997)

Air
Sea

1997 (%)

2007 (%)

% change

39
61

75
25

+36
−36

Source: Fáilte Ireland Market Trends (Britain)

Clearly for time-pressed city break visitors,
fast, direct air access is a hugely attractive
option. In Dublin’s case, this is reflected in the
large number of city breakers coming from

Britain. For these visitors, Dublin represented
one of the most easily accessible overseas city
destinations available to them.
It was cheaper to come here than what it
is to go to my work, and it was quicker. I
mean it takes me an hour-and-a-half to go
to my work, whereas I mean I couldn’t
believe it, it was 50 minutes. We left home
at 7 a.m. in the morning and arrived here
at 7.52 a.m. I mean it’s incredible, I couldn’t
believe it for 70p each way — I mean that’s
much less than I pay going to work.
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

413

Although I know the taxes bring it up but
still it’s amazing. (Ruth, Glasgow)
Discretionary nature
Another significant feature of city breaks is the
discretionary nature of the trips. During the
visitor interviews, respondents were asked
about their trip-taking patterns in the previous
year in order to examine how the city break
fitted in with other trips (if any) they had taken.
The findings showed that people had generally
taken the city break as an additional trip to
their main holiday. There were only a few
cases where the Dublin city break was considered the principal, or indeed only, holiday
of the year. This supports Page’s (2002, pp.

121) assertion that ‘many urban holiday trips
are secondary trips, complementing the traditional summer-long annual holidays which are
coastal-based.’ In most cases, the trip was
viewed as a discretionary break, and for some,
an opportunistic one. This is reflected in the
short decision time that was evident with many
of the trips. The survey results show almost
60% of city breakers booked their accommodation less than 4 weeks before their trip
compared with 37% of non-city break
holidaymakers, indicating what Swarbrooke
and Horner (2007, p. 77) note as ‘the increasing
popularity of last minute purchases of tourism
products.’ For most people, city breaks were
conceived and acted on in a relatively short
period of time, with the Internet playing a
significant role in this behaviour.
The influence of situational factors was also
found to contribute to the discretionary nature
of city break trip taking. These are factors
which Belk (1975, pp. 158) refers to as ‘particular to a time and place of observation . . . and
which have a demonstrable and systematic
effect on current behaviour.’ Evidence from
the interviews shows that the genesis of many
city break ideas can be traced to particular
circumstances that people faced, or situations
that arose in people’s lives. These proved to
be quite diverse; however, all had a similar
outcome, in that, taking a city break was considered an appropriate response to the particular situation they faced. For example, one
interviewee explained how a family bereavement was the catalyst for his trip to Dublin:
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 409–417 (2010)

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414
Well to tell you the truth it came about
because I lost my brother a couple of weeks
ago . . . I just needed to get away, clear my
head like. I went to a travel agent and just
said I need to get away for a couple of
days — and so she suggested here.
In some cases, the city break was organised by a
third party, and as such, the decision often came
down to a simple question: ‘do I join this trip or
not?’ Once this decision was made, respondents
often had very little other input into the trip,
except to participate. This usually differed from
people’s main holiday situation where the initial
generic decision of whether or not to take a trip
was, in many cases, already made. For most
people, the main holiday was an annual ritual,
therefore the decision-making tended to focus
less on whether to go and more on where to go. By
contrast, city breaks were usually less predetermined and as such the decision-making was
more discretionary in nature. The decision
process did not tend to follow distinctive stages
as commonly outlined in the tourism literature.
For example, the conventional view is that people
first decide on whether or not to take a trip — what
Hodgson (1983) calls first order questions — and
then subsequently choose what kind of trip to

take (second order questions). However, for
many city breakers, these decisions were made
concurrently. In other words, people often came
upon a good city break deal or were introduced
to one and decided to ‘go for it,’ and as such were
making first and second order decisions
simultaneously.
I saw the special offer for the flight and
that I suppose started me thinking. And
then because we had free time and no real
commitments we decided why not. (Fred,
Bristol)
This reflects impulsive or opportunistic decision-making behaviour that is very much
linked to the discretionary nature of the trips.
It also shows the strength of special offers and
deals when discovered by people at particular
times. Advertisements for cheap flights, in particular, were found to stimulate demand in a
number of cases.
Date flexibility
The fourth distinctive feature of city break
travel relates to the lack of seasonal bias
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

G. Dunne, S. Flanagan and J. Buckley
Table 2. Timing of visit by type of holidaymaker

Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn

Total

% of city break
holidaymaker
(n = 379)

% of non-city break
holidaymaker
(n = 416)

17.2
23.2
34.0
25.6
100

4.3
14.9
43.3
37.5
100

associated with the trips. Table 2 shows findings from the survey that highlight the difference in arrival patterns between city break and
non-city break visitors to Dublin.
Such a demand pattern can be partly attributed to what Burtenshaw et al. (1991) point out
as the relatively minor role weather plays in
city-based tourism. The findings show that
17% of city breakers to Dublin arrived during
winter months compared with just 4% of noncity break holidaymakers. However, besides
weather, the disparity in arrival patterns can

also be attributed to other factors. For example,
the secondary nature of city breaks means
most are taken outside of peak periods. Sometimes these trips are centred around events
such as concerts, sports games and exhibitions.
These are generally spread throughout the
year and as such the city break visitors who
attend them contribute to the development of
a year-round city destination.
Yes, I suppose the concert was the main
reason for coming (to Dublin), we are big
fans and we did not want to miss it.
(Christina, Rotterdam)
This non-seasonal demand pattern is a crucial
feature and one that makes city breakers an
attractive market for urban tourism businesses.
Destination travel party
The final characteristic of city break travel concerns the composition of the travelling unit.
One of the most interesting findings in this
regard was the small number of travel parties
that included children. The survey results
show most people travelled to Dublin with
either a spouse/partner (60%) or a group of
friends (19%) in contrast to just 13% visiting
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Towards an Understanding of International City Break Travel
with their family (including children). These
results concur with previous studies which

show a high proportion of urban tourists travel
without children (Flanagan and Dunne, 2005;
British Tourist Authority and English Tourist
Board, 1988; Trinity Research, 1989). Three
main factors emerged as the principal reasons
why children are not well represented in city
break travel parties. First, a high proportion of
city breakers did not have children. The findings show that many of the groups were made
up of single people travelling together (friends,
affinity groups, stag/hen parties, etc), or
couples who either did not have children or
whose children had left home (empty nesters).
For all these people, ease of mobility was a key
factor in their choice of trip. They were not tied
to the school calendar and as such were more
flexible with their travel plans. This allowed
them to avail of special travel offers which
tend to be more plentiful and financially
rewarding during school term. Childless travellers can also usually take trips without a lot
of preplanning, which means they can often
make decisions more speedily and spontaneously. For such people, city breaks represent a
very attractive travel option.
The second reason relates to people who had
children at home, but who used the city break
trip to escape the stresses and pressures of
parenting. This was particularly evident in the
interviews where a number of couples described
their trip to Dublin as a chance to take a break
from their children.
We have a young son — he’s one and a

half and he’s into everything at the
moment. Jane’s mother took him for these
few days. It’s great to just get the break.
(Brian, Nottingham)
A city break was seen as ideal in many ways
for this purpose — the short stay nature of the
trips along with the ease of access made travelling easier in terms of arranging childminding.
Interestingly, these people saw the city break
as an adult-focused holiday centred on themselves. By contrast, the main holiday was seen
as a chance to spend time with their
children.
The third reason, for the lack of children,
relates to the child-unfriendly perception of
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

415

cities as destinations. A few of the interviewees
commented on the lack of things to do for kids
in Dublin or the difficulty in keeping them
amused, while others claimed they would never
bring their children to a city for a holiday.
CONCLUSION
Distinguishing between the types of trips
people take can be a very useful exercise for
tourism researchers. Such an approach focuses
on the nature of the trip — its principal characteristics — and as such offers potentially
more valuable visitor behaviour data than
other approaches. By studying the different
characteristics of various holidays, a greater

understanding of trip-taking behaviour is possible. Certainly this is the case with city breaks
where, up to now, little empirical data in relation to the nature of these trips has existed. As
the changing structure of trip taking by Europeans continues to influence the growth of
city breaks, the need for up to date information on this visitor market has become
more pressing. This study has shown that the
international city break trip has a number of
distinguishing characteristics. These are encapsulated in five main features (5 Ds), duration,
distance, date flexibility, discretionary nature and
destination travel party. The findings in this
regard show city break trips to be generally
short in duration (usually less than three
nights) involving mostly short haul flights
from neighbouring countries. In addition, they
tend to be secondary trips that people often
use to supplement a main holiday. They are
also likely to be taken throughout the year and
are mostly made up of couples or groups of
friends.
Uncovering these characteristics provides a
better understanding of city break trips and in
particular their distinctiveness compared with
other types of holidays. The ability of city
breaks to provide a quick, short escape from
the routine of daily life shows them to be fulfilling a significant role in today’s cash rich,
time poor society. In addition, the findings
highlight some interesting themes in relation
to the role of a holiday — particularly in terms
of its social function. For example, some trips
were viewed as opportunities to build on
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 409–417 (2010)

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416
personal relationships, often between partners,
while others provided a more hedonistic function in which the holiday was viewed as a
chance to regress or behave in a manner that
would be socially out of character in the home
environment. Such differences are interesting
to observe and highlight the value of viewing
holiday-taking in its wider social context.
Looking forward, it is not certain if cities will
continue to enjoy the appeal they do today.
Given the increasingly negative economic
environment that tourism faces, it will be interesting to see if secondary trips such as city
breaks manage to sustain the type of popularity they have experienced up to now. Further
research into this area would be very useful. It
would be particularly beneficial to see how
people’s perception of discretionary leisure
travel changes in recessionary times. For
example, will city breaks come to be viewed as
an unnecessary luxury in harder economic
times or is it possible that people may turn to
such trips as a cheaper alternative to their main
holiday? In order to remain competitive in the
years ahead, city tourism suppliers will need
to have a clear understanding of this important
visitor group and be able to respond to the
specific requirements they present. For this,
comprehensive knowledge of city break travellers and the trips they engage in will be

crucial.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
Published online 2 December 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.762

Advancing Consumer Behaviour Theory
in Tourism via Visual Narrative Art
Arch G. Woodside1,* and Carol M. Megehee2,†
Marketing Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
2

Department of Management, Marketing and Law, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina,
USA
ABSTRACT
goal; one or more exciting incidents occur in a
good story; conflicts arise (that frequently
This paper advances (i) propositions of
include antagonists, ‘dark forces’); the
consumer behaviour theory in tourism via
protagonist perceives an epiphany — a
storytelling theory and (ii) skills in
revelation in a climatic moment in the story;
decoding elements and subtle details that
the protagonist experiences several unique
appear in ‘good stories’ versus not-so-good
and important contexts/situations.
stories within travel contexts. The present
Travel protagonists’ stories (e.g. a tourist
paper presents a set of iconic story symbols
reporting on his or her own travel plans and
for use in decoding stories and shows how
actions) are found in diaries, blogs and oral
to use these tools for decoding tourismreports of their plans and actions involving
related narratives. Practice using these
leaving home, going on a journey, reaching
visual iconic symbols in decoding stories
one or more destinations and returning home.
achieves effective storytelling learning via
These stories frequently contain antagonists in
cognitive sculpting; that is, learning
the form of bad weather, earthquakes, thieves,

improves from moving and arranging
surly waiters and bad experiences with travel
(sculpting) potentially three-dimensional
companions — and personal blocks such as
story or electronically movable icons while
feelings of failure, inability to perform triptalking or writing narratives. Copyright ©
related activities due to a lack of skill or ill
2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
health. Such reports sometimes include reviews
about the protagonists’ life at home, problems
with children, spouses, and lovers, and doubts
Received 21 March 2009; Revised 3 November 2009; Accepted
about why they made or are making the trip.
9 November 2009
The relevant literature includes advances in
theory and case research gestalt studies of
Keywords: storytelling; journey; protagonist;
consumers’ own reports of their thoughts and
blocks; archetype; antagonist; rebel.
actions covering all phases relating to planning,
during the trip and returning home (e.g. WoodINTRODUCTION
side and MacDonald, 1994; Woodside et al.,
2007a,2007b; Woodside and Martin, 2008).
onsumers’ thoughts and actions
Deep understanding of the motivations,
involving tourism behaviour frequently
behaviour and outcomes relating to tourism is
include elements of ‘good stories’
possible from applying storytelling theory to
(McKee, 2003). Elements in good stories include

decode the meanings underlying tourists’
a protagonist who experiences an awaking that
narrative reports of their trips. This view is the
he or she must make a journey to achieve a
central proposition and unique contribution of
the present paper. This paper describes the
core propositions and illustrates applications
*Correspondence to: Professor A. G. Woodside, PhD,
of useful tools for travel researchers to apply
Marketing Department, Boston College, 450 Fulton Hall,
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
for decoding both specific scenarios and actions
E-mail:
†
in travel stories, as well as the gestalt meaning
Current address: Department of Management and Marof such stories — both for the protagonist as
keting, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana.

1

C

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Advancing Consumer Behaviour Theory
well as for tourism management executives
(TMEs). The paper serves to provide theory
and tools for TMEs to enable their adoption of
story director roles to assist protagonists (i.e.

tourists) to enact travel stories successfully (cf.
Arnould and Price, 2003). Given that tourists
tell themselves and others stories about their
trips and consider future travel to alternative
destinations as story enactments (e.g.
adventures), effective tourism management
needs to involve directing scenes, acts and
actions that fulfil the script of the story, the
story’s ‘evaluative slope’ (Gergen and Gergen,
1988) and possibly offer a few twists and turns
for the tourist to experience and expand upon
in retelling her or his trip experiences.
Evaluative slope refers to the emotional
peaks and valleys a protagonist experiences
while engaging in a story enactment or a
retelling of a story. Low share of visitors who
return to a given destination in a number of
instances may follow from the failure to create
relatively high emotional peaks for visitors to
experience. For example, while Americans and
Japanese visitors report enjoying the tranquility
of visiting Prince Edward Island (PEI; Canada’s
smallest province), few report intentions to
visit PEI again. Successfully promoting return
visits by members of these two tourist segments
by PEI likely requires resolving the paradox of
designing in ‘exciting tranquility’. Research
using storytelling theory and long interviews
of PEI visitors inform these conclusions (see
Woodside and Martin, 2008).

The present paper briefly examines the
principles of storytelling. Second, the paper
summarizes the propositions of ‘good
storytelling’ by a leading storytelling trainer
(McKee, 2003). Third, the paper proposes and
describes the use of cognitive sculpting (CS)
(Doyle and Sims, 2002) tools — a set of visual
iconic symbols that can be arranged (i.e. sculpt)
to represent action and actors in stories — for
improving interpretations and sensemaking of
stories. Fourth, the paper illustrates visual
narrative art (similar but unique from visual
schema; see Gibbs et al., 2004) via CS of a story
and offers principles for creating such visual
art renderings of stories; image schema are
‘dynamic spatial patterns’ that are ‘more
abstract than ordinary visual mental images’
and of an enduring nature, being ‘permanent
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

419
properties of embodied experience’ (Gibbs
et al., 2004, pp. 1192–1193), whereas visual
narrative art shows events in scenes and acts
in a temporal dimension usually in the sequence
including a beginning, middle and end. Fifth,
the paper includes conclusions and limitations
and proposes a series of sensemaking tests on
the value of visual tools for increasing
storytelling sensemaking skills for future

research.
PRINCIPLES OF STORYTELLING
BEHAVIOUR
The work of several scholars in consumer
behaviour (e.g. Hirschman, 1986; Arnould and
Wallendorf, 1994; Padgett and Allen, 1997;
Adaval and Wyer, 1998; Holt, 2003, 2004; Holt
and Thompson, 2004; Laing and Crouch, 2009)
and in related fields of human inquiry and
learning (Mitroff and Kilmann, 1976; Schank
and Abelson, 1977; Bruner, 1990; Schank, 1990,
1999, 2005) support the view that ‘. . . people
think narratively rather than argumentatively
or paradigmatically’ (Weick, 1995, p. 127; see
also Wells, 1988, Weick, 1995, Hiltunen, 2002
and McKee, 2003). Stories and storytelling are
central to achieving a deep understanding of
consumer psychology (cf. Escalas and Stern,
2003; Holt, 2003, 2004).
‘Human memory is story-based’ (Schank,
1999, p. 12) is the first principle of storytelling
behaviour. ‘Information is indexed, stored,
and retrieved in the form of stories. A story is
useful because it comes with many indices (i.e.,
touch points to the lives of listeners/viewers
or to others that causes implicit and/or explicit
awareness and emotional connection/understanding in the minds of listeners/viewers.
Indices in stories can cause automatic (implicit)
awareness, comprehension and empathy
among listeners/viewers. The concept of

indices and constructing indices in stories are
central to creating good stories. These indices
may be locations, decisions, actions, attitudes,
quandaries, decisions, or conclusions. “The
more indices we have for a story that is being
told, the more places the story can reside in
memory. Consequently, we are more likely to
remember a story [versus a lecture] and to
relate the story to experiences already in
memory. In other words, the more indices, the
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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420
greater the number of comparisons with prior
experiences and hence the greater the learning” ’ (Schank, 1999, p. 11). The proposition
that indices in stories serve as touch points of
a story’s core message to the listener/viewer is
central to Escalas’ (2004) proposal that narrative processing creates or enhances self-brand
connections in consumer theory because people
generally interpret the meaning of their
experiences by fitting their interpretations of
experiences into a story.
Second, a substantial amount of information
stored in and retrieved from memory is
episodic — stories that include inciting
incidents, experiences, outcomes/evaluations
and summaries/nuances of person-to-person
and person-and-brand relationships within

specific contexts (see Schank, 1990; Fournier,
1998).
Third, retrieving, reliving or repeat watching
of stories results in what Aristotle (see Hiltunen,
2002) refers to as ‘proper pleasure’ — a
catharsis — that relates usefully to the work of
Holt (2003) and Jung (1916/1959): Watching,
retrieving and telling stories enables the learner
(sometimes with the assistance of the trainer
but not necessarily the protagonist) to
experience one or more archetypal myths. An
archetype is an unconscious primary form, an
original pattern or prototype in the human
mind; archetypes are not learned or
acquired — they are with us from birth and are
as natural and embedded in us as our own
DNA; archetypes are collective unconscious
forces affecting beliefs, attitudes and behaviour
implicitly and/or explicitly (Jung, 1916/1959;
Wertime, 2002). Recognising archetypes takes
effort and insight by a consumer or researcher
studying the consumer. A catharsis is not a
given in any story or indeed any travel experience, nor does it simply come out of the blue
from reliving and retelling of stories. Aristotle
(in Butcher, 1961) actually describes a slow
unfolding of tragedy and catastrophe that
then leads to the moment of realisation and
release — the ‘hamatea’ — or experience of
catharsis. Catharsis is usually experienced by
the audience/reader, not by the protagonist

unless a cathartic surfacing has been written
into the story as part of its plot. The protagonist may fail completely to understand her
own hubris and, not infrequently, will die in
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A. G. Woodside and C. M. Megehee
that state of self-delusion. A tragedy or catastrophe has to be severe for a cathartic process
to be warranted (e.g. the young tourist shot in
the hotel in Mumbai and subsequently rescued).
Hopefully, relatively few instances of this
magnitude occur in tourism.
Fourth, specific brands and products often
play pivotal roles (e.g. destinations and
locations-events in destinations) enable
consumers to achieve the proper pleasure that
results in a consumer mentally and/or
physically enacting a specific archetype — and
reliving the experience by periodically retelling
a given story. The brand-consumer storytelling
and pleasure outcome builds on Nataraajan
and Bagozzi’s (2000, p. 10) idea ‘that people
need help in finding what makes them happy,
and this is where marketing comes in’.
Happiness can be an outcome that brands
enable consumers to achieve via story
enactments with specific archetypal plots.
Fifth, individuals seek clarity, to make sense
of prior conversations, events and outcomes
from others and themselves by telling stories.
‘How do I know what I think until I hear what

I say?’ (Weick, 1995) partly summarizes this
proposition. Story repetition is often a plea for
clarity that may be achievable in part by
recognising that the drama in the story is one
illustration of one or more specific archetypes
(e.g. story of rebellion, Mother-of-Goodness,
Little Trickster, Ultimate Strength, the Hero;
see Wertime (2002) for the storylines for
these and other archetypes). The above set
of propositions builds from the proposals of
Escalas (2004), Holt (2003), Hiltunen (2002),
Jung (1916/1959), Mark and Pearson (2001),
Wertime (2002) and Woodside et al. (2007b).
These five propositions help describe
explicitly how products and brands enable
archetype engagement. The proposals here go
deeper than Holt’s (2003, 2004) proposal that
icons are encapsulated myths; the proposals in
the present paper describe how consumers’
stories involving actions with brands and
products provide a proper pleasure (Aristotle’s
Poetics, Butcher, 1961) that relates unconsciously
to one or more archetypes (Jung, 1916/1959)
and helps consumers achieve deep satisfying
levels of sensemaking.
The retelling and reliving of stories can be
experienced in many different ways, including
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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Advancing Consumer Behaviour Theory
with unutterable boredom (i.e. a bad story) or
re-traumatisation and catharsis. Reaching
catharsis is a very complex process. A conflation throughout text between a story’s protagonist and author or listener/viewer is likely to
occur in subjective personal introspections
(SPIs; see Holbrook, 1995; Woodside, 2003).
When a text is autobiographical, the author is
still the reader of the finished text, not the text
itself. The protagonist does not have to be an
active agent in the story — a story’s enactment
may result in the reader experiencing a deep
understanding or catharsis while the protagonist in the story remains completely passive to
the end.
Archetypes are not outcomes. As Jung
(1916/1959) points out, archetypes are potentially dangerous psychic forces that rarely, of
themselves, bring pleasure or fulfilment. It is
the process of engaging with the archetypes
that brings realisation and understanding.
Listening, viewing and interpreting a story
may be distinctly unpleasant. Several different
types of stories are told — a trip may be an
important event but not necessarily a great
experience.
TELLING GOOD STORIES
McKee (2003) advocates that the best way to
persuade someone (student, friend or family
member) is by telling a compelling story. ‘In a
story, you do not only weave a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your
listener’s emotions and energy. Persuading

with a story is hard. Any intelligent person can
sit down and make lists [for use in a lecture such
as writing “reason-why-to-buy advertising
copy”]. It takes rationality but little creativity to
design an argument using conventional rhetoric. But it demands vivid insight and storytelling skill to present an idea that packs enough
power to be memorable. If you can harness
imagination and the principles of a well-told
story, then you get people rising to their feet
amid thunderous applause instead of yawning
and ignoring you’ (McKee, 2003, p. 52).
What are the principles of a well-told story?
A story expresses how and why life changes.
A story includes a situation or context in which
life is relatively in balance or implied to be in
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

421
balance — you believe that you are happily
married forevermore with a wife who loves
you and a three-year-old daughter. You expect
your life will continue that way. However, a
story may begin with a terrible disaster and
progress towards stability or some other kind
of resolution. In his work, McKee is only
describing one context of the structure of narrative. Not all stories have dramatic flow — the
chaos narrative, for instance, which constantly
digs itself into an ever-deepening hole.
However, the story’s audience is likely to
imagine that a prequel of balance existed before
stories that open with a chaotic event.

But then an event — screenwriters call this
event the ‘inciting incident’ — throws life out
of balance in the shape of a new opportunity
or threat. For example, an aunt in America
offers her niece a trip to Paris to celebrate the
niece’s sixteenth birthday (the full report of
this trip to Paris appears in Woodside et al.
(2007b). The story goes to describe how, in an
effort to restore balance, the protagonist’s subjective expectations attempts to cope with a
new reality. A good storyteller describes what
it is like to deal with these opposing forces,
calling on the protagonist to dig deeper, work
with scarce resources, make difficult decisions,
take action despite risks and ultimately comprehend new experiences.
Great storytellers deal with fundamental
conflicts between subjective expectation and
cruel reality (McKee, 2003). The gist of the
Wizard of Oz story might come to mind here.
Dorothy struggles against evil forces to win the
right to return home; Dorothy’s struggles
include accidentally killing the wicked witch
who is attempting to kill Dorothy to get acquire
Dorothy’s ruby slippers.
Good storytelling displays the struggle
between expectation and reality in all its
nastiness. The great irony of existence is
that what makes life worth living does
not come from the rosy side. We would
all rather be lotus eaters, but life will not
allow it. The energy to live comes from

the dark side. It comes from everything
that makes us suffer. As we struggle
against these negative powers, we’re
forced to live more deeply, more fully.
(McKee, 2003, p. 53)
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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422
Scepticism is another principle of the storyteller. The sceptic understands the different
between text and subtext and always seeks to
learn what is really going on. The sceptic
hunts for the truth beneath the surface of life,
knowing that the real thoughts and feelings of
institutions or individuals are unconscious and
unexpressed (cf. Wilson, 2002). ‘The skeptic is
always looking behind the mask’ (McKee,
2003, p. 54).
What questions should a story listener/
viewer ask in making sense of a story? Answers
to this question include asking who the principal protagonist is. Also, what does this protagonist want in order to restore balance in his
or her life? ‘Desire is the blood of a story. Desire
is not a shopping list but a core need that, if
satisfied, would stop the story in its tracks’
(McKee, 2003, p. 55). Next, the story interpreter
should ask, what is keeping the protagonist
from achieving his or her desire? Forces within?
Doubt? Fear? Confusion? Personal conflicts
with friends, family, lovers? Social conflicts

arising from various institutions in society?
Not enough time to get things done? Antagonists come in the form of people, society, time,
space and every object in it, or any combination of these forces at once.
Finally, the story sensemaker (i.e. audience
member) asks, how does the protagonist decide
to act — and continue the action — in order to
achieve his or her desire in the face of these
antagonistic forces? The answer to this question reveals truth about the protagonist — because the choices the protagonist makes under
pressure uncovers and reveals the truth to and
about the protagonist. The protagonist comes
to learn his or her unconscious essence by selfexamination of his or her own behaviour
(Wilson, 2002).
CS FOR INTERPRETING STORIES
A cognitive sculpture resulting in visual
narrative art is creating and arrangement of
symbols to represent people, processes, time
periods and outcomes of a story (cf. Doyle and
Sims, 2002). Since the objects in CS are moveable
they often become dramatized, and invested
with intention (e.g. ‘the symbol representing a
world block does not really want to get in the
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A. G. Woodside and C. M. Megehee
protagonist’s way’). CS is comparable in some
ways with more familiar ways of dramatising
methods such as role playing. Despite its
similarity with such a variety of techniques,
Doyle and Sims (2002) argue that CS has a
distinctive focus, feel and applicability of its

own. Although sculpting can involve smoothing
and removing of rough spots and parts of a
story, the emphasis here is on adding, changing
and possibly deleting lines in communications
and moving and arranging actions and contexts
in a storyline.
A cognitive sculpture represents a gestalt
visual interpretation of the entire story.
Figure 1 is a generalised theoretical cognitive
sculpture of a story. Note that the rebel or
Anti-Hero archetype represents the protagonist
in Figure 1; other archetypal forces may
substitute for the rebel protagonist depending
on the story. Figure 1 is an extension of the
Woodside and Megehee (2009) model.
Woodside and Megehee (2009) describe a
phase dynamics model using the cognitive
artwork. The phase dynamic model explicates
propositions that are relevant in a good story
(McKee, 2003). The propositions include the
following points: (i) life for the protagonist is
more or less in balance; (ii) a protagonist
experiences an inciting incident that informs
his or her need to go on a journey that takes
the protagonist away from his or her everyday
life; (iii) the protagonist encounters antagonists
(human, animal and/or physical and climatic)
during the journey and must overcome these
antagonists to complete the journey; (iv) the
protagonist experiences feelings of failure and

feelings of success occur in different phases
during the journey; (v) the protagonist
experiences help during the journey; (vi) a
catharsis occurs for the protagonist; and (vii)
the story’s ending may include an interpretation
of what has happened and future events in the
life of the protagonist; post-journey retelling of
the story occurs to clarify the meaning of the
story to the storyteller, to inform others and
to experience the pleasure of reliving the
archetypal force that the story’s journey
provides.
Table 1 summarizes 12 archetypal forces that
may appear in a story in the roles of protagonist,
antagonist or help; Jung (1916/1959) provides
and analyzes additional archetypes. Woodside
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423

Figure 1. Phase dynamics theory of epiphany travel.

Advancing Consumer Behaviour Theory

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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424

A. G. Woodside and C. M. Megehee

Table 1. Archetypes, story gists and brand examples
Archetype

Story gist

Brand examples

Ultimate Strength

When an obstacle is there, it
must be overcome, strength
must be proven in use

Timex — ‘It takes a licking and
keeps ticking’

The Siren

Power of attraction, linked with
the possibility of destruction

Allure by Chanel; Envy by Gucci

The Hero

Fortitude, courage and victory; a
journey and transformation

The Anti-Hero

Universal message of destruction
and attraction of evil; the bad
dude

Michael Jordan and Nike shoes;
Joe DiMaggio and Mr. Coffee;
Power Puff Girls; Forrest Gump
Heavy metal icons; Howard Stern;
Jerry Springer; Oakland Raiders;
Che Guevara; Harley-Davidson

The Creator

Creative inspiration and the
potency of imagination;
originality; authentic

Coca Cola — the real thing; Walt
Disney; Kleenex

The Change Master

Transformation,
self-improvement and

self-mastery

Curves — workout stores for
women; Gillette’s Mach 2 razor;
Porsche 911

The Powerbroker

Authority, influence and
domination — the world’s
leading. . . . ; the best . . . ;
number one
Experience, advice and heritage;
staying the test of time

CNN; E. F. Hutton; Bill Gates;
Microsoft

The Loyalist

Trust, loyalty and reassurance

The Mother-of-Goodness

Purity, nourishment and
motherly warmth

The Little Trickster

Humor, non-conformity and the

element of surprise

Coca Cola and ‘Mean’ Joe Green
with boy of 12 TV commercial;
I Love Lucy; Friends TV sitcom
Just Juice; Ivory Soap; Tropicana
Orange Juice; Aunt Jemima;
Fairy Godmother; Witch of the
East; Snow White
Dennis the Menace; Bart Simpson;
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure;
SpongeBob SquarePants
Zorro; Abercrombie and Fitch; Star
Trek

The Wise Old Man

The Enigma

or

Mystery, suspense and
uncertainty

Levi’s; Obi-Wan Kenobi

Source: Developed in part from several chapters in Wertime (2002).

et al. (2007b) propose that stories express the
unconscious seeking and fulfilment of one or

more archetypal forces. This proposition is the
basis for marketers crafting stories that connect
their brands in the lives of customers. For
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

example, without connecting his views to
archetypal theory and research, Holt (2003,
p. 43) proposes, ‘In America, the most potent
myths are depictions of rebels’. For some
consumers, the Anti-Hero, rebel, archetype
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Advancing Consumer Behaviour Theory
becomes a key lifestyle driver and part of their
self-definition. ‘Harley-Davidson has often
been cited as a brand that creates very strong
brand affinity amongst its users. One of the
reasons for this is that Harley has tapped into
a strong consumer desire to express an alternative side to their personalities. For some users,
their Hog gives them a chance to play the part
of the renegade—to be a bad dude’ (Wertime,
2002, p. 122). Thus, marketers ‘must learn to
target national contradictions instead of just
consumer segments, create myths that make
sense of confusing societal changes, and speak
with a rebel’s voice’ (Holt, 2003, p. 43).
The story interpreter and story creator may
create additional symbols (e.g. product

packages and brand badges) when cognitively
sculpting a story. The symbols appearing in
Figure 1 and Table 1 are viewable usefully as
a starter’s toolkit for creating CS of stories. The
main proposition concerning CS of stories is
that such visualising of verbal narratives
enriches and deepens interpretations of both
specific scenes and acts in the story as well as
the transformations and gestalt epiphanies
that the protagonist experiences by the end of
the story (cf. Tufte, 1990). Such CS supports
and helps enable visual art and visual
thinking — the dominant and earliest form of
art and thinking by humans. The use of both
verbal and visual expressions at the same time
serves to create synergistic insights of what is
happening and the unconscious meanings of
actions and outcomes in stories — an explicit
awareness (awakening) of unconscious
thoughts of the protagonist and the visual
narrative artist is likely to occur via CS. CS of
stories in interpreting stories serves to enable
playing and creating alternative scenes, lines,
acts or phases and characters in a story. Such
play may be useful in transforming a lifeless,
tired, boring story into a good story.
CS OF AN OENOPHILE TRAVEL STORY
The following narrative applies phase dynamics theory of epiphany travel to an example of
travel for oenophiles (wine lovers). A movie,
Sideways, released in 2004 shows and tells the

story. The gist of epiphany travel, whether
such travel occurs vicariously through movies,
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

425
or through real-life travel, follows a general
pattern. A protagonist experiences some triggering event that awakens her or him to undertake a journey where she or he encounters, and
is subjected to, antagonists, delays and helps
that result in a catharsis enabling an archetypal
experience and rich understanding heretofore
missing in her or his before-journey life. The
expositions that follow include iconic symbols
that represent phases and experiences encountered in epiphany travel.
SPI focuses on impressionistic narrative
accounts of the writer’s own private
consumption experiences. ‘The goal of SPI —
descending from Michel de Montaigne in the
16th century — is to produce an essay that
sheds light on some aspect of humanity as
reflected in the everyday life of the consumer
in general and the author in particular. To
paraphrase Montaigne, I believe that — because
I am human — when I write about myself, I
inevitably describe some aspect of the human
condition. When pressed for a ‘scientific
justification’ of such practices, I reply that SPI
amounts to a form of participant observation
or observant participation in one’s own life. In
effect, SPI constructs a sort of auto ethnography
via which the author enjoys privileged access

to the relevant phenomena of interest (for a
review of such debates, see Holbrook, 1995)’
(Holbrook, 2005).
The expectation is likely met that most SPI
reports are unable to match the excitement of
journeys in movies. However, the personal
views into travellers’ interpretations of their
own journeys suggests that the method has
inherent worth — consumers achieve deeper
understanding of themselves via the stories
they tell to themselves and others in comparison
to not retelling their experiences. Thus, Weick’s
(1995) reflection (‘How do I know what I think
until I hear what I’m going to say?’) supports
the value of SPI research. Trainers (e.g. professors of undergraduate and graduate students,
high school and grade school teachers) might
consider using SPI assignments in combination with CS of their own stories to examine
the value of learners’ incorporating iconic
symbols into their stories. Does the use of CS
tools increase learners’ skills in writing good
stories? This question is worthy of future
research.
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426
Sideways (2004): epiphany travel in a movie
This movie is a story of two men entering life’s
middle age with not much to show for it,

embarking on trip to the California wine country
for adventure and to learn about themselves.
The protagonist, soon-to-be best man, Miles
Raymond (an Enigma who is later revealed to
be a divorced, late thirty-something, depressed,
medicated, eighth-grade English teacher,
unpublished author and oenophile), takes his
old college roommate, an ageing lothario and
mediocre television actor, Jack Lopate, on a
road trip through the Santa Ynez wine country
during the week prior to Jack’s wedding — the
pending wedding represents the exciting incident that serves as the rationale for this bachelors’ trip. Miles wants to drink wine, eat great
food, play golf, enjoy the scenery and spend
time with Jack, but Jack is more interested in
finding women and having sex. The Enigma
icon is appropriate for the protagonist, Miles,
because Miles has to face and solve the confrontation-mystery of his expectations with reality
during the story. The Little Trickster icon is
appropriate for the helping friend, Jack, because
Jack plays tricks on others and himself in creating convictions built on lies — Jack will say anything and do anything to himself and others for
fun and to satisfy his libido. The light bulb for
inciting incident is relevant with ‘wedding’ in
that the trip represents a one-week bachelor’s
party for Jack before the big day.
Early in the movie, the viewer learns that
Miles’ wine collection includes a rare bottle of
1961 wine that he is saving for celebrating his
tenth wedding anniversary with his (former)
wife (Miles knows consciously that he is divorced
but expects (both unconsciously and consciously)

that he and his wife will get back together; he is
unaware early in the movie that his wife has
remarried and is now pregnant) — the protagonist’s subjective expectations crash into an uncooperative objective reality later in the movie. The
Siren icon is an appropriate symbol for Miles’
wife in that she now represents a fatalistic attraction for him — his life cannot move forward until
his continuing love for her is put to rest (see
Figure 2).
After learning of his wife’s marriage midmovie, and his wife’s pregnancy near the end
of the movie, the final two minutes of the
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A. G. Woodside and C. M. Megehee
movie include Miles eating alone in a booth in
a diner pouring some wine from the rare 1961
bottle from its hidden location next to his right
hip; the scene reflects Miles unconscious, as
well as conscious, acceptance of reality. The
Rope icon is appropriate here in illustrating
how Miles drinking his sacred wine bottle
enables the end to its representation of his
never-to-be tenth wedding anniversary.
Dialogue and events during the journey
reveal details about the two men. Some of
these revelations come from the first night on
the road when Miles goes upstairs in his
mothers’ house and takes money from a can in
her chest of drawers while looking at photos
of his ex-wife, Victoria, and, among other
family members, his father. When he returns
downstairs, his mother asks him when he’ll get

married again and if he needs money. The
Anti-Hero icon is appropriate for Miles here in
the story because of his thievery; this reassignment of archetype for Miles illustrates the
point that assigning more than one archetypal
mantel to a protagonist and other cast members
is sometimes appropriate in CS.
The next day, at a diner (location symbol)
along the way, Jack ogles a young waitress and
reveals Miles’ depression, job and publication
status. Jack says, ‘You need to get laid, Miles!’
Another revealing exchange occurs during a
wine tasting that day. Jack to Miles: ‘You could
work in a wine store, Miles.’ Miles to Jack: ‘Are
you chewing gum?’ illustrates the fun-loving
Little Trickster behaviour of Jack.
Soon after arriving in wine country, Miles
and Jack meet Maya, a waitress at the Hitching
Post (Miles’ favourite restaurant, where they
dine the first night), and Stephanie, a friend of
Maya’s and a wine pourer. Walking down the
highway to the restaurant, Jack reveals, ‘I’m
going to get laid before I get married on Saturday. We should both be cutting loose!’ When
they see Maya at the restaurant, Miles believes
that she is married, but Jack insists she is not.
Miles and Jack take Maya and Stephanie to
dinner. While Jack and Stephanie cut up and
have a great time together, Miles proceeds to
drink too much wine. Miles thinks about his
ex-wife, Victoria, becomes morose, and leaves
the table to call Victoria. When he returns to

the table, Jack asks Miles, ‘Did you drink and
dial?’
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427

Figure 2. Cognitive art gist of protagonist’s journey in Sideways, with notes.

Other dialogue also contrasts Jack’s and Miles’
different demeanours. Jack: ‘Do not drink too
much. Do you hear me? I don’t want you passing
out or going to the dark side. No going to the
dark side, Miles!’ Miles responds, ‘Okay!’
As expected, Jack soon becomes sexually and
romantically involved with Stephanie (who also
has a young daughter, age about seven), and
Miles more tentatively begins to act on his crush
on Maya — especially once the story reveals
that she is single again. Maya and Miles share
the love of good wine and discriminating
palates. Neither man tells the women about
Jack’s wedding the next weekend.
Miles seems to live laterally — or sideways — never accomplishing anything and
always getting sidetracked. The romance
between Jack and Stephanie sidetracks Miles’
intentions to entertain Jack in his last days of

bachelorhood. Reluctantly, Miles is willing to
put up with Jack’s behaviour in the belief that
the relationship with Stephanie is just a tempoCopyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

rary fling. But Jack says he might be in love with
Stephanie and he is thinking about moving to
the wine district and buying some land. With
Jack’s encouragement, Miles starts to spend
more time with Maya. After Miles and Maya
have sex, he accidentally mentions the rehearsal
dinner — revealing Jack’s wedding plans.
Of course, Maya tells Stephanie about Jack’s
impending wedding. Stephanie (who can
blame her?) goes to see Jack and screams and
smashes Jack’s nose with her motorcycle
helmet, sending Jack to the hospital for treatment. Jack is upset with Miles, but Miles flatly
denies he said anything about Jack’s upcoming
marriage to Maya.
Miles is somewhat relieved by the incident,
thinking that Jack’s humiliation and injury will
allow them to get back to their original plans
for the trip. As they settle down to a barbeque
dinner, however, Jack flirts with Cammi, a
heavy-set waitress, and Jack eventually goes
home with her after her shift.
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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428

Once again, a frustrated Miles goes back to
the motel alone. Abruptly, Miles is awakened
in the middle of the night by Jack, who was
forced to escape the wrath of Cammi’s husband,
who upon arriving home from work, found
Jack and Cammi in the act. Jack ran several
miles back to the motel — naked! As bad as
that ordeal would have been by itself, Jack is
more distraught that he left his wallet that contains custom-designed wedding bands. Jack
needs Miles’ help to retrieve the wallet with
the rings. At first, Miles does not want to go,
laughs at the situation and believes Jack may
have finally learned a lesson. Eventually,
however, Jack (the actor) sobs and he is able to
persuade Miles that he is desperate and really
needs his help. Of course, Miles gives in (again)
and drives Jack back to Cammi’s house. In the
car outside the house, Jack talks Miles into
going inside and retrieving the wallet. Miles
(now, the Hero), being who he is, goes into the
house while Jack (being who he is) stays in the
car. Miles must sneak past Cammi and her
husband as they are engaging in sex while discussing Cammi’s infidelity. He grabs the wallet
but is seen by Cammi’s husband. As Miles
runs to the car with the wallet, the large,
angry husband — wearing nothing but a ski
cap — chases him down the street and slams
his fists into the car just as Miles and Jack make
their getaway. The Hero archetypal icon is
appropriate for Miles here because he goes into

danger, retrieves the sacred rings and saves
Jack’s wedding plans. The Protagonist icon is
appropriate in representing the temporary
physical danger of Cammi’s husband for
Miles.
The next day, while Miles is filling the gas
tank on the way back to Los Angeles (where
the wedding will be held), Jack convinces Miles
to let him drive. In order to provide a cover
story for his broken nose and bandaged face,
Jack drives Miles’ red Saab into a tree. When
that did not produce enough damage, he places
a concrete block on the accelerator and lets the
car drive itself into a ditch. After the two accidents, Miles asks Jack, ‘Why didn’t I get hurt?’
Jack responds, ‘You were wearing your seatbelt.’ When they drive up to the fiancée’s house
with the hood of the Saab wired together, she
comforts Jack for his bad luck, to Miles’
disappointment.
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A. G. Woodside and C. M. Megehee
At the wedding, Victoria (Mother Teresa
representing the saintly presentation of the
Mother-of-Goodness, Victoria) introduces
Miles to her new, handsome husband and
informs Miles that she is also pregnant. Even
though he congratulates her, Miles is unable to
contain his sadness and his lingering feelings
towards Victoria, so he skips the reception and
goes home to his apartment in San Diego. Once

home, Miles takes his much-prized 1961
Chateau Cheval Blanc, pours it into a Styrofoam cup — signifying recognition that his
relationship with Victoria is beyond repair,
reality replaces expectation, and drinks the
wine at a diner while seated alone.
Miles sends an apologetic letter to Maya,
and she eventually calls him back and leaves a
message on his answering machine. In the
phone message, Maya (the Loyalist) says that
she read the letter and his book, that the book
is beautiful and painful, and that she particularly liked the ending. The Loyalist icon is
appropriate for Maya since she gets through
her anger towards Miles and Jack by continuing to communicate with Miles and showing
support by reading and giving a favourable
critique to Miles about his book.
Maya’s message also reveals some of the
content of the novel, particularly the father’s
suicide that might have come (indices) from
Miles’ own life and could explain his depression and negative outlook. Winter, with the
cold and rain, has come. Maya will graduate
soon, so she will probably relocate and no
longer work at the restaurant. She tells Miles
not to give up. In the last scene, Miles drives
north, stands on Maya’s doorstep and knocks
on her door — indicating that, perhaps, for
once in his life, he is going forward (the Change
Master) rather than sideways. The Change
Master icon is appropriate for Miles here — he
finally transforms from self-pity and despair
into moving on with his life and starting a new

relationship with Maya.
Figure 2 is visual narrative art of the main
and secondary story lines in Sideways. The
main point that Figure 2 depicts is that an
archetypal transformation occurs for the protagonist during the story. From an Enigma to
a Wise Old Man, a sage, the protagonist
changes from self-pity and despair to hope and
new love. This illustration emphasises that all
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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429

Figure 3. Cognitive art gist of protagonist’s journey in Sideways, with text notes of contexts.

great storytellers deal with the fundamental
conflict between subjective expectation and
cruel reality — some stories include a catharsis
that transforms the protagonist into a different
archetypal force. Figure 3 provides notes of
explanation of the archetypes, scenes, journey
and outcomes of the story. The creation of both
or two versions of the visual narrative art in an
experiential learning exercise serves to deepen
understanding of the story and likely results in
enriching both visualisations.
DISCUSSION

Travelling to, and experiencing some, destinations serves to transform the tourist from
repeating ordinary (and to a substantial extent,
automatically occurring) feelings-thinkingdoing processes to relatively briefly live-in
contexts that generate extraordinary meanings.
Interpreting visitors’ destination experiences
as dramatic enactments of archetypal forces
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

serves to deepen understanding of specific
roles, dialogues, emotions, actions and psychological and physical outcomes that tourists
attach to travelling to, living in a destination
and returning home.
Two bachelors (or a married couple) on a
seven-day road trip through the Santa Ynez
wine country represents a dramatic production with meanings far beyond tasting wines
at vineyards — and the visitors are likely to
have only a vague idea of what experiences
they seek. The present study expands Arnould
and Price’s (1993, p. 42) main conclusion about
multiday, white-water, river rafting trips in the
Colorado River basin, ‘The important point is
that people may be unwilling or unable to
articulate the meanings they really seek from
many service encounters and especially service
encounters that offer something “extraordinary”. Therefore, deciphering the unarticulated meanings that people seek [or experience]
becomes more important for service provision
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 418–431 (2010)
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430
than recording articulated expectations.’ Perceiving tourism behaviour as drama enactments enables creative insights for strategists
in destination management organisations
(DMOs).
Viewing tourism as drama enactments is not
to propose that such enactment productions
need to be designed only for first-time visitors
in mind. Some destinations (restaurants,
museums, theme parks, cities, beaches, provinces, states, nations) are venues for visitors to
return regularly to ‘experience temporary selftransformations’ (Schouten and McAlexander,
1995). The present paper is to suggest the usefulness to TMEs of decoding the everyday dramatic productions and the gestalt experience
that enables the visitor to successfully achieve
such temporary self-transformations. For some
DMOs, doing such decoding research may
identify the issue that the drama that the visitor
enacts as the principal protagonist while experiencing the destination is insufficient to generate repeat visits. Interpretive data leading to
such a conclusion likely will include useful
insights on how to redesign the destination
experience to enrich its meaning for these firstand-only-time visitors.
CS and visual narrative art serves several
objectives. CS likely aids in indexing and serves
to increase both the quality and quantity of
indexing. The example of Miles’ Enigma and
Wise Old Man behaviours in different contexts
as representative of different archetypal behaviours transforms viewing individuals from a
single to a multiple dimensional perspective.
CS serves to relate verbal concepts vividly to
their visual representatives. CS bridges the
world of Western and Eastern thinking by providing proximity for visualising comparative
meanings. The transference of the Western,

‘horse’ into visual iconic Native American and
, both informs and
Mandarin symbols,
increases indexing and enables the transformation of words into cognitive art.
CS and creating visual narrative art are fun,
enjoyable activities; such fun helps to open the
tourist informant and the strategist to understand unconscious meanings associating with
travel and destination experiences. CS explicates thwarting contexts and the presence of
help to overcome personal and world blockages and antagonists — elements necessary for
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A. G. Woodside and C. M. Megehee
achieving fun and engaging the tourist in
extraordinary experiences.
CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND
FUTURE RESEARCH
This paper’s objectives are limited to proposing and demonstrating the use of CS into
storytelling theory, research and practice
in consumer behaviour theory relevant to the
study of tourism. CS includes a toolkit and
rules for practising visualising stories (i.e.
cases). Such a toolkit and practice likely helps
TMEs become good story analysers. Let us find
out if this view is accurate. Future research that
includes collecting tourists’ cognitively sculpting reports of their own stories relating to
travel and living temporarily in a destination
should provide meaningful insights that fiveor-seven-point strongly disagree to strongly
agree surveys fail to capture.
Jung (1916/1959) stresses that archetypal
forces represent innate stories that all humans

carry in their genes that affect their everyday
lives without them consciously aware of such
influences. The use of CS in interpreting travel
stories brings this theoretical grounding into the
realm of consciousness for tourists and TMEs.
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 12, 432–448 (2010)
Published online 7 December 2009 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.763

Exploratory Study in Tourism: Designing
an Initial, Qualitative Phase of
Sequenced, Mixed Methods Research
Peter Mason1,*, Marcjanna Augustyn2 and Arthur Seakhoa-King3
School of Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2
Hull University Business School, Scarborough, UK
3
Formerly of Bedfordshire University

1

ABSTRACT
Exploratory studies in the social sciences are
being increasingly advocated, particularly in
relation to new research themes or when
addressing an existing issue from a new
perspective. Although exploration is usually
the starting point, it is frequently part of a
sequence of research stages. However, until
recently the actual process of conducting
such exploratory research within the leisure
and tourism field has received little
attention. This is due not just to perceptions
that exploration is merely the initial step in
a longer research process, but significantly,
because there is a lack of guidance on how
to conduct such research. This paper argues
that when the overall tourism research
study involves the use of mixed methods,
an initial exploratory stage conducted as
part of a sequential research process,
requires a systematic approach to achieve a
reliable platform for further investigation.
The paper shows how and why a systematic
research design process in the exploratory
stage can enhance the value of studies,
when the initial qualitative stage is to be
followed by a quantitative phase. Three

phases of an exploratory qualitative research
design process are identified: preparation,
development and refinement. Criteria for
assessing the suitability of qualitative data
collection techniques are proposed. It is

*Correspondence to: Professor P. Mason, School of
Hospitality, Tourism and Marketing, Victoria University,
Ballarat Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3011, Australia.
E-mail:

argued that careful attention to the process
of designing the initial exploratory
qualitative stage constitutes the necessary
condition for achieving results that will
form a sound basis for the next quantitative
sequence of research. Copyright © 2009 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 04 November 2008; Revised 03 November 2009;
Accepted 09 November 2009

Keywords: exploratory study; qualitative
research design; mixed methods research;
sequential research.
INTRODUCTION

A

s a relatively new field of study, tourism
has many topics and themes that are

still not well known or fully understood. In addition, with changes over time,
some tourism research themes with a relatively
long history may require a fresh perspective.
Tourism researchers may wish to employ an
initial exploratory approach, when considering such themes. Nevertheless, it appears that
there has been little in the way of specific
advice in leisure and tourism research literature on the nature of exploratory research or
how to actually conduct it. There has also
been a lack of advice and assistance on how to
evaluate the effectiveness of an exploratory
research approach in tourism (Stebbins, 2001).
Tourism researchers are therefore likely to
turn to the wider social science literature for
assistance. It would appear that exploratory
research has often been advocated in the social
sciences, although as Stebbins (2001) argued, it
Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.