Souvenirs and Tourism

Souvenirs as material culture expressive of place, cultural identity, and heritage are integral to visitors’ experiences at tourism sites. Many tourists collect souvenirs while visiting places, gathering them as objects that mediate memories of experiences. Movement of people through tourism generates mobility of objects, since objects often travel with people. Cultures, then, travel with and through souvenirs and thus are not always sets of objects fixed in time and place. Souvenirs are examined in relation to tourist interpretation of authenticity and craft product features.