Seeking the Sacred from the Profane

Scholars of many persuasions recognize the experiential features of geography, which have been largely overlooked in tourism researches. Partially in response to this omission, this book presents a phenomenological exploration of tourist travel experience. By describing the experiences of two separate groups of Canadian tourists travelling to and inside China, the study examines the educational dimension of tourism. Phenomenology has to do with the origin of our experiences, such as anxiety, behaviour, religion, place and topophilia, which we cannot understand through observation and measurement -- we must first live through them to grasp these experiences as they really are. Therefore, in decipering the meanings of tourism texts, phenomenology can be an effective method as it allows us to contact phenomena while actually experiencing them.