Forms of body usage in tourists’ experiences of flamenco

• Tourists who fully engage in flamenco activities use their bodies towards different ends.
• Through disciplined practice, tourists seek to remedy a lack of self-esteem.
• Bodies are used in order to fulfill the need for self-expression and self-exploration.
• Tourists use flamenco as a means to elevate their social status and to differentiate themselves from other social groups.
• Bodies are used to contest established social structures and conventions.

This study explores the role of the human body in tourism and focuses on cultural tourists’ experiences of flamenco dance and music in Seville, Spain. It is suggested that the tourists who fully engage in flamenco activities use their bodies towards different ends. First, through disciplined practice, tourists seek to remedy a lack of self-esteem. Second, bodies are used in order to fulfill the need for self-expression and self-exploration. Third, tourists use flamenco as a means to differentiate themselves from other social groups, and bodies are used to contest established social structures. These findings point to the centrality of the body in understanding tourists’ practices and the construction of embodied identities.