Getting away from it all: Exploring Freedom in Tourism

This study adopts critical discourse analysis to examine the construction of freedom in texts produced by cultural brokers. Specifically we investigate: how freedom is constructed in tourism texts; how this varies across different types of tourism experience; and how the individual tourist’s freedom is situated with respect to that of other actors involved in the tourism experience. We demonstrate that the concept of freedom is fluid and highly specific to the particular form of tourism being promulgated. However, a common set of practices are used to make freedom intelligible, regardless of the nature of the specific text or form of tourism. Ultimately, we establish that discourses of freedom are themselves constitutive of power relations that are context specific.

Research highlights► We explore how freedom is constructed by cultural brokers in tourism texts. ► We employ critical discourse analysis to different types of tourism text. ► The nature and content of freedom varies across different types of tourism. ► Tourism freedom engenders relations of power over tourists and other constituents. ► Future studies should explore freedom in a specific context.