Background to the fore: The Prosaic in Tourist Places

This paper presents the results from two case studies undertaken independently in Budapest, Hungary and Spring Mill Pioneer Village, Indiana, USA. A comparative analysis of interviews conducted with urban tourists in Budapest and surveys of rural tourists at Spring Mill reveals the prominence of the prosaic in shaping their experiences of place. Tourists to Budapest referenced everyday objects in the city (language, architecture, and people), and tourists to Spring Mill responded to the background elements (stream, forest, and wildlife) of the landscape. It is argued that while the large-scale symbolic elements may draw tourists to a site, it is the everyday features of the landscape working ensemble that shape their impressions of the destination as place once there.