EU tourism and student identities in a pre-BREXIT UK

Abstract

The EU has long advocated cultural tourism to construct a shared, supranational European identity. Drawing on data collected prior to the UK Brexit referendum, the paper compares EU discourse in selected tourism policy documents, and the travel experiences of young European university students attending a UK university. Findings illustrate how the EU's proclivity towards top-down policies that harness heritage tourism to construct a supranational identity, risks alienating large sections of the European population. Instead, stressing citizenship and the civic elements of identity through a range of tourism-related activities, enables the creation of bottom-up, contemporary, and co-created supranational identities. Moreover, there is scope to consider heritage tourism's expedience within contemporary debates which acknowledge the complexities of European and other supranational identities.