Revealing the memorial experience through the tourist-led construction of imagined communities

Abstract

This paper draws on the investigation of three memorial sites and determines that tourists articulate multiple imagined communities. Significantly, it identifies the core and common attributes of these imagined communities namely a consciousness of kind, horizontal ties, and moral responsibility and how tourists evoke them to make sense of the experience. Constructing imagined communities and associated meaning making also enables empathy and resolution, which is significant given the demanding and confronting nature of the subject matter projected at these sites. Imagining communities also creates a more visceral and affecting memorial experience as it contextualises meaning in a way that is highly appropriate, significant and personal. This work develops our understanding of the tourist experience by theorising the nature and role of the imagined community, and our knowledge of the memorial experience in terms of articulating how the imagining of community constitutes an important facet of this complex experience.