The Meaning of Holiday Consumption

Abstract

Consumption objects are consumed not only for what they do but also for what they communicate and mean to oneself and one's surroundings, and hence they become part of consumers' identity formation processes. This article sets out to explore the meaning production and the identity construction taking place among mature tourists in connection with their holiday consumption. Identity construction is particularly interesting to study in the context of holidays as the physical crossing of borders also marks a mental crossing of borders, away from routines, obligations and scheduled time towards pleasure, free time and `the good life', and hence holidays are an obvious means of expressing `who I am'. Mature couples, who are in a phase of transition from full nester to empty nester and from employed individual to retired individual, are the focus. It is investigated in what way mature tourists use holidays as a vehicle of identity construction in their new life situation. In the existing literature, a strong focus is on individual consumers in relation to their creation of identity, and less on the role of identity creation in the gap between individual identity and the larger social groups with which people identify or from which they distinguish themselves. This article examines the locus of identity creation between `I' and `they': the `we'. The study is explorative in its approach. The study shows that mature people use holidays for expressing who they are and, often just as importantly, who they are not. The couple is the central identifying unit and in the process of understanding their couple identity, the mature tourists use other couples and larger sociocultural entities to differentiate themselves from and affiliate with. Individual interests are also identified, but they are often staged as being in the interest of the couple and not just of the individual. Hence, the study demonstrates that the couple is a salient identifying unit in relation to holiday consumption among mature tourists.