Liquidness: Conceptualising water within boating tourism

Rhoden, Steven ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6509-7347 and Kaaristo, Maarja ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2803-0418 (2020) Liquidness: Conceptualising water within boating tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 81. p. 102854. ISSN 0160-7383

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Abstract

This paper discusses the elemental materialities of water mobilities, bringing the agentive qualities of water to the centre of theoretical discussion of tourism. Analysing data collected through qualitative interviews with, and participant observation of, British boating tourists, the analysis of watery materialities and the corresponding tourist assemblages are presented across water bodies: on inland waterways and in coastal areas. Examining the mobilities of the water materialities and the cooperation between water, boat and the tourist, we propose the concept of water-boat-human assemblage for examining boating tourism in terms of liquid relationships. The paper also introduces the notion of liquidness: the relational conglomerate between mobilities, materialities and practices as an analytical category for theorising water tourism.