Alexander Grit

Introduction: Alternative Tourism Ontologies

We are expecting guests so we are cleaning our house — even though we very well know that after our guests leave, the house will likely be even messier than it was before. What is the point then? Is all the trouble for nothing? No. If the house was too dirty our guests would not be able to enjoy themselves, no matter how good the talk, the food, the coffee or the wine. Or, even worse, if they knew our house was always a mess, they would stay away. No one would come. Indeed, should we ever want to sell our home we would take the deep cleanse even further: we would hide photographs, piles of paper, pieces of clothing — all belongings that are too personal — in the cupboards, in the attic or in the cellar. In that case, we would make our home into a blank screen onto which potential buyers could project future scenarios of themselves hosting their own guests in this space. For now, however, we tidy up just enough to make our guests feel welcome, but not so much as to erase every trace of ourselves.

Conclusion: Prepositions and Other Stories

The camping experiment is soon coming to an end. We are packing our tents and kettles, and are ready to return home. One more time we sit down around the campfire and reflect on what has happened. Have we provided well-placed stepping stones through the theoretical and literary landscapes to support ontological reconsiderations in tourism and hospitality research, as we had aspired to do? Are there more spaces of being and spaces of being-with, perhaps? Have we left enough lines of flight for the tourists of the future?