Post-tourism in the usual environment: From the perspective of unusual mood

Tourism has typically emphasized spatiotemporal movement from usual environments. Post-tourism has, however, become a generalized social condition entailing fragmentation of tourism practices and de-differentiation between tourism and other social realms. Some forms of post-tourism even begin in one's hometown. How to define whether people are in a state of tourism? Interviews were conducted with 27 city walkers based on an adjusted Turner's Ritual Process to explore this question. Results show that an upward-spiraling circle of a city walker's behavioral pattern manifests in a transformation from a daily structural state to an anti-structural state. This study conceptualizes unusual mood, an intrinsically tri-related whole of body, consciousness and feelings, as the core element to define this tourism state. A model illustrating the multidimensionality of space, time and mood is proposed. Our findings benefit city-dwellers, tourism providers and policymakers on how to encourage travel and boost the connection with civic values.