“GT” Insight Bites: Nostalgia

‘Nos­tal­gia. It ain’t what it used to be!’ 

Our travel tastes are often shaped by the memor­ies of child­hood hol­i­day exper­i­ences, or of stor­ies passed down through the gen­er­a­tions. Mar­keters often play to this. What is the role of nos­tal­gia in hol­i­day­mak­ing, from an indi­vidu­al or com­mer­cial perspective?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing responses of no more than 300 words. (You too can join the “GT” net­work. Register.)

Thanks to the three who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received. (You too can share your opin­ions with “GT”.)

‘Some things were better in the past’

Jim Butcher, Reader, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK; Tourism’s Horizon: Travel for the Millions

‘Nos­tal­gia isn’t what it used to be!’ is a corny joke, but there’s truth to it. 

In the 18^th cen­tury home­sick troops were con­sidered to be lit­er­ally sick with nos­tal­gia. Sci­ent­ists spec­u­lated about the exist­ence of a nos­tal­gia ‘bone’. 

From the 19^th cen­tury, Roman­ti­cism placed nos­tal­gia in a more pos­it­ive light. It became asso­ci­ated with a long­ing for a con­nec­ted­ness to nature denied by mod­ern soci­ety. Where­as the Grand Tour­ists of the 18^th cen­tury had looked to the cul­tur­al treas­ures of the city, the Romantics of the 19^th cen­tury were inclined towards the Swiss Alps as res­pite from the city. 

Today nos­tal­gia is fla­voured with post­mod­ern irony and a play­ful, kitschy approach to the past. The recent reopen­ing of Dream­land in the UK resort of Mar­gate, full of rides and attrac­tions from the 1960s, appeals to that sens­ib­il­ity. Or a vis­it to Nath­ans for hot dogs in Coney Island; a shared treat across gen­er­a­tions of New York­ers since 1916.

I’ve always been a bit sus­pi­cious of nos­tal­gia, favour­ing bright vis­ions of the future. In the con­text of dis­il­lu­sion­ment with our own, mod­ern lives, nos­tal­gia can lead down some mis­an­throp­ic paths. I don’t buy the declin­ist nar­rat­ive that views the prob­lems of today as an inev­it­able res­ult of eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment or human avarice. Things may have seemed sim­pler, and purer, ‘back then’. They sel­dom were. 

But I am increas­ingly inclined towards the view that some things were bet­ter in the past; more inno­cent, less reg­u­lated, more free. If you look at the tre­mend­ous pho­to­graph­ic col­lec­tions from earli­er post-war dec­ades, you’ll see what I mean: Har­old Fein­stein and Wee­gee on Coney Island; the South East Archive of Sea­side Pho­to­graphy, cov­er­ing Margate.

Bet­ter still, for those of a cer­tain age, go back through your own child­hood hol­i­day snaps.

[Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions is a val­ued “GT” Insight Part­ner. Join them.]

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‘Postalgia’ and the power of presence

K Michael Haywood, publisher, ‘Destinations-in-Action’, Canada

We’re nos­tal­gic­ally driv­en. Choice beha­vi­ors are influ­enced by memor­ies of the good old days. We escape, and often return, to places that liven our spir­its, soothe our souls; places where we feel a sense of belong­ing and con­nec­tion; places that provide favor­able famili­ar­ity and offer what we crave: Intim­acy, emo­tion­al and sen­su­al resonance. 

When I reflect on my travel beha­viours, vir­tu­ally everything stems from fam­ily interests, val­ues, and out­ings: Fly­ing kites in the York­shire moors; fam­ily pic­nics on white-sandy beaches; our love of gar­dens, archi­tec­ture, and design. 

Tourism‘s mar­keters, instinct­ively know­ing what pulls at peoples’ heartstrings, align and lever­age their strategies with emo­tion­al­ity, tap into fond memor­ies, and build social con­nec­ted­ness through nos­tal­gia. Heart share for­ging mar­ket share and mind­share, and exper­i­ences made pos­sible when the present con­nects with the past and prom­ises a renewed authen­ti­city that we anti­cip­ate will be believ­able, timely, and relevant.

But therein lies the rub. Like many of you, I’m pre­dis­posed to dia­spora tour­ism; a long­ing for places that ref­er­ence or draw from the dis­tant and dis­ap­pear­ing past. Yet, I find myself return­ing home dis­ap­poin­ted. Places that once brought delight now appear charm­less and annoy­ingly unfa­mil­i­ar. The past is noth­ing but a mirage that can­not be revived or relived. 

Should we expect any­thing different?

While such angst may be an over­state­ment, it rep­res­ents a ”postal­gic” response, whereby hopes for ideal­ised futures nev­er mater­i­al­ise and people start to believe that the present is as good as it gets. 

Not all nihil­ists, how­ever, give up on the future hold­ing prom­ise. They refash­ion the power of their pres­ence: an aware­ness of the present, a let­ting go of the past, and an accept­ance of change, so long as it improves our qual­ity-of-life and well-being.

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‘A powerful driving force’

Richard Butler, Emeritus Professor of Tourism, University of Strathclyde, Scotland

I con­sider nos­tal­gia to be a key factor in shap­ing tour­ism tastes for cur­rent mature gen­er­a­tions, but prob­ably of less sig­ni­fic­ance to those born with­in the last 20 years. 

Things have changed so rap­idly in terms of loc­a­tion­al pos­sib­il­it­ies, aware­ness of oppor­tun­it­ies, and desire for instant fame and sat­is­fac­tion (some­times the same thing), that memor­ies are just that and prob­ably less rel­ev­ant than ever before. 

Based on per­son­al exper­i­ence, nos­tal­gia may become more sig­ni­fic­ant the older one gets as some memor­ies become new desires to repeat or revis­it while one still has a chance. Rather than being driv­en by hit­ting new exper­i­ences and loc­a­tions, FOMO (fear of miss­ing out) and the desire for emo­tion­al sat­is­fac­tion inceases as time runs out. 

Counter to this is the desire to show young­er gen­er­a­tions old haunts and habits but it would appear these are less appeal­ing than some dec­ades ago. Irre­spect­ive, I do think nos­tal­gia is a power­ful driv­ing force (i.e. a push factor) while memor­ies remain a pull force.

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What do you think? 

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Featured image (top of post)

Filmstrip neg­at­ives. Image by Pexels (CC0) va Pixabay.

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