"Worlds of reason: the praxis of accounting for 'day visitor' behaviour in the Peak National Park" a qualititative investigation

This thesis considers how 'day visitors' to the Peak National Park construct accounts for their behaviour. It takes an inductive approach to the problem of 'day visits' as an under-researched topic within tourism and leisure studies. The thesis examines the discourses within tourism studies and in particular the ways in which notions of what it is to be a 'tourist' are constructed and used in tourism studies. Further it seeks to relocate the notion of tourism within the realm of ordinary social member's understandings, and therefore tourism becomes an object of study within everyday life. The thesis is particularly interested in the concept of motivation for tourism. Rather than regarding tourism motivation as a set of fixed 'needs' the study sets out to demonstrate the inherently social, locally managed and produced nature of motivation for tourism within everyday conversation about tourism. The empirical analysis is based on a small number of semi-structured, conversational interviews with people who had recently been on a 'day visit' to the Peak National Park. It was found that the respondents orient to the production of accounts of their experiences and accounts for their behaviour that served a number of functions. Accounts were found to allow members to construct notions of identity as a resource to achieve credibility in their accomplishment of 'day visitor' experiences in talk. This study considers how 'being a tourist' is accomplished or resisted by the respondents in their talk. Identity construction is also considered in relation to the accomplishment of spatial practice in accounting for 'day visitor' behaviour.