‘… sometimes you’ve just got to get away’: On trekking holidays and their therapeutic effect

Abstract

A traditional Romantic fix for the stress and strain of the everyday has been the idea of ‘getting back to nature’, exploring places of natural grandeur and beauty based on the belief in nature’s therapeutic agency on the traveller. This article introduces a theoretical framework that offers a way to explore how touristic spaces are lived within a human–non-human co-constituted affective process. It then engages with the spaces of nature-based tourism and reports findings from an ethnographic study on British-based trekking holiday to Iceland. These findings suggest that the emotions and therapeutic affect that have traditionally been reported from spending time in nature are relational outcomes; they depend both on nature’s performance and on what the individual contributes to the relations.

Taking a hike: exploring leisure walkers embodied experiences

“…The dynamics of the experience of planning, undertaking and then reflecting upon an activity are identified by Botterill and Crompton (1996), den Breejen, (2007), Olafsdottir (2013) and Slavin (2003). A contribution of this study is that it further develops understanding of the dynamic and embodied qualities of walking experiences as people traverse a path, become tired and respond to changes in the environment (Doughty, 2013;Edensor, 2010;Kärrholm et al, 2014;Lefebvre, 2004;Vergunst, 2008).…”

“…The South Downs Way provided a safer, gentler form of countryside experience than in den Breejen (2007) and Olafsdottir (2013). The trail is in the countryside but not very far from major population centres and our walkers were in a rural environment rather than the 'wilderness'.…”

“…Connections between walking and well-being (in this paper conceptualised as a state of being healthy), are identified by many including Doughty (2013), Gatrell (2013), Green (2009), Olafsdottir (2013, Caulkins et al, (2006), Middleton (2010) and Roberson & Babic (2009). Walking from one place to another provides "a route to reclaiming a particular consciousness, which involves some of the gains of a slower, more meditative way of life" (Green, 2009, p. 27).…”

“…Waitt, Gill, & Head, 2009). Others consider the less routine practices such as those undertaken by tourists (Sarmento, 2016), artistic and performative interventions, (Edensor, 2000;Phillips, 2005;Ramsden, 2016) and long distance walking (den Breejen 2007;Olafsdottir, 2013;Slavin, 2003). In these irregular practices the walker encounters some aspects that are unfamiliar and outside their mundane experience.…”

“…Some studies capture data across these phasesfor example den Breejen (2007) considers experiences as they emerge and evolve by asking participants to complete two surveys during a long distance walk. Olafsdottir (2013) conducts an ethnographic study focusing on walkers' perceptions and experience before, during and after a 14-day walking trip. Middleton (2010), Ramsden (2016) and Waitt et al (2009) ask walkers to collect material (notes and photographs) during their walk and then interview to develop post-walk reflection and reworking of this material.…”