What feeds the impulse to explore new horizons? What makes travel meaningful? In Being a Tourist, Julia Harrison explores the motivations of a large group of middle-class travelers to find out why people invest their financial, emotional, psychological, and physical resources in this activity. She suggests that they are fueled by several desires: to find intimacy and connection, to express a personal aesthetic, to explore the idea of "home," and to make sense of a globalized world.

Engagingly and thoughtfully written for readers of travel writing, tourism studies,...

As Julia Harrison's first summer of living in Ontario approached, she became aware of the culture of the cottage. Friends talked of nothing but languid afternoons on the dock, but Harrison marveled at the investment of money and labor that the idyllic escapes demanded. Curious about the rich and passionate meaning these places seemed to hold, she studied cottagers in the Haliburton region over the course of seven years. Thoughtfully and engagingly written, A Timeless Place considers the family cottage as a place where memories are treasured, national identity is celebrated,...