Visit from our nephew

A couple of weekends ago our 5 year old nephew came to visit for the weekend.  He lives in a smaller city about 90 minutes away, and has come to stay a couple of times before.  It's one thing to think about seeing your home with the fresh eyes of an friend or relative, but the age and experience of our nephew adds a whole new level of freshness.  The last time he visited as a 4 year old his mind was blown away by the subways- he was unsure of the escalator, dipping his toe onto the moving steps like it was a cold lake, causing a pedestrian traffic jam, and once we sat on the train and it started to move he made sounds as if he were on a roller coaster, much to the amusement of ourselves and nearby passengers.  This time around he was somewhat more weathered, I guess they have escalators in the sticks these days, but it was still refreshing to see how he saw our routine.
It also gave me the chance to use my new video camera.  I brought it with us everywhere we went, sometimes to his frustration, but got used to using it, how to change the settings, and got to know the battery life and all that kind of geeky stuff.  It also gave me a chance to use the video software and actually have a go at editing a mini-movie.  During his stay the nephew became hooked on Iron Man cartoons on netflix which kept him busy when he woke up at 6am for a little while.  I managed to obtain a copy and merged some of the weekend's footage into an Iron Man episode.  It's not perfect by any means, and I acknowledge that there is room for improvement; I didn't spend an awful lot of time on the editing, but it serves its purpose well.  This last weekend we went to see him and his family in their home town, and I showed him the 5 minute clip.  I made the point of showing it to him first alone, as a way of getting his approval, a member check almost, and then let him share it with people.  He called everyone into the front room and declared how awesome this movie was, he gave a running commentary, and he owned it, which was great- he was presenting his story, not me, it was a useful exercise for sure.  Although it did get a little old after the 6th time in a row he made us all watch it...

My paper on VFR is published

A Content Analysis of Articles on Visiting Friends and Relatives Tourism, 1990–2010

• Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management 
• 2012

Abstract

The desire to visit friends and relatives (VFR) is a substantial influencer over a large proportion of all tourism trips worldwide. Despite this generally accepted notion it is a relatively recent subject in tourism literature receiving comparatively little attention from tourism academics. This paper offers a content analysis of journal articles retrieved using Google Scholar on VFR tourism covering a 21 year period. Papers were categorised by theoretical approach, author origin, geographical focus and specific topics of interest. Key findings show that VFR is receiving an increasing amount of attention, from a growing variety of scholars applying more varied approaches. Earlier papers generally focussed on volumetric, economic and marketing issues, with a more recent growth of interest in the social and community aspects of VFR tourism. Considerations for future research are discussed and comparisons with other subject matters presented.

Visiting home and familiar places

I just read an article by Pearce (2012)  that introduces the concept of visiting home and familiar places (VHFP), travelling for the purpose of seeing a place that was once somewhere you lived, or have experience with http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738311001988.  It's an interesting concept, and has major overlap with VFR, although is quite distinctive as well.  It made me realise that my profile picture is a product of VHFP tourism, as I teenager I went inter-railing through Europe, and spent some time in Nice.  This picture was taken last year on the street, perhaps the exact spot, where I busked, juggled, in the late 1990s for a few nights.  In my memory it is a magical place- I was at this point travelling alone, and have no photo record or other people to corroborate or share my stories with.  And yet it was such a significant trip in my young adult hood- being alone, successfully busking, making money, meeting people...  So much of my travel now, as an immigrant, is for VHFP.  When I visit the UK to see my family, not only am I spending time with people, but we also relive experiences, go to places that we visited when I was a child, remembering times past.

It's an encouraging paper, and I'm excited to see how this topic that includes VFR, VHFP, and the personal reasons we travel will be developed in the literature and be utilised in practice.

Tickets to UK booked

We booked our tickets back to the UK last week for Christmas.  My brother is visiting from Taiwan, where he seems to have settled for the foreseeable future, and I haven't seen him since April 2010.  Reminds me of an article I just read by Urry on mobility and proximity http://soc.sagepub.com/content/36/2/255.short.  He talks about how technology can maintain connections, and even initiate them, but face to face presences, eye contact, is considered necessary in maintaining social capital links between migrants, their families and friends, and their home community overall.  Me and my brother have already planned to go to a football game on boxing day, reliving old rituals.  Can't wait to be honest.

Camera bought!

Today I bought a camcorder.  I've reading and investigating a lot recently about the use of video in qualitative research, and as a medium for capturing stories, events, and sharing them afterwards.  I'm hoping to video my interviews with immigrants in Toronto who have hosted friends or relatives, and also visit a place of importance with them, perhaps somewhere they took their guests that they really liked, a new neighbourhood  for example.  I'm also interested in the idea of using video links throughout my thesis and possibly published articles, as supplements to the text and giving the reader a direct view on the discussion.  This might have ethical issues, we'll see, but it's a start...  Have you ever seen text and video used in this way before?  I'm curious in other examples.

The impact of VFR 6 years on

I moved to Canada in 2006.  In the first 18 months or so I played host to several of my friends from back home.  When Simon came to visit in 2007 I wanted to show him the great outdoors, so we looked to rent a holiday home on the lake.  We invited a couple of friends from Toronto to join us, and this snowballed into 14 people, all of whom I had met, but not all very well.  We booked a place over labour day weekend, and this last month we had our 7th annual labour day cottage weekend.  

A VFR trip inspired a tradition, something I don't have many of in Canada.  It has allowed me to visit a different area of Ontario each year, and has strengthened my relationships with several people who attend.  Others have invited their visiting friends and family from overseas to attend during that same week in different years, and we always seem to have some 'new people' each year.  Although this year we didn't have any visiting friends or relatives it is because of my friend's visit in 2007 that this tradition has been established, my network widened and strengthened, and my knowledge of Canadian geography and culture enhanced.

Hosting the in laws

This past weekend my girlfriend's parents came to stay.  They don't live too far away but for one reason or another it's almost always us visiting them.  Although they have known the city at different times throughout their lives, they are not very familiar with it's current form and character, so it's always interesting to see their reactions, and then in return my girlfriend's and my own.  We had a wonderful time, and they genuinely seemed to enjoy it.  A boat tour around the islands demonstrated that we're never too far from that big open space, picnics and water, a walk through the neighbourhood showed that people from all over the world can live and shop together, and a steak in an old stately home provided a great ambiance that isn't always available in smaller towns.  For us, and my girlfriend in particular, although we see them fairly regularly, it's an important and different experience to host them.  Of course they know us, but to visit us in our own home, visit our local shops, walk the same streets we do every week, they get to know us- and their daughter specifically- a little more- what she sees and does everyday is important in constructing her identity and she takes visible satisfaction in sharing these experiences with her parents.

My own VFR

A recent trip back to my home town saw me as a guest being hosted by my friends and family.  I have lived away for approximately 10 years, returning most years to visit my family.  However, this was the first time I've returned since my mother moved (migrated?) to another city.  Although they are not immigrants there were still some interesting goings on related to my study.  With my mother we explored her new city, a combination of us visiting new areas for her, and of her showing me places she had already discovered, justifying her move to me, and ultimately herself, of how nice the place was. 

When I visited my old group of friends we socialised in small and large groups.  I picked up that the large groups isn't something that happens quite as often as it used to when we were younger (I don't mean to sound arrogant, but we met up in large groups while I was back which they don't often do anymore).  So the residents had increased local interaction with each other that has lead to a reconnection for some.  We went out for many meals, to old and new places, spending money and becoming acquainted with the city's newer offerings.  And some of our hosts were keen to take us to places that were important for them, fishing off the cliffs, or a walk in the country- places that had prior significance for them because of childhood memories etc.  And, of course, it was all good fun too...

For me it's important to maintain connections with the places and people who I grew up with.  It reaffirms who I am, and allows me to reconnect and pick up on the changes that have happened to those I've known so well.  I do email and skype with some friends, but it's not often, and when we do it isn't as in depth or natural as sitting across the kitchen table from them and having a chat- the technology helps maintain, but will never replace.  

OTMPC Booth at Mosaic Festival, Mississauga

A picture of the booth aimed at engaging newcomers by OTMPC. You could enter a competition and complete a survey on your travel and VFR habits to win a trip for your overseas family to visit, and a green screen photo booth which emailed pics o you in Ottawa etc. good collection of intelligence, but little engagement in explaining what travel opportunities exist to people, I received some brochures but no conversation on places to go... Good for info collecting, but didn't inspire us to travel anywhere.