Cockburn-Wootten, Cheryl

FitzPatrick, Mary

McIntosh, Alison

Ramanayake, Uditha

English

Digital Commons @ TRU Library (Thompson Rivers University)

Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings
Volume 2019 Article 23
2019
Loss and Travel: Critically Exploring the Lived
Travel Experiences of Senior Tourists
Uditha Ramanayake
University of Waikato, New Zealand
Cheryl Cockburn-Wootten
University of Waikato, New Zealand
Alison McIntosh
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Mary FitzPatrick
University of Waikato, New Zealand
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Recommended Citation
Ramanayake, Uditha; Cockburn-Wootten, Cheryl; McIntosh, Alison; and FitzPatrick, Mary (2019) "Loss and Travel: Critically
Exploring the Lived Travel Experiences of Senior Tourists," Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings: Vol. 2019 , Article 23.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cts-proceedings/vol2019/iss1/23
CTS 2019 
R 
Title: Loss and Travel: Critically Exploring the Lived Travel Experiences of Senior Tourists 
 
Authors: 
 
Uditha Ramanayake 
University of Waikato, New Zealand 
 
Cheryl Cockburn-Wootten 
University of Waikato, New Zealand 
 
Alison McIntosh 
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand 
 
Mary FitzPatrick 
University of Waikato, New Zealand 
 
Abstract:  
Traumatic loss in later life can be experienced through, for example, death of loved one, 
chronic illness and divorce. Such experience may raise questions of one’s mortality and 
reconsideration of life goals and purpose. Researchers, particularly within tourism studies, have 
often perceived loss negatively; a dark time for the individual that can limit their travel. 
Conversely, by giving voice to senior travellers’ experiences of loss, this paper aims to illustrate 
how travel may open up the crack for the light to reach those experiencing loss. Indeed, many of 
the senior travellers in our phenomenological study used the metaphor of a candle to describe 
reflections of their travel experiences after and during a time of loss. We used a creative visual 
method called ‘MeBox’ in order to understand the experiences of loss and international travel of 
12 New Zealand travellers who are above 65 years of age. These 12 participants were recruited 
to the study using the purposive sampling method. The MeBox is an innovative visual method 
for data collection that is adept at helping participants to voice their experiences, particularly 
those that relate to highly sensitive issues. The preliminary results of our study illustrate the 
reflexive sense-making that participants engaged in as they travelled. With various losses the 
senior travellers are conscious of their own mortality and limited life span. This consciousness 
influences them to seek meaning through travel during their last stage of life. Participants 
described how travel heightened their relationships to people and things, and stimulated 
observations on which they could develop understandings to help them through their loss. 
Together, the periods of travel and their participation in the study, prompted deep reflection 
around the dualities of ‘inbetweenness’ of being alone/being with themselves and times of 
in/exclusion. This presentation will discuss the Mebox benefits for tourism research. It will also 
discuss the wider implications of the preliminary findings of the study in the hope these will 
engender further critical debate about the lived experiences of loss and travel. 
  
1
Ramanayake et al.: Loss and Travel: Critically Exploring the Lived Travel Experience
Published by Digital Commons @ TRU Library, 2019


Loss and Travel: Critically Exploring the Lived Travel Experiences of Senior Tourists

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Loss and Travel: Critically Exploring the Lived Travel Experiences of Senior Tourists

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