Popular Culture Review 30.2
the related literary work before and after a travel experience ( Seaman 157 ).
Yet , despite these seemingly intimate relationships between literature and tourism , the role of literature in the experiences of tourists at these “ literary ” places is poorly understood . Instead , the practice of literary tourism remains heavily theoretical ; with many scholars implying literature is central to the phenomena . Despite an absence of empirical evidence to support this , a number of contemporary scholars also agree that anyone who visits a literary site is a literary tourist ( see , for example , Lowe 5 ; Westover 16 ). And , a number of destinations build on this assumption , both literally and figuratively . Thus , the purpose of this study was to examine the role of literature in the experiences of tourists at one site devoted to an author in the American South . A deconstructive approach was employed to examine a robust collection of electronic word of mouth ( eWOM ) data to reveal whether literature is , in the mind of tourists , a meaningful component underlying how a place is experienced , a means of to achieve conservation or public space goals , or simply an excuse for kitsch as Luftig ( 153 ) asserts .
Literary Tourism
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literary tourism can be seen as a form of heritage tourism , where particular versions of the past are memorialized , celebrated , and more than anything , emphasized for tourist consumption ( Lowe 12 ; Lowenthal 250 ). While the practice of literary tourism , or travel to places associated with works of literature or authors ( Watson 12 ; Lowe 3 ), has garnered the attention of some scholars , the phenomena remain relatively unexplored . Nonetheless , the practice of visiting places asso-
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