however, have more social meaning, or stronger definitions and names, than others.

For geographers, and others, these places are said to have a strong Sense of Place.
Geographers are interested in why certain places hold special meaning to particular
people. Places that have a strong sense of place have a strong identity and character
that is deeply felt by both its inhabitants and visitors. It is a social phenomenon that
exists independent of any one individual’s perceptions or experiences. This feeling
may be derived from the natural environment, but is more often made up of a mix of
natural and cultural features in the landscape, including the people who occupy the
landscape.
Places that lack a sense of place are referred to as placeless. Placeless landscapes
are those that have no special relationship to the place in which they are located –
they could be anywhere. Roadside strip shopping malls, gas stations and convenience
stores, fast food chains, and national department stores are examples of placeless
landscape elements.

Sense of Place Tourism Examples

Can you think of a place that has a strong sense of place? How about a placeless
place? Most communities have examples of both; and leisure landscapes can be of
both types, as well. Have you ever heard of Paris as being a romantic place to visit?
Does Paris have some magical air or water that transforms people into romantics?
What Paris has developed is a sense of place that includes love and romance. The
environment provides an atmosphere of love based on its history, architecture, culture
and mythology.
Many tourists are attracted to specific places because of an established sense of
place expectation. For example, certain older retail districts provide particular fas-
cination for visitors by offering experiences of the past or of other places. Thematic
retail districts include historic preservation districts, waterfront fisherman’s wharf dis-
tricts, and more playful cowboy towns and Scandinavian or German communities.
The importance of sense of place and tourism is clear. Tourists travel to places for
specific reasons. Many of those reasons are because the destination has a known sense
of place. Whether the sense of place is based on religion, art, romance, food, or just
for cultural information, people travel for the experience. Places all over the globe
provide those experiences for different meanings and at different degrees of personal
significance.

Individual Sense of Place

Individuals also have a personal sense of place, which creates special existential
relationships between them and places that they feel most attached to. The place
where one lives often has this special meaning, even though most outsiders might not
feel such a strong sense of place there. Places that have served as significant settings in
one’s life also may have a strong sense of place for an individual. Ancestral homelands
are often like this. Examples include Israel for Jewish people everywhere, China for
overseas ethnic Chinese, and Ireland for Irish-Americans. These special places often
attract us again and again, as tourists, recreationists, and sometimes as genealogists.

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