Framing a Relational Typology of Tourism Shopping Space by Affective Atmosphere: Thinking with Assemblage

Abstract

Shopping venues are important resources to improve the tourist experience in a destination. Previous studies mainly take reductionist understandings of the functions of destination shopping venues. It ignores the tourist shopping process where multiple human and non-human actors assemble the tourism shopping space (TSS) and shape the venue’s function relationally. By reviewing the conceptual connection between assemblage and affective atmosphere, we propose a relational typology of TSS defined by its affective atmosphere, thus approaching the functions of destination shopping venues in dynamic. This typology is visualized as a coordinate system with two spectrums: the atmosphere at the action propensity ranging from buying to sightseeing, and the atmosphere at the emotional propensity ranging from familiarity to novelty. It is substantiated by the case of Chinese outbound tourists’ shopping in four different shopping venues in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Our ‘assemblage-affect-atmosphere’ framework fosters cross-disciplinary insights between tourism shopping and consumption geography. Additionally, it provides destination managers with a relational perspective, enabling understanding and intervening in the functioning of destination shopping venues aligned with market and technological shifts.

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