Negotiating the “Place” and “Placement” of Banal Tourist Souvenirs in the Home

Souvenirs have been largely ignored in geographic work on tourism. This paper
adds to the body of literature concerned with ‘tourism geographies’ by considering the partial lives of one type of souvenir; those labelled ‘banal’. This paper explores the negotiations that arise when such souvenirs (material objects from the exotic, extraordinary, temporary place of tourism) are implanted in the usual, ordinary place of ‘home’. It is argued the ‘placement’ of souvenirs in the home stems from the ‘place’ the souvenir holds for owners, via their enmeshment in social relationships, processes of fetishization and questions of authenticity.
This paper asserts that ‘banal’ souvenirs (tea towels, bookmarks, food and drink) however ‘ordinary’ in appearance, and alike to items usually found at home, are just as likely to be placed in significant ways as supposedly authentic, hand-crafted souvenir goods. This paper thus argues that souvenirs offer a novel frame for thinking geographically about tourism.