SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE OF TEXTILE CRAFTS FOR TOURISTS

Consumer goods acquire symbolic value and serve many purposes for their owners. Exploration of meaning that crafts hold for tourists strengthens understanding of tourist behavior and contributes to craftpersons' knowledge of potential customers. Profiles of international tourists were developed based on the meaning they associated with special textile crafts acquired during travel. Craft meaning evolved from unusual experiences and encounters in obtaining the textiles and from their use in the home and for clothing. Crafts, and the memories associated with them, helped consumers participate in nonordinary experiences, sample indigenous lifestyles, expand a worldview, differentiate the self from or integrate with others, enhance feelings of confidence, express creativity, and experience aesthetic pleasure. © 1990.