Beyond the Cultural Bubble: “Wow” Journeys to Iconic Destinations

Travel to and engagement with destinations that are considered iconic or have a “wow” factor have long been a staple of expedition tourism, especially from the United States. The opportunity to immerse oneself in landscapes and cultures that are outside an individual’s personal experience can provide new insights into why we take these journeys to different regions and social-environmental settings and how our worldview might be affected. Framed by the extant literature on iconic and expedition tourism, we aim to highlight several commonalities in the travelers’ experiences and to tease out, both visually and analytically, why specific destinations influence individual perceptions of space and place. This chapter draws on over three decades of experience in journeys to iconic destinations by the lead author as both researcher and destination lecturer for several travel companies. Extracted from an archive of over one million digital images and informal conversations with over 2000 travelers, our analysis offers a unique assessment of selected journeys through time and space, and their broad implications for how globalization is reshaping our memories and experiences beyond the cultural bubble.