On a Grand Shopping Spree

Abstract

This chapter seeks to elucidate specific behavioral patterns that occur when people travel and consume luxury items using concepts drawn from sociocultural and economic theories. These concepts are Walter Benjamin's “aura,” Karl Marx's “commodity fetishism,” and Arnold Van Gennep's “liminality.” These concepts are deployed within the spheres of tourism and luxury in order to analyze how tourists on a shopping spree search for forms of authenticity, how this type of travel is similar in many respects to a religious quest, and, finally, how the design of luxury outlets in European capitals convey religious overtones.

Citation

Cavalli, E. (2023), "On a Grand Shopping Spree", Gravari-Barbas, M. and Sabatini, N. (Ed.) Fashion and Tourism (Tourism Social Science Series, Vol. 26), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 155-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-504320230000026010