The Comfort of Strangers: Tourists in the Australian Outback

Interviews with tourists in the remote regions of Outback Australia reveal that interactions with others are integral to their experience as tourists and an important mechanism for dealing with their occupation of a landscape whose mythical status in the Australian imagination renders it simultaneously culturally familiar and alien. The role, significance and characteristics of relationships forged with people encountered while travelling in this environment were examined. Because of the rigours of the travel in this setting, tourists were found to be keen to be in the company of others. Their relationships and interactions were bounded, free of the obligation of ongoing attachment and consisting, for the most part, of ritualised interchanges. Interactions between tourists enriched their understanding of this ambivalently perceived cultural and physical environment, offering comfort and companionship. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.