Understanding camping tourism experiences through thematic analysis: An embodiment perspective

Camping is a major form of nature tourism that emphasizes one’s physical presence in a natural environment for recreation. Despite research on recreation experiences, how one’s body and mind interact during camping tourism—and the physical environment’s contributions to these embodied experiences—has received limited academic attention. Theoretical tenets of embodiment include the roles of the external world, situational action, and physical states on people’s psychology and behavior. This study aimed to elucidate, from an embodiment perspective, the mechanisms underlying tourists’ camping experiences. Thematic analysis of 31 online blog posts revealed that the camping environment and physical activities elicit campers’ sensory experiences and subsequently stimulate psychological reactions. These sensory perceptions and responses lead to embodied experiences, which are composed of physiological experiences, cognitive experiences, and social experiences.