Travel and Insight on the Limen: A Content Analysis of Adventure Travel Narratives

Travel narratives, both historical and modern, depict a hero’s quest for insight and self-discovery where the outward journey is a literal and metaphorical search for one’s authentic self, spirituality, and life’s meaning. This article reports the results of a study that examined the association between travel’s liminal experience and insight. Using content analysis of 50 published adventure travel narratives, a significant association between insight and liminality was identified, and the tentative conclusion that liminal experience may be a stimulus for insight was made. Variables (solo/group travel, travel motivation, gender, and cultural novelty) hypothesized to moderate the association between liminality and insight were also explored. Hierarchical log linear modeling identified only one significant three-way association: travel motive. Travelers who sought to escape negative associations with home were less likely to experience liminality and insight than those who were motivated to travel for other reasons.