Work

Invisible yet present: A framework for understanding open maritime borders in the cross-border tourist experience

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The research examines how tourists experience the German-Polish maritime border as a symbolic boundary which exists beyond physical separation because of memory, movement, and meaning. The research addresses a gap in border and tourism studies by using a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods approach to analyse 116 tourist narratives through the lenses of the bordering-debordering-rebordering concept, liminality and emotional geography. Tourists experience the border as an invisible yet tangible presence which serves as a historical reflection zone with fluid identity and ambiguous emotional responses. By theorising concepts like floating thresholds and symbolic permeability, the study reconceptualises maritime borders as dynamic spatial imaginaries in post-Schengen Europe.

Source: Geographia Polonica

DOI: 10.7163/gpol.0311

Authors: Denis Cerić, Marek Więckowski

Institutions: Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: European Commission

Award: G3207356259