Liminal locations in tourism_2013

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Liminality is a concept introduced by Van Gennep in 1909 as the second stage in a ritual process. This theory was the foundation for Victor Turner’s essay in which liminality means transition, on the threshold of a new status. Social order and hierarchies disappear, everything that logical becomes uncertain, commonly accepted differences will be ignored and a structure based on common sense is formed.

This theory has been put into practice in Ostend, the city that for 150 years has been known as the queen of the Belgian coast. In Ostend liminality and tourism can be found on several locations and different scales:

The airport, the trains, hotels and the most liminal location of all, the beach.

In the case of the beach a section in time can be made to the use of the bathing machines by the 19th century bourgeoisie.

Liminal locations are attractive, they are places where we’re going to put our life on hold. They are often found on borders, as spaces in-between.

There is a constant flux of people in these anonymous though public spaces of marginality and transition where conditions of freedom and possibilities are created.

The most important characteristics of these luminal locations are: mobility, individuality, social equality, tolerance, temporality and the claiming of territory during their presence.