Traveling with my dog : Exploring the role of animal agency in the co-creation of tourism experience

Abstract

The research explores the agency of dogs in shaping tourism experiences. It examines how dogs, as active agents, influence their guardians’ decisions, social interactions, and emotional engagement during the tourism journey. This research contributes to the growing understanding of multispecies interactions in tourism, emphasizing the need to recognize animals' agency and their meaningful impact in the co-creation of tourism experiences. In this research, I acknowledge the tourist and the dog as a dyad, being at the heart of the experience and aim to recognize their interspecies entanglement and mutual role as travelers. As the number of companion animals and the facilitation of services for them are increasing, combining animal agency in the context of traveling with dogs appears relevant for the current tourism consumers and industry.

By understanding the impact of a dog on a human’s subjective tourism experience, this study aims to provide insights into the phenomenon and the importance of why it is important to accommodate tourism beyond human agency. The main research question is: How is the dog’s agency reflected in the co-creation of the tourism experience? This research question is followed by two sub-questions: How do dogs take part in co-creating tourism experiences? How is the dog displaying agency on a holiday? The research is conducted by semi-structured interviews combined with preliminary data from user-generated posts on social media.

The research findings revealed that dogs significantly impact the guardian’s tourism experience. The findings represent the holistic influence of dogs, including social, emotional, and actual effects on the tourism journey. Additionally, further analysis highlighted four categories of impact reflecting dogs' agency within the tourism experience: dogs shaping human sensory perception, need for negotiation and adaptation, shared more-than-human agency, and the dog’s impact on social dynamics. These insights contribute to the importance of including non-human animals as active participants in tourism, shaping meaningful connections between and beyond the guardian and the dog.