Snow matters: From romantic background to creative playground in alpine tourist practices

This chapter explores the performative potential of snow in tourism, by drawing attention to its material and non-representational significance. Instead of focusing on the cultural significance and symbolism of snow in tourism experiences, it studies tourists’ mundane practices and engagement with this elusive substance. The chapter demonstrates embodied and sensuous features of a radical ‘element shift’ taking place in snowclad landscapes, by capturing non-snowborne visitors’ tumbling, playful explorations and feeling for the snow in high Alpine destinations. It argues that clumsy and remarkable mobility practices and new appropriations with/in snow may not only improve novices’ motricity and balance, but also accentuate new design potentials that are not well acknowledged by planners and product developers. Drawing on discussions on the politics of snow, the chapter concludes with a discussion on micro-design issues emerging from the analysis and offers future perspectives for snow destinations.