Towards a multisensory phenomenology: Enlivening Interrail Mobilities

This paper illustrates a multisensory phenomenology that extends hermeneutic phenomenologies in tourism through the embracing of non-representational approaches. The novel co-integration of audio, visual, impressionistic and netnographic accounts allows us to rethink the textual nature and symbolic meaning confining phenomenological research. Our analysis is centred on an under-researched European tourism phenomenon, interrailing. This sensuous account provides an original reading of phenomenology focused on how rhythms, sounds and temperatures construct interrail encounters. The analysis facilitates a conceptualisation of thermalscapes, giving attention to the neglected role of temperatures in tourism experiences. Our work points towards the importance of further engagements with multisensory approaches in tourism research, calling upon under-utilised methodologies to advance understandings of the sensory in tourism.