Souvenirs and place: suppliers’ perspectives

ABSTRACTCultural and creative products (CC products) are popular souvenirs in China. Most of them are mass-produced but are somewhat connected to place and represent certain elements of local culture. Tourism scholars usually ignore mass-produced souvenirs, which are often considered ‘banal’, ‘generic’, ‘inauthentic’ or ‘trashy’. Likewise, most souvenir studies are done from the perspective of consumers, yet suppliers’ perceptions of CC products can provide insight into souvenirs sold in the marketplace. Thus, this study explores suppliers’ perceptions of the role of place in souvenir production. Most study participants stressed the importance of place when designing CC products. Micro-innovation and homogenization emerged as important new themes. Micro-innovation is considered a good way to reduce homogenization – a common problem with mass-produced souvenirs.KEYWORDS: Souvenirsrepresentations of placemicro-innovationshomogenizationcultural and creative products AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to take this opportunity to thank all interviewees, for without their support and help, generously sharing their perceptions and understanding of this research topic, the study could not have been completed. A special thank you to Jack, Jim and Fiona, without whose help the lead author would not have been able to conduct fieldwork in company J, which deepened our understanding of the whole process of making CC products.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Interviewees from museums will be noted as (M), whereas interviewees from production companies will be noted as (PC).