This paper takes the case of Korean Pop Music (K-pop) concert attendees to address gaps in tourism research by exploring the role of self-expansion behaviour in shaping and enhancing cultural event experiences.
A visual ethnographic approach using autophotography, photo-elicitation interviews and the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique was conducted to explore the experiences of K-pop fans during concerts.
The findings reveal that attendees of cultural events had meaningful tourism experiences because of self-expansion by gradually forging interdependence and belongingness, achieving a sense of fulfilment, transcending individual self-image to express a collective identity and sharing emotional connections and euphoria with fellow attendees during the event.
This paper provides novelty by extending the self-expansion theory to illustrate how self-expansion behaviour enhances cultural event attendees’ experiences and using visual techniques to interpret their emotions and self-expansion during cultural events.
