#travel-psychology

#travel-psychology

Fans' strong emotional attachment to favorite characters and celebrities leads to a desire for proximity. Travel to locations significant to fandom helps fans feel like part of the story - a source of meaning. Fans describe these pilgrimages as providing a sense of homecoming to a place that is new but familiar. The location is invested with the symbolism of something special and sacred, no matter how mundane it seems.

"I don't want to spoil the connection I have to the place by visiting too frequently," she says. "For me, once every few years seems to be about 'right.'"

Both times, bungee jumping had presented itself neatly packaged, properly regulated and entirely safe, and I declined with little-to-no hesitation. Zambia, on the other hand, met me differently. On a warm, windless day over the Zambezi River, standing in front of a rickety platform with little to suggest international safety compliance, I found myself ready to jump. Not metaphorically-genuinely, wholeheartedly ready. I would have done it too, if not for the people with me urging otherwise-and that says something.