Small encounters, big experiences – on the significance of tourists’ passing encounters with residents

This research note introduces the concept of ‘small encounters’ and highlights its importance for the tourist experience. Defined as situations where tourists briefly encounter residents, small encounters are temporally brief, physically distanced, cursory in terms of involvement and often revolve around everyday situations. The concept is developed and elaborated in a dialogue between our own empirical findings from a larger study of Chinese tourists visiting Copenhagen, Denmark, and the literature on social contact, gazing, and mundane tourism experiences.