Souvenirs have become as much a part of the travel experience as getting your passport stamped. Whether you acquire a treasured memento of a wonderful trip or add a new prize to a vast collection, souvenirs are less about intrinsic value and more symbolic of a greater and more meaningful experience.
Derived from the French term for the act of remembering, a souvenir is any collectible object or keepsake purchased and transported home by a traveller as a reminder of their visit. Holidaymakers often purchase souvenirs for friends and family back home as well, and while some do this as a way of sharing the destination with loved ones, others use it as a means to boast about their travels.
Either way, it seems we're eager to hold onto some of the holiday magic when we return home. As scholar Beverly Gordon puts it
"People feel the need to bring things home with them from the sacred, extraordinary time or space - for home is equated with ordinary, mundane time or space."
So what makes a good souvenir and what travel tchotchke ends up relegated to the back of the cupboard? Academic researchers have identified five key categories for the things we like to collect on our travels:
Piece-of-rock: physical souvenirs such as shells found on Fiji beaches
Pictorial images: photographic and image-based souvenirs such as postcards, prints and calendars
Local products: souvenirs produced locally such as Moroccan rugs and the traditional wooden carvings of Thailand arts and craft
Symbolic shorthand: souvenirs that capture iconic sights such as miniature Eiffel Towers and Canadian snow globes
Markers: location-branded souvenirs such as mugs and Bintang T-shirts found in Bali markets
According to a Holiday Inn Souvenir Study, nearly half of all respondents attributed their souvenir buying to the desire to bring part of the holiday home. However, one in 10 respondents admitted to being souvenir hobbyists. It seems some travellers take souvenirs pretty seriously.
In 2019, the Kundin family from Moscow, Russia achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of souvenir plates with a total of 1,555 plates. In 2016, Angel Alvarez Cornejo from Sevilla, Spain made the World Record for largest collection of keychains with a whopping 62,257 items. In 2014 our very own Phil Stock from Coffs Harbour took out the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of stubby holders with 2,739 amassed over 30 years.
