The proposed research investigates the community of Couchsurfing: a global network of travellers whose encounters with each other are established in the intimate space of the home. It looks at themes of trust, exchange and gifts in this community; exploring how travellers negotiate the perceived risks involved; and assessing the value of the connections created between its member

1. Host and be hosted: tourism as reciprocity
in the Couchsurfing community
(Redefining tourism: personalised, mutually-constituted
experiences in intimate spaces.)
Key themes: authenticity and expectation; trust and exchange;
hospitality; decommodification; community.
Jonathan Felton

2. Abstract
“A new form of alternative tourism – one which endorses trust and
exchange as mechanisms for deeper cultural respect and appreciation –
has emerged. It has been labelled ‘intimate tourism’. This research
project is centred around one such expression of intimate tourism: the
phenomenon of Couchsurfing. Couchsurfing is a global network of
travellers united by a common purpose: “a world made better by travel
and travel made richer by connection”. By looking at themes such as trust
in the host-guest relationship; the concept of authenticity in modern-day
tourism; and gift exchange, this project will assess the value of the
interactions between members of this unusual community.”

3. The Couchsurfing Mission:

4. ‘The Couchsurfing way’
“The tourist does not travel to visit the physical foreign
space, but to visit the stranger residing in that space”
(Bialski, 2009)
“The main purpose is to connect strangers rather than
pre-existing contacts, and the connections established
traverse virtual space and enter member’s homes”
(Rosen et al, 2011)
• Decommodification of travel.
• Interdependence of people and
communities.
• Valuing uniqueness and
personal connection.

5. Research Questions
Trust:
• How are issues of trust and risk negotiated prior to, and during, the encounter?
• Are trusting relationships inherently stronger in connection?
• What is the significance of the ‘home’ space as an indicator of trust?
Exchange:
• What is exchanged in the relationship between traveller and host if there is no financial transfer?
• What, if any, barriers exist to a meaningful exchange taking place?
• What does the encounter/ the exchange mean to those involved?
• Are experiences too reliant on the characteristics of the traveller and host?
• Do these relationships last beyond the encounter?
• Do power imbalances exist in the relationship?
Hospitality:
• What conditions exist in the contract between the host and the guest?
• Is hospitality ever abused? What are the signifiers of exploitative behaviour?
• What is the significance of the public/private boundary to deeper cross-cultural connection?
• In what ways do these host-guest binaries become more relaxed during the encounter?
Anything else (Cosmopolitanism, Consumerism and Community):
• In what ways does Couchsurfing represent a decommodification of the touristic experience?
• How does the internet function as a platform for re-spatializing cosmopolitanism?
• Who is excluded from the community?
• What motivates people to be part of the community?

6. Methodologies
• Covert auto-ethnography (field diary) – is the
CS mission realised in host-traveller
interactions?
• Interviews/ focus groups with other
community members.
• Participant observation of online material.

7. “Now all of us frustrate ourselves by the
expectation that we can make the exotic
an everyday experience (without it
ceasing to be exotic)” (Boorstin, 1978)
“Authenticity has become the philosopher’s
stone for an industry that generally seeks to
procure other people’s ‘realities’” (Taylor, 2001)

8. Trust, hospitality and gifts
“the idea of home is always attached to a relation
between the participants involved and the unique
circumstances in question” (Nielsen, 1999)
“the host is the host in not being absolutely
hospitable” (Derrida, 2000)
“for whoever gives can only give what he or she
cannot perceive, even unconsciously” (Royle, 2003)
“cooperative relations going against immediate self-interest
but beneficial for social well-being are
strategically and motivationally enabled under
conditions of risk” (Nickel and Vaesen, 2012)

9. All it’s cracked up to be? Initial
considerations.
• Escaping the tourist trap?
• Cosmopolitan paradise?
• Who connects with whom?
• Contrived/ simulated?
• Negative experiences?
• Social capital – post-high
culture elitisms?