Developing the digital-free tourist identity

How individuals consume or resist technologies is by social identity; therefore, not using or not wanting to use digital devices plays a role in the development of tourist identity. To explore the dynamics of digital-free tourist identity development, 35 narratives were analyzed. Five trajectory patterns were identified from individual plots. Concepts dominating each narrative phase revealed that progressive social comparisons promoted the development of group image, which evolved from divergent assumptions to experience-based understanding of defining characteristics to the unified image of being perceptive, adaptable, grounded, brave, authentic, mindful, self-disciplined, and spiritual. Self was sophisticatedly positioned to point to self-categorization as a (non)digital-free tourist. The findings promote knowledge of identity development by unpacking the ongoing process of constructing an emerging, rather than well-established, social identity in tourism.