Båstnäs car graveyard: A place that seems to live in its own “time and space bubble”

Abstract

The article serves to highlight the growing trend to visit abandoned places, presently existing without purpose and external actor, but with remnants of previous activity which was ongoing for a limited time. There is a research gap regarding abandoned places which have fallen into oblivion and which have therefore become a tourist attraction. It is therefore important to discuss how non-planned tourist places are expressed and challenged in the process of gradually ceasing to exist. The aim of this article is to discuss how former activity in rural places expected to disappear can develop from being a problem to becoming a tourist attraction, without a clear producer perspective driving the process. Our overall focus is to highlight visitors' experience of place that involves a transition from the expected disappearance to a "legal", non-planned attraction with a preservation tourist value. The article is based on qualitative interviews with key individuals because they were expected to be able to summarise and represent various perspectives. The article concludes that this form of tourism represents a substantial deviation from the traditional relationships that constitute the tourism industry but is perceived to have a potential in the tourism industry.