Hiking, Sense of Place, and Place Attachment in the Age of Globalization and Digitization: The Israeli Case

Based on the premise that hiking in Israel is strongly related to constructs of sense of place and place attachment, this study analyzes the motivations and experiences of hikers along the Israel National Trail. To this end, it employs diverse methods, including ethnographic methods such as participant observations and informal interviews, questionnaires, analysis of digital communications, diary analysis, and autoethnography. The findings indicate that the main motivations and experiences of Israeli hikers pertain to “getting to know” the Land of Israel “with their feet,” becoming connected to the land, and feeling a strong sense of Israeli identity. They also indicate that the current relationships among different concepts of “sense of place,” “place identity,” “place dependence,” and “place attachment” in the age of globalization and digitization are blurred and unclear, but that they nonetheless play a significant role in hiking in Israel and Israeli leisure activities in general.