Invisible yet present: A framework for understanding open maritime borders in the cross-border tourist experience

The research examines how tourists experience the German-Polish maritime border as a symbolic boundary which exists beyond physical separation because of memory, movement, and meaning. The research addresses a gap in border and tourism studies by using a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods approach to analyse 116 tourist narratives through the lenses of the bordering-debordering-rebordering concept, liminality and emotional geography. Tourists experience the border as an invisible yet tangible presence which serves as a historical reflection zone with fluid identity and ambiguous emotional responses. By theorising concepts like floating thresholds and symbolic permeability, the study reconceptualises maritime borders as dynamic spatial imaginaries in post-Schengen Europe.