A souvenir is an object that a person acquires to remember a place visited, an occasion, or an event. It can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a memento of a visit. Souvenirs are usually small and relatively inexpensive. They can be mass-produced merchandise such as clothing, collectibles, household items, and many others. Souvenirs can also include non-mass-produced items like folk art, local artisan crafts, and photographs as a medium to document specific events and places for remembrance. The souvenir trade is an important part of the tourism industry, serving a dual role, first to help improve the local economy, and second to allow visitors to take with them a memento of their visit, ultimately to encourage an opportunity for a return visit or to promote the locale to other tourists as a form of word-of-mouth marketing.