Narratives of Travel and Tourism

Book excerpt: Travel and tourism 'stories' have been told and recorded within every culture, in every period of oral and written history, and across the breadth of the fact/fiction continuum. Taking two broad themes as its starting point - travellers and their narratives, and place narratives in travel and tourism - the book has a deliberately wide scope, with different chapters addressing the subject through various relevant 'lenses' and in relation to a number of different contexts. The narratives discussed include both historical and contemporary, as well as 'real-life' and fictional, narratives contained within travel writing, travel and tourism stories and different types of media. In relation to the principal themes of the book, some chapters also explore the importance of collecting memorabilia and image making in the recording, remembering, writing, telling or disseminating of stories about travel and tourism experiences and some examine the ways in which travel and tourism narratives may construct and reinforce personal, collective and place identities. The whole book is marked by an over-arching concern for narrative interpretation as a means of understanding, and providing a new perspective on, travel and tourism.