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This book examines tourism in Britain during the First World War, challenging the longstanding perception that it simply ceased during the conflict. By reconstructing the transition from Edwardian leisure through to the recovery of 1919, the authors reveal a complex landscape of continuity and change where the pursuit of the holiday remained a resilient cultural necessity.
Drawing on a wealth of previously undocumented primary sources—including railway traffic statistics, hotel ledgers, and wartime posters—the book charts a state of orderly disorder, where the pursuit of leisure was steadfast on the Home Front. Despite severe operational constraints, railway congestion, food shortages, and government attempts to manage civilian behaviour through propaganda tools, tourism continued. This volume traces the survival of coastal resorts, the continued promotion of travel by railway companies, and the emergence of ‘militourism’ and troop billeting, as well as controversial social impacts, including the role of soldiers on leave and the perceived threat of prostitution and venereal disease to the Allied war effort.
From the packed promenades of Blackpool to the burgeoning postwar interest in battlefield tourism, the book highlights how the First World War functioned as a catalyst for social and technological shifts that reshaped modern leisure. As the first major global crisis to impact the tourism system, this period offers vital historical context for students and researchers across disciplines. This book is essential reading for historians and tourism scholars seeking to understand the enduring human quest for escape in times of unprecedented national stress.
Stephen J. Page is Professor of Business and Management at Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, UK. He was the editor of Tourism Management, and has written nearly 60 books on tourism, leisure and events. He is one of the top 40 scholars in Business and Management research in the UK.
Joanne Connell is Associate Professor in Sustainability and Tourism, University of Exeter Business School, UK. She has published a dozen books on tourism, leisure and events. As an interdisciplinary academic, Joanne works at the interface of critical agendas relating to tourism research.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Edwardians, leisure, holidays and tourism
Chapter 3:The state and tourism: A paradoxical relationship?
Chapter 4: The experience of the tourism system in wartime
Chapter 5: Transporting the tourist in wartime: The role of the railway system
Chapter 6: British tourism resorts, visitor demand and the attraction of visitors 1914-18
Chapter 7: Synthesising the war-tourism nexus: Critique and research directions
Chapter 8: Epilogue