The Victorian and Edwardian Tourist

by John Hannavy

Tourism - a product of the Victorian era, hugely developed through Edwardian times - generated thousands of fascinating books and photographs which together define the development of the massive industry which we know today. This book explores Victorian and Edwardian Britain through the guidebooks which were published between 1850 and 1910, and the images which tourists bought and collected. The introduction of statutory holidays, the increasing wealth of the Victorian middle classes, and the expanding railway and steamship networks, all helped develop the emerging tourist industry - and, of course, the invention of photography at around the same time led to the widespread craze for collecting photographs of places visited. Pre-eminent in the evolution of tourism for the masses was Thomas Cook, whose package holidays were not the first, but whose prices expanded the market hugely. The package tour increased demand for descriptive texts, and early guidebooks by Sylvan, A. & C. Black and others, and later Baedeker, give us a rich source of contemporary accounts. The early years of the 20th century saw the emergence of the photographic postcard and, for wealthier travellers at least, the Edwardian years were marked by the increasing popularity of amateur travel photography. All these themes and developments are explored, and the combination of contemporary accounts and images make this a highly engaging book.

Genres: History, Victorian, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2012

Reviews

[jw]

I picked up Hannavy's The Victorian and Edwardian Tourist from the library, having spotted it while randomly browsing through the shelves. In a compact 127 pages, Hannavy outlines the development of the modern tourism industry during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. We learn about the intrepid Thomas Cook, who came up with the concept of the package tour, thereby making travel more predictable, hassle free and accessible to the middle and even the working classes. About the development of the tourism industry as people's thirst to experience "the other" grew as improvements in transportation made it easier and cheaper for people to venture beyond their towns and villages. About the use and growing ubiquity of the word "tourist", which was apparently initially used as a pejorative term (how history repeats itself), to being applied to anyone who was travelling abroad on holiday, to eventually being used for anyone travelling away from home for leisure and pleasure (domestic tourism).

Until I'd read Hannavy's book, I'd never really thought about how things that we take completely for granted today, such as travel guides and postcards, were once radical innovations that changed the way people interacted with the world and with each other. Hannavy notes for instance, that before postcards became common, people would write lengthy letters to each other when travelling, in an effort to use words to capture just what they were seeing and experiencing on their journey. But if a picture speaks a thousand words, is it necessary to write anything more on a postcard beyond "Wish you were here"? Likewise, the travel guides that told people just what to see and do and reflect upon as they travelled through a place, and how they changed the economic and visual landscape, as towns and settlements in scenic locales and along tour routes grew to cater to the incoming waves of travellers. You can see the parallels today with the impact of text messaging, FB and Twitter in the way we communicate with one another, and the impact of budget travel on second and third tier cities around the world.

Hannavy's book is a compact, easy read filled with fascinating visuals - images of old postcards, stereo views, photographs, handbills, posters and tickets. Having just spent a year in England, it was also fun reading about some of the places that I'd visited - such as the Lake District, Edinburgh and the Highlands - and their development as tourist destinations in the 19th century.

[Julia]

This book is a compact and easy read for everyone who is interested in the beginning of tourism in the UK and how it has developed during the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century. The book is filled with black and white and colored photographs, advertisements and books that have been written on subjects featured in the book.