Literary Fiction Tourism

"This timely and insightful book critically reviews the synergistic relationship between books, literary culture, and the practices of tourism. International in scope, this volume will be of interest to students of tourism, heritage studies, cultural studies, and media studies, as well those interested in literary tourism more specifically"--

This timely and insightful book critically reviews the synergistic relationship between books, literary culture, and the practices of tourism. The volume sets literary fiction tourism within its historical, theoretical, and managerial context and explores the current provision of literary tourism sites and experiences. It focuses on literary fiction and the interplay between imaginative worlds, literary reputation, and tourism. The volume explores a variety of literary tourism forms in a global context such as biographical sites, imaginative sites, literary trails, and book towns, identifying the challenges associated with interpreting and managing them for visitors. Current international case studies allow readers to understand this most ancient of touristic activity within its contemporary context. This book offers new insight into the diversity of the literary tourism landscape, the range of experiences and visitors and the variety of interpretive responses that may be appropriate. The relationship between literary fiction and other forms of media such as film and digital culture are also explored. International in scope, this volume will be of interest to students of tourism, heritage studies, cultural studies, and media studies, as well those interested in literary tourism more specifically.

In this era of advanced technology keeping students' attention often becomes difficult. Teachers need to find new ways to create interest. In writing classes, choosing a topic that involves students is a priority. A new genre, Tourism Writing, is an innovative and effective means of teaching students composition. It can fill this need. Tourism Writing focuses on a particular place or event, provides photos and information on nearby points of interest, and directly invites visitors. This book provides an understanding of how Tourism Writing benefits people in all areas of life. This transfers to classroom assignments when students are asked to write a poem in this genre and they are given lists of possible topics, but they also have the option to choose their own place or event. It becomes a learning experience as many are amazed at their ability to write a poem and intrigued by the history they learn while researching and they treasure their photos used for illustration. Such poems were entered in the annual Poetry Writing Contest at Faulkner University. In the process, students? communication and research skills were enhanced. They learned the history of their own area. This hands-on process is rewarding to teach. The plan is to add prose assignments on Tourism Writing to the classroom curriculum in the future. The possibilities for Tourism Writing are widespread.

Welcome to the desert island of Mui, where a paid vacation to paradise is nothing short of a disaster in this “mordantly witty novel [that] reads like a highly literary, ultra–incisive thriller (Refinery29). Jungle is a cutting–edge travel agency specializing in tourism to destinations devastated by disaster and climate change. And until she found herself at the mercy of a predatory colleague, Yona was one of their top representatives. Now on the verge of losing her job, she’s given a proposition: take a paid “vacation” to the desert island of Mui and pose as a tourist to assess the company’s least profitable holiday. When she uncovers a plan to fabricate an extravagant catastrophe, she must choose: prioritize the callous company to whom she’s dedicated her life, or embrace a fresh start in a powerful new position? An eco–thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility, The Disaster Tourist introduces a fresh new voice to the United States that engages with the global dialogue around climate activism, dark tourism, and the #MeToo movement.

The aim of this book is to bring into focus some of the major moves in western discourses about tourism and travel writing from the early Victorian to the late modern or post-western age. It offers a series of readings connecting the work of travel writers as diverse as Alexander Kinglake, William Cobbett, George Henry Borrow, E.M. Forster and Bruce Chatwin to their respective cultural and material contexts. The grounding model is that of travel writing as a form of cultural intervention and the individual text as an artificial yet intermediary space that constantly stimulates the travellers' consciousness, moving them to revise judgements passed on their own as well as on the other culture. In individual chapters, the study explores different stages of revision in travel discourse since the late-romantic age, surveys new touristic models installed in the place of received notions of picturesque or adventurous travel and analyses the role of exotic and nostalgic registers in the construction of cultural value.

Plymouth University academic, Dr Charlie Mansfield approaches literary tourism in this book initially from an historical perspective in order to define the phenomenon through a review of the existing academic literature in the field. The forms of literary tourism are analysed to provide a typology and from this the value of literary tourism is explained both from the visitor's point of view and the destination manager's. Current theories underpinning the existing literature on literary tourism, including Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital are reviewed. To extend the current state of research and to answer the research questions a case study of successful urban literary tourism is identified, in Brittany, France. The uses of French literature in literary tourism are reviewed to provide a sound basis on which to examine French texts and tourist destinations. Novel methods of field research are developed to formalise and to make reproducible the methodology for this study and for future work drawing on, and seeking to combine both literary theory and ethnography. Following a pilot study on the French Riviera the full discovery instruments are designed and applied in fieldwork on the case destination, Concarneau, using the detective novel, The Yellow Dog, which is set in Concarneau. Analysis of the findings from this provide a new contribution to the field of literary theory, in the area of reader interpellation, and answer the research questions in the form of a new set of recommendations for DMOs and tourism stakeholders. From the empirical study that used Web 2.0 social media, only available since 2013, an analysis of which novels do stimulate literary tourism is presented for the first time. Out of the research process new methods have been evolved, and are presented in the conclusion, for the DMO to synthesise and leverage digital resources. This provides DMOs with interpretation processes for its managed heritage to use with its local stakeholders in hotels and in tourism businesses. Finally, an innovative conceptualisation of what constitutes tourism knowledge is proposed.

The books that we read, whether travel-focused or not, may influence the way in which we understand the process or experience of travel. This multidisciplinary work provides a critical analysis of the inspirational and transformational role that books play in travel imaginings. Does reading a book encourage us to think of travel as exotic, adventurous, transformative, dangerous or educative? Do different genres of books influence a reader's view of travel in multifarious ways? These questions are explored through a literary analysis of an eclectic selection of books spanning the period from the eighteenth century to the present day. Genres covered include historical fiction, children's books, westerns, science-fiction and crime fiction.