Turn-of-the-Century Tourism
The travel industry as we know it today developed during the nineteenth century. The most privileged oh society had always been able to go abroad, often doing the Grand Tour, a trip around Europe mainly made by wealthy young men (and in some cases women), with the intention to refine their cultural tastes. But when both disposable income as well as spare time increased for people further down the social ladder, they too felt the desire to see the world – or at least to venture beyond their home towns. The increased social mobility was thus mirrored in the increased geographical mobility. The rapid expansion of railway networks was a crucial factor that accelerated this process. Remote parts of the country became comparatively easy to access, and places such as the Lake District or the Highlands in Scotland became popular travel destinations for many. However, people did not have to limit themselves to domestic travels. Steamships became increasingly safer as well as cheaper, thus allowing for journeys abroad. France and particularly Italy remained popular destinations for those wanting to marvel at the cultural legacy of the antiquity and Renaissance. For the experience of an entirely different culture, tourists travelled to places such as Egypt or India. Provided that they had the financial resources, there existed a great freedom of choice and hardly any limitations for travellers, as the tourist infrastructure all over the world improved rapidly during this period.
If they preferred, Victorians and Edwardians could simply opt for a ‘package holiday’. It was a revolutionary concept at the time and it is linked to one man in particular – Thomas Cook. After the day trips he had arranged for a Leicestershire temperance group in the 1840s proved to be immensely successful, Cook attempted something more ambitious and organised a trip to Scotland for the price of a guinea,* for which 350 people signed up. Initially these prices only covered the cost of transport, not that of accommodation. In the following decades, Cook, and later his sons, continuously expanded their offer, taking their customers as far away as New York, Cairo, or Singapore. Especially in the early decades of the company’s existence, these package tours were designed for, and within the budged of, the middle classes, and even were within the reach of some members of the upper working class. (1)
The growth of tourism also created a need for information about places to be visited. Print played an important role in the promotion of tourism in that illustrated printed materials helped not only to familiarise the public with far-away places, but also inspired them to go there by making them appear attractive and fashionable. Countless columns in newspapers and magazines were dedicated to the topic of travelling. Up-market magazines encouraged their readers to regard continental travel as normal, desirable, and indeed uncomplicated. Even magazines aimed exclusively at women recommended travelling, portraying tourism as liberating and invigorating experience that could offer valuable life lessons. (2)
Once sufficient literature was consulted and a destination picked, most tourists procured a travel guide. Baedeker, Ward and Lock, and Murray were the most popular ones, but Cassell, Stanford, and Routledge were also widely used. By the turn of the century, travel guides had existed for a long time – Karl Baedeker published his first guidebook in 1829 – and covered most of the world in various languages. (3) Travel guides then did not differ greatly from those we use now; they offered general advice, including maps, illustrations, details of important sites, and often at least one suggested itinerary connecting those sites. (4)
London has always been a popular travel destination, for both domestic and foreign visitors. The Great Exhibition of 1851 once and for all cemented London’s popularity, drawing in over six million visitors from all over the country and abroad. Although the Exhibition was massively successful in attracting visitors, London’s tourist infrastructure was less impressive. It was not until the following decade that this was improved: more comfortable hotels were built from the early 1860s, the Metropolitan Railway (the beginnings of London’s Underground system) opened in 1863 and was continuously expanded, a modern drainage scheme was implemented in 1866, and the Thames Embankment created a new space for seeing and being seen from 1867. These developments helped London to manifest its position as main drawer of crowds to Europe. (5) Tourists wanted to experience the capital of the world’s largest Empire – ‘the capital of the human race’, as Henry Hames put it. London’s imperial status was particularly important for visitors from the colonies, who were eager to visit their ‘motherland’ at least once in their lifetimes. London’s visible history, its vibrant modernity, and its powerful position as imperial capital all combined to render the city an enormously appealing travel destination.
​(1) John Hannavy, The Victorian and Edwardian Tourist (Oxford: Shire, 2012): 13.
(2) Jill Steward, “How and Where to Go: The Role of Travel Journalism in Britain and the Evolution of Foreign Tourism,” 1840-1914, in Histories of Tourism: Representation, Identity, and Conflict, ed. John K. Walton (Clevedon: Channel View Publications, 2005): 40-3.
(3) Hannavy, The Victorian and Edwardian Tourist, 51.
(4) David Gilbert, “‘London in all its Glory – or How to Enjoy London’: Guidebook Representations of Imperial London,” Journal of Historical Geography 25, no. 3 (1999): 281.
(5) Joseph De Sapio, Modernity and Meaning in Victorian London: Tourist Views of the Imperial Capital (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014): 4-8.
