Cord Pagenstecher, Der bundesdeutsche Tourismus. Ansätze zu einer Visual History: Urlaubsprospekte, Reiseführer, Fotoalben, 1950 - 1990 (Post-war West German tourism. Approaches to a ‘Visual History’: Travel brochures, guidebooks, photo albums, 1950 - 1990), Hamburg 2nd corrected and updated edition 2012 (first edition 2003)
The historical PhD thesis studies West German, outbound and domestic, tourism between the 1950ies and the 1980ies. Theoretically based on the works of Hans Magnus Enzensberger and John Urry, it analyses the images of the tourist gaze, its construction mechanisms and its historical changes. It examines the importance of visual consumption and the motifs, determining factors and historical developments of tourist perception patterns. At the same time, the study explores methodical opportunities of a ‘Visual History’ mainly based on pictorial evidence. Taking tourist brochures, guide books and private holiday snapshots as prime sources, various quantitative and qualitative methods from the fields of semiotics, iconology, content analysis and oral history are being tested.
After theoretical and methodical considerations, the study discusses trends, tourist media and destination types, before ending with a biographical case study. Different media – brochures, guide books and private photography – and different destination types – Alpine, city and beach tourism – show similar trends: Visual consumption gained importance; the collective model gradually replaced traditional romantic notions in West Germans’ tourist gaze. Perception patterns were increasingly standardised and influenced by a more and more rationalised tourist economy. During four decades, tourism saw a massive change with a quantitative and a qualitative break: In the beginning of the 1960ies modern mass tourism started; around 1970 the professionalisation of tourist industry and general value changes strengthened the collective gaze.
1 Introduction
2
Bases
2.1 Motifs and construction of the tourist gaze. Theoretical outline
2.2 Changing tourist gazes. Historical framework
2.3 Image analysis and ‚Visual History'. Methodical considerations
3
Trends
3.1 Gazing on tourism. The discourse in encyclopaedias, media and among the
experts
3.2 Mass tourism and tourist industry. Quantitative developments following
contemporary studies
4
Tourist Media
4.1 From ‚Reklame' to ‚Marketing'. Production and reception of tourist
advertising
4.2 Baedeker's decline. Changes on the guide book market
4.3 Holiday snapshots in private photo albums. Quantitative trends and
qualitative approaches
5
Tourism Types
5.1 Alpine tourism and its automobilisation. Grossglockner High Alpine Road
in local advertising images
5.2 City tourism between history, modernity and experience. Nuremberg, Lüneburg
and Berlin in local brochures and in guide books
5.3 Beach tourism between 'Arcadia', 'Teutonengrill' and 'Ballermann'. The
Italian Adriatic and Majorca in tour operator brochures
6 Case study: A travelling biography in 45 photo albums
7 Conclusion
8 Appendix
See German version for info sheets and reviews
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