War and tourism - An American ethnography

War is a major modern security issue, distinguished from crime and terrorism by its deep societal penetration and long-term consequences. As an important cultural time-marker, populations segment their history in three phases,"before the war", "during the war" and "after the war". The Interrelationships between war and tourism have been minimally investigated, but the literature to date indicates that war negatively affects tourism. This ethnography examines the sequential development of the United States tourism from World War I to the present, and the impact of World War II in laying the foundations for modem mass and charter tourism. The data suggest that war stimulates promotional, emotional, military and political tourism, and that war related tourism attractions are the largest single category known. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.