Promoting and advertising tourism resorts in the UK 1914–1918: A re-appraisal

Modern day resort advertising can be traced to the Edwardian period but its role in the First World War remains terra incognita, with most studies of tourism overlooking the 1914-18 period citing a lack of data or its cessation due to war. This paper represents a shift in thinking by demonstrating that resort promotion and advertising and visitation continued. The study has international significance, illustrating how modern day sources of tourist information (e.g. Official Destination Guides) were created and popularised in the pre- and wartime period. The study also offers lessons to policymakers, reconstructing how destination stakeholders responded to an extreme crisis, through collaboration, cooperation and political lobbying to ensure locales with a dependence on tourism remained resilient destinations.