hidden europe 53

Sunderland and Ginger Beer: The Anti-Tourism Movement

by Nicky Gardner

Picture above: Old and new — huge cruise ships are threatening the fragile lagoonal environment of Venice (photo © Tinamou / dreamstime.com).

Summary

The democratisation of travel has made it possible for millions of people to explore Europe at modest cost. But in some premier league tourist destinations, local residents are beginning to see that hosting too many visitors has a downside.

Tourists have not always been well received. That’s no surprise, as visitors don’t always behave. Gustave Flaubert condemned the behaviour of English visitors to Egypt. He railed against the foolish travellers who altered the places they visited. “Tous les imbéciles sont plus ou moins des Thompson de Sunderland,” he wrote. Harsh on Sunderland, perhaps, but Flaubert made his point.

Two decades later the French engraver and artist Gustave Doré published sketches of a visitor to the Alhambra in Granada chipping off intricate Mudéjar carvings to take home as a souvenir. Doré did not record the nationality of the villain, but we have a hunch he might well have came from Sunderland.

Worries about how mass tourism undermines the integrity of places are far from new. There was a strong anti-tourist movement in the 19th century, often underpinned by a vein of Romanticism, but given popular impetus by a wider group of travellers who feared the erosion of upper-class privilege. The Rhine, the Swiss Alps and the great cultural treasures of Florence might properly be reserved for the more discerning traveller. So ran the argument promoted by well-educated men of influence who had in their youth enjoyed the luxury of a Grand Tour.

By the 1860s, the words ‘traveller’ and ‘tourist’ had begun to acquire two quite different meanings in the English language. The one was full of lofty ideals, the other just a base and hollow form of consumption. John Ruskin, although committed to the cultural emancipation of the working classes, saw the developing mass tourism as a form of exploitation which would undermine the very qualities which make a place distinctive. Writing of the English Lakeland, Ruskin observed that “Grasmere will soon be nothing but a pool of drainage with a beach of broken ginger beer bottles.” Ginger beer, we might note, was then very much a working-class beverage, very different from its market position today as a boutique drink with a high price tag.

Although informed by a measure of self-interest — let’s keep the best spots for ourselves — the anti-tourism agitators in Victorian England were quick to point out that mass tourism fuelled the miserable greed of capitalists.

Roll forward to the early 21st century, and the anti-tourism movement has experienced a great renaissance.

This is just an excerpt. The full text of this article is not yet available to members with online access to hidden europe. Of course you can read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 53.
Related note

Armadale to Ardrossan – the slow way

Here is the answer to the Scottish Slow Travel Challenge we posted in the hidden europe Notes section on 19 February. The heart of the challenge was to tell us the latest possible date on which it would be possible to leave Skye in order to arrive at Ardrossan at or before noon on May Day.

Related note

Hurtigruten ASA: business and brand

Our focus in the notes on Hurtigruten on the hidden europe website is very much on the Norwegian coastal voyage. But that is just part of a wider portfolio of activities undertaken nowadays by Hurtigruten ASA, the company founded in 1912 to develop and manage the Norwegian coastal shipping route.

Related note

Hurtigruten: frequently asked questions

Readers of hidden europe often ask us about details of the Norwegian coastal voyage. On this page we have gathered together two dozen such questions with our answers. A lot of general information on Hurtigruten is available in brochures. Our focus here is more on the details of life on board.