'An Oriental Holiday': constructing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a destination in British tourist literature, c. 1890-1914

Cameron, R. (2023) 'An Oriental Holiday': constructing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a destination in British tourist literature, c. 1890-1914. Journal of Tourism History, 15(3), pp. 233-256. (doi: 10.1080/1755182X.2023.2235325)

Abstract

This article challenges imagological historiography that contends Bosnia-Herzegovina represented a no-go zone for British tourists before the First World War because of its reputation for cultural backwardness and political instability. Through an analysis of published travelogues, travel guides, and travel journalism, as well as their reception in Britain, it places the evolution of images of Bosnia-Herzegovina in dialogue with British anxieties about the detrimental effects of industrial society. This article argues that the country (administered by Austria-Hungary from 1878 and annexed in 1908) became a popular destination for upper-class British tourists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as it was constructed as unspoiled by mechanical civilisation and free from lower-class tourists. Travel writers, most notably Henri Moser whose travel guide An Oriental Holiday (1895) will be closely examined, were imbricated with Austro-Hungarian authorities and regularly employed by the regime to promote this romantic image of Bosnia-Herzegovina to British audiences. This article concludes by demonstrating that the upsurge in touristic interest in Bosnia-Herzegovina was short-lived because of growing political tensions between Britain and Germany but provides a forceful counterpoint to imagological historiography that suggests the imagined geography of the region was defined in entirely negative terms.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: AHRC SGSAH DTP Studentship (Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Doctoral Training Partnership).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Cameron, Ross
• Authors: Cameron, R.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities
• Journal Name: Journal of Tourism History
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1755-182X
• ISSN (Online): 1755-1838
• Published Online: 11 October 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author
• First Published: First published in Journal of Tourism History 15(3):233-256
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License