FORESHADOWING TOURISM: Looking for modern and obsolete features – or some missing link – in early modern travel behavior (1675–1750)

Foreshadowing Tourism aims to hone or even to upset our understanding of the genesis of tourism. It has long been assumed that nineteenth-century tourism was rooted in the early modern Grand Tour. However, Netherlandish travel diaries, along with some literature from England, Germany, and France, evidence a missing link in this regard. The late seventeenth century witnessed the coming of divertissante somertogjes (pleasurable summer trips) that were in fact poles apart from a classic Grand Tour. By scrutinizing modern features of this novel form of travel (such as its brief and seasonal timing, and the fact that its main motivations were leisure and cultural interests) and more obsolete traits (such as the lack of recurrence or the relatively exclusivity of such touring parties) I seek to restore these speelreysjes (pleasure trips) to their rightful place within the genealogy of travel and tourism. I will also evaluate the potential effects of a transport (r)evolution, cultural development, and a rise in living standards on early modern travel behavior.

► This paper reviews the traditional delineation of the emergence of tourism.
► Findings highlight a missing link between tourism and the Grand Tour.
► I present a better understanding of these eighteenth-century pleasure trips.
► I will inquire into the causes that triggered evolutions in early modern traveling.