This book examines the nexus between exploring and tourism and argues that exploration travel – based heavily on explorer narratives and the promises of personal challenges and change – is a major trend in future tourism.

This book examines the nexus between exploring and tourism and argues that exploration travel – based heavily on explorer narratives and the promises of personal challenges and change – is a major trend in future tourism. In particular, it analyses how romanticised myths of explorers form a foundation for how modern day tourists view travel and themselves. Its scope ranges from the 'Golden Age' of imperial explorers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, through the growth of adventure and extreme tourism, to possible future trends including space travel. The volume should appeal to researchers and students across a variety of disciplines, including tourism studies, sociology, geography and history.

1. Introducing the Explorer Traveller

Section 1 – The Hero’s Journey

2. The Call to Adventure

3. Preparation and Departure

4. The Journey

5. The Return

Section 2 – Imagining Explorers

6. Fiction and the Myth of the Explorer

7. Desert Island Castaways

8. Re-enactments

Section 3 – Tourists At Play

9. Crossing Borders

10. On Safari

Section 4 – The Future

11. Destination Mars

12. The Explorer Traveller: The Myth Continues

Sources

References