onwards, particularly accentuated with the centenary was often considered illegitimate, referred to a
of the War. These journeys have been of various set of inappropriate behaviors. These collective
importance according to the countries and the representations of the two “imagined” categories of
significance given to war sites in collective memory visitors are anchored in some class conflicts of the
and the great diversity in mourning, remembrance afterwar, but yet, continue to frame ways visitors
but also tourism practices around the world, are sometimes categorized. In her work on German
which are socially and culturally rooted. There can tourists visiting the villages in Silesia where their
also be significant contrasts within countries, as ancestors used to live before being forced to leave,
shown by the Australian or Canadian cases: these Sabine Marschall emphasizes «many of the travelers
journeys only became more democratic from the do not consider themselves “tourists” and may even
1960s onwards, with the lowering of travel costs. be offended when being referred to as such, as they
Remembrance tourism can often be part of highly perceive their journey as something more closely
organized arrangements, with a number of national resembling a pilgrimage […] also local residents may
public or private organisations providing travel and well regard them as “typical tourists”, based on their
accommodation for veterans, survivors and, more behavior, needs and the impact of their journeys».
recently, schoolchildren. The long-standing well- (Marschall, 2015).
structured organizations of journeys to Auschwitz
For many researchers, the search for
from all over the world are a well-known example. authenticity (authentic places, landscapes, traces)
The British policy of financing school trips for plays a key role in the visit of memory places. Many
British pupils to the Western Front battlefields has studies question the diversity of motivations to
been reinforced in the context of the centennial of visit places of painful memory, suggesting a broad
the war, testifying the political and civic finalities spectrum ranging from interest in history to the
of the journeys. This kind of organization also choice of “alternative” tourism and the search for
participates in the concentrations of the flows on the thrills. In his work on South Africa, Fabrice Folio
most significant memory places, which are generally suggests 6 types of motivations for visitors visiting
the most visited, and where interactions between places of memory related to Apartheid such as
various categories of visitors are the most intense. Robben Island Prison (Folio, 2016): «an attraction
As a matter of fact, as time passes
for knowledge and understanding of history. A
(disappearance of direct witnesses) and borders open mission of awareness in order to raise awareness to
under the effect of the development of international avoid the unspeakable and potentially reverse the
tourism, the types of visitors tend to change. These course of events. A quest for identity, a return to
changes raise the question of adapting memory sites the roots. The motivation of pilgrimage, a feeling of
to the increasing arrival of generations of visitors repentance or pride. A desire to discover an exclusive
who have not experienced commemorated events. or incongruous offer. A less admirable attraction for
These visitors have very different relationships violence or suffering».
to the past and its traces. They do not necessarily
Many studies seek to capture, through the
share the same references, expectations or codes of detailed observation of tourist practices and
conduct. discourses, the meanings visitors give to the sites
The common cleavage between the “pilgrim”
and their visit. Winter’s analysis of visitors books
and the “tourist” has been shaped during the at Tyne Cot WWI cemetery in Belgium, for example,
interwar period in Western Europe, qualifying shows how visitors develop practices which are
2 types of visitors on the battlefield; the first, strongly ritualized during their visit; their written
whose presence was legitimate, was characterized words in the visitor books express sadness, gratitude
by practices of mourning linked to loss and and promises never to forget the dead and very little
homage to the dead; the second, whose presence critique about the war, which shows, she argues, a
Deep VIEW
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