Literary tourism

Literary tourism refers to the production and consumption of places, landscapes, museums, historic houses, and graves associated with published creative writings and/or their authors. This form of tourism has a long history in literary societies but expanded in the nineteenth century with the rise of democratized travel (Watson 2009). The range of tourist visiting sites associated with literary works or figures varies from self-identified, dedicated, and knowledgeable “pilgrims” as fans of an author or novel, to those who have more moderate passing interests (Robinson and Andersen 2003). The boundaries between literary tourism and travel writing are fine, with the former marked more by imagination rather than direct experience (Robinson 2004).

The commodification of literature for tourism extends from the authentic writer’s home with a direct connection between an author and the text itself to attractions inspired by literary works or sites and landscapes that inspired authors or are...