La visión de España a través de las guías de viaje en lengua inglesa (Siglos XIX y XX)

Abstract

Journeys have gone from being a necessity to become a reason to strengthen nations, and a way to obtain educational experience and “enlightment” (18th and 19th centuries). Currently, tourism involves a wide variety of trips, destinations and travellers. Although nowadays there are many ways to gather information in order to select a specific destination and organize a trip, travel guides, an important source of information in the twenty-first century, were, in the nineteenth century, the best and sometimes the only means of information. As a consequence, the objective of this article is to analyse how emergent tourism destination as Spain, in the 18th-19th centuries, was presented by the guidebooks in English. The lack of comparable statistics at that time makes the analysis of these guides, basic information systems, a way to understand the evolution of the tourism industry in this country. Through Content Analysis a clear trend is observed in the positive perception towards the hospitality industry in Spain, as well as their means of transportation. Moreover, all the guides highlight the importance that tourists gave to Spanish cultural heritage, its cuisine and arts. In short, it is impossible to understand the present without understanding the past.