Tourism and Making the Places after War: The Somme and Ground Zero

Abstract

The sites of war have varied from single fields of battle, to those at sea and in the air, to the long trench lines of the Great War (1914-1918), the vast cities and regions of World War Two and more recently, to small urban sites that epitomise the ‘War against Terror’. This paper is primarily based upon the landscapes of the Great War in Europe, but it explores some of the similarities with the ‘Ground Zero’ terrorist attack in New York, with respect to the associations between memory, tourism and geography, and how these manifest as different landscapes. A core component in the commemoration and understanding of conflict is in actually visiting the site where events occurred. Tourists are known to perform a key role in the creation and maintenance of these important sites: not only do they ‘consume’ them, but tourists actively contribute towards creating a touristscape.