Tourism to the Battlefield Memorials in Fromelles

Abstract

The Battle of Fromelles, fought in northern France in 1916, was virtually forgotten until recent years, when the activities of a small group of people brought it to light. The discovery of a mass grave of Australian and British soldiers and their subsequent burial in a new Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the village of Fromelles has been widely reported in the media. As a result, many people have begun to visit the village and the cemeteries. The village presents an issue that is common in the tourism literature, whereby a very small destination without large-scale visitor facilities is experiencing sudden increases in tourists. This study involved a sample of committed, older, and retired Australian and British tourists who were visiting the village. Differences in the travel patterns of tour-based and free independent travelers, as well as between British and Australians, were identified. Some of these differences were perhaps a result of the time and financial costs involved for Australians to visit the battlefields. The study found support for the war-distorted destination life cycle model, which argues that a major war can provide long-term positive benefits for a destination.