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Tourism Geographies Vol. 12, No. 4, 568 582, November 2010 Literature Review Nostalgia for the Family Holiday Vacation Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations Susan Sessions Rugh Lawrence, Kansas, University of Kansas Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7006-1588-9 Theme Park Scott A. Lukas London, Reaktion Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-86189-394-9 One of the stories that I tell people about how and why I became a scholar of geography and tourism has to do with my childhood upbringing. Summer family vacations were an important part of my early experiences, and may have contributed to my adult interest in tourism and travel as both a vocation and an avocation. My parents used to take us kids on at least two trips each summer. One was a short trip in northern California to places like the beaches and boardwalk of Santa Cruz and camping at Lake Tahoe. In addition, we often did one longer road trip to destinations like southern California (which was much further away then than now), the Pacific Northwest, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Canyon. These road trips around the American West were mostly taken with a camper which for me is an aluminum and wood trailer that sits on the bed of a full-size pickup truck. Only two of the kids could fit in the front cab of the truck with my parents, so three of us always rode in the back in the camper. Since we all suffered from an inherited sensitivity to motion sickness, not only did we constantly ask are we there yet?, but we also prayed to be there rather than somewhere on the road to there. Little did I know that my memories were part of a distinct middle-class American phenomenon that ran its course from after World War II to the early 1970s. According to Susan Rugh, the author of Are We There Yet?, about half of American families took extended summer vacations during this historic period that was characterized by the benefits of the post-world War II economic boom and the nuclear threat of the Cold War. She states that the family road trip became much less widespread in the 1970s, along with a decline in the nuclear family and the oil crisis and economic recession of 1973. The era of the American family vacation also coincides with the childhood of the ISSN 1461-6688 Print/1470-1340 Online /10/04/00568 15 C 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2010.516405
Literature Review 569 baby boomers (born 1946 1964), making it a shared nostalgia for a large and influential generation. The family vacations of this era were almost entirely within the borders of the USA, and were part of an identity-making ritual, as described by Dean Mac- Cannell in The Tourist: A new theory of the leisure class (1976). According to Rugh (p. 14), For the greatest generation, those who raised families in postwar America, the family vacation was a way to school their children in their own values, to acquaint them with their own heritage, and to see themselves as citizens of a mighty nation. In Are We There Yet?, Rugh provides a comprehensive history and assessment of the middle-class American family vacation from 1945 to 1973. This is done through six chapters that are scattered with some (not a lot) nostalgic black and white photos of the era. The first chapter explores the family vacation as a consumer product, including how it is sold to the American people and how it becomes a socio-economic status symbol for the middle class. This includes rising incomes, the role of the family car (including the back seat experience), and fast food and motels. The second chapter describes how the American vacation became a ritual in nationalism, strengthening the American us against the communist other. This starts with a discussion of road maps, produced by National Geographic magazine, the American Automobile Association (AAA) and many others (of which I once had a large collection). (For a more contemporary analysis of the role of map making in tourism, see Bosak et al. 2010.) Also discussed are historic symbols of America, such as the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and the memorials of Washington, DC, which became major civic pilgrimage destinations for the domestic American tourist. In the third chapter, Rugh addresses the social inequities that existed in 1950s and early 1960s America, and how this shaped the travel and tourism experiences of blacks in the USA and white reactions against black travellers, all of which culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In contrast to the first three chapters, the final three focus on specific types of tourist attractions for the family vacation. In chapter four, for example, Rugh discusses the development of thematic tourism based on the myth of the American West, primarily cowboys and Indians, which then leads to the founding and evolution of the ultimate family vacation destination, the Disney theme parks. Although I never went to a dude ranch, I did experience many cowboy gunfights during my family travels, as well as a few visits to Disneyland. Somewhat related to this, chapter five looks at the role of camping and national parks, something again, that was a big part of my early travels. Sleeping seven people in a camper was a very cosy experience. (For a similar perspective on camping, but from New Zealand, see Collins & Kearns 2010.) The final chapter examines rural resorts destinations, which were big attractions in the 1950s, in places like New York s Catskills region. In a somewhat short epilogue, Rugh argues that in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, the American family vacation is returning and being reinvented to fit the lifestyles of contemporary society.
570 Literature Review While rural resorts did not survive beyond the 1950s, the Disney theme parks certainly did. And this may be because they are part of a much longer history of recreation and leisure in Euro-American culture. That history and its contemporary forms is explored by Scott A. Lukas in his book, Theme Park. This book provides a nice complement to Rugh s Are We There Yet?, by providing a longer historical perspective and a broader geographical (if only Euro-American) context. It is also filled with great photos that are in both colour and black and white. And, while not covering the full gamut of family vacation attractions, theme parks are clearly a major component of them. Theme Park is less of a historical book than is Rugh s, although the first chapter (Theme Park as Oasis) does provide a history of theme parks, starting with the pleasure gardens of London in the mid-1700s, and covering the world s fairs and New York s Coney Island, among others, in the later 1800s and early 1900s. The idea developed is that these were islands of distraction in the troubled world of their time. The theme park, Lukas argues, evolved out of the amusement park and is a more sophisticated and marketable version of the early amusement parks. The second chapter (Theme Park as Land) discusses the development process for modern theme parks, with a focus on the experiences of the Walt Disney Corporation in its many developments. The third chapter (Theme Park as Machine) covers the engineering and technology involved in the creation of theme park attractions. Six Flags over Texas is the major case study in this chapter, though many other examples are also cited. The fourth chapter (Theme Park as Show) examines, with a wide variety of examples, the many ways that theme parks entertain visitors, through architecture, performances, education, rides and other experiences. Chapter five (Theme Park as Brand) looks at not only the branding of the parks themselves, but even more the presence of brands within the parks (banks, food, cars and much more) and the role of parks in building brands and commodities, such as popular movies. The final chapter (Theme Park as Text) is an assessment and analysis of the social meaning of the varying forms and roles of theme park-like phenomena in contemporary society, including virtual gaming and retail store theming. For example, Lukas states (p. 227) that For local theme park employees and for theme park watchers the theme park offers a life text a model for negotiating the world that promises to do much more than create an alternative reality for consumption. In many ways this is the most interesting chapter of the book, though he does not go into the themed communities, which have been written about by many others (cf. Maira 2009). Rugh s book, while possibly easier to read, lacks a satisfying social analysis of the material it covers in the same way that Lukas provides in this concluding chapter. After reading both books, they make me realize even more how much of my early life (or at least one memorable segment of it) has been a personal reflection of major trends and historical changes in American society. I guess I should not be surprised about this, but it does make me feel as though I am even more embedded in my culture than I often like to think!
Literature Review 571 The one thing that I still want, perhaps reflecting my individual biases, is a broader international perspective on the family vacation experiences that my own children are experiencing today on both our domestic and international road trips. In his preface, Lukas acknowledges the rise of theme parks in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, though the rest of his book is focused solely on the USA and Europe. Even with Rugh s book, I feel that what happened before and after the 1945 1973 period are just as interesting as that supposedly Golden Era. She does mention these time periods briefly at the start and end of Are We There Yet?, but as an insatiable academic, I wanted more, of course. That being said, both books provide insightful and worthwhile views into recent and contemporary travel experiences. References Bosak, K., Boley, B. & Zaret, K. (2010) Deconstructing the Crown of the Continent : Power, politics and the process of creating National Geographic s Geotourism Mapguides, Tourism Geographies, 12(3), pp. 460 480. Collins, D. & Kearns, R. (2010) Pulling up the tent pegs? The significance and changing status of coastal campgrounds in New Zealand, Tourism Geographies, 12(1), pp. 53 76. MacCannell, D. (1976) The Tourist: A new theory of the leisure class (New York: Schocken Books). Maira, H. (2009) Searching for a new Enterprise: Themed tourism and the re-making of one small Canadian community, Tourism Geographies, 11(4), pp. 462 483. Alan A. Lew Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation Northern Arizona University, USA Email: alan.lew@nau.edu Tourism and Innovation C. Michael Hall & Allan M. Williams London, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0-415-41404-0 Until recently, studies relating to tourism s interplay with innovation have been rare and, in terms of subject matter, fragmented. Overwhelmingly, existing treatises are descriptive, for the most part lacking empirical rigour. Arguably, an important reason behind this inattention has been the general thinking that within the tourism sector innovations rarely happen (Blumberg 2008). And, yet, the truth is that tourism is, in fact, a multifaceted sector where various types of innovation (e.g. product, process, management and institutional) are exceedingly important. One only has to stop and think back that Thomas Cook was a pioneer who very much defined travel as a