Abstract

The article deals with the nineteenth- and twentieth-century history of tourism, a phenomenon recently labeled by historian John K. Walton as «the world's most powerful and pervasive cluster of commercial and industrial activities» with enormous social, cultural, and environmental impact. Advocating a regional history perspective on tourism in Europe, the article comments on recent historiography focusing on the connection between tourism development and regional change. Regional history as well as tourism history are historiographical subdisciplines with strong interdisciplinary links. One aim of this paper is to evaluate the analytical potential of different concepts of regionality based in different disciplines. A further topic is the role of different kinds of mobility as prerequisites of tourism-induced regional change. Finally, light is shed on the history of tourism and regional change from the angle of cities, urbanity, and city-hinterland-relations.