Archaeology of Tourism is certainly an interesting topic! Maria O'Donovan
and myself have put together two sessions on "The Archaeology of Travel"
for the 2005 SHA meetings at York. [Apologies for the shameless self
promotion!] Several (but not all) of the papers will link travel to
tourism. Some papers to look for - for your purposes - will be Rick
Morris' (on ritual and touring in the Rubicon Trail, CA), LouAnn Wurst's
(on issues of workers at Niagra Falls, NY).

There is a very large literature on the archaeology of
travel/traveling/travelers - which is a very broad topic (and can link
everything from Silk Roads to Pilgrimage, train stations to hotels, etc).
But an Archaeology of Tourism specifically is a little more difficult - in
part because tourism, as a commercial endeavor linked to capitalism, would
only represent a fragment of hotel sites, saloons, etc, and in many cases
be a recent phenomenon (but this is open to debate). In other words, just
because a site is a place associated with travel, it certainly does not
necessarily imply "tourism." As we use the term, tourism is an industry of
creating places and spaces for mass consumption. At what point does elite
travel to a villa or hot springs become transformed into tourism?

Cheers,

Lynda Carroll
Project Director, Public Archaeology Facility
Department of Anthropology
Binghamton University, SUNY
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
(607)-777-6319
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