This thesis constitutes the first sustained single-author study of the writings of the Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1840-1904). Stanley’s works have generally been treated as generic examples of ’colonial discourse’ or simply as a historical footnote to the canon of colonial adventure fiction. Little attention has been paid to the possible reasons for the phenomenal popularity and enduring appeal of these texts. I will expand upon previous readings of Stanley not by ignoring the imperial context but by acknowledging that ’imperial discourse’ was itself in dialogue with various other social and cultural trends. My concern throughout is with the exploratory encounter as modernising event - not simply in the sense of the ’civilised’ explorer shedding light on the ’dark continent’ — but in the sense that the retransmission of these frontier narratives in the centre of empire had a transformative affect on how Britons conceived of themselves as modern subjects. -- By emphasising the imperial ’margin’ as a space in which modernity happens and the exploration narrative as the means by which this process is documented, represented and enacted, I challenge conventional notions of modernity as an urban phenomenon diffused from imperial metropolis to colonial periphery. Focusing on the (largely ignored) Welsh and American aspects of Stanley’s identity, allows us to decentre the notion of a fixed imperial metropolis and forces us to acknowledge the complexity, ambivalence and richness of the literature of the exploratory contact zone.

As architectures of the sea, cruise ships are unique, but under-explored spaces of travel and tourism. Characterised by their bounded, mobile and transient distinctiveness, a ship’s inner spaces are inhabited by an onboard community of people for purposes of work or leisure. Framed by the notion of cruise ships as imagined geographies, the primary focus of this study is to interpret and critically explore the discourses of popular films and what these reveal about cruise ships as distinctive socio-cultural spaces of travel and tourism. Embracing Michel Foucault and his influential work on discourse, knowledge and power, popular films are positioned as sites of knowledge production through which particular regimes of truth are constituted. The approach to the analysis of popular films in this study, acknowledges the multisensory nature of film and how such spatial constructs are experienced in and through the imagination, emotion and memory. Conceptualised as liminal spaces which can be temporarily inhabited and travelled through, my embodiments of Carry On Cruising [1962], Ship of Fools [1965] and Titanic [1997] are reflexive in their approach, enabling me to draw on my own experiences of living and working on cruise ships. My voyages with the three films that form the archive of data for the purposes of this study, reveals a uniform set of discourses that engender specific imaginings about travel and vacations at sea. Although different in genre, these films all contribute in varying ways to the notion of ships as hedonistic pleasure spaces of promiscuity and romantic pursuit. Through this archaeological endeavour my excavations also unveil a set of more nuanced and subtle discourses surrounding gender, employment practises, the spatial organisation of ships and shipboard rituals, all of which contribute to particular ways of seeing cruise ships and the cruise experience. In the context of tourism studies, this research makes a methodological contribution in its approach to visuality, discourse and film. Moreover this thesis contributes to a greater understanding of the discursive structures of popular films and what these reveal about the spatial constructs of passengers ships and their embodied cultural practices.

The use of ‘formal’ travel information pertaining to costs, routes, journey times, or real-time transport disruptions, and its role in travel behaviour (for example, choice of mode, route or departure time) has been widely studied, but little is known about the part played by 'informal' information, shared through word-of-mouth amongst friends, family, colleagues and other social networks, in relation to everyday travel. Furthermore, considerable investment has been made over recent decades in the development of sophisticated 'advanced traveller information systems', delivering formal, top-down information through media such as online journey planners, but less attention has been paid to parallel developments in the diffusion of bottom-up, user-generated information through 'electronic word-of-mouth' on the internet (acknowledged in the field of marketing as a growing source of influence on consumer behaviour). This thesis examines the role of word-of-mouth information diffusion within everyday travel behaviour and its emerging applications in the field of online traveller information, within a framework of social-psychological theories of behaviour and decision theory. The exploration of social-psychological factors underlying the social transfer of traveller information led to an expansion of existing theory, whilst the research also generated practical recommendations for the wider incorporation of ‘social design features’ into certain forms of traveller information system. The research was undertaken in two empirical phases, both employing a qualitative methodology. In Phase 1 (exploratory), interviews and focus groups were used to: generate an account of the use of word-of-mouth travel information; explore participants‟ perceptions of the influence of this form of information on their own and others' travel behaviour; and identify social-psychological mechanisms underlying the influence process. 'Local knowledge' obtained through word-of-mouth was found to be highly valued, and was deemed trustworthy primarily because it was based on the informant's direct experience (an instrumental-reasoned explanation). However, perceived trustworthiness could be improved by social-psychological factors such as social proximity, group-identification and accepted norms of behaviour. Word-of-mouth was found to play a complementary role to formal information in the decision process, and was reported to have had a direct influence on trip details (e.g. route or departure time), but was less likely to affect modal choice. More general interactions about travel (for example, appraising the experience of using a particular transport mode in general conversation), whilst not necessarily perceived as travel information per se, appeared to be influencing beliefs and attitudes, and shaping the psychological context in which travel choices might later be made. Phase 2 (applications) was a qualitative case-study of an innovative, web-based traveller information system, entitled Cycology, through which 23 participants shared cycle routes and other information with one another over a period of six weeks. This allowed both a validation of the earlier findings within an applied context, and an exploration of some findings in greater depth - in particular, the ways in which social norms and social identities around travel are established or reinforced in peer-groups through word-of-mouth interactions, and help to explain interpersonal influences on travel behaviour. Interactions on the website were found to: influence participants‟ behaviour in the form of using cycle routes suggested by others; strengthen pro-cycling attitudes; and enhance the experience of the cycle commute. A key finding was the role which Cycology played in building a sense of ‘community’ (group identification), linked to high levels of trust and pro-social behaviour amongst group members, which both reinforced positive views of cycling as a commuter mode, and increased people‟s propensity to act on information from others within the group. Together with the Phase 1 findings, this led to the proposed incorporation of additional 'social factors' into established models of information use. Practical recommendations from the research concerned ways in which developments in social media might be combined more widely with online, map-based traveller information, particularly route-planning tools, with the potential to enhance the perceived reliability (and influence) of such systems, and, consequently, their effectiveness as a transport policy tool.

Xu Xiake, China's best-known travel writer, spent a lifetime visiting and writing about the country's famous beauty spots. At the age of fifty, he embarked on a three year journey to the southwest of the country, an area, inhabited largely by minority peoples, which had only recently come back under Chinese imperial control. The general view of Xu's extensive travel diaries is that he brought a new sober, analytical approach to a genre previously the domain of the dilettante. On the basis of his exploration of the rivers, mountains and karst caves of southwest China, he has been considered as a pioneer of active field research. After an introduction to the history of the development of the travel diary in China, from its origins in the fantastic exploits of China's mythological kings and emperors to its emergence as an independent literary genre in the Tang dynasty, there will follow a short biography of Xu Xiake and a consideration of certain aspects of his personality. The main body of the thesis is then taken up with a close examination of a greatly expanded edition of his diary of his expedition to southwest China, discovered in the 1970s, with particular attention being paid to his attitudes firstly towards the region's non-Han peoples and secondly to its startling mountainous scenery. Finally, there will be a discussion of Xu's poetry and a recently discovered colophon which he wrote for an edition of Chinese poetry produced by the indigenous ruler of a part of Yunnan province. In spite of his zealous exploratory endeavour, Xu's scientific methods were primitive and many of his supposed discoveries have since been shown to be either erroneous or not original. Xu's diaries and his miscellanea, however, reveal a remarkable individual, perfectly in tune with the tastes of his age. His writing, full of references to the great lyrical writers of earlier generations, is sparkling and worthy of a place in the tradition of the classical Chinese travel diary. Imbued with a deep love of Nature and a desire to find freedom from worldly concerns, Xu was a man obsessed with seeing and describing the landscape.

This thesis examines a film collection held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and seeks to establish the historical, cultural and aesthetic legacy of the post-war promotional cruise film. The textual and contextual analysis reveals the cruise film's unique reflection of an era of ideological, social and stylistic change. The thesis establishes an institutional and aesthetic history of the cruise film, focusing on the output of Orient Line, P&O, Union Castle and Cunard. The circumstances surrounding production of promotional material are explored, along with the ideological, commercial and stylistic legacy of the British Documentary Movement and British Transport Film initiative. Prototypical pre-war examples of the form are foregrounded and compared to the films produced through the 1960s. Alongside the cruise film's commercial and aesthetic origins, the thesis explores the image of the ship itself, as an eternal signifier of progress, divinity and nation. The cultural history of the ship as a signifier is traced alongside the visual discourses used to picture This thesis examines a film collection held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and seeks to establish the historical, cultural and aesthetic legacy of the post-war promotional cruise film. The textual and contextual analysis reveals the cruise film's unique reflection of an era of ideological, social and stylistic change. The thesis establishes an institutional and aesthetic history of the cruise film, focusing on the output of Orient Line, P&O, Union Castle and Cunard. The circumstances surrounding production of promotional material are explored, along with the ideological, commercial and stylistic legacy of the British Documentary Movement and British Transport Film initiative. Prototypical pre-war examples of the form are foregrounded and compared to the films produced through the 1960s. Alongside the cruise film's commercial and aesthetic origins, the thesis explores the image of the ship itself, as an eternal signifier of progress, divinity and nation. The cultural history of the ship as a signifier is traced alongside the visual discourses used to picture This thesis examines a film collection held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and seeks to establish the historical, cultural and aesthetic legacy of the post-war promotional cruise film. The textual and contextual analysis reveals the cruise film's unique reflection of an era of ideological, social and stylistic change. The thesis establishes an institutional and aesthetic history of the cruise film, focusing on the output of Orient Line, P&O, Union Castle and Cunard. The circumstances surrounding production of promotional material are explored, along with the ideological, commercial and stylistic legacy of the British Documentary Movement and British Transport Film initiative. Prototypical pre-war examples of the form are foregrounded and compared to the films produced through the 1960s. Alongside the cruise film's commercial and aesthetic origins, the thesis explores the image of the ship itself, as an eternal signifier of progress, divinity and nation. The cultural history of the ship as a signifier is traced alongside the visual discourses used to picture it within the cruise film. The 1960s cruise ship and its filmic representation is examined as a floating microcosm of emergent hedonistic and capitalistic tendencies. In an era of empowerment, liberation and increasing individualism, the cruise film balanced the traditional with the contemporary in its sometimes conflicted portrayals of life at sea. The final chapter of the thesis is devoted to the cruise film's reflection of fading British colonialism. As the British Empire fragmented and political liberalism spread throughout a new generation of young people, the cruise film's latent traditionalism and nationalism became anachronistic. Yet, beneath its swinging '60s aesthetic, the post-war cruise film continued to market its product as an implicit emulation of the colonial process. In conclusion, light is shed on the cruise film's paradoxical position, as advertisers sought to retain the allure of the ocean voyage in an era of mainstream jet travel.

The research employs qualitative feminist methods, particularly in-depth interviews, in order to examine the identity management strategies of women seafarers. The analysis then focuses on patterns of identity management strategies: how women changed strategies chronologically as well as multi-dimensionally (e.g. across space as well as time). The project concludes with several suggestions for future research. The findings of this study emphasise the need to increase the employment of women seafarers in the industry in order to improve living conditions of life on board for both male and female seafarers.

The aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to contribute to a critical understanding of lesbian and gay parented families in relation to their travel motivations and destination choice. While these families have gained increased visibility particularly in Western societies, they are still largely neglected in tourism research. Thus, this thesis helps fill a three-fold gap in academic scholarship. Firstly, it adds to knowledge about gay and lesbian tourism, thereby challenging the heteronormativity that dominates tourism research. Secondly, it helps fill the lacuna about family travel as tourism studies mainly emphasise individual choices and largely neglect the perspectives of the family as a decision-making unit. Thirdly, it helps complete the gap in tourism research about families whose configurations do not fit the heteronormative model, namely, the ‘mother-father-children’ trinomial. In line with the interpretivist paradigm and phenomenological strategy adopted, qualitative interviews were utilised as the data collection method. Twenty-two interviews were held, involving sixteen mothers, thirteen fathers and six children. Findings reveal the multiple significances of holidays for these families. Family tourism is prompted by a search for escape, familiarity and novelty while forging and enhancing multiple levels of connections and reconnections. Holidays are also opportunities to construct and strengthen family identity, with the rituals and memories they create helping preserve the past and guarantee the future of the family unit. While holiday decisions prioritise children’s needs, they are jointly made between partners. Moreover, on family holidays, gay and lesbian parents minimise the role of sexuality, which is ‘left to the background’ of other identities; yet, sexuality impacts on destination avoidance. Sexuality-related shame can further cause lesbigay parents to shun social interaction on holiday and/or avoid gay-centred destinations due to a concern of exposing children to demonstrations of ‘gayness.’ This thesis offers several unique contributions to knowledge. It demonstrates same-sex parented families are, with regard to their holiday motivations and choices, more similar than different from the ‘traditional’ heteronormative family studied in the past. This contributes to extending the understanding of the family in tourism research. In addition, it reveals how gay and lesbian parents’ somewhat paradoxical relationship with their sexualities informs their families’ travel choices. In doing so, this thesis adds to knowledge about the influence of pride/shame in tourism studies. It also highlights these families’ desire to blend in and reinforce their ‘averageness’ rather than difference in relation to heteronormative families. This finding contributes to an understanding of the ‘assimilationist’ nature of same-sex parented families. Finally, further contribution to research on family tourism stems from the new and unique light this study sheds on the interplay between holidays, togetherness and family identity.

Fynes Moryson’s Itenerary (1617) is an important source work which is used to substantiate studies in a range of different fields. Despite its wide reception, little is known of either Moryson or the intended purpose of his work. There are a number of unexplored sources which can add to academic understanding of the Itenerary, and contribute new insights which will add to Moryson’s life history. Amongst these are letters, documents, archival material and two extant Latin manuscripts that represent versions of parts one and two of the Itenerary. I examine the Latin manuscript version of part one to the Itenerary, the Itinerarium Pars Prima. This takes the form of a preliminary investigation, which will make the manuscript accessible for future scholarship. I compare the sections of the manuscript to parallel content in the printed Itenerary, and investigate differences between them. This investigation of the manuscript is supported and contextualised by a biographical study, which examines new sources for Fynes Moryson’s life history. This study explores archival records, letters and documents in combination with the printed Itenerary in order to revise elements of Moryson’s biography. Together the two parts of the thesis contribute analyses of new documents to the study of Moryson and the Itenerary, and take a preliminary step towards making the Itinerarium Pars Prima accessible to scholars.

Tourism destination usually viewed as a combination of places that generates not just experience but offers a memorable destination experience to the tourists. The challenge for today's tourism destination agencies is for them to offer what is needed by travellers. Currently, the tourism sector in Tanzania is in stiff competition with countries such as Kenya and South Africa in attracting more tourists. For a country to stay ahead of the competition, it is imperative for tourism stakeholders to understand various means for attracting the tourists, including the preferences for travel activities. This study aimed at offering an integrated approach to understanding tourists' travel activities and assesses its relationship with travel motivation and personality traits. Responses from a total of 431 respondents aged 18 and above was obtained through convenience sampling and used in the analysis. The study identified visiting city attractions, islands and beaches as top three preferred travel activities by tourists and visiting casinos and nightclubs as the least preferred activities. Moreover, the study examined the differences in preference for travel activities among the domestic and international travel markets. It was found that the two markets significantly differ in terms of preferences for a beach, visiting city attractions, going to nightclubs, purchasing traditional clothes and jewellery, as well as camping. Additionally, the study also examined whether demographic factors such as marital status, family size and occupation have any significant effect on preference for travel activities. Of all demographic factors, only occupation was proven to have a significant influence on activities such as visiting beaches and islands and purchasing traditional clothes. The study further tested the structural relationships between travel motivations, personality, destination image and travel activities using structural equation modelling. The main findings suggest that travel motivations and personality have an influence on preference for travel activities. More specifically, sightseeing activities were positively influenced by social, intellectual and stimulus avoidance travel motivations while outdoor activities were positively influenced by mastery competency travel motivation. Apart from travel motivations, this study also found that that closed to new experience personality positively influenced shopping activities while neurotic personality influenced sightseeing negatively. This study also examined the role of destination image in mediating the effect of travel motivation and personality in influencing travel activities. The overall finding indicated that there was only direct effect and that there was no mediation effect. Despite the fact that destination image did not mediate the former relationships it influenced sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment activities positively.

This thesis explores the risky sexual behaviours and relationships of seafarers in the context of commercial sex relations with sex workers in ports. This study is designed to shed light on why seafarers engage in these risky activities while away from home working on board ships. The study was conceived in the context of the increased vulnerability of seafarers to STIs including HIV. The study draws upon data collected from a qualitative study conducted in the city of Santos, Brazil. This location was chosen, as it is the largest port in Latin America and has a popular red light district to seafarers. In-depth interviews were conducted with sixty seafarers and non-seafarers. Ethnographic observations were carried out in the red light district and other places frequented by the seafarers such as the port, the seamen’s mission and parts of the city. This study shows how risk is represented, perceived, negotiated and experienced by seafarers through their behaviours and within their relationships with sex workers. The socio-cultural structures they are embedded in inform and contribute to their risk perception and predicaments. A major contributing element is a gendered maritime industry that perpetuates a hegemonic heterosexual masculine regime. The way seafarers negotiate risk is shown by the way they locate and reposition the body, sex and sexuality within various forms of commercial sex transactions including the practice of condom use.