A soldier's guide to Rome - Second World War tourism promotion to Allied soldiers
Thomas Isaacson
Abstract
Purpose The Allied armies engaged in numerous activities promoting tourism during Second World War. Following its liberation in June 1944 through the end of the war, Rome was a popular place for soldiers to visit. Internal communication units in the Allied armies helped support tourism promotion. One unique set of tactics was the development of tourist guidebooks for soldiers. The accuracy and effectiveness of these materials are reviewed in this article. Design/methodology/approach This historical case has a primary focus on original source documents – a set of soldier guidebooks for Rome – housed in collections at three different archives in the United States and Italy. The material was triangulated with published first-hand accounts, news material from military and non-military sources and direct on-site observations. Findings The results show the Allied armies developed a genuine effort at enhancing and supporting soldiers' tourism in Rome. The guides are accurate and carefully developed, and some are written by highly credentialed military writers. Tourism was competing with less desired soldier behaviors, including problems with respect for historic monuments and sex. Nonetheless, Second World War soldier tourism appears to be an influence factor on twentieth century mass tourism. Research limitations/implications Consistent with other historical case-based research, the results of this case are not able to be generalized (Stacks, 2002). The content reviewed for this work is also limited by availability. For example, it would be strengthened by soldier interviews which would permit direct questions related to their behavior and motivations. Due to the time gap, the research instead relied on secondary sources and searched for tourism-related references. In addition, the author believes the five Rome guides were the only ones produced but it's possible others didn't survive, either because of limited distribution or being not deemed worth saving. Originality/value To modern readers, soldier tourism is a surprising concept. The topic has not yet been covered in public relations and communication journals, and it adds value to what's known about the history of these fields.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.