70  encyclopedia of tourism management and marketing
festivals all over the world. Stone and Petrick
am
sby
Literary Tourism
and Education
Literary tourism is defined as an activity that
involves visiting places linked with authors and
their works (Busby and Klug, 2001). It is not
only concerned with works of fiction, as other
literary forms also have an emotional pull for
visitors. Among cultural tourism niches, literary
tourism is one of those to which public and pri-
vate entities have been paying increasing atten-
tion, a growth that in the lack of concrete data
(Karan Thompson Consulting Limited, 2018) is
confirmed by the increasing number of literary
routes, museum houses for writers and literary
Sílvia Quinteiro and Graham Busby
(2013) categorize the relationship between
tourism and education as either ‘education first’
or ‘tourism first’. The former involves school,
college and university students and the tourist
experience is secondary to the formal learning.
The ‘tourism first’ activity would encompass
youth study tours. The study of literary tourism
and education examines the links between the
various forms of education and visiting literary
sites.
A strong relationship exists between travel-
ling and learning. The beginning of literary
tourism coincides with the period of the Grand
Tour when travelling was synonymous with
completing education (Thompson, 2019; see
the entry ‘Grand Tour’ in this Encyclopedia).
The relationship between literary tourism and
education has therefore been present since the
beginning of both. The relationship between lit-
erary tourism and education can be established
beyond this occasional learning. Based on litera-
ture and the territory itself, with all the elements
that constitute it, the activities generated within
this niche can be structured to serve cultural,
tourist and educational objectives. Thousands
of students travel around the world on exchange
programmes (Courtois, 2018). There are also
many who travel for a few months to another
country to learn a new language and those
who move abroad or even within their own
country for a few days on study visits (Stone
and Petrick, 2013). All these tourists have in
common the search for immersion in the culture
and language of the visited destination – termed
‘idiomatic tourism’ by the World Tourism
Organization. Literary tourism products and
experiences such as visits to authors’ houses,
to the places of the texts, to literary festivals,
to famous libraries and bookshops, to literary
parks and gardens, to literary cities/villages,
and staying in literary hotels can be transformed
into unique educational experiences (Jenkins,
2019; Rossetti and Quinn, 2019).
Developing and implementing a good literary
tourism product implies knowledge, rigour and
the ability to communicate that knowledge to
make it appropriate for a leisure activity. It is
a very demanding niche that requires a large
investment in terms of time and work, and
the collaboration of many stakeholders. These
include public authorities, tourism profession-
als, public libraries, private bodies, residents,
school teachers and students of all ages. Athens
was named UNESCO World Book Capital
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for 2018 and included migrants and refugees
as stakeholders. The first UNESCO City of
Literature, Edinburgh, has embarked on a pro-
ject to transform John Knox House into The
Literature House for Scotland. It is intended
to be ‘the centre piece of a literary quarter…a
place dedicated to telling our story as a nation
built on books…for us to understand and cel-
ebrate that story, for our children to discover
their part in it’ (Edinburgh City of Literature
Trust, 2021).
The richness inherent in the literary heritage
of any region of the world allows, in educa-
tional terms, innovative experiences aimed
at multiple areas of education. Instead of just
reading passages from a book or learning about
the author, students can be invited to draw a
building, to research about a botanic garden or
a monument that is part of the itinerary. They
can learn about specific music from the region
mentioned in the literature and even take part in
a workshop about a specific instrument, or they
can learn how to prepare a dish that is served
to a character. Literature captures all sorts of
human experiences and cultural forms. A liter-
ary itinerary prepared for the hundreds of stu-
dents of Portuguese as a foreign language who
stay a semester at the University of Lisbon, for
instance, can offer them knowledge of litera-
ture, language, culture and history, but the same
itinerary can be adapted to transmit content of
interest for the training of students in biology,
tourism, geography, fine arts, gastronomy,
music, or any other area.
Adapting a tourism product to educa-
tion involves building educational materials
(scripts, worksheets, reading protocols, prepa-
ration of readings aloud or other type of more
active participation of the student in the activi-
ties). It requires adjustments depending on the
areas, ages, school levels and even language.
Although this can be quite laborious, it can be
greatly simplified using digital support in which
materials are made available to the educational
community. It also allows the reverse process
through co-creation – that is, the upload of
materials created by teachers and even teachers
and students (videos of readings, visits, work-
shops, for example) – a kind of crowdfunding.
There are already products that work this way
and that can inspire others, such as the literary
map LitLong:Edinburgh (https://litlong.org/).
Promoting this form of dissemination of litera-
ture is promoting reading, editing and eventual
translating of works, increasing the movement
literary tourism and education  71
of the book market and generating interest for
future visitations and loyalty to destinations.
Therefore, connecting literary tourism with
education has not only an abstract, intangible
cultural impact but also a concrete economic
impact.
The indirect returns that the increased inter-
est in literary tourism associated with educa-
tion can have include the contribution it can
make to a city classified as a UNESCO City
of Literature. Indeed, this classification implies,
among others, quality and quantity of edu-
cational programmes; focus on domestic or
foreign literature in primary and secondary
schools as well as universities; quality, quantity
and diversity of editorial initiatives and pub-
lishing houses; urban environment in which
literature, drama and/or poetry play an integral
role; libraries, bookstores and public or private
cultural centres dedicated to the preservation,
promotion and dissemination of domestic and
foreign literature; and an active effort by the
publishing sector to translate literary works
from diverse national languages and foreign lit-
erature (https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/).
These examples provide illustration of the
nexus between literary tourism and educa-
tion. The outputs are a rich and versatile set of
products and experiences that can be adapted
to the interests of a wide audience and serve
the resident community (Quinteiro, 2019). This
form of activating the literary heritage brings
greater visibility to the literary heritage, the
territory, the people, the culture and the built
heritage connected with literature. With the
exception of extremely successful adaptations
to cinema or television, literary tourism does
not attract crowds and therefore is not immedi-
ately as profitable as other niches and segments.
However, as illustrated in the figure, it provides
great opportunities to brand destinations, create
a storytelling and a loyal community as well
as bring socio-cultural and economic benefits
to communities. Literary tourism and literary
cartography (Kent and Vujakovic, 2018) can
therefore be a means of building the strengthen-
ing cultural identities – namely, at a regional
level – creating in residents an awareness of
their heritage that will surely shape their way
of selling/communicating the destination in
the future. In addition to economic sustain-
ability, social sustainability, whereby tourism
is genuinely perceived to benefit local people,
can occur. Literary tourism and education as an
activity enhances the tourism product and the
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72  encyclopedia of tourism management and marketing

Scholars, tourism
professionals, public
authorities, public
libraries, private bodies,
school teachers, residents,
participants

Literary tourism products

and experiences

Students in exchange
programmes, students in
study visits, foreign
language students

Promoting greater appreciation,

building and strengthening cultural
identities, creating in residents an
awareness of their heritage,
increasing reading, editing and
translation of works, increasing the
movement of the book market

Literary tourism and education: articulation process, stakeholders and opportunities

range of experiences offered by destinations.
It brings greater visibility to both tangible and
intangible heritage and can benefit destinations
affected by seasonality.
Sílvia Quinteiro and Graham Busby
References
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Courtois, A. (2018), ‘“It doesn’t really matter which
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Edinburgh City of Literature Trust (2021), ‘The
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Jenkins, I. (2019), ‘Practical applications of literature
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 literary tourism and writers’ houses  73

Stone, M.J. and Petrick, J.F. (2013), ‘The educational

benefits of travel experience: a literature review’,
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Sílvia Quinteiro

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