European Travellers to Wales: 1750-2010

The aim of this interdisciplinary and collaborative project is to uncover and evaluate hitherto unstudied travel accounts written by European travellers to Wales from 1750 to 2010. This important area of study has been neglected, but is central to our understanding of European intercultural relations, the development of Welsh identity and the establishment of the tourist industry in Wales. The proposed study will serve as a case study to help further understand issues relating to hegemonic / minority and/or periphery / periphery relations.

Within the vibrant field of travel writing, Wales has often suffered neglect. Even where there is interest in travel to 'Celtic' nations, Wales has often been overlooked in both the artistic and critical imaginations in favour of Scotland and Ireland. From the mid-eighteenth century, which saw the emergence of the travel narrative as a popular source of information and entertainment, writing about Wales has often been embedded in accounts of travel to 'England'. The current project seeks to redefine perceptions of Wales by problematising the notion of 'invisibility' often ascribed to the Welsh context and by broadening perspectives outwards to encompass European perceptions. This will realign the current debate which has centred primarily on English travellers to Wales. The project will challenge the way in which travel writing studies conceives of 'minority cultures' by analysing relations between smaller nations (Wales / Brittany). The study will examine European perceptions of Wales from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, and seek to identify their impact on developing Welsh cultural identity.

The project will focus primarily on texts by French- and German-speaking travellers, as these constitute the majority. However, narratives from other parts of Europe and across the globe will also be considered. The project will analyse travelogues, travel guides, almanacs, encyclopaedias, private correspondences, diaries, creative works and periodical contributions which have Wales or Welsh culture as their focus. The definition of the traveller encompasses those travelling for the purpose of leisure, scholarship or commerce as well as those who remain in Wales on a more permanent basis, such as exiles and refugees. Central is the role of Anglophone culture as a mediator between Wales and the European traveller. While most studies of travel literature are one-directional, this study explores a three-way relationship, looking outward from Britain to the continent, then considering how Europe reflects back the perception of Wales and how that perception is then received in Wales itself.

The project will result in a number of outputs of interest to a wide range of beneficiaries. Tully, Jones and Williams will produce a jointly-authored book. Focusing on travellers from French and German-speaking cultures, the study concentrates on historical flashpoints (political exile, revolution, war, and Romanticism) when Wales and its culture have attracted the attention of European travellers. Further European perspectives on Wales and views from other parts of the world will be considered via a special issue of the journal Studies in Travel Writing and the end-of-project conference. The Research Assistant and the two PhD theses are central to the project, extending the range of material to be studied to literary responses (both creative and critical), philological works and guidebooks. The broader findings of the project will be showcased to the academic community and the general public by means of a searchable online database and a website. An exhibition (both physical and virtual) will be staged, and a range of educational materials for schools will also be developed concurrently. A briefing paper for Visit Wales will outline what travellers and tourists want or expect from Wales.

The project contributes towards the cultural and intellectual enrichment of Welsh, British, and European societies. The main non-academic beneficiaries of this research will be education, public-sector organisations, local communities, the wider public, the tourist/commercial sector, and national government.

The project makes a significant contribution to the knowledge economy, by providing new research in an area that represents one of Wales's main industries: travel and tourism. Through the searchable database, it makes an extensive range of experiences of travel and perceptions of Wales accessible to a wider audience. These would be of particular interest to local history associations, museums, public galleries and historic properties in Wales, as well as to communities in popular tourist areas. Database users will be able to easily access information on the perceptions of European travellers (in both historical and contemporary contexts) about their area or historic property, to establish the most popular areas of Wales and the reasons why travellers choose to visit them. This will facilitate the curation of exhibitions, provision of informative materials and organisation of local history-based activities, including school projects and genealogical searches. A range of educational materials will be developed which will be suitable for primary and secondary schools, universities and lifelong learning programmes, as well as publicly-funded organisations that promote language learning (e.g. CILT Cymru). All public outputs emanating from the project will be produced bilingually, thus doubly enriching the Welsh cultural patrimony.

Ceredigion Museum and the National Library of Wales, the two main public-sector project partners, will also benefit directly from the research. Ceredigion Museum will be able to draw on new research and stage an exhibition at a level that could not be funded from within its own budget. In addition, the project will enable the curator's own research (a collection of 1200 texts written and used by visitors to Wales from 1770 to 1900) to be digitised and made publicly accessible. The National Library of Wales will benefit through the creation of the digital database, which it will host as a resource for the nation in line with its digitisation strategy. The database will also serve as an outreach tool regarding items from the Library's own collections. There will be potential commercial benefits to the project partners in terms of an enhancement of their marketable outputs (exhibitions/publications/visitor numbers). The local economy of Aberystwyth will benefit from exhibition visitors and conference participants, who will generate spending on travel, accommodation, subsistence, books and catalogues.

The tourist sector will be encouraged to incorporate new information discovered through the project into their presentation of specific areas of Wales. Heritage and tourist organisations such as Visit Wales (formerly the Wales Tourist Board), CADW and the National Trust will also be able to take advantage of this information in their marketing activities. This information may also be of interest to e.g. French and German national tourist boards.

The project promotes a greater awareness of the relationship between Wales and other European countries, and facilitates improved cross-cultural understanding. This has the potential to impact on the way in which governmental bodies such as the European Commission Office in Wales, the British Council in Wales, the Welsh Government, as well as other sub-state European regions, view the positioning of Wales in the European context and beyond.

The benefits of this research should begin to be realised by the end of the first year, as the project website goes live and project findings are made available. The main public engagement activities, the physical and virtual exhibitions and the database, will be launched during the final year of the project.