Tourism history of socialist countries

2007 year’s panel
Cultural Heritage and tourism advertisement in socialist countries

The International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M) invites proposals for papers to be presented at the Fifth International Conference on the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility, to be held in Helmond, Netherlands, between 25th and 28th October 2007. Papers of the panel ‘Cultural Heritage and tourism advertisement in socialist countries’ should address the historical relationship between tourism and transport, traffic and/or mobility linked to specific characteristic of socialist systems.
Proposals exploring theoretical or methodological issues as well as those of a more empirical nature are very welcome. According to the conference’s topic, the analysis of tourist advertisement in socialist countries equally touches aspects of media, cultural and economic history. Advertisement is quoted as term in the broad sense of all activities to gain the attractiveness of tourist goods/services and regions. It covers product promotion as well as advertising for all services of travel operators and image advertising of selected countries, regions, cities/towns or places of interest. The contributions could represent the named forms in specific cases, but more theoretic considerations about the socialist understanding of advertisement (as different from capitalist advertisement geared to profit and generation of demand) are desired as well. The session looks into the economic, political, ideological, cultural and educational dimension of advertisement in socialist countries. Studies in this respect could – for example – examine the changes in an understanding of tourist advertisement between the 1950s and the 1990s. Also a reflection about specific means of advertisement (e.g. posters, catalogues, commercials, souvenirs) is possible.
For more detailed information on the conference itself, please follow: http://www.t2m.org .
The conference language is English (only).The deadline for abstracts and a short cv (max. 1 page each; word or rich text format only) is 28th March 2007. Please send proposals to wolter_heike@yahoo.de. I will forward all documents to T2M after designing a concise overview of what the session is about, why it matters, and how the papers each address the panel’s theme. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 30th April 2007. The full text of papers accepted must be submitted by 1st September 2007 if they are to be included on the conference CD-ROM sent in advance to all participants and if they are to be eligible for T2M Awards.