Nostalgia
Photo: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Nostalgia tourism is a specific form of historical travel which targets an era recent enough to be remembered by people who are still alive today. Most of the time periods remembered in nostalgia travel fall into the twentieth century, with the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression and the post-war era of the 1950s and 1960s being popular themes.
ArchitectureMany architectural styles have come and gone over the years. While some of these styles are not commonly used in new construction, many buildings from previous eras still exist:
Cinema and live theatreCinematic history dates to the 1920s or earlier, where it was a popular form of entertainment before network radio and television, pre-recorded video or Internet streaming.
Cold WarIn some countries, such as Russia, a handful of people still hold some nostalgia for the Cold War era in which the Soviet Union and the states under its control (the Comintern bloc) represented a vast, sprawling empire.
Consumer goods, ephemera and miscellaneaAll manner of ephemera, including products and advertisements for brands no longer manufactured, may invoke some hint of nostalgia.
FashionThe styles of clothing, textiles and fashion change annually or even seasonally.
Food and lodgingWhile the wealthy robber barons who ran the rail companies of yesteryear have diminished in stature as rail travel has been supplanted by the motorcar, many grand old hotels from the heyday of rail travel remain in…
MotorcarsAutomobiles were subject to frequent redesign, with styles changing annually to make la voiture de l'année look different from its predecessors.
MusicMany musical styles have come and gone over the years.
SeafaringThere are many marine museums with extensive coverage of the steamboats and sailing vessels of yesteryear.
SportMuch of the nostalgia around spectator sports memorialises the most famous and skilled players of yesteryear.
TransportationWhile Karl and Bertha Benz first unleashed their infernal machine on German roads in 1886 and the Wright Brothers first launched their strange contraption into the Kitty Hawk skies in 1903, many older forms of transport…
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Nostalgia" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons