ABSTRACT
Battlefield tourism is an interesting case study by which to explore the connections between tourism and violence. This is because this type of tourism illustrates how the violence of war alongside the macabre and dangerous generates tourism and constitutes one of the oldest motivations for tourism. This chapter demonstrate how the treatment of violence in the process of tourism development deals with politics, culture, and identity. In France, battlefield tourism has been reactivated in particular through the emergence of tourism policies based on war heritage valorisation. More generally the institutionalisation and professionalisation of battlefield tourism in France since the 1980s has led to the disqualification of former practices or actors. Institutional actors, experts and professionals of tourism now use this category in France, rather than battlefield tourism', history tourism' or even pilgrimage'. Battlefield tourism reveals the complexity of the relationships between French society and the Great War, but representations of violence as social and cultural constructions and representations of tourism.
