ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between tourism and activities and events that involve heritage automobiles and the extent to which each contributes to the other. It presents the case that tourism, itself a relatively social, cultural, and economic phenomenon, has been influenced by the automobile, both in terms of functionality and mobility and in terms of becoming tourist attractions in and of themselves. The chapter examines this phenomenon primarily through a discussion of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance held each August on the Monterey Peninsula in California. Tourism within the context of heritage automobiles falls into the tourism niche called industrial heritage tourism. Automobile heritage tourism encourages the use of historic or vintage automobiles, in various states of preservation or restoration, as the core of the attraction for visitors. In effect, such tourism encourages the collection and preservation of old cars as well as their restoration and or reconstruction.
