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Rites Of Passage: Tourism And The Crossing To Prince Edward Island, Alan Maceachern, Edward Macdonald

History Publications

The tourism history of Prince Edward Island clearly demonstrates the dynamic importance of marine transportation to island tourism. The sea passage to an island is a visceral marker of “otherness,” yet mass tourism requires convenient access. Even as exporters and importers pressed the “rights of passage” (captured in Confederation’s promise of “continuous steam communication” with the Mainland), tourism promoters began to incorporate the “rites of passage” into their promotion of the island province. This paper traces over time this tension between the prosaic and the metaphysical: the desire for transportation efficiency and the tourist experience of islandness.