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1Laurent Tissot starts from the position “that there is no tourism without change” (p. 243). As he explains in the introduction, it is therefore a question here of retracing the history of tourism in Switzerland “in its technical-chronological succession” (p. 11), that is to say the successive development of different means of transport for the use of tourists: firstly walking and diligence; boats on lakes; the trains; bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles; coaches; leading finally to planes and helicopters. These modes of travel characterise periods which follow one another, but which also overlap, as the transport offer is enriched at each stage with new developments without making the previous ones disappear - except, perhaps, using mules for transport. Pivotal dates are thus identified, one of the most important being the opening of the Saint-Gotthard line in 1882 which exposed central Switzerland to tourist flows on a European scale. This approach also made it possible to study the differences and similarities between means of tourist travel with precision and sensitivity towards the era in which they happened.  Lake navigation, for example, stagnated since the 1960s, while trains and coaches held up very well in the face of growth of the automobile, which is specific to the Swiss context.

2Laurent Tissot pays great attention to the links between the mode of transport adopted and the resulting vision of the landscape: lake navigation offers a serene journey, well suited to post-romantic sensibilities, with a mountain rising from the body of water, towards which the gaze is directed. The narrow-gauge railways climb up the mountain - sometimes the highest peaks (Jungfrau) at hitherto unknown speeds. The bicycle as much as the automobile marks an evolution towards the possibility of individual travel, while the coach plays a large role in tourists’ socialisation, which continues through numerous trips organised by companies, sports groups or societies.

3Of course, this approach to analysing tourism through modes of travel means that other aspects are not as developed [in the book], even if several pages are devoted to hotels and the design of certain mountain resorts such as Verbier or Moléson. Overall, urban tourism, mountaineering, and winter sports are only mentioned sporadically as catalysts of tourism development, but without being further explored in detail. 

4Even when Tissot does not systematically highlight the conflicting dimensions of tourist development, he never fails to mention them as the anti-tourist sentiment was a very tangible reality. The 40 years following the arrival of railway line to the Rigi summit in 1871 saw projects for new developments multiply at a breakneck pace: no fewer than 16 rack trains and 48 funiculars were built before 1914 (p. 69), including 7 lines alone departing from Montreux (p. 75). In the 1900s, however, this feverish development came up against powerful opposition which caused, among other things, halting the projects for a funicular to the summit of Cervin/Matterhorn (1906) and a railway to Les Diablerets (1910). This opposition to railway developments would have its counterpart in the automobile, as its emergence at the time provoked strong rejection motivated both by reasons of security and defence of the living environment (p. 114 ff.). Switzerland, which appears to us to be an “obvious” tourist destination, was actually threatened with an international boycott in 1905 during a Congress in Paris (p. 115).

5The strength of the book also lies in the iconographic research work with numerous documents from the 19th and 20th centuries which show tourists and infrastructures characteristic of different eras. Several photos of coach passengers or the first flight organised in 1932 from London capture the atmosphere of these trips. Advertising images are widely used, such as the beautiful poster from 1937 promoting the Montreux-Bernois Oberland line (p. 88), as well as political posters such as those proclaiming “Automobil? Nein! » during a 1935 vote aimed at banning automobile traffic in the canton of Grisons/Graubünden (p. 117).

6The author notes in passing some shortcomings in tourism research that we would identify equally in France, such as the absence of specific research on the use of motorcycles in tourist practices, while cycling is generally well documented, especially on mountain roads. The attentive reader will therefore also find here avenues of research that are waiting to be explored.