A travers le pare-brise : la creation des territoires touristiques a l'ere de l'automobile (Quebec et Ontario, 1920-1967).

摘要

This thesis explores the different ways in which territory has historically been perceived, conceived and practiced through the experience and growth of mobility. It shows the crucial role that "automobility" played for touristic development in Quebec and Ontario and the ways it shaped parts of their territory. The present study examines the different measures adopted to promote tourism in newly developed regions and to both physically and symbolically transform these regions between 1920 and 1967. The thesis answers the following question: how and in which way has automobility transformed and created tourist regions?;The period under study opens with the beginning of government intervention in the tourism industry through the creation of automobile-related infrastructure. The thesis carries its examination through the celebrations organised around the 100th anniversary of Canada and Expo 67 in Montreal, an event which led to large-scale territorial development necessary to accommodate an unprecedented number of automobiles from across Canada and the United States.;This thesis first reconstitutes the processes involved in the creation of tourist regions: the conception, construction and promotion of the highway system; the implementation of itineraries and tourist routes; and the creation of useful tools that tourists might bring on their journey. It next examines beautification as a structuring element within the transformation of territories. Finally, advertising, travelogues and tourism practices are studied in detail in order to identify the mechanisms through which various actors contributed to fashioning representations of territories.;This thesis reveals the close and complex ties that bound automobility, tourism and territorial modification as they developed during the 1920s. It helps to shed light on the historicity of certain approaches and orientations that remain current in the Canadian tourism industry, such as territorial development in terms of car accessibility. By showing the role that automobility played within the tourist experience, the present study adds to the developing understanding of the democratization of leisure. Often explained through higher standards of living as well as through the rise of leisure time and the spread within the working world of paid vacation, this democratization can also be explained through the greater accessibility of automobility, which, in turn, provided greater access to regions located further and further from urban areas. The recreational dimension of automobiling that was put forward early on in its history explains its rapid adoption by Canadians and other North Americans, as well as the dependence on cars that progressively spread through a large portion of the population.