Ethnology

Gender studies

Tourism

Archaeology

Physics

Optics

Hospitality

Political science

Glory

Ancient history

Sociology

Pride

Empire

Colonialism

British Empire

Media studies

History

Hospitality & Society

Hospitality and tourism scholars have acknowledged the significance of colonial nostalgia for the discipline; however, much needs to be done to analyse the consequences involved. Using the theoretical background of postcolonialism and whiteness studies, this study attends to this significant research gap by exploring British tourists’ pursuit of colonial nostalgia through tourism, thus emphasizing that colonial nostalgia is a distinctively hospitality and tourism social science phenomenon. British tourists visiting Kolkata and Darjeeling in India were interviewed and the results revealed that these tourists are proud of the British Empire and visit India to resurrect those golden days when Britannia ruled the waves and bask in the glory of the Raj and its ‘Anglophilia’. The British tourists’ attitude on one hand expressed their pride of being a superior race compared to the savage Indians, and on the other, justified their support for the legacy of the British Empire.

‘Longing for the British Raj’: Imperial/colonial nostalgia and tourism