'Mobile heritage': motor vehicle heritage tourism in the United Kingdom

Heritage tourism takes many forms. Despite the growing awareness that heritage can include almost anything from the past that has a meaning for individuals or groups in the present, the academic literature still places much emphasis on tourism associated with sites and monuments. There are, however, other forms of heritage that have not been as widely studied. One sucharea is ‘historic motor vehicle event tourism', in which individuals and groups travel to take part as participants, competitors or spectators in events focused on heritage vehicles. This gives rise to the interesting phenomenon of both the heritage and the tourists being mobile. In order to understand how historic vehicle events can impact local communities,research was initiated to assess and understand the economic impact of three separate events: the 2010 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run on the city of Brighton and Hove, the 2012 Beaulieu Autojumble on the New Forest region and the 2012 Goodwood Revival Festival. These events were chosen because they represent a cross-section of different event types (a run, an autojumble and a festival) and have heritage tourism characteristics. This research was assessed in conjunction with previous studies on the value of the historic vehicle movement to the UK.