Boston Hospitality Review: Winter 2016

The historical television series Downton Abbey, based on a fictional member of the British peerage and his family, has become a phenomenon in the United States. Cunard is one of the oldest and most famous passenger transportation companies in the world. Among the ships in its corporate lineage are Lusitania, Titanic and Queen Mary. This article explores theoretical parallels between the show and the cruise line, especially the historical aspects of social hierarchy. The author argues that the value proposition for passengers aboard modern Cunard ships such as Queen Mary 2 is complex. Although some guests are motivated by hedonistic or functional benefits unconnected to heritage, many are consciously participating in elaborate historical role playing. Such behavior is motivated by fantasies related to socioeconomic status, especially a desire by Americans to escape their modern egalitarian existence and become members of the English aristocracy in a mythologized past. Bradford T. Hudson, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Marketing in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Previously he was a faculty member at Boston University, with concurrent appointments as Associate Professor of the Practice of Marketing in the School of Hospitality Administration and Lecturer in Marketing at the Graduate School of Management. He holds a master’s degree in services marketing from the Cornell Hotel School and a Ph.D. in business history from Boston University. He is a former Fulbright Scholar to Canada, where he conducted research about brand heritage at the historic château hotels now operated by Fairmont. Email [email protected]