In a preface to the first of the six volumes of domestic tours he published between 1798 and 1800 as The British Tourists; or Traveller's Pocket Companion, WilBritain's home territories comparatively little known:

This was a commonly held view in the period, but for a Scottish Whig like Mavor, the point was that the outstanding features of modern Britain were all on show in the home tour. ‘[I] n whatever light we regard the British Islands;’ he observed:

The project Mavor was introducing was his selection of the domestic tours published in the last third of the eighteenth century, which, at least on his terms, displayed the genre at its best. This work was, he stated, oriented towards patriotism and benevolence, framed in terms of ‘utility and propriety’ as a contribution to ‘to the public good’ (viii). The excerpted, collected tours were intended to detail British improvement and advancement – subjects that Mavor, who was from a modest background, was keen should circulate to the widest possible audience. Modern tours were, he noted, the preserve of the wealthy due to their cost, but he optimistically imagined The British Tourists as a way of putting them ‘within the reach of every class of his fellow subjects’ (ix). In tandem with the levelling sentiment of this comment, the project was one of enlightenment and education, and Mavor used metaphors of illumination to say more about the public benefit of collecting and abridging tours.