An excellent book for anyone interested in the role of tourism in the post World war Two economy and culture is ‘Europe at the Seaside: the Economic History of Mass Tourism in the Mediterranean’, edited by Luciano Segreto, Carles Manera and Manfred Pohl (Berghahn Books, Oxford and New York, 2009). It’s in the ‘business history’ genre – not something I’d normally read. However, it is a better commentary on the relationship between tourism and society than most books that claim to serve that function. It is also a riposte to the consignment of mass package tourism to the cultural dustbin of history by those enamoured of the new ‘ethical’ niches.
Tourism has been key in shaping and reshaping the economies of the Mediterranean. Also, ‘the Med’ has become iconic of mass tourism culturally as well as economically, with many of the destinations and companies featured in the book viewed rather critically through the contemporary prism of sustainability.
The book shows that Fordism in the tourism industry – efficient, integrated systems of production, standardisation and economies of scale – was in fact liberating in a very real sense. This is contrast to the notion that Fordism and choice are somehow antithetical, and that post-Fordism is a new era of creativity and enlightened consumers.
The jet engine was a key technological innovation shaping the industry. Aircraft linked the generating markets of the north to the Mediterranean. Jets could carry larger aircraft, and larger aircraft meant greater scope for economies of scale and cheaper travel. Independent charter airlines, boosted by capital from the shipping industry in the 1970s, pioneered the ‘back to back’ charter (itself seen as innovative in its time). A week on the French Riviera, the Costas, the Balearics, Rimini or a Greek island - all featured in the book - became closer to the cost of a week in Blackpool. For many the former proved preferable. The economic and social transformation of poor fishing villages in southern Spain into the Costa del Sol was one result. Host and tourist benefitted.
The chapter on the French Accor group is illustrative of the way Fordism and standardisation enabled growing numbers of people to travel for leisure. Standardised in the form of low cost hotels, initially intended for business use, rapidly became popular with leisure travellers – Fordism and standardisation, often portrayed as culturally limiting, contributed to the expansion of leisure mobility. It became easier for wider sections of people to visit friends, relatives, and towns and cities away from the principle tourism destinations. Counter intuitively, Fordism and standardisation led to greater choice.
The chapter on Rimini is illustrative of the fact that the growth of mass tourism on the Mediterranean was not simply a matter of constantly ‘more of the same’, an undercurrent in some contemporary commentaries that are critical of mass tourism’s legacy. Rimini’s development as a beach resort was itself innovative – it was new and exciting, and of its time, a leader in the field of family beach holidays in the 1950s and 60s. In response to stagnation in the latter 1960s (Spain and Yugoslavia offered cheaper alternatives), improved planning and marketing made a positive difference. In the 1970s and 1980s the resort reoriented itself towards night clubs and discotheques, responding to the changing fashions – it became the trendy disco capital of Italy. In the 1990s, conferences and trade fairs were developed, and new theme parks proved popular.
Many who travelled abroad to Rimini for their holidays in the 1960s and 1970s would have been doing so for the first time (some of course would have seen foreign shores on military service) - they were perhaps the pioneers of their day. My mother travelled to Rimini in 1960. For her and her Glaswegian friends this was theirfirst venture outside the UK, their first taste of another culture and language. For them, used to the local resorts on the Scottish west coast and islands, this was ‘new tourism’ – exciting, distant and exotic. It was also, as shown in this book, a major feature of Italian economy and society.
I also especially enjoyed the chapter on Club Méditerranée. I was surprised to find that the ideals of its founders matched those of the most leftfield niche wellness operator of today – eastern mysticism, the recuperative power of nature, a place to find ‘interior peace, equilibrium, and a profound happiness’. Was Club Méditerranée the ‘Alternative Tourism’ of its day?
The book is an economic history, but one that discusses the economic trends in context, as they were shaped by people, pioneers, and as they shaped the lives and possibilities for many others. It is very highly recommended for anyone interested in the economic and social history of tourism in the Mediterranean.
