Original scientific paper
“Just a Single Town-Inn, Unpresentable and Damp and – Nothing more”: On the Tourism Development Path and the Participation in Economy of Certain Places in the Area of Pula from 1960s to 1980s
Ivan Žagar
; Pula, Croatia
Abstract
The development of tourism in the socialist Croatia upon the end of the Second World War was hampered for a number of reasons: the parts of the pre-war tourism capacities had been destroyed, devastated and neglected, political and economic crisis was present not only in Yugoslavia, but also on the potential markets of Eastern and Western Europe, which represented the basic requirement for the mobility of tourists, and the putting of focus on the post-war development of industry where tourism was playing a marginal role at first. In Istria the status of boarding houses, hotels and supporting services was satisfactory: Opatija and Lovran currently disposed with 4.500 beds, and the facilities on the islands of Brijuni and Mali Lošinj could shortly be made available to guests, with minor repairs and purchase of inventory. In the second half of the 1940s and during the 1950s, various measures were introduced, like paid holidays, promotional exhibitions of Croatian and Yugoslavian Tourist Association, propaganda articles in daily, weekly and monthly newspapers and different incentives to trade unions, in order to stimulate local guests to use vacation outside their place of residence, which could be defined as an entrance of tourism into the sphere of “the socialist man’s” everyday life, but also as an increased awareness of tourism as an industry of interest to the entire country. The next stage in the development of tourism, especially foreign, started in socialist Croatia in the 1960s. That happened for at least two main reasons: one was the sudden economic boom in post-war Europe, the so called “golden age”, and the other was the abolition of visas in 1963. for all countries with which Yugoslavia had diplomatic relations. Opening the borders to foreigners and the releasing of Pula airport in 1967 represented an impetus to the providers of tourist services in eastern Istria to increase their capacities and level of supply. However, the main aim of this paper is to answer the question to what extent tourism had participated in the economy of some places in the area of Pula (Banjole, Medulin, Pomer, Premantura) and to accompany that process from 1960s to 1980s.
Keywords
History of tourism; Istria; Banjole; Medulin; Pomer; Premantura; Economy
Hrčak ID:
131257
URI
Publication date:
17.12.2014.
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