Original scientific paper
THE LEISURED MASSES DISCOVER CROATIA: ENGLISH TRAVEL GUIDEBOOKS AS A SOURCE FOR THE HISTORY OF TRAVELLING TO THE EASTERN ADRIATIC COAST IN THE 1950s AND 1960s
Igor Duda
; Linacre College, University of Oxford, Great Britain
Abstract
In the 1950s and 1960s more and more foreigners visited Yugoslavia, especially the Adriatic where they came to spend their holidays. Croatia – with the largest and the most attractive part of the East Adriatic coast – became a destination for the vast majority of foreign tourists in Yugoslavia, who spent three quarters of their overnight stays there. Democratization of travelling was a consequence of the growing affluence in the post-war Europe, the development of the mass consumer society and the establishing of holidays with pay as an entitlement. At the time, after the invention and legalization, holiday-making entered into the third phase – popularization. The British and American masses on the move discovered Croatia, as well, and got the information about it from the travel guidebooks on Yugoslavia, published in the UK and the United States in 1958-1969. The authors described Yugoslavia as a place where East met West, old met new, as a best-buy destination and a country with a strange form of socialism. Yugoslav nations were perceived as extremely different among themselves. The guidebooks noted the changes that occurred in the country in the decade, especially the increasing quality of living of the hosts and their guests. Taking into consideration the length of the coast and the number of visitors, the fact that the guides on Yugoslavia were mainly guides on Croatia seems very reasonable. However, the beauty of the Croatian coast was used to increase the interest in inland “real Yugoslavia”. The authors were not immune to prejudices, stereotypes and imprecision. Tourism enhanced the modernisation process in Croatia, including the development of the consumer society, and Croatian holidaymakers in large numbers participated in the “discovery” of the Adriatic.
Keywords
Tourism; Mass Consumer Society; Tourist Guides; Great Britain; United States of America
Hrčak ID:
101958
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2003.
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