Cultural History of Tourism
People
Course director
Description
The course will offer an overview concerning the rise and development of tourism and tourism industry in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on economic, social and cultural aspects, and examining in details some moments of high significance: Thomas Cook and the origins of Package tour, the Golden era of Cruises, tourism and Nazism, “Dark tourism”, Mass tourism, Beach culture in the Mediterranean, Holiday villages, Hippie trail and Backpackers.
A large space will be devoted to the history of tourism in Switzerland. Switzerland was the first Desti-Nation, the first Country entirely transformed by tourism, a model for all the others.
Only one canton was different. After the opening of San Gottardo tunnel, Canton Ticino became an important touristic area, and it was promoted as the Sonnenstube, a Mediterranean region nestled into the Alps.
Textbook
O. Löfgren, On Holiday: A History of Vacationing, University of California Press, 2002. Introduction, Part II (chapter 2), Part III.
Diccon Bewes, Slow Train to Switzerland, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2013.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, A Theory of Tourism (1958), “New German Critique” 68 (1996), pp. 117-35.
