Cultural History of Tourism

Our journey will begin with the history of tourism in Switzerland. Switzerland was the first “Desti-Nation”: the first country to be entirely transformed by tourism, and a model for many others. Our canton, however, followed a distinctive path. After the opening of the Gotthard Tunnel, Canton Ticino became a highly developed tourist region and was promoted as the Sonnenstube, a Mediterranean area nestled in the Alps. Several field classes will allow students to understand how tourism development has profoundly shaped and transformed the territory.

After outlining the origins of tourism during the “long nineteenth century” (Eric Hobsbawm), the course will focus primarily on the rapid development of tourism and the tourism industry after the Second World War, with particular attention to the social and cultural dimensions. The analysis will then lead us to contemporary overtourism, considered in relation to earlier forms of mass tourism.

The course will end by considering forms of tourism that maintained a link with older traditions of travel: Hippie Trail, backpacking, and Interrail.

Through a historical perspective, students will be able to engage with the complex nature of tourism, its relationship with modernity, and its constant drive towards innovation and change.

In presenza

Frontal lectures, class discussions, project work, Book analysis, and visits to sites of historical significance for the development of tourism in Ticino.

Oral exam. 30% of the final examination grade will be based on the assessment of an in-class paper on Diccon Bewes’s Slow Train to Switzerland. In addition, in order to be allowed to sit the final exam, students are required to complete the other assignments (which will not be formally graded): News of the Week, National Stereotypes, Picture of Tourists