Tourism and Leisure Cultures in Socialist Yugoslavia

BOOK PROJECT AND WORKSHOP
 

Yugoslavia’s Sunny Side
A history of tourism in socialism
(1950s-1980s)
 
edited by
Karin Taylor and Hannes Grandits
Planned publishing date: 2008

   
In the 1970s, Yugoslav marketing experts described the Adriatic coast as the “Yugoslav Florida”. At this time, Yugoslavia’s tourism trade figured as a success story that demonstrated both the declared achievements of the self-management system and the rising standard of living in the country. For many former citizens of Yugoslavia, memories of holidaymaking – and making a living from tourism – evoke a sense of the “good life” people enjoyed before the economy and subsequently the country fell apart. Despite the central role tourism played in both the political making of the Yugoslav socialist state after WWII and everyday life, the topic remains neglected as an object of recent historical research that has tended to dwell on war and “ethnic” conflict.   
 
This book aims at a history of domestic tourism in Yugoslavia: from the popularization of tourism and holidaymaking in the 1950s and 60s to the consumer practices of the 1970s and 80s. It will consider tourism as a political, economic and social project of the Yugoslav federal state, and as a crucial field of social integration. The contributions will discuss the socialist and Yugoslav ideologies that aimed to turn workers into consumers of purposeful leisure, and will set these ideas against actual practices of recreation and holidaymaking. As a history of everyday life in socialism, it will deal with popular texts (e.g. life-style and leisure magazines) and memories as important sources, including biographical interviews recorded by the contributors themselves.
 
The few recent histories of tourism that include the former Yugoslavia largely concentrate on developments on the territories of the contemporary states and neglect the interlinking and intersections of  organisational structures, infrastructures, individual travel and personal ties beyond republican borders in Yugoslavia. By taking a broader geographical and disciplinary view, the book emphasizes the multifarious links between tourism and consumption on the federal and republican levels, and intends to closely trace histories of leisure, mobility and consumerism beyond the economic developments of the tourism sector. Tourism and holidaymaking will be investigated as spheres of life influenced by the discourses and circumstances of socialist government, and of individual experiences of growing up in the 20^th century “consumer age”.
 
Although sun, sea and čevapčići constitute favourite memories of the Yugoslav past, tourism and holidays were also sites of contesting ideas, economies and opportunities. The contributions will look at issues that increasingly dominated public life: social stratification, the commercialisation and privatisation of tourism services, and unequal access to tourism resources. In the growing absence of a unitary socialist utopia, in how far did personal and collective leisure utopias co-exist or come into conflict? With time, tourism came to mean not only pleasure but also the opportunity to accumulate personal wealth, for instance through renting accommodation to tourists or by building a holiday cottage. In addition, tourism destinations acquired an increasingly “national” reading during the 1980s. The book will investigate in how far tourism created a realm of common experience and identity in Yugoslavia, and which tensions remained unresolved in Yugoslav society.
 
The contributors are asked to address the following issues in one of four thematic sections:
 
1. “Holidays on Command”

Especially in the decade after World War II, the socialist government emphasized state-organised holidays as part of the doctrine of creating a classless society. Party organisations, industrial enterprises and trade unions built tourism facilities and arranged travel for workers and their families. Yugoslavs were encouraged to enjoy not only relaxing and pleasant recreation, but also to spend an ideologically “appropriate” holiday. In the course of time, this aspect of holidaymaking lost significance in practice but remained an important factor in official discourses on tourism in socialism. Contributions should give insight into the planning and operation of social tourism, and especially to experiences of organised holidaymaking
 
2. Tourism and the “Yugoslav Dream”

Vivid memories of enjoyable holidays and buying new and fashionable consumer items characterize interviews with people from different parts of Yugoslavia. Recent scholarly discourse has discussed in how far the state promoted “socialist consumerism” and suggests that consumerism may be seen as an integral part of the Yugoslav “way”. But what was the distinct role of tourism? Can we understand tourism as a stabilizing factor in the socialist order during its various transformations?
 
3. Tourism Economies in Transformation

Images of Yugoslavia as a tourist destination changed as marketing strategies became more commercially oriented. Similarly, tourism economies increasingly accommodated “private” business (although the practices of the “private” and state/self-management sectors were closely interlinked from early on). Articles under consideration for this section already cover the growing “privatisation” of tourism. But contributions on two particular issues would be welcomed: a) the marketing of Yugoslav resorts and tourism attractions for the domestic market, and b) the development of winter tourism in Bosnia.
 
4. The 1980s: Crossing Borders, Maintaining Borders

Tourism research in Yugoslavia was lively in the 1980s but broke down with the collapse of the federation when experts began to concentrate on their new “home” states.
From the point of view of recent tourism historiography, little research deals with this decade of shortages, last-minute economic reforms and growing nationalist tendencies. Contributions are invited to deal with these issues or other aspects important to understanding Yugoslav tourism and consumption practices in the 1980s.
 
 
Workshop April 2007
 
Workshop Programme

Workshop photos