Tourism Governance and the Making of Europe (1918–1957)

This project examines the intertwining of tourism governance, mobility, and diplomacy. We argue that, between 1918 and 1957, tourism played a crucial role in European integration.

During this period, tourism transformed from a poorly understood, unregulated, and largely elite phenomenon to one that was academically and politically institutionalized, involved broad swathes of society, and was regulated at multiple levels of governance.

This hypothesis is tested by examining the emergence, roles and impact of national and international institutions governing the tourism sector.

Those organizations include national tourism offices (NTOs), the European Travel Commission (ETC), the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)’s tourism committee, and the predecessors of today’s United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

We ask how and why these institutions pushed for standardization of rules and practices in the field of tourism, and how extensive and consequential their attempts at harmonizing tourism policies in Europe were.

Drawing on extensive studies of private, state, and institutional archives neglected by European integration research, this project expands our understanding of integration as a process originating in the interwar period and involving international organisations far beyond those that eventually became the European Union.