Choice

"The wars that ended Yugoslavia obscured the country's successes during its 1945-91 existence, and few now recall that from the 1960s through 1990, Yugoslavia was a major destination for tourists from Western Europe. The country also had a well-developed domestic tourist industry. Thirteen authors cover topics ranging from broad considerations of tourism and the making of socialist Yugoslavia through specific analyses of youth work brigades, the political tourist shrine created out of Tito's birthplace, cross-border shopping in Italy by Yugoslavia tourists, and an insightful analysis of the Sarajevo Olympics as both unifying spectacle for Yugoslavia's people and source of contention between the politicians of its constituent republics. The changes in Yugoslav tourism from free vacations at "workers' resorts" to market-driven transformation of small, privately owned "weekend houses" into rental cottages is also covered well. In the end, it seems that tourism contributed to the successes of Yugoslav socialism, but also to the increased perceptions of Yugoslavs in the 1980s that the country was failing to deliver on promises of the good life. A major contribution to studies of Yugoslavia, tourism, and cultural history. Summing Up: Highly recommended."
Reviewed book: 
Editor: 
Hannes Grandits
Karin Taylor
ISBN: 
978-963-9776-69-2
cloth
$111.00 / €95.00 / £90.00