Managing the Future

Abstract

Tourism only developed as a major activity of international significance economically, educationally and environmentally, in the late 1950s. The biggest single influence was probably the increasing availability of air transport, combined with increasingly affluent populations, often conveniently gathered together in manufacturing cities and conurbations. It was at this time that mass tourism began to develop, and particularly the movement from North Europe to new resorts in Mediterranean basin countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, and more recently Turkey. This trend was reflected somewhat later in the development of Black Sea resorts. Similar examples exist in the Caribbean and Florida with inflows from northern parts of the United States and from Canada. Luton, dealing with charter traffic mainly to Majorca, was Europe’s seventh busiest airport in the late 1960s.