Visite Uruguay: Del Balneario Al País Turístico. 1930-1955 Autores: N. Da
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reseñas:Maquetación 1 14/11/2013 11:36 Página 220 TST, Junio 2013, nº 24 tions and by a selective use of the press. [220] Some valuable publicity films have been located, and their representations added into the mix. This enables the authors to present a panorama of tourist activity across the country as a whole, moving beyond the coastline to follow the course of the Uruguay River and penetrate the hills and forests of the interior. Their cove- rage ranges from the capital itself, and its string or chain of adjacent sea-bathing resorts, to the smallest emergent green shoots of tourism activities in and around the hotels of provincial capitals in loca- tions barely registered on the national tou- Visite Uruguay: Del Balneario al País rism map even in the 1950s. The book’s Turístico. 1930-1955 title communicates its central theme: the Autores: N. Da Cunha, R. transition of the dominant projected tourist Campodónico, M. Maronna, N. Duffau image of Uruguay during the middle deca- and G. Buere des of the twentieth century, from an origi- Editorial: Ediciones de la Banda nal emphasis on the hotels, boulevards and Oriental, Montevideo, 2012 beaches of the national capital, to the idea ISBN: 978-99-74107-90-8 of a welcoming, hospitable ‘tourist nation’ Páginas: 319 offering a rich diversity of experiences and opportunities across a variety of landsca- pes and regional cultures. Historians of tourism have been very This is very much a ‘national’ history, active in the River Plate region during although it incorporates external theoreti- recent years, especially the teams based at cal perspectives, from Urry and Bourdieu Mar del Plata in Argentina and to Hiernaux and MacCannell. As such it Montevideo in Uruguay. Some of the most will be valuable as a case-study for inter- interesting historical work on destination national overviews and comparative pro- resorts has come from this region of the jects, and it will benefit especially from globe. The book under review is a welco- being set alongside Elisa Pastoriza’s La me addition to the output of the latter Conquista de las Vacaciones, which provi- group, and continues their extension of the des a similarly wide-ranging overview of coverage of tourism history in Uruguay tourism development in Argentina. It also further into the twentieth century, and out- pays necessary attention to the internatio- wards from the national capital into the nal dimensions of tourism in Uruguay, provinces. The focus is on the presentation which was seen as a ‘fuente de riqueza’ or of developments in tourism through adver- source of wealth for the national balance tising and promotional material produced of payments from an early stage, and espe- by national and regional entities, supple- cially to the enormous Argentinian market mented by histories of particular destina- across the River Plate (and indeed the reseñas:Maquetación 1 14/11/2013 11:36 Página 221 Reseñas River Uruguay, although the demand might assume from this material that [221] generated from Buenos Aires was the great Uruguay was a mountainous country, and prize). Brazil was much less important, it comes as a surprise to find that the although there is some discussion of shop- country’s highest point is only 514 metres ping and casino gambling developments or 1686 feet above sea level. Beyond the on the land frontier between the two country’s physical attributes, a theme nations. It would be interesting to learn which extended to appreciative descrip- more about what might be labelled the tions of the contours of its bathing beau- ‘cold war’ between Uruguay and ties, assiduous efforts were made to iden- Argentina in the early 1950s, with its tify Uruguay with hospitality and friendli- serious short-term consequences for the ness towards the country’s guests. Uruguayan tourism industries As Nelly Da Not that domestic tourism was neglected. Cunha discussed in an earlier work, fluc- In this respect, the role of the state in tuations in diplomatic relationships and encouraging healthy leisure, outdoor pur- rates of currency exchange between the suits and the enjoyment of Uruguay’s River Plate neighbours affected natural attractions, which had contempo- Uruguayan tourism much more deeply and rary parallels in any other countries, took directly than distant ‘world wars’, in unusual and interesting forms. The con- which the nations of the Southern Cone version of Holy Week into a secular remained neutral. Apart from disrupting Tourism Week was particularly striking, trading patterns, the Second World War alongside the co-option of Carnival as a did come close to home through the bloc- tourism focus, as was the active role of kade and scuttling of the German cruiser state intervention in the democratic, posi- Graf Spee in the River Plate estuary in tive promotion of holidaymaking, which at December 1939, which provided unsche- times shaded over into full-blown ‘social duled additional entertainment for holi- tourism’. Alongside all this, however, was daymakers in Montevideo. a sustained effort to attract foreign The book’s main focus is on the changing currency through elite big spenders. ways in which Uruguay’s tourist attrac- Government endorsement and promotion tions were represented, over a pivotal half- of Punta del Este, with its country club and century, through contemporary media and film festival, was indicative here, follo- publicity systems. The dominant theme wing on from national and municipal emerges as the enjoyment of water, investment in up-market hotels in through beaches, aquatic sports, and sce- Montevideo. But the role of government nic tourism associated with waterfalls and went much further, in provision as well as coastal or riverside vegetation and wildli- publicity. Casino gambling was a powerful fe. There were local peculiarities, such as weapon in its armoury, not least to kick- Salto’s association with oranges and early start tourism in new areas, with 40 per cent attempts to promote industrial archaeo- of the profits going to local government logy around Fray Bentos and Colonia and health services. Sport could largely be (where a former bull ring played its part), left to private enterprise or voluntary asso- but water predominated, together with sce- ciations, although the varieties promoted nery (including ranges of hills and attracti- by the state publicity machine were those ve geological features). A casual reader associated with the wealthy and privile- reseñas:Maquetación 1 14/11/2013 11:36 Página 222 TST, Junio 2013 ged: polo, yachting, rowing. The absence [222] of football from this panorama is interes- ting, not least because the first World Cup was held in the new Centenary Stadium at the beginning of the period under review. Road-building was also an important aspect of opening out the country to tou- rism initiatives through the extension of motor tourism and bus services, and it is interesting to see how invisible the rail- ways are in this account, despite their own modernising efforts during this difficult period. Anyone with a comparative inte- rest in the historic role of government in tourism promotion would find an excellent extreme example in Uruguay during this period. This useful book is clearly presented and opens out a valuable seam of source-based argument. If at times it is a little repetitive and descriptive, even formulaic, this has to do with the nature of the exercise and the problems of controlling large research pro- jects with multiple researchers and authors. Although the argument of the book is firmly rooted in the experience of one small country, it has the capacity to contribute to much wider debates, both within and beyond Latin America. John K. Walton, IKERBASQUE, Instituto Valentín de Foronda, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/ EHU.