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THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN SOUTH CROATIA IN THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY Marija BENI PENAVA1 Marija GJURAŠI2 University of Dubrovnik, 29 Branitelja Dubrovnika, 20000 Dubrovnik, CROATIA University of Dubrovnik, 29 Branitelja Dubrovnika, 20000 Dubrovnik, CROATIA * Marija Beni Penava; E-mail: [email protected]; phone: +385 20445934 Abstract — This paper analyses, using archive records and relevant literature, the application of technological advances in transport and tourism in South Croatia in the period that preceded cruisers with thousands of passengers, mass air transport, as well as the usage of computers reservation systems and credit cards that are used in tourism industry nowadays. Technology was intensively involved in the tourism industry in the past. The impacts of technology could be seen on the connectivity by railway as well as sea, land and air traffic. In addition to the mentioned factors of communicative tourism, its receptive factors – hotel industry, catering, marketing, cultural institutions, public services etc became more dependent on technologies in the interwar period. The connection between the advances in technology and the new growing service sector of tourism in the Croatian south was a prerequisite of the coming development of mass tourism. Therefore, the human need for rest, recreation and adventure while abandoning their permanent residence achieved its purpose – enjoyment and relaxation. Peripheral parts of the Croatian south outgrew into world tourist destinations due to the progress of both transport and communication technology in the first half of the 20th century. Keywords— technology, tourism, South Croatia, 20th century 1. INTRODUCTION The Republic of Croatia is oriented towards tourism development, it is a recognized and popular destination with a clear development strategy and vision of its future in tourism. This orientation of Croatia’s regions to tourism has a long tradition; its beginnings were boosted by progress in steamship and railway travel, i.e. with the prosperity of faster and more comfortable transport connections. Travelling for pleasure, once feasible only for the elite, became more widely available with the industrial revolution. However, despite technological advances in transport in the early 20th century, tourism had not become a mass phenomenon. This novelty remained a privilege of the wealthy in Croatian territories, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Technology is crucial in all industries today, so it is in the largest and the most pervasive international industry – in tourism. Technological progress is the basis of virtually every study of the development of mass tourism, yet its influence in the earlier periods of individual tourism is not 135 TECHNOLOGY IN TIMES OF TRANSITION sufficiently represented in historiography. The aim of this research is to analyse the beginnings of the rich tourist Croatian history through the advancement of technology in transport and communication. This paper, after a preliminary review, explores the current researches of the impact of technology on the development of Croatian tourism; the orientation of the Croatian coast towards tourism up to the Second World War; as well as the impact of technological advances in traffic communications on the example of Dubrovnik as the tourist centre of South Croatia. The conclusion of the research is presented at the end of the paper. 2. RESEARCHES ON TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CROATIA’S TOURISM IN THE PAST The historical approach to the research of the phenomenon of tourism is a growing discipline whose history is marked by immense innovativeness. Innovation research in tourism gained popularity in the world by late 20th century and is incorporated into the plans and strategies of Croatia’s tourism today.1 Little has been written about the impact of technology on the development of Croatian tourism in the past, while the history of tourism in Croatian areas is mainly researched in the frameworks of broader studies. 2 In addition, research on the history of tourism and technology in Europe has been disproportionately directed towards Western Europe, neglecting its peripheral parts. The economically most underdeveloped Austro-Hungarian provinces of the time, specially Dalmatia3 – had never been a part of the Grand Tour and become part of the European tourist scene relatively late. Influenced by the British, the popularity seaside resorts gained spread across 18th and 19th century Europe.4 It was in this period that Opatija and Dubrovnik built their elite status and become tourist summer capitals of the coast. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century British visitors witnessed the beginnings of cultural tourism in the Croatian region.5 1 Anne-Mette Hjalager, "A review of innovation research in tourism," Tourism Management 31 (2010): 1-12.; "Izvještaj 5. imbenici razvoja turizma u Republici Hrvatskoj II: obrazovanje, suvremene tehnologije i inovacije, turistiko posredovanje te marketing, promocija i imidž Hrvatske," in Glavni plan i strategija razvoja turizma Republike Hrvatske (Zagreb: Institut za turizam, 2012), 27-30. 2 John B. Allcock, "International tourism and the appropriation of history in the Balkans," in Tourism and Economic Development in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union ed. Derek R. Hall. (London; New York: Belhaven Press; Halsted Press, 1991), 236-258.; Tomislav Hitrec, "History of tourism with particular reference to the Croatian Adriatic," in Development of a Tourist Industry in the 19th and 20th Centuries. International Perspectives ed. Tissot L. et al. (Neuchâtel: Alphil, 2003), 391-404. 3 The geographic boundaries of the province of Dalmatia were subject to change through history. Thus, for example, from 1816 to 1878 Dalmatia stretched from Rab to Budva, and after the Congress of Berlin (1878) from Rab to Bar. Frane Ivkovi, "Organizacija uprave u okrugu Split za vrijeme druge austrijske vladavine od 1814. do kraja druge austrijske uprave 1918. godine," in Sources and contributions for the history of Dalmatia 12, ed. N. Baji-Žarko. (Split: Povijesni arhiv, 1996), 894.; Frane Ivkovi, "Ustroj uprave u Boki kotorskoj od francuske uprave 1807. do kraja druge austrijske uprave 1918. godine," Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU, 53 (2011): 195. 4John K. Walton, "Prospects in tourism history: evolution, state of play and future developments," Tourism management : research – policies – practice, 30/6 (2009): 783-793. 5 Jill Steward, "The spa towns of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the growth of tourist culture: 1860-1914," in New Directions in Urban History, ed. Peter Borsay et al. (Münster: Waxmann, 2000), 87-126. 136 M. BENI PENAVA & M. GJURAŠI: The Impact of Technology Authentic and credible sources of the history of tourism were far less interpreted by historians compared to researchers from other fields of social sciences. The reason for the domination of sociologists, economists and geographers to research the history of tourism was the subsequent recognition of the potential of tourism as a historical discipline.6 Only in the 21st century does tourism became the subject of serious historical research in the fields of social history, the history of everyday life and history of leisure. Proceedings which publish papers at the international level include studies of tourism in Croatia from a limited territory (the former Austrian Littoral) or analyse the period of mass tourism in socialist Yugoslavia.7 Technology occupied a special place in the socialist ideology of the period after World War II, and there is an increasing prevalence of younger and middle generation researchers of humanistic orientation from the region who research the development of the consumer society in socialist Yugoslavia.8 Due to the lack, fragmentation and poor availability of data, the history of Croatian tourism is less frequent than other theoretical works on tourism which often lack a historical dimension.9 Also, technological advances in transport and communication on Croatian territory in the past is studied as a subject of Traffic and Engineering studies at Croatian universities, without attaching importance to tourism development of this region in the past.10 The main reason for discrepancies in research intensity is a different intensity of tourist experiences as well as a different representation of historical sources in some parts of Croatia. Bearing in mind that the amount of collected material and reference literature shapes a research, a greater number of studies of individual smaller tourist micro-regions in the past is not surprising. 3. TRAFFIC COMMUNICATIONS IN DALMATIA Technological advances in history are lengthy and complex processes which have their duration until they are replaced with new technology.11 In the development of technology in the past, the Industrial Revolution was a watershed period. A period of fast development occurred for the countries and nations with leading technologies, while the backward European periphery with the Croatian areas gradually and incompletely accepted progress in the last decades of the 19th century. 6 John K. Walton, "Tourism and History," in Contemporary Tourism Reviews ed. Cooper. (Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Limited, 2011), 3. 7 Peter Jordan, Milena Perši, eds., Österreich und der Tourismus von Opatija (Abbazia) vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg und zur Mitte der 1990er Jahre. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1998.; Hannes Grandits, Karin Taylor, eds. Yugoslavia’s Sunny Side: A