Reframing mass tourism: the results of an oral history fieldwork along the Mediterranean Coast

Was mass tourism socially sustainable? To answer this question, we conducted oral history fieldwork focusing on the relationships between tourists and the local community. We interviewed tourists of different ages, professions, and geographical origins who spent their holidays on the Adriatic coast between the 1930s and the 1980s. The result is rather unexpected. The literature on mass tourism has generally developed conceptualisations that emphasise its unsustainability. In contrast, our oral history investigation highlights a socially and culturally sustainable practice, at least as regards the significant proportion of tourists who returned for repeated holidays and stayed for many days on each occasion. This finding can be linked to the literature on destination stewardship, which identifies repeat visits as a means of strengthening place attachment and encouraging more responsible behaviour on the part of tourists. Furthermore, extended stays and repeat holidays represent a crucial distinction between mass tourism and overtourism.