Explain why the number of foreign holidays increased during the 1960s
The 1960s saw leisure travel turn in mass tourism due to the number of holiday’s increasing, particularly foreign holidays. There are numerous reasons why the number of holidays abroad increased from 4 million to 7 million between 1961 and 1971. I will explore how money, technology, leisure time and the growth of the tourist industry increased this number even more.
One of the mean reasons is the 47% increase in real earnings between 1955-70, this contributed to the increase of foreign holidays because when the real earnings increased it provided people with more spare cash to spend on their leisure and not on necessities like in previous years. Another factor that contributed greatly was that many people could now get two weeks paid leave per annum. 99 out of 100 industrial companies provided this for their workers; this led to an increase of foreign holidays because many people could now go abroad for two weeks and still get paid for doing so. On top of this General Franco, the Spanish leader, encouraged tourism and travel so he developed many parts of Spain such a Benidorm and the Balearic islands. This led to the increase of holidays abroad because new locations offered a wide choice of holidays also a two holiday was cheap. Two weeks in Spain could cost you as little as £20, its not surprising that 30% of overall package holidays were taken in Spain. The combination of the increase in real earnings, two weeks holiday with pay and cheap new exotic locations all combined to lead to the increase in foreign holidays. The all lead to the increase because, many people had more time off work and more money available to go abroad. With a two week trip to Spain at such a low price of £20 many more people could afford it after the increase in real earnings.
