Not learning: The gold coast as theme park

In the past tourism was a privileged pursuit, the prerogative of the wealthy who wished to add travel to the preoccupations of their sybarite lifestyle. Over the last hundred years or so tourism, like many pursuits in modern society, has become a mass pursuit with diverse forms, prompted by the revolution in travel technology and by annual leave legislation, which made holidays a central component of the work regimen. Holidays took their place inside the work ethic as a reward for unstinting industry, a time of escape from the demands of labour, a period to rekindle the jaded spirit and recover lost energies. What ensued was an industrial phase of tourism, of mass holidaying at set times of the year, to designated seaside resorts accessible by rail, which were revisited each year. Holidays were taken within national borders and tourists were accommodated at guest houses, their activities limited to the immediate beach environs. Tourism was a cottage-industry affair organized on a regional basis, with local entrepreneurs primarily targeting a domestic market. For many working-class Australian families, holidays were (and still are) taken in that canvas version of the motel: the campsite, which punctuates the coastlines and the perimeters of national parks, offering idyllic settings remote from the monstrosities of modernism and a kinship, of sorts, with nature. Such holidays remain outside the infrastructure of tourism, and constitute an alternative to the costly business of mainstream holiday-making.