The Development of Mexico’s Tourism Industry

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 1-10

   PDF

3. Mexico’s New Revolution: The Race for the Tourist Dollar, 1928–1929

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 11-26

   PDF

4. State Support and Private Initiative: Patterns in the Development and Promotion of Tourism, 1930–1935

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 27-44

   PDF

5. Motoring to Mexico: Highways Hotels, and Lo Mexicano, 1936–1938

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 45-69

   PDF

6. “Vacationing with a Purpose”: Tourism Promotion on the Eve of World War II

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 71-90

   PDF

7. Pyramids by Day, Martinis by Night: Selling a Holiday in Mexico

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 91-115

   PDF

8. Epilogue

   • Dina Berger

   Pages 117-120

   PDF

9. Back Matter

   Pages 121-164

   PDF

Berger argues that tourism was forged by Mexico's government in 1928 as the cornerstone of state-led modernization programmes. Berger presents tourism as the leading and influential facet of the post-revolutionary modernization programme. She also examines how tourism fostered nationalism and unity, and emerged as a new form of foreign diplomacy.

• Hotels
• Nation
• nationalism
• tourism
• tourism industry

"A well-researched, thoughtful and pioneering study of the Mexican Tourism Industry." - Andrew Wood, University of Tulsa

"It is refreshing to see a study of "bilateral relations" between the U.S. and Mexico, focused on the decades between 1920 and 1940, that focuses as much on people - in this case, the producers and consumers of the tourist lifeworld - as diplomats. Of special interest is the attention paid to the dilemmas faced by a highly nationalist government that, for economic advantage, seeks to "sell" its culture to foreigners without watering down its sense of national pride.....Highly recommended for its appreciation of Mexican popular culture and how it was continually "reinvented" to appeal to eager travelers from the north." - Diane E. Davis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century (English 1994, Spanish 1998)

'This meticulously researched and wide-ranging study is the first of its kind to document the origins of Mexico's tourism industry as it took root during the 1930s. The Development of Mexico's Tourism Industry is an original and welcome contribution that should receive a wide audience across disciplines.' - Eric Zolov, Franklin & Marshall College, author of Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (1999)

'Berger's detailed research into the private and public institutions charged with transforming Mexico into a tourist destination after the Revolution not only complicates our understanding of US-Mexican relations in the 1920s and 1930s, but reveals the foundations of the resort industry that today reaches from Baja to the Maya Riviera. - James Oles, Wellesley College

'In an engaging and insightful example of cultural and political history, Dina Berger demonstrates how the Mexican leadership connected tourism with the construction of a new economy and broader polity because tourists demand creature comforts and their example would increase the material expectations of the general public. Under President Lazaro Cardenas the focus was widened to include the promotion of prehistoric sites and museums that not only promoted tourism but also created an increased sense of national cultural unity.' - John Mason Hart, Author of Empire and Revolution: The Americans in Mexico Since the Civil War

'How Mexico became one of the world's top tourist destinations is a fascinating and hitherto largely untold story. Thanks to Dina Berger's path breaking, deftly researched study, we can now trace the origins of Mexican tourism back to the dark days of the Mexican Revolution, when against all odds a dynamic group of revolutionaries, boosters, bankers, and entrepreneurs reinvented Mexico's tattered image, seduced the gringo tourist, and laid the foundations for a world-class industry. Berger's engaging account demonstrates that tourism was more than business: it was Mexico's ticket to modernity.' - Adrian A. Bantjes, University of Wyoming

"This smartly conceived, admirably concise volume raises the bar for historical studies of Mexican tourism. Without marginalizing the collaboration of U.S. actors or the lure of the Yankee tourist dollar, Berger deftly portrays the origins of the Mexican industry as an expression of the consolidation of the nation's increasingly powerful postrevolutionary state and of the economic and cultural projects that underwrote it. Drawing effectively on under-utilized Mexican sources (like the records of private travel clubs), Berger's study contributes importantly to our knowledge of both twentieth-century Mexico and transnational tourist promotion. The contrasts drawn with the development of Cuban and Caribbean tourism enhance the book's value." - Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University

"Dina Berger's book is an important new study that explains how U.S. and Mexican elites transformed and marketed the image of revo

DINA BERGER is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at The College of Wooster, USA.

Policies and ethics