LES VACANCES - Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism - page 35

a minor revolution. In one stroke, travel and leisure became a right of the masses, not just
the privileged or the elite.
“Before 1936, there wasn't a real tourism industry,” said Mr. Maud'hui of the ATOUT
France agency. “That is when we leaped into another era. Now travel was for everyone, for
everyone.”
Three years later World War II broke out. France was occupied by Germany, and when
the war ended in 1945, the devastation to French society and its economy was enormous;
the immediate postwar situation desperate. The French turned to the Americans for help.
At that stage the United States was the only wealthy nation still standing; its economy ac-
counted for half of the manufactured goods in the world.
Washington responded, generously, with the Marshall Plan, spending billions for the
economic recovery of the countries of what was then known as Western Europe. It was
motivated in part by humanitarianism and partly by politics to insure that none of the
countries became a part of the Soviet bloc in the beginning years of the Cold War.
When the United States extended aid to France through the Marshall Plan, officials
from both countries decided that tourism would be the best avenue for reviving the French
economy. Back then, the logic of turning to tourism seemed obvious. France was broke.
It was incapable of quickly rebuilding its manufacturing sector in order to sell goods over-
seas and earn the hard currency it needed. What made sense was to bring the money to
France, to have American tourists with dollars fill the tables at cafés and restaurants, buy
souvenirs, take train rides and patronize hotels and country inns. The one thing that had
survived the war was the French way of life, the siren song for Americans since the days
of Mark Twain. During the years between the world wars, American writers like Ernest
Hemingway memorialized the free-spirited glamour of Paris in books and composers like
George Gershwin in song. Americans already knew they were enthralled with the idea of
Paris.
The economics of the program were sound. The goal was to more than double prewar
tourism to at least 3 million visitors by 1952. That required a complete overhaul of much
of the industry, starting from the ground up. Top French hoteliers and restaurateurs were
sent to the United States for training in modern business aimed at pleasing American
tastes. Most hotels in Paris were as tired and tattered as the country. In the United States,
the French hoteliers learned new basics like supplying plump pillows, placing a lamp by
the bedside for reading and making sure windows could open easily. They were taught the
grander requirements that could help them earn handsome profits, such as installing ex-
pensive gift shops in their hotels where tourists could buy souvenirs easily and adding large
meeting rooms to the hotel so it could host conventions.
The French were excellent students; they wanted to make money. Once they under-
stood what makes a hotel modern and comfortable, they convinced officials at the Mar-
shall Plan to help underwrite a miniboom in hotel room construction. By the end of