Tourism and Travel during the Cold War (Routledge Studies in the History of Russia and Eastern Europe)

The Iron Curtain was not an impenetrable divide, and contacts between East and West took place regularly and on various levels throughout the Cold War. This book explores how the European tourist industry transcended the ideological fault lines and the communist states attracted an ever-increasing number of Western tourists. Based on extensive original research, it examines the ramifications of tourism, from sun-and-sea package tours to human rights travels, in key Eastern European locations including East Berlin, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Albania. The book’s analysis of the politics, culture, and history of tourism to the East offers important new perspectives on European tourism in the twentieth century.

Sune Bechmann Pedersen holds a PhD in History and is Researcher in Media History at Lund University. He is currently working on the project "Holidays behind the Iron Curtain: The Politics of Scandinavian Tourism to Communist Europe, 1945–1989," funded by the Swedish Research Council.

Christian Noack is Associate Professor for East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He has published broadly on the history of tourism in the Soviet Union and currently leads a HERA project on the "European Spa as a Public Space and a Social Metaphor."