Tourism

Tourism now refers to holiday-makers with an overnight extended stay in a location, rather than to daytrippers.

For those who do not live on the coast, part of the pleasure of going to the seaside is the sense of escaping the city and all the responsibilities that go with one's ordinary working life plus the ongoing sense of the beach as a therapeutic environment.

Loss of other businesses such as mining and shipping often led coastal communities to focus on tourism and to create baths as a visitor attraction.

In the early twentieth century, Sydney's Northern Beaches, Cronulla and even Maroubra and Malabar in the Eastern Suburbs provided weekend homes and holiday destinations for inner Sydney residents.  A 'learn-to-swim' holiday had charms similar to the now popular 'learn-to-dive' holidays and helped attract country visitors to coastal holiday centres like The Entrance.

From the late 1930s to the early 1950s, young people congregated at the beach as day trippers and as holiday-makers without parental influence or supervision. Beaches and ocean baths were public places that were seen as providing wholesome entertainment that allowed mingling of the sexes.

From the 1960s, the growing Canberra population led to a growth in tourism on the NSW south coast.

Different forms of tourism
Tourism has several different forms relevant to ocean baths:
- Nature-based tourism is a form of tourism that relies on clean air, clean water, interesting landscapes and interesting wildlife. This form of tourism drew tourists of the 1840s to health resorts and facilities like Wollongong Nuns Baths,

- Cultural tourism draws people to special events and heritage sites. Ocean baths have heritage significance at both local and state level and also provide venues for competitive watersports and special events, and

- Social tourism relates to travel to holiday areas organised by charities, church groups and other community groups.  As beach holidays grew in popularity, people who could not afford a beach holiday were considered to be suffering a deprivation. Other holiday homes and programs operated by churches and groups such as the CWA, the RSL and institutions such as Stewart House provided seaside holidays for needy country children.

Further Information

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