listening to a great podcast from The Rest is History on the subject of tourism. As with many things in British society, it’sa case of the aristocrats setting the original standards through the 18th / early 19th century, then the middle class emerging in the mid 19th century and trying to copy them and to distinguish themselves from the working / lower classes.
for the aristos, the Grand Tour was seen as the ultimate in an ‘improving’ experience. To visit the lands and sites of antiquity, to see the landscapes and people who has inspired great works of literature, art and poetry, to meet the popular philosophers, composers, writers, artists of the day. Travelers needed huge amounts of money, they needed to have connections (who could house and advise them), they were expected to be able to speak Italian, Latin, Greek etc and to be familiar with the art, history etc.
the upcoming middle class wanted to copy them. But they didn’t have the same bottomless wealth, they certainly didn’t have them social network and they didn’t have the languages, classical education etc - so they needed help. Hence the eventual development of travel agencies, guide books, package holidays etc.
But the status indicators have stayed the same. It should be authentic (living as the locals do rather than in a tourist resort) and improving (yoga retreats, historical explanations, visiting sites of natural beauty), that travelers should be comfortable with the language/food/history/social rules that they find (not looking for All-English menus, can speak some French / Italian etc,), that the trip should be arranged through personal networks and connections with means (family and friends with homes abroad rather than staying in a package hotel).
So that’s why my trip to France, staying in my parents holiday home, buying my wine from our favourite vigneron, shopping for food at the local markets, speaking French while ordering it, etc is always going to be more middle-class than your trip to a purpose-built tourist resort, eating the same foods you do at home, lying on a beach every day and just doing stuff for ‘fun’, whether it’s in Magaluf or Dubai. Because the social indicators of class status are set by the aristos and the middle classes try to copy them, while striving to set themselves apart from the working / lower classes.