How has the tourism industry changed since 1945?
During the war, petrol was rationed and people simply couldn’t travel. It remained rationed for some time afterwards, which had an effect not merely on road transport but on air transport. Few people owned cars. Very few people indeed had ever flown. Food rationing was gradually phased out after the war, until the early 1950’s, but that must have had some effect on the tourist industry, with people unable to have a wide choice of food and catering having to struggle with shortages. Even in the 1950s people had to cope with currency restrictions for travel abroad. Imagine going on holiday to foreign parts with a limit of 25 pounds per adult and less (I think it was ten pounds) for children to pay for everything! Foreign travel was in fact very rare, becoming more popular in the sixties and commonplace in the seventies. It worked both ways, of course, with foreign tourists coming to Britain as well as British people going abroad. At the same time standards of food improved, with the Brit
