A “Norwegian Riviera” in the making: the development of coastal tourism and recreation in southern Norway in the interwar period

Abstract

This article focuses on the growth of domestic tourism to the coast of southern Norway in the interwar period. While the archipelago of Sørlandet was a “terra incognita” before this, it became widely known as a holiday region among Norwegians during the 1920s and 1930s. The most important sources for the article are local and regional newspapers from the period. In this article, different causes for the tourist boom are discussed. Local initiatives played an important part, and improved economic conditions and communications made a democratisation of coastal holidays possible. More profound reasons were found in the increased focus on coastal leisure in arts and fashion. However, a regional branding campaign appears to have been the trigger for the construction of “the Riviera of Norway.” At the end of this article, the different elements of the coastal recreational culture are discussed, such as cottage life, leisure boats and beach life. While the coastal cottages and boat life partly were rooted in older recreational practices, beach life introduced new and more controversial elements.