Characterization of workers’ specific summer holiday practices in the Yugoslav socialist socio-economic context

Abstract

ABSTRACT This empirical case study aims to illuminate the specific Yugoslav model of domestic social tourism and the related social responsibility of corporations and the public sector invested in their holiday accommodations managed by trade unions. TwoStep cluster analysis and cross-tabulation, overlooked in historical studies, were also used to analyse 7,178 guests over a 10-year period. The results show that guests spent an average of 8.29 days in holiday homes and that this was not associated with employment status. Moreover, guests can be divided into two statistically different clusters: Employed and Non-employed guests. The fact that low-ranking workers, assistants and the non-employed also had the opportunity to go on a summer holiday points to the social responsibility of employers in the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, they were operating under challenging socioeconomic (non-democratic) circumstances.