"The Beauty of the Desert": Of Soldiers and Tourists in the Spanish Sahara, 1960s-1970s

Abstract

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was hoped that tourism in the Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara) would become "a source of wealth" both for Sahrawis and Spaniards. Indeed, travel agencies from northern Europe increasingly included the Spanish Sahara in their holiday packages for the nearby Canary Islands. This article explores the experiences, expectations and gendered rhetoric of modernity and tradition in relation to tourism in the Spanish Sahara. By incorporating Spanish soldiers in the analytical framework of travel, the article scrutinises the close links between late colonialism, repressive modernisation and the tourist industry, opening up avenues for future research.