Exploring European Travel: The Swedish Package Tour

Abstract

In March of 1963, one of Sweden’s largest newspapers broke the story of “scandalous tours” (skandalresor)—a pernicious trend affecting leisure travelers.1 The article described how Sweden’s booming leisure-travel industry—especially package tours by air—failed to deliver the experiences depicted in travel companies’ advertising. “Travel and get rich,” one brochure of the time proclaimed.2 The travel experience, within Sweden and abroad, would provide all things glorious, memories to enrich and last a lifetime. Ads and brochures extolled the virtues of everything from the luxurious hotels to the accessible beaches and ease of transportation.