Object of Study

Tourist accommodation constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of tourist activity and a privileged testimony to its historical evolution. This thematic line proposes to address documentation linked to hotels, hostels, spas, campsites, apartments, holiday colonies, youth hostels, and other forms of accommodation, whether held in public archives (administrative, municipal, urban-planning, fiscal, heritage) or private archives (business, family, associative, or personal).

The aim is to explore how these documentary collections enable the reconstruction of the history of tourism from its most tangible foundation: the spaces in which travellers have lodged, the enterprises that made them possible, and the impacts they have generated on territory and society.

Thematic Axes

1. Typological and Architectural Evolution of Accommodation

From the earliest family boarding houses and inns to luxury hotels, tourist urbanisations, and international resorts, the typological evolution of accommodation reflects profound changes in habits, expectations, and modes of travel.
Areas for analysis include:

Architectural and construction models across different historical periods.
The integration (or disconnection) of these establishments with the urban and natural landscape.
The impact of technological innovations and comfort features (lifts, swimming pools, air conditioning, etc.) on the configuration of tourist spaces.

2. Ownership and Business Management

The study of owners, managers, and hotel chains sheds light on the evolution of the sector as an economic and entrepreneurial activity.
Aspects of interest:

The transformation of family businesses into commercial companies or international franchises.
Ledgers, contracts, correspondence, and other documents as sources for business history.
Case studies of successful establishments and of emblematic venues that have disappeared.

3. Administrative Regulations and Licences

Administrative archives preserve a large volume of documentation related to urban planning, building permits, activity licences, inspections, and sectoral regulations.
This axis enables analysis of:

The evolution of the legal framework governing tourism and accommodation.
Administrative intervention in tourist planning.
The relationship between regulation, territory, and sustainability.

4. Impact of Accommodation on the Social, Economic, and Urban Landscape

Accommodation establishments also act as agents of transformation. They have shaped new neighbourhoods, labour practices, and social relations, while contributing to the tourist identity of numerous municipalities.
Analysis may cover:

The local economic impact of accommodation.
Effects on housing and commerce.
The interplay between tourism, heritage, and collective memory.

5. Institutional and Private Archives as Sources for the History of Accommodation

Archives—both public and private—emerge as essential instruments for documenting this evolution.
Topics may include:

Best practices in the conservation and description of hotel-related collections.
Experiences of collaboration between archives, businesses, and researchers.
Challenges of digital preservation in the tourism sector.

General Objective

To examine the evolution of accommodation as a key element of tourism, emphasising its documentary, economic, heritage, and territorial dimensions.

The seminar seeks to foster interdisciplinary reflection among archivists, historians, urban planners, architects, tourism managers, and entrepreneurs, in order to understand how the documentation of these establishments aids in interpreting the development of tourism and its effects on territorial and societal transformation.

Possible Lines of Participation or Papers

Case studies of iconic hotels or establishments.
Digitisation or documentary preservation projects in hotel companies.
Experiences of cooperation between archives and the tourism sector.
Analyses of the urban and architectural evolution of tourist areas.
Research on the social memory of work in hospitality and tourism.

May 15 - Archives and Tourism Seminar