Hôtellerie en temps de crise : l’exemple balnéaire breton dans le contexte national français (1870-1970)

Abstract

Because it is sensitive to natural, socio-political and economic hazards, and because it is impossible to store resources, tourism is a sector of activity that is potentially vulnerable to crises. The long-term historical approach, which could shed light on the strategies of a key player such as the hotel industry, has rarely been used. Despite the biases linked to the limited number of archives available for these private companies, it is possible to guess at the options they choose, knowing that a Breton hotelier is often not just a hotelier. In order to better understand the causes of the crisis, it is necessary to differentiate its various forms, as the actors adopt different behaviors. In the case of a geopolitical crisis (wars, for example), which is inevitable and irresistible, and whose cause is totally external to the tourist environment, the crisis has lesser consequences for the pluri-active establishments, which is to their advantage. In the case of a socio-economic crisis, whose cause can sometimes appear less brutal and which, above all, does not dry up the source of the tourist flows, the crisis leads the actors to make investment choices and, very often, leads to specialization. All these national and international crises between 1870 and 1970 were an opportunity for the Breton hotelier who managed to keep his business, to modernize his business and to come closer to the national hotel standards with which he was gradually confronted, until he conformed to them in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Keywords

• France
• Brittany
• hotels
• modernization
• crisis
• Schumpeter