| Abstract: | This article explores aspects of the relationship between business history and urban history through a discussion of the seaside resort as a type of town that might also be regarded as a business (as might other kinds of town specialising in leisure and tourism). In the process it looks comparatively at aspects of the development of such towns across Europe, at the range of ways in which an understanding of seaside tourism contributes to a more satisfactory grasp of how businesses and societies function, and at the reasons for the enduringly marginal status of research in this sector and its limited integration into the perceived ‘mainstream' of all kinds of history, including business history. |
