The best of both worlds. Britishness in the development of Gibraltar as a Mediterranean holiday destination, 1945–89

This paper explores the use of tourism as a tool for nation-building by non-self-governing communities in twentieth-century Mediterranean Europe. It focuses on Gibraltar, a British colony and military garrison which turned into a popular holiday destination during the Cold War. At that time, General Franco launched a diplomatic campaign to assert Spanish sovereignty over the territory, imposing partial restrictions on the Gibraltar-Spain frontier that culminated in the full closure of the border in 1969. Amidst this threat, tourism campaigns began portraying Gibraltar as a unique place where visitors could experience the best of two worlds, since it was politically British, but geographically Mediterranean. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, the paper argues that tourism enabled Gibraltarians to assert not only their loyalty to the UK, but also their own local identity, which set them apart from their Spanish neighbours. During the Cold War, therefore, tourism promotion created a distinctive brand for Gibraltar by utilising Britishness as a discursive tool that emphasised the uniqueness of their ethnically diverse community within the Mediterranean region.