The Lure of the Beach is a grand narrative of the development of beach resorts. Author Robert Ritchie begins his narrative on the English beach in the eighteenth century, where the upper classes, upon the advice of medical practitioners, immersed themselves in cold seawater as a general therapy. The beach-based health resorts that developed with this practice subsequently diffused to the British colonies, Europe, and the United States. As the demand for accommodations and bathing facilities grew, entrepreneurs and municipal officials welcomed the economic contributions of beach resorts. In the nineteenth century, promenades (or boardwalks in America) and piers with amusement centers helped transform the beach into "a bustling scene of noisy entertainment" (p. 107). Mechanical rides and amusement parks drew larger crowds: two million people visited Blackpool in 1893; twenty million people visited Coney Island in 1909. Sunbathing, the therapeutic tan, and functional-and briefer-bathing costumes broadened the appeal in the early twentieth century, and the beach increasingly signified "physical fitness, outdoor sports, and youthful appearance" (p. 170). Celebrities and sports stars visited beach resorts, which spread to Egypt, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and beyond. Today, beach resorts exist in myriad forms, from exclusive luxury resorts in the Caribbean and the Pacific to mega beaches exemplified by Australia's Gold Coast and Florida's Emerald Coast.
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