Seaside resort

In 1793, Heiligendamm in Mecklenburg, Germany was founded as the first seaside resort of the European continent, which successfully attracted Europe's aristocracy to the Baltic Sea.

This trend was praised and artistically elevated by the new romantic ideal of the picturesque landscape; Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon is an example of that.

Later, Queen Victoria's long-standing patronage of the Isle of Wight and Ramsgate in Kent ensured that a seaside residence was considered a highly fashionable possession for those wealthy enough to afford more than one home.

The extension of this form of leisure to the middle and working classes began with the development of the railways in the 1840s; they offered cheap travel to fast-growing resort towns.

[6] The growth was intensified by the practice among the Lancashire cotton mill owners of closing the factories for a week every year to service and repair machinery.

Each town's mills would close for a different week, allowing Blackpool to manage a steady and reliable stream of visitors over a prolonged period in the summer.

Cape May, New Jersey became one of the first coastal resorts in the United States, when regular steamboat traffic on the Delaware River began after the War of 1812.

By 1880, Henry Flagler had extended several rail lines southward down the US Atlantic coastline, enticing northern upper-class families south to subtropical Florida.

Continental European attitudes towards gambling and nudity tended to be more lax than in Britain, and British and French entrepreneurs were quick to exploit the possibilities.

[citation needed] Commercial seabathing also spread to other areas of the United States and parts of the British Empire such as Australia, where surfing became popular in the early 20th century.

Beaches were already a popular tourist destination for the kings and the masses alike especially in South India where the Dravidian Empires built large temples near the seashore.

as a food lover's and yachting town, with a diverse range of restaurants, as well as a large and active creative community with numerous art galleries and record and book shops.

Other South Dublin towns and villages such as Sandycove, Dalkey and Killiney grew as seaside resorts when the rail network was expanded.

[14] Other Ulster seaside resorts are Newcastle, located on the east coast at the foot of the Mourne Mountains; Ballycastle; Portstewart; Rathmullan; Bundoran and Bangor.

[citation needed] Many seaside resorts are located in Gyeongsang, Jeolla, Chungcheong, Gangwon, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Ulsan and Busan.

Other northern seaside towns (for example Bridlington, Cleethorpes, Morecambe, Scarborough, Skegness, and Southport) shared in the success of this new concept, especially from trade during wakes weeks.

[21] As the 19th century progressed, British working class day-trippers travelled on organised trips such as railway excursions, or by steamer, for which long piers were erected so that the ships bringing the trade could berth.

Glaswegians would take a ferry "doon the watter" from the city, down the River Clyde, to the Firth's islands and peninsulas and beyond, such as Cowal, Bute, Arran, and Kintyre.

Resorts include Rothesay, Lamlash, Whiting Bay, Dunoon, Tighnabruaich, Carrick Castle, Helensburgh, Largs, Millport and Campbeltown.

Some resorts, especially those more southerly such as Hastings, Worthing, Eastbourne, Bournemouth, and Brighton were built as new towns or extended by local landowners to appeal to wealthier holidaymakers.

The sunshine and sea air were seen by Victorians as beneficial for health,[22] and resorts such as Ventnor owed their growth to a visit being considered as treatment for chest complaints.

Despite the loyalty of returning holidaymakers, resorts such as Blackpool have struggled to compete against the hotter weather of Southern Europe and the sunbelt in the United States.

This is not always true; for example Broadstairs in Kent has retained much of its old world charm with Punch and Judy and donkey rides and still remains popular, being only one hour from the M25.

[citation needed] Many coastal towns are also popular retirement hotspots where older people reside permanently or take short breaks in the autumn months.

Largely due to the falling price of air travel under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher (elected in 1979), the number of British families who took holidays abroad rose significantly in the 1980s.

Early Cape May vacationers were carried to the town on sloops from Philadelphia, and water transport was also easy from New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and points south.

In Miami, Florida, the community of Cocoanut (now Coconut) Grove began development as a resort town in the 1880s with the building of the Bayview House (aka Peacock Inn) which closed in 1902.

In 1894, the lavish Royal Poinciana Hotel opened in Palm Beach, Florida, with rave reviews from wealthy New York tourists who picked oranges in January to their delight.

"Til" Harter built the Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, at a cost of $2 million, creating one of the most successful beach clubs in Southern California, popular with socialites and Hollywood celebrities.

By the 1950s with increasing auto travel, more seaside resorts grew along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, while small, declining industrial ports were being rebuilt.