Strategies of an Italian Spa Company at the Dawn of Mass Tourism. The Recovery of S.A. Terme e Grandi Alberghi di Sirmione in the Second Postwar Period

In the aftermath of WWII, the Italian tourism sector, as the rest of the national economy, had to undertake a complex and crucial phase of reconstruction. This essay investigates the second postwar period focusing on the case study of S.A. Terme e Grandi Alberghi di Sirmione. Using documentary material from different archives, the aim is to reconstruct the strategies adopted by the spa company to revive its tourism activities, contextualizing them in the developments of the Garda area. In a crucial phase, when western tourism was acquiring a mass dimension, the new shareholders started afresh from the reconstruction of the accommodation facilities following logics of diversification and innovation.