let the rubber hit the asphalt

Berkowitz, in A "New Deal for Leisure" lays out what he thinks are the two most important reason why travel for tourism began to emerge during the 1930s. First, he says the New Deal created the paid vacation, which most workers in the United States had never had prior. Second, Berkowitz says that the government began to promote travel and support the travel industry. Berkowitz writes “…many business executives, management experts, civic leaders, and government officials believed that the desire to go on vacation needed to be actively facilitated.” (Berkowitz p.194) He argues that people needed to be guided into travel. Although I agree with Agee to an extent I believe that people began to travel for other more important reasons. I believe that the roads the New Deal created in addition to the cheaper cost of the automobiles were the most important factors in the growth of the tourism in the United States. Assembly Line As early as the 1920s with the Federal Road Act, the government started pouring money into roads. This act improved 200,000 miles of roads throughout the country. Later during the 1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal as a way to create new jobs. A major task that the New Deal sought to undertake was a plan to improve the country’s infrastructure. James Howard Kunstler writes in his book The Geography of Nowhere that “Between 1933 and 1940, the government poured $4 billion into roads and streets.” (Kunstler p. 97) Roads began to pop up everywhere connecting towns and cities, but most importantly connecting people with the nation’s beaches, national parks, and other new government promoted tourist destinations. In addition, another key factor was mass production specifically of the automobile. The mass production of cars made them cheaper to manufacture and this allowed people to purchase them and travel around the country. “Henry Ford did not invent the automobile, but with the Model T, he developed a reliable machine that the great multitude could afford to buy…he dreamed up a means of production—the assembly line—that made his machine cheaper every year for two decades. (Kunstler p.89) The car now was not just for the very wealthy. An emerging middle class could now afford the car. The roads created jobs, which put money in people pockets. They could now afford cars, and with roads to take them everywhere, why not travel? This birth of the travel industry now simulated the economy even further. Even more jobs were created in the hospitality industry. Hotels needed staff, in addition to roadside diners and other tourist related businesses. So I do agree with Berkowitz and think the paid vacation and the government’s promotion of tourism were very important, but I think the roads and the affordably of the automobile were the two most key factors in the creation of travel for leisure.