Tourism in Brittany attracts around 13 million visitors a year. An important sector of the region's economy, it accounts for just under 10% of the region's GDP, and directly employs just under 70,000 people. Seasonal activity extends from May to September, and is mainly concentrated on the coast, particularly in the departments of Finistère and Morbihan.
The first tourists visited the region in the early 19th century, attracted by the quality of its mineral waters and the opportunity to enjoy sea bathing. The first seaside resorts appeared on the coast in the 1830s, as in Saint-Malo, gradually replacing therapeutic motivation with more hedonistic dynamics. The social base gradually broadened until the inter-war years, becoming less aristocratic and more bourgeois. Activities diversified to include a form of cultural tourism, focusing on the countryside and certain aspects of Breton culture. The advent of paid vacations in 1936 brought Brittany into the era of mass tourism, and the need to protect the environment from its excesses.
While seaside tourism is concentrated on the coast and represents the largest pole of activity, ecotourism is also notable in central Brittany, complemented by urban tourism in Brittany's biggest cities. The region's culture and heritage are just as much a reason to visit as its natural sites, gastronomy and leisure activities (festivals, sports facilities, etc.).
History
Beginnings in the 19th century
Rise of the first seaside resorts in the first half of the 19th century
At the beginning of the 19th century, Brittany saw the beginnings of tourism near certain water sources, known for their therapeutic values. Under the influence of thermalism, the Clos Poulet near Saint-Malo attracted circles of mineral water drinkers. They developed a certain form of resort worldliness, cut off from the rest of the population. A seawater bathing industry later developed from this initial hub of activity. The same phenomenon can be observed in other towns along the Breton coast, such as Pornic. The popularization of seaside tourism by the British in the first half of the 19th century benefited these early settlements. From the 1830s onwards, some of these towns began to structure themselves as seaside resorts. This first generation of Breton seaside resorts emerged (Saint-Malo, Pornic) and saw the construction of facilities dedicated to this practice (sea bathing establishments) or the development of existing facilities to adapt them to the clientele (protective dikes and breakwaters converted into promenade areas). To accommodate this wealthy clientele, most often from the aristocracy, gambling establishments opened. The therapeutic dynamic began to give way to a more hedonistic one.
A second generation of seaside resorts developed in Brittany from the 1860s onwards. Driven by a business bourgeoisie seeking to emulate the practices of the aristocracy, they often settled on the outskirts of these first resorts, along the coast (Saint-Lunaire and Saint-Briac from Dinard; Le Pouliguen, La Baule and Pornichet from Le Croisic; Paramé from Saint-Malo). Some of these new resorts grew in importance, even becoming independent communes (Le Pouliguen in 1854 from Batz-sur-Mer, Saint-Pierre-Quiberon in 1856 from Quiberon, La Trinité-sur-Mer in 1864 from Carnac).
A business that took off in the mid 19th century The first guide book to the region was published in 1845. Among the sites that attracted visitors at the time were the tomb of Chateaubriand in Saint-Malo (who died in 1848), which became a literary pilgrimage site for his admirers and other artists, and Pont-Aven, where the École de Pont-Aven attracted painters from 1865 onwards. These representations contributed to the folklorization of Breton culture. From the 1850s onwards, a stereotypical vision of the region, based on the image of peasants in their Sunday best at pardons, or of wild granite coasts, became popular outside Brittany. In 1859, Eugène Boudin presented Le Pardon à Sainte-Anne-la-Palud in Paris and met with a certain success, bringing painters to the region in search of these landscapes and subjects. The publication of Barzaz Breiz in 1838 by Théodore Hersart de La Villemarqué also contributed to this phenomenon. Quimper faience created its first plate with a "Breton" subject in 1878.
Between the 1880s and the First World War, major housing development projects were launched in seaside resorts to accompany the arrival of the railroads. A number of projects to build seaside resorts from scratch were launched, often by prominent personalities such as Count Hennecart in La Baule from 1876, or Armand Peugeot in Morgat from 1884. Faced with the importance of this economic activity, town councils took tourists' expectations into account when planning the town's development (maintenance of Pornic's quays to allow strolling, creation of a pier for the same purpose in La Baule in 1892). This new population also imported its own social practices: the first regattas were held in Le Pouliguen in 1875, and pleasure boating became established there in the 1880s. These tourists, most often from the bourgeoisie, came with their families, which led to the emergence of bathing safety issues. Bathing guides, safety ropes and lifeguard boats were introduced, and advertising brochures, such as those in Quiberon, emphasized this aspect. Finally, the therapeutic dimension of certain activities already present at the beginning of the 19th century continued. Doctor Lhoste invented the marine cure in Saint-Malo in 1850, and in 1899 Louis-Eugène Bagot opened France's first thalassotherapy facility in Roscoff.
Brittany also enjoyed great popularity in Victorian Britain, particularly between 1856 and 1881. Buoyed by the local popularity of Breton authors such as Souvestre, Chateaubriand and de La Villemarqué, British authors travelled there, choosing Brittany as the setting for their literary productions. Robert Browning set several poems there, including Gold Hair: A Story of Pornic and The Two Poets of Croisic, while Ernest Dowson set Yvonne of Brittany and In a Breton Cemetery. Caroline Norton's The Lady of La Garaye, published in 1862, even gave rise to a literary tourism specific to this book, with some visitors specifically seeking out the places presented in the work. This contributed to making Brittany one of the most popular destinations for British tourists at the time.
The question of how to protect tourist sites began to be raised as early as 1900, which led to the island's classification as France's first landscape site: on 13 July 1907, the departmental commission of the Côtes-du-Nord (now Côtes-d'Armor) classified the island of Bréhat as one of the "natural sites and monuments of artistic character" to be preserved.
The arrival of a population from outside the region induced by tourism is also an opportunity for Bretons to interact with the region. Some work as domestic servants for this clientele, and sometimes leave the region to continue working for these new employers. Local mores were also evolving, leading some to fear a certain emparisianism. At the turn of the century, the first folk festivals were held to entertain tourists. Théodore Botrel used his reputation for Breton culture to launch the Pardon des Fleurs d'Ajonc in Pont-Aven in 1905. Traditional costumes and Breton music take center stage. The same year, the Fête des Filets bleus in Concarneau used the same formula to attract tourists, this time with a social aspect, using the proceeds to help local populations.
The boom between the wars During the inter-war years, tourism continued to grow, mainly on the coast. Several factors contributed to its development. The automobile made travel easier, and some roads were even built for it (route de la corniche in Perros-Guirec in 1925, route de la mer in La Baule in 1928). A network of tourist associations was set up to better inform tourists, and a magazine, La Bretagne touristique, was published for the same purpose in 1922. Finally, new seaside resorts were created ex nihiloc, such as Kerfany-les-pins, or grew in importance, as in Quiberon.
The very wealthy clientele continued to frequent the same resorts as before the war, and facilities such as golf courses, tennis courts and racecourses became widespread. By 1935, there were 12 casinos, 7 golf courses and 17 marinas in the region. In 1926, La Baule-Escoublac and Dinard had 50 and 86 hotels respectively – welcoming a total of 70,000 visitors at the same time. Cohabitation with the local population was not always easy, and tourists regularly complained of being solicited by children alms. The Depression of 1929 curtailed some of this luxury tourism, and several casinos closed after that date. British and American customers in particular deserted the region after this date.
Paid vacations in the summer of 1937 breathed new life into the business, with half a million French holiday makers and 100,000 foreigners arriving in the region, which by then had some 150 seaside resorts. The clientele, however, was of a new type, and included many Bretons who had travelled to Paris for work and then returned home for the summer. Much more popular, this type of tourism saw the development of camping and homestays, as well as vacation camps. In terms of its scale and form, it foreshadowed the mass tourism that would confront the region after the Second World War.
The post-war period
A development that raises questions until the end of the 20th century The leisure society that began to take shape in the early post-war years led to the emergence of new seaside resort development projects in the region. Between 1947 and 1952, the first wave of construction projects was planned for the towns of Sarzeau and Arzon. Although these were initially postponed, other similar projects saw the light of day in Guidel in 1963 (VVF) and in Carnac 1966 (Port an Dro). These projects took on a new dimension when Raymond Marcellin, President of the Morbihan General Council, planned the creation of a 15,000-bed complex on the Rhuys Peninsula. The model then in vogue was inspired by the Spanish example and the tourist development of the Languedoc-Roussillon coastline. At Port-la-Forêt in the south of Finistère, a resort for 20,000 inhabitants was planned, along with a marina. Although the ports were built, the related real estate projects were eventually abandoned, as environmentalist ideas gained in popularity among the population at the time. Oil spills following the sinking of the Torrey Canyon (1967) and the Amoco Cadiz (1978), as well as the Plogoff nuclear power plant project, provoked strong public reaction, and any plans to develop the coastline for tourism were met with considerable opposition. The 1986 Coastal Act put a definitive end to land pressure on the Breton coast. More generally, the issue of tourism development became central to local politics; while in the 1950s CELIB saw it as an asset to enable Bretons to "live and work in the country", in the 1970s the question of the cost and reality of the economic spin-offs for the local population became a major issue.