Constructing a Spatial Imaginary: The Formation and Re-presentation of Monte Carlo as a Vacation-Leisure Paradise, 1854-1950

Abstract

In 1854, Monaco faced an uncertain future. The principality subsisted on a struggling agro-economy, encountered serious challenges to maintaining its sovereignty, and contained a disgruntled populace overburdened with taxes and state monopolies. European contemporaries perceived the small state as a premodern, peripheral backwater and as a minor stop on the Grand Tour. Within a few short decades, perceptions of Monaco and its newly-founded city, Monte Carlo, changed so radically that the place became the premier vacation-leisure destination for European and American elites and a byword for luxury, pleasure, and cosmopolitanism. Monte Carlo maintained its reputation as a vacation-leisure paradise and as a playground for the wealthy and sophisticated for 150 years. This dissertation examines how, despite seemingly insurmountable disadvantages, Monaco established and maintained a thriving tourist economy from its early unsuccessful attempts to found a tourism industry in 1854 until its irrefutable operation as a site of mass tourism by 1950. It contextualizes how construction of a spatial imaginary, built through a consistent projection of the city’s image, meticulously-crafted through representational space, and mediated, re-mediated, and disseminated by visitors’ accounts, became crucial to Monte Carlo’s lasting success as a remunerative resort-tourism destination. Contrary to previous histories of Monte Carlo’s tourism economy that have emphasized the roles of the state’s liberal gaming laws and the construction of the railroad for its success, this study contends that the construction of the city’s spatial imaginary was the key factor. This dissertation further examines how Monte Carlo’s casino resort functioned as a forum of class anxieties and social distinction as middle-class vacationers began to encroach on the once-exclusive leisure practices of the social elite. An emphasis on spectacle and Monte Carlo’s spatial imaginary allowed casino promoters to navigate the tenuous balance between marketing the resort as an exclusive space and simultaneously operating as a destination of mass tourism. Monte Carlo’s story of success stands as an example of how a consistent spatial imaginary can serve as an economic boon, particularly for tourism-based economies. This is a lesson that cities such as Orlando, Las Vegas, and Macau have learned well as they have capitalized on Monte Carlo’s image, followed the city’s model of remunerative resort tourism, and have developed their own spatial imaginaries to the benefit of their tourism industries.