The Modernization of Soviet Tourism 271for a tourist trip, a working person should have full confi dence in the fact
that they will be guaranteed outstanding organization and will not have to
complain, that they can trust their vacation to the tourism staff.” At the Black
Sea, confi rmed another offi cial, tourists wanted high-rise hotels with all the
amenities. Sure enough, the 1978 edition of Tourist Travels around the USSR
for the Caucasus and its Black Sea coast opened with ten tours, each consist-
ing of a single seaside city. Tour number 32, Sochi, took pride of place, de-
scribed in words that evoked the luxury of the idyllic health resort: “Tourists
staying in Sochi will live in the tourist base Sokol, on a verdant street in the
center of town, not far from the city beach. They will lodge in sturdy build-
ings or in cozy summer cottages, and at their disposal will be sports fi elds
and dance fl oors, library, a concert hall and outdoor cinema, and a bar. For
twenty days here tourists will rest well and take a series of excursions.” So-
chi itself became the chief tourist attraction, not only its “favorable climatic
factors” but the nearby Matsesta springs, whose waters could be used to treat
a variety of ailments. If they wished, tourists could also take a two-to-fi ve-day
“uncomplicated but interesting” hike up the Sochi River gorge.^28 Color pho-
tos featured shining white coastal hotels, children playing on sand beaches,
pristine mountain lakes, ancient ruins, snow-capped peaks, and skiers on
chair lifts high above the slopes.
Foreign tourist vacations also increasingly combined sightseeing and rest,
and for some travelers, resting elsewhere proved just as attractive as foreign
sights. The 1960s saw a growth in trips abroad that combined sightseeing
with longer-term stays in resorts or rest homes, “to repair their health.” Soviet
groups took cures at the historic Czechoslovak spas of Marianske Lazne and
Karlovy Vary; they mingled with vacationers from other socialist countries
at rest homes on Hungary’s Lake Balaton; and they increasingly populated
the newly constructed Black Sea resort complexes in Bulgaria and Roma-
nia.^29 Bulgaria quickly earned a reputation as a health vacation destination
superior even to Crimea or the Caucasus Black Sea. An engineer from the
Hammer and Sickle factory in Moscow confessed to trepidation on the eve
of his twenty-day rest home stay in Bulgaria in 1960, but the trip surpassed
his expectations, partly because of the attractions he visited and also the
friendly reception by the locals. “But most of all we were astounded how our
- GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 751 (central tourism council plenum, October 1965), ll.
46–47; “On every itinerary,” d. 2077, l. 185; Trud, 16 September 1976; “Tourists staying
in Sochi,” S. Lupandin and V. Peunov, Turistskie puteshestviia po SSSR (Moscow, 1978), 11–14. - GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 1315 (group leader reports, 1969), l. 43; d. 865 (group leader
reports, 1965), ll. 35, 61, 3–4, 50–52; d. 390 (tourism seminar-conference, March 1961), l. 43;
Martenovka, 22 May 1956; Znamia trekhgorki, 25 July 1962; GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 1115
(group leader reports, 1967), ll. 17, 28–29, 36–41, 46, 54–55, 66, 76–78; d. 699 (group leader
reports, 1964), ll. 75–76, 81, 92, 102, 110; d. 488 (group leader reports, 1962), ll. 42–43;
d. 426 (group leader reports, 1961), ll. 181–184; d. 878 (group leader reports, 1965), ll. 82–84;
Znamia trekhgorki, 27 June 1962; GARF, f. 9520, op. 1, d. 1342 (group leader reports, 1969),
ll. 1–2, 13, 21, 34; Trud, 5 September 1957.