The first all-inclusive resort stood on a Spanish beach. In the summer of 1950 the first Club Med opened on Alcúdia Bay, on Mallorca, at a stretch of sand now called Platja des Franceses, or Frenchman’s Beach. Guests slept in US Army surplus canvas tents by the sea and shared one shower. Every meal and all the wine came with the stay. Anything extra was paid for in beads.
Who thought of it
The man behind it was Gérard Blitz, born in Antwerp. Condé Nast Traveler describes him as a veteran of the French Resistance. From 1947 he worked in France, caring for Belgians who had escaped the concentration camps. He set up a small group of hotels in the Alps near Chamonix for them. There the former prisoners paid nothing for food or amenities, so that they had, in his words, “no material concerns”.
Blitz later named that work as the source of his holiday formula. His plan was to take city people into unspoilt country and strip away the markers of social status. Swimsuits were the uniform. His motto held that the aim of life is to be happy, here and now.
The camp was an instant success, according to Condé Nast Traveler.
Where it went next
Club Med reached North America in 1968, with Club Med Fort-Royal in Guadeloupe. Martinique followed a year later, and Cancún in 1976. In 1981 Gordon “Butch” Stewart opened the first Sandals resort, at Montego Bay in Jamaica. AFAR credits the two chains with introducing many American travellers to the all-inclusive holiday.
Mallorca paid a price for the idea it hosted. Once jets arrived in the 1960s, parts of its coast filled with cheap all-inclusive hotels. The island’s government has since banned happy hours at some resorts, as well as “balconing”, the practice of jumping from hotel balconies into pools.
The French town that did the package holiday
A French Mediterranean town does hold a different first. More than 75 years ago, Horizon Holidays flew a chartered plane from London to Calvi, on the north coast of Corsica. The firm’s founder, the Russian émigré Vladimir Raitz, sold flights, hotels, food and entertainment for one price. He tested it on a party of schoolteachers in 1950 and opened it to the public the next year.
Calvi never became as overrun by tourists as other places in the region. Monocle points to the mountains around it and a small airport with weather-dependent landings. Postwar France also favoured domestic tourism and small hotels, pensions and campsites.
So 1950 gave Europe two inventions in two island settings. Club Med put the bill for the whole stay in one price. Raitz put the flight in the same price.
