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While beach holidays and nature spots were already popular in the mid to late 19th century as vacation areas, soon city breaks also became popular in the 1910s and 1920s. Travel to This included cities such as New York and Philadelphia, which were seen as exciting places and city holidays began to be popular. Hotels were built in increasing number, such as the Waldorf Astoria, and by the 1920s grand hotels were being built in major cities. These catered to wealthier but also middle-class Americans. The Great Depression and World War II did slow travel, although Americans continued to go on short holidays or vacations near their place of living. Exclusive holidays in the mountains, such as in Colorado, were popular for the wealthy. However, hotels and getting to these more isolated destinations made travel expensive and time-consuming. Travels by zeppelin-style airships and large ocean liners made vacations by wealthier Americans more feasible to more distant, primarily European and Asians destination, but sometimes these could be risky, as the <i>Titanic</i> and <i>Hindenburg</i>. In fact, the high costs of travel and dangerous perception of travel often limited more distant vacations. For the average American, the automobile, particularly more affordable cars now becoming increasingly common for middle-class people, allowed weekend trips and vacations to be more possible, particularly around major cities. Resort towns, such as Wisconsin Dells and Atlantic City, developed around major cities such as Chicago, New York, Boston, and others.
With the end of World War II, the development of the airline industry, and greater worker time off given by employers, the post-War years were a boom for vacationing families and companies that catered to this. Ski holidays began to become popular and it was this time that towns such as Aspen Colorado began to reinvent themselves for tourists. The 1950s and 1960s saw mass tourism beginning to develop by using air travel to more exotic destinations. Employers also now offered about two weeks for vacations to their workers, as this practice became more standard but not always universally applied. The Mediterranean, Mexico, and Central America became popular with tourists as packaged holidays began to be developed by traveling companies bringing more affordable vacations to middle-class Americans, particularly destinations that were once the privy of wealthier individuals. Destinations such as Las Vegas and Acapulco became popularised by Hollywood and vacationing companies began to respond to this demand. In fact, the trend of air travel and increasing influence of film and television made new and ever increasingly exotic locations develop as new holiday destinations. The interstate highway system, fist built during the Eisenhower years, became utilised for mass vacations within the United States. For most Americans, the tradition of roadtrip holidays began during these years as highways made national parks, coastal cities, beach areas, and resort towns more accessible.
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