Hidden, yet visible workers of Czechoslovak international tourism. Macro and micro-historical views of ČEDOK’s branches abroad and tour guides during the period of late socialism (1968–1989)

ABSTRACT The former Czechoslovak ČEDOK Travel Bureau was a prominent institutional protagonist, a semi-state representative, and a symbolic flagship of Czechoslovak state-socialist tourism during the whole Cold War period, especially in the so-called golden age of Czechoslovak state-socialist tourism between 1968 and 1989. The article tries to describe the main contours of the macro- and micro-history of two selected parts/communities of the company – ČEDOK’s branches abroad in Eastern and Western countries and tour guides. These actors were not only responsible for an essential part of the company’s total revenues, but they were also very visible brand faces towards the public. Last but not least, they remain unknown protagonists in contemporary tourism historiography. The article aims to re-think the role played by the tourism sector (or even the tourism industry) in state-socialist regimes of the former Eastern Bloc.