Amsterdam tulip market

Every possible passion seems to have a travel trend associated with it. So why not econotourism, for people who are interested in how the economy affects a local culture?

Nobel Prize–winning economist Paul Krugman recently used the term in a post about Dundee, Scotland’s Verdant Works, a museum devoted to the jute industry. The rise (and fall) of the jute industry in the late 19th-century deeply affected Dundee society:

According to the museum, it also created a troubled society in Dundee. The factories mainly employed women and children; many of the city’s men were “kettle-boilers,” stay-at-home dads. Many volunteered in World War I, because it was the first job offer they’d ever had.

But if you want to travel to the Eiffel Tower of economic bubbles, you need to go to Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Tulip Museum helpfully has a Tulipomania video on its website, explaining how wild speculation over the price of tulip bulbs crashed the domestic Dutch tulip market in 1637.

Many Dutch were financially devastated by the crash, but oddly enough, the event helped build the Dutch tulip export market because so many people in other countries wanted to see the flower that created such a fuss. Today Holland is the largest exporter of flowers and plants.

Photo by ethanlindsey, CC 2.0.