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Starting from the socio-historical analysis of a seaside resort in the Brazilian Nordeste (Pipa), this article tries to understand seaside tourism through the role of the different social groups involved in its development, including both the dominant categories of population that develop new leisurely uses of the beach and the local populations who take part in this activity. The article looks at how the positions of the different producers of tourism in their respective social spaces have generated a convergence of interests propitious to the development of the seaside resort. Against the notion that the beach constitutes a separate space, it approaches the history of the beach through its continuity with other spaces, and seeks to understand how the transformations of the agrarian hinterland (plantations), among the young urban bourgeoisie or among the peasants-fishermen of the littoral may have influenced this development.