Tourism:

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Travel leads to understanding. It increases the chances for peace, and, therefore,

it increases the chances of a better life for all.

Former President Bill Clinton

Yesterday: The Historical

Development of Tourism

Tor tourism to occur, there must be people who have

the ability (both in terms of time and money), the
mobility, and the motivation to travel. While the era of
mass tourism is a relatively recent one, an individual’s
propensity and ability to travel has been advanced by
numerous developments throughout time.

In pre-industrial times much of the motivation for

travel was to develop trade. As empires grew, the condi-
tions necessary for travel began to de-

proved, markers were established to indicate distances,

and posts and wells were developed for safety and
nourishment. Even today the influence of military con-
struction aids pleasure travel. The U.S. Interstate high-
way system was developed initially to facilitate trans-
portation in the event of a national emergency.

While previous civilizations had set the stage for

the development of travel, the Greeks and, later, the
Romans brought it all together. In Greek times water
was the most important means of moving commercial
goods. This combined with the fact that cities grew up

along the coast to ensure that travel

velop. Ancient Egyptians traveled for

both business and pleasure. Travel was
necessary between the central govern-
ment and the territorics. To accommo-
date travelers on official business, hos-

OR FORGET IT.

BOIL IT, PEEL IT;

STANDARD TRAVELER’S

was primarily by sea. Travel for official

business was less important as Greece
was divided into independent city-
states. Pleasure travel existed in three
areas: For religious festivals, for sport-

DOKIIT,
ADAGE

pitality centers were built along major

routes and in the cities. The ancient Egyptians also
traveled for pleasure. Public festivals were held several
times a year. Travel was also for curiosity—people vis-
ited the great tombs and temples of the pharaohs.
Assyria comprised the area now known as Iraq. As
the empire expanded from the Mediterranean in the
west (0 the Persian Gulf in the east, mobility was made
easier to facilitate moving the military. Roads were im-

ing events (most notably the Olympic

Games), and to visit cities, especially Athens.

Travel was advanced by two important develop-

ments. First, a system of currency exchange was
developed. Previously, travelers paid their way by
carrying various goods and selling them at their
destinations. The money of Greek city-states was now
accepted as international currency, climinating the
need to travel with a cargo of goods. Sccond, the Greek

9
language spread throughout the Mediterranean area,
making it casier to communicate as one traveled.

Travel flourished in Roman times for five reasons:

The control of the large empire stimulated trade and
led to the growth of a large middle class with the
money to travel; Roman coins were all the traveler had
to carry to finance the trip; the means of transporta-
tion—roads and waterways—were excellent; communica-
tion was relatively easy, as Greek and Latin were the
principal languages; and (he legal system provided pro-
tection from foreign courts, thereby ensuring the safety
of the traveler.

The sporting games started by the Greeks were

copied mn the gladiators’ fights to the death. Sightseeing
was also popular, particularly to Greece, which had be-
come a part of greater Rome and was the place to see.
Touring was also popular to Egypt, site of the Sphinx
and the pyramids, and to Asia Minor, scene of the Tro-
jan War. Aristotle visited Asia Minor before establish-
ing his school for students. A final development was
that of second homes and vacations associated with
them. Villas spread south to Naples, near the sea, the
mountains, or mineral spas.

As the Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth cen-

tury, roads [ell into disuse and barbarians made it
unsafe to travel. Whereas a Roman courier could travel
up to 100 miles a day, the average daily rate of journey
during the Middle Ages was 20 miles. It was not until
the twelfth century that the roads became secure again.
This was due to the large numbers of travelers going
on pilgrimages. Pilgrims traveled to pay homage to a
particular site or as an atonement for sin. In other
cases, pilgrims journeyed to fulfill a promise made
when they were sick.

The next important factor in the history of travel

was the Renaissance. As society moved from a rural
to an urban base, wealth grew, and more people had
the money to travel. Pilgrimages were still important,
though journeys to Jerusalem declined due to the
growth of Protestantism in Europe. The impetus to
travel to learn was aided by the arrival of Renaissance
works from Italy. Stable monarchies helped ensure
travelers’ safety.

The beginning of the sixteenth century saw a new

age of curiosity and exploration, which culminated in
the popularity of the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour was
initially a sixteenth-century Elizabethan concept,
brought about by the need to develop a class of profes-
sional statesmen and ambassadors. Young men traveled
with ambassadors over Europe to complete their educa-

tion. The practice continued to develop in the seven-

10 INTRODUCTION
teenth and eighteenth centuries until it became fashion-
able. No gentleman's education was complete until he
had spent [rom one to three years traveling around Eu-
rope with a tutor.

The Grand Tour began in France, where the young

man studied French, dancing, fencing, riding, and
drawing. Before Paris could corrupt the morals or ruin
the finances, the student headed for Italy to study
sculpture, music appreciation, and art. The return was
by way of Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Coun-
tries (Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg). The Grand
Tour reached its peak of popularity in the 1750s and
1760s but was brought to a sudden end by the French
Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth

century, two major factors affected the development of
tourism. Increased industrialization accounted for both
of them. First, the industrial revolution accelerated the
movement from rural to urban areas. This produced a
large number of people in a relatively small area. The
desire or motivation to escape, even [or a brief period,
was there. Associated with this was the development of
steam engines in the form of trains and steamships.
This allowed the means or mobility to escape. Because
of the proximity of the coast to the major urban areas,
it was only natural that train lines extended in these
directions. However, the vast majority of visitors to the
seaside were day-trippers. It was well into the second
half of the eighteenth century before the working
classes in Britain had regular holidays and sufficient
income to use their leisure time to travel.

The development of spas was largely due to the

members of the medical professions. During the seven-
teenth century, they began to recommend the medicinal
properties of mineral waters. The idea originated, how-
ever, with the Greeks. Spas on the continent of Europe
were developed two to three hundred years before their
growth in England. Development occurred because of
three factors: The approval of the medical profession,
court patronage, and local entrepreneurship to take ad-
vantage of the first two.

Patronage by court helped establish spas as the

place to be. loday we talk about “mass follows class”
the idea that the masses are influenced in their choices
of vacation spots by people they consider influential.
"Loday film stars seem to have taken over the role of
influencer.

The number of people who could afford to “take

the waters” was rather small. By the end of the seven-
teenth century the influence of the medical profession
had declined, and spas were more [or entertainment in-
stead of health. Their popularity continued, however,
nto the nineteenth century. It is possible today to drink
form the mineral waters at Bath in England. Hot
Springs in Arkansas and Glenwood Springs in Colo-
rado still attract many visitors. Additionally, many Fast-
ern European towns proclaim the beneficial effects of
mud packs and hydrotherapy.

The medical profession, the British court, and

Napoleon all helped popularize the scaside resort. The
original motive for sea bathing was for rcasons of
health. Dr. Richard Russell argued that sea water was
effective against such things as cirrhosis, dropsy, gout,
gonorrhea, and scurvy and insisted that people drink a
pint of it. It is worthy to note that the good Dr. Russell
was a physician in Brighton, a resort close to London
and on the water. Brighton’s fame was assured after
the patronage of the Prince Regent, who later became
George IV. Similarly, Southend and Cowes are asso-
ciated with Princess Charlotte and Queen Victoria
respectively.

The growth of the seaside resort was stimulated by

the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. As
stated earlier both put an end to the Grand Tour; those
who would have taken the Grand Tour could not travel
to the Continent. The now fashionable seaside resorts
were the alternative. Toward the end of the nineteenth
century, the seaside resorts in Europe became the pal-
aces for the working classes due to the introduction of
paid holidays and better wages.

The term /loliday comes {rom holy days—days for

religious observances. Ancient Rome featured public
holidays for great feasting. As Europe became Chris-
tian, certain saints’ days and religious festivals became
holy days when people fasted and prayed and refrained
from work. After the Industrial Revolution, the reli-
gious holidays gradually became secularized, and the
weel’s holiday emerged. The vacation was negotiated
between employer and workers and was again due to
the cconomic and social changes brought about by the
Industrial Revolution. It made sense to take the holi-
days during the warmer summer months. For the em-
ployer, it was advantageous to close the entire factory
down for one week rather than face the problems of
operating with small groups of people absent over a
longer period of time. Still today certain weeks are asso-
ciated with the general holidays of specific cities or
towns.

Prior to World War I, the principal mode of domes-

tic transportation was the railway. This meant that
development was concentrated at particular points.
Regional development occurred with particular resorts

growing to serve specific urban areas. Mass production

of the automobile, as will be seen later, allowed the dis-
persion of destination developments.
Tourism in the U.S. developed [or the same rea-
sons as in Furope. At first, travel was limited by the
need for transportation. The first development of note
was that of resorts. With the encouragement of physi-
cians, resorts like Saratoga in New York became fash-
ionable by the carly 1800s. The ocean also became
attractive for health reasons initially, although amuse-
ments soon sprang up as well.

The development of the railway opened up the

country to travelers. By the 1870s, the completion of
the Erie Railroad spurred the development of Niagara
Falls as a honeymoon paradise. The vast river network
of the country’s interior allowed the development of
steamboat excursions, particularly gambling and
amusement trips, between New Orleans and St. Louis.

The Industrial Revolution produced a class of

wealthy people who had the time to travel. Touring
became popular. Many took the Grand Tour while, for
most in the South, an American-style grand tour to the
North took a comparable amount of time and money.
Three attractions were paramount: Northern cities,
historical sites (of the American Revolution and the
Civil War), and resorts.

By the late 1800s, the West was attracting not only

Easterners but also Europeans who came to see the
natural beauty and hunt buffalo. Foreign travelers were
also fascinated by travel for religious reasons; many
wanted to visit the places where the various religious
sects had sprung up.

In the U.S, the late nineteenth and carly twentieth

centuries were characterized as days of high society.
The population was rural and centered in the North-
east and Midwest. Many of the 50 million people lived
in large families with a strong puritanical work ethic
and a belief in self-denial. A 64-hour workweek with
Sundays off was the norm. Much of the working
classes’ leisure time was centered around the church.
For the wealthy, travel was by railroad and ship to
luxury hotel resorts and large second homes. Only the
wealthy [ew were able to travel overseas. By the end
of the 1800s, the 12-hour workday had been reduced
to 10 hours. Vacations were beginning to be recognized.
While travel had been for the few, now it began to
come within the reach of more people.

Between the World Wars, today’s consumer society

and an era of mass recreation emerged. The 130 mul-
lion people in the U.S. spread increasingly to the West
Coast and a rural-urban population emerged. Families

TOURISM: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW 11

were smaller, a 50-hour workweek was common, and
more workers were given paid vacations. The develop-
ment of the automobile allowed the freedom to travel
and led to the emergence of the motel. Attractions and
facilities became more dispersed as people were not re-
stricted in thelr movements by the use of public trans-
portation. More middle-class people purchased second
homes and saw leisure time as something that was a
privilege to enjoy. In Europe, legislation was passed
giving paid vacations.

Mass tourism as we know it today is a post-World

War II phenomenon. Women who had to work during
the war felt more independent; men and women who
traveled overseas to fight wanted to return as visitors;
travel overseas was encouraged as part of the U.S. at-
tempt to aid war-torn European economies. The introduction
of the passenger jet reduced travel time from
the U.S. to Europe from five sailing days or 24 flying
hours to eight hours; and surplus propeller airplanes
were made available to charter operators to transport
travelers, not troops, as airlines rushed to purchase
new jet aircraft.

The sixties marked the democratization of travel.

In the U.S., the growth of the population—the baby

boomers—together with the 40-hour workweek that in-
creased numbers of three-day weekends and higher
levels of disposable income, enabled large numbers of
people with the time and money to indulge themselves.
"Travel was a right. A hedonistic attitude (pleasure for the
sake of pleasure) increasingly overtook the self-denial
of the work ethic.

Temporarily stunned by the energy crises of the seventies

and the Gulf War in the early 1990s, tourism
continued to grow. The late seventies and eighties saw
the development of single-parent families and low-in-
come families, together with an increased accent on individual
awareness and self-improvement. For many,
the indulgence was replaced by a concern for physical
fitness.

Tourism Today: At a Crossroads

Tourism at present is greater in size and scope than it

ever has been. The World "Tourism Organization projected
approximately 805 million international tourist
arrivals in 2005 (World Tourism Organization, World
"Tourism Barometer, volume 3, number 3, October
2005) and notes that tourism is entering a more sustained
phase of growth. Despite natural disasters such
as the Indian Ocean tsunami and man-made problems

12 INTRODUCTION

including bomb attacks in London, Turkey and Egypt,

tourism has proven to be very resilient. The impact of
these events has been temporary shifts in travel flows.

People arc still traveling.

Tourism continues to face external forces that include

(Bloch, Pigneur, and Steiner, 1996, World Tour-
ism Organization, World Tourism Barometer, volume
3, number 3, October 2005):

- Increased concern about the environment

- Rising energy prices

- Exchange rate volatility

- Deceleration of the growth or world economic

output

- Perceived declines in disposable income

- Increasing sophistication and expectation of

travelers

- Impact of new technologies

The sustainable development movement has

gained a strong foothold in tourism. The Internet and
the World Wide Web are in the early stages of revolutionizing how travel
information is distributed and how
trips are booked.

Tourism Tomorrow:

An Optimistic View

By 2020 international arrivals are expected to reach

1.18 billion, with growth averaging slightly over 4 per-
cent annually. Countering the concerns noted above,
there are a number of potential positives to look for:

- Lower travel costs as a result of faster, larger

aircraft

- More widespread affluence in increasing number

of countries

- Reduction of barriers to travel on the part of more

countries

It is likely that more people will travel to a greater

range on international destinations. The share of inter-
national arrivals in the top 15 receiving countries fell
from 97 percent in 1950 to 62 percent in 1999. Faster
than average growth is expected in East Asia-Pacific,
Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Optimistic projections of international travel must
be weighed against concern about the scarcity and high
price of oil. It may be that future growth is contingent
upon alternative sources of power and improved technology.
Some suggest that the Internet and virtual reality
will act as a substitute for actual travel. It is difficult,
however, to substitute the sounds, sights and feel of be-
ing in another place.

Does tourism sow the seeds of its own destruction?

Unplanned development can cause a destination to lose
its attractiveness to visitors. However, there is increased
evidence of destinations taking their own destinies into
hand through codes of environmental ethics to protect
their futures for generations of visitors to come. Because
less developed countries are especially vulnerable

to development pressure, the answer for them may well

be to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.
Many of these themes are picked up again in Te
Tourism System as you progress through the book.
Above all, you will see that the future of tourism is very
exciting. 'tourism’s future holds great challenges for
many professionals and superb career prospects for the
tourism students of today. It is hard to grasp that the
Grand Tour of Europe can be taken on your personal
computer through the World Wide Web. The great
train journeys of yesteryear are being reinvented in
luxurious rail tours. How long will it be before space
tourism is common? While the routes may be similar,
the journeys of the future will be different from those
of the past. Bon voyage!