History of Tourism | Comparing Past Tourism to Today

In 1936, the League of Nations defined foreign tourists as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945, by including a maximum stay of six months.

Since the human race existed they have been migrating, travelling all around to achieve different goals, religious purposes, sports, and other leisure activities, for better life, better facilities. In fact there can be hundred reasons for travelling.

There cant be fixed and set date to determine when and where and how the first pilgrimage occurred but we can say people started travelling and moving back and forth since they were born.

But if we look through the history then we see it happened in 5th and between 3rd millennia BC, when paganism was the culture and religion in the Europe.

In the Christian world people have been travelling to Israel where Jesus was born and lived because they spiritually relate themselves to the holiness, and to the shrines of disciples. In the Muslim world the first pilgrimage occurred in 629-628 CE. And it was from Makkah to medina. (www.grand-tour.org)

In the ancient times Hindus, Romans, Greeks have long been migrating, travelling for different reasons. So it’s not particularly related to any specific religion.

Grand Tours:

Grand Tour specifically means the travel taken by young, wealthy, privileged people for the purpose of education, enhancing their travelling experience to excel in their careers.

Grand tour’s history dates back to the 18th century Britain when the British people and their country was the wealthiest on the face of the earth. So the wealthy people used to send their young kids on grand tours to different countries, mainly to Europe to enhance their experience to practical life and for the education related purposed as well.

In Britain Thomas Coryat’s travel book Coryat’s Crudities(1611) was a great influence Grand Tour but it was the far more extensive tour through Italy as far as Naples undertaken by the ‘Collector’ Earl of Arundel, together with his wife and children in 1613-14 that established the most significant precedent.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour

Grand Tours was involving a period of year long, because in those times the means of travelling were so slow and because the term grand tour ventures more than one country so it used to take one year or more.

As the time passed the means of travelling got so fast, challenging and more efficient the travelers went more far and far for more exotic places and countries.

James Boswell was the most famous in this regard who kept all records in a journal of his travelling and other experiences during such Tour. The first Journal ”Grand Tour and was published in 1749 by Thomas Nugent.

Regarding the professional Travel and tourism the first person to develop this idea was Thomas cook in 1850s he developed and then on he offered travel packages to all parts of the world. So this thing eventually made this effectively cheap and affordable for the middle class as well, as it was only affordable for rich people before.

In 1867, Mark Twain had a European and Eastern Mediterranean Tour and sent back the dispatches to Alta California, which was a San Francisco paper. His dispatches were later published a book called “The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims Progress”.

In 1873 at the age of 10 William Randolph Hearst took Grand Tour, travelled one and a half year with the habit of collecting. And his collections can be seen at Hearst Castle in USA.

By the late 19th century, the Grand Tour had turned to be an American phenomenon because newly wealthy citizens related themselves to the heirs of the western traditions and they traced their cultural lineage from the Greece to the Roman Empire, European Renaissance. So during those times rich Americans would tour ancient cities of Mediterranean, great European cities as part of their Grand Tours. They felt so related and aspired by the Venice’s well-to-do merchants and traders who collected the wealth from around the world, loved the architecture.

From 1960s the grand tour has taken a totally new shape all over again, students are travelling with backpacks and living in the youth hostels and travelling around. Because the means of transportation are increased to the maximum level, things are starting to slow down a little bit like the olden days, i.e. people again starting to find ships, cruises more lovely and enjoyable like olden days. (www.grand-tour.org)

The Modern Tourism:

The difference between modern and past tourism is that, modern tourism involves mass availability and mass participations in holidays. Modern travel involves a universal access to travel for individual in every part of the world with destination on an international scale. Modern tourism involves many different types each that in turn have had an impact on the transport means. The different types of tourism can be divided based on the tourist’s main interest of their trip. Tourism can involve one of the following; adventure, pleasure, sports, cultural, sports, study, incentive, research, professional and country. (www.exampleessays.com)

Modern tourism is totally changed from the past because it has got vital modern tool which are high -tech and fast and they save a lot of time. So since the modern inventions have arrived such as, trains, airplanes, cruises, ships, roads, trains, they have changed the face of tourism tremendously. The whole scenarios have been changed. Travel has become cheap and within the access of everybody unlike the past where only rich and wealthy were the ones who were able to travel.

Now the tourism has become faster, easier and cheaper and easier and there are more varieties in the forms of tourism then the past.

Here we will discuss some of the modern historic developments that has helped modern tourism to take a whole new shape.

Factors Facilitating Growth of the Travel and Tourism:

The most important factors which are facilitating the travel and tourism and their growth are as follows:

Sea Travel.
Rail Travel.
Air Travel.

Sea, air and rail have been playing an important part in the growth of travel and tourism. With these factors the tremendous growth and increase in travel and tourism have become possible.

Trains:

In the past traveling was so slow, it was taking months and years to travel but since the invention of the trains it has become far easier and faster to move around and its one of the most enjoyable way of traveling among the tourists.

The history of rail transport dates back nearly 500 years, Modern rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport.

Ships and Cruises:

The first boats are presumed to have been dugout canoes, developed independently by various Stone Age populations, and used for coastal fishing and travel.

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_history

The earliest boats were invented by Egyptians in 3100 BC, and then in 2700 BC they invented ships for trade. (www.localhistories.org)

The age of sail, technically and formally speaking, is the period in which international trade and naval warfare were both dominated by sailing ships. The age of sail mostly coincided with the age of discovery, from the 15th to the 18th century

9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_history

The modern cruises are the most modern addition to the sea travel. The cruises have casinos, swimming pools, playing fields, dance venues or we can say the provide almost all the facilities like any high class hotel.

Traveling through cruise has become posh and very fashionable and people are being drawn more towards the traveling through cruises.

Air Travel

The first hovercraft was launched in 1959. The first hovercraft passenger service began in 1962.

In 1919 aero planes began carrying passengers between London and Paris. Jet passenger aircraft were introduced in 1949.

However in the early 20th century flight was a luxury few people could afford. Furthermore only a small minority could afford foreign travel. Foreign holidays only became common in the 1960s. The Boeing 747, the first ‘Jumbo jet’ was introduced in 1970 and The Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.

(www.localhistories.org)

Since the invention of the aero planes the humans have traveled to even those parts of the world where traveling was literally, virtually was almost impossible.

Current and future Trends and Development in the travel and tourism sector.

In the travel and tourism sector with the modern hi-tech technology, faster means of communications, faster means of transportations, modernized approach in every part of the travel and tourism industry from travelling to hospitality to accommodation everything has become faster and more sophisticated. And in the recent years there has been huge rise in the sector. And the future trend is going up as well.