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The Evolution Of Tourism

Decent Essays

Since the beginning of human civilization in the world, travelling has been an ongoing event. The early humans travelled for hunting and food gathering. Later, as society evolved, travelling became more prominent but became limited to trade, pilgrimage, studies, migration, royal affairs and exploration, rather than for pleasure and entertainment. From this knowledge it is evident that travelling is part of human nature but tourism is a process and activities of a new and moderately recent phenomenon. The evolution of tourism can be divided into three phases.

The First Phase
This beginning phase can be referred to as tourism before railways which represent the period before 1840 where travelling was primarily undertaken for the purpose of trade and pilgrimage. In the medieval period (12-17th century), the Europeans had different notions of travelling. According to their belief, if someone did not visit any new places in one's own lifetime, they were highly neglected in the society. So, every individual was supposed to visit at least Italy, as Rome was recognized as their place of origin and a religious shrine too. This reveals that the nature of tour was spiritually oriented. But towards the late medieval period, the reason for travel drastically changed as most people started to travel abroad for the purpose of receiving higher education during this period. The Aristocrats of the Europe used to send their children abroad for attaining higher education. This kind of tourism is called "Proto Tourism". In the 18th century, the motive for travelling took a drastic change again. During this period sick people started to undertake travel to 'spa' for those days, Nice in France, Baden in Germany and Carlsberg in Czechoslovakia were very popular for a ‘spa’ in Europe. Gradually, the way of taking mineral water and ‘spa’ was changed to coastal areas where people believed that after taking a bath in the sea, they would get recovered. From this, the sea bathing concept emerged. Due to the increase of tourists visiting coastal areas, there became a dire need to build and as a result resorts started to emerge in such destinations.

The Second Phase
The second phase of tourism marks the onset of the industrial revolution.

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