2 A brief history of tourism
Tourism has been happening for centuries. The ancient Greeks travelled for pilgrimages and to see (or participate in) the famous Olympic Games from 776 BCE. Roman emperors visited the town of Troy in Turkey because of the Trojan War, which had been commemorated by a great temple in around 300 BCE.
The UK can track tourism from the 1600s when young men from wealthy families were sent abroad on what was called a ‘Grand Tour’ primarily to see the main cities in European countries such as France and Italy. Spa towns in England (such as Royal Tunbridge Wells) also became popular as destinations in the early1600s. By the 1700s, doctors were advising wealthy patients to go and spend time at the seaside suggesting it might cure a number of illnesses. Historically, however, it was mainly the wealthy who would engage in tourism.
Why do you think tourism was mostly only for the wealthier in society?
Discussion
Because of costs and time. Even workers in Lancashire in the 1870s had to save all year for an annual unpaid week’s holiday. Holiday entitlement for all workers only began in 1939 with the Holidays with Pay Act, but the take up was delayed by war and even then this was not compulsory for all employers.
Holidays for the less wealthy, in the form of a package holiday (according to the Cambridge dictionary ‘a holiday that is arranged for you by a travel company and for which you pay a fixed price before you go’) came much later. The city where package holidays started was not a beach town, nor a stop on the ‘Grand Tour’. It was Leicester and the year it started was 1841.
OpenLearn - Can tourism be both responsible and sustainable?
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