2000 years Just before Christ, in India and Mesopotamia
Travel for trade was an critical feature since the beginning of civilisation. The port at Lothal was an important centre of trade between the Indus valley civilisation and the Sumerian civilisation.
600 BC and thereafter
The earliest form of leisure tourism can be traced as far back as the Babylonian and Egyptian empires. A museum of historic antiquities was open to the public in Babylon. The Egyptians held many religious festivals that attracted the devout and numerous people today who thronged to cities to see renowned works of arts and buildings.
In India, as elsewhere, kings travelled for empire creating. The Brahmins and the widespread folks travelled for religious purposes. Thousands of Brahmins and the standard folk thronged Sarnath and Sravasti to be greeted by the inscrutable smile of the Enlightened One- the Buddha.
500 BC, the Greek civilisation
The Greek tourists travelled to sites of healing gods. The Greeks also enjoyed their religious festivals that increasingly became a pursuit of pleasure, and in certain, sport. Athens had turn out to be an very important site for travellers visiting the main sights such as the Parthenon. Inns were established in massive towns and seaports to offer for travellers' desires. Courtesans were the principal entertainment provided.
This era also saw the birth of travel writing. Herodotus was the worlds' initial travel writer. Guidebooks also produced their look in the fourth century covering destinations such as Athens, Sparta and Troy. Advertisements in the way of signs directing individuals to inns are also known in this period.
The Roman Empire
With no foreign borders in between England and Syria, and with secure seas from piracy due to Roman patrols, the conditions favouring travel had arrived. 1st class roads coupled with staging inns (precursors of modern day motels) promoted the growth of travel. Romans travelled to Sicily, Greece, Rhodes, Troy and Egypt. From 300 AD travel to the Holy Land also became particularly preferred. The Romans introduced their guidebooks (itineraria), listing hotels with symbols to identify high quality.
Second homes were built by the wealthy near Rome, occupied primarily during springtime social season. The most fashionable resorts were located around Bay of Naples. Naples attracted the retired and the intellectuals, Cumae attracted the fashionable though Baiae attracted the down marketplace tourist, becoming noted for its rowdiness, drunkenness and all- night singing.
Travel and Tourism were to never attain a comparable status until the modern day instances.
In the Middle Ages
Travel became complicated and hazardous as many people travelled for business or for a sense of obligation and duty.
Adventurers sought fame and fortune through travel. The Europeans attempted to discover a sea route to India for trade purposes and in this fashion found America and explored parts of Africa. Strolling players and minstrels produced their living by performing as they travelled. Missionaries, saints, and so on. travelled to spread the sacred word.
Leisure travel in India was introduced by the Mughals. The Mughal kings built luxurious palaces and enchanting gardens at locations of natural and scenic beauty (for example Jehangir travelled to Kashmir drawn by its beauty.
Travel for empire building and pilgrimage was a common function.
The Grand Tour
From the early seventeenth century, a new form of tourism was developed as a direct outcome of the Renaissance. Under the reign of Elizabeth 1, young men seeking positions at court were encouraged to travel to continent to finish their education. Later, it became customary for education of gentleman to be completed by a 'Grand Tour' accompanied by a tutor and lasting for three or alot more years. Even though ostensibly educational, the pleasure searching for men travelled to take pleasure in life and culture of Paris, Venice or Florence. By the finish of eighteenth century, the custom had turn into institutionalised in the gentry. Gradually pleasure travel displaced educational travel. The advent of Napoleonic wars inhibited travel for about 30 years and led to the decline of the custom of the Grand Tour.
The development of the spas
The spas grew in reputation in the seventeenth century in Britain and a small later in the European Continent as awareness about the therapeutic qualities of mineral water elevated. Taking the remedy in the spa quickly acquired the nature of a status symbol. The resorts changed in character as pleasure became the motivation of visits. They became an significant centre of social life for the high society.
In the nineteenth century they had been gradually replaced by the seaside resort.
The sun, sand and sea resorts
The sea water became related with well being rewards. The earliest visitors therefore drank it and did not bathe in it. By the early eighteenth century, little fishing resorts sprung up in England for visitors who drank and immersed themselves in sea water. With the overcrowding of inland spas, the new sea side resorts grew in reputation. The introduction of steamboat services in 19th century introduced extra resorts in the circuit. The seaside resort gradually became a social meeting point
Role of the industrial revolution in promoting travel in the west
The rapid urbanisation due to industrialisation led to mass immigration in cities. These folks had been lured into travel to escape their environment to locations of natural beauty, typically to the countryside they had come from change of routine from a physically and psychologically stressful jobs to a leisurely pace in countryside.
Highlights of travel in the nineteenth century
· Advent of railway initially catalysed business travel and later leisure travel. Gradually special trains had been chartered to only take leisure travel to their destinations.
· Package tours organised by entrepreneurs such as Thomas Cook.
· The European countries indulged in a lot of small business travel frequently to their colonies to invest in raw material and sell finished goods.
· The invention of photography acted as a status-enhancing tool and promoted overseas travel.
· The formation of first hotel chains pioneered by the railway providers who established outstanding railway terminus hotels.
· Seaside resorts began to create diverse images as for day-trippers, elite, for gambling.
· Other varieties of destinations-ski resorts, hill stations, mountaineering spots etc.
· The technological development in steamships promoted travel among North America and Europe.
· The Suez Canal opened direct sea routes to India and the Far East.
· The cult of the guidebook followed the development of photography.
Tourism in the Twentieth Century
The First World War gave initially hand knowledge of countries and aroused a sense of curiosity about international travel amongst less properly off sector for the very first time. The significant scale of migration to the US meant a lot of travel across the Atlantic. Private motoring began to encourage domestic travel in Europe and the west. The sea side resort became annual family holiday destination in Britain and increased in popularity in other countries of the west. Hotels proliferated in these destinations.
The birth of air travel and right after
The wars increased interest in international travel. This interest was given the shape of mass tourism by the aviation business. The surplus of aircrafts and growth of private airlines aided the expansion of air travel. The aircraft had come to be comfy, faster and steadily less costly for overseas travel. With the introduction of Boeing 707 jet in 1958, the age of air travel for the masses had arrived. The beginning of chartered flights boosted the package tour market and led to the establishment of organised mass tourism. The Boeing 747, a 400 seat craft, brought the expense of travel down sharply. The seaside resorts in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Caribbean had been the initial hot spots of mass tourism.
A corresponding growth in hotel industry led to the establishment of world-wide chains. Tourism also began to diversify as consumers began to flock option destinations in the 70s. Nepal and India received a throng of tourists lured by Hare Krishna movement and transcendental meditation. The beginning of individual travel in a substantial volume only occurred in the 80s. Air travel also led to a continuous growth in business travel in particular with the emergence of the MNCs.
