People have always had a need to travel, be it to explore and discover new lands or for our own enjoyment. This is tourism – the act and process of spending time away from home in pursuit of recreation, relaxation, and pleasure. Tourism is distinguished from exploration, in that tourists follow a “beaten path,” benefit from established systems of provision, and, as it befits pleasure-seekers, are generally insulated from difficulty, danger, and embarrassment. Tourism, however, overlaps with other activities, interests, and processes, including, for example, pilgrimage. This gives rise to shared categories, such as “business tourism,” “sports tourism,” and “medical tourism” (international travel undertaken for the purpose of receiving medical care). The rise of cultural tourism, sustainable tourism, and inclusive tourism reflects a shift towards more specialized and responsible travel experiences. By the early 21st century, international tourism had become one of the most important areas of economic development in the world, and its impact was becoming increasingly apparent from the Arctic to Antarctica. The history of tourism is therefore of great interest and importance.
Being a tourist is one of the defining characteristics of being modern and the popular concept of tourism is that it is organised within particular places and occurs for regularised periods of time. Tourist relationships arise from a movement of people to and their stay in various destinations. This necessarily involves some movement that is the journey and a period of stay in a new place or places. The journey and the stay are by definition outside the normal places of residence and work and are of a short term and temporary nature and there is a clear intention to return home within a relatively short period of time. The tourism industry offers a wealth of opportunities, not just for economic growth but also for cultural exchange and environmental awareness. Innovative resorts and hotels are at the forefront of this exciting journey, redefining hospitality and shaping the future of travel.
As such, tourism is a product of modern social arrangements, beginning in Western Europe in the 17th century, although it has antecedents in Classical antiquity. We can trace the origin of the modern concept of tourism back to the 17th century, when young nobles from western and northern European countries made what was called the Grand Tour – a trip around Europe (usually covering France, Germany, Italy and Greece) with the goal of soaking up history, art and cultural heritage. Modern tourism is an increasingly intensive, commercially organized, business-oriented set of activities whose roots can be found in the industrial and postindustrial West. Today, the tourism sector has become one of the great economic engines in many countries, forming part of the international political agenda. New socialized forms of provision have developed in order to cope with the mass character of the gazes of tourists as opposed to the individual character of travel. Places are chosen to be visited and be gazed upon because there is an anticipation especially through daydreaming and fantasy of intense pleasures, either on a different scale or involving different senses from those customarily encountered. Such anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices such as films, TV, literature, magazines, records, and videos which construct and reinforce this daydreaming.
Transport innovation was an essential enabler of tourism’s spread, and democratization, and its ultimate globalization. The steamships and the railway brought greater comfort, and speed, and cheaper travel, in part because fewer overnight and intermediate stops were needed. Railways promoted domestic as well as international tourism, including short visits to the coast, city, and countryside which might last less than a day but fell clearly into the “tourism” category. Rail travel also made grand tour destinations more widely accessible, reinforcing existing tourism flows. In recent years, with low-cost flights and the existence of accommodations, managed by online companies, it is much easier for tourists to afford to travel and they can design their itinerary and experiences to their hiking.
Tourism not only impacts the local economy, but it is also starting to affect the social structures, culture and lifestyle of the destinations visited. Tourists tend to visit features of landscape and townscape which separate them off from everyday experience. Isolated from the host environment and the local people the mass tourist travels in guided groups and finds pleasure in inauthentic contrived attractions gullibly enjoying the pseudo- events and disregarding the real world outside. The viewing of these tourist sights often involves different forms of social patterning with a much greater sensitivity to visual elements of landscape or townscape than is normally found in everyday life. People linger over these sights in a way that they would not normally do in their home environment and the vision is objectified or captured through photographs, postcards, films and so on which enable the memory to be endlessly reproduced and recaptured.
Tourism became even bigger business internationally in the latter half of the 20th century. The globalization that has taken place in recent years has not been a one-way process; it has entailed negotiation between hosts and guests. That is why to service the burgeoning tourist industry, an array of professionals has developed who attempt to reproduce ever new objects for the tourist to look at. These objects or places are located in a complex and changing hierarchy. This depends upon the interplay between, on the one hand, competition between interests involved in the provision of such objects and, on the other hand changing class, gender, and generational distinctions of taste within the potential population of visitors. It has been said that to be a tourist is one of the characteristics of the modern conduct. It is becoming a custom. Not to go away is like not possessing a car or a nice house. Travel is a marker of status in modern societies and is also thought to be necessary for good health. The role of the professional, therefore, is to cater for the needs and tastes of the tourists in accordance with their class and overall expectations.
Which factor DOES NOT contribute to the spread of tourism, according to the passage?
