Bargain Breaks

History Of Travel

Travel is not a new phenomenon. In olden days people had a strong fascination to travel from place to place. Travel was easy in those days because of less travel formalities. The ancient travelers were merchants scholars etc. PHONECIANS were the first travelers. Their main purposes were trade and commerce. Money was absent that time and later SUMERIANS were the first to introduce money for trade and commerce.

Distance factor also plays an important role in determining tourism. The impacts of technology on tourists are very wide. During 1500-1840, horses were used for transportation widely across the world. Average speed was around 16 kilometers per hour. Later during 1850-1930’s steam locomotives that speeded up to 100 km per hour were used. In 1950’s aircrafts that has an average speed of 480-640km per hour, over placed locomotives. Late 1960 have faced the arrival of jet passenger aircrafts, which can travel up to 1120 km per hour.

Many trade routes and sea routes were open for trade and commerce purposes, which made travel easy. We do not have much travel information or any other written document about history of travel. Some information that we get is from HOMER’S ODYSSEY. It speaks about travelers in ancient period. Ancient travelers include Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

We classify the history of travel into five different eras. They are:

Empire era
Renaissance era
Grand tour
Mobility era
Modern era

Tourism probably began to develop from this era. During this period people traveled for trade, religious purposes and also for governmental activities. During empire era Greeks, Egyptians and Romans were the main travelers.

Egyptian kingdom was the first known civilization. They have consolidated all the governmental functions to a central location. They used boat for transportation and also used Nile River for irrigation. Slowly travel started in larger numbers. Since this has happened, the Egyptian kingdom provided travelers with various amenities and basic necessities like roads, inns etc. Greek empire (900-200 BC): the Greeks prepared to travel in-group’s, because of that they were the notable travelers. They made use of a common language and currency, also promoted their use in Mediterranean regions. The Greeks also offered a variety of amenities to attract travelers as attractions. For example, activities like spectator sports, eating, shopping etc.

The growth of the Roman Empire happened during BC 500- AD 300.Roman empire fostered expanded tourism opportunities for the middle class and wealthy citizens. As a credit, Romans were the first pleasure travelers. They traveled for pleasure since money was available. Romans were the first to introduce spa (solar power aquatic) for treatment. Romans also constructed good roads for transportation purposes where ever they go. Romans were the first to introduce travel literatures and their travel literature spoke about the distance, time factor etc. Romans mainly used horses for transportation and they could travel 100 or more miles a day. In order to facilitate travelers with more provision, they constructed inns, which were 30miles apart, and they could hire horses from these inns.

One of the most important constructions was the road that connects Rome with Britain and Greece. Another achievement is the apian way that connects Rome with Italy. Romans also traveled during Olympics .All this has come to an end with the decline of the Roman Empire on 5 th century.” The dark ages in the history is the fall of the Roman Empire which happened in the 5 th century. A set back of pleasure happened during these ages when adventurous people and courageous people took up traveling since traveling in those days was considered courageous.