Bargain Breaks

Impact of tourism on people

The holiday concept was brought forward by the Romans. Their famous religious festival was Saturnalia and history says that during those days they indulged in merry-making activities and this happened in the month of December. Famous travelers during this era were:

Plateau
Aristotle
Pythagoras
Herodotus (father of history)

Next era was the Renaissance Era (middle ages): It happened between 5 th and 14 th century. The 5 th century is known as the dark ages in the world history. The decline of Romans happened and slowly people lost interest in traveling. Only people with courage traveled in particular, the Roman Catholic churches lost their power. After that Feudal system came into power. Quite after a long time the catholic churches regained its power because of some famous travelers. Main source of motivation was from the famous traveler Marco Polo (1275-1295AD).

Marco Polo’s travel accounts or prescriptions about travel motivated more people to take up travel. Many trade routes were open for commercial activities. The actual rebirth of travel happened during 14 th and 16 th century, which we call as the Renaissance Era.

People started traveling in groups for educational purposes or to study different societies, cultures, traditions etc. The desire to learn and experience other culture and to gain knowledge increased and this led to the development of a new era i.e., The Grand Tour Era. It happened between 1613-1785 when luxurious traveling happened within the Europeans and English.

During the Grand Tour Era travelers took their personal accountants and painters along with them. The richer people were accompanied by more number of staffs along with them. Soon it became a fashion and more people took up traveling. The travelers traveled all over Europe and also visited the famous civilizations like Egyptians, Aztec etc. The grand tourists usually made their trip at the age of 16 soon after their graduation from colleges and universities and each trip took between 1-5 years. Their staffs accompanied them also which included their coachmen, accountants, landscapists etc.

Letters of credit was introduced during late 1700’s. These cards gave the privilege to the tourist to withdraw a sum of money when they are abroad. These are equivalent to credit cards or travelers cheque. Grand tour continued up to industrial revolution (1750). The after effects were migration from rural to urban areas, mechanization etc. Industrial revolution made a massive change in travel pattern. It led to the development of 2 different types of societies, the rich and the poor. Paid-holiday concept was also developed.

During the Mobility Era, large number of people started traveling to distant areas. Tourism activities began to increase by the construction of new roads, stagecoaches, passenger coaches, trains and even ships. Britain and France developed extensive roads even before Canada and US. The development of roads helped to increase the availability of transport and attracted more and more people to travel.

Tour package concept also began and Thomas Cook was the first person to introduce group traveling in general public. He introduced package tours into the society and this happened in 1841 between Loughborugh and Leicester in England. He took 570 passengers who were supposedly to attend a meeting at Leicester. For this trip he charged 1 shilling (25 cent). Hence he is considered as the first tour operator.

The major step in the mobility era was the introduction of automobile and air travels. Henry Ford’s mass production of the model‘T’ in 1914 brought individual freedom to travel. The last era is the modern era. This era happened with the end of world war second. Mass tourism is a recent phenomenon that evolved after world war second.

During this period millions of people through out the world including 17 million Canadians and US citizens were exposed to many exotic locations as they served in a variety of military assignments. Military services forced many people who had never before traveled, and they were eager to share their positive experiences with family and friends when they retuned home.

Following the end of the world war second several additional factors helped to encourage the growth of tourism. Cars were produced in large numbers and the introduction of jet travel in the year 1950’s and its growing popularity in 1960’s further accelerated the growth in domestic and international travel. The so-called travel bunk in the modern era has its seeds in the ancient past. Although the purpose and motives for travel in the previous years underwent a great change.