THE HISTORY OF TOURISM * Structures on the Path to Moderny

Various academic disciplines have repeatedly sought to re-evaluate the significance of tourism. Globalized tourism's socioeconomic place within the framework of the leisure and holidaying opportunities on offer today has attracted particular attention. Such accounts often leave out the fact that this also has a history. The present article aims to overcome this shortcoming: it seeks to present an overview of the important structures, processes, types and trends of tourism against the background of historical developments. It deals with early forms of travel in the classical world and the Middle Ages, as well as the precursors of modern tourism, Bildungsreisen ("educational journeys") and the middle-class culture of travel. It then examines the boom in mass tourism in the 19th century and the unique expansion of tourism in the 1960s characterized by new forms of holidaying and experience shaped by globalization.

Tourism as a Globalized System

Tourism is often seen as a global phenomenon with an almost incomprehensibly massive infrastructure. Its importance is evident from the fact that its influence thoroughly penetrates society, politics, culture and, above all, the economy. Indeed, this is the branch of the global economy with the most vigorous growth: the World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates that in 2007 it encompassed 903 million tourists who spent 625 billion US dollars. They thereby supported a global system with roughly 100 million employees in the modern leisure and experience industry. There exists a complex, interwoven world-wide structure dedicated to satisfying the specific touristic needs of mobile individuals, groups and masses. Since its inception, tourism has polarized: it reveals numerous views ranging from the total approval of its potential for enriching self-realization combined with recreation to critical rejection due to the belief that it causes harm through the systematic dumping down of entertainment and avoidable environmental destruction.

Beginning in the early 1920s, an early theory of Fremdenverkehr – a now obsolete term for tourism – emerged in the German-speaking world that dealt mainly with business and economic problems; since the 1960s, it has been replaced by the ever-expanding field of tourism studies. This gives many disciplines the space to approach the subject of tourism, or at least aspects of it, from their own particular academic perspective. Today, tourism studies means the mufti-disciplinary bundle of academic approaches in the sense of an undisguised "transdiscipline", which can find different applications. However, tourism studies does not exist as an integrated field of study. Instead, there are countless empirical accounts, case studies, approaches, theories and perspectives in individual disciplines, including economy, geography, psychology, architecture, ecology, sociology, political science and medicine.

At first, the fields of business studies and economics dominated a study of tourism that was grounded in an institutional approach; general accounts, analyses from the cultural sciences and historical surveys came conspicuously late. Admittedly, cultural and social history, as well as historical anthropology, have been opening up to the questions surrounding tourism for some time. However, these are perceived differently to those studies undertaken by economists and social scientists. At the same time, it is impossible to ignore the historical prerequisites and development of travelling habits and holidaying styles if one wants to understand the nature of tourism today. This is true not only of concepts and ideas associated with the topic, but also the specific insights which the disciplines employed aim to provide. Conducting historical research on tourism within the context of the discipline of history is not synonymous with the task of writing a history of tourism (or parts of it).

This article takes the second approach. It is a conscious attempt to give an overview that picks up on the classic processes, stages, types and trends of modern tourism in order to place them in the context of their historical development. In general, there is a consensus that one should understand tourism as a phenomenon of modernity and place its appearance in the context of middle-class society from about the middle of the eighteenth century. However, this does not exclude historically older, "related" forms of travel, which should at least be remembered here. Not every journey is a touristic journey; mobility has many modalities. It is sensible to separate traveling as a means to an end (for example, expulsion, migration, war, religion, trade) and traveling as an end in itself in the encoded sense of tourism (education, relaxation, leisure, free time, sociability, entertainment).

Early Forms of Travel and Types of Journey

Recreational and educational travel already existed in the classical world and, even earlier, in Egypt under the pharaohs. In the latter, there is evidence of journeys emanating from a luxury lifestyle and the search for amusement, experience and relaxation. The privileged groups of the population cultivated the first journeys for pleasure. Their writings tell us that they visited famous monuments and relics of ancient Egyptian culture, including, for example, the step pyramid of Sakkara, the Sphinx and the great pyramids of Gizeh – buildings that had been constructed a good thousand years earlier. The Greeks had similar traditions. They traveled to Delphi in order to question the Oracle, participated in the Pythian Games (musical and sporting competitions) or the early Olympic Games. Herodot (485–424 B.C.) , the well-traveled writer with an interest in both history and ethnology who visited Egypt, North Africa, the Black Sea, Mesopotamia and Italy, pioneered a new type of research trip.

Classical Rome also gave impetus to traveling and particular forms of holiday. Holiday travel became increasingly important due to the development of infrastructure. Around 300 A.D., there existed a road network with 90,000 kilometers of major thoroughfares and 200,000 kilometers of smaller rural roads. These facilitated not only the transport of soldiers and goods, but also private travel. Above all, wealthy travelers seeking edification and pleasure benefited from this system. In the first century after Christ, there was a veritable touristic economy which organized travel for individuals and groups, provided information and dealt with both accommodation and meals.

The well-off Romans sought relaxation in the seaside resorts in the South or passed time on the beaches of Egypt and Greece. The classical world did not only have the "bathing holiday", but also developed an early form of "summer health retreat" in swanky thermal baths and luxury locations visited by rich urban citizens during the hot months. Something that had its origins primarily in healthcare soon mutated into holidays for pleasure and entertainment, which could also include gambling and prostitution. The decline of the Roman Empire caused the degeneration of many roads. Travel became more difficult, more dangerous and more complicated.

The mobility of mediaeval corporate society was shaped by its own forms and understandings of travel tailored to diverse groups, including merchants, students, soldiers, pilgrims, journeymen, beggars and robbers. From the twelfth century, the movement of errant scholars became increasingly important. Journeys to famous educational institutions in France (Paris, Montpellier), England (Oxford) and Italy (Bologna) became both a custom and a component of education. The desire to experience the world emerged as an individual, unique guiding principle. Traveling tuned from a means into an end: now, one traveled in order to learn on the road and developed in doing so a love of travel and life that not infrequently crossed over into licentiousness and the abandonment of mores. With regard to the motivation for travel, one can see here an important process with long-term repercussions – traveling and wandering has, since then, been seen as a means of confronting oneself and achieving self-realisation."Das subjektive Reiseerlebnis wird zu einem Kennzeichen der beginnenden Neuzeit: auf Reisen erlebt das eigene Ich seine Befreiung."

The journeyman years of trainee craftsmen can be seen as a counterpart to those errant students "studying" at the "university of life". The travels of journeymen were part of the highly traditional world of artisan and guild structures, for which documentation exists from the middle of the 14th century. Beginning in the 16th century, the guilds prescribed the common European practice of journeying as an obligatory element of training, often lasting three to four years. This survived as an institution with a rich and highly regimented set of codes well into the 18th century. The fundamental idea was that one could mature and learn while traveling, experience the world and improve one's craft in order to grow through a test and return as an accomplished man. The fact that not all journeymen were successful and often suffered terrible fates is evident from reports of an "epidemic of journeymen" that circulated in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Precursors of Modern Tourism

An early form and precursor of modern tourism was the grand tour undertaken by young nobles between the 16th and 18th centuries. This possessed its own, new structures that were clearly defined by corporate status: the original goal was to broaden one's education, mark the end of childhood and acquire and hone social graces; however, over time, leisure and pleasure        became increasingly important. On the one hand, this created the differentiated paradigm of travel "as an art". On the other, the search for amusement and enjoyment implied an element of traveling as an end in itself. The classic grand tour lasted between one and three years. Route, sequence and contacts, not to mention the educational programme, were planned down to the last detail. The aristocrats traveled with an entourage of equerries, tutors, mentors, protégés, domestic servants, coachmen and other staff. These provided for safety, comfort, education, supervision and pleasure in accordance with their specialized area of responsibility.

From England, the tours went on to, for example, France and Italy. Trips to the classical sites of Italy represented the highpoint of the journey, but large cities in other countries were visited: London, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Munich, Vienna and Prague had considerable drawing power. During the tour, the young aristocrats visited royal courts and aristocratic estates for, after all, one goal was to teach them the appropriate etiquette and social graces through practice. The nobles attended princely audiences, learned how to behave themselves at court and took part in parties and festivals.

Therefore, the aristocrats' political, social and professional concerns determined the destinations, but these also catered to their interest in art, pleasure and leisure.The nobles barely came into contact with other classes and social groups – the social supervision of the entourage ensured this.  This was a specific form of dirigible that followed strong social norms, was exclusive and elitist, and aimed to preserve the rule of the aristocracy. Two aspects are of importance for the history of touristic travel: the destination and the encounter with foreign countries and sights, interestingly at the interface of a supposed cultural gap between North and South:

From the Enlightenment into the 19th century, Bildungsreisen ("educational journeys") undertaken by the (upper) middle class were an important stage in the development of tourism. The travels of the educated middle classes imitated those of prominent poets and philosophers, for example Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) , Charles Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) , Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803)  and many others.  They all traveled to Italy or France in search of edification and discussed the knowledge acquired abroad and their experiences in literary works, travelogues and travel novels. Educational travel expanded with the inclusion of other strata of the population and shorter trips. People journeyed in coaches, explored the countryside and cities, visited landmarks in order to experience nature, culture and art directly on the spot and deepen one's understanding of them. Alongside middle-class travels in search of education and art, there developed a form of traveling oriented towards culture, industry and technology. These were information-gathering journeys driven by professional interests and economic motivations. The representatives of a middle-class entrepreneurial strata traveled to France, Britain and Germany with the express goal of learning about the technological progress and innovations of industrialization.  They were interested in current developments in trade, agriculture, industry, technology and manufacturing, which they explored through direct contact with individuals.

The "early", "pre-" or "developmental" phase of modern tourism is generally considered to have lasted from the 18th century to the first third of the 19th century. During this stage, touristic travel remained confined to a minority of wealthy nobles and educated professionals. For them, traveling was a demonstrative expression of their social class which communicated power, status, money and leisure. Two characteristics stand out: on the one hand, the search for pleasure increasingly supplanted the educational aspects; on the other, wealthy members of the middle classes sought to imitate the traveling behavior of the nobles and the upper middle classes. Consequently, aristocrats who wanted to avoid mixing with the parvenu bourgeoisie sought more exclusive destinations and pastimes. This is evident in the fact that they found renewed enthusiasm for bathing holidays and took up residence in luxurious spa towns with newly built casinos. These included Baden-Baden, Karlsbad, Vichy and Cheltenham, where life centered around social occasions, receptions, balls, horse races, adventures and gambling. Here, too, the nobles were "swamped" by entrepreneurs and factory owners. In response, they created a socially appropriate form of holidaying in costal resorts. The British aristocracy enjoyed Brighton and the Côte d'Azur, or wintered in Malta, Madeira or Egypt.

The Foundations of Modern Tourism

In the context of the history of tourism, the term "introductory phase" refers to all the developments, structures and innovations of modern tourism between the first third of the 19th century and around 1950. This had its own "starting phase", which lasted until 1915. This period witnessed the beginning of a comprehensive process characterized by a prototypical upsurge in a middle-class culture of travel and its formation, popularization and diversification. It prepared the way for a mass tourism recognizable to modern concepts of spending leisure time. The development progressed episodically and built upon a number of changing social conditions and factors. The most important undoubtedly include not only the advance of industrialization, demographic changes, urbanization and the revolution in transportation, but also the improvement of social and labor rights, the rise in real income and the resulting changes in consumer demand.

As early as the beginning of the 19th century, the opening up of the Central European system of transport brought about enormous change that genuinely deserves the designation as a "revolutionary development". It also improved the mobility of tourists and created new trends. Short-stay and day trips became popular and made use of the modern advances in transport technology. Steam navigation began in Scotland in 1812; the continuous use of steam ships on German watercourses followed in 1820 and, in 1823, Switzerland received its first steam ship on Lake Geneva. Railways also created greater mobility. The first sections of track were opened in England in 1825, in France in 1828, in Germany in 1835, in Switzerland in 1844/1847 and in Italy in 1839. However, the railway's use and popularization of touristic routes and destinations only began somewhat later with the introduction of mountain railways towards the end of the 19th century. 

The Vitznau-Rigi railway in Switzerland was Europe's first mountain railway in 1871. The new means of transport enabled not only an increase in transport carrying capacity, but also reduced the cost of traveling. Moreover, ship and rail travel extend tourists' field of vision, bringing about a distinct form of "panoramatised" perception (i.e. the background replacing the foreground as the centre of attention) and encouraging an interest in travel writing.

 

It is true that the railway was not created to promote tourism. However, from mid-19th century, the latter employed the convenience of rail transport for its own purposes.  The railway therefore is rightly considered to be the midwife at the birth of modern mass tourism. One must still keep in mind that touristic travel remained the preserve of privileged parts of the population. This traveling acted as a form of middle-class self-therapy, the removal of the middle-class self from its existence in the shadow of the old aristocratic world in order to learn about modernity via a paradigmatic experience. It was another century before the lower middle and working classes could go on holiday. At first, they had to make do with day trips by train and ship in order to escape the city briefly.  The foremost practitioners of middle-class tourism were the manufacturing and trading families, educated professionals working in the state bureaucracy, schools and universities, as well as the new 'freelance professions', including writers, journalists, lawyers, artists, who were able to take the first steps out of the corporate society. From the 1860s, there were portentous indications of a popularization. Traveling became a form of popular movement and an answer to the desire to relax among large sections of the population following the advance of industrialization and urbanization.

A number of instructional materials, steering mechanisms, innovations and forms of holiday of the 19th century were developed for middle-class traveling and holidaying needs. Guidebooks and travelogues in the form of travel literature acquired increasing importance; this type of text should not be underestimated – they had their precursors in the 18th century and created touristic destinations and perceptions.  The Briefe über die Schweiz (1784–1785) by the Göttingen professor Christoph Meiners (1747–1810)  and Heinrich Heidegger's (1738–1823)  Handbuch für Reisende durch die Schweiz (1787) set a pattern. In terms of production and sales, Karl Baedeker (1801–1859)  achieved the greatest success as a writer of 19th-century German guidebooks.   He founded his publishing house in 1827 and produced a series of guidebooks with reliable, well-researched content. Their standardized format allowed the reader to find guidance and advice quickly and easily; the books developed their own way of conveying information. "The Baedeker", however, contained more than information and recommendations; the publisher defined a style of travel and which tourist attractions were worth visiting: Indeed, tourist attractions soon became touristic obligations; sightseeing became a must. John Murray's (1808–1892)  publishing house in London had a similar goal; in 1836, it successfully brought out the "Red Book" – the first guidebook to Holland, Belgium and the Rhineland. Guidebooks, with their own, prominently normative didactic occupy a place in the interesting history of functional writing.

This Article to be continue...

                                                                                                              Renee de Ramirez, MS

Hospitality Operations and Management 

Fortis College Miami Campus