Tourism development is related to many factors, including the desire to learn about different regions’ cultural and social characteristics. In addition, tourism has been facilitated by technology and the development of transportation, which has allowed people to move to almost any point on the planet. From a historical perspective, tourism developed through the emergence of special tours and trips for business reasons and cultural enlightenment.
Cultural enlightenment was available to wealthy individuals who traveled to demonstrate wealth. From the mid-17th to almost the late 18th century, the English used tourism as a status symbol to learn about the arts and sciences of other countries. This era was called the Grand Tour and became a symbol of educated, highly intelligent young nobles (Rodriguez, 2020). The main targets were France and Italy, from where young Englishmen sought the origins of civilization and the development of art. The main destinations of the Grand Tour were acquaintance with antiquity, the Renaissance period, and Catholic travel.
Business travel became popular in Europe by the mid-18th century, when economic ties were needed to build up, and population mobility was needed. Nascent diplomacy required Europeans to travel to spread science and boost economies by spreading inventions. Thomas Cook & Son were the first to lay the foundations of tourism as entertainment, making it a reward for work (Rodriguez, 2020). Tourism from Europe to the United States seemed most valuable because it represented a very different culture and way of communities. The rise of scientific inventions, including the airplane and the automobile, allowed tourism to rush into a new reality of mutually beneficial trade relations. Tourism became not only an object of cultural enlightenment but also part of countries’ capital.
The history of the tourism development is related to two travel destinations. The first is the Grand Tours of the English in Europe for cultural enlightenment and collecting data on science, art, and religious pilgrimages. The accumulation of knowledge capital led to the second direction – building diplomatic, trade, and economic relations between countries, beginning in the 19th century. Consequently, tourism occupied a solid economic niche in the international relations of many countries, allowing them to develop in the international arena.
References
Rodriguez, C. P. (2020). Travelling for pleasure: A brief history of tourism. Europeana.