Md Sohan Hossain

Tourism and Hospitality Management

Session: 2019 – 2020

Tourism Geography
Chapter – 4
The Historical Geography of Tourism
 Some of us may daydream about hopping in our car and driving across the American West,
cruising the Caribbean for a few days, or getting on a plane and flying to New Zealand.

 Of course, we may never take these trips, for any number of reasons.

 But it is easy for us to imagine because we can do these things, which is something we often
take for granted.

 If we look back, say, two hundred years, it is an entirely different story.

 At that time, the first expeditions across the West had only just been completed by explorers
like Lewis and Clark. The round-trip journey took over two years of difficult travel on foot, on
horseback, and in small boats.

 A sailing trip to and around the Caribbean would take many months, dependent on wind and
weather conditions.

 It could be a dangerous journey, with threats of hurricanes, tropical diseases, slave revolts,
pirate attacks, or naval battles.

 Traveling to New Zealand would have been virtually unthinkable for an American.

 Nevertheless, tourism was already a well-established phenomenon in the world.

 Clearly there are significant differences between this early tourism and today, but there are
surprising parallels as well.
Historical geography
“Historical geography is the branch of geography that studies the ways in which geography
phenomena have change over time “

 We can consider historical geography to be the study of the geography and geographic
conditions of past periods.
 This chapter continues to lay the foundation for our discussion of the geography of tourism. It
provides an overview of tourism in key past periods and the development of the modern
tourism industry.

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 Md Sohan Hossain
Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

Geographic development in tourism

1. Pre-modern Travel
2. The Evolution of Modern Tourism
3. Twentieth-Century Tourism
Pre-modern Travel The Evolution of Modern Tourism Twentieth-Century Tourism
 ROMAN TOURISTS  THE GRAND TOUR  TOURISM IN THE JIM CROW ERA
 PILGRIMS  RESORT TOURISM  THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION
 EXPLORERS AND TRAVELERS

1. Pre-modern Travel
ROMAN TOURISTS

 Although examples of travel for health, culture, or even pleasure may be found in other ancient
civilizations, such as Greece, the Romans may be considered the first true tourists based on a
number of parallels with later—even modern—eras of tourism.
 There were several key factors that laid the foundation for tourism in the Roman Empire. One of
the most important was the two-hundred-year long period of peace and stability that the
empire enjoyed (called the Pax Romana—from the end of the first century BCE to the end of the
second century CE), which is typically a precondition for tourism. This helped create a
prosperous society that was able to develop an interest in traveling to other places for health or
pleasure without fear of having to cross hostile territory.
 The Roman Empire also had a well-developed transportation infrastructure. This extensive
network of paved roads was built for military purposes and to connect the empire’s vast land
area, as well as providing the basis for commercial trade.
 The empire also generated new developments in public transportation, with organized relays of
horses at five- or six-mile intervals, by which a person could travel up to 100 miles per day.
 The Romans had various motivations for travel, many of which had a distinctly practical basis.
For example, one motivation was military tourism. Soldiers had explicit reasons for traveling, but
these expeditions could also be combined with pleasure. Women and children might be allowed
to travel with husbands and fathers, and families could visit attractions along the way.

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

 Health tourism was also widely practiced among the Romans. Some invalids traveled to places
with distinct physical properties, such as mineral waters or hot springs that would be beneficial
to those with certain health conditions.
 The poorest citizens left Rome during the summer due to extreme heat and the rampant spread
of disease among the crowded urban population.
 These middle- and upper-class citizens would retreat to the surrounding countryside in lower
altitudes of mountainous regions, where temperatures would be cooler and the air fresher.
Similarly, seaside resorts in the coastal region between Rome and Naples became popular
destinations for those seeking to get away from the city.
 These fashionable resorts replicated the best parts of social life from Rome and offered
entertainments including baths, dining, concerts and theater performances, and even gladiator
games.
 Only a few privileged groups had the time and resources to be able to travel farther afield in the
Mediterranean region. This included the most affluent families, high-ranking government
officials, and young men from the upper class in the process of completing their education.
Cultural attractions such as temples and ancient monuments formed the basis of many
destinations. Most cities had temples that not only represented a god or goddess but also
served the function of museum with collections of statues, paintings, and artifacts.
 The list of the Seven Wonders of the World created some of the most sought-after destinations
and formed the basis for an early version of the Grand Tour. This was a tourist itinerary, typically
through Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, comprising the most important sights. Egypt, in
particular, boasted of wonders such as the Pyramids of Giza and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, as
well as landscapes and a culture that would have seemed different and exotic to Roman tourists.
In contrast, the mountainous landscapes of the Alps were generally avoided, as they were
considered barriers to travel rather than attractions.
 Roman tourism has been described as being “typically modern” and having “nearly all of the
trappings of its late-twentieth century counterpart.”8 Roman tourists visited many of the same
sites popular among tourists today. They had the benefit of guidebooks to instruct them on
what they were to see; however, they had to read about the sites before their travels because
the books were expensive, large, heavy, leather-bound volumes of papyrus sheets.

PILGRIMS
Despite the apparent familiarity of the type of tourism seen during the Pax Romana, it was not
to last. The collapse of the Roman Empire brought an end to these patterns. The transportation
infrastructure fell into disrepair, and traveling became a dangerous proposition with the poor
condition of roads, closed inns, and various threats of wild animals, thieves, and hostile
territories. As such, there was little thought of traveling for pleasure. Only the most
adventurous, the most determined, or those who absolutely had to would risk travel.

One of the most common forms of travel in Europe during the middle Ages (from the fifth to the
fifteenth centuries) was undertaken by devout individuals with strongly held spiritual beliefs. Some of

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

the best-known and frequently visited shrines included Santiago de Compostela in Spain (as early as the
ninth century) and Canterbury in England (from the twelfth century). Pilgrimages were also undertaken
to the Holy Land, although this was a much more difficult, time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous
journey for those traveling from Europe.10 at this time, travel for health reasons became intertwined
with religious pilgrimages. The Roman Catholic Church had an extremely powerful influence over life
during the middle Ages, and people increasingly turned to faith healing. They traveled to shrines with
the express purpose of appealing to the patron saint for miraculous cures. Given the generally poor
living conditions during this period, with high rates of malnutrition and disease, this became a relatively
common practice.

Pilgrimages have taken place in Asian societies over an even greater scope of time than in Europe.12
Buddhist monks would often travel to learn from renowned teachers. Particularly between the fifth and
eighth centuries, there was significant religious traffic between India and China. Pilgrimages were long,
typically spanning a period of years, and overland journeys involved crossing much difficult terrain.13
For example, over the course of eighteen years (627–45), the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang traveled
approximately 16,000 miles through modern-day Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Kashmir, and India and returned to China with over 600 religious texts.14 Likewise, Indian and
subsequently Japanese monks traveled to China. In the seventh century, the Hajj was established as one
of the five pillars of Islam. Caravan routes to Mecca were established from several origins, including Kufa
(Iraq), Damascus (Syria), and Cairo (Egypt). Starting in the eighth century, the ruling Abbasids, who made
multiple pilgrimages themselves, subsidized improvements to the 900-mile pilgrim route from Kufa.
These included wells, rest stations, milestones, fire beacons, and forts. Although the journey became
easier, pilgrims were still vulnerable to predatory nomads.15 Al-Abdari, an educated religious scholar
and poet, left a narrative of his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina (1289–90) that describes his journey
through North Africa into the Arabian Peninsula.

EXPLORERS AND TRAVELERS

Exploration provided another significant motivation for travel during this era. Explorers’ written
accounts and detailed descriptions of peoples and places encountered offer some of the most significant
records of premodern travel. These writings range from Gerald of Wales’ Topographia Hibernica, first
published in 1188 based on the author’s journey to Ireland, to what is thought to be the sole surviving
anonymously written journal from Vasco da Gama’s journey to India (1497–9).

Exploration has often been associated with the European age of expansion and colonization, but people
all over the world have had a curiosity about and a desire to experience other places. Exploration
flourished during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) in China. In the early years of the dynasty, Zheng He
made seven large-scale, officially sponsored overseas journeys that extended as far as the eastern coast
of Africa. Although these costly expeditions were short lived, exploration within China continued. Its size
and diversity in both landscapes and people offered ample opportunities for journeys, and explorers
sought ever more remote regions. Many of these explorers were officials who held posts throughout the
country, but others came from wealthy backgrounds and were able to travel without the need for an
official position.17 For example, Xu Xiake is considered one of the greatest Chinese travelers and a
prolific travel writer. From 1609 to 1636, he traveled extensively throughout China, primarily on foot,
with a particular interest in physical geography research

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

One of the best known African travelers was Ibn Battuta. He was a North African Muslim scholar who
began his travels with a pilgrimage to Mecca at the age of twentyone. After that, he continued to both
visit famous places and to hold official positions. From 1325 to 1354, Ibn Battuta traveled through forty-
five modern-day nations in Africa and Asia. Upon his return to Morocco, dictations of his experiences
produced more than twenty-five manuscripts.19 Iraqi priest Ilyas Hanna al-Mawsuli began his journey to
Europe in 1668. He then obtained a permit from the Spanish king to travel to South America. Although
little is known about who he was, his manner of travel (e.g., a private cabin while crossing the Atlantic,
litters and coaches while traveling in Peru, an entourage of slaves, servants, and dogs) indicates that he
was wealthy or well sponsored. Based on his account, al-Mawsuli followed the same general route and
visited the same “attractions” as other travelers to the region at that time.

2. The Evolution of Modern Tourism

The origin of tourism is a subject of debate among scholars. This is partially attributed to the lack of a
clear definition and what motivations and/or activities should (or should not) be considered tourism.
The beginning of modern tourism development is commonly placed in eighteenth-century Western
Europe. The verb tour had come into usage in the English language in the seventeenth century, and by
the eighteenth century, the noun tourist had developed to describe those who traveled, typically for
pleasure or culture. At this time, tourism became a popular activity among the elite upper classes who
had sufficient disposable income and leisure time. In particular, Britain is cited as not only one of the
first nations to develop tourism but also one of the largest sources of tourists during this early era. With
new innovations in transportation, tourism was increasingly expanded to the middle classes as well. As a
result, the greatest quantity of research has focused on the emergence and expansion of tourism that
started in Europe in the eighteenth century and accelerated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.

THE GRAND TOUR

The European Grand Tour represents a key component in the evolution of tourism. A variation of the
Grand Tour took place as early as the Elizabethan era in the sixteenth century and evolved into the
traditional Grand Tour era from the mid seventeenth century through the eighteenth century. This was
originally intended to provide young British men from the aristocratic class with a classical education.
Often traveling with tutors, they would visit the cultural centers of Renaissance Europe and sites of
classic antiquity. Italy, above all, was the focal point of such a tour, with destinations such as Venice,
Florence, Rome, and Naples.

The average length of the Grand Tour was forty months, and the journey often followed a designated
route through France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and/or the Low Countries (modern Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Few tourists strayed from this route into other areas. Particularly early
in this era, traveling conditions were difficult, so the route was distinctly shaped by geographic
conditions and available transportation technologies. As with Roman tourism, the Alps were considered
a barrier to be crossed en route to the highlighted destinations rather than an attraction in themselves.
A widespread, efficient network of transportation that met the needs of these tourists was slow to
develop. Likewise, there were few accommodations. Although some of the main cities on the tour

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

developed hotels, these Grand Tourists generally had to use the same inns, hostels, and post houses as
other travelers.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Grand Tour began to experience a number of changes.
The demographics of the Grand Tourists steadily expanded to include aristocrats from other Northern
European countries as well as the sons of the growing class of affluent but not titled British families. The
territory of the tour expanded, as tourists searched for newer and more exclusive destinations, such as
Greece, Portugal, and Turkey. The focus of the Grand Tour also began to shift. Education continued to
play a role, but sightseeing gained in importance. Tourists visited archaeological sites, museums, and art
galleries, and they attended concerts and theater performances. Socialization and the development of
social contact with others in the same class at assemblies and balls also came to be a part of the Grand
Tour. Given the increasing importance of these latter activities, some critics argued that the Grand Tour
had the onset of the French Revolution in 1789, followed by the conflict surrounding the Napoleonic
Wars, effectively halted Continental travel. While this interval brought a boost in British domestic travel,
it also created a pent-up demand for experiences abroad. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and the
Second Treaty of Paris in 1815 created a host of new opportunities for international travel. Many of the
changes to the Grand Tour that had begun before the Napoleonic Wars continued after travel resumed.
This effectively ended the Grand Tour era and ushered in a new era of international tourism in the
nineteenth century in which more people participated than ever before (box 4.1). In this era, more
adults and families began to travel. This expanded females’ participation in travel, a trend that would
continue with an increasingly organized tourism infrastructure. Members of the middle class also began
to participate, which generated further changes in the nature of the experience. Middle-class tourists
did not have the advantage of invitations from local nobility, so they had to rely on the developing
tourism infrastructure (e.g., hotels). They were less likely to travel with servants and household staff,
which created a demand for local serving staff at the places of destination. These tourists had less time
and money available to travel, so before the middle of the nineteenth century, the average length of a
European tour had been reduced to four months. As tourists had less time to spend at the destination,
seeing come nothing more than the pursuit of pleasure.

Box 4.1. In-Depth: The Rise of Organized Mass Tourism and the End of an Era

Thomas Cook (1808–92) is often referred to as the father of modern organized mass tourism because of the role he and his
company played in organizing tourism services that made tourism easier and more accessible to more people. Cook was a
bookseller and a Baptist preacher who got his start by organizing a train trip for 570 people to attend a temperance
meeting in 1841 England. This event has been described as the beginning of an era Cook began to organize excursions for
other groups, which quickly evolved into organizing low-cost pleasure trips primarily utilizing rail transport and the growing
accommodation industry. Within a few years, Cook’s Tours had opened up new opportunities for tourism among the
working classes, as well as for females traveling without male companions. Travel by rail was quick, cheap, and generally
considered safe. The company preplanned all aspects of the trip. The tourists did not have to know anyone at the
destination, and they did not have to worry about whether the accommodations would be suitable.
Based on the existing popularity of seaside resorts, they were one of the key destinations for Cook’s Tours. However, as
preferences changed, and demands for new experiences arose, Cook’s Tours were responsive.

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

The company offered trips to new destinations in England, such as the Lake District, as well as new destinations in Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland. These destinations were quickly followed by Continental tours. By the middle of the 1850s, Cook
was organizing tours in France and Germany, followed by Switzerland and Italy. Thus, a new generation and a new class
of tourists could experience many of the same places as the Grand Tour, albeit on a far more compressed time frame
and with ever more of the comforts of home. A century later, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. remained at the forefront of
organized mass tourism when the company launched a new type of packaged trip. Instead of traveling by chartered rail
transport, this trip was based on chartered air transport. The company began with trips from Britain to Corsica and
continued to expand into new destinations

Thomas Cook was an innovator, but his railway excursion was not the first of its kind nor was his company the only one
providing similar services. One tourism historian acknowledged, “[Cook] did not do it all himself. He had competitors—
and he had the good sense to learn from them. But the firm he established outlived nearly all its British rivals.” Indeed,
the endurance of the company bearing his name has played a role in maintaining his legacy. Thomas Cook was one of
the oldest travel companies in the world and one of the most widely recognized travel brands. They served an estimated
nineteen million tourists a year who traveled to more than eighty destinations worldwide.

The end of the era came abruptly on September 23, 2019, when the Thomas Cook Group announced that it was ceasing
all operations effective immediately. The action left an estimated 600,000 tourists stranded around the world. The
British government undertook a massive effort—the largest peacetime repatriation in the country’s history—to bring
home 150,000 of its citizens. Others were forced to pay high prices to purchase new return plane tickets. Countless more
tourists had their upcoming vacation plans canceled. Furthermore, more than twenty thousand employees lost their
jobs, and destinations faced the potential collapse of their tourism industries. In the case of the Canary and Balearic
Islands, 3.2 million of the 3.6 million annual international visitors arrived on planes owned or chartered by Thomas Cook

His news generated considerable discussion about what went wrong. Some of the factors involved in the collapse were
beyond the company’s control, including political unrest in some of its popular destinations such as Turkey and Egypt,
the 2018 summer heat wave that reduced demand for warm-weather winter trips, and the uncertainty of the Brexit
process that kept many UK tourists from booking European trips. However, one of the most significant factors was that
the one-time innovator failed to adapt. As travel booking moved online, the company continued to generate most of its
business from nearly 600 physical stores. Peer-topeer accommodations brought about a shift in the way many people
traveled, and Millennial tourists were simply less interested in package holidays.

Tourism is changing rapidly. Thus, while it is valuable to understand the processes of change that have taken place over
time, tourism stakeholders cannot lose sight of present patterns and future directions. Discussion topic: What do you
think was the most significant development of Cook’s Tours in the evolution of modern tourism? What do you think the
Thomas Cook Groups could have done to stay relevant in the present market?

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

The sights took precedence over learning about them. Many continued to follow the same route and
visit the same cities for their well-known attractions. During this same period in the nineteenth century,
European tourists also began to extend their reach into new regions. Explorers and travelers had already
been in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, but the new generations of tourists visited these places for
pleasure. Transatlantic travel had become safer following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, as well as
easier and faster with the development of steamships. Lingering concerns, however, focused on the
hazards of tropical storms and the fear of diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. Scholars have
argued that this wave of European tourists arriving in other parts of the world was a new form of
colonialism. Soon after the arrival of the first tourists at a destination, the subsequent numbers of
tourists at that destination steadily increased. On one hand, this had the positive effect of creating a
demand for new businesses to cater to the needs of these tourists. On the other hand, local residents
and even other tourist groups complained about negative effects ranging from increased use of
European languages to higher costs of living. Such debates about the growth of tourism and the nature
of its effects occurred in countless places throughout the world and continues to this day. European
Grand Tour travel is significant in that it is the first era of tourism in which there is considerable source
material for analysis.26 In that era and since, a tremendous number of documents—including tourists’
personal diaries, letters, and published narratives, as well as travel company literature and
promotions—were produced that provide us with insights into why people traveled, where they went,
how they got there, and what their experiences were. We do not always have access to this same type
of data about travel in other periods or places. Even the information that we do have is limited in
perspective. Most of the sources from the Grand Tour era come from tourists. Considerably less data are
available from a supply-side perspective, including from individuals providing services to these tourists.

RESORT TOURISM
The development of spas and resorts also played a role in the evolution of modern tourism. Health had
long been a primary motivator for travel. Physicians put forth many theories about which environments
possessed the best curative properties for various conditions, most notably tuberculosis. Spas—places
usually possessing mineral springs—had been used intermittently over time as destinations for invalids
seeking cures for different ailments. The role of faith healing during the medieval era led to a decline in
early spas, but by the seventeenth century these places experienced a resurgence with visits from
members of royal and noble families. There was a growing interest in balneotherapy, or water therapy,
and physicians widely promoted cures from either drinking or bathing in mineral waters. Thus, spas had
the dual benefit of possessing health-giving properties and providing an escape from the poor
environmental conditions of the increasingly polluted industrial cities. As a result, by the eighteenth
century, English spas such as Bath and Tunb ridge Wells had become immensely popular.
Although spas were initially developed for those seeking cures, and in some cases prevention, they soon
became known as fashionable and exclusive resorts. As the socialization function became more
important, resorts built promenades and assembly rooms and offered theater performances, concerts,
dances, receptions, card parties, and gambling. Eventually, “seasons” developed in which the upper
classes would converge on spa towns for the entertainment and to both see and be seen.

The earliest English resorts were located around mineral springs in areas that were inland and relatively
accessible to London. At this time, the coast and the sea were seen as dangerous places to be avoided if
possible. It was a wild landscape full of hazards, from unpredictable weather to pirates and smugglers.
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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

However, by the late eighteenth century, several factors contributed to a change in attitudes and
allowed new spa resorts to emerge. First, a new appreciation began to develop for rugged natural
scenery and the forces of nature that had formerly generated fear. Second, physicians began to
advocate the health advantages of the seaside, including taking brisk walks along the beach and sea
bathing. Sea bathing was a carefully regulated activity, typically undertaken with the aid of bathing
machines. These wooden structures allowed the bather to be gradually immersed in the water safely
and privately, the latter being especially important for ladies.

Initially, seaside spas provided a complement to inland resorts. Visits to the seaside would take place at
different times of the year than the social season at the fashionable inland destinations. However, the
seaside spas were increasingly developed into resorts with the same comforts and entertainments and
thus started to compete with inland resorts for status and clientele. As with the inland resorts, the most
successful spas, such as Brighton, were those that were relatively accessible from London.
Transportation by stagecoach often made farther resorts impractical because this mode was expensive,
and poor roads made travel both slow and uncomfortable.

The development of seaside spas changed the nature of the coastline, which had once been
characterized by scattered fishing villages. These resort towns began to be connected by new modes of
transportation, including steamships and passenger trains. Such innovations shortened travel time and
reduced the expense of travel, allowing more people from the middle classes to make the trip. This
brought further changes in the nature of the resorts. The earlier, upper-class tourists rented houses for
the season and established a temporary residence complete with its own serving staff. The increase in
middle-class tourists, who spent shorter amounts of time at the destination, created a demand for
accommodation facilities such as hotels and boardinghouses.
By the second half of the nineteenth century, faster and more reliable rail service allowed day trips to
the seaside. This meant that even the working classes, who were not able to get away for extended
periods of time or did not have the money to stay in a hotel, were also able to enjoy the resorts. By this
time, less emphasis was placed on curing illnesses and more on promoting well-being. Sea bathing with
the use of expensive bathing machines fell out of favor, and tourists were encouraged to get out and
enjoy the fresh sea air. Perhaps the most important component of a seaside holiday was the pursuit of
pleasure, as these tourists sought to emulate the life of leisure displayed by the upper classes—at least
for a short time.

Once these resorts were seen as less exclusive, the upper class, followed by the middle class, began
looking for new destinations, often abroad. The same transportation innovations that made resorts at
home more accessible also helped open up new resorts across Europe. These tourists particularly looked
to the new winter resorts developing in the Mediterranean region, such as the Côte d’Azur in France. As
with coastal resorts in England, these areas were previously underutilized for tourism. However, with
the development of spa tourism, the region’s mild climate was highly desirable among northern tourists
and was popularized by the British royal family. Likewise, members of the Austrian royal family made
other resorts fashionable, particularly within their own empire, such as Opatija on the Istrian Peninsula
(Croatia).
Although these resorts provided relief from the cold, damp northern winters, they were generally to be
avoided during the summer. In the Victorian era, tanned skin was highly unfashionable and considered a
sign of the working classes. In addition, clothing styles were tight and made from heavy materials that
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Session: 2019 – 2020

would have been unsuitable for the Mediterranean summer heat. By the early twentieth century,
however, physicians began recommending heliotherapy, based on exposure to sunlight. Clothing styles
became less restrictive and hot, which allowed people to spend more time outside. As more people
swam freely in the ocean, swimwear also was needed. Suntans became fashionable, as the upper classes
had time to spend at resort destinations in the sun, while the working classes were stuck inside
factories.

Thus, a new tourism product, based on the combination of sun and sea, became enormously popular.
The Mediterranean was at the heart of this new trend. Developments in air transport and relatively
inexpensive foreign package vacations made the Mediterranean more accessible. New and exotic
resorts developed in places such as the Caribbean. At the same time, the original coastal resorts in
England declined. Upper- and middle-class tourists had the opportunity to visit new resorts, which left
the old resorts to day-trippers and lower-income tourists who could not afford to travel abroad. With
little new investment, the infrastructure became outdated. For example, at some of the early resorts
where tourists had once arrived by train, there were few parking facilities to accommodate those now
arriving by car.

Spa and seaside resorts were among the first modern tourism destinations to emerge in many parts of
the world. English beliefs about the curative properties of mineral waters carried over to American
society; therefore, some of the earliest destinations here were also spas. Ballston Spa in Saratoga
County, New York, was one of the first resorts around the turn of the nineteenth century. It boasted the
first hotel in the country built outside one of the major cities. New accommodations and entertainments
drew ever more tourists, who came for leisure and socialization rather than health. Then, as these spas
became overrun with visitors, the original and wealthy tourists sought newer, more exclusive resorts,
and they were replaced at existing resorts by the middle classes.35 Seaside resorts also gained in
popularity. Atlantic City in New Jersey dates back to the mid nineteenth century. Tourism development
began in Florida toward the end of the century and continued to grow as rail, and then auto, transport
made the state more accessible.

3. Twentieth-Century Tourism
This brief discussion establishes some of the key factors in the evolution of tourism. Over the course of
the twentieth century, new developments allowed tourism to continue to expand, while also
maintaining many patterns of the past. For example, new modes of transport brought more changes to
both destinations and experiences. With increased automobile ownership and highway construction in
the interwar years, “autotouring” became popular, especially in the United States. In the years after
World War II, air travel was opened up for mass passenger transport. Particularly as the price of air
travel came down, destinations around the world were suddenly far more accessible. This contributed to
a surge in international tourist arrivals. In 1950, there were an estimated twenty-five million
international tourists. By 1999, that number had grown to 664 million. One tourism historian
summarized:

So it was with holidays. Every social class in its turn followed the example of those “above”, first to the
spas, then to the seaside and holidays abroad. Merchants and tradesman followed the aristocracy to

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Session: 2019 – 2020

Bath and Cheltenham by stagecoach, the lower middle class in turn followed them to the seaside by rail,
and finally, the working class went by air to Majorca and Benidorm, which became the most popular
holiday resort in Spain

He argued that it was increasingly difficult for the vanguard to find exclusive destinations. “The most
privileged hideouts have now to be shared with the cosmopolitan world of tourists who travel in their
millions.”37 Written in the 1990s, the antecedent to present concerns about overtourism can clearly be
seen. Despite this incredible growth, tourism did not come easily to all places or equally to all peoples as
a result of various barriers, often political or economic in nature. For example, we could look at the Cold
War era to understand the political policies that restricted patterns of travel for people in countries
behind Europe’s “Iron Curtain.” Likewise, we could look at different periods of economic development
for countries, such as China, to understand when more segments of the population gained the
disposable income and/or leisure time to travel for pleasure (box 4.2). In the United States, we need to
take a closer look at the Jim Crow era of racial segregation. This period reshaped patterns of travel and
tourism for African Americans and left a legacy that can be seen today

TOURISM IN THE JIM CROW ERA

In the late nineteenth century, there was a relatively small (approximately 10 percent), affluent segment
of the African American population that was able to travel for pleasure. These doctors, lawyers,
entrepreneurs, and politicians visited newly developed resorts such as Saratoga Springs (New York) and
Atlantic City (New Jersey) along with white tourists.38 However, this was relatively short lived.
Geographers Derek Alderman and Joshua Inwood state:

The term “Jim Crow” refers to a racial caste-like system that began as early as 1877 with the end of
Reconstruction and operated primarily, but not exclusively, in the southeastern United States. While Jim
Crow is often identified with rigid laws that marginalized and excluded African Americans, it actually
represented a broad array of formal and informal social, economic, and political practices that
segregated blacks and whites and justified rampant racism, intimidation, and violence toward African
Americans

Box 4.2. Experience: Travel and Tourism in China

The baby boomer generation, referring to those individuals born in the years after World War II, has experienced
many changes in the world in their lifetime. While not necessarily known as baby boomers, the same generation in
China has seen extensive changes—politically and economically as well as in travel and tourism. Xia is part of this
generation

I was born in Jiangsu province, China in the late 1940s. When I was a child, most people did not travel. It was not
easy to travel; it took time and money. When people did travel, it was generally to go to the places to which they
were assigned to work or to visit immediate family members who were assigned to work in other places. I traveled
for the latter reason. My father served as the head of a county, but we lived in a different county. I remember
traveling with my mother to visit him. However, it was a difficult trip. My mother was in one of the last generations
to undergo foot binding.

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

This is where young girls’ feet were bound to change the shape and size. As a result, she was unable to walk very far.
Public transportation was restricted to travel between larger towns. Most people did not have their own vehicles. Only
people who needed to transport produce to market would have a sort of cart or rickshaw. So, we had to depend on
people who would allow us to ride on one of these carts as far as the county seat. From there we could take a bus to the
city in which my father worked. The Cultural Revolution began in 1966. For a short time, in that year and the next,
young people, mostly students but also some workers, were able to participate in a statesponsored “Red pilgrimage.”
Essentially, Chairman Mao encouraged us to travel to historical sites and places associated with China’s Communist
Party Revolution. The government would pay for the trips, with transportation, accommodation, and meals included. I
was a teenager at the time. When I first heard about it, I did not see how this was possible. Then my classmates and I
heard from the first group to take these trips, and we decided to try it ourselves. In the fall of 1966, I traveled for about
a month with two friends from our home in Jinan to several places, including Mao Zedong’s hometown, Shaoshan, in
Hunan province (figure 4.2). Some people took full advantage of these trips as a way to go to other places, sightsee, visit
people, and so on. When my older sister finished college in 1968, she was assigned to work in Liuzhou, in the Guangxi
autonomous region. This remote, mountainous region was far from our home, in the south of the country bordering
Vietnam. When she first reported to work, I traveled with her. We traveled by train, but there were no direct routes, so
it took several days on multiple trains. We traveled in early spring. I remember this because farmers were plowing their
fields, and as they uncovered snakes hibernating in the ground, they would hang them from the trees. I had finished
high school, but colleges were shut down during this time and young people were sent to work. Those who already lived
in rural areas generally stayed in those areas for work. Those who lived in urban areas, like me, were sent to rural areas
to learn from the farmers. People had some ability to choose their assignment, and like my sister, I wanted to go
somewhere far from home. I was assigned to Hubei Province, and I moved there to teach high school. As an unmarried
woman, I was allotted a week to visit my family, so I was able to travel home to see my parents. After I was married, I
had fewer days. Because it took three days to travel home, and it wasn’t cheap, it simply wasn’t feasible to make the
trip every year. I had to accumulate my days, and money, over the course of a couple of years so I would eventually
have a longer period to travel and spend at home. By the early 1980s people were traveling more. I think people started
to have more time and money. In particular, at this time it was the fashion for newlyweds to take a honeymoon trip. Of
course, the couples who didn’t have much money traveled to places that were relatively close to where they lived.
Those who were more affluent were able to travel farther or to the more famous destinations such as cities in Yunnan
province in mountainous western China. In the 1990s, my school occasionally organized trips, paid for by the state, for
the teachers as a benefit of work. Most of these trips involved only short travel, but some were multiday trips. On one
of these trips, we traveled to Dalian, a sort of tourist city in Liaoning province. For me, travel changed after 2002. My
husband and I traveled from China to the US to visit our son in Boston, Massachusetts. Over the two months that we
spent there, our son took us too many places in the US, from Acadia National Park in Maine to some of the country’s
historic cities like Washington, DC, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and Williamsburg (Virginia). This opened our minds
about the experience of travel. By this time, we had also retired, so when we returned to China, we began to travel
more frequently. In particular, almost every year, we would travel from our home in northern China to places in the
south. This allowed us to see new places—and to avoid the cold, harsh winter. We would rent a house or apartment and
stay there for several months, depending on how much we liked it. We have now been to most of the cities in southern
China. Today, travel in China is great. The rail system is fast and convenient. We can go most places comfortably within
a day so we don’t have to sleep on the train anymore. For most people, trains are generally affordable as well. One
change that we have not adopted, however, is the digital revolution. Now, most people use mobile applications linked
to their bank accounts to do things like buy train tickets. It is far less common, but we still prefer to go to an outlet to
buy our tickets with cash like we have always done.

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

Because African Americans suffered from various expressions of discrimination using public
transportation, many welcomed the freedom afforded by the automobile (figure 4.3). Still, African
Americans faced significant barriers to traveling beyond familiar places. Segregation practices could vary
considerably from town to town, so travelers never knew what to expect. On the road, they faced
constant apprehension about whether they would be able to find a place to eat or to spend the night.40
The latter was particularly serious, because they might encounter “sundown towns” that prohibited
African Americans from being out after nightfall.41 Defying such laws and practices, even if
unknowingly, could lead to violent reprisals.42 Even if they were able to obtain products and services
while traveling, they often faced poor quality, rude treatment, and inflated prices. Essentially, travel for
African Americans could be harder, longer and less direct, and more expensive than that for their white
counterparts.43 Increasingly, African American–owned businesses provided the necessary services for
African American travelers and tourists. In 1936, Victor Green, an African American postal worker in
Harlem, produced the first edition of The Negro Motorist Green Book. It began as a local guide for New
York City, using his experiences and those of other postal workers, to provide a listing of businesses that
welcomed African American customers. This included private residences that lodged African American
travelers in the absence of other available accommodations. The guide was eventually expanded to
include cities in locations across the United States as well as several international destinations. In this
process, he relied on an early form of user-generated content (UGC) by asking African American
travelers to submit the names of suitable businesses they encountered.44 Still, the majority of such
businesses were spatially concentrated in the eastern United States; few facilities were available in the
West.45 African Americans also developed their own resorts where they could enjoy the same leisure
activities as other vacationers without fear of discrimination (box 4.3).

Box 4.3. Case Study: Michigan’s Black Eden

According to one historian, in the Jim Crow era “blacks could almost never achieve total relaxation, but … they came
closest to doing so when there were no whites around. It is hardly surprising that successful blacks did all they could to
insulate themselves, and particularly their children, from unpleasant confrontations with whites.” A In the early
twentieth century, entrepreneurs began to recognize the need to establish resorts for middle-class, urban African
American professionals and business owners. Like their white counterparts, these peoples sought to escape the
summer heat, poor environmental conditions, and social pressures associated with cities at the time. To avoid potential
problems, these resorts needed to be developed in relatively remote places. In rural Michigan, Idlewild offered a place
that was a reasonable driving distance from Midwestern cities like Detroit (Michigan), Cleveland (Ohio), Chicago
(Illinois), Indianapolis (Indiana), and even St. Louis (Missouri), but far enough from the racism and discrimination
present in these cities.

In 1912, four white couples purchased 2,700 acres of land in the northwestern part of Lower Michigan near Idlewild
Lake and founded the Idlewild Resort Company (map 4.1). With the intention of appealing to the African American
community, they organized train and bus tours to bring people from key cities to see the area and sell lots.d
Development at the resort occurred slowly and facilities were initially limited, but vacationers enjoyed its simplicity and
rusticity.

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Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

After World War I, development accelerated. Popular activities included hiking, horseback riding, swimming, boating, and
fishing as well as relaxing, reading, and playing cards in the clubhouse. With the establishment of entertainment venues
and jazz clubs, such as the Flamingo Club and the Paradise Club, the resort gained a reputation as a cultural mecca. In
addition to regular acts that ranged from magicians to showgirls, many well-known and up-and-coming African American
entertainers performed in Idlewild, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington,
Della Reese, the Four Tops, and the Temptations.

In its heyday, Idlewild was known as the Black Eden of Michigan. When it reached its peak in the 1940s, the resort’s
summertime population exceeded twenty thousand. It was a place to see and be seen. In the post–World War II era,
Idlewild began to attract African American vacationers from the working middle class; however, after the Civil Rights Act of
1964, the community began to decline. African Americans faced fewer restrictions in terms of where they could vacation
and began to explore new destinations. Entertainers had the opportunity to perform at other resorts with bigger audiences
and more money. Over time, little new investment was made in the tourism infrastructure, and the resort failed to remain
competitive. The economy collapsed, and the population plummeted.

Then a growing number of retirees chose to settle in the community. Many of these retirees had visited the area during its
prime and wanted to see its history preserved. Revitalization efforts began in the 1990s, and the Idlewild Music Festival was
established in the early 2000s to help connect modern tourists with the resort’s heritage in 2012, the community hosted its
centenary. While no one expects to recreate the Idlewild of the past, its significance should not be forgotten. Idlewild is
considered to be one of the oldest, most famous, and most memorable African American resort communities in the United
States. More than that, it was one of the few places of retreat for middle-class African Americans during the Jim Crow era, a
place where they could relax and enjoy the same leisure opportunities available to white Americans. Discussion topic: What
factors led to the development of Idlewild as a tourist resort? Do you think these factors are specific to this time and/or
place?

In the early 1940s, one journalist concluded that African Americans would have an easier time traveling
abroad than in the United States.46 Foreign travel was still limited at this time, but those with sufficient
means who were able to do so often reported that they experienced less discrimination. Still, they were
conscious of their appearance and behavior. Some noted that they seemed to be curiosities in the
places they visited. Others felt that, as they were the first African American many people had
encountered, they bore the responsibility of shaping these peoples’ opinions about the group as a whole

In the introduction to the 1949 edition of the Green Book, the author wrote:

There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is
when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day
for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment.
But until that time comes we shall continue to publish this information for your convenience each year.

Indeed, Green continued to publish his guide until the mid-1960s. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed
discrimination and opened up greater opportunities for African American travel and tourism. Yet,
discrimination and racism continued to affect African American tourists.

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Md Sohan Hossain
Tourism and Hospitality Management
Session: 2019 – 2020

THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

As air travel opened up for passenger transport airlines struggled to manage both their inventory and passenger
reservations. Airline agents took reservations in person or over the phone, hand wrote them on cards, and
organized them in filing carousels. With this inefficient and often inaccurate system, flights could be over- or
underbooked, which created problems for both the airlines and their passengers. To address this issue, American
Airlines entered into an agreement with IBM to build the industry’s first computerized airline reservation system,
known as SABRE (Semi-Automated Business Research Environment). By 1964, the system was fully operational.
This launched the first major wave of information technology in travel and tourism, as other airlines worked to
establish their own Customer Reservation Systems (CRS). In the first decade, SABRE was the world’s largest private
real-time data-processing system. It served more than 10,000 travel agents around the world, but it remained
inaccessible to individual consumers.

The introduction of the worldwide web provided the basis for the second major wave of information technology in
travel and tourism. In 1995, a small business called Internet Travel Network used a web-based booking tool to
facilitate the first online airline ticket booking. In the following year, Microsoft launched its online travel agency,
Expedia. By 2000, another small business started TripAdvisor to allow tourists to leave reviews of hotels and other
tourists to use these reviews to make their decisions.51 TripAdvisor was the first social travel site and is still the
largest.

As consumers became more familiar and comfortable with online booking systems, they also began to use this
method for hotels, trains, car rentals, tours, and so on. Online travel agents increasingly competed with the
traditional “high street” (or brick-and-mortar) agents. An academic journal article from 2009 cautions, “Businesses
that have not made use of the Internet cannot compete and therefore they must grasp the opportunity before
they are out-competed by those that have.”52 Ten years later, the world’s oldest travel company collapsed, this
advice apparently having gone unheeded.

Conclusion
Research on tourism in past periods has focused on several key eras considered instrumental in the
evolution of modern tourism. In particular, the Grand Tour is often cited as the origin of modern
international tourism. In fact, some scholars argue that the Grand Tour lives on:

The true descendants of … the Grand Tour tradition, however, consist of the young interrailers who
roam the city in search of other interrailers and the groups of American and Japanese college students
doing the modern version of the Grand Tour. Just as in the seventeenth century, they are here with the
blessing of their parents. A season of interrailing or a European tour is still supposed to be a good
investment in a middle class education.
The historical geography of tourism is a fundamental component in our investigation of the geography of tourism.
Historical geography provides the framework for examining the geographic patterns of tourism in past periods, and
the changes that have taken place over time. This is the foundation for the patterns that we see today. Although it
may be hard for us to imagine tourism in earlier periods, clearly many parallels may be seen. Moreover, starting
from the early nineteenth century, we can trace the evolution of infrastructure, organization, experiences, and
even many of the problems of tourism directly to the patterns that we see today and will be exploring in greater
depth in the remaining chapters.

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