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What is Heritage (Historical) Tourism?

What is Heritage tourism?

Countries famous for historical tourism.

Category: Travel Industry

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CHAPTER – I INTRODUCTION TO HISTORICAL TOURISM

Related Papers

Tourism geography is the study of travel and tourism, as an industry and as a social and cultural activity. Tourism geography covers a wide range of interests including the environmental impact of tourism, the geographies of tourism and leisure economies, answering tourism industry and management concerns and the sociology of tourism and locations of tourism. Tourism geography is that branch of science which deals with the study of travel and its impact on places. Geography is fundamental to the study of tourism, because tourism is geographical in nature. Tourism occurs in places, it involves movement and activities between places and it is an activity in which both place characteristics and personal self-identities are formed, through the relationships that are created among places, landscapes and people. Physical geography provides the essential background, against which tourism places are created and environmental impacts and concerns are major issues that must be considered in managing the development of tourism places. The approaches to study will differ according to the varying concerns. Much tourism management literature remains quantitative in methodology and considers tourism as consisting of the places of tourist origin (or tourist generating areas), tourist destinations (or places of tourism supply) and the relationship (connections) between origin and destination places, which includes transportation routes, business relationships and traveler motivations. [1] Recent developments in Human geography have resulted in approaches such as those from cultural geography, which take more theoretically diverse approaches to tourism, including a sociology of tourism, which extends beyond tourism as an isolated, exceptional activity and considering how travel fits into the everyday lives and how tourism is not only a consumptive of places, but also produces the sense of place at a destination. [2] The Tourist by Dean McConnell and The Tourist Gaze by John Urry are classics in this field.

himanshu kumar

Chiro Natun Bandhu

saneep shrestha

Eureka Publications

Ashish Raina

Food is an important aspect to sustain life and it has always been amalgamated importantly into every community practice. With an increase in the gastronomic interest in the tourists these days, there is a great emphasis on the development of local food systems and lecturing food insecurities in communities. Projects majorly focusing on local food practices addressed by the communities can be used to carry forward the involvement of local communities in the tourism process. It becomes a distinguishing aspect for communities to get involved in the tourism process directly to empower themselves out of poverty and supremacy. With an aim to address the potential contributions to the subject, the group of editors have invited contributions and edited them in two volumes. The current book volume comprises of chapters, research papers, case studies, lost recipes, and information on traditional methods and tools used by the local communities and villages in cooking and related aspects in India. The book can be referred by hospitality and tourism students, research scholars in the field of Social sciences, tourism and hospitality academicians and everyone interested to explore tourism based on food and the subjects related to the empowerment of the local communities.

Raghu Bista

Roopa Sinha

Research shows festival, being an important factor of cultural tourism, it has crucial role to play for the growth of cultural tourism in host community. Festivals are been taken into account to contribute significantly in promotion of cultural tourism, also festivals are using as a tool to boosting regional economy. The study of the impact of festivals and events became a prolific area to promote cultural tourism. Large numbers of tourists travel to attend many festivals in order to have some experience about the culture of the host community. The research paper has been focused upon Heritage Festival of Murshidabad and its contribution towards the development of cultural tourism. Heritage festival of Murshidabad plays a crucial role to promote cultural heritage tourism by showcasing the art and culture with the main focus of heritage walk, the folk lore dances and the sheherwali cuisine. So there can be a scope in promotion of cultural tourism in Murshidabad. Also identifies the socio-cultural benefits of this festival for the integrated development of Murshidabad and the study ended with some recommendation to promote this festival to increase tourist flow.

Miguel Ledhesma

This book is about the research and practical work of students from various parts of the world; and of different professional and academic backgrounds. Taking into account this we can say that its background contains contributions from different angles, which translates into greater wealth because it gives different approaches to the work of travel journalists. Proposals for radio programs (some already in progress or in production ) Show all these aspects, there are commercial, educational, literary, informative but in what they do all agree is not to be influenced by the sponsor of the program or become a simple offer of destinations of a travel agency.

Vibhuti Patel

Potential of Tourism as one of the most effective drivers for the development of regional economies has been acknowledged by government of Maharashtra. It is one of the key sectors of the economy which makes a positive contribution to government revenues, generation of employment and contribution to regional development. At Travel and Tourism Summit-2005 in New Delhi, Shri. Lalit Suri, Chairman of World Travel and Tourism Council India Initiative stated, “Synergy in India should mean central state and private sector working together to maximize tourism promotion and experience, with greater involvement of state authorities”.

Chapter 1. History and Overview

Learning Objectives

Specify the commonly understood definitions of tourism and tourist
Classify tourism into distinct industry groups using North American Industry Classification Standards (NAICS)
Define hospitality
Gain knowledge about the origins of the tourism industry
Provide an overview of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism worldwide
Understand the history of tourism development in Canada and British Columbia
Analyze the value of tourism in Canada and British Columbia
Identify key industry associations and understand their mandates

What Is Tourism?

Before engaging in a study of tourism , let’s have a closer look at what this term means.

Definition of Tourism

There are a number of ways tourism can be defined, and for this reason, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) embarked on a project from 2005 to 2007 to create a common glossary of terms for tourism. It defines tourism as follows:

Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors (which may be either tourists or excursionists; residents or non-residents) and tourism has to do with their activities, some of which imply tourism expenditure ( United Nations World Tourism Organization , 2008).

Using this definition, we can see that tourism is the movement of people for a number of purposes (whether business or pleasure).

Definition of Tourist

Building on the definition of tourism, a commonly accepted description of a tourist is “someone who travels at least 80 km from his or her home for at least 24 hours, for business or leisure or other reasons” (LinkBC, 2008, p.8). The United Nations World Tourism Organization (1995) helps us break down this definition further by stating tourists can be:

Domestic (residents of a given country travelling only within that country)
Inbound (non-residents travelling in a given country)
Outbound (residents of one country travelling in another country)

The scope of tourism, therefore, is broad and encompasses a number of activities.

Spotlight On: United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

UNWTO is the United Nations agency responsible “for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism” (UNWTO, 2014b). Its membership includes 156 countries and over 400 affiliates such as private companies and non-governmental organizations. It promotes tourism as a way of developing communities while encouraging ethical behaviour to mitigate negative impacts. For more information, visit the UNWTO website : http://www2.unwto.org/.

NAICS: The North American Industry Classification System

Given the sheer size of the tourism industry, it can be helpful to break it down into broad industry groups using a common classification system. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) was jointly created by the Canadian, US, and Mexican governments to ensure common analysis across all three countries (British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, 2013a). The tourism-related groupings created using NAICS are (in alphabetical order):

Accommodation
Food and beverage services (commonly known as “F & B”)
Recreation and entertainment
Transportation
Travel services

These industry groups are based on the similarity of the “labour processes and inputs” used for each (Government of Canada, 2013). For instance, the types of employees and resources required to run an accommodation business — whether it be a hotel, motel, or even a campground — are quite similar. All these businesses need staff to check in guests, provide housekeeping, employ maintenance workers, and provide a place for people to sleep. As such, they can be grouped together under the heading of accommodation. The same is true of the other four groupings, and the rest of this text explores these industry groups, and other aspects of tourism, in more detail.

The Hospitality Industry

When looking at tourism it’s important to consider the term hospitality . Some define hospitality as “t he business of helping people to feel welcome and relaxed and to enjoy themselves” (Discover Hospitality, 2015, ¶ 3). Simply put, the hospitality industry is the combination of the accommodation and food and beverage groupings, collectively making up the largest segment of the industry. You’ll learn more about accommodations and F & B in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, respectively.

Before we seek to understand the five industry groupings in more detail, it’s important to have an overview of the history and impacts of tourism to date.

Global Overview

Origins of tourism.

Travel for leisure purposes has evolved from an experience reserved for very few people into something enjoyed by many. Historically, the ability to travel was reserved for royalty and the upper classes. From ancient Roman times through to the 17th century, young men of high standing were encouraged to travel through Europe on a “grand tour” (Chaney, 2000). Through the Middle Ages, many societies encouraged the practice of religious pilgrimage, as reflected in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and other literature.

The word hospitality predates the use of the word tourism , and first appeared in the 14th century. It is derived from the Latin hospes , which encompasses the words guest, host , and foreigner (Latdict, 2014). The word tourist appeared in print much later, in 1772 (Griffiths and Griffiths, 1772). William Theobald suggests that the word tour comes from Greek and Latin words for circle and turn, and that tourism and tourist represent the activities of circling away from home, and then returning (Theobald, 1998).

Tourism Becomes Business

Cox & Kings, the first known travel agency, was founded in 1758 when Richard Cox became official travel agent of the British Royal Armed Forces (Cox & Kings, 2014). Almost 100 years later, in June 1841, Thomas Cook opened the first leisure travel agency, designed to help Britons improve their lives by seeing the world and participating in the temperance movement. In 1845, he ran his first commercial packaged tour, complete with cost-effective railway tickets and a printed guide (Thomas Cook, 2014).

The continued popularity of rail travel and the emergence of the automobile presented additional milestones in the development of tourism. In fact, a long journey taken by Karl Benz’s wife in 1886 served to kick off interest in auto travel and helped to publicize his budding car company, which would one day become Mercedes Benz (Auer, 2006). We take a closer look at the importance of car travel later this chapter, and of transportation to the tourism industry in Chapter 2.

Fast forward to 1952 with the first commercial air flights from London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa, and Colombo, Sri Lanka (Flightglobal, 2002) and the dawn of the jet age, which many herald as the start of the modern tourism industry. The 1950s also saw the creation of Club Méditérannée (Gyr, 2010) and similar club holiday destinations, the precursor of today’s all-inclusive resorts.

The decade that followed is considered to have been a significant period in tourism development, as more travel companies came onto the scene, increasing competition for customers and moving toward “mass tourism, introducing new destinations and modes of holidaying” (Gyr, 2010, p. 32).

Industry growth has been interrupted at several key points in history, including World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. At the start of this century, global events thrust international travel into decline including the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York City (known as 9/11), the war in Iraq, perceived threat of future terrorist attacks, and health scares including SARS, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), and West Nile virus (Government of Canada, 2006).

At the same time, the industry began a massive technological shift as increased internet use revolutionized travel services. Through the 2000s, online travel bookings grew exponentially, and by 2014 global leader Expedia had expanded to include brands such as Hotels.com, the Hotwire Group, trivago, and Expedia CruiseShip Centers, earning revenues of over $4.7 million (Expedia Inc., 2013).

A more in-depth exploration of the impact of the online marketplace, and other trends in global tourism, is provided in Chapter 14. But as you can already see, the impacts of the global tourism industry today are impressive and far reaching. Let’s have a closer look at some of these outcomes.

Tourism Impacts

Tourism impacts can be grouped into three main categories: economic, social, and environmental. These impacts are analyzed using data gathered by businesses, governments, and industry organizations.

Economic Impacts

According to a UNWTO report, in 2011, “international tourism receipts exceeded US$1 trillion for the first time” (UNWTO, 2012). UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai stated this excess of $1 trillion was especially important news given the global economic crisis of 2008, as tourism could help rebuild still-struggling economies, because it is a key export and labour intensive (UNWTO, 2012).

Four students dressed in formal business attire.

Tourism around the world is now worth over $1 trillion annually, and it’s a growing industry almost everywhere. Regions with the highest growth in terms of tourism dollars earned are the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and Africa. Only the Middle East posted negative growth at the time of the report (UNWTO, 2012).

While North and South America are growing the fastest, Europe continues to lead the way in terms of overall percentage of dollars earned (UNWTO, 2012):

Europe (45%)
Asia and the Pacific (28%)
North and South America (19%)
Middle East (4%)

Global industry growth and high receipts are expected to continue. In its August 2014 expenditure barometer, the UNWTO found worldwide visitation had increased by 22 million people in the first half of the year over the previous year, to reach 517 million visits (UNWTO, 2014a). As well, the UNWTO’s Tourism 2020 Vision predicts that international arrivals will reach nearly 1.6 billion by 2020 . Read more about the Tourism 2020 Vision : http://www.e-unwto.org/doi/abs/10.18111/9789284403394

Social Impacts

In addition to the economic benefits of tourism development, positive social impacts include an increase in amenities (e.g., parks, recreation facilities), investment in arts and culture, celebration of First Nations people, and community pride. When developed conscientiously, tourism can, and does, contribute to a positive quality of life for residents.

However, as identified by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2003a), negative social impacts of tourism can include:

Change or loss of indigenous identity and values
Culture clashes
Physical causes of social stress (increased demand for resources)
Ethical issues (such as an increase in sex tourism or the exploitation of child workers)

Some of these issues are explored in further detail in Chapter 12, which examines the development of Aboriginal tourism in British Columbia.

Environmental Impacts

Tourism relies on, and greatly impacts, the natural environment in which it operates. Even though many areas of the world are conserved in the form of parks and protected areas, tourism development can have severe negative impacts. According to UNEP (2003b), these can include:

Depletion of natural resources (water, forests, etc.)
Pollution (air pollution, noise, sewage, waste and littering)
Physical impacts (construction activities, marina development, trampling, loss of biodiversity)

The environmental impacts of tourism can reach outside local areas and have an effect on the global ecosystem. One example is increased air travel, which is a major contributor to climate change. Chapter 10 looks at the environmental impacts of tourism in more detail.

Whether positive or negative, tourism is a force for change around the world, and the industry is transforming at a staggering rate. But before we delve deeper into our understanding of tourism, let’s take a look at the development of the sector in our own backyard.

Canada Overview

Origins of tourism in canada.

Tourism has long been a source of economic development for our country. Some argue that as early as 1534 the explorers of the day, such as Jacques Cartier, were Canada’s first tourists (Dawson, 2004), but most agree the major developments in Canada’s tourism industry followed milestones in the transportation sector: by rail, by car, and eventually, in the skies.

Railway Travel: The Ties That Bind

The dawn of the railway age in Canada came midway through the 19th century. The first railway was launched in 1836 (Library and Archives Canada, n.d.), and by the onset of World War I in 1914, four railways dominated the Canadian landscape: Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), Canadian Northern Railway (CNOR), the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR), and the Grand Trunk Pacific (GTP). Unfortunately, their rapid expansion soon brought the last three into near bankruptcy (Library and Archives Canada, n.d.).

In 1923, these three rail companies were amalgamated into the Canadian National Railway (CNR), and together with the CPR, these trans-continentals dominated the Canadian travel landscape until other forms of transportation became more popular. In 1978, with declining interest in rail travel, the CPR and CNR were forced to combine their passenger services to form VIA Rail (Library and Archives Canada, n.d.).

The Rise of the Automobile

The rising popularity of car travel was partially to blame for the decline in rail travel, although it took time to develop. When the first cross-country road trip took place in 1912, there were only 16 kilometres of paved road across Canada (MacEachern, 2012). Cars were initially considered a nuisance, and the National Parks Branch banned entry to automobiles, but later slowly began to embrace them. By the 1930s, some parks, such as Cape Breton Highlands National Park, were actually created to provide visitors with scenic drives (MacEachern, 2012).

It would take decades before a coast-to-coast highway was created, with the Trans-Canada Highway officially opening in Revelstoke in 1962. When it was fully completed in 1970, it was the longest national highway in the world, spanning one-fifth of the globe (MacEachern, 2012).

Early Tourism Promotion

As early as 1892, enterprising Canadians like the Brewsters became the country’s first tour operators, leading guests through areas such as Banff National Park (Brewster Travel Canada, 2014). Communities across Canada developed their own marketing strategies as transportation development took hold. For instance, the town of Maisonneuve in Quebec launched a campaign from 1907 to 1915 calling itself “Le Pittsburg du Canada.” And by 1935 Quebec was spending $250,000 promoting tourism, with Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia also enjoying established provincial tourism bureaus (Dawson, 2004).

National Airlines

Our national airline, Air Canada, was formed in 1937 as Trans-Canada Air Lines. In many ways, Air Canada was a world leader in passenger aviation, introducing the world’s first computerized reservations system in 1963 ( Globe and Mail , 2014). Through the 1950s and 1960s, reduced airfares saw increased mass travel. Competitors including Canadian Pacific (which became Canadian Airlines in 1987) began to launch international flights during this time to Australia, Japan, and South America ( Canadian Geographic, 2000). By 2000, Air Canada was facing financial peril and forced to restructure. A numbered company, owned in part by Air Canada, purchased 82% of Canadian Airline’s shares, with the result of Air Canada becoming the country’s only national airline ( Canadian Geographic, 2000).

Parks and Protected Areas

A look at the evolution of tourism in Canada would be incomplete without a quick study of our national parks and protected areas. The official conserving of our natural spaces began around the same time as the railway boom, and in 1885 Banff was established as Canada’s first national park. By 1911, the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act created the Dominion Parks Branch, the first of its kind in the world (Shoalts, 2011).

The systemic conservation and celebration of Canada’s parks over the next century would help shape Canada’s identity, both at home and abroad. Through the 1930s, conservation officers and interpreters were hired to enhance visitor experiences. By 1970, the National Park System Plan divided Canada into 39 regions, with the goal of preserving each distinct ecosystem for future generations. In 1987, the country’s first national marine park was established in Ontario, and in the 20 years that followed, 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas were created (Shoalts, 2011).

The role of parks and protected areas in tourism is explored in greater detail in Chapter 5 (recreation) and Chapter 10 (environmental stewardship).

Global Shock and Industry Decline

As with the global industry, Canada’s tourism industry was impacted by world events such as the Great Depression and the World Wars.

More recently, global events such as 9/11, the SARS outbreak, and the war in Iraq took their toll on tourism receipts. Worldwide arrivals to Canada dropped 1% to 694 million in 2003, after three years of stagnant growth. In 2005, spending reached $61.4 billion with domestic travel accounting for 71% (Government of Canada, 2006).

Tourism in Canada Today

In 2011, tourism created $78.8 billion in total economic activity and 603,400 jobs. Tourism accounted for more of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) than agriculture, forestry, and fisheries combined (Tourism Industry Association of Canada, 2014).

Spotlight On: The Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC)

Founded in 1930 and based in Ottawa, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) is the national private-sector advocate for the industry. Its goal is to support policies and programs that help the industry grow, while representing over 400 members including airports, concert halls, festivals and events, travel services providers, and businesses of all sizes. For more information, visit the Tourism Industry Association of Canada’s website : http://tiac.travel/About.html

Unfortunately, while overall receipts from tourism appear healthy, and globally the industry is growing, according to a recent report, Canada’s historic reliance on the US market (which traditionally accounts for 75% of our market) is troubling. Because three out of every four international visitors to Canada originates in the United States, the 55% decline in that market since 2000 is being very strongly felt here. Many feel the decline in American visitors to Canada can be attributed to tighter passport and border regulations, the economic downturn (including the 2008 global economic crisis), and a stronger Canadian dollar (TIAC, 2014).

Despite disappointing numbers from the United States, Canada continues to see strong visitation from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and China. In 2011, we welcomed 3,180,262 tourists from our top 15 inbound countries (excluding the United States). Canadians travelling domestically accounted for 80% of tourism revenues in the country, and TIAC suggested that a focus on rebounding US visitation would help grow the industry (TIAC, 2014).

Spotlight On: The Canadian Tourism Commission

Housed in Vancouver, Destination Canada , previously the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), is responsible for promoting Canada in several foreign markets: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It works with private companies, travel services providers, meeting professionals, and government organizations to help leverage Canada’s tourism brand, Canada. Keep Exploring . It also conducts research and has a significant image library (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2014). For more information, visit Destination Canada website : http://en.destinationcanada.com/about-ctc.

As organizations like TIAC work to confront barriers to travel, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is active abroad, encouraging more visitors to explore our country. In Chapter 8, we’ll delve more into the challenges and triumphs of selling tourism at home and abroad.

The great news for British Columbia is that once in Canada, most international visitors tend to remain in the province they landed in, and BC is one of three provinces that receives the bulk of this traffic (TIAC, 2012). In fact, BC’s tourism industry is one of the healthiest in Canada today. Let’s have a look at how our provincial industry was established and where it stands now.

British Columbia Overview

Origins of tourism in bc.

As with the history of tourism in Canada, it’s often stated that the first tourists to BC were explorers. In 1778, Captain James Cook touched down on Vancouver Island, followed by James Douglas in 1842, a British agent who had been sent to find new headquarters for the Hudson’s Bay Company, ultimately choosing Victoria. Through the 1860s, BC’s gold rush attracted prospectors from around the world, with towns and economies springing up along the trail (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).

Railway Travel: Full Steam Ahead!

The development of BC’s tourism industry began in earnest in the late 1800s when the CPR built accommodation properties along itsnewly completed trans-Canada route, capturing revenues from overnight stays to help alleviate their increasing corporate debt. Following the 1886 construction of small lodges at stops in Field, Rogers Pass, and Fraser Canyon, the CPR opened the Hotel Vancouver in May 1887 (Dawson, 2004).

As opposed to Atlantic Canada, where tourism promotion centred around attracting hunters and fishermen for a temporary infusion of cash, in British Columbia tourism was seen as a way to lure farmers and settlers to stay in the new province. Industry associations began to form quickly: the Tourist Association of Victoria (TAV) in February 1902, and the Vancouver Tourist Association in June of the same year (Dawson, 2004).

Many of the campaigns struck by these and other organizations between 1890 and 1930 centred on the province’s natural assets, as people sought to escape modern convenience and enjoy the environment. A collaborative group called the Pacific Northwest Travel Association (BC, Washington, and Oregon) promoted “The Pacific Northwest: The World’s Greatest Out of Doors,” calling BC “The Switzerland of North America.” Promotions like these seemed to have had an effect: in 1928, over 370,000 tourists visited Victoria, spending over $3.5 million (Dawson, 2004).

The Great Depression and World War II

As the world’s economy was sent into peril during the Great Depression in the 1930s, tourism was seen as an economic solution. A newly renamed Greater Victoria Publicity Bureau touted a “100 for 1” multiplier effect of tourism spending, with visitor revenues accounting for around 13.5% of BC’s income in 1930. By 1935, an organization known as the TTDA (Tourist Trade Development Association of Victoria and Vancouver Island) looked to create a more stable industry through strategies to increase visitors’ length of stay (Dawson, 2004).

In 1937, the provincial Bureau of Industrial and Tourist Development (BITD) was formed through special legislation with a goal of increasing tourist traffic. By 1938, the organization changed its name to the British Columbia Government Travel Bureau (BCGTB) and was granted a budget increase to $105,000. This was soon followed by an expansion of the BC Tourist Council designed to solicit input from across the province. And in 1939, Vancouver welcomed the King and Queen of England and celebrated the opening of the Lions Gate Bridge, activities that reportedly bolstered tourism numbers (Dawson, 2004).

The December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii had negative repercussions for tourism on the Pacific Rim and was responsible for an era of decreased visitation to British Columbia, despite attempts by some to market the region as exciting. From 1939 to 1943, US visits to Vancouver (measured at the border) dropped from over 307,000 to approximately 183,600. Just two years later, however, that number jumped to 369,250, the result of campaigns like the 1943 initiative aimed at Americans that marketed BC as “comrades in war” (Dawson, 2004).

Post-War Rebound

We, with all due modesty, cannot help but claim that we are entering British Columbia’s half-century, and cannot help but observe that B.C. also stands for BOOM COUNTRY. – Phil Gagliardi, BC Minister of Highways, 1955 (Dawson, 2004, p.190)

A burst of post-war spending began in 1946, and although short-lived, was supported by steady government investment in marketing throughout the 1950s. As tourism grew in BC, however, so did competition for US dollars from Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe. The decade that followed saw an emphasis on promoting BC’s history, its “Britishness,” and a commodification of Aboriginal culture. The BCGTB began marketing efforts to extend the travel season, encouraging travel in September, prime fishing season. It also tried to push visitors to specific areas, including the Lower Fraser Valley, the Okanagan-Fraser Canyon Loop, and the Kamloops-Cariboo region (Dawson, 2004).

In 1954, Vancouver hosted the British Empire Games, investing in the construction of Empire Stadium. A few years later, an increased emphasis on events and convention business saw the Greater Vancouver Tourist Association change its name in 1962 to the Greater Vancouver Visitors and Convention Bureau (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).

The ski industry was also on the rise: in 1961, the lodge and chairlift on Tod Mountain (now Sun Peaks) opened, and Whistler followed suit five years later (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009). Ski partners became pioneers of collaborative marketing in the province with the foundation of the Ski Marketing Advisory Committee (SMAC) supported by Tod Mountain and Big White, evolving into today’s Canada’s West Ski Area Association (Magnes, 2010). This pioneer spirit was evident across the ski sector: the entire sport of heliskiing was invented by Hans Gosmer of BC’s Canadian Mountain Holidays, and today the province holds 90% of the world’s heliskiing market share (McLeish, 2014).

The concept of collaboration extended throughout the province as innovative funding structures saw the cost of marketing programs shared between government and industry in BC. These programs were distributed through regional channels (originally eight regions in the province), and considered “the most constructive and forward looking plan of its kind in Canada” (Dawson 2004, p.194).

Tourism in BC continued to grow through the 1970s. In 1971, the Hotel Room Tax Act was introduced, allowing for a 5% tax to be collected on room nights with the funds collected to be put toward marketing and development. By 1978, construction had begun on Whistler Village, with Blackcomb Mountain opening two years later (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009). Funding programs in the late 1970s and early 1980s such as the Canada BC Tourism Agreement (CBCTA) and Travel Industry Development Subsidiary Agreement (TIDSA) allowed communities to invest in projects that would make them more attractive tourism destinations. In the mountain community of Kimberley, for instance, the following improvements were implemented through a $3.1 million forgivable loan: a new road to the ski resort, a covered tennis court, a mountain lodge, an alpine slide, and nine more holes for the golf course (e-Know, 2011).

Around the same time, the “Super, Natural British Columbia” brand was introduced, and a formal bid was approved for Vancouver to host a fair then known as Transpo 86 (later Expo 86). Tourism in the province was about to truly take off.

Expo 86 and Beyond

By the time the world fair Expo 86 came to a close in October 1986, it had played host to 20,111,578 guests. Infrastructure developments, including rapid rail, airport improvements, a new trade and convention centre at Canada Place (with a cruise ship terminal), and hotel construction, had positioned the city and the province for further growth (PricewaterhouseCooopers, 2009). The construction and opening of the Coquihalla Highway through to 1990 enhanced the travel experience and reduced travel times to vast sections of the province (Magnes, 2010).

Take a Closer Look: The Value of Tourism

Tourism Vancouver Island, with the support of many partners, has created a website that directly addresses the value of tourism in the region. The site looks at the economics of tourism, social benefits of tourism, and a “what’s your role?” feature that helps users understand where they fit in. Explore the Tourism Vancouver Island website : http://valueoftourism.ca/.

By 2000, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) was named number one in the world by the International Air Transport Association’s survey of international passengers. Five years later, the airport welcomed a record 16.4 million passengers (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).

Going for Gold

A crowd of people dressed in red and white Canadian jerseys cheer.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee named Vancouver/Whistler as the host city for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Infrastructure development followed, including the expansion of the Sea-to-Sky Highway, the creation of Vancouver Convention Centre West, and the construction of the Canada Line, a rapid transport line connecting the airport with the city’s downtown.

As BC prepared to host the Games, its international reputation continued to grow. Vancouver was voted “Best City in the Americas” by Condé Nast Traveller magazine three years in a row. Kelowna was named “Best Canadian Golf City” by Canada’s largest golf magazine, and BC was named the “Best Golf Destination in North America” by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators. Kamloops, known as Canada’s Tournament City, hosted over 100 sports tournaments that same year, and nearby Sun Peaks Resort was named the “Best Family Resort in North America” by the Great Skiing and Snowboarding Guide in 2008 (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009).

By the time the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games took place, over 80 participating countries, 6,000 athletes, and 3 billion viewers put British Columbia on centre stage.

Spotlight On: Destination British Columbia

Destination BC is a Crown corporation founded in November 2012 by the Government of British Columbia. Its mandate includes marketing the province as a tourist destination (at home and around the world), promoting the development and growth of the industry, providing advice and recommendations to the tourism minister on related matters, and enhancing public awareness of tourism and its economic value to British Columbia (Province of British Columbia, 2013b).

Tourism in BC Today

Building on the momentum generated by hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, tourism in BC remains big business. In 2012, the industry generated $13.5 billion in revenue.

The provincial industry is made up of over 18,000 businesses, the majority of which are SMEs (small to medium enterprises), and together they employ approximately 127,300 people (Tourism Industry Association of BC, 2014). It may surprise you to learn that in British Columbia, tourism provides more jobs than high tech, oil and gas, mining, and forestry (Porges, 2014).

Spotlight On: The Tourism Industry Association of BC

Founded in 1993 as the Council of Tourism Associations, today the Tourism Industry Association of BC (TIABC) is a not-for-profit trade association comprising members from private sector tourism businesses, industry associations, and destination marketing organizations (DMOs). Its goal is to ensure the best working environment for a competitive tourism industry. It hosts industry networking events and engages in advocacy efforts as “the voice of the BC tourism industry.” Students are encouraged to join TIABC to take advantage of their connections and receive a discount at numerous industry events. For more information, visit the Tourism Industry Association of BC’s website : http://www.tiabc.ca/student-membership

One of the challenges for BC’s tourism industry, it has long been argued, is fragmentation. Back in September 1933, an article in the Victoria Daily Times argued for more coordination across organizations in order to capitalize on what they saw as Canada’s “largest dividend payer” (Dawson, 2004). Today, more than 80 years later, you will often hear BC tourism professionals say the same thing.

On the other hand, some experts believe that the industry is simply a model of diversity, acknowledging that tourism is a compilation of a multitude of businesses, services, organizations, and communities. They see the ways in which these components are working together toward success, rather than focusing on friction between the groups.

Many communities are placing a renewed focus on educating the general public and other businesses about the value of tourism and the ways in which stakeholders work together. The following case study highlights this in more detail:

Take a Closer Look: Tourism Pays in Richmond, BC

The community of Richmond, BC, brings to life the far-reaching positive economic effects of tourism in action. Watch the short video called “Tourism Pays” to see what we mean!: http://vimeo.com/31624689

The entry to a Board Room in the Canadian Tourism College with a small air plane statue outside.

Throughout the rest of this textbook, you’ll have a chance to learn more about the history and current outlook for tourism in BC, with in-depth coverage of some of the triumphs and challenges we’ve faced as an industry. You will also learn about the Canadian and global contexts of the tourism industry’s development.

As we’ve seen in this chapter, tourism is a complex set of industries including accommodation, recreation and entertainment, food and beverage services, transportation, and travel services. It encompasses domestic, inbound, and outbound travel for business, leisure, or other purposes. And because of this large scope, tourism development requires participation from all walks of life, including private business, governmental agencies, educational institutions, communities, and citizens.

Recognizing the diverse nature of the industry and the significant contributions tourism makes toward economic and social value for British Columbians is important. There remains a great deal of work to better educate members of the tourism industry, other sectors, and the public about the ways tourism contributes to our province.

Given this opportunity for greater awareness, it is hoped that students like you will help share this information as you learn more about the sector. So let’s begin our exploration in Chapter 2 with a closer look at a critical sector: transportation.

British Columbia Government Travel Bureau ( BCGTB) : the first recognized provincial government organization responsible for the tourism marketing of British Columbia
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) : a national railway company widely regarded as establishing tourism in Canada and BC in the late 1800s and early 1900s
Destination BC: the provincial destination marketing organization (DMO) responsible for tourism marketing and development in BC, formerly known as Tourism BC
Destination Canada: the national government Crown corporation responsible for marketing Canada abroad, formerly known as the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC)
Destination marketing organization (DMO): also known as a destination management organization; includes national tourism boards, state/provincial tourism offices, and community convention and visitor bureaus
Diversity: a term used by some in the industry to describe the makeup of the industry in a positive way; acknowledging that tourism is a diverse compilation of a multitude of businesses, services, organizations, and communities
Fragmentation: a phenomenon observed by some industry insiders whereby the tourism industry is unable to work together toward common marketing and lobbying (policy-setting) objectives
Hospitality: the accommodations and food and beverage industry groupings
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) : a way to group tourism activities based on similarities in business practices, primarily used for statistical analysis
Tourism: the business of attracting and serving the needs of people travelling and staying outside their home communities for business and pleasure
Tourism Industry Association of BC ( TIABC) : a membership-based advocacy group formerly known as the Council of Tourism Associations of BC (COTA)
Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC): the national industry advocacy group
Tourist: someone who travels at least 80 kilometres from his or her home for at least 24 hours, for business or pleasure or other reasons; can be further classified as domestic, inbound, or outbound
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) : UN agency responsible for promoting responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism worldwide
List the three types of tourist and provide an example of each.
What is the UNWTO? Visit its website, and name one recent project or study the organization has undertaken.
List the five industry groups according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Using your understanding of tourism as an industry, create your own definition and classification of tourism. What did you add? What did you take out? Why?
In 2011, how much money was generated by tourism worldwide? What percentage of this money was collected in Europe? Where was the least amount of money collected?
According to UNEP, what are the four types of negative environmental tourism impact? For each of these, list an example in your own community.
What major transportation developments gave rise to the tourism industry in Canada?
Historically, what percentage of international visitors to Canada are from the United States? Why is this an important issue today?
Name three key events in the history of BC tourism that resonate with you. Why do you find these events of interest?
Watch the video in the “Take a Closer Look” feature on Richmond. Now think about the value of tourism in your community. How might this be communicated to local residents? List two ways you will contribute to communicating the value of tourism this semester.
Choose one article or document from the reference list below and read it in detail. Report back to the class about what you’ve learned.

Case Study: Tourism – Canada’s Surprise Blind Spot

In a 2014 episode of the Voice of Canadian Business , the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s podcast, host Mary Anne Carter sat down with Greg Klassen, the CTC’s president and CEO, and Michele Saran, executive director of Business Events Canada. Their discussion highlighted the reasons Canada is struggling to remain competitive within the sector, and underscores the role and impact Canada’s tourism industry has on the economy.Listen to the 14-minute podcast on tourism in Canada and answer the following questions: www.chamber.ca/media/pictures-videos/140407-podcast-tourism/

Why are governments around the world starting to invest in tourism infrastructure? What does this mean for the competitive environment for Canada’s tourism product?
How do we compare to the United States as a destination for business travel?
According to Greg, why is the $200 million investment in Brand USA a “double-edged sword” for tourism in Canada? What is beneficial about this? Why does it make things more difficult?
What is the relationship between tourism and people’s understanding of a country’s image?
What ranking is Canada’s brand? What other industries are affected by this brand?
Describe one activity the CTC participates in to sell Canadian tourism product abroad.
Name two “sectors of excellence” for Canada. Why is the CTC focussing their business events sales strategies on these industries?
What does the CTC consider to be the benefits of Vancouver hosting the 2014 and 2015 TED conferences?

Brewster Travel Canada. (2014). About Us – Brewster History . Retrieved from http://www.brewster.ca/corporate/about-brewster/brewster-history/

British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training . (2013a). BC Stats: Industry Classification . Retrieved from http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/BusinessIndustry/IndustryClassification.aspx

British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training. (2013b). Bill 3 – 2013: Destination BC Corp Act . Retrieved from https://www.leg.bc.ca/39th5th/1st_read/gov03-1.htm

Canadian Geographic . (2000, September). Flying through time: Canadian aviation history . Retrieved from http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/so00/aviation_history.asp

Canadian Tourism Commission. (2014). About the CTC. Retrieved from http://en-corporate.canada.travel/about-ctc

Chaney, Edward. (2000). The evolution of the grand tour: Anglo-Italian cultural relations since the Renaissance . Portland OR: Routledge.

Cox & Kings. (2014). About us – History. Retrieved from http://www.coxandkings.co.uk/aboutus-history

Dawson, Michael. (2004). Selling British Columbia: Tourism and consumer culture, 1890-1970 . Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Discover Hospitality. (2015). What is hospitality? Retrieved from http://discoverhospitality.com.au/what-is-hospitality/

e-Know. (2011, November). Ogilvie’s past in lock step with last 50 years of Kimberley’s history. Retrieved from www.e-know.ca/news/ogilvie’s-past-in-lock-step-with-last-50-years-of-kimberley’s-history/

Expedia, Inc. (2013). Expedia: Annual report 2013. [PDF] Retrieved from http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/EXPE/3546131959x0x750253/48AF365A-F894-4E9C-8F4A-8AB11FEE8D2A/EXPE_2013_Annual_Report.PDF

Flightglobal. (2002). Sixty years of the jet age. Retrieved from http://www.flightglobal.com/features/jet-age/

Globe and Mail, The. (2014, March 28). Ten things you don’t know about Air Canada. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/travel-news/10-things-you-likely-dont-know-about-air-canada/article17725796/?page=all

Government of Canada. (2006). Building a national tourism strategy. [PDF] Retrieved from https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/034.nsf/vwapj/tourism_e.pdf/$FILE/tourism_e.pdf

Government of Canada. (2013, July 5). Appendix E: Tourism industries in the human resource module . Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/13-604-m/2013072/appe-anne-eng.htm

Griffiths, Ralph, Griffiths, G. E. (1772). Pennant’s tour in Scotland in 1769. The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal XLVI : 150 . Retrieved from Google Books .

Gyr, Ueli. (2010, December 3). The history of tourism: Structures on the path to modernity. European History Online (EHO). Retrieved from http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/europe-on-the-road/the-history-of-tourism

Latin definition for hospes, hospitis. (2014).In Latdict – Latin Dictionary and Grammar Resources . Retrieved from http://www.latin-dictionary.net/definition/22344/hospes-hospitis

Library and Archives Canada. (n.d.). Ties that bind: Essay. A brief history of railways in Canada. Retrieved from http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/trains/021006-1000-e.html

LinkBC. (2008). Transforming communities through tourism: A handbook for community tourism champions. [PDF] Retrieved from http://linkbc.ca/siteFiles/85/files/TCTT.pdf

MacEachern, A. (2012, August 17). Goin’ down the road: The story of the first cross-Canada car trip. The Globe and Mail . Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/goin-down-the-road-the-story-of-the-first-cross-canada-car-trip/article4487425/

McLeish. (2014, July 23). History of heliskiing in Canada. Retrieved from www.lastfrontierheli.com/news/1607/history-of-heliskiing-in-canada/

Magnes, W. (2010, May 26). The evolution of British Columbia’s tourism regions: 1970-2010 [PDF] . Retrieved from http://linkbc.ca/siteFiles/85/files/LinkBCMagnesPaper2011.pdf

Porges, R. (2014, September). Tell me something I don’t know: Promoting the value of tourism. Tourism Drives the Provincial Economy . Presentation hosted by the Tourism Industry Association of BC, Vancouver, BC.

PricewaterhouseCooopers, LLC. (2009). Opportunity BC 2020: Tourism sector. [PDF] Prepared for the BC Business Council. Retrieved from http://www.bcbc.com/content/558/2020_200910_Mansfield_Tourism.pdf

Shoalts, A. (2011, April). How our national parks evolved: From Grey Owl to Chrétien and beyond, 100 years of Parks Canada. Canadian Geographic . Retrieved from http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/apr11/national_parks_evolution.asp

Theobald, William F. (1998). Global Tourism (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Butterworth–Heinemann, pp. 6-7.

Thomas Cook Group of Companies. (2014). Thomas Cook history. Retrieved from http://www.thomascook.com/thomas-cook-history/

Tourism Industry Association of BC. (2014). Value of tourism toolkit: Why focus on the value of tourism? Retrieved from http://www.tiabc.ca/value-of-tourism-toolkit

Tourism Industry Association of Canada. (2014, October 14). Travel industry poised to boost Canadian exports: US market and border efficiencies central to growth potential . Retrieved from http://tiac.travel/cgi/page.cgi/_zine.html/TopStories/Travel_Industry_Poised_to_Boost_Canadian_Exports_US_Market_and_Border_Efficiencies_Central_to_Growth_Potential

Tourism Industry Association of Canada, HLT Advisory. (2012). The Canadian tourism industry: A special report [PDF] . Retrieved from http://www.hlta.ca/reports/The_Canadian_Tourism_Industry_-_A_Special_Report_Web_Optimized_.pdf

United Nations and World Tourism Organization. (1995). Recommendations on tourism statistics. [PDF] Retrieved from http://unstats.un.org/unsd/newsletter/unsd_workshops/tourism/st_esa_stat_ser_M_83.pdf

United Nations Environment Programme. (2003a). Negatives Socio-cultural impacts from tourism . Retrieved from http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Business/SectoralActivities/Tourism/FactsandFiguresaboutTourism/ImpactsofTourism/Socio-CulturalImpacts/NegativeSocio-CulturalImpactsFromTourism/tabid/78781/Default.aspx

United Nations Environment Programme. (2003b). Tourism’s three main impact areas. Retrieved from http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Business/SectoralActivities/Tourism/TheTourismandEnvironmentProgramme/FactsandFiguresaboutTourism/ImpactsofTourism/EnvironmentalImpacts/TourismsThreeMainImpactAreas/tabid/78776/Default.aspx

United Nations World Tourism Organization. (2008). Understanding tourism: Basic glossary . Retrieved from http://media.unwto.org/en/content/understanding-tourism-basic-glossary

United Nations World Tourism Organization. (2012, May 7). International tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011. Retrieved from http://media.unwto.org/en/press-release/2012-05-07/international-tourism-receipts-surpass-us-1-trillion-2011

United Nations World Tourism Organization. (2014a). UNWTO world tourism barometer, 12 [PDF] (1). Retrieved from http://dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net/sites/all/files/pdf/unwto_barom14_04_august_excerpt_0.pdf

United Nations World Tourism Organization. (2014b). Who we are. Retrieved from http://www2.unwto.org/content/who-we-are-0

Attributions

Figure 1.1 Selkirk College and Nelson by LinkBC is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 1.2 Capilano University’s Team by LinkBC is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 1.3 Vancouver Island University by LinkBC is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 1.4 Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 A-2-m No 136 by Peter Broster is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 1.5 Vancouver Island University by LinkBC is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 1.6 Switzerland vs. Canada by s.yume is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

Figure 1.7 CTC’s Boardroom by LinkBC is used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.

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Heritage Tourism

The late Alan Gordon was professor of history at the University of Guelph. He authored three books: Making Public Pasts: The Contested Terrain of Montreal’s Public Memories, 1891–1930, The Hero and the Historians: Historiography and the Uses of Jacques Cartier and Time Travel: Tourism and the Rise of the Living History Museum in Mid-Twentieth Century Canada.

Published: 18 August 2022
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Heritage tourism is a form of cultural tourism in which people travel to experience places, artifacts, or activities that are believed to be authentic representations of people and stories from the past. It couples heritage, a way of imagining the past in terms that suit the values of the present, with travel to locations associated with enshrined heritage values. Heritage tourism sites are normally divided into two often overlapping categories: natural sites and sites related to human culture and history. By exploring the construction of heritage tourism destinations in historical context, we can better understand how and through what attributes places become designated as sites of heritage and what it means to have an authentic heritage experience. These questions are explored through heritage landscapes, national parks, battlefield tourism, architectural tourism, and the concept of world heritage.

Heritage is one of the most difficult, complex, and expansive words in the English language because there is no simple or unanimously accepted understanding of what heritage encompasses. 1 We can pair heritage with a vast range of adjectives, such as cultural, historical, physical, architectural, or natural. What unites these different uses of the term is their reference to the past, in some way or another, while linking it to present-day needs. Heritage, then, is a reimagining of the past in terms that suit the values of the present. It cannot exist independently of human attempts to make the past usable because it is the product of human interpretation of not only the past, but of who belongs to particular historical narratives. At its base, heritage is about identity, and the inclusion and exclusion of peoples, stories, places, and activities in those identities. The use of the word “heritage” in this context is a postwar phenomenon. Heritage and heritage tourism, although not described in these terms, has a history as long as the history of modern tourism. Indeed, a present-minded use of the past is as old as civilization itself, and naturally embedded itself in the development of modern tourism. 2 The exploration of that history, examining the origins and development of heritage tourism, helps unpack some of the controversies and dissonance it produces.

Heritage in Tourism

Heritage tourism sites are normally divided into two categories: natural sites and sites of human, historical, or cultural heritage. the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) separates its list of world heritage sites in this manner. Sites of natural heritage are understood to be places where natural phenomena such as wildlife, flora, geological features, or ecosystems, are generally deemed to be of exceptional beauty or significance. Cultural heritage sites, which represent over three quarters of UNESCO-recognized sites, are places where human activity has left a lasting and substantial physical impact that reveals important features of a culture or cultures. Despite the apparent simplicity of this division, it is not always easy to categorize individual sites. UNESCO thus allows for a category of “mixed” heritage sites. But official recognition is not necessary to mark a place as a heritage destination and, moreover, some authors point to versions of heritage tourism that are not tightly place-specific, such as festivals of traditional performances or foodways. 3

The central questions at the heart of heritage tourism ask what it is that designates something as “heritage” and whether tourists have an “authentic” heritage experience there. At its simplest, heritage tourism is a form of cultural tourism in which people travel to experience places, artifacts, or activities that are authentic representations of people and stories from the past. Yet this definition encompasses two, often competing, motivations. Heritage tourism is both a cultural phenomenon through which people attempt to connect with the past, their ancestors, and their identity, and it is an industry designed to profit from it. Another question surrounds the source of the “heritage” in heritage tourism. Many scholars have argued that heritage does not live in the destinations or attractions people seek. Heritage is not innate to the destination, but is rather based on the tourist’s motivations and expectations. Thus, heritage tourism is a form of tourism in which the main motivation for visiting a site is based on the traveler’s perceptions of its heritage characteristics. Following the logic of this view, the authenticity of the heritage experience depends on the traveler rather than the destination or the activity. Heritage features, as well as the sense of authenticity they impart, are democratized in what might be called a consumer-based model of authenticity. 4 This is a model that allows for virtually anything or any place to be a heritage destination. Although such an approach to understanding heritage tourism may well serve present-day studies, measuring motivations is more complicated for historical subjects. Long-departed travelers are not readily surveyed about their expectations; motivations have to be teased out of historical records. In a contrasting view, John Tunbridge and Gregory Ashworth argue that heritage attractions are created through marketing: they are invented to be heritage attractions and sold to a traveling public as such. Yet, heritage attractions, in this understanding, are still deemed authentic when they satisfy consumer expectations about heritage. 5 This insight also implies that heritage tourism destinations might be deceptions, and certainly there are examples of the fabrication of heritage sites. However, if motivations and expectations are arbiters of heritage, then even invented heritage can become authentic through its acceptance by a public. While not ignoring the motivations and expectations of travelers, for historians, any understanding of heritage tourism must include the process by which sites become designated as a places of heritage. It must encompass the economic aspects of tourism development, tourism’s role in constructing narratives of national or group identity, and the cultural phenomenon of seeking authentic representations of those identities, regardless of their origins. Such a practice might include traveling to sites connected to diasporas, places of historical significance, sites of religious pilgrimages, and landscapes of scenic beauty or cultural importance.

Scholarly interest in heritage, at least in the English-speaking world, dates from the 1980s reaction to the emergence of new right-wing political movements that used the past as a tool to legitimize political positions. Authors such as David Lowenthal, Robert Hewison, and Patrick Wright bemoaned the recourse to “heritage” as evidence of a failing society that was backward-looking, fearful, and resentful of modern diversity. 6 Heritage, they proclaimed, was elitist and innately conservative, imposed on the people from above in ways that distanced them from an authentic historical consciousness. Although Raphael Samuel fired back that the critique of heritage was itself elitist and almost snobbish, this line continued in the 1990s. Works by John Gillis, Tony Bennett, and Eric Hobsbawm, among others, concurred that heritage was little more than simplified history used as a weapon of social and political control.

At about the same time, historians also began to take tourism seriously as a subject of inquiry, and they quickly connected leisure travel to perceived evils in the heritage industry. Historians such as John K. Walton in the United Kingdom and John Jakle in the United States began investigating patterns of tourism’s history in their respective countries. Although not explicitly concerned with heritage tourism, works such as Jakle’s The Tourist explored the infrastructure and experience of leisure travel in America, including the different types of attractions people sought. 7 In Sacred Places , John Sears argued that tourism helped define America in the nineteenth century through its landscape and natural wonders. Natural tourist attractions, such as Yosemite and Yellowstone parks became sacred places for a young nation without unifying religious and national shrines. 8 Among North America’s first heritage destinations was Niagara Falls, which drew Americans, Europeans, Britons, and Canadians to marvel at its beauty and power. Tourist services quickly developed there to accommodate travelers and, as Patricia Jasen and others note, Niagara became a North American heritage destination at the birth of the continent’s tourism trade. 9

As the European and North American travel business set about establishing scenic landscapes as sites worthy of the expense and difficulty of travel to them, they rarely used a rhetoric of heritage. Sites were depicted as places to embrace “the sublime,” a feeling arising when the emotional experience overwhelms the power of reason to articulate it. Yet as modern tourism developed, promoters required more varied attractions to induce travelers to visit specific destinations. North America’s first tourist circuits, well established by the 1820s, took travelers up the Hudson River valley from New York to the spas of Saratoga Springs, then utilizing the Erie Canal even before its completion, west to Niagara Falls. Tourist guidebooks were replete with vivid depictions of the natural wonders to be witnessed, and very quickly Niagara became heavily commercialized. As America expanded beyond the Midwest in the second half of the nineteenth century, text and image combined to produce a sense that these beautiful landscapes were a common inheritance of the (white and middle-class) American people. Commissioned expeditions, such as the Powell Expedition of 1869–1872, produced best-selling travel narratives revealing the American landscape to enthralled readers in the eastern cities (see Butler , this volume). John Wesley Powell’s description of his voyage along the Colorado River combined over 450 pages of written description with 80 prints, mostly portraying spectacular natural features. American westward exploration, then, construed the continent’s natural wonders as its heritage.

In America, heritage landscapes often obscured human activity and imagined the continent as nature untouched. But natural heritage also played a role in early heritage tourism in Britain and Europe. Many scholars have investigated the connection between national character and the depiction of topographical features, arguing that people often implant their communities with ideas of landscape and associate geographical features with their identities. In this way, landscape helps embed a connection between places and particular local and ethnic identities. 10 Idealized landscapes become markers of national identity (see Noack , this volume). For instance, in the Romantic era, the English Lake District and the mountains of the Scottish Highlands became iconic national representations of English, Scottish, or British nationalities. David Lowenthal has commented on the nostalgia inherent in “landscape-as-heritage.” The archetypical English landscape, a patchwork of fields divided by hedgerows and sprinkled with villages, was a relatively recent construction when the pre-Raphaelite painters reconfigured it as the romantic allure of a medieval England. It spoke to the stability and order inherent in English character. 11

Travel literature combined with landscape art to develop heritage landscapes and promote them as tourist attractions. Following the 1707 Act of Union, English tourists became fascinated with Scotland, and in particular the Scottish Highlands. Tourist guidebooks portrayed the Highlands as a harsh, bleak environment spectacular for its beauty as well as the quaintness of its people and their customs (see Schaff , this volume). Over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, tourist texts cemented the image of Highland culture and heritage. Scholars have criticized this process as a “Tartanization” or “Balmoralization” of the country by which its landscape and culture was reduced to a few stereotypes appealing to foreign visitors. Nevertheless, guidebook texts described the bens, lochs, and glens with detail, helping create and reinforce a mental picture of a quintessential Highland landscape. 12 The massacre of members of the Clan MacDonald at Glencoe, killed on a winter night in 1692 for insufficient loyalty to the monarchy, added romance. Forgotten for over a century, the event was recalled in the mid-nineteenth century by the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, and quickly became a tragic tale associated with the scenic valley. At the same time the Highlands were being re-coded from a dangerous to a sublime landscape, its inhabitants became romanticized as an untainted, simple, premodern culture. The natural beauty of the landscape at Glencoe and its relative ease of access, being close to Loch Lomond and Glasgow, made it an attraction with a ready-made tragic tale. Highlands travel guides began to include Glencoe in their itineraries, combining a site of natural beauty with a haunting human past. Both natural and cultural heritage, then, are not inherent, but represent choices made by people about what and how to value the land and the past. On France’s Celtic fringe, a similar process unfolded. When modern tourism developed in Brittany in the mid-nineteenth century, guidebooks such as Joanne’s defined the terms of an authentic Breton experience. Joanne’s 1867 guide coupled the region’s characteristic rugged coastlines with the supposedly backward people, their costumes, habitudes, beliefs, and superstitions, who inhabited it. 13 Travel guides were thus the first contributors in the construction of heritage destinations. They began to highlight the history, real and imagined, of destinations to promote their distinctions. And, with increasing interest in the sites of national heritage, people organized to catalog, preserve, and promote heritage destinations.

Organizing Heritage Tourism

Among the world’s first bodies dedicated to preserving heritage was the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), organized in England in 1877. Emerging as a result of particular debates about architectural practices, this society opposed a then-popular trend of altering buildings to produce imaginary historical forms. This approach, which was most famously connected to Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc’s French restorations, involved removing or replacing existing architectural features, something renounced by the SPAB. The society’s manifesto declared that old structures should be repaired so that their entire history would be protected as part of cultural heritage. The first heritage preservation legislation, England’s Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882, provided for the protection initially of 68 prehistoric sites and appointed an inspector of ancient monuments. 14 By 1895, movements to conserve historic structures and landscapes had combined with the founding of the National Trust, officially known as the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, as a charitable agency. Much of the Trust’s early effort protected landscapes: of twenty-nine properties listed in 1907, seventeen were acreages of land and other open spaces. 15 Over the twentieth century, however, the Trust grew more and more concerned with protecting country houses and gardens, which now constitute the majority of its listed properties.

British efforts were duplicated in Europe. The Dutch Society for the Preservation of Natural Landmarks was established in 1904; France passed legislation to protect natural monuments in 1906. And in Sweden, the Society for the Protection of Nature was established in 1909, to name only a few examples. Nature was often connected to the spirit of “the folk,” an idea that encompassed a notion of an original ethnic core to the nation. Various European nationalisms of the period embraced the idea of an “authentic” national folk, with each folk considered unique due to its connection with a specific geography. Folklore and the celebration of folk culture offered Europeans links to imagined national heritages in a rapidly modernizing world, as modern, middle-class Europeans turned their attention to the romanticized primitive life of so-called simple peasants and linked notions of natural and human heritage. Through the concept of the folk, natural and human heritage combined to buttress emerging expressions of nationalism. 16

Sweden provides an instructive example. As early as the seventeenth century, Swedish antiquarians were intrigued by medieval rune stones, burial mounds, and cairns strewn across the country, but also saw these connected to natural features. Investigations of these relics of past Nordic culture involved a sense of the landscape in which they were found. This interest accelerated as folk studies grew in popularity, in part connected to nationalist political ambitions of Swedes during the growing tensions within the Kingdom of Sweden and Norway, which divided in 1905. Sweden’s preservation law required research into the country’s natural resources to create an inventory of places. Of particular interest were features considered to be “nature in its original state.” The intent was to preserve for future generations at least one example of Sweden’s primordial landscape features: primeval forests, swamps, peat bogs, and boulders. But interest was also drawn to natural landmarks associated with historical or mythical events from Sweden’s past. Stones or trees related to tales from the Nordic sagas, for example, combined natural with cultural heritage. 17

Although early efforts to protect heritage sites were not intended to support tourism, the industry quickly benefited. Alongside expanding tours to the Scottish Highlands and English Lake District, European landscapes became associated with leisure travel. As Tait Kellar argues for one example, the context of the landscape is crucial in understanding the role of tourism in the German Alps. 18 Guidebooks of the nineteenth and early twentieth century did not use the term “heritage,” but they described its tenets to audiences employing a different vocabulary. Baedeker’s travel guides, such as The Eastern Alps , guided bourgeois travelers through the hiking trails and vistas of the mountains and foothills, offering enticing descriptions of the pleasures to be found in the German landscape. Beyond the land, The Eastern Alps directed visitors to excursions that revealed features of natural history, human history, and local German cultures. 19

Across the Atlantic people also cherished escapes to the countryside for leisure and recreation and, as economic and population growth increasingly seemed to threaten the idyllic tranquility of scenic places, many banded together to advocate for their conservation. Yet, ironically, by putting in place systems to mark and preserve America’s natural heritage, conservationists popularized protected sites as tourist destinations. By the second half of the nineteenth century, the conservation movement encouraged the US government to set aside massive areas of American land as parks. For example, Europeans first encountered the scenic beauty of California’s Yosemite Valley at midcentury. With increasing settler populations following the California Gold Rush, tourists began arriving in ever larger numbers and promoters began building accommodations and roads to encourage them. Even during the Civil War, the US government recognized the potential for commercial overdevelopment and the desire of many to preserve America’s most scenic places. 20 In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, designating acres of the valley protected wilderness. This set a precedent for the later creation of America’s first national park. In 1871, the Hayden Geological Survey recommended the preservation of nearly 3,500 square miles of land in the Rocky Mountains, in the territories of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. Ferdinand V. Hayden was concerned that the pristine mountain region might soon be as overrun with tourists as Niagara Falls had by then become. 21 The following year, Congress established Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first designated “heritage” site. Yet, from the beginning, Yellowstone and subsequent parks were assumed to be tourist attractions. By 1879, tourists to Yellowstone had established over 200 miles of trails that led them to the park’s most famous attractions. Although thought of as nature preserves, parks were often furnished with railway access, and amenities and accommodations appeared, often prior to official designation. National parks were immediately popular tourist attractions. Even before it had established a centralized bureaucracy to care for them, the United States government had established nine national parks and nearly two dozen national monuments. Canada lagged, but established Rocky Mountain National Park (now Banff) in 1885 to balance interests of resource extraction and conservation. (The world’s second national park was Australia’s Royal National Park, established by the colony of New South Wales in 1879.) By the outbreak of the Great War, Canada and the United States had established fifteen national parks, all but one west of the Mississippi River.

Establishing parks was one component of building a heritage tourism infrastructure. Another was the creation of a national bureaucracy to organize it. The Canadian example reveals how heritage and tourism drove the creation of a national parks service. Much of the mythology surrounding Canada’s national parks emphasized the role of nature preservationists, yet the founder of the parks system, J. B. Harkin, was deeply interested in building a parks network for tourists. 22 Indeed, from early in the twentieth century, Canada’s parks system operated on the principle that parks should be “playgrounds, vacation destinations, and roadside attractions that might simultaneously preserve the fading scenic beauty and wildlife populations” of a modernizing nation. 23 Although Canada had established four national parks in the Rocky Mountains in the 1880s, the administration of those parks was haphazard and decentralized. It was not until the approaching third centennial of the founding of Quebec City (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) that the Canadian government began thinking actively about administering its national heritage. In 1908, Canada hosted an international tourist festival on the Plains of Abraham, the celebrated open land where French and British armies had fought the decisive battle for supremacy in North America in 1759. The event so popularized the fabled battlefield that the government was compelled to create a National Battlefield Commission to safeguard it. This inspired the creation of the Dominion Parks Branch three years later to manage Canada’s natural heritage parks, the world’s first national parks service. By 1919 the system expanded to include human history—or at least European settler history—through the creation of national historic parks. These parks were even more explicitly designed to attract tourists, automobile tourists in particular. In 1916, five years after Canada, the United States established the National Parks Service with similar objectives.

As in Europe, nationalism played a significant role in developing heritage tourism destinations in America. The first national parks were inspired by the series of American surveying expeditions intended to secure knowledge of the landscape for political control. Stephen Pyne connects the American “discovery” of the Grand Canyon, for example, to notions of manifest destiny following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) that ended the Mexican-American War and ceded over 500,000 square miles of what is today the western United States. Popularized by the report of John Wesley Powell (1875) , the canyon began attracting tourists in the 1880s, although Congress failed to establish it as a national park. 24 Tourism was central to developing the Grand Canyon as a national heritage destination. Originally seen by Spanish explorers as an obstacle, and as a sacred place by the Navajo, Hopi, Hualapai, and Havasupai peoples, the canyon came to mark American exceptionalism. Piece by piece, sections of the canyon were set aside as reserves and finally declared a national park in 1919. By then, the park had been serviced by a railway (since 1901) and offered tourists a luxury hotel on the canyon’s south rim.

Archaeology also entered into the construction of American heritage. Almost as soon as it was annexed to the United States, the American southwest revealed to American surveyors a host of archaeological remains. For residents of the southwest, the discovery of these ancient ruins of unknown age pointed to the nobility of a lost predecessor civilization. By deliberately construing the ruins as being of an unknown age, Anglo-American settlers were able to draw distinctions between the ancients and contemporary Native Americans in ways that validated their own occupation of the territory. The ruins also had commercial potential. In Colorado, President Theodore Roosevelt established Mesa Verde National Park in 1906 to protect and capitalize on the abandoned cliff dwellings located there. These ruins had been rediscovered in the 1880s when ranchers learned of them from the local Ute people. By the turn of the century, the ruins had attracted so many treasure seekers that they needed protection. This was the first national park in America designated to protect a site of archaeological significance and linked natural and human heritage in the national parks system. 25

If, as many argue, heritage is not innate, how is it made? Part of the answer to this question can be found in the business of tourism. Commercial exploitation of heritage tourism emerged alongside heritage tourism, but was particularly active in the postwar years. Given their association with tourism, it is not surprising that railways and associated businesses played a prominent role in promoting heritage destinations. Before World War II, the most active heritage tourism promoter was likely the Fred Harvey Company, which successfully marketed, and to a great degree created, much of the heritage of the American southwest. The Fred Harvey Company originated with the opening of a pair of cafés along the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1876. After a stuttering beginning, Harvey’s chain of railway eateries grew in size. Before dining cars became regular features of passenger trains, meals on long-distance trips were provided by outside business such as Harvey’s at regular stops. With the backing of the Santa Fe Railroad, the company also developed attractions based on the Southwest region’s unique architectural and cultural features. The image capitalized on the artistic traditions of Native Americans and early Spanish traditions to create, in particular, the Adobe architectural style now associated with Santa Fe and New Mexico. 26 These designs were also incorporated into tourist facilities on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, including the El Tovar hotel and the Hopi House souvenir and concession complex, designed to resemble a Hopi pueblo.

Relying on existing and manufactured heritage sites, North American railways popularized attractions as heritage sites. The Northern Pacific Railroad financed a number of hotels in Yellowstone Park, including the Old Faithful Inn in 1904. In 1910, the Great Northern Railroad launched its “See America First” campaign to attract visitors (and new investments) to its routes to the west’s national parks. In Canada, the Dominion Atlantic Railway rebuilt Grand Pré, a Nova Scotia Acadian settlement to evoke the home of the likely fictional character Evangeline from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1848 poem by the same name. In the poem, Evangeline was deported from Acadia in 1755 and separated from her betrothed. By the 1920s, the railway was transporting tourists to Grand Pré, christened “Land of Evangeline,” where reproductions stood in for sites mentioned in the poem. 27 However, following World War I, heritage tourism in North America became increasingly dependent on automobile travel and the Dominion Atlantic eventually sold its interest to the Canadian government.

Conflict as Cultural Heritage

Tourism to sites of military history initially involved side trips from more popular, usually natural, attractions. Thomas Chambers notes that the sites of battles of the Seven Years’ War, Revolutionary War, and War of 1812 became tourist attractions as side trips from more established itineraries, such as the northern or fashionable tours. War of 1812 battlefields, many of them in the Niagara theater of the war, were conveniently close to the natural wonders people already came to see. By visiting the places where so many had sacrificed for their country, tourists began attaching new meaning to the sites. Ease of access was essential. Chambers contrasts sites in southern states with those in the north. In the south, the fields of important American Revolution victories at Cowpens and King’s Mountain were too remote to permit easy tourist access and long remained undeveloped. 28 In a contrary example, the Plains of Abraham, the scene of General Wolfe’s dramatic victory over France that led to the Conquest of Canada, was at first a curiosity. The visit to Quebec, a main destination on the northern tour, was originally based on its role as a major port and the attraction of the scenic beauty of the city on the cliffs, compared favorably to Cintra in Portugal. 29 Ease of access helped promoters convert an empty field near the city into the “hallowed Plains.”

Access to battlefields increased at almost the exact moment that one of the nineteenth century’s most devastating wars, the American Civil War, broke out. Railway travel was essential to both the success of the Union Army in reconquering the rebelling Confederacy, and in developing tourism to the sites of the slaughter. Railway travel made sites accessible for urban travelers and new technologies, such as photography and the telegraph, sped news of victories and defeats quickly around the nation. Gettysburg, the scene of a crucial Union victory in July 1863, became a tourist attraction only a few days later. Few would call the farmland of southeastern Pennsylvania sublime, but dramatic human history had unfolded there. The battle inspired the building of a national memorial on the site only four months later, the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. At the inauguration of the cemetery Abraham Lincoln delivered his “Gettysburg Address,” calling on the nation to long remember and cherish the “hallowed ground” where history had been made.

Gettysburg sparked a frenzy of marking sites of Civil War battles and events. Battle sites became important backdrops for political efforts at reunion and reconciliation after the war and attracted hundreds and later thousands of tourists for commemorative events and celebrations. Ten thousand saw President Rutherford Hayes speak at Gettysburg in 1878 and, for the 50th anniversary of Gettysburg, some 55,000 veterans returned to Pennsylvania in July 1913. What had once been a site of bloody, brutal combat had been transformed into a destination where tourists gathered to embrace their shared heritage, north and south. As the years progressed, more attractions were added as tourists began to see their heritage on the battlefield. 30

The conflict that most clearly created tourist attractions out of places of suffering was the World War I. Soon after the war ended, its sites of slaughter also became tourist attractions. As with the Civil War in America, World War I tourists were local people and relatives of the soldiers who had perished on the field of battle. By one estimate 60,000 tourists visited the battlefields of the Western Front by the summer of 1919, the same year that Michelin began publishing guidebooks to them. Numbers grew in the decades following the war. Over 140,000 tourists took in the sites of the war in 1931, which grew to 160,000 for 1939. Organizations such as the Workers’ Travel Association hoped that tourism to battle sites would promote peace, but the travel business also benefited. Travel agencies jumped at the chance to offer tours and publishers produced travel guides to the battlefields. At least thirty English guidebooks were published by 1921. 31

This interest in a conflict that killed, often in brutal fashion, so many might seem a ghoulish form of heritage tourism. Yet Peter Slade argues that people do not visit battlefields for the love for death and gore. They attend these sites out of a sense of pilgrimage to sites sacred to their national heritage. Organized pilgrimages reveal this sense of belonging most clearly. The American Legion organized a pilgrimage of 15,000 veterans in 1927 to commemorate the decade anniversary of America’s entry to the war. The following year 11,000 Britons, including 3,000 women, made a pilgrimage of their own. Canada’s first official pilgrimage involved 8,000 pilgrims (veterans and their families) to attend the inauguration of the Vimy Ridge Memorial, marking a site held by many as a place sacred to Canadian identity. Australians and New Zealanders marched to Gallipoli in Turkey for similar reasons. 32 As with the sites of the Western Front, Gallipoli and pilgrimages to it generated travel accounts and publishers assembled guidebooks to help travelers navigate its attractions and accommodations. In these episodes, tourism was used to construct national heritage. In the interwar years, tourist activity popularized the notion that sites of national heritage existed on the battlefields of foreign lands, where “our” nation’s history was forged. National heritage tourism, then, became transnational.

Since the end of World War II, battlefield tourism has become an important projection of heritage tourism. Commercial tour operators organize thousands of tours of European World War I and World War II battlefields for Americans and Canadians, as for other nationalities. The phenomenon seems particularly pronounced among North Americans. The motivation behind modern battlefield tourism reveals its connection to heritage tourism. If heritage is an appeal to the past that helps establish a sense of identity and belonging, the feelings of national pride and remorse for sacrifice of the fallen at these sites helps define them as sacred to a particular vision of a national past. The sanctity of the battle site makes the act of consuming it as a tourist attraction an act of communion with heritage.

Built Heritage and Tourism

During the upheaval of the Civil War, some Americans began to recognize historic houses as elements of their heritage worthy of preservation. These houses were initially not seen as tourist attractions, but as markers of national values. Their heritage value preceded their value as tourist attractions. The first major preservation initiative launched in 1853 to save George Washington’s tomb and home from spoliation. Behind overt sectional divisions of north and south was an implied vesting of republican purity among the patrician families that could trace their ancestors to the revolutionary age and who could restore American culture to its proper deferential state. The success of preserving Mount Vernon led to a proliferation of similar house museums. By the 1930s, the American museum association even produced a guide for how to establish new examples and promote them as sites of heritage for tourist interest. Historic houses provided tangible, physical evidence of heritage. Like scenic landscapes attached to the stories of history, buildings connected locations to significant events and people of the past. Architectural heritage came to be closely associated with tourism. Architectural monuments are easily identified, easy to promote, and, as physical structures, easily reproduced in souvenir ephemera. Although the recognition of architectural monuments as tourist draws could be said to have originated with the Grand Tour, or at least with the publication of John Ruskin’s “Seven Lamps of Architecture” (1849), which singled out the monuments of Venice for veneration, twentieth century mobility facilitated a greater desire to travel to see historic structures. Indeed, mobility, especially automobility, prompted the desire to preserve or even reinvent the structural heritage of the past.

A driving factor behind the growth of tourism to sites associated with these structural relics was a feeling that the past—and especially the social values of the past—was being lost. For example, Colonial Williamsburg developed in reaction to the pace of urban and social change brought about by automobile travel in the 1920s. Williamsburg was once a community of colonial era architecture, but had become just another highway town before John D. Rockefeller lent his considerable wealth to its preservation and reconstruction. 33 Rockefeller had already donated a million dollars for the restoration of French chateaux at Versailles, Fontainebleu, and Rheims. 34 At Williamsburg, his approach was to remove structures from the post-Colonial period to create a townscape from the late eighteenth century. By selecting a cut-off year of 1790, Rockefeller and his experts attempted to freeze Williamsburg in a particular vision of the past. The heritage envisioned was not that of ordinary Americans, but that of colonial elites. Conceived to be a tourist attraction, Colonial Williamsburg offered a tourist-friendly lesson in American heritage. Rockefeller, and a host of consultants convinced the (white) people of Williamsburg to reimagine their heritage and their past. America’s heritage values were translated to the concepts of self-government and individual liberty elaborated by the great patriots, Washington, Madison, Henry, and Jefferson. The town commemorated the planter elites that had dominated American society until the Jacksonian era, and presented them as progenitors of timeless ideals and values. They represented the “very cradle of that Americanism of which Rockefeller and the corporate elite were the inheritors and custodians.” 35

Rockefeller’s Williamsburg was not the only American heritage tourist reconstruction. Canada also underwent reconstruction projects for specifically heritage tourism purposes, such as the construction of “Champlain’s Habitation” at Port Royal, Nova Scotia or the attempt to draw tourists to Invermere, British Columbia with a replica fur trade fort. 36 Following World War I and accelerating after World War II, the number and nature of places deemed heritage attractions grew. Across North America, all levels of governments and private corporations built replica heritage sites with varying degrees of “authenticity.” Although these sites often made use of existing buildings and landscapes, they also manufactured an imaginary environment of the past. The motivation behind these sites was almost always diversification of the local economy through increased tourism. Canada’s Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site is perhaps the most obvious example. It is a reconstructed section of the French colonial town, conquered and destroyed in 1758, built on the archaeological remains of the original. Constructed by the government of Canada as a means to diversify the failing resource economy of its Atlantic provinces, the tourist attraction was also designated a component of Canada’s national heritage. The US government also increased its interest in the protection of heritage destinations, greatly expanding the list of national historic landmarks, sites, parks, and monuments. As postwar governments became more concerned with managing their economies, tourism quickly came to be seen as a key economic sector. The language of national heritage helped build public support for state intervention in natural and historic artifacts and sites that could be presented as sacred national places.

In Europe, many historic sites were devastated by bombardment during World War II. Aside from pressing humanitarian issues, heritage concerns also had to be addressed. In France, the war had destroyed nearly half a million buildings, principally in the northern cities, many of which were of clear heritage value. The French government established a commission to undertake the reconstruction of historic buildings and monuments and, in some cases, entire towns. Saint-Malo, in Brittany, had been completely destroyed, but the old walled town was rebuilt to its seventeenth century appearance. Already a seaside resort, the town added a heritage site destination. In the 1920s and 1930s, European fascist states had also employed heritage tourism. In Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany, workers’ leisure time was to be organized to prevent ordinary Italians and Germans from falling into unproductive leisure activities. Given the attachment to racialized views of purity and identity, organized tourism was encouraged to allow people to bond with their national heritage. Hiking in the Black Forest or the alpine Allgau might help connect Germans to the landscape and reconnect them to the traditional costumes and folkways of rural Germany. As Kristin Semmens argues, most studies of the Nazi misappropriation of the past ignore the displays of history aimed toward tourists at Germany’s heritage sites. Many museums and historic sites twisted their interpretations to fit the Nazi present. 37 In ways that foreshadowed the 1980s British left’s critique of heritage, fascist regimes made use of heritage tourism to control society. After the war, a vigorous program of denazification was undertaken to remove public relics of the Nazi regime and in formerly occupied territories, as was a program of reconstruction. In the communist east, blaming the Nazis for the destruction of German heritage was an ideological gift. It allowed the communist regime to establish itself as the true custodian of German identity and heritage. 38 In the capitalist west, tourism revived quickly. By early 1947, thirteen new tourist associations were active in the Allied occupation zone. Tourism rhetoric in the postwar years attempted to distance German heritage from the Nazi regime to reintroduce foreign travelers to the “real Germany.” Despite this objective, Alon Confino notes that traces of the Nazi past can be located in postwar tourist promotions that highlighted Nazi-era infrastructure. 39

Postwar Heritage Tourism

As tourism became a more global industry, thanks in no small part to the advent of affordable air travel in the postwar era, heritage tourism became transnational. Ethnic heritage tourism became more important, and diaspora or roots tourism, which brought second- and third-generation migrants back to the original home of their ancestors, accelerated. Commodifying ethnic heritage has been one of the most distinctive developments in twenty-first century tourism. Ethnic heritage tourism can involve migrants, their children, or grandchildren returning to their “home” countries as visitors. In this form of tourism, the “heritage” component is thus expressed in the motivations and self-identifications of the traveler. It involves a sense of belonging that is rooted in the symbolic meanings of collective memories, shared stories, and the sense of place embodied in the physical locations of the original homeland. Paul Basu has extensively studied the phenomenon of “roots tourism” among the descendants of Scottish Highlanders. He suggests that in their trips to Scotland to conduct genealogical research, explore sites connected to their ancestors, or sites connected to Scottish identity, they construct a sense of their heritage as expatriate Scots. 40 Similar “return” movements can be found in the migrant-descended communities of many settler colonial nations. For second-generation Chinese Americans visiting China, their search for authentic experiences mirrored those of other tourists. Yet, travel to their parents’ homeland strengthened their sense of family history and attachment to Chinese cultures. 41 On the other hand, Shaul Kellner examines the growing trend of cultivating roots tourism through state-sponsored homeland tours. In Tours that Bind , Kellner explores the State of Israel and American Jewish organizations’ efforts to forge a sense of Israeli heritage among young American Jews. However, Kellner cautions, individual experiences and human agency limit the hosts’ abilities to control the experience and thus control the sense of heritage. 42

Leisure tourism also played a role in developing heritage sites, as travelers to sunshine destinations began looking for more interesting side trips. Repeating the battlefield tourism of a century before, by the 1970s access to historic and prehistoric sites made it possible to add side trips to beach vacations. Perhaps the best example of this was the development of tourism to sites of Mayan heritage by the Mexican government in the 1970s. The most famous heritage sites, at least for Westerners, were the Mayan sites of Yucatan. First promoted as destinations by the American travel writer John Lloyd Stephens in the 1840s, their relative inaccessibility (as well as local political instabilities) made them unlikely tourist attractions before the twentieth century. By 1923, the Yucatan government had opened a highway to the site of the Chichén Itzá ruins, and local promoters began promotions in the 1940s. It was not until after the Mexican government nationalized all archaeological ruins in the 1970s that organized tours from Mexican beach resorts began to feature trips to the ruins themselves. 43

Mexico’s interest in the preservation and promotion of its archaeological relics coincided with one of the most important developments in heritage tourism in the postwar years: the emergence of the idea of world heritage. The idea was formalized in 1972 with the creation of UNESCO’s designation of World Heritage Sites. The number of sites has grown from the twelve first designated in 1978 to well over 1,000 in 167 different countries. In truth, the movement toward recognizing world heritage began with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, which did not limit its activities to preserving only England’s architectural heritage. Out of its advocacy, European architects and preservationists drafted a series of accords, such as the Athens Charter of 1931, and the later Venice Charter of 1964, both of which emerged from a growing sense of cultural internationalism. These agreements set guidelines for the preservation and restoration of buildings and monuments. What UNESCO added was the criterion of Outstanding Universal Value for the designation of a place as world heritage. It took until 1980 to work out the first iteration of Outstanding Universal Value and the notion has never been universally accepted, although UNESCO member countries adhere to it officially. Once a site has been named to the list, member countries are expected to protect it from deterioration, although this does not always happen. As of 2018, 54 World Heritage Sites are considered endangered. This growth mirrored the massive expansion of tourism as a business and cultural phenomenon in the late twentieth century. As tourism became an increasingly important economic sector in de-colonizing states of Asia and Latin America, governments became more concerned with its promotion by seeking out World Heritage designation.

Ironically, World Heritage designation itself has been criticized as an endangerment of heritage sites. Designation increases the tourist appeal of delicate natural environments and historic places, which can lead to problems with maintenance. Designation also affects the lives of people living within the heritage destination. Luang Prabang, in Laos, is an interesting example. Designated in 1995 as one of the best-preserved traditional towns in Southeast Asia, it represents an architectural fusion of Lao temples and French colonial villas. UNESCO guidelines halted further development of the town, except as it served the tourist market. Within the designated heritage zone, buildings cannot be demolished or constructed, but those along the main street have been converted to guest houses, souvenir shops, and restaurants to accommodate the growing tourist economy. Critics claim this reorients the community in non-traditional ways, as locals move out of center in order to rent to foreign tourists. 44 While heritage tourism provided jobs and more stable incomes, it also encouraged urban sprawl and vehicle traffic as local inhabitants yielded their town to the influx of foreign, mostly Western, visitors.

Heritage tourism may hasten the pace of change by making destinations into attractions worth visiting. To accommodate the anticipated influx of global tourists, Luang Prabang airport was renovated and its runway extended to handle larger jets in between 2008 and 2013. The influx of tourists at Machu Picchu in Peru has repeatedly led the Peruvian government to attempt to control access to the site, yet dependent on tourism’s economic contribution, such restrictions are difficult. The temple at Borobudur in Indonesia undergoes near continuous maintenance work to repair the wear and tear caused by thousands of tourists walking its steps every day. Indeed, the preserved ruins are said to be under greater threat than when they were discovered in the early nineteenth century, overgrown by the jungle.

Another colonial aspect of world heritage designation stems from the narratives of the sites themselves. Many critics accuse UNESCO of a Eurocentric conception of Outstanding Universal Value and world heritage. 45 Cultural heritage destinations in non-Western countries are often associated with sites made famous by the projects of European imperialism. The fables of discovering ancient ruins, for instance, prioritize the romance of discovery. Many of the most famous non-Western sites were “discovered” by imperial agents in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Angkor Wat in Cambodia was introduced to the world by the French explorer Henri Muhot in 1860. Machu Picchu, the Mayan sites of Yucatan, and the ancestral Anasazi sites of the American southwest were excavated, in some cases purchased, and their narratives constructed by American and European adventurers. The cultural relics of these ancient places were looted and assembled in Western museums, the stories of adventure and discovery published for Western audiences, and eventually a travel infrastructure was established to bring mostly Western tourists to the destinations. Western tourism thus forms another kind of imperialism, as the heritage of a destination is determined to suit the expectations and motivations of the visitors. This tends to obscure other features of local history, leaving those features of heritage not suitable to the tourist trade less valuable.

Made or Experienced?

Heritage is both made and experienced. Critics of heritage tourism rightly point to the ways in which heritage promotions can manipulate the past to defend specific ideological or commercial values. Yet, at the same time, heritage experiences are honestly felt and fundamental in the shaping of modern national or cultural identities. Thus, the questions of what constitutes “heritage” in a tourist attraction and whether or not the experience is “authentic” are fundamentally connected and contradictory. Neither heritage nor authenticity can be separated from both the process of their construction and the motivations and expectations of visitors. This makes heritage tourism a slippery subject for study. It involves numerous contradictions and complications. Indeed, contradiction and dissonance are at the heart of any notion of heritage tourism; what might be heritage for some is merely leisure and consumption for others. The dissonance comes from this dichotomy: the consumer exploitation of a destination that is held by many to have sacred properties. Yet, as this chapter suggests, the construction of those sacred properties is at times dependent on the consumer culture of the tourism industry.

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A Short History of Tourism

Tourism in the United States began some time after the European settlers arrived. They were too busy to take time to vacation.

However, in the early 1660s, Americans started traveling to spas and mineral springs for relaxation, with the goal of maintaining or improving their health.

Encouraging Acts

In the mid-1800s, the Bahamas and its government passed multiple acts that encouraged the promotion and infrastructure for tourist to come to the islands. Along with the Bahamas becoming a popular tourist destination, Niagara Falls became a notable hot spot for tourist.

The popularity of tourist spiked after the Civil War due to improved infrastructure such as railroads where it made people more mobile. Due to the time commitment and slow transportation time, it was still an activity for the elite, those that could afford to take time off of work, because a vacation meant an extended stay.

Flourishing

As one could guess, the basic form of tourism was practiced after World War II when more people, such as the middle-class, had access to automobiles and the luxury of paid time off benefits.

Today, only a third of American families will take a vacation, yet tourism revenues in the United States reached an all time high of $21,547,000 USD in May of 2018.

References-

Https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/tourism-revenues, https://daily.jstor.org/how-tourism-began/, http://www.tourismtoday.com/about-us/tourism-history.

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The Grand Tour- the most important time in the history of tourism?

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The Grand Tour isn’t only a TV show about cars, in actual fact, The Grand Tour is a very important part of the history of travel and tourism (and I expect this was the rationale for the name of the show ‘The Grand Tour too!). In this article I am going to teach you what The Grand Tour was, why it was so important to tourism and where the popular Grand Tour destinations were. Ready to learn more? Read on…

What is the Grand Tour?

Why is the grand tour important to tourism, the grand tour- paris, the grand tour- france onwards, the grand tour- heading north, the grand tour in the media, further reading.

The Grand Tour was the name of a traditional trip through Europe, undertaken by Upper Class boys as they were coming of age. It was mostly the British nobility and landed gentry who went on a Grand Tour, but this did extend to other wealthy Europeans and, later, South and North Americans as well as Filipinos.

According to The National Trust , the term ‘Grand Tour’ was coined by the Catholic priest and travel writer Richard Lassels (c.1603-68), who used it in his influential guidebook The Voyage of Italy (published 1670) to describe young lords travelling abroad to learn about art, architecture and antiquity.

The Grand Tour was a form of travel from around 1550-1850. It was at its most popular during the 18th century, and was said to be the way to end a boy’s education – making them a man. Often, these adolescent boys would be accompanied by tutors who would make the scenes in front of them come to life. It was more of a hands-on education, much like how we have field trips today. The Grand Tour, however, was much more lengthy.

This rite of passage was a very important point in the timeline of the history of tourism – but why?

The Grand Tour is important to the overall history of tourism because it represented travel for educational and recreational purposes rather than, for example, trade or military reasons. It contributed greatly to the cultural, social, architectural, gastronomic, political and artistic evolution of the home country’s of these travellers – especially when, as time went on, it became accessible to not only gentry but artists, collectors, designers and more. These people would take influence from the things they saw abroad. Buildings in Britain would follow architectural styles the designer had seen in Italy , for example.

It is also so important because it was during this large timeframe that the term ‘tourist’ was first properly used. Without it, the history of tourism as we know it would look massively different. People were travelling en masse (although not in groups, per se, as this was before proper public transport existed), visiting new destinations and bringing back stories of their trips. As mentioned, The Grand Tour expanded from being purely a British upper class thing to being something taken by the working class, as well as nobility from other countries. It was highly influential.

The Grand Tour paved the way for the ongoing popularity of museums – as it was clear that people who travelled to different countries often had an interest in learning about the history and culture . It proved there was a need for lodgings for people visiting from out of town; it encouraged the growth of restaurants so visitors could try the local cuisines and so on. Essentially, it was the start of what we now know as tourism because it had such a large and visible influence.

Grand Tour destinations

There was no set itinerary for a Grand Tour. It was up to the individual, and often influenced by their interests or finances. However, most people followed the same vague outline at least. Paris and Rome were firm favourites along with much of the rest of Italy, but a typical itinerary might have looked something like this – if travelling from Britain, that is…

One would start their trip properly in Dover, on the south coast of England. This remains a popular transport hub for people travelling out of the country. From here, our Grand tourist would head by boat across the channel to Ostend in Belgium or either Calais or Le Havre in France depending on their preference. Here, the tourist and their tutor (and servants, if they had any) would decide on the next move.

Often this would be to purchase a coach to transport them from place to place. This would generally be sold on again when it was time to get back on another boat – although some travellers would dismantle theirs and take it with them on their trip.

The first major stop on anyone’s Grand Tour was Paris. The capital of France and the city of love and romance, as well as baked goods, beautiful artwork and breathtaking views, Paris was an obvious choice. Grand Tourists would often hire a French speaking guide to accompany them throughout the entirety of the trip, because it was Europe’s dominant language at the time. Paris was an ideal place to acquire some to join you on a Grand Tour!

Pairs held a world of opportunities, too. Fencing tutorials, dance lessons, French language tutorships, riding practice and so much more. On top of this was the sophistication of the French high society, which would help to polish the traveller’s manners for his eventual return to England.

After getting to know Paris, one would make the journey across to Switzerland to visit either Lusanne or Geneva. This would be only a short stop, however, in order to prepare for an often-difficult journey across the Alps. The really wealthy Grand Tourists would be carried across by their servants, but generally everyone struggled together.

Awaiting them on the other side of the Alps, of course, was Italy. This is typically where our Grand Tourists would spend the most time, visiting different cities and generally exploring over the course of quite a few months. Turin and Milan would be early stops, followed by an extensive stay in Florence. Home to a larger Anglo-Italian diasporic community, Florence was an excellent part of a Grand Tour and one which allowed for a lot of fun and socialising. From here there would be shorter trips to Pisa, Padua, Bologna and Venice – the latter being a high point for many.

But this didn’t conclude the Italian part of a Grand Tour at all. Venice gave way to Rome – particularly for the study of the ancient ruins here as well as the artwork of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque time periods. From Rome some of the more curious travellers went to Naples, where there was a big music scene, and even (after the mid 18-th century, of course) to Pompeii and Herculaneum to see the recent discoveries. Later still, some of the most adventurous Grand Tourists headed to Siciliy to see even more archaeological sites, Greece for the sunshine and culture, and Malta for its history. For the most part, however, Naples or Rome were the usual end to an Italian adventure.

From Italy, most Grand Tourists would head back across the Alps to parts of Europe which were more dominated by the Germanic language. This included Vienna, Innsbruck, Dresden, Potsdam and Berlin – all beautiful cities with distinctive architecture and beautiful culture nuances. Some would even study at the universities in Heidelberg or Munich to round off their trip. Finally were flying visits to Holland or Flanders, before travelling back across the channel and returning to England full of the warm wonders of European travel and education.

By looking at this route, it almost seems reminiscent of an itinerary. And this is true, and is another reason why the Grand Tour is so important to tourism – it was the blueprint for many itineraries travellers and tourists still use today.

There are few pieces of media which actually depict someone going off on a Grand Tour – but we can see references to it, and influence from it, in many media stories. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in fact, was said to be conceived during her own Grand Tour; the doctor in the story is born in Naples and travels throughout Europe.

There are various non-fiction books which make great reference to the Grand Tour, such as Francis Bacon’s Of Travel – a guide which is still relevant today – and some books which were more of a hybrid between fiction and non-fiction. These include Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad and Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Italian Journey.

We can’t forget, of course, the TV show which takes its name from this early tourist phenomenon. The Grand Tour is a British motoring TV series, featuring Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson. Initially, it centred around car reviews and timed laps, motoring challenges and races, studio segments, and celebrity guests – with the ‘studio’ being a large portable tent. They filmed in different locations across the globe, hence the name. In a BBC article before the show was first launched, Clarkson said that the name brought to mind the tradition of Grand Tours, and reflected how the show would be filmed in different countries.

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Tourism—A Short History

First Online: 13 September 2022

Cite this chapter

Christian J. Jäggi 2

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Mobility and tourism are related but not identical. Tourism expresses a change of location that is not primarily for the purpose of earning income (migration, business travel), for self-protection (flight) or for the purpose of acquiring a qualification (study, training), but for recreation, for pleasure, for health or religious reasons. Up to 2019, tourism increased every year, in the Corona year 2020 there was a decline.

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The German word ,Fremdenverkehr' [comprises the] totality of relations and phenomena resulting from the change of place and the stay of persons for whom the place of stay is neither the principal and permanent place of residence nor the place of abode" (Kaspar 1996:16, cited in Schiele 2017:59). Today German speakingcountries talk also about "tourism".

For a detailed discussion of the question of overtourism, see Sect. 5.2 “Overtourism”.

The two authors do refer to air travel, but the same determinants apply by analogy to the other tourism offers.

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Eco Tourism – Definitions, Types, History, Characteristics, and Functions

Around the world, ecotourism has been hailed as a panacea: a way to fund conservation and scientific research, protect fragile and pristine ecosystems, benefit rural communities, promote development in poor countries, enhance ecological and cultural sensitivity, instill environmental awareness and social conscience in the travel industry, satisfy and educate the discriminating tourist, and, some claim, build world peace.

Ecotourism is a form of tourism that attempts to minimize its impact upon the environment, is ecologically sound, and avoids the negative impacts of many large-scale tourism developments undertaken in the areas which have not previously been developed.

History of Eco Tourism

The origins of the term ‘ ecotourism ‘ are not entirely clear, one of the first to use it appears to have been Hetzer(1965), who identified four ‘ pillars ‘ or principles of responsible tourism: minimizing environmental impacts, respecting host cultures, maximizing the benefits to local people, and maximizing tourist satisfaction. The first of these was held to be the most distinguishing characteristic of ecological tourism.

Other early references to ecotourism are found in Miller’s (1978) work on national park planning for ecodevelopment in Latin America, and documentation produced by Environment Canada in relation to a set of road-based ‘ecotours’ they developed from the mid-1979s through to the early 1980s.

Ecotourism developed ‘within the womb’ of the environmental movement in the 1970s and 1980s . Growing environmental concern coupled with an emerging dissatisfaction with mass tourism led to increased demand for nature-based experiences of an alternative nature.

At the same time, less developed countries began to realize that nature-based tourism offers a means of earning foreign exchange and providing a less destructive use of resources than alternatives such as logging and agriculture.

By the mid-1980s, a number of such countries had identified ecotourism as a means of achieving both conservation and development goals. The first formal definition of ecotourism is generally credited to Ceballos Lascurain in 1987.

Definitions of Eco Tourism

According to Ceballos-Lascurain, ecotourism is the , ” traveling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific objective of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural manifestation (both past and present) found in these areas.”

Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as, ” responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.”

According to the Ecotourism Association of Australia , ” ecotourism is nature-based tourism that involves education and interpretation of the natural environment and is managed to be ecologically sustainable.”

This definition recognizes that ‘natural environment’ includes cultural components and that ‘ecologically sustainable’ involves an appropriate return to the local community and long-term conservation of the resource.

According to Tickell , ecotourism is “travel to enjoy the world’s amazing diversity of natural life and human culture without causing damage to either”.

Ecotourism is ecologically sustainable tourism that fosters environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation.

Types of Ecotourism

Fennell considers that ecotourism exits within the broader classification of tourism types which, at an initial level, can be divided into the following types:

Mass Tourism
Alternative Tourism

Mass tourism we saw as the more traditional form of tourism development where short-term, free-market principles dominate and the maximization of income is paramount. The development of the tourism industry was originally seen as a desirable and relatively ‘clean’ industry for nations and regions to pursue. This was particularly true in terms of benefits in foreign exchange earnings, employment and infrastructural development such as transport networks.

These days we are more prone to vilify or characterize conventional mass tourism as a beast; a monstrosity which has few redeeming qualities for the destination region, their people and their natural resource base.

This is not to deny that ‘ mass tourism ‘ has caused problems, because it has. There has, quite justifiably, been a need to identify an alternative approach to tourism development that lessens the negative consequences of the mass tourism approach.

Thus the ‘ alternative tourism ‘ perspective has become a popular paradigm. This alternative approach has been described as a ‘competing paradigm’ to mass tourism, but it can also be viewed as a complementary approach to tourism. That is, it is not possible to have ‘alternative tourism’ to.

So, the discussion returns to a semantic debate, perhaps it is best to accept that alternative tourism is a natural outcome of the maturing understanding of tourism development and its strengths and weakness. Fennell states that :

Alternative tourism is a generic term that encompasses a whole range of tourism strategies (e.g. appropriate, eco, soft, responsible, people to people, and green tourism) all of which purport to offer a more benign alternative to conventional mass tourism in certain types of destinations.

However, Weaver quite rightly points out that there are also many criticisms of alternative tourism. It is clear that just because alternative tourism has developed as a reaction to the negative consequences of mass tourism it is not necessarily less harmful or better than its alternatives.

Nature of Ecotourism

Tourism activity is expected to grow by 4.3% per annum in real terms between 2008 and 2017. Ecotourism or nature-based tourism has become the fastest growing sector of the tourism industry growing 3 times faster than the industry as a whole.

There can be no doubting of the increasing trends in environmental concern allied with the historically prevalent trend of travel as for, of escape to nature, driven by the pressures of urban living encourage people to seek solitude with nature, therefore, increasing the numbers of visitors to national parks and other protected areas.

There are a number of dimensions to nature-based tourism. All forms of travel to natural areas are not necessarily ecotourism, but this provides a useful step in differentiating nature-based tourism from ecotourism and gives us a number of levels at which to distinguish the relationship between specific tourism activities and nature:

Those activities or experiences that are dependent on nature.
Those activities or experiences that are enhanced by nature.
Those activities or experiences for which the natural setting is incidental.

There are several classes of nature-based tourism, each utilizing a combination of these dimensions. Bird watching, for example, can provide a pleasant and relaxing holiday based around a general interest in nature and the environment. So that without the natural environment it would be difficult to carry out the activity.

Similarly, camping is an activity/experience which often enhanced by nature. Most people would prefer to camp in some type of natural setting rather than on the side of a busy road. Therefore, nature is an integral part of these experiences but not the fundamental motivation for them.

Principles and Guidelines of Ecotourism

Ecotourism attracts people who wish to interact with the environment and, in varying degrees, develop their knowledge, awareness, and appreciation of it. The Ecotourism Society gives the principles and guidelines of ecotourism. These are following as:

Prepare travelers to minimize their negative impact while visiting sensitive environments and cultures before departure.
Prepare traveler for each encounter with local cultures and with native animals and plants.
Minimize visitors impacts on the on the environment by offering literature, briefing, leading by example, and taking corrective actions.
Minimize traveler impact on cultures by offering literature, briefings, leading by example, and taking corrective actions.
Use adequate leadership, and maintain small enough groups to ensure minimum group impact on destination. Avoid areas that are under-managed and over-visited.
Ensure managers, staff and contract employees know and participate in all aspects of company policy to prevent impacts on the environment and local cultures.
Give managers, staff and contact employees access to programmes that will upgrade their ability to communicate with and manage clients in sensitive natural and cultural settings.
Be a contributor to the conservation of the region being visited.
Provide competitive, local employment in all aspect of business operation.
Offer site-sensitive accommodations that are not wasteful of local resources or destructive to the environment, which provide ample opportunity for learning about the environment and sensitive interchange with local communities.
Focuses on personally experiencing natural areas in ways that led to greater understanding and appreciation.

Characteristics of Eco-Tourism

Ecotourism is travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and (often) small scale. It helps educate the traveler, provides funds for conservation, directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.

Some important characteristics of ecotourism are following as:

1) Involves travel to the natural destination . These destinations are often remote areas, whether inhabited or uninhabited, and are usually under some kind of environmental protection at the national, international, communal, or private travel.

2) Minimize impact . Tourism causes damage. Ecotourism strives to minimize the adverse effects of hotels, trails, and other infrastructure by using either recycled or plentifully available local building material, renewable sources of energy, recycling and safe disposal of waste and garbage, and environmentally and culturally sensitive architectural design.

3) Builds environmental awareness . Ecotourism means education, for both tourist and residents of nearby communities. Well before the tour begins, tour operators should supply travelers with reading material about the country, environment, and local people, as well as a code of conduct for both the traveler and the industry itself. Ecotourism projects should also help educate members of surrounding communities, schoolchildren, and the broader public in the host country.

4) Provides direct financial benefits for conservation . Ecotourism helps raise funds for environmental protection, research, and education through a variety of mechanisms, including park entrance fees; tour company, hotel, airline, and airport taxes. And voluntary contributions.

5) Provides financial benefits and empowerment for local people . Ecotourism holds that national parks and other conservation areas will survive only if, there are happy people around the perimeters. The local community must be involved with and receive income and other tangible benefits (potable water, roads, health clinics, etc.) from the conservation area and its tourist facilities.

6) Respects local culture . Ecotourism is not only “greener” but also less culturally intrusive and exploitative than conventional tourism. Whereas prostitution, black markets, and drug often are byproducts of mass tourism, ecotourism strives to be culturally respectful and the human population of a host country.

7) Supports human rights and democratic movements . The United Nations-sponsored World Tourism Organization proclaims that tourism contributes to “international understanding, peace, prosperity, and universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.

Such sentiments, however, are little reflected in conventional mass tourism. In this way, ecotourism supports humans rights and, to establish international peace.

Functions of Ecotourism

Eco-tourism is nature-based, environmentally educated and sustainably managed. Ross and Wall (1999) outline the five fundamental functions of ecotourism namely:

1. Protection of natural areas 2. Education 3. Generation of money 4. Quality tourism 5. Local participation

Economic Effects of Ecotourism

The job generated by ecotourism provide an important reason for interest in and support for, the phenomenon. These jobs often occur in areas relatively untouched by traditional development efforts and represent tangible economic benefits from natural areas.

Several studies have assessed the local employment benefits of ecotourism; not surprisingly, the level of benefits varies widely as a result of differences in the quality of attraction, access and other factors.

Some important economic effects of ecotourism are following as:

Fiscal Impacts (taxes, fees, expenditures)

Ecotourism not only generates government revenue through business and other general taxes but also through industry-specific channels, such as payment of occupancy and departure taxes.

Reduced access to the resource

Tourism utilizes various resources as inputs into the products and services provided to visitors. In the case of ecotourism, one of these products is nature in a partially or totally preserved state.

Preservation of natural areas often involves reduced local access to resources, such as wood or medicinal plants. In so far as tourism is a partial or sole rationale for preserving an area, it also causes reduced access to resources.

Many destinations have experienced increased price for goods, services, and land due to tourism development, and this is a cost borne by residents of the area who purchase these items.

Effects of the income distribution

In some cases, tourism development exacerbates existing income inequalities within destination communities, while in others it generates new financial elites.

Revenue sharing

At some ecotourism destinations, residents benefit from revenue-sharing programmes that either provide cash payments or, more commonly, funding for community projects such as well or schools.

Environmental Effects of Ecotourism

The impacts of ecotourism depend on what ecotourism is. The critical issue is that ecotourism should involve deliberates steps to minimize impacts, through the choice of activities, equipment, location and timing, group size, education and training, and operational environmental management.

There is now quite an extensive literature on impacts such as trampling, which is easy to quantify experimentally. However, very little is known about impacts such as noise disturbance, soil and water-borne pathogens, and interference with plant and animal population dynamics and genetics, which are likely to have far greater ecological significance.

Some important environmental effects of ecotourism are following as:

Crushing or clearance of vegetation.
Soil modification.
Introduction of weeds and pathogens.
Water pollution from human waste.
Air pollution from generator exhausts, noise from machinery, vehicles, and voices.
Visual impacts.
Disturbance to wildlife through all of the above, and through food scraps and litter, etc.

A new group of tourism clients has emerged who are demanding different activities, experiences and approaches to tourism from the industry: ‘ these are the ecotourists – people who require environmentally compatible recreational opportunities, where nature rather than humanity predominates ‘.

They are shrugging off the shackles of traditional tourism in search of knowledge and experience. Their interest is not in lounging by hotels pools or hectic sightseeing schedules. They are interested in visiting wilderness, national parks, and tropical forests, and in viewing birds, mammals, trees and wildflowers.

They want to experience new lifestyles and meet people with similar interests to themselves and they want to see their traveling dollars contributing toward conservation and benefiting the local economy.

Ecotourists can be generally characterized as having higher than average incomes, largely holding tertiary qualifications and there tend to be more female ecotourists than men.

According to the International Ecotourism Society, ecotourists are experienced travelers who are more likely to have a college/university degree and have a higher income bracket .

Ecotourists are expecting discovery and enlightenment from their ecotourism experience. Personal growth in emotional, spiritual, as well as intellectual terms, appear to be expected outcomes from ecotourism travel for the majority of these travelers.

Ecotourism Organizations

Ecotourism organizations are the administrative or functional structures that are concerned with ecotourism. Ecotourism organizations help into to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive impacts of ecotourism. These organizations can be sorted into three categories:

Membership non-government organizations (NGOs)
Public sector or governmental agencies
Non-membership organizations (NGOs)

Ecotourism organizations, found throughout the world, play important roles ranging from grass-roots advocacy to international policymaking.

International Organizations

In the international arena, many different organizations address ecotourism related issues. World Tourism Organization (WTO) plays an important role in the development of ecotourism. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is another international governmental organization that deals with ecotourism, through its international development assistance programme.

WTO and UNDP are just two examples of how international governmental ecotourism related organizations can play a role in making ecotourism a tool for sustainable development. At the international level NGOs also play a role.

Tourism Concern, a UK based NGO dedicated to ensuring tourism is just and sustainable form of business has worked for many years to make tourism more sustainable.

The US-based TES is dedicated solely to ensuring that ecotourism is a viable tool for biodiversity conservation and community development.

National Organizations

Government plays an important role in the national arena. Government related ecotourism organization active at this level generally come from areas: parks management agencies, universities, tourism ministries, and environment or natural resource ministries.

For example, in Kenya, much of the government related ecotourism activities at the national level is performed by the Kenya Wildlife Services (KYS), a quasi-governmental organization whose mandate is the management of wildlife in the country.

Every country has their national organizations for conservation and preservation of natural resources and ecotourism.

Sub-national Organizations

Below the national level is found regional, state and local areas for action. Ecotourism organizations play a role at each of these levels. Queensland Tourism and Tourism Saskatchewan are two examples of state-level public sector ecotourism organizations.

In Australia, Queensland Tourism’s environment division publishes a quarterly newsletter titled EcoTrends informing industry, NGOs, universities and the public sector about ecotourism- related events, accreditation recipients, department research and policy.

Maharashtra Board Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 8 Tourism and History

Balbharti Maharashtra State Board Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 8 Tourism and History Notes, Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers.

Maharashtra State Board Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 8 Tourism and History

Question 1. (A) Choose the correct option from the given options and complete the statement. (1) Thomas Cook established a travel agency selling ……………………….. . (a) handicrafts (b) toys (c) food items (d) tourist tickets Answer: (d) tourist tickets

(2) Bhilar is known as the ‘Village of ……………………….. . (a) books (b) plants (c) mangoes (d) forts Answer: (a) Books

(B) Identify and write the wrong pair in the following set. (1) Matheran – Hill Station (2) Tadoba – Rock-cut Caves (3) Kolhapur – Pilgrim Centre (4) Ajanta – World Heritage Answer: (2) Wrong Pair: Tadoba – Rock-cut Caves

Question 2. Explain the following statements with reasons. (1) The number of people travelling back and forth from India has increased considerably. Answer:

It has become easier to travel because of the easy availability of a number of options like railway, marine and air services.
Marine has linked the coastal regions. Aviation has brought the entire world closer.
The economic liberalisation policy of the Indian government has made the travel more easy.
People travel for studies, relaxation, sightseeing and professional assignments (meetings, etc.), also for shooting films. Therefore, there has been a considerable increase in the number of people travelling back and forth from India.

(2) It is important to take a few primary precautions in order to preserve the historical heritage sites. Answer: India has rich natural and cultural heritage. In order to preserve the historical sites following precautionary measures should be taken.

Avoid vandalising or defacing the heritage monuments and sites.
To refrain from activities like writing on the wall or carving on the trees.
Ancient monuments should not be painted in garish colours.
Lack of good amenities in the precints of the heritage sites causes filthiness. Proper amenities should be provided.
Heritage monuments like forts and other monuments are testimonies of our glorious past and they serve as guide for future generations.

Therefore, they should be preserved..

Question 3. Write short notes : (1) Tradition of Travelling Answer:

The tradition of traveffing from one corner to another is not new.
It existed in India since ancient times.
In stone age, man was constantly on the move in search of food but that was just wandering not travelling.
India has got a rich tradition of travelling.
People go for local fairs, temple fairs, festivals and pilgrimage which comes under cultural tourism.
People travelled long distance for education and trade.
Many students visited Nalanda, Takshshila universities in the past.
As travelling is a natural instinct in man, the tradition of travelling for various reasons is prevalent since ancient times.

(2) Marco Polo Answer:

Marco Polo was born in a business family in the Italian city of Venice in 1254 CE.
He was the first European traveller to reach China taking the silk route.
His travelogue introduced Asia, especially China to Europe.
He wrote about the rich flora and fauna, social life, information on culture and trade system in Asia.
His writings initiated trade between Europe and Asia.

(3) Agro-tourism Answer: Visit to agricultural centres and agricultural universities comes under agro-tourism.

In recent times lot of research is conducted in the agricultural field. Many new agricultural universities and research centres are formed in India.
Projects are undertaken to inform farmers about suitable soil for their crops, organic manures, earthworm compost, etc. Sikkim state is the first organic state of India.
Though it receives less rainfall, Israel has made a lot of development in agricultural sector. To obtain information on novel techniques in farming and on projects started, students and city people travel to places.
As urban population has very little exposure to rural life and agriculture, agro-tourism is developing rapidly.

Question 4. Answer the following questions in detail. (1) What are the crucial issues in the development of tourism? Answer: In modern times, tourism is not limited to being a job-oriented profession but it also contributes to the nation’s development.

Safety of the tourists and secure transport facilities should be given utmost preference.
Availability of good accommodation and amenities of reasonably good standard should be made available.
Good washroom facilities oq, the travel routes and at tourists sites should be provided.
Pamphlets, guides, maps should be made available to the tourists, preferably in their own language.
It would be helpful if taxi drivers are trained to converse in more than one languages.
They can also be trained as tourist guides.
Attention should be given towards the needs of specially challenged people.

(2) In what way tourism becomes a major source of their livelihood? Answer: In the following ways development takes place at local level because of tourism:

Local markets are developed in the vicinity of a tourist site.
There is considerable increase in purchase and sales of goods liked by tourists.
Production and sale of ethnic handicraft goods increase eventually leading to the development of these industries.
Economic well-being of the skilled craftsmen.
Increase in demand of locally processed food, hotel services, accommodation and in shops leads to development of these services.
Local transport, travel agents, guides are in demand. Hence more and more employment opportunities are generated.

(3) What would you do to develop the surroundings of your village /town to help the growth of tourism? Answer: It is important to have an understanding of our surroundings. For that some ground work is essential.

Historical monuments and temples should be conserved and preserved. Boards having information on them should be put up around the city. We need to pay attention towards cleanliness.
Beaches should be clean as clean beaches always attract tourists.
Tourists are interested to see projects like earthworm composts, zero waste and working of solar power projects. If such projects are installed they become centre of major tourist attraction.
Similarly, tourists are interested to see local art, culture, cottage and handicraft industry. They are enthusiastic to buy locally made handicrafts as souvenirs. I feel if there is economical, geographical, cultural and educational development in our surroundings it will definitely boost tourism.

Maharashtra Board Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 8 Tourism and History 1

Question 6. Give elaborate answers to the following. (1) What are the professional fields associated with tourism? Answer: The following fields are related to tourism:

Hotels, lodging and boarding services.
Shops selling food items and catering services, etc.
A reviväl or boost to Handicraft and Cottage industiy resulting in economic well-being of the skilled craftsmen.
Demand for industries affiliated to hotel industry like Dairy industry.
Agro industry which supplies vegetables, fruits, fish and meat increases.
Transport services which are required by tourists such as bus, autorickshaw and taxi, increase in numbers.
Travel agents, photographers, guides, etc. and other professions related to tourism get a boost.

(2) Describe any three types of tourism. Answer: Tourism has been classified into many types, three important types of them are: (1) Historical Tourism:

Tourism and history are inseparable.
The number of people visiting historical places are increasing day by day.
Tours are arranged to see forts, battlefields which narrate stories of valour of our ancestors and monuments made by them.
Tourists visit memorials of freedom fighters, forts built by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, palaces built by kings.
Important places related to the Indian war of independence in 1857, and ashrams of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.

Thus, this type of historical tourism is popular all around the world.

(2) Geographic Tourism: Sea beaches, mountain ranges, valleys, snow-capped peaks, pristine jungles, sanctuaries, lakes formed because of meteor impact, waterfalls, form wealth of a nation. People enjoy nature and feel a natural attraction towards it. People around the world visit 8 such places out of curiosity or for leisure.

(3) International Tourism:

International tourism is on the rise in modern times because of availability of transport facility.
International tourism is on the rise because people travel for various reasons like international literary conferences, world summits, meetings, business deals, site seeing and visit to religious places.
International seminars and conferences are held.
Film festivals are arranged. Such events promote international tourism.

Project Explain the need to preserve the heritage sites. What measures are required to achieve it? Discuss.

Question 7. Complete the sentences by choosing the correct option: (a) The Chinese monk …………………….. travelled in India in 630 C.E. (a) Hiuen Tsang (b) Yuan Shwcmg (c) Fa-Hien (d) Ho Chi Minh Answer: (b) Yuan Shwang

(b) The number of people travelling back and forth from India has increased considerably because of …………………….. . (a) India’s first war of Independence (b) India’s independence (c) Economic liberalisation (d) Good railway services Answer: (c) Economic liberalisation

(c) …………………….. used to arrange hiking tours in Maharashtra to explore the sights closely linked to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. (a) N.S. Incim dar (b) Ranjit Desai (c) Vishnubhcrt Godse (d) Gopal Neelkanth Dandekar Answer: (d) Gopal Neelkanth Dandekar.

(d) In order to provide good’ amenities on the pilgrim routes like Chardham Yatras and Bara Jyotirlings …………………….. has spent from her personal funds. (a) Queen Lakshmibcri (b) Ahilyabai Holkar (c) Nanasaheb Peshwa (d) Vshunbhat Godse Answer: (b) Ahilyabai Holkar

(e) A visit to …………………….. at Nighoj in Maharashtra is geographic tourism. (a) palace (b) fort (c) ranjankhalage (d) temple Answer: (c) ranjankhalage

(f) …………………….. has conducted experiments of advanced technology in agriculture. (a) Egypt (b) Jordan (c) Italy (d) Israel Answer: (d) Israel

(g) Travelling to attend events like Maharashtra Kesari is known as ……………………. . (a) Geographic Tourism (b) Health Tourism (c) Agro Tourism (d) Sports Tourism Answer: (d) Sports Tourism

(h) …………………….. successfully circumnavigated Europe. (a) Marco Polo (b) Thomas Cook (c) Benjamin of Tudela (d) Gerardus Mercator Answer: (b) Thomas Cook.

Question 8. Identify the wrong pair in the following, and write it: (1)

Answer: Wrong Pair: Tadoba – Rock-cut Caves

Answer: Wrong Pair: First Cartographer who made world map – Thomas Cook

Answer: Wrong Pair Jayakwadi – Hill Station

Answer: Wrong Pair: Sagareshwar – Dam

Maharashtra Board Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 8 Tourism and History 3

Question 10. Explain the concept: (1) Tourism: Answer:

Visiting places in distant regions with a specific purpose is known as Tourism.
Tourism can also be defined as going for local fairs, festivals, pilgrimage, entertainment, leisure, historical or places of natural beauty. Man has a natural instinct to travel.
Travelling is an old tradition which has undergone changes with time. In modern times, tourism has changed in its nature and form.
Tourism expands from the local to the international level. As tourism develops it opens the doors of development for a country.

(2) Religious Tourism: Answer:

When people travel individually or in groups on a pilgrimage, it is known as Religious Tourism. Religious seminars, pilgrimages, religious festivals and travel on occasions to bathe in holy rivers come under religious tourism.
Gautam Buddha and Buddhist monks travelled to preach Buddhism and give discourses on Dhama. In the same way, Shankarachaya had travelled to spread Hinduism. St. Francis Xavier along with his followers travelled all over India to preach Christianity.
People in Maharashtra walk on foot to reach Pandharpur, Shirdi and many holy places to pay their obeisance.
Guru Nanak, Saint Namdev, Samarth Ramdas, as well as Yuan Shwang who came from China in 630 CE to study Buddhism in India, travelled extensively in India.

(3) Heritage Walk: Answer:

Heritage walk . involves physical walking in the area-and observing the historical sites. People go for heritage walks to see historical palaces, forts and old temples.
The first hand experience we get is inspirational in forming an emotional connect and a long lasting impression. .
Many enthusiastic organisations held such heritage walks in city of Ahmadabad, Mumbai and Pune to enable the people to get glimpses of history.

(4) Cultural tourism: Answer:

India has rich tradition of folk arts. Festivals are arranged to promote such art forms.
Travelling to see such festivals comes under Cultural tourism.
Visiting historical places to get a glimpse of local culture is also cultural tourism.
It also involves visiting reputed educational institutions and understand their traditions as well as travelling to see festivals and celebrations in different parts of the country.
Travelling to participate in various music- dance festivals as audience is also part of cultural tourism.

Question 11. Write short notes: (a) Benjamin of Tudela: Answer:

Benjamin of Tudela is known to be the first traveller in the world. He was born in Spain.
He travelled through Asia, Europe and Africa in between 1159-1173 C.E.
He visited France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Persia. He even visited India and China.
He noted down his experiences and observations about people and their living style in his diaries.
He made accurate observations about the social life in the medieval period.

Hence, his accounts are authentic and are studied by scholars studying the medieval period.

(b) Ibn Batuta: Answer:

Ibn Batuta was born on 25th February, 1304 in present Morocco. He was a great 14th century traveller who travelled for 30 years. His travel accounts enabled people an insight into the Islamic world.
Having made’ the resolution of not taking the same route again, he travelled to South and East Africa, South and East Europe, Middle and South east Asia in the Indian subcontinent.
His writings are helpful for those who study medieval history and social life.
In his book Batuta said,’ “Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into storyteller.”

Gerardus Mercator of 16th century was the first Dutch cartographer.
He was the first one to make a world map and globe of the earth. He made large and small maps which could be hung on a wall.
Mercator used the word Atlas’ for the first time. He made scientific and astronomical instruments.
His maps gave momentum to navigation around the world.

Question 12. Explain the following statements with reasons:

(a) Maza Pravas is an important source of history. Answer:

Vishnubhat Godse in his travelogue wrote about his journey to Ayodhya and back to Maharashtra.
He published a book, called ‘Maza Pravas’ in which he gave an eye witness account of the events which unfolded during the Indian War of Independence in 1857.
He gave full detailed descriptions about various incident during that period, especially on the life of the Queen of Jhansi Lakshmibai.
His writings give us an idea about the nature of the Marathi language in the 18th century. Therefore, it is considered as an important source of history.

(4) Tourism can provide a source of livelihood. Answer:

Tourists visit religious, historical and places of natural beauty. Job opportunities develop to meet the requirements of the tourists.
Guides are required to provide information about the place. Photographers take photos of the tourists wearing local costumes. Suppliers of such dresses are required.
Horse carts, cabs and other means of transport are required Which gives scope for transport business. Tourists buy local handicrafts. Hence the local handicraft and cottage industry gets promoted.
Hotel industry gets boosted. In short, the markets near the tourist centre develop. So, tourism can be a source of livelihood for local people.

Question 13. Answer the following questions in 20 – 25 words:

(a) Write about the work of Thomas Cook. Answer:

Thomas Cook started group tours on commercial basis in the latter half of the 19th century.
He took 600 people from Leicester to Loughborough by railway.
Later, he successfully organised a round trip of Europe.
He opened a travel agency and sold tourists tickets. He organised affordable tours and easy travel.

Thus, his ventures opened the doors for the development of modem tourism.

(b) What are the benefits of religious tourism? Answer: The following are the benefits of religious tourism:

People staying in different parts of the world come together.
They develop ties as they share the sgme* faith and also feeling of unity develops.
Religious places get importance and many social welfare projects are undertaken.
As these places develop, the local business develops leading to improvement in the standard of living of the local people.

(d) What is Sports Tourism? Answer:

Sports tourism developed in the 20th century. It involves travelling either to participate in a sporting event or to watch the event.
Various sports events are organised at local and state level for different inter school competitions. National level Sports Competitions are also held. International cricket, hockey and football tournaments are held at regular intervals.
Wimbledon, French Open, Australian Open and US Open lawn tennis tournaments are held. Every four years, Olympics and Asian Games are held in the country which is the host. Events like the Himalayan car rally at the national level and Maharashtra Kesari at the state level are held.
Travelling to participate in these events as players, coaches, umpires, referees, organisers or to attend them as spectators come under sports tourism.

(b) What types of books are there in the Village of Books? Answer: In the Village of Books, we find books of old and new authors and saints, ranging from biographies, autobiographies, fiction, poetry literature by women, literature on sports and literature for kids. as Village of

Each household in this village maintains a library of its own.
Tourists enjoy reading these books.
Maharashtra Government has kept these books in every household so that it becomes easy for the tourists to take and read.
It is done with a view to accelerate the ‘Reading Culture’ movement to enjoy Marcrthi literature.

Hence, the village is known as ‘Village of Books’.

Question 15. Give elaborate answers to the following:

(a) Explain the benefits of increasing tourism. Answer: Tourism not only benefits an individual but also a country.

Tourism is an industry which has potential to generate maximum employment.
New markets are created leading to the development of tourist sites.
Urbanisation takes place giving rise to new colonies.
The country earns foreign exchange.
Handicraft and cottage industry gets a boost.
Visiting different sites, meeting people speaking different languages and knowing different cultures increases tolerance and peace.
We get information when we visit places of historical importance and natural beauty. It widens our perspective.
When we visit historical places we come to know about the glorious past which gives us inspiration to build a bright future.
It emphasises the need that we have to take care of our heritage.
Tourism gives us a feeling of personal and collective fulfillment.

(b) Explain the purpose of tourism. Answer: Tourism has several purposes and inspiration behind it. They are as follows:

To see historical monuments forts and cities discovered during excavations. To visit centres promoting ancient art and craft, museums.
To visit different pilgrim centres, sea beaches, mountain ranges, valleys, snow-capped peaks, pristine jungles.
To visit special plateaus like Kas plateau, museums, lakes formed because of meteoric impact and valleys of flowers.
Places of natural beauty gives us enjoyment and experiences which connects us to nature.
To visit different industrial sites.
To see medicinal plants and avail of ayurvedic therapies.
To visit places to see agricultural projects, visit to see agricultural research centres and making of compost pits.
To travel to watch sports events which comes under sports tourism. To be. part of dance-music, festival or watch as audience, which is cultural tourism.
People also visit places to attend film festivals, witness the making of movies, science seminars, international conferences, book exhibitions and literary events.

In short, the purpose of tourism differs from person to person. It is explored as per individual interest.

(c) What measures should be taken to conserve historical monuments? Answer: Historical monuments and ancient historical sources constitute our cultural heritage. The following measures should be taken to conserve them:

Seepage of water in forts and in rock-cut caves should be stopped. Creepers which grow on forts should be uprooted.
Damages due to humidity and heat should be stopped with proper measures.
To take precautions to avoid deterioration of monuments near the sea because of salt.
Hygiene should be maintained at tourist sites.
One should be fined for writing names, carving or defacing the monument in ary manner.
Government should take measures to avoid the monuments getting vandalised.
Awareness should be created among the people about the need to preserve monuments.
Along with government, people and private sectors should contribute to raise funds for the preservation of projects.

(d) Distinguish between Local tourism and International tourism. Answer:

(e) What facilities should be made available to the tourists? Answer: The following facilities should be provided to tourists: Facilities for tourists:

Safe and secured transport facilities, translators and guides.
Ensure safety of the tourists.
Good and clean hotels and eateries. Clean drinking water at various places of visit.
Good washrooms on the travel routes and at tourists sites.
Care should be taken that tourists do not endure physical or mental distress.
Tourists should not be cheated when they make purchases.

(f) How would you behave with the tourists if you are the local person at a tourist site? Answer: Tourists visit any tourist site having faith in the local people:

I will behave well with the tourists. I will extend my cooperation.
I will inform them about the tourist places , known to me, which things they can buy and where.
I will be careful that they face no problems.

(g) What kind of new occupations were introduced in the surroundings of your village/ town because of growing tourism? Answer: The following job opportunities were created in the surroundings of my town because of growing tourism:

The number of tourist guides, porters increased.
More services of autorickshaw, taxi, horse-to ride, horse carts, etc. were provided.
New hotels and shops selling food items came up in vicinity.
Juice and cold drink centres were started.
Milk, vegetables and tea stalls were set up.
New shops selling handicraft and local things opened.
What kind of new occupations were introduced in the surroundings of your village/town because of growing tourism?
What difference could be observed in the lifestyle of people in the surroundings of your village-town because of growing tourism?

(h) What difference can be observed in the lifestyle of people in the surroundings of your village-town because of growing tourism? Answer: Tourism improves standard of living of the people:

Small towns transform into urban cities.
Standard of living improves to great extent.
Modern housing colonies come up in place of small houses.
Different types of business as prosper.
Artists get promoted which helps in sale of their artefacts.
Number of two-wheelers and four-wheelers increase.
I have observed these changes in the surroundings of my town.

Maharashtra Board Class 10 History Solutions Chapter 8 Tourism and History 11

Write short notes on Ethnic Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Environmental Tourism and Historical Tourism.

Ethnic tourism:.

Ethnic tourism signifies the tourists interests in the customs of the indigenous and exotic people. It is .a form of special interest tourism which focuses directly on the local people. In this form of tourism the tourists visit the homes of local people, observes and participate in their festivals, dances rituals and other forms of cultural expressions. Human contacts with the indigenous people become very important in this form of tourism and it involves a study of purchase of local products as well.

The emphasis of Ethnic Tourism is directly on the traditional cultural forms as tourist seek to observe or participate in the local festivals and other celebrations. The stress is on the peculiarities of local culture as opposed to the imposing dominance of the homogenizing culture. All this reviews the interest of local people in their own cultural traditions.

This stimulation occurs mainly due to the outsider’s interests in their tradition. Thus, the uniqueness and importance of their folk traditions are brought to the fore and lead to ethnic pride and ethnic solidarity. It also results in more employment, higher income, improved standard of living of the local people.

In India many regions, particularly Rajasthan are of special interest for Ethnic Tourism. Rajasthan with its variety of colorful dresses folk music and “dances fort and diverse tribal cultures is of great importance. The rituals, music, dresses and dances find their complete expressions in the festivals and fairs in different parts of Rajasthan.

Cultural Tourism:

Cultural tourism is concerned with a country or region’s culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of those people, their art, architecture, religion’s, and other elements that helped shape their way of life.

Cultural tourism includes tourism in urban areas, particularly historic or large cities and their cultural facilities such as museums and theaters. It can also include tourism in rural areas showcasing the traditions of indigenous cultural communities, and their values and lifestyle, as well as niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. It is generally agreed that cultural tourists spend substantially more than standard tourists do. This form of tourism is very much famous throughout the world.

Historical Tourism:

Ans. Historical tourism refers to a kind of tourism, where the tour or tour group focuses on the history; history of some place, people, thing, or events. They go, see, study, discuss and experience places where historical things occurred. The places will be a portrayal of history of that country or the region and tells about the past happenings. Tourists usually visit those places of historical importance to know about the culture, tradition, past happenings etc. and get to know about the.evolution and development in culture.

This is an attempt to understand, the living environment and life styles of ordinary people of the past, and present and interpret these in an interesting manner to the tourists.

Environmental Tourism:

Environmental tourism is a form of tourism involving visiting fragile, pristine, and relatively undisturbed natural areas, intended as a low impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial (mass) tourism.

Its purpose may be to educate the traveller, to provide funds for ecological conservation, to directly benefit the economic development and political empowerment of local Communities, or to foster respect for different cultures and for human rights. Since the 1980s ecotourism has been considered a critical endeavor by environmentalists, so that future generations may experience destinations relatively untouched by human intervention. Several university programs use this description as the working definition of ecotourism.

Tags: Bachelor of Tourism Studies

What does mean by Heritage Hotels? Mention the objectives of the Heritage Hotels Association.

Write a short note on the Cultural Heritage of Maharashtra.

Write a note on Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

Discuss the meaning of Ethnic Tourism. What is the difference between ethnic tourism and cultural tourism?

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