The average length of the Grand Tour was forty months, and the journey often followed a designated route through France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and/or the Low Countries (modern Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Few tourists strayed from this route into other areas. Particularly early in this era, traveling conditions were difficult, so the route was distinctly shaped by geographic conditions and available transportation technologies. As with Roman tourism, the Alps were considered a barrier to be crossed en route to the highlighted destinations rather than an attraction in themselves. A widespread, efficient network of transportation that met the needs of these tourists was slow to develop. Likewise, there were few accommodations. Although some of the main cities on the tour developed hotels, these Grand Tourists generally had to use the same inns, hostels, and post houses as other travelers.
Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Grand Tour began to experience a number of changes. The demographics of the Grand Tourists steadily expanded to include aristocrats from other Northern European countries as well as the sons of the growing class of affluent but not titled British families. Some of the earliest groups of tourists began to expand the territory of the tour in search of newer and more exclusive destinations, such as Greece, Portugal, and even modern-day Turkey. At the same time, the focus of the Grand Tour began to shift. Education continued to play a role, but sightseeing also gained in importance. Tourists visited archaeological sites, museums, and art galleries, and they attended concerts and theater performances. Socialization and the development of social contact with others in the same class at assemblies and balls also came to be a part of the Grand Tour. Given the increasing importance of these latter activities, some critics argued that the Grand Tour had become nothing more than the pursuit of pleasure.
The onset of the French Revolution in 1789, followed by the conflict surrounding the Napoleonic Wars, effectively halted Continental travel for a time. While this interval brought a boost in British domestic travel, it also created a pent-up demand for experiences abroad. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and the Second Treaty of Paris in 1815 created a host of new opportunities for international travel. Many of the changes to the Grand Tour that had begun before the Napoleonic Wars continued after travel resumed. This effectively ended the Grand Tour era and ushered in a new era of international tourism in the nineteenth century in which more people participated than ever before.
The demographics of tourists continued to change. In the post-Napoleonic period, more adults began to travel, as well as families traveling together. This also meant that more females were traveling than ever before, a trend that would continue as travel became easier with an increasingly organized tourism infrastructure.
Likewise, more members of the middle class were able to travel. This generated even more changes in the nature of international tourism. Middle-class tourists didn’t have the advantage of invitations from local nobility, so they had to rely on the developing tourism infrastructure, such as accommodations. Correspondingly, they were less likely to travel with servants and household staff, which created a demand for local serving staff at the places of destination. These tourists had less time and money available to travel, so before the middle of the nineteenth century, the average length of a European tour had been reduced to four months. As tourists had less time to spend at the destination, seeing the sights took precedence over learning about them. Nonetheless, the route generally remained the same, and many of the same cities continued to be popular destinations because of the varied, well-known attractions ranging from classical antiquity to the Renaissance.
Box 4.1. In-Depth: The Rise of Organized Mass Tourism
Thomas Cook is often described as the father of modern mass tourism because of the role he and his company played in organizing tourism services that made tourism easier and more accessible to more people. Cook was a bookseller and a Baptist preacher who got his start by organizing a train trip for 570 people to attend a temperance meeting in 1841 England. With the success of this trip, he began to organize excursions for other groups, which quickly evolved into organizing low-cost pleasure trips primarily utilizing rail transport and the growing accommodation industry. Within a few years, Cook’s Tours had opened up new opportunities for tourism among the working classes, as well as for females traveling without male companions. Travel by rail was quick, cheap, and generally considered safe. All aspects of the trip were preplanned by the company. The tourists did not have to know anyone at the destination, and they did not have to worry about whether the accommodations would be suitable.
Based on the existing popularity of seaside resorts, they were one of the key destinations for Cook’s Tours. However, preferences were changing, and demands for new experiences were arising. Cook’s Tours were responsive to these demands and consistently offered trips to destinations that were becoming popular, such as England’s Lake District. In addition, his tours helped create new destinations not only in England but also in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. These destinations were quickly followed by Continental tours. By the middle of the 1850s, Cook was organizing tours in France and Germany, followed by Switzerland and Italy. Thus, a new generation and a new class of tourists could experience many of the same places as the Grand Tour, albeit on a far more compressed time frame and with ever more of the comforts of home.
Thomas Cook was the innovator, but his company was soon joined by others providing similar types of experiences. However, a century later, Thomas Cook & Sons Ltd. remained at the forefront of organized mass tourism when the company launched a new type of packaged trip: instead of traveling by chartered rail transport, this trip was based on chartered air transport. The company began with trips from Britain to Corsica and continued to expand into new destinations.
Discussion topic: What do you think was the most significant development of Cook’s Tours in the evolution of modern tourism, and why?
During this same period in the nineteenth century, Europeans also began to extend their reach into new regions. British travelers had already visited parts of Asia and Africa, but these experiences were typically framed as travel or exploration rather than tourism. However, European tourists increasingly visited the newly independent countries of North America and the colonies of the West Indies for pleasure. Transatlantic travel had become safer following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, as well as easier and faster with the development of steamships. These destination areas had replicated many of the institutions and patterns of life at home, and, for the most part, hostile native populations had already been eliminated. Moreover, landscapes that were far different than anything these tourists would have encountered in Europe provided a distinct attraction. Some of the remaining concerns about transatlantic travel were the hazards of tropical storms and the fear of diseases such as yellow fever and malaria.
Some critics have considered the large numbers of British tourists arriving in other parts of the world a new form of colonialism. Soon after the arrival of the first tourists at a destination, their numbers steadily increased. On one hand, this had the positive effect of creating a demand for new businesses to cater to the needs of these tourists. On the other hand, local residents and even other tourist groups complained about negative effects ranging from increased use of the English language to higher costs of living.
International tourism continued to grow steadily until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. During the interwar period, there was still considerable geopolitical uncertainty that created some unfavorable conditions for travel. In Europe, boundaries were redrawn and disputed, the transportation network was fragmented, food and fuel were in short supply, and rumors abounded of places that were unsafe. All of these factors had the potential to create problems for tourists. Then, the outbreak of World War II effectively put an end to pleasure travel once more. By the time the war was over, the pent-up demand for international travel was released and tourism grew to ever greater proportions. Air travel had been improved by th
e war and could now be used for mass passenger transport. Particularly as the price of air travel came down, destinations around the world were suddenly far more accessible (figure 4.2). As of 1948, there were an estimated 14 million international tourists. By 1965, that number had grown to 144 million.3
This tourist boom lasted until the 1970s. At that time, the Middle Eastern oil crisis that brought fuel shortages and increased prices, followed by a global recession, caused a sharp decline in tourism. However, once global economic conditions stabilized, tourist numbers not only recovered but continued to grow. The terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, caused another decline. Although tourism began to increase once more, the industry was further affected by the global recession that started in 2007.
Figure 4.2. By the 1970s, international air transport was becoming increasingly accessible, allowing more people to travel than ever before. This group of international tourists is preparing to board a plane in Columbus, Ohio, for a European tour in 1971. (Source: Carolyn Nelson)
Scenic Tourism
There is one final development during the same time period that contributed to changes in patterns of travel and tourism. From the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, artistic and literary movements helped change attitudes toward the natural environment. In particular, concepts such as the sublime, picturesque, and romantic allowed people to see and appreciate landscapes in new ways. These changing attitudes helped create a demand for new types of tourism experiences in new destinations. People began to seek out natural landscape scenery, which became an increasingly important component of tourism experiences. This resulted in a shift away from the cultural centers of the Grand Tour to less explored destinations with natural beauty.
The concept of the sublime created a demand for new types of destinations, at first in Britain but also throughout Europe, North America, and various colonial territories. These were places that previously might have been seen as hazardous and experienced with feelings of fear, but now they could be interpreted with awe or delight—so long as such scenes were observed from a safe distance. For example, the Alps, which had long been considered a dangerous barrier to travel between Northern and Southern Europe, could be seen in a new light under the sublime. However, it would still take time for ideas to evolve and the infrastructure to develop before tourism experiences in the Alps could be appreciated.
The concept of the picturesque is most closely associated with tourism. Upper- and middle-class tourists were encouraged to travel in search of appropriate natural scenery and appreciate it in accordance with the specific framework laid out by Gilpin. This picturesque tourism dictated what types of places made for suitable destinations and taught tourists how to experience these places. For example, the Wye Tour in the border region between England and Wales became popular with picturesque tourists based on Gilpin’s Observations on the River Wye and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty: Made in the Summer of the Year 1770 (1782). These tourists would then “capture” the landscape by describing it in writing and sketching or painting the scene.
Box 4.2. Terminology: Aesthetic Landscape Concepts
With the rise in popularity of landscape painting, people began to look at landscapes in new ways. Writers attempted to classify landscapes and instruct others in how to appreciate them. Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757) was one of the most influential works. According to Burke, beautiful landscapes were soft, smooth, and harmonious; often associated with scenes of domesticity; and the experience of these landscapes was typically reassuring and pleasurable. In contrast, sublime landscapes were rugged, vast, and dark places. Although such scenes were likely to induce anxiety or fear, they could also be thrilling—when experienced from a safe distance. Following Burke’s example, Reverend William Gilpin wrote a series of essays, including Essay on Prints (1768). According to Gilpin, picturesque landscapes had a rough, varied, or irregular quality, giving them an interesting character that could be observed and effectively illustrated in painting.
By the turn of the nineteenth century, the Romantic Movement began to emerge among intellectuals, writers, and artists as a reaction to the changes that had come with industrialization. For them, romantic landscapes were wild and untouched by humans. They were places in which people could reclaim something that had been lost in the modern world—but it was no longer enough to simply observe landscapes from a distance. People were encouraged to immerse themselves in nature for a personal connection that would refresh mind, body, and soul.
Discussion topic: Identify tourism attractions that could be classified as beautiful, as sublime, as picturesque, and as romantic. Explain your choices.
Some of the greatest changes in travel patterns came with the Romantic Movement. Romanticism has been considered as important as any economic, political, or demographic changes in shaping the development of tourism, first in England but throughout the world as well.4 In reaction against rapid industrialization and urbanization, travel and tourism experiences came to be seen as a key means of escaping society and modern life. In particular, travel to natural places was seen as wholesome, authentic, and inspiring. These ideas were popularized by the writings of English poets like William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats, as well as American authors like Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Henry David Thoreau. The places these authors described were also depicted by English painters such as John Constable and those of the American Hudson River School, especially Thomas Cole. All of these created an idea and an image of new places (e.g., the English Lake District and the Hudson River Valley) that people wanted to experience for themselves, creating a demand for new types of tourism experiences.
Whereas picturesque tourism was goal oriented in finding appropriate vistas to record, romantic tourism taught people to enjoy the experience. In the eighteenth century, walking was something that the upper classes didn’t do, because they had other modes of transport available to them. However, in the nineteenth-century Romantic era, walking came to be seen as a way of immersing oneself in nature. More and more people took to walking, hiking, and roving the countryside. Yet, there were still some barriers to these activities, not the least of which was getting lost. This was especially a hazard for tourists who were unfamiliar with the territory. Consequently, a new infrastructure had to be developed to meet the demand for these experiences. For example, in the 1830s, Claude François Denecourt marked the trees in Fontainebleau Forest, near Paris, with painted arrows that directed visitors along paths that highlighted the most interesting sights. Thus, a place that would have been impractical, and perhaps dangerous, for urban and foreign visitors could now be experienced with pleasure and without fear.5
Throughout the nineteenth century, the ideas of Romanticism were transported around the world, which reshaped tourism. The Alps, for example, became a destination in their own right, not just to see but to experience. The classical continental route of the Grand Tour was adjusted to accommodate this new demand, and new resorts were developed in Switzerland, Austria, and parts of Italy and France. This demand for romantic mountain scenery was extended to other mountainous regions as well.
American Tourism
In many respects, the American experience parallels the British one. The American upper classes sought to emulate their European counterparts, and intellectual and artistic ideas were often transferred across the Atlantic. However, American tourism soon took on a life of its own, and by the twentieth century, new patterns emerged in the United States that would influence tourism development in other parts of the world.
Travel and tourism were relatively slow to develop in North America. Through the first decade of the nineteenth century, tourism had little place in the United States. The newly independent country lacked an aristocratic class that did not work and had sufficient leisure time to be able to undertake long
journeys for pleasure. Unlike Europe, which had a history of organized transportation routes, the United States had to develop a national transportation infrastructure. Until this infrastructure could be established, travel was difficult and undertaken only as necessary. In addition, it would take time for Americans to think of their own places in terms of tourism. America was a young nation that many believed lacked history and culture, which were the types of attractions that had long been fashionable in Europe. Following British tradition, physicians recommended European spas for health tourism, and the wealthiest citizens were able to join in the classical Grand Tour.
By the 1820s, however, tourism had reached America, and those who could afford to travel did so. This was based on an increase in available leisure time and a desire for leisure activities, as well as an ever expanding transportation infrastructure. At the same time, Americans were beginning to experience the same changes in attitudes toward the natural environment that had already influenced tourism development in Britain. Throughout the history of Euro-American colonization of the continent, the wilderness had been viewed as a dangerous place to be subdued by eliminating predators, cutting down the forest, cultivating fields, and building towns. The idea that nature could be anything else was hard for Americans to accept. The concept of the sublime came to the region in the early nineteenth century, but it was the compromise position of the picturesque, and the associated artistic movements such as the Hudson River School, that really helped Americans see their environment in new ways.
An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism Page 12
