Urban Rural Cultural Tourism

November 12, 2014

Development of Tourism Industry

Introduction

Introduction of the modern tourism began in the mid 19th Century, in which lead to
Contemporary Tourism Era. Through out the history tourism can be traced back to 600BC
and even further more. Although during those Eras, Tourism was scares and it was not known
among the common communities, however tourism was known as a service provided by
Royals / Wealthy people to other Upper Class people. This was due to the standards of
living and the cost of traveling and the time it took to travel. The major turns of events for the
Tourism Industry was witnessed during the urban development age ; i.e The Industrial Age.
In the context of the history of tourism, the term "introductory phase" refers to all the
developments, structures and innovations of modern tourism between the first third of the
19th century and around 1950(Ueli Gyr, 2003 p.04). During this period the rail roads where
developed through out the Europe. This lead to a much faster and affordable mode of
transportation even for the upper class and the middle class. With these developmental
changes the communities improved with social and labour rights. Communities experienced
real growth and income standards improved resulting consumer demand for such leisure
activities.
The real Boom in the industry is traced back to one Entrepreneurs innovation.
Thomas Cook (1808-1892) , a brilliant entrepreneur from England, is seen as their inventor
and thus the pioneer of commercialised mass tourism (Ueli Gyr, 2003 p.04). He introduced
the first all -inclusive holiday, provided with transportation, accommodation, meals and brass
music. Later offered guided holidays abroad, example to Switzerland. These where the brief
stepping stones of tourism industry, from the roman emperors visiting the sphinx to the first
all inclusive tours affordable for the middle class.
The Expansion and Globalisation of the Tourism Industry could be accumulated in to
post-war period to present day. The growth was slow during the first post-war years all
though it slowly picked up with the commercialisation of Aeroplanes and in the late 90s
introduction of easyJet prompted a lot of budget tours and many tour operators picked up
the new business and along the way up until today the contribution in globalisation of the
industry is growing rapidly. These new events created Global Investors where most european
companies would invest in to developing countries and open tourism routes to the untaped
destinations to cater the different types of markets.

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Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of these changes in the industry are tremendous. there are seven major
advantages which can be highlighted. Opportunities, Environmental, Social, Diversification,
Infrastructure, Employment and Increased Spending Community. Throughout the
Developmental stages of the industry it created a lot of Job opportunities. Not only in the
Tourism industry, among all the external forces effecting the industry such as the
infrastructural job opportunities constructions, transportations, raw material suppliers and
etc. This result in leading to the spending power of the local communities to grow drastically.
Which not only benefited the tourist facilities, as the tourist spend to cater other basic human
requirement which leads to more money earned by the local communities. Tourism
development help the economy diversify it self bringing in new services such as insurance
policies for the local business these type of services help reduce the financial pressure
specially in a community focused in single Industry. Example; The Republic of Maldives
which the Tourism industry plays the major role in the country growth. This intern help the
country to preserve the culture. It can be a source of pride for local communities, and
allows them to look at their history, and cultural heritage and develop their own community
identity (Travis, Bennet: May2014). These preserved culture gives the tourist a learning
experience in to local ways of living. This also has become a major reason why today most
heritage sights are standing in place with out being demolished for Urban developments,
Educating and enlightening the future generations. Development of tourism attracts a lot of
foreign investment in to the country leading to developments of the communities bring in
services intern originally may not be required by the local communities or the community
may be too small to accommodate or sustain such a service as a fact the tourist are the major
target market for most services. Example an International Standard Airport.

Disadvantages also

do exist in a scale where it cannot be undermined and left as it is.

Since it is a crucial component to be considered during the stages of development of tourism
in any destination as it effects the sustainability of tourism within the destination. one of the
major disadvantages is the Culture or the Heritage of a country becomes a commodity and is
extremely exploited to the extent that some loose their authenticity. In which the tourist are
sold jus a fabricated product in the sole purpose of generating income. With the mentioned
developments tourist starts to effect the local communities in cultural or lifestyle distortion,
Modernisation / Westernisation creating a world mono-culture. The most visible changes
brought to a destination is a displacement of its natural resources, such as effecting the
biodiversity of a destination when some natural settlements are uprooted to create space for
resort developments. Tourism also open different gate ways for destructive economies such as
drug trades, hustler. As a destination develops in to a fully developed tourist destination the
natural supply chain is disrupted, the products produced to cater the demands of the local
communities will be consumed by the tourist, altering the economy of scales. With in these
process the local communities develop in to a stage where the operational level jobs are no
longer filled by the locals. As the communities are more aware and achieves selfactualisation. This in-fact results in increased Expatriates to fill in the operational level jobs
creating a large foreign population with in the country. Such as most of the developing
countries face this issue as a major drawback to there development plans as the countries
economy is being spent more on salaries creating a leak in the economy which takes a large
proportion of foreign currency out of the country.
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Conclusion

The Tourism has been among people from the ancient ages. where its recorded that a
countrys wealthy would travel long distances to witness and experience other parts of the
world. As the Religious tourism existed from long time as well. Looking in to the
Development of the Tourism industry the purpose or the drive for tourist to travel have been
fairly the same from the ancient times. However the modes of transportation were invented
and introduced as the world developed after the industrial age and by innovation of allinclusive tour holiday, the idea of modern tourism was introduced. This development on how
tourism can be broaden the industry had an effect such as The Big Bang. Soon learning
new ways of marketing tours and specification of tourist types and development of
commercial planes broadened the reach of the travellers and created more demand for the
unchartered areas of the world to be exploited and tourism to be introduced. This brought
new factors for the governments to consider as the development gave promising advantages
and property to the community it also brought along the components for a destructive
economy. This helped governments to come up with proper policies to minimise the threats
that the development of tourism brought and also regulate the law which benefits the
government and growth of economies.

Example: Maldives has foreign investment policies such as when islands are given to
develop the investors are given infrastructural projects to develop such as build and running
fully equipped international standard Schools. and private medical facilities and Domestic
Airports. Creation of policies for for local employment help reduce the expatriate workers
with in the tourism industry. Given all these facts, there are still a lot of factors which would
effect the advantages and disadvantages of Developing Tourism Industry.

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Reference

Websites
1. http://www.eurocheapo.com/flights/articles/history-budget-airlines.html
[2014-11-11].
2. https://www.udemy.com/blog/advantages-of-tourism/
[2014-11-11].
3. http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/travel/tourism.htm
[2014-11-11].
4. http://www.importantindia.com/10450/essay-on-advantages-and-disadvantages-oftourism/
[2014-11-11].

Books
Gyr, Ueli: The History of Tourism: Structures on the Path to Modernity, in: European
History Online (EGO), published by the Institute of European History (IEG), Mainz
2010-12-03.
URL: http://www.ieg-ego.eu/gyru-2010-en
URN:urn:nbn:de:0159-20100921246 [2014-11-11].

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