1
A HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF TOURISM
This chapter will:
- describe patterns of contemporary tourism;
- give a historical account of tourism;
- consider how tourism can be thought of as a system;
- analyse the social and economic changes in place that have transformed society from a largely static one to a mobile one;
- emphasise the role of the Industrial Revolution in the development of mass participation in tourism.
Introduction
Figure 1.1, taken in Cannes in the south of France, represents the type of view that most people would probably associate with tourism. Yet, if we were to analyse the photograph more deeply, we could begin to ask a range of questions. For example, these could include: why is a central focus of the photograph based upon one person?; where do the people on the beach come from?; why do they choose to spend their time in this type of surroundings?; what are their personal motivations for behaving this way?; how do they interact with each other?; how does their presence impact upon the local economy?; what are the consequences of their behaviour upon the nature and local culture of the area?; and how does this experience influence their perceptions of life in their home societies?
To attempt to begin to find the answers to these questions it is necessary to treat tourism as a subject for academic inquiry. As the term âtourismâ has become increasingly omnipresent in the global vernacular, it has brought with it economic, social, cultural and environmental changes, emphasising the requirement for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon of contemporary society. However, while increased participation in tourism has been encouraged by rising material standards of living, media exposure, a mature tourism industry and the desire of people to visit different places away from their home environment, the majority of the worldâs people remain excluded from participating in tourism, certainly in its popular western connotation as holiday or vacation time free from the regular routines of work and home.
Figure 1.1 Focusing on tourism; Cannes in the south of France.
Nevertheless, the increase in the rate of participation in tourism since the 1950s has been dramatic as is shown in Figure 1.2. In 1950 there were approximately 25 million international arrivals recorded in the world compared to over 700 million in 2003, and by 2020 it is forecast that this number will have risen to over 1,600 million (WTO, 2003a). However, tourism is not just about the movement of people between countries, it also involves the movement of people between places within countries, referred to as âdomestic tourismâ. Although a global estimate of the amount of domestic tourism is difficult to attain, its volume is likely to greatly exceed that of international tourism.
While the number of people participating in tourism may be rapidly growing, the spatial distribution of tourism around the world is not uniform. Figure 1.3 shows the distribution of international tourist arrivals by geographic region.
The dominance of Europe as a destination for tourism is evident, accounting for over half of all international arrivals. A range of interacting factors explains this pattern, which will be expanded upon in this chapter. These include the effects of the Industrial Revolution and economic development; historically high standards of living compared to other countries of the world with the exception of North America and Australasia; the political geography of Europe comprising of geographically small nation states; the freedom and ease of movement as a consequence of the creation of the European Union; a highly developed air, road and rail structure that facilitates international travel; and the comparatively early development of a tourism industry.
Figure 1.2 Actual and forecast international tourist arrivals from 1950 to 2020 (data source: WTO, 2003b; WTO, 2004a).
Figure 1.3 International tourist arrivals by region (actual and forecast) (data source: WTO, 2003).
As the WTO (2003c) point out, tourism flows are unevenly distributed between various regions of the world, with Europe, North and South East Asia, and North America accounting for an overwhelming proportion of both supply and demand. Around 58 per cent of all international arrivals take place in Europe, 16 per cent in North and South East Asia and around 12 per cent in America, representing almost 9 out of 10 international arrivals. Most of this international travel takes place intra-regionally, with approximately 87 per cent of all international arrivals in Europe originating from Europe itself; the corresponding figure for the Asia-Pacific region being 77 per cent; and the Americas being 71 per cent (WTO, ibid.).
Expressed in terms of the flows of tourists, there are six major patterns that account for nearly a quarter of all international tourist arrivals. Ranked in terms of the approximate numbers of arrivals, these are: (1) Northern Europe to the Mediterranean (120 million); (2) North America to Europe (23 million); (3) Europe to North America (15 million); (4) North East Asia to South East Asia (10 million); (4) North East Asia to North America (8 million); and (5) North America to the Caribbean (8 million) (WTO, ibid.).
A critical factor to explain the flows of tourism between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, and between North America and the Caribbean, is the attractiveness of the climate of these destination regions. As Williams (1997) points out, it is the summer beach and the sunshine holiday that have propelled the Mediterranean into pole position in world tourism. The flow from North East Asia to South East Asia also has a large sun, sea and sand component, although business travel and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) are additional key components of this market (WTO, 2003c). Similarly, the flows of travel between Europe and North America, and between North East Asia and North America, encompass a variety of types of traveller.
In terms of the demand for tourism, the importance of economic development for generating tourism is emphasised by consideration of the expenditure upon tourism by individual countries, as is shown in Table 1.1. Ranked in order based upon total expenditure for 2002 and 1990, two trends are evident. The first being the dominance of economically advanced countries in the top six places; the second being the growing prominence of those countries with rapidly expanding economies, notably China and to a lesser extent the Russian Federation. In 1990 China was ranked only fortieth in terms of tourism expenditure; by 2002 it had risen to seventh place. Influential factors in this increased expenditure on tourism are the rapid economic growth in China during the last decade and also moves to reduce the political restrictions on foreign travel. Similarly, the Russian Federation has moved from twenty-third position in 1990 to tenth in 2002. The opening of the Russian economy to market forces and the lifting of restrictions on travel after the collapse of communism in 1991 are major factors to explain this growth in expenditure on international tourism.
Through considering spatial patterns of contemporary tourism it is perhaps becoming evident that where people go to and why they choose to go there is not determined by chance. Already the influence of levels of economic development and climate on patterns of tourism has been noted. However, these are far from being the only factors that shape patterns of contemporary tourism.
The emphasis of this chapter is subsequently to explain how contemporary patterns of tourism have emerged over time. To aid this exploration, a synergy is made between the disciplines of geography and history, as there is a traditional link between the two, with historians having studied particular time periods and geographers particular places (Johnston, 2003). Both offer exploratory accounts of places and periods through a synthesis of available material, and therefore a historical geography of tourism will enable a better understanding of the factors that have and continue to influence patterns of tourism.
Table 1.1 Worldâs top spenders on international tourism in 2002 and 1990 (sources: WTO, 1998; WTO, 2004b).
Think point
Which countries have you travelled to? How do your experiences of travel and tourism compare to your parents and grandparents experiences of travel and tourism when they were your age?
Thinking of tourism as a system
When thinking of tourism at its most simplistic level it involves a spatial separation between âhomeâ and âawayâ and travel between these two zones. Yet this seemingly simple act carries with it a range of requirements and consequences, in terms of the services required to meet the needs of tourists and the impacts tourists have upon places. These characteristics are illustrated by the following definition of tourism from Jafari (1977: 8) as: âa study of man away from his usual habitat, of the industry which responds to his needs, and the impact that both he and the industry have on the socio-cultural, economic, and physical environmentsâ. Similarly, Mathieson and Wall (1982: 1) comment:
The study of tourism is the study of people away from their usual habitat, of the establishments which respond to the requirements of travellers, and of the impacts that they have on the economic, physical and social well-being of their hosts.
Emphasising the importance of the concept of place in tourism, Pearce (1995: 20) suggests:
Tourism is essentially about people and places, the places that one group of people leave, visit and pass through, the other groups who make their trip possible and those that they encounter along the way. In a more technical sense, tourism may be thought of as the relationships and phenomena arising out of the journeys and temporary stays of people travelling primarily for leave or recreational purposes.
It can also be added to this definition that besides travel for recreational purposes, as has already been referred to in the context of major tourist flows, other types of tourism include: business; visiting friends and relatives; and religious pilgrimage.
The theme of the connections between places is also emphasised in Tribeâs (1997: 64) definition of tourism as: âThe sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the interaction in generating and host regions, of tourists, business suppliers, governments, communities, and environments.â Both these latter definitions of Pearce and Tribe, unlike the previous two, emphasise the generating regions or the home societies of tourists as an integral part of the analysis of tourism. Tribe (1997) also suggests a number of other areas that are important in moving towards an understanding of tourism, including issues of tourist motivation and choice; host community perceptions of tourism; economic, cultural and ecological impacts; the measurement of tourism; and policy and planning.
This latter definition also indicates the wide variety of groups that have an interest in tourism, including the tourist; local communities; governments; and the tourism industry, all of whom may be referred to as the âstakeholdersâ in tourism in the sense of seeking various benefits from being involved with it. Subsequently, it is apparent that tourism would seem to involve more than just the solitary act of travelling. By travelling a variety of requirements are generated, including at a most basic level a requirement for transport and accommodation, while a range of economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts are also generated.
Instead of thinking about tourism as something that exists externally to the individual, an alternative way to think about it is how the individual constructs and gives meaning to it. Such an experiential definition of tourism is given by Franklin (2003: 33) who defines tourism as: âan attitude to the world or a way of seeing the world, not necessarily what we find only at the end of a long and arduous journeyâ. In this definition emphasis is subsequently placed upon individuals constructing their own meaning of tourism instead of it existing as a defined or real entity.
One approach to understanding tourism that attempts to encompass these different elements is to think of it as a system. Towner (1996) suggests that by thinking of tourism as a system we can interpret it as being dynamic, open to change and continuity, and that it can be viewed to operate on any spatial scale. This is the approach that is favoured in this book, not least because it allows for a holistic interpretation of tourism, utilising various social science perspectives. Page (1995) adds that the advantage of a systems approach is that it allows the complexity of the real-life situation to be accounted for in a simple model, demonstrating the inter-linkages of all the different elements. One way of visualising the inter-linkages of tourism is to think of it as a spiderâs web, with each part inter-connected to each other, so that by touching one part ripple effects are felt throughout the system (Mill and Morrison, 1992). Importantly, this necessitates a need for responsiveness in a specific part of the system to changes in another part (Mill and Morrison, 2002). A suggested model of the tourism system and its relationship with the social sciences is shown in Figure 1.4.
Figure 1.4 The tourism system and the social sciences.
This model attempts to integrate both a historical and dynamic perspective into the explanation of the tourism system by emphasising the changing political, economic, social and technological processes and patterns in societies that influence tourism. It emphasises that although the demand for tourism may be viewed as a consequence of changes in generating societies, it also brings changes to the societies of destinations that tourists visit. These economic, environmental, cultural and social changes are shown on the right-hand side of the model and are commonly collectively referred to as âimpactâ issues in the tourism literature. These impacts may also be experienced in the societies where tourists come from, for example tourists have various types of experiences when visiting destination areas, the memories of which they carry back with them and reflect upon after their return home. Consequently, tourism has the potential to influence peopleâs attitudes towards their own societies.
Similarly, the economic impact of expenditure on tourism is not restricted solely to destinations, as the use of tourism industry suppliers such as airlines and tour operators also generates extra economic demand and employment in the home societies of tourists, while tourist expenditure economically influences a countryâs balance of payments as is discussed in Chapter 4. Environmental impacts are also caused in generating regions, for example through the construction of airports, and associated increased levels of vehicle and air traffic. Increasingly societies in the world have the characteristics of what Pearce (1995) refers to as âreciprocityâ, having functions as both tourism generating and receiving areas. Tourism can subsequently be viewed as a complex and dynamic system, involving reciprocity by bringing changes to places where tourists both go to and come from.
The degree of change attributable to tourism in a particular place will depend upon its economic and social characteristics. Tourism destinations vary considerably in their characteristics, for example cosmopolitan cities or indigenous villages with little contact with other cultures may become tourism destinations. It is also important to remember that tourism is just one factor of change in an era of âglobalisationâ in which closer economic dependencies between nations, electronic media and information technology are also major determinants of social change.
The vital link in terms of facilitating travel between places is the tourism industry. Without the travel services provided by airline, railway, passenger ship and coach companies, the patterns of contemporary tourism would be very different. Suppliers of accommodation ranging in scale of provision from large multinational hotel chains such as Sheraton to individual family-run lodgings are also essential for tourism. We need to think, too, of some of the other services required by the typical tourist such as restaurants and other types of food and beverage outlets; souvenir shops and retail outlets; and amusement and theme parks; to begin to comprehend the diverse range of services provided by what may be loosely termed the âtourism industryâ.
Integral to the model shown in Figure 1.4 is an emphasis upon the human dimension of the tourism system. In both tourism generating and destination areas, people are a key focus of the system. To understand t...
