The Growth of Modern Tourism

The Growth of Modern Tourism

Introduction

This essay aims to highlight the main political, economic, social and technological factors, which have aided in the growth of modern tourism from 1945 to the present day. It will also aim to show which of these has been the most important in the aiding and why.

Definition of Tourism

"The derivation of the word "tourism" originated from a combination of the Latin tornare and the Greek tornos, which mean a lathe or circle. In modern English, with the suffix -ism (an action or process), the meaning of the word tourism became the action of movement in a circle. We can imagine a round-trip from this meaning: one leaves home for a particular destination, then returns home again. Likewise, by adding the suffix -IST (a person who performs an action), we can derive the word "tourist", the person who takes such a trip.

Although the general meaning of the word tourism is known by all, defining tourism precisely is not an easy task. Many scholars have tried to define it, but the meaning changed according to the times, and different people use the word differently. However, in order to acquire comparable statistical data and to research tourism as a field of study, a universal standard definition is necessary. Hence, the International Conference on Travel and Tourism Statistics, sponsored by the World Tourism Organization and Tourism Canada, was held in Ottawa in June 1991. This conference recommended that the definition of tourism be as follows:

The activities of a person travelling to a place outside his or her usual environment for less than a specified period of time and whose main purpose of travel is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited " (www2.hawaii.edu)

Political Factors

After the 2nd world war finished in 1945, people started to become more open minded and wanted to travel. Soldiers wanted to return to parts of the world they had seen when at war. People became more curious of what's going on in the world and this started the great expansion of tourism post world war 2. With no world war anymore, people were not afraid to move around the countries although at first it was to be very expensive and only the wealthy could afford to begin with.

Government policy affects the way things are run within its control, and it wasn't until 1969 that British government introduced the "Development of Tourism Act" this act "established a new framework for public sector tourism, which took into account the industry's growing importance to the British economy.