Write an essay on the evolutionary stages of tourism growth.
Evolutionary Stages of Tourism Growth:
In general tourism is concerned with pleasure, holidays, travel and going or arriving some where. These are the motivations that make people leave their “normal” place of work and residence for short-term temporary visit to other places.
Therefore tourism as a significant social phenomena involves a temporary break with normal routine to engage with experience that contrast with everyday life. Almost all travel types the pilgrim, explorer, the monk, the merchant, the student, etc. can be cited as prototypes of the modern tourist.
With the change in time tourism has been defined differently by different scholars/organizations. According to the W.T.O., “Tourism is the movement of people away from their normal place of residence and work for a period of not less than 24 hrs. and not more than 1 year ”
According to Hunziker and Krapf, “Tourism is the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as it does not lead to permanent residence and is not connected to any earning activity
The league of Nations in 1937 recommended that tourism covers the social activity of these who travel for a period of 24 hours. or more in a country other than the one a person usually lives in. The Tourism Society of Britain proposed to clarify the concept of tourism by saying that, “Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during their stay at these destinations including day visits and excursions.
AIEST has defined this concept as, “Tourism may be defined in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home environment. It may or may not involve overnight stay away from home.”
Thus these definitions indicate that tourism has expanded in its range and scope. The concept of tourism has broadened to include all forms of phenomena of leisure activity. In past people used to visit a place either to meet relatives or for trade or for pilgrims.
But today tourism has taken the form of industry and may define mass tourism as the quest of someone who travels to see something different and is dissatisfied when he finds that things are not the same as at home. The definition reflects the orientation of global tourism and many new tourist sites are opening all over the world.
In modern times tourism has also become a status symbol and thought to be necessary to ones health and it also involves the recognition and collection of signs that represent a reality of another time and another place.
