Cultural Tourism as It Developed from the Time of the Grand Tour - Essay Example

? Cultural tourism as it developed from the time of the ‘Grand Tour’ Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Grand Tour 2 The Geography of Travel 4 Culture Tourism 5 Conclusion 7 Bibliography 8 Cultural tourism as it developed from the time of the ‘Grand Tour’ Introduction The concept of cultural tourism can be traced back to the emergence of a middle class that formed the elite who desired to travel to other cultures in order to establish a world view. As cultural travel progressed, the idea of the imaginative or the exotic as the result of seeking out other cultures began to gain prominence so that the travellers were finding themselves in the middle of an experience. Modern travel has changed dramatically in the way in which the problem of geography is solved. Technology has been an important aspect of modern travel, the trains, planes, and automobiles that transport the traveller from one place to another an important part of facilitating travel. Cultural tourism has developed through the interest that has developed about certain areas of the world in which local offerings through culture, education, or merely through fun have supported an economic advantage to grow around a specific set of areas of interest. The Grand Tour The concept of the ‘Grand Tour’ was based upon 16th and 17th century educational tours that emerged in England and Ireland after the Reformation when Catholic pilgrimages were no longer possible under the new structures of religion that had become the Church of England. Britain is one of the first countries to establish a culture which can be observed for practices of tourism (Williams By the 18th century the travel experiences were referred to as the ‘Grand Tour’, a phrase that was first seen in a travel guide published in 1679 by Richard Lassel titled An Italian Voyage. The ‘Grand Tour’ lasted for several years, allowing for the beginnings of a career to take shape so that the traveller would begin to develop a world view from the experiences of the travel plan. This concept was a part of the education of English aristocratic culture. The result of the tours was a literary body of work in the form of travel guides that provided a framework of discovery for those who would follow on these types of travel experiences (Katz1998, p. 253-254). The Grand Tour was primarily a pursuit of the English, which was an experience that provides a contextual relationship to the beginnings of the modern period in the 18th century (Roberts 1998, p. 31). Travel in previous contexts had been based upon the unknown, explorations that would result in economic and cultural advantages that could include military and ambassadorial advantages for political purposes. Travel also occurred for the purposes of relocation, but travel for the idea of educational experience and as a part of an extended leisure activity emerged during the time of the growth of travel guides and the emergence of a middle class that had the time and the means to pursue travel simply for the pursuit of experience (Roberts 1998, p. 31). As the middle class began to take on the ‘Grand Tour’, the educational purpose of the tour began to diminish. During the 1780s a shift in the purpose for the tour began to become noticeable as the purpose of leisure began to emerge. According to Richards (1996, p. 12) “The spatial pattern of the Grand Tour also changed , from the ‘Classical Grand Tour’ which concentrated on the culture of the ancient classical world and the Renaissance, to the ‘Romantic Grand Tour’ with more attention devoted to romantic views of urban and rural scenery”. The shift can be representative of an elite middle class that was bored with educational based experiences and began to search for distractions that were less cerebral, looking for exotic and imaginative experimentation (Richards 1996, p. 12). The Geography of Travel Travel requires the element of geography, the search for interesting and foreign locals based upon the idea that there is a starting point and a destination. Holden (2005, p. 11) describes this simply as “a spatial separation between ‘home’ and ‘away’”. What developed during the time of the Grand Tour and has continued to develop since that time is the facilitation of travel through transportation and accommodations. Holden (2005, p. 11) quotes Mathieson and Wall from 1980 as describing the act of tourism as “relationships and phenomenon arising out of the journeys and temporary stays of people travelling primarily for leave or recreational purposes”. One of the prevailing themes of tourism is the connectivity between locations as the culture of the individual travelling collides with the culture to which they have travelled (Holden 2005, p. 12). In examining how value is ascribed to the environment and how the tourists perceive the value of specific locations, such as the country or the seaside resort areas, changes in the locations for travel have been observed since travel for leisure came into popularity. Williams (2009, p. 27) lists four reasons that the patterns of travel have changed over the course of time. The first reason for the changes in patterns is that travel was once dangerous and uncomfortable; therefore tourism would be blighted by the uncomfortable nature of getting from point A to point B. The second reason is that the middle class was emancipated from the drudgery of a life that was limited by space and location. As capitalism emerged and the average wage brought home by the average earner rose, the masses could participate in leisure travel. The third reason is that comfortable and affordable means of travel have become a part of the travel industry. The final reason is that organisational systems and infrastructure has developed to the point that tourism is easily accomplished by the traveller. Culture Tourism The concept of cultural tourism is founded on the principle that homogeny through understanding other cultures will occur if experience brings cultures together so that they can know about each other, respect each other and hopefully understanding each other. Through this homogeny comes a harmony of cultures living together peacefully rather than being antagonistic against cultures that represent the unknown (Boniface1995, p. 3). This principle has remained one of the driving forces behind travel since the time of the ‘Grand Tour’. The foundation of tourism, however, has become based upon a world which functions primarily on travel, thus technology is a primary resource in developing modern travel. Where the travel experiences of previous decades, even centuries, have framed the nature of tourism through holistic and humanistic approaches, the primary resource that facilitates modern travel is that of technology. The purpose of cultural tourism is to provide for the visitor an experience in which they have discovered something of value about the culture in which they have spent time. Time is the investment that a tourist makes. Even though they do spend money on the experience, it is time that they offer in exchange for an experience that will enrich their lives. If the experience does not live up to the expectations of the traveller, then the investment has not yielded a high enough return. Experience, however, is not the only value of the experience of travel. According to Moufakkir and Burns (2012, p. 7), the idea of leisure can be defined by notions of perceived freedom and intrinsic motivation. The perception of freedom, whether freedom has been effectively achieved or the tourist is actually at the mercy of a contrived experience, is essential in a successful tourism experience. If the tourist believes they are free to experience the world they have stepped into then they have achieved one of the goals of the tourist experience. Williams (2009, p. 28) suggests that tourism has developed in various locations through several stages. The first stage is the exploratory stage in which tourists come to the area and explore the potential. The second stage is the involvement stage in which economic triggers encourage the building of appropriate facilities to accommodate the needs of travellers. During the development stage investors begin to create and take advantage of opportunities. At the consolidation phase, tourism has become an integral part of the local economy. At the stagnation stage, the growth of tourism has reached its peak and has used up its potential, whether or not the attraction has begun to suffer from lack of attendance. The development of a tourism location is an important aspect of the local economy, thus the advantages of human behavioural knowledge and that of the psychology of moving and motivating a crowd are often used to control the ‘freedom’ that an individual will have perceived themselves to have gained from the act of travel. Modern travel has become based upon sophisticated models of motivation and movement in regard to human behaviour, in order to keep people at the location and create good traffic flow (Singh 2008, p. 253). In addition, one of the primary differences between modern travel and earlier events of travel is that the geographical locations are dependent upon the economy of travel (Urry 2001, p. 38). Conclusion The nature of cultural tourism is that it is based upon the idea of an individual of one culture becoming familiar with a foreign culture through knowing, respecting, and understanding a culture that could be determined to embody ‘otherness’. The development of cultural tourism can be traced back to the 17th century in which the changes in religion disallowed the religious pilgrimages that had been taken in early time periods. The emergence of the ‘Grand Tour’ allowed for the idea of tourism to take hold, the concept of travel for the sake of the experience emerging as a valued commodity. With the rise of the middle class, the nature of leisure time increased and the purposes of a tourist event become more oriented towards emerging technologies that would facilitate travel. Bibliography Boniface, Priscilla. 1995. Managing quality cultural tourism. London: Routledge. Holden, Andrew. 2005. Tourism studies and the social sciences. Abingdon: Routledge. Katz, William A. 1998. Cuneiform to computer: a history of reference sources. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press. Moufakkir, Omar, and Peter Burns. 2012. Controversies in tourism. Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CABI. Richards, Greg. 1996. Cultural tourism in Europe. Wallingford: CAB Internet Roberts, Benjamin. 1998. Through the keyhole: Dutch child-rearing practices of the 17th in 18th centuries. Amsterdam: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Singh, L. K. 2008. Fundamental of tourism and travel. Delhi: Isha Books. Urry, John. 2001. The tourist gaze. London: SAGE. Williams, Stephen. 2009. Tourism geography: A new synthesis. Abingdon: Routledge. Read More