| Tourists
at the Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy.
Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with Jesus
Christ the Redeemer statue
The Nueve de Julio Avenue, the world's widest street,
in Buenos Aires, Argentina.The pioneer of modern mass
tourism was Thomas Cook who, on 5 July 1841, organized
the first package tour in history. He arranged for the
rail company to charge one shilling per person for a
group of 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester to
a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. Cook was
paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers,
as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between
company and passenger, could not have been issued at
his own price. There had been railway excursions before,
but this one included entrance to an entertainment held
in private grounds, rail tickets and food for the train
journey. Cook immediately saw the potential of a convenient
'off the peg' holiday product in which everything was
included in one cost. He organised packages inclusive
of accommodation for the Great Exhibition, and afterwards
pioneered package holidays in both Britain (particularly
in Scotland) and on the European continent (where Paris
and the Alps were the most popular destinations).
He was soon followed by
others (the Polytechnic Touring Association, Dean and
Dawson etc.), with the result that the tourist industry
developed rapidly in late Victorian Britain. Initially
it was supported by the growing middle classes, who
had time off from their work, and who could afford the
luxury of travel and possibly even staying for periods
of time in boarding houses.
The Bank Holidays Act
1871 introduced a statutory right for workers to take
holidays, even if they were not paid at the time. By
the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the tradition
of the working class holiday had become firmly established
in Britain. These were largely focussed upon the seaside
resorts.
The spread of the railway
network in the nineteenth century resulted in the growth
of Britain's seaside towns by bringing them within easy
distance of Britain's urban centres. Blackpool was created
by the construction of a line to Fleetwood, and some
resorts were promoted by the railway companies themselves
- Morecambe by the Midland Railway and Cleethorpes by
the Great Central Railway. Other resorts included Scarborough
in Yorkshire, servicing Leeds and Bradford; Weston-super-Mare
in Somerset, catering for the inhabitants of Bristol;
and Skegness, patronised by the residents of the industrial
East Midlands. The cockneys of London flocked to Southend-on-Sea,
mainly by Thames Steamer, and the South Coast resorts
such as Broadstairs, Brighton, and Eastbourne were only
a train ride away, with others further afield such as
Bournemouth, Bognor Regis and Weymouth.
For a century, domestic
tourism was the norm, with foreign travel being reserved
for the rich or the culturally curious. A number of
inland destinations, such as the English Lake District,
and Snowdonia appealed to those who liked the countryside
and fine scenery. The holiday camp began to appear in
the 1930s, but this phenomenon really expanded in the
post-war period. Butlins and Pontins set this trend,
but their popularity waned with the rise of overseas
package tours and the increasing comforts to which visitors
became accustomed at home. Towards the end of the 20th
century this market has been revived by the upmarket
inland resorts of Dutch company Center Parcs.
Cox & Co, the forebear
of Cox & Kings were in existence from 1758 largely
entwined with the travel arrangements for the British
Army serving around the Empire. While acting as 'agents'
for various regiments, they organised the payment, provision,
clothing and travel arrangements for members of the
armed forces. In the 19th century their network of offices
contained a banking and also travel department. The
company became heavily involved with affairs in India
and its Shipping Agency had offices in France and the
Middle East.
Other phenomena that helped
develop the travel industry were paid holidays:
1.5 million manual workers
in Britain had paid holidays by 1925
11 million by 1939 (30% of the population in families
with paid holidays) |
