18Th and 19th century

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, two major factors affected the development of tourism. Increased industrialisation accounted for both of them. First, the industrial revolution accelerated the movement from rural to urban areas. This produced a large number of people in a relatively small area. The desire or motivation to escape, even for a brief period, was there. Associated with this was the development of steam engines in the form of trains and steamships. This allowed the means to mobility to escape. It was into the second half of the eighteenth century before the working classes in Britain had regular holidays and sufficient income to use their leisure time to travel.

The development of spas was largely due to the members of the medical profession. During the seventeenth century, they began to recommend the medicinal properties of mineral waters. Patronage by court helped establish spas as the place to be.

The medical profession, the British court, and Napoleon all helped popularise the seaside resort. The original motive for sea bathing was reasons of health. Another reason for the growth of the seaside resort was stimulated by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Those who would have taken the Grand Tour could not travel to the Continent anymore.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the seaside resorts in Europe became the palaces for the working classes due to the introduction of paid holidays and better wages. Vacations became an issue and were negotiated between employer and workers and were again due to economic and social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

Prior to World War I, the principal mode of domestic transport was the railway. This meant that development was concentrated at particular points. Regional development occurred with particular resorts growing to serve specific urban areas. Mass production of the automobile allowed the dispersion of destination developments.

Tourism in the U.S. developed for the same reasons as in Europe.

How could the current phenomenon of global mass tourism evolve?

Mass tourism as we know it today is a post-World War II phenomenon. Women who had to work during the war felt more independent; men and women who travelled overseas to fight wanted to return as visitors; travel overseas was encouraged as part of the U.S. attempt to aid war-torn European economies. The introduction of the passenger jet reduced travel time from the U.S. to Europe form five sailing days or 24-flying hours to eight hours and surplus propeller aeroplanes were made available to charter operators to transport travellers, not troops, as airlines rushed to purchase new jet aircraft.

The sixties marked the democratisation of travel. In the U.S. the growth of the population -the baby boomers- together with the 40-hour workweek that increased numbers of three-day weekends and higher levels of disposable income, enabled large numbers of people with the time and money to indulge themselves. Travel was a right. A hedonistic attitude (pleasure for the sake of pleasure increasingly overtook the self-denial of the work ethic.

Temporarily stunned by the energy crises of the seventies and the Gulf War in the early 1990s tourism continued to grow. The late seventies and eighties saw the development of single-parent families and low-income families, together with an increased accent on individual awareness and self-improvement. For many, the indulgence was replaced by a concern for physical fitness. However, the sun sea and sand mass tourism trend increased in Europe. The Mediterranean coast locations especially in Turkey were build, more supply for the increasing demand.

Tourism today is greater in size and scope than it has ever been. Tourist arrivals increased to nearly 593 million tourist arrivals in the world (WTO, 1997). Furthermore, this tourism management course is the best proof that tourism is considered as an independent field of study. The amount of information available to us on travel and tourism destination areas is mind-boggling as the digital era moves into high gear. But tourism at the end of the 1990's is at a crossroads. The winds of change are blowing strong and the shape of tourism will be much different in the future. Some of these forces include:

• the increased concern with the world's environment;

• the shifts in economic power among the peoples of different continents;

• the globalisation of tourism;

• the deregulation and removal of barriers to travel and tourism;

• the increasing sophistication and expectations of travellers; and

• the creation of new tourism partnerships commission "capping'" and the impacts of new technologies.

The sustainable development movement has gained a strong foothold in tourism. The Internet is in the early stages of revolutionising how travel information is distributed and how trips are booked. Global partnerships of airlines are an early indicator of how the global business of tourism might be played in the future.

What is the future of tourism?

One thing is evident to many authors tourism will be different in the future. Major trends are:

• The relative power of different origin markets for international tourism is shifting more toward the Asia-Pacific, and people are still awaiting the travel boom from and to China, the world's most populated country.

• Technology will already have a huge impact on tourism, and will almost certainly revolutionise tourism in the next century.

The World Tourism Organisation has noted the following trends and expects these to continue into the future:

Old travel patterns to new travel patterns. The old east west flows of travellers are shifting to north-south flows.

Established destinations to emerging destinations. The principle new destinations include Indochina, Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Latin America. In addition, countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are emerging as new generating markets.

Old products to new products. New leisure products will move away from environmentally- and culturally-sensitive areas and use new technology to crate artificial environments close to origin markets. Artificial ski hills and virtual reality experiences are two examples.

Fragmented tourism to economic development tool. Government will acknowledge the economic importance of tourism and encourage increased co-operation between the public and private sectors.

Developer control to community control. As host communities become increasingly sophisticated, developers will have to demonstrate economic, social and environmental benefits before development can occur.

Financial illusion to financial reality. Increased emphasis will be placed on: first, improving the performance of existing assets and, second, acquiring strategic undervalued assets before considering major new investments.

Mass markets to speciality markets. Targeted communications to speciality markets will increase.

Passive consumers to involved consumers. As more travellers become increasingly sophisticated, they will want new experiences, interaction with the community, and knowledge about the destination.

Mass marketing to direct customer communication. As marketers harness the new technology, they will turn to tailored and targeted marketing to individuals through the management of sophisticated database management systems.

HISTORY OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

The hospitality sector has the longest history among the tourism sectors. The first hospitality firms were boarding houses catering to stagecoach travellers. The development of health spas in Britain and Germany was an embryonic form of what we now call ‘resorts’. On the other hand, with the advent of railway transportation in the mid-nineteenth century, demand from the great number of travellers resulted in the development of city hotels. Hotels then branched into different market segments from simple Bed & Breakfast operations to a luxury segment. Some early well-known brands were Ritz in Paris and Savoy in London. The habit of eating out developed in the late nineteenth century, which led to mass restaurant start-ups. The idea of hotel school training roots in the end of the nineteenth century too. It was not before the 1930s that hotel chains emerged in America. Some of the old brands still operate. For example Westin Hotels (then Western Hotels), Quality Inns (then Quality Courts), Sheraton, Hilton and Statler (later acquired by Hilton).

1959 marks the jump-start of the travel industry due to the introduction of jet travel. In the post-war era, by the late 1960s, the entire coastline from Spain to Italy was full of resort destinations. Parallel to that The Caribbean and the state of Florida, USA turned into tourist havens for those looking for the 4 ‘S’ (Sun, Sand, See, and the other S!).

All in all, American hotel industry came into play later than the European counterpart. However, in a short period, Americans managed to pioneer the art of fine hospitality as well as the expansion and development of the industry. To date, American guests are more demanding than their European counterparts. Perhaps the most remembered downturn of American hotel industry took place during the 1930s economic depression, which took 85% of American hotels out of business. Early 1990s was also a hit to the industry. Yet hoteliers persevered.

Along the way, a number of institutional investors have helped hotel industry in its expansion plans. Airline companies are good examples. Below are some instances of airline-hotel equity participation.

• Pan American >>>>> Intercontinental Hotels

• United Airlines >>>>> Westin Hotels

• TWA >>>>> Hilton International

• KLM >>>>> Golden Tulip Hotels

• Aer Lingus >>>>> Dunfey Hotels

Apart from financial resources, airlines pooled their reservation system with hotels. This was a major development in the history of revenue management for the hotel industry. A number of airline-hotel partnerships fell apart later on. Another source of investment capital for hotels has been insurance companies and mutual funds. They are still heavily involved in hotel business.

Future outlook

There are a number of areas in hospitality industry, which are worth keeping an eye on for future development.

• As long as the economy improves, travel increases and thus use of lodging facilities increases. Certainly, cyclical economic indicators (like interest rates) are as important as structural health of the economy (like GDP).

• Any betterment in transportation facilities translates directly into more hotel occupancy.

• Hoteliers are alert to carve new niches in the market to tap into.

• New controversial product developments are condominiums and timeshares. Condominiums are units of property sold to individuals who in turn use them for their vacation and rent them to other vacationers for the remainder of the year. Timeshare is a modification of the condominium concept. Timeshares are sold to vacationers for the period of their vacation. They are charged the value plus pro-rated maintenance fees and taxes. However they are allowed to exchange their vacation period for an equal value in another spot of the world.

• Technological advances in reservation, telecommunications, back-office/front-of the house interfaces, security innovations, energy management modules, automated check-in/check-outs, etc. will be watched closely.

• Women business travellers are on the rise. They are a sizeable niche presently and expected to grow.

• Yield management is still the buzzword. (This subject shall be dealt with thoroughly in the upcoming modules).

• Hotels are introducing new amenities continuously. Provision of high-tech amenities into their guestrooms such as internet hook-up is one example.

• Enhancement of hotel web-sites will be at the forefront due to its significance in internet sales and advertising. Emergence of new e-strategies is expected too.

• Stock market’s love-hate relationship with the lodging industry is sensitive as has always been. Stock market is a rich financial source for hotel construction.

• Globalisation trends as explained earlier will go on to widespread forms of management contract, franchising, consortium and M & A activities.

Generally, numbers of tourist arrivals will increase. When this happens, tourism's future holds great challenges for many professionals and superb career prospects for the tourism students of today.