Unit 3. FROM THE HISTORY OF TOURISM

1. R ead and learn the following words and word combinations:

antiquities – пам’ятки старовини

e.g. Norbert Schimmel was famous as a passionate collector of Roman antiquities

to accommodate – розміщувати, надавати помешкання

vendor – продавець, крамар, постачальник

e.g. Frank stopped to buy the evening paper from a news vendor.

hawker – рознощик; торговець, що розносить товар; вуличний торговець

e.g. A familiar street hawker, usually selling lighters at two for a pound was offering three for a pound.

tout – маклер, комівояжер

e.g. Touts were selling tickets to the match for £50 or more.

to prosper – процвітати, досягати великих успіхів

coinage – монети, карбування (монет)

decline – занепад

pilgrimage – паломництво

to testify – підтвердити, засвідчити

outcome – результат, наслідок

to adopt – приймати, засвоювати

to become customary – стати звичним

appeal – (тут) привабливість, syn. attraction

e.g. The journey has great appeal for young tourists.

predominantly – переважно

invention – винахід

steam engine – паровий двигун

2. R ead and translate the following text: from the history of tourism

The earliest forms of leisure tourism can be traced as far back as the Babylonian and Egyptian empires. A museum of “historic antiquities” was open to the public in the sixth century BC in Babylon, while the Egyptians held many religious festivals attracting not only the believers, but also those who came to see famous buildings and works of art in the cities. The local towns accommodated tourists by providing services such as: vendors of food and drink, guides, hawkers of souvenirs and touts.

From around the same date, Greek tourists travelled to visit the sites of healing gods. Most of these tourists travelled by water as the independent city-states of ancient Greece had no central ruler to order the construction of roads, thus seaports prospered.

The lands of the Mediterranean Sea produced a remarkable evolution in travel. People travelled for trade, commerce, religious purposes, festivals, medical treatment, or education developed at an early date.

However, international travel became first important under Romans’ rule. With no foreign borders between England and Syria, and with the seas safe from piracy (due to the Roman patrols), conditions favouring travel arrived. Roman coinage was acceptable everywhere, and Latin was the common language. Romans travelled to Sicily, Greece, Rhodes, and Troy, Egypt and from the third century AD, to the Holy Land.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe fell into dark times of the Middle Ages. Travel became difficult and dangerous as roads were in bad condition and bandits attacked more frequently. Religious pilgrimage was the dominant travel motivation since religion was the leading power in society.

As Europe grew out of the Middle Ages, the desire to explore, discover, and understand other places and peoples drove many explorers and scientists to travel in many directions. The sailing of Christopher Columbus in 1492 testified the beginning of the great age of exploration as well as opening of sea travel.

From the early seventeenth century, a new form of tourism developed as a direct outcome of the Renaissance freedom and desire for learning. Young men who wanted positions at court were encouraged to travel to the Continent to finish their education. Others soon adopted this practice in the upper class. It became customary for the education of a gentleman to be completed by a “Grand tour” of major cultural centres of Europe, accompanied by a tutor and often lasting three years or more. The appeal soon became social, and leisure seeking young men travelled, predominantly to France and Italy, to enjoy the unknown cultures and social life of cities such as Paris, Venice, or Florence.

Later tourism was still intensified by the Industrial Revolution, beginning with the invention of the steam engine by James Watt in 1765. The technological development together with economic and social changes in Western industrial countries generated rapid increase in the travel industry that continues to grow nowadays.