EVOLUTION OF TOURISM..

Travel is an ancient behavior. Early humans lived a hard life. They used to travel by foot. The search for basic necessities, food, water and shelter kept early hunters and gatherers on the move.

With the development in mankind, the tourism also developed. People started to travel for trade and business purpose. Many historians and anthropologists considered travel for trade and commerce activity in ancient civilizations. As commerce grew, so did travel for pleasure. The societies of Greece, Egypt and Rome openly encouraged pleasure travel by providing necessary ways and means. With such support each travel contributed to the success of each of these great empires.

After the fall of Roman Empire, the middle or dark ages were indeed dark times for travel. The luxury of vacation travel disappeared. Resources required for the common person to travel were no longer available. During the middle ages, pilgrimages were undertaken for variety of purposes. Some individuals travelled to religious sites for the forgiveness of their sins, other to receive a divine cure for their health problem. Several shrines or churches shaped a common itinerary. Very popular sites had an array of inns and hostels to accommodate weary travelers. People travelled in groups to guard against robbers and muggers.

The Renaissance was a time of enlightenment, change, and exploration from the fourteenth to seventeenth century. During this period the Grand Tour of Europe emerged as one of the first manifestations of upper-class travel. That brought modernization in tourism. Young English elites of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often spent two or four years travelling around Europe which is known as grand tour. The major cities of grand tour were Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples and Britain.

The post-war years from 1945 until the present time have been a period of technological revolution; in fact a second industrial revolution. Accordingly, it has been a period of massive growth in travel in the industrialized and richer countries in the world. Transport and other forms of communication reinforced economic factor favoring tourism expansion. Over the period, trains and public road transport lost their prime importance. In some countries such as the USA, railways became minor passenger transport provider. Air transport increased at even faster rate. Due to massive development in air transport, mass tourism came to development.

EVOLUTION OF TOURISM IN THE REGION (SAARC)

SAARC refer to 'South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation' and includes 8 countries. The history of tourism in SAARC nation come along the civilization of mankind. Importance of tourism has also been recognized since the early days of SAARC. The first summit was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 7–8 December 1985. It was attended by the government representative of each member nation. Since then the importance of tourism has been practically discussed in each summit of SAARC. During the second SAARC summit, which was held in Bengaluru, India on 16–17 November 1986, the leaders agreed to establish committee in order to facilitate tourism in the region. Third Meeting of the SAARC Tourism Ministers, precede by Fourth Meeting of the Working Group on Tourism was held in Kathmandu in January 2011. The Meeting reviewed implementation of the decisions taken at its last meeting. It also reviewed the status of implementation of the SAARC Action Plan on Tourism-2006 and noted with satisfaction that most of the decisions taken earlier have been implemented by the Member States.

During the fourth SAARC Summit (Islamabad, 29-31 December, 1988), while realizing the importance of having people to people contacts among the peoples of SAARC countries, decided that certain categories of dignitaries should be entitled to a Special Travel document which would exempt them from visa within the region, therefore visa exemption scheme was introduced. There are various other organizations as well which are working for the development of tourism among SAARC countries. South Asia Tourism Society (SATS) is an organization which is working continuously and selflessly to develop the trade and tourism among SAARC nation. They also provide information about the SAARC countries to tourists who want to visit. United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) also works for the development and promotion of tourism not only in SAARC countries but all over the United Nations.

It is only with SAARC tourism that you get to explore the ancient civilization, affluent cultural diversity, exclusive culinary delights, vast geographical attractions, heart full heritage sites and above all the warm hospitality of people belonging to these countries.


You may contact author for more information at tribeni.das@justyatra.com
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