Conceptualising Cultural Environments Lecture Six: the rise of cultural tourism

Defining Tourism  According to the World Tourism Organisation a tourist can be be defined as a person “travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment”  The word tourism stems from the latin word ‘tornare’ which essentially means circle  The WTO identifies three different forms of tourism  Domestic tourism where people travel within their own country  Inbound tourism where non-residents travel into the country  Outbound tourism where people travel to another country

The Importance of Tourism  Tourism plays an increasingly important role in post-industrial society  Despite the economic downturn, instability in the Middle East and natural disasters in Japan international tourist arrivals grew by 4.4% in 2011 to a total of 980million  The tourist sector is responsible for 5% of the world’s GDP  In advanced and emerging economies one in every 12 people are employed in tourism related industries

Tourism in Glasgow  According to Glasgow City Marketing Bureau Glasgow attracts 2.3 million visitors per year  This generates around £600 million for the local economy  The majority of Glasgow’s overseas visitors (12%) come from the USA  In 2009/10 events supported by or managed by GCMB achieved an economic impact of £28.4 million for the city

The Grand Tour  Tourism has always existed in some shape or form although previously it was only accessible to the very wealthy  The Grand Tour refers to the travels of wealthy young men in Europe  This was seen as a rite of passage which was concerned with exposing members of the nobility to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. ‘Tourists’ were often accompanied by a cicerone – a knowledgeable guide  A grand tour lasted anywhere between a few months to several years  Common places to visit on The Grand Tour included Paris, Switzerland, Barcelona, Turin, Florence, Venice and Rome

We Do Like to be Beside the Seaside….  The seaside had long been a popular tourist destination with the upper and middle classes who visited spa towns such as Bath for their health benefits  The dirty, noisy and unhealthy environment of the industrial city meant that escaping to rural and seaside areas became increasingly attractive to the working classes  Thus, we saw the development of seaside resorts such as Blackpool  In Scotland, the Firth of Clyde offered an escape to workers in Glasgow who would go ‘Doon the Watter’

Thomas Cook and the Advent of the Package Holiday  The package holiday was first developed by Thomas Cook who organised his first trip in 1841 where he arranged for a group of 540 campaigners to travel from Leicester to Loughborough  Essentially a package trip consists of travel and accomodation being sold as a package  Development of holiday camps such as Butlins

Foreign Travel  With the rise of the holiday resort in the UK the middle and upper classes began to look further afield  The French Riviera and Spanish Costas became popular holiday destinations  The popularity of Nice as a holiday destination for the English led to its seafront being named the Promenade des Anglais

Mass Tourism  With increases in disposable income, holiday entitlement, advances in technology and the expansion of air travel travelling abroad became much more accessible to the mass population  As before, the working classes tended to follow in the footsteps of the upper and middle classes with destinations such as Spain becoming increasingly popular  This would mainly consist of the traditional package holiday

Tourism Today  The world is getting smaller! Travel to almost anywhere in the world is now a distinct possibility for many of us  Rise of low cost airlines and short city breaks  Decline of the package holiday  We want to tailor our own experiences  Rise of niche tourism  We seek out increasingly exotic destinations  The student gap year  But we need to think about what we are looking for?

The Search for Authenticity?  It could be suggested than we travel abroad we are searching for an authentic experience  We want to experience the ‘real’ culture  But do we really?  It could be suggested that we often want to experience what we perceive to be an authentic experience  MacCannell (1973) refers to the notion of staged authenticity

Full Circle: the importance of tourism  Many towns, cities and regions now rely on tourism as a main driver of their economy  The benefits of tourism can be both direct and indirect  Employment in hotels, restaurants, bars, etc  Trickle down effect and support industries  But, following a tourism related development strategy can have its down sides  Jobs are often seasonal and poorly paid  Emergence of new destinations and increasing competition  Homogenisation of destinations?

Events: standing out from the crowd  Many destinations play upon their history and heritage to distinguish themselves  Events can have an important role to play here  Similarly, many cities such as Glasgow follow an events led development strategy as a means of raising their profile on a global level and attracting tourism  More of this from John in Week 10!