Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Brief History of Travel PDF
A Brief History of Travel PDF
At that time, going on vacation was a burdensome and, above all else, an expensive
undertaking. People traveled by carriage and suffered greatly on poor roads, often
made impassable by bad weather. Lodging and provisioning horses were a constant
concern. At the time, Germany consisted of a number of smaller states, and customs
duties had to be paid again and again at the borders.
One of the country's first major tourist magnets emerged in 1793 at the coast of the
Baltic Sea in what is today Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. That is where the seaside resort
Heiligendamm opened its doors, attracting nearly everyone of distinction. They were
met with no shortage of distractions, including gambling, horse races, dizzying fests
and prostitutes. Many of the well-heeled guests never even made it into the water, and,
as writer Ludwig Brne complained in 1825, "The princes and princesses here bother
you like snails; you simply cannot avoid them."
"Cook was not, in fact, the inventor of package tourism, but he was its most successful
organizer," Spode explains. But Thomas Cook did not stop there, adding tour guides
that took care of all of the details, so that tourists could devote themselves to
relaxation.
Cook's approach soon led to copycats in Germany, where train travel also helped spur
on the concept of holiday-making. After all, trains could generally chug on regardless
of the street conditions and weather, and passengers could peer out the window in
comfort as scenes of nature rolled by.
beyond their home countries. Popular destinations among Germans were soon given
names ridiculing their new clientele. The Spanish island of Mallorca, for instance, was
dubbed "Putzfraueninsel" (Cleaning Lady Island), while favored sunning spots around
the Mediterranean were called "teutonic grills."
Rising incomes and low travel costs made it possible: international travel for everyone.