Scholars Mind

When Tourism Goes Mass

The grand tour was a privilege afforded mainly to the nobility and the wealthy. It took the emergence of the railway, the ocean liner, and the passenger jet, along with the rise of a middle class with enough disposable income, to bring tourism to the masses. Explore the history of leisure travel, then discuss with your team: why do certain places attract more tourists? Is it possible to attract too many?

Key concepts

Disposable Income
The money left after the necessities are paid for. Cheap transport alone does not make a tourist — somebody has to have both a spare fortnight and spare cash, which is why mass travel arrives with the industrial middle class and not before.

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Every work — at a glance

  • The Railway (technology)

    The 1830s machine that made distance cheap, and by the 1840s had invented the seaside day trip.

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What to know

  1. 01
    Why a few places take almost all the tourists. Fame compounds. A sight that appears in enough photographs becomes the one you are supposed to see, and every visitor's photograph recruits the next — so crowds pile onto a short list of icons while the country around them stays quiet.

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Across subjects

Carrying capacity is a borrowed idea. Ecologists worked out how many deer a valley can feed before the herd starves it, and set hunting permits from the answer.

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Should a beloved place be allowed to turn people away? Residents are being priced out of their own streets, and a city is not a museum. But a cap rebuilds the old exclusivity — a queue or a fee instead of a class barrier — closing the world the cheap jet had just opened.

Practice — a sample

SOCEach term below names a downside of mass tourism EXCEPT —

  • A Eroded landmarks
  • B Priced-out locals
  • C The must-see crush
  • D Cultural capital
  • E Overtourism

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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