Թϱ historian Eric Zuelow quoted in ‘World Finance’ article about tourism’s contribution to global economy
Eric Zuelow, Ph.D., associate professor of European history in the Department of History and Philosophy, was quoted extensively in an April 25 article published by World Finance. The article, “Why the world depends on our need to travel,” discussed the contributions that the travel industry makes to the global economy.
Zuelow provided a historical background of tourism, explaining that it started in the late 17th or early 18th century with the “Grand Tour,” a stint of foreign travel for diplomatic purposes and commissioned by the heads of countries. “As that happened, other elite families and members of the gilded elite wanted their sons to have a similar experience, and so more and more people started going [abroad],” Zuelow said. “And by the middle of the 18th century, it was a kind of finishing school for the elite.”
Zuelow also noted that the concept of tourism opened up to the middle class as new technologies facilitated transportation. He said that many people enjoyed the act of travelling as much as they did the destination. He stated: “The technology itself was exciting, so it wasn’t even just about the place that you went to, but it was about the experience of getting on one of these vehicles. And that was particularly true of the train because they went faster than people were used to going, and they were big, and noisy, just exciting in and of themselves.”
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