| History of Tourism: The phase of professional tours and elite tourism: Since ancient times, many people traveled for the purpose of knowledge about world and discovering new territories, with trading, diplomatic, military, religious and other purposes. All these travelers required certain services from the local population concerning boarding and lodging etc. Historically, the first companies in the industry of tourism were the taverns, having a doubtful reputation of brothels. In ancient times, trade, education, pilgrimage and treatment were the main motives of travel. Sports tours (Olympic Games) were conceptualized in Ancient Greece. Trade development has led to large-scale construction of roads, resorts, taverns. Some luxury resorts were like the houses of rich people. Roman aristocrats actively participated in recreational travel – to farm houses, sea, mountains. In the east in ancient times, people traveled in large caravans on camels. They used to spend the night in tents or in caravan-sheds (an inn with a shelter for animals). The level of service was much better than it was in Europe because of more active trade. In the middle Ages, the religious factor became one of the main reasons for travel. Large numbers of people were attracted towards Christianity and Islam. It was only in the era of the Renaissance, the religious motives took the back seat and individual character and educational orientation of travel. Young men quite often went across Europe before taking up the profession. Europeans went for holidays to the resorts of Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Greece and Italy. Stages of mass tourism: This stage is characterized by: the origin of the specialized firms in the industry of tourist services (19th century), and also the formation of mass and social tourism (before the Second World War) and the rapid growth in the tourism industry and mass tourism (before the eighties of the 20th century). The origin of mass tourism promoted growth in industry, and as a result – limitation of free time, trend of paid holidays. Also, revolutionary developments in transport – the invention of steamer ships, steam locomotives and the expansion of roads also played an important role. The very first high quality hotels appeared in Germany and Switzerland in the beginning of the 19th century, in the second half of the century - traveling agencies, which organized tourist trips, were created and served their clients. In the first half of the 20th century, Germany and the USSR started mass tourism, sports tourism and war games. After the economic recession due to the Second World War, a new stage began. The active development of tourist companies, mass building of hotels and different types of entertainment institutions started from the50s and 60s of the 20th century. European tourism started focusing on American tourists, and since the 1970s, there was a growth in outbound tourism also. The network of trade-union treatment-and-prophylactic and resort establishments, seasonal and sports tourism for children was very well developed in the USSR. Since the 1980s, the rates of growth of tourism slowed down, and mass tourism was transformed into a differentiated one. Holidaying became the life- style; there was a tendency to expand the types of services, and recreational facilities. Individual tours, ecological and sports tourism became popular. In the news: Luxury hotels in Beirut have repaired extensive damage from bombing that had driven the nation into chaos. The hotels are hoping to lure back tourists. The doors and windows were blown out of several hotels in the city. Syria has now pulled its troops out of the country after being in Lebanon for 29 years. The country is slated to have elections in May. A representative of the Palm Beach Hotel in Beirut noted that the damage was great. But, with the refurbishing, he indicated that the hotel was starting to get phone calls from previous guests and that he was looking forward to a good and solid tourist season in Beirut.
Tourism in Africa:
The number of foreign tourists visiting Africa, and monetary receipts from them is rather insignificant and is about 2-3% of the world revenue. The growth of international tourism in Africa has been restrained because of the high prices of the African product in tourism markets. However, in the last few years the region has switched to an inexpensive mass, mainly beach tourism, especially in the north of the continent on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
The largest generating market for the region countries are the African countries giving up to 50% of all tourists. Others visiting countries are France, Germany, Great Britain. This results from the fact that not so long ago these countries were ruling countries of the African colonies.
The most popular vacation spots of tourists are located: in the north - Tunis, Egypt, Morocco; in the east - Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Mauritania and Zimbabwe. Some of them specialize in elite beach tourism and have developed a high quality hotel industry, charging every tourist up to 900 dollars.
In the south of Africa, a popular tourist destination is the Republic of South Africa which leads the list of the main countries of the continent in the arrivals and revenue. The Republic of South Africa has a developed transport and hotel infrastructure, and also has become an attractive country in international tourism.
However, Africa as a whole lags behind in international tourism because many countries of the region are economically under developed and are politically unstable, and also in many parts of the continent there are frequent military conflicts and epidemics.
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