Travel, Tourism, and
Recreation Marketing
Course Orientation
2.01 Recognize basic information
associated with the development of the
travel, tourism, and recreation industry.
Major historical developments
associated with the travel,
tourism, and recreation.
Reasons people traveled historically
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In search of food, shelter, and water
For trade and political reasons
Conquest and war
Religion
Health
Academic studies
Adventure
To see places of importance or curiosities
Cultural development
Early ancient times
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Babylonia (Sumerians)
 4000 BC
 Invented money for exchange
 Invented and used the wheel
Greek cities-states
 776 BC
 Began the Olympic Games
Travel characteristics in ancient times that apply today
 Peace ensures the increase of people traveling to different
destinations.
 Travelers must feel safe and secure in the destinations they are
visiting.
 A common means of communicating must exist.
 An infrastructure must be in place to serve the visitor’s needs.
 There must be some mutually agreed form of payment
between the traveler and the provider in exchange for goods
and services.
Industrial Revolution (1800s)
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1800 Urban mass transit began in New York
City, London, and Paris.
1804 The first successful steam-powered
locomotive became available.
1804 The first roller coaster made its
appearance in Paris.
1807 Robert Fulton’s steam-powered
Clermont made her maiden voyage up the
Hudson River. The use of steam engines on
ships was the greatest revolution in water
transportation.
1815 Scotsman John McAdams improved
road construction with the use of broken
stones covered with tar.
Industrial Revolution (1800s), cont’d
 1819
The Savanna was the first steam ship to
cross the Atlantic.
 1836 The first subway system opened in
London.
 1850s Railroad development contributed to
the growth of the lodging/hospitality industry.
These small hotels were called “ordinaries.”
 1853 The elevator was invented allowing
hotels to expand upward.
 1869 The east and west coasts of the United
States were connected by the completion of
the transcontinental railroad at Promontory,
Utah. This helped to speed the east to west
movement after the Civil War.
Industrial Revolution (1800s), cont’d
 1870
The first subway system opened in New
York City.
 1870 The first steam-powered Carousel was
introduced.
 1876 Alexander Graham Bell introduced the
telephone.
 1890 Electric cars, or trolleys, came into their
own. The gasoline engine led to the beginning of
the motor coach line.
 1895 Edison improved and perfected motion
picture technology. The “movies” enabled people
to see destinations that they would otherwise have
only read or heard about Travel, Tourism, and
Recreation Marketing.
Other early developments that
helped tourism to grow
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1829 The 173 room Tremont House opened in
Boston. It was the first modern hotel.
1885 The first cafeteria opened in New York.
1880s Coney Island was established in New York
and became the model for amusement parks.
1890s Automobiles were introduced.
1891 The first travelers’ checks were introduced
by American Express Company.
1890s The first Stanley Cup (hockey) playoffs
were held and the modern Olympic Games
returned.
Rides at Coney Island
1900-1919
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Early 1900s Electric lights came into use.
Davis Cup (tennis) and World Series (baseball) were
introduced.
1902 The American Automobile Association (AAA)
was founded in Chicago.
1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first powered
flight at Kitty Hawk, NC.
1908 Henry Ford introduced the Model T. The Model
T made travel available to people who were not wealthy.
By 1914 these cars were being mass-produced. The
price made them available to the working and middle
classes. The use of the Model T created a demand for
better roads.
1900-1919, cont’d
•Passenger ship accommodations were more luxurious
and affordable only by the very wealthy. The Titanic
was an example of this luxury. The movie Titanic
reflects the division of wealth on luxury liners.
•Ellsworth Statler originated the hotel chain concept
and became known as the father of the modern
commercial hotel industry. Conrad Hilton later bought
the Statler chain.
1914 The first scheduled airline in the US flown with
passengers.
• World War I advanced aircraft design and
development.
Car rental began with National Car Rental System.
Organized airline service developed rapidly in Europe.
1920-1929
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Great improvements were made in US road
systems.
Railroads faced competition from automobiles,
intercity bus service, and the trucking industry.
1926 Commercial airlines got underway in the
US
1920s A new breed of passenger, the tourist,
emerged. Liner companies offered world
cruises and winter cruises in the Caribbean and
Mediterranean.
October, 1929 The Great Depression
began.economics
1930-1939
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The Depression bolstered the railroads over the bus
industry.
1930-1935 Almost 85% of all hotels in the US went
bankrupt.
1931 The concept of a zoo using open surroundings and
concealed barriers to display its animals was introduced.
1938 Marineland opened an outdoor aquarium in St.
Augustine, FL.
Late 1930s The first NCAA basketball tournament was
held.
Passenger liners increased in size. In the 1930s the Cunard
Lines launched the Queen Elizabeth, the largest liner built
up until that time.
September 3, 1939 World War II began in Europe.
1940-1949
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World War II brought many advances in
aircraft development and design. One
important innovation was the jet engine.
Rocket tests were conducted on Topsail
Island off the North Carolina coast.
The hotel industry rebounded during and
immediately following WWII. By this
time, the automobile and jet plane had
radically affected the travel industry.
1945 Ridership on buses soared. WWII
brought the rapid growth of intercity bus
travel.
1945 The airline ticket was created.
1940-1949, cont’d
 1947
United Airlines and American Airlines
inaugurated coast-to-coast US service.
 US armed forces came home with the experiences
of having traveled to places that they could not
have afforded to visit otherwise. They had the
money, time, and interest in traveling for pleasure
as well as for business. The seeds of mass
tourism began here.
 Walter E. Avis opened the first rental car office in
an airport.
 With the Cold War, certain restrictions were
placed on visiting countries considered as our
enemies.
1950-1959
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The US enjoyed a decade of relative peace and a
strong economy.
The television was becoming an influence in
American households. The small screen
brought the world into the living room.
Tourist-class fare was offered for transatlantic
flights.
1952 Congress created the National System of
Interstate Highways.
1950s The Jet Age began with an increase in
the number of foreign airlines flying
international routes.
The first transcontinental flight was made from
Los Angeles to New York.
1950-1959, cont’d
 1958
The passenger ship industry began to decline
because of commercial jet service nonstop across the
Atlantic.
 1958 NASA was created to manage the space program.
 1950s Motels came of age with the development of
the interstate highway system in 1956 and the entry of
the motel chains.
 1952 Holiday Inn was launched by Kemmons Wilson
with the Holiday Inn Hotel Court in Memphis, TN.
 Hilton became the first coast-to-coast hotel chain.
 1958 The Jet Age was the greatest period of expansion
for hotel chains. Car rentals expanded when the first
commercial jet airliners came into service.
1960-1969
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1960s Mass market cruises became available
and shipping companies began converting their
passenger liners into tropical cruise ships.
1965 Holiday Inn installed the hotel industry’s
first nationwide computerized reservation
system.
1967 The first Super Bowl was played.
1969 The landing of the first man on the moon
brought space a step closer as a travel
destination. In response to the Apollo mission,
Pan Am took over 90,000 ticket reservations for
a shuttle to the moon.
1970-1979
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1970 The use of credit cards was accepted in travel and
entertainment.
1970 Pan American World Airways flew the first Boeing
747 carrying 352 passengers from New York to London,
marking the age of the “jumbo jet” and the beginning of
mass tourism.
1976 The Concorde, a supersonic transport (SST), was
developed.
1973 The Arab oil embargo increased the price of gasoline
and oil products, forcing the American public to look for
energy efficient ways to travel.
The first personal computer reached the consumer market.
Travel became computerized.
Alex Hailey’s book, Roots, was to have an influence on
heritage travel.
1980-1989
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1980 Railroads began to decline.
1980-l986 The world’s cruise fleet doubled.
1982 EPCOT opened at Disney World, FL, and in
1984, Tokyo Disneyland opened.
1985 The World Tourism Organization’s General
Assembly adopted the Tourism Bill of Rights and
Tourist Code.
Personal computers were made more user friendly.
Tourism had become important to North Carolina’s
economy.
The first tourism curriculum was developed for
North Carolina public schools.
1990-1999
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ATM use spread throughout the world.
1990 The Americans with Disabilities Act passed.
1994 Microsoft established an accredited travel agency on the
Internet.
1994 England and France were connected by the “chunnel.”
1993 Web pages were developed and (1995) Netscape was
developed as a browser.
Airlines accepted on-line bookings and took payment on the
internet.
Ticketless travel was introduced.
Improved hardware and software and lower prices made the PC
available to travelers. LAP made computer portable.
Affinity groups such as veterans returned to former battle sites or
duty station to remember. Tour groups continue to be popular.
By the end of the 1990s, virtual reality programs made it possible
to see a destination as if one were actually there.
2000-2003
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Ninety-five percent of all US travel agencies were
computerized using a computer reservations system (CRS).
2000 Americans used personal cars for more than 80% of
their vacation trips.
2000 There were more than 800 million websites.
2001 Dennis Tito was the first paid space tourist.
September 11, 2001 Attacks by terrorists changed travel
and tourism forever.
2002 The Homeland Security Act of 2002 passed in
response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
2003 Health related issues disrupted tourism.
2003 The Concorde (SST) retired from service.