Tourism and Transportation

Transportation is a vital aspect in the total tourist industry because being in a different place from where you live is an essential feature of tourism.

Without the modern high-speed forms of transportation that are available to large numbers of people, tourism would be possible only for a tiny fraction of population. During the 19^th century railroads spread across Europe, North America and many other parts of the world. They formed the first successful system of mass transportation, carrying crowds of people to such English seaside resorts as Brighton, Margate and Blackpool.

The tourists on Thomas Cook’s first organized tour in 1841 travelled by railroad.

Steamships were developed at about the same time as railroads, but they were used for the most part on inland waterways. By 1900, they were developed so that they were carrying passengers and freight on all the oceans of the world.

Unfortunately for those people who prefer leisure travel, both railroads and steamships have lost much of their business in the second half of the 20^th century. The automobile has replaced the railroad for most local travel. It offers convenience.

The traveller can depart from his own home and arrive at his destination without transferring luggage or having to cope with any of the other difficulties that would ordinarily confront him. The apparent costs of a trip by automobile are also lower, especially for family groups.

A very large percentage of domestic tourism now takes advantage of the automobile for transportation. In Europe, where the distance from one national board to another may be very short, automobiles are also used extensively for international journeys.

For long-distance travel, the airplane has replaced the railroad and the ship as the principal carrier. The airplane has become so commonplace that we often fail to realize what a recent development in transportation it really is!

The railroads have suffered on short-distance routes as well as on long-distance routes. Motor buses, or coaches as they are called in England, have replaced railroad passenger service on many local routes.

Ships still play an important part in tourism for the purpose of cruising. A cruise is a voyage by ship that is made for pleasure rather than to arrive quickly at a fixed destination. The cruise ship acts as the hotel for the passengers as well as their means of transportation. When the tourists reach a port, they are usually conducted on one-day excursions, but return to the ship to eat and to sleep.

Ships play another part in modern tourism as car ferries. Particularly in Europe, the tourist who wants to have his car with him on a trip can take advantage of car ferries across the English Channel or the Strait of Gibraltar. Car ferries even ply across large bodies of water such as the North Sea between England or Scotland and Scandinavia. The city of Dover on the English Channel handles the largest volume of passenger traffic of any port in the UK primarily because of car ferries services.

The airlines are now very prominent in the tourist industry and it is important to remember that there are two kinds of airline operations, scheduled and nonscheduled.

A scheduled airline operates on fixed routes at fixed times according to a timetable that is available to the public.

A nonscheduled airline operates on routes and times when there is a demand for the service. The nonscheduled airline is, in other words, a charter operation that rents its aircraft. The competition between the two has been very intense.

The scheduled airlines aim their services primarily at business travellers, at people visiting friends and relatives, and at others who travel alone or in small group. A scheduled airline flight is usually filled with strangers going to the same destination.

As seating capacity increased with the introduction of newer, larger and faster planes, the airlines were able to offer a percentage of their seats for sale through travel agents or tour operators. They introduced special fares and by means of these special fares, they were able to increase their business substantially. The greatest growth in tourism began with the introduction of these ITX fares, as they are called, in the 1950s and 1960s.

IT stands for inclusive tour, a travel package that offers both transportation and accommodations, and often entertainment as well.

ITX stands for tour-basing fares. They are offered by scheduled airlines to travel agents or tour operators who sell the package to the general public.

Still another important abbreviation in tourism is CIT, charter inclusive tour, one that uses a charter plane for transportation.

The nonscheduled airlines got a start largely as a result of government business. In addition to transporting supplies or military personnel, the nonscheduled airlines chartered (rented) entire flights to groups that were travelling to the same destination – businessmen and their wives attending a convention, for example, members of a music society attending a Festival.

Groups travelling to the same place for a similar purpose are called affinity groups.

Charter inclusive tours were sold at even lower fares than the inclusive tours on the scheduled airlines.

All transportation is subject to regulation by government, but the airlines are among the most completely regulated of all carriers. The routes they can fly, the number of flights and many other matters are controlled by means of bilateral agreements between different countries in the case of international airlines.

The airlines, both scheduled and nonscheduled, must overcome many problems in the future. They need to reduce their operating costs to a level where they can continue to offer fares that will make holiday travel attractive to as many people as possible.

And they have not solved the problem of attracting new passengers. As important as air transportation is for the tourist industry, it is estimated that only about 2 percent of the world’s population has ever travelled by plane.

Task 4. Look through the text and find the English equivalents for: