Historical aspect and development of tourism in Paris

Introduction

This essay will firstly analyse the historical aspect and development of tourism in Paris. Secondly it will also identify the positive and negative aspects of socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts. Finally it will explain an academic model related to Paris. In particular, it is worthwhile to know exactly the meaning of the terms tourism, recreation and leisure. Recently, The World Travel and Tourism Council had made an approximate judgement that, the tourism has become the world largest activity and industry within the business market. But an understanding of tourist waves is important for dealing with the environmental and the social effects of tourism and also to secure the lucrative viability of the tourism industry and to plan for new development.

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In addition the tourism can be defined as an entire place of people, businesses, and places with a purpose, to self associate in a common way, to discover a travel experience in a multidimensional activity. Economically it is vital to describe the tourism as a demand or a supply, which can be stated precisely in terms of the motivations or other typical moral strength of travellers. From some conceptual argument, it can be seen as an activity for persons moving from an area to another. For instance, the tourism can have both direct and indirect effect and displacement effect, but in most of case, it is locally and economically beneficial Cooper et al (1998).

To begin with, in the light of recent national media attention regarding tourism, it seems that a touristic region have to be more attractive to persuade visitors in many of its different aspects, such as historical, regional image and many thing to discover. Historically, Paris has a long standing past of more than two and halves millennium, during which it grew from small people to multicultural inhabitant, and also the history of Paris was most dominated and divided into dynasties and kings such as, the Capetians, the Valois, the Bourbon who had built many castle and monumental status. Geographically, Paris is the capital city of France and one of the famous cities in the world.

This city has gone past through so many bad moment and the better days. Firstly, the imperial period which was dislike because of its political instability and corruption. Secondly, the French revolution event which took place in 1789, however, its universal aspiration will made France the country of human right. Thirdly, the bloody wars which the City welcomed as an opportunity to obtain revenge for the battle lost in 1870 and left the city brutally damaged. Finally, the better days came when Francois Mitterrand was elected as president of France in 1981 which brought so many changes to the city’s appearance and the political aspect and also made Paris to attract many artiste and intellectual from all over the world.

When considering Butler’s Tourist Area Life-Cycle Model, which particularly talk about the tourism Exploration, Development, Decline, Rejuvenation, it seemed that the tourism in Paris had started in about 1848, when the rail network came into effect, the city became one of the most visited destinations and the public were most attracted by its museums and monuments, especially the Eiffel tower which was built later in 1889 and also since its construction it has been visited by more than 200 million peoples, then come the Basilique du sacre Coeur and Notre Dame de Paris, with more than 12 millions visitor a year and also the Disneyland Paris has been visited by more than 14millions visitors in 2007 followed by the Louvre museum which is the famous and the largest and also it has so many art displays, moreover many hotels and restaurants in Paris depend on the tourism. Pioch (2002)

Unfortunately, due to the global economic crisis, the tourism in Paris had decreased significantly during 2008 and also in 2009 the demand for visitor in Paris had slowed down due to the Swine flu outbreak, miraculously that demand bounced back at the end of 2009 as France came out of recession, but that recovery was still showing some negative effects but now things have come back to normal.

Nowadays, Paris is still one of the most visited cities on earth, because of its beautiful architecture, romantic cafes, spectacular monument, the old churches, the art galleries. Its transport system and communication are so sophisticated to facilitate people to get place such as the Charles de Gaulle airport and the Euro-Disneyland as well as a number of sports events that attracted worldwide TV coverage. In addition the majority of People, who came to visit Paris, are from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and most British tourist travel by car and through channel tunnel.

It is clear that, the tourism always plays a vital role within the economic aspect of the world and a considerable activity of global value and also a high influential position. For many years, Paris can be classified in the top tourist destination, particularly as regards the hotel and catering sectors. Briefly, among the sectors which contribute to Paris success in tourism are : Its country is the largest in western Europe, it is also unique in its altitudinal and latitudinal position, its culture has been largely imitated, its French language is most spoken worldwide, France is among the world’s leading economic powers due to is technological advance. Furthermore, a touristic destination must be attractive and give reassurance to the tourist as their security and safety will make the location more desirable to the comers. Jenks (1998).

Apparently, Paris is one of the beautiful and a vibrant city in Western Europe, with an estimated population of more than 2 million, its development history, started with a major industrial change in methods creation of railway network, which has brought an unknown flow of many people to the capital in the early 1840. Even though, It seems nearly hard not to see tourist studies as an enthusiastic and an interesting course these days, as It has grown very quickly. Indeed, the core reason is that the tourism studies, has been dramatically dominated by a general plan of action and the industry sponsored by priorities and perspectives, made by people whose the disciplinary provenance do not contain the necessary tools to examine and scrutinise a complicated cultural and social process which is spread out.

Despite the lack of resource in the tourism studies, there is a large sort of conceptual and concerning approaches to tourism which should be rigorously monitored as it is no longer a typical consumer product or a style of consumption. However, from its beginnings the tourism had broken relatively away from its minor and short time ritual of actual national life to be a significant model. Nowadays the tourism has become such a relevant aspect to social life worldwide to which its recent agenda have to reflect this rising significance. Moreover, people have been able to experience new aspects of identities, their familiarisation with nature and their personal relations and also to use the relevant cultural competence of their dream and mind to travel. Boniface et al (2005)

Apparently the tourism industry has to be made as flexible as possible, as suggested by Miossec’s Model of tourism Development, which looks more structural and practicable with any kind of tourist in the sense of actual evolution and the development of the destination. In addition the beneficial impact of it model can be classified in particularly as follow: transport, saturation, and tourist’s behaviour. It is wise to understand why the tourism is among the fastest developing part in the global market, as any kind of industrial development will always bring so many positive and negative impacts in which it takes place. However, as longer as the tourists tend to visit a place to consume the supply, inevitably the tourism Industry activityhasto be associated with positive effect such as the local economic activities boost. Firstly, there will be a high demand on transport and Paris has the most sophisticated transport in the world, which serves its local residents which means, in Paris the transport has much developed these days than in the past.

Furthermore Paris has improved its transport network, the road are well build to facilitate the traffic and many more, some network train serve Paris and Charles de Gaulle airport and also the Disneyland park. The tourist can use taxis, buses, metro to reach their final destination and to discover many places. Secondly, hotels and restaurants may employ extra new staffs to satisfy their customer needs, all local shops will take advantage, leisure and cinemas will have the frequentation of their customer raised, exchange office will also benefit from the foreign currency, which means, enhances taxation and licence revenues will generate employment for local people.

In addition, each year the tourist in Paris bring 8.5 billion Euro to the economy at same time the local council earn more or less 30 million Euro, from the tourist tax. For instance, the tourism is always much more helpful to the economic growth of Paris, however it is necessary to take into account the beneficial impact occasioned by direct productive activity. In meantime, the economic impacts linked to tourism development, can sometime be direct or indirect and also the tourism activity which require a massive quantity of the production of supply from different range of industries, including those who are not directly supplying tourist service and goods. Moreover, the tourism in Paris has also its negative aspects; such as the saturation impact which will affect the environment and the nature. Pearce (1995)

Dramatically there will be an overgrowing population and a huge pressure on urban life, which create the desire to change or to move in to a different area, a high level of the religious beliefs, sudden change in behavioural patterns and high level of crime. Although, the environmental stress created from the tourist activities, can always be considered in terms of their negative effects by local resident. In spite of this issue, the impact may be direct or intern which can be forcibly caused by the political involvement of some countries in war and it can also be a terrible nightmare with a catastrophic concern or even a serious threat to some state, especially the terrorism, which has became now an imminent threat worldwide; constitute a serious menace not only to the tourist but also to the travel companies. Youell (1998)

The real scope of environmental impacts must not be underestimated, as most forms of industrial progress impacts upon use of land, energy consumption and other direct or indirect forms of physical impacts are critical. In addition the panoramic environment, whether it is artificial or natural, it is one of the most fundamental parts of the tourism productivity. However, as soon as the tourist travel to a destination, the environment can change inevitably or even being modified either. However, tourists have also a considerable impact on the wildlife and their wastes constitute a vital concern of polluting water and the atmosphere, particularly at some coastal areas and mountains. In order to consider the physical impact of tourism in Paris, it is important to establish its effects on the natural environment especially, an immediate change in floral and faunal composition, natural resources, pollution and erosion. In the other hand, the built environment is also impacted such as the urban environment, visual impact, car park, litter, infrastructure and a competitive restoration. In fact, there is a wide range of environmental impact which can be used or being expanded to allow a careful study or to facilitate future development planning used for resources. Ryan et al (2005)

In the other hand, the tourist must be fully aware of what makes Paris worth visiting, regarding its culture, lifestyle, panoramic views such as Eiffel tower and the public area, while rude behaviour such as pickpocket and threat rising from local people may result the tourist to change their mind or cancel their visit. Given that, basic motivations for tourist are highly concerned with cultural and social experiences, such as meeting new people and visiting different cultural sites, from that point the tourism can have positive impacts on travellers. Also a large number of people within the can benefit from the social and the cultural impacts of tourism in so many ways, which means they can take advantage by mixing people from diverse culture, with different kind of lifestyle and also from their linguistic different backgrounds. In the other word, the tourism can improve the quality of human life especially to the local residents, by offering and sharing with them the programme of social and cultural events. The culture of Paris is today marked by socio-regional and cultural aspect of different tendencies, which consists of beliefs and values learned through the socialisation process and interactions between member of the society and also the personal influences such as languages and religions. However, the behaviour of tourist in Paris may appear irrational within the space of a few minute. This has become an obligation to know how to react to the new priorities of tourist and this involves re-thinking the role of management, strategy, organization and marketing.

In conclusion, the tourism industry and the environmental preservation have, to improve the strategies with an integral part of many development programmes, which will be treated with much respect than it was during the beginning of this century. In fact, the environmental indicators in Paris should not be limited to what should be done, but instead what action people should take just in case. However, the physical plan and the visual aspects can take place together, with a strict measures created to protect the economic benefit of tourism in line with environmental policy. Although this stage required the government of most countries worldwide, to implement the project that can be monitored in terms of its future environmental impact and the integration of its economy.

Likewise, the environmental and the economic impacts is essential if tourism strategies and choices of the destination arewell informed and steps taken, to prevent tourism development exceeding the capacity of the destination. Furthermore, not all of Paris’s areas are attractive, due to their bad reputation, which constitute a slight loss to the local council. Nonetheless, the tourism will be much more influenced by a number of tourists disappointed by their experience and also the changing world situation or the impacts of globalisation. Along with these changes, are other influences which can have moderate impacts or considerable impacts and also possible detrimental effects to people such as the soil, water, air, peace and quiet, landscapes, cultural sites and many more. Therefore, as long as the tourism grows in Paris, much complex system and transport network will expand dramatically, which bring the rejection of the tourism by the local citizen and protecting the environment can give a shape to tourism. Cooper et al (2005)

Bibliography

Boniface, B. Cooper, C (2005) The Geography of travel and Tourism 4th ed. Butter-Heinemann, London.

Cooper, C. Fletcher, J. Gilbert, D. Wan hill, S. (1998) Tourism Principles and

Practice 2nded. Addison Wesley Longman, New York

Cooper, C. Fletcher, J. Fyall, A. Gilbert, D. Wan hill, S (2005) Tourism Principles

and Practice 3rd ed. Pearson: Harlow

Jenks M G (1998) impressionist Paris: the Essential Guide to the cite of light

Libra Journal V 123 Iss 12 Pg 119

Pearce D (1998) Tourist Development, Harlow: Longman

Pioch, N ( 2002) Web Museum, Paris [ online]

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paris/hist/ Accessed on 20th Nov 2010

Ryan, C. Page, J. Stephen, Aicken M (2005) Tacking Tourism to the limits Issues, Concepts and Managerial perspectives. Netherlands

Youell R (1998) Tourism, Longman Singapore

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