Page 261 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 2

Muhammed Demiralp

Introduction

Tourism activities have represented an important sector throughout history.
Tourism activities bring about important results not only in terms of recreation
and social context, but also in economic and environment contexts. The
earliest tourism activities are considered to be the visits to the temples
in Egypt in 3000 B.C., and the ensuing security measures taken and the
accommodation facilities built, as well as the participation of the competitors
and audience in the Olympic games held by the Greeks (Barutçugil, 1984: 28,
Bayer, 1992: 12). From 369 A.D. to the conquest of Istanbul, that is, the period
that corresponds to the spread of Islam and Christianity around the world,
led to the emergence of religious tourism (Acuner, 2006: 15). In 1941, the first
organized tourism activity was the journey by train organized by Thomas Cook
for 570 people between Letter and Lough Borough for a horse racing event.
(Bayer, 1992: 11). Until the period of modern tourism, which started with World
War I, fundamental aims for the participation of individuals in tourism activities
were considered to be elements such as travel, beliefs, entertainment and
culture (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2012: 17).
Today, there is a lot of tourism mobility for different purposes and with
different themes, especially in the areas of sea, conference, health, mountain
climbing, belief, tableland, culture and gastronomy tourism. Consequently,
the economic volume of tourism has reached to an important level. According
to the international tourism expenditure statistics issued by UN World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) in 2021, the international tourism expenditure, which
was 496 billion US dollar in 2000, increased over the years and reached
1,5 trillion US dollar in 2019. Graph 1 shows the relevant increase in the
international tourism expenditure between 2000 and 2020. The main reason
for the dramatic fall in tourism expenditures in 2020 is the restrictions imposed
due to COVID-19 pandemic (UNSD-CCSA, 2021: 28).

247 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate