THE tourism and hotel industries are known as “Invisible Exports”, as they bring money into the country without having to export anything. The two industries are interdependent and one cannot survive without the other.
Tourism is synonymous with travel. The earliest and most well known record of tourism is probably The Travels of Marco Polo, which described the journey of the legendary Venetian (1254-1324) from Europe to Asia, passing through many countries en route and covering the historic Silk Route during the period 1271 to 1295.
After him came the traveller-cum-explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), who discovered America in 1492, and Captain James Cook (1728-1779), who toured the Pacific region. Another famous record about travels is the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer and published in 1484, which described the pilgrimage from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St Thomas a’Becket.
According to official statistics of United Nations World Travel Organisation (UMWTO), France was the country most visited by tourists in 2007 with 81.9 million arrivals, followed by Spain with 59.2 million, United States (56 million), China (54.7 million) and Italy (43.7 million).
In terms of income, the USA topped the list with USD$96.7 billion, followed by Spain with $57.8 billion, France ($54.2 billion), Italy ($42.7 billion) and China ($41.9 billion).
The most-visited city was London, with 15.64 million visitors, then Bangkok with 10.3 million, Paris (9.70 million), Singapore (9.5 million) and Hong Kong (8.14 million). It should be noted that three out of the top five are Asian cities.
Tourism has now expanded beyond the conventional pilgrimages and sightseeing tours, with the emergence of such forms as eco-tourism, medical tourism, educational tourism and cultural tourism. The next category appears to be space tourism, which is expected to make its debut in the first quarter of this century.
The essential partner for tourism is a hotel. It has been so since the time of the Roman Emperors, when hotels were known as mansionis. Records show that the earliest hotel still in existence was founded by a priest called St Bernard of Montjoux in the 10th century in the Great St Bernard Pass, in the Swiss Alps. It is still being looked after by Augustinian priests today. The Travels of Marco Polo also show that hotels existed in Europe and Asia in the 13th century.
Hotels used to be near wharfs and jetties when the principle mode of travel was by boats and ships. When horse drawn stage coaches appeared in the 18th century, they sprang up near main roads. In the 19th century travelling became faster and more convenient with the advent of locomotives and trains. More people travelled and the number of hotels mushroomed.
More places for travellers appeared, under various names like inns, taverns, lodges, boarding houses, guesthouses, hostels, rooming houses, resorts, motels, bars, pensions and greasy spoons. A greasy spoon is slang for a cheap hotel, apparently.
The hotel business boomed and the smaller hotels gave way to larger and luxurious ones. The first of these was the Waldorf Astoria of New York, which gained high acclaim and it became a sign of status for celebrities and millionaires to stay there.
The first luxury hotel in Europe was Savoy of London. There was no electricity yet then and the Savoy was the first to provide it through the hotel’s own generator.
Good as they were, only the rich could afford to stay there because they were expensive. This led to the emergence of a new generation of less expensive hotels. Elsworth Milton Statler of Buffalo, USA, became the pioneer of this line when he founded the Statler Hotel. It soon captured the market of the middle class businessmen. The success encouraged Statler to build more hotels under the same name and gave rise to what has now come to be known as the hotel chain. Other chains appeared, including the Regent, Marriot, Hyatt and Sheraton to name a few. Traders, Sedona and Nikko of Yangon belong to such chains. Those who could not afford to set up their own hotels, operate under what is called a “franchise operation” of these chains.
The hotel business swelled into an enormous global industry and the competition resulted in better services. Buildings became taller and larger, with many rooms. The first of these was the Stevens Hotel in Chicago (later called the Conrad Hilton), with 3000 rooms. The Soviet Union, not to be outdone, built a larger one called Hotel Rossiya and edged Stevens into second place on the room count.
Motels, a hybrid term of motor and hotel, then emerged in the ’50s when more and more tourists began travelling in their own cars. They were usually located in areas easily accessible by cars, away from the dense traffic of downtown. Motel business improved rapidly and some hotels added extra amenities like swimming pools to upgrade them.
After World War II, flying became the standard form of travelling. International travel increased markedly and this led to higher demand for places to stay, which gave birth to another generation of hotel – budget hotels.
These sprang up in the ’60s and ’70s and became popular with less-affluent business-men. Japan then came up with the “capsule hotel”. As the name suggests, the rooms are very small with just a bed and the bare minimum facilities. They attracted travellers with a limited budget, like backpackers.
Hotels can be classified into three types: transient, resort and residential hotels. The first are those where guests stay for a few nights in transit. Resort hotels are more for people to relax and are usually found in spacious grounds, near beaches and scenic places.
Residential hotels are serviced apartments for longer stays. Examples in Yangon include the Micasa, Marina and Sakura Residence, which provide a dining room and kitchenette in addition to a bedroom.
