Travel broadens our minds

Travel broadens our minds

PROLOGUE

The topic I have chosen is so close to my heart. When I was a little child and heard that we were supposed to travel somewhere I was delighted. The destination did not mater to me. That hasn′t changed since then.

I prefer to travel abroad than to travel within Slovakia. The reason is simple. Foreign things have always promptly caught my attention rather than the domestic ones. Well, in my project I′d like to concentrate on the history of travelling, what it was like to travel in the past, how the invention of car changed the travelling process itself, what were the biggest milestones in means of transport, or how travelling will look like in the future.

1 WHAT IT MEANS TO TRAVEL

According to the Wikipedia the travel is the movement of people or objects (such as airplanes, boats, trains and other conveyances) between relatively distant geographical locations. The origin of the term travel is not certain. It may originate from the French language specifically from the word travail .

2 THE HISTORY OF TRAVELLING

A lot of people consider first travelling expeditions to be matter of the medieval ages. Rarely people think about people of e.g. Ice Age who had to move around as well for various reasons. It could be climate, nourishment, lack of water etc. In the Neolithic age we saw the first sailing vessels and the invention of the wheel, both designed to move people around in different ways and directions. Nomadic hunters and gatherers moved in search of food following seasonally available wild plants and game. 

Kurssi venäjän rupla (RUB) - Venäjä

Then they were Ancient men who began to build roads to facilitate the movement of troops through empires, and eventually civilians began to travel in caravans. A lot of Ancient people travelled the world for the purpose of commerce and trade. They explored new unfamiliar countries and results of their journeys were riches and brand- new valuable products.

Wealthy Greeks and Romans began to travel for leisure to their summer homes and villas by the sea in cities like Pompeii and Baiae. Vikings were well- known explorers. They had a particular skill for sailing. A lot of people do not want to believe that America was discovered by the Vikings in 985 A.D not by Christopher Columbus five centuries later. The legend says that they had discovered America accidentally, when a ship was blown off course on the way to Greenland. In 1001, Leif Eriksson sailed back to explore it further and called it Vinland, or ‘land of pastures’.

2.1 MEDIEVAL AGES

In Medieval times, the most notorious travellers were pilgrims and missionaries. The main aim of their travels was to extend Christianity - to evangelize the people, such as the Celts in Ireland. Picture No. 1 A way of transport in medieval Ages

2.2 HOW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION CHANGED THE ASPECT OF TRAVELLING

New way of transport- rail transit was introduced in the early 19th century, travel was to be revolutionized. The Industrial Revolution in late 18th and early 19th centuries brought leisure travel to Europe. The new middle class which included factory owners and managers had now the time to travel thanks to the faster machinery.
 
One of very experienced travellers of that era was Thomas Cook who put together the first package holiday in history in 1841. The geniality of Thomas Cook is represented by the services he offered his customers then. That included: accommodation, travel tickets, timetables, attractions, currency exchanges, travel guides and tours. The celerifere was an early bicycle invented in 1790 by Frenchmen, Comte Mede de Sivrac. It had no steering and no pedals but it at least looked somewhat like a bicycle.

2.3 THE INVENTION OF CAR

On July 3, 1886, mechanical engineer Karl Benz drove the first automobile in Mannheim, Germany, reaching a top speed of 16 km/h. In 1879 his first engine patent was granted to him.

2.4 THE INVENTION OF AIRPLANE

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina. The flight lasted for 12 seconds. The brothers began their experimentation in flight in 1896 at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Some time later, a so-called Aviator Howard Hughes founded his own aircraft company in the early 1930s. This multi- millionaire film director had passion for designing and building planes. He risked his own life several times when testing planes and setting new world air speed records in the mid- to late 1930s. Besides a huge success in entertainment industry, he is also credited with many innovations in flying.

2.5 PEOPLE ARE TRAVELLING AFTER THE WARS

Air travel was introduced to public after World War II, when the technology was improved and ex-military pilots were ready to fly. Unfortunately, only the rich could afford to travel to their holiday destinations by airplane.

3 PRESENT STATUS OF TRAVELLING OPPORTUNITIES

To travel has never been easier. Nowadays it is not only the wealthy ones but anyone, who can travel anytime and anywhere they like. Options for travelling does still vary from money but the importance of it is not as big as it used to be in the past. There is a range of hotels, boarding houses, hostels, B&Bs all over the world.

Travel industry manages to be as successful as never before. New terms such as Eco-travel, Ethical Travel, Volunteering, Mystical tourism, Dark Tourism, Pop-Culture tourism, Cosmetic Surgery tourism begin to be widely used in today′s society. Especially, we young Slovaks should value the opportunity to travel as we like and should never forget the era which our predecessors lived in, when they mustn’t travel abroad.

4 HOW WILL HUMANS TRAVEL IN THE FUTURE

There already exist some kinds of future- like vehicles that people can buy but the price for one is higher than an ordinary man can afford. The longer these new products are on market the cheaper they are. That’s why I suppose we might buy them in a 10 year time.
 
One thing is for sure and that is that in the future people will travel more in the air and gravity will be no problem for us. Maybe the dream of flying cars is not as unrealistic as one would think. The comfort will be a must in all means of transport. Airplanes will be wider, brighter, coaches will resemble limos etc.

5 TOP DESTINATIONS IN EUROPE AND THE USA

The following chart shows the cities which are said to be the most desirable places in Europe and USA to visit by tourists.

LONDON

15.3 million international visitors in 2011

NEW YORK

47 million foreign and American tourists each year

6 WHICH COUNTRY TRAVELS THE MOST

WorldHum published an article from the press in the year 2006 that stated that Germans took € 86.6 million trips abroad, Britons took € 65.3 million, and Americans took $ 58.3 million. This didn’t necessarily mean those counties were the most travelled internationally. It just meant that those three countries took the most trips abroad in general.

It was estimated that in 2009 German travellers spent $80.8 billion while outside their country, followed by the United States ($73.1 billion), the United Kingdom ($48.5 billion), China ($43.7 billion) and France ($38.9 billion). Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, and the Netherlands got it to the top ten, too.

7 THE MOST TRAVELLED PERSON ON THE EARTH

Charles A. Valey of San Francisco, who has been to 94% of the world and travelled the equivalent of 1,538,686 miles is said to have visited 822 countries out of estimated 872 that the world is made up of. Charles did most of this travels from 1999 to 2003 when his wife gave birth to their daughter and his travel has decreased. "I always enjoyed any opportunity that forced me out of my comfort zone and out into the culture . . . Plus, you wind up with more interesting souvenirs. I ran out of toothpaste in Russia once. Every time I used the Crest at home for the next few months I was reminded of Russia because the Crest came with Russian instructions on the label "says Charles A. Valey.

8 DOES TRAVELLING REALLY BROADEN OUR MINDS?

In my opinion, it does. Every time we travel we have opportunity to meet new cultures, nationalities, to learn new customs, to change our opinions of people of other origins, to learn a language, to experience another way of life. When we travel we open gates to whole different worlds.

RESUME

In the conclusion, I would like to shortly sum up the parts of my project. In the first chapter I explained the term travel and the origin of the word. The history of travelling was widely presented in following chapter 2.

This chapter included the most information as it could offer various interesting facts which I considered inevitable to mention them in the project. In the chapter 3 you could learn about current situation in travel industry whereas in the chapter 4 you could agree or disagree with my opinion of the travelling in future.

I find the last two chapters most interesting and grabbing as it presents top ten destinations on both sides of the Atlantic and a man who can easily say that he has travelled the earth.