Tourism and Urbanization, An Interconnected Evolution

Abstract

While there is extensive literature on the evolution of tourism and the urbanization process, the interlinks between these two evolutions are not yet fully explored; maybe because they are separate disciplines, or taught independently of each other. This research navigates the spatial dimension of travel evolution alongside the attendant expansion of the urbanization process. It defines the nexus between tourism as a global demand and the physical infrastructure that accommodates such a force. The built environment, manifested in both its urban forms and its systems of mobility, is shaped by, and has been shaping, many factors including tourism. Using comparative narratives that describes tourist curiosity, the tourism routs and the tourism destinations across time, this work further explores the historical relationship between urbanization and tourism by emphasizing how the evolution of each has influenced the other. Itanalyzes different eras and identifies how the tourist, the travel mode and the destination have influenced each other through time. Considered one of the world's oldest tourist destinations, Egypt is used here to demonstrate the interlocking relationship of tourism and urbanization. The research concludes that appreciating these two phenomena in isolation proves challenging insofar as the evolution of tourism through time can not only be attributed to the tourism demand but also to the shape and form of the destination and the mobile systems available in each era and locale.