Landscape and Transport Tourism is a tertiary economic activity. Its services include entertainment and cultural exchange. Tourists are people who travel for leisure outside their local area (town, city or country).
The physical landscape stimulates tourism. We will examine how the landscape (notably mountains and beaches) and climate influence tourism. We will also look at how tourism relies on and affects transport.
Western Europe is one of the world’s most developed tourist areas. Let’s examine two popular tourist destinations, the Alps and the Mediterranean.
Case Study: The Alps
As you learned in Chapter 4, the Alps are a mountain system located in south-central Europe. They extend for almost 1,200 km, stretching across seven European countries.
2. The Alpine region GERMANY
Managing information and thinking:
Looking at figure 2, identify and name the Alpine countries that
are landlocked. Which of the seven countries consists of the largest Alpine region?
LIECHTENSTEIN SWITZERLAND FRANCE ITALY AUSTRIA SLOVENIA
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Fun Fact!
The tourism business is at least 2,000 years old. It began when the wealthy citizens of ancient Rome decided they would rather spend their summers away from the city, and took trips to the countryside and coast.
