Stressful vs Travelling

Tourism is travelling for pleasure or to enjoy yourself away from the place you live.  People do this for many different reasons – to have fun, visit other countries and learn about other cultures or just relax from stressful working life. Tourists go to various destinations - countries with great landmarks, places with lovely beaches or simply areas of wilderness and untouched nature.

In the last few decades tourism has grown very much, mostly because people’s lifestyles have changed. They don’t want to stay at home any more. They spend more money on travelling than previous generations did. Travelling has also become cheaper and more affordable. The rise of budget airlines has made it possible to afford trips to faraway countries.

Types of Tourism

• Beach tourism
  Many tourists spend their holidays on beaches. They relax, go bathing or just enjoy the salty sea breeze and the ocean. Spending holidays on beaches has had a long tradition for over one and a half centuries. 
• Winter tourism
  Winter tourism started out in the middle of the 19th century when wealthy Europeans went to St. Moritz and other alpine resorts. In Europe and in the American Rockies skiing resorts attract millions of people every year. Various lifts bring skiers to altitudes of over 3,000 meters.
• Medical tourism
  People go to other countries for medical treatment and operations. Irish women, for example, go to the UK because abortions are forbidden in their country.  West Europeans go to Eastern Europe for dental treatment. Americans go to Mexico for plastic surgeryand other operations.
• Educational tourism
  Young people live as exchange students in other countries, where they go to school and study the language and culture of the hostcountry.
• Sports tourism
  An increasing number of sports fans travel to places where special events are being held. The Olympic Games and world championships attract visitors from around the world. 
• Package Holidays
  Organized tours were started in the middle of the 19th century by a British businessman, Thomas Cook. Package tours are made up of travel to and accommodation at the destination. A tourist agency often provides everything from a plane flight to a rental car. Sometimes such package tours offer a combination of beach holidays and sightseeing trip.
• Spa Tourism
  Spas have been popular since Roman times. In 16th century Britain Bath became the center of spa tourism for the rich population. During the 19th century spas emerged all over Europe. Today people go to spas for the healing effect of mineral waters as well as for offer wellness treatment, massages, steam baths and other services.
• Adventure tourism
  In the past few decades trips to faraway exotic places have become popular. Tourists looking for thrilling activities go mountaineering, rafting, trekking , or even to remote places in the rainforest.
• Religious tourism
  Religious tourists go on pilgrimages to holy sites. Roman Catholics, for example, travel to Lourdes, Fatima or the Vatican in Europe. Muslims are required to go to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Varanasi , on the banks of the Ganges River, is the spiritual capital of the Hindus.
• Ecotourism
  Recently many people have chosen a type of tourism that does not damage the environment. They avoid travelling by plane or do not buy souvenirs that are made out of endangered plants and animals. Some holiday offers give tourists the chance to take part inenvironmental projects.

Airboating in the Everglades - Stan Shebs

 

History of tourism

People have been travelling for pleasure since ancient times.  In ancient Egypt, religious festivals attracted people from the whole NileValley. Ancient Greeks travelled regularly to the site of their gods. Romans travelled to Greece, Sicily and other places in the empire. Wealthy Romans had second homes near the sea where they spent the summer.

During the Renaissance educated Europeans embarked on what was called the Grand Tour , a trip to several European countries to enjoy art and architecture and get educated.

In the 19th century the invention of the steam engine made it possible for people to travel by boat and train. Regular passenger servicesfrom Europe to America started in the 20th century. The invention of the automobile made it possible to travel larger distances by car.

In the 1960s going on holidays by plane became affordable for many. Jumbo jets of the early 1970s were capable of carrying over 400 passengers and reducing costs of travelling to other continents even further.

 

Importance of tourism for countries

Tourism is a worldwide industry. In many countries it is the most important largest source of income. Global tourism is growing at a rate of 4% a year.

The tourist industry provides jobs and brings a country foreign currencies. Many groups profit from tourism: travel agencies, store owners ,airports and airlines, hotels, restaurants, etc..

However, mass tourism, can also lead to environmental problems. It can pollute beaches or create noise in otherwise quiet regions. Popular tourist attractions must be controlled by authorities.

 

Recent developments in tourism

In the past years there has been a trend towards shorter holiday breaks during the year. People like to take a few days off to travel. The internet has changed the way people organize their holidays. Booking plane tickets online is easy and prices are often lower than with travel agents.

International tourism has suffered many drawbacks, like the 9/11 attacks, which made security at airports stricter and travelling more difficult. The tsunami that hit Southeast Asia in 2004 killed over 250,000 people including thousands of tourists. 

Nunavut’s

Nunavut’s vast size and harsh climate enabled its sparse Inuit population to preserve their traditional nomadic lifestyle as hunters and fishers for centuries after Europeans settled in southern Canada. Nunavut’s Inuit have also managed to maintain their intricate carving skills, unique music, and Inuktitut language, the mother tongue of about 65 percent of Nunavut’s population.

History

Nunavut may have always been a vast land with a small population, but the Inuit have called the area home for at least 4,000 years. Originally whale hunters, the Inuit adopted their current seal and caribou hunting lifestyle about 500 years ago. The Nunatta Sunaqutangit Museum (Building Number 212, Iqaluit) is the best place to learn more about Inuit culture, especially on days when resident elders share firsthand stories.

Although some people believe the Viking explorers who briefly settled in northern Newfoundland made it as far north as Baffin Island around the year 1000, this has yet to be officially confirmed despite archeological discoveries of European artifacts at Cape Banfield in 2008. Nunavut’s first documented European visitor was English explorer Martin Frobisher, who believed he discovered gold ore near the bay which now bears his name during his 1576 Northwest Passage quest.

Robert Bylot, Henry Hudson, and William Baffin also ventured into the far north during the 16th century in an attempt to find the elusive Northwest Passage leading to Asia’s riches. However, no European would successfully sail across until Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen’s voyage between 1903 and 1905. Visitors can learn more about Amundsen and his relationship with the local Inuit at the Northwest Passage Trail (Gjoa Haven).

The Inuit continued to live their traditional lifestyle for centuries until the early 1950’s, when the Canadian government forcibly relocated several tribes from northern Québec to two isolated High Arctic communities called Grise Fiord and Resolute. Many of these people starved and had great difficulty adjusting to their permanent new homes. The government formally apologized for their involvement in 2010.

Although discussion of a separate Inuit territory began in 1976, official agreements were not finished until 1992. The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act officially became law in 1993, and Nunavut became Canada’s newest territory in 1999. Although Nunavut suffered some growing pains during its first decade as a separate territory, its people have always been proud and its future has never looked brighter.

Culture

Nunavut’s Inuit have done a tremendous job of preserving their culture throughout the centuries. Inuktitut is Nunavut’s dominant language and the territory has its own Inuit Broadcasting Corporation. Traditional arts such as soapstone carving, throat singing, and dancing to the beat of ancient drums are all very much alive in Nunavut.

However, Nunavut’s Inuit have also branched out into more modern media. Fiddles, accordions, and other European instruments have been mixed into musical performances. The Nunavut Animation Lab offers animation training workshops in three Nunavut communities, while Igloolik’s Artcirq circus troupe has performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics and countless other venues around the world. Throat singer Tanya Tagaq has collaborated with the likes of Björk and the Kronos Quartet.

CULTURE & TRADITION

“This is the way we have always existed, using seals. I don’t think our ancestors would have survived if there had been no seal”.
- Johnny Meeko Sr., Sanikiluaq, Nunavut

Ringed seals have sustained countless generations of Inuit families with their highly nutritious meat. The beautiful pelt is made into garments and footwear that keep the bitter Arctic cold away from the body. The oil, once used for fuel and lighting igloos, is still used to light qulliq lamps to begin meetings and ceremonies.

The seal remains an important resource in the Arctic today as the traditional subsistence economy adjusts to the challenges of the future. Seals and other forms of wildlife continue to hold great economic and cultural promise as northern communities continue to adapt to contemporary living.

Inuit harvesting techniques have evolved with this change in lifestyle however the tradition of sharing remains. The seal hunt preserves the detailed knowledge of and respect for marine ecosystems that comes from living in harmony with the land and water. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, the Inuit way of knowing, includes knowledge of wildlife and nature.

Sealing in Nunavut is not simply about the hunt; it’s about gaining first-hand knowledge of wildlife and the environment, sharing food among the community, preparing skins for clothing, preserving traditional skills, transferring knowledge from elders to youth, and celebrating Inuit cultural values.

People of Nunavut

The Inuit of Nunavut are a very young ancient culture!

The total current population of Nunavut (as of 2011) is estimated to be around 33,330 people, the vast majority (84%) of whom are Inuit. Of the approximately 28,000 Inuit living in Nunavut, more than half of them reside in the eastern Qikiqtaaluk region of the territory and, remarkably, they are mostly young people. Nearly three quarters of all the Inuit living in Nunavut today are less than 40 years old.

Population distribution of Nunavut

Nunavut

33,330

Qikiqtaaluk		17,820	(54%)
Kivalliq		9,496	(28%)
Kitikmeot		5,984	(18%)

Female		16,020	(48%)
Male		17,310	(52%)

Age	0-19	13,665	(41%)
	20-39	10,665	(32%)
	40-59	7,000	(21%)
	60+	2,000	(06%)

Source: Statistics Canada & Nunavut Bureau of Statistics

Indigenous People of Nunavut

Nunavut has supported a continuous indigenous population for over 4,000 years. Archaeologists and geneticists are now certain that the predecessors of today's Inuit originated in the area of the Bering Strait, which separates Asia from North America. The first indigenous group, known as Paleo-Eskimos, crossed the Bering Strait sometime around 3000 BC and moved into the Canadian Arctic Archipelago around 2500 BC, apparently because of a change in climate. From there they followed marine mammals and herds of big game land animals across all of Nunavut to Greenland.

Paleo-Eskimo Culture: 2500 BC to 1500 BC

Pre-Dorset Culture ('Saqqaq'): 2500 BC to 500 BC

Dorset Culture ('Tuniit' or 'Sivullirmiut'): 500 BC to 1500 AD

Thule Culture (Proto-Inuit): 1000 AD to 1600 AD

Inuit Culture (Eskimo): 1600 AD to present-day

Paleo-Eskimo Culture

Paleo-Eskimo people inhabited the entire Arctic from Chukotka in present-day Russia across North America to Greenland prior to the rise of the ancient Thule and modern Inuit. The first known Paleo-Eskimo culture in Nunavut developed around 2500 BC.

In 2010, using fragments of hair 4,000 years old, scientists from the National Museum of Denmark and Beijing Genomics Institute sequenced nearly 80% of an ancient Paleo-Eskimo man's genome. He was found in Greenland and he belonged to the Saqqaq culture. Based on his genome, scientists conclude that his people migrated from Siberia to North America 5,000 years ago, then to Greenland 500 years later. This ancient man — dubbed 'Inuk' — had A+ blood type and genes suggesting he was adapted to cold weather, with brown eyes, brownish skin and dark hair, with a likelihood of male pattern baldness in his old age.

Ancient Nunavut descendents of Paleo-Eskimo people include the Pre-Dorset and Dorset cultures. The Dorset people were the last major Paleo-Eskimo culture living in the Arctic before the migration east from present-day Alaska of the Thule, the direct ancestors of the Inuit.

Pre-Dorset Culture

The Pre-Dorset culture was a Paleo-Eskimo group of people who settled on the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and in northern Greenland around 2500 BC, lasting to around 500 BC. The names 'Dorset' and 'Pre-Dorset' come from Cape Dorset, Baffin Island. This place was the location of archaeological remains that, in 1925, the Canadian anthropologist Diamond Jenness identified as originating from a previously unknown 'Dorset' culture. In central Nunavut, they fished with barbed spears and hunted muskoxen and caribou with bow and arrow. Near the coast they hunted seals, walruses and small whales by throwing harpoons from the shore and sea ice. They lived in temporary settlements of skin tents and perhaps also constructed snow houses. Their tools and weapons had remarkably small cutting edges chipped from stone, which has led some archaeologists to refer to the Pre-Dorset culture and the related Denbigh Flint Complex in Alaska as the 'Arctic Small Tool tradition.' They developed into the Dorset culture around 500 BC.

Dorset Culture

The Dorset culture (also called the Dorset Tradition) was a Paleo-Eskimo descendent group of people living in Nunavut from 500 BC to 1500 AD who preceded the arrival of the Thule people. Through contact with the more advanced Thule culture, and potentially also through intermarriage, some anthropologists believe that modern Inuit are at least related culturally and perhaps also biologically to the ancient Dorset.

Dorset culture used unique technology related to hunting and tool making. They made distinctive triangular blades, soapstone lamps and engraving tools called burins. Scholars believe that the Dorset (and later the Thule) had contact with Norse sailors who visited Baffin Island from 1000 AD to 1450 AD. The Vikings derisively called these people 'Skræling' yet they outlasted the ancient Norse!

The Dorset were, however, nearly extinct by 1500 AD. They had difficulty adapting to the Medieval Warm Period (950 AD - 1250 AD) and were largely displaced by the superior Thule culture. Certain Inuit legends describe their ancestors driving away the people they called 'Tuniit' or 'Sivullirmiut' (first inhabitants). According to Inuit legend, they were timid giants, people who were taller and stronger than the Thule, but who were easily scared off.

The last vestige of Dorset people disappeared in the early 20th century. A small, isolated community of Dorset known as the Sallirmiut survived until the winter of 1902-1903 on Coats, Walrus and Southampton Islands in Hudson Bay near the present-day Nunavut community of Coral Harbour. DNA testing has confirmed these people were directly related to the Dorset.

Thule Culture

The Thule people, sometimes called proto-Inuit, were the direct ancestors of all modern Inuit. They were established in coastal Alaska by 1000 AD and expanded eastwards across Canada, reaching Greenland by the 13th century. In the process, they replaced people of the earlier Dorset culture that had previously inhabited the region. The name 'Thule' originates from the community of Thule (renamed Qaanaaq in 1953) in northwestern Greenland where the archaeological remains of these unique people were first discovered. The links between the Thule and the Inuit are biological, cultural, and linguistic.

Archaeological evidence has demonstrated that the Thule (and also the Dorset, but to a lesser degree) were in contact with the Norse, who had reached the shores of Canada by 1000 AD. In the Viking Sagas, this indigenous Nunavut people was also called 'Skræling.'

Some Thule people migrated southward in the 'Second Expansion' or 'Second Phase' of their history. From 1200 AD to 1300 AD, the Thule occupied the entire area currently inhabited by the Central Inuit. By 1400 AD, the Thule had effectively replaced most of the Dorset culture. Contact with Europeans intensified in the 18th century, disrupting Thule traditions. Compounded by the climatic effects of the Little Ice Age (1650 AD - 1850 AD), many Thule communities broke apart and this nomadic indigenous people became known to Europeans and Americans as Eskimo and later, more correctly, as Inuit.

The Thule people are recognized historically for using slate knives, umiaks, sealskin floats and toggling harpoons. Their technology was superior to the Dorset culture. Thule people subsisted primarily on marine wildlife species — especially large sea mammals. Thule winter settlements usually had one to four houses sheltering up to ten people each. Some Thule settlements had more than a dozen houses, but were rarely used by more than fifty people at any one time. Their houses were constructed of whalebones covered with hides and sod. Archaeological remains of these ancient Thule structures, including food cache sites, kayak stands, hunting blinds, fox traps and other artifacts are found all across Nunavut.

Inuit Culture

The Inuktitut word 'Inuit' means 'human beings' or 'the people.' This name refers to the indigenous people of Nunavut, as well as those living in the Northwest Territories, Greenland and Alaska.

The traditional lifestyle of the Inuit is remarkably adapted to extreme arctic conditions. Their essential skills for survival have always been hunting, fishing and trapping. Agriculture was never possible in the enormous tundra landscapes and icy coasts stretching across the top of the world from Siberia to Greenland. (The ancient Norse of Greenland tried agriculture and failed.)

Hunting is at the core of Inuit culture. Everyday life in modern Inuit communities, some established only a few decades ago, still reflects the five thousand year old history of a nomadic hunter-gatherer tradition that allowed the Inuit people and their great ancestors to achieve one of the most remarkable human accomplishments of all time — the successful population of the Arctic!

Some Europeans and Americans still refer to the Inuit as Eskimos, but the Inuit people consider that term to be pejorative. European colonists and explorers adopted this old Algonquin name for the Inuit, but the correct Inuktitut term is 'Inuit' — the name they call themselves, the plural word for all the Inuit people. The proper singular Inuktitut term for an individual Inuit person is 'Inuk.'