The historical origins of tourist and tourism in Spain: Tourist demand in the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article attempts to offer a first overview to the evolution of tourism from the perspective of demand in Spain during the 19th century. Despite the scarcity of statistical material, a first approach is made about the tourists and their tourist practices in this century based on heterogeneous information collected in the press and different sources, such as tourist guides. In this way, it is noted that the country modestly added to the tourism trends that started in the more advanced European countries. The study of the term tourist in a broad sense, collected throughout the 19th century, is a good representation of the different tourist modalities in Spain. First, travellers, then bathers, users of thermal baths and sea baths, and finally, summer vacationers, and hikers attest to the country's tourism progression despite its still limited integration into the international tourist flow.