Page 262 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 262
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
Introduction
Travel, has been throughout history practiced for different reasons, such
as business, trade, education, health, cultural, religious, adventures and
other purposes. Travellers needed accommodation, food, guidance and
other supplies while on the road, which was organised and sometimes pro-
vided by the local inhabitants of the visited places, especially in the peri-
od when the modern tourism organisation structure had not been develo-
ped yet. The sole motive for a visit to the area under discussion, the Karst
territory, was not pleasure and leisure, but was mostly linked to educatio-
nal or adventurous purposes. The impact of “tourism” on the local popu-
lation can be identified already in the pre-industrial period. As early as the
Early Modern period, many researchers, adventurers and those who made
the Grand Tour were attracted to local points of interest, such as the caves,
the Cerknica intermittent lake, Idrija mercury mine, and the like, for their
natural assets.
Tourism and its pre-modern activities influenced also non-agricultur-
al activities of the rural population in the areas surrounding the visited at-
tractions and in the new tourism centres of pleasure and leisure during
the 19th century. The local population explored the possibilities of new ac-
tivities, such as seasonal employment in tourist resorts by working in ho-
tels or restaurants, transporting tourists, or selling agricultural products to
tourists or the resort itself. Another non-agricultural activity specific to the
Karst was linked to the visiting of the caves. In fact, besides accommoda-
tion and transport, the local rural population was the main or sometimes
the only contact with the visitor also offering guidance and providing light-
ing in the underground world.
In this article I am not going to focus on the sole visiting purposes
or itineraries of the visitors in the period from the 16th to the 19th century,
but my interest is to acknowledge whether the activities of travelling could
have influenced non-agricultural activities in the area of the Karst region
in the pre-industrial and partly in the period of industrialisation and mod-
ernisation. This kind of supply is mostly mentioned in the traveller’s dia-
ries or similar publications, but it is not registered as a kind of non-agrarian
source of peasant income. When we analyse the period of industrialisa-
tion with the development of an organised tourist service, such an activity
can be better followed, since different sources (i.e. local newspapers, local
tourist guidebooks and other similar promotional publications) mention
the involvement of rural population in tourist transactions (food suppli-
260
Introduction
Travel, has been throughout history practiced for different reasons, such
as business, trade, education, health, cultural, religious, adventures and
other purposes. Travellers needed accommodation, food, guidance and
other supplies while on the road, which was organised and sometimes pro-
vided by the local inhabitants of the visited places, especially in the peri-
od when the modern tourism organisation structure had not been develo-
ped yet. The sole motive for a visit to the area under discussion, the Karst
territory, was not pleasure and leisure, but was mostly linked to educatio-
nal or adventurous purposes. The impact of “tourism” on the local popu-
lation can be identified already in the pre-industrial period. As early as the
Early Modern period, many researchers, adventurers and those who made
the Grand Tour were attracted to local points of interest, such as the caves,
the Cerknica intermittent lake, Idrija mercury mine, and the like, for their
natural assets.
Tourism and its pre-modern activities influenced also non-agricultur-
al activities of the rural population in the areas surrounding the visited at-
tractions and in the new tourism centres of pleasure and leisure during
the 19th century. The local population explored the possibilities of new ac-
tivities, such as seasonal employment in tourist resorts by working in ho-
tels or restaurants, transporting tourists, or selling agricultural products to
tourists or the resort itself. Another non-agricultural activity specific to the
Karst was linked to the visiting of the caves. In fact, besides accommoda-
tion and transport, the local rural population was the main or sometimes
the only contact with the visitor also offering guidance and providing light-
ing in the underground world.
In this article I am not going to focus on the sole visiting purposes
or itineraries of the visitors in the period from the 16th to the 19th century,
but my interest is to acknowledge whether the activities of travelling could
have influenced non-agricultural activities in the area of the Karst region
in the pre-industrial and partly in the period of industrialisation and mod-
ernisation. This kind of supply is mostly mentioned in the traveller’s dia-
ries or similar publications, but it is not registered as a kind of non-agrarian
source of peasant income. When we analyse the period of industrialisa-
tion with the development of an organised tourist service, such an activity
can be better followed, since different sources (i.e. local newspapers, local
tourist guidebooks and other similar promotional publications) mention
the involvement of rural population in tourist transactions (food suppli-
260
