ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the origins of tourism as a subject of study and to examine and explain the ways in which it has developed over the last 40 years or so. The chapter draws particularly on the experience of the UK, which is where some of the earliest programmes developed and to that extent it provides a national perspective. However, the issues and patterns that it presents are replicated, often with different timescales, in many other parts of the world.
