Origins of sightseeing

Abstract

Sightseeing has not always held its present pride of place in travel ritual. The senses have received differing kinds of attention from codifiers of travel conventions. Between 1600 and 1800, treatises on travel method shifted from a scholastic focus upon touring as an opportunity for discourse, to enthusiasm for travel as "eyewitness" observation. In the course of this shift in attention from the traveler's ear and tongue to the traveler's eye, many of the conventions of sightseeing performance were first developed. The historical "visualization" of travel experience is to be understood in relation to cultural and social features of the period. Le tourisme n'a pas toujours voulu dire "aller VOIR les curiosités." Dans l'histoire du voyage on trouve la "visualisation de la perception" dont ont parlé les historiens. Entre 1600 et 1800 les discours sur l'art de bien voyager ont commencé à faire plus attention à l'oeil du voyageur qu'aux autres sens, ce qui correspond aux courants philosophiques et sociaux de l'époque.