Once upon a time there was the age of "cultural tourism"

"I believe tourists are very useful to the modern world: it is very difficult to hate the people one knows" (J. Steinbeck, Shaping the Culture of Peace in a Multilateral World 2005). To better deal with Museums and Cultural Tourism we will start taking into consideration tourism and the main stages characterizing its evolution starting from the era of aristocratic tourism, “grand tourers” and then moving on to mass tourism and finally reaching cultural tourism and sustainable tourism, the latter often associated with the cultural one. This to better understand evolution of Tourism and Tourists including the newcomers. Before the twentieth century, tourism was reserved for a category of privileged travellers. Tourism was in all respects a luxury asset. The richest and most affluent classes leave for vacation or long adventure trips without financial worries. The eighteenth century marks the beginning of tourism, the beginning of the industrial revolution in England corresponds to an evolution of Western society, this habit extended in the nineteenth century. Writers like Rousseau and the pre-romantics discover the importance of nature, Lord Byron in 1810 visited Athens and Cape Sunion [Aκρωτήριο Σούνιο - Akrotírio Soúnio] where was rapt by the beauty of the Poseidon temple. Similar tours in Rome, Naples and Sicily where “grand tourers” discovered the beauty of classic Greek and Roman architecture and arts. The development of transport induced by the industrial society provides tourism with better means and a more abundant clientele: the bourgeoisie, anxious to see and to show itself. The large hotel thus becomes a very lucrative investment, which stimulates the entrepreneurship of characters who have become famous, like the Swiss César Ritz. Another great classic of tourism sees the light in 1900: the first edition of the Michelin guide. In 1910 the Office National de Tourisme was created in France, in 1913 the law on the protection of historical monuments was promulgated. The beginnings of modern tourism can be found around the Thirties. By the end of the 1950s, however, with the spread of the automobile and the expansion of the motorway network throughout the countries internal tourism became increasingly common, developing the accommodation system of hotels, villages, campsites, holiday homes and the like.