Japanese since ancient times were inveterate travelers - when one person was going to make a pilgrimage to holy places, the way he dumped the whole village - taking into account the fact that he will bring souvenirs for everyone.
Thus, it turned out that a person has personally visited the shrine. Mass participation was key to continuing boom for the hotel, and for the gift business. Even in those days were approved (not publicly, of course) many pilgrim routes - you can select one of the 88 temples of Shikoku Island, sacred places of the Western provinces, or to climb Fuji-sama.
In the era of Tokugawa shogunate displacement is strictly regulated, but the pilgrimage is not imposed any restrictions, and very often these trips were entertaining for the common people. At the same time each daimyo was required to spend some time in Edo (Tokyo), and some - in their ancestral lands, so there was constant rotation of the daimyo and their entourage from different parts of the country in its capital, and vice versa. This required the establishment of appropriate facilities for travelers and ordering of communications in the country as a whole.
In the Meiji period (1868 - 1912) in the country has been built an extensive network of railways, and this has greatly facilitated the commission of travel. However, although all could wander freely, few did it for fun - of course, except for the rich. Only in the late 50s, became popular when the group tours to hot springs, sponsored by companies to their employees in Japan began to develop a genuine tourism industry, focused on the mass market.
Further increase in living standards and the five-day distribution of the workers made a notable contribution to the development of tourism in the country. Particularly lively it gets in the so-called "golden week" (April 29 - May 5), which accounts for four national holiday, and in the August week in the middle of this month, when the Japanese commemorate the deceased ancestors. Group tours are still popular, but modern Japanese are increasingly travel in the company of family and friends, staying in resorts that offer sporting and recreational opportunities.
At present tourism industry as part of the economy is undergoing some significant changes - more Japanese ships travel the native (and only) country and they make high demands on the quality of services provided. The system includes the transport and tourism hotel services, brokerage services, arranging travel, as well as the production and sale of souvenirs.
