A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location that is close enough to make a round-trip within a day but does not require an overnight stay. The logistics and/or costs of spending nights on the road are worth avoiding. Such travel of using one location as a homebase is popular with budget and active travelers to avoid finding new lodging at each destination. A caregiver may take a day trip from their home to return to their children or pets.

History

In medieval times a destination for such a trip would be religious (to a nearby shrine) or commercial (for example, to a seasonal

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

). Later, in England, visits to

stately home An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

s by those who regarded themselves middle class became frequent, and it was the tradition to reward the

butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

or housekeeper with a tip (gratuity) for providing access to their employer's home. As such homes were meant for show, it is unlikely that the owning family would object, provided they were not in residence at the time. The arrival of the

railway excursion An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes. Public transportatio ...

, often using Day Tripper tickets, in the mid 19th century saw the blossoming of a distinctive day-tripper industry. Trippers also travelled in their thousands by

paddlesteamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

to the many piers around Victorian era seaside resorts. The

General Slocum The PS ''General Slocum''"PS" stands for "Paddle Steamer" was a sidewheel passenger steamboat built in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891. During her service history, she was involved in a number of mishaps, including multiple groundings and collision ...

excursion was an example. Cycling became a very popular day-tripper activity, especially amongst urban and

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

workers, from the mid-1880s onwards. Coach and

charabanc A charabanc or "char-à-banc" (often pronounced "sharra-bang" in colloquial British English) is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It has "ben ...

outings followed as the internal combustion engine became reliable enough to get the paying customers out and back again. Works outings and church or chapel excursions were extremely popular until the 1970s. While all of the foregoing still exist, the modern day-tripper experience is usually by motor car as a result of the growth of car ownership. Also, airlines such as (formerly) Palmair promote day trips.

Statistics

In Germany in 2011, day trips were the predominant type of tourism. According to figures from the Hanover Chamber of Industry and Commerce, 2.84 billion day trippers spent an average of 28 euros in total (gross) that year, around 79.5 billion euros and 564 million Day business travelers €14.2 billion. Other surveys also assume an added value of between €20 and €30 per day tourist. The city of Berlin has, on average, calculated an added value of €32.50 per visitor in recent years with 132 million day visitors. The numbers are i. i.e. R. collected by a representative survey in the source area (survey at the place of residence). The reason for a day stay is often to visit local attractions or sights, to visit sports and leisure facilities, museums, cultural events such as musicals, opera/operettas, concerts and theater performances or just to shop in the city's shops.''68 Millionen Tagesausflüge in die Heimat – Studie Tagestourismus in der Metropolregion Hamburg''.
Metropolregion Hamburg, 7 December 2011

References

Types of tourism {{Tourism-stub

History

Statistics

See also

References