The Interactive Relationship Between Man and the Mountainous Environment: From Urbanization to “Mountain Tourism”

Man began to urbanize approximately 13,000 years ago in lowland areas, along rivers, where conditions such as accessibility, ease of connection, and predictability were suitable for the development of productive processes, thereby facilitating and ensuring their survival. In contrast, the mountainous environment is characterized by difficult accessibility, danger, and other factors that make survival and production (e.g., agriculture, industry) challenging. This is why people initially avoided the mountains, which simultaneously presented an attraction as places of worship. All over the world, for all religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam), mountains are considered sacred, indicating that mountains are places of physical, emotional, and spiritual exercise or relaxation and represent something particularly profound for human beings. Since the 1860s, the interaction between man and mountains has created “Mountain Tourism” (M.T.), a leisure activity that encompasses the evolution of all aspects of human behavior. These aspects are analyzed in various scientific fields that study human interactions and relationships, such as biology, history, technology, medicine, economics, management, tourism, communications, sociology, psychology, ecology, politics, theology, philosophy, physics, and more. Mountain Tourism intersects with many other leisure activities or forms of tourism, such as sports, hiking, religious tourism, adventure, and health tourism. It involves various roles including tourists, locals, entrepreneurs, and volunteers. It is influenced by the senses, feelings, and thoughts of each individual involved in the Mountain Tourism phenomenon. This study attempts to identify the operating principles that characterize the multifactorial and dynamically evolving phenomenon of “Mountain Tourism” in order to optimally understand and manage it, taking into consideration challenges such as the need for sustainable development of mountainous areas that deal with seasonality difficulties.