TOURISM

I have a cartoon from Larson which is one of my favourites: a car load of slugs pulls up at the Great Salt Lake and say 'Hey everyone, time for a swim' - the caption: Slug vacation disasters. Tourism is a subject which has to involve study of tourism in different areas: UK, Europe & LEDC

See my KEY STAGE 3 PAGE for more relevant material (some duplication...)

GENERAL TOURIST LINKS

Start out your travels with the companion site to the popular ITV1 programme: WISH YOU WERE HERE - which has resort reports for hundreds of locations and some excellent information for a Key Stage 3 level tourism enquiry,
The Daily TELEGRAPH's TRAVEL SITE has some great articles on tourism in the UK and abroad.
Also try the online travel guides such as LONELY PLANET which offer clips of the travel guides. FODORS offers snippets from the full guides which they produce too.
Most travel firms have a site which can be used to research typical costs and resort details: some of the better known high street stores are:

THE FIRST RESORT

LUNN POLY

THOMAS COOK

Atlapedia Online

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITTANICA

CIA Fact Book

Excite Country Maps

Lonely Planet - Destinations

UK TOURISM

Within the UK, tourism has to start by visiting the NATIONAL PARKS - a page of stuff here for you, including maps and details on all the parks. This is an area which has increased in recent years.
There's a simple Virtual tour of CASTLETON here. This is part of the newly improved INTERNET GEOGRAPHY. This has been redesigned and its content now makes it a TOP TEN site.
Theme parks such as ALTON TOWERS have their own site, and you can do an information gathering exercise, or visit the NATIONAL TRUST site.
A place which has to be worth visiting is the new EDEN PROJECT. This has links to related ecological themes.
Going to LONDON, or doing a project: try VIRTUAL LONDON.
Go to UK GUIDE for regional information.
If you're doing a project on tourism in the Lake District, there's an excellent school field trip site HERE which has a whole range of digital camera photographs looking at Bowness on Windermere as a tourist HONEYPOT site. This is an excellent part of an excellent site which has been recommended elsewhere on GEOGRAPHYPAGES. Recommended
VISITBRITAIN is all set up to try to get people back to Britain for their holidays. Has information about the whole country, and a chance to do a virtual tour of the country.
There's also this .INFO site (first one I've come across) called YOUR COUNTRYSIDE which has lots of Information (not surprisingly) on the UK Countryside. Details on Access, Events and Attractions.
For details on travel statistics, such as visitor numbers, visit STARUK.
Going on the beach in the UK ? Make sure that it is a clean one, or as clean as it can be. How do you know whether you can trust the sand not to have broken glass or doggy doo in it, or that the water won't give you an upset stomach. There are several sites which give you useful information about beach safety and cleanliness. They include: SEASIDE AWARDS, the GOOD BEACH GUIDE, BEACH WIZARD, or the BLUE FLAG CAMPAIGN.

One of the destinations that people head for in large numbers are THEME PARKS. Most of them now have websites too: Visit the following:

ALTON TOWERS: a FANSITE too

BLACKPOOL PLEASURE BEACH

LIGHTWATER VALLEY

EU TOURISM

Stuck with the currency ? Try a UNIVERSAL CURRENCY CONVERTER. or the CLASSIC CONVERTER, both of which will convert all currencies. Of course from January the 1st 2002, this became a thing of the past for some with the introduction of the EURO. This may still appear in your pockets in the next few years. Several newspapers have done stories on this, for further information, go to my EURO INFORMATION PAGE.
A common theme for EU projects is DISNEYLAND PARIS. It predictably has a website where students can research the various 'lands' or themed areas of the park.

WINTER TOURISM

There are a range of ski tourism sites which offer ski forecasts, webcams etc. There are also lots of useful images and information about the various resorts. Good SKI sites include: IFYOUSKI, and IGLUSKI.
Need a PISTE MAP ? Go to this very useful SKI MAPS site.
Go here for SNOW FORECASTS on the resorts.
One resort which has its own website is VAL D'ISERE (another one HERE too) - the Valley of the Isere is occupied by a river which flows out from a glacier which has the self explanatory name the Glacier des sources de L'Isere. Tourism has changed what used to be a remote valley, as with the Val D'Aosta in N. Italy.

TOURISM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

As a comparison, Kenya or The Gambia are used.
You can try a virtual safari via AFRICAM.
KENYA INFORMATION is here too.
There's an interesting TOURISM GAME available from Robert Hitcham's Primary School in Framlingham Suffolk. It offers the chance to investigate the effect of developing an area of Jamaica, and various options for an area of forest close to the coast. It's worth investigating for lower secondary groups too.

TOURISM STATISTICS

Tourism is the world's largest industry. It generates annual worldwide revenue of $243 billion.

Tourism employs 1 in 15 of the world's workers.

20 rich nations accounted for over 80% of all tourist expenditure.

World tourist arrivals rose from 69 million in 1960 to nearly 600 million in 1996

5 nations (USA, Japan, Germany, UK and France) accounted for over half of all tourist spending.

Air travel is threatening the ozone layer.

80% of tourists travel with a package operator.

Much of the money that tourists spend in destinations like Thailand 'leaks' out of the country. It is estimated that 70% suffers from leakage (due to foreign owned tour operators, airlines, hotels, imported drinks and foods)

Top 10 destinations for UK tourists 1996

1. France

2. Spain

3. Ireland

4. United States

5. Greece

6. Italy

7. Germany

8. Portugal

9. Netherlands

10. Belgium

ECO TOURISM

Is this an oxymoron ?

The League against Cruel Sports have a website which is designed to encourage debate about the issue of TROPHY HUNTING and shooting Endangered Species. Some African countries have re-introduced the idea of the Safari.

The resources are on the LEAGUE's EDUCATION section.

I appreciate that there are other viewpoints on this debate...

Let me know of any websites you think I should be featuring....

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