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| First Destinations | UK Tourism | EU Tourism |
| Winter Tourism | Tourism in LEDCs | Alternative Destinations |
| Sustainable Tourism / Ecotourism | Devon | Pennine Way |
(Also new Travel and Tourism SoW)
Many schools are now starting to deliver TRAVEL AND TOURISM courses.
"If it's tourist season, does that mean we can shoot them"
from letter to Daily Mail
"They say travel broadens the mind; but you must have the mind.."
G. K Chesterton
This is a popular subject. There is scope for work on lots of levels from simple projects on Majorca, to investigations of the relative merits of eco-tourism projects. This is also supported by numerous TV programmes which offer short digestible introductions to the main tourist areas, plus the dedicated satellite channels. With broadband or a faster connection, you can even download video clips of the various places.
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.
Another quote, reported in The Guardian was a slogan used by the Hong Kong Tourist Board just before the SARS outbreak of 2003: "Hong Kong will take your breath away"...
EXPEDIA: Microsoft site.
A lot of Estonians have come to Geography Pages from this MADSEN site. Click on PANORAMA to enjoy some Panoramas of key tourist sites such as the Great Wall of China.
"Tourists are sheep without bells" - Cretan saying
MAJORCA is the most popular foreign destination in the Balearic Islands and there is a page of useful links for maps for student projects and other information HERE. We do a project on the effect of tourism on the island. A search using appropriate terms will produce a large range of sites with relevant content. Some of them are in German, as the island is very popular with Germans, although bookings are down on previous years in all sectors. The recent suggestion that tourism will be the soft target for terrorists won't help matters.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.
As a comparison to UK / EU tourism destinations, Kenya or The Gambia are used in my current school. We have videos and textbook materials relating to these 2 countries, but I suppose it would be reasonably straight forward to set up an alternative case study. We also have slides of the Gambia. Any colleagues who have visited Africa could be a useful resource.
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 CONCERN is a useful site too. Recommended.
Try the site of the WORLD TOURISM Organisation.
A key element is RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL. This is a useful site for exploring ideas about our responsibility to behave correctly when on holiday.
There's also a trend towards more eco-friendly or 'sustainable' tourism schemes such as the 'Campfire' scheme - wonder how that's faring.
Not sure whether it's strictly an LEDC, but Romania is gearing itself up for a new tourist attraction which is opening soon: DRACULA PARK. This will be based around the legends of vampires and the life of Vlad Tepes but the park hasn't chosen one of the original thoughts for the site: near the home of Vlad 'the Impaler' Tepes, in Transylvania itself.
There are few places that haven't been touched by tourism, and one of the last areas in the world to succumb is the South Pole. A recent article in the Guardian described the arrival of Tom Avery at the Pole: the 27 year old had just walked 700 miles across the continent to reach the South Pole to find that there was a gift shop there which was having a sale! The USA is now planning to build a road across the continent from McMurdo Sound. The road will inevitably bring tourism and pollution, and will hardly fit in with the exploits of Shackleton and his less illustrious contemporaries. The road is obviously not going to have a tarmac surface but will be snow and ice. There are arguments that the aircraft flying to the Pole have a larger effect already. This was also the subject of a recent Thomas Keneally story in GRANTA 83.
STALIN WORLD has been featuring in various supplements.
TROPICAL ISLANDS is a new resort at Niederlausitz near Berlin in Germany. The WEBSITE has details about the resort, which is housed in a huge hangar. A search will find various German tourists images to get more of a feel for what this resort is like. It is built in a hangar which was originally used to construct zeppelins. An interesting article in Icon magazine discussed the approach used in such resorts:
"Just as Vegas shrinks Pharaonic Egypt, New York and Venice into casino-sized tasters, so the stepping stones of the Indian and Pacific Oceans have been dropped within steps of each other."
For some people this is an oxymoron.
One of the developments that has been covered in a range of publications for the last 5 or 10 years is ECOTOURISM.
A recent article in 'The Times' (March 2004) entitled 'NOT SO GREEN AFTER ALL' suggested that Ecotourism was making animals ill. It suggested that tourism did more harm than good, partly due to the growth in the industry: between 10 and 30% per year. An estimated 20% of tourists are thought to visit a conservation-based project. Problems include: transmission of disease, subtle changes to wildlife, stress to local wildlife. Male Polar bears are apparently stressed by the approach of tourist vehicles - this may sound like a small problem, but raised heart rate and metabolism could reduce body fat levels which are crucial for the animal's survival. Apparently there are also fewer penguin chicks born in areas visited by tourists. The Galapagos was also the site for some filming on 'Master and Commander'.
An interesting story in 'The Times' talked about the paper for souvenirs available in Australia which is made from kangaroo poo.
Anyone got any other good case studies ? E-mail them to me...
VARIOUS TOURIST SONGS
"I've a shooting box in Scotland,
I've a chateau in Touraine
I've a silly little chalet
In the Interlaken valley
I've a hacienda in Spain
I've a private fjord in Norway
I've a villa close to Rome
And in travelling
It's really quite a comfort to know
That you're never far from home"
Cole Porter
There have been changes in the origin of tourists into London as a result of several changes in the world's political situation and other events.
Some recent information taken from an article in the Evening Standard, based on figures from VisitBritain.
Not ageing Americans in pac-a-macs or Japanese with clicking cameras, the stereotype of London tourist has altered...
Boom in visitors from Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and China between 2000 and 2005
Polish visitors increased 500% from 81 000 to 425 000
Hungarians over 200% increase
Chinese visitors increased to over 58 000
Russian visitors increased
Spanish visitors up to over 700 000 from 411 000 in 2000
Japanese visitors have gone down from 434 000 to 243 000
Americans remain the backbone of London tourism with almost 2.3 million (but it's down from 2.9 million in 2000) and they spend the most
Rise in visitors from Australia and New Zealand
Saudi Arabians spend an average of £2000 each while in London
Was recently contacted by Chris, who is behind a newish site called SURFING GENIE
The website aims to get us all visiting UK beaches rather than heading off abroad, and also provides a key resource for those interested in surfing, which is a growing sport in the UK.
Has link to an animated GIF showing the surf height in the Atlantic, and perhaps most useful is a search function which allows you to find a beach to suit your needs within the UK.
