TGPodcast #62: Defining Place Authenticity: My Heritage Can Beat Up Your History

This is a Travel Geography Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

This is a recording of a classroom presentation made by me in April 2008 at the National University of Singapore. The entire podcast is 50+ minutes long. I do two things in this podcast: (1) discuss four thematic communities / retail districts in the state of Oregon (Sisters, Junction City, Oakland and Florence) -- based on my Master's Thesis from many years ago; and (2) discusses five perspectives on authenticity which are then applied to the four cases studies. There is also some background perspectives on the issue of authenticity and some conclusions at the end.

The powerpoint slides for this presentatin can be found here:
http://www.slideshare.net/alew/slideshows

I also created the Slidecast, below. However, I had a hell of a time working with the interface -- not sure what the problem was. So only the first few slides are synchronized with the lecture. You have to make your own way through the remainder.

| View | Upload your own

Direct download: TGPod62-13Apr08-Defining-Authenticity.mp3

Ethics and Sustainable Tourism - with David Fennell (Slidecast)

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast post - Click on the title above to download the .mp3 file - OR - Play the Slidecast Version Here: (length: 48 min 32 sec)

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Today's Geography for Travelers Podcast is a recording of a presentation by Prof. David Fennell of Brock University at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 17-22 April 2007. The title of his presentation is:

Ethics: We're Stuck With It [in Tourism]...Whether We Like It Or Not!
This was a 45 minute plenary presentation sponsored by my journal, Tourism Geographies, and funded by the journal's publisher, Routledge/Taylor and Francis, Ltd.

Part 1 of this podcast is the actual presentation. Part 2 of this podcast will is the questions and answers that followed the presentation. I will post that in about 1 to 2 weeks as a separate podcast.

ALSO - A Slidecast version of this podcast, which is linked to David's Powerpoint slides, is available above, as well as at http://www.slideshare.net/alew.

Here is the Abstract of David Fennell's presentation from the conference program:

Trivers' (1971) theory of reciprocal altruism, emerging from animal behaviour studies, is premised on the belief that human social behaviour is said to have evolved in relatively small, stable communities where groups of people had opportunities to forge cooperative relationships over time through repeated interaction. The more time we have to engage in altruistic acts—acts that are returned in kind— the better chance for individuals and groups to set up longer term cooperative relationships. Cooperation of this sort can be challenged in tourism because of limited interactions based on restricted periods of time, with implications at the micro scale (tourist-host interactions) and at the macro scale (collective interactions within the region as a whole). Despite these challenges, ethics and trust have emerged from reciprocal altruism as mechanisms that induce both short-term and long-term cooperative relationships for mutual benefit. Implications of these relationships are discussed in the context of generating ways to improve cooperation for the tourism industry as a whole.
Keywords: ethics, reciprocal altruism, cooperation

Original Show Notes for this podcast are at: http://TravelGeography.info

G4T #56: A Soundseeing Trip to China's Danxiashan World Geopark

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to open the .mp3 file)

Danxiashan is a sandstone mountain region adjacent to the city of Shaoguan in northern Guangdong Province in China (north of Hong Kong). The landform is similar to the sandstone regions of northern Arizona (Sedona) and southern Utah, but in a subtropical vegetation zone.

I was at the Danxiashan World Geopark last week and recorded this week's Geography for Travelers Podcast while hiking around on the top of one of the more visited peaks.

My photos of Danxiashan and the surrounding area can be found here:
- http://flickr.com/photos/alew/tags/danxiashan/



Notes:

1. Due to time constraints we did not go to Danxiashan's two most famous rock formations -- the male rock and female rock. A search on those terms will find photos of these two less-than-family-suitable stone formations.
2. This soundseeing tour was recorded on my Zoom H4 stereo recorder. Wear earphones for the best experience.

The Geography for Travelers Podcast is found at http://travelgeography.info

G4T #55: Mike Pesses on Authentic Spaces of Bicycle Tourism

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

This is another presentation from the Association of American Geographers annual meeting in San Francisco, California, April 12-21, 2007. Here is the abstract from the AAG.org website:

Author: Michael W. Pesses - California State University, Northridge

Abstract:
In the past thirty years, bicycle touring has become a legitimate form of tourism. This paper serves as an attempt to examine bicycle touring as an "authentic" form of tourism as well as to examine how the trip affects the bicycle tourist's sense of identity. Through a qualitative analysis of the journals of bicycle tourists, this paper will look into how authentic space and authentic experiences affect the individual's concept of identity and self. The authenticity of the toured space is in constant tension with existential authenticity; one cannot exist without the other in bicycle touring. To find meaning in one's travels, and consequently in one's life, both forms of authenticity are constantly being challenged by the experience and the landscape.
Keywords: Tourism-bicycle, authenticity, landscape, produced spaces

Also mentioned in the podcast intro:

• B.E.S.T. Eduction Network Think Tank/Conference
• Photos from my Alaska cruise
• This original blog post (for sploggers)
  

G4T #54: Student Podcasts: Maui, New York's Hudson Valley, Tourism News, and Yosemite NP

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Three NAU students podcast on Maui, New York's Hudson Valley, Tourism News, and Yosemite National Park.

This come out of my Spring 2007 semester class on Sustainable Tourism, and was part of the students' final project. A description of this class can be found here:

http://www.geog.nau.edu/courses/alew/pl376/schedule.html

G4T #53: Ecotourism Concerns in Russia's Altay - with Kathleen Braden

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's Geography for Travelers Podcast is a recording of a presentation made at April's Association of American Geographers Conference in San Francisco. Dr. Braden points out the pressures to develop ecotourism for economic purposes, challenges of corruption, and concern over policies of international organizations such as WWF. Below is the abstract from her paper as posted in the conference program.

(Length: 26min 33sec)

The Impact of Nature Tourism on Biodiversity Change in the Russian Federation
scheduled on Tuesday, 4/17/07 at 16:00 PM.

Author: Kathleen E. Braden, Ph.D. Geography - Seattle Pacific University

Abstract:
With more than twelve percent of the earth's land area, the Russian Federation's situation for species conservation will inevitably impact the biodiversity of the planet. Since the devolution of the Soviet state, biodiversity has been poorly maintained in Russia, with an increasing number of species under threat of extinction. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, international environmental NGOs, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank Global Environmental Facility have all earmarked the tourism sector to provide alternative incomes and alleviate some of the stress on biological resources. These plans are examined, particularly related to nature tourism, the Russian system of zapovedniki (reserves), the ability of the Russian state to attract foreign tourists, and the role of the wealthy tourist class emerging within the Russian elite.
Keywords: tourism, Russia, biodiversity, nature reserve

FYI - I state in the podcast that it is Tuesday, May 15th, which is when I planned to post this. Life got in the way, however, and so it is actually May 17th that this is going up.

Cheers, Alan
http://TravelGeography.info

G4T #52: Geography and Tourism Road Trip, with Victor Teye & Dallen Timothy

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Today's Geography for Travelers podcast is a recording that I made a few days ago when I was driving back to Arizona after the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in San Francisco. My two travel companions were Prof. Victor Teye and Prof. Dallen Timothy, both of who are geographers who teach tourism classes at Arizona State University.

This is a follow-up to last month's podcast in which I summarized the 115 papers at the conference that had Tourism as a keyword. The three of us discuss how we personally perceive the relationship between Tourism and the discipline of Geography. I removed some of the background noise using Soundsoap, and while not perfect, it is listenable.

Length: 35min, 5sec

Full show notes are at http://TravelGeography.info

Released under a Creative Commons Copyright: non-commercial, no derivatives, attribution.

G4T #45: Ecotourism and the Grand Canyon, with Prof. Claudia Jurowski

This is a Geography for Travelers Podcast related post (click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

In this podcast I interview Professor Claudia Jurowski of Northern Arizona University about her involvement with BEST Education Network and her research on different types of tourists to the Grand Canyon National Park, with some focus on the slippery topic of ecotourism and the ecotourist. Claudia teaches in the NAU School of Hotel and Restaurant Management (not Hotel and Tourism Management, as I stated in the podcast intro -- oops!)

To see the Grand Canyon Visitor Study (upon which Prof. Jurowski based her research study), go to the Tourism Library page of NAU's Arizona Hospitality Research and Resource Center. This site also contains many other tourism studies related to communities around the state of Arizona.

Length: 29min, 26 sec

G4T #37.5: Tourism Tech Talk: Teaching Tourism

(click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

Something really different this week. Like last week, this one comes from my recent trip to Australia and the conference I attended in Brisbane. David Timothy Duval (University of Otago, New Zealand) and I skipped out of a session of papers to sit down and talk about how we use technology in our tourism classes, and in everyday life. I cut a few things out of our over and hour discussion, but I also inserted a few clarifications. We cover a lot of territory, from podcasting to blogging to wikis to RSS aggregators to social bookmarking, and more. The result is my longest podcast yet, at 1 hr, 5 min, 44 sec.

I recorded this using my binaural microphones, with one mic set on one side of the coffee table and the other on the other side. The result is mildly stereophonic, though the telephone ringing at the end is very directional -- it sounds like it is on the table across my office everytime I hear it!

Hopefully you will find it of interest, as David and I are planning to do this again, via Skype, and probably with a more narrowly defined focus.

G4T #21: Malaysia, China and Tourism

This time period between the Fall and Spring semesters will mostly focus on my travels and perhaps some other miscellaneous items. This week's podcast is a follow-up to my recent trip to Malaysia (see last week's posting). The big tourism-related issue in Malaysia these days surrounds accusations of mistreatment of Chinese visitors to Malaysia. Listen to the podcast for details.

FYI - The online classes that I will be teaching next semester (starting mid-January) at Northern Arizona University include:
* GGR 376 - (World) Regional Geography of Travel and Tourism
* PL 376 - Planning for Sustainable Tourism
* GGR 576 - Geography of Tourism and Recreation (graduate seminar)
* PL 599 - Tourism and Community Planning (graduate class)
-- More information on these classes (except the last one) can be found on my university homepage at: http://www.geog.nau.edu/~alew/
-- Registration information can be found at the NAU Distance Learning website: http://www.distance.nau.edu/?MAINNAU

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are links to items mentioned in the podcast:

* Unsigned Podcast - A podcast about independent artists. In music, or whatever. Bringing you music, news, and ideas from the independent world. http://unsignedpodcast.com/
* Chris Doelle - Riding with the Window Down podcast
http://www.chrisdoelle.com/write.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some articles about Chinese tourism to Malaysia

* Trailing badly in bid for Chinese tourists (The Star, 2 Oct 2005)
http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/columnists/2005/10/2/onthebeat/
* Malaysia cracks down on illegal Chinese immigrants (Malaysia Today, 23 Nov 2005)
http://www.malaysia-today.net/Blog-e/2005/11/malaysia-cracks-down-on-illegal.htm
* Malaysia to ease visa policy for China through online initiative (Travel Wire News)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000068/006861.htm
* Click Below to see the latest news items related to this issue though Yahoo!
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=chinese+tourists+to+Malaysia&ei=UTF-8&fr=nscp&fl=0&x=wrt

G4T #20: First Impressions of Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

After an 18+ hour flight from LAX, I am now in Malaysia, with high speed Internet from my hotel room.

This week's podcast is a short, 12 minute, look at Shah Alam -- the capitol of the State of Selangor in Malaysia. Includes of soundscene of the playground and Blue Mosque on the town lake.

G4T #19: Social Impacts of Travel and Tourism

This week I discuss updates to my show notes page, and the social impacts of tourism and travel on destinations, including both from tourists and from the tourism industry. (Total Length: 29 min, 55 sec)

In the podcast I commented on the Responsible Tourism awards, and I quoted a remark made at those awards about the fact that although consumers are more aware of sustainable (social and environmental) issues today, this is not yet seen as a major marketing advantage by tour companies. Related to this, Scott McCabe of the Sheffield Hallam University in the UK posted this interesting item on an email list today:

~~~~~~~~~
From: McCabe, Scott
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 3:29 AM
To: trinet-l@HAWAII.EDU
Subject: RE: Tourism and Local Transportation

Dear all,

just a brief contribution to this debate, i read a brief article in a UK free newspaper the other day that UK consumers are not interested in sustainability issues when thinking about or taking holidays, and that whilst many people do worry about the environment and engage in recycling, energy saving etc in daily life - whilst they are on holiday they want to forget about these issues (i only read it briefly so apologies if i misquote). however - it raises a number of issues pertinent to this discussion:
- perhaps consumers see environmental sustainability as an obligation and holidays are still valid as a means to escape everyday duties like these therefore sustainability should be the preserve of governments and industry to implement and it is wrong to assume that consumers will eventually demand sustainable tourism products
...
- perhaps what is more important is making consumers aware of unfair/unethical/immoral practices - which is much more likely to effect a more responsible attitude from consumers, and then industry and governments alike?

~~~~~~~~~
Here are the links to sites mentioned in this week's podcast:

* Responsible tourism is the way forward (Responsible Tourism Day at the World Travel Market)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000065/006593.htm
* Responsible Travel Forum (online; Feb 21-22, 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/7en23
* Peace Corp finds renewed passion in volunteerism (full article now requires purchase!)
http://localsearch.azcentral.com/sp?keywords=peace+corps+finds+renewed
* World Citizens Guide
http://worldcitizensguide.org/index2.html
* Nude act of foreign tourist at holy place angers residents of Pushkar
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000062/006275.htm
** NEW: Inserted on 8 Dec 2005: Guidelines issued to facilitate foreigners’ stay in Indian holy town
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000068/006836.htm
* World Tourism Organization - Global Code of Ethics
http://www.world-tourism.org/code_ethics/eng/global.htm

G4T #18: Space Tourism and the Geography of Brazil

This week's podcast covers Geographic Literacy, The Great Escape/Scavenger Hunt, Space Tourism, and the Geography of Brazil. Quite a mashing of topics! and I am not sure if I pull them all together as well as I had hoped.

My students are studying South America this week, and so my goal was to talk about South America -- in some way. However, in looking through my travel and tourism news sources, I found very little about tourism and travel in South America. For some reason South America does not appear as frequently in the international news travel news as does much of the rest of the world, including Cetral America/Caribbean. While I admit that I have my own personal bias toward events related to Asia, my sources are more general than that. If anyone knows a good sources for travel and tourism news about South America, please let me know.

Getting this week's podcast up was quite a challenge. I have a new condensor microphone. And even know people say it's supposed to be a very good one, I find it tended to pick up the "S" sound very prominently. This is known as "sibilance", and is supposed to be fixed by using a pop filter. Well, I have a pop filter but it does not seem to really help that much. So I went through the entire podcast and I reduced the level of the "S" sound every time it appeared in and annoying manner. This took a couple more hours of postprocessing than I would normally have done. Hopefully I can get this figured out for the next week's podcast.

Please take a few minutes to take my listener survey. The link is on the right side of this webpage.

Here are links to the items mentioned on today's this week's podcasts:

* Geography skills or the lack there of
http://aplace.blog.com/317340
* AAA travel high school challenge contest offers students more than $100,000 in scholarships and prizes
http://www.medfordnews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=319397&cp=10996
* AAA travel challenge
http://www.aaa.com/TravelChallenge
* Great escape 2005
http://www.globalscavengerhunt.com/home.htm
* Great escapes travel humor
http://www.globalscavengerhunt.com/travelyukes.htm
* Space adventures
http://www.spaceadventures.com
* Brazil gears up for commercial spaceport
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000029/002906.htm

* Brics: the changing face of global power -- a four-part series by BBC News
- New players challenge world order
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4260368.stm
- Boom times await new powers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4308382.stm
- New muscles in the marketplace
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4330520.stm
- Causes for concern for new hours
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4352696.stm

Here are a few other Space Tourism news items that may be of interest to potential space travelers:

* BBC: The Space Race: Space Tourism (audio)http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1744_spacerace/page4.shtml
* BBC: Space tourist returns to Earth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4329328.stm
* BBC: Firm offers $100m orbit of moon
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4139188.stm
* Virgin Galactic - space flight reservations website (f0r 2008)
http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/when.asp
* New Voyager News - source for space tourism news
http://www.newvoyagenews.com/news/

G4T #17: Travel and Tourism In China

This week's podcast is focused exclusively on China, including all of the news items, and a discussion of the history of the Great Wall of China. [Click on the title above to download the podcast mp3 file.]

Special Thanks to Tek at the 3Minutes in Shanghai podcast, whose podcast on the China National Day 2005 "Golden Week" is included at the end of my podcast (it takes up the last 4 minutes of this week's 33 minute podcast).

Here are links to items mentioned on today's podcast:

* Satellite data reveals Beijing as air pollution capital of world - Guardian Unlimited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,12188,1605147,00.html
* China's building boom becomes a frenzy - International Herald Tribune (New York Times)
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/10/18/news/boom.php
* China sees substantial increment in its tourism industry during National Day holidays - Travel News Wire
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000061/006106.htm
* China witnesses surge in tourism revnue, officials says - Travel News Wire
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000063/006366.htm
* Chinese airlines eye nonstop flights between China and Las Vegas - Travel News Wire
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000063/006329.htm
* Firm expects outbound Chinese tourists to top 115m - Travel News Wire
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000059/005919.htm
* Shanghai Living - photo archive for photographer Hu Yang
http://china.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/archives/artist/name/huyang;jsessionid=418B9141949D5C13447A8014441C570D

G4T #16: Travel, Tourism and the Environment

-- Click on the title above to listen to this podcast --

Today's podcast focuses on the natural environment: how tourists relate to the natural environment, the impacts of tourism on the natural environment, and closing with a few words on ecotourism.

Ecotourism -- Personally, I prefer to pronounce ecotourism as 'ee-co-tourism' - with a long 'e', which I derive from the world "ecology." Some people (maybe the majority?) prefer to say 'e-co-tourism' - with a short 'e', as in 'elephant'. I assume they are basing this on the word 'ecosystem', which is sometimes (often?) pronounced with a short 'e'. Dictionary.com uses the long 'e' pronunciation, so perhaps I am in the majority.

Total Length: 30 minutes, 19 seconds. If you have any thoughts on this feel free to leave a comment, or email me at travelgeographer@msn.com

Here are the links to items mentioned in today's podcast:

* Australia Garners Friendliest Nation in the World Award - Travel News Wire
<http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000063/006311.htm>
* Grand Canyon to Get Glass Bridge - National Geographic News
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0826_050826_grandcanyon.html>
* City OKs Subsidies for Downtown Hotel - Los Angeles Times
<http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/118690.html>
* Cruise Ship Repels Somali Pirates - BBC News (also has a link to a video news clip)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4409662.stm>
* The Amateur Traveler Podcast
<http://amateurtraveler.com/>

G4T #14: Hurricane Wilma and Tourism in Cozumel, Mexico

This was my first interview podcast! I recorded it using Gizmo Project -- which is like Skype, but includes a built-in record function. I also interviewed my sister, who has a vacation rental in Cozumel, Mexico, and was there when hurricane Wilma made landfall over Cozumel and Cancun on October 21, 2005. Hurricane Wilma was the strongest low pressure air system (lowest atmospheric pressure) ever recorded in the Caribbean, though it had weakened some by the time it reached Cozumel. (Note that stronger low pressure systems exist in the form of Tornados, but their air pressure has never been measured because they tend to tear the instruments apart.)

The interview is in two parts, which I put together through editing the original interview. In Part 1 she describes what she personally experienced as the hurricane approached and passed over Cozumel. In Part 2 she discusses the impacts of the hurricane on other tourists and the town of Cozumel, as well as her struggle to get back to the US after the hurricane. She arrived back in the US on Sunday, October 30, and the interview was recorded on Monday, October 31.

Click Here to download Part 1
Click Here to download Part 2

About Hurricane Wilma:
* Wilma dumped up to 5 feet of rain in parts of the Yucatan Peninsula; One station recorded 64 inches of rain in a 24 hour period -- a record amount for Mexico, if confirmed
* With 145 mph winds (category 4 storm) and gusts up to 170 mph, Wilma was the worst storm that anyone in this hurricane region could remember, mostly because it lasted so long (36 hours, at least)
* Playa del Carmen, on the mainland across from Cozumel, suffered the worst destruction, with ate least 1,000 homes seriously destroyed
* In Cancun, 1,800 people hid from Wilma in a 9 screen multiplex theater, but were eventually cramped into 3 of the screens as the other 6 became too dangerous -- none of the bathrooms were in working order
* Many beaches were washed away by the strong waves
* Wilma confounded meteorologists, because the hurricane did not follow the paths and characteristics of standard hurricane forecasting models
* Hot on the heals of Wilma, tropical storm Alpha reached the Dominican Republic on Sunday, October 22nd.
* Caribbean countries fear that the record number of hurricanes in 2005 could reduce the number of visitors to the region in the coming year -- Americans have a tendency to perceive a natural disaster in any one part of the Caribbean as affecting all of the Caribbean
* The Caribbean receive 22 million cruise ships and air visitors in 2004 - just over half of whom come from the US

Sources:
* Wilma Lashes Mexico Resorts (TravelNewsWire)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000062/006232-p.htm
* Caribbean Fears Storms Will Hurt Tourism (Yahoo/AP)
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051023/caribbean_hurricane_stigma.html?.v=1
* Photo of Tourists Evacuees in Cancun (BBC)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/americas_wilma_lashes_mexico0s_coast/html/6.stm
* Wilma bamboozles hurricane experts (BBC)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4365898.stm

G4T #13: Understanding Tourist Attractions

NEW - Click the Title Link for This Entry to Listen to This Week's Podcast - NEW

This week's podcast covered tourism news items for the first 10 minutes or so, then delved into the topic of Tourist Attractions. Much of what I discussed actually comes from my Ph.D. dissertation, which I completed in 1986 -- though it did not make it into my Ph.D. I wrote this whole chapter about tourist attractions, and presented my own theory of different ways that tourism researchers approach tourist attractions. Well, my committee felt that it just wasn't that relevant to the rest of my dissertation, so I sent it off the a journal, instead. It came out in the Annals of Tourism Research in 1986, and was later republished in a major compendium (large book) about tourism research.

Here are links to the items mentioned in today's podcast:

* Commission on Tourism and Global Change of the International Geographical Union <http://www.geog.nau.edu/igust/>
* Recreation, Tourism and Sport Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers <http://www.geog.nau.edu/rts/>
* Asia Tourism Research <http://www.geog.nau.edu/igust/asiatour/>
* InfoUSA - US State Department -
-- Geography and Travel <http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/travel/geolinks.htm>
-- Facts about the USA <http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/facts.htm>
* Quebec premier joins calls for U.S. government to abandon border passport plan <click here>
* The World Island Project, Dubai <http://www.coastalmanagement.com.au/projects/TheWorld/>
* The Haunted Times <http://www.hauntedtimes.com/index.php>
* Barry Kantz' Home Based Travel Agent podcast <http://hometravelagent.blogspot.com/>

G4T #12: Sub-Saharan Africa Geography, Travel and Tourism

This week's podcast discusses several news items and then focuses on the geography of sub-Saharan Africa. I have switched from trying to get my podcast up by Sunday night to doing it on Monday morning. The last two weeks I was up until 2:30 in the morning (which really was Monday morning!) getting the podcast in order. This time, I got the material together on Sunday and then did the podcast on Monday.

You can download the MP3 file directly here:
http://libsyn.com/media/travelgeography/GT12_17Oct05_SubSaharanAfrica.mp3

And here are the links to items mentioned on today's podcast:

* After Katrina and Rita: How to rebuild the South's essential tourism business with free new publishing and Internet tools
http://www.after-katrina.org/
* Tourists warned not to "argue" with Floridians (Travel Wire News)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000061/006111.htm
* Book Review: The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel (San Francisco Bay Guardian)
http://www.sfbg.com/39/52/lit_loney_planet.html
* World leaders: Use tourism in war on poverty; WTO praised (Travel Wire News)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000057/005747.htm
* Protest over Serengeti National Park hotel project (E-Gnu)
http://www.e-gnu.com/frameset.asp?pagename=African-safari-news-events.html
* The Ten Important World Tourism Issues for 2006 (Trinet-l)
http://www.geog.nau.edu/courses/alew/ggr376/top10.html
* Most Americans are clueless about Africa (Travel Wire News)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000037/003726.htm

G4T #11: Middle East Geography and Tourism

This week's podcast looks at a recent report from the Economist on tourism and terrorism in Bali. I then discuss a few other travel and tourism news items and transition into a discussion of the Middle East, which I extend to include the geographic regions of North Africa, Southwest Asia, and even Central Asia. Note that the inclusion of Central Asia as part of the broader Middle East is not widely accepted -- yet. But there are some good reasons, which I outline in the pocast.

I want to mention that countries the Middle East (Southwest Asia and the eastern part of North Africa) receives about 3% of all international tourist arrivals in the world, with Egypt reciving a quarter of those. see: InfoPlease - World Tourist Arrivals by Region and Country.

Here are links to websites mentioned in the podcast:

Indonesia industry: Tourism takes another hit -- EIU (Economist Intellgence Unit) ViewsWire

Travel News Wire

• Earthquake devastates portions of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Quake toll at 18,000+ -- Police said "hundreds" of people were trapped after a landslide in the northern Kaghan Valley area, a popular tourist haunt
• Guatemala slide toll may hit 1,400 - Landslide buried several communities near the popular tourist destination of Lake Atitlan
• Mexico set to break tourism records again this year

BBC

• Quake's terrible toll is revealed (Pakisatn & India)
• Guatemala villages 'mass graves' (Guatemala)
• India readies for shopping mall boom
  World's Largest Malls Compared

Dubai - The Palm Islands

Wiki Travel

• WikiTravel (English version)
  
• My entry for the Shan State of Myanmar
• Golden Triangle blog -- my summer 2005 conference and trip to China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos (for an hour or so)

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G4T #10: Tourist Travel Motivations

(click on the title above to download the .mp3 file)

My Thanks to the group Turban Jones for the use of their song in my podcast. I hope you enjoy their song, Crazy Ways.

Tourist Motivation is the maint topic of this week's discussion, although I only spend the last 10 minutes on it. These news items were presented to show the importance of people's desire to travel (or perceived inability to not to). The travel public is a major source of income for destinations, and spawns entire sub-industries that employ large numbers of people. Understanding why people travel is important to a tourism destination's success...

* Firm Expects outbound Chinese tourists to top 115m [Travel News Wire]
* New era in Indian leisure crusing begins [Travel News Wire]
* TIA’s Overall Traveler Sentiment Index Remains Weak: Consumers Lack Time not Money for Travel [Travel Industry Association, 27 Sept 05]

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