Emerging Issues For Cultural And Urban Tourism Tourism Essay

Firms are acknowledged to be important actors involved in the deployment of resources available to a tourism destination. In turn, successful tourism firms can contribute to building the competitive advantage of tourism destinations through affecting a destination’s tourism product or service. The present study analyses business performance in urban tourism using networks and entrepreneurial perceptions over a city’s asset base as a framework of competitive performance. Business performance is measured in terms of productive efficiency-that is, technical and scale efficiency. Results indicate that networks and entrepreneurial perceptions of a city’s asset base constitute important determinants of the successful operation of tourism businesses.

INTRODUCTION

Tourism has developed into one of the world’s most important industries, with more than 846 million international tourist trips globally in 2006 (World Tourism Organisation). It is also one of the fastest-growing sectors of the UK economy, worth £85 billion in 2005 and employing some 2 million people (Star UK). As a result, tourism is associated with the injection of revenue into national, regional and local economies.

Ref: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/fr/urgc-7EEGJR

Urban Tourism: The Visitor Economy or Growth of big Cities, Christopher Law examines the relationship between tourism and urban areas. He distinguishes between primary and secondary, and additional elements of city’s tourism resources. Primary elements provide the reasons why tourists use to visit cities. Secondary elements is accommodation and shopping as well as more elements like transportation or tourist information are also very important for the success of urban tourism, but they are not the main attractor of visitors.

Urbanisation and process of acute city growth due to high productive economic activities around the city, often at the expense of rural and agricultural hinterlands, is largely a product of the 20th Century particularly in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of Automobile Industry.

‘Globalization’ is promiscuous, controversial word that often obscures more than it reveals about the geographical, environmental, economic, political, social, and cultural changes. It is good used to denote a multi centric, multi scalar, multiform, and multi causal process, which has much less of explanting and more of explanandum. In recent analysis globalization has found to be about place and scale. This argues is that infiltrating of globalization to cities and identities as challenging paradigm.

According to Castells (1993:247), cities are inherently composite entities. That is why they are the result of changing structural determinants interacting with multiple specificities rooted in history. Capitalist to make a change since the crisis of the 1970s has produced the latest structural determinants, collectively termed globalization, which have created new world cities (Friedmann, 1986) or global cities (Sassen, 1991). However this is only part of story. In addition, the historical and cultural characterizing are not constants; their efects on city development alter as changing economic and political bring forth new meanings for old practices (Taylor & Hoyler, 2000).

In urban planning area it is often difficult to track the origin of some concepts as in the sciences. Theories and ideas are often products of collective to try. It would be very difficult to identify who used the term “globalization” for first time. According to Waters whose book titled Globalization is fine primer, Robertson was one of the early users of term (Robertson, 1983; 1992).

The topic Globalisation and the attendant challenges for politics, economics, culture and humanity in the human society has become a source of big concern for religious leaders and leader of thought around the world. Now when joined with the actuality of Urbanisation and Post Modernity, the challenges become even more typical.

The invention in modern communication technology with emergence of the computer or internet, which have defeat space and contract the world to a global village, the globalisation of the economy and industry, by which a few countries are growing ever more affluent, while the fortunes of the number of people are ever worsening.

That is why the phenomenon of internationalisation as well as urbanization and post-modernity which in many ways influence how people live and relate, should be a matter of concern to leaders of the Christian Church. In this matter therefore we shall think carefully about what the world was like before the era of globalisation and what globalisation has brought upon morality – the good, the bad and the ugly aspect of the fact. We should look at the rising trend in urbanization and what challenges it sets to wholesome human existence. Then we shall look at the complex originality of post-modernity and how it challenges our religious, spiritual and social values. We shall then discuss the way

Urban tourism is the group of tourist resources or activities situated in towns and cities and offered to visitors from elsewhere.

Historic attributes of buildings, neighbourhoods’, and special landmarks emphasize the local character of an area. Historic districts are normally very pedestrian friendly with a mix of attractions and amenities that are not so complex.

Not matter if it is for transportation or entertainment, urban waters have always attracted people out of need or pleasure.

Convention Centres and Exhibitions are mostly called as one of the staples of city tourism. In some cities, up to forty percent of those staying overnight have come for this type of business tourism.

Festivals and Events have become a popular means for cities to boost tourism. They range in size and number from one time events like the World Exhibition or the Olympics to annual events like Folk Music Festivals or Gallery Nights.

Friendliness is also one of the most important cultural features of the tourism industry. Professionalism and excellence of service provided to visitors begins with friendliness. Key factors in visitor’s decision to visit a place are friendly, hospitable people.

MAIN BODY

NEW YORK – In his essay “Taming the Bicycle,” Mark Twain cautiously recommended bicycling: “You will not regret it, if you live.” That has always gone doubly for biking in New York. But the city has undergone a two-wheeled makeover. In the past four years, the New York City Department of Transportation has added more than 200 miles of bikes lanes. The number of cyclists has increased 80 percent in the past decade. The city’s goal is 1,800 miles of total bike lanes by 2030.

Earlier this year, National Geographic Traveller magazine did something that might once have been unthinkable: It ranked New York the second-most bike-friendly city in the country, after Portland, Ore. While biking has exploded for New Yorkers, tourists are quietly following. It is, after all, a great way to experience a new place: Faster than walking so you can cover a lot of ground, but far closer to your surroundings than a car.

In New York, it can be dizzying: rolling past Washington Square Park one moment, breezing along the Hudson River the next. In a city where freedom of movement can often feel gridlocked, on a bike, one sails through the throngs. Musician and New Yorker David Byrne wrote in his 2009 book “Bicycle Diaries” that riding through a city “is like navigating the collective neural pathways of some vast global mind.”

The “neural pathways” of New York, though, are often strewn with potholes, aggressive drivers, unobservant pedestrians and – often the worst of all – pushy cyclists. New York has been significantly tamed when it comes to biking, but it isn’t exactly Amsterdam.

Nevertheless, tourists, having long endured double-decker buses and plodding ferries, are understandably looking for a new vantage point. A number of tours have sprung up and found visitors willing to strap on a helmet.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39536483/ns/travel-destination_travel/

Tourism in the United States is a big industry that serves millions of international and domestic tourists. Tourists visit the US to see natural wonders, historic landmarks and entertainment venues. Americans seek same attractions, as well as recreation areas.

Tourism in the United States grew vastly in the form of urban tourism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the 1850s, tourism in the United States was fully established both as a cultural activity and as an industry. New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, all main US cities, attracted a huge number of tourists by the 1890s. By 1915, city touring had marked significant shifts in the way Americans perceived, organized and moved around in urbanisation.

Democratization of travel takes place during the early twentieth century when the automobile changed travel. Similarly air travel changed travel during 1945-1969, contributing greatly to tourism in the United States. By 2007 the number of international tourists had reached to over 56 million people who spent $122.7 billion dollars, setting an all time record.

The travel and tourism industry in the United States was among the first commercial casualties of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a series of terrorist on the US. Terrorists used four commercial airliners as means of destruction, all of which were collapsed in the attacks with 3,000 casualties.

In the US, tourism is either the first, second or third biggest employer in 29 states, employing 7.3 million in 2004, to take care of 1.19 billion trips tourists took in the US in 2005. As of 2007, there are 2,462 National Historic Landmarks (NHL) recognized by the United States government. As of 2008, the most popular tourist attraction in the US is Times Square in Manhattan, New York City which attracts approximately 35 million visitors.

New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, all big US cities, attracted a huge number of tourists by the 1890s. New York’s population raise from 300,000 in 1840 to 800,000 in 1850. Chicago experienced a dramatic increased from 4,000 residents in 1840 to 300,000 by 1870. Dictionaries was first published the word ‘tourist’ sometime in 1800, when it was referred to those going to Europe or making a trip of natural wonders in New York and New England. The absence of urban tourism during the nineteenth century was in part because American cities lacked the architecture and art which attracted visitors to Europe. American cities try to offend the sensitive with ugliness and commercialism rather than inspire awe or aesthetic pleasure. Some tourists were fascinated by the vast growth of the new urban areas: “It is a big thing to watch the process of world-making; both the combination of the natural and the conventional world,” wrote English writer Harriet Martineau in 1837.

By 1915, city touring had marked remarkable shifts in the way Americans aware, organized and moved around in urbanisation. Urban tourism became a earning industry in 1915 as the number of tour agencies, railroad departments, publishers and travel writers grew at a fast pace. The expense of pleasure tours meant that only the minority of Americans between 1850 and 1915 can be experience the luxury of tourism.  Many Americans moved to find work, but few found time for enjoyment of the urbanisation. As transportation facilities improved, the length of commuting decreased, and income rose. A growing number of Americans were able to afford short time vacations by 1915.

During the first four periods of the twentieth century, long-haul journeys between large American cities were fulfilled using trains. By the 1950s, air travel was part of every-day life for most of the Americans. The tourism industry in the US experienced remarkable growth as tourists could travel almost anywhere with a fast, reliable system. For some Americans, a vacation in Hawaii was now a more regular activity. Air travel has been changed most of the thing from family vacations to Major League Baseball, as had steam-powered trains in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

File:US International Arrivals 1997-2007 chart.png

Forecast tourism

(in thousands)

Origin

2007[27]

2008[27]

2009[27]

2010[27]

2011[27]

Canada

16,691

17,274

17,847

18,409

18,960

Mexico

13,717

14,127

14,529

14,921

15,304

Europe

10,951

11,407

11,822

12,230

12,632

Asia

6,348

6,710

7,050

7,390

7,730

South America

2,166

2,267

2,367

2,466

2,564

Caribbean

1,277

1,316

1,355

1,394

1,431

Central America

737

768

798

829

860

Oceania

804

838

872

905

937

Middle East

600

622

644

666

688

Africa

270

282

294

306

317

www.zaped.info/Tourism_in_the_United_States

New York’s food culture, influenced by city’s immigrants and large number of dining patrons, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants made city famous for bagels, cheese cake and New York-style pizza. Some of 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by city, many immigrant-owned, have made Eastern foods such as falafel and kebabs standbys of about the same age New York street food.  The city is home to many of finest haute cuisine restaurants in the United States.

Sporting events are tourist events. Major places include Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Madison Square Garden. Street fairs and street events like the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village and New York Marathon also attract tourists

Environmental issues in New York City are affected by city’s size, density, abundant public transportation infrastructure and location at the mouth of Hudson River. New York City also plays an important role in national environmental policy because of its size and position or wealth.

New York’s population density has been environmental benefits and dangers of the city. It facilitates the biggest mass transit use in United States, but also concentrates pollution. Gasoline consumption in the city is at the rate the average was in the 1920s, and greenhouse emissions are a fraction of the national average.

The direct effect is the at the time benefit to persons and companies state away giving goods or services to travellers. Indirect effect is the secondary benefits to suppliers of goods and services to the state away indulged companies. For example a food wholesaler giving goods to a restaurant, the model is careful not to include from the impact calculations.

The study entrust the making of a tourism monitoring unit by the US government to regulate the operation of industry as far as the areas of bio-diversity, culture and environment are concerned. The unit, once made should analyze properly and carefully control the negative impacts. It notes that, infrastructure should be better, insecurity weeded out that is likely to scare tourist away and bettering of tourist facilities like large hotels. It also notes that tourism that involved a number of countries and leaves most of the economic benefit outside country be should be discouraged.

Ecotourism is responsible travel to damage, pristine, and usually saved areas that strive to be low impact and small scale. Its purpose is to educate the traveller; provide funds for ecological conservation; state away beneficial for the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and cultivate respect for different cultures and for human rights. Since the 1980s ecotourism has esteemed a critical endeavour by environmentalists, so that future generations may be experienced directed relatively untouched by human intervention. Several university programs use this technique as the working definition of ecotourism.

Normally, ecotourism focuses on voluntarily, or volunteerism, personal development and environmental responsibility. Ecotourism typically committed to travel to goals where flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. One of the destinations of ecotourism is to give tourists seeing into impact of human beings on the environment, and to cultivate a greater appreciation of our natural habitats.

Responsible ecotourism contains programs that compress the negative aspects of conventional tourism on the environment and augment the cultural completeness of local people. Therefore, in addition to calculating environmental and cultural factors, a constituent part of ecotourism is the promotion of recycling, energy efficiency apartment, water conservation, and creation of economic chances for communities.  For these reasons, ecotourism often supplication to environmental and social responsibility advocates.

ECONOMIC NEGATIVE IMPACT

Increases price of goods and services

Increases price of land and housing

Increases cost of living

Increases potential for imported labour

Cost for additional infrastructure (water, sewer, power, fuel, medical, etc.)

Increases road maintenance and transportation systems costs

Seasonal tourism creates high-risk, under- or unemployment issues

Competition for land with other (higher value) economic uses

Profits may be exported by non-local owners

Jobs may pay low wages

ENVIO|RNMENT NEGATIVE IMPACT

Pollution (air, water, noise, solid waste, and visual)

Loss of natural landscape and agricultural lands to tourism development

Loss of open space

Destruction of flora and fauna (including collection of plants, animals, rocks, coral, or artefacts’ by or for tourists)

Degradation of landscape, historic sites, and monuments

Water shortages

Introduction of exotic species

Disruption of wildlife breeding cycles and behaviours

SOCIAL AND CULTURE NEGATIVE IMPACT

Excessive drinking, alcoholism, gambling

Increased underage drinking

Crime, drugs, prostitution

Increased smuggling

Language and cultural effects

Unwanted lifestyle changes

Displacement of residents for tourism development

Negative changes in values and customs

Family disruption

Exclusion of locals from natural resources

New cliques modify social structure

Natural, political, and public relations calamities

A goal of developing the tourism industry in a community is maximizing selected positive impacts while minimizing potential negative impacts. First, it is essential to identify the possible impacts. Tourism researchers have identified a large number of impacts. Grouping the impacts into categories shows the types of impacts that could result from developing tourism in a community

Tourism can be improved the quality of life in an area by increasing the number of attractions, opportunities, and services. Tourism offers resident’s offers to meet people, make friendships, learn more about the world, and to show themselves to new perspectives. Experiencing different cultural practices rewarding experiences broadens horizons, and increases seeing and appreciation for different an approximation to living. Often, decreasing interest in host cultures is resuscitated by reawakening cultural heritage as part of tourism development, which use to increases demand for historical and cultural. This interest by tourists in culture and history gives opportunities to help in maintain of historical architecture. By learning more others, their differences became less threatening and more interesting. At the same time, tourism often popularizes bigger levels of psychological satisfaction from opportunities made by tourism development and through interactions with who is going to travel.

CONCLUSION

For clarity, the tourism elements presented in this article have been largely treated separately; however, it is important to point out that there is a high degree of interrelatedness among the elements. They are being developed by cities for a variety of reasons including portraying a positive image, attracting visitors, and stimulating the urban economy.

In the present, some of most popular tourist places in Europe are the big cities. We can say that these are compulsory places for tourists and can be considered advertisements for the respective country. Big towns are important for tourism because they are residences of national or regional governments, possesses monuments and important buildings; they are places which host important events and various ceremonies. They are business and commercial centres, host night life and provide multiple possibilities for fun. They are preferred because they provide a large variety of entertainments and full services in a relatively small area.

However, towns must invest in all or in most of the components that make up the tourism area. It is not enough to invest in one or two components. The main quality of urban tourism does not consist in the fact that the existence of a big concentration of tourists cuts down the costs or increases the business efficiency, but in the fact that a large variety of services is necessary for a limited space, which is very attractive for tourism consumers.

Sustainability interfaces with economics through the social and ecological consequences of economic activity. Sustainability economics involves ecological economics where social, cultural, health-related and monetary/financial aspects are integrated. Moving towards sustainability is also a social challenge that entails international and national law, urban planning and transport, local and individual lifestyles and ethical consumerism. Ways of living more sustainably can take many forms from reorganising living conditions, reappraising economic sectors (perm culture, green building, sustainable agriculture), or work practices (sustainable architecture), using science to develop new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy), to adjustments in individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources.

BIBLIOGRAAPGHY

Castells, M (1993) “European cities, the informational society, and the global economy”, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, No. 84, pp. 247-257.

Friedmann, J (1986) “The world city hypothesis”, Development and Change, No.17, 69-84.

Robertson, R (1983) “Religion, global complexity and the human condition” in absolute values and the creation of the new world, Vol. 1, New York: International Cultural Foundation.

Sassen, S (1991) The global city. New York, London, Tokyo, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Taylor, P J and Hoyler, M (2000), “The spatial order of european cities under conditions of contemporary globalization”, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol. 91, No. 2, 176-189.

http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/fr/urgc-7EEGJR

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39536483/ns/travel-destination_travel/

http://www.zaped.info/Tourism_in_the_United_States