Corso di geografia turistica

Unit B1

p.67

• Even though the airport represents an obligatory journey for tourists, the time spent there is also seen as “dead time”, useless. The major international airports have been transformed to offer the traveller quality time. Here, therefore, alongside their primary destination and embarkation functions, these structures have adopted the characteristics of the large shopping centre.
• Modern well designed environments host stores, relaxation areas, duty-free shops, restaurants, beauty centres, children’s play areas, prayer rooms, cinemas, and Wi-Fi areas to connect to the web.
• Deregulation of the commercial aviation sector, that started in the United States in 1978 and was later introduced into Europe, has enabled the creation of many new routes that are no longer bound to the point-to-point system. Today, the new model is based on the identification of a main airport (called the hub), where all flights (the spokes) from outlying airports are concentrated. This allows the frequency of connections between secondary airports to be increased, reducing the risk of half-empty flights (it is difficult to fill the routes between secondary airports, but the argument changes if you switch to the more important ones, where there are always large passengers flows).
• The world’s largest hubs by passenger numbers are Atlanta, London, Beijing, Chicago, and Tokyo; Dubai is at the top of the ranking for passenger enjoyment.
• A contrast to this new concept of airports is the case of little airports that were reborn after a period of crisis through the advent of low cost flights, for which price control also results in the traveller being provided with drastic reductions in services.

Unit B2

p.73

• The coach is a means of mass transport in all those areas where weak economic conditions encourage a preference for this inexpensive means of transport (Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America), or where alternative infrastructure such as road and rail networks are insufficient (U.S., Canada, Australia).
• Recently, however, the coach is enjoying success as a means of transport related to tourism. This is due to several factors such as cheap fares, the possibility of travelling in comfort without worrying about traffic conditions, the security guaranteed by experienced drivers, by modern and reliable vehicles, and increased environmental awareness that encourages a preference for using one vehicle for many people, with fuel economy and reduced emissions of pollutants.
• Many tour operators offer organised trips aboard large coaches, with offers differentiated by destination and price. Some companies have even specialised in journeys aboard coaches, also with offers of intercontinental journeys (for example from London to Sydney, from London to New York).
• Another way to use this form of travel for tourism is by the individual traveller, who chooses to use the local bus services of a country for a veritable slow travel holiday: in touch with the everyday life of the local population.
• Traditionally, the coach has always been the best way to cross the USA, as the rail network has never been improved to reasonably cover the entire surface of the country. Until a few years ago the coach trip was chosen primarily be the less well off, given the low level of security and comfort, but now the service provides standards of quality competitive with those of low cost flights.

Unit B3

p.79

• Technological progress that has affected the rail transport sector has moved the train away from the tourism vocation of its inception. High speed, improved on-board services and infrastructure modernisation have almost made it competitive with airplanes, but more convenient for those who must travel to city centres.
• However, in many parts of the world a cruise on rails is a form of tourism that never completely waned and indeed is growing strongly. There are two types of train used for this purpose.
• Aboard historic trains, or those rebuilt along the lines of the legendary coaches of the past, regions of great scenic and cultural beauty can be visited, uniting the beauty of the land with the charm of a stay in a period environment, aboard carriages that recall the splendour of the legendary Orient-Express.
• Big and fast luxury trains, very similar to genuine five-star hotels, transport demanding customers with high purchasing power through extraordinary landscapes, with stops in major cities of art culture included in the itinerary.
• Outside Europe, there are over twenty trains that offer an exclusive and romantic holiday with the highest quality of services: in Africa the Blue Train, Rovos Rail and the Shogololo Express carry tourists from south to north across plains and deserts; in Australia aboard the Ghan, travelling from south to north along the tracks once travelled by caravans of camels; in Latin America the Hiram Bingham travels the distance between Cuzco and Machu Picchu, assuring travellers beautiful scenery and an ambience of great luxury in reconstructed carriages modelled on those of the 1920s. There are similar travel offers throughout the East and in North America.

Unit B4

p.85

• Heir to the ancient pilgrimages and then the eighteenth-century Grand Tour, on the road tourism represents in the collective imagination a sort of journey of initiation that is destined to leave an indelible mark.
• Tour operators offer itineraries that retrace the routes of great historical, archaeological, scenic or cultural significance, departing from easily accessible cities with comfortable, but not overly expensive, travel arrangements.
• A classic on the road tour is the Central American stretch of the Pan-Americana Highway, the great route of more than 24,000 km that covers the entire American continent, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, running parallel to the Pacific coast.
• The most charming stretch, always beaten by travellers in search of stimulating experiences, runs along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Approximately 7,000 kilometres, it leads the tourist through the grandeur of Mexico City and its historical and cultural heritage, the colonial splendour of Antigua, the spirituality of Esquipulas, a destination for penitent pilgrims, the elegance of the Mayan city of Copan, the active volcanoes of El Salvador, the natural paradise of Costa Rica, and finally to the verdant land of Panama.
• Equally fascinating itineraries are the Ruta 40 that runs across Argentina along the Andes from north to south, the ancient salt routes through the dunes of the Sahara, still crossed by the caravans of the Tuareg, and the Ancient Khmer Highway through Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Unit B5

p.89

• The Panama Canal was planned out in the late nineteenth century, by the Frenchman de Lesseps who had already built the Suez Canal, but for technical and financial reasons it was not realised. It was only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Panama became an independent republic that, with the funding of the United States, the work was finally completed. Today, some 13,000 vessels transit the canal each year and work has commenced to widen it so as to increase the number and tonnage of the container ships that travel through it.
• The government has launched several promotional offers to make the beauty of the country better known and launch it on the tourism market. In fact there are many products that focus on the unique biodiversity, the beauty of the white sandy beaches, on the opportunities to practice all kinds of sports (sailing, diving, surfing, rafting, kayaking, hiking, cycling …), on the wealth of folk traditions and culture, and on offers of entertainment venues and restaurants for lovers of the local cuisine.
• To make the canal, the course of the Chagres River was blocked with a dam which flooded more than 400 square kilometres of jungle, creating the Gatùn artificial lake. The operation changed the habitat of thousands of animal and plant species in a violent way, but at the same time has produced interesting experiments in geographical evolution, such as the Barro Colorado forest, that have become important areas for scientific study, protected by the establishment of nature reserves and protected parks.

Unit B6

p.95

• Geography cannot ignore the new technologies that have transformed the concepts of communication, accessibility, and tourism use. As more than 50% of tourists currently use the Internet to plan their journeys, the product offered them must be enriched with multimedia contents and focus on interaction with the public. The usability, quantity and quality of information available to tourists often make the difference.
• In this way, even small towns gain greater visibility, promoting themselves, their history and their attractions: which can be disseminated through the Web and technologies such as smartphones, iPads, and interactive satellite maps. Therefore, there are not only on line sites for the booking of hotels and flights, but also freely downloadable informative materials and audio guides, virtual tours, themed videos in multiple languages: the Net is becoming a successful mechanism for the promotion of a local area.
• Databases accessible through Gis technology are particularly useful in the field of tourism and environmental protection: a computerised system that enables the capture, visualisation and analysis of geographic data to construct complex maps. These information systems, published on the Web (WebGis), consist of online maps that are available to the immense community of the Net, which uses them to plan journeys from home. Google Earth and Google Maps are examples of these services.
• A number of cities have developed specific projects: Vancouver has prepared an interactive map of the city (Interactive Map of Vancouver), through which the user can select the information that is of interest from categories such as accommodation, cultural attractions and restaurants. In Sydney the TimeMap project has also made available online documents preserved in museums, archives and libraries, forming the largest multimedia encyclopedia on the history of a city. The idea is to provide access through an application (Sydney TimeMap) for mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants).

Unit B7

p.101

• In recent years the feminine influence in tourism has been increasing, in terms of both travellers and those employed in the industry. In developed countries, financial independence has opened the possibility to travel, historically reserved for men, also to women, who now represent a significant share of tourism demand. Even when not travelling alone but with their families they are almost always the ones to choose the destination and plan the trip: for this reason their interests and their expectations are beginning to influence the way in which operators in the sector promote destinations and travel packages.
• Research has profiled these new female tourists: travelling alone or with friends, they are economically independent, they appreciate finding products designed for their wellbeing and their safety, they view travel as a means to improve health, their knowledge and mood, and as an opportunity to escape the daily routine.
• Accordingly, a new market segment has developed, which is targeted by tour operators specialising in the supply of destinations, itineraries and hospitality packages labelled as “rosa”. Even a major American hotel chain has created a series of services and benefits designed to meet the needs of female customers: ranging from the strengthening of security measures to the provision of special “girls’ rooms”: equipped with ironing boards to refresh clothes that have been left in the suitcase; full height mirrors; with cosmetics, tights and women’s magazines among the courtesy products.
• But women today are also the central characters in the products produced by tourism, especially in more developed countries: unfortunately, in the poorest areas of the world, female employment is still difficult to evaluate as these activities are often conducted in small family businesses, and therefore with no legal recognition.