Corso di geografia turistica

Unit E1

p.209

• Great sporting events and the Universal Expos have permanently changed tourism geography: they attract millions of people to attend the events and the infrastructure built for the occasion becomes a tourist attraction in itself.
• Olympic Games and World Cups draw great numbers of sport tourists: people who play the sports or work in the sports sector, as well as the spectators. Once at the event, thanks to the organisers’ careful promotion, they become consumers of tourism services, with a positive spill over effect on the economy of the whole area.
• Cities compete in promoting themselves as a suitable place to host the Games. The large investments that accompany the bids are focused on the improvement and renovation of urban structures: for the Olympics in 1988, Seoul launched a plan to improve transport, control air pollution and clean up the Han River: Barcelona, home of the Games in 1992, worked on the improvement of the coastal zone and harbour, recovering 5 miles of beaches for bathing: Sydney, in 2000, focused to the issue of environmental sustainability, adapting infrastructure created for the occasion to the principle of energy conservation and recycling: Beijing used the 2008 Olympics as a showcase to show the world the greatness of Chinese power, with futuristic architecture.
• The Universal Expos also ensures the host countries large influxes of visitors and visibility that lasts well after the event has finished. In 1992, Genoa restored historic buildings and built the famous aquarium that is still a great tourist attraction today.

Unit E2

p.215

• Throughout the world, there are many fans of cinema, television films, television series and literature, who choose to travel to the places linked to their favourite shows and books. Named “media tourism” in Italy, this phenomenon involves specialised agencies, as well as publishers of travel guides, that offer film and TV itineraries.
• In turn, local authorities have sensed the business and compete to proposition directors and producers to set their works in their areas: to attract flows of visitors and thereby benefit from the success of a film or TV programme.
• This happened in New Zealand where the fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings was filmed. Thanks to a skilful operation by the local government, which has prepared events related to art, culture and local cuisine, there have been substantial increases in tourist numbers and economic benefits for the entire country.
• Similar situations have occurred in Saint Vincent, on the Grenadines islands, where The Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, and in the locations in Thailand that were used as the backdrop to James Bond’s adventures. Even New York has increased its tourist appeal thanks to the television series Sex and the City, which is followed all over the world by millions of viewers who appreciate the tours of various locations in the metropolis.
• In another quarter, it has long been known that the passion for the cinema generates tourism: the big studios, from Hollywood to Cinecittà, Walt Disney and Fox, have planned visits for tourist and the curious by arranging internal spaces reserved for the visits or actual theme parks that are greatly appreciated by the public.
• The latest frontier in terms of tourism linked to movies and TV is called VIP watching and consists of a form of celebrity hunting: the movements and habits of the celebrities being divulged on the Net and in magazines that specialise in this type of information.

Unit E3

p.221

• India is an ancient country, rich in history, art and culture. On the one hand it has now imposed itself on the international stage as a major economic power that is still growing, and on the other exhibits many aspects of social life that are still strongly imbued with spirituality and religiosity.
• For many years, international attention has viewed Bollywood films with interest. Cinema is a great passion with Indians: it employs six million directly and just as many in related industries, a thousand films are produced each year, and thirteen million viewers are reported daily (the actually figure is probably twice as much). The films have an element that sets them apart: the constant presence of romantic musical sequences.
• These productions, expressions of Indian popular culture, have won over audiences throughout the world, and not only in countries with high emigration from India. Bollywood’s fame represents another tourism attraction for India, alongside the classic destinations of traditional itineraries, like the Taj Mahal, Rajasthan, Ajanta, Tamil Nadu, the state of Orissa, and the Ladakh region.
• Being perceived as the cradle of great religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism has made India a destination for pilgrims in search of spirituality. Many head towards communities founded by gurus who also have a great following in the West.
• But people also come to India to visit the Catholic missions or villages of Tibetan refugees who have fled persecution by the Chinese. This form of solidarity tourism enables one to get in touch with a reality very different from one’s own. Some associations welcome visitors who travel for humanitarian reasons in guesthouses.
• Finally, there has been an increase in recent years in the number of Westerners going to India to try Ayurvedic treatments or to receive medical and surgical services at very low cost.

Unit E4

p.227

• More than 400 years before Christ, the Greek historian Herodotus, whose work tells us was the first travel reporter on record, drew up a list of the most marvellous man made works of his time, which was then perfected by the poet and scholar Callimachus. This famous list of the seven wonders of the ancient world identified works worthy of being visited, and its fame has come down to us even though all the masterpieces, apart from the pyramid of Cheops at Giza, have been lost.
• In recent times, an eccentric billionaire has held two online surveys to find the seven wonders of the modern world and also those of nature. Lists and guides proliferate that indicate the places to visit at least once in one’s lifetime, not to be missed places, the most exciting ones, those to be seen before they are destroyed or fall into disrepair.
• The aim is to highlight the monuments and sites and preserve them for future generations, but risks disorientating the traveller. But there is also a list that follows unequivocal and standardised criteria: this is the list of World Heritage Sites.
• UNESCO accepts sites in its lists of cultural, natural and mixed (i.e. the result of the combined action of man and nature) heritage, and also intangibles (practices and knowledge as expressions of cultural heritage) that are considered worthy of universal protection. There are almost a thousand sites cited in this list, which is not fixed, but provides for new entrants or the removal of those that no longer have the necessary prerequisites.
• As many as 187 countries adhere to the Convention, all engaged in the protection of listed sites. An international committee supervises the correct application of the criteria and decides on inclusion in, or deletion from, the list of sites, which represents the best that man has managed to produce with his own talent or through interaction with nature and social groups.

Unit E5

p.233

• The great events of the past (wars, battles, terrorist attacks and natural disasters) have a strong appeal for the general public. Tourism related to historical commemorations is not fuelled by a simple visit to the site or monument in question, but requires more engaging forms of contact, capable of relating the typical characteristics of the site: it is a form of experiential tourism.
• For example, there are re-enactments of scenes from daily life of the past, craft skills, historical events, and scientifically accurate reconstructions of civic rituals that are interpreted by characters (reenactors) using costumes and fittings suitable to the purpose.
• Italy is renowned for this kind of offer, and it can also be experienced in the United States. Here the sites of famous battles, like Gettysburg or Pearl Harbor, are visited annually by thousands of tourists. Museums, houses that have been rebuilt to illustrate family life at the time, and battles represented through films, allow the visitor to reconstruct history by reliving all the associated emotions.
• Even dramatic events like the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, the assassinations of Presidents Kennedy and Lincoln, or natural catastrophes such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens and Hurricane Katrina, attract the general public to places where the event took place; local governments have prepared places and initiatives to retrace and deepen understanding of these tragic events, whilst travel agents organise tours to the devastated areas.
• Tragic pages of history, such as the Holocaust or the Pol Pot dictatorship, can be relived by visiting concentration camps such as Auschwitz or Dachau and re-education camps with their killing fields in Cambodia. Associated museums illustrate to visitors the terrible suffering experienced by so many people, to ensure that the memory never fades.