Commercial Tourism Research Articles

Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Energy Consumption of Commercial Tourism City

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide. To alleviate this spread, various blockade policies have been implemented in many areas. This has led to a sluggish demand in the world's major economies, sharp drop in the trade index, and negative growth in energy consumption. To formulate a better epidemic prevention policy for urban energy consumption of commercial tourism cities, this study summarizes the major statistics of energy supply and demand before and during the epidemic period based on actual data. The characteristics of energy consumption in different sectors, including hotels, transportation, tourism culture, and public utilities, are then analyzed in detail. Finally, the energy consumption features of commercial tourism cities represented by Macao are compared to those of other typical countries (e.g., Italy, United States, Japan, and Brazil). These analyses demonstrate the impact of COVID-19 on the energy consumption in commercial tourism cities, which provides insights for the government or energy providers to formulate policies to adapt to this pandemic.

Results of simulation and scaled flight tests performed on a rocket-plane at high angles of attack

PurposeAccording to the study of the space flight market, there is a demand for space suborbital flights including commercial tourist flights. However, one of the challenges is to design a mission and a vehicle that could offer flights with relatively low G-loads. The project of the rocket-plane in a strake-wing configuration was undertaken to check if such a design could meet the FAA recommendation for this kind of flight. The project concept assumes that the rocket plane is released from a slowly flying carrier plane, then climbs above 100 kilometers above sea level and returns in a glide flight using a vortex lift generated by the strake-wing configuration. Such a mission has to include a flight transition during the release and return phases which might not be comfortable for passengers. Verification if FAA recommendation is fulfilled during these transition maneuvers was the purpose of this study.Design/methodology/approachThe project was focused on the numerical investigation of a possibility to perform transition maneuvers mentioned above in a passenger-friendly way. The numerical simulations of a full-scale rocket-plane were performed using the simulation and dynamic stability analyzer (SDSA) software package. The influence of an elevator deflection change on flight parameters was investigated in two cases: a transition from the steep descent at high angles of attack to the level glide just after rocket-plane release from the carrier and an analogous transition after re-entry to the atmosphere. In particular, G-loads and G-rates were analyzed.FindingsAs a result, it was found that the values of these parameters satisfied the specific requirements during the separation and transition from a steep descent to gliding. They would be acceptable for an average passenger.Research limitations/implicationsTo verify the modeling approach, a flight test campaign was performed. During the experiment, a rocket-plane scaled model was released from the RC model helicopter. The rocket-plane model was geometrically similar only. Froude scales were not applied because they would cause excessive technical complications. Therefore, a separate simulation of the experiment with the application of the scaled model was performed in the SDSA software package. Results of this simulation appeared to be comparable to flight test results so it can be concluded that results for the full-scale rocket-plane simulation are also realistic.Practical implicationsIt was proven that the rocket-plane in a strake-wing configuration could meet the FAA recommendation concerning G-loads and G rates during suborbital flight. Moreover, it was proven that the SDSA software package could be applied successfully to simulate flight characteristics of airplanes flying at angles of attack not only lower than stall angles but also greater than stall angles.Social implicationsThe application of rocket-planes in a strake-wing configuration could make suborbital tourist flights more popular, thus facilitating the development of manned space flights and contributing to their cost reduction. That is why it was so important to prove that they could meet the FAA recommendation for this kind of service.Originality/valueThe original design of the rocket plane was analyzed. It is equipped with an optimized strake wing and is controlled with oblique, all moving, wingtip plates. Its post-stall flight characteristics were simulated with the application of the SDSA software package which was previously validated only for angles of attack smaller than stall angle. Therefore, experimental validation was necessary. However, because of excessive technical problems caused by the application of Froude scales it was not possible to perform a conventional test with a dynamically scaled model. Therefore, the geometrically scaled model was built and flight tested. Then a separate simulation of the experiment with the application of this model was performed. Results of this separate simulation were compared with the results of the flight test. This comparison allowed to draw the conclusion on the applicability of the SDSA software for post-stall analyzes and, indirectly, on the applicability of the proposed rocket-plane for tourist suborbital flights. This approach to the experimental verification of numerical simulations is quite unique. Finally, a quite original method of the model launching during flight test experiment was applied.

Assortative Matching of Tourists and Destinations: Agents or Algorithms?

We propose that assortative matching, a well-established paradigm in other industry sectors and academic disciplines, can underpin the concept of destination matching. This provides a new foundation to integrate research concepts and terminology in destination marketing and destination choice. We argue that the commercial tourism industry already applies destination matching approaches, with three historical phases. Initially, matching of tourists and destinations relied on the tacit expertise of specialist agents. This still applies in specialist subsectors. For generalist travel and accommodation, human agents were partially replaced by online travel agents, OTAs, which are customised algorithms operating only in the travel sector. These still exist, but their share price trends suggest decreasing significance. Currently, automated assortative algorithms use multiple sources of digital data to push appealing offers to potential purchasers, across all retail sectors. Digital marketing strategies for tourism products, enterprises, and destinations are now just one category of generalised product–purchaser matching, using entirely automated algorithms. Researchers do not have access to proprietary algorithms, but we can identify which components they incorporate by analysing their underlying patents. We propose that theories of destination marketing and choice need to reflect these recent and rapid real-world changes via deliberate analysis of destination matching.

Climate Change Interpretation and the Leisure Experience of Participants on a Commercial Tour

ABSTRACT Evidence of climate change in alpine environments provides an opportunity for commercial tourism operators to offer interpretation on this subject as part of their tours, albeit with the risk of altering their clients’ leisure experiences in unknown ways. This study used a lab-based experiment to compare the leisure experiences of an experimental group of young adults exposed to climate change interpretation during a simulated snocoach tour of the Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park to the leisure experience of participants of a control group who were not exposed to this interpretive component. All other aspects of the simulated tour were identical. Results indicated that incorporating climate change interpretation had a significantly positive impact on visitors’ overall satisfaction and on the education dimension of the leisure experience. These findings provide positive signals for tourism operators who may be concerned about the risks of introducing a climate change component to their product.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN GEORGIA

Tourism is a global economic, social and cultural phenomenon of the modern world. Tourism meets human needs for cultural, physical, cognitive and spiritual development. Its key objectives are determined by specific social and cultural functions. In terms of the financial backing, tourism is divided into two types: Commercial (based on personal or corporate funding); Social (based on state or charity funding). Commercial tourism is focused on making a profit by travel companies, vital to their further expansion and development. In the process of profit maximization, companies try to find the optimal ratio between costs and tourism product prices. The tourism services, they offer, are mainly focused on high and middle income individuals, who can afford to fully cover their travel expenses. Social tourism is subsidized from the opportunities allocated to meet the social needs essential to creating travel opportunities for students, young people, retirees and veterans. This category of people, as the least able-bodied segment of the population, is provided with the appropriate opportunities by the state and nongovernmental organizations, or charitable foundations. This position is reinforced by the Manila Declaration on World Tourism, which states that “social tourism is a goal that society should pursue in the interests of those citizens who are least privileged in exercising their right to leisure”. The concept and types of social tourism are different in different countries. In some countries, civil servants, the military and other categories enjoy the opportunity to travel at the expense of the budget, while in others it is subsidized, for example, by trade union funds. Companies that arrange such tours receive subsidies from the state, which allows them not to raise prices during the holidays. The paper discusses the positive experience of developed countries in implementing social tourism development programs, the classification of target population groups in social tourism, development prospects in this field of tourism and positive factors.

An Experiment to Discover Usability Guidelines for Designing Mobile Tourist Apps

Tourist apps can be very useful for sightseeing, and this is one of the reasons that makes them so numerous in app stores. Good usability can make the difference when choosing an app, from the user’s point of view, so this study is aimed at analyzing and discovering common usability issues in apps for tourism. This paper presents a research study with two objectives: analyzing the most common usability problems in mobile apps for tourism and proposing recommendations for improving the usability of those apps. The research process firstly identifies the main functionalities that tourist guides should have, by filtering the results obtained through the store. This was followed by a two‐part experiment. The first part was a Keystroke Level Modelling analysis, where the number of taps needed to perform each main functionality in each tourist guide app was registered. Secondly, a heuristic evaluation was carried out on the best rated apps in the previous stage. Four usability experts tested the apps in real devices, by performing several tasks with a smartphone, and evaluated them according to some mobile heuristics. After this process, the most frequent usability problems in tourist guide apps were found, which allowed to discover recommendations for designing and developing mobile tourist guides. One of the recommendations is that tourist guide apps should provide at least the following functionalities: listing POIs (Points of Interest), showing information of a POI, selecting language, showing a map, working offline, and showing a tourist’s current location. Other recommendations proposed are, for example, showing relevant and complete information of POIs, such as opening hours and admission fees; showing more than one POI on the map and the distance to the tourist; and avoiding showing at the same time commercial information and tourist information.

An Ecoacoustic Snapshot of a Subarctic Coastal Wilderness: Aialik Bay, Alaska 2019

I recorded the ambient sounds at three locations in the wilderness of Aialik Bay in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska between 25 June and 21 September 2019. My aim was to capture an ecoacoustic snapshot of the coastal soundscape to provide a comparable baseline for evaluating wilderness characteristics defined by the Wilderness Act of 1964. I visually and empirically characterized the Aialik Bay wilderness soundscape using the acoustic metrics of soundscape power (normalized watts/kHz) and Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NDSI) from 5373 five-minute recordings, combined with visual and aural spectral examination of 4386 recordings. Soundscape power exhibited similar patterns across frequency intervals with sound sources primarily occurring in the low-frequency (1–2 kHz) and mid-frequency (2–5 kHz) intervals. Significant differences within frequency intervals between sites suggested the presence of distinct sonotopes. Low-frequency sounds were dominant across all three sites with peak soundscape power values across study days and 24 h timeframes attributed to wind and occasional periods of technophony emitted from commercial tour boats and private boating activities. Low-frequency geophony from wave action was ever present. Technophony exhibited some predictable patterns consistent with the timing of sightseeing boat tours. Peak values of soundscape power at mid-frequencies were attributed to the geophony of rain. Although biophonies were less common than geophonies, the choruses of songbirds were prevalent in July and promptly occurred daily between 0300 and 0600. Biophonies generally declined over the course of the day. All sites displayed negative NDSI values over most study days and consistently negative values over 24 h time frames, indicating a soundscape primarily influenced by low-frequency geophony and periods of technophony. However, NDSI values showed patterns and peaks similar to biophonies at mid-frequency intervals indicating biophony was still a notable contribution to this geophony-dominant soundscape. Despite the acoustic footprint of motorboat noise detected at all sample sites, the soundscape of the Aialik Bay wilderness was dominated by the natural sounds of geophony, biophony, and occasional periods of natural quiet indicative of a wilderness only partially impacted by technophony.

Navigating contested memories in a commercialised setting: conflict avoidance strategies in Kyiv city tour guiding

ABSTRACT While the tourism industry is oriented towards creating attractive images of destinations, histories of violence and suffering have increasingly been incorporated into tourism offers and are often actively promoted by states and tourism organisations. A growing body of scholarship has focused on how difficult pasts have been represented and have analysed the driving factors behind the rise of such heritage. Commercial tourism offers such as guided city tours have however largely been overlooked as arenas for communicating difficult pasts. This article provides an in-depth examination of memory work of commercial guides, focusing on the example of Russian-language tour guiding in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Drawing on participant observations of 20 guided city tours and interviews with 18 tour guides, the article identifies a wide range of narrative strategies that guides adopt to navigate pasts that have been subject to memory conflicts. During tours, guides adjust how much they say, what evidence they provide, what aspects of the past they present as relevant as well as their manner of speaking. These conflict avoidance strategies are part of a pragmatic approach to memory that deserves greater attention in the study of difficult pasts.

Workers becoming tourists and consumers: social history of tourism in socialist Slovenia and Yugoslavia

ABSTRACT This article outlines how citizens of socialist Slovenia spent their leisure time, where and when they went on holidays, and what role consumption played during those times. It is based on the argument that tourism as a form of modern leisure is associated with consumption, wherefore consumerism and tourism are interconnected phenomena. While also arguing that labour and leisure are entwined, the article studies the mutually constructive relationship between work and leisure through the perspective of holidays and the consumption of goods and services in the form of trade-union tourism and cross-border shopping. As regards the tourism sector development process, this article also fills a gap in our understanding of the intersection between domestic and commercial tourism. This contribution to the social history of tourism in Yugoslav socialism is based on both archival sources and oral history, with semi-structured interviews conducted with interlocutors.

Customer satisfaction in post-socialist Spas: a case study of Budapest, City of Spas

ABSTRACT This paper examines spa developments in post-socialist countries, especially the process of adapting facilities to attract and accommodate commercial (non-state funded) guests and international tourists. This includes the development of infrastructure, the upgrading and regeneration of facilities, the improvement of service quality and the enhancement of visitor experiences and customer satisfaction. The research in this paper draws on customer satisfaction and service quality theory from the hospitality sector in order to consider how far spas are meeting international standards and to make recommendations for future improvements. Online review data was analysed from one of the most popular spas in Budapest, Hungary to highlight issues relating to tourist satisfaction and experience. Despite considerable investment in the thermal bath buildings and facilities as part of a national programme of regeneration, several issues relating to service quality still need to be addressed. This represents a common challenge for the whole post-socialist region, so the work aims to identify future directions for spas in this region in their transition from domestic, therapeutic medical baths to international, wellness spas.

Viewpoint Research “Envoys of Mankind” in the Era of Commercial Human Spaceflight

ABSTRACT The physical presence of humans as astronauts beginning in 1961 highlights the collective achievement of humanity and opens up new avenues of outer space activities. Astronauts are granted the status of “envoys of mankind in outer space,” thereby making them eligible for certain protections and privileges. Today, in the era of commercial space, the applicability of these protections and privileges is questioned in regard to commercial human spaceflight and space tourism. In this context, the definition of astronauts is explored by assessing the various international legal documents on outer space, especially the Outer Space Treaty, Rescue Agreement, and the Liability Convention. This paper examines whether space tourists should be considered “astronauts” and “envoys of mankind.” The paper argues for a broader interpretation of the existing legal regime of outer space and suggests a new legal document for commercial human spaceflight.

An African dilemma: Pastoralists, conservationists and tourists – reconciling conflicting issues in Kenya

ABSTRACT Kenya is facing irreconcilable tensions by competing interests from conservationists, tourism developers and pastoralists. Concerns arising from the well-being of flora and, in particular, fauna by conservationists; tourists and commercial tourism; and the increasingly restricted use of traditional lands and herding animals by pastoralist indigenous communities, have populated the discourse of land use in Kenya. In this paper, we look into the varying perceptions of each group of stakeholders and seek to analyse the current narrative that gives priority to wildlife protection and the commercial exploitation of wildlife through high-end tourism development to the detriment of the rights and interests of pastoralism. As pastoral land becomes more appropriated, our analysis shows that the antagonistic relationship between conservationism, commercial tourism and pastoralism is likely to deteriorate. We, therefore, propose a more participatory model of tourism development that will allow pastoralist communities to have a voice in the process.

The subdued nature: reading Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds through Eco-Marxist lenses

ABSTRACT Modernity has come to be identified with industrialization and the changes that accompanied the then-emerging industrial societies. One major effect of modernity is the rise of the capitalist society on which Karl Marx’s matrix of economic theorization is founded. Building on Marx’s critique of the capitalist society, this article aims at critically reading the relationship that exists between the project of capitalism and the environment in the context of the Kenyan Maasai community. As Herbert Marcuse posits, capitalist production is inherently expansionist and therefore encroaches on natural space thereby subjecting nature to violence of exploitation and pollution. For him, ‘ecological struggle comes into conflict with the laws which govern the capitalist system’. The Maasai community has been affected greatly by agrarian capitalism that dates back to colonialism and which has been extended by subsequent postcolonial regimes. This article argues that the tragic journey across the Maasai plains undertaken by the two main protagonists in Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds is representative of the effect that capitalist modernity has had on the Maasai ecosystems. Henry Ole Kulet tells a tragic story of the loss of Maasai land to commercial agricultural practices, tourism and settlements, all of which have profoundly eroded his people’s indigenous identity and culture.

Residents’ Attitudes Towards a National Park Under Conditions of Suburbanisation and Tourism Pressure: A Case Study of Ojców National Park (Poland)

Abstract The article attempts to contribute to the global discussion on the social aspects of the functioning of protected areas. It explores the attitudes of local communities towards national parks and the determinants of those attitudes. The problem is presented using the example of Ojców National Park (Pol. OPN), a small-area national park located in the suburban zone of Kraków (Poland) and subject to strong pressure of tourism and suburbanisation. The analysis is based on interviews with people residing within the boundaries or buffer zone of the OPN. The residents are proud to live in a scenic location; they tend to perceive the national park in the context of its significant natural value rather than its administration and the related restrictions, and mostly approve of its existence. There is a high support for implementing the participative model of local area management. At the same time, however, the residents’ preferred methods of area management are in conflict with the need to protect the Park’s natural and landscape values. The residents favour commercial tourism infrastructure within the protected area and residential housing development in its close vicinity. The residents’ attitudes towards the Park are also shaped to a large extent by complex factors relating to the area’s history and its location within the suburban zone of a major city.

Postcards from the Chihuahua Border: Revisiting a Pictorial Past, 1900s–1950s by Daniel D. Arreola

Reviewed by: Postcards from the Chihuahua Border: Revisiting a Pictorial Past, 1900s–1950s by Daniel D. Arreola Rita Marie Velasco Postcards from the Chihuahua Border: Revisiting a Pictorial Past, 1900s–1950s. By Daniel D. Arreola. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2019. Pp. 339. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) Drawing upon an unlikely source, author Daniel D. Arreola presents a model for how postcards can teach historians to read the landscape and find broader historical trends there. Postcards from the Chihuahua Border is a work of both geography and history and visually reconstructs the Chihuahua border towns of Ciudad Juárez, Ojinaga, and Palomas. Arreola asserts that postcards are markers of change over time because they offer a “serial view of place” (29). With the exception of Paul Vanderwood and Frank Samponaro in Border Fury: A Picture Postcard Record of Mexico’s Revolution and U.S. War Preparedness, 1910–1917 (University of New Mexico Press, 1988), Arreola believes that scholars have overlooked postcards as both documents and textual evidence. [End Page 94] Postcards from the Chihuahua Border unfolds over four parts. Part I, composed of two chapters, studies the border geographically and historically from the early to mid-twentieth century. Arreola examines the everyday significance of postcards by delving into how publishers chose their subject matter and production methods. Part II concentrates solely on Ciudad Juárez, making up the bulk—six chapters—of the study. Ciudad Juárez is the star of this book because of its importance in the region, its unique relationship to nearby El Paso, Texas, and the availability of objects for analysis. Through postcards, Arreola explores its transit systems, tourist border-crossing experiences, popular venues, commercial tourism, and daily life. As El Paso residents increasingly traveled to Ciudad Juárez regularly, they created a thriving tourism market, creating a “visitor identity” that contributed to trade and a regional population surge. When Prohibition passed into law, Ciudad Juárez became a prime destination for its bars and breweries, and postcards documented this trade. City business owners also showcased the town’s food and entertainment venues, and postcards from the region reinforced this image. Additionally, curio shops and historical sites drew tourists, which helped the growth of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Postcards depicting street scenes showed how people lived as the city grew. Part III covers much of the same thematic ground but is devoted to the towns of Ojinaga and Palomas, Chihuahua. These towns receive much less attention from the author, which reflects their size and where they live within the popular imagination of the U.S.–Mexico border region. Part IV concludes the work by reinforcing its theoretical framework and providing a short discussion about the author’s intervention in the current scholarship focused on the border. Arreola accomplished his goal of bringing attention to an often-overlooked historical artifact in an accessible text that is both illuminating and entertaining. Postcards demonstrate that seemingly innocuous objects can transmit a great deal of information through their subject matter, the miles they traveled, and who sent and received them, while their production can also document advancements in technology. The book contains an extensive array of beautiful color-postcard images, maps, and advertisements from the period. Although written for a general audience, the book does not lack academic rigor. Postcards from the Chihuahua Border is an interdisciplinary work that can be used by historians, anthropologists, and geographers. The book sheds light on processes and themes as diverse as foreign relations, tourism, modernization, and business practices but is not jargon-laden, making it a text for the intermediate student, professor, or undergraduate classroom. [End Page 95] Rita Marie Velasco Northwestern University Copyright © 2020 The Texas State Historical Association

Puppets and Cities: Articulating Identities in Southeast Asia by Jennifer Goodlander

Reviewed by: Puppets and Cities: Articulating Identities in Southeast Asia by Jennifer Goodlander Annie Katsura Rollins PUPPETS AND CITIES: ARTICULATING IDENTITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA. By Jennifer Goodlander. London: Methuen / Drama, 2019. 206 pp. Cloth, $102.00. In her latest book, Puppets and Cities: Articulating Identities in Southeast Asia, scholar/practitioner Jennifer Goodlander has created a compelling collection of essays that examine how "puppetry complements and combines with urban spaces to articulate present and future individual, cultural, and national identities" (p. 3). For Goodlander, this examination comes at a crucial time when local and global communities and their politics are changing at an increasing rate, necessitating a fresh look at how cultural forms, such as puppetry, transforms alongside as cities in Southeast Asia continue to "serve as large-scale testing grounds for the reinvention of tradition and the questioning of cultural and national identities" (p. 5). Goodlander's approach to the relationship between cities and puppets is refreshing. Puppet performances are examined within a wider context of political and global movements in and around urban space and considered an active participant in the continual formulation of urban identity. She writes: "Puppet performances and displays often address both the problems and triumphs of the city through a combination of heritage and development as part of larger urban planning initiatives throughout the region. Puppetry offers a place to expose the different layers of identity inherent within the cities" (p. 7). Cities, too, are not simply considered by their geographical footprint, but as a launching point for concepts and themes made possible by how and why we gather in urban spaces. Chapters vary widely between how puppets activate national museums and identities, to Southeast Asian puppetry performance changing national identities in overseas cities, to how social media can be considered "a kind of urban space" (p. 12), and how Southeast Asian puppeteers are utilizing Facebook to raise awareness and capital to further their work in traditional puppetry. The author begins with a clear, concise, and engaging introduction that lays out the themes, parameters, and impetus for the book; while the text is best read collectively to present a diverse set [End Page 304] of case studies that explore the complex and infinite dynamic between puppets and cities, the chapters can also be read independently. Each chapter also presents broader themes that can be tied to additional fields of study, such as chapter 2, which is a comparative look at puppets on display at two museums in Jakarta, Indonesia. The chapter taps into museum studies and theories of the archive to address the expanding role of museums in utilizing puppetry to unify a country's history and its present by activating and reforming nostalgia. Chapter 4 is an example of how the author uses a singular show or event as the entry point to a multi-layered examination of puppetry, cities, and performance. In "Negotiating the Past and Present through Spectacle," Goodlander introduces the case study, The Giant Puppet Project in Siam Reap, in order to illustrate how "spectacle is a certain type of entertainment that brings audience and performers together; modern society emphasizes the individual, but spectacle creates community" (p. 60). The Giant Puppet Project (GPP), an annual outdoor parade that brings Cambodian's disadvantaged children together to create and perform together, is scrutinized in its wider context; Goodlander highlights the aesthetic at work in the spectacle of the public parade, the difficulties of reconciling the push for "authentic Cambodian culture" and the realities of outsider influence and needed support, and the uniqueness of the project outside the commercial tourist economy. The material is thoroughly supported and carefully handled, ending with an acknowledgment of the authors positionality: "Perhaps I might be seen as preferring an optimistic view, but I believe GPP offers the kind of artistic and social space needed for contemporary Cambodians to navigate the many different influences on their identity" (p. 87). The most challenging chapter is saved for last (chapter 7): "Puppetry and Identity in Virtual Worlds." Social media stands in for a city in this chapter because "like cities, social media offers a distinct kind of space that informs the reception and performance of … creative work." Goodlander argues that "the...

Illegal, Anti-Socialist and Petty Bourgeois: How Maritime Smuggling in the Baltic Undermined the Soviet Economy

In 1945, cross-Baltic commercial links, damaged by World Wars, the Great Depression and protectionism of the preceding decades, appeared broken beyond repair. Long before 1945, the Baltic had already been dismissed as a place where regional economic integration, though perhaps impressive in the sixteenth century, had been steadily declining ever since. The Cold War era ushered in new kinds of barriers that further disintegrated what had once been a common market. By the 1950s, the Baltic‘s role as a shared marketplace, the way it functioned at the zenith of the Hanseatic League, reached a nadir. Amidst the Cold War freeze, signs of grassroots cross-Baltic economic exchange could hardly be spotted. They remain neglected in current historiography as well. During the Cold War, only Matti Mannikko and Klaus Zernack wrote a transnational, region-focused history of the Baltic. In light of access to new sources, the old wisdom needs to be revised, and the issue of unofficial trade in the Baltic during the Cold War should be restored to its proper place in historiography. Black marketeers remain the unsung heroes of a special kind of resistance to the communist economic order. Most scholarly attention has so far been given to the so-called ―commercial tourism‖ on the European continent, with the maritime channels receiving only scant recognition. I argue that it needs to be acknowledged that Soviet Bloc sailors, many of them Baltic-based, were among the pioneers of trans-Iron-Curtain exchange, both legal and illegal. This article is based chiefly on the records of the Soviet secret police and other organs of state repression. It relies mostly on the KGB Archive in Vilnius and the Russian State Economics Archive in Moscow. The first part the article focuses on outlining the evolution of maritime smuggling practices in Lithuanian Klaipeda. The second part sketches an overview of the same phenomena in their most advanced condition, in the early 1980s, both in Klaipeda and across the entire Soviet Baltic. Despite the inherent distortions of such a view, generated by executives of a police state, these Soviet records nonetheless constitute one of the best sources of information about practices that were meant to leave few traces behind.

FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KUNJUNGAN KE OBJEK WISATA KOMERSIAL”DI SUMATERA”BARAT

The purpose of this studywas to determine the efect of income, gender, type of work, number of dependents, level of education to visit commercial tourist attractions in West Sumatra. This type of research is descriptive, where this study uses secondary data in the form of national socioeconomic survey data in 2017 and uses logistic regression methods. The results of this study indicate that income, type of work, number of dependents, level of education have a positive and significant effect on opportunities for tourist visits in West Sumatra, while gender, has a negative and significant effect on opportunities for tourist visits in West Sumatra.Keywords: tourist visits, income, gender type, type of work, number of dependents, education level.

Spectacular sea turtles: Circuits of a wildlife ecotourism discourse in Hawai‘i

AbstractThis paper examines the discursive practices of sea turtle ecotourism that transform a beach in Hawai‘i into a popular sea turtle tourism destination. I analyze the circulation of an ecotourism discourse of spectacular nature that cycles through several distinct circuits of discursive remediation to produce Laniākea Beach as a sea turtle tourism destination. This ecotourism discourse entangles sea turtles and people into a discursive-material infrastructure of spectacular nature which the sea turtle tourism industry in Hawai‘i enlists to commodify human encounters with this charismatic species. Bringing complementary approaches in ecotourism studies and mediated discourse analysis that take human-nonhuman embodied (inter)actions as a starting point for discourse analysis, I trace how this ecotourism discourse itinerates across three distinct circuits of sea turtle tourism: (1) commercial tourism representations (on websites, guidebooks and street advertising), (2) in tourists’ embodied encounters with sea turtles (touching, pointing at, swimming with and talking about actual sea turtles), and (3) through online remediation of these embodied encounters (on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook). The study suggests implications for how embodied and material approaches to discourse analysis in applied linguistics can bring empirical focus to the (un)ethical dimensions of wildlife ecotourism practices.

Sustainable Transformative Economy: Community-Based Ecotourism

Ecotourism has a high potential impact on remote communities, by improving economic opportunity and natural resources conservation, and is increasingly accepted as an alternative livelihood for rural people. This study examines ecotourism development from the perspective of participation and economic impact for the Bousra people in Cambodia. A total of 237 households were selected as the sample size. Data collection was carried out with face-to-face interviews and analyzed using logistic regression and ordinary least square methods. Results revealed that local households depend mostly on agriculture (i.e., crop plantation and farming) and utilize ecotourism as a secondary source of income. Most households acknowledged ecotourism had a positive impact on environmental, social, and economic perspectives, while some signaled negative backlash due to depleted natural resources and impact on local culture. Household participation in ecotourism was not significantly affected from assistance issued by government or non-governmental organizations. However, causal relationships were found based on household demographic factors, attitude to environmental conservation, and village life. It was shown that the percentage of people involvement in ecotourism is high, but their income percentage is low due to education, skill, and capacity to expand. As a low-impact alternative to standard commercial tourism, community-based ecotourism has potential in becoming a transformative form of economics for local communities.