Common Travel Research Articles

Narratologies of Autodiegetic Undercover Reportage: Albert Deane Richardson’s The Secret Service

Narratologies of Autodiegetic Undercover Reportage: Albert Deane Richardson’s The Secret Service Katrina Quinn (bio) Working on behalf of Horace Greeley’s New-York Daily Tribune, correspondent Albert Deane Richardson (1833–69) reported from the Confederacy in the weeks immediately preceding the American Civil War. Before making a last-minute escape to the North, Richardson traveled to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, providing Tribune readers a firsthand account of Southern life and psyche at a time when political tensions were running high. Richardson’s memoir of the journey was later published as the first part of the widely read volume, The Secret Service, The Field, The Dungeon, and The Escape (1865), which sold more than 90,000 copies, making it one of the most popular wartime memoirs. But Richardson was no common traveler, nor was his text simple reportage,1 for Richardson had been an undercover correspondent for one of the most despised Northern newspapers of the time, making his endeavor quite risky. From a narratological point of view, the text provides a useful example of the narrative strategies and structures that not only deliver, but also enable the reportage. On one level is the reported narrative which is the published text itself, a memoir of Richardson’s travels as an undercover reporter in the antebellum South. In many ways, this narrative presents structures we might expect of works of nonfictional participant reportage generally. It is largely chronological, as is common for a travel narrative, and it is autodiegetic—that is, written in a first-person voice with the author [End Page 1] positioned as the main character and focalizer. But as an undercover reporter entering hostile territory during the tense spring of 1861, Richardson had to, as would other undercover reporters who wish to observe without being observed, obfuscate his identity with another fictive narrative: an oral narrative operational in the experiential world of his trip. Using The Secret Service as a subject text, this study suggests a theoretical framework for the narratologies of undercover reportage. It charts the unique relationships of narrative journalism to multiple reader contingents and the use of an oral narrative to secure reporting space for undercover reporters. The study further proposes a binate narrative structure that signifies, first, the nonfictional narrative presented in the written memoir, and second, the fictional oral narrative the reporter maintains in the experiential world of his trip. Richardson and His Vagabond Ways A growing body of scholarship in recent years has examined Civil War journalism from both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line, but little has been written about Richardson’s work, despite his strong reputation during the 1860s as a Western correspondent, Civil War special reporter, and prison camp escapee.2 Born in Franklin, Massachusetts, on October 6, 1833, Richardson went west as a young man, securing his first job with the Pittsburg Journal in 1851 and continuing on to Cincinnati in 1852, where he wrote for the Daily Unionist and various other newspapers for five years. His work with the Boston Journal took him west in 1857 to report on conflict in Kansas following the improvident Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. After meeting Horace Greeley on a stage coach to Colorado in 1859, he was retained as a special correspondent for the New-York Daily Tribune, reporting from the West and later from the South, both before and during the Civil War. Captured by the Confederates at Vicksburg in May 1863, Richardson was a prisoner of war until December 1864, when he and a fellow journalist made a daring wintertime escape on foot from the Confederate prison in Salisbury, North Carolina, to Union lines in Knoxville, Tennessee, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. During his imprisonment, his wife and infant daughter died, but the experience made him a wartime hero and one of the best-known war correspondents of his day. Following his escape from Salisbury, and despite lingering health issues, Richardson [End Page 2] couldn’t renounce his itinerate habits, traveling to the Pacific in 1865 with Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Schuyler Colfax. At home in New York City in 1867 and again in 1869, Richardson was shot by Daniel McFarland, the...

Europe’s ‘Other’ Open-Border Zone: The Common Travel Area under the Shadow of Brexit

AbstractIn recent years, the Schengen Area—and the suppression within its territory of border controls—has become a strong focus of attention. This article focuses on another region of Europe where such controls have been suppressed: the Common Travel Area (‘CTA’). Historically, both Ireland and the United Kingdom have rejected membership of the Schengen system—albeit securing certain ‘opt-in’ rights—and instead maintained the CTA between their respective jurisdictions. The CTA has, however, garnered relatively little public attention until recently, when concerns as to the implications of Brexit for the maintenance of an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland have gained ground, and threatened to be a deal breaker in the negotiations under Article 50 TEU on UK exit from the EU (‘Brexit’). This article examines the background to the CTA, exploring its surprisingly fluid legal framework; its development in the legal systems of Ireland and the United Kingdom; and subsequently, how it was exempted from what is now EU law as the Schengen arrangements were integrated into the Union. The recent introduction of the British-Irish Visa Scheme, which formalises some visa rules regarding citizens of third states, and which tends in the direction of consolidating CTA arrangements, is also examined. The article further explores the challenges that confront the CTA in coping with the outcome of the June 2016 Brexit referendum, which should result in the UK leaving the European Union in March 2019, and the implications of Brexit for the CTA. Finally, it seeks to identify some key characteristics of the CTA in light of experience to date.

Acute histoplasmosis in immunocompetent travelers: a systematic review of literature

BackgroundHistoplasmosis is a fungal infection highly endemic in the American continent. The disease can be severe in immunocompromised subjects. In immunocompetent subjects the clinical manifestations are variable. Aim of this work was to review the cases of acute histoplasmosis in immunocompetent travelers reported in literature.MethodsA systematic review of literature was conducted. Electronic search was performed in Pubmed and LILACS. Two reviewers independently extracted data on demographic, clinical and radiological features, and treatment. Cases were classified according to Wheat’s definitions.ResultsSeventy-one studies were included in the analysis, comprising a total of 814 patients. Twenty-one patients diagnosed at the Centre of Tropical Diseases, Negrar (VR), Italy were also included. The most common travel destination was Central America (168 people, 29.8%); the most common way of exposure to histoplasma was the exploration of caves and/or contact with bat guano (349 people, 60.9%). The multivariate logistic regression model showed association between the development of disseminated histoplasmosis (DH) and activities that involved the exploration of caves and/or the contact with bats’ guano (adjusted OR: 34.20 95% CI: 5.29 to 220.93) or other outdoor activities (adjusted OR: 4.61 95% CI: 1.09 to 19.56). No significant difference in the attack rate between countries of destination was observed (p-value: 0.8906, Kruskal-Wallis test).ConclusionsHistoplasmosis often causes no or mild symptoms in immunocompetent individuals, although a severe syndrome may occur. The infection can mimic other diseases, and the epidemiological risk of exposure is an important clue to raise the index of suspicion.

By the Way . . . the Last-Minute International Traveler.

Evidence has consistently revealed international travelers are increasing in numbers every year as more folks travel for business, pleasure, humanitarian reasons, and medical tourism. Clinicians who consistently counsel travelers are well acquainted with the last-minute traveler who would benefit from a travel health assessment, vaccine administration, and health and safety information to manage travel-related issues while en route and upon arrival. Instruction in travel emergencies and packing tips, with advice to be able to address common travel issues associated health matters, are important strategies for the traveler to understand and better navigate his or her journey. To also serve the traveler are two excellent mobile apps from the Centers for Disease Control, free to the traveler, that are designed to contain travel and vaccine documents and to provide guidance in choosing foods and beverages while abroad. The occupational health nurse's role is to support and reassure the traveler. Even at the last minute, travel health risks can be significantly reduced by the traveler obtaining vaccines and observing healthy practices.

Cancer Care in Small Pacific Island States

Background: Like other LMICs, many Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) have fragile and overburdened health systems with which to combat an increasing burden of cancer. Additionally, a combination of small geographically dispersed populations, limited resources, isolation and frequent natural disasters make cancer control in Pacific Islands also significantly different to elsewhere in the world. No prior work has provided a stocktake of current capacity for diagnosis and treatment of cancer across the region to date. Aim: To describe the specialized health services available for cancer control in the Pacific region, and show the complexity associated with accessing cancer care for Pacific Islanders. Methods: A cross-sectional review of medical services and human resources available for cancer control was undertaken for 21 Pacific Community (SPC) member countries and territories in April-May 2018 , specifically diagnosis (pathology and radiology) and treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgical modalities and overseas referrals for services not available on-island) by contacting individual countries and territories. Common travel routes were mapped individually for 4 PICTs; Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Tokelau; as examples of the unique challenges faced by rural dwelling Pacific Islanders when accessing the highest level of care available in-country. Results: Capacity for cancer diagnosis and care is extremely limited in the Pacific region. The exceptions are the 2 French territories (French Polynesia and New Caledonia) and Guam where a near full complement of services for diagnosis and treatment are operational. Some pathology services are generally available in the larger PICTs, while specimens are sent to affiliated off island laboratories for the rest. Plain x-ray and ultrasound are available at 1 or more locations in all PICTs. General and gynecologic surgery is the most widespread treatment modality available. Some to full chemotherapy administered in 7 and radiotherapy in 3 (formerly 4) PICTs. Overseas referrals for medical services not available in-country are a common feature to all PICTs health systems. A need to travel long distances to access health care is a challenged faced by Pacific Islanders on outer islands and rural villages. Examples will be presented. Conclusion: Cancer control services are few and far between in the Pacific region, and PICTs will always likely rely on overseas referrals for care not available. Access barriers exist for those on outer islands and in villages, and an unknown number seek treatment late or not at all for these reasons. Governments need to invest into strengthening primary and secondary care services, making them an option that is more easily accessible to remote populations. Collaboration between transport and health sectors to look at ways to improve frequency, regulation and safety of modes of transportation to outer islands to improve current systems.

Relieve the congestion by shuttle bus in rush hours using aggregation clustering algorithm on group travel pattern

SummaryThe travel demand is of vital importance for transport planning. Especially in rush hours, the commuters aggregate in certain areas, resulting in traffic jams, which hinder the normal operation of the urban traffic. The key issue to solve the problem is to find out the demand of the passengers and accordingly arrange the transit resource more reasonably. This paper proposes a framework that provides a shuttle bus solution to satisfy the travel demand of the gathered passengers in rush hours according to their travel history obtained by smartcard data. Firstly, an aggregation algorithm basing on Clustering by fast search and find of density peaks (CFSFDP) is presented to highlight the area, which consists of adjacent bus stations with high passenger flow, addressed as spark region. Secondly, group travel pattern (GTP) is put forward to describe the travel trend on a city‐wide scale, which reveals the common travel demand of the commuters. Lastly, an algorithm named Variable Visibility Path Optimization Algorithm based on ant colony algorithm is proposed to make schedule solution of shuttle bus according to GTP basing on the historical running information of the bus. The experiment basing on the bus passenger flow data collected by AFCS in Aug 2014 from Beijing shows that our method helps to ease the traffic aggregation effectively and practically and offer reference to the bus scheduling issue.

2457 - The Holistic Intersection Rating System (HIRS: A Novel Methodology to Measure Intersection Performance

Background Urban roadway intersections are key components of urban transportation networks. They are traditionally viewed and designed as primarily motorized-traffic facilities thus their physical and operational designs aimed at maximizing traffic throughput. Seen from a systems’ viewpoint, however, they are transport and community facilities with direct and indirect impacts on traffic functionalities, public health and the livability of communities. Thus, an integrated physical and operational design approach is necessary to design and/or analyze those intersections. Methods This study proposes a new methodology for measuring intersection performance called the Holistic Intersection Rating System (HIRS). It is based on design and technology innovation to improve operations and foster public health and community well-being. HIRS will assess the intersection design and functionalities with respect to two main categories: enabling technologies and physical design aimed at the transport functionality, and physical design and operability aimed at public health and community well-being. In particular, HIRS examines transportation intersections as system components of the urban environment. It rates the physical features of the road and the different motorized and non-motorized traffic flow design and operation parameters that equitably optimize throughput and support desired public health and community well-being outcomes. The public health and community well-being outcomes HIRS rates relate to physical and mental health, community severance, and “completeness” of intersections. Results HIRS facilitates pedestrian and cyclists’ use of intersections so intersections serve the dual needs of meaningful travel and good health while improving drivers experience and neighborhood livability and quality of life. The HIRS index may be constructed using common intersection travel efficiency and public health and community well-being indicators or indicators. The indicators can be weighed using two methodologies: the Relative Importance Index (RII) and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed system will be validated using an interdisciplinary industry panel of experts, and with empirical theoretical data runs. Conclusions Physical and operational design of roadway intersections, and the rating of sufficiency of such designs, are both necessary and possible for the well-functioning and use of urban transport systems and their users irrespective of modality. Tools that are dynamic and accommodating of changing designs and community values and priorities are necessary.

United States Travelers' Concern about Zika Infection and Willingness to Receive a Hypothetical Zika Vaccine.

.The ongoing Zika pandemic has affected many countries that are common travel destinations. We assessed the willingness to receive a prophylactic Zika virus (ZIKV) vaccine, currently under development, among travelers to areas with reported autochthonous ZIKV transmission. We surveyed United States (U.S.) residents aged 18–44 years who had ever heard of ZIKV and planned to travel to Florida and/or Texas (N = 420) or a U.S. territory or foreign country (N = 415) in 2017, using a nationally representative internet panel. Travelers to Florida and/or Texas reported less concern about ZIKV infection than travelers to other destinations (27% versus 36%, P = 0.01). Female sex, Hispanic ethnicity, discussing ZIKV with medical professionals, ZIKV risk perception, and self-efficacy for ZIKV prevention predicted concern about ZIKV infection in both groups. Travelers to Florida and/or Texas (43%) and other destinations (44%) were equally willing to receive a ZIKV vaccine. Hispanic ethnicity, discussing ZIKV with medical professionals, and concern about ZIKV infection predicted vaccine willingness in both groups. Likelihood of using existing ZIKV prevention methods, confidence in the U.S. government to prevent ZIKV spread, self-efficacy for ZIKV prevention, and knowledge about ZIKV symptoms further predicted vaccine willingness in travelers to other destinations. In multivariable analyses, only concern about ZIKV infection was associated with vaccine willingness in both groups (prevalence ratio [95% confidence interval]: Florida and/or Texas: 1.34 [1.06, 1.69]; other: 1.82 [1.44, 2.29]). Targeted communications can educate travelers, particularly travelers who are pregnant or may become pregnant, about ZIKV risk to generate ZIKV vaccine demand.

Crossing the Irish Land Border after Brexit: The Common Travel Area and the Challenge of Trade

“While the wind of change may be about to blow the precise direction in which it will blow cannot yet be determined so there is a level of uncertainty, as is evident from discussion about, for example, how Northern Ireland’s land boundary with Ireland will be affected by actual withdrawal by the United Kingdom from the EU.” Maguire J. Re McCord [2016] NIQB 85 para 107 Maguire J. was prescient in his observations as to the uncertainty surrounding the only land border there will be between the EU and the UK after Brexit. This raises the question of how to maintain an invisible border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, that invisibility being one of the most conspicuous outcomes of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. The answer to that question depends on how people and goods are dealt with post-Brexit. This in turn depends on the preservation of the long-standing Common Travel Area (CTA) and the nature of the trade relationship between the EU and UK post-Brexit and whether there are special arrangements in relation to Northern Ireland. The border emerged as a key issue in the final hours of the first phase of the Brexit talks , highlighting how it is a complex challenge. That border has many dimensions. There is the obvious question of geography: a land border of almost 500 km that currently is invisible. There is the legal context of the Common Travel Area (CTA) between the UK and Ireland, which the UK and EU have agreed will continue after Brexit. There is the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which the same parties have agreed to protect. And there are the EU treaties and the future agreement between the UK and the EU following Brexit. There are the practical considerations of movement of people and goods across the border and there is the sensitive political context that this has been a violently contested border in the past. This article explores these dimensions focussing mainly on the movement of people across the border. It analyses how the CTA will survive Brexit and specifically how a border can(not) be avoided if the UK leaves the customs union. It explores the CTA and December Joint Report between the UK and EU marking the end of the first phase of Brexit negotiations. It sets out the challenges for the law posed by the conflicting political ambitions of a soft border and a hard Brexit. Its conclusion is in the spirit of the comment of Maguire J. above: that while legal certainty is to be aspired to, that sometimes this is not possible. Even after the hoped for transitional arrangements between the EU and UK that may allow for some legal experimentation, the border and the CTA will necessarily look different after Brexit if the UK leaves the internal market and the customs union. Divided into four parts, the article first provides some context in relation to economics and politics before turning to the opaque, legally obscure and practically significant CTA. The CTA and Brexit are then analysed before turning to the issue of how trade and in particular how the UK leaving the customs union will affect the guarantee of no hard land border before concluding.

The Invasive Plants Species along the Hiking Track of Mount Panderman Nature Tourism, Batu, East Java

Indonesia has the highest biodiversity that places ecotourism as a sustainable development sector. The negative impact of ecotourism is the vulnerability to invasive plant species growth. They invade the habitat of the native plants and potentially alter the biodiversity balance. This invasive plant introduction is predicted caused by tourist and hiker visits. Therefore, the inventory of invasive plant species is urgently needed. The field survey was conducted on March 11-12, 2017 to inventory invasive plant species along the Panderman Mountain hiking track that common travelers explored and then identified. Species of Pinus Caribaea, Chromolaena odorata, Lantana camara, Leucaena leucocephala, Pennisetum purpureum are categorized invasive plants. Four species of plants otherwise potentially invasive include Calliandra calothrysus, Ageratum conyzoides, Bidens pilosa, and Acacia deccurens. The widespread access to protected environmental destinations leads to the spread of highly invasive species. The impact of invasive species depends on factors such as reproduction rate, vegetative phase, adaptability of seeds that can withstand adverse conditions and in particular human vectors as a way of spreading them.Keywords: Batu, Ecotourism, Hiking track, Invasive plants, Panderman Mountain.

Development and Evaluation of Solar Powered Catamaran for Sustainable Tourism in South east of gulf of Thailand

The aim of this research is to develop and evaluate the solar powered catamaran for a response to low carbon destination and sustainable tourism for Ko Mak Island, Thailand. The development process includes ship design, PV system design and shipbuilding. Thus, it has designed that are the length with 7.5 Meters and the width with 3.5 meters. Similarly, it has installed 1.8 kWp photovoltaic generation system and 2 units of 3-hp induction motors. The performance evaluations have been accomplished in the open water in the designated route. The result showed that the uppermost speed of the catamaran was 9.18 km/h at 4,500 W. At normal cruise speed of 2,000 W, the catamaran speed was 7.77 km/h and maximum travel distance without charging at depth of discharge equally to 0.6 is 41.96 km. Therefore, the catamaran cruise distance would cover any common travel route of Ko Mak Island. Furthermore, the 19-km extended travel route has been guided for the boat cruise and monitoring. The cruise has been performed in calm weather condition, which insolation of the cruise was 27.18 kWh. The PV system could generate electricity equally to 4.1 kWh or with efficiency of 15.08 percent. However the total consumption was 5.7 kWh. The average cruise speed was 6.26 km/h and the average motors consumption was 1,889.37 W. Finally it turned out that the boat has good maneuver response and good throttle response, passengers can walk to several parts for doing activities conveniently.

Neighborhood walkability and objectively measured active transportation among 10–13 year olds

Abstract Current active transportation literature within children is based almost exclusively on questionnaire measures of the trip to school. This literature suggests that the walkability of the built environment can influence active transportation to school. The purpose of this study was to use objective measures to examine the relationship between neighborhood walkability and children's active transportation to school and other destinations. This was a cross-sectional study of 367 children and early adolescents (aged 10–13 years) from Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Participants wore a Garmin Forerunner 220 GPS watch during waking hours for seven consecutive days. Personal Activity Measurement Location System (PALMS) software used the GPS data to identify trips, and for each trip the time spent in that trip and the trip modality (active or passive). GIS measures of connectivity, proximity to destinations, and pedestrian infrastructure and safety were used to create a walkability index. Participants living in the neighborhoods with the highest walkability quartile spent an average of 16.2 min/day (95% CI: 11.8, 22.4) in active transportation while those in the lowest walkability quartile spent an average of 7.1 min/day (95% CI: 5.0, 10.4) in active transportation. Consistent patterns between walkability and active transportation were observed in age, sex, and season of study subgroups. An increase in active transportation minutes was seen across walkability quartiles for all of the most common active travel destinations (i.e., home, school, other people's homes). In conclusion, in this study of 10–13 year olds, those living in the most walkable neighborhoods accumulated more than twice as much active transportation than those living in the least walkable neighborhoods.

Neither hard nor soft but racist? The Good Friday Agreement and the Irish border after Brexit

This is an edited version of a talk given by a human rights activist from Belfast on 26 June 2017 at a seminar, held at IRR, to discuss the implications of ‘Brexit’ on the Good Friday Agreement and the UK-Ireland Common Travel Area. The talk took place on the day of publication of the ‘confidence and supply’ agreement between the Democratic Unionist Party and the minority Conservative government. It discussed the prospects for the Good Friday Agreement in terms of the new alliance; whether populist anti-migrant racism will become institutionalised via discretionary border checks and entry decisions; how the ethos and actions of the UK Border Force fit with the peace settlement’s promise of non-discriminatory, human rights-compliant and accountable policing, and whether Brexit spells the end of the Common Travel Area and the further isolation of migrant communities.

Travels of Karel Čapek. On the Role of the Imaginative Variation in the Letters from Various Parts of Europe

In the article, I take into consideration a series of Karel Čapek’s letters, which deliver a charming and cheerful evidence of his travel experiences resulted from his visits in various parts of Europe. In order to unveil the Czech writer’s originality regarding the poetics of travelogue, I refer to a number of figures, which are to organize his peculiar epistolary idiom. Čapek’s style is, therefore, determined by irony which turns out to be streaked with subsequent rhetorical devices such as litotes, correction, and self-correction linked with elliptical presence of aposiopesis. What is more, the Czech writer invests in the so-called variant manner of writing, due to which his letters instead of the common travel knowledge provides the reader with descriptions concerning details: from the traditional point of view, they might be perceived as meaningless facts, however, in Čapek letters they are transformed into individual, unique, and exceptional events, which are to remain in the reader’s consciousness.

The issues of preventive health care of tour guides and tour managers.

Traveling is becoming more and more accessible, thus more people can come into contact with certain diseases while traveling. Various diseases are on the rise, especially because more people than ever before are traveling. Special groups of people who are traveling more than the average person are tour guides and tour managers, which increases their exposure to these diseases. The objective of this article is to see how much tour guides and tour managers know about health-related diseases that they may encounter when they are working. A link to an online questionnaire was sent by e-mail to 500 randomly selected tour guides and tour managers; we have collected 120 valid responses, which represent 24.00% of the selected sample of Slovenian tour guides and tour managers. We have found that tour guides and tour managers are acquainted with exposure to certain travelers' diseases, and but know relatively little about the symptoms. However, we have also found that tour guides and tour managers do know what the proper preventive measures for these diseases are in the majority of cases. The current state of knowledge in this area is still alarming, and tour guides and tour managers need to get educated or educate themselves mostly about the symptoms and also about preventive measures. Here we also see the possibility for travel agencies or professional associations to participate and help raise the awareness of risks posed by certain common travelers' diseases.

Enhanced Travel Planning System for Group of users using Hybrid Collaborative Filtering

Objectives: This paper proposes a recommender system for travel planning build on the user personalized regard for both single and group of users by using the adaptable user interface and feedback mechanism. Methods: One of the major problems is that all the previous recommendation system based on traveling simply recommends the most common travel routes and places and they do not provide an appropriate and interested travel schedule to the user. Findings: First, the adaptable user interface is used to modify or remove the unsatisfied travel schedule of the user with the specific schedule. Next, the feedback mechanism provides better accuracy rate for the next schedule of the new user. Applications: The group recommendation is elicited out of the personal recommendation system which uses the scheduling reasoning algorithm to provide the user with the perfect travel plan. The proposed hybrid collaborative filtering technique for group recommendation system resolves the data sparsity problem. Along with this, the K-Means clustering algorithm is used to cluster the users and to group them according to their interest efficiently.

Living Within and Outside Unions: the Consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland

This article considers the possible consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland. It begins by analysing the political context leading up to the UK’s referendum on EU membership, which was preceded only weeks earlier by the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It then offers an overview of the reaction of a divided Northern Ireland Executive to the UK’s decision to leave the EU, before considering some of the potential consequences for Northern Ireland of the UK’s departure from the EU. These include the future nature of the Northern Ireland-Ireland border, North-South relations, the possibility of retaining the Common Travel Area, the loss of EU funding for cross-border cooperation, as well as customs controls and trade. It concludes by suggesting how Northern Ireland could retain some degree of continuing relationship with the EU.

Why the host community just isn’t enough: Processes and impacts of backpacker social interactions

This research employs an extended social situation analysis to examine how social interactions of backpackers in New Zealand are manifested, how they can contribute to the visitor experience, to common travel motivations such as self-development and cultural exploration, and how they compare to and influence contacts with the host community. Results from 37 in-depth interviews indicate that backpacker interactions underlie strict rules and are based on a shared understanding of how they are to proceed in terms of conversation topics and personal elements. Certain settings and a positive relationship between interaction participants contribute to longer and more personal social interactions. These in turn are required for emotional well-being, which is why fellow backpackers often replace friends and family as a social support system. Due to the national diversity of backpacker travellers, these interactions also provide exposure to different cultures as well as opportunity for self-development. Contacts with the host community, however, have been reported to be more difficult to establish and were found to be less beneficial for backpackers who have to rely heavily on interaction partners who are social, desire to spend longer amounts of time and are willing to proceed to a more familiar level faster than non-travellers.

Oncoming Human Avoidance for Autonomous Mobile Robot Based on Gait Characteristics

[abstFig src='/00280004/08.jpg' width='300' text='Overview of oncoming human avoidance' ] When two pedestrians pass one another on busy intersections or pedestrian crossings, they may try to avoid each other by moving in the same direction. Such behavior becomes a factor hindering a smooth walking. When robots will come to be used in our immediate environment in the future, similar situations are likely to occur. The objective of this study is to determine the appropriate avoidance action (direction and timing) that a robot should take in order to minimize the risk of coming face to face with a pedestrian, in situations where the two parties, who share a common travel line, pass one another. First, two experiments were conducted using human subjects to investigate the walking tendencies (gait characteristics) when a person walks past another oncoming person. Here, we examined the relationship between the landed foot and the direction in which it is easier to move and the tendencies of the avoidance direction when a person makes a sudden move to avoid another oncoming person. Based on the results, we proposed the avoidance action that the robot must take when it passes a human pedestrian, and confirmed its effectiveness through a verification experiment.

The Incidence of Smartphone Usage among Tourists

AbstractWe explore smartphone utilization by tourists from 24 countries visiting either Rome, Italy or Athens, Greece. By extending a standard technology acceptance model, we identify common travel uses for smartphones, which include taking photos, social networking, viewing maps, finding transportation and searching for shops and restaurants. Younger cohorts utilize their phones more than older cohorts, but there is no difference in utilization between females and males. The most important factors affecting behaviour are how often the tourist normally utilizes their smartphone when at home, and whether or not the tourist has non‐WiFi data access. We conclude with recommendations for future research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.