Tourism Point Research Articles

Older people and outdoor environments: Pedestrian anxieties and barriers in the use of familiar and unfamiliar spaces

A limited number of studies look at older people’s use of space outside the ‘home’ environment, particularly unfamiliar, public urban space. Such unfamiliarity can be created through older people travelling as tourists to new areas; as a consequence of urban regeneration; or as a result of cognitive decline, where the familiar becomes unfamiliar. This paper explores the experiences of older people as pedestrians in unfamiliar urban spaces. In looks at two aspects: older people’s spatial anxieties and the barriers (physical, psychological, spatial and social) they perceive and encounter in unfamiliar surroundings. Forty-four participants who took part in a reality cave exercise and a sub group of 10 people who visited an unfamiliar area as pedestrians describe their experience of walking a predetermined route. Given increasing urbanisation and population ageing this is an area of importance to geographers and gerontologists.Our study showed that there are a number of barriers that are a concern for older people in new environments; these include poor signage, confusing spaces, poor paving and ‘sensory overload’ i.e. noise and complexity of the environment. Landmarks and distinctive buildings were more important to participants than signage in navigating unfamiliar areas. Such experiences can contribute to practice implications for planners in designing neighbourhoods to support older people. Small changes such as placing distance on clearly marked signage; giving further information about particular areas beyond the key tourist points and using landmarks as clear navigational aids are important. This paper also adds to the growing literature on geographical gerontology.

Geomorphological Heritage as a Tourist Attraction. A Case Study in Lubelskie Province, SE Poland

Within Lubelskie province (SE Poland) are several regions notable for groups of landforms unique in Poland. In this paper, tourists’ assessments of the geomorphological heritage of the region have been analysed. The most interesting sites, from both the scientific and touristic points of view and also proposed for the national list of geomorphosites, were chosen for the study. The evaluation by tourists was carried out by means of an Internet survey with 693 answers collected over 6 weeks. The sites visited most frequently by the respondents are loess gullies and river valleys with small waterfalls. The sites were mostly visited during car trips and as part of walking excursions during a long-term stay. The main motivation for visiting the surveyed sites was the aesthetic value of the landscape. The respondents sought information, mainly on the Web, about nature, culture and tourist attractions. The results of the survey indicate a need for further promotion of the geotouristic values of lesser-known sites in Lubelskie province and this will also enable tourism to be better managed.

Dynamic investigation on the co-infection status of two pathogens in ticks from tourist point in Heilongjiang province

To monitor the co-infection status of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (B.b.s.l) and spotted fever group Rickettsia (SFGR) in tourist areas of Heilongjiang province. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the 5S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer of B.b.s.l and ompA of SFGR in ticks, dynamically collected from tourist areas of Heilongjiang province in 2010. Amplification products from positive ticks were sequenced, and phylogenetic analysis was conducted by Mega 5.0 software package. 849 ticks were collected from two tourist points, with the dominant ticks in Tiger Mountain and Jingpo Lake were Ixodes persulcatus and Haemaphysalis concinna. Regarding the Ixodes persulcatus from Tiger Mountain, the infection rates of B.b.s.l and SFGR were 26.15% and 10.05%. The infection rate of SFGR was 13.33% in Haemaphysalis concinna and the B.b.s.l was undiscovered in the same ticks from Jingpo Lake. However, the co-infection could only be detected in Ixodes persulcatus of both tourist areas. Surveillance data showed that the major ticks were more likely to be appeared in July at Tiger Mountain and in June at Jingpo Lake. Data from the sequence analysis on B.b.s.l showed that the B.b.s.l in tourist areas could be classified into three different genotypes, other than B. garinii and B. afzelii. We first detected B. valaisiana-like group genotype in northeast of China. Results from the sequence analysis of SFGR positive products showed that the two DNA sequences of newly detected agents were completely the same as Rickettsia sp. HL-93 which was detected in Hulin and Rickettsia sp. H820 found in northeast, China. The co-infection of B.b.s.l and SFGR was detected in ticks from the tourist areas of Heilongjiang province, and data from the sequencing of specific fragment showed that various kinds of genotypes existed in this area. However; the rates of co-infections-different according to environment, time and population that contributed to the kinds of and the index of ticks existed in the surveys points, also the infection rate of the ticks was studied.

Remarks on elements of Japanese landscape and their geotouristic attractiveness

For western tourists Japan is a mysterious country. That mystery was further increased by relatively long-lasting political isolationism, which consequently resulted in tourism isolationism. With tragic events – a 9-magnitude earthquake and a resulting gigantic tsunami, reaching 10 meters in height (11.03.2011) inthe background, the author will analyze the geotourist potential of Japan. It can be predicted that, paradoxically, the strong earthquake and tsunami will soon result in an increased inflow of tourists. That might be related to the development of many new forms of geotourism, among which dark tourism became most and most popular. In this highly urbanized country, the geological heritage creates relict landscapes which could be referred to as quasi-natural.There are very interesting from a tourist point of view. The article was based on the author’s own observations during her study trip around Japan in May, 2009. The journey around picturesque and to a great extent wild, as for Japan, spots of Shikoku and Honshu, inspired the author to present a few notes regarding thegeotourist attractiveness of that country. This is an attempt to assess the environmental potential from the point of view of an European tourist.

Comparison of methods for estimating fracture size and intensity applied to Aiguille Marbrée (Mont Blanc)

This article presents a multidisciplinary research devoted to correlate estimation of the rock mass characteristics with parameters and features obtained by the use of digital photography. The data obtained from remote slope analysis are then undertaken to a statistical analysis of discrete data samples comparing different survey areas in terms of shape and dimension of the sampling window. The method is developed by an application to the North rock face of the Aiguilles Marbrées (Mont Blanc). This slope was chosen as case of study since it represents an important high mountain location from the environmental and touristic point of view, where the severe working condition led to the application of innovative methodology. This site is monitored by a local authority (Fondazione Montagna Sicura) devoted to the territory safe control since a rock fall of considerable size occurred in September 2007. After a photogrammetric survey, an orthophotograph has been created; circular windows have been materialized on the orthophotograph to perform area sampling. Statistical analysis of the obtained data enables us to calculate parameters and estimators for rock mass classification.

Difference in tourists' perception of the information communication after unconventional emergencies – a study based on the Wenchuan earthquake

The information communication between government and tourists after emergencies can help tourists to make positive and reasonable tourism decisions and facilitate the market recovery of tourist destinations. Compared with conventional emergencies, unconventional emergencies will bring about a more significant destructive impact on tourist destinations; consequently, relevant information communication will have more significant practical value. This paper took the earthquake with a Richter scale of 8.0 happened in Wenchuan, Sichuan, China in May 2008 as the background and studied the crisis communication, information quality and perceptive difference of government policies in destinations under unconventional emergencies, from a tourist point of view. Findings indicated that tourists' gender, origin, and educational level present indicate significant difference on crisis communication, information quality and government policy in tourist destinations. Relevant conclusions have important practical application meaning on how government of tourist destinations should form effective crisis communication with tourists during and after unconventional emergencies.

Ex Post Demand for Australian Tourism Goods and Services

This study examines the economic parameters underlying the ex post demand for Australian tourism goods and services from ten source markets in Asia, Europe and North America. The results suggest that demand for the five broad commodity aggregates – accommodation, food, transport, shopping and entertainment – representing the key consumption by tourists, is price-inelastic, implying that all goods are necessities from the tourist's point of view. This result is consistent with the empirical reality that, once he or she has arrived in a destination, a tourist is bound to consume the available goods and services. A second important finding is the apparent complementarity of demands. This indicates that tourists tend to purchase a bundle of goods and services, all of which are necessary for the maximization of utility from visitation. The analysis also suggests that the underlying price elasticities exhibited through cross-price elasticity values have important implications for how price sensitivities can be better understood.

Underground Water Flow betwen Bloke Plateau and Cerknica Polje and Hydrologic Function of Križna Jama, Slovenia

Križna jama and Križna jama 2 are of important natural value. They have been known for more than hundred years from spe­leobiological, paleontological, geomorphological and touristic points of view. In 2007 the establishment of a water treatment plant on Bloke plateau raised important question: can partly cleaned water from the water treatment plant contaminate both caves and decrease their value? To answer this question a tracer test was carried out at the Bloke plateau. It showed gen­eral underground water flow from Farovscica ponor at Bloke plateau toward the Steberscica spring at Cerknica polje. Mi­nority of recovered tracer appeared at Žerovniscica and Izvir v Podložu springs. The tracer was not detected at Studenec v Ložu and Zlatovec springs. Between ponor and springs three karst caves were observed. The highest concentration of tracer was detected in the cave Mrzla jama pri Blocicah and a much smaller concentration in the Križna jama and Križna jama 2. This shows that at middle water level the underground Farovscica stream does not flow directly through Križna jama and Križna jama 2 but near or below them. Since the tracer ap­peared in both caves only after the precipitation, underground water course can be significantly different at high water level. Tracing test also showed some characteristics of underground water flow through dolomite and characteristics of a composed aquifer with alogenic-autogenic recharge.

A PERSONALIZED TOURIST TRIP DESIGN ALGORITHM FOR MOBILE TOURIST GUIDES

Mobile tourist guides evolve towards automated personalized tour planning devices. The contribution of this article is to put forward a combined artificial intelligence and metaheuristic approach to solve tourist trip design problems (TTDP). The approach enables fast decision support for tourists on small footprint mobile devices. The orienteering problem, which originates in the operational research literature, is used as a starting point for modelling the TTDP. The problem involves a set of possible locations having a score and the objective is to maximize the total score of the visited locations, while keeping the total time (or distance) below the available time budget. The score of a location represents the interest of a tourist in that location. Scores are calculated using the vector space model, which is a well-known technique from the field of information retrieval. The TTDP is solved using a guided local search metaheuristic. In order to compare the performance of this approach with an algorithm that appeared in the literature, both are applied to a real data set from the city of Ghent. A collection of tourist points of interest with descriptions was indexed and subsequently queried with popular interests, which resulted in a test set of TTDPs. The approach presented in this article turns out to be faster and produces solutions of better quality.

Povezanost med vremenom in obiskom izbranih turističnih točk v Sloveniji

Turizem je močno povezan z vremenom in s podnebjem ter z njegovim spreminjanjem. V tej raziskavi smo skušali na podlagi podatkov o dnevnem številu obiskovalcev izbranih različnih tipov turističnih točk v Sloveniji ugotoviti, kakšna je pravzaprav povezanost med posameznimi vremenskimi parametri in številom obiskovalcev. Njihovi odzivi pa nam dajejo vpogled v to, kako bi, preko spremenjenih vremenskih vzorcev, podnebne spremembe lahko vplivale na gibanje števila turistov in rekreativcev.

Definition of a territorial tourist attractiveness index: a multivariate statistical approach

Theoretical and effective tourist attractiveness should be evaluated at a very detailed territorial level. For this reason, we propose a selection of statistical variables measured at the municipality level, useful for the calculation of a tourist index on the basis of three compared statistical techniques. An empirical effort has been carried out on the 64 municipalities belonging to the Foggia province, with reference to year 2002. Finally, we have often stressed the operative usefulness of the final tourist indexes, both to correctly classify municipalities from a tourist point of view and to render easier the identification of the so called Sistemi Turistici Locali (STL).

The Structure and Meanings of Intercultural Interactions of International Tourists

The purpose of this study was to highlight the structure and meanings of intercultural interactions between international tourists and local residents. To achieve this purpose, the study adopted a naturalistic approach. This approach was selected as appropriate for the study because it yielded an emergent, emic understanding of the tourism experience. This understanding facilitated the formation of an inductively based, empirically grounded conceptualization, and structural model of intercultural interactions from the tourist's point of view. The outcomes of the study represent constructions of the tourism experience that were shared by a variety of tourists, and thus represented salient themes that help to categorize the intercultural interactions in international tourism. International tourists who had participated in international pleasure travel within the past year were interviewed using an ethnographic interview method based specifically on the Spradley method. The results of the interviews were analyzed systematically using developmental sequence methods based on the instructions by Spradley. As a result of the study, an integrated model of the intercultural interactions of international tourists was suggested from the shared themes, meanings and patterns that shaped participants' international tourism experiences.

阿蘇観光ホテルと国際リゾート地開発

The aim of this paper is to make clear states of Aso Kanko Hotel and its Development of tourist resort for foreign tourist. O-Aso Kankodo Co. Ltd. was established for development of the area of Aso in 1935. The resort programs they made mainly consisted of roads for drive and a hotel. The hotel called Aso Kanko Hotel was designed by Ryoma Kondo of Kumamoto Prefecture. However its Japanese-European design was indicated by Makoto Den who was the President of Board of Tourist Industry. There were some important roles of tourist points along West-Japan Route for foreign tourist in the background.

The sources of histoplasmosis infection on the Isla de la Juventud, Cuba

The purpose of this work is to report the isolation of Histoplasma capsulatum, etiologic agent of histoplasmosis, from soil in sites inhabited by bats and chicken in the Island of Youth, Cuba. The fungus was cultured from four species of cave dwelling bats too. The identification of H. capsulatum was done by mycelial to yeast conversion and exoantigen test. It is pointed out the epidemiological value of some of these isolations in caves of great importance from the archaeological, speleological or tourist point of view, and the potential risk that they represent to human health. The authors conclude with some recommendation to prevent the infection with H. capsulatum in people who have to keep in contact with those environments.

The environmental impact of tourism in Jamaica

From the tourist point of view the chief purpose of travel is that the destination should be different from home and better in some ways. In Jamaica, the environment, both natural and man‐made, remains the backbone of the tourism product. The maintenance and protection of the environment is therefore crucial to the continuing growth of the island's tourist industry.

New Trends in the Dynamism of Second Homes - Expansion Into Not Attractive Areas from Tourist Point of View

New Trends in the Dynamism of Second Homes - Expansion Into Not Attractive Areas from Tourist Point of View

Tourist aspects of transport

A great deal has been written about the economics of transport in recent years. Most of the views expressed, however, deal with transport as an essential industrial factor in the national economy. The importance of the contribution of the transport system to the national economy is very often held up as an end in itself, so much so that the normal considerations of competitive efficiency and meeting consumer demand are not applied. It is quite true, of course, that transport is a public utility and, especially the railways, represents an important element in the stability of the community both strategically and economically. It may perhaps be claimed that far less attention has been paid to tourist aspects of transport in recent years compared with the situation of 50 or even 100 years ago. Admittedly all forms of transport by road, rail, sea and air deal not only with passengers, but also with freight, and for many transport companies the tourist demand is a marginal one. Nevertheless from the tourist's point of view transport charges are an essential factor in determining his own expenditure and therefore transport charges play an important role in limiting the expenditure of the whole of the tourist trade.

Through Lapland with Skis and Reindeer

The author's travels, which extended over several hundred miles, were made over beaten tracks passing numerous villages and rest-houses, so that a good night's lodging was generally obtained. His main journey was from Bossekop to Vadso by way of Karasjok and Enare. He visited the monastery of Pechenga founded by St. Tryphon in the sixteenth century, and gives a his? tory of its origin and remarkable vicissitudes. His account of the country is rather meagre, but he says much that is interesting about the modern Laplander and his mode of life. Physically, mentally, and morally he does not compare unfavourably with more fortunate peoples. The Lapps are good-tempered, hospitable, and peaceful. They have large families, and are very fond of their children. The method of land distribution surviving from ancient times, the village communal meetings, and the archaic custom of placing upon his grave the belongings of the dead, as his axe, fishing gear, or even his sleigh, are described. A chapter entitled In the Far North is devoted to a journey from Kiruna, near the Swedish frontier, to Kolvik, passing through Karesuando, Kautokeino and Karasjok. This is disappointing, and it is at times rather difficult to follow the author, in spite of the large map at the end of the book. The climate of the Murman coast is discussed at some length, and the author's opinion is evidently favourable, for he thinks that this region may become a tourist resort. The ski-ing, he says, is good, and there will be good opportunity for the sport after the Swiss season is over. The book is written very much from the tourist point of view, and suggests now and then the guide-book, giving the routes from England and, in appendices, lists of rest-houses, telephone and telegraph stations, with a description of the roads, waterways and routes. The author took with him a well-known photographer, Mr. Borg Mesch, of Kiruna, and the book is illustrated with more than fifty excellent photographs. The author's own travels are preceded by an account of the