World Tourism Day

Since 1980, September 27 is celebrated by the World Tourism Organization as World Tourism Day. It was established at the Third Session of the UNWTO General Assembly in Torremolinos, Spain, in September of 1979. The purpose of this day is to display awareness that tourism is vital to the international community and to show how it affects the social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide. September 27 is important since on that day in 1970, the Statutes of the WTO were adopted. The adoption of the statutes is considered to be a milestone in global tourism.

At its Twelfth Session in Istanbul, Turkey, in October of 1997, the UNWTO General Assembly decided to designate a host country each year as the Organization's partner for celebrating World Tourism Day.

At its Fifteenth Session in Beijing, China, in October of 2003, the Assembly decided the following geographic order to be followed for the World Tourism Day celebrations: 2006 in Europe; 2007 in South Asia; 2008 in the Americas, and 2009 in Africa.

Themes

Themes of World Tourism Day over the years:

• 1980: Tourism's contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage and to peace and mutual understanding
• 1981: Tourism and the quality of life
• 1982: Pride in travel: good guests and good hosts
• 1983: Travel and holidays are a right but also a responsibility for all
• 1984: Tourism for international understanding, peace and cooperation
• 1985: Youth Tourism: cultural and historical heritage for peace and friendship
• 1986: Tourism: a vital force for world peace
• 1987: Tourism for development
• 1988: Tourism: education for all
• 1989: The free movement of tourists creates one world
• 1990: Tourism: an unrecognized industry, a service to be released ("The Hague Declaration on Tourism")
• 1991: Communication, information and education: powerlines of tourism development
• 1992: Tourism: a factor of growing social and economic solidarity and of encounter between people
• 1993: Tourism development and environmental protection: towards a lasting harmony
• 1994: Quality staff, quality tourism
• 1995: WTO: serving world tourism for twenty years
• 1996: Tourism: a factor of tolerance and peace
• 1997: Tourism: a leading activity of the twenty-first century for job creation and environmental protection
• 1998: Public-private sector partnership: the key to tourism development and promotion
• 1999: Tourism: preserving world heritage for the new millennium (Host: Chile)
• 2000: Technology and nature: two challenges for tourism at the dawn of the twenty-first century (Host: Germany)
• 2001: Tourism: a toll for peace and dialogue among civilizations (Host: Iran)
• 2002: Ecotourism, the key to sustainable development (Host: Costa Rica)
• 2003: Tourism: a driving force for poverty alleviation, job creation and social harmony (Host: Algeria)
• 2004: Sport and tourism: two living forces for mutual understanding, culture and the development of societies (Host: Malaysia)
• 2005: Travel and transport: from the imaginary of Jules Verne to the reality of the 21st century (Host: Qatar)
• 2006: Tourism Enriches (Host: Portugal)
• 2007: Tourism opens doors for women (Host: Sri Lanka)

Working holiday visa

A working holiday visa is a travel permit which allows travellers to undertake employment in the country issuing the visa for the purpose of supplementing their travel funds.

Most working holiday visas are offered under reciprocal agreements between certain countries, to encourage travel and cultural exchange between their citizens.

There are often several restrictions on this type of visa:

• many are intended for young travellers, and as such have an age restriction (usually 18-30)
• there are usually limits on the type of employment taken, or the length of time the traveller can be employed
• the visa holder is expected to have sufficient funds to live on while they seek employment

The original participating countries in this were Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

It allows young people to experience living in a foreign country, without undergoing the usual costly expenses of finding work sponsorship in advance, or going on expensive university exchange programmes.

In Japan there is a Working Holiday Maker Alumni association, which gives seminars and orienteering to Japanese working holiday goers.

Countries offering working holiday visas

Argentina

• Argentina's Working Holiday Program [1] provides opportunities for people aged between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) to holiday in Argentina and to supplement their travel funds through incidental employment.
• The visa allows a stay of up to 12 months and is available to New
  

Australia

Main article: Working Holidays in Australia

• Australia's Working Holiday Program [2] provides opportunities for people aged between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) to holiday in Australia and to supplement their travel funds through incidental employment.
• The visa allows a stay of up to 12 months from the date of first entry to Australia, regardless of whether the holder spends the whole time in Australia.
• Any kind of work of a temporary or casual nature is allowed, but work for more than six months with any one employer is not permitted.
• Working Holiday Visa holders are entitled to study or embark on a training course for a maximum of four months.
• A medical is required for anyone seeking employment in healthcare or anyone seeking employment in the teaching profession. If you have spent more than 3 consecutive months in the last 5 years in a country considered to be of high health risk, you will be required to have a medical exam.
• The Australian working holiday visa is only available to eligible candidates once in a lifetime, although by undertaking work in a prescribed agricultural occupation, it is possible to earn the right to an additional 12 month WHM visa.
• Australia has reciprocal Working Holiday maker arrangements in effect with the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Republic of Ireland, India, Republic of Korea, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China, Finland, the Republic of Cyprus, France, Italy, Belgium, Estonia and Taiwan.

Canada

• Citizens of Australia[3], Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea[4], The Netherlands, New Zealand[5], South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the US are eligible for a Canadian working holiday visa, so long as they fulfil certain criteria which are specific to each country.
• Age limits are from 18-30 for most countries; 18-35 for citizens of Italy. Some countries' programs specify that the applicant must be a full-time student; others do not, and some have separate programmes for students and non-students.
• The type of work allowed and the maximum duration of stay depends on the applicant's country of residence.

Germany

Japan

• Citizens from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, and New Zealand who are between the ages of 18 and 30, and citizens from the United Kingdom and Ireland who are between the ages of 18 and 25 may apply for a Working Holiday Visa. British and Irish citizens over 25 years of age are in some cases allowed to apply for the visa.
• A one-year visa may be granted to citizens of France, Germany, Korea, Ireland, and the UK -- with no extension possible. A six-month visa may be granted to citizens of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, which can be extended twice.

New Zealand

• Available to citizens of Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay.
• Conditions vary between countries.
• Most travellers can enrol in one training or study course of up to three months duration during their visit.

South Korea

• Only citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand who are between the ages of 18 and 30 are eligible for a South Korean working holiday visa (H-1 visa).[7][8]
• The visa is valid initially for six months and may be extended for another six months.
• A working holiday visa holders cannot be employed in certain job such as receptionist, dancer, singer, musician, acrobat, or in places of entertainment where they may endanger good morals and manners.[9]
• To teach a foreign language the same qualification requirements as a "E-2 Language instructor visa" applies and permission must be granted by the chief of immigration office.

United Kingdom

• Commonwealth citizens, aged between 17 and 30, may be eligible to enter the United Kingdom as Working Holidaymakers.
• Employment should be seen as incidental to the holiday and therefore work is not allowed for more than 12 months out of the permitted 24 months.
• The 24 month validity period will run continuously from the date from which the Entry Clearance is valid - this is set by the Entry Clearance Officer. Regardless of any time spent travelling outside the UK. This period cannot be extended nor can it be put on hold.

Ireland

• Citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand, aged 18-30 (inclusive) may be eligible for an Irish Working Holiday Visa.
• Applicants must have sufficient funds to support themselves for at least the initial part of the holiday or in the event of failing to secure employment. Immigration officials may request evidence of sufficient funds at the point of entry to Ireland.
• No one person many avail the scheme on more than one occasion.

Women's Rest Tour Association

The Women's Rest Tour Association of Boston, Massachusetts comprised a network of middle-class members who collected information about travel abroad and shared it among like-minded American women who required trustworthy non-commercial and unsolicited confidential recommendations suitable for women "who desire to visit Europe at the least possible expense consistent with comfort".^[1] Comfort, decency and security for the unaccompanied female traveller were essential, but picturesqueness and historical settings were also prominently featured in the brief commentaries that were submitted by the members, who had to be recommended by two existing members in order to join.

The origin of the Association was reported in Publishers Weekly for 12 November 1892, with the publication of a second edition of A Summer in England: a handbook for the use of American women:

In the spring of 1891 several women,^[2] who had made a summer trip across the Atlantic, and discovered that foreign travel was far easier and cheaper than they had imagined, resolved to offer other self dependent women who might be deterred from such a journey either by the expense involved or by the lack of an escort, the results of their own experience. They therefore formed themselves into a society called the Women's Rest Tour Association, which published a handbook of hints and directions called "a summer in England."

The second edition of 1892 added an article on "Universal Extension and the advantages for summer study in the universities of England" and a "Continental supplement", which initiated the annual publication of the members' copiously annotated lists of recommended pensioni, charming but inexpensive restaurants and small hotels, which were subsequently published, in an American list and a foreign list, in alternate years, for many decades. Negative reports, or several years passing without a review, resulted in a listing's being dropped, a self-editing feature.^[3]

Among the practical hints offered for self dependent American women in 1892, were some familiar social suggestions:

Independent as you may be, do not scorn to imitate one grace of the English woman, be she duchess or chambermaid—her soft, low voice, that excellence which no American woman has attained in its infinitude of sweetness. Listen to it, delight in it, and copy it if you can"^[4]

Later editions dropped the social advice and kept closer to the commentary on lodgings and restaurants, listed city by city, eventually covering the visitable world, from Aden to Zanzibar.

The Women's Rest Tour Association was part of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, a broader non-profit social and educational agency founded in Boston in 1877.

Where in the World is Matt Lauer?

Where in the World is Matt Lauer? is a segment on NBC's Today show, which features co-host Matt Lauer traveling the world to various locations within one week. The title is similar to the children's computer game and PBS game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and the segment's opening theme is a take on Rockapella's theme song for the game show.

Matt's Travel Locations

Season 1 (1998)

April 27 - May 1

Day 1: April 27, 1998 Cairo, Egypt

Day 2: April 28, 1998 Venice, Italy

Day 3: April 29, 1998 Athens, Greece

Day 4: April 30, 1998 Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India (Taj Mahal)

Day 5: May 1, 1998 Sydney, Australia

Season 2 (1999)

May 10 - May 14

Day 1: May 10, 1999 Mt. Everest, Nepal

Day 2: May 12, 1999 USS Theodore Roosevelt, Ionian Sea

Day 3: May 13, 1999 Rome, Italy

Day 4: May 14, 1999 Badaling, China (Great Wall of China)

Season 3 (2000)

May 1 - May 5

Day 1: May 1, 2000 Kīlauea, Hawaii, USA

Day 2: May 2, 2000 Bilbao, Spain

Day 3: May 3, 2000 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Day 4: May 4, 2000 Pisa, Italy

Day 5: May 5, 2000 Reykjavík, Iceland

Season 4 (2001)

May 7 - May 11

Day 1: May 7, 2001 Machu Picchu, Peru

Day 2: May 8, 2001 Britannia, North Sea

Day 3: May 9, 2001 Paris, France

Day 4: May 10, 2001 Bangkok, Thailand

Day 5: May 11, 2001 Mykonos, Greece

Season 5 (2002)

May 13 - May 17

Day 1: May 13, 2002 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Day 2: May 14, 2002 Marrakech, Morocco

Day 3: May 15, 2002 St Andrews and Dornoch, Scotland

Day 4: May 16, 2002 Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Day 5: May 17, 2002 Monte Carlo, Monaco and Nice, France

Season 6 (2004)

February 9 - February 13

Day 1: February 9, 2004 Mombo Camp, Botswana Clue: "It's free to get in, but it will cost a dollar or two to get out."

Day 2: February 10, 2004 Zermatt, Switzerland (The Matterhorn) Clue: "Automatically, the people there are two stops from the park."

Day 3: February 11, 2004 Hong Kong, China Clue: "We'll be on central time, a long way from home."

Day 4: February 12, 2004 Moscow, Russia (Red Square) Clue: "Four more sides and we would have to stop."

Day 5: February 13, 2004 Necker Island, British Virgin Islands Clue: "If Jack Sparrow comes calling, there are no neighbors to run to."

Season 7 (2005)

November 7 - November 11

Day 1: November 7, 2005 Easter Island, Chile Clue: "The Shuttle could land here in a pinch without turning heads."

Day 2: November 8, 2005 Panama Canal, and Colón, Panama Clue: "People are still asking me about the one I got in 2002, which was almost 90 years after this most famous one was built."

Day 3: November 9, 2005 Innsbruck, Austria Clue: "The gold flowed here for a second time after a bust in the Rocky Mountains."

Day 4: November 10, 2005 Shanghai, China Clue: "This river city is known for its shopping, but the surprise is there is no Eiffel Tower."

Day 5: November 11, 2005 Dubrovnik, Croatia (Dalmatian Coast) Clue: "We've jumbled Cruella's evil plan."

Season 8 (2007)

April 30 - May 4

Day 1: April 30, 2007 Everett, Washington, USA (Boeing Everett Factory) Clue: "This is the second time we've stopped in this country, but our last four trips all began here."

Day 2: May 1, 2007 County Clare (Cliffs of Moher), and Galway, Ireland Clue: "Clare speaks the language. But if you need translation, you'll find Ann holding it down when some of us hit the road."

Day 3: May 2, 2007 Paro, Bhutan Clue: "As the son also rises, power is money here, with billions on the horizon."

Day 4: May 3, 2007 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Clue: "Although we can't top the Himalayas, we will sail to new heights in a place that will soon host the world."

Day 5: May 4, 2007 Cape of Good Hope and Cape Town, South Africa Clue: "To the West, it is 10 degrees colder. To the East, there is warmth in the air. To the North, there's a seat at the table. To the South, there's a formal affair."

Welcome sign

A welcome sign is a road sign at the border of a region, welcoming drivers to that region. It may be found entering a state, province, county, city, town, etc. Its purpose is partly informational, to inform drivers where they are, and partly for tourism, as it affords an opportunity to advertise features within the region to people who are entering it. A welcome sign is a type of town sign — a sign placed at the entrance to and exit from a city, town or village. In many jurisdictions, the format of town signs is standardized; in some of these, welcome signs with more creative formats may be placed separately from the legally-mandated town sign.

A municipality's welcome sign may give its population or foundation date; list twinned towns, or services within the town; depict the town's crest, typical local products, or the logo of sponsor organizations which maintain the sign (perhaps the local Lions Club).

Welcome signs are very popular in the United States; all 50 U.S. states having adopted them, they are found on most roads.

Volunteer vacation

Volunteer vacations are vacations which include some activities focused on furthering a charitable cause for which the participant receives no renumeration.

The types of volunteer vacations are diverse, from low-skill work cleaning up local wildlife areas to providing high-skill medical aid in a foreign country.

Originally most volunteer vacations were undertaken by people with a direct connection to a particular cause and were considered more as short term, intense volunteer projects rather than vacations. Many of these organizations are long-standing international development assistance organizations which placed short-term volunteers on work project sites. During the 1990s the travel industry developed niche products and firms to provide volunteer vacations to people who had no previous experience with a cause, and to cater to the increasing number of young people taking gap years. These providers expanded the market but also drew criticism for the impact of their methods. At the same time, the first edition of "Volunteer Vacations" by Bill McMillan was published, featuring under 200 non-profit organizations which facilitated such service opportunities. According to the Travel Industry Association of America, more than 55 million Americans have participated in a volunteer vacation, and about 100 million more are considering taking one. Volunteer vacations participants are diverse but typically share a desire to “do something good” while also experiencing new places and challenges in locales they might not otherwise visit.

While some experts on volunteerism welcome the expansion of volunteer vacations as an opportunity to provide more resources to projects and to encourage a volunteer ethic in people, others have pointed out that the business methods used by tour operators, such as exclusivity deals, and catering to the needs of the volunteer rather than the volunteer project, exploit the communities the projects are intended to help

Volunteer Visions

Volunteer Visions is a company located in Samara, Costa Rica that specializes in connecting prospective volunteers with programs internationally. The programs are designed for individuals seeking a gap year, career break, adventure travel, cultural exploration, and alternative vacations. Volunteer Vision's projects are aimed at identifying areas in need and using direct voluntary action to create self-sustainable communities.Projects range in nature from Sea Turtle Conservation in Costa Rica to teaching in a School for the blind in Vietnam.

Program Mission

The company has four definitive goals:

• To connect those with the ability and desire to help with the opportunity to do so;
• To help create a cultural exchange that expands the worlds of all involved;
• To offer the programs at a level affordable enough for anyone to take part;
• To support the creation of sustainable communities in an expanding global market

Program Information

Volunteer Visions works with governments, schools, non-profits, and local organizations in the areas of education, health, HIV/AIDS, community and urban development, sustainable agriculture, and wildlife conservation.

Currently more than 40 programs are offered in 10 countries:

• Costa Rica
• Bolivia
• Ecuador
• Peru
• China
• India
• Vietnam
• Kenya
• Ghana
• Thailand

The cost for a trip varies depending upon the location and length of stay. Included in the price are:

• Food
• Home stay or dorm accommodation
• Pre-departure Information (which includes visa info, vaccinations, packing list, etc.)
• Arrival pick up
• Skilled and knowledgeable onsite coordinator
• 24/7 emergency assistance and onsite support
• Safety and Health tips
• On-site orientation
• Social and cultural activities and excursions

Virtualmalaysia

Virtualmalaysia.com is an official e-portal for the ministry of tourism malaysia. It features articles on background and lifestyle, tourism, and festivities in Malaysia. There is also a comprehensive directory of restaurants, businesses, hotels, and more in Malaysia.

Background

Endorsed as the Official e-Portal for the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia on October 2006, its establishment aims to rigorously promote the country as one of the premier destinations to be visited worldwide as well as extending the global industry players with a unique platform to network with the global market.

Applications

VirtualMalaysia.Com develop Packages2Go, an e-platform for the travel agencies to convert them as potential clients. VirtualMalaysia.Com constantly enhances its e-initiatives by recently launching its e-hotel hub as a platform for hotels to reach the network and sell both B2B and B2C.

Awards

APMITTA – Asia Pacific MSC, IT and Telecommunication Award (Best Content Development – Year 2000)
APICTA - Asia Pacific IT Award (Best Tourism Applications- Year 2001 and 2005)
Prime Minister Award (ICT Premiere Award - 2003)

Vacation

Vacation is a term used in English-speaking North America to describe a lengthy time away from work or school, a trip abroad, or simply a pleasure trip away from home, such as a trip to the beach that lasts several days or longer. In the rest of the English-speaking world the word holiday is used, whereas in North America, "holiday" normally applies to a specific national holiday or long weekend related to such a day. In some cases "vacation holiday" is used in North America, which signifies that a vacation trip is taken during a traditional national holiday period, extended on either end of the period by taking additional time off from work—creating a longer time unencumbered by work, an extended "long weekend", as it were. This practice is common in the United States where employers give far fewer annual vacation days (see below) than European employers—so stretching the related national holidays tends to conserve one's accumulated total of eligible days available for longer quality vacation excursions.

In England the word "vacation" referred specifically to the long summer break taken by the law courts (and later universities)—a custom introduced by William the Conqueror from Normandy where it was intended to facilitate the grape harvest. The French term is similar to the American English: "Les Vacances." The term derives from the fact that, in the past, upper-class families would literally move to a summer home for part of the year, leaving their usual family home vacant. Most countries around the world have labor laws mandating a certain number of days of time off per year to be given to a worker. In Canada the legal minimum is two weeks, while in most of Europe the limit is significantly higher. Neither the U.S. nor China requires that employees receive any vacation time at all. There are movements fighting for laws requiring more vacation time for American workers such as timeday.org.

In modern employment practice, vacation days are often coupled with Sick leave, official holidays, and sometimes personal days.

Americans and Canadians, especially those of recent British or European descent, may also use the word "holiday." "Annual Leave" is another expression used in Commonwealth countries. Many Canadians use both "holiday" and "vacation"; "...I'm taking holidays..." is a common expression, something not often heard in the United States.

Minimum vacation time around the world

Country	legally required
Argentina	14 calendar days (from 0 to 5 years seniority), 21 calendar days (from 5 to 10), 28 calendar days (from 10 to 20) and 35 calendar days (from 20)
Australia	As of 27 March 2006, 20 work days (4 weeks). 2 weeks can be "sold" to employer. Additional Long service leave is also payable. 10 public holidays as well are payable to employees.
Austria	5 weeks
The Bahamas	14 days after 1 year employment, 21 days after 5 years employment
Belgium	20 days, premium pay
Brazil	30 consecutive days, of which 10 can be sold back to the employer
Bulgaria	minimum 20 working days
Canada	Determined by provincial law. 10-15 working days depending on province. In addition, 10-12 public holidays depending on province.
Chile	15 working days
Colombia	15 working days for every year, vacations can be accumulated for up to 4 years (up to 60 working days of vacations)
Costa Rica	2 weeks after 1 year employment.
China	Not required - this is incorrect. while complicated by complex fluid laws there is a minumum of 20 days per year.
Croatia	18 working days. Saturdays can be incuded even if company offices are not open on Saturdays. This is left for employers and employees to agree.
Czech Republic	4 weeks
Colombia	14 days
Denmark	6 weeks, of which 5 days can be "sold" back to the employer - omsorgsdage (carer’s leave).
Dominican Republic	14 work days after one year employment, 20 work days after 5 years employment.
Estonia	28 calendar days
European Union	4 weeks, more in some countries
Ecuador	14 days
Finland	35 days
France	5 weeks[1] (+ 2 weeks of RTT (Reduction du Temps de Travail, in English : Reduction of Working Time) according to the contract)
Germany	4 weeks, i.e. 24 "workable" days based on a six day week (Mon - Sat). Normal work-week is Mo-Fr; plus 9 to 13 bank holidays; plus sick, pregnancy, mothership and personal leave
Greece	20 working days or more depending of the years in the company
Hong Kong	7 days
Hungary	20 working days
Ireland	20 days, plus 9 public holidays
India	60 Days
Israel	14 days
Italy	20-32 working days (exact amount depends on contract details) plus 12 public holidays
Japan	including sick leave: 18 days paid time off; officially, five weeks (in reaction to the karoshi problem)
Korea, South	10 working days
Latvia	4 weeks
Malaysia	Starts at 8 days for first 2 years employment with an employer. Increases to 12 days for between 2 and 5 years employment and 16 days for 5 or more years. Plus about 14 public holidays (depends on state).
Mexico	7 days
Netherlands	4 weeks
New Zealand	4 weeks as of April 1, 2007
Norway	25 working days
Paraguay	14 days
Peru	14 days
Poland	20 business days, 26 business days after 10 years of employment
Portugal	22 working days, up to 25 without work absences in previous year.
Puerto Rico	15 days
Romania	minimum 21 working days
Russia	28 calendar days[2]
Saudi Arabia	15 days
Serbia	20 working days minimum + 1 day extra for every 2 years of service (this extra is optional, employer can choose not to do that)
Singapore	14 days
Slovakia	20 days, 25 days after 15 years of employment
South Africa	21 consecutive days
Spain	30 calendar days
Sweden	25-32 working days, depending on age
Switzerland	28 calendar days (= 20 work days)
Taiwan	7 days
Turkey	12 work days
Tunisia	30 work days
Ukraine	24 calendar days
United Kingdom	4 working weeks, with no additional entitlement for bank holidays. Increases to 4.8 weeks from 1st October 2007, and to 5.6 weeks from 1st April 2009.[3]
United States	none[4]
Uruguay	14 days
Venezuela	15 paid days
Vietnam	10 working days.

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor.com is a free travel guide and research website that offers reviews and information to help plan a vacation.

Users research potential locales and attractions to visit, and hotels to book, primarily by browsing the thousands of reviews posted on the website each week by other travelers. TripAdvisor is an example of Consumer Generated Media.

Description

TripAdvisor.com is a travel information website, covering more than 270,000 hotels and attractions^[1] in over 30,000 destinations worldwide. It features hotel, attraction, and restaurant reviews written by travelers; a wiki for users to provide facts and tips on destinations, similar in concept to a travel guidebook; "goLists", where users list what to see or what to do, somewhat like travel itineraries; interactive maps based on the Google Maps engine; and "TripAdvisor Forums", an active traveler message board area. Each of these are described under "Major products" below.

With more than 10 million reviews and opinions^[2] and nearly 30 million unique visitors a month, TripAdvisor is also the largest travel community on the web.^[3]

The site has been criticised for allowing users to publish fraudulent reviews. In response, they claim that all reviews are moderated by their staff, and they have algorithms to detect abuse.^[4]

History

TripAdvisor was founded in February 2000, and was purchased by InterActive Corporation in 2004. Original financing was obtained from Flagship Ventures, the Bollard Group, and private investors. TripAdvisor is now part of the Expedia, Inc. family of travel companies.

Business model

TripAdvisor, free to consumers, is supported by an advertising model. Clients include most major online travel agencies, including Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline, Travelocity and many travel suppliers, such as InterContinental, Hyatt, and American Airlines.^{[citation needed]}

Major products

• Hotel/Attraction/Restaurant reviews: In many ways the foundation of TripAdvisor, TripAdvisor has reviews and opinions on over 270,000 hotels, attractions, and restaurants. The hotel, restaurant, and attraction rankings found throughout the site are based largely on these reviews.

• Travel wiki: A wiki (based on a clusterized version of XWiki) in which users can add information on destinations as a way to aid potential visitors. Topics include transportation, activities and dining guides.

• goLists: Lists of places and activities compiled by users and usually on travel "themes", e.g.,, ten must-see attractions, stops on a walking tour, or ideas for a rainy day.

• TripAdvisor maps: A hotel map mashup combining TripAdvisor's hotel popularity index with Google Maps.

• TripAdvisor Forums: Message boards where travelers ask and answer thousands of destination and interest based travel-related questions every day. There are forums for individual destinations, air travel, cruising, and family travel.

• Other resources: Links to additional travel information and reviews available on other websites (e.g., newspaper, magazine, and travel guidebook websites).

Impact on the hotel industry

A 2007 survey of the hotel and restaurant industry in Europe^[5] concluded that 80% of UK consumers are now researching online before booking a hotel and that half of them said they have refrained from booking a hotel as a direct result of a negative review on websites such as TripAdvisor.

In Popular Culture

Australian comedy Kath and Kim referenced the user reviews from TripAdvisor of a hotel they were visiting in the first episode of the fourth season.

In the NBC series, The Office, Dwight describes TripAdvisor as the "life blood of the agro-tourism industry."

TrekAmerica

TrekAmerica is a travel operator and provider of small-group tours in North America covering the USA, Canada, Alaska and Mexico. Its adventure holidays take the traveller to the big cities, National Parks, remote beaches and other locations off the tourist routes. TrekAmerica was founded in the UK in 1971 and initially staffed with largely British tour leaders. Today, TrekAmerica's group leaders are mainly American.

Travellerspoint

Travellerspoint is a social networking site for people who want to learn from or share experiences with other travellers. Members of the site participate through forums, blogs, photo galleries and a wiki travel guide.

Major Features

• Forums: Members discuss their travel experiences in several several destination and topic related forums.

• Travel Guide: A custom built wiki in which users can edit destination information to help assist potential visitors.

• Blogs: An integrated blogging system allowing users to post content to their own Travellerspoint subdomain.

• Photography: Users upload photos of their trips. The best photos are manually featured and displayed throughout the site.

• Travel Maps: A mapping system that allows users to plot their trip's itinerary on a world map. It is interlinked with the photos and blogs. A user's map integrates their photography and blog entries through geotagging. In March 2007, Travellerspoint travel maps were nominated in the category of Best Use of Social Media for the Travolution Awards.^[1]

• Travel Helpers: An early addition to the Travellerspoint set of services was a Travel Helper system, which allowed members to sign up as travel helpers for any number of countries. There are currently over 3000 travel helpers.^[2]

External Reviews

Travellerspoint has been mentioned and recommended by BBC World, ^[3] The Guardian,^[4] USA Today,^[5] The Washington Post,^[6] The Sydney Morning Herald,^[7], The Age^[8] and the MX^[9]. In 2004, it was named the "Best Online-Only Agency" by Travelmole in their annual Travel & Tourism Web Awards, winning out over Travelocity and Opodo.^[10]

Travel technology

Travel technology is a current buzzword in the travel technology community, used to describe various is a term used to describe applications of Information Technology (IT), or Information and Communications Technology (ICT), in travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Travel technology may also be referred to as tourism technology or even hospitality automation. Web 2.0social software applications. XML is an increasingly important aspect of travel technology for handling metadata toward the semantic web. The biometric passport may also be included as travel technology in the broad sense.

Definition of Travel Technology

Since travel implies locomotion, travel technology was originally associated with the computer reservations system (CRS) of the airlines industry, but now is used more inclusively, incorporating the broader tourism sector as well as its subset the hospitality industry. While travel technology includes the computer reservations system, it also represents a much broader range of applications, in fact increasingly so. Travel technology includes virtual tourism in the form of virtual tour technologies. Travel technology may also be referred to as e-travel / etravel or e-tourism / etourism (eTourism), in reference to "electronic travel" or "electronic tourism".

In other contexts, the term "travel technology" can refer to technology intended for use by travelers, such as light-weight laptop computers with universal power supplies or satellite Internet connections. That is not the sense in which it is used here.

Applications of Travel Technology

Travel technology includes many processes such as dynamic packaging which provide useful new options for consumers. Today the tour guide can be a GPS tour guide, and the guidebook could be an audioguide, podguide or I-Tours, such as City audio guides.

History of Travel Technology

Certainly travel technology was born on the coat-tails of the airline industry's use of automation and their need to extend this out to the travel agency partners. It should be kept in mind that there was an online world before the advent of the world wide web in the form of private and commercial online services, via packet switched network using X.25. Travel technology played a significant role in the so-called dot-com boom and bust, circa 1997-2001.

Travel agency

A travel agency is a business that sells travel related products and services, particularly package tours, to end-user customers on behalf of third party travel suppliers, such as airlines, hotels, tour companies, and cruise lines. In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists, most travel agents have a special department devoted to travel arrangements for business travelers, while some agencies specialize in commercial and business travelers. Some agencies also serve as general service agents for foreign travel companies in different countries.

Origins

The British company, Cox & Kings is sometimes said to be the oldest travel agent in the world, but this rests upon services that the original bank (established in 1758) supplied to its wealthy clients. However, the modern travel agent first appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. Thomas Cook, in addition to developing the package tour, established a chain of agencies in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in association with the Midland Railway. These not only sold their own tours to the public, but represented other tour companies. Other British pioneer agencies were Dean and Dawson, the Polytechnic Touring Association, and the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

Travel agencies became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation starting in the 1920s. Originally, the agencies largely catered to middle-class customers, but the post-war boom in mass-market package holidays resulted in travel agencies on the main streets of most British towns, catering to a working class clientèle looking for a cheap overseas beach holiday.

Operations

As the name implies, their main function is to act as an agent, that is to say selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. Consequently, unlike other retail businesses, they do not keep a stock in hand. A package holiday or a ticket is not purchased from a supplier unless a customer requests that purchase. The holiday or ticket is supplied to them at a discount. The profit is therefore the difference between the advertised price which the customer pays and the discounted price at which it is supplied to the agent. This is known as the commission. A British travel agent would consider a 10-12% commission as a good arrangement.

Since September 11, 2001 airlines have stopped giving commission to travel agencies in order to make up for growing cost in security. Therefore, travel agencies are now forced to charge a standard flat fee, per sale. However, companies still give them a set percentage for selling their product. Major tour companies can afford to do this because if they were to sell a thousand trips at a cheaper rate they still come out better than if they sell a hundred trips at a higher rate. This process benefits everyone.

Other commercial operations are undertaken, especially by the larger chains. These can include the sale of in-house insurance, travel guides and timetables, car rental, and the services of an on-site bureau de change dealing in the most popular holiday currencies.

The majority of travel agents have felt the need to protect themselves and their clients against the possibilities of commercial failure, either their own or a supplier. They will advertise the fact that they are bonded (posting a financial bond with an organisation). In the case of a failure, the customers are guaranteed either an equivalent holiday to that which they have lost, or (if they prefer) a refund. Many British agencies (and tour companies too) are bonded with IATA for those who issue their own tickets, ATOL for those who order tickets in, or ABTA for those who sell package holidays on behalf of a tour company.

Of course, a travel agent is supposed to offer impartial travel advice to the customer. This function almost disappeared with the mass-market package holiday, and some agency chains seemed to develop a 'holiday supermarket' concept, in which customers chose their holiday from brochures on racks and then booked it from a counter. However, a variety of social and economic changes have now contrived to bring this aspect to the fore once more, particularly the advent of multiple no-frills airlines.

Types of agencies

There are three different types of agencies: these are Multiples, Miniples and Independent Agencies. The former comprise a number of national chains, often owned by international conglomerates (Thomson Holidays is now a subsidiary of TUI, the German multinational)^[1]. It is now quite common for the large mass-market tour companies to purchase a controlling interest in a chain of travel agencies, in order to control the distribution of their product. (This is an example of vertical integration.)

The smaller chains are often based in particular regions or districts.

Independent Agencies usually cater for a special or niche market. Some cater to the needs of residents in an upmarket commuter town or suburb, or concentrate upon a particular area or group (catering to the travel needs of Polish expatriates, perhaps), or an activity such as sports(servicing the needs of football supporters).

There are 2 approaches of travel agents. One is the traditional multi-destination travel agent based in the originating location of the traveller and the other is the destination focussed travel agent that is based in the destination and delivers an expertise on that location. At present, the former is usually a larger operator like Thomas Cook while the latter is a smaller, often independent, operator like myguideTravel

Consolidators

Travel consolidators or wholesalers are high volume sales companies that are sometimes specialized in a niche. They may or may not offer various types of services at one single point of access. These can be for example hotel reservations, flights, or car-rental. Sometimes the services are combined into vacation packages that include transfer to the location and lodging. These companies do not usually sell directly to the public but act as fulfillment for retail companies. As the travel industry has changed we see more and more consolidators selling directly to the public. The sole purpose of wholesalers is to sell ethnic niches in the travel industry. There is no consolidator that offers everything. All travel companies can sell you whatever you may be looking for but they only have contracted rates to specific destinations. Today there are no domestic consolidators with some exceptions for business class contracts.

Criticisms

Travel agencies have been accused of employing a number of restrictive practices, the chief of which is known as 'racking'. This is the practice of only displaying the brochures of those travel companies whose holidays they wish to sell, the ones that pay them the most commission. Of course, the average customer tends to think that these are the only holidays on offer, and are unaware of possible alternatives.

Generally speaking, small or specialist tour companies do not sell their product through travel agents, since they could not afford to pay the rates of commission that would be demanded. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Independent agents might sell or take bookings for local tour companies (such as coach companies) or tour companies offering specialist holidays that fit into their target market.

Consequently, even before the advent of the internet, small niche tour companies ignored travel agents and sold direct to their customers.

The Internet threat

With the advent of general public access to the internet, many airlines and other travel companies began to sell directly to passengers. As a consequence, airlines no longer needed to pay the commissions to travel agents on each ticket sold. Since 1997, travel agencies gradually became victims of disintermediation, the reduction in costs caused by removing layers from the package holiday distribution network.^[2][3]

Many travel agencies have developed an internet presence by posting a website, with detailed travel information. Full travel booking sites are often complex, and require the assistance of outside travel technology solutions providers such as Travelocity. These companies use travel service distribution companies who operate Global Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Sabre Holdings, Amadeus, Galileo and Worldspan, to provide up to the minute, detailed information on tens of thousands of flight, hotel, and car rental vacancies.

Some online travel sites allow visitors to compare hotel and flight rates with multiple companies for free. They often allow visitors to sort the travel packages by amenities, price, and or proximity to a city or landmark.

Travel agents have applied dynamic packaging tools to provide fully bonded (full financial protection) travel at prices equal to or lower than a member of the public can book online. As such, the agencies' financial assets are protected in addition to professional travel agency advice.

All travel sites that sell hotels online work together with numerous outside travel agents. Once the travel site sells a hotel, one of the supplying travel agents is contacted and will try to get a confirmation for this hotel. Once confirmed or not, the customer is contacted with the result. This means, that booking a hotel on a travel website will not get you an instant answer. Only some of the hotels on a travel website can be confirmed instantly (which is normally marked as such on each site). As different travel websites work with different suppliers together, each site has different hotels that it can confirm instantly. Some examples of such online travel websites that sell hotel rooms are Expedia, Orbitz and Tripadvisor.

Careers

With the many people switching to self-service internet websites, the number of available jobs as travel agents is decreasing. Most jobs that become available are from older travel agents retiring. Counteracting the decrease in jobs due to internet services is the increase in the number of people travelling. Since 1995, many travel agents have exited the industry, and relatively few young people have entered the field due to less competitive salaries.^[4] However, others have abandoned the "brick and mortar" agency for a home-based business to reduce overheads, and those who remain have managed to survive by promoting other travel products such as cruise lines and train excursions, or by promoting their ability to aggressively research and assemble complex travel packages on a moment's notice (essentially acting as a very advanced concierge).

Cargo

A small number of companies work with cargo airlines and ships which are connected to cargo business.

TravBuddy.com

travbuddy.com is a social networking Web site specializing in connecting travellers. The site was created by brothers Eric Bjorndahl and David Bjorndahl and launched in 2005 by TravBuddy LLC, a privately owned company. The site's early innovations include the use of the Google Maps API as part of the site's graphical interface.

The site allows users to find travel buddies, create travel based blogs, upload travel photos and to review bars, restaurants, hotels and attractions.

As of August 2007, the site has nearly 1,000,000 registered contributors.^[1].

As of August 2007, the site provided free access to over 12,000 blogs, 9,000 travel reviews, and 300,000 travel photos.^[2]

Since its launch, the site has been featured in several TV, print, and online news sources, including the NBC Nightly News, ZDnet.com, ABC News, KABC Radio, the Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Indianapolis Star, the Herald Tribune, the Palos Verdes Peninsula News, and Web User UK

TransAmerica Trail

The TransAmerica Bicycle Trail is a 4,247.5 mile (6836 km) long transcontinental bicycle touring route which crosses ten American states from Astoria, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia.^[1] The TransAmerica Trail was established for the Adventure Cycling Association's celebration of the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.^[2] At that time, the organization and route were called Bikecentennial, a name many still associate with the TransAm Trail.^[3] The TransAmerica Trail is still the most used route crossing America. It offers everything expected in a transcontinental crossing. The route encounters all kinds of scenery and terrain, including ocean coastline, lush forests, high desert, mountain passes, snow-capped peaks, sweeping vistas, expansive plains, fertile farmlands, rolling hills, and wide rivers. Largely avoiding urban areas, the route passes through small, out-of-the-way towns

The TransAmerica Bicycle Trail

Grand parks along the TransAm include Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, among the best in the United States. Because the route has been ridden by cyclists for years, many cafes, restaurants and overnight accommodations have journals of entries written by cross-country riders from previous years, providing riders with a cyclist's history of the route.

The TransAmerica Trail takes about three months. It can be ridden from May through September. Snow can occur at any time in the Rocky Mountains, and the highest pass on the route is more than 11,500 feet. Although the prevailing weather patterns are from west to east, local wind patterns are more dependent on the passing pressure systems and local terrain, so riders can expect a fair share of tailwinds and headwinds regardless of which direction they ride.

Astoria, Oregon, with the hills of a miniature San Francisco, is the official start. The view from the Astoria Column is considered worth the uphill pedal. Stretches of beaches, outstanding state parks, steep ascents and descents, and great seafood abound during the first days before the route turns inland to the Willamette River Valley. Eugene, Oregon, is the largest city along the route, with about 140,000 residents. Other sizable cities along the way are Missoula, Montana; Pueblo, Colorado; Carbondale, Illinois; and Charlottesville, Virginia. The route skirts around Hutchinson, KS; Roanoke, VA; and Richmond, VA. The lush, green western side of the Cascade Mountains is a contrast to the dry terrain after McKenzie Pass. The road over McKenzie Pass cuts through an ancient lava field and offers spectacular views of the Three Sisters and other snow-capped volcanic peaks of the Cascade Mountains. Central and eastern Oregon is made up of dry, mountainous terrain and demands riders carry extra water. The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center is outside Baker City, and after completing a trip crossing the country, riders have no trouble relating to the experiences of the early pioneers.

Idaho offers a ride along the Salmon River, and Native American historic sites. The route then follows the winding, scenic Lochsa River for the longest ascent of the trip (around 70 miles). The route climbs up and over Lolo Pass, enters Montana, and soon reaches the spur into Missoula, Montana. Missoula, a college town, houses Adventure Cycling headquarters. Beautiful panoramas and mountain passes are features of the route in Montana.

The views in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming are incomparable. Towns such as Dubois and Lander are a reminder that the route is in the West, with their historic architecture and western-style cooking. Lamont is an oasis in the windy, desolate Great Divide Basin.

The scenery quickly changes from dry, high desert to alpine as the route reaches Kremmling, Colorado. Breckenridge, Colorado is a good place for a layover day. From there, the route begins a long climb to crest the Continental Divide at Hoosier Pass, 11,542 feet, up among snow-covered peaks. As the route leaves the Rockies, Royal Gorge Park offers a layover day, for the Arkansas River bridge or a helicopter ride over or a raft trip through the gorge. Pueblo, Colorado offers bike shops and places to eat and is the halfway point. It's the largest city until Carbondale, Illinois.

Things start to dry out in the eastern part of Colorado and western Kansas. Carrying extra water is a good idea here -- this is hot, barren country. Right around Haswell, Colorado, riders see the last hazy glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. Riders might have to do some early morning and early evening riding to escape the midday heat. The flat-as-a-pool-table terrain of the Great Plains will change quickly into the roller-coaster riding on the Ozark Plateau of Missouri.

The route crosses the Mississippi River at Chester, Illinois, and heads into Carbondale, a college town. A ferry takes riders across the Ohio River into Kentucky. Kentucky offers rolling white-fenced farms and woodlands until reaching Berea, the gateway to the Appalachian Mountains. A loop south of the route will take riders to see Mammoth Cave National Park, the longest cave system in the world. Past Berea comes the ascents and descents of the Appalachians, and part of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. The mountains turn to rolling hills and then flat riding through lush plantations and farmlands. The last stretch of the route is rich in the history of the American Revolution, with Colonial Williamsburg as the highlight. Yorktown, Virginia, situated on the Chesapeake Bay, is the route's end.

Terrain

Some stretches of the western portion of the route follow large river valleys and can be generally flat, but expect some climbing almost every day between Astoria, Oregon, and Pueblo, Colorado. The passes throughout the Rocky Mountains are generally long but not terribly steep. The descents from these passes are, of course, a blast. Most of Kansas is beautifully flat. Missouri through the Ozarks and eastern Kentucky through the Appalachian Mountains offers short, steep climbs. The Virginia portion of the route, surprisingly, has more total elevation gain than any other state.

Logistics

Camping choices vary between small private campgrounds, city parks, state and national parks, national forests, and the occasional back yard. The northern Oregon coast is a heavily traveled tourist route and is flush with camping and services. From Oregon eastward through Kansas, services are limited mainly to towns. Carrying extra water in the West is recommended. Camping options improve in the Rocky Mountains, but travellers face long stretches between accommodations and services. Options increase near tourist areas such as Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Camping in city parks is the norm through Kansas and Missouri. Food, water, and overnight accommodations are abundant from Missouri to Virginia.

States on the TransAmerica Trail Bicycle Route

1. Oregon
2. Idaho
3. Montana
4. Wyoming
5. Colorado
6. Kansas
7. Missouri
8. Illinois
9. Kentucky
10. Virginia

Tourist trolley

A Tourist trolley, also called a road trolley, is a rubber tired bus (usually diesel fueled, sometimes compressed natural gas) made to resemble an old-style pre-PCC streetcar. Tourist trolleys are becoming increasingly popular in cities large and small.^{[citation needed]} Tourist trolleys are used by both municipal and private operators. Municipal operators may mix tourist trolleys in with the regular service bus fleet to add more visitor interest or attract attention to new routes. In many cities tourist trolleys are used as circulators. A circulator operates a simplified route limited to popular destinations on a fixed schedule with a reduced or free fare.^[1] Tourist trolleys are also run by private operators to carry tourists to popular sightseeing destinations.

Tourist landscape

A tourist landscape can be described as constructed through a variety of symbolic and material transformations of an original physical and/or socioeconomic landscape in order to serve the interests of tourists and the tourist industry.

Since the early days of tourism, landscape has played an important role in the decision making for holiday destinations. In trying to escape from an ordinary taken-for-granted-world, people of all periods have looked to far-away landscapes in order to re-create.

Landscapes are no longer exclusively shaped by the productive claims of agricultural interests. More and more, its form is a reflection of the consumer demand and recreation, tourism and even nature conservation combine to model the ‘new aesthetics of nature’ (Wilson, 1992). The media confronts people with an ever more varied palette of images of their surroundings. Commercial broadcast by the World Wide Fund for Nature, vacation folders displayed by the tour operators and tourist boards, and the travel reports published in glossy magazines determine to a large degree how the tourist landscape should look. The most influential parties come from the new middle class, consisting of individuals and groups who are concentrated in professions like the media and fashion, education, and the arts and sciences. In this context the tourism industry constructs the rural idyll, an understanding of the countryside based partly on reality, but largely on nostalgia and romance:

It is sustained and developed by media images and popular imagination. It portrays a world of unchanging values, traditional and community living which some people feel with regret has been lost forever from their own lives. The heritage industry has developed to meet such expectations. It packages and presents aspect of the heritage in ways which broadly sustain the illusion of unchanging values(The National Trust, 1995, 11).

However by this aesthetic appropriation the landscape has become an assemblage of beautiful forms that ignores the basically vital aspects.

A related problem is that tourism landscapes are frequently subject to the characteristic problems of common pool resources - a tendency toward overuse and a lack of incentive for individuals to invest in maintaining or improving the resource (Healy, 1994). Scenic landscapes are often the result of active (traditional) land management. The fading away of the pastoral economy in Alpine regions or the traditional orchard economy in parts of the Mediterranean threatens the characteristic scenery of old cultural landscapes.

The Mediterranean landscape

To the peoples of Northern Europe the Mediterranean landscape represented an ideal that has to be admired, sketched, painted and visited. From the beginning of the nineteenth century on the Mediterranean landscape functioned as a promotional objective of the nascent tourist industry. The presence of celebrities and highly effective publicity campaigns in combination with the work of many artists turned the regional geographical landscape into a tourist landscape, a dream space for the twentieth century. Luginbühl (1992) suggests that tourist publicity posters that appeared toward the end of the nineteenth century were used to represent the Mediterranean landscape and to reinforce the selective view of that landscape held by an elite stratum of society. Characteristic of these posters is the emphasis on the ‘exotic’ in the Mediterranean landscape. Plant life especially is used to symbolise the ideal tourist scenery whilst constructing a landscape that retreats from reality:

The Mediterranean landscape is replaced with a landscape in which the only thing that is Mediterranean is the stuff of the tourist promotion: a beach, a palm-tree, and a couple browning their skin in the sun or letting their hair blow in the wind. The Mediterranean landscape no longer exists, because it has been made palatable to all(Luginbühl, 1992, 227).

The pilgrim’s way to Santiago de Compostela

Another example of impressive transformations is the pilgrim’s way to Santiago de Compostela, one of the most famous long distance routes in Europe. The different itineraries formed a kind of religious network in the past. Now the EC has discovered the importance of this route and has themed it as the cultural route of Europe. Subsidised by EC funds a considerable part of the authentic pilgrim’s way in the Tiere de Campos in Northwestern Spain has been completely transformed into a comfortable tracking road. Trees have been planted on every ten meters, supplied with water by a smart irrigation system. After every kilometer the tired modern pilgrim can take some rest. Nobody has to be afraid in getting lost in this area because even the smallest village is signposted by an impressive stone. So the suffering of the former pilgrims has become unreachable for the modern ones. They are degraded to ordinary tourists. And the landscape? It is rationalised and it seems to be a question of time before the first multinational company establishes a chain of fast-food outlets along the route.

The Alpine landscape

The Mediterranean landscape is not the only example of how tourism contributes to the construction of model tourist landscapes. The Alpine regions too represent a model tourist landscape that combines ideas on both the sublime and the savage. The Alps were regarded as a wilderness and the habitat of a society free and archaic in its direct contact with nature.

The characteristic environmental variety of the Alps offered concrete manifestations of idealized landscape models: the mountains were also an imaginary-symbolic space to which ideal properties could be attributed, such as those imposed by nature on its inhabitants to make them rough, but, also free and ‘natural’ Scaramellini, 1996, 53).

Ehrentraut (1996) remarked on the continuing attractive power of stereotypical alpine landscapes to contemporary tourists despite the rapid transformations of the traditional rural landscape and its vernacular architecture. Open air museums reinforce these existing meanings and contribute to the persistence of an idea of rurality on the symbolic level:

Popularized and commodified by the travel industry, these lieux de mémoire thus become stations of the secular pilgrimage that tourists make through the cultural landscape of modern society in search of the authenticated experiences central to their collective identities(Ehrentraut, 1996, 22).

Holiday villages

Port Grimaud

In the Netherlands the ideal of an ‘exotic holiday-destination’ is without any doubt strongly influenced by the image of the Mediterranean landscape. It is incorporated in the designing of holiday villages and the enormous increase of these facilities in the last decades has transformed parts of the Netherlands into real leisure landscapes. We see the encroachment of brick and concrete over the landscape in favourable tourist regions such as the coastal zones and the Veluwe region. The high quality holiday villages sell a subtropical illusion in a country with a temperate maritime climate. The Mediterranean concept became predominant in the design, the range of services and the names of resorts such as Porte Zelande or Porte Grève in the province of Zeeland. The inspiration for the design of Porte Zelande on the Brouwersdam was drawn from Port Grimaud in southern France. Port Grimaud can be considered as one of the most well-known examples of a radical landscape transformation. In 1962, the architect Spoerry acquired a stretch of marshy land near Saint Tropez. He transformed this area to the ultimate example of future leisure ports.

Beach parks and résidences have become popular and change the landscape dramatically in certain regions. Another example can be find along the Languedoc-Rousillon coast in southern France in the huge leisure based urbanisation around Port Leucate.

Port Leucate in southern France

In order to differentiate themselves to win the favour of clients, resorts point to the attractive environment in the form of landscape and culture. In addition to some holyday villages, golf links are also making inroads on the countryside. Not surprisingly, the holyday villages developed most recently tend to be in the immediate vicinity of nature preserves or the seacoast. The use that people make of the surroundings of a holiday village is becoming more and more intensive, changing the appearance of the landscape into a tourist landscape.

References

• Clark, G. et al (1994), Leisure Landscapes. Leisure, Culture and the English Countryside: Challenges and Conflicts, CPRE Publications, London
• Dietvorst, Adri en Jan Philipsen (1996), The landscape of leisure, Geografie, 5(5): 28-31
• Dietvorst, Adri (1998), Tourist landscapes: Accelerating transformations, in: Sheila Scraton (ed.), Leisure, Time and Space: Meanings and Values in People’s Lives, LSA Publication, no. 57, Brighton, 13-24
• Dietvorst, A.G.J. (2001), Het toeristisch landschap tussen illusie en werkelijkheid, Afscheidsrede Universiteit Wageningen
• Ehrentraut, Adolf (1996), Globalization and the representation of rurality: Alpine Open-air museums in advanced industrial societies, Sociologia Ruralis, 36(1): 4-26
• Healy, Robert (1994), The ‘common pool’ problem in tourism landscapes, Annals of Tourism Research, 21(3): 596-611
• Luginbühl, Yves (1992) Apollonian and Dionysian, in: Luginbühl, Yves (ed), Mediterranean Landscape, Sevilla, Cartuja de Santa Maria de las Cuevas, June-October 1992, Electa, Milan, 24-31
• Luginbühl, Yves (1992) The Mediterranean landscape and its value in tourist publicity, in: Luginbühl, Yves (ed), Mediterranean Landscape, Sevilla, Cartuja de Santa Maria de las Cuevas, June-October 1992, Electa, Milan, 224-227
• The National Trust (1995), Linking People & Place, A consultation report, The National Trust, Cirencester
• Scaramellini, G. (1996), The picturesque and the sublime in nature and landscape: Writing and iconography in the romantic voyaging in the Alps, GeoJournal, 38(1): 49-57
• Wilson, W. (1992), The culture of nature. North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez, Blackwell, Oxford

Tourist destination

A tourist destination is a city, town or other econimical area which is dependent to a significant extent on the revenues accruing from tourism.^[1]

It may contain one or more tourist attractions or visitor attractions and possibly some "tourist traps".

These Tourist destinations are represented in the United States by Convention and Visitor Bureaus(CVB's) which are paid by bed taxes or just from their members. They do Destination Marketing to bring more travelers to their travel destination.

Tourism technology

Tourism Technology is a term coined by the Korea tourism organization, which refers to the recent trend of incorporating technology with the tourism industry.

Definition of Tourism Technology

The convergence of industries has forced people to create terminology such as information technology, biotechnology, ubiquitous technology and even cultural technology to explain frequently talked about topics. Tourism Technology is a term that encompasses all social, cultural, managerial, and value-adding activities of the tourism industry. Tourism Technology also incorporates and encourages technological advancements and economic development in the tourism industry.

The Origin of Tourism Technology

"Tourism Technology", initially based on the concept of cultural technology, is a more comprehensive term covering knowledge used to add to the value of tourism products on a micro level and the management of the travel and tourism industry on a macro level. New tourism products are also the end result of tourism technology combining with other industries. These include medical tourism, educational tourism, agricultural tourism, marine tourism, and the application of information technology to the travel and tourism industry.

Application of Tourism Technology

The term "technology" can easily call to mind scientific achievements, computer graphic skills, special effects and other engineering-related images. However, "Tourism Technology" encompasses the integrated fields mentioned in the previous paragraph, statistics, managerial and socio-cultural know-how, and skills that the tourism industry can adopt to design, produce, and market various tourism products. In addition to coordinating various aspects of human resources in the travel and tourism industry, “Tourism Technology” describes a comprehensive field containing but not limited to such widely referred to subjects as entertainment technology, contents technology and creative technology. Examples of how tourism technology can be applied are as follows.

• Development of tourism products that tell a story

• Convergence with other industries such as medical and film industries

• Application of advanced information technology to provide tourist information via navigation systems or PDAs.

Tourism in Pakistan

Tourism is a growing industry in Pakistan, based on its diverse cultures, peoples and landscapes. The variety of attractions range from the ruins of ancient civilizations such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Taxila, to the Himalayan hill stations, which attract those interested in field and winter sports. Pakistan is home to several mountain peaks over 7000m, which attracts adventurers and mountaineers from around the world, especially K2^[1]. The northern parts of Pakistan have many old fortresses, towers and other architecture as well as the Hunza and Chitral valleys, the latter being home to the small pre-Islamic Animist Kalasha community who claim descent from the army of Alexander the Great. In the Punjab is the site of Alexander's battle on the Jhelum River and the historic city Lahore, Pakistan's cultural capital with many examples of Mughal architecture such as the Badshahi Masjid, Shalimar Gardens, Tomb of Jahangir and the Lahore Fort. To promote Pakistan's unique and various cultural heritage, the prime minister launched "Visit Pakistan 2007"

List of Popular Tourist Places

• Islamabad
• Azad Kashmir: Muzaffarabad, Jhelum Valley, Bagh, Poonch
• Balochistan: Ziarat, Bolan Pass, Mehrgarh, Khojak Pass
• Federally Administered Tribal Areas & Northern Areas: Chakdara, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Lowari Pass, Drosh, Chitral, Garam Chashma, Kohistan District, Besham, Pakistan, Chilas, Astore Valley, Nanga Parbat, Gilgit, Naltar Valley, Bagrot-Haramosh Valley, Ishkoman, Yasin Valley, Ghizar, Baltistan, Skardu, Deosai National Park, Shigar, Khapalu Biafo glacier,Sadpar lack ,Shangrilla,K2 base camp,K7,Broad Peak,Braqthok khaplu,Gondogoro-laa, Masherbrum,Hunza, Nagar, Gojal, Chalt, Aliabad, Karimabad, Altit Fort, Gulmit, Passu, Sost, Khunjerab Pass
• NWFP: Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Mardan, Swat, Mingora, Saidu Sharif, Shangla District, Kalam valley, Haripur, Tarbela Dam, Havelian, Abbottabad, Thandiani, Mansehra, Kaghan Valley, Batagram
• Punjab: Murree, Cholistan Desert, Uch Sharif, Multan, Harappa, Pakpattan, Lahore, Salt Range, Rohtas Fort, Taxila, Lal Suhanra National Park
• Sindh: Karachi, Mohenjo-daro, Hyderabad, Sehwan Sharif, Manchhar Lake, Kot Diji, Kalri Lake, Bhambore, Thatta, Chaukundi Tombs, Makli Hill

Theme routes

Theme Routes are special theme-based tours, aimed at providing a visitor or tourist with a better insight on that theme. Being popular in Europe, they can cover anything from an individual city, a wine growing region, Dutch bulb fields, Swiss Mountains, to Norwegian Fjords. Subjects can include architecture, historical, cultural.

Examples of theme routes:

• Upper Swabian Baroque Route
• German Wine Route
• Deutsche Fährstraße
• Castle Road
• Bergstraße
• Romantic Road
• Scotland's Malt Whisky Trail
• European Route of Industrial Heritage

Tourism in Sri Lanka

Tourism is one of the main industries in Sri Lanka. Major tourist attractions are focused around the islands famous beaches located in the southern and eastern parts of the country, ancient heritage sites located in the interior of the country and lush green resorts located in the mountainous regions of the country.^[1] The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the ongoing civil war have reduced tourist arrivals, however Sri Lanka received over half a million tourists in 2006

Places of tourist attraction

Negombo

A fishing town located 35km from Colombo and 6 km from island's main International Airport. The beauty of the beach and surrounding star class hotels gave more attraction of tourists.

Mount Lavinia

The place located 12 km from Colombo is a historical city from British colonial period. The Governors House of Sir Thomas Maitland, built in 1805, has become a star class hotel today. The fantastic beach is crowded on holidays with local people who enjoy the beach sports activities such as swimming, surfing.

Kalutara

The place located 42km from Colombo is important spice trading centre from Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial times. The city also named as one of the sacred city of Buddhist people in the country has large hollow dagoba (Buddhist shrine) near the River Kalu.

Beruwela

The place located 55km from Colombo is the starting point of 130km long southern coast also a main fishing centre.

Bentota

Dutch fort of Galle

The place located in south of the country, 62km from Colombo has romantic scenery hotels and popular for wind surfing and water skiing.

Hikkaduwa

The place located in south of the country, 206km from Colombo is the first area to be developed for tourism. The famous coral reef and scuba diving gets tourist's more pleasure there.

Galle

The place located 116km from Colombo is the capital city of Southern province (Southern Sri Lanka) also a World Heritage Site. The large Galle fortress built by the Dutch makes more attraction to the city.

Koggala

The place located in south of the country, from 130km from Colombo, has finest beach and historical Madol Duwa (island surrounded by lake) as mentioned in Sri Lankan literature.

Arugam Bay

Arugam Point at the Arugam Bay beach

The place located in south east of the country 116 km from Colombo is a fine beach near associated with fishing villages. It has been identified as the best surfing beach in Sri Lanka and 4th best in south east Asia. It also comes with the ten best surfing beaches in the world. Wide sandy beaches and lagoons associated with neighbouring Kumana bird sactuary are added values for visitores going to Arugambay. Lahugal National Park are Yala East National Park are also located within 10-30 km radious from Arugambay cetere. Magul Maha Viharaya (buddhist temple), Kudumbigala Temple (Buddhist temple),Shastrwela Buddhist Temple, Okanda Hindu Temple are some of places with heritage values. In addition to beaches, wildlife, culture heritage and nature places of interest make Arugambay a unique tourist attraction in Sri Lanka. There is no LTTE threat in and around Arugambay.

Nelaveli

The place located in east of the country 120km from Colombo and 14km from Trincomalee. The natural habour and beach is one of finest in world.

Kandy

Sacred city of Kandy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Located 116 km from Colombo , Kandy is famous for Temple of Tooth which holds the tooth relic of Lord Buddha, which is a world Heritage site. The Esala Perahera , a 10 day parade comprising dancers, drummers and decorated elephants is the main tourist attraction.

National Parks and Reserves

Wild elephants at Yala National Park.

Sri Lanka has over 20 national parks and reserves, which are home to large variety of species such as elephants, leopards, bears, crocodiles and many reptiles and amphibians. The diversity of the animals attracts tourists into these national parks.^[3]

• Yala
• Udawalawe National Park
• Wasgamuwa National Park
• Willpattu National Park
• Sinharaja Forest Reserve
• Minneriya
• Bundala National Park

Precious stone mining

Ratnapura where the city of famous Sri pada mountain located is the center of precious stone mining

The precious stones such as rubies and sapphires frequently found in Ratnapura and it's surrounding areas also a major tourist attraction in the country. The tourists are interested in precious stones also can visit Sri pada mountain, Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Uda Walawe National Park and Kitulgala (place of "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was filmed).

Tourism in Colombo

The historical "Cargills & Millers" building

The historical city of Colombo is considered as the "Commercial capitol of Sri Lanka" which attracts many tourists from Asian region to visit for businesses.

The name Colombo, first introduced by the Portuguese in 1505, was derived from the classical Sinhalese name Kolon thota, meaning "port on the river Kelani".^[4]As in history the city was the main business center in South Asia for Portuguese, Dutch and British rulers since 1505 to 1948. Any one who visits the city can see many old buildings built by the colonials and the exterior is still maintaining as earlier.

The majority of Sri Lankan businesses have their head offices in Colombo, such as the industries like chemicals, textiles, glass, cement, leather goods, furniture, jewelry and also travel trade. South Asia's second tallest building - The World Trade Center, which is a 40 story Twin Tower complex is the centre of important commercial establishments situated in the city's nerve center.

The Leading hotels

There are several five star hotels and international chain hotels like Hilton Hotels situated in the main city Colombo and outside also.

The five star hotels situated in Colombo are Cinnamon Grand (Formerly known as Hotel Oberio & Colombo Plaza), Ceylon Continental Hotel Colombo, Hilton Colombo, Hilton International, Holiday Inn, Hotel Galadari, Taj Samudra and Trans Asia Hotel.

The five star hotels outside Colombo as Earl's Regency - Kandy, Eden Hotel - Beruwala, Kandalama Hotel - Dambulla, Light House Hotel - Galle, Mahaweli Reach Hotel - Katugastota (Kandy), Taj Exotica - Bentota, test update - Ahangama and Triton Hotel - Ahungalle.

Also there are many four star and three star hotels situated around the country.

Security Threats to Tourism

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake Tsunami, the ongoing civil war and travel advisory scare has resulted in tourism plummeting by up to 40 % The present government has attempted to take necessary security measures to protect the Colombo International Airport from LTTE militant air crafts. However this has not prevented major airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Ethihad airlines from suspending flights or pulling out of Sri Lanka altogether [3][4]. In 2007, LTTE militants have vowed to cripple Sri Lanka's economy by targeting both economical and military targets [5]. The LTTE has executed surprise commando attacks on tourist towns including Yala national park and sacred city of Anurdhapura preempting the winter tourist season.[6]. This has lead to further drops in tourism [7] Previous targets include LTTE's attack on the tourist town of Kandy, including the site of the Dalada Maligawa in 1998 and the Katunayake International airport in 2001 and 2007.