Total Length: 29 min, 55 sec - Show notes can also be found at:  http://travelgeography.blogspot.com/2005/11/social-impacts-of-travel-and-tourism.html

In the podcast I commented on the Responsible Tourism awards, and I quoted a remark made at those awards about the fact that although consumers are more aware of sustainable (social and environmental) issues today, this is not yet seen as a major marketing advantage by tour companies. Related to this, Scott McCabe of the Sheffield Hallam University in the UK posted this interesting item on an email list today:

~~~~~~~~~
From: McCabe, Scott
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2005 3:29 AM
To: trinet-l@HAWAII.EDU
Subject: RE: Tourism and Local Transportation

Dear all,

just a brief contribution to this debate, i read a brief article in a UK free newspaper the other day that UK consumers are not interested in sustainability issues when thinking about or taking holidays, and that whilst many people do worry about the environment and engage in recycling, energy saving etc in daily life - whilst they are on holiday they want to forget about these issues (i only read it briefly so apologies if i misquote). however - it raises a number of issues pertinent to this discussion:
- perhaps consumers see environmental sustainability as an obligation and holidays are still valid as a means to escape everyday duties like these therefore sustainability should be the preserve of governments and industry to implement and it is wrong to assume that consumers will eventually demand sustainable tourism products
...
- perhaps what is more important is making consumers aware of unfair/unethical/immoral practices - which is much more likely to effect a more responsible attitude from consumers, and then industry and governments alike?

~~~~~~~~~
Here are the links to sites mentioned in this week's podcast:

* Responsible tourism is the way forward (Responsible Tourism Day at the World Travel Market)
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000065/006593.htm
* Responsible Travel Forum (online; Feb 21-22, 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/7en23
* Peace Corp finds renewed passion in volunteerism (full article now requires purchase!)
http://localsearch.azcentral.com/sp?keywords=peace+corps+finds+renewed
* World Citizens Guide
http://worldcitizensguide.org/index2.html
* Nude act of foreign tourist at holy place angers residents of Pushkar
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000062/006275.htm
** NEW: Inserted on 8 Dec 2005: Guidelines issued to facilitate foreigners� stay in Indian holy town
http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000068/006836.htm
* World Tourism Organization - Global Code of Ethics
http://www.world-tourism.org/code_ethics/eng/global.htm

This version fixes the sampling rate, providing a normal speed on .mp3 players.

This podcast covers Geographic Literacy, The Great Escape/Scavenger Hunt, Space Tourism, and the Geography of Brazil. (Total Length: 32 min, 30 sec) Show notes are at: http://travelgeography.blogspot.com

This week's podcast is focussed exclusively on China, including all of the news items. Please visit the show notes at http://travelgeographer.blogspot.com (Total Length = 33 minutes)

Today's podcast focuses on the natural environment: how tourists relate to the natural environment, the impacts of tourism on the natural environment, and closing with a few words on ecotourism.

Ecotourism -- Personally, I prefer to pronounce ecotourism as 'ee-co-tourism' - with a long 'e', which I derive from the world "ecology." Some people (maybe the majority?) prefer to say 'e-co-tourism' - with a short 'e', as in 'elephant'. I assume they are basing this on the word 'ecosystem', which is sometimes (often?) pronounced with a short 'e'. Dictionary.com uses the long 'e' pronunciation, so perhaps I am in the majority.

If you have any thoughts on this feel free to leave a comment, or email me at travelgeographer@msn.com

Here are the links to items mentioned in today's podcast:

* Australia Garners Friendliest Nation in the World Award - Travel News Wire
<http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000063/006311.htm>
* Grand Canyon to Get Glass Bridge - National Geographic News
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0826_050826_grandcanyon.html>
* City OKs Subsidies for Downtown Hotel - Los Angeles Times
<http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/118690.html>
* Cruise Ship Repels Somali Pirates - BBC News (also has a link to a video news clip)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4409662.stm>
* The Amateur Traveler Podcast
<http://amateurtraveler.com/>

(Total Length: 30 minutes, 19 seconds.) Full show notes are at http://travelgeography.blogspot.com/2005/11/travel-tourism-and-environment.html.

This version fixes the sampling rate, providing a normal speed on .mp3 players.

This is Part 2 of an interview with my sister who was in Cozumel during Hurricane Wilma. In Part 2 we discuss how other visitors survived the hurricane, how the city recovered from the hurricane, and the trials of leaving Cozumel after the hurricane. (SHOW LENGTH: 19min 14sec) Show Note are at http://www.travelgeography.blogspot.com

This is part 1 of an interview with my sister who was on the island of Cozumel, Mexico when Hurricane Wilma passed over it. Part 1 discusses her experience in living through the worst of the hurricane. (TOTAL LENGTH 24min 30sec)- Show notes are at: http://travelgeography.blogspot.com

Travel news and a discussion of how social scientists vies tourist attractions. Show notes: http://travelgeography.blogspot.com

Travel and Tourism News & Comments, and an Intro to the Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. See Show Notes at htt-://travelgeography.blogspot.com

My New Promo (45 seconds long)

Travel and Tourism News, Geography of the Middle East (defined as Central Asia, Southwest Asia, and North Africa). See full show notes at http://travelgeography.blogspot.com

Today's podcast focuses on the natural environment: how tourists relate to the natural environment, the impacts of tourism on the natural environment, and closing with a few words on ecotourism.

Ecotourism -- Personally, I prefer to pronounce ecotourism as 'ee-co-tourism' - with a long 'e', which I derive from the world "ecology." Some people (maybe the majority?) prefer to say 'e-co-tourism' - with a short 'e', as in 'elephant'. I assume they are basing this on the word 'ecosystem', which is sometimes (often?) pronounced with a short 'e'. Dictionary.com uses the long 'e' pronunciation, so perhaps I am in the majority.

Total Length: 30 minutes, 19 seconds.  If you have any thoughts on this feel free to leave a comment, or email me at travelgeographer@msn.com

Here are the links to items mentioned in today's podcast:

* Australia Garners Friendliest Nation in the World Award - Travel News Wire
<http://www.travelwirenews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000063/006311.htm>
* Grand Canyon to Get Glass Bridge - National Geographic News
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0826_050826_grandcanyon.html>
* City OKs Subsidies for Downtown Hotel - Los Angeles Times
<http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/118690.html>
* Cruise Ship Repels Somali Pirates - BBC News (also has a link to a video news clip)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4409662.stm>
* The Amateur Traveler Podcast
<http://amateurtraveler.com/>

Please visit my show notes at http://travelgeography.blogspot.com/2005/10/tourist-travel-motivations.html

Tourist Motivation is the maint topic of this week's discussion, although I only spend the last 10 minutes on it. These news items were presented to show the importance of people's desire to travel (or perceived inability to not to). The travel public is a major source of income for destinations, and spawns entire sub-industries that employ large numbers of people. Understanding why people travel is important to a tourism destination's success...
* Firm Expects outbound Chinese tourists to top 115m [Travel News Wire]
* New era in Indian leisure crusing begins [Travel News Wire]
* TIA’s Overall Traveler Sentiment Index Remains Weak: Consumers Lack Time not Money for Travel [Travel Industry Association, 27 Sept 05]

World Tourism Day was September 27th -- I think it was an easy one to miss, unless you were in Quatar where the World Tourism Organization celebrated the event. Some, however, question whether or not tourism is really something that we should be celebrating...

* WTO, Qatar celebrate World Tourism Day [Travel News Wire]
* Speechby Francesco Frangialli, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, on the occasion of the celebration of World Tourism Day 2005 Doha, Qatar - 27 Sept 2005 [World Tourism Organization]
* Tourism: a Challenge for the 21st Century (Ecumenical Coalition On Tourism - ECOT, 27 Sept 2005) [Travel News Wire]
* Sun, sea and saving the world: Travel snobs have turned holidaymaking into a moral dilemma [Spiked Online, 11 Aug 2005]

This podcast is a remix from a longer podcast originally posted on 2 October 2005.  The remix was done for educational purposes (for my classes).

My Thanks to the group Turban Jones for the use of their song in my podcast. I hope you enjoy their song, Crazy Ways, which I play in its entirety at the end of the podcast.

I discuss the Bali Bombing because this is the biggest tourism-related news item of this past week. The potential implications for tourism in Bali, Indonesia, and all of Southeast Asia are enormous...
* Tourists Flee Terror-stricken Bali [Travel News Wire] - The number of deaths was up to 26 as of 2 Oct 2005
* Police hunt for Bali bombing masterminds [Reuters, 3 Oct 2005]

This podcast is a remix from a longer podcast originally posted on 2 October 2005.  The remix was done for educational purposes (for my classes).

Discussion of international travel arrivals statistics - which countries get the most visitors! There is some mic noise for about 10 minutes of this 25 minute podcast -- my apolgies. Please visit the full show notes at

http://travelgeography.blogspot.com/2005/09/travel-and-tourism-statistics.html

My Geography for Travelers Blog is at:

http://TravelGeography.info

This file was updated and reposted on 24 Sept 2006.

Today's podcast focused on some general definitions of leisure, and how these give us some insight into the tourist experience. In addition to what I mentioned in the podcast, I wanted to point out that religion is often considered a leisure-form of activity. This is, I think, directly related to the definition of leisure as a state of mind. Furthermore, there is a concept that has gained in popularity in recent years known as work, or volunteer, tourism. It is also know as working holidays, or working vacations. Last year I had students in my class examine web sites that promoted working vacations, and then answer some questions about them. Would you want to go on a working vacation? Isn't that an oxymoron?

 

Information on the The Dark Tourism Forum (http://www.dark-tourism.org.uk/).  This was originally posted as part of a longer podcast on 11 September 2005.  I edited the original file for teaching purposes, and am reposting this segment here. (3min 38sec long)

A general geography of New Orleans, intended to provide a context to be many news stories following Hurricane Katrina. Please visit the show notes at

Why Geography and Tourism? - My personal story of being drawn to geography because of the insight it gave me on the places I traveled to. Shownotes page:

http://travelgeography.blogspot.com/2005/08/geography-and-tourism.html

The Geography for Travelers Blog is at: http://TravelGeography.info

This file was updated on 9/24/06.  I have learned a lot about podcasting over the past year, and am starting to revisit, and edit, some of these early postings.

Alan

The First Podcast in the Geography for Travelers blog. Please go to http://travelgeography.blogspot.com for program notes.