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