Browsing by Subject "Tourism"
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Item A Best Western motel for Carlsbad, New Mexico(Texas Tech University, 1981-12) Childress, RonThis project is significant to me because of the feasibility of the project now, because there is a good possibility that the project might actually be constructed from the design I generate in Thesis studio, or at least based on my design. With the background I have in the motel and restaurant business, I might very well consider employment with a firm specializing in the design of such facilities or consulting to the motel and restaurant industry. I hope that this project will better educate me toward that end. This project is a little different from others in the respect that the owners will not be the final users. Since they are offering a service as well as a commodity, the users will be the guests of the motel, restaurant, nightclub, and banquet facilities.Item African diaspora in reverse : the Tabom people in Ghana, 1820s-2009(2010-05) Essien, Kwame; Falola, ToyinThe early 1800s witnessed the exodus of former slaves from Brazil to Africa. A number of slaves migrated after gaining manumission. Others were deported after they were accused of committing various “crimes” and after slave rebellions. These returnees established various communities and identities along the coastline of West Africa, but Historians often limit the scope to communities that developed in Benin, Togo and Nigeria. My dissertation fills in this gap by highlighting the obscured history of the Tabom people—the descendants of Afro-Brazilian returnees in Ghana. The study examines the history of the Tabom people to show the various ways they are constructing their identities and how their leaders are forging ties with the Brazilian government, the Ghanaian government, and institutions such as UNESCO. The main goal of the Tabom people is to preserve their history, to underscore the significance of sites of memories, and to restore various historical monuments within their communities for tourism. The economic consciousness contributed to the restoration of the “Brazil House” in Accra which was opened for tourism on November 15, 2007, after a year of repairs through the support of the Brazilian Embassy and various institutions in Ghana. This watershed moment not only marked an important historical event and the birth of tourism within the Tabom community, but epitomized decades of attempts to showcase the history of the Afro-Brazilian community which has been obscured in Ghanaian school curriculum and African diaspora history. My central thesis is that the initiatives by the Tabom people are not only influenced by economic interests, but also by the need to express the “dual” identities that underlie what it means to the “Ghanaian-Brazilian.” The efforts by the Tabom leaders to project their dual heritage, led to the visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inácios Lula da Silva “Lula” in April 2005, who also graciously supported the restoration of the “Brazil House.” Through these interactions Lula extended an invitation to the Tabom chief and members of the community to visit Brazil for the first time. This dissertation posits that Lula’s invitation highlight notions that the African Diaspora is an unending journey.Item Airline Passengers' Satisfaction with Airports(2012-02-14) Kim, Hyun JooAirports are places where people have the potential to experience either satisfaction or frustration, and marketing and tourism scholars have argued that customer satisfaction is one of the primary goals of airports. However, few studies have systemically analyzed the service quality and efficiency of airports, or examined customer satisfaction with airport facilities. While airline passengers' expectations of airport service quality have been examined, there are few studies focusing on both their expectations and desires regarding airport services. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, no available studies have analyzed passengers' expectations and desires on the basis of the desires congruency model. This study attempted to define tourists' desires and expectations congruency as well as their satisfaction with their entire airport experiences. A total of 262 airline passengers in Incheon International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport participated in the study. Six hypotheses were tested with data collected from a survey of the airline passengers with the use of descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. Most relationships among latent variables were found to be in accordance with previous studies. Furthermore, the results of the current study implied that the desires congruency model could be applied to the satisfaction formation of airline passengers. Practical recommendations are presented for the airport managers to enhance airport services.Item An investigation of food tourism at a food event: An examination of food tourists' behavior(2007-08) Kim, Young H.; Goh, Ben K.; Yuan, Jingxue; Stout, Betty L.; Dodd, Timothy H.Food is one of the most important elements in tourists’ destination choice and travel decision making. Food tourism, thus, is increasingly becoming a significant subject to researchers in the field of tourism. Food and its related tourist activities have been ascribed into a new category of tourism called “food tourism,” in which the motivation for traveling is to enjoy the special experiences to be obtained from food. The purpose of this study was to examine food tourists’ characteristics and investigate food tourists’ behavior. This research was designed to assist food event and destination marketing organizers in retaining attendees at their event. It was also designed to investigate the effect of a food event on its associated destination and products. Food tourists were examined in the context of a structural model of consumer attitudes on the basis of three components: cognitive, affective, and conative to predict people’s future intentions to revisit. The sample was drawn from tourists who were 18 years of age and older visiting a food event in the southwestern United States. A total of 305 usable questionnaires were obtained. To identify the underlying dimensions of the items in push and pull factors, principal component analysis was conducted. The t-test was conducted in order to find differences between two groups: first timers and repeaters. The results of the factor analysis showed that push items were loaded into three factors: Knowledge and Learning, Fun and New Experiences, and Relaxation with Family. Pull items were loaded into three factors: Area Quality and Value, Quality of Event, and Food Variety. The t-test analyzed the difference between the 175 participants who had no previous experience and the 130 who had experience(s) in this event. The results showed that there was a significant difference in tourists’ future intention to revisit (t = -3.444, p < .05) between the two groups. The tourists (M = 6.17, SD = 1.37) who had past experience(s) had more intention to revisit this event than first timers (M = 5.59, SD = 1.51). The results of the multiple regression analyses indicated that past experience (β = 0.19, p < .01) and satisfaction (β = 0.68, p < .01) were significant predictors of food tourists’ future intention to revisit this event.Item Behavior and movement of southern right whales: effects of boats and swimmers(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Lundquist, David JeffreyGuidelines for sustainable swim-with tourism for large whales are not welldeveloped, as researchers have focused on delphinids. Nations that signed the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 are obligated to consider sustainable use principles when allowing new ecotourism activities, yet the fast-growing worldwide swim-with-whales industry is lacking the research needed to create successful management guidelines that can be implemented by local communities. From September to November of 2005 and July to October of 2006, I collected movement and behavioral state data for southern right whales in proximity of swimmers at Pen????nsula Vald????s, Argentina. Whales were observed before, during, and after a series of directed interactions with swimmers. I quantified the behavioral and movement effects relative to group composition of whales (mother/calf pairs, juveniles or adult/mixed groups) and activity level of swimmers. Group composition had a significant effect on the response of whales to swimmers. Swimmer activity level did not substantially affect the reaction of whales. Resting and socializing activities significantly decreased and traveling activities significantly increased when boats approached and when swimmers entered the water. Resting and socializing bout length in the presence of swimmers decreased to less than a third of the length of bouts when swimmers were not present. Whales swam faster, reoriented more often, and followed a less linear path during interactions. Effects were greater for mother/calf pairs than juveniles, while mixed adult/juvenile groups showed no significant changes in behavior or movement. The initial reaction of whales to the approach of the boat and the entry of swimmers into the water was a good predictor of the magnitude of effects on the behavior and movement patterns of the whale. Increased levels of activity are a concern for the whales that are resting and not feeding in this area. To provide quality resource management guidelines for this activity, additional research is needed to determine long-term effects of boat and swimmer activities on the behavior of whales. It is also important to obtain energetic data for right whales to determine the magnitude of impacts.Item A behavioral framework for tourism travel time use and activity patterns(2010-08) Lamondia, Jeffrey; Bhat, Chandra R. (Chandrasekhar R.), 1964-; Walton, Michael; Machemehl, Randy; Abrevaya, Jason; McCray, TaliaAmerican households spend over $30 billion on tourism and take over 177 million long-distance leisure trips each year. These trips, and the subsequent vehicle miles traveled, have a significant impact on the transportation systems at major destinations across the country, especially those destinations that are still improving their transportation systems. Surprisingly, not much is known related to this type of travel. This dissertation expands the current knowledge of tourism travel behavior, in terms of how people make decisions regarding long-distance leisure activities and time use. Specifically, this dissertation develops and comprehensively examines a behavioral framework for household tourism time use and activity patterns. This framework combines (and builds upon) theory and methods from both transportation and tourism research fields such that it can be used to improve tourism demand modeling. This framework takes an interdisciplinary approach to describe how long distance leisure travelers allocate and maximize their time use across various types of activities. It also considers the many levels of tourism time use and activity patterns, including the structuring the broad annual leisure activity and time budget, forming individual tourism trips within the defined budget, and selecting specific activities and timing during each distinct tourism trip. Subsequently, this dissertation will additionally apply the time use and activity participation behavioral framework to four critical tourism research topics to demonstrate how the tourism behavioral framework can effectively be used to provide behavioral insights into some of the most commonly studied critical tourism issues. These application topics include household participation in broad tourism travel activities, travel parties’ tourism destination and travel mode selection, individuals’ loyalty towards daily and tourism activities, and travel parties’ participation in combinations of specific tourism trip activities. These application studies incorporate a variety of data sources, decision makers, study scales, situation-appropriate modeling techniques, and economic/individual/environmental factors to capture all aspects of the decision and travel activity-making process.Item Dark tourism: understanding visitor motivation at sites of death and disaster(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Yuill, Stephanie MariePeople are fascinated with death and disaster. One simply has to watch traffic slow to a crawl when passing a car accident to understand this. However, this fascination goes beyond the side of a highway and enters the realm of tourism. Today, numerous sites of death and disaster attract millions of visitors from all around the world: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Anne Frank's House, Graceland, Oklahoma City, Gettysburg, Vimy Ridge, the Somme, Arlington National Cemetery. The list grows each year as exhibited by the recent creation of an apartheid museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. Due to the increasing popularity of this tourism product, a small number of academics have begun studying the phenomenon. Leading the field are Lennon and Foley who labeled it Dark Tourism, Seaton who coined the term Thanatourism, and Rojek who developed the concept of Black Spots. However, despite ongoing study, there has been a paucity in understanding what actually motivates individuals to sites of dark tourism. Yet understanding motivation is imperative, particularly given the subject and sensitivity of these sites. Some are slowly decaying, and visitors play a large role in their preservation. Subsequently, without proper management, visitor influxes can further deteriorate sites or induce friction with the locals. Knowledge then, also provides administrators the necessary tools to properly manage the varying stakeholders. Although many feel an interest in death and disaster simply stems from morbidity, the range of factors involved extend from an interest in history and heritage to education to remembrance. To begin this study, a list of possible motivations was compiled. Then, to get a better comprehension of these motivations, visitors to the Holocaust Museum Houston were surveyed as a case study. As a commodified, synthetic site of death and atrocity, the museum fits the definitions of a dark tourism site as established by lead academics. Therefore, by asking visitors to the museum what motivated them to the site, the results will hopefully give some acumen into the wants and needs of certain stakeholders. Finally, this research sought to discover if motivation at the museum could shed light on motivation to other sites of dark tourism.Item Dependency and development in northern Thailand's tourism industry(2009-05-15) Lacher, Richard GeoffreyTourism in the rural areas of developing countries is expanding at a rapid pace and is often a primary means of income in these areas. While the WTO (World Tourism Organization) and local developers encourage the expansion of this industry, others criticize tourism?s use as a tool for development in poor regions. Critics frequently use the core-periphery framework to examine how external control and high external leakages often result in the destination area remaining underdeveloped despite the large expenditures by tourists. Several studies have used the dependency framework to examine the core-periphery relationship on the international scale, but due to dependency?s traditional confinement to the international scale, the dependency framework has not been employed on smaller spatial scales. This study will examine the utility of the dependency framework on a regional scale in a rural area of a developing country by examining the distribution of income between the core and periphery. Additionally, while this economic problem of leakage, a major symptom of dependency, is well documented, there is a paucity of research on the methods to reduce leakage out of peripheral areas. Strategies that can be employed on the village level may be especially useful, as they do not require the cooperation of outside stakeholders who may profit from the leakages. By conducting informal interviews with key stakeholders, consulting informants, and surveying tourism businesses, this study seeks to understand the issue of dependency in Northern Thailand's rural tourism industry as well as to identify and evaluate the strategies currently employed in these villages to reduce leakages. The four case studies of rural villages determined that in all cases, the urban areas profited more from rural tourism than the villages; however, the amount of leakage out of the villages was highly varied. This variation appears to be largely due to the different strategies that each village employed. The villages, which employed a proactive economic strategy, had more success in reducing leakages than other villages. These findings support the unorthodox dependency framework.Item Examining the antecedents and structure of customer loyalty in a tourism context(2009-06-02) Li, XiangThe purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the structure and antecedents of cruise passengers' loyalty. Specifically, the study examined the dimensionality of the loyalty construct. Moreover, the study investigated the utility of applying the Investment Model (Rusbult 1980, 1983) to reveal the psychological processes underlying loyalty formation. The study also attempted to, guided by the Investment Model, integrate the seemingly segregated findings of loyalty antecedents from marketing and leisure/tourism literature. Based on the Investment Model and other marketing and leisure/tourism studies on loyalty, a conceptual framework was established for this study. An online panel survey was conducted to examine this model. Subjects (N = 554) were online panelists who were repeat cruisers and who have cruised at least once in the past 12 months. In this study, loyalty was conceptualized as a four-dimensional construct: cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty, and behavioral loyalty. Further, the first three components were postulated as three subdimensions of a higher order construct, attitudinal loyalty. However, this conceptualization was not supported by the data. Alternatively, post-hoc analyses revealed that attitudinal loyalty was a first-order one-dimensional construct, containing cognitve, affective, and conative components. Moreover, behavioral loyalty was positively and significantly influenced by attitudinal loyalty. In sum, this study supported the traditional two-dimensional conceptualization of loyalty, which argues that loyalty has an attitudinal and a behavioral component. Following the Investment Model, this dissertation suggested that satisfaction, quality of alternatives, and investment size were three critical antecedents of consumers' attitudinal loyalty. These theoretical relationships were supported by the present study, and collectively, the three predictors accounted for over 74 percent of the variance in attitudinal loyalty. Finally, this dissertation hypothesized that quality and value, two constructs related to loyalty, served as antecedents of satisfaction, with quality also leading to value. Results of the study supported all these hypotheses, and satisfaction was found to partially mediate the quality-attitudinal loyalty, and value-attitudinal loyalty relationships. Results of the present study provide important direction for the development of a holistic theoretical framework to explain the formation and structure of customers' brand loyalty.Item Finding myselfie : reflections on a changing visual language(2016-05) Keapproth, Lukas Kiel; DeCesare, Donna; Todd, RussellA search for the hashtag “selfies” on Instagram brings up over 16 million images uploaded in the last 24 hours. These millions of faces come in all shapes and sizes from all over the world. Each assumes that selfies are a universal visual language enabling direct communication with friends, family and an anonymous sea of internet users. Many social network users post their images to mark personal milestones or while traveling to some of earth’s most beautiful landmarks. What causes these selfie-takers to turn from the fascinating world around them, instead drawn toward a mirror and a focus on themselves? The general conversation of analyzing selfies tends toward polarized views, with many, if not most, viewing selfie-taking as a shallow exercise and a sign of narcissism. What is lacking in such conversations is a more complex understanding of how selfies are used and why they continue to impact daily communications in our increasingly networked world. This report features photos and interviews with selfie-takers at some of the busiest tourist destinations in the world, documenting their behavior and personal reflections on what selfies mean. These are considered along with media articles and some of the latest research from a variety of academic fields to complicate our understanding of this new and rapidly growing social phenomenon and mode of communication.Item From disease to desire : Panama and the rise of the Caribbean vacation(2016-05) Scott, Blake Charles; Guridy, Frank Andre; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia; Lawrence, Mark Atwood; Raby, Megan; Sutter, Paul S.This dissertation traces the historical “roots” and “routes” of a transnational tourism industry stretching from the Straits of Florida to the Isthmus of Panama. The project describes the emergence of a quintessential “Caribbean vacation” and critically examines ideas and social practices guiding U.S. travelers comfortably into the tropics. Focusing on historical linkages embedded in a key trade route – coalescing at the Isthmus of Panama – the dissertation shows how leisure travel reshaped the history of U.S.-Caribbean relations. The building of the Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914 marked a profound shift in U.S. traveling culture. Modern tourism emerged within the crucible of U.S. empire building and its associated cultural, scientific, and infrastructural developments. My research documents this history through the stories of a wide range of travelers who helped shape and define the Caribbean’s tourism industry. By paying close attention to specific cases of mobility and sometimes immobility, the dissertation analyzes broader trends that still effect the tourist experience. Chapters highlight the stories of U.S. frontiersmen who became tourist entrepreneurs in the early twentieth century; national elites in Panama and Cuba who turned liberal aspirations of progress and desirable immigration into tourism development; naturalists and explorers from the Smithsonian who produced knowledge not only for science but also for tourists in search of adventure and discovery in exotic lands; and traveling writers from the “Lost Generation” who articulated new motivations and means of escape for folks at home tired of the drudgery of modern life. These diverse social groups have rarely, if ever, been analyzed in relation to the Caribbean’s modern tourism industry. Their ideas and their travels, I show, influenced the way generations of tourists dreamed of and experienced the Caribbean.Item Golf event sports tourists: Behavioral intentions and preceptions of service quality, value, satisfaction, and image(2011-12) Huang, Hsing-ling; Goh, Ben K.; Wang, Eugene W.; Yuan, JingxueThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships that exist between service quality, satisfaction, value and how they impact sporting event image and sponsors‟ corporate brand image in relation to behavioral intentions toward the sporting event and sponsors. Structural equation modeling techniques were applied to data collected from 518 sport tourists in a professional golf event. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the CFA measurement model was a good fit (CFI = .968, TLI = .961, RMSEA = .054, SRMR = .040). The structural model was a good fit (CFI = .968, TLI = .961, RMSEA = .054, SRMR = .040). It was found that there were significant relationships between the variables except for six parameters. The six statistically insignificant parameters were the effects of perceived value and service quality on behavioral intentions toward the sporting event, satisfaction and service quality on behavioral intentions toward the sponsoring corporations, perceived value on sporting event image, and satisfaction on corporate brand image. Moreover, the findings indicated that sporting event image and satisfaction had a significant influence on behavioral intentions toward the sporting event. Corporate brand image and perceived value had a significant effect on behavioral intentions toward the sponsoring corporations. Service quality and satisfaction had a significant influence on sporting event image. Service quality, perceived value and sporting event image had a significant influence on corporate brand image. Service quality and perceived value had influence on satisfaction. Service quality is highly predictive of perceived value. The results imply that high quality service created tourist value and satisfaction, thus resulting in favorable image, and ultimately leading to positive behavioral intentions toward the event and sponsors. The importance of service evaluations of a sporting event should be recognized by both event organizers and sports sponsors. The study provides an overall approach of service evaluations in the sport tourism context. It is believed that the model of the current study could be meaningful in prediction of sport tourists‟ behavioral intentions toward the sporting event and sponsoring corporations. Therefore, the comprehensive model of this study contributes to providing a theoretical frame of reference for future studies.Item How has grief tourism re-defined the social and judicial progress of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo?(Texas A&M University, 2008-10-10) Tonner, Sarah LouiseThe intent of this thesis is to examine the ways in which grief tourism has changed the nature and progress of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo as an organized group of mothers who have spent thirty years searching for answers about the fate of their disappeared children. This thesis will provide a historical overview of the Dirty War followed by a definition of grief tourism and an analysis of tourist's motivations to visit sites of death and disaster. With the increase and development of mass communications, people are able to research and discover remote corners of the world very easily. Furthermore, death and disaster always features as the predominant portion of the daily news. With the free flow of information, whether desired or not, coupled with an innate fascination for the morose, one is enticed to discover and visit sites of death and disaster. Grief tourism has linked visitor destinations all over the world including the concentration camps in Germany, Ground Zero in New York and now, the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina. Research indicates that grief tourism emerges in many differing forms of tourism, cultural being the most prominent. The research also shows that visitation to such sites is becoming increasingly popular. During the thirty years of their campaign, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo have been successful in bringing to justice many of the military leaders guilty of human rights violations, assassination and murder. Having partially met their initial goal, the Madres have continued to focus their attention on other human rights work. Their new found enterprises are intertwined with increasing visitation to the Plaza de Mayo. They have used tourism to their advantage in helping attain their goal of achieving a free Argentina.Item Model for the study of the impact of growth of tourism on historic sites in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas, a(1994-05) Ozen, Hamiyet; Jones, Michael A.; Harms, Martin J.; Huffman, Lynn; Salay, DavidThe rapid growth in tourism, both nationally and internationally, has had a considerable impact on natural and man-made environments in economic, environmental, social, and political terms. These impacts have been identified positively and negatively in related literature depending upon the type of tourism and the size of the place. Historic cities and buildings face degradation and destruction through increased tourism. It has been a source of concern throughout the world and provides the motivation for this study. Santa Fe, New Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas are major magnet cities for tourists in their respective states. Both cities are distinguished by their heritages and town plans. The overall goal of this study is to identify and explain the impact of increasing numbers of visitors on these two historical cities. Understanding the value of the tourist industry and its relationship to historic preservation is a vital part of this research. It provides a tool for assuring the future success in both areas for these cities. In order to accurately document and analyze the research objectives, the research employed multi-method historic techniques. Historical and descriptive survey methods were used to examine specific issues of the research topic. Data was collected through literature review, archival sources, observation, and surveys. Historically, Santa Fe and San Antonio have had different experiences in the development of their tourism and historic preservation. The role of tourism is dissimilar in the economic base of both cities as is the impact of tourism due to the different size of each city, their location, history, and cultural heritage. These effects are more clearly visible in Santa Fe than in San Antonio. The results of this research indicate that careful planning efforts must be made to preserve and promote historic sites, so that they are not degraded by the impact of excessive numbers of tourists and retain their sense of place and response to the community in whose care the past is entrusted.Item Music and tourism in Cusco, Peru: culture as a resource(2009-05) LaBate, Elizabeth Ann; Slawek, StephenThis dissertation explores music in Cusco, Peru found in the festivals and other performance contexts related to tourism. The central thesis considers what happen when culture becomes a resource for socio-economic development. First the historical emergence of culture as a resource is examined through the discourse of international agencies, folklorists, and travelers. Next, various contexts of music and tourism in Cusco highlight specific examples of culture as a resource, such as Inti Raymi, other raymi festivals, the pilgrimage of Señor de Qoyllur rit’i, dinner show restaurants, and nightclubs. In each example, I discuss the history of the performance context, the musical repertoire, opportunities for musicians, and how local people keep the performance relevant to their lives. While critics have called cultural tourism a devil’s bargain and proponents have called it a panacea to under-development, I conclude that the real effects of culture as a resource in Cusco are more complex. I analyze the music in conjunction with social conditions of asymmetric power as the aestheticization of poverty.Item Once you go you know : tourism, colonial nostalgia and national lies in Jamaica(2012-05) Wint, Traci-Ann Simone Patrice; Gordon, Edmund Tayloe; Franklin, MariaJamaica is rich in contradictions. Life, like the landscape, is made up of great highs and lows, a wealth of beauty paralleled by intense desperation. This report explores these contradictions through an examination of the image of Jamaica packaged and presented to the world as a consumable tourism product. In 2012 as Jamaica prepares to celebrate 50 years of (in)dependence, the small nation finds itself battling (neo)colonialism, dependence, dispossession. Tourism is Jamaica’s main source of revenue and the industry is a major employer. The island’s role as a premier tourist destination is thus inseparable from Jamaicans’ daily lives. The current marketing slogan says to tourists ‘Once you go, you know”, I argue that this assertion is representative of the form tourism takes in Jamaica. By literally and figuratively granting understanding and ownership of the island and its resources to foreigners, the construction of Jamaica’s tourism product systematically commodifies Jamaica, its people, and culture. I seek to interrogate the role of tourism in Jamaica’s continued exploitation and to question the presence of secrecy, colonial nostalgia and national lies in how Jamaicans self identify and in how we are portrayed.Item Pingyao: the living ancient city(Texas Tech University, 2003-12) Xiong, WeiPinyao is a city in China standing in the middle of Sanxi Province, about 350 miles southwest of Beijing. The city is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese city, founded in the 14th century. Its urban fabric shows the evolution of architectural styles and town planning in Imperial China over five centuries. In 1997, Pingyao was listed in the World Heritage List from United Nation's Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO). For decades, Pingyao's relics were essentially protected by default, because citizens lacked the funds necessary to modernize their city. Beyond the physical heritage of the city, intangible heritage like the everyday life, food and workmanship makes the city even more unique. It is the integrality that makes the city so fragile. Lacking the mature preservation system and methods, problems continue to exist. The conflicts between daily living qualities improvement and keeping traditional life style, tourism and preservation are becoming vehement. Tourism can improve the average income of the people, but the government should avoid turning Pingyao into a tourism town. This city should always remain as a happy home for local residents instead of a big Disney World. Today, as economy of China booms, the city of Pingyao is threatened by redundant economic and tourism development. To balance preserving and developing is the most urgent problem to be solved. As the tourism in Pingyao booms, a careful development plan is very important. A well controlled and managed tourism plan is the prerequisite of Pingyao's health development. The Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis transformed from economic and management theory is very useful in understanding the city's advantages and shortcomings that help making right decisions.Item Pingyao: The living ancient city(2003-12) Xiong, WeiPinyao is a city in China standing in the middle of Sanxi Province, about 350 miles southwest of Beijing. The city is an exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese city, founded in the 14th century. Its urban fabric shows the evolution of architectural styles and town planning in Imperial China over five centuries. In 1997, Pingyao was listed in the World Heritage List from United Nation's Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO). For decades, Pingyao's relics were essentially protected by default, because citizens lacked the funds necessary to modernize their city. Beyond the physical heritage of the city, intangible heritage like the everyday life, food and workmanship makes the city even more unique. It is the integrality that makes the city so fragile. Lacking the mature preservation system and methods, problems continue to exist. The conflicts between daily living qualities improvement and keeping traditional life style, tourism and preservation are becoming vehement. Tourism can improve the average income of the people, but the government should avoid turning Pingyao into a tourism town. This city should always remain as a happy home for local residents instead of a big Disney World. Today, as economy of China booms, the city of Pingyao is threatened by redundant economic and tourism development. To balance preserving and developing is the most urgent problem to be solved. As the tourism in Pingyao booms, a careful development plan is very important. A well controlled and managed tourism plan is the prerequisite of Pingyao's health development. The Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis transformed from economic and management theory is very useful in understanding the city's advantages and shortcomings that help making right decisions.Item A project for tourism development in the Serra Gaúcha(2013-05) Wahlberg, Molly Anne; Kelm, Orlando R., 1957-In 2004, the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism launched the Tourism Regionalization Program (Roteiros do Brasil), which presented new prospects for Brazilian tourism through decentralized management. One of the goals of this program was to disperse Brazil’s tourism supply, predominantly located along the coast, and bring tourism to the interior of the country. Brazil’s formal recognition of the need for diversification of its tourist destinations was a positive step toward the development of a thriving Brazilian tourism market, but in the global tourism market, Brazil continues to be associated with a limited number of stereotypical attractions. Despite the advances achieved by the Tourism Regionalization Program, tourism remains geographically concentrated in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. This research serves as an analysis of the lesser-known tourism market in the Serra Gaúcha region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Through the use of fundamental qualitative research methods, namely semi-structure interviews and questionnaires completed by students and professionals involved with tourism—both in the Serra Gaúcha as well as outside of Brazil—I assess the current state of tourism to the region in order to formulate key recommendations for the development and improvement of the industry there. From the results, I conclude that the tourism boards of the municipalities throughout the Serra Gaúcha should join together to function regionally in order to more effectively market themselves as a desirable tourist destination and to compete on a national scale for tourists’ attention. In light of the magnified attention Brazil is enjoying due to its selection as the host for both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, now is an optimal time for competitive touristic regions, such as the Serra Gaúcha, throughout Brazil to actively build their brand and pursue tourism development strategies tailored to their unique regional strengths and weaknesses.Item Selling culture: re-inventing the past to create a future(2014-05) Friday, Shayna Ashley; Knapp, Gregory W.The tourism industry in Peru has grown faster than any other sector in the country’s economy. Peru has used Incanismo, the exaggeration of the Inca culture and identity, to appropriate culture and tourism in and around Cusco. This method has led to significant economic advancements throughout the city. Because of this, traditional Quechua-Speaking communities outside of Cusco have begun to promote a similar method in order to experience the same success. In doing so, many meanings of community values and traditions are changing. Though I began my research with a negative perspective and found the tourism industry to be exploitative, the time I spent living and volunteering in the local community of Ccorccor helped me to recognize the potential positive opportunities that tourism could offer. With a Hopeful Tourism model, I offer suggestions for the incorporation of a broader, more inclusive Andean identity, rather than the previous Inca-specific one. Hopeful Tourism is way for communities to re-cultivate their own unique characteristics and heritages, while supporting economic development. Not only will this maintain tourism throughout Peru, but it will do so in a culturally sustainable way.