Tourism II

STUDY TOURISM ONLINE or by Correspondence

• Learn about tourism destinations, for better management and marketing
• Explore business and employment opportunities with tourism, by broadening your perspective on the industry
• 100 hour, self paced course; to build your skills and knowledge for working in the tourist industry.

Keep building your capacity to work in tourism

This course further develops your ability to manage different types of travel products, with a particular focus on special interest tourism. Tourism II increases your understanding of opportunities in modern tourism such as business tourism, festival tourism, cultural tourism, environmental tourism, tourism for certain age groups, etc.  A fascinating course for anyone considering or already employed within the tourism industry.  Keep up with the changing course of modern day specialised tourism.

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Sectors of the Tourism Industry
   • Scope of the travel product (natural & cultural, events & sites)
2. Types of Tourism
   • Regional, Rural, Urban.
3. Accommodation Types
   • Resorts and Hotels, Camping, Back packers, Cruise etc
4. Cultural Tourism
   • Museums, Art galleries, Theatre, Indigenous tourism, Historic parks, Cultural vs Heritage tourism
5. Events & Festivals
   • Concerts, Exhibitions, Performances, Seminars, etc
6. Environmental Tourism
   • Zoos, National Parks, Wilderness Areas, nature based tourism, wildlife tourism and ecotourism etc
7. Health & Adventure Tourism
   • Health resorts, Bicycle & Walking Tours, Soft vs Hard Adventure Tourism
8. More Special Interest Tourism
   • Food & Wine, Tourism for demographic groups, Sex tourism
9. Visitor Management & Contingency Planning
   • Risk management (safety, financial, etc), insurance, environmental impacts, etc
10. Packaging a Tour
    • Planning the Itinerary; costing; delivery; review etc

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Differentiate between different types of tourism on a variety of bases, including: demographics, geography, economics, and culture.
• Compare a variety of different accommodation services provided in the tourism industry.
• Describe the operation of heritage and cultural tourism, including: historical, architectural, indigenous, and artistic attractions.
• Evaluate the tourism potential of events and festivals.
• Describe the management of passive natural tourist attractions, including wilderness areas, beaches, rivers, wildlife etc.
• Describe the operation of different types of tourism facilities that have a significant focus on health and fitness, including Health Resorts, Walking Tours and Cycling.
• Describe a variety of other types of special interest tourism, including food tourism, senior tourism and sex tourism.
• Plan and manage the number of visitors to different types of tourism facilities and develop appropriate contingency plans.
• Plan a package holiday incorporating a variety of accommodation and attraction options.

What You Will Do

• The course is more than theory, but it offers you choices in what practical tasks you undertake and how you undertake them, for example: you might do some or all of the following:
• Visit travel agencies or information centres
• Search the internet
• Write to a government travel authority/department
• Visit a local or regional tourist centre
• Study travel pages in a newspaper for both articles and advertisements
• Visit a library, bookshop or news stand and look at travel magazines
• Conduct interviews or surveys
• Attend events

The Scope of Tourism Studies

The tourism industry provides goods and services that are primarily for consumption by tourists; for example, transport services, accommodation, travel agencies, packaged tours, reservation systems, and tourist attractions such as theme parks, guided tours and retail outlets.

Tourism is a diverse industry that often encompasses the skills and resources of other industries. Industries that may start out as primary or secondary producers can very easily become (at least in part) a tourist facility. For example:

• Farms take in guests to supplement their income, as a bed and breakfast
• Factories conduct factory tours
• Shops that originally catered to local trade add new products to their shelves to cater for tourists
• Local craftspeople can cooperate to attract tourists to their workshops, galleries etc.

While some businesses only cater for tourists (eg. cruise ships and bed and breakfast providers) others such as restaurants and car rental firms might be predominantly a tourism product in one locality but attract a different clientele (eg. locals and business people) in another locality.

The tourist industry provides a wide range of services, some essential, others optional. Accommodation, transport, food and toilet facilities are essential services. Sightseeing might not be essential, but without appropriate points of interest, the tourism value of a destination is certainly diminished.

The Tourism Product

The tourism product is defined as “attractions” plus “the tourism industry”. Attractions are commonly divided into two main groups:

• Natural – including natural sites and natural events
• Cultural – including cultural sites and cultural events

Natural Attractions

These include:

• Topographic sites, eg. mountains, beaches, valleys, caves, canyons, volcanoes, reefs.
• Climatic sites, eg. hot places, cold places, humid places, dry places.
• Sites defined by location, eg. central or accessible sites, isolated or difficult-to-access sites
• Sites that feature certain plant or animal life, eg. forests, jungles, grasslands, meadows, deserts, zoos, botanic gardens
• Hydrological sites, eg. lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls, mineral springs.
• Natural events e.g. eclipse of the moon, tidal changes, seasonal occurrences such as mating, animal and bird migrations, volcanic eruptions, rainy or dry season, changes in sea that might attract surfers, for instance.

Travel to natural attractions has a very long history, and has probably occurred since humans first developed a sense of aesthetics, may even earlier. Travel to these destinations was often arduous, and required determination, courage, a level of fitness, and sufficient wealth to allow the traveller to purchase food, labour, accommodation, transport and other materials for long periods. Today’s traveller, on the other hand, can reach most destinations easily and quickly, and services and facilities are usually readily available at the site or nearby, and he or she need not be fit or wealthy.

Cultural attractions

The main categories of these are:

• Prehistoric sites - eg. Stonehenge, cave paintings
• Historic sites - eg. museums, ancient monuments, graveyards, heritage-listed buildings, sites of significant events
• Contemporary cultural displays and events - eg. museums, art galleries, modern architecture, theatre, festivals, fairs, exhibitions, international sporting events (eg. World Cup or Olympics).
• Rural attractions - farms, wineries, mines, agricultural regions, agricultural technology or museums
• Retail attractions - large shopping malls, small specialist shops, markets, fashion houses, craft fairs or shows
• Recreational attractions –resorts, theme parks, golf courses, casinos, sports events.
• Cultural events eg. festivals