Posters and Online Posters
Imagined Communities and the Empire of Tourism: The Draw of Indigenous Craft in the Development of the Cruise Industry in Alaska and Hawaii
Poster/Exhibit Session Vera Parham
This study is an exploration related to the historical interpretation of the material culture of the tourism industry in late-nineteenth-century Alaska and Hawaii and focuses on the development of the cruise industry in those areas and the commodification of indigenous culture for mass appropriation and consumption. It also focuses on the difference in cultural appropriation in Alaska and Hawaii based upon the selling of atmosphere and landscape versus the selling of cultural items. One of the key research questions is to uncover how the propagation of indigenous crafts as well as performance of dance, rituals, etc. either supported the preservation of said cultures or harmed it though the projection of a false identity and the creation of “imagined communities” through the marketing of the exotic and the other. The study examines the “white gaze,” how the tourist industry, collecting, and cruise trips informed the white perspective of “Nativeness” and how this in turn informed Indigenous people of themselves. It also uncovers the process of settler colonialism, how tourism worked to not just promote the exotic but to promote land acquisition and settlement in newly acquired American lands in order to cede white settlement. Through participating in the capitalism of the tourist trade, indigenous people were invited to not only promote aspects of their own culture but to become a remote part of the wider colonial world, though much of the culture promoted in the tourist space, even if staged by indigenous people themselves, remains anachronistic and ahistorical.
Issues and Challenges in UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Case Study of Saudi Arabia
Poster/Exhibit Session Abdulelah Al Tokhais, Brijesh Thapa
The UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) designation is a global inscription that has the potential to attract visitors. While some sites are more popular than others, it is being increasingly evident that countries with emerging economies are focused on promoting its cultural heritage assets – namely WHS. In Saudi Arabia, the tourism industry is set to host 10.9 million arrivals by 2020, and plans to use its five designated WHS for promotional purposes. Given the volume of visitors and in combination with potential new influx, this creates impacts (environmental and social) for the respective sites which currently lacks the needed human and financial resources for effective management. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the issues and challenges of planning and management of WHS in Saudi Arabia. A conceptual research approach is used to identify research objectives via review of scholarly articles, World Heritage Center reports, and International Council of Monuments and Sites reports. Findings identify common challenges to preserve properties that include urban development, environmental pressures (e.g., climate change, desertification), natural disasters and risk preparedness (e.g., floods, fires, etc.), and visitor/tourism pressures. The implications call for sustainable management of the five WHS in the country. Moreover, recommendations to preserve properties sustainably while ensuring socio-economic benefits to surrounding communities are also noted.
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Tourism Industry of Nepal
Poster/Exhibit Session Rojan Baniya, Brijesh Thapa
Contemporary times calls for businesses to demonstrate more responsibility towards society with respect to direct engagement in sustainability initiatives. This aspect is even more central for the travel and tourism industry given its extensive utilization of community’s environmental and cultural resources. With this context, this study explores the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the tourism industry of Nepal. More specifically, assessment in the level of awareness, engagement, and intention for future practice among travel and tour operators (TTO). Tourism is economically significant in Nepal especially in mountain-based destinations that are remote and lack major economic development alternatives. Also, the role of TTO which are typically small and medium enterprises are the critical link to facilitate tourist mobility to such environments. The data were collected via semi-structured questions during the summer of 2018 with 138 completed responses. Based on the results, it was identified that the TTO were not practicing CSR uniformly as most lacked consistent knowledge and practice initiatives. However, the key aspects with respect to awareness relate to: contribute back to society, treat customer right, and provide quality service. Among those that were currently involved in CSR programs, the level of engagement was the highest for environmental initiatives followed by socially responsible programs. Also, most TTO noted intention to engage and/or further participate in such programmatic activities. Overall, this study provides a basis to further formulate plans, programs, promotion and policy to engage TTO in CSR activities in Nepal.
Agri-tourism in Palm Beach County: Promoting Agricultural Awareness
Poster/Exhibit Session Christian Miller, Matthew Van Weelden
Florida’s agricultural products are widely recognized for superior quality, freshness, and taste. International and domestic market demands make Florida agriculture second only to tourism as the largest industry in the state. Though the economic impact of Florida’s agriculture annually exceeds $100 billion, the public primarily associates the state with beaches, cruises, and theme parks. The tendency to lose sight of agriculture’s importance in the shadow of tourism is evident in Palm Beach County (PBC) despite a third of the land being devoted to agricultural production. PBC is Florida’s leading producer of such winter vegetable crops as head lettuce, spring mix lettuce, spinach, celery, radishes, Asian vegetables, bell peppers and even rice. PBC also leads the nation in sugarcane, sweet corn, and sod production. Palm Beach County is known for having many traditional locations and experiences to offer would-be tourists but in recent years, local, domestic, and international tour groups have begun asking UF/IFAS PBC Cooperative Extension Faculty to arrange farm tours for them. With the cooperation of our local farmers, UF/IFAS PBC has increased the agricultural awareness of such groups. Our farm tours provide direct interaction with the local farmers growing many of the vegetables found on east coast supermarket shelves during the winter months. This two-way communication allows the agri-tourist to ask questions and have their wide-ranging food and environmental concerns addressed while the farmers get an opportunity to share their perspectives with potential voters.
Effect of Rating: The New Fear in Tourism
Virtual Poster Walky Jean
Rating is a practice that has been developing in recent years. It consists of customers leaving reviews on specific websites and according to those reviews, the tourist companies will be qualified, considering 5 the highest. Currently, the companies fear more the reviews than the competition, that is the new competition basically because the tourists are going to refer to those reviews when it comes to travel, visit or execute anything out of their knowledge. A bad comment affects deeply the enterprises, therefore, that aspect should be manage properly for the sake of the smooth running of the company. Nowadays , it has been given the case that a lot of enterprises are elaborating some internal reviews using suggestion mailbox, piece of papers to the disposition of the customers so they can rate the services freely before they even leave the place, therefore they could have an expectation of how the reviews would be. Sometimes the companies beg for some good comments. Another issue of those reviews is the fact that they are not totally true because of different reasons, such as: The spams; People who no matter how well the service was, they will put a bad review and so fourth. There is no doubt that Rating is one of the new important trend that will keep earning its importance and value through the time.
Creel and the Tarahumara Mountain Range : Cultural and Ethnic Integration Associated with Tourism
Poster/Exhibit Session Eduardo Orrante
Creel, located in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, is currently presenting a problem that goes beyond economy or tourism. Despite the existence of projects with the objective of encouraging the two previous points, there is a conflict of interests that has diminished the development of specific groups that inhabit the site: the civil population and the Rarámuris, the latter being an ethnic group located in the Tarahumara mountain range, near Creel. Analyzing the context of the site, tourism more than being one of the reasons of the problem, is also linked to the lack of collaboration among stakeholders in the growth of their area. The lack of opportunities and the search for a particular economic benefit have caused friction in relations and power clashes. Intervention projects have failed socially and created an irrelevant architecture, which has destroyed ecosystems, cultures and traditions. That is why a solution based on a vision or proposal is presented in this research: Creating the Cultural Integration Board, a multidisciplinary group that seeks to generate alliances between all parties interested in the tourism and social progress of its direct context. Looking for detonating the economy and its cultural wealth using architecture and sustainability. Generating analyzed projects based on an environmental, cultural and social impact, that integrate its inhabitants as labor or suppliers and use renewable energy to give a total change to the current direction of the city. All this to make Creel, and its surroundings, points of great cultural, sustainable and commercial recognition.
The Impact of Social Media Activity on Motivation of Information-sharing: From the Perspective of a Event Organizer
Poster/Exhibit Session SungEun Kim, Hyelin Kim
Social media has made a significant impact on the tourism and hospitality industry as an important source of information. A huge number of social media users and their highly active interaction show that information sharing on social media would exert a significant influence on consumer’s behavior. Therefore, motivation of information sharing on social media has recently been highlighted as a popular research topic in various disciplines including tourism and hospitality management Although festivals are one of the fastest growing areas in the tourism and hospitality industry, and the study of social media has been gained much attention from the tourism and hospitality literature, very few studies have focused on the motivation of sharing information provided by the festival organizer through social media. Thus, the purpose of this research is to explore various factors that affect quality of information, which ultimately have an influence on motivation to share the information produced by event organization in social media. This study is based on the discussion of the two social theories: The Social Cognitive Theory and the Social Capital Theory. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by establishing and empirically testing a comprehensive research model that explains the relationship among social resources between participants and event organizations, and motivation to share information by surveying users following a festival community in social media. Practically, the insights from this study might be applied not only to the event organizations, but also to destinations modifying their social media marketing strategies.
