Annotated Bibliography: Tourism sector in Brisbane
Leiper, N and Park, S 2010, Skyscrapers’ influence on Cities’ Roles as Tourist Destinations. Current Issues in Tourism, vol. 13, no. 4, pp.333-349.
The article highlights the role played by skyscrapers as an emerging trend in the tourism sector. Most of the cities across the world have these prominent buildings, with several in construction. The benefits of these buildings extend from the architects, constituents, and builders to corporates and politicians who have a belief that such establishments are beneficial to them bringing a competitive and promotional advantage. When it comes to the tourism sector, a few exceptionally tall skyscrapers that attract tourists; but others dilute the scenic views of the urban skylines creating unpleasant sites for urban tourism. Skyscrapers might be have come to define the urban landscape, but are they actually beneficial to the tourism sector? The article contributes to the discourse on urban tourism, it gives a wider understanding on the emerging trend of buildings being a tourist attraction, many might get it wrong that tall buildings attract tourist, this is wrong unless it is exceptionally tall or unique, and has a solid story behind it.
Brisbane has a couple of beautiful and scenic tourist attraction sites, they have been maintained for a very long time, but the current skyline is marked with several skyscrapers. The article notes the role of these tall buildings as a tourist attraction, what needs to be considered is that the buildings might be counter-productive; the need to attract tourists with beautiful skyscrapers can end up destroying the beauty of the city. The tall buildings have several other benefits, but the tourism sector is equally important, and the impact of these tall buildings in the profitable sector should be considered. The buildings should not be constructed on previous tourist attraction sites because the good effort of having magnificent works of architecture and art might flop affecting the tourism sector. The study helps in the context of Brisbane as it highlights the fact that not all buildings attract tourist, and it can be the cause of declining numbers of tourists, which can adversely affect the tourism industry.
Ooi, N and Laing, J 2010, Backpacker Tourism: Sustainable and Purposeful? Investigating the Overlap between Backpacker Tourism and Volunteer Tourism Motivations. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 18, no. 2, pp.191-206.
In recent times, the growth of volunteer and backpacker tourism cannot be ignored as rising trends of alternative tourism. The new trend has received criticism from different quotas on its effects on culture, economy, environment, and social aspects of the society. Backpacker tourism has received negative feedback as opposed to volunteer tourism that has been favorably critiqued as promoting sustainability while mixing the travel concept with altruistic intentions. The paper notes that the two, backpacker and volunteer tourism, has overlapping motivations, and backpackers often have interests in volunteer tourism. The findings of the study can help in the development of the alternative tourism market that has burgeoned in the recent past. Researchers can use this study when studying the backpacker culture to understand more about their motivation to travel and the backpacker’s contribution to the tourism sector. The multifaceted face of backpacker tourism explains why the culture is not necessarily bad, and that it can have positive contributions to the local community.
Backpacker and volunteer tourism is common in Brisbane; the trend can be beneficial to the locals. Despite the negative image that backpacker tourism has received, the numbers of backpackers has exponentially risen and can be used to benefit the local tourism industry. The study highlights how backpacker tourism can negatively affect the culture, environment, economy, and social order of the area, especially with the rising numbers of backpackers. The understanding that most of the backpackers often have the intentions such as those of volunteer tourists; products can be doctored for the tourists to benefit the locals. Aligning both volunteer and backpacker tourism and creating volunteer programs for the backpackers takes advantage of the overlapping tourism motivations between the two types. Brisbane needs to target the backpacker tourism markets apart from the conventional forms of tourism because they have the potential and is a trend to watch in the coming years.
Richards, G 2002, Tourism Attraction Systems: Exploring Cultural Behavior. Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 29, no. 4, pp.1048-1064.
The study of tourism attractions lack empirical foundation and a theoretical depth, yet they are the crucial facets of the tourism industry. The study focuses on an empirical examination of the attraction system, drawing results from over six thousand tourists who visited the cultural attractions. The tourists’ motivations push them towards most of the cultural attractions and that the attraction system model has a general structure. The study highlights some key things that influence people visiting different cultural attractions; they include touristic characteristics, motivation, use of different media, and attraction markers. The attraction systems are strongly supported by the findings of the study; the tourists are not pulled towards tourist attractions but rather pushed to the attractions by their motivations, attraction visitation, and marker use. Understanding how the system works is crucial to developing further studies on the attraction systems, other researchers can depend on the findings of this study to develop other arguments on the same topic.
Understanding how the attraction systems work can be vital in understanding how to deal with the cultural attractions in Brisbane. The role of markers and must-see sights in the area cannot be underestimated; the tourism makers have to acknowledge their role and create compelling must-see sights for the tourism industry. How the attraction system is structured will push the tourists to come rather than pull them, the experiences that are associated with the sites are what keep people coming to visit a place. Tour agencies have to be established and the existing ones strengthened to create a favorable image of the area that the tourists will be compelled to come and see for themselves. Cultural attractions in Brisbane have served as tourist attractions for a very long time, there is need to repackage the attractions to appeal to a larger audience, and as the research suggests, the tourists can contribute to the reproduction and development of the systems.
Urry, J 2008, Climate Change, Travel, and Complex Futures. Br J Sociology, vol. 59, no. 2, pp.261-279.
Urry acknowledges the different sociologies of the future, focusing on the global climate change. Global climate change has been a concern that is exceptionally significant, and the sociology is primary to the understanding of the complex futures. To understand global climate change, the study focuses on the role of travel in the emerging dystopia. The study employed the complexity theory in trying to explain what might create an alternative to climate change, and it identified “digital panopticon” as one of the feasible alternatives. The study contributes to the understanding of the development of future societies; it extrapolates the present conditions to predict how the future will look like. Technology plays a central role in the prediction of the future, and the sociologists appreciate the importance of technology in advancing the living standards of human beings. Travel industry contributes in several ways to climate change, extrapolating the current situation can produce a dystopia in the future that can be hard to control.
The significance of the study to Brisbane’s tourism industry is that it heavily depends on the travel industry. The travel industry with the current impact on the global climate change has to be managed. Tourism depends on the available means of transport in the area, and as much as the local authorities want to promote tourism, they have to develop sustainable travel plans that can aid and protect the tourism sector at the same time. The study raises an alarm of how gory the future can be if people do not take responsibility. The locals will benefit from the sector in the short-term, but considering the sustainability of the communities, the travel sector has to be sustainable, with minimal impact on the climate. Global climate change has huge consequences, the same tourism sector that benefited the locals can suffer a blow if automobility is not controlled and maintained at sustainable levels. The local tourism sector is an asset to the local economy, safeguarding the sector means that there are some adjustments that need to be made in the travel industry.
Weaver, D 2012, Organic, Incremental, and Induced Paths to Sustainable Mass Tourism Convergence. Tourism Management, vol. 33, no. 5, pp.1030-1037.
Weaver explains that the new trend of sustainable mass tourism (SMT) has grown to be the impending and desired outcome for most of the tourist destinations in the world. The new societal norm combines the sustainability and long existing growth desirability. SMT as a new trend in tourism reflects the renewed environmental pragmatism. SMT occurs along three distinctive paths of organic, incremental, and induced paths. The organic path is often market driven that explains the tourism life cycle, while induced path that is often hybrid, focuses on the planned mega-tourist resorts around the world, and the incremental path, which is often regulation-driven, focuses its efforts on the alternative tourism with the ability to increase carrying capacities. The study explored SMT in detail and this is especially useful in charting the course of contemporary tourism sector that is aligned to sustainability. Researchers with interest on sustainable tourism will find this work useful because of the detailed analysis of the three paths to sustainable mass tourism. The study gave functional explanations to the concept that can be applied across many studies.
Brisbane as one of the leading tourist destinations in the region needs to incorporate the aspects of SMT to achieve more in the industry. The article offers a clear explanation of the three paths that can be adopted to realize SMT, which every tourist destination needs. The environment is a vital element for sustainable tourism in Brisbane, and by converging towards this new model of contemporary tourism; the tourism sector will be beneficial for the current and future generations. The only way to overcome the problems of alternative tourism is to promote SMT, the convergence of the conventional and alternative forms of tourism will produce the best ground for sustainable mass tourism. There are other factors that can affect the growth trajectory of SMT in the area, but the concerned sectors need to contemplate on ensuring that the process is set, and pro-growth strategies are promoted. Brisbane has continually pushed for the growth of the tourist sector, and now it has to amalgamate with sustainability to achieve SMT, with consideration to environmental pragmatism. The study gives information about SMT that is crucial in crafting a growth path towards sustainability, growth, and environmental conservation.
