Cultural tourism

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Cultural tourism

• Contents
• Tuesday 11th March
• Tourism destinations
• Promoting a destination
• Analysing and writing tourist materials
• Friday 14th March
• Events types
• Translating an event website

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the UK government report Tomorrows Tourism
argues that

• Tourism is based largely on our heritage, culture
  and countryside and, therefore, needs to maintain
  the qualities of the resources upon which it
  depends. Tourism can provide an incentive and
  income to protect our built and natural
  environment and helps to maintain local cultures
  and diversity.

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Defining Cultural Tourism

• Cultural tourism' (or culture tourism) is the
  subset of tourism concerned with a country or
  region's culture, especially its arts.
  
• It generally focuses on traditional communities
  who have diverse customs, unique form of art and
  distinct social practices, which basically
  distinguishes it from other types/forms of
  culture.
• Cultural tourism includes tourism in urban areas,
  particularly historic or large cities and their
  cultural facilities such as museums and theatres.
  
• It can also include tourism in those areas
  showcasing the traditions of indigenous cultural
  communities (i.e. festivals, rituals), and their
  values and lifestyle.
• It is generally agreed that cultural tourists
  spend substantially more than standard tourists
  do.
  
• This form of tourism is also becoming generally
  more popular throughout Europe.

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Tourist destinations

• First of all a tourist destination is not just a
  geographical place.
  
• Before any country, area, city, town can attract
  tourists on a large scale, there must exist
  certain important facilities and services. These
  are the main sectors
• Travel and transport
• Catering and accommodation
• Leisure, recreation and business facilities
• Tourism promotion and tourist information

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Art, Beauty or Spaghetti?

• From a brochure
• Italy is an astonishingly beautiful country, full
  of tempting holiday opportunities. From
  illustrious Renaissance cities to flower filled
  lakeside retreats in the shadow of the Alps, from
  the soft, rolling hills of Tuscany and Umbria to
  colourful seaside towns, you can enjoy your
  holiday of a lifetime here, year after year.

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Try to explain

• What are, in your opinion, the most important
  features making Italy one of the most important
  countries for tourists?
  
• Make a top-five list in five minutes.

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Reading about UK destinations

• Task
• The photocopies you have are on some of the most
  renowned UK destinations.
  
• You have 20 minutes to read them and answer the
  following questions in a few lines
  
• 1) Which is the most attractive destination to
  you and why?
  
• 2) Does your choice depend on what is written in
  the texts?
  
• 3) Is one of the texts more effective than the
  others?
  
• 4) Is one of the texts less effective than the
  others?
  
• 5) Is the use of language important in such
  presentations? Why?
  
• 7) Can you see any peculiar use of language
  related to tourism?

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Promoting a destination

• Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of
  tourist destinations is the first step to promote
  a product in the best possible way.
  
• You are going to read a table listing some of the
  positive and negative features of Britain as a
  tourist destination.
  
• After reading does this description correspond
  to what you think Britain is like?
  
• Is there anything you would like to add or delete?

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Product Britain

• Strengths
• Historic cities
• Pleasant countryside
• Attractive coastline
• Good shopping facilities
• Many types of accommodation
• Tourist info centres
• Channel tunnel
• Toll-free motorways
• Good choice of language schools
• High standards of health and hygiene
• Politically stable
• Attraction of the Royal Family
• Attraction of theatres
• Attraction of public houses

• Weaknesses
• lack of foreign language skills
• Pollution, especially in London
• High tube fares
• Difficulty of driving on the left
• High costs
• Poverty and violence
• Too many drunk people
• Bad cuisine
• Target of terrorism

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Promoting a destination brochures

• The positive and negative aspects seen in the
  previous slide are fundamental tools to
  effectively promote a destination and to write a
  brochure.
• However high the number of positive sides, that
  is not enough. Promotion of the place, event etc.
  is fundamental.
  
• TO DESCRIBE, PERSUADE, ENTERTAIN, ENCHANT. These
  are the keywords to keep in mind when writing
  advertising tourist materials.
  
• And when writing a promotional text you have to
  take into account all the most outstanding
  features of the language of tourism here listed
  
• 1) Extensive use of impressive adjectives to
  describe the product Salou has all the
  ingredients for a perfect holiday. Its major
  attraction is a long, wide beach of soft,
  gently-shelving sands, backed by a fine,
  tree-lined promenade.

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• 2) Use of imperatives LET THE ART IN YOUR HEART.
  COME TO ROME.
  
• The most used imperatives are TRY, ASK FOR, GET,
  COME, SEE, GIVE, DISCOVER, LOOK FOR, ENJOY,
  ENTER, CHOOSE, REMEMBER etc. AND THESE ARE OFTEN
  HIDDEN SYNONYMS FOR PERSUADING PEOPLE TO BUY A
  PRODUCT
• 3) Rhetorical questions ISNT IT HIGH TIME FOR
  YOU TO DESERVE A PRIZE AND ENJOY A WONDERFUL
  HOLIDAY IN THE SUN?
  
• 4) Frequent use of the modal should YOU SHOULD
  TRY OUR SPECIAL MEDIEVAL MENU.
  
• 5) Implicit advice OUR SPECIAL PRICES ARE
  CERTAINLY A REASON TO VISIT OUR ART GALLERY
  
• 6) INFORMAL REGISTER, BUT POETIC STYLE.
• 7) EXTENSIVE USE OF FIGURES OF SPEECH AND
  CONNOTATION.
  
• 8) PHONETIC FORCE ASSONANCE, ALLITERATION,
  ANAPHORA.
  
• 9) USE OF FIXED KEYWORDS SUPERB, IMPRESSIVE,
  ADVENTURE, AWAY, DREAM, ESCAPE, PARADISE, LUST,
  IMAGINATION, PLEASURE, MARVELLOUS, ATTRACTION,
  PICTURESQUE, IDYLLIC, EXCITEMENT ETC.

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TASK 1 the following schematic information
about Tangier need to be put in a brochure. Try
to write a short text containing some of the
language features previously seen. Time 20 mins.

• Tangier has bazaars and a particular
  architecture
  
• It is the perfect example of the Orient
• Many sporting facilities (golf, tennis, sailing,
  watersports)
  
• Beaches
• Casino
• Shopping
• The Mendoubia gardens
• The ancient palace
• A lot of antiquities.

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Task 2 you work for Skyways Holidays in
Sorrento. Your boss has left this message on you
desk. Time 20 mins.

• Please design a poster to be put up on street
  walls advertising guided tours of Pompei.
  
• Make it as appealing as you can. Be sure you
  include the following info
  
• Leave 9 am from the Grand Hotel return 7 pm.
• Cost 15 euros per person
• Visit details Pompei / covered in lava in 63 AD
  / at foot of Mount Vesuvius / finest example of
  Roman city / picnic lunch (provided) in foothills
  of Vesuvius overlooking the bay of Sorrento.
• Have a look at the poster I leave here to get
  inspired.
  

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• OUTSIDE OF NAPLES CAMPI FLEGREI EXCURSION
• Inspired by the book POMPEI by Robert Harris. 
  Visit the sites of this fascinating story!
  
• The north-western area of Naples known as the
  phlegraean fields is one of the most fascinating
  in Southern Italy, thanksk to its Greek and Roman
  story ,to the various, pleasant and breathtaking
  landscapes and to the numerous extinct
  craters that are still related to the phenomenon
  of " bradyseism".
• Enjoy the visit of the Solfatara volcano, The
  Flavian amphitheatre, The Macellum-Temple of
  Serapis located in Pozzuoli, as well as the visit
  of the Archaeological park of Cumae ( Sibyl's
  cave and Temples of Apollo and Jupiter ),The
  Lakes Lucrino, Averno, The Archaeological Museum
  of the Phlegraean fields at Baia, The Piscina
  Mirabile at Bacoli.
• DURATION OF THE TOUR 7 hours (day tour) COST
  Euro 80,00 transportation and lunch included

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What are events?

• An event is anything which happens, of course.
• But, in tourist terms, events, often called
  special events, describe specific rituals,
  presentations, celebrations, performances that
  are consciously planned and created to mark
  special occasions and to achieve particular
  social, cultural goals.
• Special events may include national days and
  celebrations, important civic occasions, cultural
  performances, major sporting contests, trade
  promotions or product releases.

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Types of events

• Events differ in size, form and content
• Size
• Local or community events they are targeted at
  local audiences they are called family-fun
  events owned by a community and usually employ
  public venues such as streets, parks and schools
  and are produced by local government agencies.
• Major events by their range and media interest
  they are capable of attracting significant
  visitor numbers. The Isle of Man hosts the TT
  race (Tourist Trophy - motorcycling road races)
  and Silverstone has the British Formula One Grand
  Prix, both significant annual major events.
• Hallmark events those events that become so
  identified with the spirit of a town, city or
  region that they become synonymous with the name
  of the place. Classic examples are Carnival in
  Rio, the Tour of France, the Oktoberfest in
  Munich. In UK the Notting Hill Carnival, the
  Championships at Wimbledon.
• Mega-events those events that are so large that
  they affect whole economies and resound in the
  global media. They include the Olympic Games, the
  FIFA World Cup etc.

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Types of event

• Form and content
• Cultural events celebrations of the arts,
  festivals celebrating a particular location
  (Edinburgh book festivals) or famous facts (the
  tour of Jack the Rippers London), religious
  festivals (German Christmas markets), music
  festivals (Reading festival, MTV Europe Music
  Award, Grammy Awards), cinema festivals (Berlin,
  Venice, Annual Academy Award) or musical
  performances (Phantom of the Opera, Cats etc.)
• Sports events.
• Business events