Global Culture & Tourism Geography

• Global Culture & Tourism Geography is the subject covered in these notes
• Course code is GTCGEO02

Learning Outcomes

• Define and describe global culture and tourism geography; including its nature, scope, issues, and challenges
• Differentiate and classify a country's political structures and cultural, historical, religious, and educational aspects where a tourist attraction exists
• Differentiate and distinguish countries' languages, festivals, cuisines, and tourist attractions and learn more about the cultural differences of the major tourism destinations worldwide
• Compare and examine selected countries worldwide, including major travel destinations, major gateways or entry points, and their geographical features through mapping and familiarization

What is Culture?

• Culture includes shared language, values, norms, traditions, pastimes, customs, and beliefs, making groups of people identifiable
• Culture is a way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular group at a particular time
• Culture encompasses the beliefs, customs, and arts of a particular society, group, place, or time
• It is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people

Includes

• language

• religion

• cuisine

• social habits

• music

• arts

• Culture consists of the patterns of behavior and values of a specific social, cultural, or age group that are learned and shared

• Culture is the complex whole of an organized stage of civilization inclusive of collective human beliefs that can be unique to a nation or period

Global Culture

• A set of shared experiences, norms, symbols, and ideas unite people globally
• Cultures exist at the global, national, regional, city, neighborhood, subculture, and super-culture levels
• Cultures are not mutually exclusive, they overlap in countless ways

Examples of Global Culture

• Business includes meetings, conventions, conferences, and shared business habits
• Sports may differ by nation but with commonalities at the global level
• Language is adopting a common language at the international level for better communication across borders
• Travel includes norms for tourists around the world
• Fashion is trendy style, design, and materials spread globally
• Food is well-known and popular across the world
• Belief consists of religions and philosophies that transcend national borders
• Art and Music include style and genre
• Other examples include education, fandom, internet, gamers, and holidays & pastimes

Languages

• Languages spoken globally include English, Spanish, French and Chinese

Customs and Beliefs

• Customs and beliefs can be unique to a specific country like Mexico or Italy

Tourism

• Tourism represents the activities of people traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business, and other purposes

Geography

• Geography is the study of the systems and processes involved in the world's weather, mountains, seas, lakes, etc., and of the ways in which countries and people organize life within an area

Tourism Geography

• Tourism Geography studies travel and tourism as an industry and as a social and cultural activity
• Tourism geography covers a wide range of interests, including the environmental aspects of tourism, the sociology of tourism, and locations of tourism (destinations)
• Tourism geography is a branch of science that studies travel and its impact on destinations
• Tourism geography concerns the space, place, and environmental dimensions of tourism

Scope of Geography

• Environmental policy
• Armed services
• Emergency management
• Management of waste resources
• Metrology
• Planning
• Other social sciences

Nature and Scope of Culture

• Culture is a broad and varied set of untouchable characteristics of social life
• A shadow word encompasses the social activity contained in human societies and the information, philosophies, arts, regulations, customs, skills, and rituals of the individuals that are part of a cluster or community

Tourism Trends

• Leisure Travel involves traveling for pleasure rather than work or business by participating in activities typically during free time
• Automation in the tourism industry means digitalization
• Mobile Bookings uses online reservations prepared using mobile devices and smartphones
• Sustainable Tourism is needed to protect the planet and reserve it for future generations
• Transformative Travel includes trips or visits that are meaningful and affixes motives like voluntourism

More Tourism Trends

• Experience Tourism occurs when travelers get rid of dull lives searching for a reliable engagement in their end-of-travel
• Tourists experience indigenous cuisines with food tourism
• Solo Traveling is a great and self-rewarding trend that forces people to feel powerful and self-confident, independent, and for personal development
• Wellness Travel links with the realization of preserving or improving one's personal well-being

Tourism Future Trends

• Virtual Reality Tourism Trends can be done using suitable sensors, equipment, and software like VR Tours with a VR headset, a permanent computer, or a mobile device
• Eco-Travel includes all the variations of ecotourism and green travel associated with responsible, sustainable, moral, or socially attentive travel
• Artificial Intelligence is one of the most thrilling uses in hotels and other trades in the tourism and hospitality industry, like chatbots
• Recognition Technology represents the significant developments in the tourism and hospitality industry as recognition technologies; voice recognition is becoming increasingly common in smart hotel rooms as a means of control

World Tourism Issues

• Safety and security are significant subjects in the universal mobile and tourism industry
• Global warming and climate change are major concerns for long-term impacts on the tourism industry
• The travel and tourism sector depends on the international economy, social, cultural, and political institutions
• It is essential for enlarged local, regional, national, and international direction in tourism policy and considered planning
• Deciding barriers to travel: costs, visas, passports, immigration, airline services, fees, and delays

More World Tourism Issues

• Awareness raising among tourists/ businesses toward better management in the use of new tools, in the tourism industry
• Protecting a sustainable and skilled staff to deliver quality tourism experiences
• Travel results in natural and human-induced disasters, health issues, humanitarian crises, and political disruptions
• Applying tourism benefits original and rural populations

Challenges in the Tourism Industry

• Impact of coronavirus on global tourism that has been hardest hit by the health crisis and the rest of the world's economies
• The coronavirus crisis raises questions about industry practices and brings to light several problems, including inadequate risk management, viral globalization, and disease travel across borders
• Cost of vacation & Inflation represented by the fluctuation of currency exchange rates is one of the main issues the tourism industry has to deal with because long-term tourism prices are tricky to forecast
• Instability is already affecting several tourism-related support systems

More Challenges in Tourism

• Tax and tourism occurs because the tourism industry is subject to high taxes, including service, luxury, transportation, aviation fuel, and other transportation-related taxes that are ultimately passed along, hindering growth
• Risk & security of tourists exists because, for many years, security has been a significant obstacle to the expansion of tourism due to the negative impact of terrorist attacks, bad law and order, and political unrest
• Regulatory & border issues, like visa requirements, are considered obstacles because some destinations are off-limits to tourists due to challenging visa requirements
• Projects are often delayed due to licenses and approvals not received on time
• Technological drivers of change influence and facilitate the future of tourism and have leveled the playing field so that small, remote destinations can compete on an equal footing with the industry's enormous thanks to a strong website
• Skilled human resources are needed because the tourism industry faces many challenges that can only be successfully overcome by a workforce that is educated, trained, bright, energetic, multilingual, entrepreneurial, and understands tourism's nature.