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Image: Cultural Key
Revisiting an idea discussed at a Cambridge conference a few years back - the paper is found using the link below. My book about tourism developing these ideas will appear next spring!
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Online Reports Worth Visiting:
Click here to spend a day in Venice (in your armchair)
BBC Report: Taiwan's last traditional printing shop - hopes for a museum?
BBC Report: Millionaire plans to build Titanic II
Image: Jamestown Festival Park
The Jamestown Festival Park
Close to the site of the original Jamestown is the Festival Park, named for the 350th anniversary celebrations of the settlement in 1957. The festival held then established reconstructions of the colonists' ships in a harbour close to a reconstruction of their stockade.
Inevitably this kind of replication can only be partly successful. It is not possible to 'step back in time', merely to dip a toe into the running waters of history. Compromises have to be made while many aspects and artefacts have to be omitted. The reconstructors and the visitors are not people of centuries ago. There is no potentially hostile environment to be feared and health and safety regulations must be observed.
The replication has been carried out within a mile or two of the original site, however, so the landscape and climate are fairly close in general terms to that of 1607. The stockade fence, the houses within and the patches of growing food can be seen, touched and smelled. Some of the sounds - an axe chopping wood, birds calling - are to be heard, all in glorious surround-sound, for this is a three dimensional world in which the visitor is moving with all the fresh perspectives that are brought to every sense. There are people looking and sounding much as they might in the early years of the seventeenth century: the clothing might be the product of modern production and the language spoken that of the twenty-first century, but neither cinema nor TV, book or classroom lesson can get near to this immersion in a sense of place and a sense of time. On a scale of 1 to 10, this approach to understanding history must be around 7 or 8.
Image: 50 Things To Do - National Trust
National Trust Goes Out On A Limb – Carefully
The UK’s National Trust launched its ’50 Things To Do Before You’re 11¾ [see the posting below from 03.04.12]. The Trust worries about children losing the kind of outdoor adventure that older generations enjoyed, in favour of sedentary indoor pursuits.
The Guardian newspaper yesterday included a copy of the NT booklet about its ’50 Things’. I was struck by the similarity in structure to a treasured book of mine from sixty years ago. The Trust booklet places each activity on a separate page with a sketch and notes on how to do it, plus a space for notes and a sticker, obtainable from NT properties, to be added when it’s done.
My book is called ‘Things to Make and Do the Whole Year Through’. It dates from around 1950. It is set out like a calendar, with a space per day containing a sketch and instructions. Every month there is an activity week, starting with ‘Pantomime Week’ in January, using the seven-day space to develop details o one topic. There were no stickers then (we collected cigarette cards – from adults, of course) and no hint of getting “a grown up” to sign off each successful activity). There are magic tricks, simple model-making ideas, games, ‘how to draw’ items and puzzles.
It’s interesting how dated some of it looks: ‘Red Indian Week’ would raise eyebrows nowadays as being non-PC – “This is the week redskins really go on the warpath!” But it illustrates something else that is different – how to make and use a bow and arrow, in wood and with sharp points to the missiles. No plastic suction cups on arrow tips here! I don’t remember making a bow, but arrows could be launched another way. We made short versions of cane with metal nails bound into the ends as points. Notching them and using a length of string wound round the arrow in a certain way gave something capable of being thrown with considerable force. Thankfully, none was used against human targets. The freedom we really did have to wander unsupervised into the countryside hid our games from possible grown-up censure.
The book does include outdoor fun – archery being one game, cricket and football, ‘sports week’, hop scotch and other playground games. Yet there isn’t a particular sense of daring involved as there is to some extent in the National Trust booklet. No climbing trees, catching fish, getting behind a waterfall, that kind of thing. It’s more Blue Peter than Scouts and Guides. I wonder whether, in the shadow of the war, worries about safety were beginning to show.
[29.04.12]
Image: New York - Cuba - Venice - tourism
Plan to Flourish
The biologist and Nobel Prize winner Sir John Sulston used the phrase “Plan to Flourish” on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. He was talking about the strategy needed to save the planet and humanity from ecological disaster. “Easy to say, difficult to do” was his own comment on the slogan.
But he’s right. The human drive for economic growth has become a race to make the fastest buck. While millions of people struggle to escape poverty and starvation, millions more compete with each other for the global riches that exist.
The tourism industries are part of it. One of the great failures of debates about tourism is that of seeing it just as a way to make money. Economic growth, regeneration, ways to climb out of poverty, all can be aided by tourism. Those of us who have worked in tourism in the public sector know that all too well. The trouble is that too many of those making policy decisions come from a commercial background. The best are brilliant. The worst would cut their granny’s throat to make a profit.
Higher education suffers in the same way. Forced expansion in the UK has meant competent and dedicated teachers are often being joined by newbies lacking in knowledge and vision. Some think that marketing is the be-all and end-all of working in tourism. Of almost 300 Leeds Met tourism graduates listed on the Alumni News page of this web site, and whose jobs are known, just over half are not in tourism. Of the whole group, about one third appear to have marketing as a principle part of their work – it isn’t always easy to judge. Even allowing for the usefulness of marketing skills at some time in the future, it means two thirds of this sample group are reliant on using primary skills like human resource management, communications, IT, people management, languages etc, rather than marketing. And only perhaps a quarter – it’s again difficult to be sure – are in tourism marketing.
Another of the problems is that the textbooks and teaching in marketing are overwhelmingly based on straight commercial practice. Hardly any even touch on marketing in national or local government, quangos (like English Heritage), voluntary bodies (eg National Trust) or attractions run by charities. Marketing gurus will often say the principles apply to every organisation. They don’t. There are crucial differences. I have never seen those famous 5, 7 or 10 ‘Ps’ of marketing (keeps on expanding) include Policymaking in the public sector sense. Those groups just mentioned are driven by the policies in conservation, education and community welfare.
So when Sir John Sulston says we need to Plan to Flourish, I say, I’ll drink to that. Global welfare, sustainability, cultural awareness and peaceful coexistence depend on choosing the right policies and planning that makes them succeed. Tourism has a major part to play. But tourism that is far wider in vision and scope than most people make it today.
[26.04.12]
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Image: Sam Scorer - Markham Moor filling station
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Places, Changed by Time
A woman on the BBC Countryfile show last Sunday was heard decrying a proposed wind farm in the Pennines. In fact, she was almost in tears. She had known the landscape around her home for many years so the idea of high turbine towers would bring a kind of desecration to what she held most dear. Now, leaving aside the arguments for and against wind farms, it brings home the nature of people’s very relationship to their surroundings. It is organic. People grow within a familiar setting. The thought of major change to that setting can leave them feeling very unstable. And yet the organic nature of a landscape means that it does grow, develop new features and lose old ones, even if at a snail’s pace.
Driving around the countryside gives plenty of examples. The 21st century has brought a faster pace of change – in some places, it’s as if that snail has absorbed some class A substance. Changes are more noticeable when a landscape has been familiar for a few decades. A foundry in Halifax that signalled its work by small clouds of blue smoke each day has gone very recently – demolished, leaving an open space. Along our main road there used to be five pubs that I remember. Now there is just one. Many pubs have closed in this part of West Yorkshire as supermarkets flog cheap beer and people drink at home – some of them wine where they might have drunk beer years ago. A few have been demolished, like the Talbot in Illingworth, a prominent landmark in its day, or the Commercial Traveller that stood just yards away down the hill. Others have become private houses, often divided into apartments when the pub was a large building. Quite a few are now Indian or Chinese Restaurants.
Yesterday we saw that the Little Chef near Mirfield is boarded up. So many of them around the country were closed as the roadside restaurants of the 1970s and 80s gave way to other, more varied menu providers of the new decades. The Happy Eater chain went years back. Regular travellers on the A1 at Markham Moor will know that the building with a sweeping hyperbolic paraboloid (that’s what the reference books call it) roof. It was built in the 1950s as a filling station before later becoming a restaurant. When the adjacent roundabout was turned into a two-level intersection a campaign ensured the building was saved. A few weeks ago, however, it was closed as a Little Chef and boarded up. I could shed a few tears if it gets demolished.
[18.04.12]
Leeds Tourism Alumna Jo Hart sends this info: "That Little Chef is very familar to me as it marks the turn off to Lincoln! The building was designed by Lincoln architect Sam Scorer, and there is a building in Lincoln of the same design, which was also originally a car showroom (before my time!). It is on the rejuvenated Waterfront and hosts a couple of restaurants now. If your caravan travels bring you Lincoln you will have to see it Alan!"
[19.04.12]
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Natural Childhood (posting below): A Further Thought or Two
The report references Sanford Gaster's historical study (1991) of changes to children's play in the Inwood area of Manhattan. He refers to 'hangouts' used in the mid teens for "courting, smoking or beer drinking" as a reason to "forego exploration". If children were maturing earlier with each generation, this would make a quite different reason, distinct from parental rules or electronic entertainment, for the decline of landscape exploration.
In fact, the Natural Childhood report reference about Glaster’s work is to Richard Louv’s ‘Last Child in the Woods’ (2005). My copy of that book is the revised and updated second edition of 2008. Glaster’s paper does not appear on the page referenced by Stephen Moss, nor anywhere else. It must have been removed. The paper studied changes between 1915 and 1976 with a quite small sample of people (29) interviewed for information. It doesn’t represent changes any time later than 36 years ago therefore. Much of the NT report is talking about changes over recent years. Glaster’s work does suggest the problem – and it is a problem – has a very long history.
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Unnatural Childhood
Evidence of a long-term and dramatic decline in children’s relationship with the outdoors is ‘overwhelming’ and urgent action is needed to bridge this growing gap before it's too late, according to a new National Trust report just published.
In his Natural Childhood report naturalist, author and TV producer Stephen Moss charts years of academic research and a steady stream of surveys on the subject, highlighting how a generation of children is finally losing touch with the natural world. The report outlines a clear need to tackle the rise of ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’, a term coined by the US based writer Richard Louv, to describe a growing dislocation between children and nature.
“We all know the benefits being outdoors can bring, and as parents we want our children to spend more time outdoors than they do. But despite this overwhelming evidence and the different initiatives and schemes run by organisations across the UK, our kids are spending less and less time in the outdoors.
“The time to act is now, whilst we still have a generation of parents and grandparents who grew up outdoors and can pass on their experience and whilst there remains a determination to do something positive in this area. Organisations that have an interest in this area, whether working in our towns and cities or in the countryside, have to connect what they are doing and commit to a long-term approach that really makes a difference.”
A two-month inquiry, facilitated by the National Trust, will take evidence from leading experts and the public to look at how we can reconnect this and future generations of children with the natural world. The National Trust is working alongside Arla, the NHS Sustainable Development Unit and film-makers Green Lions, to organise a summit this summer to bring together a range of experts to develop a roadmap for reconnecting children and nature.
Fiona Reynolds, Director-General of the National Trust, said:
“Getting outdoors and closer to nature has all sorts of benefits for our children. It keeps them fit, they can learn about the world around them and most of all its fun. That’s why it’s so worrying that so many children today don’t have the opportunity to experience the outdoors and nature. Building a den, picking flowers, climbing trees – the outdoors is a treasure trove, rich in imagination. It brings huge benefits that we believe every child should have the opportunity to experience. And there are huge costs when they don‘t”.
The statistics reveal that things have changed dramatically in just one generation:
Fewer than ten per cent of kids play in wild places; down from 50 per cent a generation ago
The roaming radius for kids has declined by 90 per cent in one generation (thirty years)
Three times as many children are taken to hospital each year after falling out of bed, as from falling out of trees
A 2008 study showed that half of all kids had been stopped from climbing trees, 20 per cent had been banned from playing conkers or games of tag
Click here to read the Natural Childhood report
...and click here to find out more about the National Trust inquiry
“Out of School” Trips Research
Richard Bryan of Qa Research in York launched a national report in January that is very relevant to the postings above. He points out its usefulness to tourist attractions as well as researchers.
The report covers topics such as
Profiles of teachers who organise out of school trips
Attitudes towards organising out of school trips and requirements from providers
Type of trips undertaken and level of secondary spend
Key aspects of the trip planning process and why specific providers are selected
Effectiveness and impact of different information sources
Levels of internet usage and understand its role when organising out of school trips
Awareness and impact of the Learning Outside the Classroom accreditation
A total of 324 primary and secondary school teachers that organise trips in the UK took part in an online survey in the autumn of 2011.
The report is available for £99 (ex vat). To order a copy send an email to grouptravel@qaresearch.co.uk and ask for Out of School Trips Research.
An electronic version of the report and an invoice for £99 (ex vat) payable within 30 days will be sent to you.
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Tourism as Education? It isn't a new idea. It's how tourism began. Here's how some people have rated travel over the years - of which tourism is a part:
St Augustine:
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Chinese proverb:
“Don’t listen to what they say: go see”
The Prophet Mohammed:
“Don’t tell me how educated you are: tell me how much you have travelled”
Francis Bacon:
“Travel, in the younger sort, is part of education; in the elder, a part of experience”
Samuel Johnson:
“In travelling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.”
“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”
Mark Twain:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
Maya Angelou:
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends”
Bill Bryson:
“I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.”
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Image: Hawes Ropeworks and Wensleydale Creamery
Industrial Tourism in Hawes, North Yorkshire
Following on from an ‘Along the Way’ posting recently, it was interesting to make another visit this week to two examples of industrial tourism in Yorkshire.
In May of 1992, the Dairy Crest Creamery in Wensleydale was closed. 59 jobs were lost. Production of the local cheese was moved to Lancashire from the town of Hawes. Within a few months, a team of managers from the plant along with a local businessperson bought the former creamery from Dairycrest. By Christmas, Wensleydale cheese was being made there again.
Over the ensuing two decades, inspired marketing has turned the business into one of Britain’s outstanding cheese-making operations with a wide range of basic and specialist products. These are sold directly to the public in an on-site shop as well as through supermarkets and small stores round the country. Part of the success is owed to turning the dairy into a tourist attraction. Visitors can see cheese being made, sample the products and buy them in the shop, and eat in either the cafe or the restaurant in the complex. A souvenir shop sells gifts of the usual kind. The marketing effort added the making of a link to the Wallace and Gromit movies – Wallace’s favourite cheese is that from Wensleydale – priceless high-quality publicity for the produce. Another creamery has been acquired near Ripon and 200 people are now employed.
Almost forty years ago, the rope-making firm of W R Outhwaite, also in Hawes, changed hands. Tom Outhwaite was the last of the family to run the business there. It had its origins in the very early eighteenth century. The Outhwaites had taken it on in 1905. As Tom retired a young couple from Nottingham, Peter and Ruth Annison, moved to Hawes. Both had been college lecturers. They bought the business. As with the Creamery, they turned partly to tourism to make it successful on a larger scale. Visitors could see ropes made for a variety of uses from animal leads to church bell-ropes, candle-wicks to colourful crowd barriers.
The old rope-works shed was replaced, though the new structure was kept carefully matching the footprint of the original. Over time, two extensions were built, the second a large stone factory unit along the edge of the former Hawes railway station car park. Next to the actual track stands the Dales Museum with a large Tourist Information Centre. Although not in the town centre the combination of car parking, TIC, museum and rope-works makes a great deal of sense. New staff has been taken on as the business has expanded. The Annisons have also been involved in efforts to extend the diesel-hauled heritage railway that runs from Leeming Bar to Redmire. The dream is to take it as far as Hawes along the former British Rail track bed. Could it even go further – running up the Dale to meet the busy line of the Settle and Carlisle line? If it did, there could be a link between two important mainline services operating alongside the Pennines.
These two manufacturing businesses in Hawes illustrate again the long-established usefulness of tourism in supporting industrial growth. They also show just how commercial marketing works hand-in-glove with community redevelopment. Seeing tourism marketing as a purely commercial concern misses the point. Commercial- and community-led tourism have been in a symbiotic relationship for over two hundred years.
[03.03.12]
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Click here for more postings 'Along the Way'
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Image: Interpretation
Image: Leaders into the Field
Image: Shades of Light and Dark
Image: Dark Tourism
Image: Slogan strip
Image: Chronology of tourism as education
Click here to go directly to the 'Tourism's Educational Origins' page
Image: Captain Cook in Yorkshire
John Cook, James’s elder brother, was born in a tiny cottage in Marton close to the River Tees. In later years Middlesbrough would grow as an industrial port and Marton would be virtually swallowed up as one of its outer suburbs. John Cook was born to Grace and James Cook, his father being an agricultural labourer moved south from Scotland. The family transferred to a slightly larger cottage in the hamlet. It was there that James Junior, the future explorer of the Pacific, was born. The family stayed there for eight years until James Cook Senior obtained a job as a farm bailiff in Great Ayton, a few miles away.
Image: Rich Earth
Click here to read "A Richer Earth"
Image: Conference - AM presentation
- or click here to go directly to the 'Back to Basics' page
Image: Hound of the Baskervilles
One feature of The Hound of the Baskervilles that shows its popularity is the length to which devotees will go to make their own connections with the story. And yes, that includes tracking down bits of the real landscape of Britain that are linked to it.
Some people dress up in deerstalker hats and Victorian-style coats and smoke Meerschaum pipes. Well, they probably just suck the things, this being an antismoking age. And come to think of it they aren’t likely to inject themselves with a 7% solution of cocaine, though you never can tell for sure. They are the equivalent of geeks in Darth Vader or Dr Who outfits who meet with other consenting adults in convention centres...........
More on Hunting the Hound of the Baskervilles: Click here
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