Sustainable Tourism Systems Lecture Series

Speaker: Timothy Dallen - Program Director, Tourism Development and Management, School of Community Resources and Development, Arizona State University

Title of Presentation: “Heritage Tourism and the Wild West: Tombstone, Arizona, and its Quest for Authenticity” (Thursday)

Date, Time and Venue: October 15, 2009     |     12:00-1:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 109

Abstract - “Heritage Tourism and the Wild West: Tombstone, Arizona, and its Quest for Authenticity” (Thursday)

According to the heritage and tourism literature of the past 20 years, heritage-based tourist destinations vary in their level of authenticity. This is despite the fact that certain standards of authenticity have been established by researchers, the heritage industry, and visitors themselves. In most parts of the world, and the United States is no exception, heritage tourism destinations and attractions are facing pressures to subsist on their own devices in light of decreasing public funds. As a result, heritage places are becoming more tourist demand-driven, which often results in a decrease of authenticity, wherein genuineness and historical accuracy are diminished or replaced by elements that cater more to the needs of visitors than to conservation. This paper examines the meaning of authenticity at heritage sites and evaluates the situation of Tombstone, Arizona, in light of its designation as a National Historic Landmark (NHL). The town is currently in danger of losing its NHL status, which is a significant concern for community members, historians, and conservationists in the region. Many observers fear it will impact tourism negatively. The presentation examines why the community was in danger and what its members are doing to overcome the problem.

Title of Presentation: “Tourism and Political Borders: Old Traditions and Contemporary Changes” (Friday)

Date, Time and Venue: October 16, 2009     |     12:00-1:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 109

“Tourism and Political Borders: Old Traditions and Contemporary Changes”

This paper will highlight the role of political borders in tourism, from the perspective of attraction/destination and barrier to movement and tourism development. Borders as barriers are often seen as burdensome lines of transit and divides between desired destinations and desiring travelers. Likewise, political boundaries create rifts between peoples, engendering diverging economic, socio-political, and cultural systems that are often incongruous across national lines. However, borders may also be seen as important attractions that appeal not only to people in transit, but also as destinations in their own right, where people travel both on day trips and on longer holidays, typically in relation to border-supported attractions, such as shopping, gaming, and dining.

Much of this line of thinking has been well documented by tourism researchers and political geographers; this presentation will take these issues a step further by examining how political boundaries are undergoing significant changes in the contemporary world. Many borders are becoming more open, easier to cross, and more accommodating to tourism growth as tourist attractions and destinations. These borders are becoming more lines of friendship and cooperation, while others are becoming more difficult for cooperation, and are in fact changing from friendly borders to borders of conflict.

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Previous Presentations

Sustainable Tourism Systems Lecture Series

Title of Presentation: Examaining Mainstream Travel Media

Date, Time and Venue: October 10, 2008     |     2:00-3:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 202

Speaker: Thomas Kohnstamm - Travel Writer

Abstract: Author and travel writer, Thomas Kohnstamm, will examine mainstream travel media (newspapers, guidebooks, magazines, major websites, radio and TV) and discuss how the internal mechanics and inherent limitations of those media impact communities and concepts of place in developing countries.

Speaker Biography:
Kohnstamm has contributed to over a dozen Lonely Planet books and published in Travel + Leisure, Time Out New York, The SF Chronicle, The LA Times, The Denver Post, The Miami Herald, Forbes, and numerous other outlets.

"A comic rogue who seems to have modeled his life and prose on Hunter S. Thompson’s… I could not get enough of the most depraved travel book of the year."  - The New York Times

"Notable for its spirited prose and insightful exploration of the less-romantic side of travel writing. Kohnstamm is one to watch."  - Kirkus Reviews

"A guidebook writer reveals the truth about his trade, in detail that will shock and awe." Outside

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Title of Presentation: A Geographer’s Approach to Aboriginal Tourism

Date, Time and Venue: March 28, 2008     |     2:00-3:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 202

Speaker: Dr. Geoffrey Wall - Department of Geography, Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 5X4, Canada, Email: gwall@fes.uwaterloo.ca.

Abstract: The presentation will begin with a short statement on geographic approaches to understanding tourism. It will then move to a brief discussion of relationships between aboriginal people and tourism to provide a context for two case studies from Taiwan. The first study uses weaving as a point of entry to understand aspects of colonialism, tourism, gender and identity in an Atayal community in Wulai, north Taiwan. The second critiques the concepts of sustainable development and sustainable tourism and advocates the utility of a sustainable livelihoods approach, illustrating the latter through studies undertaken in selected Tsou communities in central Taiwan. While focused on aboriginal communities in Taiwan, it will be suggested that the approaches that are presented are of much wider applicability in tourism research.

Speaker Biography: Dr. Wall is a Professor of Geography and for 11 years was Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Educated at Leeds University (B.A., 1966), Cambridge University (Cert. Ed., 1967), University of Toronto (M.A., 1968), and Hull University (Ph.D., 1970), he taught at Sheffield University and the University of Kentucky before moving to Waterloo in 1974. Author of several books on tourism impacts, he has written numerous papers on tourism and recreation in academic journals and has edited a number of volumes on the implications of global climate change. Recent research projects include studies of the impacts of tourism on host communities, assessment of the implications of the greenhouse effect for tourism and recreation, collaborative tourism strategies for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, and the involvement of indigenous people in tourism (especially in Hainan, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan).

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Title of Presentation: Paying NOT to See Wolves: Environmental Education in Ecotourism in the Yellowstone Greater Ecosystem

Date, Time and Venue:   April 4, 2008     |     2:00-3:00 pm     |     Francis Hall      |     Rm. 202

Speaker: Dr. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder - Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Maine

Abstract: This presentation will explore the success and challenges of an ecotourism project that strives to carry-out wolf conservation in a culturally diverse landscape of the American West. The success of the grey wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park has added significantly to the area’s ecotourism potential. However, wolf viewing is no longer exclusively taking place within park boundaries. Packs often migrate into neighboring lands where cattle ranching activities take place and where wolves are considered a direct threat to this traditional ranching way of life. In addition, cattle ranchers also share the landscape with wealthy conservation-aimed ranch owners that favor wildlife conservation versus cattle ranching. Thus wildlife conservation projects must design strategies that consider the different relationships and perspectives of the area’s stakeholders. Such is the case of Papoose Creek Lodge, an ecotourism lodge in the Madison Valley of Montana. The lodge has developed an environmental program that aims at educating guests about nature, ecotourism, and the socio-cultural implication of conservation. The result is that guests are not allowed to view wolves, but instead are exposed and participate with innovative wolf management techniques such as “sleeping with cattle” programs that showcase wolf-friendly cattle ranching. Many of these techniques stem from ethnographic insights from societies around the world where people and predators also interact frequently. Surprisingly guests emerge from their trip literally “proud” of not seeing wolves. However, this approach is often in conflict with marketing experts hired to promote the lodge whom believe enterprises should cater to client desires and neighboring cattle ranchers whom are still opposed to any kind of wolf conservation.

Speaker Biography: As an ecological anthropologist Dr. Ocampo-Raeder has traveled to tropical regions around the world documenting the impacts of traditional resource management activities on rainforest dynamics. She was a Watson Fellow at Grinnell College, conducting undergraduate research in Tahiti, Belize, Brazil, and Kenya. She earned her PhD in Anthropology at Stanford University and was a Graduate and Research Fellow of the National Science Foundation. Her research focuses on the ecological basis behind cultural belief systems. As an assistant professor at the University of Maine, she teaches and studies ecological anthropology, environmental justice, indigenous rights, and market-based conservation in the Amazon, American West, New England, and Central America.