GG35420 - THE CULTURAL ECONOMIES OF TOURISM

Module Identifier	GG35420
Module Title	THE CULTURAL ECONOMIES OF TOURISM
Academic Year	2001/2002
Co-ordinator	Dr Luke Desforges
Semester	Semester 1
Course delivery	Lecture	20 Hours 10 x 2 hours
	Seminars / Tutorials	3 / 4 x 1 hour seminar / group work
Assessment	Continuous assessment	Contribution to Email discussion group	5%
	Essay	One essay of no more than 2,600 words. Essay to be submitted by beginning of week 7. Late submissions subject to a departmental penalty of 5% points per day. Both elements to be completed to obtain a pass; mark based on the aggregate performance.	45%
	Exam	2 Hours Written examination.	50%
	Resit assessment	Resit: For a condoned (medical grounds) non-completion of examination or coursework involves the completion of the missing component(s) for the full range of marks on dates set in the Supplementary Examination period. Resit due to aggregate failure or non-completion of part of the assessment requires re-examination of each component if marks of <40% in all were obtained, or re-examination or re-submission of the failed component (examination or assignment(s) to obtain a maximum mark of 40% for the module).

Module outline

This course explores the role played by tourism in the modern world. It draws on recent developments in cultural, economic and tourism geography, as well as other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology, to understand the power of tourism in the socio-economic constitution of the lives and landscapes of people throughout the world.

Themes:

1. Developing a cultural-economic approach to tourism
Understanding and exploring the relationships between culture and economy.

2. The politics of tourism
Identifying the problems and potential of tourism in the lives and landscapes of those living and working in tourist destinations. Exploring the possible interventions that can be made in the sphere of tourism, ranging from local resistance to state policy.

3. Consuming places
Accounting for the development of tourism as a way of relating to place. Understanding the desires, representational practices and embodied performances of tourists.

4. The production of tourism
Culture as a product: understanding the consequences of the growth of tourism, as a major service industry, for the world of work, its economies and its practices.

5. Case studies
Understanding tourism, its problems and its potential through the development of case studies that reflect the global nature of the industry: from the exotically far flung to tourism in Wales.

Module Aims

The course aims to examine fully the role of tourism in the constitution of the lives and landscape of those living, working and passing through the tourist spaces of the modern world.

Module objectives / Learning outcomes

By the end of this module students should be able to :-

demonstrate knowledge of the development and role of tourism in the socio-economic constitution of the modern world, through the use of case studies at a global scale

explain, synthesise and evaluate a broad and interdisciplinary theoretical literature on tourism

apply these knowledges and literatures to an analysis of the politics of tourism, including the possibilities and problems of interventions in the sphere of tourism

demonstrate awareness of having understood and practised a number of personal transferable skills, including critical thought, communication skills (written and oral), interpersonal skills, information technology skills, and reading and writing skills

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
Harrison, D. (1995) Tourism and the Less Developed Countries. Chichester. Wiley. (Provides a taster of some of the case studies used on the course).
MacCannell, D. (1992) Empty Meeting Grounds: The Tourist Papers.. London: Routledge. (Whilst many of the chapters in this collection are difficult, you might like to think about the issues raised by the short chapters 'The Locke Case' and 'Nature Incorporated').
Urry, J. (1990) The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage. (A key text that is well worth buying, and provides a useful rough guide to the course).