TitleUsing a Web Log for a Study Visit
CategoryLearning and Assessment
SubjectHND Travel and Tourism Management (Any)
This assignment was used for HND Travel and Tourism Management students who were going on a study visitto Cuba(although it could be used in a range of situations). Students were shown examples of blogs and were then asked to create their own blogs using freeware.
The content of the blogs included: students’ expectations of the trip; their research to cover unit outcomes;theirexperiences during the trip; anda reflection and evaluation of the whole process. The blogs were also used as the basis for further assignments.
There are numerous advantages to using this approach. Students are often keen to use electronic methods and they can update their blogs while they are away on the visit. The blogs are available for staff (and other students) who are not on the visit to give immediate feedback. They can also be used as a marketing tool for the programme.
Web Log of a Study Visit
HND Travel and Tourism Management
Unit 15: Tour Operations Management
4 / Examine strategic and tactical decision making for tour operators.Unit 22: Visitor Attraction Management
2 / Explore visitor types, impacts and tourist motivation theories.4 / Explore the application of various management techniques and their impact on sustainability.
Unit 24: Tourism in Developing Countries - Towards Outcome 1, 3 and 4
1 / Investigate the characteristics of developing countries.3 / Examine the application of sustainable tourism principles.
4 / Investigate the socio-cultural, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in developing countries and emerging destinations.
Introduction
Your blog connects you – they are great for family, friends etc to follow your progress or travels. Many travellers use a blog as an easy way of connecting when travelling – they can post pictures and narrative from their trip without having to email individuals. They can post digital images – and in some cases podcasts of their journey. They can also act as a way in which other people can post replies and comments and open up a much wider community of bloggers!
The Lonely Planet founder, Tony Wheeler has an excellent blog – follow this link
If you explore his site you will see the way in which he writes his blog.
Using a Web Log for a Study Visit,Teaching Resource Exchange, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Network 1
Cape Town to Casablanca - extract by Tony Wheeler
Saturday, 26 November 2005
Day 18-20 - Timbuktu to Casablanca, Morocco
Tuesday 22 November
Day 18 – Timbuktu to Marrakech, Morocco
There’s time for a quick tour of Timbuktu in the morning – the Dyingerey Ber Mosque (which we can enter), the Sankore Mosque (which we can’t), a couple of the early European visitors’ houses, the small museum – and then it’s off to the airport and off. As quickly as possible because by noon it may be too hot to get off the ground with the heavy load of fuel we need for the four hour flight to Marrakech.
Very soon after leaving Timbuktu all sign of vegetation disappears completely and we’re crossing the endless expanse of the Sahara. It’s 700km of sand before we cross an east west track, so faint that I’d never have noticed it if I hadn’t keyed the location on to my GPS and had my eyes open for it.
I’ve only been to Morocco once before, back in 1992 when I was working on the very first edition of Mediterranean Europe. I came across on the ferry from Algerciras in Spain to Tangier, approaching Morocco as a more exotic extension of the European southern countries. Now we were arriving from the opposite direction and after the CAR or Mali, Marrakech seemed remarkably orderly and affluent.
Our hotel is a stone’s throw from Marrakech’s wonderful Djemma el-Fna, the huge square which every night turns into a combination of market and performance space, as popular with Moroccans as it is for visitors like us.
So your task is to create a blog of your Cuba Trip. Go to this link:
and follow the tour.
When you have done this click on “create a blog in 3 easy steps” and you are ready to start.
Tasks
Prior to your study visit, register your blog address and passwordand set this up on or .You will need to consider a back up file for this.
Your first post should be an introduction to you and should include a picture of yourself.
You should then post your detailed reflective journal, recording what you expect to find in Cuba.
Consider:Sights, Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Touch.
“For Hemingway, Cuba was truly a paradise island” – is this how you perceive it?
Write about 750 – 1,000 words by ______to analyse your own expectations of the study visit at the end of the month.
Remember that as a published blogger you should be informative, legal and truthful. Follow these 10 tips for bloggers:
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Task 2
During your visit you will have to keep a written journal. You will need to take photographs, collect ephemera (that can be scanned into the blog). You will enter the information into your blog on your return. Both the written journal and the blog should be completed and handed in for assessment.
Aspects you should consider are:
- How your expectations differed from the reality.
- What did you experience each day?
- Did the customer service meet your expectations?
- What did you observe about the local community? How did they welcome tourists? What are the tourist/host/relationships?
- Was tourism development a key government strategy?
- What environmental factors did you observe? E.g. conservation and pollution? Pressures on the infrastructure? What were the Cubans doing to preserve the heritage and the environment? Was there evidence of protection of culture and arts?
- What was the tourist infrastructure in place? How effective was the transport networks?
- What provision was there for consumer goods? The utilities? E.g. water, sanitation, etc.
- How was the impact of visitors managed (e.g. overcrowding, wear and tear, traffic congestion and pollution, erosion, impacts on local community, visitor facilities, authenticity of attraction, intrusive interpretation of history of the site, etc).
- What were the visitor management techniques used at the visitor attractions? E.g. visitor flow, staffing, signage, routing, security, the management of visitor expectations, interpretation, education etc.
- Was there concern for sustainability issues? E.g. economic, negative impacts result in lack of repeat business, environmental – e.g. the conflict between conservation and preservation.
- How effective were the guides, resort managers and representatives?
- Describe the type and motivations of the UK tourists on your package and in your hotels.
- How effective were your tour operators positioning and branding?
- Did you find evidence of strategic or tactical decision making by the tour operator? E.g. strategic - pricing, surcharging, distribution decisions or tactical decisions e.g. price wars, maximising occupancy, utilisation of coach and aircraft seats, consolidations, late sales etc.
You will illustrate your blog with photographs that reinforce your research findings. You may use interviews to illustrate particular aspects. Be careful that you do not cause any problems for the local community by ensuring that interviews are anonymous and that photographs are not attached to particular views or statements. You may find that you edit content from your written journal for the blog. Both the blog and the written journal will be assessed. Your blog will be shorter and more concise than the written journal.
The Blog and your written journal should provide notes for the “After Fidel” assignment.
Contact
Using a Web Log for a Study Visit,Teaching Resource Exchange, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Network 1