CONSTRUCTING THE TOURIST BUBBLE by Dennis R



CONSTRUCTING THE TOURIST BUBBLE by Dennis R. Judd

Know these terms and how they are used in the article – if you don’t know them, be sure to ask in class so that you understand them:

Railroad Wars Fordism

Suburbanization Signifier

Deindustrialization Festival Marketplace

Rouse Corporation Spending Substitution

Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Cannibalize

The questions follow a logical order through the article and also serve as a kind of an outline. Some of them summarize sections of the article before asking you a question (so don’t be intimidated that it’s three pages). It’s intended to help make sure you don’t miss certain points of the article.

1. Academic research prides itself on being non-biased. On pg. 35 in the first paragraph, Judd mentions the Reagan administration. In reading this and the following paragraphs:

a. Does the information about Reagan and the National Urban Policy Report seem presented in a straight-forward factual manner, or with a political slant?

b. Could the political views of the reader affect the answer to part “a” above? (Simple yes or no. I ask this, because often reports presented to city councils and private agencies that provide funding are created from academic articles.)

2. Recently, in the Boston article, we used the term “mixed-use.” In remembering that definition and looking at the middle of pg. 36:

a. What three groups of people do these zones cater to?

b. Western researchers love nice, neat groups and categories. They love to say “tourists” and “residents” or “hosts” and “guests” or something to imply that there are two separate groups. But where do “weekend suburban commuters” fit in? (You can argue this answer in at least three ways, so it’s hard to get wrong, but support what you say.)

3. The Tourist Bubble:

a. What then is the tourist bubble?/Why does the article say “the two Baltimores?” (You’ll also find part of this answer in the very last paragraph of the article on pg. 53.)

b. Do cities in Europe also have tourist bubbles? Why or why not?

4. Read pg. 37. Pg. 37 says that cities are made attractive by processes of “reduction” and “simplification.” What does that mean? (We’ll see this same concept pop up again later when reading about museums.)

5. “…and tell the tourist what to do, even what to feel.” What does this compare to in MacCannell that we’ve already learned?

6. After reading pp. 37-39, think back to (or go online and look back at) the glossy new ad for California Tourism. Sure, it’s great marketing, but what’s wrong with it in terms of what you’ve just read here? There are two major points to make:

a. The first was mentioned in class already and is geographic – people think that they can visit Yosemite, the Wine Country, Disneyland and the Redwoods in one six day trip to California. How does the tableaux of “contextualized images” in the commercial enforce this notion? (I’ve basically given you the answer, but think about how that makes sense – if it doesn’t ask about it. ()

b. The second is overall image. What’s missing from the ad that would make it a more realistic picture of California (answer this is terms of the concepts presented in the article)?

7. Cities were once in competition for railroads and for manufacturing. Now they are in competition for tourists. There is much that can be said about this, but in short:

a. What are the components of the mayor’s “trophy collection” as identified by Frieden and Sagalyn?

b. This might require a little research, depending on how well you know Sacramento, but for each of the things you listed in “a,” write the Sacramento equivalent. This will give you an idea of what Sacramento is missing. (You don’t have to actually write anything for this one, but just think about it in case I ask you about it.)

8. Conventions and convention centers are covered in both RPTA 180* and RPTALS 139*, so we won’t spend a long time on them here except as an essential part of the overall tourist bubble. They bring in a huge flux of tourists (and locals also attending the convention – so a healthy mix like we talked about before) just by their very nature. So making them the center of a place in the city designed to entertain tourists (meaning, take tourists money) is a smart idea. But if you note on pg. 40, it says that often the centers themselves don’t make a lot of money. But, having them has created venues, and thus created the need to have meetings to put in those venues. So it’s kind of a horse before the cart type thing, but that’s how much of the industry got started. In reading all the way through pg. 44, if it stands that convention centers need a great deal of subsidies, why do cities continue to build new convention centers? (Don’t over-complicate this answer. It’s not hard, but it’s significant.)

9. Second-tier cities have to be promoted as attractions first by the professional planners to the agencies, and then by the agencies that the convention is for to their employees and shareholders that might attend. So the cheaper cost of hosting a convention in a second tier city has to be balanced against the fact that not as many people will come because the destination isn’t as enticing. Enticing is often based on absolute characteristics of a location, but relative characteristics are important too. Sacramento, for example, is in California, but it has to compete with San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim. If cheaper prices are the only thing it can use to its advantage, it will never win out over the other California convention cities. Sacramento has to think about its tourist bubble/trophy collection. If Sacramento got really serious about its trophy collection and put all of the pieces into place, what advantage might it have over the other convention towns in California?

10. Also relating to RPTA 180*, we discussed sports arenas. This section focuses a little more on the teams as well as the arenas and points out that even though teams are fairly mobile in today’s society, they still manage to express a city’s spirit and sense of community. You saw that in the Boston video with not only the Redsox, but also Fenway Park. Both are important. This continues to be a hot debate in Sacramento. Pg. 45 in the next to last paragraph has an important sentence about the state of private dollars and the building of sports arenas. All things considered, Sacramento’s one “big league” status symbol (besides IKEA – and West Sac beat out Sacramento for that) are the Kings. Pg. 46 brings up two main arguments about stadiums/arenas in justifying their costs. One is economic, one is not. Both arguments, however are part of what we call commercial recreation (one is the commercial side, one relates more to the recreation side). First, identify both arguments, then state in your opinion, if you think that these arguments really justify the huge costs of the arenas?

11. Explain what is meant by a fortified cell of affluence and why that might be criticized by social scientists? (Pp. 46-47 - and if you’ve taken RPTA 184*, you should also be able to add some extra details since we talked about Atlanta’s development quite a bit.) [Just as a side note, in a rare misstep, Judd gets a few things wrong in this chapter. The first atrium hotel (The Hyatt Regency) was not a cylindrical towered building, and it opened in 1965, not 1967. The buildings are not clustered around an aluminum cylinder that houses the Marriott – the hotel in the cylinder is the Westin (Peachtree Plaza). The multi-towered hotels (all designed by John Portman) are not in Atlanta, but in Detroit and Los Angeles, which Judd mentions, just not in the right places.]

12. Continue reading through pg. 49. You’ll see some familiar names (of places and people) here.

a. It mentions the mixing of locals and tourists. But what is peculiar about the behavior of both groups? It’s a very odd effect of a tourist bubble.

b. There is specific mention of the type of shoppers these places attract and the kind of shopping these places specifically don’t offer. Could a grocery store work in this type of setting? How does that directly contradict the original reason for Rouse doing Quincy Market?

13. The war against gambling/gaming used to have a strong “moral” component. It was just wrong, and religious groups lead the campaigns. Now other issues have been raised against gambling (although it continues to spread and become more popular). (We’ll read an article by Peña later that will address part of one of these concerns.)

a. What are the three issues raised against gambling?

14. Tourism is recognized as the fastest growing sector of the world economy (pg. 52). That’s mighty big. The tourist bubble seems like a sure-fire way to success.

a. What happened in Flint? Was it only the city that was embarrassed?

b. What’s the lesson that West Edmonton or Walt Disney World provide?

c. If tourist bubbles are often subsidized by public funds (yet they are privately owned and operated), do they have the same obligation that a community park has to serve the local tax-paying population; or, because they are private, can they serve only who they want to serve?

d. We learned in the Niagara film that if a location does not have a USP, it can create one. This article tells you that few cities have an Eiffel Tower or a Gateway Arch or a Golden Gate Bridge. So they create bubbles. Bubbles, as you read, have a certain set of components. How does the desire of tourists to visit tourist bubbles directly contradict the concept of uniqueness as related to tourism?

15. Las Vegas, as was said at the end of the video, is one place that will always remain unique. Oddly enough, it copies locations from around the world. So in some weird, perverse reverse logic, by building copies of New York, Venice, Lake Campo, Egypt, Paris, Rome, etc., Vegas has become completely one-of-a-kind. It’s small wonder then that it attracts so many tourists. Does the above statement make sense? (Yes or no answer.)

*Some of you are not RPTA majors…

• RPTA 180: Foundations of Commercial Recreation

• RPTA 184: Hospitality Administration

• RPTA 139: Conference and Meeting Planning

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