8th posting

            Throughout this English 4 class I have developed a liking for this blog project. It allows us to save paper, and use our existing technology. It was a rigorous challenge getting myself started with this blog, particularly choosing my topic. Exotic getaways have been a wonder to me forever, but so have many other things, which made it hard to decide on one topic of interest. When I decided to do exotic vacation spots I did some simple research to find some quick facts. It ended up being a little harder because there are key words you have to type in to find information, and not just a travel site that doesn’t help. I learned so much since we started, which is what I was striving for. I feel more aware of what is happening in the vacation world presently now that I’ve done some deep research. Also, I have learned much more about where to vacation and where to not vacation depending on my liking.

            This last blog helped me learn lots of stuff related to my thesis. I got to know more about how resorts make money and maintain a steady income. I also have been able to learn about the poverty and wastewater issue’s involved specifically in Cancun Mexico where they have giant resort areas with people living in 5 star conditions. That opened my eyes up to other possible countries who are suffering this crisis as well. When I posted my poll a couple weeks ago I noticed some interesting stuff as I analyzed the data. But I was expecting this data for a reason. People will not vacation to places too much like where they currently live because you wouldn’t be experiencing anything different. This blog project also helped me pick and choose the “credible” sites and find information within the site that helps you decide weather it is a reliable site. In the very beginning of this blog project I was researching simply vacationing in today’s society. I found it to be much more rare to vacation then it used to be, mostly because of people’s financial state. Also, people do not just vacation to get away from work or stress. I found that people actually travel to volunteer or to cook. Many cooking vacations have become popular and yoga as well.

            Now that I know a lot about exotic places I feel more prepared to travel. Although I still wonder things about people’s cultural activities involved when you travel to other countries, what to do and not do, and what to say and not say mostly involving respect. I hope to further my research to the point where I know as much as possible and my brain can’t take anymore. The rubric proved to be indispensable in preparing my blog posts throughout this project because it guided my writing. It was fun to design and work on a project that is under development the whole time. It’s helped me be a better editor and also designer. 

7th Posting

When building expensive, world-class resort areas, the danger and pressure to make short-term profit often hides long-term ramifications and eventually puts countries in a bad economic state. Some of those ramifications can range from, retaining workers, and maintaining a clean and luxurious area, to making sure there is enough money to operate the resort and pay their bills and taxes. Also, making a profit from tourist income is an issue because most country’s goals are to create cash flow, and make more money than they spent building the resort. This can be a challenge especially for third world countries since it is costly to bring in materials and they are dependant on the tourist as a commodity. Nowadays, the average tourist needs to come from all over the world in order to keep the reservations coming in. For example, the money it takes to build the resort and the cash flow it takes to keep the place running like paying the workers, cleaners, and cooks, will affect their profit in the long run if tourists are only coming from one location. The development costs of a resort are also difficult to plan for when you depend on many other countries for building materials, supplies and more. This is why it is dangerous to build expensive resorts without first thinking and planning for the future.

            When building a sizeable resort there is many intangible issues that you have to take into account. Travel cost is an important factor in making a profit; it must be affordable for the tourist to reach the destination and have enough money left over to spend while they are there. “The direct income for an area is the amount of tourist expenditure that remains locally after taxes, profits, and wages are paid outside the area and after imports are purchased; these subtracted amounts are called leakage (http://www.unep.fr/scp/tourism/sustain/impacts/economic/negative.htm, Economic Impacts of Tourism)”. A portion of the money that is spent by the tourists actually goes to companies that are not located within that country, like “A study of tourism 'leakage' in Thailand estimated that 70% of all money spent by tourists ended up leaving Thailand (via foreign-owned tour operators, airlines, hotels, imported drinks and food, etc.). Estimates for other Third World countries range from 80% in the Caribbean to 40% in India (http://www.publicsector.org)”. So, even though people are spending money to go to a certain resort, all of that money does not calculate into a profit for the country. Developers have to do methodical research in order to make a business plan that considers all these complex details.

            The tourism industry is causing resorts to lose part of the local economy. The big businesses that assail the country’s income are taking an essential part of their economic income. “Economic recession and the impacts of changing tourism patterns can have a devastating effect on the local tourism sector (http://www.unep.fr/scp/tourism/sustain/impacts/economic/negative.htm, Economic Impacts of Tourism)”. One of the risks involved in these world class resorts is the fact that you have to make sure people are able to vacation there. In other words, if people, for some economic reason, cannot visit the resort anymore, there is a huge issue for the country that relies on that income. The resort also must make sure that they are able to meet their operating costs and build in a profit margin allowing for fluctuations in the market. If tourism stops in that resort area, the country is lacking economic stability and therefore will not be able to pay for all of these costs. 

            The local resort needs to appeal to a global population and economy because “Of each US $100 spent on a vacation tour by a tourist from a developed country, only around US $5 actually stays in a developing-country destination's economy. http://www.unep.fr/scp/tourism/sustain/impacts/economic/negative.htm, Economic Impacts of Tourism)”. For example, if you take a look at the historical development of the Aspen area as a world-class resort you can see how it has changed to keep up with the economic times. In the 1960’s Aspen was mainly a winter ski resort. Over the years, Aspen continued to expand the mountain terrain to include Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Snowmass and Buttermilk. Aspen has even grown to include such things as the X Games, music festivals of all kinds, and fall and summer times of year for tourism. It shows how the resort has had to evolve in order to keep people coming.

             Clearly the ramifications are more long term than short term when building and maintaining a resort area.  Also, there are clear and present risks involved in making a world-class resort, which makes the process and development more complicated. It is not worth building if you do not have a business plan for all the expenses and operations that have to maintain themselves as long as the resort is functioning.

Works Sited

"UNEP DTIE SCP Branch: Tourism." UNEP Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.unep.fr/scp/tourism/sustain/impacts/economic/negative.htm>.

"Agenda 21." While Travelling 5 - Questions for Your Travel Agent. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.publicsector.org/local_agenda_21and_you/WhileTravelling/5Questions.html>.

"What We Do." Tourism Concern. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. <http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/>.

6th Posting

There is a paradox existing between many five star resorts with every luxury imaginable, and the local neighborhoods down the street where families are living in blatant poverty. A place that exemplifies this is Cancun, Mexico. When tourists vacation in Cancun, most of them do not leave the Zona Hotelera, which is the long strip of hotels, resorts and expensive stores. The resorts are designed so no American feels far from home with  McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food places, along with anything else they need. The Zona is located just one block from a very distinct dividing line. “More than 44 million Mexican families are living in poverty. They literally have nothing, no clean water, no money for food, and no clean living conditions. About 15 million of the 44 million live in what we would call extreme poverty, with no food and nothing to sustain them. (Cancuncanuck.com, Blog Action Day-Poverty in Mexico).” “Going down Avenue Kukulkan, a long strip of golf courses and polluted lagoons, you come along Km. 0, the point at which the scenery begins to change. Still there are the multinationals like Pizza Hut and OfficeMax. The hotels are gone, as well as the beach and most of the gringos. Here are the markets and smaller ‘quainter’ restaurants. Here is where the tourists would come to experience some ‘culture.’ Beyond this is unknown to them. Here, in these neighborhoods, there is often no fresh water or electricity, and no sewage treatment plants. The groundwater is contaminated from sewage runoff, so self-sufficiency is hopeless. Education is often ignored in the face of poverty, and drugs have become a useful response to the boredom that goes along with it. The lagoons are becoming polluted by leakage from the hotels. The very attractions that support the infrastructure of Cancun, the beaches and the sea, are perishing under the weight of capitalism. This means that Cancun is dying, and with it goes the whole population of Cancun. Those who have built Cancun will surely go down with it, while only those who profit will escape, unharmed. (upsidedownworld.org, The Real Cancun).” This harsh viewpoint proposes a reality that in-fact turn out to be true in the long run. What happens when we can’t travel anymore if our economy is not strong enough to support personal luxury travel? Cancun will not so beautiful if they are solely dependent upon tourism income. 

 When the Zona Hotelera was being developed, the Mexican government wanted to have a tourism area that was more popular than Acapulco at the time. Before the development, this area of the Yucatan Peninsula was a thick jungle. “Cancun was the first large project this part of the country had ever seen and was expected to help the economy. The Mexican government pushed the project by investing itself vast amounts of money into the infrastructure of the area. (SunofCancun.com, History of Cancun Mexico).”  They wanted to turn it into a five star resort area because they knew it would bring money into the economy like it had done with Acapulco. The tourist industry is not all about exploitation. These resorts are supporting and contributing to the development of the local economy by providing jobs and making money available to further improve the systems like water, roads and power. It is possible that Cancun will eventually become like Acapulco, where instead of having poverty-stricken shacks next to the resort, they will actually evolve into more middle class neighborhoods with grocery stores, homes and schools. During this evolution there are many details to consider. They have to decide whether to maintain the resort as a non-urban beach setting or let it grow naturally into a big city.  It is a question of balance – how to keep tourists coming to an exotic getaway or to make it more like home with a Wal-mart just down the street from your hotel. So far, resort areas in the Cancun strip are finding ways to improve their resort without allowing too much commercialization. This is quite a challenge throughout the tourism industry.

Works Sited

"Blog Action Day- Poverty in Mexico." A Canuck in Cancun. 15 Oct. 2008. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://www.cancuncanuck.com/2008/10/poverty-in-mexico.html>.

"History of Cancun Mexico." Cancun Mexico. 2004. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://www.sunofcancun.com/history-cancun-mexico.php>.

Tonak, By Ali. "The Real Cancun (11/10/03)." Upside Down World. 17 Oct. 2005. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/trade-archives-54/78-the-real-cancun-111003>.