Sustainability of Heritage Tourism in Australia

Introduction Globalization increases the opportunities for heritage tourism across the globe and this comes with increasing economic growth across the globe as a result of its influence on trade and investment and hence a rise in world GDP.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Sustainability of Heritage Tourism in Australia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Cooper, Dwyer, Edwards, Mistilis, Roman and Scott (2008, p. 1) heritage tourism has many other advantages which like promoting international understanding, diffusion of information technology, environmental awareness among many others. However, its negative impacts on the regions and the local communities by far outweigh its economic and social benefits. The negative impacts include evicting people from their homes which is a violation of fundamental human rights and environmental degradation. More money and human resources is used in support ing heritage tourism projects, including campaigns aimed at diluting the effects of criticisms labeled against it; despite their minimal returns. This implies that resources that could have been used to fund meaningful projects which could contribute to more sustainable environmental and social problems are channeled to ecotourism projects. Besides, ecotourism projects often cause conflicts due to changes in land-use. These projects do not deliver community-level benefits that they promise at the beginning since the money is collected by the county councils or game parks management. Ecotourism projects occasionally fail to live up to sustainability ideals. Issues of environmental conservation are usually overlooked in heritage tourism projects as it is generally assumed to be consumer-oriented. Those evicted from their original homes create extra pressure in the environments they migrate to leading to development of additional infrastructure and social amenities. This implies that t he already limited resources, including the non-renewable resources are used up. Natural land is converted to tourist infrastructure as forests and wildlife habitats are destroyed. Population pressure created by ecotourism also lead to pollution of the environment associated with western lifestyle since most of them do not understand the ecological consequences of their behaviors.Advertising Looking for critical writing on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Heritage tourism in Australia According to Moore and Tourism Tasmania (2008, p. 7) Tourism Research Australia considers Australia’s cultural and natural resources to be the major attractions for both domestic and international tourists. Heritage tourists are usually attracted by historical sites, buildings and monuments; aboriginal communities and sites, arts and cultural displays; museums; cultural festivals and events, performing arts and theatr es among others (Heritage Council and Tourism Western Australia 2006). Statistics indicate that cultural and heritage visitors in Australia have increased since 2oo6 (Moore and Tourism Tasmania 2008, p. 7). Tourism Western Australia states that cultural and heritage tourism can help improve the economic vitality of Western Australian communities as well as to improve awareness and conservation and hence broaden the countries tourism base (Moore and Tourism Tasmania 2008, p. 9) Global Factors Impacting on Sustainability of Heritage tourism in Australia There are various global drivers and forces that have been identified by the Australia government as likely to shape heritage tourism in Australia (Cooper et al. 2008, p. 13). Global climatic change has a negative impact on the management and preservation of environmentally sensitive tourist resources and regions. It causes rise in sea level and flooding risks which damage the country’s infrastructure and in particular tourist i nfrastructure and facilities hence disrupting tourist activities. It also affects the mid-summer tourism sports. Generally, global climatic change discourages tourists from visiting Australia due to health risks that it poses hence lowering the revenue collected from cultural and heritage tourism (Cooper et al. 2008, pp. 32-33). Global political trends also affect the sustainability of heritage tourism. Conflicts in the Middle East occasionally lead to increases in fuel prices. This negatively impacts the demand for travel, especially travelling for tourism purposes. Local Factors Impacting on Sustainability of Heritage tourism in Australia Heritage degradation is affected by local factors such as local pollution, poverty, ideologies, tourism, war, religion, among others (Amoà ¹Å da, Lira and Pinheiro 2010, p. v). Although tourists involved in cultural and heritage tourism claim to help educate and create awareness, they do not understand their ecological influences in these areas. Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Sustainability of Heritage Tourism in Australia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More They dump garbage all over the place and this leads to pollution caused by the tourists themselves. It is also affected by the criticisms from those who feel that the resources used in developing cultural and heritage tourism projects could be used in developing another sustainable sector of the economy. The Phase of Human and Ecological Sustainability The sustainability of heritage and cultural tourism is in the strategies proactive phase. According to the Australian Tourist Commission (nd, i) the Australian Heritage Commission, the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources have been involved in finding issues that affect the Australian heritage tourism for many years. There are also heritage managers whose duties are to enab le legislation and to protect and conserve heritage places that they manage (Australian tourism commission nd, p. 7). Sustainability efforts also involve indigenous custodians whose management responsibilities are to oversee places based in customary law. More research is also being done by many other organizations which are also involved promoting heritage tourism activities. One such corporate organization is the International Hotel Environment Initiative which is an educational charity working to help encourage improvements in environmental performance by raising environmental awareness aimed at encouraging good practices in the hotel industry (Commission on Sustainable Development Seventh Session 1999, p. 4) Sustainability Plan for cultural Heritage tourism in Australia The main objective for the sustainability plan for heritage tourism industry in Australia is to involve all stakeholders in the protection and enhancement of the aboriginal culture and heritage. Other objectives include developing and maintaining infrastructure that supports sustainable communities and tourism within the country. The purpose of the plan is to involve the government and other stakeholders, including the corporate organizations to better understand and contribute in protection and conservation of the cultural and heritage assets within the country. It emphasizes on the need for commitment by stakeholders to help preserve cultural heritage and to assist the indigenous people to achieve their cultural heritage aspirations.Advertising Looking for critical writing on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The Action Plan All cultural heritage sites and conservation areas will be fenced to ensure that the area is undisturbed. Secondly, all the personnel working in the cultural heritage industry must have completed a heritage management course or an induction on cultural and heritage awareness. Hazard analysis and environmental impact assessment will be carried out on all the existing cultural and heritage projects as well as new projects awaiting implementation so that any activity that poses environmental risk to the region or community to be relocated to the most suitable area. Monitoring of the heritage sites will be done by both the environmental and the indigenous groups’ representatives. Management of heritage sites will be done by heritage experts who fully understand the logistics involved in cultural heritage management and conservation. All heritage activities have to be authorized by the Department of Tourism in collaboration with the Department of Environment who mu st carry out an environmental impact assessment before allowing the activity. Relocation of heritage sites must also follow recommendations from the Department of Indigenous Affairs Standards. Appropriate protection measures on any new heritage project to be located around already existing heritage site’s conservation zone will be taken in order to ensure that the older heritage sites remain undisturbed. Involvement of corporate Organizations The government agencies to be involved in the management and conservation project include the Australian Cultural Heritage Management, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Department of Indigenous Affairs and the Environmental Protection Authority. It will also involve the Traditional Custodian groups across all the regions in the country (Canning, Draper and Molt 2007, p. 10). Partnerships will also be established with other corporate and international organizations, mainly the International Hotel Environment Initiative, the US government, the UK government and the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. Project management The management will involve all the stakeholders at different levels. There will be the national coordinating office in Sydney and other regional offices in each region as well as district coordinating offices in each district. All the government agencies and corporate organizations will perform specific duties and responsibilities and will also be involved in collaborative work (Heritage Council and Tourism Western Australia 2006, p. 21). Decisions will be made by all the stakeholders or specific group whenever necessary. Avoiding environment and Social Impacts during the period During the period, there should a continued monitoring of all aboriginal heritage sites and consultations with the indigenous groups of each region in order to achieve sustainable development of the projects and to make them relevant to the indigenous communities. New benchmarks for every cul tural heritage site should be set after phase of the project implementation so as to realize sustainability. Heritage activities involving archaeological activities will involve archeological and ethnographic heritage surveys and also encompass all representative groups, including the Traditional Custodian groups (Government of Western Australia 2003). This will enable the project managers and organizers receive constructive feedback on the heritage activity and review the requirements for the projects. All the heritage sites will be zoned to ensure effective monitoring and protection measures are implemented in each zone. Phases of the Sustainability Plan for the project The first phase planned to take one year will involve carrying an environmental impact assessment and situational analysis of the existing government heritage assets and others which are privately managed or are left carefree. It will involve a baseline analysis on the contributions of heritage tourist activities o n the specific areas and communities. The second phase will take the next two years and will involve sensitizing the general public as well institutions on the need to protect and conserve cultural and heritage materials and sites. This will be done by non-governmental organizations under the coordination of the Department of Indigenous Affairs. However, this is expected o be continuous throughout the ten year period. This period also involves identification of each site’s or heritage material’s unique requirements and developing appropriate protection and conservation approach. It will also involve acquiring land and space for developing the identified projects and needs in each area. The research would be done by the Department of Environment and Conservation in collaboration with the Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism. This phase also involve developing strategies and policies for implementing and governing the project operations. The third phase, w hich will also take the next three years will involve implementations of the recommendations from the first and the second phase. It will also involve monitoring of the progress of each heritage site and activity and evaluating the outcome. At the end of the end of the first phase, auditing and evaluation is done on each project and the report is presented to all the stakeholders who then sit down to review the implementation process and the benchmarks for each project. The project is then given another two-year term to monitor the progress and review the bench in accordance with the outcome and make appropriate adjustments. The final two years will be to review the goals and strategies for protection and conservation and to try and implement long term goals. Sectoral Changes After the ten year plan, reviewing of the success of the project would require certain sectoral changes to make the projects in each region be more sustainable and beneficial to the people. It is therefore impo rtant to make decisions and planning which involve the local government. According to Amery, Hiscox-Price, Leong and Thompson (2010, p. 7) inclusion of the council in heritage activities helps in creating favorable tourism condition and effective environmental management. This also helps in enabling the local communities to realize the multiplier effects of the projects within their communities (Canning, Draper and Molt 2007). Summary Heritage tourism has both negative and positive impacts on all sectors of the economy. This document studies the negative impacts of tourism and how best to counter its negative impacts on the ecological environment. It analyzes the possible negative impacts on the heritage industry in Australia and the possible management strategies to help combat the negative impacts of heritage tourism. Conclusion Effective heritage tourism management involves evaluating the impacts of the tourism activity the environment and the area which it occurs. Heritage touri sm management should not be left to Department of Indigenous Affairs and the Department of Tourism alone; it should involve all stakeholders, including communities. Better management and conservation strategy need to be developed and implemented to help protect the ecological environment. Reference List Amery, J., Hiscox-Price, N., Leong, C, Thompson, K., 2010, Beverley Tourism Management, feasibility and sustainability plan: A Destination management strategic plan: 2005 – 2009. Web. Amoà ¹Å da, R, Lira, S., Pinheiro, C., 2010. Heritage 2010: Heritage and sustainable development. Green Lines Institute for Sustainable Development. Web. Australian Tourism Commission. Successful tourism at heritage places: A guide for tourism operators, heritage managers and communities. Web. Canning, S., Draper, N. Molt, D., 2007. Industrial site ‘A’: Retrieval and relocation of heritage sites and bulk earthworks phase. Australian Cultural Heritage Management. Web. Commission o n Sustainable Development Seventh Session., 1999, Tourism and Sustainable development: The global Importance of tourism. World Travel and Tourism Organization and International Hotel and Restaurant Association. New York: Routledge. Cooper, C, Dwyer, L, Edwards, D., Mistilis, N, Roman, C., Scott, N., 2008, Megatrends underpinning tourism to 2010: Analysis of key drivers for change. CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd. Queensland: Wiley. Dioko, L. A.N Gujadhur, T., n. d Packaging heritage for tourism: Modeling the effects on the practice and transmission of intangible heritage. Macao: Institute for Tourism Studies. Heritage Council and Tourism Western Australia., 2006. A heritage tourism strategy for Western Australia. Heritage Council of Western Australia. Online. Government of Western Australia., 2003, Hope for the future: The Western Australian State sustainability strategy. Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Perth: WA Government. Moore, G., Tourism Tasmania., 2008, Culture and heritage tourism: Understanding the issues and success factors. Queensland: CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd. This critical writing on Sustainability of Heritage Tourism in Australia was written and submitted by user Bo B. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Harassed on LinkedIn® Take these steps to prevent and stop it now.

Harassed on LinkedIn ® Take these steps to prevent and stop it now. There’s no question that social media, including LinkedIn ®, can expose you to unwanted attention, whether it be spam messages or actual threats. I’ve received some inappropriate emails myself (thankfully nothing threatening or truly stalker-like). But not everyone is so lucky. I have had many people share with me their fear about posting a photo or profile on LinkedIn ® due to the possibility that they might be followed in an unwelcome way. I am grateful to my colleague Rabbi R. Karpov, Ph.D. for providing tips on how to investigate followers before they become a problem. She credits Robin Schlinger for some of this information as well. Here is some of what she suggests: Check the person’s photo. Right click on any profile image and copy the image location. Next, run that photo through Google Images (https://images.google.com/). You can find it by typing google images into your browser. Click the camera icon and paste in the image URL. Now you can find some things out. Look for red flags: Stock photo. That wholesome-looking woman, it turns out, wasnt really an Apple Computer VP! Stolen photo. The photo is of someone living, such a military-man or Miss World Philippines contestant, or of someone deceased (hey, thats the late President of Zaire!) Check out the rest of the general picture: Run the email address you find under the connections Contact Info through Google. Did it come up as a known email address associated ONLY with a scammer/spammer? Run the connections name through Google. What turned up? Run the name AND the email address through Google. Sometimes that is what turns up information that will make you glad you took this extra 5 minutes. Hopefully this due diligence will prevent some unwanted connections. But sometimes there are bigger issues of LinkedIn ® users abusing their connected status to stalk other users. Due to the upswing in complaints regarding this problem, on February 20, 2014, LinkedIn ® implemented a member blocking feature. Blocking a member allows you to completely remove your profile from that connections view, and theirs from yours. In addition, says LinkedIn ®: You wont be able to message each other on LinkedIn. If youre connected, you wont be connected anymore. Well remove any endorsements and recommendations from that member You wont see each other in your Whos Viewed Your Profile Well stop suggesting you to each other in features such as People You May Know and People also Viewed How to block a LinkedIn ® member To block someone, visit their profile and hover over the down arrow to the right of the message button and click Block or report. You will then get a popup window with options to block this person or report them or both. If you choose to report them, you will need to provide a reason for doing so. Note that you do not need to disconnect from your contact first; blocking them automatically disconnects you. Once you have blocked someone, their name will appear on your block list. You can view the list by visiting your Privacy Settings under Manage who youre blocking. From here you can also unblock members, should you choose to do so. For more information on how the blocking feature works, including how to block from within a group environment, visit LinkedIn ®s Help Center article, Member Blocking Overview. Take additional privacy precautions Of course, ideally we would never want to have to block anyone, so take Rabbi Karpov’s advice to heart! In addition, here are a few more things you can do to protect your privacy: Only accept connections from people you know. LinkedIn ® is a great supporter of this philosophy; however, there is a trade-off between maintaining a small number of reputable connections and broadening your network (and thus increasing your leads) by connecting with people outside of your circle. Change your settings under Privacy Settings so that only those who know your email address or are in your imported contacts list can send you invitations (Go to Privacy Settings, Communications tab, and Select who can send you invitations). Go to Privacy Settings, Profile tab, and click on â€Å"Select who can see your connections† where you will have an option to prevent others from seeing see your network. This will prevent your 1st degree connections from seeing exactly how many connections you have; otherwise they will be able to get past the â€Å"500+† and see both your exact number of connections and who those connections are. None of these alternative actions is a perfect solution and you still may encounter unwanted attention on LinkedIn ®. If you do, it is your prerogative to block the offending member. You may also want to report any harassment to the LinkedIn ® Corporation; and if necessary, please seek legal counsel. Have you experienced harassment on LinkedIn ®? How did you handle it? What precautions will you take in the future? Please share below!

Same-sex marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Same-sex marriage - Essay Example Legalizing gay marriages will lead to polygamy. People will find alternatives to one man/one woman relationships. The definition of marriage so far rests on tradition, trust, legal precedent, and the support of the people. If such marriages are legalized then it will be supported by nothing more than a single judge as in the case of Utah where the court demanded that the state has to actually prove that polygamous relationship is detrimental to the society (James Dobson). Polygamists are trying to prove that polygamy is not harmful to the culture. Dobson cites that ‘ACLU went on to say that the nuclear family â€Å"may not be necessarily the best model.†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. Once such marriages find a place in justice, then what can stop even two/three or four marriages even amongst heterosexuals? What about the moral values on which make up a society? What do we pass on to the next generation? A tradition of distorted ideas and relations? The children would bear the heaviest brunt of such marriages in a world of decaying families. Homosexuals do not stick to one partner and study has shown that some have even more than one thousand. Children by nature are conservatives and adapt to the surroundings very easily. They hate change even in the relationship with their mother and father. We are all aware of the love and attention that a child needs from both mother and father. Even normal spilled marriages leave a child misbalanced.Religious freedom will certainly get affected.