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Dark Tourism

I did know that there was a tourism called dark tourism and have studied it in my previous classes with Professor Rood. my thoughts on this are that dark tourism is just as the name sounds, it is a dark path that leads to a lot of tourist attractions that would be considered dark or taboo to the common person. It consists of a lot of extreme tourist sites and attractions such as sex tourism, drug tourism, haunted tourism and much more. one place that has been on my list and that falls under the dark tourism category would be the haunted slave planation’s in Georgia. I hear stories and videos of how it is a hot spot for a lot of paranormal activity and that it is a great place to truly see something horrific. Another one on my list that also falls under the dark tourist category would be Auschwitz. this is surprising that it falls under dark tourism, but it starts to make sense once you connect why people go there and all these horrors that went on there. This destination is one that gets millions of tourists each year to come and see where some of the evilest actions took place. it is a place of horror, and many go there to see it and to take in what happened but also to show signs of respect and to see all the jews that died there just because of who they were under the evilest man to ever walk this earth. It is marketed as one a historic cite and a place of respect since many died there and it is a big piece of history being connected to World War 2 and its mass genocide. Everyone knows about Auschwitz and its name speaks for itself and is a place many go to travel through and to experience. Auschwitz is free of charge to travel around but only certain areas. Other areas come in certain payments and must also be walked through with a guide or a guard. But overall, it is free of charge and is seen as a place where you can go virtually for free to experience and put yourself in that setting to try and understand and see what happened there and how it happened. in my opinion it is exploited and recently, it has been having a problem of over tourism. there are always tons of people going through there and it makes it very packed and has many missing out on certain buildings or guides that they would have seen if it was less packed. The Polish government have also taken steps to try and limit this but closing it down some weeks or doing it every other week. This is a great spot I would love to visit, and I plan to visit this place within the next 10 years.

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Disability Travel

I was aware of accessible tourism since a lot of newer sites and attractions are starting to make it so that those who are less fortunate or disabled may also partake in these amazing tourist sites and not have to worry about being a burden. I’m still new on the whole accessible tourism aspect but I am learning more and more each day. It is a very important part of tourism to make sure everyone can experience what they paid for and what their dream are as well. Making sure that everyone can participate and has a chance in seeing these amazing sites should be at the top of every tourist destination’s list. It can be easy for a lot of people to travel as freely as others, and we must all take that into account when we are going about our tourism as well. It is our duty to give a helping hand and to make a difference and bring to light that those who are disabled or hurt can still have the same amount of fun as we do. An area that interests me would be how destinations are accommodating g to those in wheelchairs. I know a lot have installed ramps in their resorts and have also added more elevators in their resorts so that those with troubles will not have to worry which really warms my heart. I have always thought that all places need to be accessible to all people regardless of what they are or what their condition may be. They are paying to come see what you have to offer so why wouldn’t you try and make their life easier for a short amount of time. Next time I see someone that is disabled or in a wheelchair while I’m traveling, I will go out of my way to say that they don’t have to worry and that they will be taken care of because you deserve to be here just as much as everyone else and offer any assistance that I can provide to them.

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Animal and Wildlife Tourism

ackfish was a great documentary that really exposed and showed the world how Orcas are treated in the SeaWorld enclosures. There is already a moral dilemma when keeping animals closed into a small area and captivity but also there is another question on how we are keeping and having these intelligent creatures used at our disposal and for our own pleasure. The documentary was a good eye opener for many since it brought to light the aggressive incidents between animal and trainer and linked what has happened due to the keeping and slaving away of these beautiful creatures. Trophy was also a great documentary that exposed the big game hunting and how it affects the environment and wildlife conservation plans in Africa. There is no problem controlling pest or tackling the overpopulation problem but when the idea is to start hunting just to hunt then it becomes a problem because it is rooted in fun and evil at the expense of these animals’ lives. Since the release of the documentaries, there has been a lot of awareness and public debate on the ethical and morals of these companies. These documentaries have brought to light the horrible conditions and stress they are put through having to put on a show for people and to listen to the trainers. Concerning trophy hunting, there has been raised awareness of the stopping and killing of big game that are endangered or illegal to hunt but the overall approach on stopping and controlling this has been pretty weak. Some notable changes have occurred with captive orcas. After Blackfish's release, SeaWorld faced a public backlash, with attendance and revenue down. So, in 2016, SeaWorld announced that it was ending its orca breeding program and would stop hosting orca theater shows. Some other marine parks and aquariums around the world have also made changes, such as ending orca shows or stopping plans for new orca exhibits. When it comes to trophy hunting, countries are grappling with the problem. France, for example, banned the import of lion trophies in 2015, before extending the ban to other species in 2018. Several airlines and shipping lines have also imposed restrictions or bans on the shipment of hunting trophies. Additionally, some African countries have taken steps to regulate and manage hunting for conservation and community benefit (The European Union, 2018). Many other European countries have banned the selling and bringing of big game animals and have discouraged many who are traveling to do so in Africa and India. the current state of the situation will always be very tumultuous and will always be a fighting battle. There is still poaching and underworld big game hunting going which disregards problematic viewpoints and statistics for future species down the line. It is a better situation with many countries and organizations acknowledging the problem and making efforts to change it, but it is still going on and at a very high rate. In my opinion countries need to from a union in order to protect these animals and help preserve them so that future extinction for these species won’t happen and so many countries won’t be affected by lack of tourism because these animals are gone.

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Political Perceptions on Tourism

The Anthony Bourdain documentary was a good watch and really opened many eyes to Lebanon's food and their culture, mainly in Beirut. Any bombing will come as a shock, especially when it has to do with a plane, and he did not expect that to happen to him whatsoever. He does have a passion for food and will go anywhere to give an honest take on it and will make sure that the food that is good gets the credit it deserves. I think that the outside incidents have ruined his trip to Bruit, well not ruined but have influenced him and have affected his stay and outlook on the country as a whole. If I was in that situation that he was in, I would probably panic at first, but you have to make sure you are safe and remove yourself from the situation and equation. There will always be this strong tension and actions done in the Middle Eastern countries but that should block people away from going and experiencing their beautiful culture. He was risking a lot going to these countries and giving us a firsthand experience on what the food is like an he just happened to be at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Bourdain's return to food is nothing to scoff at since he experienced something traumatizing. It takes a big respectful person to continue what he loves to do and to help others in the process. If mi being honest, I don’t think he wanted to do it, but he did it for his listeners and fans and did it because he is passionate about it. his return to food shows us that no matter what you experience or go through, don’t let it halt or stop your goals. Take the time if you need it but go get after it soon because you don’t want to let that passion and flame die because of a bad situation. Argo is different from many other Middle Eastern war films in a sense that it is a hostage movie, but it shows the true feelings that many in these countries have for Americans. I loved this movie because it is action packed and it is secretive since he posed as an undercover Hollywood film crew to create a fake story but in reality, he is there to extract the hostages and save the day. This documentary defiantly opened my eyes on what Iran is going through and the real true tension that we so rarely see from our news networks. We need more films like this, and we need to have the real truth out there to educate people and to help them form their own opinions and see if they would like to travel there. I would love to visit Iran someday. I am still brushing up on my Arabic and have been trying to learn the language, but it is a very hard one to learn with a lot of rules and differs greatly from English or Spanish. I wools say once I can have a good grasp on the language, I would like to take a pilgrimage or a big tour of all the middle eastern countries and see what they have to offer. Overfishing is a very big problem in our world and people will always think we have enough because there are so many to go around. that is true to an extent, but the numbers are dwindling, and it is very common and parallel to over hunting. Yes, it feeds a lot of people and is a way for many to do business and keep their community growing but it can be done in a way that requires much less fish and doesn’t waste them in the process. People will always over fish because they need it, so it comes on the world government to make decisions and restrictions on this. I believe there should be a maximum that one can have but people do need to eat, and fish is a great source for many so I can see the constant battle between the two. I don’t know about other states, but I do know that depending on the fish, in Michigan you are allowed usually a maximum of 4-6 fish a day to help control the population and keep the species thriving. Overfishing has very little effect on me visiting these countries since I am someone that goes for the adventure, culture and scenery. I go to experience what I have never seen before, and I have been fishing in the ocean and the great lakes and have caught more fish than I can count so this documentary doesn’t truly affect my destination desires.

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Economic Impacts on Tourism

I heard about the film "Fyre" before I took the class and even heard about the whole festival and how it turned out to be nonsense. I did enjoy it and I was very surprised as to what I saw. This whole scheme of these con artists trying to get these popular music artists to promote this festival all in the name of talent and hand out all these horrible accommodations to their guests is nothing short of fraud and being illegal. It was a festival that many were excited about because they were going to see artists they all liked because Ja Rule and Billy McFarland wanted to make a quick buck. They had no experience organizing a festival and when the time came for them to step up, it went horribly wrong resulting in people experiencing horrible inhumane circumstances and living conditions while at the festival in the Bahamas. The promoters like kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid didn't even feel sorry for what they did and didn't seem to realize how much they affected the people that came to watch the show. My biggest takeaway from this film was that it even happened. Being in 2017, you would think that people would be able to tell a scam or see through one when it's happening but when powerful people promote it and make it so believable, you can't help but wonder. I learned about over tourism in one of my previous tourism classes here at Grand valley and wrote a report on it for one of my papers. The effects of over tourism are devastating wherever you go. The overpopulation takes a huge toll on all the resources, planning and environment. Over tourism has caused many places to shut down or get bad reviews because of the conditions when in reality it's a really nice spot when the capacity is at a reasonable size. It definitely changes the way I look at tourism because it is detrimental to an area and can have serious long acting effects if you are not careful. Travel agencies and resorts and staying places need to communicate with one another to make sure that their place of choice isn't ruined from this process. Since I know about over tourism, any trip that I go on in the future will be making sure that I look at the capacity it's at right now and also make sure that the time I go is known as a less busy month or time. It's only fair to the resort or place because i do not want to become a part of the problem or contribute to the downfall of an area. 

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I think that those that think that Bp did enough to clear up their oil spill clearly have not done their research or have seen how harmful the effects were on the environment. Bp tried to cover their mess up by settling on lawsuits and then ending the discussion there when clearly they could have done so much more to help with the cleanup and the aftermath of the spill. In this week's blog, we talk about ways that we can stop certain spills from happening and the necessary procedures that could make spills easier to clean or control. Bp clearly did not take the necessary precautions and they didn't go over situational testing for when an oil spill does happen. Their workers were not ready for this to happen and their equipment was faulty and not up to date due to the explosion. There should have been routine checkups to make sure everything was up to date and in order and also there should have been much more training for all aspects concerning the workers, regardless of their experience. The movie says that oil spills are so sudden and so fast that it couldn't be anticipated but what are the companies doing about that? There is always that possibility of happening and when it didn't happen they weren't prepared when they could have been. I think that private industries have that much more pressure on them to prevent these catastrophes but they should be having that. They are privately owned and took on that risk when they began starting up their company. They are not as well funded as the rest of the world's government industries but are very well funded regardless. They have the responsibility to be able to prevent these catastrophes and to handle them appropriately because the governments and people of this world are entrusting them to do so. They have the resources, money and manpower to make it happen but it comes down to greed and not wanting to spend more money than they need to. This in turn leads to accidents and dire consequences that the earth and the environment has to pay and answer for. What we have learned from these oil spills is that we need to be better and more prepared. We were lazy before and now we have no excuse to make sure that our equipment and workers are prepared and knowledgeable about what could possibly happen if the precautions are not taken the right way. Just one accident can wipe out ecosystems and could possibly cause the extinction of a species if we aren't careful. This isn't just for oil rigs but for any power plant or space that is producing goods for the world. I think tourism is able to survive this if they look at what has happened before. We must prepare in a way that everyone understands and knows what's going on. We cannot allow these catastrophes to keep happening and killing innocent creatures and people. Tourism agencies and companies have been good recently with dealing with problems but all it takes is one slip up or mistake and then a big problem occurs. It would be a good idea to the government funding to help build upon these tourist sites to better equip them if a problem were to occur. The last true big catastrophe that left Florida crippled was the hurricane back in 2017, Irma. It was one of the first category 5 hurricanes to strike the area and left most of Florida crippled and destroyed with many counties and cities having to take a long time and a-lot of money to rebuild. This in turn scared people away from Florida for that year and their tourism numbers went down drastically after that. 

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The one SDG that truly spoke to me was SDG 4: Quality Education. This in no way affects my career as of this moment but it greatly affects everyone in the United States and Even the world. I believe that every child should have the best of the best education. They are the future of this world and by allowing them to get an education that will make them happy, further their knowledge and help them grow as a character, they will help that much more in the future of this world and society as a whole. I chose this because Education is a topic in this country that is overlooked by many officials and law makers. People don't seem to grasp the importance of education, even more so fair education. There is a huge i justice across the country of many children and families getting the worst education based on income or where they live, while other children get education that is leagues above the other child. How is that fair to other children when they were born into that family and were not given any chance or any choice to have a say in the education they want to go into. I believe in equal and quality education for all children and i would like the money spent for each child to be raised to at least double the amount. The national average for a child's worth in school is $12,752. This doesn't correlate to my career but it correlates to me being a father one day and also all of you being parents one day. I think i speak for all of us when i say that we want our children to be given the best education that they can get and that there needs to be more addressed for our children because what we have right now is not cutting it. Schoo.s are overlooked in our society and people don't seem to understand that each child is the future and this world is only going to be as good as how much we teach and raise them. The biggest improvement that they are aiming for would be: By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations. I had no idea that this was a part of their list and i can say that seeing this made me that much more hopeful and excited for the future of our educational system if it keeps heading on the right path.

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UNWTO' Sustainable Development Goals were created and introduced to promote a better way of life and an alternative to what all of us are so used to during our time period. These goals are meant to help better the average person's life, help preserve nature and the planet and also plan for the future and whatever it may hold. All these goals are a blueprint to sustainable development for the next 20 years with most of these goals wanting to hit their mark by the year 2030. Since the main goal of the STG's is to promote a better overall health and equity i thought that there is no better example than to tackle the first problem that would benefit us all greatly and that is STG 13: Climate Action. This STG doesn't affect my career but it most certainly affects my future and the future of life as we know it. It is no surprise that global warming and climate change is at Earth's door knocking and wanting to get in so very badly. We have seen numerous examples of hotter days, ocean levels rising, more severe storms and longer seasons as a result of the earth heating top and our green house gas emmisons. I do like a-lot of the STG 13 goals that are introduced especially these three: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning; Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning; and Implement the commitment undertaken by developed-country parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to a goal of mobilizing jointly $100 billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation and fully operationalize the Green Climate Fund through its capitalization as soon as possible. Climate change is a huge issue that we have all seen has affected us and many other peoples lives around the world. If we cant live here on earth then that means that we will die out as a species and life as we know it will be over forever. By implementing rules, plans and strategies to raise awareness and better prepare ourselves for the possible future then we need to be well versed on a topic and be ready to do what we can to help earth and also find alternative ways to live. The other STG's are very important but the earth is going into a period of time that is unforgiving and it was caused by humans so its only fair that we make it right and fight for our planet.

[brendanparks3]

I would love to travel to Hawaii. It has always been a dream of mine to fly to those islands and see the volcanoes, clear blue water and experience the wonderful weather. It is always portrayed in media and through other's experiences that Hawaii is a paradise and i 100% believe it. I have been to the Bahamas many times and many like to compare the two. I love everything about the islands and the culture is also something that really draws me and wants me to visit there. I would love to learn how to surf and also experience everything the island has to offer and all its amenities.