Yasaman's Summary

Some thoughts:

As a result of the termination of the coal industry, the government of Lota is interested in tourism as an industry to potentially revitalize the economy. However the rapid growth of tourism on large scale in some countries in the region has been a significant agent of these, not all very welcome, changes. As in most developing countries of the world, tourism in many Asian countries is also conceived as a powerful means of attracting the coveted foreign exchange and an easy means of boosting the national economy. It brings investment, creates jobs, and promotes sales of crafts and local artifacts, etc. Accordingly the cultural heritage sites, performing arts, crafts and natural resources have all been exploited in attracting tourists. This approach has the danger of reducing cultural heritage and the environmental assets to an economic commodity, minimizing or sometimes completely ignoring their socio-cultural values.

The large number of tourists with different backgrounds have contributed to historic monuments and the location of tourist facilities within cultural heritage sites have too often resulted in alteration of the original features in all kinds of pollution damaging or even destroying the very fabric of the heritage.

Tourism, viewed from another perspective, however, effects attitudes, alters popular beliefs, changes mentalities and spreads new concepts relating to work, money, and human relationships. It brings people of different cultures together,provides a direct contact between them offering an opportunity for friendly and peaceful dialogue leading to better understanding between people and nations.

My focus:

I am interested in tourism and practices in sustainable tourism for the town of Lota. Sustainable tourism is not “Eco- Tourism” and although it will consider environmental equity, it will focus on the cultural sustainability. I would like to consider this fact and further develop ideas about sustainable tourism and whether it will work. I am interested in a type of tourism that is not simply for economic development, but rather focuses on cultural sustainability.

Sustainable tourism practices should take in to account that locals know best and should promote an upscale methodology where the management of tourist locations is by locals and more concisely, the community. In this way, the citizens have more power as to what they would like in their culture to be presented, and what to incorporate as activities with the tourists. I am interested in the connection of the sites and the way in which people in the city, not only tourists per ce, move about to get from one destination to the next. Currently I will write about tourism and research this area knowing that going to Lota I will be a tourist myself and perhaps make this in to a dialogue.

Last words:

Although I was thinking about tourism, once I received the groups that IWB had created, I became interested more in the idea of “place”. This is very interesting to me, where people go, how they move about the city, which areas of the city are the hubs, the architecture of the city and how it incorporates this transportation and movement.

Having said this, I am also interested in how people communicate with one another, the technologies they use, the locations they perform such tasks and how they move about the city in order to communicate.