Annotated Bibliography

Source 1: The article called “Social Media and Tourism Destinations” is a case study on the website TripAdvisor, which is used in order to rate and review different places, hotels, restaurants etc. throughout the world. This article reviews the growth of consumer generated content online and how it is affecting businesses and tourism worldwide. I chose this article as a source to help answer the question of how collaborative and participatory media have affected the nature of publishing on the web as I believe that TripAdvisor has become one of the largest tools for collaboration and participation on the web especially when it comes to travel. The article also explains the impacts that Web 2.0 and the building of new online communities have impacted the travel industry.

I have deemed this to be a reliable source due to the fact that it was from a well-known academic source and have multiple references linked to it.

You can read more about it here; http://www.iby.it/turismo/papers/baggio-aveiro2.pdf

Source 2: The source called “User generated content; the use of blogs for tourism organisations and tourism consumers” presents very similar arguments that are posed in the first article yetis focused more on the use of personal blogs. This article explains how with the development and popularity of the web we can see the power transferred from the supplier to the consumer. This shift is due to the fact that with the advancements of the web information that is presented can be very widely and very quickly distributed. The article states that surveys found that consumers trusted websites or blogs with reviews over those who are more professional or are from travel agencies, showing just how powerful communication and participation in regards to travel can be.

I chose this particular source as it gave a very interesting insight into the ways in which user generated content can affect tourism and looks at different aspects of the web and how they contribute to this ‘shift’ in power. I also chose this article as I found that the information presented was reliable as it was found through a trustworthy site and included many different references which helped to support their claims.

Read more here; http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11628-008-0054-2#page-1

Remediating for 140 characters

The use of twitter over the week has been a very interesting experience, having not used twitter much over the years it was difficult for me to see how it could be used in a positive way for research. However, as I began to use the various elements that twitter has I could easily see that it is indeed a very effective tool in the way of gathering information as well as connecting with others who share the same interests. In order to connect with those who were tweeting about topics that were of interest to me I used the hash tag function. This function allows all tweets that contain the same tagged word to be grouped together, allowing for the user to see all tweets that are about that subject at the click of a button. When tweeting about stories that have been on the web recently the most relevant # that I included was #travel, this was due to the fact that my subject and topic of interest was travel. Other hash tags that I included within my tweets were things such as adventure, world and tips; I used the function to include these words as they are all connected to the main idea of travel, therefore by doing this if users weren’t necessarily searching the travel hash tag they could still be linked back to my account.

Tweets:

All of you who haven't had the chance to #travel the #world, here are some of the reasons I love to #travel! http://aeuropeansummer13.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/introducing-my-topic.html …

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Research, research, research people! Some of the best #tips to know before you set off for your next #adventure http://www.news.com.au/money/cost-of-living/cool-savings-on-travel-costs/story-fnagkbpv-1226744217926 …

Re-tweets:

13 tips for roaming the world freely and safely http://huff.to/1cPmWrn (@huffposttravel)

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Classic Paris: a fresh look at the City of Light http://ow.ly/p2jkj  #lp #travel (@lonelyplanet)

Food, glorious food! Tour de dessert: Europe's most delicious pastries, cakes and tarts http://ow.ly/pbfX4  #lp #travel (@lonelyplanet)

 

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Creating Generative value

We travel the world in order to see and experience some of its most amazing landmarks and sites, although we expect to be mesmerised and intrigued by these various attractions sometimes this is not the case, why? Graffiti and vandalism, that’s why. Over the years as different historical sites and attractions have become more and more popular, the amount tourists who visit these sites have increased, in some cases this can be a good thing but some people have begun to use these areas as a drawing board.

Sites such as the Paris Catacombs, The Sphinx Giza, Fremont Troll and Jim Morrison’s grave as well as many other attractions have all fallen victim to these countless acts of vandalism. When we look at travelling to a certain area we look to see what it offers to us, this is not just the activities that we can complete while there it is the history that we can learn about the place and the people and the landmarks which we can visit along the way, this whole reason for travelling could very easily be destroyed by these acts of vandalism throughout the world. In my personal experience I want to travel and see landmarks and attractions in their original form, if I wanted to see something covered in graffiti I would visit my local skate park.

 I guess the question forms of how do we stop this? Tourists are going to continue to visit the worlds attractions which leads to this vandalism from happening, so what can we do about it?

I think the first answer to this question lies with making a clear distinction between what is vandalism and what is art. I read an article about the seven most vandalised attractions and two of these attractions actually started from a form of vandalism themselves, the Seattle Gum wall was started due to the fact that passers-by would constantly stick their old chewing gum on the wall and after many failed attempts attendants stopped scraping it off and hence this tourist attraction grew. Another case was the Cadillac Ranch in Texas where graffiti is actually welcomed! In order to stop this vandalism issue we need to be able to make clearly distinguish what should and shouldn’t be subjected to these acts of vandalism.

How do we make this distinction? I’m not sure but we will have to do it soon else there will be no more attractions left that haven’t been touched.

If you want more information read the article here: http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/the-worlds-most-vandalised-tourist-attractions/story-e6frfqai-1226746454843

Bridge of Love Locks

 

 

 

 

Paris is labelled one of the most romantic cities in the world and the landmarks it is home to are just that...romantic. Walking down this bridge you will see couples kissing as they 'lock' in their love, giggling groups of teenage girls writing down the initials of their latest crush and single tourists wondering what to do with themselves. This decade old tradition of writing down the initials of your partner and or loved ones has become famous throughout the world and a site that Paris is now known for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eiffel Tower

Arriving at the Eiffel Tower was a very surreal experience, as one of the worlds most well known landmarks i had thought for years what it would be like to the Eiffel Tower. With crepe and souvenier stands surrounding the area, the experience of being in a foreign country visitin one of the worlds most magnificant sights is something that i will never forget. For fellow travellers i would definitiely recommend climbing the Eiffel Tower at night and watching the light show, although the lines can be horrendous at certain times the view is worth the wait. Beware, there are lots of men who will try and sell you rip off handbags etc. around this area, i recommend you do not buy these as it is illegal and you do not want to be the unlucky person with the $10,000 fine!

Introducing My Topic

I’m blogging about the topic of travel as I believe that it should be a large part of everyone’s lives, those who haven’t travelled want to and those who haven’t usually don’t want to stop. After travelling extensively throughout Europe and Vietnam, my outlook on life has most definitely been impacted and I firmly believe that others should experience the different cultures and history of places in the world through travel.

In many cases, I think that people tend to get comfortable in the town they grew up or where they positioned themselves that they never get the drive to leave.  This may be okay for some, but I believe that is extremely important to travel to different areas and experience a ‘different life’ to what people may see in their everyday life. Growing up in Australia I had only seen someone begging on the street as a rarity and it was only through travelling to Vietnam and walking down the streets and through the markets that I was truly exposed to these things. It was through travelling to Vietnam that I could truly understand poverty.  

Travel not only allows you to expand your mind on what is out their it also gives you an opportunity to be able to meet new people and try things you may have never even dreamed of before.

 If I had not travelled and experienced this first hand I would have had limited knowledge and been closed minded to a lot things. This is why I believe that travel should be an important part of one’s life.

Travelling not only allows you to experience and see things that you may have never seen before but also enables you to discover things about yourself and often can allow you to grow as a person.

I created this blog as a way to portray how travel has acted to impact my life, by showing me what is out there and what is still left to discover and through this blog I want to be able to help people understand the importance of travel as well as giving them hints and advice as well as sharing some of my own travelling stories along the way.

In today’s society travel has become a huge part in our culture. With the change in people’s income and the increase in living conditions in most Western areas, people have the means to be able to travel to different areas throughout the world and they are doing this at all ages, hence I believe this will appeal to a wide audience.

  

Narrating Personal Interest

The topic of my blog is travel. I have always been interested in travel and in learning about different cultures and the history of different places and therefore thought I would create this blog in order to inspire people to do the same. In previous years I have travelled both domestically and internationally to places such as Vietnam; however I recently travelled throughout Europe and this trip is what I focus on in this blog. In July 2013, I travelled to places such a London, Paris, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy and had one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I grew up in a very small beach town and always wondered what it would be like to travel to different countries and learn about its history, culture and what an average day is like for those who live there. A few years ago, I travelled with my family to Vietnam, before this trip I had never been outside of Australia and it was definitely a culture shock. The differences in everyday life was an eye opener and the history of the country definitely gave me the drive to continue discovering different cultures and learning about their history. Living in Australia we are very fortunate in the fact that there is only a small amount of poverty, only on a rare occasion do we see homeless people or people begging. When I travelled to Vietnam it enabled me to open my eyes to the fact that we are very fortunate to have the living conditions we do and it is because of learning experiences such as this that travel is so important to me.

I have a great interest in exploring different areas, especially those that have been fairly untouched by tourism previously. Travel has become a huge part of my life recently and I am constantly planning and researching different places to go and cultures to learn about.