Start by understanding that there are two big reasons why people travel:

One is holidays, and the other is to attend a special event or attend something that they have a special interest in. This type of travel is called "Special Interest" tourism. People are travelling to be somewhere because the place, or something about the place and time, has a particular special interest to them,

This type of tourism can include everything from attending conferences and business meetings to weddings and reunions. It may involve groups of people congregating in one place; or perhaps moving together across some pre planned route, according to a predetermined timetable.


Duration: 100 hours

Prerequisites: None

Level: Statement of Attainment

COURSE STRUCTURE

There are ten lessons in this module as follows:

1. Sectors of the Tourism Industry –Scope of the travel product (natural & cultural, events & sites)
2. Types of Tourism –Regional, Rural, Urban.
3. Accommodation Types: Resorts and Hotels, Camping, Back packers, Cruises, Special interest accommodation, Cultural Tourism –Theater, Indigenous tourism, Historic parks, Cultural vs Heritage tourism
4. Events & Festivals –Concerts, Exhibitions, Performances.
5. Environmental Tourism – Nature based tourism, Wildlife tourism and ecotourism etc
6. Health & Adventure Tourism – Health resorts & Spas, Bicycle & Walking Tours, Soft vs Hard Adventure Tourism, Rock Climbing, Space Tourism
7. More Special Interest Tourism –Food & Wine, Senior Tourism, Sex tourism
8. Visitor Management & Contingency Planning –Risk management (safety, financial, etc), insurance, environmental impacts, etc
9. Packaging a Tour - Planning the Itinerary; costing; delivery; review etc

WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS COURSE

The course is more than theory, but it offers you choices in what practical tasks you undertake and how you undertake them, for example: you might do some or all of the following:

• Visit travel agencies or information centres
• Search the internet
• Write to a government travel authority/department
• Visit a local or regional tourist centre
• Study travel pages in a newspaper for both articles and advertisements
• Visit a library, bookshop or news stand and look at travel magazines
• Conduct interviews or surveys
• Attend events

 AIMS

• To differentiate between different types of tourism on a variety of bases, including:
• demographics, geography, economics, and culture.
• To compare a variety of different accommodation services provided in the tourism industry.
• To describe the operation of heritage and cultural tourism, including: historical, architectural, indigenous, and artistic attractions.
• Evaluate the tourism potential of events and festivals.
• To describe the management of passive natural tourist attractions, including wilderness areas, beaches, rivers, wildlife etc.
• To describe the operation of different types of tourism facilities that have a significant focus on health and fitness, including Health Resorts, Walking Tours and Cycling.
• To describe a variety of other types of special interest tourism, including food tourism, senior tourism and sex tourism.
• To plan and manage the number of visitors to different types of tourism facilities and develop appropriate contingency plans.
• To plan a package holiday incorporating a variety of accommodation and attraction options.

Organising Reunions

Reunions can be small or big affairs, and a business opportunity for travel industry professionals.

Reunions are usually events such as  - It’s been 10 years since we left school. 20 years since we left school. 30 years and so on.  It’s been X years since we left the army.  Or, we all served together at Army Base X twenty years ago.  We went to University together in thirty years ago, and so on.  Usually one person or a small group will have the idea to hold a reunion.  They may organise it themselves, but if they ask you to organise an event for them, you may have to become involved in contacting people to attend. This can be easier said than done.

Consider university students who are studying psychology together who decide to meet 20 years after leaving university. There were 60 people in the group or class. The university may keep records of alumni, but they may not be up to date. You may be able to contact people via social media, but as we said earlier, not everyone is on social media or checks their social media regularly.  How do we get in touch with everyone? We may use word of mouth and so on. Hopefully the organisers will take on more of this sort of research, but be prepared to get involved.

Then we also have to consider how people arrive. Using the example of 60 psychology students, some of these may have kept in touch, some of them might not have seen each other for 20 years. People can change a lot in 20 years and to walk into a room of 60 people you have not seen for 20 years can be daunting. So it is useful to make the entrance to the reunion as easy as possible. Offer name badges or stickers so people can show who they are and also see who other people are.  You may want to consider offering a “staging area” where people can go when they first arrive. An obvious idea is an introductory free drink (alcohol or non-alcoholic) so people go immediately to the bar, or drinks table, and may then strike up a conservation with others as they arrive.  You might consider having photos of the guests, as they were at university, on a display board. As guests arrive they could then go and check out the display and hopefully again strike up a conversation. It is obviously not your responsibility to ensure that everyone has someone to talk to, but if everyone has a good time, they may well want to know who organised it for future reference. It is worth taking the time to make suggestions to the organisers on how to run a reunion like this.

It is equally important to watch out for potential problems. People who have not seen each other for many years, may confront difficult situations associated with their past. eg. People who were once in a relationship, then broke up. Old rivalries. Someone who got the job while another didn’t. Someone who keeps bragging about how important their job is and so on. So be aware of managing your clientele. Events like weddings, reunions and so on can be emotional, in a positive or negative way, so be aware and beware!