Tourist attractions usually belong to one of four categories;
- natural attractions;
- built attractions;
- festivals and events;
- entertainment and leisure.
Natural attractions like the landscapes, mountains, rivers, or coasts are often also protected areas such as regional or national parks. Sometimes the animals, birds, or vegetation will be as important as the landscape itself.
Built attractions include historic sites, monuments, museums, and theme parks, theme parks are purpose-built – the designers created them thinking primarily about tourism. Monuments and historic sites were built for a different purpose, but in time have become tourists attractions.
Festivals and events are like built attractions. Many were not originally aimed at tourists. This is the case with Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and with countless religious festivals around the world, which often include a procession through the local streets. A parade is similar to a procession, but without a strong religious element.
Theatres, nightclubs, zoos and shopping centers are examples of entertainment and leisure facilities. Frequently, they are intended for use by the local population, but tourists use them while on holiday, in major tourist resorts like Las Vegas, this situation may be reversed.
In the past, sightseeing meant locating an attraction, taking photos, and going on the next one. Nowadays, tourist authorities work hard to bring attractions to life. At a historic site there may be animators – actors dressed in period costume s that try to help visitors capture the flavour of the past.
The tourist is always looking for new attractions, and the ‘attractions industry’ has to keep on changing.
The Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of the best examples of London’s 19th century architecture. The building looks very much like a cathedral and was designed by the architect Alfred Waterhouse using an iron and steel framework hidden behind arches and columns, which are decorated with sculptures of animals and plants.
The museum houses a whole host of exhibits of dinosaurs, mammals, as well as insects and plants. There are also displays devoted to human biology and the origin of species.
You can also visit the Earth galleries where you can find out what it’s like to be in the middle of an earthquake or standing next to a volcano.
Entrance to the museum is free and there’s a cafeteria if you get hungry, and a bookshop and a gift shop if you want to buy any souvenirs.
Buckingham Palace
The Palace is the London home of the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, and other family members also have their own rooms. About 50 domestic staff live there. John Nash started converting the original Buckingham House into a palace for George IV (reigned 1820-30), but Queen Victoria became the first monarch to live there in 1837.
The rooms include the state ballroom used for banquets, the music room where state guests are presented and the picture gallery containing a selection of the Queen’s paintings. There is also a swimming pool, a private cinema and a post office.
During the summer the palace guard, which consists of three officers and forty men, is changed to the sound of martial music.
TRANSPORT FOR TOURISM (1)
Transport for tourism can be divided into three main categories: journeys by air, journeys on water, and journeys on land. Within each category there are several types of transport.
Air travel usually means a short-haul or long-haul international flight, operating from large airports, which in big cities often have more than one terminal building. But in some more remote places there may be little more than a small airstrip with only one simple runway for planes to land and take off. At some tourist destinations air transport may include short transfers or sightseeing trips by helicopters.
Journeys on water can include luxury cruise ships, which take tourists on all-inclusive holidays of three days or more, visiting a number of different locations. Passengers sleep in cabins, and have a full range of services on board. They are looked after by a team of stewards, with a purser in overall charge of tourist services. Ferry crossings are usually much shorter journeys connecting two points of land or going between islands. The ferries will stop at a large port or a small harbour.
Land travel is probably the most diverse category. It includes rail journeys by train, departing from a large station and stopping terminus en route. Passengers sit in separate carriages or coaches. The most common form of transport by road for tourists, if they don’t have their own car, are also called coaches. These vehicles can either travel from city to city along fast motorways (or sometimes quieter roads), or they can be used for transfers from airports and other smaller journeys. Very often they are used for sightseeing trips when as well as a driver there will be a tour guide to tell passengers about the sights.
TRANSPORT IN TOURISM (2)
Tourism is one of the six sub-sectors of the tourism industry. It is usually divided into three types:
- Land transport – train, coach, bus, tram, taxi, car motorbike and bicycle;
- Water transport – cruise ship, ferry, yacht, motorboat;
- Air transport – jet aircraft light aircraft, and helicopter.
From the tourist point of view, each of these types fulfils one of three functions:
- Travel to and from the destination;
- Local transport at the destination;
- Transport as a tourist attraction.
Air transport is the dominant form of travel today. It is very good for business people because it is the fastest way of travel.
Trains provide transport to and from destinations and also locally. They can also be a tourist attraction, as with the Orient Express from Paris to Venice. Coaches provide international and inter-city transport. In those countries where the rail network is not well developed, luxury coaches provide a cheap but comfortable alternative.
Modern cruise ships are floating hotels, and provide transport, accommodation, and attraction in a single place. Not all cruises take place at sea. The Nile in Egypt and the Rhine in Germany are rivers where tourists can enjoy cruises.
Ferries travel between countries, as with the cross-channel ferries from the UK to continental Europe, or between islands, as in Greece or the Philippines.
Tourism transport can be scheduled or charter.
Scheduled transport operates on a regular basis shown on a published timetable and following specific routes.
Charter transport is aircraft, coaches, or trains that have been contracted to travel to a specific destination on a specific date. Charter transport is cheaper than scheduled.
Travelling by any kind of transport can be romantic, fascinating, interesting. It can leave you vivid impressions and good memories.
EATING OUT
Food is an integral part of any tourism experience. It is true that holidaymakers at popular package holiday resorts sometimes look for the sort of food they would eat at home. However, most tourists expect to try dishes that are different, and usually they have high expectations as to the standard of food they are served.
One result of this situation is the use of food as a tourism resource. This is not new. In the past, food-lovers traveled specifically to different regions or countries in order to try the local food. Now many places include their local dishes, wines, or other drinks as part of their tourism identity. Food festivals are another way to use this resource to attract visitors. Gastro-tourism is based principally on marketing the food and drink of a region.
Some holidaymakers arrive with pre-conceived ideas about the food of the country they are visiting because of the fame national dishes acquire. The rice dish paella is often considered to be the national dish of Spain. A national dish can be a drink. Ireland, for example, is often identified with Guinness, a type of beer. However, national dishes quite often hide the richness of a county’s gastronomic heritage, with each region within a country having its own dishes. These will be reflection of the local climate, ingredients, customs, and even history.
NATIONAL CUISINE
Turkish cuisine
Turkish food is delicious, rich, and varied. Turkey is self-sufficient in food, and the range of vegetables and fruits available at all times of the year provides a constant source of fresh ingredients. Because of this, the taste and preparation of the wide range of dishes changes with the seasons. We never use tinned or frozen ingredients, unless it is to create a specific taste.
Turkish food has some of its origins in the lifestyle of the people that lived in this region during the time of the Sultans. Even today the evening meal is often the evening’s entertainment. The equivalent of the western ‘starter’ is mezes, which consist of a huge selection of tasty dishes served in the centre of the table, including vegetables, meat, chicken, and seafood all prepared differently. Everyone tastes all of the dishes, which often consist of the same vegetable prepared in a number of very different ways. There are, for example, over 100 ways to prepare auberginers alone.
Eating at home in Turkey of in a traditional Turkish restaurant is never hurried, and the evening meal can last for many hours. The transition from starters to the main course is not always obvious, but typical main course dishes are skewers of succulent lamb or chicken, accompanied by tasty rice dishes.
Desserts are extremely sweet and the perfect complement to the strongly savoury aspect of Turkish food. The wide range of sweet dishes available is a good complement to the equally extensive range of mezes. Visitors to Turkey are often surprised by an unusual Turkish custom. When you eat out, it is not unusual to change restaurants at the dessert stage!
We hope this short culinary guide provides you with an insight into eating in Turkey and gives you another reason to visit this very hospitable country. It only remains to wish you a very sincere, ‘Afiyet olsun’.
Ukrainian cuisine
Ukrainian cuisine is famous for its appetizing variety of dishes. These dishes were devised from a wide choice of products, by combining different recipes and by preparing them in varied ways. For instance, the popular Ukrainian borsch has as many as 20 ingredients; in preparing it the ingredients are boiled as well stewed.
Many meat and fish dishes are fried or stewed to give them an original taste and flavour.
Many dishes in Ukrainian cuisine are stuffed or larded. Especially tasty are dishes with meat and vegetables; cabbage rolls, home-made Ukrainian sausage with onions, potato rolls stuffed with mushrooms, beets and rice, and others.
Ukrainian dishes made from poultry are very popular, for instance Сutlets a la Kiev.
Ukrainian cuisine is rich in dishes made from flour. The most popular are vareniki, mlintzi, buckwheat bread, etc.
Ukrainian cuisine is also rich in fruit and berry desserts and drinks. For centuries Ukrainians have prepared their own national drinks: home-made nalivkas (fruit liquer), brandies, varenukhas, kvass and uzvarets.
As a result of close economic, cultural and trade ties, a number of dishes of different nations from all over the world have been introduced into Ukrainian cuisine. And many Ukrainian dishes – borsch, vareniki, larded meat, home-made sausage, stuffed fish and others are especially popular abroad.
For tasting the authentic Ukrainian food one should go to the traditional restaurant “Puzata Khata”. It’s a good idea to book a table at the restaurant “Kozatske Podvirya” on Khortytsia island.
The hospitality, generosity, and rich emotions of the Ukrainian soul are represented by the traditional cuisine and eating habits of our people.
CULTURES AND TRADITIONS
Working in tourism means meeting people from different countries. It also means sending people to different destinations with different traditions and customs. It is important to respect and understand these different traditions and customs.
Flamenco
Flamenco is traditional song and dance that originated in Andalusia in southern Spain. Nobody really knows about its history but it developed over several centuries from gypsy, Moorish, Andalucian and other roots, and then entered polite society in the early 19th century as café entertainment. The guitar and the rapid handclapping of the singers and dancers set the scene. The dancer doesn’t begin straightaway, but waits, absorbing the rhythm of the guitar, the clapping and the singing until he or she is inspired to dance. And flamenco is improvised. It represents the dancer’s spontaneous expression of the moment’s emotions. And those who aren’t singing may shout encouragement like: ole! baile! baile! – dance! dance!
The Highland Games
The Highland Games is a festival held every year since the beginning of the 19th century in different towns in modern Scotland with competitions in sports, music and dancing. Of course, if you go to the games you’re bound to see many men wearing kilts and playing traditional music on the bagpipes. Typical sports include throwing a heavy ball at the end of a chain and what we call tossing the caber. Here each contestant has to lift and throw a huge piece of wood shaped like a tree trunk. You have to be extremely strong and skilful because a caber weighs about 60 kilos and is over five metres long. This is a uniquely Scottish event and the games represent our pride in being Scottish and our history and national heritage.
SPECIALIZED TOURISM
The second half of the 20th century was characterized by the arrival of mass tourism, which became possible through the use of jet aircraft and the introduction of package holidays. Tourism today continues to offer package tours, but at the same time attempts to see the tourist as an individual. Two key issues here are
- how to respond to individual tastes, and so promote difference in tourism
- how to respond to each tourist’s rights, and so promote equality in tourism.
As people have traveled more, the need to experience something different, something special has also grown. The result is ‘ niche tourism’. Tour operators have realized there is a market for the specialist tourist, and it is a market that often spends more than the ‘package-holiday’ tourist. This market is perhaps the fastest-growing market in the tourism industry.
Literally anything has the potential to become a niche tourism product, from cosmetic surgery to discovering your family’s past (genealogy). Niche tourism has a thousand different faces – holidays for senior citizens, tours for disabled, garden tours, gastronomic holidays, tours geared towards the gay community, photographic holidays, ‘dark’ tourism (visiting places with sinister and macabre histories), and many more.
Certain broad categories of niche tourism seem to be developing just now:
- cultural – art, history, religion, education, customs and traditions;
- environmental – observing wildlife or sports activities in the wilder areas of the world;
- rural – activities in non-urban areas, normally directly related to rural lifestyles;
- urban – city-based activities, including business tourism.
Specialized tourism is trying to address the needs of the disabled traveler. In the past tourism was a luxury, today it is an indicator of a minimum quality of life and in many countries is seen as a right.
