International Tourism Project

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

Term Paper Guidelines

The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to research an international location or a country that interests you as a travel destination and develop a detail profile of the location or the country. This should be an international location or a country where you have never traveled but where you would like to travel in the future. The area or the country you choose must be outside of the United States or its territories. This would exclude the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, etc. You will also be given an opportunity to present your destination profile as a group in the class to your classmates.

Chosen Destination: Italy

GENERAL TEXT REQUIREMENTS

A. All papers must be prepared in English and free of grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors. Please make sure your paper is thoroughly edited and proof read before submission.

B. All papers must be the original work not submitted to any other class.

C. All papers must be prepared using the APA format. (Please visit this website for APA guidelines: http://www.apastyle.org/)

D. Paper must be prepared using Microsoft Word software (version 6.0 or higher) on PC only.

E. Papers must be double spaced, Times New Roman font size 12, including tables, figures and references.

F. Indent the first sentence of each paragraph with 1/2 inch and align text left.

G. Please make sure that all tables, figures, and charts are complete, accurate, correctly titled according to APA format, and are correctly referenced in the text. If any table, figure or chart is taken directly from another publication, you need to cite the source and provide the full reference.

H. ALL sources must be referenced. Put all references in a separate section at the end of your paper and simply refer to them in the text by putting the author or authors’ names and the date in parentheses (i.e., Gursoy and McCleary, 2004) after the information you have cited. (Please visit this website: http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/ )

I. All references cited in the paper must be listed in the “References” section and that the names must be spelled correctly in both places. Note: This is one point that often is overlooked. (Please visit this website: http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/ )

J. All texts are carefully edited to conform to grammatical conventions.

K. Consistency in presentation must be maintained throughout the paper.

L. page limitation: 6 pages.

M. Please do NOT use footnotes and do NOT list references as footnotes at the end of each page.

PAPER FORMAT AND OUTLINE

1. Cover Page

Make a cover page. It must include the name of your destination, the name of the course, the date and name. Also include a picture that represents your destination. The picture does not have to be in color and might be downloaded from the Internet.

2. Introduction:

This section should tell what the paper is about. You should tell where in the world the destination you have chosen is located (don’t just name the country, tell where it is).

3. Destination profile

· Geographical location. Provide brief information regarding the location, continent, country, density, urban/suburban/rural distribution, city size, etc..This might be a good section to include map of the region where the country is located. Also provide information regarding climate and topography.

· Economy: Income levels (per capita, personal disposable) , spending patterns, the value-added tax (VAT) and price controls, if any, Gross National or Domestic Product (GNP or GDP) size and growth rate, unemployment rate trends, inflation rate trends, tax structure, trends in balance of payments surplus/deficit, exchange rate trends, presence of single or multiple exchange rates.

· Culture: Discuss the culture of the country/destination. Describe and discuss whether the culture of the country is a high context or low context culture and explain why. Also discuss and explain the culture using Hofstede’s Cultural Typology. In addition, briefly discuss the homogeneity level (ethnocentrism, cultural borrowing, etc), social institutions (religious affiliation distribution, presence of orthodox groups or influential cults, trends in sex roles, marriage, influence and location of subcultures, important social organizations, etc), aesthetics (visual arts - fine arts, plastics, graphics, public art, colors, etc.-, music, drama, ballet, and other performing arts, folklore and relevant symbols), verbal language (language(s), spoken versus written language(s), dialects, etc), non-verbal customs (time, space, association, negotiation, color, symbol and gesture “language”), and traditional dress, if any. Make sure that you link the discussion to culture lecture discussion in class.

· Include any customs or laws that a tourist should be aware of, such as attitudes toward time, the need to cover your legs in a temple, the penalty for buying currency on the Black Market, etc. You also need to discuss the cultural similarities and differences between the country you have chosen and the United States.

· Political Climate and System: Government structure, stability of government, political structure, political parties, ideology, incidence of bribery, corruption, violence.

4. State of Tourism

· Overview of tourism development: In this section, give an overview regarding the state of tourism development in the area. This might include the level of infrastructure, superstructure (transportation facilities, lodging, etc.) and carrying capacity. Provide the basic statistics such as number of hotels, number of tourist visiting the country (annual or monthly), where they are coming from etc.

· Negatives and health issues: Are there any negatives associated with the area, for example, high crime, possible war, disease, etc.? What type of vaccinations and preventive medicines are needed? Any travel warnings?

· Competitors: In this section, you need to identify and discuss some of the competitors of the country/destination. Basically, you need to identify countries/destinations that offer similar travel experiences. Number, resources, aggressiveness, competitive pricing strategies, promotion methods etc.

· This section is also a good place to do a SWOT analysis to identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of the country/destination you are researching. You also need to identify some of the opportunities and threats for the country of destination.

· Impacts of Tourism: Briefly discuss the impacts of tourism on the country/destination. You should discuss both positive and negative impacts; including but not limited to economic, social, cultural, environmental impacts of tourism. Provide basic statistics such as the proportion of the GNP/GDP contributed to by tourism industries, jobs created by tourism, tourism industry’s contribution to economy, tourist expenditures, growth rates, crime, crime against tourist, etc.

5. References

You need to cite all your sources in the paper and provide a proper reference page.

6. Overall quality of the paper

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

· The paper must be typed and free from spelling and grammatical errors.

· A proper reference section must be included. You may use any approved format for references.

· Be sure to reference Internet sources completely and in an approved format.

· Use the following headings in the paper. Type them in bold letters.

1. Introduction:

2. Destination profile

Geographical location.

Economy

Culture

Political Climate and System: Government structure, stability of government, political structure, political parties, ideology, incidence of bribery, corruption, violence.

3. State of Tourism

Overview of tourism development

Negative and health issues

Competitors

Impacts of Tourism

4. References (separate page)