CODE | TRS1161 | ||||||||||||
TITLE | Tourist Experience of Place | ||||||||||||
UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||||||
ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
DEPARTMENT | Tourism Management | ||||||||||||
DESCRIPTION | Avisitor’s experience in an urban environment is one of discovery and appreciation. Tourists wander linger and take in the surroundings. Visitors enjoy the broader qualities of place – the physical environment created by architecture, streetscape and physical form combined with socio-cultural attributes such as the atmosphere and character. Walking as an activity is strongly associated with the practice of tourism. This study-unit examines this much taken-for-granted activity to see how walking underpins the way people encounter, engage with, and experience the world around them. Indeed, more than just underpinning that encounter, even the routes one takes for one’s journey shape and determines what parts of that world one encounters. Walking as both a means of locomotion and as a process of experience thus not only underpins the traveller’s encounter with the world, but also constructs and shapes the world the walker finds. The tourism experience is often shaped by the ‘sense of place’ of a street, piazza, urban area or even of a destination. In a tourism context, different spaces can constitute ‘place’. It could be a historic area in a town. It could also be the main pedestrian streets dedicated to shopping and other commercial activities. Or else it could be a rural area characterised by greenery and scenic views over the countryside or coast. Each of these can constitute place, and each will be considered in this study-unit. Study-Unit Aims: - to develop student skills in perceiving the environment; - to develop students’ understanding of what constitutes ‘sense of place’; - to enable a better understanding of how environmental perception impacts the tourism experience. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify the importance of the landscape (built and unbuilt) vis-à-vis tourism activities; - develop arguments concerning a range of issues related to the experience of walking; - debate theoretical discourses dealing with space, place, and identity. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - develop academic work which demonstrates skill in producing coherent arguments; justifiable analysis of texts, drawing rational and logical conclusions; - demonstrate an understanding of the physical environment and how this impacts the tourist experience. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - Ebejer, J. (2021) Tourism in European Cities: Architecture, Urban Spaces, and City Attractions. Rowman & Littlefield. Chapters 7 and 8. - Carmona, M., T. Heath, T. Oc and S. Tiesdall (2010) Public places - urban spaces: the dimensions of urban design. Second Edtion. Oxford: Architectural Press. - Morgan, M., P. Lugosi and J.R. Brent Ritchie (2010) The tourism and leisure experience: Consumer and managerial perspectives. Bristol: Channel View Publications. - Ebejer, J. (2014). Meaning of place and the tourist experience. Tourism Research Symposium: Tourism, Malta and the Mediterranean, Floriana, Malta. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323677131 - Hayllar, B., Griffin T. and Edwards, D (2008) City Spaces - Tourist Places; Urban Tourism Precincts, Butterworth-Heinemann. - Wunderlich , F. M. (2008) Walking and Rhythmicity: Sensing Urban Space, Journal of Urban Design, 13(1), 125-139. |
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STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Tutorial | ||||||||||||
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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LECTURER/S | John Ebejer |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |