Tourism geographies and the place of authenticity

Along with the earliest theories of tourism arose an interest in understanding the role of authenticity. These burgeoning efforts were based in history, anthropology, and sociology (see Boorstin, 1961; MacCannell, 1973, 1976; Cohen, 1979); yet, the subsequent infusion of geographical perspectives that spatialize authenticity have greatly enriched our conceptualizations. Indeed, these scholars were invaluable in laying the foundations of key aspects of authenticity – Boorstin (1961) in asserting tourism is comprised of pseudo-events drew attention to staged aspects of tourism encounters, MacCannell (1973; 1976) explicated the mechanisms through which staging occurs and initiated a discussion of the socio-cultural significance of authenticity, which Cohen (1979) then refined by elaborating on the various ways authenticity comes into play in tourists’ motivation for recreational, diversionary, experiential, experimental, and existential experiences. However, what these contributions were lacking was attention to the geographical, that tourism is simultaneously a mobilities and a placed-based phenomenon, and as such the roles of scale, mobilities, space, place, and landscape are crucial to experiences of authenticity

The Strange and Spooky Battle over Bats and Black Dresses: The Commodification of Whitby Goth Weekend and the Loss of a Subculture

From counterculture to subculture to the ubiquity of every black-clad wannabe vampire hanging around the centre of Western cities, Goth has transcended a musical style to become a part of everyday leisure and popular culture. The music’s cultural terrain has been extensively mapped in the first decade of this century. In this article, we examine the phenomenon of the Whitby Goth Weekend, a modern Goth music festival, which has contributed to (and has been altered by) the heritage-tourism marketing of Whitby as the holiday resort of Dracula (the place where Bram Stoker imagined the Vampire Count arriving one dark and stormy night). We examine marketing literature and websites that sell Whitby as a spooky town, and suggest that this strategy has driven the success of the Goth festival. We explore the development of the festival and the politics of its ownership, and its increasing visibility as a mainstream tourist destination for those who want to dress up for the weekend. By interviewing Goths from the north of England, we suggest that the mainstreaming of the festival has led to it becoming less attractive to those more established, older Goths who see the subculture’s authenticity as being rooted in the post-punk era, and who believe that Goth subculture should be something one lives full-time

Modern ‘live’ football: moving from the panoptican gaze to the performative, virtual and carnivalesque

Drawing on Redhead's discussion of Baudrillard as a theorist of hyperreality, the paper considers the different ways in which the mediatized ‘live’ football spectacle is often modelled on the ‘live’ however eventually usurps the ‘live’ forms position in the cultural economy, thus beginning to replicate the mediatized ‘live’. The blurring of the ‘live’ and ‘real’ through an accelerated mediatization of football allows the formation of an imagined community mobilized by the working class whilst mediated through the sanitization, selling of ‘events’ and the middle classing of football, through the re-encoding of sporting spaces and strategic decision-making about broadcasting. A culture of pub supporting then allows potential for working-class supporters to remove themselves from the panoptican gazing systems of late modern hyperreal football stadia and into carnivalesque performative spaces, which in many cases are hyperreal and simulated themselves

Development and evaluation of a novel, semiautomated Clostridium difficile typing platform

We describe a novel, semiautomated Clostridium difficile typing platform that is based on PCR-ribotyping in conjunction with a semiautomated molecular typing system. The platform is reproducible with minimal intra- or interassay variability. This method exhibited a discriminatory index of 0.954 and is therefore comparable to more arduous typing systems, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

Full-Duplex Digital Communication on a Single Laser Beam

A proposed free-space optical communication system would operate in a full-duplex mode, using a single constant-power laser beam for transmission and reception of binary signals at both ends of the free-space optical path. The system was conceived for two-way data communication between a ground station and a spacecraft in a low orbit around the Earth. It has been estimated that in this application, a data rate of 10 kb/s could be achieved at a ground-station-to-spacecraft distance of 320 km, using a laser power of only 100 mW. The basic system concept is also applicable to terrestrial free-space optical communications. The system (see figure) would include a diode laser at one end of the link (originally, the ground station) and a liquid-crystal- based retroreflecting modulator at the other end of the link (originally, the spacecraft). At the laser end, the beam to be transmitted would be made to pass through a quarter-wave plate, which would convert its linear polarization to right circular polarization. For transmission of data from the laser end to the retroreflector end, the laser beam would be modulated with subcarrier phase-shift keying (SC-PSK). The transmitted beam would then pass through an aperture- sharing element (ASE) - basically, a mirror with a hole in it, used to separate the paths of the transmitted and received light beams. The transmitted beam would continue outward through a telescope (which, in the original application, would be equipped with a spacecraft-tracking system) that would launch the transmitted beam along the free-space optical path to the retroreflector end

"Oh! What a tangled web we weave": Englishness, communicative leisure, identity work and the cultural web of the English folk morris dance scene

In this paper, we consider the relationship between Englishness and the English folk morris dance scene, considering how the latter draws from and reinforces the former. Englishness is considered within the context of the cultural web; a tool more often applied to business management but linked to a sociological viewpoint here. By doing so, we draw the connections between this structured business model and the cultural identity of Englishness. Then, we use the framework of the cultural web and theories of leisure, culture and identity to understand how morris dancers see their role as dancers and ‘communicative leisure’ agents in consciously defending Englishness, English traditions and inventions, the practices and traditions of folk and morris, and the various symbolic communities they inhabit. We argue that most morris dancers in our research become and maintain their leisured identities as dancers because they are attracted to the idea of tradition – even if that tradition is invented and open to change

World heritage site management: a case study of sacred sites and pilgrimage routes in the Kii mountain range, Japan

This research examines three themes: heritage management and conservation activities, local communities and tourism development in Kii World Heritage Site (WHS) after WHS designation. Kii is a cultural WHS having links with Japanese religions and consisting of shrines, temples and pilgrimage routes. This study inductively and qualitatively examines these three themes. Overall, the current status of Kii WHS is satisfactory. Local people, tourists/visitors and experts are all actively involved in heritage management and conservation activities. WHS listing seems to have enhanced local identity, increased local people’s pride in their culture and place of residence, and triggered a revitalisation of local culture. Moreover, tourism’s negative impacts appear to be minimal, despite an increase in the number of visitors since UNESCO inscription. There are a few issues to be improved, which derive mainly from a lack of understanding of WHS status or conflicts between heritage management/tourism and religious practices. A more holistic approach, such as establishing a forum consisting of all key stakeholders, would be useful for the further success of Kii WHS as a religious and sacred site, place to live and tourist destination

Population pharmacokinetics-based recommendations for a single delayed or missed dose of nusinersen

Nusinersen is an antisense oligonucleotide approved for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy. The drug is given intrathecally at 12 mg, beginning with 3 loading doses at 2-week intervals, a fourth loading dose 30 days thereafter, and maintenance doses at 4-month intervals. This population pharmacokinetic model was developed to clarify how to maintain targeted nusinersen exposure after an unforeseen one-time delay or missed dose. Simulations demonstrated that the impact of a one-time delay in dosing or a missed dose on median cerebrospinal fluid exposures depended on duration of interruption and the regimen phase in which it occurred. Delays in loading doses delayed reaching the peak trough concentration by approximately the duration of the interruption. Resumption of the regimen as soon as possible resulted in achieving steady state trough concentration upon completion of the loading phase. A short delay (30-90 days) during the maintenance phase led to prolonged lower median cerebrospinal fluid concentration if all subsequent doses were shifted by the same 4-month interval. However, administration of the delayed dose, followed by the subsequent dose as originally scheduled, rapidly restored trough concentration. If a dose must be delayed, patients should return to the original dosing schedule as soon as possible

Toward an understanding of tourists’ authentic heritage experiences: Evidence from Hong Kong

Authenticity in tourism has been a topic of discussion since the 1960s, but the concept is still to be fully developed. This study focuses on tourists’ perceptions of authenticity, and in particular how they evaluate authentic heritage experiences. The appearance and physical settings of attractions were found to be the initial and most important indicators of authentic or inauthentic experiences. Other criteria for assessing the authenticity of heritage experiences include the presence of local culture and customs, constructed elements, commodification, and atmosphere

Tourism and toponymy: Commodifying and Consuming Place Names

Academic geographers have a long history of studying both tourism and place names, but have rarely made linkages between the two. Within critical toponymic studies there is increasing debate about the commodification of place names, but to date the role of tourism in this process has been almost completely overlooked. In some circumstances, toponyms can become tourist sights based on their extraordinary properties, their broader associations within popular culture, or their role as metanyms for some other aspect of a place. Place names may be sights in their own right or ‘markers’ of a sight and, in some cases, the marker may be more significant than the sight to which it refers. The appropriation of place names through tourism also includes the production and consumption of a broad range of souvenirs based on reproductions or replicas of the material signage that denote place names. Place names as attractions are also associated with a range of performances by tourists, and in some cases visiting a place name can be a significant expression of fandom. In some circumstances, place names can be embraced and promoted by tourism marketing strategies and are, in turn, drawn into broader circuits of the production and consumption of tourist space