The Geography of Tourism: Place, Sense of Place, and Course Overview

Course Logistics and Academic Structure\n- Instructor Identification: The course is led by Doctor West Kinghorn (also referred to as Doctor Wes Kinghorn), a specialist in the geography of tourism.\n- Course Term: Summer $2026$ edition.\n- Weekly Content Release Schedule:\n - Mondays: Readings are posted for students who prefer to get ahead. While many students wait until after the Friday lecture to read, the instructor notes that the lecture material provides deeper insights and examples that clarify the reading content.\n - Fridays: All core lecture materials are posted to the course site at some point during the day.\n- Lecture Components:\n - Video Introductions: Brief videos used for visual demonstrations or to show specific geographic locations.\n - Audio Podcasts: The primary delivery method for course content, designed to be asynchronous and mobile-friendly for students on the move during the summer.\n - Slideshows: Visual aids that accompany the audio. Students are encouraged to flip through these before or during the podcast and are warned that materials are for class viewing only and cannot be reproduced or redistributed.\n - Supplemental Links: Weekly incorporation of video clips, website links, and other media.\n\n# Conceptual Foundations of Place and Tourism\n- Primary Lecture Theme: \"Place, Sense of Place, and Tourism.\"\n- Definitions of \"Place\":\n - Place has been a central subject of study for decades by cultural geographers, planners, and sociologists.\n - It is considered a \"vague and contested\" concept with varying interpretations.\n - Foundational Definition (Yi-Fu Tuan): Places are defined as \"locations in space that derive their meaning through human experience.\"\n - Central Argument: Spaces only become \"places\" when they are imbued with specific human meaning.\n- Complexity of Places (Slide $13$):\n - Natural and physical settings serve as the backdrop.\n - Human components include activities, social processes, and psychological evaluations.\n - Connections involve personal identity, dependence, and emotional attachment.\n- Concept of Placelessness:\n - This refers to environments designed to be uniform or generic, regardless of their geographic location.\n - Example: A North American \"Smart Center\" (shopping complex) or a generic retail store like Winners. If an observer were blindfolded and dropped in front of one, they would be unable to identify the specific city because the parking lot, store configuration, and architecture are identical across the continent.\n- Transition from Space to Place: A location becomes a \"place\" once it has personal or shared meaning, often developed through descriptions, interactions, or experienced history.\n\n# Case Study: Notting Hill, London, England\n- Evolution of a Neighborhood: Originally a purely residential community where people lived and interacted within a local London neighborhood.\n- Media Influence on Tourism: The area became a major tourist attraction primarily due to the influence of the film Notting Hill. This illustrates how media (films, television, literature) informs travel decisions and shapes our understanding of places we have never visited.\n- Visual and Geographic Characteristics (Slide $5$):\n - Human Scale: The neighborhood is characterized by low-rise buildings rather than high-rise downtown structures, maintaining a homey feel.\n - Physical Proximity: Buildings empty directly onto the street, and neighbors live only feet away from each other.\n - Portobello Road Market (Market Phenomenon): A year-round open-air market that is both a local staple and a global tourist draw. In the film, physical effects (pre-CGI) were used to show seasonal changes while the market remained a constant presence in the protagonist's life.\n - Developing a Sense of Place: Even without visiting, a viewer of the film develops a sense of place by experiencing the neighborhood's scale and atmosphere through the media.\n\n# Case Study: New Orleans, Louisiana\n- Cultural Diversity and Identity: New Orleans is described as a city with a heavy \"cultural stamp,\" possessing a unique history of changing hands between Spanish, French, and American control.\n- Influences: The city's culture incorporates Island/Haitian influences, First Nations culture, and various European backgrounds.\n- The \"Gumbo\" Metaphor: New Orleans is likened to gumbo—a stew or soup containing a mix of vegetables and meats—representing its dense mix of history, music (Jazz, Zydeco), and food (Cajun and Creole cooking).\n- Neighborhood Study: The Treme (Slide $8$):\n - Location: A neighborhood situated a short distance from the river, near the French Quarter (the city's primary tourism and cultural center).\n - Residents: Historically the home of musicians who worked in the French Quarter.\n - Architecture: Known for small, affordable \"shotgun houses.\"\n - Impact of Hurricane Katrina: The neighborhood suffered massive flooding many years ago, causing high displacement. The HBO series Treme documented the flooding, character scale (shotgun houses), and the city's subsequent rebuilding efforts.\n- Global Reach: New Orleans is a global metropolitan city where people from around the world, including other European nations, come to work as buskers or residents.\n\n# Shared Sense of Place and Instructor Research\n- Private vs. Shared Sense of Place:\n - Private Sense of Place: A personal, individual connection (e.g., walking a dog in a specific park).\n - Shared Sense of Place: A collective meaning that is critical to tourism marketing. Shared meaning allows for the promotion of unique elements that provide unique experiences and memories to visitors.\n- The Four Pillars of Shared Sense of Place:\n 1. Physical Backdrop: Buildings, streets, and lighting.\n 2. Historical Context: Storytelling through architecture and heritage (e.g., Victorian eras).\n 3. Social Interaction: Group activities like concerts or fairs.\n 4. Cultural Representation: Enshrinement of events through art, literature, and media.\n- Local Example: Old North Neighborhood, London, Ontario (Slide $15$):\n - White/Yellow Brick: Unlike the red brick houses in Toronto, London's Victorian houses are often yellow because the local quarries utilized yellow clay. This physical detail contributes to the regional sense of place.\n - Architectural Diversity: The neighborhood features large mansions, medium houses, Ontario cottages, and multiplexes, allowing for a diverse demographic of residents including students, wealthy homeowners, and retirees.\n - Porch Concerts: Social events where bands perform on Victorian porches while neighbors gather with lawn chairs and drinks, creating shared memories.\n - Historic Street Fair: Purposeful community building involving horse-and-carriage rides, vintage games, and art galleries.\n - Artistic Enshrinement: A local artist painted a scene of the street fair, depicting Doctor Wes Kinghorn in a blue shirt being hit by water balloons. Such artwork captures and preserves meaning beyond the event itself.\n\n# Instructor Biography and Personal Anecdotes\n- Professional Background: Doctor West Kinghorn is a cultural geographer and public historian. He holds a PhD and conducted postdoctoral work in public history.\n- Organizational Leadership:\n - Former President/Chair of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.\n - Former President of Community Heritage Ontario.\n - Former President of the Urban League of London (a charity regulating community association groups).\n- Personal Hobby: Raising orphaned squirrels.\n - Elliot: A squirrel raised during the pandemic; he visited the instructor for $4$ years afterward.\n - Copper and Todd: Other squirrels raised and eventually released into the wild within the local neighborhood.\n\n# Assignments and Academic Policies\n- Mini Assignment:\n - Release Date: May $18^{\text{th}}$.\n - Duration: One week long.\n - Purpose: A preliminary exercise designed to prepare students for the first major assignment (Assignment $1$).\n- Built-in Flexibility Policy (The \"Four-Day Grace Period\"):\n - Every assignment in the course has $4$ days of built-in flexibility.\n - Official Due Date: The date listed on the assignment (usually a Monday).\n - Grace Period Cutoff: Friday morning at $09:00\,\text{AM}$.\n - Penalty-Free Period: Students may submit an assignment up to $4$ days late with no academic deduction, as long as it is uploaded before the Friday $09:00\,\text{AM}$ deadline.\n - Hard Shutdown: At $09:01\,\text{AM}$ on Friday, the submission portal closes. Any submissions after this time must be emailed and will receive an automatic $10\%$ deduction.\n - Extensions for Extreme Circumstances: If a student requires longer than the grace period, they must seek Academic Counseling approval. This approval must cover the entire period from the original Monday due date.\n- Communication: Instructor office hours are available in the \"Overview\" section of the course portal.", "title": "The Geography of Tourism: Place, Sense of Place, and Course Overview"}