An Urban Tourism Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

An Urban Tourism Experience - Essay Example Through the development of a narrative of the experience of being out in the field, the study uses thematic descriptions in order to define the way in which the experience of Rome can be brought into context with the modern experience. The themes that emerge in the development of the case are defined by the overall Roman culture through which an understanding leads to a sense of pride in the Italian lifestyle. A definition of urban tourism can simply be made by stating that it is tourism that has a city or cities as a destination for holiday. A more complex version of the definition, however, involves the desire to seek out other cultures and explore social meaning and context through first hand experiences. While urban tourism needs an additional amount of information in order to have real meaning, the ability to go to an urban center and taste the nature of the culture through experience can expand the understanding that one has about that locale. The culture of a city comes from the incidental and unintentional things that are encountered. The development of an urban tourism encounter is based upon the development of a conglomeration of disciplines so that the holiday creates a sense of the environment, not just the concept of the outsider who is looking in on a culture as if it were a zoo. Many travellers see the world as if it is a zoo for their observation, but not a place in which to immerse oneself in the culture of a city is to discover something more than just what can be observed. Urban tourism types of travel have the ability to create a connection to the observed culture that is based upon seeing their world through eyes that have been taught to look. Through information from outside sources, through learning a bit of the language of the city that is the focus of the travel, and through looking for aspects of the city that are not intended for the eyes of the traveller, the culture begins to emerge. 1.1 Research Questions The following research questions have been developed in order to frame the inquiry that this study has endeavoured to create: What is the cultural experience that defines the urban tourism event in Rome? What appears to be the hidden culture that the facade created for tourists has tried to dissuade tourists from observing? What are the cultural meanings that the urban tourist can readily observe within the experience of the city of Rome? What experiences in the city of Rome can become part of a profile of its identity? 2. Literature Review 2.1 Urban Tourism Buhalis and Darcy (2011, p. 123) discuss the nature of tourism by writing that â€Å"Travel involves the movement away from home with its gendered responsibilities and expectations, as well as the movement towards other worlds and possible selves experienced within a relation to difference†. The experience of immersing oneself into another culture is defined both by the lived experiences of the indigenous population, combined with the public identity of the locale that has been created through carefully cult ivated perceptions about the regions.