Post date: Sep 20, 2015 12:21:51 AM
We liked this analogy so much that we considered making the acronym SWORD part of our proposal title. To alleviate some confusion, here is the thought process: Although a high volume of tourists certainly generates revenue, the host city is inevitably required to make an investment in providing services and commodities for those tourists. Cities with poor economy are especially motivated to embrace tourism, but they sometimes overlook the fact that overcrowding in a city, which lacks the infrastructure and resources to support it, can be deleterious. This is, indeed, a short term investment hoping for a surge of money; a decision favorable for poor countries most of the time.Tourists, for the most part, do not reserve any emotional attachments to the sites they visit so they take cities and towns by storm, leaving a wake of destruction in their path.
This perspective was developed with some insight that resulted from researching UNESCO and the World Heritage Program. The lagoon of Venice is one of the sites in the list of sites considered to be world heritage. Overcrowding in Venice is not only annoying to the locals, but also contributes to the erosion of its historic urban infrastructure. By systematically navigating the tourists to alleviate congestion, our project can instill an intrinsic need for order in the minds of tourists and make them appreciate the delicacy of Venice as a historic site.
Venice and its Lagoon
World Heritage Site description for Venice: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/394
-RM