Posts Tagged: Tourism

27
Jan

2015

Touring the Sea to Sky Gondola

To the summit we go! Image by Nicholas Chu.

Ascending to the summit at Sea to Sky Gondola. Image by Nicholas Chu.

For a country that is as large, rugged, and beautiful as Canada, one might assume that the landscape would be inundated with sightseeing cable cars.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the Great White North has only a handful of gondolas (i.e. ropeways with fully enclosed cabins) located outside ski resorts.

Luckily for those visiting the west coast, the Sea to Sky Gondola has helped expand the list of scenic aerial systems in Canada. Since the gondola launched in May 2014, it has effectively “opened up” some of the country’s most breathtaking vistas.

Location and System

The gondola is a 1.9km MDG system, situated in Squamish and is located immediately off the famous Sea to Sky Highway — a major freeway travelled by over 9.5 million cars each year. The town has a small population (17,000) and is a mid-point between the bustling urban centre of Vancouver and the world-renowned ski-resort, Whistler. Read more



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Sea to Sky Gondola
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07
Jan

2015

Emirates Air Line: Success or Failure? It Depends

Emirates Air Line in London. Image by Flickr user snappyhopper. (Creative Commons)

Emirates Air Line in London. Image by Flickr user snappyhopper. (Creative Commons)

Over the holiday season, the British media picked up on the story that, apparently, the number of commuters on the Emirates Air Line has literally dropped to zero. Numerous publications (such as here, here, and here) argued this was evidence of the folly of the project and proof of how much of a white elephant it’s become. 

Sure. Okay. Fair enough.

The problem is that this white elephant is getting 20,000–30,000 riders every week. For those keeping track, that’s up to 1.5 million riders a year. Those aren’t white elephant numbers.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not the biggest fan of the Emirates Air Line, largely due to the fact that the capital costs of the system are so completely out-of-whack with industry norms. 

But what gets lost in this whole debate is that as a piece of tourism infrastructure, the system appears to be a success.

Read more



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Emirates Air Line / Marketing Issues / Thoughts
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17
Dec

2014

Scuba Diving, Conservation and Cable Cars

Reef forest. Image by Flickr user JennyHuang.

Reef forest. Image by Flickr user JennyHuang.

Can recreation and conservation co-exist? 

Ask groups like the Grand Canyon Escalade opposition group Save the Confluence or the anti-Cheddar Gorge Cable Car circle at Keep Cheddar Gorgeous and the answer seems clear—no, they cannot. 

Yet, of course they can. Recreation and conservation are not mutually exclusive. Look at scuba diving, for example. The current thinking from that field suggests that, in fact, recreation within natural environments tends to lead more people to help with conservation efforts in those very places. 

It may seem like a contradictory argument at first, but it’s really not. Despite some well-founded claims that inexperienced divers can damage the corral reefs they’re supposed to be enjoying, the scuba-diving community is known for its advocacy, conservation and awareness programs. And this ethos originates from a place of tourism, business and recreation.

As a group of Southern Cross University scholars pointed out in a paper from 2012, some scuba divers move from an initial place of wanting simply “to see the big stuff” towards a more nuanced understanding of underwater ecosystems. Through their first-hand encounters with marine environments, they become “integral to raising conservation awareness within the wider community.”  Read more



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Thoughts
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01
Jun

2011

Could Hollywood Increase Public Transportation Ridership?

This idea is no where near as absurd as John Travolta's mustache in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

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Marketing Issues
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25
Jan

2011

Gondolas ≠ Tourists

Image by flickr user Daniel Sartori.

You want to build an urban gondola transit system in the hopes of attracting millions of tourists from around the world?

Good luck with that.

If you build one, and if you have tourists, you may very well get tourists riding your gondola, but that doesn’t mean tourists arrived because of your gondola. There’s a difference. A big one.

Be careful of any charlatan selling you the idea that gondolas = tourists . . . at least when it comes to urban environments. Natural settings and resorts are a totally different situation.

Let’s be honest: Infrastructure isn’t sexy. Just because you build a Cable Propelled Transit system, doesn’t mean throngs of people are going to visit your particular burg. Tourists just don’t care.

Four exceptions:

1. The gondola acts in service of some other, unrelated event. The Koblenz Rheinseilbahn or London Thames Cable Car, for example.

2. The cable system you build reinforces an existing brand image of revolutionary ideas, innovation and original thinking. Tourists interested in those sorts of things may not come specifically for the gondola, but they’ll be aware of it as one of a set of reasons to visit your city. The Portland Aerial Tram, for example.

3. If the system(s) make it easier for tourists to exist as tourists. They won’t come for the cable, but the fact that the cable system makes their lives easier is likely to influence their decision. The Las Vegas Cable Cars, for example.

4. If you do it right and are the first to pull it off in your part of the world, you’ll likely see an uptake in business/professional tourism. Cities considering doing something similar will flock to you, academics will want to study you. Medellin, for example.

And only one of those exceptions is truly about the gondola and the gondola alone.



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Thoughts
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