write a brief summary of the case study,

conclusion and recommendations

Landscape as an attraction Many visitor destinations owe their success at least partly to the presence of impressive scenery. The Great Ocean Road in south-western Victoria owes its popularity to the Twelve Apostles, pillars of rock isolated from their neigh- bouring headlands by the power of the sea. Travellers enjoy few experiences more than a good view. They will undertake gruelling walks and life-threatening climbs to gain access to spectacular sights, such as the Red Centre panorama from the top of Uluru (Ayers Rock) or sunrise from the summit of Mount Sinai. Even leisurely coach tours usually incorporate lookouts from which a landscape can be absorbed - through the eyes and through the camera. For our viewing pleasure, nature has provided mountains and plateaus, hills and valleys, lakes and rivers, forests and grasslands, and seascapes with rocky headlands and sheltered bays. People have made their contributions, too. Despite the tragic loss associated with the drowning of the original Lake Pedder in Tasmania, the landscape thus created is strikingly beautiful, and much more accessible. A temporal element also plays its part as colours and patterns change with the passing of the seasons. Landscapes today lie on a continuum stretching from the almost pristine (for example, the remoter parts of Antarctica) to the almost totally artificial environ- ment of, for example, the Manhattan Island cityscape. Landscape is like art - we know what we like but we may not know why we like it. We look out on a patchwork of fields and hedges in southern England, or the brown and yellow stripes of the Alberta wheatlands, and feel somehow fulfilled. We take the lift to the top of the various towers of the world's cities and drink in the vista of Paris or Kuala Lumpur or Melbourne laid out before us. We discern the subtle differences between the farm landscapes of China and Japan and wonder what they mean. For Europeans at least, the concept of landscape', or an area of land as seen from a specific viewpoint, is comparatively recent, Representation in paint- ings emerged in the eighteenth century, the work of the English artist Constable providing a notable example. Yet even his apparently faithful renditions were carefully contrived to eliminate or distance the evidence of poverty and hard- ship in rural scenes of the time. The Industrial Revolution led to a more popular appreciation of the English countryside as an idealised haven for relaxation and escape. Encouraged by literary figures such as William Wordsworth, this view remained largely an expression of professional middle-class good taste until the late nineteenth century. The emphasis on visual rather than, for example, auditory appreciation of an environment was confirmed in the twentieth century, which saw the rise of photography as a means by which the fleeting experience of a landscape could be captured and subsequently enjoyed at leisure. To some extent, leisure travel became associated with the collection of spectacular sights. Dissatisfaction with the limitations of the early camera led to successive technological advancements such as colour film, zoom lenses, automatic focus and video or camcorders. Photographs were used increasingly to stimulate interest in scenic areas, and to educate and prepare prospective travellers. Sightseers commonly seek to cap ture with their own cameras scenes shown on tourism brochures or previously published by professional photographers. However, it is now recognised that our appreciation of a landscape is influ- enced by what we can hear as well as what we can see. Natural landscapes, in particular, are enjoyed for the sense of peace and tranquility they convey, a feeling that is enhanced by appropriate sounds such as birdsong and running water. On the other hand, sounds are condemned as noise and have a negative impact on the visitor experience when they are felt to be inappropriate and intrusive, such as those created by aircraft, road traffic and chainsaws. So what , today, makes a landscape a tourism resource - something which people will pay to see? Size matters. The Grand Canyon, the Pyramids and Uluru are attractions with an iconic status that stems in part from their sheer scale. They fill the horizon. They are worshipped for their uniqueness, and visited as part of a tourist pil- grimage. Smaller-scale attractions, regardless of their beauty, are not land- scapes, although they may form a significant part of one. Water, too, is evidently important. People show a preference for landscapes that include the sea, a lake or a river. It has been suggested, without a shred of evidence, that this inclination stems from our genesis os creatures of the ocean, or the fact that the human body comprises two-thirds water. The importance of water views is reflected in the prices of residential housing and high-rise hotel rooms in our holiday resorts. Variety is also important. Realist landscape artists note the need to include a range of elements in their paintings. Commonly, this involves a mountainous or hilly background, an undulating middle ground with, perhaps, some buildings, and a foreground featuring trees, bushes or flowers. In traditional Chinese painting a sense of mystery is added by a curtain of mist draped across the lower background. Pattern is important, too. Appreciation of any landscape is enhanced if it can be interpreted; that is, if the viewer can formulate, or be provided with, the story of its evolution. Environmental psychologists argue that we like what we see to have some order, to comprise elements whose colours and textures fit together into a pleasing whole, constructed around a focal point. The desire for order is most dearly illustrated in the country gardens sur rounding the stately homes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English land- owners. The grounds were landscaped with geometrical precision, not to show nature tamed, but to show the perfection of which it was copoble. Peasant homes and forms in the surrounding areas were either screened by frees or physically removed so that the wider view from the manor house and its gardens contained nothing incompatible with this objective. Personality also plays a big part. Travellers subject to wanderlust enjoy views that differ as much as possible from those to which they are accustomed in everyday life. Explorers appreciate landscapes that evoke a sense of mystery and challenge, while the less adventurous like those evoking peace, tranquillity and security. A landscape such as the Gallipoli coastline or the poppy-fields in Flanders may have a symbolic importance that transcends its aesthetic qualities. Many popular landscapes are valued as settings for places of interest, such as a mediaeval castle or stately home. The love of landscape is closely related to growth in the popularity of cultural and heritage tourism. Much as we enjoy natural landscapes, the prettiest land- scapes are often those on which human occupants have left their mark. As with a mediaeval palimpsest, successive generations have overwritten, but not oblit- erated, the inscriptions of previous occupants. Cultural landscapes reflect the interaction over time between humans and their environment the ways in which the land is divided, the crops grown and tended, the settlement patterns and building styles. Insights into a society and its history may be gained more easily by reading a landscape perceptively than by reading a book. The value of landscapes to the tourism industry is universally recognised. They are sold by tour operators and site developers, and consumed by tourists in their sightseeing and photography. There is a perception that the resource value of a landscape remains undiminished by these practices. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Landscapes do not belong to any individual, and responsi- bility for them is often fragmented. Rural landscapes may be damaged by obtrusive developments such as high-rise accommodation, forest clearance for holiday activities such as skiing, and pollution by excessive vehicular traffic. From the visitor's point of view, the experience can be spoiled by overcrowding at lookouts and the presence of conflicting activities. To avoid these negative impacts, planners and tourism operators must adopt the sustainability objective -- ensuring that the stock of resources available to succeeding generations must at least equal that available to us. Landscapes may be protected by zoning regulations and controls that prohibit inappro priate developments and activities, and monitor the incremental effects of suc cessive, apparently harmless, small-scale projects. Access to particularly fragile or valuable areas may be restricted. Abundant evidence suggests that the most effective protective measure is edu- cation. Tourism developers and operators, properly instructed in their responsi bilities, are increasingly rejecting a short-term maximisation approach and incorporating the sustainability ethic. Well-informed and genuinely consulted communities recognise the value of tourism activities that provide economic benefits without at the same time damaging their environment. Most important, tourists who are made aware of the fragility of what they enjoy are less likely to induloe in damaging behaviour