The Sky's the Limit...or is it?

As much as you may believe that the world is your oyster, and that, if you have the money and the time, you can visit any location that you choose, that’s not quite the case. There are a few things that you need to consider before planning a trip and buying a ticket.

Off the Beaten Path: Some Unusual Destinations

While there are many popular destinations in the world, and even more that are less visited because of the cost or time required, there are still other destinations that are unique for other reasons and therefore attract tourists.

Location: Chernobyl, Ukraine 

Geographic Perspective: Environmental

n April of 1986, a nuclear meltdown occurred in the Chernobyl power plant. Although the zone surrounding the town was evacuated, people are beginning to return as tourists because the low level of radiation that they are exposed to in a single day is a worthwhile tradeoff for visiting a town that was abandoned.
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Locaiton:  North Korea

Geographical Perspective: Political

While the leaders of this country work very hard to isolate their citizens from the rest of the world, they do allow limited tourism. The guided tour (with state-employed officials to watch over the group) will give a very different version of history than what the popular media would have us believe.
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Location: Antartica

Geographic Perspective: Economic

While visiting the most isolated continent on earth certainly sounds attractive, it is not a vacation that can be done by cutting corners; this leads to a cost that is prohibitive for many. While there are environmental reasons to limit the number of tourists visiting per year, there are economic reasons to encourage growth of the tourism industry in Antarctica that include: increases in tax revenues, tourism spending dollars, and employment in tourism related activities.
Additional Information

 

Location: Kenya, Maasai Safari

Geographic Perspective: Social/Cultural

The Maasai are an indigenous tribe that live in Kenya, and still try to maintain traditional lifestyles. However, they have recently become involved in the tourism industry by taking people into their communities and taking them on safari experiences. Some people question whether this exposure to both new sources of income and to an inexhaustible string of foreign visitors is having a negative impact on the Maasai culture.
Additional Information

Political and Legal Considerations

There are two different legal requirements that determine who can travel and where they can go: the passport and the visa.

Passport Requirements

First, as a Canadian, you need to have a passport to travel internationally, including to visit the United States. A passport has a few functions. While it serves as proof of your identity, it also helps in tracking your movement. When you enter a foreign country, you will have your passport scanned, and depending upon the country, may have a stamp of entry or exit placed in it as well. In the case where you are only permitted to stay in a country for a certain amount of time, or when officials are questioning your travel path, the passport serves as a record that is uncontested. (definition:not questioned or challenged.)

Off the Beaten Path

Being a Canadian is great for a number of reasons, but it can be particularly helpful when traveling internationally.

You may have seen people with Canadian flags on their backpacks, proudly declaring their nationality. This is for good reason. Canadians are well liked around the world because they are often believed to have polite, tolerant attitudes, and a history of helping other countries in times of need.

If for no other reason than to start conversations, many travellers wear their flags proudly.  

Visa Requirements

Some countries require a visitor to have a visa in order to enter. Often countries that are ‘friendly’ with each other will have no such rules, but for countries with which they have less of a relationship, they may require advance permission in order to enter.

Canadians are very lucky, in that having a passport opens many doors for us. There are very few countries that require us to go to the additional work of getting a visa before entering.

Additional Considerations

Tourists also need to consider that, even though there is a long list of countries that Canadians are allowed to visit, there are a number of locations where travel is discouraged for different reasons.

The following maps provide information on medical risks (may include diseases), travel security risks, and road safety risks to various countries around the world.  Click on each map to see a more detailed version.

When you are reviewing these maps, look for a country that you have traveled to or hope to travel to someday. Are there any risks or advisories posted? Then look at a few other locations that have advisories posted. Would these advisories deter you personally from travelling there?

Travel advisories can be complicated. The reasons for these advisories range greatly, and knowing the specifics may help you make a decision. 

Inquiry

In the previous activities, you looked first at questioning, then at gathering and organizing information, and most recently at how to interpret and analyse data. We will now turn our attention to the next step in the Inquiry Process: Evaluating and Drawing Conclusions.

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Evaluating and Draw Conclusions

This part of the inquiry process is all about determining what your data is telling you. In the previous activity, you looked at determining the most powerful ways that data can be shared in order to make it easy to analyse. Now comes the step where you take that data and try to uncover the message the data is telling you. This step is necessary in order to be able to make informed judgements and determine the short and long-term impacts that may be involved.

In an earlier activity you viewed this great video to help you learn how to evaluate and draw conclusions when reading graphed data. In case you missed it, view it here:  

Skills Focus: Reading and Interpreting a Graph

Check out this great video that explains how to read a graph and interpret trends. 

Concepts of Geographic Thinking: Geographic Perspective 

Just as you studied spatial significance in the first activity, patterns and trends in the second activity, and most recently interrelationships, this lesson is centred around the concept of geographic perspective.

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Some of these viewpoints might come naturally to you, and some may take research and critical thinking. Sometimes, after thinking about the larger picture, your stance on a topic might change, or, what you previously thought will be solidified. Regardless, after considering different geographical perspectives you will be better informed.

The Different Lenses of Geographic Perspective

While each issue is different, there are standard perspectives, or lenses, that can be used to study a topic. 

• Political - What is the stance or role of the government in this situation? Are there laws that govern the issue?
• Economic - What are the monetary implications of this issue?
• Social/Cultural - How are local populations involved or impacted? Does this issue affect their quality of life?
• Environmental - Is the natural environment being altered (for the better of worse)? Are there future implications of those changes?

Off the Beaten Path: Zooming Out

In its simplest form, geographic perspective is about exploring the context around a topic or issue. It’s about ‘zooming out’ from a small view to a larger one.

If you are asked to think about a famous attraction - say the Mona Lisa or the Pyramids of Giza - what do you think? Do you imagine yourself in a quiet museum appreciating art, or out in the desert all alone with the 4500 year old structures?

Why Geographic Perspective is Important

It is very easy to get an image of a place in your head. You may have seen pictures of it online, or you may have read a book or article about it in school. Perhaps you have even visited there before and have a personal impression.

But have you ‘looked behind the curtains?' Are there issues or little known facts about a place that would allow you to have a more informed perspective?

Consider the different questions that may be asked, corresponding to the different perspectives.

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For more information on potential issues with all-inclusive resorts, read this article:

As with any issue, part of considering different perspectives is determining who is involved in the issue. Stakeholders - a term used for a person or group with an interest or concern about a particular situation - each have their own lens through which they view the issue, and while their views may overlap, they are most likely unique. 

Complete the following brainstorm interactive.

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As you can imagine, these stakeholder groups would view issues very differently. If you were to ask questions about a potential expansion of the property, the CEO of the resort would likely have a very different answer than the local who lives in the house next door. 

The Changing Arctic

As a result of climate change and global warming, the Northwest passage is passable by larger vessels for the first time in recent history. This means that ships can travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by going through the Arctic Ocean. Not only has this made a huge difference in terms of being able to get supplies into Northern Canadian communities by boat, but it is also a shortcut that shaves 4000 kilometres off a trip by boat from Europe to Asia. More recently, it has become a cruise ship route as well.

Learning more about this topic by watching this video:

or reading this article, Massive cruise ship brings new era of Arctic tourism to Cambridge Bay from CBC.

or completing additional research.