The well-being of tourists or visitors within a destination has, until recently, received little attention. Issues relating to the personal safety and health of the travelling public have been highlighted by a number of high profile incidents of terrorist attacks, large scale natural disasters and life threatening epidemics. While such events are devastating in nature and of great concern, for the majority of travellers, health and personal safety are more likely to be impacted on by illness, being involved in an accident or becoming the victim of crime. This thesis contributes to our existing understanding of how tourism can be affected by incidents by selecting a definable geographical area and investigating the available data from official sources to examine the dimensions, scale and nature of visitor-related incidents of crime, road traffic accidents and emergency health care. This audit was undertaken through collaborative research with the Central Scotland Police Force, the Central Scotland Road Accident Investigation Unit and the National Health Service Forth Valley. Primary research was then undertaken with visitors to the area. This in-depth approach looks beyond existing statistics to probe factors contributing to visitor-related incidents, in relation to existing tourism literature. The results indicate that, visitors experience incidents that differ in nature and type from those experienced by local residents, and the times and places they were most at risk also varied. With visitors accounting for less than 10% of the total population, these differences are not apparent in the overall patterns and, therefore, the particular needs of visitors are unlikely to be met through existing measures. This research has the ability to form the basis of improved measures to benefit visitor health and personal safety even though the nature of the visiting population presents challenges in relation to when, where and how such preventative measures are introduced. Visitors are not homogenous and distinct groupings based on perceptions, attitudes and behaviours were found. Therefore, there is a requirement to examine how incidents impact on visitors by distinguishing them from the overall incident figures, but measures to protect visitors also have to be tailored to take cognisance of typologies of visitors.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-13T17:10:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AlianPA_DISSERT.pdf: 4769520 bytes, checksum: 7890c59949f5adb4689d50c9e649d658 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-11 / This thesis analyzes another side of Potiguar tourism , the unplanned side, neglected and kept out of touristic activities: excursionism, a leisure practice enjoyed by tourists with low consumer power, and who are commonly referred by the pejorative term farofeiros (picnic lovers). The geographic research sites considered for this study include Arituba, Bo?gua and Carcar? lakes in N?sia Florest, Rio Grande do Norte, where on Sundays and holidays the arrival of hundreds of excursionists, from around the metropolitan region of Natal, from surrounding municipalities, and neighboring States, such as Para?ba and Pernambuco, can be observed. The objective of this study is to analyze the appropriation of the physical site by the practice of excursionism, focusing on its relation to other social agents that also appropriate a designated touristic area. The theoretical discussion considers the use of the space by the touristic leisure practice and the appropriation by distinct social agents, using categories of analysis, such as, production of the space, territory and leisure. The field work was completed with interviews and questionnaires administered to excursionists, excursion organizers, local merchants, representatives of the public setor from the municipalities, and professional dune buggy drivers; besides this, photos, informal dialogue and field observations were important methodological instruments used. From the data, statistical analysis and the development of thematic maps demonstrating the established flux between excursionists and the segregated activity were done. With this research, one can affirm that the practice of excursionism is neglected by the public sector, contrary to the intention of the hegemonic agent?s intentionality present in this touristic territory which aim at the development of a lucrative activity, geared toward tourists with greater spending power. This ignored and neglected faction of Potiguar tourism is considered poor or dirty , and generate conflicts among the distinct social agents: tourists, the market and the public sector, simultaneously peaking interest, which is then appropriated by the informal sector and formal economy. Excursionism is an expressive phenomenon, a socially relevant practice, enjoyed by citizens of the working class who, in order to have a day of leisure, use alternative consumer practices and subvert various strategies of segregation that are imposed within these tourist areas, behavior that, in part, justifies the nickname, picnic lovers , given to these tourists / Esta disserta??o analisa uma outra face do turismo potiguar , a face n?o planejada, negligenciada e segregada da atividade tur?stica. Trata-se do estudo do excursionismo, uma pr?tica de lazer tur?stico realizada por turistas com baixo poder de consumo, denominados pejorativamente de farofeiros , pelo senso comum. O recorte espacial da pesquisa compreende as lagoas de Arituba, Bo?gua e Carcar? (N?sia Floresta/RN), onde se observa nos dias de domingo e feriados a chegada de centenas de excursionistas, oriundos da Regi?o Metropolitana de Natal, de outros munic?pios do entorno e de estados vizinhos, como Para?ba e Pernambuco. O objetivo desta pesquisa ? analisar como se d? a apropria??o do espa?o pela pr?tica do excursionismo enfocando suas rela??es com outros agentes sociais os quais, tamb?m, se apropriam de um territ?rio tur?stico. A discuss?o te?rica considera o consumo do espa?o pela pr?tica do lazer tur?stico e a apropria??o por distintos agentes sociais, utilizando categorias de an?lise como produ??o do espa?o, territ?rio e lazer. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada por meio de entrevistas e aplica??o de question?rios, junto aos excursionistas, organizadores das excurs?es, comerciantes locais, representantes do poder p?blico municipal e da categoria profissional de bugueiros; al?m disto, o registro fotogr?fico, di?logos informais e a observa??o em campo foram instrumentos metodol?gicos importantes. A partir dos dados realizaram-se an?lises estat?sticas e elabora??o de mapas tem?ticos os quais expressam os fluxos estabelecidos pelos excursionistas e a segrega??o da atividade. Com a pesquisa, pode-se afirmar que a pr?tica do excursionismo ? negligenciada pelo poder p?blico, pois esta contraria a intencionalidade dos agentes hegem?nicos presentes neste territ?rio tur?stico uma vez que este visam o desenvolvimento de uma atividade lucrativa, voltada para turistas com maior poder de consumo. Observa-se nesta face ignorada do turismo potiguar, tida como pobre e suja , a exist?ncia de conflitos entre os distintos agentes sociais: turistas, comerciantes locais e poder p?blico, ao mesmo tempo em que, tamb?m, desperta o interesse e ? apropriada pelo setor informal e formal da economia. O excursionismo ? um fen?meno expressivo, uma pr?tica social relevante, realizada por cidad?os que comp?em a classe trabalhadora os quais, para terem um dia de lazer, utilizam-se de pr?ticas alternativas de consumo e burlam variadas estrat?gias de segrega??o que lhes s?o impostas neste territ?rio tur?stico, comportamentos que, em parte justifica a alcunha de farofeiro dada a estes turistas