Latin American AMFORT congress

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AND REPORTS

result in a greater understanding of the relative positive influence on economic and social conditions.

sup ort 0 /!!

for

tourism

as a

Acknolvledgement-The authors would like to acknowledge the research assistance Texas Tourism and Recreation Information Program, Texas A&M University.

of the

REFERENCES Jackson, R. G. 1973 A Preliminary Bicultural Study of Value Orientations and Leisure Attitudes. Journal of Leisure Research 5(4):10-22. Kaiser, C., and L. E. Helber 1978 Tourism: Planninz and Development. Boston MA: CBI Publishing. Milman, A., and A. Pizam 1988 Social Imoacts of Tourism on Central Florida. Annals of Tourism Research 15(2):191-20%. Powell, J. 1978 The Canadian Tourism Industry: A Report by the Sector Task Force. Ottawa: Government of Canada. Richardson, S. L. 1986 Culture and Vacation Travel: A Cross Cultural Analysis of French and English Canadians. Unpublished masters thesis. Texas A&M University. Turner, L., and J. Ash. 1975 The Golden Hordes: International Tourism and the Pleasure Periphery. London: Constable. Submitted 3 April 1989 Revised version submitted 2 1 April 1989 Second revised version submitted 20 May 1989 Third revised version submitted 7 ,July 1989 Accepted 10 July 1989

l

Conference Reports

Latin American

Centro

AMFORT

de Investigaciones

Congress

Leonardo Pogorelsky Regina G. Schliiter y Estudios Turisticos, Argentina

The first International Congress and Latin American Seminar of AMFORT/ WAPTT (World Association for Professional Tourism Training) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 20-22, 1989, under the auspices of Argentina’s most relevant tourism organizations and the Latin American Confederation of Tourism Organizations (COTAL). Organized by Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Turisticos (CIET), its central theme was Tourism Education., Its Contribution to the Public and Private Sectors. More than 300 specialists representing nearly all Latin American countries, Curazao, Australia, Canada, USA, Great Britain, Germany (FR), Spain, and

RESEARCH

NOTES AND REPORTS

583

Italy analyzed needs and expectations related to tourism education at training centers, official tourism organizations, and tourism industry in order to establish joint action programs for an adequate development and growth of tourism. Conference activities included plenary sessions presented by international personalities involved in the tourism field and two workshops, one dealing with Aims and Scope of Tourism Educational Institutes, and the other On the Job Training. Giuseppe Loy Puddu (Italy), AMFORT’s President, opened the congress by commenting on the relation between human and natural resources, in order to enable an adequate growth of tourism. Both resources coexist in Latin America, but due to negative public policies desirable standards have not yet been achieved. Fullilling this requirement will be the challenge of the new professionals and their educators. The important role of tourism educators was also pointed out by Alain Lassagne, IL0 (International Labor Office) expert who elaborated on the conclusions of the April 1986 tripartite meeting between tourism experts of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. From this tripartite meeting emerged the need to exchange professors, audiovisual teaching aids, and planning of hospitality courses, and to create the awareness of the importance of tourism education at all levels. Migual Angel Acerenza’s (Mexico) presentation dealt with the importance of university studies in tourism and the role future graduates will play in shaping tourism development within the frame of their own society. Acerenza also established the differences between formal and informal education. The former is one delivered at training centers and adjusted to plans and programs, while informal education is more flexible, adapting to present enterprise requirements. Both types of education are necessary, complementary, and available in Latin America. Since the closing of the Organization of the American States CICATUR System and WTO’s CIEST, Latin America has lost its two most important informal educational institutions. However the remaining research centers bear the responsibility of broadening the boundaries of tourism knowledge in the region. Jafar Jafari (USA) reviewed the evolution of thinking on tourism and made references to some specific agents of change that have contributed to this process. He elaborated on the role of research journals like Annals of Tourism Research and the formation of scholarly groups. In his presentation, Jafari showed the recent importance of tourism as a field of study in the USA. This can be observed by the number of institutions offering tourism programs and by the every day increasing number of tourism related doctoral dissertations. Roberto Boullon (Argentina) opened the On theJob Zaining workshop by comparing Latin American enterprises with those of industralized nations. He noted that the first ones are small or medium in size and run by their founders who have large experience in the business field but no systematic management studies. Speakers after Boullon’s presentation affirmed that formal educational institutions do not fulfill their requirements, since they neglect to train people on practical service related matters and favor a theoretical body of knowledge with no application to the daily tasks. Therefore, the tourism industry has to create their own training departments in order to achieve desirable service standards. Universities were over represented at the Aims and Scope of Tourism Educational Institutes workshop. The first discussion referred to specialization versus universalization. In this respect, Juan Carlos Iglesias (Argentina) remarked that “modern man fights for specialization and every day learns more about one subject but shrinks its field of general knowledge, being this, denial of higher education.” This discussion was followed by the role tourism graduates had

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played in Latin American society. It was concluded that they were strongly resisted by entrepreneurs who consider graduates from other disciplines to have a better academic background. The fact that only 20 % of tourism graduates from main Latin American universities have found a satisfactory place in the labor market, the unsettled study plans and programs draw attention to necessary curricular changes. This program should also include planning for nature conservation and recreation, both fields of study very neglected in the region. This workshop was closed with the input of European experts. W. Pomp1 presented a program to enhance management training in France, the Netherlands and Germany, while Christopher Cooper and John Westlake’s paper, “The Destination as a Focus of Study for Tourism:’ generated a discussion with Latin American experts, since that has been the traditional way to focus tourism education in the region with no great success. Overall the conference achieved its objective of stimulating meaningful dialogue among the partners of the tourism industry. However, the tight program did not allow in-depth treatment of the subject. The awareness of the importance of tourism education and the exchange of ideas between regional and non-regional experts will certainly help find new ideas in order to enhance tourism development. Additional information on the conference can be obtained from Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Turisticos, Av. Del Libertador 77+6”“w”, 1001 Buenos Aires, ArgentinaOn. Submitted 12 June 1989 Accepted 29 June 1989

World Tourism Information

Exchange

Center

J. R. Brent Ritchie University

of Calgary,

Canada

In recent years, increasing concern has been expressed about the explosion in information related to the field of tourism. Unlike many other areas of international activity, tourism lacks a central agency to serve as a focal point for the exchange of information on a wide range of topics affecting its growth and development. While the World Tourism Organization (WTO) has tended to perform this function in an informal sense, it has so far not had either the formal mandate or the resources to provide the level and quality of service required by the tourism sector. Accordingly, following a series of resolutions dating as far back as 1980, WTO has been authorized by its members to establish a World Tourism in its program of work in the coming Information Exchange Centre (WTIEC) years. As the first step in this process, a background paper evaluating the feasibility of such a project was prepared by the present author in February of 1987. Based on this initial evaluation, WTO decided to proceed with the second preliminary phase of the project, namely the establishment of a working party to examine, in detail, how the WTIEC might best be implemented. Prior to the discussions, WTO had enunciated a number of basic principles related to the establishment of the proposed Centre. First, it was recognized that the project is a major undertaking and, as a result, must be planned carefully and