Edgar Allan Poe Haunted Homecoming Tour

June 28, 2010 - The department's Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum and Haunts of Richmond Ghost Tours will present the Edgar Allan Poe Haunted Homecoming Tour at Shockoe Hill Cemetery July 15, Jully 16 and July 17 at 8:00 p.m. This is a dramatic nighttime tour of Shockoe Hill Cemetery based on the many loved ones of Edgar Allan Poe who are buried there. The tour is
Off to Florida this summer? If so, you may be wondering how the oil spill has affected tourism out there; Lonely Planet reports on this in the video below. The rest of us still have the World Cup to occupy us for the next couple of weeks...or you might want to browse the Lonely Planet website, it's packed with inspiring travel ideas.

It doesn't matter where you've been around the world to enter a competition on their site; tell your travel story for the chance to win, or just read other people's stories on this amazing interactive globe.

How well do you know your cities? Test your geography knowledge by playing this game and pick up some interesting facts along the way.


Eyewear posting

Short piece about American band Violent Femmes by yours truly newly posted at Eyewear - http://www.toddswift.blogspot.com

Conference

The 6th National Conference of The Future of Culture, Tourism & Sport will be held at the Inmarsat Conference Centre, London on 14 September 2010. The conference will aim to bring together senior officers and elected members with local partners and national development agencies to co-ordinate their efforts and position culture, tourism and sport within the place-shaping agenda. Register here.

City Opens The Landing at Byrd Park

June 18, 2010 - Mayor Dwight C. Jones officially opened The Landing with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, June 18. The Landing is the new concession building constructed by the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities at Fountain Lake in Byrd Park. The new facility includes restrooms and free WiFi, as well as outdoor tables with umbrellas. “This is a wonderful new addition to
Internet for Travel and Tourism aims to help university and college students to develop internet research and information skills for their university and college work. Now, a new edition of this free tutorial from the Virtual Training Suite has been released. The tutorial, which teaches Internet research skills, has been completely updated and revised by Philip Rowe, Programme Coordinator, Tourism Department, City of Bristol College. Students can use the tutorial for self-directed, independent learning.

This is just one of the tutorials in the Virtual Training Suite, a national service which offers over 60 free Internet tutorials for universities and colleges, authored by lecturers and librarians from UK universities, who are experienced Internet researchers.

Government Tourism Policy

“I believe no other country can offer such rich history, wonderful culture, or stunning countryside, and it’s important we showcase to the world the amazing range of attractions and experiences this country offers.”

In his first keynote speech, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has set out the Government’s tourism policy which would promote tourism to the UK by producing ‘the best marketing plan that any country has ever had’ and using the 2012 Olympics as a springboard to launch a lasting tourism legacy.

Read the full transcript of the speech here...

City to Kick Off Free Outdoor Movie Series June 18

June 10, 2010 - The department kicks off its second year of “Friday Pictures in the Park” on June 18 at 8:30 p.m. in Byrd Park with the showing of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." “Friday Pictures in the Park” is the showing of free movies in city parks and community centers with free popcorn and cotton candy.New to this year’s series are theme nights, when audiences are encouraged to dress

City Kicks Off 54th Annual Festival of the Arts June 11

jUNE 10, 2010 - Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities will kick off its 54th annual Festival of the Arts at Dogwood Dell on Friday, June 11, at 8 p.m. with an evening of big band music by the Upper East Side Big Band. In addition to the lineup of performances on the Dell stage, this year's summer-long festival of free outdoor entertainment for families includes a

eventIMPACTS Toolkit

Providing guidelines for the evaluation of social, economic, environmental and media related impacts associated with staging major sporting and cultural events, the eventIMPACTS toolkit covering these aspects, aims to help create an industry standard in evaluating the impact of events. The toolkit has been created by a number of organisations including VisitBritain and UK Sport and is targeted primarily towards event owners, funders, sponsors and event industry employees across the UK.

Reports following research carried out using the toolkit,at a variety of venues such as the Tour of Britain Finale and IRB Rugby Union Junior World Championships, have been provided as detailed case studies.

Short Course - Dark Tourism

The University of Cambridge are delivering a short course entitled: From Auschwitz to Ground Zero - dealing with heritage that hurts. The course shall run from 24-26 September 2010, and will be hosted at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall.

Click
here for more info...

Travel photography

(Pic by Brendan Baker)

If you're travelling to distant shores this summer, pick up some handy tips on photography here before you go; some great ideas for photography abroad, with a particular focus on developing countries. The website gives examples of some excellent shots too.

Poem Train Passing

Train passing

On a cold hot day, when clouds and breeze
from the sea leave only sheltered corners
to sun that does more than warm the skin,
it might be possible to find something
like a particular gap in a dry stone wall
or the rhythm of a specific line of trees
which, for the moment, appears identical
with how it felt to be standing, looking
at some trees, a wall, in the summer
you would rather be remembering.

On a reservoir’s artificial shore, for instance,
you'd been fishing overnight, keeping
yourselves from sleeping with passions
imagined for the girl next door.
And had there really been a party where,
strewn across a lawn, you’d been alone
with whoever is was had lain
across your lap and casually said
if it wasn’t for your mutual friend
she would have loved you instead?

You doubt it now, of course. Such seasons
came and went in twilight possibility,
fruit-pickers arranged across an orchard
that smelt sharp-sweet of fallen apples,
combines thrashing over ripened fields,
a slow, exploratory kiss beside allotments -
and beyond all that the sound you do recall:
the shuck, the rattle of a Glasgow express.

May 2010, originally circulated via Various Artists

Poem: Boundary Crossing

Boundary crossing

You know and I know that here, at this candlelit table,
what’s being said can have no consequence:
to get so far we’ve passed through many hands.
I’m in yours now, and taken back to moments
I’d otherwise be wary of: potential, spilled
beans and glimpses of a parallel life.

Are you for real? Of course you’re not.
This talk is all there ever is between us.
We laugh. You say the right things.
Another elsewhere disappears from view.
For a second, I almost catch your eye.
At the door you seem hesitant when saying goodbye.

Stone Platoon (new version)

The Stone Platoon

How else to look at this fountain
with adjacent memorial statues?
Drizzle’s left droplets finding paths
through embossed verdigris,
such-and-such a name who fell.
I’m not close enough to make
more of others’ particular loss
in whichever battle or campaign.
The stone platoon endures
inclement weather, helmeted,
bayonets fixed at thickening air.

Remembrance Sunday every year
we'd stand with such indifference:
dragooned Boy Scouts in the breeze
which furled around a cenotaph.
We’d put up with it, out of respect –
although, eventually, out of respect,
we’d be prone to goose bumps,
laughter and knocked knees.

Here, though, are three historians
come to read blurred epitaphs
for losses in some foreign field.
What could it be to them,
in any event, who died
and who came home again?
Their silence affects some care
as, beneath a sun-split sky,
they line up for a photograph
before those who, in memoriam there,
did the best they could have done.

April 2010, originally circulated by Various Artists, May 2010




MARTIN'S Donates Park Benches to City Parks

June 4, 2010Richmond, VA – MARTIN’S donated 25 benches to Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities yesterday in a ceremony at Byrd Park. The supermarket chain, which now operates four stores in the city, encourages recycling and works with Trex® of Winchester, Virginia to turn recycled plastic bags into park benches, which it then donates to community organizations.“We

The Journal of Tourism & Peace Research

A new international journal 'The Journal of Tourism and Peace Research' is to be published shortly that will aim to study and discuss all aspects of tourism and leisure in relation to peace, co-operation and conflict issues. There is an online version of the first issue available here.

A global conference on peace and tourism will be taking place 24 to 26 March 2011 in The Gambia. Presentations and proceedings from previous conferences are also available at the ICPTR website.

On the Road magazine

Now available at the On the Road website, are the European Group Travel Trade Guide 2010 and European Calendar of Events 2010. Recent issues of the magazine are available in the archive.

Sport England - Market Segmentation

Sport England have undertaken a major survey that looked at the attitudes and motivations for participation in sport amongst the UK population, in order to categorise these. The results have evolved into 19 market segments; these have been practically applied by many organisations around the country, to inform marketing strategies and policies and in particular, to encourage under-represented groups - case studies of these are given here.
Are you currently conducting research on Africa?
If so, this website may be of interest - it contains the African Journal Archive, a retrospective repository project of full-text journal articles, in the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. Titles include the South African Journal of Wildlife Research and South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences. And if you're looking for up-to-date statistics on Africa, you may find them in the Bulletin of Statistics which also provides the latest figures for tourism.

Another section of the website has Open Access Journals amongst which is the South African Business Review.