Human Trafficking, Sex Tourism, and Child Exploitation on the Southern Border

Human trafficking and various other forms of child sexual exploitation on the United States-Mexico border are described from social science and law enforcement perspectives, including current laws and definitions, case examples, and descriptions of victims and traffickers. The Southern Border Initiative of the AMBER Alert Project is outlined as one effort to combat trafficking through collaboration between law enforcement agencies and programs in the United States and Mexico. Policy recommendations include increasing knowledge and collaboration between law enforcement, social service agencies, and judicial systems across the border region and between the United States and Mexico.

Suicide tourism: a pilot study on the swiss phenomenon

While assisted suicide (AS) is strictly restricted in many countries, it is not clearly regulated by law in Switzerland. This imbalance leads to an influx of people —‘suicide tourists’—coming to Switzerland, mainly to the Canton of Zurich, for the sole purpose of committing suicide. Political debate regarding ‘suicide tourism’ is taking place in many countries. Swiss medicolegal experts are confronted with these cases almost daily, which prompted our scientific investigation of the phenomenon. The present study has three aims: (1) to determine selected details about AS in the study group (age, gender and country of residence of the suicide tourists, the organisation involved, the ingested substance leading to death and any diseases that were the main reason for AS); (2) to find out the countries from which suicide tourists come and to review existing laws in the top three in order to test the hypothesis that suicide tourism leads to the amendment of existing regulations in foreign countries; and (3) to compare our results with those of earlier studies in Zurich. We did a retrospective data analysis of the Zurich Institute of Legal Medicine database on AS of on-Swiss residents in the last 5 years (2008–2012), and internet research for current legislation and political debate in the three foreign countries most concerned. We analysed 611 cases from 31 countries all over the world. Non-terminal conditions such as neurological and rheumatic diseases are increasing among suicide tourists. The unique phenomenon of suicide tourism in Switzerland may indeed result in the amendment or supplementary guidelines to existing regulations in foreign countries.

Attitudes of Future Tourism Sector Employees Towards Organise Accessible Tourism

The aim of this paper is to show a theoretical approach to the evolution of concepts perceiving disability, taking into account the medical, social, and geographical models, as the basis for the development of principles concerning the organisation of accessible tourism for people with disabilities (PwD). The main research objective was to identify the current attitudes of future, potential employees in the tourism (tourism and recreation students at the time of the study) towards accessible tourism. The study was based on surveys performed in May 2013 at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (UAM, Poland) and the State University in Irkutsk (ИГУ, Russia), a total sample of 216 people. The main section of the survey contained four questions regarding issues such as: optimal ways to organise tourism products for people with a disability; attitudes towards spending leisure time together with people with a disability; and specific requirements concerning the introduction of various types of improvements in tourism products aimed at people with a disability. In both cases, the results revealed that future tourism employees hold attitudes which are prevailingly open and positive towards the needs of tourists with disabilities. However, the hypothesis that the main factor influencing a reluctance to enter into contact with PwD is a lack of experience in this area, resulting in insufficient knowledge of what conditions the behaviour of PwD was also confirmed. This is a highly significant conclusion which should consider if mandatory educational programmes in the field of tourism and recreation studies are to be improved.

Health tourism trends in the United Kingdom: Are they net exporters of health services?

The study investigates the inbound and outbound health tourism in the United Kingdom (UK) to determine if the UK can be considered as a net exporter of health services. Although there is an increasing number of studies analysing the phenomenon of health tourism, little empirical data are available. This paper contributes to reducing this gap by providing reliable data on health tourism flows for the British case. Using microdata drawn from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) for the period 2000-2014, we estimate the flows, number of nights and expenditure of tourists looking for medical treatment who complete international visits of less than 12 months’ duration to and from the UK. In addition, we analyse the main destinations of UK residents (outbound health tourists), and country of origin of overseas residents (inbound health tourists). The results show the upward trend of inbound and outbound patients (163 and 364% during the period 2000-2014, respectively), the strong seasonality in outbound patients (lower during the summer), and the significant increase in the levels of expenditure of overseas residents since 2005. Poland, France, India and Hungry are the chosen countries by UK residents to be treated, whereas Irish Republic, Spain, United Arab Emirates and Greece are the main countries providing inbound health patients. Public policy considerations are given.

Australian waterfalls as tourism attractions

For a largely arid country with generally low relief, Australia has a remarkably large number and variety of waterfalls. Found mainly near the coast, close to where most of the population lives and near the major tourist resort areas, these landscape features have long been popular scenic attractions. As sights to see and places to enjoy a variety of recreational activities, waterfalls continue to play an important role in Australia’s tourism, even in seaside resort areas where the main attractions are sunshine, sandy beaches and surf. The aesthetic appeal of waterfalls and their value as recreational resources are recognized by the inclusion of many in national parks. Even here, demands of visitors and pressures from developers raise serious problems. This paper examines the way in which waterfalls have been developed and promoted as tourist attractions, demonstrating their importance to Australian tourism. It considers threats to the sustainable use of waterfall resources posed by power schemes and, particularly, by the tourist industry itself. Queensland’s Gold Coast is selected as a case study, and comparisons are made with other areas in which waterfalls have played important roles as tourist attractions, especially the Yorkshire coast of northeast England. The discussion draws largely on an examination of tourist literature from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, including holiday brochures and guide books, as well as other published sources, together with field observation in various parts of the world

Destination Positioning Slogans - Analysis of Themes used by New Zealand Regional Tourism Organisations

A significant gap in the tourism and travel literature exists in the area of tourism destination branding. Although brands have been used as sources of differentiation in consumer goods markets for over a century, academic research attention towards destination branding has only been reported since the late 1990s. Three important components of the brand construct are brand identity, brand position and brand image. While interest in applications of brand theory to practise in tourism is increasing, there is a paucity of published research in the literature to guide destination marketing organisations (DMOs). In particular there have been few reported analyses of destination brand positioning slogans. The focus of this paper is on destination brand position slogans, which represent the interface between brand identity and brand image. Part of a wider investigation of DMO slogans worldwide, and in keeping with the conference location, the paper focuses on analysis of slogans used by New Zealand RTOs. The slogans are examined in terms of the extent to which they have been limited to ephemeral indifference. In other words, have they stood the test of time and do they effectively differentiate through a meaningful proposition? Analysis of the slogans indicates very few could be characterised as memorably distinctive. This reflects the complexity involved in capturing the essence of a multi-attributed destination in a succinct and focused positioning slogan, in a way that is both meaningful to the target audience and effectively differentiates the destination from competitors offering the same benefits.

Tourism Destination Preferences: A Longitudinal Analysis of Consumer Decision Sets

There have only been a small number of applications of consumer decision set theory to holiday destination choice, and these studies have tended to rely on a single cross sectional snapshot of research participants’ stated preferences. Very little has been reported on the relationship between stated destination preferences and actual travel, or changes in decision set composition over time. The paper presents a rare longitudinal examination of destination decision sets, in the context of short break holidays by car in Queensland, Australia. Two questionnaires were administered, three months apart. The first identified destination preferences while the second examined actual travel and revisited destination preferences. In relation to the conference theme, there was very little change in consumer preferences towards the competitive set of destinations over the three month period. A key implication for the destination of interest, which, in an attempt to change market perceptions, launched a new brand campaign during the period of the project, is that a long term investment in a consistent brand message will be required to change market perceptions. The results go some way to support the proposition that the positioning of a destination into a consumer’s decision set represents a source of competitive advantage.

Waterfalls : resources for tourism

While very few waterfalls may be regarded as tourism destinations, many are attractions. This paper discusses waterfalls within the theoretical frameworks developed by economists and geographers in the field of recreation and tourism. Examples are drawn from various parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with Jamaica examined as a case study. Here, as in many tourism areas, although visitors usually choose their destinations for reasons other than the appeal of waterfalls, these landscape features play important roles as attractions. Often associated with ecotourism, waterfalls help to diversify the tourism product and spread the benefits as well as some of the associated problems of tourism to less developed areas.

The criminalisation of medical mistakes in Canada : a review

The issue of health professionals facing criminal charges of manslaughter or criminal negligence causing death or grievous bodily harm as a result of alleged negligence in their professional practice was thrown into stark relief by the recent acquittal of four physicians accused of mismanaging Canada’s blood system in the early 1980s. Stories like these, as well as international reports detailing an increase in the numbers of physicians being charged with (and in some cases convicted of) serious criminal offences as the result of alleged negligence in their professional practice, have resulted in some anxiety about the apparent increase in the incidence of such charges and their appropriateness in the healthcare context. Whilst research has focused on the incidence, nature and appropriateness of criminal charges against health professionals, particularly physicians, for alleged negligence in their professional practice in the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and New Zealand, the Canadian context has yet to be examined. This article examines the Canadian context and how the criminal law is used to regulate the negligent acts or omissions of a health care professional in the course of their professional practice. It also assesses the appropriateness of such use. It is important at this point to state that the analysis in this article does not focus on those, fortunately few, cases where a health professional has intentionally killed his or her patients but rather when patients’ deaths or grievous injuries were allegedly as a result of that health professional’s negligent acts or omissions when providing health services to that patient.