THE ALDO PAPONE AWARDS

The Aldo Papone Awards are unique: international prizes for secondary school students studying tourism.

Each year students from small towns and big cities in GTTP member countries meet to present the case studies [link to your student case study section} they have developed for the Aldo Papone Awards competition in their respective countries. This International Student/Teacher Meeting is sponsored by the GTTP and its Global Partners in conjunction with the Aldo Papone Endowment.

Aldo Papone was President of American Express Travel Related Services Company and a strong believer in tourism education. When he retired, a fund was established in his name to continue his support of excellence and innovation in tourism education. The GTTP's share of the fund is used to help students learn how to research and write a case study on a topic related to Travel & Tourism.

The winning school from each country sends two student representatives and their teacher to meet other students and teachers and share their research findings.

Case writing topics are selected by the GTTP Directors. The topic for 2003 is "Sustainable Tourism."

2003 International student/Teacher Meeting:

Representatives of the winning schools will meet in Frankfurt, Au Main, Germany in November 2003 and will present their case studies. The GTTP's Global Partners will attend part of the presentations. Background material on sustainable tourism is included in this web site.

The 2003 International Student/Teacher Meeting will be hosted by Amadeus at its Frankfurt Training Center. ACCOR will provide hotel rooms, and Lufthansa is providing air tickets. Global Partner funds will provide meals.

What are Case Studies?

Case studies provide information on about real people in real situations. A good case study lets you feel as if you were there, looking at the situation. For example, a case study on Jamaican heritage sites should have enough information and photos that you can understand what the questions are. Then you can figure out what the possible solutions might be if there is a problem.

The student cases that have won the Aldo Papone Awards for their countries try to give you, the reader, an understanding of their unique situations.

If you want to research and write a case study, try reviewing the information in the GTTP report, How to Write a Good Case Study. Adobe Acrobat format

[PDF files require that Adobe Acrobat Reader be installed on your computer. If you need to install Acrobat Reader you can download it FREE from the following location: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html]

Summary of 2002 Heritage Tourism Case Studies:

Past case studies topics include national parks, sports tourism, and heritage tourism.

The topic for the 2002 Aldo Papone Award competition was "Heritage Tourism."

In November, 2002, students and teachers met in Nice, France. Their meeting was hosted by Amadeus at its Executive Briefing Center. ACCOR provided hotel rooms, KLM provided tickets, and American Express and Amadeus hosted dinners.

The case studies, with texts for students and teachers, can be viewed by clicking on the underlined case study title. The cases do take some time to download because they have both text and pictures. Summaries are included below.

These case studies may reprinted for use in classroom study, but you must credit the GTTP and the student authors, their teacher and the school when you do so.

If you want to see the complete case studies, click here.

Summaries Of The 2002 Winning Case Studies In Heritage Tourism:

Country: Brazil
Case study title: "Brazil: Singular or Plural."
Students: at Sao Jose dos Campos, School Duque de Caxias and Fenix Organization, all in the state of San Paulo.
Advisors: Prof. Maria de Melo; Prof. Marco Antonio F. de Souza; Prof. Ana Claudia dos Santos.
Case Study Overview:
The culture of modern Brazil and its population of 175 million is the product of three cultural streams: European, Indigenous Indian (primarily the Tupi peoples), and African.
The term "culture" is used in the broadest sense and includes food, music, architecture, religion, traditions, festivals, dances, ways of earning a living. All offer opportunities for Heritage Tourism.
For example, the festival of The Ox, which is heavily influenced by musical themes originating in Africa is an important festival in northern Brazil and the state of Bahia offers a cuisine with origins in Africa.
The state of Minas Gerais offers many examples of European Baroque urban architecture.
Meanwhile much of Brazil retains the place-names given by the Indigenous Indians, who number about 350,000 today in some 219 groups with different languages and customs.
To develop their case study the students conducted a cultural and historical survey of the city of Sao Vicente in the state of Sao Paolo, which is Brazil's oldest city; studied the "Piraquaras," riverside dwellers in the Paraiba Valley in southeast Brazil; and a study of the efforts to preserve the historic structures of the city of Barueri, which means "Enchanting Red Flower" in the Tupi-Guarani language.

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Country: Canada
Case study title: "Developing and Managing a Sustainable Heritage Attraction."
Students: Kelly Rolland and Alaina Harmon.
School: Quesnel Secondary School, Quesnel, British Columbia.
School coordinator: Loretta Fogarty
Case Study Overview:
Some 26 kilometers from the city of Quesnel in Canada's far west is Cottonwood House, a relic of the gold rush era of the 1860s when it was used to house and feed miners on their way to the gold fields. Declared an official Heritage Site in 1961 by the government of British Columbia, the 26-acre site attracts some 8,000 to 12,000 summer visitors to this attractive region of the country. However those numbers are just one-tenth the number of visitors to nearby Barkerville, another attractive tourist destination.
In 1999 a partnership agreement was signed between BC Heritage and the Quesnel area school district. Under the agreement, the school district would operate Cottonwood House, which in turn would function as a student-training center in tourism.
The double challenge facing Cottonwood House is to increase the number of visitors and also to increase to the amount of money spent by each visitor.
Student staffers organized a comprehensive survey of visitors to determine what needed to be done, and a similar survey of residents of Quesnel, who also visit the site.
During the 2000 and 2001 tourist seasons facilities at the Cottonwood House site were improved; staff training programs were instituted and new activities for visitors were added. The improvements were followed by price increases.
However while revenues have increased the number of visitors have not.
Student suggestions for increasing attendance have ranged from creating better roadside signage to marketing alliances with other tourist destinations in the region.
The case study by the Quesnel students is very much a report of work-in-progress. The emphasis in 2003 will be on making the improvements to the site better known, to attract bus tours and to add an overnight camping program.

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Country: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
Case study title: "Touring Walled Villages: an alternative experience in East-Meet-West Cosmopolitan Hong Kong."
Students: Katie Chong and Yen Li.
Teacher: Crishner Lam
School: Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School.
Case Study Overview:
Inland, away from the glittering collection of glass-sheathed skyscrapers that form the image that most of us have of Hong Kong, lies another Hong Kong. This is the Hong Kong of small walled villages, some dating back to the 14th century and mostly associated with clans such as the Tang, the Chan and others.
The Hong Kong government encourages heritage tourism associated with museums, archaeological sites, religious sites and relics of the pre-colonial era, and the 19th century and 20th centuries.
The students have surveyed Kong Kong's walled villages and assessed what each has to offer and what could be done to make them easier to visit without compromising their character as places where people live.
The world of the six walled villages surveyed by the students is a world of watchtowers and gatehouses, protective moats, ancestral halls, distinctive cuisine and architecture and festivals. Not all are open to the public.
The students report that they found examples of careful restoration, such as Sam Tung Uk village, built in 1786 and restored in 1986 and opened as a public museum with interpretative information. There are also well-maintained villages and villages which need repairs made. Some villages contain both traditional and more modern architecture.
Most, report the students, would benefit from better road signage, the creation of small shops selling souvenirs and refreshments, as well as volunteers to collect fees from tourists which could be used to pay for routine village maintenance and care-taking chores.

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Country: Hungary:
Case study title: "Heritage Tourism in Veszto-Magor."
Students: Mark Csaszar and Evelin Urmos.
Teacher: Mrs. Magdolna Weber
School: Sandor Petofi High School
Case Study Overview: Deep in the historic Hungarian heartland, south and east of the capital Budapest, in the area called the Sarret. The flat countryside is marked by hundreds of artificial mounds dating back five thousand and six thousand years. These small artificial hills are called "Kun-mounds." Some were used as living areas. Some were built as grave sites. Others were built as watchtowers for soldiers, and even built as landmarks. The most famous is the Mound of Magor in Bekes County in the Koros-Maros National Park. Archaeologists have explored the mound and recovered skeletons painted red from the Neolithic period; scallop shells from the Copper Age; ceramics from the Bronze Age; a church-monastery complex from the Middle Ages.
The students at Sandor Petofi High School believe that the Mound of Magor could be made more interesting to visitors, especially in the non-summer months when most tourist come. Attracting more tourists would create more jobs in the area.
One approach they believe would attract visitors is to offer four-day packages of activities that would explore the history, folklore and customs of the region.
Activities would range from weaving to preparing meals using ancient methods to archery and falconry demonstrations.
The students also surveyed fellow students to see how aware they were of the Mound of Magor and what can be seen there. Most---69 percent--were not.
The Sandor Petofi students believe that educating the residents of the area about the attractions the area has to offer is an important part of making the area more accessible and attractive to visitors.

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Country: Ireland
Case study title: "A taste of Ireland's Past."
Students: Declan Foy and Fergus O'Donoghue
Supervisor: P.J. Luddy
School: St. Brendan's College, Killarney, County Kerry.
Case Study Overview: Ireland is an island on the western rim of Europe and County Kerry is on the western rim of Ireland. "Because of its isolation it has been possible to preserve the rich heritage of the county," report the two students from St. Brendan's College. The county is now the second most popular tourist destination in Ireland and in the past 10 years or so the number of visitors has increased by 500 percent. The two major tourism centers in the county are Tralee and Killarney.
Each year some 1.5 million tourists visit Killarney, where heritage attractions include a national park; a period house; landscaped gardens; reconstructed farms from the 1930s and a medieval castle, Ross Castle. In other words, unlike some countries, heritage tourism is well established not only in Ireland but in Kerry. So the suggestions offered by the students are for incremental improvements rather than major investments.
The St. Brendan's students note that Queen Victoria visited Killarney in 1861. They suggest an a wax works display of the central personalities involved in the event could be created and installed in a local period house being restored by the state. Cost would be Euro 240,000 and would create between 10 jobs and 15 jobs and attractive maybe 35,000 visitors, based on the number of visitors to nearby Ross Castle.
The students also suggest that an 11th century chronicle, The Annals of Innisfallen, last exhibited in Killarney in 1983 and now stored in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, be exhibited more frequently. A permanent interpretative center to house the work in a Killarney period house should be developed. Cost would be Euro 325,000, create some 10 jobs and attract more than 35,000 visitors annually and generate income of some Euro 400,000. They note that the 9th century Book of Kells in Dublin attracted some 500,000 visitors in 2000.

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Country: Jamaica:
Case study title: "Heritage Tourism in Black River, Jamaica: a case study."
Case study theme: Examines how Black River, a small town on Jamaica's less-visited South Coast, could use its amenities, which includes about 100 18th century and 19th century buildings, to encourage visitors interested in heritage tourism.
Students: Richard Rhone and Korey Neil
Advisor: Kenneth Bailey
School: Munro College
Case Study Overview: Once upon a time exporting logwood, used in dyes, made the little port town of Black River rich. Today the logwood trade is long gone and the town is off the beaten tourist track, but the buildings created by the wealth of the 18th and 19th centuries remain.
Those buildings, believe the students at nearby Munro College, could be the focal point for attracting visitors interested in heritage tourism and creating the jobs that this town of 6,000 people needs.
The structures reviewed by the students range from the "Farquharson Wharf," formerly known as the "Town Wharf," and used in the 18th century as a site for slave auctions, to Invercauld Great House, a 19th century example of the Jamaican Georgian style, now a boutique hotel.
The area's amenities include "The Great Morass," a 125 square mile freshwater wetland, home to many species of birds and other animals, including crocodiles; black-sand beaches; and the Black River, navigable for some 25 miles.
The students also look at others areas of Jamaica that have potential for being developed as sites for visitors interested in heritage tourism, including the former pirate town and naval base of Port Royal; Spanish Town, the original 16th century capital of the island; Falmouth, also the site of many examples of 18th and 19th century architecture; and Seville, the site of the first Spanish outpost on the island, dating to 1509.
Although the students believe that Black River has the potential to attract more visitors, they also say that there is a lot of work to be done to make this happen. The residents of the town need to be that the work will pay off. Tasks to be done range from improving the sewage disposal system to upgrading streets and parking, as well as improving harbor facilities and recreational facilities.

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Country: Russia
Case study title: "Lefortovo." (The old German and foreigners' district of Moscow.)
Case study theme: Examines what needs to be done to make the Lefortovo district more attractive to visitors and steps that need to be taken to protect the area's unique characteristics.
Students: Kirill Kozlov and Dinara Akmetova
Teacher: Natalia Zezerova
School: School 1228, Moscow.
Case Study Overview: In the 16th century foreigners living in Moscow were told to leave the city and move to what was called the German or Foreign settlement. Dutch German, English, Polish and other foreigners created a suburb where they lived a more European style of life. The German Settlement was renamed Lefortovo after Franz Lefort, a Swiss who was a friend of Czar Peter The Great.
Today Lefortovo is a place of schools and hospitals, of parks, palaces, museums, churches and monuments.
But Lefortovo is also a polluted industrial center, threatened by various road-building projects and suffering from decades of neglect of its historic structures.
"This place is dear to our hearts because we live and study here, and we are really worried about the destiny of Lefortovo that combines history with unrepeated charm and beauty of the present," wrote the students.
They believe that if more people visited Lefortovo and appreciated what was there, there would be more support for protecting Lefortovo.
The students conducted a survey that revealed that most Muscovites interviewed thought of Lefortovo "as a residential area of Moscow rather than a historical place or place for rest. However, people who live in Lefortovo firstly think of it as a historical area."
The area has an excellent new museum but it needs more marketing to attract visitors.
A survey by the students suggested that only10 percent of Muscovites had been to the museum, although 20 percent had visited a nearby park.
Based on interviews with officials, the students note that Lefortovo "badly needs advertising and improved conservation and preservation of buildings," not to mention more and better hotels, restaurants and improved transportation. But, as in so many countries with heritage sites to protect, finding money is difficult.

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Country: South Africa
Case study title: "Pella's People...A Vanishing Culture: an in-depth look into Heritage Tourism Potential at Pella, Bushmanland, Northern Cape, South Africa."
Students: Sumey LeRoux and Leandra Brand
Teacher: Elsabe Engelbrecht
School: Duineveld High School, Upington.
Case Study Overview: They fled war in Namibia and found refuge at the Pella Mission Station in neighboring South Africa. Today a hundred years later the 6,000 or so descendants of the Nama people who fled still live at the mission, still wear the fashions and sun bonnets of the late 19th century and still live in portable, round dome-houses, although fewer make them out of the mats used in the old days. Once hunter-gatherers, the Nama tend now to work on farms or as stock farmers. It is an austere life in an austere part of world. A few have realized that their way of life might attract visitors who will pay to stay in traditional dome-houses and learning about the Nama. Others have opened European-style facilities, complete with swimming pool.
The Duineveld students surveyed visitors to find out what they want in a tourist destination, how much they spend.
The students believe that with an investment of time and money in new facilities, more outsiders would enjoy visiting the Nama at Pella, enjoying their music, songs and poems; dancing the Nama-stap; eating mielie pap and mahango with their goat, lamb or beef stew, not to mention drinking watermelon wine and palm-spirit. And they could take home as souvenirs reed flutes, clay pots, maybe a leather apron. Behind they would leave their money, which the people at Pella could certainly use.
But the Sana may not be so sure about the benefits of tourism.
"Only a few individuals are involved in tourism and the rest of the community seems indifferent to, or unaware of the prosperity that tourism can offer," the students report.
And the Sana themselves have all-too-human problems.
"The case writers discovered serious conflicts of interest, often amongst members of the same family," reported the students.
They also found "envy, unhealthy competition, backstabbing and possessiveness..."
Younger members of the Sana community appear embarrassed to speak the "click" language spoken by the older folks, and embarrassed by their culture and traditions.
The students are fans of the Sana at Pella and their culture.
They want to help.
"We could not control the urge to sigh, 'WHAT A WASTE."

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Country: United Kingdom
Case study title: "An investigation into the role of the Tower of London as a leading heritage tourism attraction in the U.K."
Students: Lisa Hara and Anna Bateson
Teacher: Paul Banthorpe
School: Croydon College.
Case Study Overview: Examines the 1,000-year old Tower of London as a "heritage product," and reviews its advertising and promotion methods, the market segment the Tower cultivates, the Tower's need for brand positioning and other aspects of the Tower as a business.
The Tower is managed by Historic Royal Palaces, an agency of the UK's Department of the Environment which manages four other royal properties. The agency hired a marketing director for the first time in 2000 and has set a goal of growing "market share by 8 percent." the students report.
The Tower of London, which started charging visitors admission as long ago as 1599, today uses standard market research tools to measure visitor perceptions, including customer surveys, suggestion cards, and anonymous "mystery visitors."
Most ---78 percent---of visitors in 2000 were from overseas; 35 percent had been to the Tower before; the average length of visit is 2 hours to 3 hours; 47 percent bought something; 91 percent gave their visit a god or excellent rating; 73 percent thought they got value for their money.
Although the Tower as a product has many strengths---98 percent of overseas visitors are aware of the Tower---there some weaknesses.
For example, "Expectations of some visitors not met---Tower not 'gruesome enough,' report the students, referring to the Tower's somewhat overblown reputation as an execution site. The students point out only seven prisoners were beheaded inside the walls over a 400-year period.
"Expectations are not met because the gorier aspects of the Tower play a greater role in anticipation than in delivery of the experience."
However the agency has been careful not to yield to the temptation to "entertain at the expense of informing and educating."
To shift to a more entertainment-oriented visitor experience could put at risk the Tower's reputation as "a word leader in the interpretation of heritage," report the students.