Annual Sapora Symposium

The Sapora Symposium honors Professor Allen V. Sapora, who was instrumental in establishing the University of Illinois as one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to award degrees in recreation. Prof. Sapora anticipated the tremendous growth of the leisure industry, which today is one of the top three industries in almost every state and generates more than $300 billion annually. He was instrumental in establishing Illinois as one of the leading programs in Recreation, Sport and Tourism.

Community Tourism Development: Connecting the Global to the Local

The 2008 Sapora Symposium, held on April 10, 2008, featured speakers who explored how global tourism connects to local tourism through urban, rural, cultural, and historical perspectives. Bruce Wicks, associate professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, served as moderator.

Topics and Featured Speakers

From Canmore to Cozumel: Local-Global Playgrounds of Cultural Heritage
Tazim Jamal, Texas A & M University, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences

Searching for the Real Amish: Connecting Global Tourism with Local Culture
Sunny Jeong, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Recreation, Sport & Tourism

So Near Yet So Far: Local and Global Tourism to the Alhambra (Granada, Spain)
Dede Fairchild Ruggles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Landscape Architecture

Cultural Tourism Initiatives and Their Applications in Chicago
Karen Ryan, Chicago Office of Tourism

Constructing Modernity in a World Heritage City: Mayor Daniel Estrada’s Work in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco, Peru
Helaine Silverman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Anthropology

Tourism Representational Dynamics: Global Processes, Local Particularities
Carla Almeida Santos, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Recreation, Sport & Tourism

Speaker Profiles

Tazim Jamal–Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences
Texas A & M University
Today's world has shifted from "cultural tourism" to "touristic culture." Every component of life—people, goods, services, labor, leisure—has become mobile to the point that every individual is a tourist in her own city. What does 'community' and cultural heritage mean in these complex interdependent and interconnected spaces of travel and tourism? Do we not need new paradigms, new ways of thinking and studying them? This presentation explores the complex local-global space of the rapidly growing mountain community of Canmore (Canada) and the highly visited cruise destination of Cozumel (Mexico), and argues for new research methodologies and planning approaches to address the hybridities and mobilities shaping communities and cultural heritage worldwide.

Sunny Jeong–Department of Recreation, Sport & Tourism
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Authenticity in the Amish community embodies nostalgia for global tourists with their horse-farming, horse and buggy travel, and lack of modern technology. Once communities start 'selling' their cultures and identities to meet the expectation of outsiders, they start to lose their identity that makes them unique. Interestingly, if their intentions with tourist development are shaped by the motivation to educate others about their culture, it may strengthen their pride and sense of community that in turn enhances their identity. A balance between tourists' wants and the local's needs has been sustained because of "cultural brokers". Tourism agencies in the Amish towns of Illinois act as cultural brokers to not only show visitors what they want to see, but also to explain what visitors cannot see.

DeDe Fairchild Ruggles–Department of Landscape Architecture
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Alhambra is Spain's most celebrated historic monument. The 13th-14th-century Islamic palace is set on a dramatic hilltop site above the city of Granada, visually dominating the city, attracting two million tourists annually, and significantly contributing to the city's economy. Granada is a world center for the study of Islamic history, archaeology, and literature. The presentation will examine the Alhambra's many ironies:

Presentation topics:

1. that providing access to the site for visitors has resulted in restricted access for the residents themselves;
2. that the copious publication of site archaeology, documentation, and interpretation, while making it better known, has come to substitute for direct experience; and
3. that in order to make the Alhambra more "legible" to its visitors, its historic fabric was extensively reinvented by its conservators.

Karen Ryan–Chicago Office of Tourism
Statistics show that as many as 75% of leisure travelers to Chicago are repeat visitors that have been there at least twice, with one out of every 10 visitors having visited at least 20 times. It is, therefore, an important part of the Chicago Office of Tourism’s mission to create new initiatives and programs that encourage visitors to keep returning, to continually re-invent the Chicago experience for them. This discussion explores the city's tourism programs and services, such as Chicago Greeter and Chicago Neighborhood Tours, that work in tandem with other initiatives to highlight different facets of Chicago. Additionally, the Office of Tourism is launching technology-based tours and initiatives, such as downloadable multimedia tours and geocaching, that utilize emerging technologies to enhance the visitor experience.

Helaine Silverman–Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rarely do powerful individuals undertake, as their signature act, massive urban renewal or the redesign of an entire city. Yet between 1984–1986 and 1990–1995, Daniel Estrada, a charismatic mayor of Cusco, Peru, conducted an ideologically based public works and development project in the capital of the former Inca empire. Estrada's urban planning was carried out in a context of radical democratic empowerment of the populace, assisted by a corps of dedicated collaborators who shared the mayor's passion for social justice. This presentation analyzes the remarkable actions of Estrada, and specifically focuses on Estrada's unfulfilled plans for the remodeling of the historic Plaza de Armas of Cusco because this addresses important issues in the field of heritage management while raising problems in the conceptualization of authenticity.

Carla Almeida Santos–Department of Recreation, Sport & Tourism
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Metropolitan areas all across the world have devoted considerable economic resources to developing tourism as a vital component of the local economy. Such urban economic development initiatives have largely underscored culture and cultural products as pivotal to their success and, in the process, have made multiculturalism "the new guiding principle for city planners." Seeking to profit from this new developmental era, American urban ethnic neighborhoods (i.e., San Francisco's Chinatown and New York City's Little Italy), are increasingly promoted, and promote themselves, as spaces of tourism. This promotion, however, involves a process of re-visitation, re-orientation, and re-representation of particular ethnic identities and, as such, calls for an ongoing critical tourism critique that is fully aware of the nexus of global process and local particularities.