On the road...

Here is how much tourism has changed. We have been on the road all day today and are ready to stop for the night. We do not have a hotel reservation so what do we do? Find a McDonalds with free WiFi and search the local hotels on my iPad. We book online and walk into the hotel five minutes later. The moral of the story...have wifi connection available - it gets you business.

Other notes from today's travels:

1. It is amazing how valuable it is to pre-plan when traveling with children. Having lots for them to do makes life so much easier (I.e. New DVDs for in car player, new books to read, a fun stop to take a ride on a real life thomas the train).

2. It is worth paying extra for a nice hotel. Two queen sized beds, wifi access, indoor pool &hot tub (to tire out the kids & help work the kinks out).

I hope tomorrow is a good day. We still have 10 hours of driving left.

Wayne.

Getting Ready for Canada

Tomorrow we leave for Canada.  It is always strange going 'home'.  It is amazing the variations that do exist between Charleston SC and Toronto ON.  A few examples,

1. While it is hot in Charleston, everyone has air conditioning.  In Toronto, few have air conditioning and those that do leave it turned down because it is so expensive to run.  So while it is technically cooler, it really is not.
2. The difference in prices.  With the gas at my corner in Charleston today is $3.55 a gallon.  In Toronto avg. $1.24 a litre or $4.71 or gallon!  That means an extra $16.24 per fill up for our car!  This is not even getting to the HST.
3. It is so nice to have family and good friends around.  I do miss them.  Charleston is nice and I have good friends but it is not the same as having family close.
4. I also like having the library, parks and other amenities that aren't nearly as accessible down south as they are in Toronto.
5.  In Toronto, the multicultural space and the vibe of the city is totally different than down south.  In Toronto the pace is brisker, the people are friendly yet detached (no I don't have to tell every teller my life story) and it is a much more permissive environment in general.  In Charleston, life is slower, relationships are very important with everyone and the customer service is 1000 times better in general.  

So I look forward to going 'home' and then I look forward to coming 'home'.  It is nice to have so much home in my life.

Wayne.

2nd Article...

My second article came from an idea I developed while working on my master's thesis.  I have always been one to enjoy strange topics so to study non-travelers seemed perfectly normal to me.

A couple of thoughts about this work; 1) this concept lead me to develop products related to women's only travel (before it became vogue); and 2) to develop product for the Toronto Asian market.  Both of these groups very under serviced and today close to a decade later are prominent and important marketplaces.

A Geographical Analysis of the Rates of Non-Travel Across the Regions of Canada

Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment

Volume 7, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 257 - 271

Authors: Wayne W. Smith^a; Barbara A. Carmichael^a

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to classify and segment non-travellers across the regions of Canada. This was achieved by empirically testing Haukeland's (1990) model of non-travel. The study revealed that while Quebec had the lowest incidence rate of non-travel, those who did not travel were socially constrained at a much higher rate than in the other regions of Canada. Those not born in Canada were most likely to be both financially and socially constrained and concentrated primarily in Ontario. Non-travellers in Western Canada were most likely to report being financially constrained. Overall, this study found that Haukeland's (1990) model assisted in the discovery of regional differences in non-travellers across Canada. If non-travellers are understood more clearly, some of their market potential could be realized by the tourism industry.

Kids School Year 2011 in Pictures

A Pretty Good Year if I do say so myself!

Photo by Tom Steenhuysen

Photo by Tom Steenhuysen

Photo by Tom Steenhuysen

Trying something new...

Just got my new iPad. Thought I would try it out with a blog post. Yesterday.was the kids first day of summer holidays. Liam was at home all day and is already driving Heather nuts. Heather is already looking forward to heading to Canada and Grandparent distractions. Robyn has one more day of school left and is wanting to go for each minute in order to hang out with her friends. She is at that age. For me, I am trying to get some writing done and be ready for the TTRA conference at the end of the month. I am also trying to get two more papers out this summer. Decisions, decisions.

Wayne.

The Tenure Journey...My First Article

As this is my tenure year, I thought it would be fun to reflect and show my work to date.  So over the next few weeks, I am going to submit to you some of my favorite pieces of work.  Let's start at the very beginning, it is a very good place to start with my first journal article.  It has been cited by 14 other authors and is a neat piece of research.

Canadian domestic travel behaviour: A market segmentation study of rural shoppers

1. Barbara A. Carmichael and
2. Wayne W. Smith

Abstract

Rural shopping is emerging as a tourism market that is under-researched and offers potential for the economic development of rural regions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and importance of the domestic rural shopping market in Canada as a ‘niche’ market in rural tourism, and to provide a description of the characteristics of rural shoppers. Secondary data analysis of the domestic Canadian Travel Survey (1998-2001) reveals that there are many rural visitors who also participate in shopping, and that rural shoppers display different characteristics from average Canadian domestic travellers. Market segmentation using cluster analysis identifies five activity-based groups that differ on the basis of demographics and trip characteristics.

Good-bye or Perhaps See You Later

Today is Liam's last day going to Angel Oak Elementary.  He has been going there for two years in a special PIC class.  Before he went into the program, many told us that this school was no good.  That there was all kinds of problems there.

Liam's First Day of School

 The reality is, Liam's teacher for the last two years has been perfect for him and the principal is a fair individual who runs a good school.  The school still has issues but it is the same ones all of the South Carolinian are facing.  Run the school with a budget of magic beans.

So on this day, I congratulate Liam on graduating into his new class next year at Stono Park Elementary, thank the teachers and administration at Angel Oak for taking good care of our son and am thankful for us having such a loving and caring family.  It is a good day.