“Increasing Auckland’s Appeal” —- 30% of total mark
Submit hardcopy in class.
Context
Auckland is considered to be a great city to live in yet few would rank it alongside Sydney or Los Angeles as a tourism destination. This assignment attempts to improve the situation by having students be imaginary hosts for a couple who will have visited Auckland for the term break You must host for a minimum of 10 days but can take the entire break if you want. Your assignment first describes how you “hosted” them. You have accompanied them and evaluated your choices. Next you evaluate your experience in relation to an inventory of Auckland’s tourism resource stock. Lastly, you analyse these in order to show how Auckland’s appeal as a tourist destination can be increased. Specifics:
• The couple will be from overseas – you pick their origin and must describe their demographics – nationality, age, etc.;
• You have communicated with them prior to arrival. You have realised they are not identical “types” of tourists. You must please each person. Effectively:
o Each wanted to do both similar and different things;
o You wanted to show them Auckland’s “must see/do” attractions;
o You wanted to take them to places you haven’t yet been to yourself;
• It is their first time to New Zealand so you wanted them to experience what’s “local” in relation to both Auckland and New Zealand;
• It rained 2/10 days; you had to change plans. You must note this in #2 below;
• Auckland = the boundaries of Supercity Auckland; all activity choices = inside this;
• You were stuck with them 24 hours/day, therefore you have to find places for them to eat and something to do at night. Five nights must be occupied with evening activities related to tourism. That is, going to the cinema to see a movie they could see at home doesn’t count;
• Overall, the activities must include some of each of the following types of activities: environmental, social, cultural, economic. (These will be explained in lecture.);
• Activities = anything, not just tourist attractions. For example, a day trip north could consist of: visit to Parry kauri park in Warkworth; pointing out pine “plantations” along the road; lunch at Matakana market, glass bottom boat ride at Leigh, stop at Pakiri Beach, wine tasting at Ascension, stop at Honey Centre, admire sheep/alpacas along the roadside; eat fish and chips then feed the leftover chips to the seagulls;
• You can spend any amount of money you want but this must be consistent with the demographics of your couple. E.g., backpackers can’t usually afford helicopter rides;
• They stayed at your place so you do not need to discuss accommodation.
Tasks/Component parts
The assignment is an ANALYSIS, not an essay. The written component will consist of these parts:
1. A profile of each of your guests. This is to be in sufficient detail that it enables you to do #2 sufficiently well. Specifically, you must provide a description that makes sense in relation to why you took them to the places you chose;
2. An itinerary of where you took them on each day. For every feature you must give details about the activity but also rate it on a scale (e.g., 5 = excellent; 1 = awful). The rating = a reflection of how well the activity satisfied your guest/yourself. Find an itinerary model on the internet to use for designing your itinerary structure;
3. An inventory of similar places you could have taken them. This is also something like a list. (This will be explained in lecture.);
4. An overall analysis of how well Auckland satisfied your guests and a discussion of how Auckland’s appeal could be increased for future guests of these types. The first three parts lead up to this section, which should be 1,750 – 2,250 words in length.
Presentation
• Font and size = Microsoft’s defaults; nothing else: Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri;
• Spacing = 1.5. Nothing single spaced will be marked;
• Skip a line between paragraphs;
• APA citation system in text and References Page;
• No large gaps between sections.
Marking Factors
1. Your mark will be determined holistically based on (1) absolute quality (A, B, C) and (2) relative quality (better/worse than classmates).
2. The first three parts lead up to the analysis. The analysis is the most important part but you can’t do a good analysis if the other parts aren’t also well done. To do a good analysis you will need to write insightful comments based on the relationship between what Auckland has and what it does not have. This, in turn, is based on what you found as you studied Auckland’s stock of tourism resources in relation to the needs of your guests, and yourself. Reflect on the title – demonstrate you gained insight into how to increase Auckland’s appeal.
3. Factors related to specific marks:
• An A mark means it is excellent – just what a Level 7 assignment should be. What does that mean? It means you show you put in an excellent amount of effort into each of the parts and your analysis was excellent.
• A mark of B means it is good – the difference from an A relates to intellectual sophistication – A-quality assignments = smarter than Bs;
• If a submission is of draft-quality (grammatical mistakes, typos, etc.) the highest mark it will receive is a B-, no matter how good;
• Medium quality papers get B-/C+. Obviously, the better ones get B-;
• Fs, at Level 7, are mostly given for papers that show distinct lack of effort. This is usually related to word count. The minimum is 2,000 words for the analysis. If you write 1,500 words don’t expect a good mark;
• Presentation factors above are required or a penalty up to 10/100 may be assessed.
4. Turnitin.com submission of the analysis section is mandatory by the due date. Don’t submit other sections. Students are expected to submit to turnitin ahead of the due date, determine their ‘match’ then rewrite as necessary. Note that turnitin gives you a result quickly the first time but can take 72 hours the second time. The total match must be < 10% to avoid a penalty. Turnitin penalties for excessive total % =
o Match 10 – 19% = 5/100 penalty;
o Match 20 – 29% = 10/100 penalty;
o Match ≥ 30 = max mark of 48/100.
5. Make sure:
• You back up your work because if you don’t your computer will crash and/or your usb memory stick will break in half;
• You have access to a functioning printer (BIG problem at AUT) that has enough ink;
• Thieves do not steal your bags;
• Your usual mode of transport to AUT is running;
• All your friends and relatives (particularly your dear grandmother) are in good health and don’t do anything dangerous ;}>