Tourism, a significant industry worldwide, has allowed for economic, social, and cultural development in rural areas because of all the advantages it offers to tourists. Ecuador is a country that presents a wide range of alternatives in the tourist field allowing a massive tourist influx to many of its destinations such as indigenous communities, natural reserves, and tourist, ecological, and volcanic routes. Most importantly, Ecuador encourages the conservation of the diversity resulting from such influx. The objective of this research is to design an ontology which facilitates a description of the bicycle tourist routes in the province of Tungurahua, and specifically in the city of Ambato. Apart from route descriptions, this ontology gives information about the flora and fauna and places of interest such as inns, hotels, and restaurants that can be found along this route. This ontology was developed based on the application and enforcement of semantic web technologies. That being said, all the described information is attached to an RDF vocabulary and it can be accessed using SPARQL. Therefore, information that is semantically described in an organized and standardized manner is available in order to allow for interoperability with other existing data sources. As for the development of the ontology, the methodology used was an open code software known as “protégé”. The OWL (Ontology Web Language) was also used as marked language and RDFS for the description of the employed vocabulary.

Ecotourism, as a part of sustainable tourism, has been growing rapidly in Indonesia in many rural areas in Yogyakarta. This is because mass tourism changed the emphasis onto nature and cultural tourism so that rural tourism became interesting to tourists. This paper aims to study the development of rural tourism in Yogyakarta in terms of mileage, geographical conditions, period of growth and tourist attractions. Descriptive analysis is used to identify the influence factors based on distribution of location, historical factors, and cultural and geographical conditions in tourism villages in Yogyakarta. Rural tourism in Yogyakarta has been growing since the year 2000. The dominant attraction is related to cultural tourism based on community participation. Research results show that geographic condition and local cultural tradition, which support the traditional daily income of the local community, became the determinant factors in sustaining the touristic village of Yogyakarta.

Tourism and the advances that technology has had over the years have turned into useful instruments that are used to develop platforms and virtual touristic environments that can help in its management and positioning promotion-wise. The objective is to design a virtual touristic environment that will promote service providers, cultural activities, routes and touristic attractions that are found in the province of Tungurahua, and which include natural resources and historical sites that have not been exploited yet. The virtual environment’s goal is to integrate relevant information for tourists in the area, plus destinations and locations using a map, geolocation and georeferencing functions. The goal is to increase the flow of national and foreign visitors by using audiovisual archives or files. The validation of the goals was based on studies about the characteristics and the behavior of the tourists and information obtained from national public companies that are primarily related to tourism.

Tourism has begun to develop with the development of the socio-economic structures of the countries after the Second World War and has become one of the fastest growing and expanding sectors in the world economy since this period. When tourism is rapidly growing, developing countries that have limited resources such as Turkey have to make rational investment decisions for the economic future of the country. Turkey’s tourism policies that focus on coastal tourism began to be applied through development plans in the 1960s. In the five-year development plans that started in 1963, tourism was selected as the priority sector in the economic development of Turkey and the main principle of tourism sector was defined as mass tourism until the 1980s. In this period when tourism investments were increasing, for the preservation of the natural and cultural heritage, it was aimed to give priority to the regions which were seen as most convenient for tourism investments. In the 1960s, Antalya was one of the selected priority regions according to the directions of the development plans to concentrate on the regions with high ability to attract tourists and to get short-term results. After the 1980s, although the concept of individual tourism has been mentioned in the development plans, mass tourism investments in Antalya have increased rapidly with the Tourism Incentive Law No. 2634 issued in 1982. From the 1980s, accommodation facilities in various categories have filled the city, thus the negative impacts of tourism on the natural, cultural heritage and social structure have begun to become evident. The tourism sector contributes greatly to the economic, cultural and social development of both developed and developing countries. However, the rapid and unplanned development of the tourism sector and focusing just on the economic impact of tourism for a long time has caused negative natural and socio-cultural influences. In Antalya, overpopulation caused by the rapid development of tourism has caused deteriorations on the cultural and natural environment. Particularly, Kaleiçi which is the historic center of Antalya has been through cultural and social transformations and lost its original character. The aim of this study which is based on the ongoing doctoral thesis is to discuss the role of tourism developments shaped by national policies and legal regulations with reference to the transformation process of cultural values in the case of Antalya Kaleiçi. In the first part of this study, national tourism policies and investments in Turkey and the interaction between them and the protection of the historic environment are explained. In the second part, the cultural, spatial and social impact of national tourism policies and investments in the case of Antalya are determined.

The popular festivity known as Corpus Cristi is a clear manifestation of culture in Ecuador. It is considered a crosscultural expression of the cosmovision and iconographic symbolism of religious fusion making an evident imaginary connotation of the population. Where evident, catholics are of a vernacular world and end up being a praise in honor of the favors received from the Body of Christ and the indigenous roots of spirituality. It represents gratitude for the successful harvests obtained in the year by the Pachamama and Taita Inti. The present study aims to provide furnishings with designs of this festival, the park 13 de abril in Pujilí, which is also commonly known by locals as the Danzante Park. The methodology used was an analysis of the artistic projects developed by Panofsky where the work is reinterpreted from a designer perspective. This method is used to propose a method of extracting the iconographic and iconological elements of cultural demonstrations resulting in the innovation of the canton. Taking advantage of the values and cultural heritage of the nation and showcasing its aesthetics, a greater flow of visitors to the area is ensured as well as the dynamics of the local economy.

The spontaneous and traditional art represents one of the most important aspects in the culture of a town because it is the worldview manifestation that shows cultural reality in areas that are considered socially subaltern. This is the case of the Ecuadorian Andean region, where the ancestral sound of capolin leaves shows a historical experience and a particular sensitivity. Capolin is a leafy tree native from America. It has simple, alternate, oblongo laceolate leaves that are 6 to 14cm long by 2 to 4 cm wide. It has 3 to 5 prominent nerves from the base of the leaf. This musical technique is part of the Ecuadorian culture and has been inherited and transmitted from a remote past and at the same time is a resource with high cultural vulnerability. When talking about the research work it is worth adding that a descriptive study was carried out. It encompasses the representative cultural features of the plant in the population and the fundamental dendrolgical characteristics. The study also goes through the frecuency and the decibels created by the sound of the plant, the intonation and the human effect caused by this sound. The research concludes that the transversal axis of music is creativity and that boosting this type of manifestations can be a motivation for the dynamization of the touristic activity because it is part of the intangible heritage of a town.

Cultural tourism roughly contributes to 40% of the international tourism arrivals. However, marketing for it is a dilemma between maximizing the economic return and nurturing the culture’s social functions because, in cultural tourism, a culture is a “product” to be “consumed”. Marketers need to attract the “correct” segments of cultural tourism, which have cultural motives as opposed to those of mass tourism. Research shows that attracting such segments can be done through a differentiation based on authenticity. However, in cultural tourism, authenticity is a relative and negotiable term. Perceived authenticity is more applicable than the traditional, objective authenticity. Previous research has been done to understand how authenticity is perceived by tourists but how it changes over a time remains elusive to researchers. This research focuses on the dynamics of perceived authenticity; how it changes over a time. A temporary, hypothetical model is proposed that is subject to a further seeking of variables and their relationships. The research is conducted in two stages: qualitative for building the model and quantitative for confirming it. Two cases will be built i.e. Alsace in France and Bali in Indonesia. The two regions will represent two different points on a spectrum. This research is a work in progress.

India is known for its reach in Art and Culture. Cultural tourism provides a major contribution to the development of the country from different aspects. Apart from supporting the Indian economy, cultural tourism also helps in preserving and developing unique art traditions which are slowly dying out due to negligence. patachitra, the painted scroll of Bengal is one of them. The patachitra tradition is an essential part of intangible heritage based on tour practices. Patuas, as they are known as a community, chiefly represent a group of artists wandering with their painted scrolls and narrating the stories from place to place to earn their livelihood. The patachitra is a platform where several mediums of communication are united such as visual messages, oral traditions and music during process of storytelling. These painted scrolls represent narration of Hindu mythologies as well as folklore. In this regard, considering business as one of the purposes of tour, this research about patua artists working for patachitra in West Bengal is an attempt to reveal the fact that artifacts, as a part of culture, and tourism are two sides of the same coin. The existence of one is essential for the survival of the other.

Being able to recognize your own individual rights in vulnerable situations is a good way to live. A new curriculum developed under Ecuador’s Higher Education Board brings together the inter-cultural concept. In ancient cultures, segregation existed among Latin American people in higher education. In this way, the new proposal for education makes it vital for future professionals to develop in the domain of methods and proceeds about ancient acknowledge, traditions, and cultural. To achieve the purpose of having inclusive curricula, it was needed to analyze ancient thoughts focused in the Salasaka community consmovision (descendant from Bolivia settled in Ecuador) and Chibuleos community who formulated the methodology that promotes cultural consciousness and is focused on the development and potentiation of habits and customs that generate different ways of living and thinking in the new educational environments. The obtained results are in function of statistics settings that show inclusive methodologies that link up the university professorship with ancient knowledge and culture. The use of this investigation is the implementation of methodologies in curricula in Ecuadorian universities in higher education. It’s about transforming the ideological challenges on the academic formation of the ancestral towns.

Nothing is useless in this world. Everything has its specific purpose and objectives with respect to its importance. The present-day hardware and materials utilized as a part of building swallow noteworthy measure of our national vitality. Ancient monumental buildings and palaces are still a place to relax without fans, coolers and air conditioners. There is a need to study the traditional buildings because they are time-tested. Mughal Architects are legendary for their creativity. Without beauty, architecture would just be the combination and amalgamation of some material. Hence, art is the soul and spirit of architecture. Mughal Architecture is the example of “Feeling of Wonder” that is the source of aesthetic experience. Mughals showed the great skills in infusing the Islamic idea with local tradition. Water has had been an important element in Asian culture and architecture. Water is an architectural element that is extensively used in our ancient buildings and in the garden of the Mughals. Water not only pleases the eye on a hot summer day, but also provides passive cooling. This paper deals with the utilization of water not only for the purpose of beautification of the site but also for studying the scientific utility of water. This study is a mixture of basic and applied methods according to architectural research methods. The study in this research will show how Mughals used water as an eminent representation of undaunted Mughal mastery in retaining and regulating the temperature along with the beautification purpose via fountains, water channels, and pools.

The current study on the micro level of single-building protection and repair is relatively complete, however, the discussion about elements of cultural heritage and their relevance among the ancient villages is comparably insufficient. The protection work is strongly influenced by tourism development and cultural gimmick, thus resulting in low protection efficiency and many omissions. Historical village as the cultural settlement patterns bears a large number of heritage relics. They were regionally scattered with a clear characteristic of gathering. The article takes these four historical villages in Mian Moutain as an example, relying on the historical time period theory, then tries to look for the association and similarities of the forming mechanism between villages. The article discusses the integrated conservation from three levels: the regional heritage conservation, the cultural line shaping, and the featured brand building.

First of all, we must understand that there are various aspects of tourism with respect to its beauty, aesthetics, technical parameters, trade & commerce, training & education, innovation etc. If anyone wants to find the bondage between education and tourism, there can be various topics, concepts, factors, and parameters to portray the entity. Again, if Education is an aspect of tourism, then we can formulate a tourism course subject to beauty, aesthetics, technical parameters, trade & commerce, innovation and, last but not the least, the destinations – The prime capital for tourism; as a tourist has a destination whereas a traveler does not. So, pertaining to education and tourism, I shall focus on destination studies. It would be better to admit that tourism is the most special segment of human geography. This subject leads us to understand our planet and the culture of the world better than any other subject. So, we must also find a scientific way of studying tourism to understand the human race better. To start with, we must focus on the different destinations of the world, their geography – how to reach there, their culture, their heritage, their history, their socio-economy, interesting places to visit there etc. Once we grab it we have almost grabbed the major portion of the subject named tourism. So, let’s proceed.