Las Vegas, Los Angeles And San Francisco: Tourist Destinations and Attractions Group Project

Introduction

USA west Have a lot of popular tourism cities, we choose three cities to explore, they are Nevada Las Vegas, California Los Angeles, San Francisco These three cities have different characteristics that make these cities very popular. Nowadays, the geographical resources and Destination mix affects the tourism popularity, the components are Attractions, Amenities / Facilities, Accessibility, Hospitality resources, Government policy, Safety and political stability and Travel cost. In these three cities it covers a lot of activities to do in the USA including gambling, beaches, theme park, watching natural landscapes etc. The Destination mix may vary in these cities, and now having the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, so we would like to analyze these cities in tourism development situations differences before and after the pandemic starts.

Main Content

The First city is Las Vegas, it is located in Nevada state of the USA, the most populated city in the state of Nevada. It is an internationally renowned major resort city, such as gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and nightlife. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial and cultural center for Nevada.

Geographical Resources affects the development of tourism destinations. Firstly, about the Physical Resources, Nevada is in a basin of the floor of the Mojave Desert surrounded by mountain ranges. The climate belongs to the subtropical hot desert climate, for example, very hot and dry in summer and winter. The Physical Conditions are no good for developing with natural attractions but swing to another way for man-made and purposely-built successfully. Secondly, about Human Resources, the rich cultural resources attract people to visit Vegas. Legal gambling activities allowed from the government political system; many attractive festivals events throughout the year for pulling tourists to visit, like Electric Daisy Carnival, Death Fest, Exodus Festival. Thirdly, about Economic Growth, it has well organized public infrastructure and facilities maturely in Vegas, like the police force, post office, parks, car parking, a casino which provide convenience for both local residents and tourists.

Las Vegas has strength in destination mix, gambling attractions operate 24 hours every day, the nightlives or entertainments are various and abundant, such as magic, singing and white tiger shows etc. The number of hotel supplies are enough for travellers’ accommodation needs, about 113 hotels with over 100,000 rooms. Provide financial convenience for guests, like money exchange in casinos for the tourists from different parts of the world. For transportation, good accessibility of the traffic network with the RTC Transit bus service line throughout anywhere in Vegas. The development stage of Las Vegas belongs to Maturity, most of the running is under systematic way which means that the hospitality handling to travellers are rather smooth. Meantime, the safety and political status is very stable since there has been no warfare, coups and even strikes mostly found.

Nevertheless, Vegas also has a weakness in destination mix. The main attractions are gambling and nightlives mostly, the options for other choices are limited such as sightseeing or any sportive activities which reflects the economical development with insufficient diversification. For food supply which are almost needed to rely on “import” thus no flesh food such as meats to be all with frozen conditions. Furthermore, the crime rate is under a reasonable level but this is still room for improvement since the cases of pickpocketing, robberies and certain violent crimes are still often within night time. Finally, it is very important to tourists which is the travelling cost based on the figure from statistics. The trip cost is rather expensive in Vegas which leads to competition from other travelling areas like Macau has pulled many visitors from mainland China even to other Asian countries as their costs are competitive.

To have a better future for the tourism industry in Vegas, I suggest that the government offer some financial supports, like sales or gambling tax reduction and subsidize the fuels allowance to air companies for the purpose to reduce the cost and expenses; To develop more different public traffic vehicles, like tram or rental electric scooter for longer or shorter distance in town which gives convenient to tourist’s choices; To develop more attractions for pulling visitor to come, like Hatsumi & La Monja, Expo at World Market Center would be coming up soon.

The Second City is Los Angeles, Los Angeles is located in southern California in the USA. Los Angeles has other names, is called ‘Our Lady’ and ‘Queen of the Angeles’. Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California, where it has an estimated population of nearly four million people, it is the country’s second-most populous city after New York City and the third most populous city in North America after Mexico City and New York City. Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood entertainment industry, and its sprawling metropolis.

The Geographical Resources and Climates affect the development of tourism destinations. Firstly, about the Geographical Resources, according to the city are much higher mountains of the north lie the San Gabriel Mountains, which is a popular recreation area for Angelenos. Its high point is Mount San Antonio, which reaches 3068 m . Further afield, the highest point in the Greater Los Angeles area is San Gorgonio Mountain which is 3506 m high. Also, Los Angeles has the first Disneyland in the world. Family members can have activities when they go to Disneyland. Also, the family travellers go to the Universal Studio to play the rollercoaster. Los Angeles has the Hollywood Bowl and Hollywood Boulevard, parents can teach children the history of actors or actresses in the US and find the guide to speak the history of the US.

Secondly, about the Climates, Los Angeles has a Mediterranean Climate and receives just enough annual precipitation to avoid a semi-arid climate making the myth that the city has been built in a desert not be completely incorrect. Daytime temperatures are generally temperate all year round. In winter, they average around 20 °C giving it a tropical feel although it is a few degrees too cool to be a true tropical climate on average due to cool night temperatures. Los Angeles has plenty of sunshine throughout the year, with an average of only 35 days with measurable precipitation annually. The coastal region around Los Angeles has a climate comparable to coastal areas of southeastern Spain such as Alicante or Elche, in temperature range and variation, in sunshine hours and as well as annual precipitation levels. Temperatures in the coastal basin exceed 32 °C on a dozen or so days in the year, from one day a month in April, May, June and November to three days a month in July, August, October and to five days in September.

Los Angeles has strengths and weaknesses in its destination mix.

First, the strengths, Los Angeles has a lot of attractions include the Hollywood Sign, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Capitol Records Building, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Dolby Theatre, Getty Center, Getty Villa, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Venice Canal Historic District and boardwalk etc which can let travellers go to have relaxing activities. In Amenities or Facilities, Los Angeles have plenty of hotel let the tourists live in and take rest. Some tourists choose hotels or motels that have free parking who drive the car.

Second, the weaknesses, the government policy may affect the travellers who want to go to Los Angeles because the US needs to apply for a visa before going to the US, same travellers think the visa takes a long time to go to the US. For the travel cost, the price of the US is more expensive than other US cities, for instance, A vacation to Los Angeles for one week usually costs around US$1328 for one person. A trip to Los Angeles for two people costs around US$2655 for one week. A trip for two weeks for two people costs the US $5311 in Los Angeles. If you’re travelling as a family of three or four people, the price per person often goes down because kid’s tickets are cheaper and hotel rooms can be shared. If you travel slower over a longer period of time then your daily budget will also go down. Two people travelling together for one month in Los Angeles can often have a lower daily budget per person than one person travelling alone for one week.

The Third city to analyze is San Francisco, San Francisco is one of the coastal cities in the USA west, it is located in North California. San Francisco has other names called by people including ‘Old Gold Mountain’, ‘Bay City of US west’ , ‘Foggy City’ and ‘Golden Gate City’.

Geographical resources affect tourism. Firstly, for physical resources, San Francisco is popular as the slope city in the US West, almost all streets are with slopes, mostly the resources are related to landscapes, including Lombard Street the most crooked street of sharp hairpin turns, Golden Gate Bridge viewpoint. Secondly, it is the climatic condition. The climate in San Francisco is a Mediterranean climate, dry summers and moist winters, most of the days are sunny and sometimes foggy. Sometimes if both will happen together, it will create an aesthetic view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin Viewpoint, the aesthetic view is the bridge covered with foggy clouds and sometimes with the sunshine shining. In economic resources, there are both infrastructure and tourism facilities. First, in infrastructure, the transportation network usually are automobiles or aeroplanes, not only in San Francisco but for other popular places in the USA, in San Francisco, there are both domestic and international airports with a lot of destinations in the USA and the world. But in San Francisco still there are public transport to ride such as the tram and metro, the most traditional transport is the tram, people can travel from lower places to high places. Secondly, for the tourism facilities. People travelling need a place to stay temporary, in the USA most places for staying temporary are usually motels and resorts, very few chances to be staying in hotels. But In San Francisco, usually people will live in hotels or motels temporary because San Francisco is not a city for enjoying water activities or beach activities. In the USA, not only San Francisco, people will usually travel by car then in result, they will choose motels other than hotels since motels can have free parking but on the other hand hotels most of them will have no parking provided or required for parking fee then people will usually choose motels for their convenience. Other tourism facilities are recreation facilities, there are Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Viewpoints, Union Square shopping centres and the piers at the north shore of San Francisco.

San Francisco has both strengths and weaknesses in the destination mix.

First, for strengths, San Francisco has a lot of attractions that attract travellers to travel to, no matter if it is natural, man made attractions. In Amenities or Facilities, there is enough accommodation for travellers to stay temporarily, general surviving sources such as food and beverage and infrastructure or hospitality resources usually meet the requirement of travellers.

Second, for weaknesses, government policy may affect travellers to travel to San Francisco, most countries and cities need to apply for a visa in order to enter the USA for travelling. In another concern for travellers to travel is safety and political stability, the safety level of USA is moderate, the popular cities for travelling generally are safe but still for example, there are some Gun Assassination happening around in the USA because it is legal to have a gun if local people have examined, but someone will abuse it to assassinate people randomly including travellers, the government had amended the gun storage policy that needs to have an investigation to people background but still having risk to happen again. Another one is health issues, USA people’s health are moderate compared to other countries, for example eating junk food can be common, but now with the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic outbreak, especially the USA has a total of 1 million cases ranking first in the world, reflecting that their ways to prevent viruses are weak. The USA will sometimes have natural disasters such as earthquakes. USA west is one of the earthquake boundaries, the plate boundary is the North American Plate, so earthquakes will happen frequently from time to time and the Magnitude is usually around 7. Lastly, The USA will sometimes have terrorism and political unrest, for example against USA President.

Most of the destinations start getting close to declining or even a decline because of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic outbreak. I recommend that the government should be well-planned or well-controlled before when there is some natural disaster or health disaster. First about well-planned, Tourism is one of economic growth. In this century, tourism is not only for people who are rich, it can be for anyone. But for the situation right now, everyone prevents travel as much as possible to prevent getting infected by a coronavirus, this situation reveals that governments were not well-planned to this situation so that tourism started to decline, as it declines it will affect a lot of activities such as business, retail. Government should be well controlled to prevent any zero income happening for the tourism industry.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these three cities in the USA west are famous travellers, general surviving sources including infrastructure, accommodation and everything related to tourism. In the USA west, the weaknesses are safety, natural disaster, health issues, political stability and government policy. Generally, the USA is a safe country to travel to, that is why tourism development is rejuvenated, the level of safety is still moderate because sometimes will have gunshot assassin happening, not only to local people but also to travellers since it is legal to have guns in the USA after taking the examination, the president has tightened the gun policy to investigate owner’s background but still happening and cause death and injury so it reduced the confidence of travellers. On the other hand, the natural disaster in the USA west is an earthquake, and most of the time it is over magnitude 7 because the USA west is one of the earthquake plate boundaries. Furthermore, there are health issues in the USA, people like to eat junk food which is unhealthy and now the Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak, it further reveals that people are weak in preventing infection. Moreover, sometimes the USA will not be stable politically, such as against the USA president. Lastly, it is the government policy. All travellers know that travelling to the USA need to apply for a visa in most countries, and sometimes take months to know whether it is accepted, that’s why people refuse to travel to the USA.

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