Fisherman Wharf of San Francisco - Coursework Example

Fisherman wharf of San Francisco Introduction In San Francisco, Fisherman wharf is the most popular destination among several travelers in northern California. Millions of tourists visit this site every year. It is considered a neighborhood that attracts so many visitors in San Francisco, California. For many centuries, Fisherman wharf historic waterfront has been the hub of the cities fleet of fishing. The area has been famous since for its variety and the depth of its harvest, as well as having the best restaurants selling seafood in northern Carolina. To date, Fisherman’s wharf is still renowned for its several tourists’ attractions sites including souvenir stores, maritime museum, and sea lions at pier 39, Hyde St. pier, the infamous Alcatraz and chocolate factory at Ghirardelli (Smith, p.145). The Fisherman wharf of San Francisco gets its name and the characteristics of its entirety neighborhood from the early days of the sixty in the mid to the late years of 1800s. During that period, the immigrants from Italy used to use the bay to arrive at the city and due the growing population because of the gold rush they used to take advantage. Most of the immigrant Fishermen from Italy settled in the northern beach area that is closest to the wharf and mainly fished for the delicacies of the locals that is famously now called the Dungeness crab. From that, time until today, the area has remained the home of the fishing fleet of San Francisco. Despite its development into tourist attraction center the area is still seen to be an active area for several Fishermen and their fleets. What do the visitors see in Fisherman’s wharf? The Fisherman’s wharf is on everybody’s lists that are the first-time visitors. The area is said to be cool by majority of those who have visited the place. With the variety of fresh seafood, an individual can handle coupled with the cool restaurants that overlook the wharf and the available boats to Alcatraz make the area fascinating. After several hours of being in the Fisherman’s wharf, the boundary of fun commercialization crosses to pure cheesy and over the top tourism. Fisherman’s wharf is seen to be overwhelmed by several tourists who visit the area, and it has been reinvented daily as a chaotic place of carnival commercialization. The area is replete with several remarkable uneven shops and restaurants. The wharf seems to start roughly from the Ghirardelli square east to pier 35. The area is best known for its notorious tourist trap. In my recent visit to Fisherman wharf site, I concluded that most of the Tourists visiting Fisherman wharf have several things to see during their visit. They are mostly concentrating with what satisfies their eyes and not what they are willing to engage and participate. Therefore, the visitors spend most of their time seeing the fishing fleet and the piers of Alcatraz. It is fun to the visitors, and it looks as though they enjoy the sight of piers and the fleet. The several sea lions always rest on the side of vile malls referred to as per 39 also fascinate the tourists. To the tourists, the barking and the noise made by the zillions of sea lions appear to be cool. What are they missing? The tourists are missing an opportunity to mingle with the population living around so that they can understand their culture. This is because very few local people get to visit the area because to them they do not value what’s new Fisherman’s wharf has to offer for them. What they see that locals fail to see or have become immune to There are two groups visiting the place as tourists. There are those people who want a unique experience of the place and seek to immerse themselves in the experience of the locals. Secondly, there are those people who do not put much into what makes a place interesting beyond the convenience experiences that are set up for them and what the tourism industry uses to thrive off. To the locals the place, the place is not interesting at all. They think there is nothing in the Fisherman’s wharf that can attract people to come and see. To them, the place is just another useless area that is full of kitschy shops that are selling useless knick-knacks, t-shirts that are cheap and occasional postcards. To the locals, they see the food stalls as not good. On the other hand, the tourists see many things that the locals do not (Poole, Matthew, Erika, and Kristin, p.179). They seem to be fascinated with the area and love visiting the place. To them, Fisherman’s wharf is for those people who do not put much into their thoughts into what makes a place look interesting. Rather, they take it as a place where one can take a walk and relax as well as observe few eye-catching sceneries like the fishing fleet. This is to say, what the locals seem to spot as the obvious and normal things, to them is seen to be spectacular to the tourists thus the locals miss to see the beauty of what they have at hand. To the tourists, the wharf is not just a place of why an individual is there; to them, the wharf is a takeoff point to cruise San Francisco bay and a good opportunity for them to take a bay cruise and a tour to the Alcatraz. The visitors see the wharf as a convenient place to talk a walk from the hotels of downtown to a variety of public transit, today’s historic streetcars. In addition, the tourists find the area attractive because it is closer to several other attractive neighborhoods that are attractive including the marina and the north beach. What I have learned about tourism today The modern tourism can be explained and well articulated to be a quest for authenticity. While some people might just be arguing that tourism may not just be a quest for an authentic, but rather a break from what is seen to be a routine. Others might turn out to argue that tourism has developed into teaching other peoples real life. Today’s tourism has evolved with the changes in technology. Technology is being used extensively to disseminate tourism and the ever-increasing usage of internet also being used a platform for promoting tourism to the local population and foreign people (sftodo.com). Today, the application of information technology in tourism is seen to be in its prime. The use of safety is also becoming more accessible in searching for authenticity. Today, phones with satellites are being used on a safari or Walkie- talkies that give tourists and avalanche victims get access to a rescue team has reduced the risk of quest for the authentic. Technology has been seen to take away authentic experience from the tourism sector. With all the technological development and advances in the current century, the tourist has been able to lose his or her susceptibility to being moved by simple beauty. This has made hotel rooms, package tours and even airline tickets to fall in the midst of competition. It has been easier for the people who are considered to be in the lower classes to use their wages and savings to access the once called tourist sites and facilities and other beautiful places globally. Due to this, because of the consequences of the spread of what is seen to be insensible, it has led the entrepreneurs in tourism and other industries dealing with entertainment to change and perfect the front and back regions concept. Through this, they changed the interests of the customers who are the tourist and manipulated them again to begin searching from authentic. It is obvious today that tourism has lost its true meaning and taste. So many people are not enthusiastic on tourism. Tourism is not given a high profile compared to the previous centuries. People take advantage of the tourist sites not for tourism purposes but as a site where they can just stroll and relax themselves out. They do not appreciate what they have around in the tourist attraction areas. Today’s tourism can only be exemplified by creating new and unique things that can add to the experience of the people if at all, people have to be attracted. Without the provision of the activities, sceneries and environment that can attract people the tourism sector will suffer a hard blow. Therefore, today’s tourism differs from the tourism of the past completely. People are no more attracted with their adventurous nature but with what they can see and get attracted to. If the tourism site has nothing new or attractive to offer, people tend to get used with what is available in the area. They soon get bored and tend not to return to the area, or in case they return, they do not return for tourism purposes but rather to stroll down the area (Baccari, p.170). The problems in today’s tourism have also been multiplied with the development in technology. People nowadays get to know everything online to quench their thirst for adventure instead of visiting a tourist site. Hence, today’s tourism is going through great challenges to be able to attract tourists to tourism sites. What there is to see around us There are several things around our environment we have not seen, and we need to have a glimpse. Some may argue that they have seen nearly everything, but our environment is made up of several things that are fascinating, and we would like to see and appreciate. Tourism is not just within what attracts us and adds to our experiences, and it goes beyond to the extent of appreciating what is new and what our environment has been bestowed with. North Carolina has beautiful coastal beaches that can be good sites to see and enjoy the ocean breeze. Works cited Baccari, Alessandro. San Franciscos Fishermans Wharf. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006. Print. Luna. Frommers San Francisco 2012. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2011. Internet resource. Smith, Melanie K. Tourism, Culture, and Regeneration. Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK: CABI Pub, 2006. Print. http://www.sftodo.com/fish.html Read More