Westwood Start is the indie publisher of the new series Making Sense of Tourism. Alan is the author of The Beckoning Horizon and the forthcoming On The Move.
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It has been set up by Alan Machin after a lifetime in tourism management and education.
28/07/2024
Thanks to people who have given positive comments on Westwood Start and the two published books so far. After working for years in tourist attractions, the design industry, short-break tourism and university tourism teaching, I think the tourist industries need to have their strategies reexamined. Hence the books 'Makung Sense of Tourism'. Unfortunately, life has got in the way of the work. My wife (she and I are in our '80s) has in the last few years suffered a serious accident, a stroke and a heart problem. She is now confined to a bed at home. The books are very much personal productions, as is the website. Book 3 - Bright Prospect - is on the way, but slowly. It will appear. It will also be the best so far. It reasesses much tourism activity between 1851 and 1941. The educational implications are remarkable. Please allow me time to complete the story it will tell, and thank you. And buy the books from Amazon!
13/05/2024
Ah, a sign of a caring society.
Here’s our next ghost sign 👻
We found this in the cellar under – has anyone any idea where this used to be placed and what it refers to?
04/03/2024
These pages support my work writing about Tourism. I am a retired lecturer in tourism management (17 years) with 17 earlier years in attraction and regeneration work. Now retired. I am anxious to put my 'front-line' experience to good use.
However, my wife has had serious health problems over the last few years. As her main carer, work on the third book in my series on tourism is being delayed. Just at a very interesting stage - the 1930s!
14/11/2023
Unique. Spectacular! Try the bistro and cafés and have a gin or two.
22/08/2023
🏳️🌈 Calderdale Pride is back on the 19th August 2023 with a whopping new line-up that promises to rock your socks off! Visit The Piece Hall for a free, family-friendly day packed full of fun!
Lots more happening at The Piece Hall, Dean Clough, Visit Brighouse, Pack Horse Inn, The Grayston Unity, Puzzle Hall Community Pub, Cromwell Bottom Nature Reserve, Square Chapel Arts Centre, Victoria Theatre Halifax,
📣As part of Heritage Open Days Calderdale’s unique Wainhouse Tower – the world’s tallest folly, standing at some 253ft! – will be open once again on Saturday 9 September 2023. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to ascend the 369 steps to the viewing platform, to enjoy the spectacular 360 degree views around the Calder Valley and beyond.
I am firmly of the belief that discussions about tourism need to hear more from people with both industrial and teaching experience. And especially those now retired, with time and enthusiasm to reflect and share thoughts based on their experiences. Academic debate is pursued through media and conferences at high cost, difficult for outsiders to access. Practical, inspirational ideas are what communities. . But not through commercial channels whose job is rightly to promote economic gain. My conclusion is that the need is for a much greater community of knowledge, ideas and Involvement. I would to know what your thoughts are. Alan Machin BA FTS
11/07/2023
Just a note to apologise for having no posts recently. Advancing years put demands on domestic duties and health care. They sometimes creep up on you! Catching up slowly.
03/04/2023
23/03/2023
The last posting in the Power of Tourism series. Comments on the content of the postings are welcome. The Making Sense of Tourism books (The Beckoning Horizon and On The Move) develop these ideas while tracing the history of tourism in the United Kingdom and the USA. They are available from Amazon. Each contains an extensive Bibliography on the subject. Most histories of tourism are very limited in scope. These books place tourism's development in the context of the mass media, education and social change. And they represent some of the best value for money around - you won't need a bank loan to buy them!
22/03/2023
Boris Johnson will be grilled in Parliament. He's more than oven-ready if you ask me. He has confirmed the opinions of many that were noted in the Irish Times not so long ago.
‘An obscene ascent to power’: UK’s incoming PM subject of ridicule in European media
22/03/2023
Yesterday's posting on the idea of datascapes raises the important topic of interpretation. It's so important in anything to do with education and, indeed, communication in general. These photos were all taken in an English town. If you interpret what they show correctly, you will know which one. Years ago, media mentions based on travel photos and book comments stressed images of those 'dark, satanic mills' in Blake's 'Jerusalem' poem. Good management has made remarkable changes. Visitors and residents alike think very differently.
21/03/2023
The term 'datascape' usually refers to a representation of data in a visual form, either to clarify its significance or to apply an artistic expression to it. This slide takes the idea that landscapes present data. The data is about shape, colour, form and function, about the history and likely future that it represents. It is available for people to interpret using their own experience, knowledge and opinions. Their interpretation will be subjective according to the viewing circumstances and the cognitive processes used. A leaf gives clues to the nature of the tree. The shape of a tree's canopy gives clues of its growth history. Building materials furnish information on the environment of a house. How they have been used speaks of human history and culture. Landscapes are like books to be read using the data they offer and human senses help to decode. Every detail contributes, but levels of information vary from relative sparsity to relative richness, Management can supplement it by adding specific media. Well-experienced visitors can understand better and be entertained by the new knowledge they gain.
20/03/2023
Tourist photography is at the heart of the travel experience. Destination designers and managers need visitors to spread the word about enjoyment and quality. Visitors want memories and pictures to show to friends. Images lead the way. The process of gathering good photos is quite complicated. Promoters need to know how to exploit it to advantage. Tourists need to know how to hit the pride of place button!
18/03/2023
Destination designers have a challenging range of things demanding attention if they are to do a really effective job and out-do the competition. At least, actions can be programmed over long periods. Too long and the competition may seize a big share of your identified market. Prioritising is the name of the game. At least make it look right and keep photographers happy. Word of mouth is effective, but image of eye has impact and spreads quickly via social and print media.
17/03/2023
Please note: this is slide no 8, not number 2.
As promised in the previous post, this is an example of a kind of Grand Tour made by the journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke in 1942. He was investigating the state of the USA in its first year of
World War II. Cooke decided the route, stops and reporting himself. He made his Letter From America broadcasts to Britain from 1946 to 2004, every week, and made a TV series and book about US history, widely praised for its insights. Knowledge of the USA by Britain was not only from Hollywood films and entertainment but from people like Alistair Cooke. Free-Itinerary Touring is today much more common and the tourist has much more control over what experiences and opinions result.
16/03/2023
Tourism allows people the freedom to go anywhere, anytime, discovering all kinds of interesting things along the way. Well, yes, up to a point. Following the offers of tourism operators allows choosing which journey, with which experiences, but much is shaped by the operator who may or may not build in time to do your own thing. This example is from a 19th century fixed itinerary with not a lot of time for the tourist's own choices. The next post will give an example of an extensive journey by car, largely devised by the traveller. Today, arranging your own travels by booking everything online and using personal transport is much freer.
15/03/2023
News came to people in the trans-Atlantic world of the19th century through many channels. Travel news came in the print media via written reports and images, as technologies advanced. Highly impactful were engravings made from paintings by great artists. They could be cut out from magazines or bought as large prints from specialist shops. Many people pasted them directly onto walls while others framed and hung them prominently.
15/03/2023
Who decides which part of the world is seen by the tourist? And how is it interpreted - that is, whose opinions about places are the ones given to visitors? Marketing creates images and judgements. Transport routes showcase beautiful places and ugly ones just because of where they went. Kodak Picture Spots were amongst many influencers at work including mum and dad, teachers and fellow passengers.
14/03/2023
A follow-up to slide 3. The ideas are developed further in 'Making Sense of Tourism: 1 The Beckoning Horizon' (available via Amazon).
13/03/2023
Like a mental turbine powered by the strength of inflowing information, it turbo-charges the mind. See page 52 of 'Making Sense of Tourism: The Beckoning Horizon'.
11/03/2023
Ever wanted to see one of Anne Listers famous diaries in person, or wondered what other amazing paper records Anne left behind? 📖
Well, the West Yorkshire Archive Service have got you covered, visit the search room at the Central Library and Archives in Halifax to
see a display of diaries and other items from the Shibden Hall archive collection.
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Westwood Start is a publishing project. After a working life in teaching - secondary, higher and adult - and tourism - development, attractions and commercial design - Alan Machin turned to a new project in his retirement.
Having experienced first-hand the cut and thrust of community politics when it met up with commercial life, he knew that a fresh view about tourism was needed. It has never been merely a ‘tea-shop’ economy as some politicians describe it. Nor is it a product of 19th century get-rich-quick enterprise.
Even prehistoric people enjoyed activities we would recognise as tourism in a simple form. From then until the late Victorian period, tourism as both leisure and entertainment on the one hand and education on the other made steady growth. Then came commercial developments, still driven initially by ideas of learning about the world.
Only in the 20th century did the profit motive begin to overcome the more altruistic aspects of the range of industries making up ‘tourism’. At every stage, tourism interacted with the mass media and formal education in a symbiotic relationship.
The three books, under the series title ‘Making Sense of Tourism’, will challenge existing views of tourism history. They will tell a very practical story, while backing it up extensive bibliographies. There will be discussions of existing theories and radical new ones. Book 1, The Beckoning Horizon, is out now and available on Amazon.
Besides being a uniquely detailed history in three parts, the project is remarkable in another way. It is entirely a work of self-publishing. Alan Machin’s experience in public sector and commercial work gives him a challenge: to write, illustrate and publish the three books himself.
Early reviews of the first book have been very positive. They have commented on the qualities of scholarship, clear writing and professional publication using state-of-the-art technology and a lifetime’s accumulation of knowledge.
“It has been an exciting task linked to a set of very new experiences”, says Alan. “As the books come to publication, there will be many new ideas set out. The most important is that tourism has something school education and the mass media do not have: the ability to see for yourself what the world is about.”
Book 2: Bright Prospect, will be published in early 2019. The title and publication date for book 3 will be annouced in due course.
(Photo above: university students on a residential visit to Malta, led by Alan Machin and colleagues)
