Sheldonian Theatre
The Sheldonian is the first major work by Sir Christopher Wren, designed when he was Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. It was built between 1664 and 1669 in the shape of a Roman theatre. The Sheldonian is used as Oxford University's ceremonial hall, for concerts and public lectures. The theatre's 17th-century painted ceiling is of particular interest. There are also excellent views of the spires of Oxford from the cupola.
Dreaming Spires
Oxford is the city of dreaming spires. The golden stone of university buildings with there spires; towers and domes have shaped a stylish and timeless city, which no visitor forgets. Over 900 years as a seat of learning have made Oxford a very special place to visit any time of the year
Data Collection
To investigate into these questions I need to collect a number of primary and secondary information & data. Firstly I need to do an appropriate questionnaire relating to these questions, it will also help if I do environmental impact assessment (EIA) which is a source of collecting data and showing what condition the buildings, sites and area is in. I will also need to do another piece of primary research which is called land use mapping (LUM), this is where I need to choose a couple of streets to show the range of shops and services tourists visit, I can do all this by going into City Centre and asking people and writing down the information that I find around the area. The secondary research I need to do can be found from books, internet and T.V; this can be done by getting books out of the library or logging onto the internet at home or at school.
I done all of the primary research including a questionnaire. The questionnaire was done in a class split into groups of three and four people in each group, the class was given different locations to ask questions so a minimum of 20 questionnaires could be completed, our group was told to get the questionnaire filled in by asking people on High Street, outside the Covered Market. We didn’t get the minimum amount of questionnaires finished in the City Centre so we decided to get the other three filled in by teachers, which was allowed because our questionnaire gave the options for tourist and locals around Oxford. We didn’t get the minimum requirement of questionnaires completed because we took some time getting our first couple filled in as we weren’t confident about introducing ourselves and explaining why we were doing the questionnaire at first.
I also went into the City Centre on a sunny and fairly busy time of day to finish the land use mapping, environmental impact assessment and a survey asking people about their satisfaction with the facilities in the summer holidays, which are shown in data presentation. I think Secondary data was easier to collect because it was already written so I just had to put it in my own words. But I still had to go to the central library to get information out of books that weren’t allowed to be borrowed. I thought it was also a good idea to go into the City Centre and take pictures of famous buildings and Oxford’s attractions which are presented throughout this coursework.
A map of Oxford City Centre
Data Presentation
Here I need illustrate my primary & secondary data that I collected to help answer my question/hypothesis:
Primary Data
This is where I am going to show all the primary data I concluded. I am going to show Land Use Mapping (LUM), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and a questionnaire, which is attached. The Land Use Mapping shown below gives you an idea of the variety of shops and building associated in the heart of Oxford:
As you can see Oxford has a wide range of shops to offer to tourists and the public from currency exchange to clothes shops. This gives tourists wider variety to choose from.
I then went into Oxford City Centre to complete a survey asking people about how satisfied they are with the facilities in the City Centre:
This graph shows very few amount of people are not satisfied with the facilities in Oxford City Centre.
I also did Environmental Impact Assessment tables for many different areas which show what state the environment is in. I focused on 6 main aspects, which I put into a table and then a graph, shown below:
Poor/Little Average Excellent/Lots
The table on the previous page is a copy of my original table when I went out and done this assessment. It shows most of Oxford’s environment is better than average or on average which encourages visitors to come again.
Key
High Street = ∕
Cornmarket Street = □
St. Aldates = ●
Queen Street = ○
George Street = √
St. Giles = »
Secondary Data
I also did some secondary research. Firstly I found out many websites that I can get information, graphs and pictures from. I also got other information from the central library, which was very useful as I found relevant information from books such as which is shown below:
The Oxford tourism strategy (1999):
This is how the Council/Government approaches tourists and visitors to attract even more tourists. This was the aim in 1999 but this is the same strategy which is still used today.
“To ensure visitor satisfaction, encourage and increase in tourism spending within the city and minimise the environmental problems which result from tourism”.
Reduce the harmful impacts of tourism and encourage environmental sustainability (1999)
- Promote the use of public transport and Park & Ride as a means of travelling to and from Oxford
- Encourage the use of walking tours, registered sightseeing, buses and cycles as means of exploring the city.
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Provide comprehensive on-street information boards to encourage visits to lesser-known attractions and places of interest.
Long term strategy
- Plan to get fewer coach tourists and more tourists who stay in hotels/B&B's.
- Cycle hire facilities at the railway station.
- Emphasising tourism throughout Oxfordshire, not just Oxford.
Enhance the visitor experience
- Ensure that the services of the Oxford Information Centre meet demand.
- Increase and improve the provision of on-street information.
- Ensure adequate provision of toilet facilities all year round.
Guidelines
There are also guidelines for tourists who come in groups for sightseeing, these are shown so tourists follow rules and don’t cause any problems with the public. These are some of the guidelines included:
- Group leaders should supervise their groups at all times and must be prepared to take responsibility for them in an emergency.
- Each school, or organising institution, is responsible for the management and behaviour of its groups.
- “Please don’t drop litter.”
- Respect rules regarding eating, drinking and smoking in the venues to be visited.
I also found a copy of a graph showing how the media percept Oxford:
This graph shows most of the media observe Oxford positively which could encourage tourists to come and visit Oxford.
Analysis & Conclusion
The data presentation above shows many tourists favourite parts of Oxford are the historic buildings rather than the shops or entertainment. This could be because a majority of the building’s condition is above average as there are lots of bins/benches so the place is kept clean as shown in EIA.
The data also shows even though many tourists prefer the buildings there is .a wide variety of shops in the City Centre, which means lots of different people who shop can find the item which is suited to them. As a result most of the tourists enjoyed their visit and would come again.
The data also shows a majority of people who filled in the questionnaires do think Oxford is worthy of being ‘Capital of Culture 2008’. This could be the case as they enjoy their visit and see Oxford as a multicultural city as there are tourists visiting from all over the world.
There are also relationships between my questionnaire and EIA data as the people enjoy visiting the City Centre especially the buildings, this could be because as mentioned before the most of the environment is kept in good condition, which also means it’s a good for Oxford’s sustainability in the long term.
I am now going to answer my hypothesis to see if I predicted correctly and what problems I faced:
- Why do tourists visit Oxford?
I think tourists visit Oxford mainly for the historic attractions and Universities as Oxford University is known to be one of the best in the world. They may also come because Oxford is a small city and has a friendly environment rather than other cities such as London. Another reason why they visit could be because they are convinced Oxford is a good place to visit because the media observe Oxford positively. It also a fairly quiet and relaxing city, that’s why I think most of the tourists that come from other cities in the UK are not teenagers but men or women over 26 years old.
- What does Oxford have to offer to tourists?
Oxford has lots of historic buildings and other attractions to offer to tourists. It has cycle hire facilities at railway stations and also offers on street information so tourists can find their way around Oxford easily. It also offers tour buses which take tourists around Oxford and tell them what the buildings are while they are on the bus. A minority of people are not satisfied with the facilities in the City Centre, which shows most of them are happy with the amenities.
I think doing this study was very interesting because I got to know why tourists admire the historic buildings and why they visit Oxford. Even though I enjoyed doing this project I did have some problems when as mentioned before I didn’t get all my minimum amount of 20 questionnaires finished because of the time we had to get them filled in which I could’ve filled in over the holidays but didn’t as I had to do other types of research such as EIA. I also had a problem when I didn’t know where I could find reliable information on statistics about Oxford. This study could be improved and taken further by comparing Oxford with another city attracted by tourists such as Cambridge. I didn’t do this because I wouldn’t have enough time to get it finished because of the courseworks for other subjects which have to also be completed. I could have also done more research around the City Centre rather than having it as the main focus.
Bibliography
Internet:
Books:
