The ‘Wining and dining’ project — I. ‘The wine adviser’, a deductive database

This section of the paper describes The Wine Adviser, a deductive database on wine, that was developed in the framework of the WINING AND DINING Project in applied artificial intelligence. The Wine Adviser provides information on wines of interest to final customers and restaurant management.     

Creating national parks — ‘a grand, good thing?’

Peter Donnelly of McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, discusses some unintended consequences of creating national and countryside parks. The poor representation of the general public in decision making and determination of appropriate use of parks, coupled with the distinction between publicly-owned and privately-owned land, means that untrammelled countryside recreation becomes the prerogative of the wealthy.     

Spatial analysis of the U.S. lodging industry, 1963–1977

Data from the U.S. Department of Commerce Census of Business in 1963, 1972, and 1977 were compared on a state by state basis and by standard metropolitan statistical areas in order to analyze the spatial growth points of the U.S. lodging industry. The results point to major lodging growth areas in the Sunbelt states with central Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada and Hawaii as outstanding nodes of development. Metropolitan lodging growth has taken place in the Sunbelt cities with populations of 100,000 to one million, with above average growth in those cities located in the coastal zone.     

The ‘Wining and dining’ project — II. ‘Fidel-Gastro’ an expert system for gastronomy and terminal food-processing

Expert systems are being applied to the performance of tasks in a variety of domains. Some existing systems or prototypes interest hospitality management or related areas.To illustrate both applications that are already available, and perspective applications, a set of expert systems is introduced, developed under the direction of the author, in the domain of recreational activities and of alimentation. Three systems are then discussed, developed by different authors, and are applied to the domains of real estate, room rental and hospitality management.     

‘Quest for quality’ was the theme of the 7th annual Caribbean tourism conference held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, 14–17 June, 1983. David Edgell of the US travel and tourism administration reports.

The growth of inbound international tourism to the USA has been great in recent years yet recognition of its economic and other importance has not always grown at the same rate. David Edgell, Director of the Office of Policy and Planning of the US Travel and Tourism Administration, here argues the need for more coordinated policies towards tourism at the local and national level, for concomitant improved funding and for increasing efforts at all levels to attract the international traveller to the USA. This viewpoint is the substance of a speech made to the National Association of Regional Council's in Kansas City, Missouri, in May 1983. Since that date some moves have been made at the national level to increase federal funding for tourism.