Why do High School Students Participate in Schoolies Week?

Task:    You are to investigate the touristic needs of students participating in Schoolies Week (in other words, their reasons for participating) and whether the academic literature can account for their needs.

To answer this question you are to:

 

Introduction- (include conclusion no more than 600 words)

Include -à Refer to the literature to further inform your knowledge of Schoolies’ touristic needs.  Most information about Schoolies Week will be found in newspaper articles (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun Herald, Daily Telegraph etc), and internet sites on Schoolies Week. Also search the academic literature.

Here is what I found ( you can add more if you can)

l        -School leavers choose to cruise because it is safer than streets (both participates and their parents thought) and a cruise become a popular alternative for students seeking a novel way to celebrate the end of school that they can enjoy with their school friends it is special time to be together before spread out of high school (The Sun Herald).

l        -from brochure that night life, enjoy/fun and relax.

l        -Smith and Rosenthal’s research, which has a survey of Schoolies week participants in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, has pointed out that a number of school leavers expected to have sexual intercourse while their holidays, also more larger number of school leavers expected to be drunk most nights or every night of their holidays (1997). Smith and Rosenthal (1997) have found out that most young men and a significant proportion of young women achieved these expectations with respondents from New South Wales and Victoria being more likely to do so than Queensland residents

l        -enjoy cooking themselves, flat with mates, possibly find love and leave with lifelong memories. Excited going to be cool to hang out with friends in an apartment for a week.

l        Looking forward to relaxing and not having to get up early (Gold Coast Bulletin)

                         

    

Body (Analyzing)

Now the “serious” part… Review the academic tourist motivation literature (Crompton, 1979; MacCannell,1999; and Pearce, 2005) and answer the following: 

  (a)      How would each of these 3 authors explain the tourist needs of            Schoolies Week tourists?

(b)   Is each author able to fully explain the needs of Schoolies Week tourists?

 

The essay requires you (1) to investigate the tourist needs of Schoolies Week tourists, (2) to understand the academic motivational literature and (3) to apply the academic motivational writings to one tourist type – the Schoolies Week  tourist.

 

Here are main resources for BODY OF ESSAY

 

Crompton, J.L. 1979,”Motivations for pleasure vacation”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol.6, no.4, pp.408-424

Crompton(1979) – 9 NEEDS ( Individual explanation)

Socio-psychological Need

1.       Escape from a perceived mundane environment

2.       Exploration and evaluation of self

3.       Relaxation

4.       Prestige

5.       Regression

6.       Enhancement of kinship relations

7.       Facilitation of social interaction

Cultural Needs

8.       Novelty

9.       Education

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com