Week 3 - Wednesday (A Fez of Heart - Travels Around Turkey in Search of a Hat)

a. Choose one passage from the reading that you found particularly interesting. Why was this interesting?

"By law, you could go topless in this Middle Eastern and almost exclusively Muslim country, but you could not wear a fez (Seal 14)." In America, the opposite statement would be true: by law, you could wear any hat you want much less a fez. However, especially if one is a girl, she could not go topless for even a second without prompting a glare from angry parents or a very hearty stare from general male population.

b. Use examples from this reading to illustrate the interaction between economics and culture.

            One of the most predominant interaction between economics and culture described in this book was "turizm (tourism in Turkish)." On page 6 of the book, it described the rise of tourism in Pomegranate when "some visitors started to wander back from the beach in their bikinis." Their arrival and behaviors were met with disgust and hate at first by conservative townspeople. Nevertheless eventually their coming was turned into a profitable business; it was "predicated on the astounding discovery that foreigners seemed happy to pay for the things - accommodation, meals and even visits to ruins - that the local people had always marked down under hospitality."

            With hordes of tourists that flooded the area, Pomegranate's housing service expanded manifolds along with their profit. With more tourists the demand for food and other necessities probably increased leading to further profit. However, the key idea here was not the sale of tangible goods, but of intangible one: Pomegranate's culture. The main attraction for the tourists was the town's beauty, and visits to ruins not its meal or accommodation. Tourism ties economics and culture into a nice bond of business.

c. Choose a couple of tourist destinations from your Country Profile blog post.  What draws people to those specific places?

Bulguksa and Seokguram Grotto are both highly popular tourist location for foreigners as well as Korea natives. The beauty and the awe the places inspire is rather secondary for drawing of people to these places. The foremost reason for the visit is usually their history and representation of unique Korean architecture at the time. In a big city like Seoul, such monuments cannot be seen; everything in the city is very modern and new. Bulguksa and Seokguram attracts tourists by offering something just more than pretty to look at.