History and theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

History and theory - Essay Example Las Vegas and Dubai represent two hot points in the global tourism map. These two desert cities have grown from dusty outposts to globally known tourist destinations over a short period of time. Las Vegas is globally recognised as the entertainment capital of the world and this tourist destination is prominent for its casino hotels and related entertainment activities. Dubai is also a famous global destination that attracts visitors on the strength of wonderful shopping experiences and other ancient and modern attractions. Despite political, economical, social, and environmental differences, Las Vegas and Dubai uphold prominent positions as the most attractive tourist destinations of the world, for these two cities   have notably contributed to their home countries’ GDP even in the midst of the recent   global financial crisis.  This paper will evaluate the tourism sector of Las Vegas and Dubai and explore further scope of tourism development in these cities. Overview of tourism in Las Vegas and Dubai Las Vegas witnessed unprecedented positive changes in its tourism industry throughout the second half of the 20th century. During this time, this city was one of a few global tourist destinations that offered entertainments like casino gambling. ... The proliferation of the gaming industry over the last few decades forced Las Vegas tourism sector to strengthen its market position. In spite of these challenges, Las Vegas still remains to be a hot choice for tourists across the globe. Official data indicate that 39,727,022 people visited Las Vegas in 2012 (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority). While analyzing the latest financial reports, it seems that the region’s tourism sector has begun to recover from the global financial crisis. According to the financial data released by the Gaming Control Board, the city’s revenues on the Strip increased by 3.6% to reach $580.7 million in October 2012 as compared to the revenues realized in the same period a year ago (Higgins 2012). In addition, the region’s tourism industry produced nearly 16,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality sectors since the worst of the recent global recession in November 2009 (Rossi 2011). Stratosphere, the tallest observation tower in th e Western US, is one of the major attractions of Las Vegas. It offers spectacular views and amusement rides like SkyJump, Insanity, Big Shot, and X-Scream (Las Vegas Sun). The fountains at Bellagio is another well known attraction of the Las Vegas Strip. The dancing waters choreographed to popular music greatly amuse visitors. Another prominent attraction is Las Vegas Strip’s Fashion Show Mall, one of the largest enclosed malls in the United States. It contains many stores, restaurants, seven flagship department stores, fashion runway, and other facilities. The city’s 3.9-mile Monorail system gives a wonderful transport experience to visitors. This Monorail system is the only privately owned public

IBM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

IBM - Essay Example rless cars and the use of big data systems to understand and predict human behavior and human and other physical and social systems (Hewett et al., 1996; National Science Foundation, 2014; Sankar, 2012). At IBM the work on human-computer interaction is extensive and goes back through time, evidenced by the presence of academic and scientific studies dating back to at least the late 1990s with works such as those relating to determining the intention of humans to speak to computers in systems that are able to detect human language, for instance. The cues in this latter example are detected by computers not only through voice but also through visuals, indicating an ability on the part of the computer to interact with humans on the level of sight and voice (Cuetos and Neti, n.d.; Neti et al., n.d.). Elsewhere IBM makes use of other terms to discuss and evolve technologies that amount to variations of the same set of technologies related to HCI, and a standout term that IBM has come to u se of late is the term and concept of cognitive computing (IBM, 2015). An example of cognitive computing breakthroughs and projects that IBM has come to pursue of late is evolving the natural language processing capabilities of its computing systems, making use of Watson for instance as a model and a repository of what IBM has developed in this area. In Watson for instance, the test of effective HCI was its joining and winning a Jeopardy Challenge in the early part of 2011, besting some very tough human competition. This is an instance of HCI in IBM breaking ground to the extent that computing systems are able to match and surpass the cognitive capabilities of the most successful human contestants (IBM, 2015b). More pragmatic applications of HCI at IBM include using HCI advances to further the interaction between humans and business systems to improve productivity for instance, and to extend the advances to the management of systems of business IT (IBM, 2015c; Muller and Druin,