Portside: Promoting Growth Through Urban Tourism

Shifts in tourism over the last forty years have evolved and gone back to large urban cities, and as a result the practice of urban tourism has grown and been moved to the forefront of many city planning efforts. Urban Designers, City Planners, and Architects have all been major contributors to this industry but a field that hasn?t had much say is Landscape Architecture. Therefore this thesis will look to highlight the role that Landscape Architecture can play in shaping Urban Tourism. The city of Miami has desirable traits in place that tourists look for (culture, weather, etc) yet still has a lot of potential in terms of design and technology. This study is important for the future of Landscape Architecture because it gives people in the Urban Tourism field a look at how Landscape Architecture can draw people to a site, and on a site scale it?s important for Miami because it can enhance an already strong tourism industry. A well designed urban district that uses the augmented reality technology to guide visitors and make it easier for them to experience the site can enhance the tourism industry in terms of social activities and technological factors at the Port of Miami site, and give the city a landmark landscape that tourists and residents can easily identify with Miami. A large amount of data will be collected through city archives and GIS data, it will be important to read information about how augmented reality works, and finally case studies will be used to give insight of already successful projects. The end result of this thesis will be a popular location within the city of Miami that is easily navigated by tourists, yet still visited by residents for the amenities that are offered. Through landscape architecture and urban design practices it will be a district that is a landmark for the city and socially accepted as a good place to visit, eat, stay, etc. Urban tourism is the future of planning and designing for tourists, and augmented reality is the future of technology. While augmented reality has been used in other industries already (Lee, 2012) this project will be significant because it will be the first time it is combined with landscape architecture to benefit tourists