Author: Andre Coleman

Part BAbstract

It is revealed that high labor turnover is a major global problem in hotel industry. The human resource management in the hotel industry is facing challenge about retaining employees and minimizes the turnover. Therefore, it is worth to investigate about the human resource management in the hotel industry.

The purpose of this study is to explore the labor turnover in hotel industry, and its associated the factors affecting the labor turnover and how to manage the labor turnover. The labor turnover in hotel industry is influenced by the work related factors, external factors and external factors. According to some statistics, the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry is very high. Moreover, some retention strategy are propose to overcome the labor turnover are discussed including training, employee motivation and employee recognition.

Section 1 : Introduction
Reason for choice of topic

The tourism industry is the leading industry in many countries. Hong Kong tourism industry contributing $162.8 billion or 10.8% of gross domestic product in 2009(http://www.gov.hk/en/residents/, http://www.tourism.gov.hk/textonly/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html ) and Thailand tourism industry generate 6.5% of gross domestic product in 2008 (http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourism.asp). Accommodation is an essential element of tourism service and it is vital to the quality of the tourist experience, as it constitutes a major part of consumption.

This study is to investigate the labor turnover in the hotel organization. It is general known that the hospitality industry has a major challenge about the labor turnover and staff stability rates. These problems are usually occur in the front-line staff as it is related to a lot of unfavorable working conditions in hotel, such as the long working hours, unstable working schedule and lack of promotion opportunities. Therefore, many people are not willing to enter to the hotel industry or some people have work for many years in hotel industry but shift to another industry because of those unfavorable working conditions. Besides, the human resource management in the hotel industry are facing some serious problems about retaining the employees and recruits the right people to fill in the right job. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the factors that cause the front-line employees to quit the job. In addition, to discuss what the human resource management can do to retain the staff and manage the labor turnover in the hotel organization.

Another reason for choosing this topic to study is the author’s want to become the human resource manager in a hotel. Therefore, it is vital that the author have a clear understanding of what challenges that the human resource management are facing and to use the specific approach to overcome those problems.

1.2 Academic objectives of dissertation

This paper aims to achieve the followings objectives:

To find out what is the meaning of labor turnover and have an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry

To discuss the factors that influence labor turnover in hotel industry.

To explain the cost of labor turnover in hotel industry.

To find out what the human resource management can do to managing the labor turnover.

Outline of sections

In section 1, the author talked about her reason for choice this topic and the major objectives through this project. In section 2, the authors explained the concepts of labor turnover briefly and provide an overview of the turnover culture in the hotel industry. In section 3, the author would explain the factors influence the turnover in the hotel industry and have an understanding of the cost of labor turnover. It could help to show the labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry. Moreover, in section 4, the author wants to make others understand how to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry. Finally in section 5, would be the summary and conclusion about this project.

Section 2: Literature review
2.1 What is labor turnover?

According to Price (1977, p.15) the term ‘turnover’ is defined as the ratio of the number of organization members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during the period and also each time a position is vacated, a new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover (Woods, 1995, p. 345). Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover affects both workers and firms: workers may need to learn new job-specific skills, whilst firms incur the costs of hiring and training new workers (Brown et. al., 2009). The new workers may be more highly motivated and more highly skilled. Hence, turnover may enhance firm performance. However, high labor turnover causes problems for the firm as it is costly, lowers productivity and morale.

Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary, where the employees leave of their own free will, and involuntary, where the employer decides that employment should terminate. Retirement can fall into either category (Boella, 2000). Most often the voluntary turnover arises where some employees leave to escape negative work environment factors and other are pulled away from the organization by more attractive opportunities and Cheng and Brown (1998) stated that people quit their job for many reasons, but most reasons are not related to management. In recent study, the involuntary turnover can applied to those employees have a poor performance or have did some serious mistakes then the organization would encourage them to quit than fire them.

2.2 The turnover culture in the hotel industry

Everyone knows that the hotel industry is a highly labor-intensive industry but the high labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. Some theorists such as Mobley (1977), Price (1977), Price and Mueller (1986) identified a range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover.

According to the research Griffith University, the primary reason for managerial and operational turnover was voluntary resignation, followed by an internal transfer. Performance related terminations were very low. The main motivating factors for executives, managerial and supervisory staff to change jobs, within the hotel industry, were better career opportunities and better working hours. Changing jobs outside the industry was primarily motivated by higher salaries, working hours and better career opportunities. The data suggests that higher wages and better working hours are the major drivers for managerial employees to leave. Similarly, operational staff seek better wages, better working hours and improved career opportunities.

In the pervious years, a small among of staff in hotel industry will stay for longer than five years but the voluntary turnover is gradually increase compared with the last decades. According to Kennedy and Berger (1994, p. 58) they stated that, in the hospitality industry, ‘the highest turnover occurred during the first 4 weeks (in employment)’. The cause of turnover is often poor human resource decisions and the unmet expectations of newcomers.

2.3 Factors affecting employee intent to leave in the hotel industry

There are many factors affecting employee turnover. According to a widely accepted though, employees usually quit their jobs because of lack of wages. However, many studies show that there are also many complex factors affecting employee turnover other than wage, such as the management of the company, economics, and psychology. In the following section, some factors affecting employee turnover are discussed.

2.3.1 Work Related Factors

The work related factors are other factors that will influence the labor turnover in the hotel industry. The following section will mainly focus on the job satisfaction, pay, working environment, work performance, promotion opportunities and the organization commitment how to influence the labor turnover.

2.3.1.1 Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities (Khatri et. al., 2003). According to Davis (1981), job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. In addition, Oshagbemi (2000) has defined job satisfaction as ”individual’s positive emotional reaction to particular job”. The term job satisfaction is considered an attribute that exists as the equity of a variety of desired and non-desired job-related experiences. It is also defines as the degree of fit between the features of a job and employee’s expectations. In addition, there are researchers who view that job satisfaction is a result of both employees’ expectations and aspirations and their existing status (Clark & Oswald, 1996). When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job, and the basic reason is that they expect to have a more satisfying job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers. Price and Mueller (1981) stated that job satisfaction has an indirect influence on turnover through its direct influence on formation of intent to leave. Another study stated that employees with higher degree of trust would have higher levels of job satisfaction in the hospitality industry (Gill, 2008).

2.3.1.1.1 Pay

According to the past study, the average annual wages of hotel are very low compare with the other industries such as the IT technology and education industry. A low starting salary is found in the frontline department in the hotel industry such as the housekeeping, Food and Beverage and front office. It was shown that dissatisfaction with pay is among the significant factors responsible for turnover (Pavesic and Brymer, 1990; Pizam and Ellis, 1999).

Pay is received by the staff and money is equivalent to staff’s effort to provide service. The salary, compensation and fringe benefit received by the staff are also the pay. Therefore, if the pay is increase, it can reduce the labor turnover. The relationship between pay and job satisfaction has received considerable attention (Churchill, Ford&Walker, 1974; Lawler, 1995). The pay was the most important job attribute contributing to job satisfaction in the Hong Kong hotel industry. Therefore, higher pay is significantly related to greater job satisfaction. The staff will be more satisfied with their job when the actual pay is more than the expected pay.

The other situation that causes the staff to be more likely to leave their organization is that when they perceive that they are receiving lower salary but they know the other people elsewhere are offered better pay. Therefore, offering higher wages than competing organization will enable the organization to retain some talented worker.

2.3.1.1.2 The work itself

The work itself is a critical dimension in employee job satisfaction (Luthans, 1992; Lawler, 1995; Qu, Ryan & Chu, 2001; Groot & Van Den Brink, 1999) and Glisson and Durick (1988) considered the worker and the nature of the work itself as two important factors affecting job satisfaction. The internal satisfactory factors are related to the work itself, such as: feeling of achievement, feeling of independence, self-esteem, feeling of control and other similar feelings obtained from work. And the external satisfactory factors such as: receiving praise from the boss, good relationships with colleagues, good working environment, high salary, good welfare and utilities.

There is a relationship between job satisfaction and stress. Barsky, Thoresen, Warren and Kaplan(2004) argued that high level of work stress will be decrease the job satisfaction and finally leaving the organization because workers feel their job duties are difficult to fulfill. Price (1977) divided job stress into four types: lack of resources to perform, the amount of workload, the clarity of the role obligations and the role conflict. Those job stresses will also make the employees intent to quit the organization.

2.3.1.1.3 The supervision

Supervision, being one of the dimensions of job satisfaction (Rust et al., 1996), is defined from the employee-centeredness perspective, it is manifested in ways such as checking to see how well the subordinate is doing, providing advice and assistance to the individual, and communicating with the worker on a personal as well as an official level (Luthans, 1992, pp. 121-122). Some information show that, satisfaction with supervisor will influence job satisfaction positively and finally decrease the labor turnover. If the supervisor provide more concern and social support to the employees, they will be more satisfy and the turnover will be decrease.

2.3.1.1.4 The promotion opportunities

Price (2001) stated that promotion opportunities are the potential degree of movement to a higher level status within an organization. The promotion opportunities are also the important category to define the employees are satisfy or dissatisfy, because promotion opportunities are usually associated with increase the salary.

However, the result show that hotel sector are lack of promotion opportunities rather than not having enough fair promotion policy (Iverson and Derry. 1997). Due to the hotel industry are lack of promotion opportunities, it will reduce the chance to retain the talented employees in the organization. When employees suffering from unfair treatment, they will change their job attitude immediately and may quit in long run (Vigoda, 2000).

2.3.1.2 The Organization Commitment

According to Pennstate (2006), organizational commitment is the relative strength of an employee’s attachment or involvement with the organization where he or she is employed. Organizational commitment is important because committed employees are less likely to leave for another job and are more likely to perform at higher levels. There are three dimensions of organizational commitment, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment.

Turnover literature has consistently found a strong relationship between turnover and organizational commitment, indicating that employees with low commitment are likely to withdraw from the organization. Alternatively, a positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and career progress or internal promotions indicating that promoted employees are more likely to exhibit higher organizational commitment.

2.3.1.3 Work Performance

Employees work performance is another factor affecting labor turnover. According to a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (2003), it was found that the employees having high performance were not willing to leave their jobs. At this point of view, if the employees having low performance leave their jobs for any reasons, labor turnover is not an important matter for the company. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job performance. Low wages, exclusion from prizes, unsuitable jobs are also among the reasons causing low performance and high employee turnover.

2.3.1.4 Personal Reason

Some employees also leave their jobs because of personal reasons. A principal reason that employees leave their jobs is lack of incentives (Pizam and Ellis, 1999). Employees may simply want recognition or an opportunity in advance. For example, The Ritz Carlton Company has reduced employee turnover by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and orientation, establishing realistic career opportunities and creating long-term incentive and reward systems.

2.3.2 Demographic Factor

Most voluntary turnover models include demographic variables such as age, gender, race, tenure, marital status, number of dependents, and educational experience. However, this paper only focuses on the level of education, gender, marital status and age.

2.3.2.1 Level of Education

One of the major challenges of the hospitality industry is the retention of highly educated employees. We define highly educated staff as employees who have followed a higher education program at a bachelor’s or master’s level successfully ( Deery and Shaw, 1999). Carbery et al. (2003) noted that those more highly educated managers or non-managers are more likely to intent to make a turnover decision. One research study by (Blomme et. al., 2010), it shows that among alumni of the Hotel School The Hague who are working worldwide has shown that within 6 years after graduation about 70% of all graduates from the hotel school The Hague leave the organization in which they are working. The more highly educated staff will be less easily satisfied with their jobs than those staff with lower education level because the highly educated staff have higher expectations in job status and salary and they may not be willing to join or stay in the hotel industry. In addition, the external labor markets will provide many opportunities for those highly educated people to satisfy their high expectation on financial benefit. (Wong, Siu & Tseng, 1999)

2.3.2.2 Gender

Some study noted that, the female and male have their particular behavior that would influence the labor turnover. According to a study conducted by(Doherty and Manfredi,2001:62), it was found that women workers leave their jobs more than men workers, because the roles of women have to taking care of children, having baby in a society and doing house work. In addition, Hersch and Stratton (1997) stated that women, especially married women, spend more time engaged in household activities and are substantially more prepared to quit their job for a family-related reason than men . Some women workers also do not want to return to their jobs after having baby.

On the other hand, the study conducted by Tang and Talpade (1999), it stated that males tended to have higher satisfaction with pay than females, whereas females tended to have higher satisfaction with co-workers than males. Its means that women tend to rate social needs as more important than men such as working with people and being helpful to other. Men tend to consider pay more important than do women.

Women often begin their careers with much lower expectations than men do and they are willing to take career risks and change employers to do so.

Finally, women workers usually work at the entry level jobs in hotel and accordingly get less pay than their men co-workers. According to a study conducted by Iverson (2000) in the USA, it was found that women managers in hotel got very less wages than men managers whether in the beginning or top of their careers. In a similar study, it was found that men workers got more wages than women workers got (Burgess, 2000). It was also found that in order to balance the wage differences among men and women workers, basic and routine job were given to women workers than men workers.

2.3.2.3 Marital Status

According to Pizam and Ellis (1999), it stated that marital status could influence labor turnover. Those married employees are most concerned with the balance between their work and family life. Hom and Griffeth (1995),stated that married employees will not want to have a voluntary turnover. Because they have many concerns about the financial needs for their family. If they cannot afford the long and unstable working hours, they will tend to give up the job. However, this issue mostly occurs on women. Therefore, they will have more time for family life and take care of their child.

On the other side, the unmarried employees will consider factors related to their jobs such as promotion opportunities and organization commitment more than those married employees (Wong, Siu & Tsang, 1999). Therefore, they are less satisfied with their job than married employees.

2.3.2.4 Age

In recent study, Hartman and Yrle (1996) points out that the Generation Y employee mostly creates the labor turnover in hospitality industry. In addition, the study conducted by Iverson and Deery (1997), it stated that younger employees have a higher propensity to leave than older employees. The problem was arisen in this decade; as the employees born in the baby boomer are retire gradually. The baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964. They have been through periods of war; therefore have less opportunity in education institutions. They tend to demand more stability in their workplace, and they are very loyalty to their employees. On the other hand, the Generation Y employee who was born between the years 1979 and 1994, they can adapt the changes easily and seek a higher standard of life therefore, they consider more about their interest in the work. Furthermore, they usually change their job, as they want to gain more experience and make their life more diversity.

2.3.3 External Factors

The external factors are the factors that we cannot control and very difficult to predict. Some of these factors include political shifts, legislation, new or modified regulations, global economic conditions, technology changes and major mining disasters.

In some study, the hotel industry is quite easily influenced by the global economic conditions. The economic situation could predict most of the labor turnover within the industry. Therefore, the unemployment rate affects the employee’s perception on job satisfaction. If the economic is down turn, the employees who perceive a high level of job dissatisfaction, they may still stay in organization because they don’t want to lose their current job and also the job market is a lack of opportunities for them to get a better job. On the other hand, if the economic condition have improve, the employees will leave the organization immediately to find a better job. Therefore, it may create the high level of labor turnover when the economic have improved. In the later part of the literature will focus on how to manage the labor turnover in order to minimize the labor turnover within the hotel industry.

2.4 The cost of labor turnover

In the previous section, some of the critical factors that affect the labor turnover are discussed. The following section will focus on the cost of labor turnover and its impact. Labor turnover is a significant cost to hotel and it may be the most significant factor affecting hotel profitability, service quality and skills training. (Davidson et. al., 2009). The cause of labor turnover is multidimensional, such as low morale, low productivity, low standard of performance and absenteeism.

According to the statistics from TTF Australia(2006), the annual cost of replacing managerial employees was $109,909 per hotel and the annual cost of replacing operational employees was $9,591 per employee. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). Another study stated that the Marriott Corporation alone estimated that each 1% increase in its employee turnover rate, costs the company between $5 and $15 million in lost revenues (Schlesinger and Heskett, 1991).Therefore, the cost of labor turnover is very high.

Labour turnover is not only a significant tangible dollar cost but also an intangible or ‘hidden’ cost associated with loss of skills, inefficiency and replacement costs (Lashley & Chaplain, 1999). The direct impact of labor turnover will cause financial suffering such as administrative cost and Lashley (1999) refers to lost investment in training and lost staff expertise as particular examples of turnover costs and opportunity costs. For the indirect impacts caused by high labor turnover are lack of manpower, poor quality of service and low morale of employees and also if turnover increases, service quality may decline as it takes time and resources to ‘back fill’ departing employees, especially at busy hotels (Lynn, 2002).

Labour is a significant cost and the leakage of human capital through unnecessary turnover is an element of critical importance to bottom line performance. A number of HRM practices have been suggested as potential solutions for turnover, such as investment in training, offering organisational support, adopting innovative recruitment and selection processes, offering better career opportunities (Cheng & Brown, 1998; Forrier & Sels, 2003; Hinkin & Tracey, 2000; Walsh & Taylor, 2007; Walters & Raybould, 2007) and adopting measures to increase job satisfaction and commitment.

2.5 How to manage the labor turnover in the hotel industry?

High staff turnover is the common problem in hotel industry, it is also a major factor affecting workplace efficiency, productivity, and hotel cost structure. Labor turnover represents a challenge for contemporary HRM strategies and practices. Therefore, in this section, it will turn to focus on how to manage the labor turnover from the human resources perspective.

In the previous section, the cost of labor turnover in the hotel is discussed. The total annual cost of turnover ($49M) equates to 19.5% of 64 surveyed hotels total payroll costs ($250M). The turnover cost are very high, thus the awareness of the importance of employees staying with an organization is evident. Hinkin and Tracey (2000) advocate that hospitality executives who understand the value of human capital and adopt organizational policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will outperform the competition. Effectively designed and well implemented employee retention programs that increase employee tenure more than pay for themselves through reduced turnover costs and increased productivity (Hinkin and Tracey, 2000).

According to 2500 supervisors, managers and executives within this sector, the top five most important aspects a company can provide to retain their people are as follows: communication, Leadership, Career path, development and understanding aspirations and helping the individual towards achieving them.(Baum ,2006) This shows that, the employee are highly concern for this five elements to determine their job satisfaction. Therefore, when HRM design for a retention scheme, they can consider those five elements before their decision.

2.5.1 Training

In organizations where employees receive the proper training needed to assume greater responsibilities, turnover rates are generally lower. Several studies show that training activities are correlated with productivity and retention (Delery and Doty, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Kallenberg and Moody, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Shaw et al., 1998; Terpstra and Rozell, 1993; US Department of Labor, 1993, Walsh and Taylor, 2007; Youndt et al., 1996). Staff is a unique asset in the company. Therefore, many hotel have invest a huge number of money per year for staff development. Because they realize that provide training to their employees would enhance the organization produtivity and improve their job performance. For the long-term purpose, training can solve the problem of high labor turnover in a hotel.

Moreover, the hotel industry are now have a general shortage of the middle management staff. Therefore, the training should be around to develop and train new management personnel. For example, in 2004 Shangri-La Hotel & Resorts’ Shangri-La Academy was born, this is a full-time facility that handles internal training for progression up the ranks. In addition, the Intercontinental Hotel Group also launched an in-house training center in order to groom their high potential employees to take on managerial positions within their company. Those measures of the Shangri-La Hotel and the Intercontinental Hotel Group is to do the retention of their employees and confront the trend of shortage of experienced staff and try to minimize the labor turnover.

2.5.2 Motivate the employee

Staff motivation is as vital to success as any skill or personal attribute and its also plays a key role in staff retention. Motivation is the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal.(Stephen & Coulter, 2006:482) . Staff motivation is a key element in retaining staff and help them increase the job satisfaction thus the labor turnover rate may be decrease.

It is essential for the management of hotels to develop efficient HRM polices and practices that enable them to motivate competent employees who can contribute to the achievement of their objectives. This requires employees at different levels of management and at different stages in their career in order to maintain high morale and high performance (Enz and Siguaw, 2000). If hotel managers can satisfy their employees, it will help them to improve customer satisfaction in the long run and retain them. (Tsaur and Lin, 2004).

2.5.3 Employee recognition, rewards and compensation

Numerous studies have addressed the impact of employee compensation, rewards and recognition on turnover and retention. If the hotel manager gives more recognition, rewards and compensation to their employees, it can minimize the turnover.

Several research studies found that highly competitive wage systems promote employee commitment and thus results in the attraction and retention of a superior workforce (Becker and Huselid, 1999; Guthrie, 2001; Shaw et al., 1998). Shaw et al.’s (1998) study further noted that employees will remain with an organization as long as it serves their self-interest to do so better than the alternatives available to them elsewhere. The study also found that companies providing incentive plans to employees are more likely to experience lower turnover rates among non-managerial employees.

Milman (2003) concluded that the most significant retention predictors included intrinsic fulfillment and working conditions rather than monetary rewards. Similarly, the study by Walsh and Taylor (2007) revealed that although compensation and work-life balance are important, it is the absence of opportunity for professional growth and development that affects management retention and turnover (Walsh andTaylor, 2007).

Section 3: Summary and Conclusions

Labor turnover refers to the movement of employees in and out of a business. Labor turnover may enhance firm performance but high labor turnover causes problems for the firm such as lowers productivity and morale. Labor turnover can be divided into two main types: voluntary and involuntary. High labor turnover is a serious problem within the industry all around the world. A range of other variables such as pay, communication, social integration, reutilization, role overload, promotional opportunity, training, supervisor and co-worker support, and distributive justice as having a significant impact upon turnover.

The reasons of labor turnover in hotel industry can be classified as work related factors, demographic factors and external factors. For the work related factors, job satisfaction can be defined as pleasantness or unpleasantness of employees while working. It is containing the satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with the work itself, satisfaction with the supervision, satisfaction with the promotion opportunities When the employees with a lack of job satisfaction they will be quitting the job. On the other hand, if the employees have a high job satisfaction, the organization will be fewer labor turnovers.

Tourism is one of the worlds largest industries and one of its fastest growing economic sectors. It has a multitude of impacts, both positive and negative, on people’s lives and on the environment.

“Sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.

Thus, sustainable tourism should:

Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.

Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.

Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

SustainableHeader.jpg

About India:

Sustainable tourism supports travel that is ecologically maintainable in the long term, promotes indigenous cultures and works with locals to see that the tourism industry benefits their villages and towns directly. Not all tourism in India is sustainable, and certain tourist hot spots like Goa have been damaged by irresponsible tourism and development. Three ways to engage in responsible tourism in India are village home stays, wildlife ecotourism and tribal tourism.

Village Home Stays

Staying in a local home with an Indian family assures that your accommodation money goes straight to your hosts rather than to a large corporation. Your host families not only provide you with a place to stay, they also often introduce you to other locals who can serve as guides, give you yoga lessons, teach you how to cook local cuisine or prime you on the area’s indigenous language and customs.

Wildlife Ecotourism

India is home to dozens of national parks and hundreds of wildlife and bird sanctuaries. You can promote sustainable tourism by staying in eco-friendly lodges and hiring ecotourism operators to guide you through the parks. Choose companies that hire local guides and give a percentage of proceeds back to the park or to surrounding villages. Stay at smaller, locally run lodges and guesthouses that use local produce and strive to cut down on waste and their impact on the environment.

Tribal & Cultural Tourism

Another way to practice sustainable travel is to sign up for tribal and cultural tours that have eco-friendly practices and promote local heritage. Rajasthan’s deserts, Orissa’s steamy jungles and Northeast India’s mountainous areas are all good destinations for these types of tours. Some tour companies, like Marwar Eco-Cultural Tours in Rajasthan, double as NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and promote community-development projects in the villages on their travel itineraries. Booking tours near your destination with smaller companies can give you a better chance of supporting local workers and communities with your travel money. Conversely, watching cultural shows at exclusive hotels may send only a trickle of that money back to the performers’ home villages. Sustainable Travel International (STI), a US-based organization, lists and endorses sustainable travel companies around the world. As of 2011, STI had listed 26 companies based in or working in India.

Objectives :

The Ecotourism Society of India is dedicated to the promotion of sustainable development in tourism and to responsible best practices in and among the tourism fraternity. All funds/income generated shall be utilized towards the promotion of the aims and objectives of the Society as follows:

Tabulate eco sensitive areas where tourism will have an impact on the social, cultural and natural environment.

Make strategy and efforts to ensure long-term (perpetual) sustenance of the environment.

Work with empowered bodies to establish carrying capacity and sustainable tourism practices which include conservation of nature and wildlife, and allow local communities to benefit from tourism.

Tourists and visitors numbers and tourism practices must allow nature to re-generate itself.

To work with government bodies to develop policies and code of conduct for promotion of sustainable tourism, and help implement the same.

To work towards certification of tourism service providers.

To act as watchdog for excessive consumption of natural resources and any negative impact in the tourism sector.

To support research in tourism environment related areas.

Work with Service Providers to enhance quality of their product and services to a level so they can be sustainable and eco-friendly.

Encourage use of appropriate local practices, materials, art, craft, architecture, food.

Encourage minimal conspicuous consumption and prevent excessive consumption of energy.

Encourage energy saving practices, water harvesting, use of solar and other natural energy sources.

Encourage good waste management practices especially non-bio degradable materials.

Encourage low pollution-generating practices minimize carbon footprint.

Organise training and other activities to create awareness on ecotourism, sustainable and responsible tourism.

To collaborate with like-minded bodies and implement ecotourism objectives in India and abroad.

To continually identify new ecotourism destinations, strengthen ecotourism and make India a preferred ecotourism destination.

To showcase and promote the best of authentic Indian traditions through premium hospitality destinations

Ensure holistic development by preserving cultural diversity and through eco-tourism

Harmonizing with surroundings and enhancing the quality of life by harnessing local creativity.

What Indian government doing to sustain the tourism:

Many eco-friendly resorts (initially) spread across India to cover all tourist seasons

Focusing 4-5 day packages

Less than 100 km from prominent tourist spots, close to traditional villages

Local architecture (Mud houses etc.) with basic modern amenities and necessities (W/C, Purified Water, optional A/C, power outlets, emergency phones, discouraging mobiles & internet), no plastic zones, alternate energy, rainwater harvesting

Managers recruited centrally, local villages form the employee base

Local cuisine, entertainment, arts & crafts

Complementary nature walks and tours

Company owned sales offices, exclusive online/telephone booking, promotion through social networking sites and liaising with government

Sales personnel for corporate marketing

Offering vocational training to villagers in off-season (hospitality, horticulture, cooking, crafts etc.)

Steps to sustain tourism:

Ratification of the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India and Indicators for tour operators and the accommodation sector by all industry associations and downstreamed by them to all categories of their membership for applicability. The Ministry’s sanction may be re-worded accordingly.

Implementation of the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India and Indicators for tour operators and the accommodation sector may be done on voluntary basis.

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India would convene regional sensitization workshops for all industry associations and their memberships & other stakeholders for Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India and Indicators, together with State Tourism Departments, other Implementing Partners and Focal Points.

Simultaneously, the Ministry will facilitate creation of governance coefficients for effective assessment of implementation of all Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India and Indicators. Action will also be initiated to create Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India and Indicators not yet devised for sectors such as tourism transport, destination management etc.

Similarly, sustainable tourism focus would also be professionally imparted to all NGO/Implementing Partners and to all local communities/institutions as they do not have a tourism background. This is necessary to meet visitor requirements and value chain enhancement for competitive advantage. This tourism focus should be an essential component of each site’s workplan.

The tourism industry being a principal stakeholder, will be brought on board from project inception at all sites, to ensure local community and NGO/Implementing Partners’ clarity on visitor satisfaction and to professionally formulate the tourism product to reach target markets in India and overseas.

Entry point strategy for sites’ back and forward convergence as well as governance should be mandated, to take cognizance of other schemes/yojanas at each site, to avoid duplication of workplan components and to optimise fund utilisation.

Central and state tourism funds may be made conditional on workplan allocation and compliance for Waste Management, Hygiene and Sanitation as pre-requisites for local communities’ health and visitor satisfaction. Ministry’s sanction may be re-worded accordingly.

A computerised Management Information System may be developed for effective reporting and must be regularly complied with by all NGO/Implementing Partners and Focal Points.

Use of local materials, styles and skills must be adhered to through advisory support of a panel of architects specialized in the vernacular idiom.

Success benchmarks should be widely disseminated, for higher yields and to strengthen livelihoods.

Continual technological updating is necessary with budgetary allocation.

In particular, energy conservation as a catalytic intervention to address climate change concerns may be incorporated in capacity building. 16. Since the States have legislative capability for tourism, they should proceed sensitively especially with regard to the ecological footprint.

Organizations complying with Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India, may receive incentives from the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India such as eligibility under the Market Development Assistance Scheme and weightage in application for National Tourism Awards.

Sustainable Tourism Criteria uih.jpg

Revenue Estimates (INR)

Year

Planned Capacity

Occupancy

Number Occupancy

Average cost per room night

Price of a Package

Package Demand

Sale of Handicrafts

Total Revenue

In-season

120 days

Off-season

240 Days

In-season

Off-season

In season

Off Season

Average price per person day

In Season

Off Season

2010-11

400

25%

20%

12000

19200

6000

4000

1000

4800

7680

400000

161,680,000

2011-12

400

30%

20%

14400

19200

6000

4000

1000

5760

7680

400000

177,040,000

2012-13

600

30%

20%

21600

28800

6000

4000

1500

8640

11520

600000

275,640,000

2013-14

600

40%

30%

28800

43200

8000

6000

1500

17280

25920

960000

555,360,000

2014-15

600

50%

35%

36000

50400

8000

6000

1500

21600

30240

960000

669,120,000

Costs & Profit Estimates

Year

Land

Construction

Depreciation

Employees

Raw material

Handicrafts

Utilities

2009-10

60,000,000
40,000,000

2010-11

10,000,000
10,000,000
25,920,000
200,000

15,552,000

2011-12

20,000,000
10,000,000
11,500,000
25,920,000
200,000

15,552,000

2012-13

12,000,000
13,225,000
38,880,000
300,000

23,328,000

2013-14

12,000,000
15,208,750
51,840,000
480,000

31,104,000

2014-15

12,000,000
17,490,063
51,840,000
480,000

31,104,000

Profit Estimates

Year

Maintenance

+ Renovation

Promotion

Vocational Training

Total Cost

Operating profit

Cost of Capital

Profit Before Tax

2009-10

10,000,000
(10,000,000)

2010-11

5,184,000
1,000,000
250,000
68,106,000
93,574,000
10,000,000
83,574,000

2011-12

5,184,000
1,000,000
250,000
69,606,000
107,434,000
12,000,000
95,434,000

2012-13

9,331,200
1,000,000
250,000
98,314,200
177,325,800
12,000,000
165,325,800

2013-14

12,441,600
700,000
250,000
124,024,350
431,335,650
12,000,000
419,335,650

2014-15

12,441,600
700,000
250,000
126,305,663
542,814,338
12,000,000
530,814,338
Methodology:

The present study is fundamental in purpose and adopts a descriptive-analytic method. Documentation and questionnaire method have been used in order to formulate the indicators. The documentation method concerns reviewing the documents related to indicators of tourism sustainable development and analyzing their content. In order to formulate and operationalize the indicators and indices, the experts and public’s opinions were used in the questionnaire method.

The methodology of my assignment was purely based on personal observation.

Nature Of Data : Questionnaire method

1. How often do you travel outstation?

a. Once in a Year

b. Once in 6Months

c. Once in 3Months

d. Every Month

e. Every Week

Tabular answer:

1

A

40%

B

30%

C

15%

D

10%

E

5%

2. How do you Plan your Trip?

By yourself .

Through a Travel Agent.

Tabular answer:

2

A

25%

B

75%

3. Do you believe you understand the concept of sustainable tourism?

very familiar

somewhat familiar

unfamiliar

Tabular answer:

3)

A

25%

B

40%

C

35%

4. Do you believe natural resource protection and tourism can be compatible?

strongly agree

agree

don’t know

disagree

strongly disagree

Tabular answer:

4

A

45%

B

35%

C

12%

D

8%

E

0%

5. Do you believe protection of local heritage and tourism can be compatible?

strongly agree

agree

don’t know

disagree

strongly disagree

Tabular answer:

5

A

55%

B

40%

C

5%

D

0%

E

0%

6. Do you believe that well-managed attractions and destinations for tourist , maintained in their natural state, are important to attracting tourism?

strongly agree

agree

don’t know

disagree

strongly disagree

Tabular answer:

6

A

50%

B

40%

C

7%

D

0%

E

3%

7. Do you believe the community would benefit from developing a sustainable tourism framework?

strongly agree

agree

don’t know

disagree

strongly disagree

Tabular answer:

7

A

35%

B

35%

C

15%

D

8%

E

7%

8. Do you believe there is a demand for sustainable tourism in and around India?

strongly agree

agree

don’t know

disagree

strongly disagree

Tabular answer:

8

A

25%

B

30%

C

10%

D

25%

E

10%

9. If you disagree with #8, do you believe a demand for sustainable tourism could be developed in future of our India?

strongly agree

agree

don’t know

disagree

strongly disagree

Tabular answer:

9

A

55%

B

35%

C

10%

D

0%

E

0%

Analyzing and Interpreting Data:

Data analysis and interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to the collected information and determining the conclusions, significance, and implications of the findings. The steps involved in data analysis are a function of the type of information collected, however, returning to the purpose of the assessment and the assessment questions will provide a structure for the organization of the data and a focus for the analysis.

Approach to problem solving:

The implementation of Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI will progress on the basis of:

Workshops to advocate sustainability by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India for all stakeholders across the regions of the country.

Extensive range of incentives for establishments complying with STCI, specially focusing on international market access through the Ministry’s Market Development Assistance scheme and also operational advantage concerning energy, water and other input requirements as feasible.

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India support to proposals from all tourism sector associations for skill development as in ‘Hunar Se Rozgar’ for unskilled, low-skilled and, semi-skilled and craftsperson categories.

MSME tourism service providers to be specially supported after meeting eligibility and STCI compliance conditions.

Certification through innovative use of existing mechanisms, there being to need for appointing consultants or a project monitoring unit.

Training of Trainers for Sustainable Tourism through institutional arrangements.

School and college curricula to incorporate sustainable tourism.

Advance calendar of participatory activities displayed on the Ministry’s website.

Capacity building in industry and the Government by identifying institutions for developing a pool of trainers, training of trainers, etc.

Evolving governance coefficients, using contemporary technology, for incorporation in the rating / approval mechanism to enable realistic monitoring and evaluation of sustainable tourism implementation by all tourism industry constituents.

Research study:

Tourism is an increasingly important area of economic activity in all countries, and as such, should have a commensurate level of statistical development. However, there is more work to be done in the area of compilation of basic tourism statistics to better serve the needs of economic policy makers in governments, industry managers and business community and, at the same time provide a solid foundation for the nation accounts in general and for Tourist Satellite Accounting (TSA) in particular.

The challenge of any research in sustainable tourism is not only how to measure or assess the achievement of sustainability, but also how to implement such. A current trend in both practice and research is to consider the conduct of ecotourism as a means to achieve the concepts of sustainable tourism and the principles of sustainability. This thesis proposes that one of the avenues that ecotourism may contribute to the principles of sustainability is through the interpretation delivered as an integral component of this type of tourism. An inductive qualitative methodological approach is presented and a model of effective interpretation has been developed.

Effective destination management and strategic planning needs to be based on relevant and up-to-date data and information. Destination managers need access to data and information on visitor markets, environmental trends, product supply and availability, resources, opportunities and challenges and potential risks. Destinations that have established research and data collection systems to support decision-making are better able to plan effectively and adapt to changing market conditions.

Recommendation and suggestion:

Should contribute to a balanced and healthy economy by generating tourism-related jobs, revenues, and taxes . . .

Should protect and enhance a destination’s socio-cultural, historical, natural and built resources . . .

Should enhance the enjoyment and well-being of both residents and visitors.

destn2_environ.jpg

23han2u.jpg

Conclusion:

I began with a reference to the need to develop specific recommendations for the continuation and development of the sustainable tourism program. I hope that my remarks have suggested to you some ideas in this regard both with regard to sustainable cultural tourism development and with regard to the promotion of effective local community management of cultural resources. I cannot presume to advise you on the future of sustainable tourism, but I can suggest three general areas of action that might be appropriate in regard to sustainable tourism development.

There is a need to elaborate regional, national and local guidelines for undertaking cultural impact assessments; such assessments should be required by law prior to the approval of each (tourism) development activity.

There is a need to undertake national inventories, including surveys and maps, of all immovable physical cultural heritage and sites-and to determine their visitor carrying capacity-with a view to their long-term protection within the framework of the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention, and other appropriate international, national, local and customary conservation instruments.

There is a need to develop, where they do not already exist, instructional modules for teaching regional, national and, especially, local heritage in the formal school system. With special reference to tourism development, there is a need for teaching school-leavers in non-formal situations with the particular aim of training and licensing local heritage expert guides and resource persons.

There are substantial opportunities for the promotion of sustainable tourism in India. However, the national and respective state policy and planning frameworks need to be aligned for this.

Introduction

There has been a considerable rise in the trend of the Wellness Industry mainly in Asia-Pacific. As Destination Spas are developing in the industry, it seems it is still rather vague as to what the future holds for this particular sector. The rising awareness of people towards personal health and growth is creating a demand for a service role that is currently evolving to cater to the demands of this progressing market trend. This study will investigate possible outcomes for destinations spas, Mandala Spa, in the designated geographical area.

Background

The globalization of wellness products such as Spas are increasing and evolving, whereas the philosophies and traditions of the eastern culture are penetrating the western context and vise versa. These spas are growing by incorporating physical, emotional and spiritual activities coupled with the pop psychology that mixes more esoteric practices to raise the level of mental wellness. (Smith and Puczko, 2008)

Wellness is defined as ‘The multidimensional state of being “well”, where inner and outer worlds are in harmony: a heightened state of consciousness enabling you to be fully present in the moment and respond authentically to any situation from the “deep inner well of your being”. Wellness is an ever-evolving journey to a heightened awakening of the consciousness and working towards a fitter state in regards to the physical, mental and emotional sense of wellbeing, thus helping an individual to further experience life to its fullest with the greatest longevity. (Bodecker and Cohen, 2008)

Figure 1: The Expanded Wellness Model

Source: Mueller and Kaufmann 2001 p.6

Overview of the Wellness Industry

A considerable amount of visitors going to modern day health and wellness centers are mostly not aware of the historical and cultural backgrounds of the treatments they experience. It would be not so far fetched to say that these visitors have not realized that the Ayurvedic practices from India date back as far as 5000 BC, or that the current make-up brands that women are using these days hold similar cosmetic traits to those used my the Egyptian women in 3000 BC. The earliest recorded documentation of Chinese medicinal methods date back to 1000 BC, however in Western societies Chinese medical methods are regarded as exotic and somewhat new in their perception. According to a study made by the Spa Research Fellowship, the earliest reference to so called magical healing waters is 1700 BC and as the classic physician and philosopher of the Hellenistic age, Hippocrates, once said that “aˆ¦water is still, after all, the best.” (Health & Wellness Tourism)

There is an increasing awareness of the healing properties of water, whether it be thermal, sea or mineral water. Civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans understood the various health related aspects of water treatments and thus were quite focused on fitness and cleanliness through such practices. On the other hand, other ancient civilizations from The Middle East and Asia and other indigenous people around the world were already aware of the health benefits of other practices like herbal medicines, yoga, massage, meditation and other related spiritual practices, for centuries before the cultivation of health related practices in Europe. Although by Western standards, the quality of life in many parts of the world are seemingly low or of poor quality in comparison to Western societies, India and Africa can be cited as two better examples. These people living in such poor standards have developed their own ways of maintaining their wellbeing, although such conditions of deprivation favor the triumph of illness over wellness. These practices of preserving health and wellbeing are continuing to become more and more popular among day spa operators and subsequently the visitors of these days spas are growing interests keen enough to want them to visit the origins or homes of these practices such as Yoga and Thai massage. (Health & Wellness Tourism)

The term Spa, is an adapted acronym for “Solus Per Aqua”, it can be translated as health through water. (Leavy and Bergel, 2002)

According to Associate Professor Rujirutana Madhachitara, PhD of Penn State University in her paper, Opening Up a Services Market – The Thai Spa Industry, “From what we learn in the classroom and witness in real business life, market usually do not grow as explosively as health spas have done in Thailand. Hotels and resorts along with entrepreneurs have recognized the potential of spa development in Asia, it is even arguable to an extent that recent trend of spas has impacted the face of the Hospitality in the region.”

Intelligent Spas came up with the Spa Benchmark program across the major Asia Pacific markets and summarized the findings in the table below (Garrow, 2007)

Table 1: Asia Pacific Spa Industry overview

Malaysia – Since the year 2002, Malaysia’s spa growth has increased by 200% and continues to foretell increased growth.

Indonesia – Is home to the larger spas in regards to indoor space and more than half of them are destination spas, within the region it is also second most affordable next to the Philippines.

Philippines – Is the smallest in terms of market size but regardless it also possesses on average, the most numerous amount of treatment rooms, studies show that there is also strong potential for growth in this sector over the coming years.

Singapore – relatively, the country has a mature market but is still predicted to grow at 11% annually over the upcoming years. There is a considerable amount of day spas of which half are said to be salon type oriented spas.

Taiwan – Over 81% of Taiwan’s 300 spa facilities were day spas, a large group of their spas use group brand names, whilst spa franchises are very common. Growth rate is said to be slow in the coming years.

Table 2: Asia-Pacific Global Spa study

The Asia-Pacific spa industry is the quickest growing region on a global basis, however it is yet relatively young. A larger proportion of spas are preset in emerging markets while resort/hotels spas are currently leading development. Typically, destinations spas are regarded as spa resorts. Growing but yet underdeveloped health resorts in a sense. In comparison to Europe, spa revenues in the Asia-Pacific are 35% lower and 19% lower on a global average, however hotel spas are only 3.75% to 5.8% lower respectively. Whilst in terms of staffing, hotel spas are at an average of 27 employees per establishment and 17 per spa. Intelligent Spa’s Global Benchmark Report, May 2009, states that the treatment room occupancy in the Asia-Pacific is 37% higher in comparison to other regions, 45% of total revenue accounts for payroll, and with an average treatment rate of US$77 it is the lowest economically among all regions. (Samantha Foster)

The term Destination Spa holds a particular standard of luxury for spa-goers, as they were places where the rich and famous would go to slim down. These days destination spas offer more than just a luxurious way to get slim fast, they offer a variety of products that cater to the overall wellness of their customers. Such services offered are healthier diet alternatives, lifestyle lectures, yoga seminars and more traditional methods of energy attunement to find your own sense of inner and outer balance. (Leavy and Bergel 2002) Mandala Spa brands itself as a destination spa incorporating all the fore mentioned services and more, in 2005 they won the prestigious Asia Spa Award for “best destination spa of the year” and “spa treatment of the year”. Since then they have continued to win awards in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Since its inauguration in 2001, Mandala Spa has touched the lives of many people and has grown from a four-villa Day Spa to a full fledged Wellness Resort and Destination Spa. (http://www.mandalaspa.com)

Aims

The author will conduct an in-depth research on what the future holds for Destination Spas in Asia Pacific, focusing on a developing boutique Destination Spa brand, Mandala Spa as a prime reference.

Objectives

To review literature about the Wellness Industry with emphasis on Destination Spas.

To investigate the trends and variables influencing the development of the Wellness Industry with focus on the Destination Spa sector.

To understand the strategies that Mandala Spa is using for its success and how they will use these for future development or expansion;

and

To recommend any findings to Mandala Spa and the Asia Pacific Spa and Wellness Coalition for the overall benefit of the industry and for future research;

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The Concept of Wellness Tourism

According to (Verschuren, 2004) Wellness tourism is very different from health tourism as wellness tourism is considered a unique product within the health tourism segment thus it is not a category in itself but a sub category of health tourism.

Figure 1

According to (Kaspar 1996), health tourism is “the sum of all the relationships and phenomena resulting from a change of location and residence by people in order to promote, stabilize and, as appropriate, restore physical, mental and social well-being while using health services and for whom the place where they are staying is neither their principle nor permanent place of residence or work”.

By definition of (Mueller and Kaufmann 2000), following (Kaspar1996), wellness tourism can be the sum of all the relationships and the phenomena resulting from a change of location and residence by people whose main motive is to preserve or promote their health. They stay in hotels that are specialized in providing the individual care with the appropriate personal know-how. To further the statement these guests require and expect certain service packages that are comprehensive in nature, such packages may include physical fitness, meditations, dietary advise, beauty care and education.

According to The International Spa Association (ISPA) spas are defined as “entities devoted to enhancing overall well-being through a variety of professional services that encourage the renewal of mind, body and spirit” (ISPA, 2006)

A comprehensive categorization of spas has been produced by the International Spa Association is listed below:

Club Spa –

Day Spa –

Spa Hotel –

Holistic Spa –

Medical Spa –

Bath –

Resort Spa –

Sport Spa –

Structured Spa –

Definition of a Destination Spa

There is no universally accepted definition of destination spas, rather the following academics present these definitions:

Destination spas predecessors were referred to as “fat farms” due to their somewhat rigorous detoxification and weight loss programmes. These “fat farms” were perceived as the to-be places for communities high societies, yet most of these establishments were not deemed a pleasant holiday experience as most of them were ran similar to boot camps in a sense, where their guests would undertake restricted diets or fasting seminars where the promised results of weight loss would be achieved, however in no manner pleasant. Few of these “fat farms” would feature beauty treatments, relaxation or meditation programmes and even less provided in education in terms of how to maintain their lost weight, thus guests would eventually gain the weight back. The destination spa of today offer more than just weight loss programmes but are now geared towards more meaningful exercise programmes, education on lifestyle, wellness seminars, consultancy on diet and cleansing, and some offer medical tests or evaluations. (The Spa Encyclopedia)

“Destination spas are built with the primary purpose of providing spa/wellness activities for guests” as compared to resort/hotel spas who’s primary purpose is to sell their rooms while the spa is an augmenting facility, the purpose of destination spas are the exact opposite of this. (Gibson 2008)

Destination Spas are a place where visitors go for short retreats/wellness programmes that are somewhat life changing or produce a high impact on the guest’s lifestyle. (Spa bodywork: a guide for massage therapists)

Asia Pacific Wellness Traditions

The wellness traditions of Asia follow a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing, treating the mind, body and spirit as one. Their way of healing is by finding the essence of the problem and supporting the body in healing itself therefore boosting the body’s natural immunity against illness and disease. Therefore the approach through natural healing, in Asia, is rooted in spirituality and tradition rather than on a basis of natural assets.

In Japan the traditional bathing establishments of “onsens”, which are Japanese hot springs, are commonly visited by locals in seek of meditation or relaxation and has grown in popularity among the tourists. Reiki and Shiatsu are two of the most prevalent wellness therapies from the Japanese culture and are currently very common treatments provided by western spas.

The legacy of India’s historic culture has existed before that of Ancient Egypt as even scholars regard “Ayurveda” (the science of life) as one of the oldest healing systems in the world. It is still commonly the first form of traditional healing in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka.

The traditional forms of Chinese medicine were focused on an individuals overall state through a variety of therapies, such as “Chi” (the overall flow of life force or energy of a person), “Shen” (the persons mind that is responsible for their mental abilities and consciousness), and “Jing” (The governing essence of a persons vitality). Traditional Chinese medicine, similar to Indian Ayurveda, leans towards the aspects of preventive and holistic approaches towards health in regards to physical movement, spirituality, diet and emotional wellbeing. A myriad of therapies are offered, some of the most popular to mention are Tai Chi, Qi Gong, herbal medicines, and acupuncture which focus on the flow of energy throughout the body.

Thailand is currently said to be the leading country in spa development within Asia, featuring a wide array of services, products, aesthetics and centres. The basic principles of Wat Pho traditional Thai massage and the Lana traditions of Northern Thailand are what constitute the concepts of Thai spas. The Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, located in the capital city of Bangkok by the Grand Palace, is where traditional Thai massage was born. During the era before the temple was built, the area was a site for the practice of traditional Thai medicine that has its relational origins from “Ayurveda”.

Malaysia has a set of unique spa programmes and ambiences through the incorporation of village or kampung traditions along with the wellness traditions practiced in the royal courts. Pressure point and long stroke massage techniques which are the basis of “Urut”, the traditional Malay massage, which is the main feature of the services offered along with traditional post-natal care in women’s health programmes. The foundation of these therapies are based on causative theory building on the organizing principles of cold and hot, damp and dry and of the natural elements air, fire, water and earth, derived from links to “Ayurveda”.

Indonesia’s mainstay of promoting wellness and beauty comes from Jamu herbalism, traditionally it lies in the center of managing the populations healthcare. The spiritual approaches to wellness, along with traditional massage techniques and fresh herbal ingredients, are highly incorporated in Balinese and Indonesian spas.

Vietnam, regarded now as the ‘new Thailand’ amongst south east Asian investment circles due to its promising economy and influx of new beach, golf and health resort developments. The main medicinal tradition of the country is referred to as “Thuoc Nam” of which is based more on traditional folk knowledge. A Buddhist monk and scholar, Tue Tinh, developed “Thuoc Nam” into a national system. He consolidated all the local medicinal knowledge from Vietnam and established clinics within monasteries along with herbal gardens coupled with educating the public on the herbal home medicine. (Dung and Bodeker 2001)

The Philippines, being an archipelago, has its traditional medicinal techniques deeply rooted in the multitude of ethnics groups found on its thousand of islands. Its traditional massage practice is known as “Hilot” and is just as diverse in techniques, practices and tradition as it varies from region to region within the country. It is however being standardized, and thus growing ever more popular among the spa programmes in the Philippines. (Marana and Tan 2006)

Key Theories on Spas

Compare and contrast an approximate of 3 key theories here, identify who your subject matter experts are through seeing who are the names who are always cited in the various journals and books you have on Spa. Support with some models, I think you have one model in your Chapter II already!

Figure 1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Schutte and Ciarlante’s Asian Equivalent Model. Adapted from (Athena H. N. Mak, Kevin K. F. Wong and Richard C. Y. Chang)

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the Asian equivalent model

Tourist motivation embraces psychological as well as physiological facets because travel is expected to satisfy different levels of needs such as psychological (e.g. intrinsic, personal and interpersonal rewards) and physiological needs (e.g. food, shelter, safety, health and fitness) (Witt and Wright, 1992). Maslow’s (1970) hierarchy of needs is one of the most popular theories of motivation used by researchers to study tourist motivation (Iso- Ahola, 1980). Maslow proposes that human needs as motivators form a five-level hierarchy comprising of physiological, safety, love/ belonging, esteem and self-actualisation needs. He further states that the lower-level needs should be satisfied first before an individual could move up to higher-level ones in the hierarchy. Mill and Morrison (1985) cite that motivation is a phenomenon that takes place when an individual seeks to satisfy a need, and suggest a correlation between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and tourist motivation.

Maslow’s model is based on Western culture, so Schutte and Ciarlante (1998) have questioned whether self-actualisation (a personally directed need) is existent among Asian consumers. They contend that Asian countries predominately have a collectivist culture (Hofstede, 1980), so the idea that a personally directed need is at the highest level of needs would neither be readily accepted nor regarded positively in the Asian culture. Instead, socially directed needs seem to be more apposite in such cultural context. Schutte and Ciarlante thus put forth an Asian equivalent model, one that eliminates the personally directed self- actualisation need and emphasizes the intricacies and importance of socially directed needs, namely, affiliation, admiration and status.

Based on the research conducted by (Athena H. N. Mak, Kevin K. F. Wong and Richard C. Y. Chang) Their study identified the motivating factors for Hong Kong spa-goers seeking spa experience when they travel. Their perceptions of spa, as well as their socio-demographic characteristics, were analysed. In addition, an instrument to measure motivation in the spa tourism domain was developed. Factor analysis results show that ‘relaxation and relief’, ‘escape’, ‘self-reward and indulgence’, and ‘health and beauty’ are important underlying motivating factors for spa-goers, as shown in the study. The result contrasts interestingly with general European spa-goers’ perception that spa experience is largely for curative or therapeutic purposes (Miller, 1996; Douglas, 2001), and American spa-goers’ perception that spa experience is a means of self-reward (Kaspar, 1990; ISPA, 2006). For the Hong Kong context, it is actually an integration of self-reward and health, together with relaxation and escape motivations. This distinctive combination of motivating factors reflects the unique underlying needs of Hong Kong spa-goers.

The demand for spa is anticipated to grow continuously (ISPA, 2006), and the opportunities associated with spa are many and varied. However, despite the bright outlook for the Asian spa market, it is imperative for the spa industry to maximise the potential for this niche market segment outlook for the Asian spa market, it is imperative for the spa industry to maximise the potential for this niche market segment.

Current Situation of Mandala Spa

Here you do a write up discussing the current situation of Mandala Spa as a destination spa in the Asia Pacific region.

What is the key to Mandalas Success?

“You have to understand, that when you analyze wellnessaˆ¦ and a commitment to wellness and the wellbeing of other people, you realize very quickly that taking care of other people or being a good care taker for people, a very essential Christian quality, this is not something you do as a job like flipping hamburgersaˆ¦ it is something that has to be developed inside of a person as part of their personality, inside of their heart, so Karen Reina and I realized very quickly that if you want to be sincere in the wellness industry by taking care of other people one way or the other. It could be in the spa industry, the hotel industry or that might simply be in the nursing or physical therapy industry, the most important quality is the love and compassion and ability to have positive relationships with the guests. We decided that this is one of the most essential qualities a place can have, this is what we have to focus our service on, the rest is really technical training, skill training, attitude refinement, the way your presenting yourself with etiquette training, but what makes us very different from all other aspects of the hospitality industry is that when your working really close with people, when your touching them literary with your hands and fingers, when your all over their skinaˆ¦ YOU CANT FAKE IT! If your not real, people will realize it the latest at that point, when somebody’s hands are all over them, that’s when they realize if that service is real or fake, they are just pretending to give me a loving and caring service and just see it as a job. This is what really is the very essence of mandala spa, and this is what makes us different from many other places to start out withaˆ¦ our outlook was not based on a well organized spread sheet full of figures, our first challenge was and still is always, how can you install a culture and a commitment to the essence of hospitality in our staff, a corporate culture as it is calledaˆ¦ this is the same challenge others in the same field are experiencing now in hospitality, where they say that cutting edge is where the guest is loved or feels loved, what better hospitality can you give other than true love and true care? No matter on which level, and this is what our people and guests come back for. So when people ask what was their best holiday experience, it is often the very small relationships they had with their host, it is all about love, care and respect, the rest is really just dressing up. You very quickly realize that when you think that way, well its different that hamburger flipping in a way that you have to teach that way of thinking, you have to communicate that, you have to install that as a part of corporate culture.. that we want to do things with care, that we want to do things to maintain or better the environment, that we are caring for our employees as people and not just by looking at the annual growth rate of the company, caring by making an effort to communicate with them, by trying to provide personal growth opportunities for them, no matter if its through Yoga or personal talks or through participation in our social responsibility programs like planting trees, improving the environment, and they are proud of that, they should feel proud of being gentle, of being caring, of being compassionate. These are al the values we are trying to install within our corporate culture, not just the training to start out with and technical perfection, quality of touch, I am doing that myself. But what really brings everything through and what brings everything together is really when your heart is open and your heart is in it, and this is a big part of Mandalas secret, we’re trying really to maintain that corporate culture that is true to itself, that walks the talk. Wellness and wellbeing is not a five to nine job for Mandala Spa, it is a way of lie for Mandala Spa. Conclusively, a lot of people working with us or working with me are not there just for the job or the rewards or the growth opportunities on a proffesional career level, they are simply there because they love the way of life that they can live during eight hours of their prime time.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Research Paradigm and Design

The Research Paradigm used in this dissertation is that of intepretivism in which is a comprehension of the differences between humans as social actors. The social actors in this case refer to interview respondents. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007) presented an argument that the business world is too intricate to be at the disposition of theories and definite `laws` in which rich insights may be lost in the process.

In line with this paradigm, the author maintains an empathetic stance and attempting to understand the social world from the point of view from the research subjects. As each situation is unique and stands alone, all these are a function of a specified set of individuals and circumstances brought together at a particular time.

The epistemology of this paradigm is on subjective meanings and social phenomena with a focus into an in depth study on the details of destination spas in the Asia Pacific, the background reality and motivating actions. It will have a subjective axiology due to the research being value bound and the author being inseparable from the research.

An inductive approach is used here in which the author theorizes that the wellness industry is a sub category of the health industry health tourism and from recent trends it is predicted that the health industry is beginning to adapt aspects of the wellness industry as a more informed clientele demand for an integration of wellness and nutrition into healthcare. This proposed theory is to be backed up with collected interview data for testing of validity.

Qualitative Study
Data Collection Development

Open ended questions are structured or at least semi – structured. It is important that the author guides the interview and steer it back on topic should digression occur. Nonetheless, for the purpose of the B.A (Hons) dissertation, structured interviews should be used.

If you use interviews but did not manage to meet the person face – to – face, attach a copy of email correspondence in appendix. Or save MSN conversations into rich text format.

Sampling
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Ethics
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Introduction
Profile of Participants

How many of them

Number of contacts (overall sampling frame)

How many returns? (% of responses) DO NOTE THAT FOR ONLINE SURVEYS, THE ACTUAL QUANTITY IS NOT EASILY DERIVED AND IS MAINLY AN ESTIMATE.

Give evidence of screening (How many were null? Even if person answers all strongly agree, it is null!)

“Proper steps supersede absolute numbers.”

Report the final, n = 19 (%)

Who are the participants? (Use your background questions to assist you.) For qualitative interviews, you’ve been in contact with the person. Describe their qualification to prove that they are the appropriate person to individual on the subject.

Background of Participants
Analysis of qualitative data

Reiterate that an inductive approach was used and that it is an exploratory paper

You have a choice here of analyzing your data using a condensation, grouping or ordering process.

As with everything else, the travel and tourism business is changing constantly with more people booking trips on the Internet, increasing numbers of adventure travellers and fewer people having disposable income since the financial crash of 2009. To get people to bring their tourist dollars to your destination, your plan must accurately identify whose vacation needs you can best serve and get the word out specifically to them.

PREMIER INN RESORTS:
TASK 1

Know Your Customers

Know who is visiting your tourist destination. Texas, for example, did a marketing survey that showed the state brought in nearly $470 million in 2008 with European visitors, most from the United Kingdom. Washington State noted that it made about two-thirds the amount of income from people staying with friends and families as it did from those staying in hotels, so that was a significant market. Make sure local institutions keeping as close track as possible on where people travel from and their demographics so you know where your marketing is working and can more aggressively target areas where the response could be stronger.

Set Specific Goals

Decide what your specific goals are, such as wanting to double your tourism revenues in the next two years; draw more families to visit your tourism site; increase traffic from a neighboring state to a specified amount; or triple the number of visitors to a specific sightseeing attraction.

Identify Travel Trends

Stay abreast of travel trends, such as increasing interest in adventure travel, growing numbers of girlfriend getaways, changing demographics that mean more seniors traveling and increased use of Internet for bookings. Use this information to shape how your tourist destination will brand itself, what attractions it will invest in and emphasize and what marketing vehicles it will use.

Get Your Message Out

Figure out what vehicles will be most effective for promoting your message to the markets you have chosen, including travel review forums, social marketing avenues, Internet broadcasts, and magazine and news articles in general interest and special-interest publications or television ads. Enlist local businesses in advertising and offering specials and discounts for slow periods. Keep in mind, travellers sharing their positive experience at your destination is going to be your strongest marketing tool.

TASK 2
. Do a Situational Analysis
Target Markets

Even if you are experienced at managing holiday rentals, it pays to do an on paper assessment of your target renters. If you’re brand new to renting, you may have to do a little bit of research into your area to determine which groups you should target.

Demographic

Try to determine which demographic groups the majority of your guests belong to, such as: gender, familial status, household income, and education level? It’s likely that other belonging who call into the same category as your past guests will also enjoy your home.

Geographic

What geographic area are your guests from? Do they travel from overseas? Do they fly or drive to your destination? If they drive, how far is a typical journey?

Psychographic

What do your guests do in their leisure time? What do they want out of their holiday?

Market Needs & Trends

Look at your local holiday rental market as a whole. Are there any traveller groups that don’t seem to be well catered for? Has your local area undergone any major changes in the past year? 5 years? 10 years? Look for trends in the number of visitors, demographics of visitors, new construction in the area, sharp increases or decreases in the value of property, significant increases in property taxes, or new or proposed regulations regarding short-term rentals.

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis

Completing a SWOT analysis will help you determine where the strengths of your holiday rentals business, where you can improve, and what opportunities exist in the market, and what threats loom on the horizon.

Strengths:

What does your holiday home offer that other homes in your area do not?

What makes your home special?

Are your rates competitive?

What do you do as an owner that is better than other owners in your market?

Examine your online adverts. What does your ad do well?

Weaknesses:

What do other holiday homes in your area offer that you do not?

Are there any areas where your home could be improved (facilities, decor, furnishings, etc.)?

Examine your portal website listings. What could be improved about your ads (better photos, better written descriptions, etc.)?

Opportunities:

Are there any improvements being made or attractions being added in your market (have the beaches been given a special award, or is there a new activity centre opening)?

Does your property cater to any of the following growing market segments: retirees, business travellers, families with grown children?

Is the area opening up to travellers from a new geographic region?

Threats:

Are there any new property developments coming to your area (i.e. increased competition)?

Has there been a significant increase in property taxes for second homes?

Are there any new regulations being imposed on holiday rentals in your area?

Competition

In positioning your holiday home, you should consider who you are competing with for business, what they offer, and how their pricing compares to yours. After you’ve compiled a list of your biggest competition, take note of where they currently advertise, which marketing tactics they’ve chosen to implement. Then launch your counter attack, by applying strategies that will more effectively or persuasively reach the target customers you have in common.

Other Holiday Accommodations in Your Holiday Market

This could include other holiday rentals in your area, as well as hotels, bed and breakfasts, all-inclusive resorts, hostels, caravan parks or camp sites.

Other Holiday Destinations

Often you’re not just competing against other accommodations in your area. You may also be competing against holiday homes and hotels in surrounding areas, or even other markets altogether.

Holiday Rental Benefits

What does your home have to offer travellers?

Amenities

An amenity is anything included in your home that may be of interest to potential guests. The next time you’re at your vacation home, go room-to-room and make a list of the items in each room. Download the Equipment and Facilities Checklist to see if you’re missing anything.

Suitability

Who is your home perfectly situated for? Families with small children? People with disabilities? The elderly? Travellers with pets?

2. Determine Your Marketing Strategy
Marketing Objectives

What are your most important goals for marketing your holiday home? To receive enquiries? To book a certain number of weeks? To generate a specific amount of revenue?

Positioning

When setting your marketing strategy, it’s important to determine how you plan to market your retnal. That is, who your home is suitable for, and how you plan to ? Many holiday home owners make the mistake of trying to target uncomplimentary groups of travellers. For example, if you have a large property in the Algarve, Portugal, creating a home that is too family friendly (for example turning ample sized bedrooms into children’s bedrooms) could alienate groups of adult friends on golfing breaks or girls getaways. However, become too broad in your appeal, and you could seem bland or irrelevant to travellers.

Marketing Mix

Most marketing activities conducted by holiday rental homeowners fall into the categories of online advertising, offline advertising, and word-of-mouth marketing.

Online Advertising

Portal websites like HomeAway.co.uk or OwnersDirect.co.uk

Specialised websites like your local tourist board

Personal websites (your holiday rentals business website)

Offline Advertising

Print media like newspapers and magazines

Radio or TV

Collateral material like business cards, fliers or vouchers

Word-of-Mouth

Customer relationship marketing efforts to past guests, or friends and family discounts

Referrals

Charitable donations

Marketing Research – Get to Know Your Target Customer

Take the time to do some research about your target renter. The best way to do this is by talking to past guests, friends, and family members about what they enjoy about your home, what could be improved, and whether or not it fulfils the requirements they are looking for in a holiday home.

You can also download our Guest Feedback Survey to send to your previous guests

Become an Expert on Your Local Area

Travellers will often look to you for advice about your area. Put on your travel agent hat and learn about the area attractions and restaurants that may interest your target renters.

Stay Current with Events in Your Market

It’s important to stay abreast of events in your area. Consider subscribing to the local newspaper in your vacation home market or set up Google News Alerts to come to your email.

Follow Industry Trends

Staying educated on the holiday rental industry will give you a leg up in marketing your home. Keep an eye on our Industry News section, for the latest reports.

3. Get Your Financials in Order (Budgets and Forecasts)

Break-Even Analysiskeys to success

Even if you do not rely heavily on rentals to cover the expenses for your home, it’s important to determine how much money you have coming in and how much you have going out each month.

Revenue

How much rental income do you hope to generate from your holiday home this year?

Formula for projected revenue for primarily weekly rental markets: (Number of Peak Weeks x Peak Rate) + (Number of Off-Peak Weeks x Off-Peak Rate) + (Number of Weekends x Weekend Rate)

Formula for projected revenue for primarily nightly rental markets: (Number of Peak Nights x Peak Nightly Rate) + (Number of Off-Peak Nights x Off-Peak Nightly Rate)

Expenses

What do you expect to spend this year to keep your holiday rental running?

Note: This formula does not include capital improvements.

Cash Flow

Calculating your projected cash flow should help keep you aware of where you stand in relation to your rental goals. In addition, consider setting milestones or benchmarks for where you should be when. If you hit a milestone and determine that you’re not on course, then it’s time to implement a contingency plan.

Sales Forecast

During which months do you get the majority of your income? Be sure to factor in payment schedules, but to simplify the cash flow process, do not include any refundable deposits (otherwise you’ll have to also include the refund in your expenses).

Expense Forecast

Determine when you will have money coming out of pocket. Which expenses occur monthly (e.g. mortgage, utilities, etc.)? Quarterly? Annually? Don’t forget about seasonal fixed expenses like such as home or grounds maintenance.

Contingency Planning

What potential difficulties do you foresee in renting your holiday home? Brainstorm all of the potential problems you could face in your rentals process, and create a plan and a backup plan to deal with each one if it occurs. By preparing contingency plans, you won’t be caught off-guard when a less-than-ideal situation arises.

4. Determine Your Personal Keys to Success in Renting Your Home

After creating a marketing plan for your holiday rental home, you should be able to answer the following questions:

Who is your target market and how is your home best suited for them?

What is your home’s theme or position in the market?

Which marketing vehicles should you use to reach your target renters?

How many peak weeks, off-peak weeks, and weekends do you need to rent to break-even on your fixed expenses?

What are the potential risks in renting your holiday home and what can you proactively do to prepare for them?

What you define as success may be different to what other owners in your area would. The key to personal success in renting is to set goals for yourself and your holiday rental. By setting goals before you begin, you always have a number of booked weeks (or nights) to work toward and will more likely stay motivated and fulfilled

(INSKIPP, Carol, 2008)

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

As a tour guide, communication will be your main tool in informing and guiding guests around sights and keeping their interest. Below, we have some suggested reasons why communication is so important in a tour guiding context. After reading through them, why don’t you tackle the activities which follow, which are based on some of the main reasons for communicating in tour guiding.

To inform, remind and advise

You will use communication to present your country to tourists. As a tour guide you will have to answer many questions, handle queries and present information to tourists. Among these types of information will be:

aˆ? giving directions and commentaries;

aˆ? explaining procedures and itineraries;

aˆ? providing advice on safety and security; and

aˆ? describing tourist attractions.

This information to guests can be: helpful suggestions to prepare themselves for a tour, advice about personal belongings to take, medical advice on preventative medicines, and information about available services at tourist destinations.

To clarify, and to avoid confusion and misunderstandings

Communication helps to clarify facts so that there is no confusion or misunderstandings. Also, sometimes there are unexpected events during a tour which can force the tour guide to change plans, and these changed plans have to be communicated to the tour group as soon as possible, to get consensus on alternative itineraries.

To promote and persuade

Communication is also the tool you’ll use to promote the tourism products and services of your country, such as the destinations and events they will visit and enquire about. Remember, tourists visit your country in order to see what attractions the country has to offer and to perceive and experience the country from your perspective. As a tour guide, therefore, it will be your responsibility to motivate and reinforce the tourist’s interest in your country. Your commentaries are the « eye » through which tourists will see the country and you are the representative of the people of your country.

To build relationships

How well you communicate with your tour group will determine the success of the tour and how successful you are in your career as a tour guide. Conversations help to develop rapport which will build interpersonal relationships. This is important for sustaining the tourism activities.

To evaluate your services

Communication will enable you to collect relevant feedback from the tourists with a view to gauging the interests and expectations of the tourists. This feedback obtained can be communicated to all concerned. From this you will be able to explore ways of improving subsequent tour activities.

TASK 1

Email

To: XXXX

From Anamika Sinha

CC

Subject Cox& kings share Holdings

Dear XXXXXX

I have recently visited Cox & kings share Holdings and attach my report.

The prospects for devolving HR activities to the line are examined in this article. Evidence drawn from a wider study of HRM in practice suggests that, while line manager involvement is possible, their practices tend to be inconsistent in implementation and uneven in quality. A number of constraints on line management practice were identified. First, there is limited reinforcement of practice through institutional forces. Secondly, the short-term nature of managerial activity means that a greater priority is placed on the achievement of the numbers rather than the achievement of numbers through people. Finally, downsizing and delivering place tremendous pressures on the time which line managers could allow for people matters generally. These findings challenge much of the rhetoric associated with the idea of giving HRM back to the line by arguing that the quality of line management practice may distort the overall impact of HR policies.

TASK 2
Phone Communication

Phone communication remains an important means of business communication because it can link partners, employees and business professionals nationally and globally. Costs of phone communication can be significant, particularly if a business requires a lot of international calls.

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication in groups and between individuals is still a critical and popular method of business communication. Mastering the art of verbal communication can help you articulate ideas and solve problems in ways that everyone will understand.

The Internet and social media Web-based portals, such as Face book and Twitter, have taken the business world by storm. Email and social media represent ways for businesses to communicate important information in a matter of seconds.

Fax

Faxing is a fast way to communicate information and data as well. Faxing can be especially beneficial when information needs to be communicated in hard copy.

Written Communication

Believe it or not, companies still write memos and other reports that communicate information internally throughout a company. Written communication is an important method of communication because it helps establish a paper trail.

TASK 4
· Speed and Costs of Communication

The most significant impact of technology on communication is the spread of the internet and the possibility of sending emails and chatting. In the pre-information technology days, a document often required re-typing on the typewriter before the final version. Sending the letter across to someone else required a visit to the post office and a postage stamp. Faster methods such as telegrams had severe limitations in text, and remained costly.

Computers and the internet have made easy the process of creating and editing documents and applying features such as spell check and grammar check automatically. Email allows sending the document to any part of the globe within seconds, making telegrams, and even ordinary letters mostly obsolete. The internet has thus increased the speed of communications manifold, and reduced the costs drastically.

· Quality of Communication

The huge amount of knowledge accessible by a click of the mouse has helped improve the quality of communication. Translating a text from an unfamiliar language to a familiar language, seeking out the meaning of an unknown word, and getting follow up information on an unfamiliar concept are all possible thanks to the internet.

Technology allows easy storage and retrieval of communication when needed, especially verbal communication, the storage of which was very difficult before. It now becomes easier to rewind and clear misconceptions rather than make assumptions, or contacting the person again to clear doubt.

· Change in Communication Style

The invention of new gadgets such as mobile phones makes communication easier by allowing people to communicate from anywhere. An underestimated impact of mobile gadgets is their impact on the nature of communications. The nature of such impact includes the following:

The possibility of high quality communication from anywhere in the world to anywhere else at low costs has led to a marked decline in face-to-face communications and to an increased reliance on verbal and written communication over electronic mediums.

The small keyboards in mobile phone and other hand held devices that make typing difficult has resulted in a radical shortening of words and increasing use of symbol and shortcuts, with little or no adherence to traditional grammatical rules. Such change now finds increasing acceptance in the business community.

Communication has become concise and short, and the adage “brevity is the soul of wit” finds widespread implementation, though unintentionally.

· Accessibility to Communication

The answer to the question how has technology changed communication is incomplete without a mention of the role of technology in the democratization of communication systems. Technology has brought down the costs of communication significantly and improved people’s access to communication.

The proliferation of online forums, live coverage of news, and other such media related initiatives have resulted in world wide access and participation in news and information for almost everyone.

In the realm of business, access to communication or privileged information was hitherto a major source of competitive advantage. Technology helps remove such barriers and ensure a level playing field in this aspect for the most part.

· Nature of Communication

The ease of communication and the spread of interactive communication methods such as instant messengers and video conferencing has increased the volume of communications, but reduced the average length of communications. People now communicate whatever comes up instantly, and tend to break up different topics into different communications.

Finally, technologies such as the internet help spread the net of communication by tracking down old friends, shedding light on new business opportunities, and the like

(JOHN SWARBROOKE, Susan Horner, 2001)

PEOPLE IN THE ORGANISATION:

TASK 1

All these organisations are connected to either the National

Government, which is departments or ministries, or to local

Government. This chart shows the range of commercial and non commercial organisations involved in Travel and Tourism.

The government organisation, the DCMS (The Department for Culture

Media and Sport. This is one of the many civil service departments

which serve the elected government of the day, whatever their

political views. These departments do not have any political bias. Examples:

Treasury – doles out all the money the taxpayer’s money to other

departments, e.g. education, defence, DEFRA (Department for the

Farming and Rural Affairs), which is the department for the

environment.

· The DCMS is responsible for and to oversee:

Government policy on the arts,

Sport

The National Lottery,

Tourism,

Libraries,

Museums and galleries,

Broadcasting,

Film,

The music Industry,

Press freedom and regulation licensing,

Gambling

Historic environment.

· The present secretary of the DCMS is Tessa Jowell.

Funding of the DCMS

===================

· Funding comes from the taxpayer (income tax)

· In addition, the Treasury decides what share each government

department will get.

Stakeholders

————

Stakeholders are anyone who has an interest in an organisation. The

people who are hold an interest in the DCMS range from:

Government of the day. This is because DCMS carries out the

policies. This relates to Tomorrows Tourism Today, which outlines

plans for action and responsibilities for delivery for the DCMS and

its key partners in five areas. These are the four joint priorities

agreed by the DCMS and the tourism industry; marketing and e-tourism,

quality, skills and data, plus a fifth priority for the DCMS –

advocacy for tourism across Whitehall and the EU.

Tomorrow’s Tourism Today, which had the working title of the Tourism

Prospectus, is the result of consultation by the DCMS with its key

partnership organisations; Visit Britain, the England Marketing

Advisory Board (EMAB), the Tourism Alliance, the Local Government

Association and the Regional Development Agencies. It also reflects

comments from over 30 organisations and individuals who responded to a final round of general consultation.

The idea for Tomorrow’s Tourism Today came from the series of Hartwell

Conferences between the DCMS and the tourism industry. They were part

of the process of tackling the downturn in tourism that followed the

Foot and Mouth outbreak and the September 11th attacks in 2001.

The public as the taxpayers, as the DCMS is spending our money.

Customers of tourism in the UK.

Businesses, which benefit from the work of the DCMS.

Employees of the DCMS civil servants.

NGO`s (Non Governmental Organisations), which are not elected and

have no political bias.

Organization Chart

Non-Governmental Organisations

——————————

· These are non-elected organisations, which advise the main

government departments or ministries and through them advise the

elected Minister of the day.

· NGO`s:

Advise the department on policy.

Co-ordinate activities.

Produce strategic plans such as Tomorrows Tourism Today.

Allocate government funds to all organisational and activities

connected with tourism.

· Examples of NGO`s are:

Visit Britain

English Heritage

Countryside Agency

Sport England

TASK 2

REPORT SECTION A:

Communicating effectively can be the difference between the success and failure of any business endeavour. Effective business communication involves time-honoured practices and customs you can easily learn. These business communications best practices remain as relevant now as they were in the past. These best practices also apply to any form of business communication you choose to employ; whether it is a print brochure or an online website.

Be Clear and Concise

The most important business communication practice is to be clear with your message. Too often, business communicators load their messages with jargon and technical terms the intended audience cannot understand. Don’t be vague. Use concrete terms and be specific. You should use clear, easily understood words. Avoid industry-specific terms and acronyms unless they are common knowledge to your audience. Err on the side of caution, however; don’t assume you know what your audience will understand.

Focus on Audience

Effective business communication practices target a specific audience. Communicators should always ask “Who is my audience?” What is their level of knowledge about what you are presenting? What are their needs and values? Knowing the answers to these questions can help focus your message. Business communication author Ken O’Quinn, writing for the International Association of Business Communicators, says you should frame your appeal in a way that makes it relevant to your audience. Your ideas need to be in their realm of experience, he writes.

Don’t Sell Features. Sell Benefits.

Whether you are writing an internal memo or a sales brochure, your business communications should focus on value. A best practice is to sell benefits–how your idea or product will improve the lives of your internal and external customers. Selling benefits will grab attention and sustain interest far more than simply selling the features or physical attributes of a product or service. In an International Association of Business Communicators article, writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant says selling features is dull. Selling benefits generates excitement, she says, and leads to business communication with high impact.

Use Multiple Channels

Peter Lowy of the Business Communications Strategies group, Brookline, Mass., writes that you cannot afford to deliver your message using only one medium. The proliferation of media offers people numerous choices for consuming information. People have their preferences, and they process information at different times, Lowy says. In addition, for your communications practices to be effective, you should optimize your message for each medium. For example, a message delivered through a website will typically be shorter and more to-the-point than the same message in a print newsletter article.

REPORT SECTION B:

There are numerous advantages of teamwork in business. Some of the genuine advantages of teamwork have been discussed below. The following advantages of teamwork are not only applicable for businesses but they can also be noticed in departments that function with the help of united efforts.

United Effort

Teamwork in any business ensures that the task at hand is executed with the help of a united effort. The significance of the united effort is that the business organization that is concerned, functions like a single person, thereby enhancing the quality of the operations. There are, also, some other related factors, such as ensuring equality in profit-sharing and division of work. It also helps the members/owners of the organization to maintain a very good system, that designates appropriate authority and responsibility. A united effort, also, reflects good team building and team spirit.

Division of Work

Teamwork ensures that there is an equal and fair distribution of work within the organization. A fair work distribution ensures that every person or every working unit, executes any task at hand, with the best possible efficiency. The division of work, also, ensure that the work is done on time and deadlines are not extended.

Reduction of Risk

When the task at hand is executed with the maximum possible efficiency, there is a reduction in risk. The best advantage of teamwork in business is that the burden of failure is borne by all the members of the team and it does not fall on the shoulders of just one person.

Specialization in Work

Another very good advantage of teamwork in business is that a person is able to specialize in one specific field. That is, he can optimize the quality of the work that he does, and can also work with the maximum possible efficiency. This ensures a high quality output from all individuals and the whole team.

Subordination of Personal Interest to Organizational Interest

One of the biggest advantages of teamwork is that personal interest is subordinate to organizational interest. This ensures that all the team members put in the maximum possible efforts into their work, thereby ensuring a high quality and timely output.

You must have noticed that the list of advantages points out to two basic facts that work when distributed reduces one person’s workload and a reduced amount of

Housekeeping is a process of making a place or organization clean and tidy . There is specific department in hotel which is called housekeeping department . This department is responsible to clean the hotel rooms and common area . This department is supervise by an housekeeping manager and assist by an assistant manager. In this process , activities such as cleaning dirty surface , dusting , vacuuming and rubbish disposing are done regularly . In order to clean , tools such as broom , sponge , vacuum machine , and detergent are used . Housekeeping department also plays an important role in hotel line because it creates an pleasant impression .

TOPIC: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN HOUSEKEEPING

What are three basic areas housekeeping employees should receive training?

List the elements found in each area and the importance of environmental and health concerns.

Provide good and poor examples.

ROOM

http://img4.realsimple.com/images/home-organizing/cleaning/0604/family-room_300.jpg

Room is the basic area for a housekeeping personnel to receive training . Room is the main source of income for the hotel premise . Room should be kept clean so that it would create a good impression to the guest thus creating a trust in them . however to get a clean room , housekeeping personnel should Clean the room thoroughly without raising dust, using a damp mop , Routinely clean and disinfect equipment and furniture in customers room , Commode, Empty and disinfect the sputum mug frequently if the customer is using it , Empty and clean the waste-paper bin each day or when necessary , keep windows open to promote ventilation and use air-freshening spray if there is an odor left in the room . The class of the room in the hotel mostly depends on the structure of the hotel itself. The classification of the hotel rooms is often used not so much for the indication of comfort, as for the reflection of the number of beds. You can safely say that the general standard for the international hotel business today is a single room. Tourist, staying in it, can count on the separate bathroom, wardrobe, TV set. WI-FI connection to the Internet is a default option practically in all the rooms of new hotels.Depending on the host country and the status of the hotel a standard room can have additional functions and features. For example, in many hotels in Britain washstands with the separate faucet for cold and hot water can be found. In Chine the standard set for the bathroom includes a hairbrush, a toothbrush and paste. Thereby the standard set for the bathroom in the world hotel industry includes soap, towels for body and hands and, of late, a shower gel.In addition to the standard room, the world classification distinguishes more than 30 different types of rooms. The type of the hotel room can depend on the view from the window, the number and the size of rooms, the quality of furniture, the content of mini-bar and the availability of office equipment. In addition to the classification of rooms there is a classification of accommodation. There are also a lot of options: from a double room, where three or more people can stay, to accommodation with children or in the separate cabin on the territory of the hotel. Both the room types and the accommodation types have alphabetic acronyms, primarily in English. For example, BO stands for bed only and means that meals are not included. An abbreviation SV (sea view) in the description of the room means that you will be able to observe the sea through your window.These are the types of room

Deluxe

Deluxe rooms – one of the most expensive rooms in the hotel. Deluxe (De luxe) – the word is from the French language, literally can be high class

Standard

Standard or single room – is a classic of hotel business. A single room in any hotel plays a role of its own currency.

Suite

Suite – is a hotel room with an improved design. Suites are often similar in size to a standard room, but the quality of design remains good

HOTEL LOBBY

http://www.empresshotels.com/img/empress-hotel-lobby.jpg

Hotel lobby plays an important role in housekeeping because that is the first place guest will see in the entrance of the hotel . Other than that , guest can actually rest while waiting their reservation to be proceses . The lobby should be kept clean regularly , the chairs and table should be wiped and the floor should be mopped . Lobby also can be called as foyer or entrance hall . Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression. Since the mid 1980s there has been a growing trend to think of lobbies as more than just ways to get from the door to the elevator, but instead as social spaces and places of commerce. Some research has even been done to develop scales to measure lobby atmosphere in order to improve hotel lobby design. Many places that offer public services, such as a doctor’s office, use their lobbies as more of a waiting room for the people waiting for a certain service. In these types of lobbies it is common for there to be comfortable furniture, such as couches and lounge chairs, so that the customer will be able to wait in comfort. Also, there may be television sets, books, and/or magazines to help the customer pass time as they wait to be served . In the end the lobby should be kept clean to bring in more income .

HOTEL WASHROOM

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Hotel washroom should be kept clean so that it would create a good impression to the customer . The housekeeping department is responsible to ensure that these place are kept clean and tidy .a washroom can be a single unit featuring a toilet and hand basin for hand washing. washroom can also be larger facilities, which may include bathing facilities or showers, changing rooms and baby facilities.washroom may be stand alone buildings or installations, or be contained within buildings such as railway stations, schools, bars, restaurants,nightclubs or filling stations. washroom can also be found on some public transport vehicles, for use by passengers. washroom are usually fixed facilities, but can also refer to smaller public portable toilets, or larger public portable toilets constructed as portable buildings.washroom are commonly separated by gender into male and female facilities, although some can be unisex, particularly the smaller or single occupancy types. Both male and female toilets may incorporate toilet cubicles, while many male toilets also feature urinals. Increasingly, public toilets incorporate accessible toilets and features to cater for people with disabilities.washroom may be unattended or be staffed by a janitor (possibly with a separate room), or attendant, provided by the local authority or the owner of the larger building. In many cultures it is customary to tip the attendant, while other public toilets may charge a small fee for entrance, sometimes through use of a coin operated turnstile .

QUESTION 2

TOPIC: HOTEL AMMENITIES

What amenities would you feature in a budget hotel property? In a midsized property? In a luxury property?

BUDGET HOTEL

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Budget hotel provides a cheap yet a comfortable place to stay . I would prefer amenities such as food and beverage service and include with shops which sells basic utensils and food . Other than that Air conditioning must be available. There should be special disability adapted rooms available. The friendly reception is open 24 hours to provide any information required, including currency exchange, safe deposit boxes and internet connection . Younger guests can also have fun in the playground. In the evening, guests can enjoy music at the pool bar, as well as the main bar and frequent party nights to keep spirits high. Barbecue and kaoreke should be provided .

MIDSIZED HOTEL

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Midsized hotel usually is 3 or 4 star hotel . In my opinion food and beverage especially the restaurant should have variety of dishes and facilities . Guests can relax by the swimming pool with refreshments from the pool bar, open from early in the morning until late at night and other leisure facilities such as the pool table, water polo and the recreation room , all this facilities must be included in midsized property . Other than that , Spa , Jacuzzi , wifi and cable tv should be provided .

LUXURY PROPERTY

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Luxury hotel such as burj al arab are given the high class facilities or deluxe .Types of amenities a luxury hotel should have is Food and beverage service such as multiple restaurant with different types of cuisine and be entertained by high class waiter and waitress . Other than that Bath ropes and towel should be provided in well furnished washroom equal to 6 star washroom . In entertainment wise , cable tv with multiple channel should be provided and equipped with cd and dvd player . Iron and iron board should be provided together with a huge wardrobe . The beddiong should be huge together with high quality pillow and blanket . In terms of food , a mini fridge should be provided with drinks , wine and snacks . A world class jacuzzi and spa should be provided in high class and in spa the instructor should be well trained .

CONCLUSION

Question 1 and 2 show me the importance of housekeeping department in hotel industry . Housekeeping department plays an important role in hotel industry because it create an pleasant impression to the guest , thus bringing in more business . Other than that , hotel amenities also plays an important role in hotel industry because guest will prefer to go to hotel which provide better amenities .

I’M PADMAN THANABALAN, hereby confirm that this assignment is my own work and not copied or plagiarized from any sources. I have referenced the sources from which information is obtained by me for this assignment.

Signature Date

BIBILIOGRAPHY

http://www.hotelnissaki.gr/mykonos-hotels-facilities-amenities.php

http://www.hotelhaciendaloslaureles.com/english/los-laureles-facilities.php

http://www.ezega.com/userfiles/Image/atsea.jpg

http://housekeeping.about.com/od/cleaning101/a/housekeeping.htm

Raising the Dust : The Literary Housekeeping of Mary Ward, Sarah Grand, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Author: Sutton-Ramspeck, Beth

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Original Publish Date: 09/2004

Enders Hotel : A Memoir

Author: Schrand, Brandon R.

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Original Publish Date: 03/2008

Opportunities in Hotel and Motel Management Careers

Author: Henkin, Shepard

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing

Original Publish Date: 11/2001

Traffic congestion is a problem which faces many large cities around the world. Many cities face the problem of traffic gridlocks especially during rush hour periods when employees are rushing to or from work. In Toronto, this is a major problem which threatens the long term economic growth of Canada mainly due to economic losses attributed to the congestion. In North America, Toronto is the fourth most congested city after San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles. Toronto was actually ranked last among cities in North America based on the average time employees spent commuting per day, which was eighty minutes. This rating is worse considering that it involved assessment of all transport forms and not only automobiles. In addition, only 30% of car owners in Toronto leave vehicles at home, which add to the congestion (Steve 2010).

This congestion has an adverse cost to the economy especially due to idle time by employees, fuel wastage during traffic jams or lateness in deliveries. These costs add up to over $2 billion annually which is a great concern to any economy. In addition to these economic losses, there are other repercussions of traffic congestion including environmental pollution, which translates to millions of dollars in health care costs to affected people. It is important to understand reasons behind traffic congestion in Toronto in order to develop effective solutions to this problem. This paper will evaluate the traffic congestion in Toronto, assess the possible reasons for the problem and advance viable solutions which will help end the traffic problem in the city. The discussed issues will be summarized at the end.

Traffic congestion in Toronto

As has been discussed, Toronto is the most congested city in North America judging by the transport delays experienced by residents. Traffic congestion is experienced when traffic volume is generally higher than the available road capacities. This is also known as saturation and it is simply a situation where demand for roads is greater than the supply. Generally, causes of traffic congestion are categorized into two; recurring and non-recurring causes. Recurring causes of traffic congestion are caused by traffic issues which recur such as ineffective management of capacity, unrestrained demand and insufficient capacity. Non-recurring causes are those which occur due to unique circumstances which are not normally experienced. These include work zones, car accidents, bad weather, disabled vehicles and emergencies. For purposes of this paper, the recurring causes of traffic congestion will be addressed since this forms the major part of congestion of traffic in Toronto.

Key reasons for increase in congestion

There are several reasons which have played a role in increasing traffic congestion in Toronto. Some of the causes of recurring traffic congestion in Toronto will be briefly discussed below;

Increased automobile use

The increase in use of automobiles is one of the major causes of traffic congestion around the world. As has been discussed, Toronto is the most congested city in North America with over 70% of automobile owners driving to work. In addition, pedestrians and bicycles also compete for the limited road resource. This causes a strain on roads and contributes heavily to the congestion experienced in Toronto (Halberstam 14-17). Many automobiles carry one or two passengers as opposed to public transport where several people are transported by buses. This also increases congestion since more private vehicles are used to ferry very few passengers between various locations. The increase in automobile use also has adverse effects on the environment since there is more pollution from automobiles. Idle time experienced by automobiles as a result of traffic jams also increases pollution by automobiles. This pollution not only harms the environment but also causes respiratory infections and illnesses to humans which translate to a huge cost to the economy.

Poor planning

Every government planning department or ministry is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the population growth matches available resources to reduce strain. It is therefore the responsibility of the government to ensure that resources such as roads are well planned and developed to cater for the population growth. However, the Canadian government has performed poorly in developing roads which cater for the large population in the country (Conrad & Finkel 55-58). For instance, some experts have pointed out that on some roads, bike lanes have been placed in poor locations. These lanes have not been connected to other routes, which is wastage of space and money. In addition, some bike lanes have been placed in thoroughfares which are major and in addition to contributing to the congestion, parking and stopping spaces are drastically reduced. Some pedestrian crossings have been placed in dangerous locations where they cause a reduction in traffic flow as opposed to easing traffic.

Lapse in implementation of laws

There is a notable inconsistency in implementation of the law which regulates traffic. It is unclear whether this is done intentionally but experts have blamed it on ignorance and corruption. Parking and traffic laws are generally not evenly applied for all types of vehicles. In addition, many motorists who commit traffic offenses are not dealt with in a harsh manner in order to act as a deterrent to other motorists. This creates a situation where motorists are ignorant of traffic laws, which further complicates the problem of congestion.

Effects of traffic congestion in Toronto

There are various effects of traffic congestion in Toronto and these will be discussed below;

Pollution

Due to the increase in the number of automobiles in use in Toronto, the city has experiences high pollution levels than many cities in North America. Toronto is one of the most congested cities in North America and pollution levels are high due to high automobile usage. Many automobiles used emit high levels of carbon monoxide and other gases which harm the environment and the health of the public (Lerner & Wilmoth 74-81). Over 1500 people die annually in Toronto due to diseases which are related to environmental pollution. In addition, over 6000 people are admitted to hospitals in Toronto annually due to complications related to pollution and motor vehicle usage is a large contributor to this problem (Ruddiman 81-87). Pollution due to increase in automobile use is therefore a major problem which causes economic costs to Toronto through damage to the environment and adverse effects on the health of residents. Traffic congestion also results in idling of automobiles which leads to more pollution on the environment.

Idle time and opportunity costs

A lot of time is spent by workers in Toronto commuting to and from their place of work. Toronto was ranked last in terms of commuting time spent by employees when using different forms of transport and this was seen to be an average of eighty minutes. This is a lot of time since workers spend over an hour commuting daily to and from their place of employment. The costs of this idle time to the economy have been estimated to be over $2 billion annually (Roess et. al. 34-37). These are opportunity costs which would have brought even greater value to the economy. In addition to idle time by employees, there are the costs of fuel used during traffic by the many automobiles which use the roads. Such costs also run into the billions as vehicles burn fuel in traffic each day. These costs experienced due to idle time are opportunity costs which would have been used for development purposes and development of infrastructure by the Canadian government.

Delays

Traffic jams usually lead to delay for either employees to reach their work stations or for products to be delivered on time. It also makes employees be late for meetings, flights or other opportunities which further their career. Delays may have a negative impact on individuals, the government or businesses at large. When individuals get delayed, they may miss certain opportunities which may result in earning lower disposable incomes which adversely affects their families. When there are delays, businesses suffer from lower sales due to delays in supplies or other factors. When delays occur, the government may also earn lower revenue due to lower tax received from decline in opportunities associated with the delay. Delays should therefore be avoided since they have negative effects to the society at large. This can only be achieved if viable solutions to the problem of transport congestion are implemented.

Barriers to emergency services

When there are traffic delays, it becomes difficult for emergency services to reach people in need. Emergency vehicles usually find it difficult to navigate through Toronto due to the problem of traffic congestion. Ambulances and fire trucks usually take longer than necessary to reach their destinations due to traffic congestion. This is very dangerous for Canadians since many people may continue losing lives due to delays in emergency service provision. It is imperative that urgent solutions to the problem of traffic congestion in Toronto are developed in order to ensure residents have access to fast emergency services.

Viable solutions to the problem

There are several solutions which will help reduce traffic congestion in Toronto and these will be discussed below;

Encouraging commuters to use public transport

It has been discussed that one of the reasons why there is traffic congestion in Toronto is that over 70% of automobile owners use their cars as opposed to public transport. Since private cars mostly carry one or two people, there are very many private cars which are needed to transport employees to and from work. These private cars cause congestion in roads due to their large numbers. In order to ease congestion, public transport should be encouraged since it involves transporting many people simultaneously hence easing traffic congestion. Trains and public buses carry hundreds of people simultaneously which reduces the number of private cars on roads. The government should discourage the use of private cars especially within the city through making it expensive to drive and park private cars within the city. Parking fees for private cars should be increased to discourage use of these vehicles within the city. This will encourage more people to travel by train or buses which will ease traffic on roads.

Decongesting public transport

Although public transport is very effective in reducing traffic congestion, it has to be effective to achieve this goal. The public transport system in Toronto faces certain weaknesses which contribute to the traffic congestion experienced in the city. Many subways including the Yonge subway is very crowded yet this is one of the most important subways in Canada. Although there is a plan to computerize control and signals system in order to enable a greater number of trains to run closer together, this plan will take some years to implement, which means that Canadians will continue facing transport congestion in the short run (Preville 2010). There are also problems with train capacity and speeds with commuters complaining some trains are too slow and have low capacities. This is a problem which should be addressed by the government through increase in number, speeds and capacities of transport trains.

Decentralizing businesses from the Greater Toronto Area

There are very many businesses which are present in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). As a result, many employees commute from suburbs into the GTA each day. The large number of people who commute to the GTA is one of the major reasons why there is traffic congestion. In order to reduce congestion, it is important for the government to encourage investors to invest in suburbs or the outskirts of the city (Wallace 65-69). This is one of the most effective solutions to this problem since fewer people will travel to the GTA. When many businesses are decentralized and established in suburbs and outskirts of Toronto, the traffic systems will face lower congestion due to the reduced number of users. In addition to benefits of decentralization to the transport system, decentralizing businesses will also ensure that there is balanced development in Toronto and Canada as a whole. This will raise the standards of living of people and reduce the gap between the poor and the rich.

Investing in transport infrastructure

In order to cater for the growing population, the road infrastructure should match population growth. Since the transport system in Toronto is congested, it is important to invest in new and more effective transport infrastructure to ease the congestion. One of these types of infrastructure is investment in subways. Subways which run under major roads are very effective means of easing traffic congestion in most major cities. The government should construct such subways and offer commuters a variety of choices to make when making transport decisions. Other infrastructures include billing systems which discourage the movement of private cars into the city. These billing systems may resemble that used in London where cameras monitor vehicles entering congested zones and require motorists to pay a certain sum of money. Motorists who do not pay receive very heavy fines. Such a billing system may be required to adjust the rates according to traffic movements. This will ensure that traffic congestion is eased in Toronto.

Passing relevant transport legislation

In order to ensure motorists comply with changes which have been suggested in the paper, stronger legislation is required to ensure that private cars are discouraged from entering the city and that any traffic offenders receive harsh punishments. This will serve as deterrent to other offenders who are not keen to be part of the traffic decongestion efforts. For instance, in London, private cars entering congestion zones pay 8 pounds in fees. However, people who do not observe this rule pay a harsh fine of 120 pounds. There are cameras which records all registration plates of motor vehicles hence it is difficult not to comply with the rule. Toronto requires legislation and policies which support traffic decongestion to be passed in order to develop long term solutions to the problem of traffic congestion.

Dialog with stakeholders in transport industry

In order for the government to ensure that changes required to the transport industry are effectively implemented, all stakeholders should be involved in the changes. The government should convene a meeting with stakeholders in public and private transport with the aim of developing long term solutions to the problem of traffic congestion (Quentin 16-22). These people may offer very effective solutions to this problem since they are the major road users. The general public will also be keen to follow changes and recommendations made to improve the transport sector once it is involved in developing solutions to the problem. Dialog with stakeholders will provide the government with an opportunity to listen to a variety of suggestions on how the transport problem can be resolved.

Summary and conclusion

Various aspects of traffic congestion in Toronto have been analyzed in detail. It is clear that Toronto is facing a serious problem of traffic congestion since it is the most congested city in North America. Traffic congestion in Toronto costs over $ 2 billion annually and it is caused by a variety of factors. These factors are categorized into non-recurring and recurring factors. However, the paper focused on recurring factors which contribute to the largest proportion of traffic congestion in Canada. These include increased automobile use, poor planning and lapse in implementation of laws which govern traffic systems. This leads to the use of many private cars by employees who commute to work as opposed to use of public transport systems resulting in congestion. Traffic congestion in Toronto has various adverse effects including barriers to emergency services, delays, idle time and opportunity costs as well as pollution. These effects have adverse effects on the health, welfare and economic development of the society as whole. All stakeholders in society suffer either indirectly or directly from traffic congestion.

There are several solutions which should be implemented to reduce traffic congestion in Toronto. These include encouraging commuters to use public transport, decongesting public transport, decentralizing businesses from the Greater Toronto Area, investing in transport infrastructure, passing relevant transport legislation and dialog with stakeholders in transport industry. These solutions aim at discouraging the use of private vehicles and increasing the effectiveness of public transport to increase the capacity and speeds needed to reduce congestion in Toronto. However, it is important to involve all relevant stakeholders when developing solutions to the transport congestion since as earlier discussed, these people may offer very effective solutions to this problem since they are the major road users. The general public will also be keen to follow changes made to improve the transport sector if it is involved in the change process. This will ensure that Toronto has one of the best transport systems not only in North America but across the world.

This report will be divided into 5 sections. In the first section I will be describing the function of the company and the product it provides for its customers. The second section will provide an overview of the economics of the business and competition. The third section will describe the management structure at the company. The fourth section will provide both the PEST and SWOT analysis. Finally I will reflect on my time as a tourist guide, describe the job role and give my impressions of the company. Describing the company and what it offers Tower Bridge is a municipal enterprise owned, funded and managed by the City of London Corporation who are the local Government body responsible for the “financial square mile”. The City of London is therefore responsible for all commercial and operational matters relating to Tower Bridge. Funding of the enterprise comes from a long standing trust.

London Tower Bridge is located in the heart of London and is very close to London’s transport infrastructure and world famous historical sites such as; the Tower of London and HMS Belfast. It is a well known bridge that has become an iconic figure of London, spanning the River Thames, and is within walking distance of London’s other famous attractions such as the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern. Originally built in 1894 to ease traffic congestion on London Bridge and designed to allow access to large ships to the pool of London, it was subjected to a major conversion to become a tourist centre in the 1980s. Tower Bride is therefore both a monument to London’s past and a successful tourist attraction. The main offering is the Tower Bridge Exhibition which allows visitors to enter inside the Bridge allowing access to the High Level walkways with uninterrupted views across the city. This provides a unique selling point with which to market itself and provides a memorable and emotional experience for visitors. The tour also allows visitors to see the Victorian engine rooms from which the bridge used to be powered by. The company also offers corporate entertainment packages and a popular gift shop for visitors. Entry prices are at an affordable rate and for viewing pleasure, the Exhibition comes equipped with interactive screens, sliding window panels for better picture quality and excellent graphics on their giant screens. One of the most important features of Tower Bridge is its “bascule” mechanism system, which rises around 1000 times a year and is still in function to this present day. Bridge openings are very popular with the public and are part of its attraction and allure to tourists. This particular bridge is the only bridge in the world of its type that opens and closes.

Market and competitors

Another historical attraction within the same vicinity as Tower Bridge is the ‘Tower of London,’ which often competes with Tower Bridge as people tend to mix up the two because the structures are quite similar and this may sometimes lead to confusion. Moreover, the Tower of London was famous in Britain and around the world during World War 2 as an iconic landmark. Inevitably overshadowing Tower Bridge. Nonetheless the Tower Bridge is central to London’s historical heritage as a major commercial port. London has many other attractions including: the London eye, which can have up to 10,000 visitors every day and even the London Bridge Experience which opened in 2008. The Tower Bridge Exhibition has grown steadily since opening in 1984, with last year being its most successful in terms of financial surplus and numbers of visitors. With a small marketing team and budgets, Tower Bridge Exhibition relies heavily on organisations such as Visit Britain/London to document trends in visitors. Tower Bridge Exhibition targets throughout the year a very broad area including both the European and domestic markets. Within the domestic markets educational groups are also targeted but equal importance is placed on family groups. Advertising normally occurs through specialised magazines, in particular publications like the Times Educational Supplement or via websites such as www.vistislondon.co.uk where costs are generally lower then other mass media options. Trade shows are attended such as “World Travel Market” where the exhibition is promoted to a range of tour and group organisers and databases are created for direct mail campaigns. Tower Bridge Exhibition has a unique relationship with its competitors, although in direct competition with one another, attractions within London work together along with Visit London to bring people to the area. Tower Bridge Exhibition has a list of distributors which in return for a discounted ticket rate sell tickets globally, however they also promote competitors. Other key stakeholders of Tower Bridge Exhibition are Local and National Government and the EU who and impose rules and regulations. The local community and response services, the Tower Bridge charitable trust, all visitors, the media, internal trade unions and employees are also key stakeholders.

The cost of visiting the exhibition is ?7.00 per adult and ?3.00 per child (5-15) under fives go free, with a concession ticket costing ?5.00 and disabled guests getting in for free. Group discounts are available for 10 people or more and a promotion with Network rail allows 2 for 1 entry. Ad hoc promotions are run throughout the year targeting specific groups, for example the exhibition’s 25th anniversary was celebrated by letting local residents in for 25p.

Job role

As a Customer Care Guide at the Tower Bridge Exhibition I had a fair amount of duties, roles and responsibilities which was based on the nucleus of customers and their safety along with their well being which meant constantly putting there needs and requirements first at all times. Furthermore, that meant me providing exceptional customer service and care at all times and making sure that the customers visit was as enjoyable and pleasant as humanly possible. With that in mind I would have to posses a certain degree of knowledge regarding the bridge and the local vicinity. I would also be required to have a competent level of expertise relating to the bridges history, construction and design most notably for when I am positioned inside the bridge and doing a position that entails doing speeches regularly. For positions like these I must convey clear and precise information to the customers so that they are made aware of the process inside the bridge. In addition, I would also need to be fully aware of all the processes of the bridge if say there was a fire or an evacuation I would have to be mindful of the correct drills and steps that needed to be taken in order for a safe and secure evacuation to be achieved for all customers especially the disabled, elderly and those in a wheelchair. My duties included maintaining a high level of security for both the visitors and the exhibition items as well as always being on hand and available to interact and engage with visitors should they need or require any assistance or help from me at any stage during there visit. Moreover, if they had a query or wanted further information about the or the area.

Management Structure

A business structure is very important and every organization has its own structure. A company such Tower Bridge organizational structure is a hierarchical with a concept of subordination of entities that collaborate and contribute to serve one common aim. Most of the staff in Tower Bridge are all in the front office dealing the member of public and tourist, some have more interaction such as the Ticket Office and Customer Care Guides.

The mangers

Tower Bridge uses a functional structure which has the advantage of being easy to understand. The chain of command requires that an employee can report to one or more managers, but one manger such as Andy Nicholson, typically has more authority over the employee than their other manager(s). In Tower Bridge there are three mangers: one exhibition manager and two assistant managers. Having this structure means having layers of management that control the company by maintaining a high level of authority, with the power to make decisions concerning business activities. Employees such as customer care guide have limited authority to carry something out without prior approval. This organizational structure tends to focus on top-down management, whereby executives at the top communicate by telling middle managers, who then tell first level mangers, who then tell the staff what to do and how to do it. A limited number of employees report to a manager, who then reports to the next management level, and so on up to the Bridge Master or Tower Bridge Director.

The managers needs to be responsible for motivating the staffs and ensuring that any formal systems and practices that are in place are not undermined in anyway. In theory the managers at Tower Bridge are responsible for the business performance, as well as maintaining high standards of service and health and safety.

A functional structure of Tower Bridge can be illustrated by the following diagram:

The Managers are responsible for arranging shifts for their staff, creating promotional events and discount offers, deal with customer complaints, motivating staff, ensuring that staffs have the right uniforms, greeting customers and organising table reservations.

PEST Analysis

Political

Political factors that may affect the ability of Tower Bridge to operate include government and City of London polices. In fact it seems unlikely that these will impact adversely on the attraction in the immediate future given its high profile and historic status. Cuts in public expenditure may lead to higher admission prices and less staff running the exhibition. As the government recent decision to cut funding to Visit Britain by 18% has big consequences for all London Attractions most specifically the smaller attractions such as Tower Bridge Exhibition who relay heavily on its services. Flight and bed taxes could deter visitors away from the city. Terrorism threats threaten the entire London tourism industry.

Technology

With more people using the internet, Tower Bridge Exhibitions will have to review its current website, as currently ticket purchases are too complicated. Advancements in ICT have meant that statistical data on tourist trends is now simpler to collect and more easily accessible through websites such as Visit Britain. Tower Bridge still has old and new technology some of the original hydraulic machinery is still remain as exhibition in the engine room nowadays they use electro-hydraulic drive that open the bridge up.

Economic

The main external forces (macro environment factors) that affect Tower Bridge Exhibition are economic and social factors. London is perceived to be an expensive place to visit, so the exhibition will need to provide better value for money. This is possible as at currently utilises only one third of available space. It will need to consider joint promotions with other attractions. Changes in interest rates at home cause fluctuations in disposable income meaning leisure activities are often put on hold, exchange rates and the strong pound against the dollar has seen a smaller spend per person from the important American market.

Social

Tower Bridge Exhibition relies heavily on family groups, so a decline in traditional family set ups will require Tower Bridge to re-think its family tickets prices. Over the recent years are has been a changes in holiday patterns with people now preferring city breaks and long weekends. Terrorist attacks also cause fluctuations in the market with people looking for safer destinations.

SWOT Analysis

Strength

The business philosophy is not just about making money but emphasizes on educating and informing the public (particularly young people). On the tower’s walkways, there is a great view of London similar to the Millennium Wheel but not as detailed or exciting. Furthermore, on a positive note, this particular zone is free of congestion charge, which allows people to freely enjoy their journey over the bridge. Although the bridge is funded by the City of London council, it also makes a reasonable income by hiring the venue in the evenings for special occasions.

Weakness

Although it is an indoor attraction with a large view of London, a visit to Tower Bridge depends on the weather because the best sights are not always available due to the fact of the unpredictable British climate, for instance, on a rainy or overcast day, the views from the bridge can be very poor and distorted which could result in unhappy customers. What is more, London is an all-year-round destination so major attractions are not seasonal. Due to the fact Britain has such unpredictable weather, people usually carry sunglasses and umbrella because they never know what the weather can be like. This could have a bad effect and lead to a bad experience when coming to visit Tower Bridge on an unpleasant day. Firstly, the entrance to Tower Bridge Walkways is confusing for tourists who are unfamiliar with the area as there are no clear signs pointing in the right direction. Also, the journey to Tower Bridge is quite complicated if you have no knowledge of its whereabouts and may get lost. In addition, it is not pedestrian friendly as there tends to be lots of traffic and congestion upon entering the bridge. Secondly, in my opinion their main website is unappealing which doesn’t help to attract or interest people into visiting Tower Bridge. This apparent weakness and flaw could have a bad impact on tourists who have never been to London, as the websites layout and structure does not represent or give Tower Bridge an acceptable status (more life and colour in the graphics required to attract online interest). On the other hand, their website has easy access to different links that also caters to children’s needs such as fun packs for children’s discovery which is fun as well as being educational at the same time. Furthermore, to add to criticism the historical building needs substantial refurbishment to help increase the volume of visitors. Although people are aware that it is a bridge, some people are afraid of heights and may feel unsafe or in danger. Moreover, although the lengths of the walkways are reasonably lengthy, it is quite narrow and may have an affect on those who are claustrophobic. Security measures are paramount for one of the worlds most famous tourist attraction. When entering the Tower there is a single stage of security that visitors must pass through. Once their body has been examined and their belongings are check they are allowed to enter the walkway but it doesn’t mean the security level is up to standards. Reportedly, there have been cases where people have entered the building then proceeding through the security check in order to commit suicide. Fortunately, this has not changed people’s views to visit the attraction because any potential suicide incidents have been prevented. In reality, when the bridge does have a scheduled lift this results in a hold up of traffic. It is found that “An estimated 38,000 vehicles use the bridge each day, pushing it to capacity during peak hours”. This results in many delays for many people, who may decide to take an alternative route to avoid the traffic queues. Likewise, “Extra traffic is expected to increase impact damage to the extremities which flex under traffic loads.” This could mean that traffic queues are causing damage to the structure of the bridge, which may have a long term affect on the bridge. What is more, it is said that “these measures are expected to increase congestion either side if the bridge, adding to delays caused when it opens for shipping. Last year Tower Bridge lifted 925 times”. In my opinion, was this necessary?

Opportunities

Global advertisement could possibly result in an increase in the volume of visitors as many foreigners are unaware of a bridge that opens and this may be an attractive feature to witness in person. Perhaps due to the recession peoples lifestyles are changing, rather than individuals coming to the Tower Bridge they could engage in some promotion and coupons like the “two for the price of one”, “children of the age of under 12 go in for free” etc. Other attractions could work together with Tower Bridge rather than competing with them. They could cater for more languages by enhanced displays for overseas visitors such as Europeans and Asians. Provision of tour guides could be encouraged. Even though it is a self-guided exhibition they could offer a guided tour within the ticket price would encourage more visitors and may enhance the quality of the experience. Additionally, they should provide reasonable adjustment to facilitate for people who have disabilities. Due to the fact of the economic crisis the value of the pound has decreased. This is good news for the overseas visitors because of the currency exchange rates. In years to come the growth of tourism will increase despite the recession; London will generate tourist revenue from the 2012 Olympic games to be held in this city. This will boost and soar the volume of visitors in the capital.

Threat

The biggest threat to Tower Bridge is any potential terrorist attack perhaps of more concern is that there is no security check when going through the bridge and anyone is allowed to walk along the bridge. On the other hand, Tower Bridge is surrounded by a high level of competition with other tourist attractions equally famous like the Tower of London. In spite of the fact that other attractions complement each other it is possible that Tower Bridge will lose out due to the fact that it is less appealing. The economic downturn could have an impact on people’s lifestyles and their finances. Another way of viewing this is that the recession has changed our way of life. Culturally and socially people may prefer doing simple things like taking a walk in the park, instead of expensive vacations. After all a large proportion of overseas visitors come to visit the Tower Bridge. As a result this recession could have an significant effect resulting in a decrease of the number of visitors. In conclusion, it could be said that the current service could continue unchanged. The inherent advantages of location, history and unique appearance will service the attraction well in the future. However, improvements could also be considered namely a more attractive website, cater for different languages, refurbishment of the walkways. The main threats for the future are: economic downturn and limited attractiveness to a young audience.

Reflection

Working in Tower Bridge has taught me a number of things about how tourist attractions operate in the market and what factors lead to an attractions success. Even though my time at the Tower Bridge consisted of 400 hours work experience I still had to go through the same procedures as I would if I were applying for a permanent job. I was interviewed by Andy Nicholson who gave me a fair amount of information regarding the history of bridge and what they offer to the public. Even through the interview lasted over 3 hours it was very insightful and useful to me. I gained a lot of knowledge about Tower Bridge and its surroundings. When I started work it was the beginning of the Easter holidays. I didn’t get any training at first except on how to use a radio. I was thrown in at the deep end for the first three days as I didn’t know much but I guess that is the best way to learn. After a few days I was formally introduced to other members of staff and my official training started. The assistant manager gave me the correct uniform as there are different ones to wear for different positions. I was given a full guided tour and met all the security staff, the maintenance department and human resources. I was shown all the emergency exits as well as all the other exits and where to meet if we had to be evacuated.

I was given a radio with my own personal identification which was “uniform 13” which enabled me to communicate with other members of staff via the radio. After that I undertook three days of shadowing a full time tour guide and I was also given a big pack of information about Tower Bridge. I learnt 4 different speeches plus aborts and general information of the history of London. A big plus point for me was that I was given the chance to get to know the surroundings and I spent a couple of days visiting other tourist attractions such as the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern gallery. I thought this was very helpful to me. After 1 week of shadowing and intensive reading I was finally ready to work on my own. My first position was to operate the north lift which takes the customers to the high level walkways and to give them instructions on what to do when they got up there. I did this a few times before trying out the other roles and positions. In total there are 8 positions, 1-3 are working in the lifts and the towers and the customer service areas. The only negative point about this aspect of the job is that it can become very repetitious.

Position 4 and 5 involve working in the gift shop next to the Victorian Engine Room. I was lucky to have this experience and to be till trained. Working in the shop has a lot of responsibilities, not only dealing with money and providing customer service, throughout the day you’re on your own and this can be quite stressful. There are many duties working at the shop in the morning before opening up, you are required to do a number of duties: making sure that there are enough products on the shelf and that these are neatly presented, knowing what’s not available and what’s low on stock so it can be ordered in, cash up the money for the till etc. Working in the gift shop can be pleasant but the only difficult issue that I faced was dealing with several customers at the same time. The gift shop is quite a small and confined area and it is where customers exit from the Exhibition. In some cases an unsatisfied customer will use his time in the gift shop to vent his frustrations and whoever is currently occupying the shop position is usually the one that is on the other end of the brunt of the customer’s fury. In addition to this, in most if not all the cases of a customer who was not completely happy with there visit and experience and demand a refund or if a technical malfunction occurs to any of the penny press machines then it is at the gift shop where all of the would be resolved.

Positions 6, 7 and 8 are what the company refers to as “footfall enticement”. These duties are intensive and consist of you dealing with customers at the front of the ticket office who are visiting the Tower Bridge Exhibition or are just walking pass as well as giving out general information about the bridge. I think the footfall position is a crucial role as it represents the Tower Bridge image and they are the first staff and port of contact to interact with the customers before they enter the exhibition. Throughout my work placement I have undertaken a fair amount of footfall and my view upon it is that it can be quite enjoyable. The only downside is that the footfall is an all year position which I think is unfortunate because Tower Bridge is on the river it can very windy and during autumn and winter it can be very cold. I did a few footfalls in April and even so it was extremely cold for me to endure and for someone to do this position you have to be mentally and physically strong. I don’t think people should have to work 8 hours outside in such cold conditions most notably during winter times and I think they should use the footfall personnel to go onto the walkways to give talks about the bridge and have one at the gift shop for assistance as the shop can get very busy and hectic at times.

After 200 hours I was given the opportunity to work at the Monument. My job role was to give out leaflets to those who completed the 311 steps and give brief talks about this famous landmark. I had a lot fun working there because it was a more intimate setting than the bridge so you got to talk and engage more with your work colleagues. It also meant that you could immerse yourself more in depth with the visitors and ask them more about their visit to the capital and how long they were intending on staying and where they were originally from. There is so much history written into the Monument which is intertwined with the Great Fire of London so for me to work there and to be a part of it was a good experience which contributed to my enjoyment there.

In terms of organization and structure there is much to change and develop. What surprised me is that staffs do not really work together and in some ways work in isolation from each other which seems inefficient and ineffective. There tends to be a gap and divide between the permanent staff who have been employed there for many years and the temporary staff such as myself.

Conclusion

Overall working at Tower Bridge has been a good learning experience for me. Like any other job there will always be positives and negatives but in some ways the work has provided some unique insights. I think Tower Bridge and the Monument are very successful tourist attractions for the reasons stated previously and there is no reason why it should not continue to prosper in the future with the right investment and a culture of continuous improvement. Many people who work at Tower Bridge have provided years of dedicated service for a prolonged period of time. Tour guides, ticket office, managers, security and maintenance people have worked their for a long time. A large proportion of them are 40 plus in age which is a change for me because it is the first time I have come across a situation like that. I think I have picked up some of their characteristics and learnt a lot from their experiences of being at Tower Bridge. On the whole I had a great experience and I would highly recommend it to other students who are interested in the tourist industry or those people who like history. Out of all the places I have worked in previously I can honestly say that this was the most interesting job and role that I have ever experienced. The majority of the staff I built and formed a relationship with not only as work colleagues but as friends outside working hours.

Impairments are the reality of life that sooner or later each person will be experiencing this in some point of a persons life particularly during the elderly stage of an individual. Serving the disabled individuals is not something that comes naturally to most people. This chapter has been divided into three parts which are the accessible tourism, museum and disabled visitors and disabled person. To give an overview of what and who are the visually impaired individuals, a section of this report will discuss about a visual impairment.

Furthermore, in this chapter, a brief overview of two museums and two galleries will be tackled in this chapter. The two museums are British Museum and National Maritime Museums while the two galleries are the National Gallery and the Tate Modern Gallery.

According to Macfarlane (1996 cited in Barnes, 1991), for over a hundred years, disability has represented a culturally embedded and socially accepted form of oppression against disabled people. Furthermore, a disability may be physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional and or developmental.

Also, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2010), the term disability is ‘an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or actions; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.” In addition, Disability Discrimination Act (DDA, 1995) defines disability as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. Moreover, according to Shaw and Coles (2003), disability is ‘the loss or limitations of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others, due to physical and social barriers. On the other hand, Shaw and Coles (2003) define impairment as the functional limitation within the individual caused by mental or sensory impairment.

As mentioned above, disabled individuals faces different barriers which holds them back in participating in such activities like travelling. Nevertheless, a number of disabled persons do not consider themselves as a person with disability to a certain extent. Some of disabled people prefer to be independent in nature and associate disability with passivity and dependence qualities (Barnes, 1996).

In most cases, a person with disability likes better to travel with their friends and or family members. According to Yau, et al (2004: 958), the process of being a traveller with a disability can be complex, requiring personal initiative, the need to accurately evaluate one’s own capabilities as well as the ability to collect reliable information, manage the trip, manage oneself and take stock to reflect experiences. Nevertheless, the experience of the traveller with disability is completely different from the experience of the other travellers without disability. Disabled travellers may have an uneven experience as the facilities being offered are not enough most especially for the other impairment such as for visually impaired individual. Even so, it is logical to note that the majority of the travellers, whether they are disabled or not, are expected to experience some form of barriers during their time of travel.

A qualitative work was undertaken in Hong Kong, proposed ‘The Model of Tourism and Disability’ to facilitate an understanding of the multifaceted interaction amid disability, tourism and the environmental context (Packer et al, 2007). A model of tourism and disability included three key components:

The process of becoming and remaining travel active

The personal and or disability context; and

The environmental and or travel context

(Packer et al, 2007)

The model of tourism and disability tells that the relationship involving the process of becoming travel active and the environmental context are autonomous with each influencing the other (Packer et al. 2007). In travelling there is always a positive and negative outcome of travel experience. A negative travel experience could be the poor quality of service or the destination being inaccessible. Furthermore, these could result on the decrease in numbers of tourist in tourism market. Nevertheless, a positive outcome of travel experience is likely to result on a repeated visits and increasing the tourism market.

2.2.1 Visual Impairment

Visual impairment is one of the types of disability. Generally, not all the individuals with visual impairment are completely blind. In 2002, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had estimated that there were more than 161 million people globally who were visually impaired. In which 37 million are blind and 124 million of whom had low in vision (WHO, 2004). At the same time, World Health Organisation (WHO) noted that the ageing of the global population and the age-related nature of visual impairment was driving global changes in the epidemiology of vision loss (WHO, 2004). In which at the present time, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are about 314 Million people who are visually impaired worldwide and 45 million are blind. In addition, most of the visually impaired individuals are living in a developed city. Furthermore, according to Open University (2010), there are between one and half and two million people who are visually impaired in UK. Subsequently, most cases of visually impaired are also considered hidden disability (Open University, 2010).

In tourism, disability is a neglected subject within tourism enquiry and cognate fields (Aitchison, 2009 cited in Richards et al, 2010). According to Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB, 2010), visual impairment may be extremely different from person to person and that there are relatively some aspects that could support and help the blind or the partially sighted individuals to enjoy and have fun on a holiday. In addition, a lot of older visually impaired individuals may as well suffer on other disabilities, for instance, mobility and or hearing difficulties.

According to The Council for Museums Archives and Libraries (2001), ‘every person with a visual impairment is different in terms of the nature of their visual limitation and their expectations and requirements’. Most of the visually impaired individuals use their other sense of smell, hearing, taste and the sense of touch in order for them to feel the surroundings that they are into. On the other hand, some of the visually impaired have a difficulty in imagining an actual object.

Furthermore, visually impaired people are considered as a potential market in tourism industry. In UK there are about 1.97 million adults who are visually impaired (The Council for Museums Archives and Libraries, 2001). Additionally, according to The Council for Museums Archives and Libraries (2001), 82 percent of visually impaired in UK have low visions, 90 percent are aged over sixty and approximately 75 percent of visually impaired can read large prints. In most cases, partially sighted and the blind people travel with their friends and families and there is a bigger chances that will return on the places where offers a good facilities and provides good services (RNIB, 2010).

2.3 Accessible tourism

More individuals enjoy the opportunity to travel. Visiting the attractions is one of the foremost activities in tourism. On the other hand, travellers face many barriers during travelling such as getting information, accommodation and or problems in getting around at their chosen destinations. On the contrary, not most of the tourists are capable of participating in such doings that this industry could offer. Subsequently, most destinations offer a friendly environment although not to every visitors. Disabled people may be a significant market segment for the tourism industry. However, many tourism sites are not well suited to serve disabled tourist. Like, for the disabled visitors, convenience of a particular destination is essential. In almost all cases of a destination, the facilities being offered for the disabled person are limited.

Accessible tourism benefits everyone. According to Darcy (2006, p: 4 cited in Darcy and Dickson, 2009), accessible tourism is defined as “a process of enabling people with disabilities and seniors to function independently and with equity and dignity through the delivery of universal tourism products, services and environments.” Furthermore, Tourism New South Wales (Darcy and Dickson, 2009), noted that ‘accessible tourism is about making it easy for all people to enjoy tourism experiences.’

Accessibility is a necessary element for every day’s existence. Neither, the privilege to travel and take pleasure in all the good destinations is for every individual. Tourism desires an access to almost the whole thing that a destination has to offer. At present, the consumer’s demands are gradually changing. Consequently, tourism is considered as one of the fastest growing industry. Nevertheless, this industry could serve as an instrument in promoting a barrier free circumstance for the individuals with disabilities. It will be an efficient means of furthering the equality for the disabled individuals that could lead to barrier free.

Each individual has the opportunity to travel and benefit from the surrounding of their chosen destinations. According to Darcy (2007, p:74), a justly accessible tourism product will lessen or eliminate physical, attitudinal, information, financial and other barriers that make the tourism experience less accessible to people with disabilities. Furthermore, an accessible tourism should be made easier for all people, irrespectively of their age, gender and or physical status, in order to enjoy their tourism experiences. According to Tourism New South Wales (2005, cited in Darcy and Dickson, 2009), Easy Access Market is define as:

“Any segment within the tourism market that prefers accessing tourism experiences with ease. This people with disability, including those with physical and sensory disabilities, will find it easier to access tourism facilities where there is a continuous pathway and tactile surfaces and clear signage.”

As accessibility plays an imperative role in tourism, not everyone could have the access to their designated destinations. Even though, still this industry attracts a numbers of tourist at all times. On the other hand, accessibility generates barriers in some particular persons such as the disabled individuals. Subsequently, people with disabilities have also the rights to partake and benefit from the community as the same quality of life of the people without disabilities. Nonetheless, people with disabilities travel less due to the lack of facilities of the tourism industry. In general, the provisions that tourism industry offers to the disabled persons are commonly for the mobility impaired individuals. Furthermore, due to the increasing facilities for the disabled most especially for the individuals who have mobility impairment, tourism has widened the amenities for these types of tourist. Due to these facilities, other disabled persons travel and participate less. In contrary to that, there are some increasing numbers of disabled individuals who set off for travel mostly for physically impaired individuals only. In addition, this industry should require having an amenities and facilities that could do well to every tourist. Given the fact that most of the facilities for the disabled are for wheel chaired person, it is more convenient for them to participate in leisure activities compared to visually impaired people.

Among all the types of disabled individuals, visually impaired might not be able to be pleased about the picturesque view, on the other hand, they could still have a pleasant journey on some other way. All the same, these types of tourist could still feel, hear, smell and touch. Likewise, there are an increasing numbers of disabled people and most of them are engaging in travel. In addition, the increase in the demands of the mobility access for the disabled is in high demands at the present. In some point, the amenities that are being offered are for the mobility impaired visitors. Visually impaired travellers have a lesser numbers compared to the wheel chaired persons. Currently, the common facilities that tourism has to offer for the visually impaired tourist are the guide dogs, audio descriptions for some exhibits and Braille.

Increasingly the tourism industry is able to offer improved products and services. While physical accessibility is an essential component of inclusion, it has a long been recognised that successful inclusion also requires social acceptance by others (Schwartz, 1988). According to Page and Connell (2006, p: 76), contemporary literature recognises that ‘access is not only about buildings; a truly accessible environment is one in which a person with disability can freely express their independence, and one in which any impediment to integration is removed’. Moreover, according to Page and Connell (2006), in United Kingdom, Visit Britain operates the National Accessible Scheme, which assists accommodation operators in making their products more accessible with standards for visual and physical impairments. Moreover, the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), in the UK places a responsibility on all public and private organisations to make services full accessible to disabled persons (Page and Connell, 2006).

According to Timothy and Crispin (2006, p: 4), each year, in countries throughout the world, millions up on millions of people visits museums. Additionally, there is an increase of all kinds of museums all over the countries. In addition, the numbers of potential visitors are increasing due to the growing interest in their collections and their works. In some cases, a number of destinations such as museums have already established a friendly surrounding for their visually impaired visitors by providing an audio sound service. Moreover, in some museums, they had already provided the ‘touching’ for the display objects for these types of visitors. According to Urry, (2002, p: 256), ‘touching the objects on the display is an alternative sense, makes the objects “tacky” and corroded so they no longer remain visually and physically the same’. Also, disabled individuals have the right to obtain the same benefits from museums as others are obtaining.

Travel by people with disabilities happens regardless of the presence of numerous discouraging barriers (Darcy, 1998; Lipp 2003, cited in Packer, et.al, 2008). On the other hand, while they look for the same or similar travel experiences to other travellers, travellers with disabilities are likely to experience extremely different and uneven tourism experiences. In spite of all this, people with disabilities still retain their eagerness for travel and want to travel. A person travelling with a disability can be complex, according to Yau et al (2004) it requires a personal initiative, the need to accurately evaluate one’s own capabilities, as well as the ability to collect reliable information, manage oneself and take the stock to reflect. The mentioned are considered the process of travelling with disability.

It is reasonable to note that all travellers, whether they have a disability or not, are likely to experience some form of barriers to participation while travelling. Moreover, a person without disabilities thinks the barriers as just an occurrence. On the other hand, a person with disabilities dealing with the barriers during their travel is a challenging task. It is regrettable that travellers with disability may encounter or experiencing a tourism market place that does not cater and or give their needs as it does to travellers without disabilities. Imagine that this is the reason why people with disabilities participate less in travel and tourism.

2.4 Museum and disabled visitors

Individuals with a sight problem can face a lot of barriers when visiting a museums and or galleries. Museum displays, whether picturesque arrangements of beautiful things or chronological narratives of a developmental process are involved in scopic forms of understanding (Hetherington, K. 2002). On the other hand, there are some displays that at times seen as discriminatory for some visitors. Furthermore, building an access in a museums or galleries for every individual is a part of the obligation to the community. In addition, a museum or gallery which are accessible to every person attracts more visitors.

Most of visitors are pleased about museums and galleries as a place where they can extend their experience and also to have an enjoyment on societal circumstance. Museums have expanded in multiplicity and burst in popularity over the last few decades. Millions of people every year visit a museum. Moreover, every museum attracts a variety of visitors. According to Dr. Johnson’s 1755 dictionary (cited in Yale, 1998:33) a museum was simply ‘a repository of learned curiosities.’ “The Museums and Galleries Commission currently defines a museum as ‘an institution which collect, documents, preserves, exhibits and interprets material evidence and associated information for the public benefit” (cited in Yale, 1998:33). Furthermore, according to the International Council of Museums (2005 cited in Sandell, 2007:2), ‘a museum have unique potential for addressing and fostering cultural understanding in interdisciplinary ways.’ It is known that a museum is a collection of antiques or historical materials that has been used during a significant event during earliest times. Furthermore, a museum broadens the knowledge of its visitors. In most cases, the public is the one benefitted on what the museums could provide and do. According to Ambrose and Paine (2006), it is only when the museum’s public is thoroughly understood that the museum can effectively responding to the public’s needs and requirements through services.

It is stated in Museums Association’s definition (1998 cited in Disability Directory for Museums and Galleries, 2001) that “Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens which they hold in trust for society”. Museums are for everyone this includes the disabled people.

A museum visitor comes in all ages of any gender, social status and with or without disability. A museum’s market can be thought of as the overall social and economic context within which the museum operates. All museums operate within a market and all provide a supply of services that meet a market demand. According to Ambrose and Paine (2006), ‘internationally, there is for example a growing critical awareness of the ‘political’ nature of museums and their historic role in maintaining the cultural values of elite or privileged groups ins society’. A museums visitor expects more on what the museums could offer.

Disabled visitors must be accommodated in the museums. On the other hand, accessibility in the museums is less for most cases of disabled groups. Furthermore, the needs of each disabled individual may vary on their types of disability and there may be an inconsistency with one another. In addition, in some cases the needs of the disabled community may alter rapidly upon their visits. According to Majewski and Bunch (1998, cited in Sandell, 2007), there are three distinct tiers of disability access that museums should address in order to meet the needs of their audiences and these are:

a) Access to the exhibition’s physical elements,

b) Access to exhibition’s content; and

c) The access that describes the representation of disabled people and the inclusion of disability-related narratives and interpretation within exhibitions.

(Majewski and Bunch, 1998 cited in Sandell, 2007: 146-147).

Moreover, access to the museums and galleries should also take into consideration the architectural structure of the building, the parking spaces for the disabled and on how to get to the museums and galleries. Likewise, if the museum or gallery is a massive place, a map and signage’s will be helpful for these types of visitors.

Museum’s facilities and services for people with mobility impairment are highly developed compared to with people with sensory difficulties such as the visually impaired visitors. Now a day, sensory approaches are common in some museums. A museum plays a major role in communal change. According to the Walters (2001), ‘disability is viewed as being part of diversity, something that is not always the case’. Furthermore, disabled people are considered a potential visitor in museums. According to Walter (2009), in order to include disabled visitors, museums should adopt and understand the social model of disability. Social model of disability does not deny impairments or any medical needs that arises from impairments (Walter, 2009). Through this social model of disability, museums will not take the disabled visitors as a problem, to a certain extent they will create a way to welcome and accommodate them in their museums.

Access in the museums for disabled visitors should be considered in the broadest sense. Access is not just about providing lifts, toilets, spacious corridor and or parking spaces for the disabled. Access should also include the information and better access to the exhibits inside the museums. Furthermore, improvement of access should include sensory, physical, intellectual, cultural as well as the financial access in the museums. In addition, a disabled person prefers to be independent but most of the time needs help in some certain things most especially for visually impaired as they have low in visions and in some cases they are partially blind.

According to the Disability Directory for Museums and Galleries (2001), ‘nearly two million people have some form of visual impairment, but most blind people or 82 percent have some residual vision that they use to have good effect and many people who could register as blind do not do so’. Also, visually impaired people make and appreciate art, according to Walter (2001). In addition, if a visually impaired visitor visits museums, in most cases they need a multi-sensory exploration of an object, signage printed in large image or fonts and audio format description for objects in order to enhance their visit experience. In some museums and galleries, it is allowed to have guide dog for the visitors who have vision impairment.

Walter (2001) emphasise the needs of the people with visual impairments. According to Walter (2001), visually impaired individual needs accessible information in a range of alternatives formats, a tactile signs or diagrams and an audio-information. Moreover, the museum’s staffs needs to have training in handling a visitor with visual impairment. A museum with a well trained staff could understand more the needs of the visually impaired visitors. A visually impaired visitor is not completely blind. In most cases they could see but only blurred vision and some could only recognise large font of prints.

2.4.1 Museums and Galleries

In order to establish a basic abstract structure to be use in this research project, the review will now be set out to be aware of the background of two museums and two galleries which are the British Museum, National Maritime Museum, The National Gallery and the Tate Modern as the research area for this study.

a) The British Museum

British Museum is one of the oldest and largest leading museums all over the world. It has a collection of more than seven million objects which originated from all continents. In addition, British Museum is a representation of almost all the culture of the world. Moreover, British Museum is known as the history of the world in a hundred objects (British Museum, 2010).

The British Museum is a free entrance that attracts more or less a five thousands visitors that visits the museum during its open hours. Its visitors are ranging from children to adults, all types of gender and disabilities. Moreover, visiting this museum needs a day in order to view all the exhibits in it.

b) National Maritime Museum

Greenwich area is known for its unique forms of architectural design. In addition, Greenwich area has been recognized as an attraction for shopping and education which is the University of Greenwich. Furthermore, tourism in this Greenwich is developing more as the upcoming Olympics will be held in this location.

Likewise, National Maritime Museum is one of the prides of this area. As a tourist destination, National Maritime Museum is composed of three main sites which are the Maritime Galleries, the Royal Observatory and the Queen’s House. Basically, the museum focuses on its four themes which are the sea, ships, time and the stars and the relationship with the people (National Maritime Museum, 2010).

National Maritime Museum welcomes visitors in all ranges of ages and regardless of the gender with or without disability. Furthermore, it provides educational learning for the children. In addition, the visitors of this museum are usually students from different schools and or universities. Furthermore, disabled people are visiting the museum but most are mobility impaired visitors.

c) National Gallery

National Gallery is situated in the heart of London. Thousands of people visits National Gallery daily. It is well known for its art from the famous and renowned artist.

The gallery welcomes each and every individual regardless of gender, age and disabilities.

d) Tate Modern Gallery

Tate Modern is a gallery of international modern art. Its collection is a British art collection from the last 1500 years till the present time (Tate Modern, 2010).

2.5 Summary

This chapter bring about by discussing about the disability and the forms of disability. Moreover, it was clearly discussed in this chapter the importance of accessible tourism and which had established as the basic foundation for this study. At the latter part of this chapter, it has been discussed about the facilities being offered by the museums for the visually impaired visitors.

To sum it up, the literature review’s the conditions of the accessibility of the museums for the visually impaired visitors. Consequently, it is important to recognise the particular needs of different people (age group, genders, impairment group and or disabled individuals).

The following chapter will reveal the methodology of the research study along with the other relevant methodological issues.

INTRODUCTION:ABOUT GOA

Goa is popularly known as the Pearl of the orient and tourist paradise. It is located in India’s coastal belt on the western called the Konkan coast. It has an alarming scenic beauty. The architectural work done Goan Temples, Churches and old houses has brought great laurels to Goa. Some of these characteristics make Goa to be occupied by tourists. It is the most preferred option by the people who are planning their holidays.

Goa as compared to other states is not greatly populated but compared in terms of tourists it is the most populated place in India. Apart from attracting tourists from all over India, it also attracts tourists of foreign background. During the months of November, December and January Goa is heavily crowded. The real essence of Goa lies in its rich history, unique culture and the original natural beauty. Peaceful Goan lifestyle and adventure sports also draw the attention of the travelers within and outside India. All kinds of tourists are expected to visit Goa.

REASONS WHY TOURISTS VISIT GOA
Beaches

There are more than 36 beaches in Goa, each one is known for its own distinctiveness. North Goa beaches are most popular amongst the tourists while South Goa beaches are now gaining popularity because of its peacefulness.

Sun

Tourist visit Goa for loads of vitamin D which they have while having sun bath and also have drinks for complete relaxation from stress. They also visit Goa for relaxation for body.

Massage

Tourist visit Goan beaches for massage centers. Not just that, but to get some immunity and treat body with pure minerals.

Natural views

Goan view can be best viewed while travelling on the bike. The Sandy beaches, coconut trees waterfalls truly add flavor to the goan natural view. Lush green fields, majestic forests train track, long roads and cool breeze make up for the perfect natural view.

Architecture & Culture

Goa is also famous for its heritage and its architecture. In goa you will find traditional mixture of Portuguese and goa. This offers a unique feature to witness a pure blend of Portuguese and goan culture in architecture of villas, forts houses and churches.

Water Sports

Tourist are offered water sports like surfing, para sailing waterscooter etc. these water sports add up towards attracting tourists to Goa

Sea food

Sea foods like Mackrels, Tiger prawns, King Fish, have separate delicacies in the hearts of tourists..

Party Destination

The young are attracted towards Goa as it is a party destination. Many parties are organized during Christmas new years and it’s a tourist hotspot to celebrate these eves in goa. These parties usually go up for couple of days.

Liberal

Female tourist visit Goa as they find it to be most liberal compared to other places in India. In Goa you can feel free to dress up.

Economical

Goa is affordable for everyone. That’s the reason why tourist find it most attractive as compared to other places in India.

Fairs and festivals

Goa is famous for its carnival attracting tourist to goa during this time.

Casinos

People visit Goa for Casinos. People who enjoy gambling with chilled drinks and music find Goa to be a perfect place.

The Main Attractions
Beaches

Goan coastline spread over 125 kms and is the home of over 50 picturisque and beautiful beaches. These beaches attracts tourist from all round the globe. Candolim Beach, Baga Beach, Sinquerim Beach, Bambolim Beach, Arambol Beach, Vagator Beach, Benaulim Beach, Palolem Beach, Agonda Beach, Mobor and Cavelossim beaches are famous and an increasing number of tourists visit these beaches every year. Calangute Beach – Queen of Goa beaches, Colva Beach- Pride of Salcete

Dona Paula, Miramar(Gaspar Dias)- A lovely golden beach and Anjuna beach are some of the famous beaches in Goa.

Scenic beauty

Goa has number of other scenic options. One such attraction is Waterfall. Goa lies between Sahyadri hills and Arabian Sea. Goa is full of beautiful springs, lakes, and waterfalls. While traveling to these places one gets to see the natural beauty of Goa. Dudhsagar Water Falls, Kesarval Springs, Mayem Lake, Arvalem Waterfall, Kuskem Waterfall are some of the famous water falls in Goa.

Churches

Goa is well known for its Churches. Churches in goa well known for its architecture. During the Portuguese regime there were many churches built and now have become world heritage site. Royal Chapel of St Anthony, Church of The Carmelites, Church of St.Francis of Assisi, Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, Basilica of Bom Jesus, Chapel of St.Catherine, Reis Magos Church, Church of Our Lady of Rosary in Goa

Se Cathedral, to name few of them.

Temple

In olden times when Portuguese invaded Goa. In every village of Goa there was a temple and a lord to worship for each village. These temples still exist giving each village a distinct feature to differentiate. For example, Mangeshi Temple of Mangeshi village. Goan temple architecture is a mixture of Portuguese and Maratha style like Mandapa of Goa temples. Mangeshi Temple, Sri Kamakshi Temple, Sri Vithal Temple, Sri Shantadurga Temple in Kavlem are some of the famous temples in Goa.

Mosque

Jama Masjid and Safa Masjid at Ponda are the famous mosques in Goa.

Wild life centuries

Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife, Sanctuary,Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Mollem National Park, Bondla wild life Forest, Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, are some of the famous wild life centuries.

Monuments & Forts

Chapora Fort, Fort Aguada, Teracol Fort, Reis Magos Fort, Mormugao Fort, Rachol Fort, Naroa Fort, Corjuem Fort,Cabo De Rama Fort in Goa

Other attractions

There are plantations like Savoi Plantation, Sahakari Spice Farm, Tropical Spice Plantation, Pascol Spice Village which attracts tourist.

There are caves and other natural beauties of Goa that attracts whole lot of domestic and foreign tourist. Tourist also visit the heritage homes like Sarah Fernandes. In Goa adventure sports attracts a number of tourists. It’s one of the few places in India known to have adventure sports facilities.People also visit Goa for medical purpose also

Impact of tourism in Goa

It helps in the preservation of National Heritage and Environment.

Helps in developing Infrastructure.

It helps in creating job opportunities and in the development of economy.

Most of the rich and famous metropolises are investing in Goa which has pushed up land prices and has created overcrowding.

Garbage is one of the problem in Goa and there is no proper infrastructure to deal with it. Tourist places are piled up with garbage because of the increased number of tourist in Goa. As a result Goa is facing a major problem of solid waste management.

Most of the tourist prefers to visit places in the North which has resulted in the exceeding carrying capacity. Goa’s tourism belt is getting overcrowded.

Overexploitation of beaches due to the tourism related activities.

Suggestions:

Provide Information Centre to the inbound tourists

Promote Real Goa and not the commercialized version of Goa

The protection of the environment can be achieved by proper planning and management of various spatial entities viz. Water resources, land, settlements, forests etc. in the most effective manner.

Strengthen the basic infrastructure at beaches, temples, churches, monuments and other tourist spots, including parking and changing rooms/toilets and proper illumination from safety and security point of view, besides regular and timely disposal of garbage generated by hotels, shacks and others

Scope to develop ecotourism along the Ghats, hills and wildlife sanctuaries, and adventure tourism

Encourage agro-eco-tourism

Souvenirs and mementos prepared by village artisans and craftsmen, offer tremendous scope for branding the local products, help the rural economy to grow

There are overcrowded beaches in north Goa like Calangute beach, Baga beach, Candolim beach, Anjuna beach but there are more beautiful beaches down south so can focus to arrange tours and travels for the less crowded beaches for example Keri Beach, Velsao Beach, Palolem beach, Majorda beach, Senabatim beach, Uttrda Beach and so on.

Tour guides should properly be trained to accompany tourist to the places of special significance. Should be trained to explain significance of religious places also inform them about religious services which are being offered there.

Nowadays tourism has become the major focus, mainly for small developing countries which have an effect on local people in terms of socio-cultural, environmental and economical impacts. Resident’s perceptions are very important and there is a need to understand how these perceptions can contribute towards tourism development. The reason of this study is to provide a theoretical background for assessing local people attitudes on the impacts of tourism development in Bel Ombre, Mauritius. Tourism and sustainable development are interrelated; and has been usually identified with the fast rising demand of tourists acting together with the natural environment. Tourism has the capability to protect as well as to destroy a destination. Studying the impacts of tourism is a critical element of accepting how tourism affects the economy, socio-cultural and environment aspects in Mauritius. A well elaborated literature shows the character of the main interaction of tourist and host, uniqueness of host-tourist relationship and their connection with the impacts generated by tourism development. Researchers were more interested towards the interaction between the tourists and the local people. Though, there are preceding studies that have considered the issue from tourist perspective. To achieve the purpose of this study a questionnaire was designed and a survey was undertaken among the local residents. Concerning the analysis part, quantitative approach was useful and the aim and objectives were related to the majority of relevant literature.

1.2 Problem statement

The main reason for doing this study is because tourism is one of the major sectors in many countries, including Mauritius, with the highest growth potential. It is the world’s largest employer and one among the major sources of substantial foreign exchange earnings (Blank, 1991; Richards, 2003; Mwandosya, 2007). It is through this observation that many people believe that the industry is well placed as one of the major means through which development of local communities can be achieved (Scheyvens, 2002; Beeton, 2006). One approach to enhance this development through tourism is to involve local communities and ensure that their potential role is tapped and maintained through active participation in the industry (Beeton, 2006). It is imperative to note that involvement and participation of these communities is central to the sustainable development of the industry not only because tourism has had a close connection with the local communities, particularly as hosts and guides (Scheyvens, 2002), but also because “the destinations of tourists are communities and it is in the community that tourism happens” (Blank, 1989 p.115).

Participation is a process through which stakeholders, among them the local communities who are often the intended beneficiaries of community tourism, influence and share control over development initiatives and the decisions and resources which affect them (Havel, 1996). Participation, therefore, seeks collaboration or partnerships and the commitment necessary to ensure sustainability of tourism development initiatives (Wolfensohn, 1996). Paradoxically, the outcomes of participation are usually a reflection of a certain level of involvement of relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process which in turn enables people to make informed commitments to a particular tourism project (Havel, 1996). According to Akama (1999) as cited in Manyara and Jones (2007, p.629), “local communities are hardly involved in tourism development” and they are usually without a voice in the development process (Havel, 1996). This situation according to Mbaiwa (2005) is contrary to the principles of sustainable tourism

development which, among other things, emphasize the involvement and participation of local communities.

1.3 Aims and Objectives of the study

The aim of this study is to assess the resident’s attitudes and perceptions about the impacts caused by tourism development in Bel Ombre.

The objectives of the study are:

To assess the extent of local people’s perceptions and attitudes in the tourism development

To assess the positive and negative impacts of tourism development

To assess the extent of local people’s involvement and participation in tourism development in their local areas

To investigate if local people are aware of the impacts of tourism development.

1.4 Tourism trends in Mauritius

Since the 1990s, Mauritius adopted economic reforms aimed at establishing a market-based and private-sector-driven economy that marked significant growth in many sectors of the country’s economy. Such reforms for example, helped to improve the performance of the country’s tourism industry and enhanced growth of the sector through improved marketing and promotional campaigns, improved tourism services, improved air access to Mauritius, accommodation facilities, and other tourism supporting infrastructures. More specifically, growth in the Mauritian tourism industry can be measured by looking at the trends in tourism receipts, tourist arrivals, tourism annual growth, number of hotels and hotel rooms, contribution of the sector to country’s GDP, and direct jobs created by the industry. To give a clear picture of the performance of the tourism industry in Mauritius and to be able to gauge the achievements already realized by the industry.

While the tourism industry continues to be one of the key foreign exchange earners in Mauritius, the industry depends primarily on the flow of international tourists to the country. The country’s main source markets are Britain, Germany, the United States, Italy, France, Spain, and some new markets emerging around China and Asian countries. The majority of international tourists come to Mauritius for cultural, adventure and beach resort all together making Mauritius a quality destination.

It is, however, interesting to note from the statistics below that, in Mauritius, earnings from international tourism have grown more rapidly than tourist arrivals in nominal terms due to the to promote Mauritius as a high quality destination. Arguably, the increasing tourist numbers to Mauritius may be a convincing indication of increasing opportunities for local communities to earn revenue from tourism and these revenue opportunities could eventually contribute significantly to greater local interest in the development of the industry (Victurine, 2000).

Table 1:- Tourist arrivals, nights and receipts, 2009 – 2012
Year
Tourist arrivals (Number)
Tourist nights (000)
Tourism receipts 1 (Rs million)

2009

871,356

8,639

35,693

2010

934,827

9,495

39,456

2011

964,642

9,730

42,717 3

2009

1st Qr.

232,908

2,250

10,265

2nd Qr.

180,596

1,791

7,984

1st Semester
413,504
4,041
18,249

3rd Qr.

195,381

2,280

7,436

4th Qr.

262,471

2,318

10,008

2nd Semester
457,852
4,598
17,444
2010

1st Qr.

249,971

2,943

11,021

2nd Qr.

189,179

1,855

8,788

1st Semester
439,150
4,798
19,809

3rd Qr.

207,506

2,275

8,358

4th Qr.

288,171

2,422

11,289

2nd Semester
495,677
4,697
19,647
2011

1st Qr.

262,626

2,960

11,949

2nd Qr.

201,978

1,975

9,355

1st Semester
464,604
4,935
21,304

3rd Qr.

209,779

2,325

8,845

4th Qr.

290,259

2,470

12,568 3

2nd Semester
500,038
4,795
21,413 3
2012 2

1st Qr.

261,995

2,950

13,768 3

2nd Qr.

205,158

2,010

9,780

1st Semester
467,153
4,960
23,548

Source: www.gov.mu

1.5 Outline of Study
Chapter 1- Introduction

This chapter gives an overview of the study and the outline of the dissertation. It includes the introduction, problem statement, aims and objectives of the research.

Chapter 2- Literature Review

The literature review entails the theoretical background; the main aim in writing this is to assess existing literature related to the study, what other researchers have done, including empirical evidence to provide a foundation to the study. It consists of all the theoretical aspects like the perceptions and attitudes of local people towards tourism development. The impacts of tourism development are also discussed along with how the community participation can reduce or increase these tourism impacts.

Chapter 3- Methodology

This comprises of the methodology of how the research was conducted, the questionnaire design, method used to collect the data, sampling techniques used, the data analysis and limitations of the study.

Chapter 4- Results and Discussions

In this chapter the data collected through the use of questionnaires, will be analysed by making use of graphical, mean and standard deviation. Package for the Social Science (SPSS) Software was used to make these analyses.

Chapter 5- Recommendations and Conclusions

The last chapter identifies the possible solution to come across for the problems of the poor involvement of locals. The perceptions of residents on the impacts generated from tourism development, thus leading to the conclusion of the project.

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction

This chapter seeks to address a number of issues related to community involvement and participation in the tourism industry by examining some key points emerging from various studies, reports and other sources of information. It starts with a discussion about the perceptions and attitudes of host community towards the impacts of tourism development. Some critics about Doxey Irridex Model and Butler Tourism Area life cycle will also be discussed. The chapter also identifies factors which influence local communities and attract their participation in the tourism industry. It continues with a discussion about the tourism impacts that arise due tourism development in a small community. The chapter concludes by highlighting key issues raised by the literature that form the basis of this research.

2.2 Sustainable Tourism Development

Sustainable tourism development (STD) is a long-term approach that cultivates economically viable tourism without harming residents’ environment or society while simultaneously ensuring fair distribution of costs and benefits (DBEDT, 2006a). Decisions are based on economic, environmental, and cultural impacts; how wealth is generated and distributed; and the relative power and interactions among the stakeholders (Bramwell, 2006; Twining-Ward & Butler, 2002). STD balances industry’s goal of profit with the needs of the environment and stakeholders (Bramwell, 2006). Stakeholder cooperation is necessary for sustainable tourism; otherwise only the most powerful will benefit (Dyer, Gursoy, Sharma, & Carter, 2007). To keep stakeholders satisfied with tourism development and their community, the environment and culture must be protected (Ahn et al., 2002; Hjalager, 1996). When tourism development enhances, rather than erodes the natural environment, a more sustainable tourism product can be offered to support the destination’s economy (Batra & Kaur, 1996).

A government that effectively manages tourism creates benefits for all stakeholders (Jamal & Getz, 1995). Effective management is avoiding negative impacts through a combination of general protective measures; regulations to control development; and financial restraints (Cohen, 1978; Hjalager, 1996). Improvement of the environment can be achieved by ensuring that development is harmonious with the overall plan for the destination (Batra & Kaur, 1996). Necessary tourism infrastructure such as roads, airports, parks, and visitor centers are also the responsibility of government (Jamal & Getz, 1995). Maintenance of infrastructure and facilities is expensive and residents, through property taxes, should not be the only group to bear this burden (Wong, 1996). Residents benefit when tourists spend money in the local economy and create jobs, as well as from the development of infrastructure that residents also utilize (Wong, 1996).

Residents in mass tourism destinations such as Hawai’i depend on tourism for their standard of living (Liu, Sheldon, & Var, 1987). Because tourism development usually involves a tradeoff between economic benefits and environmental or cultural costs, residents cope by downplaying the negative impacts based and emphasizing the economic gains to maintain satisfaction with their community (Dyer et al., 2007; Cavus & Tanrisevdi, 2003; Faulkner & Tideswell, 1997). Residents with the most economic gain are the most supportive of the tourism industry (Harrill, 2004).

Cavus & Tanrisevdi (2003) found that the development process controlled by planners was the primary factor in residents’ negative attitudes towards tourism. When residents perceive that the costs of tourism outweigh the benefits, feelings of resentment and irritation towards tourists can develop and lower community satisfaction (Doxey, 1975; Faulkner & Tideswell, 1997; Ko & Stewart, 2002). Residents who feel that they have a voice in tourism planning are more positive towards tourism (Cavus & Tanrisevdi, 2003). According to Choi & Sirakaya (2005), sustainable tourism is the development pathway to minimize the negative impacts of tourism. There are many ways to make tourism more sustainable but few tools for evaluating and testing a sustainable tourism framework (Choi & Sirakaya, 2005). Audits and resource valuation evaluate tourism’s costs and benefits so that they can be fairly distributed to stakeholders (Warnken et al., 2004; Wen, 1998). Limiting tourism growth (such as carrying capacity or limits of acceptable change) can also make development more sustainable (Cohen, 1978; Butler, 1980; Gossling, Peeters, Ceron, Dubois, Patterson, & Richardson, 2005; Christensen & Beckmann, 1998; Ahn et al., 2002). In these approaches, government management and stakeholder cooperation are necessary to reach a consensus for how to manage future tourism development. This is why Understanding residents’ perceptions are critical to fairly distributing the environmental, social, and economic costs and benefits of tourism; thus, ultimately increasing sustainable tourism development (Twining-Ward & Butler, 2002).

2.3 Host Community Attitudes and Perceptions about Tourism Development

This study aims at identifying the relationships between residents’ socio- cultural, economic and environmental aspect and their attitudes towards tourism by focusing on a small community where tourism is in the development stage. By conducting this research, the author hopes to come across the residents’ attitudes and capture their current perceptions about tourism development in their area. Moreover, this research is being done because most authors agree that initial community attitudes toward tourism are critical to community involvement in the industry (Murphy 1981), the formation of destination image (Echtner & Ritchie 1991).

Attitudes are defined as “a state of mind of the individual toward a value” (Allport 1966, p. 24) and as “an enduring predisposition towards a particular aspect of one’s environment” (McDougall & Munro 1987, p. 87). Attitude of host community to tourism based development can improve if there is a boost in the tangible and indescribable settlements the host community can receive by being in based development (Choi & Sirakaya, 2006). As Attitudes are based under this understanding, this is why some researchers came to a conclusion that residents’ attitudes toward tourism are not simply the reflections of residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts, but the results of interaction between residents’ perceptions and the factors affecting their attitudes (Lankford et al.1994). Some preceding researches have proved that some most important impacts of tourism are identified along with its variables, however the theory is underdeveloped: “Currently there is limited understanding of why residents respond to the impacts of tourism as they do, and under what conditions residents react to those impacts” (Ap 1992, p. 666). Husband (1989) also addressed this issue by saying “There is, so far, no theoretical justification of why some people are, or are not, favorably disposed to tourism”.

Various issues can persuade perceptions of the host community about positive outcomes of tourism development. Support will depend on the degree of benefits perceived. The participation of community will be discussed later on in the literature review. The acceptance of local values can also be an important factor that leads to the achievement of a tourism based development (Alexander, 2000). However over a certain period of time many findings detected that host community perceptions’ in the direction from tourism may have more positive attitudes. People who depend on tourism industry or having a better economic benefit may possibly have a higher degree of positivity than other inhabitants who do not benefit from a tourism development (lankford and howard, 1994; Jurowski, Uysal, and willimas, 1997; Sirakaya , Teye and Sonmez,2002 ).

Lindberg and Johnson (1997) mentioned that people having higher economic impacts from tourism may have more positive attitudes. However Travis (1984) has stated that it’s not only an economic characteristic such as the opportunity for jobs creation or capital generation that needs to be considered by the host community. The socio-cultural and environmental aspects are also very important. For Choi and Sirakaya (2005), the most community should also have a better environment in term of infrastructures and improved amenities such as leisure and recreational activities. They describe tourism as consisting of various supports and any development in the tourism field should ensure the protection of the culture of host community, alongside the protection of the environment.

In order to clarify the relationship between the impacts of tourism and residents’ attitudes toward tourism, several models have been developed. One of the most influential models is Doxey’s Irridex model (1975) which suggests that residents’ attitudes toward tourism may pass through a series of stages from “euphoria,” through “apathy” and “irritation.” to “antagonism,” as perceived costs exceed the expected benefits. This model is supported by Long et al.’s (1990) research results, which indicate residents’ attitudes, are initially favorable but become negative after reaching a threshold.

To have a better comprehension about the relationship between the impacts of tourism and residents’ attitudes toward tourism, several models like Butler Tourism Life cycle Area and Doxey Irridex model have been developed. One of the most dominant models is Doxey’s Irridex model (1975) which suggests that residents’ attitudes toward tourism may pass through a series of stages from “euphoria,” through “apathy” and “irritation.” to “antagonism,” as perceived costs exceed the expected benefits. This model was supported by Long et al.’s (1990) research results, which indicated that residents’ attitudes are initially favorable but become negative after reaching a threshold. The Irridex model indicates that residents’ attitudes toward tourism will change overtime. It suggests that residents’ attitudes and reactions toward tourism contain a sense of homogeneity (Mason et al. 2000). Conversely, this concept was challenged by some research findings that reported heterogeneous community responses and diverse residents’ attitudes simultaneously existing in a community (Brougham et al. 1981,Rothman 1978).

2.4 Critics about Doxey Irridex Model and Butler Tourism Area Life cycle

Butler (1980) took a more complicated approach. He argued that tourist areas go through a recognizable cycle of evolution; he used an S-shaped curve to illustrate their different stages of popularity. Butler stated that there are six stages through which tourist areas pass. These include the exploration stage, involvement stage, development stage, consolidation stage, stagnation stage, and decline stage. His study also reveals that evolution is brought about by a variety of factors, including changes in preferences and needs of visitors, the gradual deterioration and possible replacement of physical plant and facilities, and the change of the original natural and cultural attractions, which is responsible for the initial popularity of the area. Furthermore this model is supported by Murphy’s (1983) research results, which reveal the distinct attitude differences among residents, public officials, and business owners in three English tourist centers. Although Butler’s model addresses the difficulty of residents’ attitudes toward tourism, researchers still lacked theories explaining relationships between residents’ attitudes and tourism impacts until Ap (1992) applied social exchange theory to tourism.

2.5 Social Exchange Theory

According to the theory, exchange will start, only when there are irregular inaction forms. Ap (1992) suggests that “residents evaluate tourism in terms of social exchange, that is, evaluate it in terms of expected benefits or costs obtained in return for the services they supply” He also argued that when exchange of resources is high for the host actor in either the balanced or unbalanced exchange relation, tourism impacts are viewed positively, while tourism impacts are viewed negatively if exchange of resources is low. Social exchange theory has been examined as a theoretical framework by researchers to describe residents’ attitudes toward tourism impacts (Perdue et al. 1990, McGehee & Andereck 2004).

However mason and Cheyen (2000) stated that that the representation of Butler ‘assumes a degree of homogeneity of community reaction’. Butler (2006) supported his model by suggesting that ‘a consistent evolution of tourist area can be conceptualized’. Different phases at a particular destination may not be understood without mistakes. The demonstration hence should be concerned only to some extent as the phase itself differs from one tourist area to anotherb(Tosun,2002).

The Doxey irridex model gives a clear view of how host community attitude changes over a period of time. It mentions host community perceptions, reactions and attitudes in the direction of tourism (Manson et al.2000). This can be a conflicting principle because some research came to a conclusion that various host community attitudes and perceptions may exist in the community, (Brougham et al.1981, Rothman 1978). Akis, Peristanis & Warner (1996) disapprove the Irridex Model and The Tourism Life Cycle and view it as too simple, because both models give a few hint of changing host community perceptions and attitudes over time. Other researchers like Lankford and Howard (1994, P.135) opposed against the model of Doxey(1975) because positive and negative factors that affect the perceptions and attitudes of host community are not given much consideration.

As the tourism industry keeps on changing, this may be a reason why we must give this industry continuous support for its related development. Andereck & vogt( 2000) stated that it is considered that optimistic attitudes towards tourism may entail the encouragement for further tourism development. If there is any delay in tourism project development this can be due to frustration towards tourists. Mill and Morisson (1984) even mention that, ‘an acceptance of tourism cannot be built unless the benefits of tourism are made relevant to the community’. Attitudes and perceptions of host community at a destination is of utmost importance in the accomplishment of tourism development alongside the development of the industry at large also, (Hayword,1975), (Heenan, 1978), and Hiller (1976).

There is a broad belief perception and attitudes of host community in the direction of tourism outcomes are apt to become essential planning and policy concern for flourishing development and expansion of existing and potential tourism programs, (Ap,1992). Host community attitudes and perception is very important as it will influence their behavior towards tourism, (Andriotis and Vaughan, 2003).

2.6 Host community involvement and participation

Community participation has become a common element in many development initiatives, such as community-based programmes, which assume participatory methods and has been promoted by development organizations, notably the World Bank, to address the inefficiency of highly centralized development approaches particularly in the developing world (Baral and Heinen, 2007).

Today, many development initiatives solicit the participation of all concerned stakeholders, at the relevant level, not only for the sake of efficiency and equity of the programmes, leverage of donors and demands of local communities, but also for sustainability of these initiatives (Ribot, 2004). Consequently, the real outcome for soliciting such community participation is to create and produce an enabling environment needed by these stakeholders, especially local communities who have been vulnerable to negative impacts of tourism attributed partly to the fact that many tourism resources occur in their areas, to have a real stake in development activities (Havel, 1996; Songorwa, 1999). This requires involving local communities in decision-making and strengthening their ability to act for themselves. One approach to achieve this is “through investments in human capital, such as education and health, investments in social capital such as local-level institutions and participatory processes, and support for community based development efforts planned and implemented from bottom up” (Havel, 1996, p.145). However, given the fact that the central point underlying people’s participation may be the degree of power distribution, these efforts are less likely to succeed unless responsive institutions and the legal and policy framework that facilitate and support local participation are in place (Havel, 1996; Tosun, 2004; Wang and Wall, 2005).

It is probably important to insist from here that a key consideration in tourism development is sustainability, which cannot be achieved without community support (Vincent and Thompson, 2002). While sustainability is the core objective of community participation (Vincent and Thompson, 2002; Johannesen and Skonhoft, 2005), proponents of community tourism further argue that community participation seeks to improve the welfare of the local community and, perhaps most importantly, win their support in conservation of tourism resources (Songorwa, 1999). This means community participation is inevitable and imperative for tourism development because most tourist attractions lie within local communities or in their vicinities and in most cases co-exist side by side with the communities, for instance, in wildlife areas.

Community participation via decision-making is an essential determinant to ensure that the benefits that local communities get from tourism are guaranteed, and their lifestyles and values are respected. It is, however, important to note that community participation in decision making is not only desirable but also necessary so as to maximize the socio-economic benefits of tourism for the community. It is perhaps one of the most important elements of tourism management to enable communities who often serve as tourist destinations and for that matter suffer from the negative impacts of tourism, to get involved and eventually participate in planning decisions regarding tourism development. This is important in order to create better handling of the negative impacts of tourism development (Li, 2004; Tosun, 2000). It is equally important to note, therefore, that integration of local communities into the decision-making process is “not a final goal itself” but only one of the many ways through which community participation can be achieved (Li, 2005, p.133).

Another way to involve and attract community participation and ultimately their support in tourism development is through local job creation (Zhao and Ritchie, 2007). Since tourism offers better labour-intensive and small scale opportunities (Chok and Macbeth, 2007; Scheyvens, 2007) and since it happens in the community, arguably, it is thought to be one of the best placed potential sources of employment opportunities for local communities, inclusive of women and the informal sector (Blank, 1989; Li, 2005; Johannesen and Skonhoft, 2005; Scheyvens, 2007). Community participation via employment opportunities, as workers or as small business operators, can be a catalyst to the development of tourism products and services, arts, crafts and cultural values, especially through taking advantage of abundant natural and cultural assets available in communities in developing countries (Scheyvens, 2007). Tosun (2000) stated that community participation through working in the tourism industry has been recognized to help local communities not only to support development of the industry but also to receive more than economic benefits.

However, it is important to understand that in some cases community participation is seen as a way of getting people to carry out activities or share their costs while the benefits are not clear to those expected to participate (Havel, 1996). This implies that a key factor to the success of any community-based tourism project is the incentive to benefit sharing which is usually attractive enough to make people highly motivated to participate. As Havel (1996) asserted “people will not participate unless they believe it is their interest to do so”

Involvement and participation of the community in decision-making is advocated so that communities can have some control over tourism resources, initiatives and decisions that affect their livelihood (Wang, and Wall, 2005). On the other hand, the idea of involvement and participation of local communities in the tourism benefits is easily reflected in increasing incomes, employment, and education of local communities about tourism and entrepreneurship (Timothy, 1999). One way to accomplish this is to increase public awareness of tourism through education campaigns and train local communities for employment in the industry. While increased public awareness creates a more hospitable environment for tourists and improves the image of the destination, providing entrepreneurial training empowers local communities and ultimately increases their capacity to receive significant benefits from tourism (Timothy, 1999). This enables tourism-oriented businesses and locals such as taxi drivers, guesthouse managers, restaurant owners, and street vendors, th