The Tourism Sector In Promoting Mauritius Tourism Essay

Mauritius is an island located in the Indian Ocean it is a dream destination with tropical climate and a dream nature. For the past few years Mauritius has brought drastic changes in the economy and advancement of the country. Mauritius offers a number of attractions to tourist in terms of a wide variety of hotels, restaurants, approachability, striking beaches and richness in culture. The economic growth of Mauritius has been the result of the enlargement of the superfluity luxury tourism industry. The tourism sector in Mauritius is playing a vital role in giving its contribution in the expansion of domestic industries. There is a great hand of this sector in the progress of the infrastructure and in attracting foreign investment and simplifying the transfer of technology. Many travelers come to Mauritius to spend their time for relaxation, medical purpose, for its beautiful locations and for business conference. The future of Mauritius is that the tourism industry will contribute increasingly to the national economy. New tourist-related jobs, specialists and tourist services will emerge. Hotel facilities will expand and the number of visitors will rise up. Moreover, the will to keep quality at its highest level will be unshakeable. This is also what will make the Mauritian destination stand out from others.

1.1Background to the problem
1.2 Significance of the study

This dissertation can be of great help to the people involving in the process of promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination. Through this they will be able to know whether a country like Mauritius need to be innovate to a great extent in order to increase the level of tourist. The MTPA and other related organization can get an idea of what marketing strategies can be used and what can be done to make Mauritius a unique destination compare to other tourist destinations

1.3 Aims of the study

Aims: This study explores new concepts of marketing management practices to recreate the image of the tourism sector by promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination.

1.4 Objectives of the study

Objectives:

?? To explore key marketing concepts such as SWOT analysis, branding, new promotional activities.

?? To understand the role of marketing and the forces used to promote tourism destination and the factors pulling tourists to Mauritius.

?? To help in diversifying the types of tourism.

?? To helps n diversifying the tourism resources

?? To help in re-engineering the tourism sector in Mauritius.

?? To analyze the actual tourist arrival trend of tourists to Mauritius.

?? To identify the role of the MTPA in promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination.

?? To know the contribution of AHRIM (Association des Hoteliers ET Restaurant de L’ile Maurice).

?? To know about the function of tour operators in promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination.

1.5 Problem statement

The tourism sector is considered to be the pillar of Mauritius and hence great efforts should be carried out to maintain the stability of this sector in the tourism market. One has to continuously review and evaluate from all fronts, both internal and external, factors that are threatening its very survival. There is an intense competition in the international tourism industry. It is a great matter of concern for the government and organization in Mauritius to maintain the image of the tourism sector of Mauritius. This is so because internationally everyone is getting involved in implementing different marketing strategies to attract the most number of tourists. However, in an ever changing world, nourishment is a continuous battle. Mauritius has to carry on diversifying its economic strategy, especially in this tough competitive world marketplace.

Whenever there is a conversation on tourism one have a tendency to think of mostly huge classy hotels and places of beautiful sceneries, like of Casella, Crocodile Park and bagatelle . But tourism is a very immense all pervasive commerce touching almost every tread of our day-to-day private and public life; to just name a few, such as air travels, travel agency/tour operators, transports, restaurants, places of attractions and fast food. The list is practically endless. The influence this can have upon the livelihood of those directly or indirectly involved is indescribable in the wake of possible tourist decline, least to say upon the entire nation. That is why the need to market tourism as a tourist destination is very important as this will help to increase the level of tourist in Mauritius.

To maintain in the long run of being a successful destination, a new image should be proposed and more hard work should be done by the, government, MTPA, NTPA, AHRIM to measure the achievement of their marketing strategies used in promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination.

1.6 Research questions
1.7 Assumptions
1.8 Format of the study

Chapter 1 It consist of the introduction of tourism sector in Mauritius, the reason and use of conducting this study.it also state the problem statement, aims and objectives of the study, a review about Mauritius, and rational behind the study.

Chapter 2 consists of the literature review.it lay emphasis on the various promotional tools that push visitors to come to a destination.it tells us about the marketing strategies, destination marketing, destination branding.

Chapter 3 it presents the research methodology which describes what sampling methods have been used, how data have been collected from the tour operator and form the MTPA, how the questionnaires design was and what are the problems that have occurred to collect these data?.

Chapter 4 presents all the analysis and discussion.

Chapter 5 is a conclusion about the study and it deals with all the recommendations.

1.9 Conclusion – a short paragraph that rounds off this chapter and prepares the reader for the next chapter.
Note: Use a minimum of 8 sources to write this chapter. Ensure that the focus is on MANAGEMENT.
Title: Re-creating the image of the tourism sector in promoting Mauritius as a tourist destination
Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to study the actual tourist’s trend in Mauritius and to explore the importance of marketing concept to market Mauritius as a tourist destination. It is also to investigate whether appropriate promotion exertions are being carried out by the MTPA and the tour operators to recreate the image of the tourism sector of Mauritius.

The literature review will examine the following points:

What is tourism?

Definitions and roles of the MTPA

The concept of marketing

Importance of marketing

Marketing strategies

Marketing mix

Tourism marketing

Destination marketing

Branding and the importance of branding

Destination branding

Destination image

The roles of destination management organizations (tour operators)

What is tourism?

In 1941, Hunziker and Krapf defined tourism as people who travel “the sum of the phenomena and relationships arises from the travel and stay of non-residents in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity.”

That is a tourist is someone who do not come to a country to work. He or she is not here to live permanently.

In 1976, the Tourism Society of England’s definition was: “Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to a destination outside their home country”.

What I have understood through this is that a tourist is someone who live their places where they usually live and work and their doings throughout the stay at each destination. It comprises engagements for all purposes.

In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined “tourism in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home.”

By this the Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism means that tourism is plenty of activities done outside the home place.

In 1994, the United Nations classified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics:

Domestic tourism is people of the known country traveling only inside the country.

Inbound tourism means non-residents traveling in the given country.

Outbound tourism is those residents who travel in a new country.

The roles of destination management establishments
Definition of the MTPA
The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority.

The name itself speaks a lot. They are here to market the tourism sector of Mauritius. They are involve in evolving marketing strategies, they do publicity campaign of numerous destination in Mauritius.it consist in the creation of brochures, pamphlets, and various promotional events.

Tourism Marketing Promotion and the Role of National Tourism
Promotion Agencies/Organizations (NTPAs).

Notionally tourism campaign efforts (in terms of attendance in road shows, marketing, publicity and brand name among others) target mainly at publicizing as much facts as possible about a destination and its charms in a go to make it better known in the ever increasing competitive international tourism market.

Besides, tourists now know more about various sceneries and tourism products, so there is a pressure on the promotional agencies to provide greater level of information pertaining to services offered (including hotel), activities, uniqueness of the destination and culture among others.

The tour operators

Mauritius Tour Operators offer striking travel packages inclusive of traveling, accommodation and sightseeing. Being a fundamental part of the Mauritius tours, the tour operators deliver a detailed insight into the attractiveness of the island. Tour Operators of Mauritius also offer tailor-made packages especially appropriate to the distinct and specific needs of the travelers.

?? some of the well-known tour operators in Mauritius are as follows:

?? Mauri Travel

?? World Travel and Tours

?? Mauri Tours

?? White Sand

?? Macambo Tours

Apart from the Mauritius tour operators there are further travel operators besides who offer fascinating travel packages from other countries to the island.

Marketing

Marketing is considered so basic that it cannot be a separate function. It is the whole business from a separate function, it is the whole business seen from the point of viewaˆ¦the success of a business is not determined solely by the product but by the customer. (Peter Drucker)

According to Kotler (1997), marketing is classically perceived as the charge of making, endorsing and transporting belongings and services to customers and companies; it is demarcated as a common procedure by which individuals and crowds gain what they need and want through constructing, proposing and easily exchanging products and services of importance with others.

Marketing can also be define as a social and managerial process y which individuals and groups obtain what they need and what though creating and exchanging products and value with others.(Kotler,1994)

Peter Stimpson, 2005 defines marketing as the process of exploring into and detecting consumer needs and retaining suitable price, product, and place and promotion strategies in order to please these needs profitably.

The Tourism Sector In Albania

Albania is a parliamentary republic, where the legislative power belongs to the Albania’s Assembly and the head of the state is the President who is elected by the Assembly for a five year mandate with the right to be re-elected. The Council of Ministers is the highest executive and commanding organ which is directed by Prime Minister.

According to Census 2011 preliminary results Albania has a population of 2,831,741 inhabitants in a surface of 28,748 sq km. Albania is located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The country has a 750 km borderline with Montenegro to the North, Kosovo to the Northeast, Macedonia to the East, Greece to the South and Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea (Italy) to the West.

Albania has Mediterranean climate, which is characterized by hot summers and mild winters with abundant rainfalls. The period from June to September is hot, while from October to May is cool and wet. The average annual temperature varies from + 15oC in the north to + 16.5oC in the south. The hottest month is July with an average temperature of + 25oC and the coldest month is January with an average of +6oC, although the record temperature has been -34oC. “

For almost 45 years the communist regime, which was installed in Albania after the Second World War, left the country aside the rest of the world being part of the communist bloc of the Eastern Europe. The communist regime of Tirana even went further by isolating Albanian people totally and brought the country to collapse. With the fall of communist regimes of the Eastern Europe, Albania was the last one to join the free world. A democratic system was setup in power in 1992. Due to government’s commitment to a free market economy, the country undertook a programme of reforms and made great efforts to recover from the fall of communist regime. However, the collapse of the fraudulent pyramid schemes in 1997 and the instability that followed were a tremendous setback for Albania. But the country did pursuit its way toward its dream, to be part of the European community. Till there country has made a great progress. Two big achievements are accomplished, in June 2006, the Albanian Government signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union (EU), the first step in the EU accession process and three years later, in April 2009, Albania became a NATO member country. Now country is looking to accessing negotiations to be an EU member country. A range of reforms are progressing markedly over the last decade to Albania’s economy and administration such as reforms in infrastructure development, tax collection, property law, business administration, judiciary system.

The country was largely spared from the severe fallout of the 2008-2009 financial crisis since its economy is not heavily integrated into the Euro-Atlantic system.

Economic progress of the country has slowed but remained positive, in each year from 2009 to 2011. The government’s main task is to maintain positive economic growth while preserving macroeconomic stability. Major challenges are the difficult fiscal and budgetary environment and the crises in the Eurozone, especially in neighboring Greece and Italy (major trading partners of Albania with a large presence in the banking sector and also host to roughly one million Albanian emigrants).

In 2011, GDP was estimated to have reached close to $13 billion. Major contributors to GDP according to 2010 preliminary data were: service sector with 57.6% including trade, hotels, and restaurants (20.9%), transport (6.3%), communication (3.4%), and other services 27%; agriculture 20.3%; industry 11.3%; and construction 10.7%.

In 2011 unemployment officially stood at 13.3%. Half of the workforce is considered self-employed in the agriculture sector.

GDP per capita in 2011 is estimated to have reached $4,560. Although GDP per capita has steadily increased over the years, the country still ranks as one of the poorest countries in Europe according to major income indicators.

Albania has put in place a liberal foreign investment regime, and the government is working to improve the business climate through fiscal and legislative reforms and infrastructure improvements. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased significantly over the last few years and in 2010 reached $1.1 billion, up from $262 million in 2005. Since 2005, the Government of Albania has invested more than $2 billion in the country’s main road corridors, and it has pledged to continue investing heavily in improving transportation infrastructure. Electricity supply has also improved due to investments in new transmission lines and new generation sources as well as the privatization of the distribution system, which is gradually increasing efficiency.

The EU remains Albania’s main trading partner, providing 64.1% of Albania’s imports and receiving 72.5% of exports as of December 2011. Trade with Italy and Greece continues to represent the largest share of EU trade, with a combined 41.1% of imports and 58.3% of exports in 2011. Other major trading partners include Turkey, China, and Germany. The impact of CEFTA in Albania’s trade with member countries has been small.

2.1.2 Tourism in Albania
The Potentials for Tourism Development in Albania

Albania is a small country but a beautiful and fascinating country with substantial tourism development potential. Albania has an attractive coastline and a rich cultural and natural heritage. As Tourism Strategy on Culture and Environment [1] has highlighted, country “has a wide range of historic, cultural and natural attractions that are of great interest to international tourists”. The same assessment is made to the country’s very rich culture and heritage by Culture Marketing Strategy [2] document, too, stressing that “Albania has a very rich, distractive, and authentic culture and heritage – from the Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other historic periods up to the modern day”. This assessment is mentioned also to verbatim comments from interviews with western tour operators and travel writers [3] , where one of them have citied that “Albania is an archaeological site from tip to toe, going back to Illyrian settlements, Greek colonies, Roman occupation, not to mention the invasions from Goths, Bulgars, Byzantines, Crusaders of the Holy Roman Empire and Ottomans who all but stopped time in tracks. Evidence of these civilizations are everywhere in Albania, and it’s time to let the world see the great and wondrous sitesaˆ¦..”. Albania has 3 World Heritage Sites – Butrint, Gjirokaster and Berat. Beaches are long and sandy with hot sunny summers with about 250 sunny days. The mountain areas offer opportunities for niche tourism activities like hiking, biking, canoeing etc. Plenty of National Parks and other natural reserves offer ecological experiences. Country offers beautiful and diverse landscapes and abundant and varied flora and fauna.

Current tourism markets

Since the late 1990s, after the 97? instability in the country and 99? war in Kosovo, tourism activities are increasing. As figures [4] show there is a considerable increasing number of international visitors after the year 2000, due to the improvement of regional and inner country political climate and enhance of the security in the country. A big impact to the increase of the flux of tourists from Kosovo has show the new highway linking Albania with Kosovo. Even this increasing numbers are impressive, the tourism sector in Albania cannot be regarded as being well developed. Infrastructure has been till late a major limitation. The government in power has evaluated the development of infrastructure as very important and is investing heavily in improvements [5] .

Data from the table below shows that:

Total foreign visitor traffic increased by 18.4% in 2010 compared to 2009 to 3,612,000 visits. Taking into consideration the crisis time this is an excellent performance for Albanian tourism. 33% were non-resident Albanians and 66.1% were foreign staying visitors in 2010. Much of the increase came from Kosovo. This is evident to see the impact that the new highway with brought to Albanian tourism, a clear indicator of strong growth created by improvements in infrastructure.

According to MoTCYS data, for the year 2011 a total of some four million visitors entered in Albania. They included 2,734,000 foreign tourists and 1,267,000 non-resident Albanian nationality visitors.

The figures demonstrate that the biggest increase of foreign tourists in 2010 was coming from Kosovo with 48.79% followed by Macedonia with 11.43% compared to 2009. The foreign tourists from western countries haven’t made such a big progress. Also, as can be seen, the number of non-resident Albanians has been increasing in 2008 and 2009, while in 2010 the figure has faced a decrease.

From the table below can be seen the increasing number of visitors in July and August. Such a phenomenon is shaping drastically the seasonality of tourism in Albania. In 2010 the number of tourist that visited Albania in these two months was 55.44% compared to the number of all visitors. Also, another problem related to these figures is the high dependency in Balkan region tourist flow. This demonstrates that the tourists in July-August are coming only for sea and sand and populating only the coastal areas.

Strategic directions for tourism at national level

According to National Strategy for Tourism Development in Albania 2002 – 2012, developed with the assistance of GTZ, the main tourism products for Albanian tourism are defined sun and sea, business and special interest tourism [6] .

While the Strategy and Action Plan for the Development of the Albanian Tourism Sector Based on Cultural and Environmental Tourism was developed within the directions and structure established by the 2002 “Tourism Development Strategy 2002-2012 for Albania”.

This document provides a new orientation for the government to position Albania as an attractive destination for tourists seeking a unique experience which encourage them to discover Albania’s culture and nature. “Discovery of Albania” is a presentation of a broad cross-section of Albania’s history, nature, archaeology, living culture, cuisine and hospitality. The graphic below presents a simple schematic.

Core and Specialised Tourism Products

Source: Strategy for the Development of the Albanian Tourism Sector Based on Cultural and Environmental Tourism. Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, UNDP December 2005

According to strategy document, “Albania’s core (primary) tourism product must be a general one that encourages visitors to discover the many facets of Albania’s culture and nature. Albania’s central product will be the “discovery” of Albania. The product is a presentation of a broad cross-section of Albania’s history, nature, archaeology living culture, cuisine and hospitality. Visitors participating in this discovery will leave with a lasting impression of the diversity, complexity and beauty of culture and the land. This segment does not make a strong distinction between cultural, natural and other tourism products. Visitors in this segment tend to combine many different activities during their visits, and usually see the various natural and cultural activities as part of the process of discovering the destination.”

Referring to the major market segments mentioned above, the tourism resources in Albania are in favor and support the types of community-based tourism, i.e. nature-based tourism, adventure tourism and cultural tourism. Considering these tourism resources, the following types of activities can be developed:

Nature:

Visiting national parks and protected areas

Viewing wildlife

Seeing rare species

Trekking, hiking

Bicycle trips

Education and learning

Participation in local events; and

River and lake exploring.

Culture:

Visiting cultural and heritage-related attractions

Visiting museums and art centres

Meeting with artists

Meeting people from various ethnic nationalities

Seeing local handicrafts and the process of making them

Visiting scenic landmarks and religious sites

Trying local food

Participating in local traditional ceremonies and festivals

Buying traditional crafts and local specialties.

Potential to development

Albania offers infinite potential to investors to take advantage of unexplored opportunities in tourism, and helping to develop this industry into a key strategic sector in the country’s economy.

Albania has a young population, with a high level of instruction and able to communicate with foregners in defferent languagies.

Albanian is located at short distances from the main European capital cities and albanians are friendly and very hospitable people. The improved Rinas international airport, and different ports from the north to the south easy the access to the country. The continuing improvement and development of the infrastructure in the country, is facilitating moving inside the country.

Continuing improvements are being made to encourage investors to develop the infrastructure for tourism in Albania.

Just like other countries in the Western Balkans, Albania has put into place legislation and investment initiatives designed to support the economic growth of the country compatible with European policies and working principles. The Albanian Government has made support of the current and future expansion of tourism a priority, with the goal of transforming the country into a Mediterranean tourist destination and placing it on the world map of tourism.

In an effort to support the continuing development of the tourism industry in Albania and to make this country a tourist destination, the importance of the active engagement of the local and international Business Community and strong Partnerships between community based organizations, government and regional development agencies is a must.

Internal transport is likely to remain a major limitation for tourism in the foreseeable future except perhaps for road transport along key highways where upgrading / reconstruction is already planned or committed. In the WEF Travel and Tourism

Competitiveness Report, Albania’s tourism infrastructure is rated in the bottom two in the region

(See Table 2.2).

In recent years there has been an increasing interest from incoming foreign tourists, especially with significant increasing numbers of international tourist groups generated from Croatia and Montenegro, organised in one or two days tours to Albania.

Also Business and Trade tourism accounts a considerable number of foreign visitors. Neighbour countries, such as Italy, Greece especially are related to trade and business purpose of visit of their nationals.

From the western tourists visiting Albania in 2006, are identified those arriving from Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, USA, Canada, France, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, the neighbouring countries and regions (Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonian, Bulgaria), East Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia).

Diaspora is another source for the inbound tourism, where the ethnic Albanians from Kosovo do count considerable numbers. The new road under construction from Milot (the crossroad to the highway Tirane-Shkoder) to Morini (the boarder-crossing point with Kosovo) will influence to increase the numbers of Kosovo’s citizens to access the Albanian coastal area.

The market profile of visitors who enter to Albania by road from Muriqani and Hani i Hotit (the boarder-crossing points with Montenegro) with interest for Shkodra region for the year 2006 is as below:

Foreigners who are living and working in Albania have also recently started to create an internal tourism demand. While there is no official record on domestic tourism in Albania, domestic tourism is the dominating form of tourism. This is mainly focussed on beach centred holidays.

1.3.2 National context for Tourism Development

Albania has a great potential for tourism development based on its natural, cultural and human resources. The country has an attractive coastline, rich biodiversity with lagoons, lakes and the mountain areas each with unique flora and fauna, unspoiled nature and attractive scenery, cultural and historical sites and interesting traditional life-styles. The country therefore has the potential to develop the types of tourism products that are in demand from the international market in the Mediterranean region.

Beside to the long and sandy beaches along the Adriatic coast and these rocky ones with crystal and clean sea waters of the Ionian coast, its natural and protected areas are basic for developing niche tourism activities such as eco-tourism and nature based activities. Such an activities can be hiking, trekking, walking, horseback-riding, river rafting, paragliding, mountain biking, climbing, canoeing, sightseeing, bird watching, fishing. Rural ‘green’ and agri-tourism offers new opportunities for communities to benefit from tourism by offering visitor experiences based on traditional lifestyles. Albania also can offer cultural tourism through its archaeological sites and historic cities and villages.

Albania is a short distance destination for Europe; it is within 3 hours of flying time of most major European cities and therefore is a short haul destination for the potentially huge European market, the World tourism Organisation predict that by 2020 the Mediterranean Region which includes Albania will be a ‘hotspot’ for tourism, thus there is a great potential for Albania to develop and expand its tourism industry.

On the other side, uncontrolled development in tourism areas has harmed the potential of these areas for tourism development. Even the measures taken by the government to legalise the illegal buildings are not considering for the moment those constructed in tourism areas, it is not clear what will be the measures taken in these areas to improve the environment by the harm of illegal buildings.

Some significant measures are taken recently by the government. These measures, at the national level, encompass strategy and policy documents such as, the development of the Strategy for Cultural and Environmental Tourism in 2005 and the development of a new tourism website in 2006. A new Tourism Law (Nr.9734, dated 14.5.2007) was adopted by the parliament and a number of regulations approved by the government is thought to regulate the tourism sector development.

Tourism development is the responsibility of the MoTCYS (Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports). NTA (National Tourism Agency) is an autonomous body outside the MoTCYS, being responsible for promotion activities through the production of promotional materials and participation in the international tourism fairs. The most attended fairs, regularly from years in Berlin (ITB) and London (WTM), and to RDA (Keln) from 2007. At the regional level, six tourist information offices are approved to be established in Tirana, Shkodra, Vlora, Saranda, Korca and Durres.

At the national level there are operating two business Associations for Tourism Travel Agencies and one Association of Hotels. A GTZ’s project on “Institutional building of tourism private sector in Albania” is in the process for the time being with the aim to establish a strong representation for all the sectors involved in tourism, with the common interest providing services to the members as well as building relationship and cooperation with the public sector.

Albanian Rourism

Even the figures on tourist arrivals are growing considerably year after year in Albania, the country has remained highly dependant on summer holidays. Looking on the statistical data published recently in the websites of Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports (http://www.mtkrs.gov.al/) and of National Tourism Agency (http://www.akt.gov.al/akt/text.php?id=1&lang=1), is easily evident that the number of visitors visiting Albania succeeded 2.5 million in 2008 and only for the period January – August 2009 this figure was over passing 2.1 million. As reported by MTCYS, the number of visitors in 2008 (2.578.627 visitors) is compound as international visitors 1.330.138, from which 1.247.125 were overnight visitors and 83.013 same day visitors, and 1.248.489 visitors were Albanian nationals residing abroad. While the number of visitors for the period January – August 2009 (2.111.981 visitors) is compound as 1.402.558 international visitors and 709.423 Albanian nationals residing abroad.

But does this picture speak for real success in the development of Albania’s tourism as a tourist destination visited by the western tourists? We have to bear in mind that the main reason for the development of tourism is attracting foreign visitors from countries with strong currencies. Tourism is considered a hidden export that brings money (hard currency) to the country.

Referring to the “Strategy and Action Plan for the Development of the Albanian Tourism Sector Based on Cultural and Environmental Tourism” produced by Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports with the support of UNDP in 2005, “Albania will specialize in attracting educated, independent travelers and specialized group travelers. The principal target markets will be upper-middle income individuals from Europe (primarily northern Europe and the United Kingdom) and North America. This segment represents the demographic segment with the highest willingness to pay for Albania’s unique products, and whose spending patterns will most contribute to advancing development goals.” Also, in this strategic document is specified that “Albania’s central product will be the “discovery” of Albania. The product is a presentation of a broad cross-section of Albania’s history, nature, archaeology, living culture, cuisine and hospitality. Visitors participating in this discovery will leave with a lasting impression of the diversity, complexity and beauty of the culture and the land”. The question is this: Are these kind of tourists visiting Albania contributing to this strategic direction? The answer is, NO.

The Tourism Product Company’s Role

Discuss the importance of delivering quality services in the hospitality industry and identify differences if any between service delivery in the hospitality and service delivery in other business.

Tourism is our main source of income in Jamaica so we depend highly on the tourism industry, in order to have a successful industry we must provide quality service. Some of the services that we offer are: transportation by air, land and sea, adventure and we also provide a relaxing atmosphere just to name a few.

We also provide good customer service, customer delight which is exceeding our customer’s (tourist) expectations and creating raving fans for your business. Two main reasons for customer delight are to retain business and to persuade them to be ambassadors for our services. Good customer service provides goodwill, increased repeat business, excellent word of mouth marketing, respect and recognition of being professional. (company, 2006)

In every business customer service is key, they rely on repeat customers for the growth of their business if the customer is not satisfied with the level of service they get from a business they will not go back to said place. The difference between service deliveries in the hospitality industry to service delivery in other businesses is that in a business like Grace Kennedy they use indirect services, which include financing, transport and communication; they are supportive of the creation of goods and services. They make it possible for the goods that have been produced to be distributed and made available to the customers for whom they are intended however in the Hospitality industry they use indirect service this includes such areas as Education, Health care, Administrative services and tourism. Tourism is one indirect service that demands our special attention. In most of the Caribbean territories like Jamaica tourism rank as the highest major industries. It provides a high level of employment, is a great earner of foreign exchange, and supports many other businesses, including Hotels, Entertainment, Cottage industry and Farming. (Elise Webber, 1990)

COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM

Community based tourism has, for over three decades, been promoted as a means of development whereby the social, environmental and economic needs of local communities are meet through the offering of a tourism product. However, whilst many projects have been funded in developing countries, their success (or otherwise) has not been widely monitored and, therefore, the actual benefits to local communities remain largely unqualified.

Identify the pros and cons of community based tourism and discuss the implications on the country on a whole.

Community based tourism is usually owned and operated by people in the community. Most Jamaicans feel alienated from the tourism industry and do not believe that they benefit from tourism. It therefore, becomes important for individuals to become stakeholders as they will now have a reason to protect and sustain the industry. The Tourism Master Plan has identified community tourism as the avenue to achieve sustained growth, environmental sustainability, enhanced visitor experience, increased employment and community development. (company, 2006)

Community Tourism was developed and pioneered in Mandeville Jamaica by Diana McIntyre-Pike, hotelier/tourism consultant and Desmond Henry an ex-Director of Tourism in 1978. The Astra Country Inn became the centre for Community Tourism and has been recognized as the pioneer hotel in Community Tourism. Several presentations have been done locally and internationally by Mrs. McIntyre-Pike and Mr. Henry on Community Tourism which has now allowed it to become a world recognized tourism. For example, the International Institute for Peace through Tourism invited Mrs. McIntyre-Pike as one of the world’s 200 success stories speakers at their second Global Conference in 1994 to present the history of Community Tourism and its future. Since then the Institute has selected the Astra Country Inn as one of its case studies internationally in community-based tourism. (Pike)

Community Tourism embraces sustainable development through tourism and focuses on the ecology, heritage, culture and way of life of a community and its people. Eco-tourism, Heritage Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Adventure Tourism are a few examples of the types of special interest markets under community tourism. There tends to be much confusion of Community Tourism as it is being seen as one of the special interest type of tourism rather than what it really is – a tourism that is community-based in all aspects of the way of life. Sustainable tourism cannot be successful without the participation of communities in the development and management. In 1988, Country style was created as the marketing and development organization for Community Tourism. Country style worked in association with the Central and South Tourism Organization (CESTO) to develop the Community Tourism programme. The central and south area of the island was targeted as the model region for the development. The main focus is on:

Private Home stays – where visitors can stay in a private home with families and experience their way of life during their vacation. This has proved very successful as it has enabled visitors to get the best of Jamaica’s hospitality, learn the culture, heritage, entertainment, cuisine and more. Country style now receives daily requests for this type of accommodation through e-mail and fax from all over the world.

Bed & Breakfast accommodation is also encouraged in the communities

participating. Anyone interested in becoming an official bed & breakfast facility are advised the requirements needed for TPDCo. Country style is very selective where their visitors stay and has had a successful level of satisfaction.

Country style specializes in serving special interest markets. These

markets are researched and tour packages are developed to suit the interests of visitors. An educational institution uses Jamaica through Country style’s Community Tourism programme as a lab of cross-cultural study and research. For example Penn State University was the pioneer educational institution which requested Country style to develop an all-island tourism and environmental package which included community interaction and meeting resource persons working directly in tourism. Seminars were held in each location where the good, bad and ugly of the community was openly discussed, analyzed and recommendations for action determined. This information assisted Country style to assist communities in developing projects for improving the product.

The Country style Institute for Sustainable Tourism (CIST) was created to facilitate community training through existing training institutions for sustainable development through tourism. Major partners include CESTO, HEART- Trust/NTA-Kenilworth, NCTVET, West Indies College, Knox Community College, New Beulah Moravian Church, Hibiscus Cultural Tours International, Western Catering School, Penn State University, Caribbean Action for Sustainable Tourism (CAST). CAST has endorsed the work of CIST and has indicated interest in collaborating with CIST to develop the Caribbean community training programme for Sustainable Tourism. The Executive Director of CIST is Mr. Barry Bonito (Pike)

Country style Community Tours has successfully attracted many visitors

through the “Community Experience” packages which give visitors the flexibility to tour Jamaica with community persons and allowing them to stay in Villages Island wide which has been sensitized by the Country style group. Visitors are protected from harassment and crime because of the approach of educating communities before they are exposed to visitors. The visitor responses to these packages in Jamaica have now encouraged Country style to develop Caribbean packages (Pike)

The Governments role in the development of community based tourism is to ensure that adequate infrastructure is in place, for example, roads, light, water and telecommunication services. To ensure that training programmes are implemented based on individual skills and the requirement of the project. To ensure that effective marketing programmes are implemented and to ensure that adequate safety and security measures are put in place. (company, 2006)

The Tourism Product Development Company’s role in the development of community tourism to assist in project development ensuring that necessary amenities and physical structures are in place through the project Development Department. To ensure that tourism entities are on par with the required standard of the industry through the standards development. To ensure that individuals are trained in various skill areas such as management and technical support of the development of community tourism, tour guiding, CPR & First Aid, customer service and tourism awareness. These programmes would be implemented by the human resource development. (company, 2006)

Some benefits of Community based tourism is that it provides employment for persons in the community, increase opportunity for social and cultural interchange, it increase income which will allow improvement of infrastructure and enhancement of the community and provide the quality of life. (company, 2006)

Cultural preservation (economic incentives to preserve food, fashion, festivals and physical history, but these tend to be superficial elements of a culture.)

environmental protection (econ incentives to preserve nature, wildlife and urban cleanliness)

Foreign exchange (generates resources to import food, pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer goods.)

Development of health care services (those these aren’t always available to local people.) (unknown, about ct/benefits.htm)

According to the Gleaner published Monday October 2 2001, Former Tourism director Desmond Henry criticized the Jamaica tourist board (JTB) for not recognizing the development of community based tourism on the south coast ‘the future of Jamaica’s tourism is on the south coast and it lies in community tourism. There is a whole lot to be done, there is a need for additional rooms but the most important thing is the need for trainees and the community has to understand its role in this important development.’ He went on to say that the Jamaica Tourist Board has not taken community tourism seriously enough to assist those involved. By employing trainees in the community this will decrease unemployment and poverty in said community. (www.jamaicaobserver.com, 2011)

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says community-based tourism has the potential to significantly boost employment for persons in rural Jamaica, while further driving the development of the product.

Speaking at the National Consultation on Community-based tourism, held at the Devonshire Restaurant at Devon House, in Kingston on September 8, Mr. Bartlett said the policy framework for the community-based tourism strategy will facilitate the provision of a wide range of job opportunities in the sector.

The consultation aims to facilitate further dialogue among stakeholders on the draft Community-based Tourism Policy and Strategy, which has been submitted to Cabinet for consideration.

In January 2010, the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) signed an agreement for the development of a community-based tourism policy under the Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) project. The project is being funded by the Government of Jamaica and the World Bank, through a US$15 million loan.

“This will benefit and empower many vulnerable groups, such as women, young people, as well as under-skilled and unemployed individuals,” the Minister noted.

Mr. Bartlett said the policy will also help to address numerous weaknesses at the community level that have hampered the growth of community-based tourism enterprises for years, such as the lack of entrepreneurial capacity, and a limited understanding of tourism markets and the sector in general.

“The policy will target these shortcomings by providing appropriate approaches to planning and management for such entities as well as institutional arrangements, technical assistance and support,” he explained.

Mr. Bartlett informed that the policy and strategy, being developed under the guidance of the JSIF, is intended to facilitate the development of a framework aimed at enhancing the policy and institutional capacity needed to develop community-based tourism as a sustainable growth sector locally.

“I must underscore that this is a vital initiative, as despite the fact that the tourism sector remains the island’s primary foreign exchange earner and the driving force of the Jamaican economy, there is still considerable potential for further growth and development,” he said.

“Despite our successes to date, broadening our range of tourism offerings remains an important pillar in our thrust to diversify our product, and developing community based tourism is key to this initiative,” he remarked. (unknown, www.jamaicans.com, 2011)

Some disadvantage of community based tourism is

Cultural destruction, (modernization (world mono-culture), freezes culture as performers, loss: language, religion, rituals, material culture.)

primary products (sun, sand, surf, safari, suds, ski, sex) (little value added, neo-colonialism)

Environmental destruction (game drives, resorts: golf, ski, beach, desert, world as play ground, SUV.)

Marginal employment (low skill, low wage, menial services, prostitution, drug trade, gambling, hustlers.)

Low benefits (no job security, no health care, no organizing, no work safety rules or enviro standards.)

Development of illegal and/or destructive economic activities (markets for drugs, endangered species, etc.)

Outside hiring (skilled middle and senior management recruited out of the area and transferred in.)

Concentration employment (walled resort enclaves.)

seasonal employment. (mozer)

Solutions (for visitor)

act to support cultural diversity

engage in activities that add value to the community

don’t do activities that deteriorate the environment

don’t engage in illegal activities

act to disperse the benefits

Patronize locally (community) owned enterprises.

Solutions (for the host)

support the traditional cultural legacy

Training and education in local culture, history, natural science, etc.

select development and activities that draw from local traditions and add value to the community

don’t promote activities that deteriorate the environment

don’t engage in illegal activities

adopt a program to disperse the benefits

Patronize locally produced products and locally (community) owned enterprises.

Make business and foreign exchange transactions transparent and efficient. (unknown, about ct/benefits.htm)

2) Community based tourism is an alternative type of tourism that can be used to diversify Jamaica Tourism Product and provide Jamaica with a competitive advantage.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment Damion Crawford says the sector has to diversify its products if tourism is to play a major role in the country’s development.

Crawford says tourism can play a pivotal role in Jamaica’s development, but adds that offering the same products to every visitor cannot be the answer.

Speaking at a recent symposium at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies, Mr. Crawford echoed calls for the west Kingston community of Trench Town to be promoted as an area for cultural tourism.

He says although the community was made popular by Jamaican music icon Bob Marley, it is still not promoted for the cultural experience. (www.jamaicaobserver.com, 2011)

Community based tourism is good for the country’s economic growth and it help to decrease poverty. According to the UWI “Community based tourism, however, offers a unique opportunity for Jamaica. The process of community based tourism development if managed effectively has the potential to alleviate poverty and illiteracy. Community based tourism also has the potential to develop the natural creative energy of Jamaicans by transforming average citizens into entrepreneurs. It can be used to develop strong partnerships by twinning existing traditional tourism entrepreneurs. It can be combined with the existing tourism product offerings to create a uniquely Jamaica experience. Community based tourism can be a standalone venture of a partnership of the traditional products blended with Jamaican charm, culture and heritage to create a community tourism spirit that culminates in a truly Jamaican experience. Community based tourism can bring out the best in Jamaican people.” (UNKNOWN)

Technology
Technology has significant impact on the development of the travel and tourism industry. Discuss

Technology has played a significant role in the development of the tourism and travel industry. This has been seen through the internet, telecommunication services and point of sale (POS).

By using the internet it is easier for you to go on vacation without the hassle, you no longer have to guess if the destination u want to go have the facilities you want you can now go on the internet and research your destination. Also if you’re a adventurous person and your coming to Jamaica the internet would also help you to find a hotel near the places you want to see, For example if u wanted to visit Dolphin cove, Dunn’s river and mystic mountains by doing your research you would not book a hotel in Kingston which is too far from where u wanted to be. By using the internet u could also check to see when it is cheaper for you to travel and get deals with the hotels and airline. You also want to know that when u are going on vacation u can access your bank account.

If all this is not possible then u would not want to go on vacation. You want to know that u can still stay in contact with your business while relaxing on the beach.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion delivering quality service is very important not only in the tourist industry but in other businesses. If customers are not satisfied with the level of service they get they will not come back to your business and we rely mostly on our repeat customers.

Community based tourism is also important because it allows the local residents to be involved in tourism and it provides employment and decrease poverty.

Technology is important in the tourism industry because without it persons would not leave their business or family to go on vacation knowing that they are not going to be in contact with them.

The Tourism Principles And Practices Tourism Essay

Tourism is becoming the worlds largest industry and it is being recognized that tourism must preserve and protect the environment and natural attractions so that people will continue to travel, and must set use limits so that sites will be truly sustainable [1] . However tourism, as well as bringing improvements in areas such as the economy, also has the power to destroy the environment. Impressive examples of this are hotels and other accommodation establishments, which contribute to almost a quarter of tourism emissions in general (21%) [2] . Recently, tourists have started to become more interested in the environmental impacts of their travels, and thus the tourism and hotel industry has started to pay more attention to the protection of the environment.

2. LITERATURE REVIEWS

Considering the complexity and wideness of the topic, in order to implement a plan to save costs and reduce consumption a good research and documentation about the subject is required. This issue has become an actual problem which is being discussed in many journal and magazine articles. Firstly, it is necessary to find adequate information to quantify in statistics and explain in detail the history of this issue and describe it. For this section 2 university texts were used: Goeldner, C. R. Ritchie, J. R. B. (2009). Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophies (11th Ed.) New York: Wiley and Sons., Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector Frameworks, tools and practices. An International Seminar focusing on Developing Countries and Small Island States. (April 2008) Oxford, United Kingdom. Moreover, a small research was carried out on the internet using some websites which talk about tips and suggestions adopted in this sector.

3. ECO-FRIENDLY MEASURES

A strategic planning and implementation of policies, that pay attention to the costs, bring benefits not only the environment but also to the hotel itself. By observing methods and techniques of sustainability, immediate economic objectives can be achieved, but the most important thing is that the measures implemented are for the long-term. Consequently, every manager should be familiar of what are the environmental and energy aspects of its business/organization in order to improve upon them and reduce waste and costs. To achieve this goal, a seaside superior hotel needs to change its habits and introduce innovations that use natural resources or transform their systems in low-power systems as seen in some example reported below.

3.1 Natural resources

The use of natural resources is the cheapest measure. Correspondingly, there are a number of systems to minimize emissions which use simple methods that simultaneously may also reduce costs. Firstly, an accommodation should install large sun-facing windows or skylights on facades and celling. In this way, during the day, electricity consumption is minimized because the natural daylight filters throughout the windows, thus reducing the need for artificial lights. Conversely, it is important that this type of glass maintains a cool temperature inside because this could be a problem during the summer period.

Secondly, solar panels can be installed to harness solar energy. Indeed they use the sun’s energy and transform it into useful energy and heat for human activities.

Considering that we need to analyze a hotel on the seaside, the accommodation could also benefit from exploiting the sea with simple structures that support the main goal of becoming an eco-friendly hotel. Some example of how this is possible can be taken from the Hilton hotel in Malta; the only eco-friendly hotel that achieved the European eco-label certification. In the same way a hotel on the seaside could take advantage of this and with a process of desalination in an osmosis system, this type of water can be used as drinking water. In addition, sea water desalinated can be used for cooling (in summer) or heating (in winter) for the hotel. Thus it decreases the need of fossil fuels. Furthermore, this used water could be cleaned in a biological purification plant and together with harvested rainwater be used for toilet flushing and irrigation of the gardens. Although initially these systems can have high costs, in the future they will significantly reduce consumptions and costs of the accommodation.

3.2 Waste disposal

Another fundamental measure in an eco-hotel is waste management and recycling. This is a strategy that reuses waste instead of disposes of it. Recycling avoids the waste of potentially useful materials, reduces the consumption of raw materials, and reduces the use of energy, and therefore the emission of greenhouse gases. This method is very simple to implement. It is important that in each and every place of the hotel (kitchen, restaurants, rooms, offices, public areas etc…) recycling bins are provided. In the office, they can minimize the paper size and replace the normal print ink with soy-based ink which pollutes less. Also plastic laundry bags can be replaced with cloth bags. After this step managers must familiarize staff and guests with this measure by offering products that contain recycled material such as newspaper, magazine and organic bags.

3.4 Maintenance

As stated in the introduction, all this behaviors and systems must be long-lasting and the only way to achieve this objective is maintenance. First of all, all the guestsaa‚¬a„? rooms must be controlled for infiltration of hot and cold air throughout windows and doors. Then air conditioners and heaters need an annual maintenance which checks if there are problems and if the room temperature is acceptable for each season. All the bulbs need to be replaced with energy saving light bulbs that further reduce costs. Subsequently, also office and restaurants must be regularly monitored with zero-cost measures. Some examples could be allowing hot food to cool before storing in refrigerators and freezers, not overloading refrigerators, regularly clean fans, verify if doors fit and close correctly and defrosting freezers frequently since frost build ups reduce efficiency. Those are all zero-cost actions that should reduce environmental problems, costs and consumptions.

3.3 Staff and guest education

At the end, the staff and guests should be educated about these eco-friendly measures. With simple gestures, tourists can limit energy consumption and be more aware of protecting the environment and reducing pollution. For example, tourists can pay attention to reduce the use of water when it is not necessary, can use and heating and A.C. with consideration, pay attention to the waste disposal and always remember to turn off the lights. The last action mentioned can also be supported with sensors, installed by the hotel, that automatically turn off lights and air conditioning once the guest has left his room. On the other hand staff can collaborate for other type of eco-friendly measures. For instance, in restaurants, waitress can reduce emissions levels promoting national wine and food (e.g. seafood) because usually international food is imported by air. In addition , members of the hotel can distribute brochures and allow fieldtrip visits to their back of house to promote this system not only to customers but expand it to all those who are interested in protecting the environment.

4. REASONS

If we examine the causes of the growing interest in eco-tourism, there is a wide range of possible answers. The main reasons are the protection of the environment and saving more money from the hotels. In addition, those who use these systems and achieve these goals are rewarded with international and European certifications such as Ecolabel certification. It is granted only to hotels with systems of environmental excellence that respect ecological and performance criteria established. These criteria are then reviewed and where necessary, improved by providing better environmental quality of services. Moreover, tourists are starting to worry about the consequences that their journey can bring to the environment and in this way as Thomas Tanzilli, director of Federalberghi Rome said “Besides the environmental issue, it has also become a commercial problem.” After that tourists are interesting in this type of tourism for a big numbers of reasons such as:

The presence of local biological food with 0 kilometers

People are tired of conventional tourism and they want to seek new challenges.

international aid and incentives arise to support tourism projects for the purpose of environmental protection

eco-tourism accommodations became more affordable and accessible

There is an increase in travel for educational purposes.

Finally, in thinking people is maturing an increasing awareness that environmental conservation is not the only reason, but it can also bring economic benefits.

5. CONCLUSION

In recent years this great way to reduce environmental pollution through hotels has been promoted in many ways from important tourism organizations such as The World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In addition, the habits of tourists who stay in hotels are changing. In fact, with Advertising put aa‚¬aˆ?aa‚¬aˆ?specially in the rooms of the hotel, the guest feels responsible towards helping the environment and working with the whole staff. To conclude, eco-tourism is not simply constructed by systems and environmental measures implemented by the hotel, but it is a set of attitudes that all components of that particular hotel should assume both inside and outside the building.

The Tourism Planning Discussion Paper Tourism Essay

Tourism is one of many human activities in a community or region, and has the idea as a private and public sector activity and especially as an area of government intervention that requires planning and coordination. On the one hand, tourism is also one many activities in an area that must be considered as part of economic, physical, environmental, and social planning. Thereby, it is very important in ensuring that the tourism industry can thrive and develop by trying to maximize all these valuable aspects and to develop comprehensive tourism planning at a community or region. This discussion paper will be mainly discussing about the different approaches to tourism planning and the tourism planning framework for the development of tourism in the destination region of the Central Highlands of the Island. The overall framework in this paper consists of the appropriate steps to be taken in the planning process and in a way to achieve successful planning and development in the destination region, the guiding principles in the planning, and several issues to be considered in the planning.

2.0 Critical review of approaches to tourism planning

Based on Getz (1987) there are four different approaches of tourism planning at the destination level can be recognized according to the values that support the planning or policy activity include boosterism, economic, physical/spatial, and community-oriented that emphasizes the role the destination community plays in the tourism development and experience. Then to these four approaches, Hall (1998) added an additional approach of sustainable planning. Each of tourism planning approach differs in its underlying assumptions about planning, and their strengths and weakness that play in the tourism development. The following describes the strengths and weaknesses for each approach.

2.1 Boosterism

Boosterism is one of the tourism planning approaches that have attitude towards tourism development which is inherently ‘good’ and will provide benefit to the hosts destination. This approach also characterized as being part of an attitude to the development of ‘growth’ is good and any negative impact of tourism development will be dominated by positive benefits. From this approach perspective the primary planning problem is one of how to attract as many people as possible to a given location or destination. Boosterism approach however, doesn’t take into account or involves their host community in the decision making process, planning and policy process surrounding the tourism developments. Yet it is still being adopted by governments and politicians to promote tourism growth, regional economic diversification and employment creation.

This attitude approach towards tourism development is seen as to give benefits to the host destination and community which can bring higher living standards to a destination and improves quality of life of the people especially in the developing countries. Tourism development could improves quality of life ,as it supports the creation of community facilities and services, through the provision of better or upgraded infrastructure, facilities, services, transport, health, better quality of commodities and food. The indirect benefit of tourism development will also increase job opportunities towards the whole community and at the same time boost up the country’s economy. However on the other hand, since this approach does not involved residents of the tourist destinations in the tourism development plan and policy, and decision making process, thus there will be lack of public or community participation in the local tourism development. The tourism development tend to benefit more on the government instead of the local community because the community has no power to make their own decisions in the tourism planning and therefore it will not encourage them to participate and does not allow them to share tourism benefits with the wider community.

2.2 Economic

The second approach of tourism planning is the economic (industry-oriented approach). It is an approach that aims to promote economic growth and development in a destination, as well apply the use of marketing and promotion to attract visitors. The economic approach emphasizes more on the economic impacts of tourism and the most efficient and effective use of tourism to create income and employment benefits for the regions, communities, and countries as a whole. The main strengths of this planning approach are as it is mainly focuses on the economic impacts of tourism, it believes that tourism development is becomes a key driver of economic growth or will boost the country’s economy through the creation of employment, generation of foreign exchange earnings, contribution of government revenues, stimulation or improvement of infrastructure investment, and the create contribution to the local economy. Yet there are some weaknesses from this approach which it doesn’t take into account environmental concerns and social issues which means there is limited attention is given towards the environmental and social impacts brought about by tourism. Another weakness would be the high satisfaction of tourists result from tourism development and the positive attitudes towards tourists in host communities are unknown.

2.3 Physical/Spatial

The physical/ spatial approach to tourism planning considers tourism as a form of land use to be managed using spatial strategies and regarded as having an ecological base with a resultant need for development to be based upon certain spatial patterns, capacities or thresholds that would minimize the negative impacts of tourism on the physical environment. The key planning approaches from this perspective include carrying capacity, hazard and risk assessment, resource and landscape evaluation, resource appraisal and allocation, decision making and evaluation and the development of appropriate institutional arrangements. While the main point of this approach is to control and maintain the capacities, land use and the number of physical infrastructure being built for tourism, so it won’t exceeds the environmental and social carrying capacities of the destination. As a result, it will help to minimize the negative environmental impacts resulting from tourism development.

Besides, a well planned physical destination with structured design and layout would also attract visitors to visit a destination as it can provide a good and open space for tourists. Other strengths would be the increase protection towards the environment due to the less land being use and it keep the sustainability of tourism. The weakness of this approach is if the number of infrastructure, buildings, and capacities are being controlled, thus economically the destination unable to maximize their profit from the result the inability to fulfill the high demand of tourism to build more attractions. Limited attention is also given to social and cultural attributes of the destination.

2.4 Community

Community tourism planning approach is focuses on the social and political context within which tourism occurs and it advocates greater local community control over the development process. Under this approach, community is considered as the focal point or actor that encourages the development process of the tourism and seeks for public participation in a destination in order to enhance their economic livelihoods while protecting their cultural values, and preserving the natural environment.

Community planning approach which implies a high degree of public participation in tourism planning process, highly involved the community in the decision making and planning process, as well as in the sharing of tourism benefits and in the sharing of tourism profits with the wider community. Therefore, the main strengths of this community based approach in terms of its benefits, will likely to create and increased employment opportunities available to the locals as more community being involved in the process while it also contributes positively in the improvement on household income and general quality of life through the extent of contribution vary from one aspect to another. Moreover, public participation is also to design tourism development in such a way that it is intended to benefit the local community and to encourage them to participate in their own development through mobilizing their own resources, defining their needs and making own decisions about how to meet them. Then if the government is being supportive and let the community to take a large part of the decision making for tourism, there will less conflict arises between the government and community, and if problem arises the community would be able to make decisions and solve it on their own. Bringing educational elements towards the whole community is also one of the strength of community approach. The locals likely to be educated and trained in order to improve their knowledge about tourism and as a results it will help them to recognize and conserve their local culture, natural resource values, and creating a good image about the destination. Tourists who come from different parts of the world will also encourage the locals to interact and provide cultural exchange between hosts and tourists, at the same time it also gives the opportunities for the locals to learn foreign language and lead to a better understanding of cultural differences and build tolerant attitude towards foreigners.

On the other hand, there are weaknesses of this approach in terms of the barriers or the difficulties in implementing a community approach to tourism planning in tourist destination. The major difficulties or barriers to incorporating public participation in tourism planning can include the lack of financial and human resources in the tourism sector especially in the developing country. Resources at the local level may not enough to finance the present scale of tourism development and therefore it will lead to discourage community participation in the tourism planning. Then generally the public may have difficulty in understanding complex and technical planning issues, not always aware the decision making process, and the difficulty in maintaining representativeness in the decision making process due to the lack of knowledge, experiences and possible conflicts that may arise between cultures. In addition, there is also need for the government to be able to manage the involvement of the community that aims to achieve the desired result however it does not give the impression to the community of being control by the government. Power should also be distributed evenly within a community so that some groups or individuals will not have the ability exert greater influence over the planning process than others.

2.5 Sustainable

The sustainable approach towards tourism is an integrative form of tourism planning which brings together economic, environmental (physical/spatial), and socio-cultural (community) planning methods. This approach seeks to provide lasting and secure livelihoods which minimize depletion of resources, environmental degradation, cultural disturbance and social instability. It also concern about both inter and intra-generational equity which in sustainable development it means that we should not only concerned with the maintenance of ‘environmental capital’ (Jacobs, 1991) but also the maintenance and enhancement of social capital (Healey, 1997). The main strengths of sustainable approach are include long term protection of environment resources since it focuses on tourism development which try to avoids damage on the environment, economy, and cultures of a tourist destination as well as provides positive experience for host community tourism industry and the tourist itself. As a result of these, it will also lead to the preservation of essential ecological processes, give beneficial and opportunities for future generation ability to use the resources and enjoy the same situation as now, protection of human heritage and biodiversity, improve economic benefits to support sustainable tourism, and it also benefit the communities by providing more employment opportunities and the improvement of standard of living.

The weaknesses of this sustainable approach are include the overprotecting the resources will result that the tourists unable to enjoy or being satisfied with the overall tourism experiences, for instance tourists might have high expectation when they travel to the tourism site, yet they are not allowed to connect to the environment thus their perception will be lower because it doesn’t meet their high expectation, and become very unsatisfied. Besides, by adopting sustainable tourism approach could also create conflict between public and private sectors in terms of having different views and perspective on sustainable planning. Public sector might want to save and maintain the environment while private sector wants to gain more economic benefit in having less concern on sustainable tourism benefits. Sustainable tourism approach could also be difficult to achieve and has been often criticized for its contradictory goals that never achieved, as it requires cooperation and coordination between industry and the manager of destinations, and the needs to build consumer and producer awareness.

3.0 A review of the main issues or challenges that tourism planners face

As millions more people travel and to seek for personal rewards from their experiences, the massive development of tourism resources is the consequences (Gunn, 2002). The various activities that tourists engage in a tourism destination are important and expanding aspect of the tourist industry in which it creates huge development for tourism in a destination and provides tourism benefits in many ways. Thus, it is now recognized that planning is necessary for tourism to develop, to be managed in a controlled, integrated, and sustainable manner in such a ways that would lead to enhancing the benefits derived from tourism. By using this planned approach to design of all tourism development, it allows tourism to generate economic, social, and environmental benefits to the host community and any negative impacts results from tourism can be minimized.

Moreover, planning for tourism can be a challenge regarding to the several main issues, complication or challenge that tourism planner may face in trying to plan tourism. Besides, due to the rapid growth and complication nature of tourism have made it difficult for planners to apply even the most fundamental of research findings and recommendations for improved tourism. Based on Claire A. Gunn (2004) described the prospects for tourism planning in term of the key issues and concerns in the field of tourism planning in which the issues include the poor understanding of the need for planning, the lack of systems planning, poor organizational integration, and lack of tourism literacy.

The first issue of poor understanding of the need for planning refers to the unclear understanding or different assumptions on tourism planning that seen as the unncecessary interference in market driven development. Investors and developers might seen a opportunity to build various kinds of attractions or tourism related places in the destination to increase tourism development. Then tourism promoters usually belief that all development is positive by bringing better employment and economic benefits and continually to attract tourists. However, this merely a half truth even though tourism development can provide economic benefit but the undestanding on plannning doesn’t take into account that tourism growth also create negative impacts in which it creates more demand for new investment to build more attractions as a result may lead to increased in pollution, and destroyed natural landscape. The high volume of visitor in the destination could also have reduce the local quality of life, and forcing long time residents to move. Hence, these issues requires new plannig techniques and planners must cope with the constantly changing environment results from tourism growth.

The second issue is the lack of system planning. Most tourism planners have modeled the fuctioning tourism system which have two main drivers of tourism consist of a demand and a supply side. The five supply side major components include transportation, attractions, services, information, and promotion. They are all interdependent which subject to travel demand and require planning that relates to market trends as well as to physical characteristics of land and resources. The supply side is influenced greatly by many external factors such as the governmental policies, competition, community involvement, entrepreneurship, labor, finance, cultural and natural resources. This way of viewing tourism is oppose to the mindset of tourism as an industry and mostly on the business sector. Understanding of tourism as a system is relatively important and knowing how each part of tourism depends upon each other.

Poor organizational intgration is another issue in the tourism planning in which there are lack of communication and integration between different and separate organizations (suh as in in the business tourism sector there are the hotel organizations, restaurant, attraction, and airline organizations) developed in tourism in tourism planning,. The lack of organizational mechanism is affect the tourism as entirerly. There is a need for better communication aamong many existing tourist organizations in order to gain mutual benefit and assist better understanding of change. Lastly, is the lack of tourism literacy means within parts of tourism all parties are very well knowledgable about their functions and operations. However, there is still remains a lack of understanding among developers and managers considering the full meaning and importance of tourism to them. Due to the tourism illiteracy, community is not well prepared to plan their localities in the best interest of tourism and to protect local lifestyle. Other issue or complication of tourism planning developed by Gunn (2002) is regarding with the worldwide proliferation ofecotourism, acculturation, and the dramatic evoluationary changes in many aboriginal societies. Native populations (non-industrial foundation) could face the dilemma of introducing tourists to their cultural uniqueness and lead them to move into new industrial societies. Thus, it will be difficult for them to plan for tourism development that might generate economic advantages without facing the great internal stress for protection of their cultural heritage and acculturation.

4.0 The Central Highlands of the Island

The Central Highlands of the Island is the chosen destination region to develop tourism planning to encourage tourism development in the destination. The Central Highlands of the Island is a developing country and known for its tourist destination. Despite having a number of potential tourist attractions, the area still have little development on tourism and facing quite number of problems, based on the facts that the country has experienced a number of environmental problems include water pollution and having limited of human and natural resources of fresh water resources and electricity. It also experienced a depressed economy with limited infrastructure and supply accommodation in the central region area.

Besides, the destination has a unique ethnic groups living in the central highlands region and having the majority population of ‘Islandese’, yet several of these ethnic groups are being isolated who have typically been ignored in most government policy exercises. These people also have limited of education background and low levels of languages which can be one reason that discouraged the community participation in the tourism development or make them difficult to participate. However, by experiencing these various conditions the local government should have promote tourism planning to encourage tourism development in the destination by taking account all the tourism resources, organizations, then economic, environmental, and social aspects of tourism development. The government should also need to get involved the local community in the tourism planning process to help support and encourage the tourism development of the destination at the same time intended to benefit the community as a whole and giving them opportunities to participate in their own development. The next part of this paper will be discussing about overall framework on the Central Highlands of the Island which are emphasizes on the steps in the planning process, the set of guiding principles for planning participants and list of issues to be considered in the planning process..

4.1 Steps in the Planning Process

In the tourism planning process, it takes a proactive role in assisting and promoting the implementation of a good quality of development. A large number of groups or individuals including stakeholders, community, and operator are involves in the tourism planning. They conduct various kinds of planning which are include feasibility, marketing, product development, promotion, forecasting, and strategic planning. The following are main series of steps to be taken in the planning process in terms of the tourism development of the Central Highlands of the Region as a tourist destination.

According to Stynes and O’Halloran (1987), there are six steps in the planning process include define goals and objectives, indentify the tourism system (resources, organizations, markets), generate and evaluate alternatives, select and implement, lastly monitor and evaluate. The first step that the destination need to accomplish is to obtain clear statements of tourism development goals and objectives which should acquire more from general community on how they want to achieve specific tourism development, whether the community wants to serves the broader community goals in seeking for better quality of life and to improve living standard. These objectives could be achieved by working together with various groups and organizations in the community. The appropriate types of goals to be achieve and the degree in which tourism is addressed in planning depends on how long the community has been involved in tourism or the importance of tourism to them. Since the Central Highlands region is still in the early stages of tourism development, goals that may want to achieve involve setting up organizational structures and collecting information to have better understanding on the tourism system in the community. Then later throughout the process, more precise objectives can be created.

The second step involve in identifying tourism as a system by breaking it down into three subsystems; tourism resources, organizations, and market. This will refers to how the community in the destination region coordinates their activities toward common goals and striving to achieve certain objectives by matching available resources and programs with the needs and wants of tourists, and identify the availability to be able to serve the tourists and provide opportunities for tourism development. For instance, for tourism resources in the Central Highlands; natural resources which can be used and available for the tourists are climate, scenery, favorable geographic location for shipping trade and high supply of local food and wine, while for cultural resources could be the unique ethnics’ cultures, cultural heritage, archaeological sites, and the local cuisine. Human resources of having a productive labor force and capital resources include the availability of infrastructure (roads, accommodation, utilities of water and electricity) are quite limited. Moreover, the community also needs to recognize and list all the diverse range of public and private sectors in the destination that manage or coordinate tourism activities, and to make all these groups to work together achieving the same goals. Lastly, is to identify the tourism market segments or types of tourists the destination wish to attract and serve.

Furthermore, after the second step moving on to the generating and evaluating alternatives step in tourism planning process. The generating alternatives development and marketing option to meet the goals requires brainstorming. And there are two parts to evaluation of tourism development and marketing alternatives; feasibility analysis, and impact assessment whether it is possible to be done and understand the impacts both positive and negative associated with tourism development. The last critical steps in a tourism plan are the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. As objectives have been set up for the plan, it needs to be implemented through a set of specific actions that should be adopted and developed by the community with clearly defined responsibilities and timetables. Then implementation is should be monitored and evaluated to find out the success of the plan in meeting its goals and objectives. Plans generally still need to be adjusted over time because of changing goals, changing market conditions, unexpected impacts. Thus the most important of all, successful tourism planning and development should able to serve both tourists and host communities. However, tourism should serve the community first since tourism development is closely coordinated and supported by the local population of the destination.

4.2 Guiding Principles for planning participants

Tourism is very important and as the main key driver of economic growth or development tool for the Central Highlands Region, which its future development should therefore be maintained by tourism developers or planners engaging in the tourism planning process. There are set of guiding principles that can be used to support tourism planning which by providing specific policies that need to be developed to suit the particular area of the Central Highlands of the region. The tourism policies which are include in a plan can aim to maximize the benefits of tourism by ensuring that the development able to reach its potential contribution to tourism in the destination at the same time providing benefits for local community. Then it is also to integrate development with its surroundings in terms of design and layout in the way that the facility or service is able to function properly and in order to avoid unexpected impacts such as disturbance to activities. In preparing such policies it require planners to understand a number of important factors which are include market demand, environmental impact, transport and accessibility, functional link, regeneration benefits, and labor supply which all these can be vary for different tourism developments such as for labor supply, the quality and amount of labor will be different from one area to another. Tourism planning generally seeks to place new development where the need for employment exists and to benefit the local population from the various ranges of job opportunities.

4.3 Issues to be considered

In terms of planning tourism development of the Central Highlands destination region, comprehensive planning is required for successful planning and development which involves systematic approach and series of steps that has been mentioned above. In addition, there are still several issues to be considered regarding to tourism planning for tourism development in the destination especially in terms of the complications and issues that tourism planner may encounters. Refer to the previous Claire A. Gunn descriptions of issues or challenges in the field of tourism planning; the major issues that probably face by the tourism planner in the destination are the lack of system of planning and the dramatic evolutionary changes for aboriginal societies and acculturation.

The lack of system of planning can occur in which there is no enough balance between two main drivers of tourism elements both demand and supply. The limited supply in the destination which are include limited infrastructure, accommodation, natural and human resources, as well as tourist attractions would not enough to fulfill the high tourism demand as both elements are dependent on each other. Besides, due to the majority of the island population are ethnic groups and they seems to be distrustful of strangers it will be difficult for the community to develop tourism plan because it requires them adaptation with the industrial societies and they need to decide which areas of the community that will be shared with the tourists and how the community will capture the benefits. Since they need to have a contact with the tourists, it will also lead to modification of the culture as a result of contact of different culture.

5.0 Conclusion

The Central Highlands of the Island which is the main discussion in this paper, as a tourist destination region, still have a very little development on tourism due to the lack or limited of supply and natural resources (fresh water) that are important to support for tourism activities and development. One way is that the local government needs to encourage tourism planning and get involve the community in the process and decision making, and use different approaches of tourism planning that play important role in the tourism development in the region. Thus, planning is necessary for tourism in the area to develop at the same time it will provide benefits for the communities in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects of tourism. Besides, comprehensive planning should be also applied by involving series of steps to achieve specific objectives of tourism development and highly coordinated with the local community and regional planning efforts. However, there are also some issues or challenges in the tourism planning that planners might face include the lack system of planning and acculturation in the area since the community has to still maintain and protect their strong and unique cultures.

Five Forces Analysis: Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

The tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry is defined, not in terms of the production of special types of goods and services, but in terms of the circumstances at which goods and services are consumed. Hence, the sale of a particular good or service to a tourist is “tourist expenditure”. As a result of this difference in concept, this industry overlaps the usual classification of the industries defined according to the goods or services they produce (Luck & Lancaster, 2003)

This research paper analyzes the tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry basing on the economic analysis tools by Porter, Porter (1980) proposed that firms benefit from the understanding of the forces which drive competition and the profitability in their industry, and he specifies that all firms should explicitly formulate a kind of competitor strategy. (Matthews, 2000) in order to understand the competition, a very competitive analysis should be undertaken. The Porter’s model is also referred to as the five forces competitive analysis.

Generally the tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry has a unique business environment which affects all the competitors. According to Porter, five macro factors that influence the industry can be identified in relation to competition; (1) The bargaining power of the customers (buyers). This force shows the strength in the bargaining position, particularly the price, which the buyers have over their suppliers. (2) The bargaining power of the suppliers. The Suppliers, including the employees, influences the attractiveness and the profitability of the sector by increasing the prices (or the wages) thereby increasing the industrial costs and reducing the profit margins. Powerful suppliers are the organizations which control the supply of goods and services to the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry. (3) The threat from the new entrants. The threat from the new entrants is dependent upon the barriers to entry into the industry. This is based on the ability to generate the economies of scale and experience, the opportunities for the product differentiation, the amount of capital which is required to buy into the industry, and access the distribution channels. In the tourism, Leisure and Hospitality, there are low barriers to the entry in most sectors. (4) The threat of the substitutes. The Substitute industries which provide the competing product with offers that perform the same function. The Continual advancement in the technology keeps on changing the potential threat from the substitute products. For instance, the rapid development of the video-conferencing is a substitute product for the hotel meetings.

Introduction

The Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry is an identifiable and nationally important industry. This industry involves a wide cross section of the component activities which includes the provision of the transportation, accommodation, recreation, food, and the related services .Tourism refers to the provision of the transportation, accommodation, recreation, food, and the related services both for the domestic and the overseas travelers. It involves travelling for all purposes, including recreational and business. Hospitality and tourism are certainly two of the most widely used words in the fields of hotels, restaurants, travel, and related areas.

Leisure is a sector that is growing rapidly, with the regular shows and events hosted regularly. Leisure is recognized as the essential factor which contributes to the demand for the tourism and recreation.( Kotler,& Keller, 2006). Leisure is an important factor which contributes to supply. It is therefore the anticipation of leisure which is the operational demand factor, whereas the use of leisure is a factor of supply. The Leisure time is the fundamental resource that is input and consumed in the tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry. The leisure/entertainment events have created employment for thousands of people in a diverse range of roles. This is a multidimensional sector which provides a variety of services in the areas that include the corporate events such as the product launches, press conferences, corporate meetings and the conferences, the marketing programs; road shows and the grand opening events i.e special corporate hospitality events like the concerts, award ceremonies, film premieres, launch/release parties, the fashion shows, commercial events, private events such as the weddings and other parties. The industry also includes fields such as the exhibitions, conferences and the seminars as well as the live music and the sporting events. This research paper analyzes and links the tourism, leisure and Hospitality industry through the provision of the creative, technical and the logistical insights.

Methodology

This research employed a web based survey in gathering data on the industrial analysis. I analyzed several theories that act as the strategic tools for analysis. The instrument was divided into two parts;

The “Descriptive Analysis”, which describes the tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industrial analysis basing on Porters model of analysis.

The “Critical Analysis”, which assesses the extent to which various factors identified by Porter influence the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry.

The contexts for the study were based on the distinctive nature of the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry. Information was collected in the process of evaluation of the influences of the fundamental factors that determine the profitability: Industry structure, that determines the profitability of the average competitor and sustainable competitive advantage that allows a firm to outperform the average competitor” (Porter, 1979).

Analysis of selected industry

This paper examines the five forces which impact competitiveness within and thus the profitability of a competitor in the Tourism, Leisure and the Hospitality industry. From the guidance provided in the Five Factor Model recommendations are made to enhance and refine this industry.

Porter’s Five Factor Model

The five forces that impact on the competitiveness which are outlined in the Porter’s 1980 work are: the barriers to entry, threat of substitutes, the bargaining power of the buyers and sellers, and the rivalry among existing competitors. In considering these factors in light of the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry, the theory provides the best means for analysis. According to Porter each of the above factors has a difference in relevance or impacts differently on the businesses so they are presented below in order of impact. Porter (1980) indicated that the most important determinant of a marketplace’s profit potential is the intrinsic power of the buyers and the sellers.

Threat of Substitute Goods

In the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry there is usually higher chances to start a new business and progress successfully. The firms appear in all price ranges, with variations in the levels of service and the amenities. The constant challenge will always be to get the customers to choose your services over the competitor. With the technological advancements the internet makes the overall market to be more efficient while expanding the size of the potential market and creating the new substitution threats. Given the potency of this industry a superb strategic plan is vital.

The threat is that another firm chain may erode the customer base with a newly formulated internet approach or the marketing campaign. According to Porter the development of a value chain process analysis, supported by the collaborative event management, the structuring and sharing of the customer focused value chain data, powerfully enhances the performance of the value chains and of the electronic commerce.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Business persons choosing a firm for business in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry are the savvy consumers and they are at par with the changes in the ability of their consumers. It has become very simple for the consumers to go online and survey on the best firm that offers great services. They no longer need the assistance from the travel agents, the corporate travel consultants or the middle men of any kind to determine where they will get their services. Porter’s model predicts the ability of the buyers bargaining power to elimination the intermediaries.

The Tourists who are the major consumers in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry are more and more capable of making use of the technological advancements in the means of communication such as the internet to increase their bargaining power thereby creating the fulfillment of Porter’s model. Due to the increased bargaining power of the consumers, they are finding internet businesses websites which will negotiate or discover the bargains for them. These processes shifts the bargaining power to the end user as it had been predicted by the Porter model and these buyer freedom reduces the cost of switching so that the loyalty to a single firm is a thing of the past unless the particular firm uses its one time opportunity when the customer sticks to the firm it deeply impress other customers with a very unique and valuable differentiator.

The Rivalry among existing competitors

The rivalry amongst the competitors in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry is fierce. When the potential customers learn about a hotel on line, the internet reduces the differences amongst the competitors. Business people tend to seek the best prices for the best experience and the tendency is to reduce the prices to a competitive level. This industry covers wide area so the market is widened which increases the number of the competitors. For example, someone who wants to spend the day in the historic site can easily choose a tourist firm in the nearby town if the amenities or the prices are low. The Variable and fixed costs can be different in the areas which are more expensive to live.

Barriers to Entry

The initial investments in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry creates quite a barrier to the entry but certain barriers to entering the tourism market are reduced by the internet. The presence on many efficient communication channels reduces the upstart marketing costs somewhat, and gives the new competitors the access to the potential suppliers and the resources. Even a starter in the industry can use the channels of large chains to understand the key marketing concepts and the lures for the customers.

A vital barrier is the differentiation. A firm that can successfully differential itself by the location, service, amenities or other quality has the greatest potential to attract and keep the clients. Another barrier to entry into business in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry would be the expertise. Unfortunately, in a mobile society employees can leave one firm chain to work in another and they take that expertise in terms of the training given or the experience with them. It is in the areas of expertise and of differentiation that a firm can make the greatest impacts on its clients and thereby on the bottom line. Many established tourism, leisure and Hospitality companies have the synergies between their established business and business channels.

Bargaining power of the suppliers

This is not a substantial threat in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry it can have the impacts especially in the area of the suppliers. The employees to the firms are the major suppliers, the bargaining power of the labor supply is higher when there are fewer people to fill service section of the industry, and the firms can attract excellent staff and create a chance for providing excellent and exceptional experiences to their clientele. As part of their strategy all the firm chains should have section employee recruitment. The other supplies that are needed by hotels are also easier to attain through internet channels whether originated by the supplier or by the hotel chain. With their products in the greater demand by greater numbers of the firms the suppliers gain more measure of power by competition for their offerings.

Findings about the industry

All of the firms in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry can benefit from Porters model of analysis because of the applications that produce greater value in the value chain, the industry is dominated by a few large companies. They have the greatest market shares and in most cases they influence the structure and shaping of the industry. The firm’s planning sector can benefit from analysis. They usually aim at making the profit and are usually commercial companies. When they fail to make a profit over a long period of time they are likely to cease trading. These include the parks, restaurants, tour operators and the travel agents. The Human resources can be managed by the analysis as part of the overall strategy as well as the provision for self service personnel and benefits, Value can be increased by standardizing the firms across multiple locations, forming knowledge directories, and allowing real time access to the resources by the consumers. , every firm could benefit by controlling and forecasting systems with suppliers as explained by Porter. These improvements can also lead to greater profitability (Porter, 1980)

Each type of firm needs to identify its unique strengths and the target market and align its strategy to support their identity, the firms’ chains choose to be low cost, or to command the premium price. Distinguishing a firm from the competition becomes vital. This can easily be enhanced by porter’s model, through the superior inputs, through better training of the staff as part of the supplier or through the better management. Differentiation adds value which makes it hard to maintain the distinctive strategic positions of a firm because it eases change to best practices and it improves the operational effectiveness. These distinctions make the business more profitable.

The firms in the Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality industry are fragmented. Therefore there is need for a strategy which makes it easier for consumers from far and wider areas to learn about the firms or to order for the services, the consumers must still access the services. It more likely for the profitability to be there for when process is easy to transact and complete. Porter points out similar examples within the industries. Dealing directly is great for the firms. Other than travel agencies who arranged hotel stays the tourism business has always been a face to face business and this normally sustains the economic value of the transactions. For all of the firms’ chains the porter’s model complements rather than cannibalizing the established ways of doing business. Hence it becomes a link in the value chain.

Conclusion

Whether a firm or its chain is well established or brand new, the underlying forces of competition will include: the threat of substitution, bargaining power of the buyers, the intensity of rivalry among competitors, the barriers to entry for new competitors, and the bargaining power of the suppliers helps to determine the profitability shapes its internet presence. When combined, these factors determine the economic value and even the survival. The porter’s model of industrial analysis provides the opportunities for the companies to communicate and establish the unique or distinctive positions for the businesses. In the case of tourism firms this is crucial.

The Porter’s five factor model helps to understand the rise of new ideas and the business firms in the context of the bargaining power of the Buyers. It helps in the understanding of what factors drives the businesses to differentiate themselves. It also helps in explaining why the labor may have greater bargaining power in the firms under the tourism industry; Porter’s concept of the “Bargaining power of Suppliers” determines the strength of the industry.

In reviewing the strategies of firm chains, differentiation is the key component. Some firms have chosen to differentiate by location and by very luxurious experience. Others have differentiated themselves by standardization means and by the price. The firms’ strategies must align with their business strategy in order to produce the desired profitability; Porter’s model leads the way of outlining the issues and the dangers which are inherent in each force.

In this paper, the recommendations for successful industrial analysis are made based on Porter’s model and the implementation of its suggestions could ensure a greater or continued profitability at the time planning and the structuring. This includes not only the customer interaction but also the applications in a variety of areas such as supply chain, the financial and Human Resources to increase the value chain. For the final analysis, however, Porter makes it clear that the model can add value when it is used in conjunction with other good business strategies.

Tourism in Sri Lanka – Essay

Sri Lanka is one of the most sorts for tourist destinations in the world. It is advantageously situated between West Asia and South East Asia has been a significant stop on the silk route. To express the richness, beauty and the intensity of affection: the visitors addressed the country as Serendib, Ceylon, Teardrop of India, Resplendent Isle, Island of Dharma, and Pearl of the Orient.(Lanka Facts, 2012).

Today, visitors are welcomed to Sri Lanka to experience the nation’s glittering tapestry of culture, and the rich abundance of nature, so handsomely bestowed, and to give credence to the old adage that good things come in small packages. Its landscape orientation especially the Warm Sun kissed Beaches creates mix of opportunities which lead to the final holiday destination. The diversity of temperatures, vegetation and scenery grab a large sense towards Srilanka. It is a most demanding country for lovers of nature and wild life because tourism offers safaris, Treks, Nature walks and Camping that could be a marvelous experience for them. The entire island is swarming with birds and animals. And the animals like elephants and leopards are not scarce. Though foods are not much expensive: they are tasty and the people of the country are very friendly and helpful.This colourful collection act as an indicator of its richness.

All requirements are equipped in the country and it is to be one of the best tourist destinations with absolute peace, political stability and the climatic changes can be seen through beautiful waterfalls, rivers, sceneries, tea estates and many other attractive places. Sri Lanka is owned for a rich heritage and it has a recorded history of more than 2500 years and archaeological sites over 250,000.There are 8 world heritage sites within the country that was approved by the UNESCO and they are the hill capital kandy, the sacred city of Anuradapura, The Dutch fort of Galle, The ancient city of Polonnaruwa, The rock fortress of Sigiriya, The golden rock temple of Dambulla, the beautiful Horton plains and the Singharaja rain forest (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2011). So, without a doubt a land like Sri lanka cannot be found because it has something to offer for everyone.

The increase of tourism occurred in 2011 and is expected to climb further in the coming years. Colombo the capital city, the Cultural Triangle (Dambulla, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura), the cities like Kandy and Galle, and most of the southern beach towns which are equipped with good tourist facilities, the roads connecting many of those destinations are improving. The pro of Sri Lanka as a tourism destination is threefold. Firstly, it is a real tourism destination. Secondly, a tourist can travel the whole compact island within few days because it consists only 65,610 square km.Thirdly, it has unparalleled diversity of tourism product. For the ease of communicating the diversity of Sri Lanka in 2010, 8 different products namely; heritage, beaches, wildlife, mind and body wellness, scenic beauty festivals, Essence and sports and adventure are started to position around the country by the tourism authorities. (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2011). Art and culture, spices, tea, gems, handy crafts and its people are the unique features of Srilanka which are also known as the essence of the country. From the ancient time the travellers and the traders have attracted to Sri Lanka and it is a languorous tropical island of deep spirituality and serenity. Sri Lanka grabbed the Western imagination as the Tahiti of the East.

5.2.1 Institutional structure of tourism industry in Sri Lanka

Tourism industry is under the Ministry of Tourism. Four sections of it are; Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (formed in 2005 by replacing Sri Lanka Tourist Board which was established in 1966), Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Sri Lanka Institute of Hotel Management and Sri Lanka Convention Bureau. While Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is responsible for all the tourism development activities, the responsibility of all the marketing and promotional work goes to the Tourism promotion Bureau.

5. 2.1 History of tourism industry in Sri Lanka

Marco Polo mentioned the Sri Lanka as the finest isle in the whole world as a well-known explorer of the 12th century. For European Travellers it had been a immense tourism destination. (Lanka Facts, 2012). However, the year 1966 was a landmark for international tourism in Sri Lanka, with the enactment of the Ceylon Tourist Board Act No. 10 of 1966. The Act provided permission for the establishment of a public authority known as the Ceylon Tourist Board for encouragement, promotion and development of tourist travel to Sri Lanka (Deheragoda 1980). According to this Act, the Board objectives are numerous: establishment of an institute to control the tourist industry, to encourage people to provide an efficient, attractive and adequate service, the encouraging, promotion and development of the travel trade (Deheragoda 1980; Zoysa 1978). After the establishment of the Ceylon Tourist Board, the Sri Lankan tourist industry has systematically developed drawing much foreign exchange into the country (Handaragama, 2010).

From 1966 onwards, the tourist industry gradually inherited results of many mentioned implemented programs for the development of the industry. In 1977 the tourist industry had full attention and support of the government with the introduction of open economic policies and liberalization of the economy, because it was quite a suitable field for the operationalisation of the open economic policies. The tourist industry is gradually developing and reached a milestone in 1983 with ethnic problem with its manifestations particularly in the forms of conflicts in the North and East and bomb explosions in Colombo, threatening the safety of the tourists (Bandara, 2003).

According to ADB (1998), until the early 1980s 76 percent of tourism accommodation in the country is owned and forced by the Hotel Corporation (a semi-privatized formerly state owned body).During this era (between mid-1960s and early 1980s) as a result of the state investments, the tourism accommodation facilities expanded. However, with the introduction of liberalized economic policies in 1977, significant amounts of national and international investments were made to construct the accommodation of tourism, mainly in Colombo and the Southwest coast which ultimately lead to control the large part of the inbound tourist market by the private sector. (Sri Lanka, Tourist Boar d, 2003).

Growth of the tourism industry got stagnated because of the 30 year long internal conflict and terrorism which caused a negative impact on tourism. With the end of the conflict in 2009, created a lot of opportunities through tourism industry. (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, 2011). Sri Lanka had an expansion of 46% in tourism arrivals in 2010 just after the end of the war. The tourism arrivals got doubled from 2009 to 2011 with the number of arrivals attaining 855,975 as at end 2011(Figure 5.2). In 2012, Sri Lanka was named as the best valued destination for holidays by the post office worldwide holiday costs barometer.

5.2.2 Present situation of Sri Lankan tourism

United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) lists Sri Lanka with a 50 percent growth in tourist arrivals among 77 countries that have reported international arrivals data. So that, the year 2011 has been a significant year for tourism industry as the arrival target was over 750,000. Sri Lanka recorded 856,000 tourist arrivals with a 30 percent annual growth at the end of 2011and also expects 30 percent growth as well in this year because the country has performed well compared to the world tourism industry. The sector envisaged 30 percent growth for 2011 with revenue of US $ 839 million (Ref). The hotel occupancy rate has increased up to 77 percent and it has created employment for about 125,000 persons. Compared to other industries it has the fastest growth prospects. Though Sri Lanka is predominantly a beach destination, it could offer culture, nature, agro, community, religious and spiritual attractions by now.

Thirty year ethnic conflict of the country has been negatively affected for the growth and the development of the tourism industry (Ganegodage and Rambaldi, 2012). Sri Lankan government is now organizing several events and is in the process of developing the industry in order to make Sri Lanka a top tourism destination in the world. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority will do their best to develop unique, quality and diverse tourism products and services that would globally make Sri Lanka as a unique destination. Identifying and developing tourist specific unique products and services, formulating and implementing Tourism Development Guidelines, facilitating and implementing the legal and administrative process for new product and service development are some activities done by the authority. (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2011).

Main markets of tourism in Sri Lanka

Table 5.2 and Figure 5.4 shows a detailed account of the source of foreign visitors to the top 10 source nations the top ten source markets for tourism to Sri Lanka within the years 2010 and 2011. Sri Lanka relies greatly on Western European markets, especially the United Kingdom and Germany who rotate between second and third place as key source nations. However, India became the largest single source of arrivals in Sri Lanka. During this period, France, Maldives, Australia, Canada USA, the Netherlands and Russia also have become strong source markets. (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2011).

When tourist arrivals are analyzed by regions, in 2010 and 2011, most of the tourists are from Asia and the Western Europe. Next highest number is coming from Middle East followed by Eastern Europe and North America (Figure 5.4). Thus, these are the important markets of tourism of the country.

Main tourist attractions of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a large number of tourist attractions for different types of visitors. Bentota, Beruwala, Hikkaduwa, Galle, Negombo and Trincomalee are the dominant beaches in Sri Lanka and they are famous for relaxing, sun bathing and surfing. The living heritage of Sri Lanka of 2500 years was discovered by the culture & heritage. It was founded in the 5th century BC, when the Buddhism was first introduced to the island. Anuradhapura can be recognized as the capital city of Buddhism.

The oldest living tree in documented history is the sacred Bo tree, grown from a sapling of the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightment.(Lanka Facts, 2012). Sigiriya the 8th Wonder of the World. “Veddha’s” also known as aborigines of Sri Lanka.They are the Sri Lanka’s indigenous people.Wildlife is a vital assert. Animals such as Elephants, Leopards, Black Bears and many more can meet face to face with Jungle wildlife sanctuaries. Nature Witness the unmatched bio-diversity of Sri Lanka is waterfalls, misty hills, breezy mountains and Sinharaja Rain Forest. Sinharaja is a world heritage named by United Nations. The World Tourism Organization describes that Sri Lanka has the advantage of having 49 sites classified as unique attractions, 91 as rare attractions, and 7 world heritage sites, and 6 of the 300 ancient monuments in the world. (Asia-planet.net, 2012).

Purposes of visiting the country by tourists

The main purpose of visiting the country by tourists is to have pleasure. During vacations, most of the tourists come to the country to engage in various entertaining activities such as visiting beaches for swimming surfing, boating, fishing, jungle tracking for rock climbing, hiking, wild life seeing , bird watching, and so on. Therefore, it is very important to provide facilities for these activities at the best level. However, tourist coming for business, visiting friends and relations, religious and cultural activities are comparatively lower (Table 5.2).

5.2.3 Future development of the sector

There are 2 stages of the future tourism development in Sri Lanka. First stage is to be reached in 2016 and the second is in 2020. The main goal of the first stage is to attract 2.5 Million high spending foreign tourists by the year 2016 (Figure 5.5) and the main target of the second stage is to get 4 million tourists to the country (Figure 5.6).

Tourism targets during 2010-2016

The five year master plan prepared by the Department of National Planning for the period of 2011 – 2016 tackle a range of issues related to Sri Lanka Tourism Strategy including environmental, economic, social, cultural, institutional and promotional aspects together with their mutual relations with the National Development agenda, in order to create a favourable environment to achieve expected tourist proceeds by 2016 (Department of National Planning, 2010).

The key objectives to be achieved by the 5 year strategy are

®Increase tourist arrivals from 650,000 in 2010 to 2.5 Million by 2016.

®Attract USD 3,000 Million with 5 years of time as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the country.

® Tourism related employment increase by125, 000 in 2010 to 500,000 by 2016 and island widely expand tourism based industry and service.

® Integrate tourism to the real economy by distributing the economic benefits of tourism to a larger cross section of the society.

® Increase Foreign exchange earnings from USD 500 Million in 2010 to USD 2.75 Billion by 2016.

®Contribute towards getting better global trade and economic linkages of Sri Lanka.

® Position Sri Lanka as the world’s most precious island for tourism.

(Department of National Planning, 2010)

Tourism targets during 2010-2020

The vision of the government is to change the Sri Lankan tourism sector, by 2020, to be the biggest foreign exchange earner in the economy and to position Sri Lanka as the world’s most treasured and Greenest isle and draw high spending tourists while protecting the cultural values, natural habitats and environment of the country.

Tourism development in the country: provincial level

Provinces are the first level administrative division in Sri Lanka. In 1833, they were firstly established by British rulers of Ceylon. Then in the next century most of the administrative functions were transferred to the second level administrative division which is known as districts. Because of increasing demand for decentralization, in 1987 this change was done. In 1978 Provincial councils were established by the Constitution of Sri Lanka (Mongabay.com, 2012). Presently the nine provinces are named as Central, North Central Eastern, North Western, Northern, Sabaragamuwa, Uva and Western Southern (Figure 5).

Ministry of tourism develop and manage tourism activities in each and every province because of the decentralization of the power. In line with the tourism development of the national government, provincial councils have development tourism master plans and implemented them during 2010-2016. Most of the tourism development programs of these provinces are mainly focused on rural tourism and niche markets such as nature tourism, ecotourism, culture tourism, agritourism in a sustainable way. Main aim of these tourism development programs is community empowerment and rural development.

Motivation of local tourists

Government expects to increase demand from domestic tourists, while planning to make additional foreign income to the country by providing facilities for foreign tourists to make additional foreign income to the country. Country’s total population is 21,283,913 (2011 estimated) and 0.934% is its growth rate is (2011 estimated). 14%from the total population is owned by the urban population (2010) and the annual urbanization changing rate is 1.1% (2010-15 estimated). Furthermore, age structure of the country is 0-14 years: 24.9%, 15-64 years: 67.2% and 65 years and over: 7.9% (2011 estimated) (Sri Lanka Demographics Profile, 2012. A positive background will be created in many ways in future because quantitatively and qualitatively local demand for tourism is rising. By using the print and electronic media government is trying to promote the less attractive places and grab the awareness which will help to fulfil the purpose of establishing a good culture among Sri Lankan travellers. (Department of National Planning, 2012).

When focusing the evolution of tourism industry in the country, there had been a flourishing period in the past. But, due to some bad experiences such as few youth unrest situations and revolutions, 1989-1992 a huge tsunami in 2004 and severe ethnic way during 2008-2009: the performance had gone down in the near past. However, recently, it is booming and the national government and the provincial councils have implemented lots of plans to get the optimum benefits of tourism in future.

The Tourism In Nepal Tourism Essay

Situated between China and India lies the small land-locked country of Nepal. Slightly larger than the state of Arkansas, Nepal contains eight of the world’s ten highest mountain peaks making it a popular destination for adventurous tourists. Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world. The country’s population reached more than 21 million in 1994 yet the per capita income is one of the world’s lowest at $160 a year. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for over ninety percent of the population. Nepal is also a producer of cannabis for both the domestic and international markets as well as the transit point for heroin into the West. With the growing number of tourists, however, the Nepalese Government is trying to exploit this resource as well. One Nepalese ecologist says “There are now three religions in Nepal — Hinduism, Buddhism, and tourism.” The influx of tourists has had dramatic effects on the environment and on the local communities who come into contact with the tourists. It is no longer uncommon to find discarded rubbish along the trekking trails. Just as common is the soil erosion during the monsoons as a result of severe deforestation, also caused by tourism. “Tourism is not only the goose that lays golden eggs…it also fouls its own nest,” says a Nepalese scientist.

The Nepalese portion of the Himalayas was “long remote from the main pathways of international tourism.” The first Americans and Europeans did not enter the region until 1950. Up until 1964 only mountaineering expeditions were permitted to visit the area. In 1971, scarcely one thousand visitors came to visit. “A decade later five times that number visited, and by the end of the 1980s tourists numbered more than 8,000 annually.” In 1993, the figure “was closer to 300,000.” The Nepalese Government hopes to attract a million people within the next ten years. More than ninety percent of these tourists are trekkers, coming mostly from the United States and Western Europe, but also from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

With the steady stream of visitors, at least $60 million in foreign currency has been generated each year. One person who is fearful of what this may do to the local cultures and to the environment is Sir Edmund Hillary, now 75. Hillary believes that explorers have an obligation to protect the very things which they come to marvel.

He was a driving force behind the creation of the Sagarmatha National Park and has established a trust which builds schools, hospitals, clinics, bridges and water systems for the Sherpas, whose culture is threatened the most.

Most tourists come to Nepal to trek through the mountains. Trekking may be arranged by a service and done in a group or on one’s own. Group treks are typically prearranged and paid for abroad or in the capital city of Kathmandu. The other alternative is to trek individually without the services of a trekking company.

Individuals instead rely on the villages along the way for food and lodging.

About one-half of the trekkers who come to Nepal, come with commercial groups. These treks generally last between twenty-two and twenty-five days. A trek for twelve clients will contain a support staff of approximately fifty members. Because these groups pay to make arrangements, little money goes to the local communities. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that “only 20 cents of every $3 spent by an average trekker each day reaches village economies. The rest goes for goods imported from outside, notably

the West.” Individual trekkers, however, rely upon local guides and families. This means that more money is dispersed to the local communities.

Regardless of how one travels, the environment and local communities are affected. Mountain trekking is part of a new type of tourism called “adventure tourism.” Adventure tourism attracts people who desire to see exotic and unknown places, primarily in the developing world. Adventure tourists, the name given to tourists who seek this type of tourism, are searching for “authenticity.” This means that the mountain treks are slow journeys which pass through the landscape, “allowing time to

explore both nature and village life.” The core problem is that the environment and communities begin to change as a result of their newfound popularity. The local cultures become influenced by the presence of the trekkers and become modernized in their own

way. Hence, they are no longer considered “authentic” and new “ever more remote locations” must be found. The idea behind “adventure tourism” is that the more remote a location is, the more it is desirable. This means that unless precautions are taken,

degradation will inevitably occur.

Perhaps the most visible impact of trekkers on the Himalaya is the growing amount of rubbish left behind. Galen Rowell wrote of the Himalayas,

The solitary splendor is dazzling – until I glance down

at my feet. There, frozen into the ice cap of Tharpu

Chuli, lies a miniature garbage dump; discarded candy

wrappers, film cartons, plastic bags, wads of tissue, and

half-empty food cans, all of it left by foreign climbing

groups. It is a familiar and sickening sight to old

Himalaya hands – the growing pollution of a priceless

heritage.

It is estimated that over the past forty years, eighteen tons of garbage, “from tin cans and beer bottles to oxygen tanks…(this does not include such items as abandoned helicopters)” have been dumped on Mount Everest alone. (The helicopters are a new form of tourism, called Sky Treks, for those who do not desire to hike up the mountains. Tourists instead ride helicopters to the top of the mountains, take their pictures, and then return to the bottom again.) Other estimates place the accumulated rubbish at fifty tones which will cost approximately $500,000 to clean up.

A second, and perhaps greater problem than all of the rubbish, is deforestation. Many visitors come to Nepal expecting to see massive forests along the slopes of the Khumba. They do not come expecting to find Western amenities. Often the reverse is true.

Western amenities assault the visitors in the teahouses and guest lodges they find along the trails while the forests are all but gone.

Over the years, the influx of tourists has encouraged changes in the use of forests for fuel wood and construction materials. The forests have typically been used by the Nepali for fuel wood. However, the consumption rates between Nepalis and tourists greatly differs and this is where the problem lies. The demand for fuelwood from tourists has always been a concern for the park planners, administrators, and managers. They consider “fuel-wood use by mountaineering and trekking groups to be one of the main environmental threats” to the parks.

“It has been estimated that four times as much fuel wood is needed to cook a meal for a Western tourist than for a Nepali due largely to differences in diet.” Add to that the fuel wood needed for the daily hot showers and for the bonfires to keep them warm and

“the impact on the forests is devastating.” One trekker alone consumes five to ten times more fuel-wood than one Nepali. In addition to the trekkers who are consuming gross amounts of fuel wood, there are also the estimated “150,000 guides, porters, cooks, and other support staff” who are traveling with the trekkers and who need fuel wood as well.

Massive amounts of fuel wood are needed by the teahouses and guest lodges as well. More and more people are staying in the lodges and the number of lodges has quadrupled since 1976. The lodges and teahouses may use “up to four times as much fuel wood a day” as does a local’s household.” Others have estimated the amount of fuel wood used by one trekker per day to be more firewood than the average Nepali uses in an entire week.

By 1979, the park authorities of Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park were beginning to see how extensive the deforestation, as a result of tourism, was becoming. As a result, they banned the use of wood for cooking and bonfires. All expedition and trekking groups now must use kerosene stoves to cook. However, there have been no restrictions on the fuel-wood used by loges and teahouses. This must surely change if the country wants to preserve the forests it still has remaining.

In the Annapurna Conservation Area, a program was created to link conservation and development benefits, through tourism and involving the local people. The program helped the local lodge owners see the benefits of halting deforestation. While the trees did provided needed fuel wood, their elimination would destroy the beauty that many of the visitors came to see. The program “organized lodge owners and all agreed to honor a requirement that trekking expeditions had to bring in their own kerosene.”

As a result of the burgeoning influx of tourists, the Nepalese Government began to establish wildlife reserves, national parks, conservation areas, and hunting reserves in 1976. The first three of these protected areas are recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) now the

World Conservation Union.

One of the most famous conservation areas is the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) created in 1986. ACAP “was designed to minimize the negative impact from tourism and promote conservation and the socioeconomic development of the region.”

ACAP is unique in that it calls for the participation and management by the local people.

The project is based on the belief that properly managed tourism can bring benefits both to the land and to the people. “Tourists are regarded as partners in fulfilling the goals of biodiversity conservation, cultural revitalisation and sustainable economic

development.” ACAP managers and developers believe that mountain trekking is a form of education which can be used to benefit the

Annapurna region. In addition, the trekkers provide much needed revenue that can be used for further conservation and development programs.

Most tourists come to Nepal either during the “cool, clear days of October and November or during the secondary peak season that extends from March through early May.”

Tourism has contributed in depletion of forest resources in Nepal. It was estimated in one report that per capita fuel wood consumption per individual tourist and group tourist was 5.5 kg and 18.5 kg respectively.

Economic Data

Industry output was $60 million may be as high as 75% concentration in some areas. “Tourism provides the single largest source of foreign exchange for the country’s development plans and the largest source of employment besides agriculture for Nepali

nationals.” Tourism is also the major source of employment for many residents. Employment from tourism is seasonal as a result of the weather. Most people employed by the tourism industry work only four or five months a year. It also varies from community to community depending on the popularity and location of the village.

For most family members, the income is earned through trekking as guides, leaders, cooks, porters, and kitchen crews. During the expeditions the Nepali’s hired to assist trekkers are fed, lodged, and provided with equipment so they return home with all of their earnings. Employment in trekking has been predominate for men but the number of women earning income from trekking is on the rise.

There has also been an increase in the employment and income generated from the establishment of tea houses along the trekking route. An increasing number of tourists “carry light day packs and eat and sleep in the lodges for just a few dollars a day.”

A frequent complaint among the tourists is the lack of sanitary facilities. Sagarmatha National Park, the park which encompasses Mt. Everest, is getting a bad reputation as a result of all the trash. It is ironic that it is the tourists who are causing these problems, yet they believe that it is up to the park authorities to alleviate them.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates that if present rates of deforestation continue, Nepal’s forests will be gone by the year 2000. This is troublesome not only because of the soil erosion and habitat loss which result, but also because 86 percent of Nepal’s

energy comes from its forests.

CULTURAL IMPACTS

The influx of tourists have had a significant effect on the local communities, especially the Sherpas (a Nepali ethnic group) who live around the trekking routes. The culture of the Sherpas has been changed as well as the structure of the local economies.

When the first trekkers came to Nepal, the Sherpa paid little attention to them. Now that the numbers have increased and the Sherpas’ services are in demand (Sherpas have historically acted as guides, leaders, cooks, porters, etc.), trekking has encouraged a “get-rich-quick” mentality. The result has been a decrease in agricultural production, since it generates less income, and a decrease in school attendance, children dream of becoming guides and drop out of school the moment they get the chance to join an

expedition. The Sherpa see money now when they see a “white face.”

Villages are also becoming more dependent on cash rather than the traditional means of barter and reciprocal labor. This has meant that villages are changing from being self-reliant into beingdependent on “tourist dollars and outside resources to meet their

daily needs.” More and more agricultural fields are left fallow as more men are leaving to seek wealth from tourism. This means that more food must come from outside and that there is less of it, causing higher prices. The higher prices are a hardship on those families who do not have income from tourism. Other traditions are disappearing such as the custom of drinking Tibetan salt-and butter tea. The price of butter makes this drink nearly unaffordable and the supply of tea is uncertain since trade has also been disrupted by the beckoning wealth of tourism employment.

The Sherpas have not saved or invested any of their income generated from tourism. Rather, they have spent it on Western items, further degrading their traditional culture. “Trekking Sherpas,” as they have come to be known as, have discarded their traditional dress for “imported hiking boots, colorful wool sweaters, and down parkas.”

The division of the village into trekking Sherpa and non-trekking Sherpa has resulted in the creation of a new type of class. Whereas there were always class divisions in the past, all of the people dressed and lived in a relatively similar manner. Today donning the Western wear, the trekking Sherpa and his wealth is easy to distinguish from a farmer.

Another affect of tourism is that local crafts are dying out. These crafts can not generated the same amount of income as tourism and the supplies needed are harder to obtain. The Sherpa now have access to cash, hence they are now able to purchase manufactured items rather than make their own. Wool is one item which has become scarce, hence layers of cotton must be bought and worn to keep warm.

Trekking is one of the highest paying employments in Nepal today. The wealth available from this job draws many youngsters out of school and into tourism. Teaching and government jobs, once considered very prestigious, are no longer desirable since they do not provide the same income as trekking. It is ironic that many youngsters are leaving school since one of the qualifications needed today in trekking is knowledge of spoken and written Nepali and English. The youngsters may be even more valuable if they would continue their education rather than leave after a few years. It is also ironic that the Sherpa do not enjoy the trekking. To them, “climbing is simply a high-paying job.”

The trekking Sherpa are also forced to reflect the image projected upon them by the Western visitors. The Sherpa wear masks, having a public side for the world to see and a private side which is true to themselves. It is hard for the Sherpa, who work twenty-four hours a day, to maintain the public mask. Some Sherpa see themselves partly as actors and entertainers. It is only when the trek has ended that they may unveil themselves and “engage in drinking binges and general hell-raising that may go on for

days.”

Finally, there is the disruption to the family life. The men are often away from the home ten months of the year. Many of the trekking Sherpa who are married, keep another woman in the cities where they stay in-between treks. Other Sherpa are enticed by the forward gestures of Western women, who often initiate the affair. “A number of Sherpa women have lost their husbands or fiancaa‚¬A?s to foreign women.”

Perhaps a far greater concern is the loss of life. The decreasing number of young men has meant that many women are burdened with raising the children and with the responsibility of the farm-work. The young unmarried women are also disadvantaged since there are fewer young men. One must begin to wonder if it is justifiable to endanger the lives of the Sherpas so that others may enjoy themselves.

Mauritius as a Tourist Destination

This part of the theoretical discussion gives an overview of Mauritius as a tourist destination. A general introduction to the cultural and geographical background with a description of tourism characteristics, attractions, as well as seasonal aspects is presented.

2.7.1 Mauritius

Mauritius is independent since 1968 and has been a republic since 1992.The population of Mauritius is 1.3 million, shared out in 1860 km2. While the official language is English mainly and French, Creole, a French derived dialect, is spoken by the majority of the population and is considered as the national language. Mauritius multicultural ethnicity made that other ancestral language such as Hindi, Tamil, Chinese, Urdu or Bhojpuri are also spoken. The capital, Port Louis, has population of 150000 citizens. Other important cities are Quatre Bornes (82 000 citizens), Rose Hill (91 500 citizens) and Curepipe (84 000 citizens).

The country has a diversified economy. Historically a sugar cane producer, Mauritius has taken the opportunity to develop itself in three sectors that are, sugar cane, textile and tourism. Tourism is a major industry representing 72% of the total GNP. Mauritius has made himself a luxurious destination for tourist. Mauritius is a tropical island located in the Indian Ocean and is part of the Mascarene Island. Considered to be the twin sister of Reunion Island, it is situated at the east of Madagascar.

Mauritius is encircled by a broken ring of mountain ranges, varying in height from 300 meters to 800 meters above sea level. The land rises from coastal plains to a central plateau where it reaches a height of 670 meters, the highest peak is in the southwest, Piton de la Petite Riviere Noire at 828 meters (2,717 ft).(Gov, 2012) The climate has two clear seasons of 6 month each; winter and summer. In summer time the temperature can rise occasionally to almost 30-35 degrees. On the other hand, it is not rare to have over 10-15 degrees during the winter time. Irregular rains caused by rapid changes in the weather characterize the Mauritius climate.

2.7.2 Tourism in Mauritius

In the past years Mauritius has been the fastest developing country in the African region measured by economic growth, inflation and increase in employment. Among the other industries: financial, agriculture and textile, tourism is a pillar in the Mauritian economy. In 2011 tourism gross receipt was 42 845 million in a year constituting 7% of the Gross Domestic Product of the island (ICCA). Mauritius has earned a reputation for excellent service in the tourism industry. In the past ten years Mauritius has become one of the most luxurious destinations in the world and has been award several times for its beautiful beaches, blue lagoons and its five stars resorts.

The tourism sector employs directly over 27 000 persons while total employment (direct, indirect and induced) stands at around 100 000 or 20% of total employment. Over 98 % of the direct employment is held by Mauritians whereas posts in selected scarcity areas are filled by expatriates. The sector also contributes to nearly 10 % in the GDP of the sector and is a significant contributor of FDI in the country. (AHRIM)

Mauritian governmental strategy in the sector is clear:

“The National Tourism Policy emphasizes low impact, high spending tourism. Selective, up-market, quality tourism is favored, and although such tourism is not the only type, it constitutes the major segment of our tourists who stay in high class hotels.” (MTLEC, 2011)

In parallel with the operation of these luxury hotels, a whole array of services has gradually evolved so as to offer the visitors a tourism product which is in line with the high expectations attributed to the Mauritius brand; Marinas, Spas, Golf courses, adventure and nature activities, shopping malls and restaurants have been set up. Tour-operators in presently in activity (Tourism Authority, 2010), offering a whole range of excursions and activities. A constantly evolving list of water-sports activities, ranging from traditional motorized sports, big-game fishing and deep-sea diving, to more elaborated products such as under-sea walk and sub-marine tours are also available to visitors.

The state of Mauritius has a yearly budget which is allocated to the Ministry of Tourism, Leisure and External Communication, the financial resources allocated to tourism related programs and promotions are increasing each year. Government investment in the tourism industry was 448 millions in 2010 and it is predicted to by around 490 millions in 2012. These investments concern policy making, regulations, controls, branding and sustainable tourism. The biggest proportion goes to the promotion of the Island. Government of Mauritius alongside with MTPA would invest in 2012 a total of 400 million rupees in the promotion of the island and its activities. (http://tourism.gov.mu)

Mauritius has performed well in developing a distinctive form of relatively high-end tourism. Growth in tourist arrivals has outpaced that of many of our competitors. Currently, the aim is to continue that growth with a visitor’s target of two million tourists a year by 2015. To achieve the set target, the number of hotels and room capacity has evolved considerably over the years to cater for the ever-increasing tourist arrivals.

2.7.3 Regulatory Bodies

The Mauritian Tourism sector is under the supervision of the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure. Promotion of the island as a destination is under the responsibility of Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA). MTPA conduct advertisement, participate in fairs, and organize fairs, activities inland and outside the island.

The Tourism Authority (TA) is responsible for licensing, regulating and supervising the activities of tourist enterprises, pleasure crafts, skippers and canvassers. “The Association des Hoteliers ET Restaurateurs de l’ile Maurice (AHRIM) is a non-profitable organization set up in 1973 to represent and promote the interests of hotels and restaurants in Mauritius.”(http://www.mauritiustourism.org/)

2.7.4 Attractions of Mauritius

Mauritius since its early stage in the industry have attracted tourist with it perfect blue lagoons, the sandy beaches, and eternal sun. The three S’ are the island main pull factors.

Almost all the tour operators deliver almost the same services and products according to the MTPA lists, the customers travel to Mauritius are for the attractions or other purposes: (MTPA, 2011)

The core product of Mauritius is the 3 “s” being Seas Sun and Sand

For the wedding and honeymoon.

For the tours to the small islands surrounding Mauritius which can be an adventure or a beautiful memory of their holidays.

For the water sports and other activities.

For the cultural tourism: historical monuments (Apravasi Ghat, Le Morne, Citadelle-Fort Adelaide, Port Louis Market and so on) and museums which contain the historical part of Mauritius when it was first found

For the spa and the relaxation moments.

For the events of different festivals in Mauritius: “Thaipoosum Cavadee& Marche sur le Feu” done by the Tamil communities; “Festival of Printemps” by the Chinese communities; “Maha Shivratree &Holi & Divali” by Hindu communities and so on.

For the multiracial food as the cultures are transferred to the food.

Offer also the IRS Villas which can be rented or bought by the customers who do not wish to live in the hotels which are all almost enclave, thus these villas will give them more liberty and get contact with local people of Mauritius.

For the natural and manmade scenery: “Vanille Crocodile Park, Casela Bird Park&SSR Botanical Garden are manmade attractions; Sept Cascades, Black River Gorges, or Chamarel are natural sightseeing”

2.7.5 Marketing of Mauritius as a destination
2.7.5.1 Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authorities

Mauritius being recognized around the world to be a tourism destination which offers a wonderful range of services including the quality made the acquaintance of the island. It is being promoted mainly by a group of tour operators which are registered at the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA); the official Promotion and Marketing Organization which is being managed by a Board of Directors (Private sector) and acts under the assistance of the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure (Public sector).

It has branches in nine countries across the world. European country (France, England, Italy, Spain and Switzerland) were the island main target during the last two decades. After the euro crisis MTPA aims the Asian market to sustain the industry. It is present in Russia, India and China. The Asian market is the upcoming leader of outbound tourism (UNWTO, (2012)). MTPA

main marketing tools are Internet, Brochures, Road Shows, Tourist Guides, Conference and presentations.

According to the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority official website, it has some objectives that it must take into consideration: (Source:http://www.tourism-mauritius.mu/mtpa/)

“To promote Mauritius as a tourism destination abroad through:

Conducting advertisement campaigns and participating in tourism fairs.

Organizing, in collaboration with the local tourism industry, promotional campaigns and activities in Mauritius and abroad.

To provide information to tourists on facilities, infrastructures and services available to them in Mauritius.

To initiate such actions as may be necessary to promote cooperation with other tourism agencies.

To conduct research into market trends and market opportunities and disseminate such information and other relevant statistical data on Mauritius.”

2.7.5.2 MTPA Strategies’

Mauritius has developed a tourism industry of worldwide recognition. The image of high class delivery of tourism services and products is stick to the island since the last two decades. (Source:http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/menv/files/nar2010/Chapter%208_Tourism%20Resources.pdf) It is targeting two million tourists by 2015 and it is interesting to know how it is going to be done.

Below are the following strategies proposed by MTPA: (Tourism Resource, (2010))

– Positioning Mauritius as a cruising destination and during the first quarter of 2009, cruise passenger arrivals grew by 83%.

– Marketing the country as “Maurice sans passport” to attract French tourists to Mauritius up till 30 June 2010.

– The Tourism Sector Strategy Plan (2009-2015) has been prepared recommending ways and means of achieving an environmentally sound, socially acceptable and economically viable tourism development.

– The Mauritius Brand Strategy has been launched in October 2009 to strengthen and enhance the image of the Mauritius destination and to ensure greater visibility of the Mauritian brand worldwide. The objective of this branding exercise is to attract investors for the business opportunities in Mauritius, visitors for its hospitality industry and buyers for its export goods.

– Professional assistance has been given to Small and Medium Enterprises under the Empowerment Program to improve the quality of their products so that they can act as reliable suppliers for the tourism industry.

– Measure will be taken to protect the environment (pollution control, sound environmental management, protection of natural resources, landscaping, etc.)

– Promotion of Sustainable Tourism

– Promoters of new hotel projects are encouraged to use renewable energy and adopt eco-friendly practices and use, as far as practicable, energy saving devices.

– Eco-friendly outboard engines for crafts at sea are now being used to protect the marine environment.

– Low-rise and low density hotel development is encouraged to avoid the disfigurement of the coastal landscapes.

– Hotel projects are monitored to ensure that they conform to the applicable Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) and the activities of tourist enterprises are regulated and monitored to promote sustainable tourism development.

– Permanent mooring buoys have been installed at dive sites to protect the coral from damage caused by anchors.

– Measures have been taken to ensure a safer and more secure environment for tourists.

– All guest houses, tourist residences and hotels must be equipped with burglar alarm systems, and CCTV surveillance cameras. A Tourism Safety Panel has been set up to register security companies which meet the Ministry’s established criteria.

– A Tourism Fund has been set up, which finances the provision of social amenities to locals in areas where tourism projects are being implemented; protection and rehabilitation of scenic landscapes, lagoons, rivers and islets; and control and eradication of pests and other nuisances.

– Measures are taken to protect our local culture:

The Festival International Kreol is organized on a yearly basis with emphasis on the value and beauty of the Creole culture, language, cuisine, art, music and dance. Organization of Regatta competitions have also been undertaken in traditional fishing villages

2.7.5.3 Mauritius Actual inbound Tourism Market

According to the government statistics, Tourist arrival in 2011 reached 964 642 bringing a gross receipt of 42 845 million rupees.

www.gov.mu-portal-goc-cso-ei948-tourism.pdf.png

Graph 2: Comparison of Tourist Arrival by Month in 2010 and 2011 (Source: Mauritius Government, 2011)

Graph 2 compares the number of tourists’ arrival in Mauritius in the period of 2010 and 2011. Mauritius receives it maximum number of tourists during the month of December (around 110000 Tourists) and it minimum during the month of June (approximately 52000 Tourists). In January, February, April, June July, August, October and November, the island had succeeded in increasing it number of tourists’ arrivals. In 2011 during the peak seasons (December mainly), tourists arrivals had decrease compare to 2010. Graph 2 illustrates the seasonality faced by Mauritius Tourism Industry (peak season and low season). Mauritius receives the highest number of tourists in December, January and July. During low season in 2011, such as in February, April, June and August, it is obvious on the graph 2 that Mauritius has managed to increase its number of arrival. The motive being this is the successful marketing strategies adopted by the MTPA to attract the Asian market in substitution of the European market. Compare to 2010, Tourists arrivals had increase of three percent. It is very slow progress but positive one.

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Graph 3: Tourist arrivals by country of residence, 2010 and 2011(Source: Mauritius Government, (2011))

Graph 3 compares the number of tourists’ arrivals by country of residence in 2010 and 2011. Since two decades, European countries such as France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, are Mauritius main tourism customers. Since the euro crisis, MTPA started targeting the Asian tourism market such as India, Republic of China and Russia to sustain its tourism economy. The marketing of Mauritius as a destination for tourist in this zone is still at it early stages, resulting in the disparity shown in graph 3 between European arrival and Asian arrival. France, with more than 300 000 in both year 2010 and 2011, take the biggest proportion in the number of tourist visiting Mauritius. Despite having the highest growth rate (more than 100 pour cent) Republic of China recorded the lowest number of arrival in the island. South African and Reunion tourism markets are the island main targets in the African zone. If this graph is compared to the MTPA’s presence around the world, the relationship between visibility in the target country and tourist arrival is clear. MTPA promote Mauritius in France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, thus resulting in a high number of tourist’s arrivals. Recently based in Asian zone MTPA marketing to attract Chinese, Indian and Russian tourists is as said above at it very early stage.

2.8 Conclusion

In this chapter the theoretical discussion is presented to create the framework for this study. The first section concentrated on definitions of the tourism product and how it is linked to customer’s perceived value and this is followed by a discussion of the concept of destination. These definitions were selected in order to explain the compound nature of the tourism product and destination and how these underpin one another.

The second part focused on consumer behaviour in tourism and presented the decision-making model of Schmoll. This part showed that tourism behaviour is a very complex issue with many internal and external factors influencing it. Due to these reasons some limitations were put in place to bring focus to this part of the theoretical discussion. Travel motivation and tourists’ expectations were discussed more thoroughly.

The third part of the theoretical discussion provided a comprehensive description of the development of Chinese outbound travel. This was done to provide the reader with a general picture of the Chinese outbound market and the special features it has today; mainly that traveling abroad is still strictly government controlled. The purpose of the last part was to give wide-ranging information about Mauritius, focusing on tourism and the attractions of the island. The chapter was concluded by introducing the marketing of Mauritius as a destination.

CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the main findings of the interviews. The findings and factors underpinning them are discussed in relation to theories and information presented in chapter 2. The main findings have been categorized into six groups to build structure for this part of the study. The chapter begins by providing some background information regarding the typical Chinese trip to Mauritius and the basic profile of a Chinese tourist. That is followed by an analysis of the findings regarding Chinese travelers in Mauritius.

4.2 Background Information

First, this chapter presents some information regarding a typical trip to Mauritius and a profile of a Chinese tourist coming to Mauritius to create context for the findings. The following information is based on the researcher’s interviews with tour operators.

The duration of the typical trip to Mauritius is normally seven days and focuses on the costal areas’. Most of the travelers use tour operators. The tours are all- inclusive including transportation, accommodation, meals and activities. According to the tour operators, Chinese tourists visiting Mauritius can be categorized into two groups. The first group comprises business people of whom the major part is men and women can be seen sometimes working as e.g. interpreters. These people are traveling on business purposes with their colleagues and they are invited to Mauritius by a local company or government that is also paying for the costs. The second group is made up of tourists traveling on leisure purposes, as part of a larger Chinese tourist group and paying for the trip themselves. These are mainly honeymooners, retired people and small family groups that have sufficient time and money for traveling. Travel Company is normally spouse, friends or other relatives. In this research no distinction was made between business and leisure travelers.

4.3 Main Findings and Discussion

This section presents the main findings of the interviews with the six operators. The interviews were made up of a total of 14 questions. Main findings are now presented according to the objectives set for the study.

4.3.1 Travel Motivation – the Pull Factors

The first objective of the study concerned travel motivation. This study was limited Mauritian’s pull factors. What attracts Chinese travelers to Mauritius?

The following pull factors were identified from the interviewee.

Firstly, all mentioned that Chinese tourists do not come to Mauritius for the purpose of only traveling to Mauritius. “Look at the world Chinese conference this week, there will be around 500 people travelling from china and Asian zone. Why will they come, certainly not for Mauritius itself but for a special purpose” (Interviewee 2). Same precision were noticed by another tour: “aˆ¦ And on the other hand, Mauritius is creating an image while hosting Chinese Weddings TV Show in Tamassa Resort.” (Interviewee 4)

According to the operators, the base for traveling to Mauritius is accessibility, namely the connections with Air Mauritius to Hong Kong. Air Mauritius ensures an eight hour flight to Hong Kong two times a week. “The other part of china is also connected to Mauritius via transit from Hong Kong ,Singapore or even Madagascar, but not much traveler actually use that option” (Interviewee 1). This finding can be reflected back to the theoretical discussion where different theories emphasize the importance of good accessibility for success of any destination.

In addition another pull factor is our clean nature, sea and sand, our beautiful hotels, and Mauritian paradise image, were mentioned to be reasons for visiting the island. “They come mainly on half board, at 8 o’clock they are out of the resort. Most of them use tours facilities to visit Mauritius” (Interviewee 6). They seek for adventure; they came here to escape from their day to day routine in a stressful and urban environment. They seek for something different and now they have disposable income to get it. Mauritius is seen as a natural paradise and this is a great opportunity for the tourism industry.

4.3.2 Expectations

The second objective of this research is to understand Chinese tourists’ expectations of Mauritius as a travel destination. The Tours operators revealed that when arriving in Mauritius Chinese tourists do not have any or they have very few expectations regarding the destination. Some of the tours put it in words:

“I think they do not have that many expectations but they expect that there is so much to see like in Maldives or Singapore” (Interviewee 1). “Chinese do not know about Mauritius when they come. They do not know what Mauritius is exactly” (Interviewee 2)

This can be due to two reasons; first that there might not have been sufficient information available before taking the trip, the promotion of Mauritius is only at it very beginning stage in China. The second possible reason is that travelers might not have had an interest to search for information in advance. It was also mentioned by the tours that many Chinese visiting Mauritius are having their first trip abroad. Also this result underlies the importance of tour operators as source of information, and in creating image and expectations for customers buying the trip.

On the other hand, it has been perceived by the tour operators that Chinese tourists know Mauritius is a paradise island. Chinese tourists have also heard about tropical aspects, our 3 S’ that are sea, sun and sand. These are the things that create for Chinese people their image of the island. As the other tour operator continues: “When they come to Mauritius they have excursions, discoveries, and shopping in their mind. So, if they come to Mauritius and they do not get thoseaˆ¦they feel disappointed” (Interviewee 4).

One of the tours linked the expectations with shopping. Buying gifts is very important for Chinese people and gifts are always given to relatives, friends and colleagues when returning home from a long journey.

“They would like to buy something typical from Mauritius to their friends,” (Interviewee 3).

According to tour operators Mauritius should concentrate on knowing its new customers then provide the service. “Meeting the customer expectation is the very basic definition of service and we should stick to that first” (Interviewee 1) Image and brand are important for Chinese and they are willing to purchase even very expensive gifts when the product has image strong enough, not even the quality is importance then.

4.3.3 Services in Mauritius

Destination has been defined as the focus of facilities and services designed to meet the needs of the tourist (Cooper et al., 1998). A range of services is offered for tourists in a destination. The third objective of the study was to discover how services offered in Mauritius meet Chinese tourists’ needs. Questions were limited to accommodation, transportation, catering and activities.

4.3.3.1 Accommodation

When asked about the accommodation for Chinese tourists, the tours’ revealed the following aspects. Even if the price was the considered to be quite high compared to prices in China, it was said that Chinese tourists love Mauritian luxurious 5 Stars. Especially the cleanliness of hotel rooms pleased Chinese travelers. A couples of reasons for dissatisfaction were also mentioned which arose from the differences of service standards in China and in Mauritius. Five out of six tours mentioned that the lack of a kettle in hotel rooms is source of dissatisfaction for Chinese tourists because Chinese regularly drink hot water or tea. Only a few hotels in Mauritius have this service available. Also toothbrush is a standard in hotel rooms in China. These two issues were mentioned to be a source of dissatisfaction by Chinese travelers, though both of these could be solved with little cost and effort. Chinese are very satisfied with hotel services but dissatisfaction with these services was mentioned when guides or interpreter are not available as it is hard to communicate with hotel staff. “Almost all hotel employees can manage French and English, some even speak German or Italian, but mandarin is not even on the training list.” (Interviewee 6) It would be important to meet or exceed customers’ expectations because it usually creates a positive attitude towards a hotel’s service quality. “Room quality standards should be maintained based on customers’ expectations.” (Interviewee 2)

4.3.3.2 Transportation

Tours’ answers about transportation services indicate that coach services meet Chinese travelers’ needs. Chinese tourists consider the drivers to be trustworthy and professional, and special mention was given to the time concept – tours excursions drivers are very punctual. Most of them book tours buses, and few of them would rent cars. “Chinese Tourists speak very few English and no French at all, we are the only one who provide them a mandarin speaking guide” (Interviewee 2). Chinese travelers do not yet use public transport very often. The island public buses are so far from the standards of China and the whole system itself is a mess. It is almost impossible for a Chinese traveler to enjoy an excursion journey with the local transport. Also, people had complained about the air transport. It is difficult for a Chinese tourist to come to Mauritius, as the only direct flight is from Hong Kong. We receive tourist from Shanghai, Guangzhou or Beijing. Guides had perceived them to be a very nice experience for Chinese travelers due to the beautiful environment Mauritius provides. No major complaints were notice about the tour buses itself and the activities provided.

4.3.3.3 Catering

Chinese travelers prefer Chinese food wherever they travel. Lunch is always in a Chinese restaurant. Tours explained that reasons for this are that western food is too different for Chinese tourists; this does not suit Chinese people. They are not even eager to try. “It is simple you want to get Chinese customers, you need to give them Chinese food, they don’t want to try something else.” (Interviewee 6) Whatever the price is the want to eat only food they are use to. They are pleased by Mauritian Resorts efforts, trying to give them Chinese breakfast and dinner. With typical Chinese trip in Mauritius breakfast and dinner are usually in the hotel, but lunch is always in a Chinese restaurant. If the trip is longer, for example 10 days (which is very rare) Chinese tourists might want to taste western food only once. The opinions about European and Mauritian food are divided. However, it was surprisingly mentioned that Chinese tourists do like the western type breakfasts at hotels even if western food was not preferred otherwise. However “some negative comments came up with groups are not that pleased with the Chinese restaurants, because Chinese food in Mauritius does not have its typical taste.” (Interviewee 3) The quality of the restorations is said to be very good in Mauritian resorts.

4.3.3.4 Activities

According to tours, sightseeing around the island (normally 2-3 hours) and shopping are always included in the programs. Sometimes groups visit Black river gorges or Chamarel Colour Park or Grand basin spiritual temple and SSR Botanical Garden. It was expressed by one of the tours: Sightseeing is too short and visiting gorges and SSR Botanical Garden is quite boring as it is reasonable small compared to other country (Interviewee 1).

There are no interesting or famous architecture (e.g. compared to Singapore or Thailand) in Mauritius. “There is not much to see” complain a Chinese Tourist to one tour. Chinese tourists would like to see nature or try as much as activity as they can. “A European would go on average on three excursions for ten days of stay, whereas a Chinese would go to seven through the same period”. (Interviewee 3) Shopping is always included in the tours, and groups prefer to do that with a guide as well. Even if Chinese love shopping, this seems to be a disappointment for them in Mauritius. “They are eager to buy luxurious product like Hugo Boss, Chanel, Rolex, and so on” (Interviewee 5), “the problem is that 75 percents of the product they would buy in Mauritius come from china, so why would they buy it here” (Interviewee 1). They would rather by traditional souvenir of the island and model boats. Price is not an issue for them; they are here to spend money. “Chinese do buy a lot, e.g. perfumes, fashion, watches from Switzerland and without caring for the high prices. What they want is quality and brands; they are not here to buy made in China” (Interviewee 5)

Tours mention that Chinese tourists do not enjoy free time on their own. Reasons for this were mentioned that there are no communication possibilities as only few travelers know English and due to their cultural background. Chinese tourists also enjoy casinos and live shows. Lack of interesting nightlife in Mauritius was also found to be negative.

Two of the tours mentioned that travelers are very happy if they are kept busy during their all length of stay. “A Chinese traveler, even if he has his plane at two in the afternoon, at 7 am he is going out on excursion. A Chinese tourist, even if he landed at 7a.m and arrives to his hotel at 9 am, at 10 am he is out for an excursion. This is Chinese Tourists.” (Interviewee 1) They are usually happy of the Mauritius’ experience.

4.3.4 Significance of Traditional Mauritian Attractions

This part will discuss significance of traditional Mauritian attractions for Chinese tourists. That is Sea; Sand and Sun. These attractions are normally promoted by MTPA and attached to the image of Mauritius. What is the significance of these attractions to Chinese travelers according to the interviewee?

The Chinese Tourists are not again the three S’, Mauritius is promoted the same way as in European Country, in China. However once in the island, the three S’ are definitely not their main interest

The Tourism In Kenya Tourism Essay

Hotels are tasked with the responsibility of providing efficient services for their clients. The day-to-day operation of a hotel involves the management of the hotel’s staff, customers and dispensation of other services offered. Hotels have traditionally relied on paper-based records. This system has been characterized by an ever growing need for storage space and proper maintenance to ensure customer’s records and other hotel data is not lost.

Kenya is gifted with a distinctive combination of tourist attractions, comprising tropical beaches, abundant wildlife in natural habitats, scenic beauty and geographically diverse scenery. The diversity of Kenya’s habitat is equalled by the remarkable variety of plant life and world famous wildlife heritage. Thus, Kenya can truly be promoted as a destination that offers the visitor – whether foreign or domestic – an unmatched variety of travel experiences.

Tourism in Kenya has played a very big role in the growth of the economy. It currently accounts for about 12 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), making it the third largest contributor to GDP after agriculture and manufacturing, and Kenya’s third largest foreign exchange earner after tea and horticulture. The sector has been singled out as one of the sectors that shall contribute considerably towards poverty mitigation as set out in the Government’s Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation 2003-2007.

Given that the essential road and rail network and superstructure are already largely in place, tourism has the ability to expand rapidly. Additionally, tourism through its multiplier effect has the capacity to promote regional development, create new commercial and industrial enterprises, stimulate demand for locally-produced goods and services and provide a market for agricultural products.

In order to change the image or perception of Kenya in overseas markets which had been adversely affected by negative publicity, whether warranted or unwarranted, the Kenyan government created a body called The Kenya Tourist Board to oversee these changes. The Kenya Tourist Board is tasked with promoting and marketing Kenya both internationally and locally. The key policies of the board include the promotion of up market eco-tourism and wildlife safaris; a gradual move away from low value package or mass tourism; the diversification of tourism products and markets; and the promotion of regional and domestic, as well as international, tourism. Emphasis has been placed on obtaining a precise understanding of customer needs, and developing and delivering the products that customer’s desire.

The Kenyan government also created some related organizations to help in training and management of Kenyan tourism industry. They include:

Catering and Tourist Development Levy Trustees (CTDLT)

Kenya Utalii College

Kenya Tourism Development Corporation

Kenyatta International Conference Centre

Bomas of Kenya

Kenya Safari Lodges and Hotels (KSLH)

Tourism Trust Fund (TTF)

1.2 Problem statement

The aim of this project is to develop software, which can manage and keep the records of the hotel. The existing system is manual. A web-based booking system enables the customer to view hotel services and select rooms without going to the hotel and he can make transactions through the internet. Thus, the customer can save so much time. Due to the advances in technology, the management of Sunset Hotel requested for the construction of an Online Hotel Booking System.

1.3 Overview of the Current System

The business organization name is ‘Sunset Hotel’. Sunset Hotel Kisumu is a wonderfully landscaped resort that is in a class of its own and is located in peaceful surroundings, away from the hustle and bustle of Kisumu’s noisy business district, and a few meters from the shoreline of Lake Victoria.

Sunset Hotel is just a 5 minutes drive from the city centre and 15 minutes from Kisumu International Airport. The hotel borders Kisumu Impala Sanctuary that hosts a wide array of animals like leopards, hyena, olive baboons and vervet monkeys. It also provides grazing lands for Hippos, habitat for several small mammals including the endangered Sitatunga, and supports a variety of reptiles and birds species.

The hotel has a capacity of 50 rooms and 100 beds all air conditioned with multi channel satellite TV, separate shower & bath, outdoor swimming pool, in-room safe and minibar. As the name suggests, guests from all over the world visit the hotel to view the sun setting from the privacy of their rooms. The hotel is renowned for hosting conference, cocktail parties, outside catering services and family gathering.

All over the world, businesses and hotels in particular have taken their services to the website. Sunset Hotel boasts of a very nice website where guests can view the services offered by the hotel, but it lacks the key advancement in the hotel industry. The hotel lacks an online hotel booking system where guests can book or make reservations in the hotel without having to call or send an email and wait for feedback.

For hiring a room in this type of hotel, the client needs to meet with the receptionist to collect the information of hotel facilities. After that he is to fill up the pro forma provided by the hotel authority, then he has to pay the defined amount of money and is offered room key for his/her rented room. But client always wants greater privacy and reliable security.

1.4 Solution statement

Hotel needs to preserve the records of visitors and reserve rooms in advance. Customers should be able to know the availability of the rooms on a particular date. They should be able to reserve the available rooms according to their needs in advance. To make their stay as comfortable as possible, they are provided with food, laundry services, transportation, phone calls and other services. The records of the foods taken by each customer and the services availed to the customer should be kept since they will be used to generate customer bill.

The Online Hotel Booking System for Sunset Hotel in Kisumu should be able to meet the following requirements:

The system should be able to keep the records of the guests and the room assigned to them.

Customers should be able to know the availability of the rooms on a particular date or a period of time.

Customers should be able to book the available rooms online.

The system should keep the record of food and other services availed to the customer.

The system should allow customers to make payments online through Visa Card, MasterCard, M-Pesa and any other internationally recognized mode of payment.

The system should be able to generate the bill for a customer.

1.5 Scope

The project was meant to come up with an online hotel booking and reservation system. The scope of this project did not cover the design and implementation of the online payment processing system since this will be integrated with PayPal worldwide payment system. Only links to PayPal registration page will be provided but not how it processes transactions.

Being an academic project, limited time and resources has restricted me to incorporate, in this project, only the main activities that will be performed by the Online Hotel Booking System, but maximum care has been taken to make the system well-organized and user friendly.

1.6 Project roadmap
CHAPTER
DESCRIPTION

1. INTRODUCTION

Define the scope of the project, problem and solution statement.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Examines literature and systems of a similar nature , gives insight into strengths and weaknesses of the current system

3. OBJECTIVES

Lists the criteria to be met in undertaking the project

4. METHODOLOGY

Examines probable methodologies that could be used and identifies the suitable one for the system to be developed.

5. FEASIBILITY STUDY

Examines the viability of the project economically, legally, organizationally, socially and technically

6. REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS

Involves understanding the current system in order to determine the requirements that would be incorporated into the new system development.

7. REQUIREMENTS

SPECIFICATION

Involves defining the functional and non-functional requirements of the system to be developed.

8. LOGICAL SYSTEM

SPECIFICATION

The Technical Systems Option and logical designs of the system to be developed are defined.

9. PHYSICAL DESIGN

The logical designs developed in the logical system specification stage are implemented physically.

10. CODING AND TESTING

Codes that give functionality to the system are developed and tested to ensure they achieve the required functionality

11. CRITICAL APRAISAL

The project is examined in totality and its strengths, weaknesses and measures on how it can be improved are highlighted.

12. CONCLUSION

The lessons learned from the undertakings of the project are highlighted.

Figure 1: Project roadmap