Author: Andre Coleman

In the essay the researcher was able to come up with the current status of the industry, that is, what the marketing body and the government are doing to promote tourism. Moreover, the study includes the country’s Strategic Analysis in a pursuit to shed light on the opportunities that are open for Lesotho’s tourism.

From there the investigation entails what other countries’ marketing mix especially Promotion involves and the researcher is not only based on fellow Developing countries but also other Developed countries.

The investigation also looks at the unexploited markets of Lesotho which can be a major boost to both the industry and the country’s economy at large. These unexploited markets are based on the Product portfolio of the country which has not yet been natured or in some cases, the products that are not being promoted well enough or at all.

In the conclusion there are recommendations on what the tourism stakeholders should do to ensure that the country’s tourism industry performs at its optimum level.

Lesotho’s tourism industry is currently ranked 180 out of 181 economies in relative contribution to national economies and 150 in absolute size worldwide by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and personally as a Mosotho this is appalling indeed considering the fact that fellow Southern African countries like Swaziland and South Africa are ranked 167 and 101 in relative contribution to national economies respectively, but on the brighter side, Lesotho is ranked 50th in 10-year growth which shows that it has a high potential of growing.

Therefore the core aim of this essay will be how Lesotho’s tourism industry can be improved both in the long-run and short term. I will examine the Product, Promotion and Place mostly as it will be difficult to get the consumers view about the Pricing. Moreover I will use different Analytical tools as aids in this essay.

What made the researcher, me, choose this topic is the fact that I was born and bred in Lesotho and I have a close relative actively engaged in the country’s tourism industry and the above mentioned reasons have evoked my interest in tourism as a whole and has lead to this keen interest of looking into possible ways of improving this unique product better known as the “Kingdom in the Sky”, hence the topic: “CAN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY OF LESOTHO BECOME A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO LESOTHO’S ECONOMY?”

What Lesotho is doing

The country’s tourism industry is primarily marketed by a parastatal, the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC) which is a government initiative.

I find it fitting to firstly establish the current state of the country’s tourism industry so that I can move on to raising applicable recommendations. To establish this I interviewed a Marketing personnel at the Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation at the Maseru Information Centre, who emphasized that they as the tourism body are in charge of promoting the country’s tourism and currently they do so by attending regional and international exhibitions such as the well-known Indaba which is Africa’s top travel show held annually in Durban and the ITB Berlin Convention which is the highly respected and decorated travel conference in the world; they attend these exhibitions in order to bring to the attention of international tour operators that Lesotho is the home of adventure tourism so that they include the “Kingdom in the Sky” in the around Africa or around the world tour packages they offer to their clients which mostly are “big spenders”.

The mammoth challenge is that the international market did not know that Lesotho exists therefore firstly the LTDC had to overcome this challenge which they have made commendable progress with their informative campaign by attending these kind of aforementioned exhibitions and others annually so that the industry takes them seriously and does not forget about them by seeing them frequently taking an active role and setting up award winning stands ( Lesotho’s stand was dubbed the best stand at the 2008 Indaba and at the 2010 ITB the LTDC’s stand was amongst the top 10 best stands at the exhibition)

Apart from the annual exhibitions, the LTDC hosts a monthly expo called the Maseru Bazaar at the Maseru Tourist Information Office which showcases local handicraft, traditional dances and local artists of all genres. Furthermore, stalls are put up for all interested individuals in the tourism industry to show their products to the public and visiting tourists who often make their first stop here when they enter the country. The core aim of this expo is to market domestic tourism, that is, to encourage the people of Lesotho to tour their home country, they call this campaign “Know your country first”.

Their campaigns are focused on adventure tourism more than anything because of the country’s rugged terrain and its mountainous geography, therefore most of their budget is apportioned to selling this type of tourism to their regional counterparts and the international market at large.

The LTDC has recently developed a travelers’ website [1] which provides information about where to stay, what to do and a list of upcoming events to mention just a few.

One key aspect in the business industry is the product, this is also the LTDC’s priority to make sure that what they are selling to the regional and international markets is of highest possible quality. They do this by encouraging people to keep the country clean although in this department they are not doing that much as expected.

There has to be a reason why the LTDC is performing the way they are currently, not being at their best. Like many other African countries would say, and has become their “anthem”, the main reason is funding, the government is not injecting sufficient money into the country’s tourism industry to allow the LTDC to function at their optimum best. For the 2010/2011 Financial year, the government apportioned M 53.2 million compared to M 69.7 million [2] for the previous financial year for the Ministry of Tourism Environment and Culture. This is a serious problem which may be caused by the cultural background of Africans because they do not believe in touring themselves but they put effort and money in agriculture which recently is failing them.

The private sector is the one which is doing their level best to try and market the Kingdom in the Sky so that they as individual companies can survive, they have gone to the level of setting up an independent body called Lesotho Council for Tourism (LCT) which includes every business related to tourism, tour operators, accommodation establishments, catering services and others. The core aim of this body is to provide tourism training programmes, support for tourism development and assistance to the tourism private sector to maintain high quality tourism products [3] . It aims to achieve these by encouraging local and international investments in the industry and by offering its members access to membership international tourism bodies (Regional Tourism Organization for Southern Africa, South African Tourism Association).

Strategic Analysis

But what are the strengths and weaknesses of Lesotho’s tourism industry? To answer these questions and others I will use the SWOT analysis.

Strengths

Product

Lesotho is home to numerous unique landmarks which can only be offered by Lesotho and Lesotho only:

The highest pub in Africa which is the Sani Top Chalet

The longest single drop waterfall in Southern Africa

The highest lowest point in altitude in the world

The highest peak in Southern Africa, Thabana Ntlenyana

LetA?eng Diamond Mine which is the highest (altitude) mine in the world

Apart from those unique landmarks Lesotho has the following:

Undulating landscape (magnificent and widely accepted)

Friendly and hospitable people

What Basotho call the Engineering Project of the decade which is the Katse Dam, consists of a 185m tall double-curvature arch wall, and other Lesotho Highlands Water Project dams

National Parks and Game Reserves

Rock art which comprises of foreshortening [4] and therianthropes [5]

Workforce

The industry has several passionate people engaged in different sectors of the tourism industry, tour operators, information office personnel, hospitable hotel staff and others.

Weaknesses

Product

There are various disturbing factors about the product that Lesotho is selling; the defects include:

Several places of interest like rock paintings have been vandalized by untrained care-takers and villagers some thinking they are preserving the works of art; as did one care-taker of the Bushmen paintings’ site who poured water on the paintings thinking they will be more visible only to find out that he was destroying the artifacts.

Maseru as the capital city of Lesotho cannot accommodate more than one thousand tourists. On the contrary, even if more establishments were set up, most of the time the rooms would not be occupied because this came to the attention of a tour operator when he had to organize a tour for a group of 1000 guests.

Tour operators do not have big vehicles to handle large groups which forces them to hire local coaches which most of them are not satisfactory because they travel day-in day-out as taxis therefore they are not looked after that well.

Workforce

Customs’ staff at the various ports of entry does not treat visitors well at all, they do not have customer care training. Numerous tourists have complained about this at the Tourist Information Office in Maseru.

Accommodation receptionists at several establishments in the outskirts of Maseru also have a problem of having not undergone a customer care course. This is a serious problem because one tour operator told me his anecdote of when he was at a hotel in Mafeteng where he waited for about half an hour for a receptionist to appear and when she appeared she did not even greet him nor apologized for being late, she arrogantly asked them what he wanted. This is appalling and is slowly driving people away from the Kingdom in the Sky.

Opportunities

The world is dominated by high-tech machinery and technological advances which cause stress to its users and this has lead to people wanting to tour original and ethnic countries away from their daily busy urban life and Lesotho is one of them, therefore the market for cultural and eco-tourism is fast growing and Lesotho should fight for its share in this market.

Lesotho is investor friendly and for that reason foreign investors could be approached so that they build accommodation settlements and other facilities to improve what the country offers the world and they themselves will be moved to promote the country for their investments sake.

South Africa’s accommodation rates have risen sharply because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and these prices are chasing tourists away now that tournament is over while Lesotho’s accommodation rates have not changed significantly meaning more people would choose Lesotho over South Africa.

Threats

Lesotho is totally landlocked by South Africa; therefore healthy diplomatic relations between the two countries are of utmost importance because South Africa is the only road gateway into and out of Lesotho. This is not only the case when using road transport but also the case when using air transport because in order to reach Lesotho one uses a connecting flight (controlled by Airlink, an airways company) from the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa and this is because Lesotho does not own an airline company and its airport is too small to land big planes. This proved to be true during the 2010 FIFA World Cup where entering and exiting South Africa to Lesotho by road meant long hours in the queue waiting for your passport to be scanned and this was enforced solely by the South African government alone.

The number of South African companies marketing and making money out of Lesotho based tours is alarming and worst of all, the country gets minimal revenue from those tours. The biggest threat comes from Free State tour operators because they do not hire local tour operators to conduct those tours; they conduct the tours in Lesotho themselves.

South Africa is the country’s biggest competitor because it has almost everything and more than what Lesotho offers and markets those attractions well to the international market.

At this juncture I will try to look at what other countries are doing, both the developing countries like South Africa and the developed countries like Ireland and others.

What other countries are doing

The Developed Countries:

The first country that I will look at is Switzerland which nearly has a similar terrain to that of Lesotho as it is also mountainous and interesting enough it is also landlocked. It is ranked 15 in absolute size and 47 in relative contribution to national economies by WTTC.

Switzerland has different packages and tours such as Food & Wine, Time Travel (which is basically a historical package of the country), Shopping, Wellness, Cycling, Hiking, Adventure & Sports, Family Vacations and Gay & Lesbian oriented tours to mention a few.

They have a very informative website [6] and it doesn’t end there, different cities also have their own websites which concentrate on their respective cities, for example Zurich [7] which has its own website which is quite informative and up-to-date; it shows the different tour packages for different markets such as Smart spenders and Luxury lovers.

This shows that the marketing and promotion of tourism in this country is of utmost importance to the people of Switzerland.

Now, I will explore Ireland, known as the Emerald Isle; it is well known for its vivid greenness of its countryside.

Ireland is a small country ranked 42 in absolute size and 135 in relative contribution to national economies by WTTC. It exploits the honeymoon and romantic getaways markets; that is why it is also well known as a romantic getaway destination, from Northern Ireland to Southern Ireland you find suitable vacation areas for the newlyweds and ordinary couples who want to have a romantic holiday.

It markets different types of holidays also including adventure tours for the adventure seekers, cycling, family packages, angling, cruising, water based activities, wellness tourism and sports including Equestrian.

The Irish tourism sector is marketed by National Tourism Development Authority through the Failte Ireland [8] and its success is based on the fact that each tourism product which is of great importance is marketed individually by a team of executives, and the investment and development of facilities in those sectors of the tourism industry is their responsibility also. These Sectors include: Activities, Culture & Heritage, Festivals & Events, Sports Tourism, Business Tourism, Spa & Wellness, Food and Accommodation [9] . Ireland focuses on Business Tourism also as a key player in the industry so much that it has its own website [10] which deals with the corporate world leaders in pursuing them to choose Ireland as the host of conferences and seminars. On the website there is information about venues and their facilities and registered corporate event organizers so that the business people can enjoy their stay and the conference without any difficulty.

Failte Ireland has made tremendous progress indeed because it has managed to do the following:

Help improve the skills of people involved in the Irish tourism and help those seeking a career in tourism have been offered training.

Setup an Environment Unit whose role is keeping the natural and built environment at their highest possible standard

Setup a programme of country networks which help small tourism businesses to grow

For improving the range and quality of the tourist attractions, they have secured a seven-year grant aid through the National Development Plan

Caught the eyes of the world market by coordinating large events like the Ryder Cup, just to mention a few.

Moreover, the tourism body in Ireland focuses on not only to attract international tourists like most countries do but also they encourage the Irish population to tour their own country and take domestic holidays.

Developing Countries

Now coming to countries which the world views them as developing countries like Lesotho it would only be fair to consider other African countries, relatively bigger and smaller than Lesotho geographically.

Once again I will consider Swaziland as it has a lot in common with Lesotho, it is a monarchy, it is small like Lesotho and landlocked just to mention a few. Therefore, I believe it would only be logical and fair to compare the two countries.

Swaziland has an eye-catching, informative and most importantly, an up-to-date website [11] . Swaziland’s tourism body, the Swaziland Tourism Authority, focuses on promoting different types of tours for different markets which range from adventure tourism (like Lesotho) to shopping and culture oriented tourism because they are a country rich in culture hence the reason why the King is still both the head of state and the head of government.

Considering South Africa which is a trendsetter and a role model of other Southern African countries because of its success and influence, I will look at what it is doing to promote its product.

The Government of South Africa through the Ministry of Tourism injected R 631 million [12] into the South African Tourism (SAT) whose role is to promote South Africa’s tourism.

The SAT like the LTDC, promotes domestic tourism. Since 2007 they did so using a campaign called the Sho’t Left Campaign, “See your world differently” [13] . The campaign’s aim is showcasing the myriad of affordable and within reach holiday destinations to all South Africans. Its execution is colourful and lively, designed to attract South Africans, more particularly those who have not toured their motherland. The main objective of this marketing campaign is to show South Africans the ease factors and affordability of going around the country. The target market of the campaign is three niche markets, Well-off couples and families, the youth and independent couples and families. The main objective of the Sho’t Left campaign is sourcing and publicizing a variety of reasonably priced package holidays. At its inception, it involved an aired travel oriented challenge which was broadcast on SABC 2. Although the Sho’t Left Challenge is no longer aired, SAT continues with marketing and encouraging South Africans to tour their own country with TV commercials [14] which show foreign tourists, touring the places of interest and some closing with a comment: “They have toured our country, have you?”

Apart from promoting domestic tourism, the SAT has an up-to-date website [15] which covers all sectors of their tourism industry including Business tourism which is a good source of revenue because the international and regional conferences are attended by well-established business people who want nothing less than top quality and are willing to pay for it.

Unexploited Markets

At this juncture, I will look at unexploited markets which can be a cash cow for tour operators and the industry as a whole.

Firstly, like Swaziland, Lesotho still has rich culture which can be a measure tourist attraction as it is in Swaziland. The international tourists are interested in the African culture and are becoming more and more interested in experiencing traditional African cuisine. Another anecdote is of one tourist who was taken to one of these five star accommodation and entertainment establishments and emphasized that ‘they (Western people) are the ones who brought this establishments to Africa and they are tired of them, which is the reason why they are touring Africa’. This has proved to be true because during the FIFA Soccer World Cup which was recently held in South Africa, the international tourists especially the Germans enjoyed staying and dinning in Soweto which is a big township made of different ethnic groups of South Africa.

Secondly, adventure tourism has niche markets which have not been fully exploited yet. For example, the off-road market is increasing and as a result an increasing number of bikers clubs are looking for challenging tracks which they can use for their sport and Lesotho has an appropriate terrain for such people who want to ride on their bikes just for the fun of it, not for competitive racing. Therefore tours can be organized for this niche where a track across the mountain highlands can be set up for touring the highlands on bikes. Moreover there is this biggest racing competition of the year called the Roof of Africa Rally. Currently the race attracts the bikers’ families and their sponsors, therefore the rally should be marketed globally to attract foreign and local spectators to come and view this race first hand. The LTDC can help in by advertising this event extensively at the annual exhibitions that they attend and by coordinating this event to ensure its success.

When someone is in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the questions he will be asked by people is, did you go to the Table Mountain. Lesotho also can make money from its “Table Mountain”, Thabana Ntlenyana which is the highest peak in Southern Africa. A huge market exists for this because people would be able to make it to the top of the peak using a cable car if one is to be set up there and adventure seekers would probably climb up the mountain if they are familiar with rock climbing. Although the cable car can be very expensive to set up, it would pay huge dividends to the investors, government and the tourism industry as a whole.

One other possible cash cow is ecotourism, the reason being that Lesotho has an unpolluted atmosphere due to not being part of the industrial revolution. Furthermore Lesotho has undulating landscape and rugged terrain which other western and Asian countries do not have because many of those countries are flat.

Amongst other ecotourism sites there is the Maluti Drakensberg, this area consists of many exclusive features [16] :

Fauna and flora found in Lesotho only

24 species of snakes

350 species of birds of which 40 are exclusive to Lesotho only and 10 endangered species

100 grass types

Unspoilt ecology of the sites

It is one of the finest art galleries in the world due to the rock paintings

Adventure tourism hotspot

The importance of ecotourism and its benefits can be summed up in Hector Ceballos-Lascurain’s words:

“aˆ¦ the person who practices ecotourism has the opportunity of immersing him or herself in nature in a way that most people cannot enjoy in their routine, urban existences. This person will eventually acquire a consciousness and knowledge of the natural environment, together with its cultural aspects, that will convert him or her into somebody keenly involved in conservation issues” [17]

Conclusion

Having seen the potential income generators I will therefore focus on other recommendations:

Lesotho has to:

Add more information on the travelers’ website which includes tour operators’ contact details and more tourist attractions apart from the national parks.

Set tourism as a high priority: by investing in human, financial and other resources

Intensify marketing effort in the region so that the country benefits from the effort that SAT has already embarked on which is already bringing tourist in the vicinity of Lesotho.

Put in place representative offices in three major cities of South Africa – namely, Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

Government should deploy tourism attache in every embassy of Lesotho around the world.

The government should also deploy a tourism attache at South African International Airports namely, the O.R. Tambo International Airport, King Shaka (La Mercy) International Airport and the Cape Town International Airport.

Empower local business people who are involved with tourism so that they can improve the performance of their operations.

Setup ongoing training programmes for the business owners, managers and staff in the tourism industry.

Monitoring of all the programmes and making adjustments progressively to ensure a constant growth of the industry.

Improve and protect tourism product, especially special attractions unique to the country.

The LTDC should refocus its strategies in order to adapt to the ever changing international market and competition by continually revising its action plan and revising its tourism trends’ forecast.

Market ecotourism extensively as Lesotho has world class ecotourism sites and features

In summation, based on the unexploited income generators aforementioned and my recommendations, I can safely say Lesotho’s tourism industry has a great potential of being a major contributor to the country’s economy as it is the case for countries like Zimbabwe and others.

With a fleet of enthusiast tour operators that Lesotho has, the chances of the industry growing are alarming because of the passion that they have as the interview [18] revealed but a lot has to be done to nature that passion so that they do not end-up losing hope and believe in the industry.

Appendix A

Interview with a tour operator and Secretary of the Lesotho Tour Operators Association

Mr. Motlatsi Rametse

Q. What are some of the challenges you meet as a tour operator?

“The destination (Lesotho as a tourist destination) is not known therefore it results in small number of tourists coming to this country although 7 million tourists come to Southern Africa annually

Lack of support by financial institutions

Rigid insurance companies offering limited insurance products, none of them able to cover tourism services

Lack of political will”

Q. Do you think the government and the LTDC has done enough to promote tourism, if not why?

“No, they have failed to link up with South Africa although the country is totally surrounded by it.

They have also failed to intensify tourism marketing in regions that predominately favours tourism to Lesotho. Only 5.8% that reach South Africa come to Lesotho.”

Q. What keeps you going irrespective of the challenges you meet in the industry?

“Diversifying by running other business ventures in parallel with tour operation and my love for tourism”

Q. Do you think the tourism industry has a potential of growing given its state currently and what can be done to facilitate the growth?

“Yes, what needs to be done is aggressive marketing in South Africa through South African media to travel agents and tour operators based in South Africa

Develop a revolving fund to support tourism related projects and businesses”

Q. What seems to be driving tourists away from Lesotho or why are the numbers of tourists who visit the country not increasing?

“Lack of marketing

Lack of standard accommodation facilities

Lack of quality service (customer care)”

The tourism industry is a complex system where its necessary to look at all different sectors which are influencing each other, to get a clear understanding how this system works. A helpful tool to use already models and theories, apply them on different example and evaluate them. The individual as a potential customer has to be analysed and categorised, which is ensuing a better understanding of tourist behaviour. Furthermore it helps to recognize their decision making progress for a destination, as well as getting knowledge about their needs and expectation. This essay will show the usage of these models and theories on example of the Dominican Republic.

Tourism can be defined as a combination of services and activities for people who travel to places outside of their familiar surroundings. The definition of a tourist is wide-ranging, because the purpose of travel ranges from holidays, business trips, and visits to friends and relatives to various other reasons such as study, religion, shopping and so on. More than an industry, it is rather like a system that sells packaged holidays, activities, attractions, accommodations, and entertainment. It is offering the opportunity to break away from normal life and enjoy leisure time in different locations. Tourism normally does not provide just one single product; mostly it is a bundling of various products to satisfy the demand of the tourist. For example, someone going on holiday to London would not merely consume one product from one supplier. It is more likely that he is utilizing a package of services. He might arrive by plane, go by bus/train to his hotel, dine in a restaurant, and take a sightseeing tour. Due to the fact that nearly every tourism product is interlinked, there is no owner or manager with complete control of his own destiny (Gunn A.C. 2002, p.243). Additionally, other industries, such as the oil industry, are linked to the tourism industry. In recent years tourism become a part of daily life because people have more leisure time than they used to have 50 years ago and the view of the work-life balance has changed.

Another important point to mention is that the tourism industry is one of the largest in the world and is creating millions of temporary and permanent jobs. In 2006 the travel and tourism industry’s percentage of the world gross domestic product was 10,3%, with a turnover of US$6,477.2 billion. The industry supported 234 million jobs, 8.7% of total world employment (Cooper, et al 2006: 3). This data represents the global importance and significance to the world economy.

Tourism does not include just the supply of hotels, beaches and travel agencies but also economical, environmental and socio-cultural impacts. These three areas are always commingling and conflicting. There are people whom are simply interested in making a profit, other people wanting to protect the environment, and yet another group of people concerned with the social and cultural impacts of a tourist region. All three groups must achieve a balance to enable sustainable tourism. This idea is shown on the following graphic:

3. Tourist typology and their implementation to tourism models
Stanley C. Plog

One approach to understand tourist behaviour is to identify different types of people, whereupon they can be categorised into a series of organised psychographic types. In 1973 Stanley C. Plog created a model for the American population showing how personal motivation influences the decision for a vacation destination. He divided tourists into four types: allocentric, near-allocentric, mid-centric, and near-psychocentric/psychocentric. The allocentric type views travelling as an opportunity to discover foreign cultures and prefers exotic destinations. They are self confident and open for new experiences. The near-allocentric type is sporty, seeks challenges and views the journey as a chance to test a new lifestyle. The mid-centric type looks for relaxation and pleasure in a well-known environment. They want to escape from the daily routine and enjoy comfortable accommodation. The near-psychocentric and psychocentric types are focused on themselves and are scared to discover something new. These people tend to look for a safe place to holiday. Their choice of destination will be a place they know and where they are not that far away from their home city (Johnson & Thomas, 1992: 19).

Plog considered that there are just a few ‘psychocentric’ or ‘allocentric’ types because the majority of tourists are mid-centric.

However, Plog’s model is hard to apply in reality. For example the Dominion Republic has a lot of organised mass tourism and it is possible to organize a journey by yourself as well. Every tourist is an individual, so they cannot be generalized. One trip can have a completely different occasion and characteristic than the other one (Cooper, 2008: 48).

Cohen’s tourist typology

Another model which classifies tourists is Cohen’s tourist typology. He divides tourists into the organised mass tourist, the individual mass tourist, the explorer and the drifter. Cohen explains that organised mass tourists are typically purchasing a ready-made package tour where they have no or just a little contact with the local people and stay most of the time inside a resort. This is similar to Plog’s ‘psychocentrics` type. In Cohen’s theory most of the tourists are individual mass tourists. They are similar to the organised mass tourists, but they have more flexibility and scope for personal choice. They want to have contact to the local people. This category is comparable to Plog’s ‘midcentric’ tourists and most tourists fall into this category. The third tourist type is the explorer, who organises the trip by himself and looks for something special, something away from the typical interests of a mass tourist. However, he is still interested in comfortable accommodations. The last type, the drifter, is completely independent, wants to live with local people and wants to take part in the native culture. Cohen’s last two tourists’ theories, the explorer and the drifter, which are also the minority in this industry, are similar to Plog’s ‘allocentric’ tourists.

(Cooper et al, p.51).

5. Demand for the creation of tourist typologies and their practice on the example of the Dominican Republic

The reason why we need these typologies for different tourists is to help and to be able to develop tourism destinations. Expectations and needs from tourists on a perfect holiday can be identified, so the desired service can be supplied. As soon as we know the different motivations for individuals travelling to a particular destination, a specific tourist type is going to be targeted. This means that in example of the Dom. Rep. the organised mass tourists in the majority, which are looking for a safe holiday, we know their behaviour and know how to plan for them. Most of the resorts in Dom.Rep. are designed for this clientele and have been developed very fast during the last 20 years to satisfy the demand from tourists. At the first stage resorts were build for explorer or drifter, and since the creation of package tourism, a lot of individual mass tourists came to this area. With the creation of ‘all-inclusive’, there is no need for tourists to leave the hotel. Because of investigating the different desire of tourists and define them, it was possible to develop this area (National and regional tourism planning 1994, p.147).

6. Doxey’s Index: The socio-cultural impact of tourism

The Doxey’s Index describes the relationship between visitors and the visited. He developed a five stage model which describes the first step as the upcoming ?euphoria? when a small number of tourists arrive thus stimulating the economy and a large number of new jobs are created.

The next steps are ‘apathy’ and ‘annoyance’. At this stage local people get first used to tourists in their familiar surroundings, and afterwards annoyed, because too many people are visiting the destination.

‘Antagonism’ and ‘acceptance’ are the last steps in this theory. Native people start to avoid tourists and at the last step they accept them. ‘Acceptance’ means, that they accept tourists in their usual life and forget how the area was before tourists arrived (Cooper et al, p.47).

Top priority should be always building better relationships between residents and visitors, which improves social life for both sides. In Punta Cana, where the proportion of tourists is high to the number of residents, cultural problems occur because of different society expectations (National and regional tourism planning 1994, p.147). While Punta Cana has grown within twenty years, the local community did not have enough time to adjust to the high number of tourists.

The three models of Plog, Cohen and Doxey are coextensive whith each other because when the first visitors (drifter) arrive at a destination, local people are euphoric. These tourists (‘allocentric’) are not scared to discover new areas. In the ‘midcentric’ are the ‘explorer’ and the ‘individual mass tourists’. At this stage the community becomes ‘apathetic’ and ‘annoyed’. The last step is the ‘organized mass tourist’ who belongs to the ‘psychocentric’ and native people start to ‘accept’ them. The relationship between the models is linear (Cooper et al, p.47).

7. Butler’s Tourism Area Lifecycle (TALC)

The Tourism Area Lifecycle(TALC) is a well-known model Butler created to illustrate the dynamic of a tourist -destination or -product through different stages. The graph describes a characteristic function due to the natural interrelation between the exposure and intensity of tourism. It shows the evolutional process where every tourism product is going through, which can help manager to find a way out in case of a crisis or new developed destinations to establish themselves.

Butler’ first stage is ‘exploration’, where small number of visitors arrive in an undeveloped area. These people been identified as Plog’s ‘allocentric’ or Cohen’s ‘explorer’ type. After their trip they are responsible for ‘Involvement’, because they tell others about place they been to (Ryan 2003, p.269). A following rise of the curve during the development stage is logical, because more tourists can be carried. Butler says that the number of tourists decrease until the carrying capacity is reached, this is the consolidation stage. New development has to happen again to rejuvenate, otherwise it would come to a decline of visitors (Butler 2006). While developing new strategies is important to investigate the existing facts and concentrate on the potentials the destination is already providing. At this point it is necessary to make a decision. To develop this place, to leave the place how it is and increase the price or let it decline. ‘Decline’ is the next stage of Butler’s TALC. This happens if too many tourists are arriving at a destination at the same time and the capacity is too low. Visitor are disappointed and the number of tourists will therefore start to fall. An option to avoid decline is ‘Rejuvenation’. That means that the area has to be developed for example with new hotels and beaches.

8. The 5A’s model

The 5As model was helpful to rejuvenate the Dominican Republic when it had been reached the stagnation point. A new development of ‘Attractions’, ‘Accessibility’, ‘Activities’, ‘Amenities’ and ‘Accommodation’ were necessary to bring facilities up to the level demanded by international tourists. When the carrying capacity was reached, an essential element in the tourism take-off was government investment in the infrastructure of tourism zones. Over $76 million went into the Puerto Plata region between 1974 and 1982. New hotels and transportation networks were built, to get electric power and satisfy water supply. Infrastructure was one of the main important things which had to be developed and when the airport in Punta Cana was built, a lot of new different tourists begun to visit this area. (http://kiskeya-alternative.org/publica/afuller/rd-tourism.html#ecsoc)

Today the Dominion Republic is one of the most visited countries and popular for family holidays. This destination fits perfect in Butler’s TALC because at first it was an undeveloped place and started to grow, decisions by the policy had to be done for example to rejuvenate the place, to let the area how it is or to let it decline. The Dominican government decided for rejuvenation because of the high potential of this area. With new roads, attractions, airports and hotels the resort development strategy was successful (National and regional tourism planning, 1994, p.147).

9. Multiplier effect

In tourism “the multiplier effect” is used to illustrate how many times money spent by a tourist circulates through a country’s economy. In other words when a new tourist destination is created, the local economy benefits as new jobs are being created and tourist bring additional trade to local businesses. The most common example is when a new hotel is being built it does not only create jobs directly in the hotel, but also indirectly in other sectors of the economy. The hotel has to buy food from local farmers, who then spend some of this money, for example, on domestic expenses. When tourists spend money for local products the demand for those products increases, which also increases secondary employment.

However the multiplier effect continues until there is a “leakage” out of the economy through imports, which is the purchase of goods from other countries.

The most common example would be a Third World country, such as Dominican Republic, much of the money spent by tourist end up leaving the country’s economy via foreign-owned airlines, hotels, imported drinks and food, etc. A typical luxurious four star hotel would be more likely to import most of its goods and services; if that means that better quality would be provided which would ensure better customer satisfaction.

(http://geographyfieldwork.com/TouristMultiplier.htm

10. Conclusion

Models could be helpful to develop a successful tourism destination and understand the different motivations of tourists. When the policy changes the supply for example to develop an area for package tourism, the demand will also change. That means that the supply has to meet the demand side when at the descriptive side the object and services changing. Plog’s, Cohen’s and Doxey’s models are descriptive because they just describe a situation but Butler’s model is descriptive and prescriptive. TALC explains what is happening in an area and makes diagnose. After this diagnose the problem becomes clear and it is easier to make a decision for solving this problem. It is always necessary to find out how much potential a place has to make substantial development it in the right way. For this fact tourism models are helpful.

11. References

Cooper, C, Fletcher, J, Fyall, A, Gilbert, D and Wanhill, S (2008) Tourism Principles and Practice (4thedn), Prentice Hall, Essex

Gunn, C.A (2002) Tourism Planning (4th edn), Routledge, London

Howie, F. (2003 a,b), Managing the Tourist Destination: A Practical Guide (1st edn), Cengage Learning EMEA

Johnson & Thomas (1992), Choice and Demand in Tourism, Mansell Publishing Limited

National and regional tourism planning (1994) Methodologies and Case Studies (World Tourism Organization) (1st edn), Routledge, London

Ryan, C (2003), Recreational Tourism and Impacts (1st edn), Channel View Publications, Clevedon

Dominican Republic tourism, Tourism Development in the Dominican Republic:

Growth, Costs, Benefits and Choices, avaible from http://kiskeya-alternative.org/publica/afuller/rd-tourism.html#ecsoc (accessed on 11.12.2009)

This report provides a product and market development strategy for the UK tourism industry. It focuses on the benefits and challenges of the UK tourism industry. The background history of UK and the overview of the scope are revealed in this study. It also outlines the vision, mission and its strategic objectives. The report highlights a summary of the key findings of strategic marketing audit of the UK tourism sector. The findings of the report are used to develop a strategy for increasing the economic benefits of tourism to UK. The strategy for overcoming the challenges in order to increase the number of individuals visiting UK for tourism is disclosed in this report. The report concludes by making strategic recommendations for areas of growth in tourism activities in UK, development of products and resources needed to ensure viability. More so, significant barriers to implementing those recommendations are identified throughout the report to address the concerns of stakeholders of the industry.

Summary of Key Issues and findings

The summary of key issues and findings that Britain needs to address in order to improve upon her global competitiveness includes;

The importance of local market and business markets

Growing Competition

New Trends in Demands

Competition from emerging destinations

Taxation of accommodation and food

Entry Visa and Increase in Price

Climate Change

Build on Britain’s image and increase distribution through the trade

Britain’s major source of market and Britain’s core market

However, only five points would be discussed in the body of the report and the rest will be sent to appendix 1.

Definitions, methodology and framework
Definitions

This section seeks to explain strategic positioning and tourism.

What is strategic positioning?

According to Michael E. Porter, (1996) ‘strategy is the ability to make an informed decision on how, when and where to target a customer group, facilitate resources and set objectives (limits) makes the difference between managers who thinks from a strategic perspective in light of what might emerge in future’.

Lovelock (1991), describes positioning as the process of establishing and maintaining a distinctive place in the market for an organisation and/or its individual product offerings.

Putting them together, Strategic Positioning is the positioning of an organization (unit) in the future, while taking into account the changing environment, plus the systematic realization of that positioning (source:http://www.zenska-mreza.hr/prirucnik).

What is Tourism?

According to, Guyer Feuler (1905), “Tourism is a collection of activities, services and industries which deliver a travel experience comprising transportation, accommodation, eating and drinking establishments, retail shops, entertainment businesses and other hospitality services provided for individuals or groups traveling away from home”. Tourism can be categorized into Domestic, Outbound and Inbound.

Domestic tourism involves people taking holidays, short breaks and day trips within UK.

The outbound tourism has to do with the people’s movement from UK to other provinces, territories or countries to explore.

The inbound tourism involves individual traveling from other places such as Ghana, Togo, USA etc. to UK

Methodology

This report seeks to focus attention on the benefits and challenges of tourism industry in UK. The methods used in completing this report include;

Literature review (Journals, Books, Articles and the internet)

Data analysis at UK, both national and sub-national level

Stakeholder engagement

Conceptual framework

The study adopted marketing framework to explain the functions that links the business with customer needs and wants in order to get the right product to the right place at the right time.

Overview of the marketing process

(Adapted from tutor2u, Riley (2012)

Mission, Vision and Strategic Objectives
The Mission

To increase tourism’s contribution to the growth and development of UK economy.

The Vision

UK is globally recognised as one of the world’s leading regional destinations for conference, business, sporting and other recreational activities. The country is noted for her high quality facilities, cultural and entertainment. In view of this, the report seeks to;

Improve the UK share of tourism worldwide and employment and quality of life.

Increase UK share in global visitor market.

Strategic Objectives

Maximize tourism visitation, spend and length of stay

Attract investment in tourism related products

Increase industry participation in marketing activities through industry engagement

Improve tourism related community assets/products.

improve the engagement of visitor with products

Improve market access and connectivity

Developing and marketing competitive tourist destination in UK

Build on Britain’s image and increase distribution through the trade

Improve the range of product on offer and make it easier to get to Britain

Introduction

This chapter provides the background history of UK and the overview of the industry.

Background History & Current state of UK

The United Kingdom is a country that consists of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is a wonderful country with diverse culture and tradition. It is highly belief that, the nature of the people in the country, its landscapes, culture, character, history and traditions; its achievements, impact, successes, and standing; and its future, its vision, its potential makes the country Great. The aforementioned characteristics of the country has reckoned its own people, and people from across the world to see Britain, to know Britain and to understand Britain (Source: Former Prime Minister, Tony Blair).

The country is a Member of plethora organisations which include the European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Commonwealth of Nations, World Trade Organisation (WTO), and Organisation of Economic Corporation and Development. UK has the permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Through tourism contributions, United Kingdom is the world sixth largest economy and World’s first industrialized country with a population of over 62.4 million (Ref. UN, 2011).

The Overview of Tourism Industry in UK

Tourism industry in UK has immensely contributed to the economic development in the country. The industry occupies a unique position as the UK’s 5th largest industry, 3rd largest export earner behind chemicals and financial services and worth ?115 billion a year. Besides, it employs over 2.6 million people and supports over 200,000 Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) (source: VisitBritain.com, 2012). Overseas visitors spend around ?18 billion a year in this country and they contribute more than ?3billion in tax and duty to the Exchequer (VisitBritain Consultation Document, 2012). Research has revealed that, tourism in UK is extremely growing faster than any other economic sectors. It is outpacing mining, agriculture, and fishing as a leading industry for the country. One could see the value of tourism in UK is extremely high.

Although, the industry has been helpful to the country’s economy, there has been stagnation of growth recently, due to few key issues and challenges. This has made the industry to decline to the seventh position in the international tourism destination. This result is based on the visitor’s attendance and expenditure (Ref. UNWTO, 2011). It means that, France, USA, China, Spain, Germany and Italy are all ahead of UK in the tourism hierarchy (Ref. UNWTO, 2011). The question here isaˆ¦. `what might be problems or challenges resulting to poor attendance of tourists in UK. It is argue that whiles UK tourism performs well, international tourism is fiercely competitive business and their competitors are upping their game (VisitBritain.com).

The industry is facing problem on how to create a competitive, world-class tourism industry in Britain which can match both the quality and the best of British business as well as the scale of tourism in Britain in particular.

Situational Analysis: The UK Tourism Industry and its Competitiveness
The Value of Tourism to the UK Economy

The contribution of UK tourism industry to the national economy demonstrates the magnitude and complexity of the industry. According to VisitBritain’s CEO, Sandie Dawe (2012), tourism has tremendously contributed to the development of UK economy. To her, the industry can grow by more than 60% which would be amounted to about ?188bn by 2020. Besides, the number of jobs directly and indirectly linked to tourism could rise by 264,000 to 2.89 million by 2020, (source: VisitBritain).

Value of Tourism

(Adapted from VisitBritain.com)

Deducing from this, one could see that, tourism is a major contributor to the balance of payments. On the contrary, it is one of the few activities which would enable UK to achieve competitive advantages through the redistribution of labour within Europe (Economist, 1993:5-6). It is also a vital motivator of the UK economy reducing the deficit of the balance of payments, boosting employment, generating income, and contributing to regional development (Zacharatos, 1989:274; Truett & Truett, 1987:178). In fact, tourism per se is one major generator of wealth in UK economy. The contribution of the tourism industry in the UK economy has been very encouraging. As of 2010, the contribution of tourism has a total revenue of ?110 Billion and 2011-?120 Billion per annum (UK Tourism Statistics, 2012).

Visitors (?m) Spent (?Bn)

Leisure 11.5 6.6

Business 6.8 4 .0

Students 0.5 1.4

Other 2.4 1.2

In 2011 (Ref: International Passenger Survey, 2011)

* 1% increase in the cost, meaning, tourism earning drop down by 1.3% (Sensitive Tourist, 2001)

3.2. UK’s Position in the International Market

However, the industry’s position in the international market chart has been falling for the past 3 years now. This is because the competition in the global market place has become very tough as a result emerging destinations and other outstanding destinations such as France, Italy, Malaysia, Turkey, U.S.A etc. Although the industry was able to beat the cut-out point set for year 2012, yet the country’s position in the global market is still declining.

In 2011, as illustrated in Tab.1 below, UK came in the 7th position in the world classification of tourist destinations. The growth in global travel over the last two decades means that UK is competing against more destinations, for a larger number of potential visitors (VisistBritain.com).

Strategic Key Issues & Findings Facing The Industry

The following key themes are outlined from the strategic audit based on research and findings in appendix 2 and 3.

The importance of local market and business markets

The local and business markets are seen as the UK’s core markets. Research conveyed by VisitBritain has revealed that challenging facing UK international tourism does not only come from economic trends and competitive activity, but source market also poses unique complications. The local market consists of Western Europe and its surrounding nations such as France and Italy. France, Spain, Germany and USA generate 1/3 of all money spent by visitors in the UK economy (Visitbritain). However, since 2006, UK has lost these market shares and visits. This indicates that, Britain needs to defend volume, value and market share of these areas.

New Trends in Demands

The International tourism is moving to a level where consumers are demanding in new and varying activities which would engage them always. Consumers are demanding for new areas such as eco-tourism, health-tourism, sports-tourism, and activity-tourism and education tourism. This means tourists are no more interested in the culture or geographical location of the country. Therefore, in order to attract the attention of tourists, the industry should turn their attention on activity tourism, education tourism

Growing Competition and Competition from emerging destinations

Competition from existing and emerging destinations is another challenge. The emerging destinations like China, Malaysia, and Dubai are the countries that are growing at a fast rate in the tourism industry. Competitors are moving at fast rate, investing in marketing campaigns and addressing policy issues. For example, US government recently has published tourism strategy and national travel to deal with the visa process, border controls and issues of image. However, the major challenge here is how to create a competitive, world-class tourism industry in Britain which would match both the quality and the best of British business and innovative policies to create value and enhance of competitiveness.

Emerging Markets

The competition in the global market place has become very tough as a result of emerging destinations and other outstanding destinations such as France, Italy, Malaysia, Turkey, U.S.A etc. The strategic audit has outlined China, Turkey, Malaysia, Dubai and Egypt as the key target areas for tourism growth. Although the industry was able to beat the cut-out point set for year 2012, yet the country’s position in the global market is still declining. This has resulted because the global marketplace is getting tougher and countries like France, US, China, Germany and Dubai have recognized the potentials of tourism. This has awakened them to deliver growth and jobs in a tough economic climate.

Taxation of accommodation and food

Research has revealed that UK hotels and restaurants overtaxed in detriment to revenues for the wider economy. Thus, most UK hotels and restaurants charges full VAT rate on tourist accommodation, meal and attraction. There are several shops and restaurants in UK that charges tax on everything tourists buy. A notable example is McDonald- any food bought from McDonald has been tag with tax. This has demoralised most of the tourist to visit UK.

Entry Visa

The difficulty in accessing entry visa to UK is another factor inhabiting Britain’s competitiveness as a destination for international tourism. It is an established fact that, for one to get tourist visa to UK is very difficult. Apart from difficult visa process, it is also expensive as compared to other tourist destinations. For instance, to get a tourist visa to UK, one has to pay an Amount of ?78 whiles Schengen visa is ?53. So comparatively, people would prefer going to Germany, France and other destinations in lieu of UK. This has resulted poor performance since visitors from china, India and other African countries are now visiting Germany and France.

Climate Change

The weather condition in UK is seen as a drawback and hindrance to tourism in United Kingdom. As the weather in UK is unpredictable, tourist most often complain of been disturbed by rain and unfavourable weather conditions. This has negatively affected the industry since most people are discouraged and lost interest in embarking on tourism to UK.

Developing Strategic Options from the above Analysis

The findings above outline a number of challenges facing the tourism industry in UK. This section will develop a strategy that would be used to increase economic benefits for the country’s tourism industry. It would also outline a strategic approach to destination marketing (refer to appendix 2) in order to increase the number of individual visitors. It will develop a brand for UK tourism to get a sustainable presence in the global tourism market place.

Pursuing local and business markets

The industry should increase domestic visitation and focus on the local which is UK’s core market. The UK industry should not ignore its local market and business markets whiles the emerging destinations such as China, India represent long term opportunity for growth. The industry should use advertisement, motivation and rewards to encourage the indigenes of this country to embark on domestic tourism. This will smell good for those outsiders to develop interest in visiting UK.

Strategic development of “clusters”

Clusters occur as a result of both vertical relationships with suppliers and customers as well as horizontal relationships based upon shared technologies and common customers (Barker, 2007). Thus, in order to increase economic benefit of international tourism in UK, the industry should aim at forming a cluster that will bring group of industries on board. The presence of the cluster will accelerate and magnifies the process of factor creation in the industry. Once the cluster is formed, it allows companies from the interconnected industries to invest in infrastructures, technologies, information and human resources to improve economic benefits of the tourism industry.

Japan, for example provides a compelling impact of clusters on a country’s competitive advantage. In Japan, Keiretsu has formed a cluster of companies around the major banks with shareholding connections (Barker, 2007). This has encouraged cooperation and interaction. In simple put, the scale of the cluster will encourage greater investment, specialization, exchange information and ideas about market needs. Porter on cluster has cited several examples and it will be interesting to observe that clusters are active and strong in Japan, Italy, Sweden, and Germany. However, it is very weak in UK

Strategic destination alliance

Research has disclosed that, France, Spain, Germany and USA generate 1/3 of all money spent by visitors in the UK (VisitBritain). However, since 2006, UK has lost these market shares and visits. This means that, UK needs to defend volume, value and market share of these areas. In order to gain market share, the industry should establish a strategic partnership with the emerging competitors. The industry can link up with such destinations to form a league of nations with must visit and must see places. The tourism industry can develop stronger relationships with other private companies in the name of tourism partnership program. This will help to develop and promote cultural tourism and opportunities.

Corporate social responsibility strategy

Scholars like Friedman (1962), and Grossman (2005) maintain that, the traditional view of a company is that, the company has a responsibility to make as much profit as it can for its shareholders. Alternatively, the stakeholder approach suggested by Edward Freeman in 1984 directs organisations to manage the interest of and acknowledge a duty of care to a range of stakeholders. Based on the traditional view of the industry or a limited stakeholder view of the industry, UK tourism board should focus on using corporate social responsibility to increase positive stakeholder benefits whiles eradicating the negative effects of its action. It has been reported that non-governmental organisations have been donating millions to help in various environmental projects. These projects are centered on environmental protection, climate change, and the promotion of renewable energies.

Also, VisitBritain should introduce structures that will engage and communicate with UK tourism industry and stakeholders. This will help to provide a coordinated approach to drive forward the implementation of the Strategic Framework for UK Tourism. The structure will give the industry the chance to share innovative and intelligence delivery as well as addressing key issues and challenges affecting the tourism industry. Notwithstanding that, it will acts as a key mechanism for VisitBritain to communicate with the industry and connect effectively with the emerging destinatioons.

Strategic Recommendations

To overcome the challenges and maximize the benefits of the industry, the industry in collaboration with UK Government should:

Tax elimination

There should be tax free tourists and ensure that there is no imposition of tax on any food and accommodation. The government should solicit for funds from private enterprises to support the tourism industry. This will help to eradicate if not reduce tax rate to its minimum.

Reduction of tourist visa fee to compete with Schengen visa

Thus the amount of money taken from tourists as they apply for tourist visa should be reduced to compete with the other competitive countries. Also the UK government should publish a national travel and tourism strategy which will aim at reducing the tourist visa fee and process, border control and issues of image. This will maximize tourism visitation, spend and length of stay.

Expansion of local and international sales teams

Use the corporate governance strategy to keep the industry accountable.

This will help to avoid any sorts of bribery and corruption in the tourism industry. Have a tourism industry which provides affordable quality, which is open to all and which makes the best use of Britain’s resources.

Summary

To sum up everything, Marshal (2012) opine that “the challenges facing the tourism industry are complex and numerous. However, the two key among all the challenges are; Tax on accommodation and food and how to create a competitive, world-class tourism industry in Britain.

Frankly speaking, “addressing these challenges will require a high level of coordination and cooperation to marshal resources more effectively. Fiscal pressures and competing priorities among all tourism partners and tourism stakeholders will require new and innovative partnership arrangements to respond to growing competition and global opportunities (Marshal, 2012)”.

Conclusion

This report has provided a product and market development strategy for the UK tourism industry. The background history of UK and the overview of the scope are revealed in this study. It also outlined the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the study. Situational analysis of the industry based on the local market, value of tourism and UK’s position in the international market has been scholarly presented. The report revealed a summary of the key findings of strategic marketing audit of the UK tourism sector. The findings of the report are used to develop a strategy for increasing the economic benefits of tourism to UK.

The strategy for overcoming the challenges in order to increase the number of individuals visiting UK for tourism is disclosed in this report. The report concludes by making strategic recommendations for areas of growth in tourism activities in UK, development of products and resources needed to ensure viability. More so, significant barriers to implementing those recommendations are identified throughout the report to address the concerns of stakeholders of the industry.

To amass everything, it is the objective of the Ministry of Tourism and the Government of UK to create the environment where the industry would “do not only teach people to smile but give them a reason to smile”. The Government should note the above recommendations a point and legislate new tourism policy ( Hon. Harold Lovel, 2012).

Annotated Bibliography
Vision, mission, aims and objectives

In order for an organization to have clear strategic directions, it must first formulate clear vision, mission, aims and objectives. The following books were helpful in discussing the purpose of the vision, mission, aims and objectives;

Dale, C. (2012), “Strategic Management for Tourism”

Senior Lecturer in Tourism

University of Wolverhampton

Evans, N. C. D. and Stonehouse, G (2003)

“Strategic Management for Travel and Tourism”. Oxford

Butterworth-Heinemann, 15-20

Understanding Strategic Position and Tourism

Strategy and Tourism have myriad of definitions from a different perspective. It is therefore important to open this report with a brief explanation on strategic positioning and tourism. This will help to facilitate better understanding of strategy formulation and implementation. The following books, journals and articles were helpful in capturing the main conceptualization of strategy and tourism.

Capon, C. (2008), “Understanding Strategic Management”,

Prentice Hall: Hemel Hempstead.

Lovelock, C. H. (1984). “Services Marketing”.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Lovelock, C. H. (1991). “Services Marketing”. 2nd ed., Prentice- Hall

Johnson, G. et al. (2008), “Exploring Corporate Strategy”,

Prentice Hall: Hemel Hempstead.

Porter, M.E., (1980),

“Competitive Strategy: Techniques for analysing industries and competitors”

New York: The Free Press

Tribe, J, (2010), “Strategy for Tourism”, Goodfellow Publishers, Oxford

Overview of Tourism Industry in UK

In order to get broad and comprehensive review of tourism in UK, there was the need to research into several books, journals and articles which helpful to this report. As a matter of fact, the following books and journals were able to give accurate information that the researcher was looking for.

Butler, R.W. (2011): ” Contemporary Tourism Reviews: Tourism Life Cycle”

Strathclyde Business School, Universiity of Strathclyde

Goodfellow Publishers Ltd., Woodeaton, Oxford, OX3 9TJ

Website- wwww.goodfellowpublishers.com

Shaw, S. (2012): International Hospitality Management Program http://www.sprottshaw.com/programs/tourism-hospitality/international-hospitality-management/

Accessed on December 12, 2012

The Economic Importance of Tourism: UK Tourism Satellite .., http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/tourism/tourism-satellite-account/2009—the-economic-importance-of-tourism/rep-2009tsa.html (accessed December 12, 2012).

Tribe, J. (2005), “The Economics of Recreation, Leisure and Tourism”, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford.

UNWTO, EUROSTAT, OECD (2008), “Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework (TSA:RMF)”, Madrid, Luxembourg, Paris.

UNWTO, EUROSTAT, OECD (2008), “International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008(IRTS 2008)”, New York, Madrid. United Nations, Statistical Office of the European Communities, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and World Tourism Organization (2008).

VisitBritain Consultation Document (2012)

“Delivering A Golden Legacy: A Grow Strategy for Inbound Tourism to Britain from 2012 to 2020”.

Website- www.visitbritain.org

Key Issues and Challenges

This part of the report is very sensitive to the study; therefore there was the need to get books which would give accurate information about the benefits and challenges confronting the tourism industry in UK. The research made reference from the following books and websites;

BIS Economic Paper (2012): “Industrial Strategy: UK Analysis”

Department for Business Innovative & Skills, No. 18

http://www.bis.gov.uk

“Business Management and Strategies”,

http://teeanthony.blogspot.com/ (accessed December 12, 2012).

Marshall, C. (2012), “Challenges facing the Tourism Industry in Antiqua & Barbuda”: Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Office of National Statistics (2012): “The Economic Importance of Tourism: UK Tourism Satellite Account 2009”

VisitBritain Consultation Document (2012)

“Delivering A Golden Legacy: A Grow Strategy for Inbound Tourism to Britain from 2012 to 2020”.

Website- www.visitbritain.org

TOMORROW’S TOURISM – Home – Ask, common questions asked of … (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.eastriding.gov.uk/corp-tourism/docs/TomorrowsTourism.pdf

Strategic Options

This section of the report focuses on the Marketing strategy and action plan. There was the need to get frameworks and models to support the work. Therefore made reference from the following books below, because these books give accurate explanations to the various strategic options and marketing models;

Buhalis, D., 1999a, Limits of tourism development in peripheral destinations: problems and challenges, Tourism Management, Vol.20(2), pp.183-185.

Cooper, C. et al., (1998), Tourism: Principles and Practices, 2nd ed, Addison Wesley Longman, England.

Digital Startup and Campaign Marketing station in Hyderabad .., http://browsemasters.com/ (accessed December 12, 2012).

French Luxury Vacations, http://frenchluxuryvacations.com/ (accessed December 12, 2012).

William, J. (2002): “H. Igor Ansoff, 83; education drew worldwide acclaim”- San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved (8/12/2012

http://www.mindtools.com/subscribe.htm.

Beatty, C. et al., (June, 2010): “The Seaside Tourism Industry in England and Wales”: Employment, Economic Output, Location and Trend. Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research

Sheffield Hallam University

Positioning the Destination Product – Bournemouth University ..http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/15749/1/Positioning_the_Destination_Product_-_C an_Regional_Tourist_Boards_Learn_from_Private_Sector_Practice_(for_upload to_BURO).pdf (accessed December 12, 2012).

Porter M.E. (1996), “What is Strategy?”| Reflections, http://jensgulich.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/ / (accessed December 12, 2012).

Pima Community College : As with other impacts: Directories, http://ecc.pima.edu/~tourism/Negative%20Impact%20of%20Tourism.htm (accessed December 12, 2012)

Tugberk’s Blog – TugberkUgurlu.Com,

http://www.tugberkugurlu.com/?page=24 (accessed December 12, 2012

What is the difference between the United Kingdom, Great ..?

http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzuk.htm (accessed December 12, 2012).

Appendices
appendix 1 (KEY ISSUES & FINDINGS)
Increase in Price

A research conducted by San Francisco State University indicated that, the prices for local goods and services have increased by 8% as a result of tourism development. What it means is that, tourism development has tremendously increased in both building costs and land values. This is because the rich are now using the lands to build and engage in real estate for tourism purpose. This has resulted in difficulty for the indigenous people to meet the basic needs to purchase lands for their own use.

Economic Dependence

According to Marshall (2012), “over-reliance on tourism, especially mass tourism carries significant risks to tourism dependent economies. He argues that economic recession and the impacts of natural calamities such as tropical storms and hurricanes as well as changing tourism patterns can have a devastating effect on the local tourism sector.

Reduction of UK Government fund for tourism industry

In addition, the reduction of UK Government funding on tourism industry is a factor. Thus, the subsidy given by the UK government as a supporting aid to the tourism industry has dropped by ?48.0m to ?35.9m, which is 25% decrease in 2011. This has

The Maldives, known for its high end world class resorts, popular among the rich and famous is situated in South West of Sri Lanka on the Equator comprises of 1,190 tropical islands stretching over an area of 90,000 sq Km. With an average of 30 degrees Celsius, underwater coral gardens, white sandy beaches, turquoise blue lagoons, crystal clear water and 664 Km of coastline; the Maldives offers unimaginable natural beauty and remote tropical island experience to its visitors. An array of festivities and activities can be found on the islands including superb fishing, world class surf, shopping, diving and snorkelling, whale and dolphin watching and much more.

There are 97 luxury resorts established in the Maldives currently under operation and a further 30 resorts are been developed in addition to 145 safari vessels and city hotels already operating in the country. One resort one island is the policy that has been maintained in the Maldives. Each of them is self sustained providing maximum privacy to the guest.

Tourism is the main industry in the Maldives and contributes about 32% to its GDP – a figure which could easily rise to 70% if indirect sectors relating to tourism are taken into account. Tourism generates a 5th of Maldives total employment and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings. It also accounts for 30% of the Government’s revenue. Over the last five years tourist arrivals to the Maldives have been increasing constantly except for 2005 as the region was severely devastated by the tsunami. 2007 saw a record year for Maldives Tourism with a 12.3% rise (3.8% higher then expected), a significant achievement signalling the industry was coping well with the long lasting impacts of the tsunami.

However over the last 2 years the financial crisis in Europe and the rest of the world affected the Maldivian tourism industry tremendously recording a 4 % drop in total tourist arrival.

The year 2010 looked more optimistic for the Maldivian tourism industry as signs of economies rebounding in the form of increased tourist arrival. Maldives recorded a 21 % increase in arrivals and an 8 % increase in the European segment.

It has been identified that Maldives tourism will be facing many challenges especially from man made crises such as the economic recessions and the environment degradation.

Recessions can lead to a fall in disposable income of consumers resulting in a decrease in consumption of luxury goods such as holidays. When consumers becomes increasingly pessimistic about their future in terms of reduced job security and increased financial obligations they minimizes spending dramatically worsening the economic situation further.

the environmental impact of tourism expansion can threaten the very basic experience that is being sold , the remote tropical islands with coral gardens and a vast variety of species occupying them . Activities such as snorkeling, scuba diving and reef walking ,water sports activities where power boats are used extensively can threaten the very coral reef that sustain not only an ecosystem of multi species but the barrier to erosive impacts of waves on the resort islands. Without such natural barrier the beautiful white sandy beaches the Maldives is known for will fade away replacing it with a man made barrier changing the very image of the islands.

To meet the challenges face by the Maldives tourism industry, marketers are devising strategies enhancing the image and develop products incorporating the changing needs, values and consumer behaviour while simultaneously sustaining the tourism industry.

Table of Contents

Executive summary 1

Table of Contents 3

1.0Introduction 4

1.1 Limitations 4

2.0 Over view of the industry 5

2.1 Product 5

2.2 Pricing 6

2.3 Place 6

2.4 Promotion 6

2.5 Distribution 6

2.6 Competition 7

3.0 Key findings 8

3.1 Swot analysis 8

3.2 Current analysis of tourist arrivals 9

3.3 Other findings 9

4.0 Challenges in the industry 11

4.1 Impact of global economic recession 11

4.2 Impact of environmental degradation 12

5.0 Proposals to meet the challenges. 14

6.0 Conclusion 16

REFERENCES 17

1.0Introduction

This report presents a critical review of the tourism industry of the Maldives and an evaluation of the challenges it is facing .Discussions on how marketers are responding has been presented as well.

The effects of the global financial crisis which hit the Europe and the rest of the world on the Maldivian tourism industry will be evaluated. The effects on Maldives tourism from the financial crisis in Europe, which accounted to more than 70 % of the total tourist arrival in the country in the past, will be also evaluated. Factors in the external environment will be included in the analysis.

The report will focus on finding challenges faced by the tourism industry and evaluate the responses by the marketers in responding to these challenges.

Brief initiatives by companies within the sector to offset these issues will also be presented.

1.1 Limitations

The Studies limited to operators of the resorts and other tourists vessels. Due to lack of information on the 2010 statistics much emphasis is not put on to describe the extent of recovery of the economy as a result of the increase in tourist arrivals as only one month statistics were available during the time of this research. Furthermore the study considered only the man made crisis in deriving challenges to the industry.

2.0 Over view of the industry

The Maldives, situated in South West of Sri Lanka on the Equator comprises of 1,190 tropical islands stretching over an area of 90,000 sq Km. With an average of 30 degrees Celsius, underwater coral gardens, white sandy beaches, turquoise blue lagoons, crystal clear water and 664 Km of coastline; the Maldives offers unimaginable natural beauty and remote tropical island experience to its visitors.

Maldives has a rich and diverse culture with influences from African, Asian, Indian and British .An array of festivities and activities can be found on the islands including superb fishing, world class surf, shopping, diving and snorkelling, whale and dolphin watching and much more.

Over the last five years tourist arrivals to the Maldives have been increasing constantly except for 2005 as the region was severely devastated by the tsunami. 2007 saw a record year for Maldives Tourism with a 12.3% rise (3.8% higher then expected), a significant achievement signalling the industry was coping well with the long lasting impacts of the tsunami.

Tourism is the main industry in the Maldives and contributes about 32% to its GDP – a figure which could easily rise to 70% if indirect sectors relating to tourism are taken into account. Tourism generates a 5th of Maldives total employment and 70% of its foreign exchange earnings. It also accounts for 30% of the Government’s revenue. (W.T.O. 2010)

2.1 Product

Maldives holiday provides the following products to the tourists Honeymoon . Business, family, Spa retreat, wedding Ceremonies, Diving, Cruising and Surfing.(Maldives traveller website, 2010) . Recent tourist opinion survey showed that the main reasons for tourists coming to the Maldives were relaxation (55%); honeymoon (28%) and diving (11%).

2.2 Pricing

The Maldives is known for its high end world class resorts and, which offer tropical privacy in the modern hectic world, popular among the rich and famous. This privacy and seclusion of many Maldivian resorts is what makes them unique. This is what differentiates the Maldives from its competitors, and over the last few years many new exclusive resorts have sprung up. These high end resorts, and the tourism sector as a whole, are an important part of the Maldivian economy: in 2008, the sector contributed 27.2% of the Maldivian GDP. (MMA 2010)

2.3 Place

There are 97 luxury resorts established in the Maldives currently under operation and a further 30 resorts are been developed in addition to 145 safari vessels and city hotels already operating in the country. One resort one island is the policy that has been maintained in the Maldives. Each of them is self sustained providing maximum privacy to the guest. (Tourism ministry website 2010)

2.4 Promotion

Destination Maldives promotion is actively taken up by the government .activities are carried out by the government organisation called Maldives tourism promotion board. They initiate, lead, facilitate and execute the planned activities .Maldives is promoted mainly in UK, Germany, and Italy.

2.5 Distribution

The Maldivian travel and tourism industry is largely controlled by the private sector. The central government acts as a regulatory body in the industry. The key stake holders in the industry are the local tour operators, tour operators abroad, local airlines, international airlines, tour operators. Among them exists partnerships and strategic alliances together contributing to the quality service being provided.

2.6 Competition

According to Riza (2010) every country is a competitor in the tourism industry. However in terms comparable products to the Maldives the Bahamas; Barbados; Bermuda; the Cayman Islands; the Dominican Republic; Fiji; Guadeloupe; Jamaica; Martinique; Mauritius; New Caledonia; Reunion; the Seychelles; St Lucia; and Trinidad and Tobago can be considered as competitors they are tropical island nations which offers tourists tropical island experience.these destinations do not have an advantage over the Maldives in terms of distance to the main source market of markets.(Riza 2010)

3.0 Key findings
3.1 Swot analysis
Strengths

Unique model of island development

Natural resource base: tropical atolls and islands

Excellent resort facilities with ocean based activities (coral beaches, diving, and fishing)

Enviable brand image in marketplace

30-years of progressive growth

Liberal investment climate

Entrepreneurial drive

Weaknesses

Reliance on foreign personnel and Maldivians’ coolness (reluctance) to working in tourism

Long-haul destination for current market segments

Dependence on imports of capital and operating goods and products

Inter-island transport

Absence of forward linkages and poor integration of local inputs

Destination marketing

Poor information base for mature market

Opportunities

Productive public-private dialog and action planning-by including all stakeholders, including tour operators, in future planning

Product differentiation and segmentation: ecotourism, island themes

New markets (China, India , Russia)

Human resource development

Supply chains for local products, including coir rope, thatch, grass mats, fishing, fruit and vegetable production

Enhanced SME and microenterprise development

Improve government resource mobilization/use framework for tourism

Threats

Monochromatic product line

Losing traditional market base

Progressive commercialization

Environmental degradation and weak coastal zone management (e.g., sanitation)

Shallow financial sector and lack of savings and investment vehicles

Limited prospects for emerging entrepreneurs to enter the field

Source: (World Bank Report 2006)

3.2 Current analysis of tourist arrivals

Europe is the biggest market for Maldives tourism industry accounting for 73.3%, 72.8% and 70.5% in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. The European share of the total tourist arrival has declined by 0.05 % in 2008 and 2.3% in 2009.Despite the a drop in overall share of arrivals , European sector saw an increment by 0.4 % .This increment is due to an increase in tourist arrivals from Russia and Ukraine by 53.8 % and 52.3% respectively. United Kingdom, Italy and Germany were the biggest markets for the Maldivian tourism industry accounting for 63.5 %, 58.3%, and 57.2% in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. This is a continuous drop from 7.9 % to 8.8 % in 2008 and 2009 respectively. (Tourism ministry website, 2010)

Total tourist arrivals to the country dropped by 4 % despite an increase in Asian sector by 6.9 % especially china which registered the highest growth rate in 2009 at 46.1 % and overall share of the Asian sector by 39 %. china over took Japan which was the largest Asian market for Maldives shared 23.6 % of total Asian sector registering a drop in tourist arrival by 7.1 % and 4.1 % in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

However in 2010, total tourist arrivals increased by 21 % registering an 8 % growth in the European sector.

3.3 Other findings

The Only international airport in the country is Male international airport on Hulhule Island which is a 10-minute ferry ride away from the capital Male. It has a runway of 3,200 meters for the time being adequate however research suggests that at peak times the terminal facilities are stretched beyond capacity. Currently 30 carriers connect Maldives to the rest of the world. Recently the domestic airport in Gan was upgraded to an international airport status to cater for the southern resort developments .however it is yet to be run as an international airport.

There were plans for six regional airports to improve commuting between the atolls and the capital where Access to all islands is tightly controlled through transfers to resorts by speedboats owned by the resorts themselves or under contract with the two seaplane taxi services. For domestic flights,

There are two sea-taxi services (Trans Maldivian and Maldives Air Taxi), with a total of 31 Twin Otters and an airline serving the country’s network of airports (Island Airways). (World Bank report, 2006)

4.0 Challenges in the industry
4.1 Impact of global economic recession

Global economic recessions can have a profound impact on the tourism industry in the form of decrease in tourist arrival receipts.

Recessions can lead to a fall in disposable income of consumers resulting in a decrease in consumption of luxury goods such as holidays. When consumers becomes increasingly pessimistic about their future in terms of reduced job security and increased financial obligations they minimize their spending dramatically worsening the economic situation further.(Shina, 2010).

Furthermore loss in business confidence leads to cost cutting measures such as employee reduction and price increment which ultimately makes the destination reach and price of the holiday package more expensive.

Recessions can be caused by a hike in global fuel prices which makes cost of production expensive .especially the airline sector which is a product of tourism will be affected by the fuel prices. The increase in fuel price in other words the marginal costs are reflected in the fares or covered by reducing the discounted seats. (Shina, 2010)

It is clearly evident from the recent financial crisis which stemmed from United States that derived the economies of the world in to recession affects the tourism industry negatively. In the case of Spain, a sharp decline in consumer expenditure and surged in unemployment with a forecast in further increment in 2010 devastated the economy making it one of the worst affected countries in Europe. This was as a result of the government’s slow response to the crisis and problems in the political front in implementation of the strategies. (Sebastian 2009)

4.2 Impact of environmental degradation

According to McKercher(1993) tourism is a resource based industry which describes it as a voracious consumer of resources.

The construction of resorts located in areas with unique and fragile ecosystems can cause a permanent restructuring of environments and sometimes destroying the original ecosystems. The provision of infrastructure can extend the environmental impacts of tourist developments far behind the development site. (McKercher1993).

Despite numerous economic benefits from tourism the environmental impact in its expansion can threaten the very basic experience that is being sold , the remote tropical islands with coral gardens and a vast variety of species occupying them . Activities such as snorkeling, scuba diving and reef walking ,water sports activities where power boats are used extensively can threaten the very coral reef that sustain not only an ecosystem of multi species but the barrier to erosive impacts of waves on the resort islands. Without such natural barrier the beautiful white sandy beaches the Maldives is known for will fade away a man made barrier will have to be built changing the very image of the islands.

According to the Prior (1995) significant damage is caused by the leisure scuba diving to the coral reefs of Egyptian resort Sharm el Sheikh on the red sea. Similarly McKercher (1993) reports that damage of reef by scuba divers were reported in USA, Australia and the Caribbean.

However the demand from the tourism industry and the economic benefits from it had pressured the government to meet the infrastructure requirements such as extension of airports by land reclamation through dredging lagoons and leasing islands for resort developments in new areas which has no human activity etc. Despite these pressures in order to mitigate the damage government imposed strict regulations and guidelines for resort construction and operation. Government was particularly concerned with the carrying capacity of the islands. Measures to limit the number of people in a resort island below the environmental threshold such as limiting the maximum built-up area to 20% of the total land area were taken. (Ministry of tourism website, 2010)

Further more resorts are required to employ latest technologies to mitigate the damage to the environment such as having incinerators, bottle crushes and compactors and sewerage treatment plants.

5.0 Proposals to meet the challenges.

To meet the challenges face by the Maldives tourism industry, marketers are devising strategies enhancing the image and develop products incorporating the changing needs, values and consumer behaviour while simultaneously sustaining the tourism industry.

In partnership with the Government of the Maldives, operators are offering services to tourists visiting some resorts on complimentary basis to attract and increase the tourist arrivals to the country. (World Tourism organisation website 2010) furthermore strategic alliances have been made in order to increase access to the destination. British airways direct flights connecting Europe, and Bangkok airways direct flights connecting south East Asia to the Maldives in addition to the already established airlines.

Focus on other emerging destinations such as china, India and Russia to reduce the dependency of Maldivian tourism on western European segments. Maldives is undertaking extensive promotional activities in china and developing strategic partnerships in Russian and India to increase tourist arrivals.

Turning Maldives in to a green economy and promoting green tourism is another response to the challenges. Maldivian government had already initiated programs such as going carbon neutral by 2020 to re invent the destination image of Maldives. Strategic alliances with large multinational companies had already been establish one such project is providing safe and renewable energy for different parts of the country through wind farm which will be supplied to inhabited islands as well as nearby resorts. (The guardian website 2010)This is particularly optimistic for tourist resorts as the operation costs decreases since all the resorts in Maldives are self sufficient and produce their own energy by diesel fuelled engines.

Companies such as six senses hotels UK had initiated projects in its Maldives properties to become carbon neutral and promote itself as a green resort. Some of the initiatives included utilizing timber from sustainably managed and certified sources ,using natural ventilation as much as possible ,sourcing materials locally ,installing energy-saving light bulbs, encouraging the use of bicycles and battery-operated vehicles and reducing ‘food miles’ by growing fresh produce their two organic gardens. The resort implemented Water-saving measures as powering a reverse-osmosis desalination plant to convert seawater into freshwater for the resort’s operations and both guest and host needs was energy intensive. Measure such as (Six Senses Hotels website 2010)

Giving guests the option to not have their bed linen and towels washed each day

All swimming pools use filtered seawater

The newly renovated guest rooms as well as other areas are connected to a grey-water recycling system; the filtered water is used for the irrigation of the organic gardens

The island’s groundwater is used for staff sanitation

Rainwater is collected and channeled into the reverse-osmosis plant to make the desalination process more efficient

Native plant species only are grown in the jungle areas that do not require additional irrigation

MTDC is a key player in resort development and operation jointly owned by the government and public .some of the marketing initiatives by them to cope with challenges include implementation of a two faceted marketing strategy – one, to attract investment and management partners for the development and management of the resorts, and two, to market the properties under operations or approaching operations to tour operators and potential tourists.

MTDC participated in the leading international travel and tourism fairs. In 2009 MTDC took part in the two leading international tourism trade shows; the ITB International Tourism Fair held in Berlin, and the World Travel Market exhibition held in England. MTDC also participated in the BIT 2009 fair held in Milan. (MTDC Annual Report 2009)

6.0 Conclusion

It is evident that the Maldivian tourism industry largely depends on the tourists from the European segment. However the financial crisis in Europe that leads to a drop in tourist arrival n this segment leads to a shrink of the economy. This gave the tourism industry a new perspective as a slight change in the European travel consumer behavior can lead to slow growth in the economy which shared more than 70 % tourist arrival to the country. Therefore in order to counter the challenge focus was put on the Asian segment especially china and India the new emerging economic powers as well as Russia. This lead to another challenge, increase in tourist arrival to the country straining the natural resources, leading to pollution and environmental damage.

Therefore marketers had to counter these challenges by catering products to accommodate the changing consumer behaviors in the west as well as in sustaining the tourism industry by protecting the environmental by introducing green tourism.

According to option pricing theory, investment project often added value from it associated real options. Hong Kong Disneyland theme parks as an investment project has in enhancing its upside potential as well as reducing its downside risk in different economic conditions. In the early stage, due to the changing of environment and seasonal fluctuations, it result the development of Hong Kong Disneyland’s cash flows into irregular pattern. However, after the project has been switch, defer and expand, the value of the development of Hong Kong Disneyland is enhanced. With this, the Walt Disney had added attractions and other theme parks to the original theme park and turned Disney World into a vacation resort. In future, if the Hong Kong Disneyland project furthers their strategic options, the value of Hong Kong Disneyland will definitely increase and becomes attractive. The government projected that the theme park will attract a huge number of foreign and local attendees and

Study 2:

Since the establishment of Hong Kong Disneyland project, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has been successfully established its own legitimacy. However, Hong Kong people rise up their doubt and even challenged the government because of government go through democratic election producer underneath. But, with the launched of Hong Kong Disneyland project, it grows Hong Kong people shown their confidence towards their government. After the success of Hong Kong Disneyland, it makes the politic of Hong Kong become stable compare to the time of colonialism, and thus, it attract more visitors who was stay nearby visit to Hong Kong. Hong Kong Disneyland has been made use by HKSAR to re-nationalize and decolonize Hong Kong society and to remodeling Hong Kong as a spectacular tourist magnet instead of a citizen-based participatory community simultaneously. In addition, Hong Kong Disneyland consolidates Hong Kong’s reputation as a shopping paradise for tourists.

Study 3:

Base on the study, compare with the other transnational corporations, Hong Kong Disneyland intentionally localizes the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park by keeping it completely. Hong Kong Disneyland didn’t modify any version but just keep an original version of American fantasy and imagination to it audiences. Although visitors who are come from mainland Chinese are not familiar with the characters of Disneyland, but Hong Kong Disneyland theme park assumes that those visitors can fully know the plot and legends of Disney animations; if they do not understand that, sure one day they will. Moreover, there is no obvious localization strategy buy just a segmentation of Mainland Chinese, English speaking visitors and Hong Kong. However, what the visitors’ experiences is difference, this is because this is a free, individualist American atmosphere that intensely contrasts with the repressive state in which they reside.

Study 4:

Base on the study, visitors are satisfied towards Hong Kong Disneyland theme park service quality consists of appearance, atmosphere and facilities, but visitors are disappointed with their staff performance in factors of “responsiveness and access”, “assurance” and “empathy. Hong Kong Disneyland is top five popular attractions for Hong Kong visitors. Therefore, it should not overpass the Hong Kong tourism industry. In order to build the good image and good reputation for Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disneyland theme park should provide high quality service to meet the demand of the visitors. Therefore, it can enhance the competitiveness of Hong Kong as a tourism destination. Hong Kong Disneyland Company should provide relevant training for their staff, it is because staffs play an important role during the whole service delivery process, and therefore to increase the customer satisfaction level in meeting their desires.

Study 5:

Base on the study, the case of Hong Kong’s tourism reflects and reinforces the meaning through how its source and symbol of identity has an importance for people and places during the period of transition when configurations and meanings are subject to interpretation and change. During the entire process and outcome, government plays an important role to influence over it. In addition, all of this identity, heritage and tourism will only become apparent in the expansion in Hong Kong history. From the perspective of marketing, the unique identity of Hong Kong is a way which can attract visitors to visit and also to compete in such competitive tourism industry. Furthermore, such homogenized place can sell as a product. If Hong Kong loses its unique identity, it will become danger in Hong Kong tourism industry because it wills loss of tourist arrival.

Study 6:

The meaning of globalization is the interaction between the global and the local. Base on the study, even as giant as the Disneyland, it’s also have to adapt to the local preferences. Therefore, it can help to generate maximum profit and stay competitive to compete with other such as Disneyland Paris. Disneyland Paris has shown the globalization work. The Disneyland of Paris have make this successful with (1) cutting the price, (2) turning shows and setting into French style, (3) change of food menus and eating habits and (4) change of employee customs and labor policies. Besides that, Disneyland Paris has generated a lot of profits. Walt Disneyland Company not only had accommodated to Europe’s local preferences, but it also applied to Hong Kong after Hong Kong Disneyland was opened in 2005.

Study 7:

Base on the study, this journal discussed the economic and social problem of Hong Kong since 1997. Hong Kong’s economic become even worse when the economic downturn, achievements and progress in social development for Hong Kong people. Therefore, the amount of unemployment is increase. The unemployment rate of Hong Kong is highest if compared to other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. Therefore, this is the time for Hong Kong to learn from it neighboring stated which can help Hong Kong people sustain during the financial crisis.

Study 8:

Base on the study, it investigates the relationship of competition and cooperation between the theme park and tour operators in the context of Hong Kong. Since last time, the tourism industry has significantly raising in the world with it fastest movement development, the broadest prospects, and the largest scale. In addition, Hong Kong Disneyland’s stakeholders using different operate system to resolve their different business, not only by individual enterprises but also tourism supply chain. Theme parks are always the attractions point in tourism supply chain; for example, Hong Kong Disneyland is a key milestone in the development of Hong Kong’s economic. With the direct purchase mode and ticket exchange voucher mode strategic, theme park has been found out is the market leader and the tour operator is the follower. Despite the fact, both also bring profit to its own.

Study 9:

Hong Kong’s tourist is one of the most prominent destinations among Asia country. In addition, tourism of Hong Kong also is the main economic pillars of Hong Kong, abreast with financial, professional services and financial. There are competitive for visitors throughout the region, therefore, Hong Kong Special Administrative region (SAR) government to promote the city as a top-class destination for leisure by turning Hong Kong into “Asia’s World City”. Government has made a lot of efforts such as to provide additional infrastructure, improve the facilities, and increase the service quality and so on. With the success of all these efforts, even in the future of Hong Kong tourism industry, it really depends on the people who are employed in this industry. Therefore, higher education in hospitality and tourism education play an important role in preparing employees and executives for the tourism industry in Hong Kong and worldwide.

Study 10:

Base on the study, the world today can be characterized by the reality of business globalization and huge competition in all industrial sectors. The challenges are to compete favorably in the global market place if it exist today and as it grow tomorrow. Therefore, companies and individuals have to manage and adapt to the changing conditions and to cope with these conditions. The creative and regenerative value of metaphors is revealed in this study, which appear to bring serious effect for Disney’s theme park in Hong Kong and Paris. The educational metaphors for Disney such as cultural chernobly, political football, organ transplant and supermarket, and stakeholders, with all of these metaphors, Disney can identify these through a strategic surveillance process, and therefore, important for Disney to embarks on Hong Kong and Japan Disneyland.

Study 11:

Another major attractiveness theme park and also one of the key competitors of Hong Kong Disneyland is Ocean Park Hong Kong, which was officially opened on January 10, 1977. The number of visitors of Ocean Park Hong Kong has been increasing since the introduction of an “individual visit scheme” for mainland Chinese tourists. Since 2004, after the “Christmas sensation event” held, it drew more than 2 million visitors dramatically in the following years. But the problem of queuing has become an important issue for the park management. Base on the study, Western tourists are more willing to wait than Chinese tourists. Ocean Park should take steps to improve the waiting environment and provide better waiting experience for visitors. Therefore, park management by reducing actual waiting times to help increase the satisfaction levels of tourists.

Study 12:

Tokyo Disneyland was opened in April 1983, is another Disneyland located in Japan Tokyo, which is a licensed version of the American theme park and was re-made in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland was the biggest workplace among Japan’s diversionary outings since 1996, and also the most successful theme park in the world. Base on the study, it focuses on the organizational culture of Tokyo Disneyland. The success of it was due to the cultural fit between the Disney Way and the strong Japanese organizational culture developed in the context of regular workers and also the appropriation of the Disney Way followed the movement of the Japanese labor market in the 80’s. Tokyo Disneyland’s hybridization of organizational culture provides broader processes of globalization and a special interflow of global and local, America and Japan.

Study 13:

Tourism is considered an “engine of growth” in developed countries. In addition, also closely link to the development and planning. Base on the study, since the day Disneyland Paris opened, it gave French society positive returns for its public investment, although the company was registering losses. The French mode of social regulation helped to anchor the major capital of Disneyland projected generated, therefore, its economic benefits can directly translated into social benefits. With the incorporation of French mode social regulation, its help to rescheduled the economic crisis and stabilized future.

Study 14:

From the past few decades, the global theme park industry has fairly grown. There are few factors such as the volume and quality of advertising campaigns and marketing, guest experiences and development of new product, as well as external variables, in which the parks have to overmaster like competitors” strategies, economic condition, government regulations, weather, gasoline prices and so on, all of these are the factors which will affect the continuous growth of the theme park. Theme park industry has produced a broad circle of political, social and economic influences few key sectors. It will continue have an impact on society and will adjust their entertainment to changing cultural, social, political thought. Moreover, will continue to grow and impact a variety of demographic and socio-economic sections of the community in which they operate in destination development and sustainability.

Study 15:

Since 1997, Hong Kong reversion to China, Hong Kong placed an important emphasis on define its international visibility as a Special Administrative Region (SAR), a gateway to the Mainland in terms of finance, investment, trade, transport, tourism and communications. Therefore, to claim it image as “Asia’s world city”. This led to the Brand Hong Kong’s mission with to provide a better focus to the international promotion of Hong Kong. But, if this “progressive development” is still persisting, then the Hong Kong cultural will come to the last generation. However, few campaign have shown that the Hong Kong cultural did not come to its last generation due to the Hong Kong residents are not willing to surrender their history to the mercenary exploits of the administration.

Study 16:

From the past to this new millennium, the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry has gone through some hard time in its modern incarnation. Base on the study, there are few dominant forces which may influence over the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry in future. First dominant forces are the old, new and evolving inbound and outbound market. As growth and prosperity consolidate in Asia Pacific, the region will increasingly host international mega-attractions and mega-events, such as Disneyland Hong Kong. Upon the open of Hong Kong Disneyland, the park already makes an immediate difference to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s economy. Not only created thousands of job opportunities during the construction phase but also the opening of the Disneyland. Moreover, Hong Kong Disneyland theme park is estimated will be a huge draws for families across Asia.

Study 17:

As being the hub of many Asian Airlines, Hong Kong has become one of the most popular travel destinations in Asia. It drawn the whole world attention to Hong Kong about it future on the other after Hong Kong reversion to China since 1997. But before four months before the handover, the amount of tourist arrivals to Hong Kong began to decline. The economic turmoil in Asia has a tremendous impact on the tourism industry including Hong Kong. New government faced the issue of economic problem. During October 23, 1997, Hong Kong stock market crashed, after interest rates had been raised to protect Hong Kong dollar from currency problem. Because of the currency problem, many visitors have been attracting away from Hong Kong to other country. Base on the study, the new political which represent Hong Kong bring more challenges than opportunity. People in tourism industry are hope that Hong Kong’s tourism industry will recover as soon as the Asian economy recovers, but actually are not. Therefore, this is a long term growth or a struggle for Hong Kong tourism industry.

Study 18:

Forms of tourism that are highly popular in the Asia pacific region include urban tourism in major cities including Hong Kong. In all of these destinations, expanding meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibition markets can build up the growth, which from business travel markets and other leisure tourists for the broad range of cultural attractions that metropolitan cities can provide. Since Hong Kong handover to China, fears of repression and the end of democracy have led to the reducing amount of tourists’ number. The current condition of recession is likely exacerbated and reports that Hong Kong have been replace Tokyo as the most expensive city in the world. The past year has been one of the tremendous changes affecting tourism in Asia Pacific region. Therefore, changes are inevitable in many aspects of Asia Pacific region.

Study 19:

Base on the study, Disney have successful adapt the globalization theory to Hong Kong Disneyland with the changes of setting and decor, reduce the price, adaptation to local customs and labor practices. Since it opened in 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland lack of success within a year. Walt Disney Company failed to understand local Chinese customs, but also their eating habits, meal times, and so on. But after Disney adjusts to local preferences it led Disney to produce high profits and stay competitive in the global market place. The globalization works when Disney minimizing US culture and maximize the Chinese cultural. Now, Disney not only adapts the themes, products, ideas, services, and even the whole entire organization including corporate philosophies and strategies, model for supervisor (employee relations) and so on. All of these are closely linked to the contexts and the sociocultural environment in which they are performed.

Study 20:

Hong Kong and Singapore are most open and dynamic economies among Asia Pacific Region. Besides that, both also the leading tourist destinations, and strive to look after as the tourism hub in the region. International Institute for management development (1998) stated that, Hong Kong and Singapore hold the second and third place in the competitiveness rankings worldwide. Due to the strategic location and the unique competitive structures of both Hong Kong and Singapore, these two countries’ economies have made strong economic advantages for the rapid growth of their tourism and hospitality industry. Based on the study, a competitive strategies employed by travel agents and hotels in Hong Kong and Singapore have play an important role in hospitality industry. Moreover, they managed to stay ahead in maintaining a competitive edge based on non-price and price-related (cost) strategies both internationally and domestically.

Study 21:

Since early 1997, Hong Kong tourism industry sector visitors amount have dropped dramatically. The significant numbers of Hong Kong’s major tourism markets contribution was Japanese market. Japanese market was defined as a high-generating market in term of tourist arrivals and tourism receipts, but due to the discriminatory pricing for Japanese tourists during the handover period, it discouraged inbound Japanese travel and even worse that undermined the reputation of Hong Kong as an international tourist destination. Base on the study, Japanese tourists are satisfied with the accessibility of Hong Kong, in term of transportation, customs procedures, immigration, open street markets and shopping arcades. All of this factors influencing Japanese tourists’ overall satisfaction level, besides that, the likelihood of Japanese recommending Hong Kong this place to other people.

Study 22:

The amount of inbound tourists to Hong Kong has continuously increased, and big portion was occupied by Mainland Chinese tourists, it is also because of the geographical proximity and political ties in between Mainland China and Hong Kong. This phenomenon so called “Chinese tourists’ wave” was influx by Mainland China’s tourists, and have been brought enormous change to Hong Kong’s tourism industry, even local community and economy. Base on the study, local residents recognize the existent of this wave, it is because of the significant economic benefits have been brought. On the other hand, local residents perceive the dimension of environmental, social-cultural and other costs negatively. Furthermore, local tourism authorities can use this useful information to formulate future strategies and policies towards the “Chinese tourists’ wave”.

Study 23:

Hong Kong is the top destination cities for tourists among Asia country, the top three major tourists was Taiwan, Mainland China and Japan. With the launch of Individual Visit scheme (IVS), Mainland China tourists enjoy the relaxed visa requirement and lately become the first source market in Hong Kong tourism. Base on the study, error correction model (ECM) acknowledged that tourists are income-elastic, in which they consider travel to international tourism was a luxury product. In addition, the effect of the nominal exchange rate on tourism is also significant for Japan, it because Japanese are more sensitive with the exchange rate but Chinese and Taiwanese tourists are not. Hong Kong tourism was benefits from the implement of new visa requirement. Moreover, more Chinese residents can afford to travel abroad for sightseeing and shopping with the economic growth of China.

Study 24:

Hong Kong people had a desire for materialistic attainment for their quality of life. With the rapid economic development, Hong Kong has become a modern financial hub of the Asian-Pacific region. Furthermore, to sustain the economic growth, Hong Kong government and private enterprise has encouraged further digitalization and globalization of Hong Kong. In addition, decolonization and westernization of Hong Kong has cause many Hong Kong people to migrate, do business or study in other country, but after Hong Kong handover to China, Hong Kong people have return and this contributed Hong Kong to a higher level of global life, which is positive for peoples’ enjoyment, happiness and overall quality. However, despite the fact that due to the rapid and continuous socioeconomic development since the 1960s, majority of Hong Kong people didn’t feel content with their quality of life.

Study 25:

A country which is renowned for its complexity and bureaucracy and regulating everything, which is French. Their implementation involves different levels of authority and action, many actors and many types of policy instruments. In addition, it is not surprise that the government will take charge of every aspect include tourism projects. Therefore, the structures set up and planning culture of Disneyland Paris project are definitely take part by the French government. Moreover, the French government shows it interest in Disneyland theme park project because of the redistribution of benefits or revenue among social classes. Besides that, it also helps Paris to create urban growth pole economically independent. Furthermore, the Disneyland Paris project is based on public-private partnership which means the private company and government each presume responsibility and risks that are specifically theirs. This is totally different from other mixed economy country which the private company and government take on responsibility and risks together. The convention decides the responsibility and duty of each partner, not just those of the French government.

Study 26:

Based on the study, Hong Kong tourism market will dominate by Japan, Taiwan and Mainland China which during the forecasting period. But as the figures published from HKTB, it showed that the forecasts have been overestimated in long-haul market. The reason is tourists from Taiwan, Japan and Mainland China from these markets are more likely to cut their travelling expenses in Hong Kong. As a result, the negative impact of the financial crisis on long-haul market will definitely made Hong Kong’s tourism industry undergo losses. In contrast, short-haul markets are predicted to perform stably during the forecasting period. This study shows that there are strong relationships between demands for Hong Kong tourism and both the price of tourism products in Hong Kong and income levels in origin markets. Therefore, it is important for Hong Kong’s policy makers closely monitor economic conditions in this tourism source markets.

Study 27:

Based on the study, Mainland Chinese visitors created blog and micro blog to share their travelling experiences in Hong Kong with the objective of how this could help market a destination. As the result from 300 micro blog and blog indicate that generally Mainland Chinese bloggers have positive image towards Hong Kong as a travel destination. The travelers write about their experiences of attraction and food in the destination with photos provided. The photos posted create a very favorable image of the facilities and destination. Tourism organizations should consider using micro blog and blog service providers for marketing purpose in two ways.

Study 28:

Based on the study, Chinese tourists perceived the overall destination image of Hong Kong positively, there were unfavorable perceptions about the price of meals outside hotels, the quality of cosmetics and skincare products, five star hotel rooms and the experience at some attractions. With the emerging of popularity of travel blogs, all those information are useful to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, tourism practitioners and HKTB in map out strategies and making improvements to enhance and maintain the destination’s competitiveness.

Study 29:

From the past few decades, brand names have made a Trustmark like never before. There is an opportunity for businesses to stand out and illustrate that they have a strong commitment to people. The most important is the character and reputation, will definitely imposed brand a personal connection with customers and will measure the success in future. Based on the study, Disney is the brand which mentioned in this journal which Disney represented many of characteristics 50 years ago. For example, Mickey Mouse club was shows via movies and television and he was authentic, as there were many characters at Disneyland.

Study 30:

Based on the study, in the 20th century affair, Walt Disney is arguably having impact over the figure in animation. Besides that, Walt Disney also famous as the creator of the first theme park, Disneyland. In addition, Walt Disney as the creator of the “emotional environment” of the first animation only studio, he also expands his learning into a series of innovative projects such as Disneyland, the California institute of the arts and so on. Disneyland is named as the essentially a giant movie set, with each feature of the designed is to awake everyone emotional. In addition, Disneyland will definitely ensure visitors who entry to the park would be substantively separated them from outside reality world. That is because Walt Disney intended to induce his guests on the appropriate mood, so that once these guests came into the Disneyland, they were ready for “happiness”. Yet, Disneyland was merely the beginning.

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21

Hong Kong as a Travel Destination: An A

Background

World Travel Services Limited, established in 1947, is Thailand’s oldest and largest travel agency. We have more than 500 employees and a fleet of more than 100 modern road vehicles. 80 qualified bilingual and multilingual guides speak fluent English, French, Spanish, German and Chinese. Company provides many daily coach tours and 2-6 days tours throughout the country such as River Kwai tours, Phuket, Krabi, Samui, Pattaya, Trang, Hua Hin/Cha-Am, and Chiang Mai and also including many special package tours to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam.

The company has its own tour desks in leading hotels at all of Thailand’s main resorts: 23 hotels in Bangkok, 3 in Chiang Mai, 1 in Chiang Rai, 8 in Pattaya, 4 in Hua Hin/Cha-Am, 3 on Koh Samui and 4 in Phuket. In additional, the company also arranges booking for steamship companies, airlines and rail travel. Through its affiliate Air Transport Service Ltd, it acts as General Sales Agent for United Airlines. It is also a BSP/IATA agent.

Vision

“To be the top of Travel Agent in Thailand”

Mission

Improve the quality of transportations

Having more connection with travel agent around the world.

Expanding our tour desk to all leading hotel in Bangkok and some other in tourist destinations.

Organization Chart

SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Challenging of managing tourism business successfully

Rapert and Wren, (1998) discussed about the challenges of managing tourism businesses successful, the company must provide satisfying experiences for tourists and guests while profiting their owners. During the past 60 years, World Travel Service is exists in tourism business which has proved itself about the successful in making business strategy and policy. One of those strategy is serving the guests with most standard service tour throughout the country, our tours are standard because the guests will have the program mentioned by our staff from the tour desks about what are they going to see on that particular tour and how many stop that the tour are going to make and they will know about the time that the tours will finish and what time they should be back at the hotels. The tour guides are not allowed to sell any other programs that doesn’t mentioned on the tours. All above about standard service is related to Laws (2004) which mention as Standard Service Quality in tourism is very important, The level of service which management team sets might be higher (or lowers) than the client’s anticipation of service standards and the Quality Systems might not control services standards in ways which matter to clients .

Quality of Staff

GOmez-Mejia et al (2004) discuss on choosing the right person for a job can make a tremendous positive difference in productivity and customer satisfaction. Sharpley (2005) described selection is very important recruitment and selection procedures that identify potential employees who will not only have a natural disposition towards service provisions, but who will also fit in with and respond to the organization’s service culture. So, these above 2 ideas are related to the way how World Travel Service selects and recruits their employees. Currently, most of tour guides graduated from Fine Art Department, Silapakorn University, who know information about Thailand very well. Some other graduated from abroad can speak English fluently which make our tour guides become one of the most standard tourist guides of the country.

Focus on premium and luxury tour

Eleri Jones and Claire Haven – Tang (2005) explained that trend of the luxury market have been raising and it will become the most important part of tourism industry. Now, World Travel Service does their marketing strategy on high-end market which focused on premium and luxury tour by providing extravaganza trips around Thailand. And it is more valuable than mass tourism which having only quantity but no quality of customers.

Weaknesses
Centralized Management

Pieniazek (2007) explained that power being consolidated at the top of the organization, risk is high if the top of the organization becomes incapable of leading the organization (death, illness, or massive organizational size causing a weak span of control) Employees also will feel less motivated to perform for the organization as they will not have an avenue for sharing their ideas on how to improve the organization. World Travel Service use Centralized Management style since their first operated in 1947 which continuously making decision by only one Thai owner of the company, Mr.Kusa Phunyarachun, 92 years old. In some urgent situation, owner cannot response immediately that why sometimes it can cause of failure and dissatisfaction.

Old Building and Old Facility

In hospitality industry such as hotel, travel agent, the geographical appearance is important. ICRA rating, (2009) discussed that the quality of company’s property is directly effect to the image of business. It’s not only to attract the customers, but also create the brand loyalty. The head office of World Travel Service has never been renovated since its first operation in 1947. Customer first impression can be impacted by the company’s surrounding such as reception area, furniture style, decoration, parking area, Vehicle.

Technology (E-Tourism)

Galloway, Mochrie & Deakins, (2004) discussed that online technologies within the tourism industry have significantly impacted on communications, transactions and relationships between the various industry operators and with the customers, as well as between regulators and operations. World Travel Service also doing the e-tourism such as web based technology, online reservation, etc. All of this are play the important role for e-business if the company can keep doing well, it will bring a lot of benefit to company. In the other hands, the company cannot handle to have the excellent operation system and updated website, the company will lost more gain.

Opportunity
Affordable Winter Travel Ideas to escape the Cold

Christakos (2009) explained that many of tourists can’t afford the luxury Hawaii or Bahamas vacation but if they want to relax and enjoy themselves while escaping the blustery winds of the north, there are plenty of things they can do. Thailand stays warm all year round, and it is most comfortable during the winter months. It’s an increasingly popular destination for Australian and East Asian travelers who want both beautiful beaches and exciting modern cities like Bangkok, but there are often some very good deals for flights from the U.S. They don’t come around every day, though, so you have to snatch them up when you find them. World Travel Service can gain profits from tourists who want to relax in Thailand.

Thailand Rank Best “VALUE FOR MONEY”

Thailand has again emerged as the world’s best “brand” in terms of value for money, according to the 2008 Country Brand Index (CBI), the third consecutive year it has won this accolade. Thailand’s ranking as the “Best Country Brand for Value for Money” was announced on 11 November, 2008, at the World Travel Market, the premier annual exhibition of the global travel trade. The same Brand Index also ranked Thailand third in the category of “Friendly Locals and Authenticity”. (International Public Relation Division Tourism Authority of Thailand, 2008). Thailand is the one of tourist attraction which is valuable for the money. This thing will make us become the favorite choice for the tourist who has limit money for their holiday. So that is show about how much Thailand tourism industry could lure on the customer come to visit and some of them might use the service from World Travel Service.

Threat
Global Warming is threatening Thailand’s climate

The average of the world’s temperature increases and the serious natural disaster happens causing negatively effects on people’s health. The tourists are cancelled tours of World Travel Service because Thailand faces problems about natural disasters and disease problems such as depression, flood, H1N1 influenza and etc. Climate also influences environmental conditions that can deter tourists, including infectious diseases, wildfires, algal blooms, insect or wateraˆ?borne pests (e.g. jellyfish), and extreme events such as hurricanes, floods or heat waves. It is also a crucial determinant of tourist decisionaˆ?making. Seasonal climate fluctuations at tourism destinations and at major outbound markets are key drivers of tourism demand at global and regional scales. Weather is an intrinsic component of the travel experience and also influences tourist spending and holiday satisfaction (UNWTO, UNEP and WMO 2008).

Thailand’s political crisis

Ten Kate (2010) emphasized the economic costs from a long-running crisis have so far been largely confined to the tourism industry, consumer sentiment is declining and businesses are hurting. The crisis was hitting confidence, tourism, private consumption and investment. The United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and other countries have warned citizens to reconsider travel plans to Bangkok. World Travel Service is mostly focusing on the foreigner tourist so the company also hitting by this situation. The customer’s booking for this year is very different to last year. Many tourists cancelled flights, hotels, car rental bookings and other tourism activities. This resulted in another two quarters of a quiet period for Thai tourism. Ryu, S. JR. (2005) explained that political instability can increase the perception of risk at a destination and generates negative publicity, which results in an inevitable decrease in tourist arrivals. Risk perception can influence tourist decision-making and destinations can be severely affected.

High Fuel Prices Affect Tourism

The fuel price is increasing, so it’s effect to all industries. World Travel Service is directly affected by fuel price because all activities of company use the vehicle for transportation. The raising of fuel price increases the cost of the company but they could only slightly put on the price of their product. So they have to prepare themselves for handle this thing. Hupp (2008) explained that hotels, cruises, airlines, travel agent and others in the travel industry are affected negatively by high oil prices because transportation costs are higher, and consumers are spending less because of stress on their budgets.

Recommendations
Update company website.

The web site of WTS is far more out of date, The Company have been operate as the largest and oldest travel agency of Thailand but somehow about the company profiles is only four paragraph long which some time make to company not gain more trusts from the customer. There’re many things that we can put on the website such as pictures from the past until present, which transportations they were used from the past to now and also the number of tourist who using the company service. As now E-tourism is very popular, people would like to search from the internet about the company and price and the tour programs before they make a decision to buying it. So it’s very necessary to develop the company website immediately. Mason (2008) explained that information about tourism product is vital to assist the consumer in making choice. Electronic forms of messages about tourism products have certain advantages over printed source. Electronic forms can be more up-to-date and hence topical, they can be more visual and in relation to computerized systems. Increasingly, consumers are using internet sites for planning, searching, reserving and purchasing tourism products.

Improve more facilities in Guest Lobby Area.

The facilities around the reception area are very poor, for example the chairs are not nice and uncomfortable and there is only one sofa for guests to sit. Those who come early grab a good seat and for those who came late sometime have to sit outside or seat on a small chairs which is not suitable for our guests who actually have a large body. Also for our guests who spend over 2,000 baht for a full day tour and around 1,000 baht for a half day tour, this is expensive and I think the guests are looking forward to have a best of their time in Thailand by taking the tours with us started from a first minute when they arrived until the end of the tour. ICRA rating, (2009) discussed that the quality of company’s property is directly effect to the image of business. It’s not only to attract the customers, but also create the brand loyalty.

The improvement of transportation

The company should improve their fleets to catch up with trend in order to stay as a leading travel agency of Thailand from example the number of the company fleets is about 100, and half of that includes the previous series of Toyota Camry and Mercedes Benz bus are very old. Especially for the bus that have been using for over 20years old, many times it has break down while using on the tours. This is a big problem for us to solve this problems such as finding a local taxi in order to bring the guests to the closest destination to wait for other transportation that come from Bangkok to pick the guests. This process takes long time for everyone and of cause causing dissatisfy to the guests that they have to be waiting for so long which after all affect our company brand. Lamp and Davidson (1996) emphasized that the purchaser of tourism product must experience the trip to access the product, the quality of the transportation experience becomes an important aspect of the tourist experience and, therefore a key criterion that enters into destination choice.

Agritourism can be explained as a farm enterprise operated for the enjoyment and education of the public that may also generate additional income for the farmer by promoting farm products and experiences and giving many opportunities to local community to enhance their living standards (Wilson et al., 2006). The concept is gaining popularity and it’s providing a great escape for people in urban environment from their high-paced, strenuous and many times monotonous lifestyle. At the same time it’s helping the new generation to get first-hand experience of the rural life, which otherwise is limited only to the books for them. Spending time on the farms, interacting with the local people and farmers to get an insight into their day-to-day work and their traditions, participating in the local fairs and festivals, doing the actual work on the farm, milking the cow, riding a bullock cart, are some of the activities that can be enjoyed on an agritourism outing.

3.2.1 Theoretical basis of agritourism

Agritourism is multifunctional and cooperative strategy (Sidali et al., 2011; Wilson, 2007; Essex, et al., 2005; Schmitt, 2010; Mason, 2000). The post-productivits agricultural system is the new approach in agricultural development. It is very complicated than subsistence and productivits agriculture systems (Topcu, 2007). Post-productivits agriculture system is a broad concept and the five main tasks of it are qualitative priorities in food production, alternative income sources for farmers and sustainability of agricultural lands, conservation of environment and new employment opportunities. Agritourism can easily link with these new aspects of agricultural development. Moreover, agritourism can be performed in five important sectors such as agricultural economic, socio-cultural, environmental and educational context in an effective manner. Further, since it is highly involved with the gender factor, agritourism as a gender approach is also having higher importance (Topcu, 2007; Sidali, Spiller and Schulze; 2011; Wilson, 2007; Essex, et al., 2005).

3.2.2 Definitions of agritourism

Before 1990, only a little information has been published on agritourism. This lack of information was one of the reasons for the absence for the commonly accepted definition (Lack, 1997). However, after 1990, the research literature on agritourism has flourished and several number of definitions are available now (McGehee and Kim, 2004). Some selected definitions of agritourism are as follows.

Agritourism can be defined as the practice of engaging in activities, events and services that has been provided to consumers for recreational, entertainment, or educational purposes at a farm, ranch, or other agricultural, horticultural, or agribusiness operation in order to allow consumers to experience, learn about, and participate in various facets of agricultural industry, culinary pursuits, natural resources, and heritage (Colorado Agritourism Research Project, 2010).

Tew (2010) cited The Agribusiness Development Division of the Missouri Department of Agriculture (2010) defines agritourism as, “visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural, or agribusiness operation for the purpose of appreciation, enjoyment, education, or recreational involvement with agricultural, natural or heritage resources”

Agritourism as an innovative agricultural activity related to tourism and agriculture both in which has capacity to create additional source of income and employment opportunities to the farmers and local communities (Maruti, 2009).

Agritourism can be characterized as a business or activity that invites visitors to come on-farm or into a rural community to enjoy agriculture, its produce and the natural environment in which it exists. Agritourism is generally an additional enterprise added to the farm, integrating tourism into agri-business (Porcaro, 2009).

An activity, enterprise or business which combines primary elements and characteristics of agriculture and tourism and provides an experience for visitors which stimulates economic activity and impacts both farm and community income (Bruch, 2008).

Tourism on a working farm in which visitors can experience a direct connection with the host farm, rural life and/or the local environment”.

There is not a consistent definition of agritourism in the literature, and it has been used interchangeably with other terms. For example, some studies have previously been synonymously linked to rural tourism, farm tourism, agro-tourism, agricultural tourism and farm based vacation (Seong-woo and Sou-yeon, 2006; Ilbery, 1998; Ilbery, 1991). However, the main idea of all of these definitions is more or less similar. As a whole, agritourism can be explained as an interaction among agricultural producers, visitors, and local residents. Operators (mainly farmers) can earn extra income from the farm, visitors can get real knowledge and experience on farming and local residents can enhance their living slandered in several ways.

3.2.3 Working definition for agritourism in the study

For the purpose of this study, agritourism is defined as “tourism activities that conduct in working farm and surrounding, for enjoyment, education, recreation of visitors, hoping an additional income for the operator from farm resources in special and sustainable local development in general”. This is the working definition for agritourism in this study that is suitable in Sri Lankan context. After having strong theoretical knowledge and practical experience in agritourism sector, this was developed, including considering the main purposes of agritourism visitors, motivation of agritourism operators and expectations of local residents for rural development. Economic, social, environmental dimensions have been included in this definition.

3.2.4 Activities involved in agritourism

Normally, agritourism activities are the tourism activities take place in agricultural lands and surrounding rural environments. The number of agritourism activities mainly depends on the size of the farm and nature of the farming activities. These activities are important for the visitors to enjoy and learn agriculture. Blacka et al (2001) has divided agritourism activities in Virginia, into six categories as lodging and camping (bed and breakfast, camp sites, youth camp, farm vacation, weddings and honeymoons), special events and festivals (music festivals, haunted house, holiday celebrations, harvest festivals) Off the farm (farmers’ markets, roadside produce stands), recreational activities and events (fee fishing, hiking, rock climbing, horseback riding, skeet shooting), tourism related direct marketing (pick your own fruits/vegetables, sell processed food on the farm, sell herbal organic products) an youth and or adult education (Organized tours, agricultural educational programs, demonstrations). Lack (1995) divided agritourism British Colombia, into three groups as retail sales/ direct marketing (goods produced on-site, customer harvested produce and goods produced off-site), Tours (tour of processing facilities, scenic tours and tours of production facilities) and activities (accommodation, cultural activities, recreation and educational or hands on experiences). It is important to include all the possible agritourism activities because it helps to increase the length of stay and satisfaction of the visitors. In European countries, in a farm there are activities for visitors even for several days. However, the number of agritourism activities is lower in Asian countries. Further, activities in agritourism and rural tourism haven’t clearly categorized yet and most of the time they are used interchangeably.

Briefly, a successful agritourism operation should have three aspects. They are the need to have things for visitors to see (educational tours, historical recreations, festivals/special events, crop arts), things for visitors to do (educational activities, petting zoos, hay rides, pick your own) and things for visitors to buy (food and drinks, farm products, souvenirs). Things to see and do are often offered free of charge. But, money can be earned by selling things to the visitors (Adam, 2001). Agritourism can be used as primary, supplementary or complementary enterprise. As a primary enterprise, agritourism would be the main activity in the farm. Agritourism could be a minor activity in supplementary enterprises and it would share equal footing in complementary enterprises (Blacka et al., 2001).Agritourism can consist of different alternatives such as temporary attraction or special event, part of a large agriculture-oriented destination, part of a huge non-agriculture-oriented destination, and full agritourism operation.

Different forms of agritourism business

Farmers can incorporate agritourism activities to their farms in various ways according to the situation. Three possible ways are; as a supplementary, complementary or primary enterprise. To fulfill the final objective of agrotourism; farmer must think creatively and arrange it properly. (Mnguni, 2010).

Supplementary enterprise

In a supplementary enterprise, agritourism is a minor activity that would help the other products on the farm. For example, if the primary enterprise is crop production, educational and training programs can be introduced with marketing facility of value added crop products.

Complementary enterprise

In a complementary enterprise, agritourism activities have equal share with other enterprises in the farm product mix. For instance, if there is a grapes production enterprise on the farm, it the farmer wants to sell half of the grapes to a whole seller and the remainder to ”pick-your-own” operations for visitors on the farm, then the two enterprises would be complementary enterprises.

The primary enterprise

In the primary enterprise, agritourism would be the major activity on the farm. For example, if a farmer hopes to begin a winery in the farm. He will definitely invite guests to have that experience by tasting the product. As a part of that package, he can offer an overnight accommodation in a cottage which is in the farm. And also the farmer can produce grapes in his own farm and use them to wine tasting activities. Here agritourism is the main part of the farm product mix and it becomes the primary enterprise (Bernardo, Valentin and Leatherman, 2007; Blacka, et al, 2001).

Link the relevant sections with chapter 2
3.2.5 Issues and challenges of agritourism development

As agritourism is a business activity, lots of requirements are essential for the successfulness of it. However, as agritourism it is conduct mainly in rural areas by farmers, presence of several issues and challenges is a common phenomenon. For example, a study by Lack (1995) in British Colombia, has discovered that, lack of training, marketing knowledge, quality control, finance, appropriate insurance, excessive regulations, personal challenges for farm families, conflict with primary agricultural production, distance from markets, infrastructure limitations and farm disease are the challenges of agritourism development in that country. Agritourism in Nova Scotia has some obstacles. Many agritourism operators face the problem of lack of assistance and the knowledge required to produce market-ready products as Nova Scotia Tourism. Culture is reluctant to include and to enhance agritourism in their marketing campaigns. This lack of support hinders the development of agritourism products and services resulting poorly developed and marketed products by farmers. So, farmers could not develop many skills required to operate an effective tourism business (Colton and Bissix, 2005).

A study in Haryana, India has reported that the Lack of funds for publicity and advertisement, less number of visitors, Lack of technology to develop farm tourism, lack of motivation of farmers, inadequate price for farm products/activities as major constraints in establishing agritourism (Shehrawat, 2009).

In Sri Lanka, issues and challenges in agritourism are small size farm lands, lack of required skills for the operators, poor level of processing of agricultural products, low level of publicity and promotion are the significant factors. Furthermore, lack of visitors, environmental pollution, poor condition on infrastructure, are the common problems for all the operators (Malkanthi and Routray, 2011b). Although there are few differences, most of the issues and challenges are common for many countries. As issues and challenges are negatively affect for the growth of the sector, finding solutions is utmost important.

Global warming is one of the prominent environmental issues and mass tourism has negative impacts on the environment. In mass tourism, large number of people gather to a same place and enjoy the tourism. Mass tourism indicates that the holiday is standardized, packaged rigidly and nonflexible. Due to the negative impacts of mass tourism, people have started to concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the tourism industry and also due to that has begun to focus on alternative forms of tourism. (Mairesse, 2007/2008)

By showing importance of reality the rural environment reveals itself as an exceptional because it is far from the standard large-scale hotel chains. Rural Tourism needs a help for rural development without trespassing limits, an unseen entrance. Currently the issue of rural tourism is its sustainability. Only from the sustainable tourism can have an area of authentic countryside existence. Rural Tourism development should be totally different from the seaside tourism development which builds artificial villages and big holiday resorts without any identity. Currently the coastal lines have destroyed because the rural spaces are exceeding by urbanization. (Randelli, Romei, Tortora, Mossello, 2011)

3.2.6 Sustainability in agritourism operations

Through Sustainable tourism development it is expected to protect and enhance the future opportunities while fulfilling the needs of current tourists and host regions. It is further explained as managing resources as fulfilling the economic, social, aesthetic needs, while maintaining cultural truthfulness, vital ecological processes, bio diversity and life carry systems (World Tourism Organization, 1999) Therefore, for long term sustainability, should have proper balance between environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects which is also known as principles aspects of Agro tourism development.

Same as other tourism destinations, sustainability of agritourism destinations are very important in long run. Although most of the destinations that are feasible in short run, face difficulties in survival in long run. So, economic feasibility, social acceptability and environmental friendliness of tourism operations are equally applicable to agritourism as well. World Tourism Organization (2001) ,defines sustainable development as “convene the requirement of present tourists and host regions as caring and improving opportunity for prospect. Its management of resources satisfies in way of economical, social and aesthetic needs satisfying while maintaining cultural integrity necessary for ecological processes, biological diversity and existence support system”. Markandya, et.al, (2003) have reported that the three main linkages among tourism and sustainable development are economic, social and environmental.

Given tourism’s importance in the global challenges of climate change and poverty reduction, there is a need to urgently adopt a range of policies which encourages truly sustainable tourism

that reflects a ‘quadruple bottom line’ of environmental, social, economic and climate responsiveness. (Sharpley, 2009)

Tourism can kill itself if we mismanage the tourism activities and places (Yalcin Kuwan and Perran Akan, 2001). Unspoiled natural environment is an asset of the industry. It will create the competitive advantage to the industry (Cater, 1993). The implementation and success of policies of sustainability, in employing tourism income to support social and cultural development and wild life conservation, require strategy framework which guides tourism development in a balanced and coherent way (Hall, 1998).

Agritourism focus for increasing rural vitality and stimulating new economic opportunities through the diversification of farm operations and increased revenue on-site and near the operations (Geisler, 2008; Jensen, Lindborg, English, & Menard. 2006). As a means to support the growth and development of the agritourism industry, Extension education can aid in the necessary programming for and education of community leaders and business operators. (Norby, Retallick, 2007)

For sustainable Agritourism operations should minimize the environmental impacts by considering both local and global environmental impacts.Deforestation, water and air pollution etc should be minimized. And also through Agritourism can minimize the damage by conserving natural areas, habitats and wild life. One of the best ways of reaching to sustainability is through achieving a clear sense of difference from other competing destinations. By using local history, industry, culture, lifestyle and natural resources attraction can be done genuinely. And the operations should be done by representing the past, present and future aspirations of the local community as reflecting the values of the community.With proper understanding of target market can offer the products and services with added values.Agritourism is a kind of an operation which provides mutual benefits for visitors and hosts while acting as a economic and community development tool. Ultimately, good tourism businesses get involved with the community and collaborate with other businesses and stakeholders and help to build local capacity.

Enhancing the production can be done through combination of agricultural and non-agricultural options. Increasing the productivity of labor, risk reducing and improving assets can be done through diversification. Linkages between the countryside, towns and cities can augment productivity and sustainability of production by creating employment, revenue and investment.

Finance and investment involves the way of mobilization of resources from taxation, central government, the private sector, foreign direct investment and remittances from abroad. It also includes how resources are invested.

Through proper strategic, Agro-Tourism could bring lot of advantages to the society. It could be a sustainable revenue producing product for rural market and can help inflow to resources from urban to the rural economy. It can avoid moving of rural people to urban. By using this particular form of rural tourism, it is feasible to fully discover the untapped potential of rural market. Both short term and long term preparation, implementing and monitoring are very important in avoiding harm to rural areas. Environmental management, local involvement, sound legislation, sustainable marketing and realistic planning are essential for Agro-Tourism development. Agro-Tourism is emerging as a vital instrument for sustain human development including poverty reduction, employment production, environmental renewal and development of remote areas and improvement of woman and other underprivileged groups in the country separate from promoting social integration and international consideration. The government should encourage Agro- Tourism to make sustainable economic growth and positive social change.

In developing countries tourism has been greatly used for, and linked directly with reduction of rural poverty especially in developing countries. However, the application, and to a degree the principles, of the widely used organizing framework for considering reducing the poverty. Household income sustainability is applied the individual or family level, while tourism sustainability is applied to the industry and destinations at broad, more macro level scales.

Economic feasibility

As one element of destination’s economy, tourism must support a viable economic base. A healthy economy enables a country, region or city to pursue initiatives designed to enhance the quality of its residents (Ritchie and Crouch, 2003). Traditional way of management of tourism destination was rather productive and resource-centered. But since there are limits in adapting to the market, the present strategy is combined supply and market let approach. In this context, management of demand is highly responsible for the sustainable tourism development (Kastenholz, 2004). So, instead of profit maximization of a destination by damaging the environment in short term, now the principle is to obtain the optimum profit.

Economic benefits are positively related with the number of visitors. Further arrangement of traditional and cultural events is cost effective with this large number. However, as agritourism is a niche market, socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable, cooperation of cultural activities is very important.

Socio-cultural feasibility

Tourism operations must be compatible with the existing socio-cultural condition of the area where it is located. It is essential to test the social acceptability of tourism destinations (Gonzalez and Falcon, 2003). There should be a respect for the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance by the tourism operators and especially by outside visitors. Then it is easy to work together by the tourism operators, visitors and the local community.

This is a common for agritourism also. Since agritourism is mainly a service industry in rural areas, goodwill and cooperation of local communities are essential to make it successful (Cole, 2006; Knowd, 2006). Agritourism should be able to offer more positive socio-cultural impact than the negative impacts for the local community. This way agritourism can enhance the socio-cultural feasibility. Sharpley (2002) said that socio-cultural growth includes population of remote areas, development and maintenance of public services, renewal of local craft, customs and cultural recognition.

Environmental feasibility

Tourism destination should less damage to the surrounding environment; especially it should be free from serious environmental pollution activities. So, it should match with environmental rules and regulations and followed by Environment Impact Assessment (United Nations, 1999). However, the literature reveals that little evidence is there regarding environment being considered by farmers, planners and tourism professionals (Kline et al. 2007).

Although it is difficult and expensive, agritourism development should follow the sustainable tourism procedures to obtain the real benefits of it forever. However, most of the operators in many countries mainly emphasize only on short term economic advantages without social and environmental benefits. This is the reason for the breakdown of many tourism operations including agritourism, within a short time period.

Participatory approach in Agro tourism and rural development

The variety mentioned above may be explained by a brief analysis of some of the proposed

definitions of participation.

With regard to rural development, participation includes people’s involvement in decision-making processes, in implementing programmes, their sharing in the benefits of development programmes and their involvement in efforts to evaluate such programmes (Cohen and Uphof, 1977).

Participation is a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives and the decisions and resources which affect them (World Bank, 1994).

Participation in spatial planning denotes the co-decision capability of the affected citizens and institutions of the civil society in diverse stages of the decision-making process. When some citizens are affected directly, the participation right is assured by law. In many cases, it is optional. But there are good reasons why optional forms of participation are being applied.

Areas with an enduring high out-migration, the left over population often tends to act passively. The huge social changes, the harder it is to generate fulfill edged participation through the differences of education, local hierarchy, social position and political direction. Intraregional co-operation can be expected as a “market place” of potentials. Each of the groups or individuals integrated in the process of contribution brings in some kind of potential formal political power, informal power of opinion ideas, financial means, and ownership of land, contacts or just personal dedication. The position of the individual within the decision-making procedure is hugely determined by the extent to which the specific potential is esteemed according to objective and subjective criteria.

Participatory approaches are used in order to start up novel development paths and to interpret ideas and concepts into action. At the commencement, however, the competing behavior of the actors prevails. One temporary goal of participatory approaches is therefore to stress common interests and to help compromises which are not pressed through by local things, but at least suitable to all.

Participation typology

Type of Participation
Some Components and Characteristics

Passive Participation

People are told what is going to happen or has

already happened. Top down, information shared belongs only to external professionals

Participation in information giving

People answer questions posed by extractive

researchers, using surveys etc. People not able to influence the research

Participation by consultation

People are consulted and external agents listen to their views. Usually externally defined problems and solutions. People not really involved in decision making. Participation as consultation.

Participation by material incentives

Provision of resources, e.g. labor. Little incentive to participate after the incentives end, for example much farm research, some community forestry.

Functional Participation

Groups are formed to meet predetermined

objectives. Usually done after major project decisions are made, therefore initially dependent on outsiders but may become self dependent and enabling. Participation as organization.

Interactive Participation

Joint analysis to joint actions. Possible use of new local institutions or strengthening existing ones. Enabling and empowering so people have a stake in maintaining structures or practices.

Self-Mobilization

Already empowered, take decisions independently of external institutions. May or may not challenge existing inequitable distributions of wealth and power. Participation as empowering

(Source: Pimbert and Pretty, 1994).

3.2.7 Government policies in agritourism

In general local government is the most important authority in establishing tourism development policies (Perce, 1989). However, the types and the content of its involvement vary from country to country based on the political, economic, and constitutional systems. In many European countries governments’ have supported the growth of the agritourism sector.

There are national policies for the support and development of agritourism in a number of countries for a long time. For instance, in France, state financial aids to support the renovation of redundant farm buildings into accommodation facilities were introduced in 1954. Farms in Italy, Germany and Denmark also have long benefited from national support for the development of tourist facilities (Frater, 1983; Nilsson, 2002). In Britain, Scheme offering financial incentives and advices about diversification, together with partial relaxation of planning restrictions, have facilitated the development of farm-based tourism. The farm diversification Grant Scheme introduced by the ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1988, was one of the first measures offering grants to farmers to help them develop diversification schemes (Walford, 2001).

According to Douglas and Douglas, (2001); Fernando, Rebollo and Biadal, (2003), it is important to develop policies in a proactive nature to lay the foundation and capture the development potential of tourism for rural communities. So, the national rural tourism strategy of a country must emphasis on infrastructure development, product development, accreditation and industrial standards, education and training, market analysis and the role of government authorities and industrial leaders in further developing the rural tourism product. Ritchie and Crouch (2003) reported that policy is an important factor which ensures the success of tourism destination. It also creates a friendly environment among stakeholders.

Therefore, the main objectives of agritourism policy are to minimize and alleviate negative environmental, social and cultural impacts; optimize revenue for industry and re-invest in conservation; optimize the active involvement of, and equitable distribution of economic benefits to, local communities; educate visitors and citizens about the importance of conserving natural and cultural heritage; promote ethical behavior and responsibilities towards the natural and cultural environment; manage operations such that there are long term benefits to the resource, industry and the local residents; deliver high quality, value-for-money, enlightens and participatory natural resources and culture-based experience for visitors; encourage travel in a spirit of humanity, respect and learning about local hosts, their culture and the natural environment etc. Victorious farm-based tourism mostly depends on policy makers, government officers at the local or countrywide level (Beus and Dunlap, 1993).

Brohma (1996) has clearly explained the importance of government involvement in rural development in his study for the third world development, there are necessary new paths.

“Though the third world tourism has developed fastly, it has encountered many troubles common to outward-oriented development strategies such as extreme foreign dependency, the formation of separate enclaves, the strengthening of socioeconomic and spatial inequalities, environment destruction and increasing cultural separation. To avoid those troubles, institutional mechanisms require to be formed to give confidence active state and participation of community in tourism planning”.

Ritchie and Crouch (2003) reported that the following aspects are important as government policies of the sector. Infrastructure policy (Can make destination safer and attractive for the visitors), Local zoning policy/by-laws (Can restrict or encourage tourism facility development), Land use and land assignation, Water resource management, Heritage conservation, Credit facility (granting reduced-interest loans to business and enterprises Affects costs and therefore profitability), Tax and subsidies (Tax concessions for investments, Can affect the growth of the industry negatively and positively and finally for the profitability of the destination), Minimum wage policy (Can affect labor markets), Agricultural policy (Organic farming, Soil conservation), Welfare policy (Can influence the nature and behavior of the work force), Education, extension and Training policy (Can affect the quality of the workforce), Marketing policy, Environmental policy (Limits growth and access to attractive but sensiti

Front office is the main part for hotels. The popularity and how famous is the hotel are also depends to the hotel front office system because for a hotel customers are important and even with the presence of customer only the management can run the business. Moreover, front office people are the one who greet and give first impression to the customers. So, the way they greet customer can lead the hotels to have more customers. Front office are the one who also promote room and beverage sales such as type of room and packages available.

1.2 THE TASK AND RESPONSIBILITY;
1.2.1 THE RESPOSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE MANAGER

The front office manager is the one responsible for any good or bad things happened in the front desk, this includes the staff routine, staff training and all type of communication. The front office manager should also be available to work any shifts. Moreover, if there are any problem in the front office department, he should be ready to settle it off. The front office manager should also be a good leadership for the staffs. The front office manager is also the one who responsible for all the VIP and guess concerns.

1.2.2 THE RESPONSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE ASSISTANT MANAGER

The front office assistant manager is the one who need to update all the profit and problems to the manager. Moreover, the assistant manager is the one who assist manager in the front desk routines and management. He will help the manager with all the basic needs such as the front desk staff schedule, and then take care the desk when the manager not around. He should also able to solve the customers problem with fast act before the issue goes to the manager. The assistant manager is the one who responsible for all the meetings between the staffs too. Should assign the staffs with the routine. And if there’s any emergency should take early act and make sure things are under control.

1.2.3 THE RESPONSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE REPRESENTATIVE

These peoples usually represent the front office such as if there’s any problem the staffs, these people will see 1st before it goes to the supervisor.

1.2.4 THE RESPONSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE NIGHT AUDITOR

The night audit team responsible of the hotels daily activities such as they will be handling the front desk at night. Moreover, they also need to prepared the record of the day for all the room occupied and more. They also need to submit off the account for the particular day. They also need to verify the room charges, banquet charges and other charges correctly in order to provide the hotel data correctly. So, a night auditor plays important roles in a front desk.

1.2.5 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A CASHIER

A cashier is the one who handle money in front desk hotel. The cashier should and responsible for all the money act. The cashier will collect money from the guest during check in or check out. They generally operate a cash in a adding machine. The cashier should be very careful and responsible with the cash they handle to prevent any unwanted act. Usually, the cashiers work shift depends to the hotel procedures whereby a normal office hours duty.

1.2.6 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF RESERVATIONIST

The reservationist would be handling the front office department in handling the reservation calls. So, this people is the one who pick calls for customer reservation. If there’s a call from outside customer to booked a hotel, the hotel reservationist will take their booking and explain about the hotel procedure to the customer. They, are the one who arranged rooms or even any meetings arrangement for the customer if there’s such a booking. They, should also create a good mannerism when speak to the customer in the phone because there are representing the hotel and should make the guest to came down to booked this hotels rooms. Usually, this department working shifts is also depends to the hotel rules. They, should also be a good language speaker.

1.2.7 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TELEPHONE OPERATORS

A telephone operator usually in the front desk with attending calls from outsides, such as if a customer needs to know room availability the telephone operators will transfer the line to interior department. So, a telephone operator should also be a good English speaker to attract the guess. Usually, their working shift time will be bit more different then others and its depends to the hotel procedures. The hotel department should appoint a right person to work here who is more responsible because they are the one who answers the calls whenever there’s incoming call and should answer it within two – three rings.

1.3 CONCLUSION

So, front office is really a very important for a hotels. If, a hotel need to run in successfully the front office department is the major cause. Moreover, front office department are the main receiver of a guess, so a the very 1st satisfaction of a guess is after the way they are treat and its obviously the front office people. So, a good business for a hotel is all depend to the front office so the department heads should take good care of this front desk.

2.0 QUESTION 2
Front office staffs must have certain skills to attract guests during the first impression. Write about Front Office staff skill in guest relations?
2.1 INTRODUCTION

The front office staff must have a good working skill to communicate or attract the guest. For a hotel a business can run up to level if the staff are in proper system, what we can mean here is about the skill and the ability to speak and communicate by the staff to the guest. It is really important for the staff to have a special skill to attract the staffs because not all the staffs can communicate well here and interact with guest in the proper term, so they need to have this special skill to have a qualify working skill. For a newly appointed staff usually the management will give them 1week training session, so the supervisor or the in charge person will give the training to the staffs. Most of the hotels will give them a certificate to prove they are well trained but then certain hotel doesn’t do this. Even some of the hotels give money to the staff for that 1week working training. During the staff in training week, they will be given working hour shift that is from 9a.m – 5pm.

2.1 FRONT OFFICE STAFF SKILL
2.1.1 GOOD COMMUNICATION

A staff who works in the front office department should have the ability to speak very well. It is because the guest who going to check in to stay in the hotel not only going to be a local resident but then from worldwide, so the staff should have the ability to speak well language. Moreover, if the particular staff can speak multi language it will be more great full because there will be multinational language guest with different mother tongue. So, when the staff can communicate this way it will be easier for the guest from foreigners to communicate.

2.1.2 APPEARANCE

Those staff who works at the front desk should have a good appearance. They should be neat in hair wise, the uniform they wear should be neat. All this are important because the guest who check in need to have a good look about the hotel in appreance wise so with such a good appreance, the guest will have respect for the hotel and the board. If, the particular person is tidy with poor appreance and with long hair and so on the guest who check in will have bad manner about the department and speak bad about it to others of his or her friends and give a bad reward to the hotel.

2.1.3 GOOD LISTENING SKILL

The staff should have a good listening skill too. This is because usually front office will be very grandly and one or two noisiness so by having good listening they can overcome it and comfortable with the environment. It also show the support of us to the guest and we can get know what is expected from us by the guest or the superior. The staff can also resolve any problems which occur between the guest. Moreover, they need to have good hearing because when updating any guest data shouldn’t have any error or else they might be in severe problem. To be a good listener the staff and the workers all should have good eye contact with the person whom we are talking. Either than that, they shouldn’t interrupt when the speaker is speaking or else we might not get what they are all talking about and going to cause us problem because the guest can’t keep on repeating the same thing to us so, we shouldn’t interrupt but then listen to them with patient and calm. Nextly, the receiver should also stand or seat in proper way because we need to respect the guest.

2.1.4 POSTURE

Posture also can be defined same as the standing positioning, but in this wise the staff should always face the guest. For example, the receptionist will stand half away bend and talking hardly all shouldn’t be practice as it can lower the hotel prestige.

2.1.5 EXPRESSION

The staff working at front office should always have a good face expression. Whenever, the guest check-in or check-out or even when the guest are standing nearby, the staff should greet them with a smile or even some wish such as good evening and so on. So, by doing this the hotel’s prestige will get higher and at the same time the guest feel good about it.

2.1.6 GOOD EYE CONTACT

The staff should also have a good eye contact with the guest. When a person talks to us, we should greet them back nicely in speaking wise and also by a good eye contact so that the particular persons know that we are hearing to their conversation. If let say there’s no any eye contact, the person will think that we are not listening to them. So, all the staff should be train with having a good eye contact.

2.3 CONCLUSION

So by overall, all the staff should have good working skill moreover for those who works in front desk as the need to deal with the guest every day. For a cashier, this type of skill will be very important because they will be handling cash every day and if any error occur they will be the one to blame. So, the staff should practice those skills in their daily routine to prevent from any problems.

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Australia and produces more than 7 million tourists/people visiting the venue each year. The Sydney Opera House offers a variety of difference shows and performances as well as guided tours, which enables each visitor to explore the vast creation inside one of the world’s most recognisable buildings. Around 1.2 million people attend the many performances and shows, and over 318, 000 people take part of the guided tours available. The Sydney Opera House is also proudly, State, National and World Heritage listed. However, there are many threats that this iconic Australian icon encounters, including such issues as, conservation, and climate change. These different issues threaten the iconic building for future patrons and therefore need to be taken care of in order to maintain Australia’s most recognisable and best known iconic landmark.

“The Sydney Opera House has become, with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney’s best-known landmark and international symbol” (The Sydney Opera House, 2011). It is known as one of Australia’s iconic monuments and is one of the busiest and well-known performing art centres not only Australia, but the world. Each year, the Sydney Opera House provides over 1500 varying performance each year. It is located on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, in sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and is also situated on the northern eastern point of the Sydney central business district (CBD).

The Sydney Opera House is a performing arts centre envisioned and largely created by a Danish architect, Jorn Utzon. However, designed in 1959, it took a total of 14 years to be completed and was official opened in 1973 by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Sydney Opera House, being a performing arts centre, promotes and supports a variety of performing arts companies, and with seven primary venues, offers audiences the opportunity to experience the very best of the many different art forms performed (Sydney Opera House 08/09 Annual Report, 2009). As well as the actual Sydney Opera House, visitors are able to experience the harbour side area that offers a variety of attractions such as shopping, dining and entertainment.

An estimated 45 million people have attended over 100,000 the Sydney Opera House since its opening in 1973 as well as an estimated 100 million people visiting the actual site (Sydney Opera House 08/09 Annual Report, 2009). Regular tours of the construction are conducted daily and many paths and forms of transport was available, leading back towards the CBD through the Botanic Gardens, which is another well known tourist attraction in Sydney.

The Sydney Opera House provides Sydney with a vast number of tourists domestically and internationally throughout the whole year, which provides great exposure to many restaurants, bars and hotels that surround the Harbour. Hotels like the Park Hyatt, Quay Grand Suites Sydney, the Shangri-La Hotel Sydney and The Four Seasons Hotel Sydney; all benefit from the exposure the Sydney Opera House gains from the estimated 7 million patrons visiting the area each year, creating a link with the hospitality and tourism industry of Sydney.

SITUATION ANALYSIS
Conservation

“The Sydney Opera House is a masterpiece of late modern architecture and an iconic building of the 20th century” (The Sydney Opera House, 2011). It is nevertheless, an extraordinary building and not only the city’s central cultural scene, but it is also admired world-wide and valued by the people of Australia.

On the 28th June 2007, the Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Braithwaite, 2007). In 2003, Utzon was awarded the Pritzker Prize, an architect’s highest honour award, which stated;

“There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world – a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent.” (Sydney Opera House, 2008)

Climate change is the main concern that threatens World Heritage sites such as the Sydney Opera House (Daley, 2009). Since the Sydney Opera House is known as a World heritage Site, concerns about potential threats to the actual site are worrying. Such threats include; rising sea levels, increased ocean acidification, higher sea and land temperatures (global warming), and extreme weather events (National Trust, 2009). Because of the rising sea levels, there is a threat of the Sydney Opera House, sinking due to lack of stability.

What would happen if the Sydney Opera House was not maintained and conserved? Would the economy differ? The Sydney Opera House relies solely on the patrons it attracts for the diverse performances and activities it provides, and the substantial iconic pull it has world-wide. The Sydney Opera House also provides customers for the surrounding dining (restaurants, bars etc), accommodation (hotels), transport (ferry, train, bus etc) and vast activities that are available in the harbour. The Sydney Opera House is one of the most eventful ‘performing arts centres’ in the world, providing over 1, 500 performances each year, and therefore attended by an estimated 2 million people, who intern provide the revenue for different events that occur in and around the Opera House, as well as the many hospitality industries also surrounding the venue.

Conservation: Recommendations for Improvement

In regards to the sea levels rising, the president of the Australian chapter of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, Peter Phillips states that, “If sea levels rise, they will all be gone. We want the Minister to realise that there are genuine threats but there are genuine solutions. At its most extreme example, it could mean building a dam around the Opera House” (Cooper, 2007).

Obviously it is difficult to completely stop the impact of climate change on any Natural Heritage site; however, they are able to be saved for a minimum amount of money with a primary focus on maintenance. However, “Comprehensive statutory and associated frameworks are in place across three levels of government to ensure that the present condition of the property is maintained to an exceptional standard” (Sydney Opera House 08/09 Annual Report, 2009). They ensure that the building and surroundings are maintained through conservation programs, which are regularly undertaken. The Sydney Opera House Trust and the Australian and New South Wales Governments also thoroughly examine the maintenance situation throughout the year.

The Sydney Opera House is ensured protection under various laws as it is listed as a Heritage site on National, State and Local government heritage lists and registers (Sydney Opera House 08/09 Annual Report, 2009).

CONCLUSION

The Sydney Opera House is instantaneously recognised by a vast number of people around the world as one of the most internationally acclaimed symbolic buildings in the world today. The significance of the building does not only relate to the city if Sydney or even Australia, but the nation as a whole. The Pritzker Price officially recognises that the Sydney Opera House was “one of the great iconic buildings of the twentieth century” and that it was “an image of great beauty known throughout the world” (Sydney Opera House 08/09 Annual Report, 2009).

APENDIX I
Key Dates for the Sydney Opera House
Key Dates
Achievements

1957

Jorn Utzon wins Sydney Opera House design competition (January)

1959

Work begins on Stage 1 – building the foundations despite Utzon’s protest that plans were not finalised (March

1966

Jorn Utzon resigns (February)

1973

First guided tours of Sydney Opera House (July)

First performance in Sydney Opera House – Australian Opera performed Prokofiev’s War and Peace in the Opera Theatre (September)

Opening Ceremony and Royal Concert with HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh (October 20)

1979

Concert Hall Grand Organ completed (May)

1999

Opening of The Studio – new venue for contemporary performing arts (March)

Jorn Utzon is re-engaged and appointed design consultant to the Sydney Opera House (August)

2000

Sydney Opera House Producers Unit established (October)

2002

Sydney Opera House Utzon Design Principles published (May)

2003

Sydney Opera House Conservation Plan published (June)

State Heritage Listing achieved (December)

2004

Backstage Tour launched (April)

Utzon Room opened – first venue at Sydney Opera House designed by Jorn Utzon (September)

Recording Studio opened (October)

2005

National Heritage Listing achieved (July)

2006

Asian Language Tour launched in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (January)

Colonnade opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth II – designed by Jorn Utzon, it is the first change to the exterior of the building since its completion in 1973 (March)

2007

World Heritage Listing achieved (June)

The Essential Tour launched (October)

2008

Visionary Sydney Opera House architect, Jorn Utzon dies peacefully in his sleep (November)

2009

Western Foyers fully refurbished (July)

Executive summary

In recent years, sustainable tourism has been very common and popular in the tourism industry. This report will be looking at and focusing on the following:

Sustainable tourism what is about
how to develop tourism in the peak district national park, Castleton
how to promote sustainable tourism in the peak district national park, Castleton
number people who visit the peak district national park, Castleton
transport in the peak district national park, Castleton
recommendation
conclusion
Sustainability in the peak district national park, Castleton
Introduction

The aim of this report is to explain how to develop sustainability in the Peak District National Park, Castleton (PDP). The report will consider mainly and focus on the social part in peak district national park, Castleton, and changes that can be made. First of all, the report will tell the reader some brief history of Peak District national park, Castleton (PDP) and then define the term sustainable tourism and tourism development. Then secondly, the author will introduce the requirement that can be done to develop sustainable tourism in Castleton and how to promote sustainable tourism in the Peak District National Park in Castleton, the literature will then recommend development that can be done in Castleton and conclusion will be drawn. “Castleton is an outstandingly pretty village situated at the head of the lovely Vale of Hope, in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District National Park. Castleton is surrounded on 3 sides by steep hills and the mighty bulk of Mam Tor looms high, 2 miles to the north west of the village. On a hill, overlooking Castleton is the ancient Peveril Castle” Sustainable tourism can be defined as “‘Sustainable tourism’ is simply sustainable development achieved through tourism. Sustainable development is economic development that takes a long-term view. It balances the benefits of economic development against environmental and social costs” (greentourism.org.uk, 2010).

Sustainable Development in Castleton

Sustainable tourism meanly focuses on the environment, social and environment values. However, to achieve sustainable development in the peak district national park Castleton, (PDP) the community has to involve in the partnership.

According to Sinclair (2003:404) define as “sustainable development is expected to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs”. Sustainability is mainly focused so that development is positive for the local people, the visitors and tourism companies. To promote tourism in Peak District National Park, Castleton they have to have more events, activities and exhibitions by doing that it will attract more visitors as it used to do. For example the Garland festival and the Oak apple day which runs every year attracts visitors to Castleton. Castleton has to build more cafe bars for the local people and visitors themselves.

These festivals attract more visitors to Castleton and it helps improve the economy impact and also makes the attraction very popular. In 2001, the population in Castleton was around 1,200(visit Castleton.com, 2010). Because visitors visit different or several parks so Castleton needs to bring more activities so that the destination can be sustainable. However, the communities do not have to destroy the wild life in the area with hiking and walking in the area. In the other hand, the community has monitor and measure the sustainable tourism in the area.

According to the Miller and Ward (2005:177) stated that “since 1993, the WTO has organized sustainable tourism monitoring pilot projects in different parts of the world where WTO consultants have worked together with national and local tourism management to develop indicators for particular sites”.

Attraction in Castleton

Castleton has local attraction, for example the Peveril, Castleton castle and more. The Castleton castle do not attracts more visitors because it needs more improvement and development for it to attract more tourist and visitors. Peak district national park, Castleton (pdp). Castleton is a place where it suite all kind of needs and people, for example,

Education
Old people
Walkers
People who wish to stay overnight
Hikers
Transport in Castleton

Castleton lies at the western end of the Hope Valley in the Peak District National Park, mid-way between Manchester and Sheffield. Transport in Castleton is reliable.

Hope railway station is 3km from the centre of Castleton is served by the Manchester – Sheffield railway line with direct trains to both cities, plus connections to the rest of the railway system.

Source from Castleton.
Improvement in Castleton

The local people and visitors in the communities has to take care with the by not distorting the wild life in the area. According to Shaw and Williams (2004:182) suggested that to sustain tourism the following can be look at:

To run with involvement and consent of local communities, which of course links directly with the ideas of communities participation
Be in position to share profit ‘fairly’ with the local community
Involve communities than individuals.
Promoting tourism in Castleton

According to Waugh (2002) said that “national park must also foster the economic and social well being of the local communities. They are also required to pursue a policy of sustainable development by which they must aim to improve the quality of people’s lives without destroying the environment” (framework 16, p499). To promote tourism in Castleton the community has to contribute in the activities that has been brought and are taking place. By doing so it also creates jobs for the local people in the town or city. The promotion has to be also enjoyed the qualities by the local communities and the visitors”. The local people have participated in tourism developments.

According to Ottinger et al (2005) suggested that to promote tourism in a certain areas the following has to be done:

“It enhances International Corporation, foreign direct investment and partnerships with both private and public sectors, at all levels.
Develop programs, including education and training program that encourage people to participate in eco- tourism to enable indigenous and local communities to develop and benefit from eco- tourism and enhance stakeholder’s cooperation in tourism development”.
Number people who visit the peak district national park, Castleton

There are many people or visitors who visit the peak district national park, Castleton, every year.

Conclusion
Recommendation
The application of the literature suggests that the local community has to contribute to sustain tourism in peak district national peak, Castleton (pdp).
The application of literature suggest that the local people has to keep the environment clean so that it does not harm the wild life
The application of the literature suggest that the local people and the visitors has to use public transport or walk to lower the air pollution
The application of the literature suggests that visitors have to have to control their pets or animal when they visit the peak district national park, Castleton.
Reference list
Ottinger. L., R, Robinson, .A.N., and Tafur. V. (2005) Compendium of sustainable energy laws (1st ed)(p,245) Cambridge press
Waugh, .D (2002) Geography: an integrated approach (3rd ed) (p, 592) nelson thorns.
Miller, G. and Ward, .T.L. (2005) Monitoring for a sustainable tourism transition. The challenger of developing and using indicators.(1st ed) (p, 177).Cabi publishing
Shaw, G. and William, .M.A (2004) Tourism and tourism space (1st ed) (p, 182)

Published: Saga

Sinclair, .D. and Jayawardena

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType=Article&Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0410150706.pdf

world – wide hospitality and tourism trend: viewpoint the development of sustainable tourism in the Guianas

What is sustainable tourism?

http://www.greentourism.org.uk/what-is-sustainable-tourism.html

Number of visitors to the Castleton

http://www.peakdistrict-education.gov.uk/fact%20sheets/fz7cas2.htm

images from Castleton

http://www.visitcastleton.co.uk/history.php

history of Castleton peak district

http://www.derbyshireuk.net/castleton.html

aces on the 23th march 2010.