Author: Andre Coleman

Literature review concentrates the theoretical framework for what is tourism and what is meant by infrastructure development in tourism industry. In this way, this section analyzes possible infrastructure facilities that are causing for development in tourism industry

Tourism is “the temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the facilities created to cater to their needs” (Mathieson & Wall, 1982, p.1)

Tourism has not been defined universally because it is hard to define if tourism is

an industry and what factors make a person traveling a tourist. “All tourism involves

travel, yet not all travel is tourism” (Mill & Morrison, 2002, p. 1). What this is saying that

you need to go somewhere to be a tourist yet you can go somewhere and not be a tourist,

simply be visiting family. Travel refers to the act of moving outside of ones usual

Tourism in Sri Lanka contributes significantly to the counties economy. Today more than 150,000 people directly or indirectly depend on this industry. Therefore, there should be clear understanding and policy to make tourism more sustainable and economical to the country whilst attracting many visitors. There are many activities that occurs when people travel (Mill & Morrison, 2002). This includes planning the trip, traveling to the destination, the activities the traveler undertakes as part of the trip, the interactions between the visitor and the host destination.

A destination is first and foremost the important thing for tourism. There should be a place for people to go before anything else can happen. A destination must have an attraction and all the needs of a tourist, such as hotels, activities, and transportation which leads to the demands of tourists. Not only must there be a place to travel but also a place that people will want to visit. (World Tourism Organization, 1975)

And this is where the infrastructure comes to consideration. What is infrastructure at a destination?

Definitions of Infrastructure

In 1983 report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) defined “infrastructure” as facilities with “the common characteristics of capital intensiveness and high public investment at all levels of government. They are, moreover, directly critical to activity in the nation’s economy”

The Council established by P.L. 98-501 provided yet another definition of

“infrastructure.” The Council’s report characterized “infrastructure” as facilities with

high fixed costs, long economic lives, strong links to economic development, and a

tradition of public sector involvement

Tourism infrastructure is a component of regional tourist product. Infrastructure is comprised of basic devices, buildings and service institutions, whose existence is crucial to the proper operating of economy and society. Infrastructure is divided into

aˆ? Technical, including basic devices used in transport, communication, gas, heat, power and road industry, etc.,

aˆ? Social, including devices and institutions connected with education, culture, science, health, physical culture and tourism, public administration[1] [Gaworecki., 2003]

Nevertheless, it is a must for any destination to maintain proper infrastructure facilities to attract tourist to the area. Without the basic infrastructure facilities no touristic activity can take place. Therefore, in order to promote a destination first of all there should be proper infrastructure facilities.

Sri Lanka has a huge potential for tourism development with the prospect of peace looming. Opportunities will be presented to open up areas that were previously inaccessible to the industry. Like promote North & East province of Sri Lanka as a leading tourism destination and a Gateway to South Asia. This will include providing diverse tourism experiences and exploiting resources that have been underutilized by the sector so far. Which will generate foreign exchange and also it will enhance the livelihood of the people in the province. To fulfill this mission there must be proper infrastructure in the region. By facilitating those basic infrastructure will enable more visitor friendly environment and by which more tourists can attract to the area.

Below are some charts which shows accommodation capacity in all over Sri Lanka and tourist arrivals to the country from 1999 to 2009

Accommodation Capacity (Graded) 1999 to 2009

Official Tourism Receipts (Rs.mn) 1999 to 2009

Tourist Arrivals 1999 to 2009

Summary

This chapter has provided the literature for this study. At the very beginning concept of tourism and infrastructure were defined. Afterwards effects of infrastructure were discussed thus poor infrastructure can lead to negative consequences. Subsequently measurement of infrastructure has been presented. After that it describe the survival of the tourism industry is based on the development of the infrastructure development. Furthermore infrastructure development will improve the quality of the life of the people in the said region.

Involving information and communication technology on a range of modern methods and techniques used to simplify a particular activity and lifting tool, a group gathered the necessary equipment to process information and circulation of computers and software and hardware for saving and retrieving and electronic transport across wired and wireless means of communication in all its forms and different kinds: written, audio and video, which enables two-way communication and teamwork and provide transmission of the message from the sender to the recipient; through closed networks and open; and globalization has allowed information and communication technology to benefit from services a four-Twenty hours (24 h / 7 days), from any point on earth, especially with the spread of electronic financial settlement of transactions on Line.

Nowadays technology involves every aspects of life. One of these aspects is tourism. People who work in tourism sector use technology to execute their work. Technology helps to distribute information about different places for tourism. Tourists can gain information from the internet and know the accurate things to decide the best places to visit. Technology makes the work easier related to the tourists need like hiring cars, getting rooms and tickets. It becomes very easy register your information online. Tourists will have more time to enjoy themselves because their information has been already registered online. Tourism use technology to make records about their usual customers to know their favorite food, places and activities to attract them to come again.

Briefly this issue will discuss the concept of Information technology in tourism industry and will cover those main points:

Concept of information technology.
E-Government.
Information Technology and Tourism.
E-Tourism.
The importance of e-tourism and its impact on national economy.
Tourism applications.
Government internet website
Information Technology?

Information technology mean possessed the manufacture and storage and dissemination of information by a microelectronics-based computing and communications. When we say Information technology that means, computer programming, internet, computer engineering, and technician and so on. All of that make big change in tourism industry so; the government should use this technology to be number one in this sector.

E-Government:

The common definition of e-government as a network of computer systems that enable public access to a large number of government services and transactions automated, online or through other electronic letters . The intellectual and political content of the e-government, and historical and cultural context that led to it.

The concept e-government integrated mean the effective use of all information and communication technologies in order to facilitate the daily administrative operations of the government sectors.

We can say in light of the foregoing that the electronic government in terms of the concept is: the environment where it is information be for all by easy way

IT and Tourism:

Because the tourism industry is rapidly changing and evolving. It was necessary to use information technology to keep pace with the evolution in the world and is noted on this basis that the tourism market has been affected a lot of this technology over recent years has been known an exponential growth in e-tourism Through the Internet.

The countries which used the e-government and considering tourism as one of main economic recourse faces to use technology in this sector and this helped to appearance of the concept of E-Tourism.

E-Tourism:

Appeared a few years ago the concept of e-tourism, and dealt with many international organizations of different applications and their impact on increasing tourism growth, especially in least developed countries, which constitute the tourism revenues, a large proportion of GDP. Has contributed to further spread the concept and applications of various factors such as high proportion of the contribution of e-tourism in the total international e-commerce, and the resulting integration of this concept in the institutional structures of the bodies involved in tourism from the reduction in the cost of tourism services provided and thus prices, and the development of tourist product submitted in the development of new touristic activities consistent with the different segments of tourists, as well as increasing the competitiveness of tourism enterprises, and the consequent increase in the value added of the tourism sector in the national economy.

We can say the e-tourism is “Pattern of tourist transactions are executed through the use of information and communication technology.

The importance of e-tourism and its impact on national economy

The importance of e-tourism, which provided huge benefits for both providers of tourism services for tourists or tourists themselves , which contribute to overcome traditional barriers in the typical tourist transactions, and most important of these benefits :

1. Facilitate the provision of information, which depends on tourism industry.

When we use the technology it is will be easy to get information about tourism destination.

2. Reduce the cost of tourism services provided.

Because the services provided online with lees price and time .

3. Ease of product development, tourism and the emergence of new tourism activities in accordance with the different segments of tourists.

That happen when we use the technology to know what tourists need and what his her opinion about certain destination.

4. Increase the competitiveness of tourism enterprises.

That depends for how we use the Information technology in our work .

All of that helped to increase the benefit of tourism in national income so; the use of information technology is strategic choice and necessary.

Tourism applications:

Before tock about tourism applications in IT sector we should know who use the IT. In general we can divide them to four groups which are:

Tourists:,
Travel agents.
Service providers..
Tourism offices.

In tourism we use information technology in airlines, hotels, car rent, Tourism offices and travel agencies.

The government use information technology in several way s for example, marketing research, promotional plan and exchange the information between the countries and so on.

Also the government use computers, Mobil phones, and satellites to control and administration the staff and the process in easy ways.

Government Internet Website

It is the biggest and useful part of information technology and the government use it to promotional the country and market it in good ways.

This website provides all information for all and it easy to access and get what you want about the country so, that will be increase the number of visitor.

Moreover the government uses the internet to provide direct services like, reservation, tickets and other things.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I can say the information technology effect the tourism industry in different ways and change day by day. Also the exact impacts are far from clear, the future of e-tourism. In the end of this report we can see the important of information technology in tourism sector and who it is affect it. In my opinion the information technology becomes the important issue and I have the right to say no live without information technology.

Information technology is becoming more and more the crucial element of everyday life. It is widely used in business activities, as well as in leisure time at home. This also applies to tourism as a form of human activity. Tourist enterprises are significantly using information technology for marketing purposes. This applies to the field of support in marketing decision making as well as the field of communication and sale. However, for the purpose of marketing, information technology is used in tourism by public sector, specifically by national, regional and lokal tourist organizations dealing with marketing for their areas (countries, regions, places) as tourist destinations. Thus this paper takes into consideration the possibilities of the use of information technology in tourism destination marketing. Explained are various information technologies, applied in tourism and their present and potential role in the marketing of destination is assessed. Defined is the term of electronic market, together with electronic marketing as marketing activities carried out on electronic market with the assistance of information technology. The need to incorporate electronic marketing in the whole strategy of tourism destination marketing is also pronounced. For this paper relevant literature was used, mostly from the field of marketing, but also of other economic and historic methods.

Keywords: marketing in tourism, marketing strategy, tourist market, information technology, electronic marketing, destination marketing systems.

INTRODUCTION

For successful and efficient business in an environment characterized by dynamism, information and globalization, it is necessary to be flexible and react quickly to any changes on the market. Such company`s reaction may be only the result of continuous, rapid and accurate flow of information enabled by information technology and information systems. In industrialized countries, information and knowledge represent a new base of overall operation, present in all spheres of production, tourism, trade and services, to non-economy and state administration.

Continuous development of information and communication technologies during the last decade has had a profound implication on tourism. In the modern business conditions, for enterprises in tourism, it is important to consider two forms of technological competencies in order to achieve competitiveness. These are the areas of computer technology and communication technology.

Computer technologies include achievements in the field of hardware, software, etc.. Achievements in the field of hardware provide almost limitless opportunities for the development of software programs designed to solve any problems. Communication technologies enable solving the problems of transfer of information. Message transmission rate is continuously increasing.

Application of ICT in enterprises in the tourism, digitize all processes in the field of tourism, catering, travel, etc.. Also, these technologies affect all business functions in the tourism industry: sales and marketing, finance and accounting, procurement, research and development. At the tactical level, this includes e-commerce and application of information technology (IT) to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of organizations in the tourism industry through the reduction of operating costs and communications costs. In addition, IT enables more effective strategic decision making through improved management processes, control procedures, more efficient response to changes in the environment and similar. Constant interaction with customers and partners helps to be more flexible and competitive in pricing, which can increase the yield of the company. Sales control enables company to adjust products and prices to the requirements of consumers, as well as to initiate promotional companies and similar, in the quest to maximize sales.

The efficiency of the tourist economy of a country or destination will largely depend on the total computerization of business enterprises in tourism, and the availability of tourism products presented through the modern computer technology. The effects of the implementation of information technology are numerous and primarily relate to better information and faster transaction, to significantly improving operations in many areas on the tourist market.

1. CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM DESTINATION MARKETING

Tourism is a complex, open system which is composed of set of subsystems and their interaction of resulting socio-economic and natural phenomena and relationships. Its subsystems, themselves are composed of a set of own elements such as: system of holders supply (accommodation facilities, restaurants, airlines, retail trade, built attractions, activities, etc.) subsystem intermediaries (tour operators, travel agencies), subsystem of business associations and chambers, a subsystem of the public sector (state authorities responsible for tourism, national, regional and local tourism organizations, tourist information centers, etc.) a subsystem of tourists (consumers), a subsystem of residents (both because of the importance of their attitude towards tourists as well as user of the same facilities and services), as well as related services subsystem (guide service, educational institutions etc.).

Tourism is an activity that involves movement and stay of people in such places that are not places of their permanent residence. They visited other countries, religions, settlements, and this is called by a name aa‚¬” a tourist destination.

Since there is no place on earth, which tourists do not visit, it should be emphasized that, in the context of modern tourism, a place can become a destination only as a result of two sets of related activities: the development of facilities designed for meeting the needs of tourists who visit the destination and the existence of the destination marketing activities such as the tourists offers in places where it is needed.

Marketing in tourism is management philosophy by which holders of tourist and business policies tend to create and maintain the target group of tourists through the identification and (effective and efficient) trying to meet their needs, and on that basis to achieve their organizational goals and social interest.

Today in the international tourism, countries, regions and cities are competing as a destination, not just companies. Marketing of products of tourism destinations can not be left only to the enterprises because they are not usually capable to support independently, financially or otherwise such efforts. For this reason it is necessary that such activities are done by Tourist policy holders, and various state bodies which are responsible for tourism (such as public sector). But we should not underestimate the role and importance of the various initiatives of the private sector.

The development of mass tourism has threatened and somewhere damaged not only natural but also man’s total environment. It is necessary to take into account the long-term interests of society (ie, destination) and preserve the environment (natural, socio-cultural and other) so that the tourist destination would not become a victim of its own development. Therefore, the application of marketing in tourism assumes the acceptance of concept of socially responsible marketing.

Marketing in tourism, in general, has a number of specific details that are related to tourism as an activity. These are: intangibility of services, their connection with those who provide them, variability of quality, the impossibility of their storage, significant time distance between the decision to purchase and own consumption, often weak loyalty to the brand, focusing demand to offer, seasonal concentration of demand, its heterogeneity and flexibility, heterogeneity and inelasticity as well as high risk in buying their product.

It should be said that besides the numerous features of marketing in tourism in general, a tourist destination carries additional specifics that arise from the following characteristics: Tourist destination, regardless of physical covers, usually has a multifunctional character; spatial coverage tourist destination, that is seen by tourists, often differs from the one that is seen by the destination authorities; It may happen that some sets of objectives of public and private sectors do not overlap or that they are in conflict; the destination method of using the product differs substantially from the use of any product or services, and finally, those who manage the destination (which is the public sector), have little or no control over the various elements of the tourist destination.

Specific services include marketing and use of specific marketing concepts, besides the one related to the four marketing mix instrument. It is about internal marketing and interactive marketing.

Destination marketing organizations (DMO) can implement internal marketing on three levels: the micro level, ie. within the DMO, where the main target audience is the personnel employed in the DMO, then at the level of tourist activity, where the “target” is the employees in the industries of tourism and finally at the destination as a whole, where the target audience is the residents. Talking about interactive marketing opportunities the implementation of these activities is smaller than in the case of internal marketing. It is of great importance for the marketing of a tourist destination to maintain and improve the relations with tourists that are usually committed towards attitudes and behaviors of service providers. Interactive marketing has its place in the domain of tourism information centers and checkpoints, through constant contact, by providing information, assistance and in processing complaints.

2. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN DESTINATION MARKETING

Information technology, by itself, can not be a source of lasting competitive advantage of tourist destination. It may contribute hardly to the competitive advantage through its impact on strengthening the microeconomic basis of competitiveness which consists of human resources, physical infrastructure, administrative infrastructure, information infrastructure, scientific and technological infrastructure, developed domestic market and competition, sophisticated and demanding request.

In the marketing of tourist destinations, its application is found in a large number of information technologies: teletext, videotext, information kiosks, computer reservation systems, global distribution systems, destination marketing systems, databases, expert systems and the Internet.

2.1. Teletext

Teletext is a technology of one-way broadcasted information through continuous transmission of groups of information in cycles from one center, along with broadcasted television signals. The idea of this invention was patented in early seventies in the UK, and the idea was to free the lines of TV signal which were not used for transmission of video signals and to assert an additional digital signal. The digital signal carries the information presented in the form of numbered pages, which can show text and images. Decoded information in order to be read on screen requires TV with decoder. Pages of information are broadcast in cycles, and the user, with the help of the keyboard, select the desired page. The disadvantage of Teletext, in this regard lies in the fact that it must wait until the desired page appears in the broadcast cycle. This limits the capacity of several hundred pages which means that the selection and detailed information are limited.

For the purposes of the tourist industry, the home information system, can provide updated information, such as weather forcast, traffic conditions on roads, time of departure and arrival of aircraft and trains etc.. Besides this, there is the possibility to make a purchase, for example, which means to buy the package of tourist arrangements and to buy for it by the phone with the credit card. This is particularly suitable for the package of arrangements that are unsold just before the start of travel.

2.2. Videotext

Videotext is an electronic system for sending information and messages that allows two-way communication, usually by telephone, with the information shown in the form of text or graphics on a custom TV or some other terminal such as personal computers.

Videotext services are used both in private and in business purposes. Some of the information can be obtained via videotext services include: news and weather, training or education at home, tourist information, catalog sale. Besides this, videotext can be used to perform the reservation of tickets, cinema, various calculations (eg calculation of interest), then to send messages between users.

Videotext can be publicly accessible or private, or restricted to private users (so-called closed-user group). Publicly available videotext was developed in many countries. Travel agencies, particularly in the UK, often use videotext. Thus, the British passenger agents, through any of the existing videotext system, can get information about departure and arrival times, and prices of all major air and ferry companies, and prices on the rent-a-car services, the remaining places in charter flights and the remaining package information on visas, exchange rate etc..

Videotext in the tourism industry is far more used to getting information rather than booking. When it comes to usual travel (leisure travel) especially the package in the UK, in most cases, these products can be booked on-line exclusively through videotext. On the other hand, in Germany, for example, tour operators in this regard are less restrictive, and through videotext book only a few percent of the package arrangement. Booking services for business travelers, for the most part use the computerized reservation systems, airlines and system-START Amadeus.

France is the only country in Europe (and in the world) with the wide use of videotext system in business and private purposes, with <> device in millions of offices and homes. A study done for the French national telecommunications company and the Ministry of Tourism in 1991, has shown that the use of <> for collecting information on tourism services among its customers is popular, although lagging behind the brochures and information presented by travel agencies.

2.3. Information kiosks

Development in the field of information technology has led to the appearance of information kiosks. It is the kind of information system for the independently access of the client and autonomously usage. New generation systems are of multimedia characters, consisting of computers, speakers, keyboard (required if your monitor is not the type of touch-screen), CD-ROM drive, sometimes the small printer and stored in robust housing. They are usually set in the hotel lobby, shopping centers, at the airports, bus and railway stations and on similar places. Users (tourists) can freely approach and use it to get the specific information (through text, images, video and sound), and to book the accommodation. The features of information kiosks are: [1]

Good balance in the use of different media,

Good quality content,

Simple but clear and understandable organization of content,

Consistency in the way the material is fragmented, connected and presented on the screen,

Consistency in the presentation of different functionality and

It links clearly the meaning and function (sometimes with explicit explanation).

Information kiosks have also disadvantages. There may be negative impacts on the environment (noise and general excitement). Availability / accessibility of kiosks may depend on the working hours where they are located. Also, the frequency locations lose their privacy in obtaining the information through the kiosks, as passers and those waiting in line for the kiosk can see (and hear) the information that is broadcasted across the screen of the kiosk.

In any case, information kiosks are widespread in tourism information technology and are devoted to the visitors on the destination. Their function is to inform the tourists and persuade them to stay longer in the particular destination as well as to spend more money there.

2.4. CD-ROM

CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) system allows the laser compact disc to store colored recordings: hotel, gallery, landscapes, cities etc. and to display them by color-screen personal computers that are installed in travel agencies. This new technological innovation is often called “electronic brochure”. It allows potential tourists to view any selected destination or partial tourist products and facilitate a decision on purchase. Electronic brochures can be made by national and regional and local tourism organizations, tour operators, hotels, owners of computerized booking system CD-ROM (or video disc) is very suitable for mixed use with videotext system. Namely, videotext has access to large databases that are updated continuously, but is limited to their text and simple graphic display. On the other hand, video-disc is inflexible from the point of updating the information (once registered the information on laser compact disc can not be deleted), but the possibility of displaying static and moving images of high quality and sound. Thus, for example tourists` travel agency or tourist information center can require hotel accommodation in a particular destination. Videotext on its page gives information on pricing and availability but the image of the hotel, room etc., are shown by a video-disc.

2.5. Computer reservation systems, tourism enterprises (CRS)

Reservation systems are the most important element in the system of distribution of tourist services. Their formation is the result of the desire of management in tourism enterprises to establish pre-booking system, which, with price changes and the formation of waiting lists, is one of the techniques of controlling demand in the short term, without changes to the offer. In addition, the reservation system enables organizations whose resources are not limited to better demand and accordingly to that it takes steps to increase supply. Also, CRS enables providers of tourist services to maximize capacity utilization through price changes and rearranging the package of services, and sometimes through the transfer (redirect) consumers with the products whose demand exceeds the offer to those with weaker demand.CRS may be organized in one of three ways: [2]

aa‚¬? As manual (manual) system, where the requirements are taken by the phone, and then enroll in these special books, diaries, and tables;

aa‚¬? As a computerized system where the requirements are also received by phone, but all records of the reservation is processed and stored on a computer;

aa‚¬? As a fully automated computer reservation system, for which agents have directly access (on line) from terminals in their offices and perform booking.

2.6. Expert systems

Expert systems have found their first application in a highly structured problem solving in science and engineering. In the field of tourism about they appeared during the mid-eighties of the last century, when it began with the development of prototypes of these systems for operational and physical management of tourist companies, especially for airlines and large hotels. Expert systems contain the knowledge of experts in such form to enable them to bid for specific problem solutions or make intelligent decisions. Expert system should have the ability to explain and justify its conclusion, as well as the ability to do data on actions with uncertain consequences. Characteristic of these systems is that they are able to remember the good solutions and include them in the bank of knowledge for later use in solving other problems. For management purposes, the adoption of such systems and learning about them are essential.

The relatively recent literature, which covers the area of application of information technologies in tourism, began to till the issue of application of expert systems in advising tourists in selecting the most appropriate destination. Expert systems in this regard could be used as agents of assistance (travel counselors) in providing assistance to tourists in the choice of destinations and services in total. The tourists can find the same application but without the agent.

What are the prospects in the area of application of expert systems in destination marketing? Apart from the expert systems which should help in the selection of one, the most suitable destination between multiple options, which in this case are (controlled) means of marketing, there remains the possibility of applying for a narrower or wider destination, in order to assist in choosing the best routes and itineraries, and according to preferences of tourists, regardless of whether the tourists had direct access or through an agent. Expert systems have not had wide application in this area or agents in the area of assistance in giving advice to tourists. The reason for doing this, is a great complexity in modeling preference for intangible products and expand of the scope of influence on decision-making process. The immediate future will not bring significant changes in this regard. We should expect the first concrete attempt to introduce expert systems in travel agencies, while the process of implementing the expert system with direct access will go slower except, perhaps, over the Internet.

2.7. Tourist information systems on the Internet

The rapid development of Internet at the end of 90 years has brought a revolution in tourism. The Internet has moved the gap between consumers and businesses and it enables interactive communication and trade. Tourism has always been a complex activity, which is based on a partnership between the individual organizations within a defined system of values. Distribution channels in tourism include the number of stores which include travel agencies, tour operators and other organizations. B2B Internet commerce has enabled many organizations in the tourism industry to redesign its business operations and expand their business models.

We can say that almost every serious company in the tourist economy in the developed countries, has its own website. This applies to the airlines, hotel chains, RAC companies, railways. But in less tourist companies that are seen on the Internet as a relatively inexpensive medium for getting the international market. It is interesting to note that due to the relatively rapid acceptance of the Internet by the tourist customer and there occur authors who speak of the end of the tourist agencies and the absence of the needs of their mediation. As well as it shows the need of the agencies to get know its customers, and the profile of the tourists (in fact develop Database marketing) so not to remain without them.

With the new information technology, especially Internet, Marketing department is changing rapidly in five fronts: [3]

From mass marketing to database marketing. Given that companies tend to all aspects of the organization work smarter, making more with less, the cost of unsuccessful advertising will grow. For these reasons, marketing experts must, use the technology of data gathering to target more precisely desired segments of their propaganda. This involves collecting more customer information and customizing the message by using the information needs of the target audience and to make the differentiation between products and services.

From mass media to interactive media. Customers increasingly want to choose when, where and how to meet the holders offer. This means addressing the individual needs of clients and services in a way that the client prefers. Interactive media will play a critical role in this process and it should be involved in marketing strategy at the first opportunity.

From the market share to the relationship wealth. Since marketing departments can serve rather than sell their performance should be measured differently. The emphasis will be on the wealth of relations with consumers, rather than just the market share. To be effective, this transition must be strongly communicated to all levels of the company.

From sales to service customers. Marketing no longer means to convey your message to the widest possible audience. It means to take care of customers. It moves into production, logistics, customer service centers, help desks, helping to remove barriers in the way of sale to consumers.

From technologically sophisticated to the most creative. The Internet was not for many marketing departments important thing but it was an interesting thing. Today, it is a basic requirement in all marketing strategies. In the past, the best marketing experts, they were most creative. Today, the best marketing experts are those who are most technology sophisticated. The importance of creativity remains, but the importance of having technologically sophisticated use of marketing, gives opportunities for geometric growth.

Internet is not used only for tourist information, but also for sale. Association of American hotels and motels (AHRMA) points out that electronic sales service accommodation over the Internet beginning of the XXI century has reached a value close to 3 billion USD. [4]

All important tourist destinations of the world have their presentations on the Internet (or more accurately on the Word Wide Web). It is a medium that no one wants to drop in their marketing activities.

Our country is connected to the Internet from 1996. year. Since then a number of tourist companies, as well as some destinations, develop their presentations on the Internet. Yet it is increasingly used to collect different information in order to find new content, for monitoring communication, for creation and design of tourist services.

CONCLUSION

From the standpoint of marketing tourist destinations, teletext and videotext have almost no potential. CD Rom has been a traditional marketing tool known as “Electronic brochure”, although a number of destination presentations on the CD Rom suffer from the stereotype views. Information kiosks are designed for those who have already visited the destination, in order to extend their stay and increase consumption. In that sense, it is a widespread technology. Computer reservation systems, tourism companies, including global distribution systems, are oriented to increase the efficiency of sales, therefore the transaction. Therefore, the weak interest for a marketing destination is expressed. Many of the destinations marketing organizations (DMO) with the construction of destination marketing systems make their destination more accessible electronically. Experiences are different, and it is obvious that we should wait with giving the final score. Database of visitors can be a solid foundation for database marketing. In fact, it is necessary to set up and develop a coherent system of collecting data on visitors, in cooperation with the private sector (eg tourism industry). Expert systems, for now had wider application in the area of destination marketing, and the first attempts will be related to the operation of travel agencies. The Internet probably carries the greatest potential, particularly because of the possibility of combining with other information technologies. Destination marketing organizations is already using the Internet for their activities. Despite its limitations, it is certain that the Internet will have a significant place in integrated marketing activities of tourist destinations.

Air Asia, the market leader of low cost carriers in Asia, shown on the good record of bringing about innovative idea into the industry. The industry itself, especially in the Asian region, is observing a higher growth rate of passenger and profitability. The report examines the organization’s key business structure and operation, products and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy. The analysis looks at the impact of external and internal factors on the organization, and evaluate it responses. Essentially SWOT and PESTLE analysis provide a simple framework through which strategic options can be identified in which Air Asia operate. The SWOT process will start by examining the strengths of the Air Asia of today. One of the most dominant strengths possessed by Air Asia is the adding of new Airbus A320 aircraft to its fleet. Airbus A320 gives Air Asia the largest, youngest and most modern fleet in the region. Another strength of Air Asia is the upgrading of the online booking system, in which will offer the ability to passenger to check in online and printing out boarding passes. An opportunity available to Air Asia is fastest growing market in China and India. Both countries give a huge opportunity for Air Asia to expand its business in the region. In the threat part of the analysis is concerned with identifying parts of the Air Asia that might affect its business performance. In recent years a whole class of low cost carriers such as Singapore’s Tiger Airways and other airline carrier coming into the market. PESTLE analysis is to conduct an environment analysis in the context of Air Asia international business operations, describing the major variables involved and the impact of the specific threats and opportunities confronted by Air Asia.

The second part of the report is trying to analyze the policies and decision making will be influenced by those human capital and information technology involved. Air Asia has locked a partnership with CAE for mutual benefit where CAE will provide pilot training for all of Air Asia current and future pilot in the region. Air Asia also has locked a partnership with its IT vendor which can constantly improve the system and offer a wide range of distribution channels to make booking and traveling easier for its guests.

iv

Air Asia has built the Air Asia Academy to develop high quality manpower in ensuring seamless business growth. It operating results underscore two major highlights. The first is how effectively the employee worked to meet customer needs and the second is how well the team manages the robust capacity growth. A number of positions are normally improved to increase its competitive advantages and proficiency, which enables Air Asia to achieve and maintain the business growth. The area of improvement included service, strategic alliance and product improvement.

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INTRODUCTION

Air Asia is most popular and profitability organization since Air Asia introduced its low fare, no frills concept in December 2001. Dato’ Tony Fernandes, who introduced the first budget no frills airline, Air Asia, to Malaysian with tagline “Now everyone can fly”, Air Asia’s philosophy of low fares is aimed to make flying affordable for everyone (AirAsia.com 2008). It is also aims at making travel easy, convenient and fun for its guests. The airline now flies to over 48 destinations in Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, China and Philippines (AirAsia.com 2008). Air Asia formed two successful joint ventures in Thailand through Thai Air Asia, and Indonesia through Indonesia Air Asia in 2004. Where Air Asia holds 49% stake in both companies. Now, Air Asia expanded its fleet from the original two to twenty eight, and revolutionized air travel in this country by offering incredibly low airfares through its innovative sales channel (AirAsia.com 2008). To date the Air Asia group, has carried over million passengers per year.

In the history of Air Asia, we can identified how diligent and smart of Dato’ Tony Fernandes to operate to be ultimately constructed by external and internal factors on strategic planning to ensuring alignment during implementation of organization success. We all know Air Asia, the heavily indebted subsidiary of the Malaysia government owned conglomerate, DRB-Hicom, was losing money big time. Instead of starting from scratch, Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad advised Fernandes to buy an existing airline instead (Wikipedia 2008). Fernandes mortgaged his own house and sank his savings to acquire the company, comprising two ageing Boeing 737-300 jets. Air Asia was acquired at RM 1.00 with liability of over RM 40 million worth of debts, and transformed it into an industry player (Wikipedia 2008).

For what happened on this date in history, coming just after the September 2001, undoubtedly the worst day in the history of commercial aviation when nobody wanted to fly, everyone scoffed at his idea, predicting that the company would fail miserably.

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Yet, just one year after his takeover, Air Asia had broken even and the debt was paid off. For the year to June 2002, a RM 30 million net profit was recorded on revenue of RM 310 million (Wikipedia 2008). Why it happened? What is well made decision to enables Air Asia to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage?

The world has changed. Organization has had, and is having significant effects on the way how to make better decisions in organization. Policies and decision making are inherently concerned with the future. Because of this the organization is often concerned with assessing in the future as an input to developing organization strategic plans. This is particularly true in the area of environmental analysis in organization planning. The development of strategies inevitably involves choice between alternatives strategies and hence the need for analysis and decision making.

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A. Task 1
INTERNAL INFLUENCES ON AIR ASIA
2.1 Organization Vision and Mission

Organization vision commonly provides a clear indication of the overall purpose of the organization. It will describe the main activities of the organization and the position or standing that it wishes to achieve in the future. Organization vision of the Air Asia is to continue to be the lower cost short haul airline in every market its serve, delivering strong organic growth through offering the lowest airfares at a profit (AirAsia.com 2008). It is important that the vision stretches the organization but it must be realistic.

2.2 Organizational Structure

The structure of an organization refers to the patterns of relationships among positions in the organization and between individual members of the organization. Its will help to define the tasks that people do, the allocation of the responsibility and authority, the roles that people play and the relationships between them. The organization structure and principal operating of Air Asia include three executive vice presidents, for operations, commercials and people, serve under the CEO and the deputy CEO. The senior manager of the network operations, who contributed most of the information in this article, reports to the executive vice president of operations (Idris, 2007). In general, the organization structure of Air Asia also included flight crews, which people responsible for the operation of the aircraft, such as pilot and flight attendants. Ground crew, people will responsible for operations at airports. They are include gate agents, ticket agents, flight dispatchers, baggage handlers, electric system technicians, passengers’ service agents and airframe and power plant technicians.

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2.3 Organization Policy

The main organization policy of Air Asia is its will provide reliable airlines services to its customers through its various divisions, according to the requirement of customers and in compliance with statutory regulations and industry norms. Therefore, it’s emphasized in leanest cost structure; maximize shareholders’ value; safety; passion for guests’ satisfaction; transparency and human capital development (AirAsia.com 2008). The various divisions will formulate quality objectives for achievement of his policy and strive to continually improve the quality of service by periodically upgrading the knowledge and skills of its personnel.

2.4 Business Strengths

One of the best known frameworks done by Air Asia is offering the low airfares in the region. This concept is main focus to lower cost perpetually. As business environments become more competitive and in some cases more volatile, business organization have become more concerned about the “price”. No matter how clearly history we know, there will be time again when we have to engage in a price war. Therefore, if the airlines get the passenger to their destination on time at low airfares, people will fly the airlines. That was why Air Asia introduced the first budget no frills airline, to Malaysians with the tagline “Now everyone can fly” (Wikipedia 2008). And that is why it is main focus to lower cost perpetually, so that it can evade and fend off any sort of irrational competition.

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2.5 SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis can play a valuable part in any strategic planning, it provide a simple framework and common language through which strategic options can be identified.

Strength

Pioneer in no frills airline services in South East Asia.

Cheap rate of flight.

Convenience of passenger to purchase air ticket online.

Recently purchased Airbus A320s making it largest customer of the type.

World class airport facilitate travel. E.g. Kuala Lumpur International Airport

Weaknesses

Reliance so much on computer for booking and for the storing of information could be risky due to failures and viruses.

Marketing primarily focused on ASEAN market.

Underdeveloped distribution system.

Ineffective use of horizontal distribution alliances.

High fuel prices.

Opportunities

Able to penetrate many ASEAN market and Western market.

Airbus A320s enable Air Asia to carry more passengers.

The coming Beijing Olympic game 2008

Proximity to large and growing Asian markets, such as India and China.

International campaign launch to promoting Malaysia. For example Visit Malaysia 2007.

Threats

Competition from Singapore’s Tiger Airways and other airlines carrier in South East Asia.

Changing patterns of buying behavior.

Deteriorating of Air Asia service base on many complaints.

Terrorism threat.

Legislation could impact.

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The strong market share in South East Asia is one of the strategic advantages as it will be the springboard for Air Asia future expansion, growth and profitability. One of the most dominant strengths possessed by Air Asia is its ability to follow the changes in a market that is continually changing. For example, Air Asia seeks to purchase new Airbus A320 aircraft to its fleet. As the number of Airbus A320 aircraft increases, it will be able to cater the largest customer and providing bigger seating capacity, wider aisles, greater comfort and a quieter ride. An opportunity available to Air Asia is fastest growing market in China and India, and the coming Beijing Olympic game 2008. By having a large market it gives a huge opportunity for Air Asia to expand. However, even with the best strategies in place threats can occur from unexpected directions. For example, 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center. Many people are still reluctant to fly and market swings away from airplanes. Another threat to Air Asia is new competitor emergence in the airline market, such as Singapore’s Tiger Airways and other airlines carrier in South East Asia. This might affect the business outcome of Air Asia. Therefore, how the business is performing and copes with the issues is important to the organization move forward.

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EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON AIR ASIA
3.1 PESTLE Analysis
3.1.1 Political

PESTLE analysis assumes that the success of an organization is dependent on the way in which the organization manages its interaction with its external environment (University of Sunderland, 2005). The environment presents the organization with series of challenges, risks and opportunities. Such a business would clearly be affected by changes in the political environment. One of the most obvious aspects is some governments attempt to control the industry sector and may impose conditions to protect the local industry for barriers to new entrants. Therefore, in order to ensure smooth growing, Air Asia must analysis and aware the local political stability and governmental function.

3.1.2 Economic

Economic trends such as changes in net disposable income levels could also influence the business performance. If disposable income declines the clearly the effective demand is likely to go down. Since the economic crisis in ASEAN on 1997, an individual cannot afford to pay a higher rate had ever traveled in a plane. However, Fernandes believe Malaysian travelers would embrace a low rate air service that will save them time and money, especially in a tight economy. That was why he copied one of the worlds most successful no frills carrier’s concepts, Ryan air out of Ireland (Wikipedia 2008). Finally his has to be recognized that one of these strategies will be success in the business as a whole.

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3.1.3 Socio-Cultural

Socio-Cultural changes are often long term in the impact but should be monitored all the same. Shift in values may for example affect general attitudes towards traveled in a plane, and changes in business environment with which people can find the best choose of employment in other countries. Attitude changes and demographic changes will change the market as well. Therefore, low airfares promote by Air Asia will delivering strong growth in airline market share.

3.1.4 Technological

Technological change may affect the business outcomes in many ways. Simple issues such as the development of internet online booking system launch by Air Asia in recent year. This made Air Asia offer the ability to check in online and print out boarding passes online (Wikipedia 2008). There may influence the size of the potential market and the number of people able to travel to other countries. Increasing access to the internet may change the way in which the customers can booking the air ticket immediately, neither to wait long queue in the counter. Potential customers may also have changed expectations as a result of experiencing new technology. As a result, improved channel distribution has meant that, increasingly, customers are exposed to, and aware of the products in other parts of the world.

3.1.5 Legal

The legal framework of a country influences organization strategy through its laws regarding such areas as industry regulation, employment conditions and so forth. However, in today business world, Air Asia needs to take into the consideration in an environment of complex law and regulation. Similarly any general legislation that affected taxation or employment would affect the business outcomes and could affect profitability. Moreover, government bailouts for competitors may lead to unfair competition.

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3.1.6 Environment

Changes in the physical environment, roughly viewed as comprising the natural and man- made environment, affect our daily lives and the functioning of the organizations. In western countries, pollution has become an important political issue and legislators are elected as member of green parties (Media 2008). Indeed, in many countries, the strength of the environmental movement has led to strong legislation affecting organizational production system and products (Media 2008). Air Asia needs to consider the environmental impacts of its strategies and take into account a broader range of interest group. For Example, reduce fuel consumption and energy. In addition, high utilization of resources is enforced to minimize wastages (AirAsia.com 2008).

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B. Task 2
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
4.1 Training and Development

Training and development will concerned with the provision of learning, development and training opportunities which ensure that the employee has the skilled, motivated and committed it needs now and in the future. Air Asia stresses the training and development of the staff to keep abreast with changes. The normal one week on the job training is given to new employees. Training is ongoing for three months within the period of probation. Employee skills and knowledge will be upgraded with ongoing course using Air Asia’s academy (Idris, 2007). It ensures that the employee has the skilled to handle multiple jobs in the organization. For example, the cabin crews are not only serving passengers on board but do multiple tasks such as ensuring passengers’ safety, helping passengers, and ensuring cleanliness of aircraft interior. The training will help the employee to facilitate change in the external and internal environments, in which they are trained to learn new skills and develop new abilities, to respond to these changes in the organization.

4.1.1 Decision Making – Developing Human Capital

Air Asia will partners with Canadian Aviation Electronic to build an aviation training centre of excellence and selected Kuala Lumpur as the location for its Southeast Asian training hub. Air Asia has locked a partnership with CAE for mutual benefits where CAE will provide pilot training for all of Air Asia current and future pilot in the region (Mywire.com 2008). These will demonstration of excellence in improving the training quality and human capital development within Air Asia. Partners with CAE will help the organization to develop high quality manpower in ensuring seamless business growth.

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4.2 Human Resource Management

In order to remain high quality manpower in ensure seamless business growth. Air Asia needs to revamp and rethink conventional recruitment strategies to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage. Attracting the right people has never been harder. Indeed recruiting and retaining talent is organization’s biggest challenge. Its all well and good operating in a dynamic economic climate but with high attrition rates, inevitable in such competitive times, many are struggling to find the right people to keep up, let alone get ahead. People management is a strategic priority for Air Asia, especially at a time when the organization is rapidly evolving and expanding horizons. Air Asia needs to have the right people for the role, and then to build those into a strength and knowledge, in which to lead the organization becomes a major market player.

4.2.1 Decision Making – Recruitment

Air Asia believes that investing in people ultimately brings the greatest return. It continued to recruit the overwhelming majority of its talent internally. With over 5,000 employees across eleven countries, Air Asia is blessed with a multi-pool talent and dedicated to hiring and maintaining a workforce of well trained, reliable and safety focused employees at all level of the organization (AirAsia.com 2008). In addition to corporate programs for existing employees, an active recruitment program is in place to attract and retain qualified individuals from all trades and professions. The primary goal is to increase the number of young potentials in the organization and to develop the Air Asia employer brand (AirAsia.com 2008).

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4.3 Information System

The information system has had a greater impact to display the products that can be seen worldwide especially useful for linking Air Asia with customers or business partners. It provides a worldwide distribution channel for information and ability to link market demand to production planning, and helps the management to communicate quickly with those at lower level. Air Asia have became the first in the world to introduce SMS booking where customers could book their seats, checked flight schedules, and obtain the latest promotional announcements through their mobile phones (Idris, 2007).

4.3.1 Decision Making – Technology

Air Asia keeps introducing innovative ways for online booking and ticket sales. It has locked a partnership with its IT vendors for mutual benefits where Air Asia can constantly improve the system while IT vendor learns to create innovative products according to customer requirements. It offers a wide and innovative range of distribution channels to make booking and traveling easier for its guests.

4.4 Management Policies

Policies are fundamentally statements of an organization’s intentions relative to their strategic aims. Air Asia mission is to continue to be the lowest cost short-haul airline in every market its serve, delivering strong organic growth through offering the lowest airfares at a profit (AirAsia.com 2008). In order to strive to achievement of the mission and values, the following core value have been a guide for their action, extracted from (AirAsia.com 2008):

i) Leanest Cost Structure

aˆ? Efficient and simple point to point operations

aˆ? Attracting and retaining hardworking and smart people

aˆ? Passion for continuous cost reduction

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ii) Maximize Shareholders’ Value

aˆ? Resilient profit growth through our lower cost base

aˆ? Expansion of the Air Asia network in a prudent and disciplined manner

aˆ? Invest and enhance the Air Asia brand to increase investors’ returns

iii) Safety

aˆ? Comply with the highest International Aviation Safety Standards and practices

aˆ? Keep operations simple and transparent

aˆ? Ensure the security of our People and Guests

iv) Passion for Guests’ Satisfaction

aˆ? Maintain simplicity in every application

aˆ? Practice the unique and friendly Air Asia experience at every opportunity

aˆ? Recognize the linkage between guests’ satisfaction and long-term success

v) Transparency

aˆ? Transparency in decision-making and information sharing

aˆ? Optimum disclosure – higher than industry norms

aˆ? Timeliness in disclosing information

vi) Human Capital Development

aˆ? Invest in both hard and soft skills

aˆ? Recognize all our People as contributors to our success

aˆ? Reward excellence and individual contributions

aˆ? Maintaining one brand across the Group

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4.5 Effectiveness of Chosen Strategy

According to Air Asia Annual Report (2007), Air Asia today has indeed highlighted by robust growth, record profits, industry leading performance and award winning standards. It humble beginning took flight six years ago, and after 24 consecutive profitable quarters later, Air Asia are now the highest profit margin airline in the world. This can be seen in Figure 4.1. In recent times, the sales of Air Asia excess of RM 1.6 billion, a presence in eleven countries and more than 5,000 employees. Earnings continued to improve thanks to robust passenger growth and improved margins in all business areas.

Figure 4.1: The Most Profitable Airline in the World Air Asia

Source: Air Asia Financial Report 2007

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As shown in Figure 4.2, Air Asia recorded revenue of RM 633 million for the quarter ended 31 December 2007. These indicate that 43% higher than the revenue of RM 443 million recoded in the quarter ended 31 December 2006. Its net income improved by 73% to RM 246 million as compared to the net income of RM 142 million achieved in the previous quarter.

Figure 4.2: The Superior Growth with Expanding Profits

Source: Air Asia Financial Report 2007

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In the past five year, Air Asia has maintained unwavering focus and discipline in the low cost model. In the process, it have invested significantly to build a solid foundation and to create a platform for sustainable growth. Air Asia has built the Air Asia Academy to develop high quality manpower in ensuring seamless business growth (AirAsia.com 2008). It operating results over the past year underscore two major highlights. The first is how effectively the employee worked to meet customer needs during the highest demand for air travel it has ever experienced. The second highlight was how well the team managed the robust capacity growth. Air Asia corporate strategy and strategic investments have yielded positive results. In year 2007, it unit cost is the lowest reported in the world and it profit margins are among the best (AirAsia.com 2008). Just imagine what Air Asia can achieve in the future.

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4.6 Area of Improvement

Policies and strategies effectiveness is a source of competitive advantage for Air Asia turn into their strength across a range of different product markets. A number of positions are normally can be improved to increase its competitive advantages and proficiency, in which enables Air Asia to achieve and maintain the business growth.

4.6.1 Service

Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations. How customer expectations are the standard against which service is judge.

That’s the mission. Therefore should understanding customer needs and expectations. In recent years, one of the most obvious aspects of Air Asia done is upgrade their online booking system and payment system to improve efficiency. This will enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve continual improvement of its performance in pursuit of organization objectives. But unfortunately, baggage does not always arrive at its intended destination. Or, if it does, it might turn up damaged or with something missing still always happened. So, how to trace the missing baggage in short period and minimize a similar case happened again. It can help Air Asia to improving the quality of products and services provided to the customer.

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4.6.2 Strategic Alliance

Air Asia introduced a first direct B2B engine to its agents in Asia, through one of its strategic partners, Citibank. The agents make immediate payment via a virtual Air Asia credit card through the internet based real inventory booking engine (AirAsia.com 2008). The question is why; it’s formed up the strategic alliance between the parties? The popularity is business growth and get in on opportunities.

The strategies adopted in a specific market. A gap emerges between what organization goals would like to achieve and what it can do with available resources and capabilities when comparing the threats and opportunities in the environment with an organization’s strengths and weaknesses. The gap can be bridged by the alliance. For example, in order to compete on a global scale and at the same time maintain its independence, Air Asia must make alliances in partnership together with others countries to use facilities, produce components and distribution channels to meet a critical business need.

In year 2004, Air Asia formed two joint ventures in Thailand through Thai Air Asia, and Indonesia through Indonesia Air Asia (AirAsia.com 2008). Why? Because Air Asia able to extend its marketing reach and build credibility with a particular target market. It’s also giving the opportunities to access needed information and greater resources including specialized staff and technology, increase sales in an existing market and enhance technological capabilities through research and development underwritten by more than one party. Another approach is once business is established it has provided the Air Asia with the opportunity to gain new capacity and expertise.

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4.6.3 Product Improvement

Product improvement is the result of consistent, deliberate effort to move the developing organization to a higher level of capability. Product improvement entails developing and launching new products for sale in existing markets (Condensed GSAM Handbook, 2003). It also requires a planned and guided path to excellence, reaching various levels of improvement as intermediate goals along the way such as products with additional features, different packaging, different quality levels etc.

For example, Air Asia Go Holiday and Air Asia Tune Hotels which offer travelers a comprehensive package. Many budget travelers prefer to book their airline tickets and hotels together and Air Asia will offer its customers the facility of making room reservations online as they book their flights. In other words, the product will be improved as a natural consequence. So, eventually have hotels in all Air Asia destinations are part of the areas for improvement. This means understanding and responding to customer needs is the key to success in the increasingly competitive advantages. Making our customers happy is important because it translates to an ongoing relationship, whether travel is business or pleasure, which in turn is loyalty.

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5.0 Conclusion

Since Air Asia entry the market, it is rapidly becoming the most popular airline and profitability organization. Why? Because it focuses the strategic analysis on ways of promoting and developing the product ranges. But no business can consider always sustain a competitive advantage without carefully analyze the primary internal and external influences to which the business environment is subject. However, Air Asia will need to understand what is currently happening in the operating environment. What strategies are being adopted by competitors? Are new entrants coming into the sector? How are the markets moving? Therefore, PESTLE and SWOT analysis have been the most usefully tools for looking consideration of the business environment. Likewise Air Asia will need forecasts of what is expected to happen in the future and the business strengths that could be exploited. This will bring it’s the competitive advantage to the business environment. Therefore how the business is performing and copes with the issues is important to its move forward.

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Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resorts, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travelers and tourists. Hotel, motels, inns, or such businesses that provides transitional or short-term lodging, with or without food. The hospitality industry consists of broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise line, and additional fields within the tourism industry.Hospitality also means providing services and welcoming strangers without expecting anything in return. Here if you see and redefine the words Hospital and Hospitality it will give you the same answer. In Hospital a Doctor takes care of a Stranger who comes to him without knowing who is in front of him with his physical problem and expects that he will be taken care properly without any doubt.

The patient expects that the right type of treatment is given from the time he comes to the Hospital till he is discharged. Same is with Hospitality. When a strangers walks in who is your Guest he expects a proper welcome with a smile and he is taken care with Proper accommodation, Food and Beverage till he checks out. The stay must be memorable and he should feel fit and fine with the services provided.

Question 1

1.1Define the term Hospitality Industry and give examples, advantages, and disadvantages of their use in the hospitality industry?

The hospitality industry is a huge and famous industry in this world, and there are multiple areas in this industry. This industry is specialized by training. This gigantic sector includes tourism and tour, traditional hospitality industry such as resorts and hotels, motel and a range of other hospitality services. ( Johnston, 2010). Because of this industry is famous so there is several advantages in this industry. But if we look deep through this industry also got some disadvantages also.

The advantage of hospitality industry is that, they afford to provide the full service to their customers. For example, many hotels or resorts are around-the-clock, provide 24-hour operations and staffs are required to work varied shifts and extended hours for their customer satisfaction. Its means they provide the services for their clients all the time. Without bothering the time of the clients ask for the service. For example if any of the clients need foods or any other service at midnight means they can provide all the service to them without any further adore.

Besides that, this industry also provides other services such as tour and tourism beside provide only the accommodation service. Mostly the resort department will provide this as their service. It is because mostly the resorts will located at beach site waterfall site. So the people those who are go there can enjoy the beach site by staying there for 2 days or more than 2 days. In this situation, the industry helps their client to enjoy the nature by staying at beach site. The resorts also sometimes will build at jungle site. Those who is interest for stay in jungle for get any deferent experience they can go there and stay there and at the same time can enjoy the jungle life.

The hospitality industry is famous for accommodation sector. They provide this sector with multiple categories. For example five star hotel, four star hotels, and three star hotels and so on. So those who are afford to pay the high fee they will choose their standard level hotel such as five star or four star hotels and those who are not afford to pay more fees only for the accommodations for a short period time will choose the lower level hotels. So its shows that this industry provide hotels for all the people according to their living standard.

Then glamour myth also a advantage of the hospitality industry. Is means the hotel industry offers you the chance to meet rich, famous and interesting people. So we can meet them at the place where go for rest but at the same time it brings benefit to us. Can get meet any famous person or any important person who are in the same carrier with us. For example, if I’m a business person I can get to meet any other business person who is carry on the same business with me, so I can develop my business very well and famous.

At the same time they can include scientists attending in-house conferences, foreign tourists, local business people and ordinary everyday citizens. Although you might be able to tell your friends that Hollywood’s hottest stars are staying in your hotel, you’ll probably have to stretch the truth a little to say that you actually talked with them. Celebrities might chat with you like an old friend, out of politeness, only when ordering room service, or not at all. Some may be jovial and even invite you for a drink, while others will treat you with the cool and fun.

Furthermore the hospitality industry provides the standard living for their client. They provide services with the standard level such as the rooms that they provide the foods that they provide. They provide the rooms with full furniture and all the equipment. So the client will happily can enjoy all the service of them. So they will satisfy with their service and may be the loyal to the particular hospitality industry. With the advantages of hotel Industry come the disadvantages too. The disadvantage of this industry is long and odd hours. This means that if the client or customer of that particular hotel doesn’t like early starts or late finishes, then the hotel industry may not be help them. They may make late to help the client purposely.

Besides that, pressure, high standards and deadlines also a disadvantages of the hospitality industry. Working for demanding clients and management is not the downside of working in hotels – for it is what the industry is all about – but you may find that the pressure of guest and management expectations are more stressful than you ever imagined. Pressure and deadlines are intrinsic elements of the industry and the best hotel workers thrive on conquering the challenges and obstacles placed in the way of personal and company objectives.

Culture problem also consider as a disadvantage of this industry. Most of the hospitality industry provides their service with the western style but it not suitable for all the clients of them. For example we can take the Malay religion, they cannot eat all the food especially pork at all and they can eat only ‘halal’ food so they face some problems. Then also must prepare with at least a special hall for their praying. Because Malays must at the correct time and must carry on the prayer at the special venue which is called as ‘surau’ if there don’t have mosque.

So some of the hotel or hospitality management sometimes never provides or forget to prepare all this things to them. Besides Malays, in our country the Indian are sometimes will carry on the vegetarian. So the hotels must prepare the vegetarian foods for them. But they never provide this sometimes. So the clients need to go out site of the hotel for find the foods for them. This shows that the hospitality industry never give important for their clients.

As the conclusion, the hospitality industry provides the good service for their client with their variety service. But still this industry needs to improve their service to archive the target of their industry. if they improve all this the customers will get happy and will enjoy with service.

Question 2

2.1: Find out the factors that affecting travel and tourism. Explain in detail?

Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outsides their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. The word staying suggests that tourists stay at least one night. However must acknowledge that day visitors make a huge contribution to the tourist industry and some regions and organizations choose to include day visitors in statistics. It is acknowledged by the World Tourism Organization that tourism is the fastest growing economic sector, bringing foreign exchange earnings to countries and creating jobs. Jobs are not only created directly in tourism but in related industries, for example in construction. Much tourism development occurs in developing countries, bringing economic opportunities local communities. There are several factors that affecting travel and tourism industry which influence the industry.

The first factors that affect this industry are technological factor. Nowadays the technology develops very well. So also develop in travel and tourism. The growth of e-commerce and new transportation affect the travel and tourism industry. Nowadays the travel system develops well for example the buses that use nowadays is full of air-condition service, with video and audio system. Travel and tourism has always been an industry that has made extensive use of new technology equipment. Central reservation system (CRS), the use of computers in travel agencies and sophisticated databases for marketing purposes are now ordinary. Increase in competition within the industry will force organizations to use new technology to the full. New developments in transportation make extensive use of new technology, for example the Channel Tunnel, the advances in aircraft design and opening up new long-hall destinations. Then more develop bus is super VIP bus. This is consisting of all the service to the passengers. So the passengers can enjoy the traveling period.

Furthermore, another factor is, the technology develops until the passengers or the customers can get the information of the travel and tourism industry in internet. The particular agency will update all the information in web so the customers can check easily all the information about their tour and can easily contact to the particular agency. This makes the agency famous among the people because all over the world can access their information and can consider to the particular agency. At the same time also help the customers to get all their information in detail and faster too.

Cultural and environmental factors also affect the travel and tourism industry. In the 1980s saw the emergence in Britain of a greater environmental awareness and a society that was beginning to take its health and fitness seriously. These factors are likely to remain important influences on travel and tourism developments in the future with so-called ‘green issues’ high on the agenda. The political aspect also affects this industry. The security concerns over travel have had a serious impact on the travel and tourism industry. Which are leading to increased business failures in certain situation if the government never invent in this industry. The government must provides all the services to help the industry such as prepare a good road for travel and railway tracks for the rails travel so the travel and tourism industry can easily can safely travel.

Then the choice of destination also affects this industry. Most of the customer likes to travel for a famous and enjoyable place. So they must bring out the travel and tourism to a famous popular place, which got a high demand among the people. Then choose of place should be according to the age group. If want to carry on a travel and tourism, must be a place where got a lots of fun and entertainment but if want to carry on for veterans means place should be suitable for them. So they can enjoy the travel with fullest and the affect also will be the positive type. Other than age group category there got other group category also, such as leisure customers, business customers, independent travelers, package holidaymakers. So the travel and tourism must be carrying on according to deferent types customers.

Besides that, the rule and regulation also will affect the travel and tourism industry. The travel that’s going to carry should be following the all the rules and regulations that the government stated and the particular place stated. So it will never affect the customers of them. For example, if the tourism place stated that cannot brings camera or video inside means they should tell earlier to their customer so they may follow the rules and will not affect the agency also. If not the agency may affected because did not follow the rules and regulation. While the customers’ also wont respect to the agency. At the end the customers won’t support for the particular industry.

The travel and tourism that going to carry on also should be suitable for the season. Because the customers are always like to travel to different destination in a different season. So should carry on the correct travel and tourism event at the correct season. If not it will affect alt the industry. The customer may not will support the agency because they are not giving what they want and they won’t satisfy with them at all. At last the food and beverage also will affect the industry, even is not a big issue and important in a travel and tourism industry. The foods that they provide to the customers should be good foods which is not expired or spoiled. If not the customer may get anger with their service and will get disappointment with their service. So if a travel and tourism industry wants to be success means, they should consider all the element of the travel and tourism. And must prepare earlier for everything with full of good service for their customer’s satisfaction.

Conclusion

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbpXEn1MNc3WlR1eNL_Y7lEYmix5zdVH5pPapH0B3n3gHJT1lhAs the conclusion, we have learnt about the meaning of hospitality and the stages of hospitality industry development from traditional to advanced stage and learnt that hospitality management means how to cater for people in a friendly and cheerful manner to enable the guest appreciate in services. Besides that, we have learnt about the meaning and the importance of housekeeping Department in hotel, motel, guest how we have learn about the interdepartmental co-operations among various departments of the hotel and the importance of hotel industry in our society. Furthermore, we also learnt the meaning and types of non-commercial hospitality management and the type of organization that is available. Lastly we have learnt and understood the meaning of the layout in hospitality industry and the necessary and important factors to consider when plan to establish this industry.

Bibliography

Website address

Anon., 2011. Hospitality industry Profs from the American. [Online] Available at:< http://lists.nextmark.com/market;jsessionid=BB3F819354646B9A37718ECCB0E2526C?page=order/online/datacard&id=260943> [Accessed on 25 February 2011]
Fareeha.,nd. Disadvantage of hotel industry.[Online] Available at:<.http://www.maybenow.com/disadvantage-of-hotel-industry-q23973921> [Accessed on 17 February 2011]
Johnston, A., 2010. Definition of hospitality industry. [Online] Available at: [Accessed on 13 March 2011]

Anon.,nd. The travel and tourism industry.[Online] Available at:< http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/FEAndVocational/TravelAndTourism/ALevel/ASGCETravelAndTourism/Samples/Sampleunit/ASTTDoubleEdexcelUnit1.pdf> [Accessed on 15 March 2011

Shlotta., 2009. Factors affecting travel and tourism industry. [Online] Available at:< http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/39975. html> [Accessed on 25 February 2011]

India’s largest national parks

Exquisite national parks of India offer ample opportunities to feel nature very closely. Tourists will have close face-off with various and abundant flora and fauna. Within national parks, you can enjoy birding, jeep safari, nature walks and what not? The national parks are covered with dense and thick forests. Natural environs inside jeep or on elephant rides, wild embarks in are merely mystifying!

1.Bandhavgarh National Park:

Set in the woods Vindhya Mountains, Bandhavgarh National Park has a number of grass lands. This sanctuary is covered with wetlands. Vultures are cuddled in the sheer cliffs. This national park is very huge with its recycling systems. The tranquility of the ambience is worth experiencing. The whole sanctuary is bounded with fine trees of Sal. Bandhavgarh houses 25 residents of tigers. You get a chance to birding, elephant riding, the flora and fauna includes around 150 various species and migratory birds.

2.Ranthambore National Park:

Located in the east part of Rajasthan, Ranthambhore National Park was once the hounding preserve of the Maharajas of Jaipur. Glorious water beds like Chambal and Banas streams in the north bound the Ranthambore National Park. The main attraction of this sanctuary is its man made lakes. Rich flora includes trees of Banyan, pipal, dhok and mango. You can do Jeep safari, bird watching, trekking, and camping. The ground is made up of massive rock formations, sheer scarps, and perennial lakes.

3.Kaziranga National Park:

Kaziranga national park is placed on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra River in the far North East of India. It covers an area of 430 sq km. This national park is an ideal habitat for the Indian One horned Rhino. The fauna includes elephants, rhino, Indian bison, hog deer, sloth bears, jungle cats etc and the avian world includes White tailed eagle, grey headed fishing eagle, black kite, black shouldered kite, red crested pochard, Ruddy shelduck etc. Activities include nature walks, bird watching, elephant ride and jeep safari.

4.Kanha National Park:

Kanha national Park is located in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh. Kanha national park cum tiger reserve covers an area of 1,940 sq km. Whole Park is bounded by the spurs of the Mekal. Pleasant river of Surpan flows through Kanha’s central Maidans. Steep rocky escarps provide exciting sights of the valley. You will find bamboo forests flowing into forests of Sal. Herds of spotted deer can be seen. Apart from this, you will see the rare swamp deer and Barasingha. Activities like, jeep safari, Birding and camping. Visit the museum at Kanha which describes attributes and activities of this park and the tradition of tribe.

5.Sundarbans National Park:

A Habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger, located in west Bengal, Sundarbans national Park covers an area of around 1330.10-sq-kms. This sanctuary has gained its name from trees of Sundari. West side of the Sunderbans Park is the Matla and Bidya Rivers. The rich flora and fauna includes fascinating red flowers of the Kankara and yellow blooms of Khalsi. Trees of sundari offer mysterious beauty. Apart from boat safaris, Bird watching, nature walks can be done here.

In India and tourism countries throughout the world, the main aim traditionally had been towards making the destination appealing to the mass audience. Mass tourism markets had remained fundamental towards the growth of India’s tourism industry, diversity in tourism experiences and increased competition between varied destinations has fuelled towards the need of targeting special interest visitors.

Tourists will increasingly seek products that will fulfill their particular tourist needs. Accordingly, many visitors are attracted towards the country mainly for customized special experiences, like education, business or sports experiences. The special interests visitors are referred as niche markets by their tourism departments and agencies.

Typically, niche market is considered as a small, yet profitable, group of customers. The bottom-up approach, and the needs of niche market are primarily identified and experiences meeting their specific needs are developed. This approach enables India to capitalize on the tourism competitive advantages that the country has in tourism marketplace, allows to attract high yielding tourists, and promotes the growth and diversification in the country’s tourism industry.

Special interest tourism has recently become a high growth area within travel industry. Although, the number of special tourism remained a small percentage of the total international visitors, the high growth rate and confluent character of special interest tourism sector has attracted varied commercial attention. Despite of the fact that there is increased commercialization and international scope of research on special interest tourism, many countries have systematically invigilated the global and business organization of the special interest tourism industry.

Competition for people’s time is increasing day by day, recreation and leisure time activities away from home (like tourism) must be completed needs to be completed for the limited time of other home based recreational and leisure time activities. Longer working hours and increasing work pressures are promoting increasing focus on the value of recreational and leisure time. Thirty percent of working Indians don’t have a working holiday. The result of this is that the short-term break holidays have become a norm in the country.

Table of contents

Executive Summary 1

Introduction 3

Special Interest Tourism 3

Rationale 4

Range of Products and Services 5

Management of Trips 9

Conclusion 11

References 12

Introduction

In India and tourism countries throughout the world, the main aim traditionally had been towards making the destination appealing to the mass audience. Mass tourism markets had remained fundamental towards the growth of India’s tourism industry, diversity in tourism experiences and increased competition between varied destinations has fuelled towards the need of targeting special interest visitors.

Tourists will increasingly seek products that will fulfill their particular tourist needs. Accordingly, many visitors are attracted towards the country mainly for customized special experiences, like education, business or sports experiences. The special interests visitors are referred as niche markets by their tourism departments and agencies.

Typically, niche market is considered as a small, yet profitable, group of customers. The bottom-up approach, and the needs of niche market are primarily identified and experiences meeting their specific needs are developed. This approach enables India to capitalize on the tourism competitive advantages that the country has in tourism marketplace, allows to attract high yielding tourists, and promotes the growth and diversification in the country’s tourism industry.

Special Interest Tourism

Within the tourism industry, special interest tourism is considered to be the fastest growing area worldwide. It comprises mainly of diverse groups of tourism activities that stands distinct from the different traditional tourism products, suggesting how tourists are beginning to demand stimulating and varied holiday experiences. The special interest tourism today has become a niche market for any country’s tourism industry.

Typically, niche market is considered as a small, yet profitable, group of customers. The bottom-up approach, and the needs of niche market are primarily identified and experiences meeting their specific needs are developed. This approach enables India to capitalize on the tourism competitive advantages that the country has in tourism marketplace, allows to attract high yielding tourists, and promotes the growth and diversification in the country’s tourism industry.

Special interest tourism has recently become a high growth area within travel industry. Although, the number of special tourism remained a small percentage of the total international visitors, the high growth rate and confluent character of special interest tourism sector has attracted varied commercial attention. Despite of the fact that there is increased commercialization and international scope of research on special interest tourism, many countries have systematically invigilated the global and business organization of the special interest tourism industry.

Rationale

From the strategic perspective, the best niche markets that are best to focus are:

The characteristics and qualities in the city are aligned to the needs of targeted niche market

The targeted city should have a competitive advantage over the other cities and globally pertaining to the quality and quantity of expertise and services and hard infrastructure like equipments and facilities that can be provided;

The target should represent an emerging market;

The barriers to growth in the target should be limited and manageable;

The strategic perspective should reflect the strategic direction of the target as a whole

The analysis of the country revealed 7 niche markets meeting the above criteria.

Sports Tourism

Business Tourism

Study Tourism

Event Tourism

Heath tourism

Youth culture tourism

Marine tourism

The anticipated outcomes in development of these niche markets include:

Enhanced awareness of elements of Indian lifestyle;

Investment promotion in tourism products and infrastructure

Building the profile and capability of Indian industries to assist in the booming economy

Creation of multi-dimensional image if the country as the place of visit, working and doing business.

Competition for people’s time is increasing day by day, recreation and leisure time activities away from home (like tourism) must be completed needs to be completed for the limited time of other home based recreational and leisure time activities. Longer working hours and increasing work pressures are promoting increasing focus on the value of recreational and leisure time. Thirty percent of working Indians don’t have a working holiday. The result of this is that the short-term break holidays have become a norm in the country. Also, at the same time, India has a growing movement towards leisure and home-related recreation, particularly in home renovation and improvements. The activities have often resulted in investment in oneself.

Range of Products and Services

The development of the targeted tourism products to attract niche markets to India represents an excellent opportunity to move ahead of leisure and recreation along with investing in one self by visiting various places in India. This investment could be:

Towards learning something new and to gain knowledge and education

Towards enriching physical, psychological and spiritual health

Towards building better businesses, networks and social relationships

Towards enhancing the social status

Towards improving the sense of identity

The investments should be integrated into strategic planning of the developments of all the niche markets.

The range of products for the special interest tourism products and services could be:

Sports Tourism: The convergence of tourists’ endeavors with sporting pursuits has provoked an increasing interest, understanding and recognition of the market. There has been an emergence of niche market referred to as sport tourism. The three principal types of sport tourism include:

Active Sport Tourism: People actively participating in the sporting experience as a tourist.

Event Sport Tourists: Tourists who attend the event as a spectator, and

Nostalgic Sport Tourist: Tourists who visit the country to pay homage to sports. (E.g. hall of fame).

The niche market of sport tourism needs to concentrate on active sport tourism. Given that India does not have advantage in nostalgic sport tourist market, event sport tourist needs to be incorporated in overall development of niche event tourism. The events like commonwealth games in India are another attraction towards sports tourisms. Also, there are traditional sports events in the country like events in the festivals and various cricketing events that could attract tourism in the country.

Few cities in the country also provide for adventure tourism with excellent climate and landscape. The experience seek by adventure tourists involve significant amount of risks. Some of the products of adventure tourism include:

Hot-air ballooning

Wave Surfing, wind surfing and kite surfing

Snorkeling along with scuba diving

Performance diving along with four-wheel driving

Deep sea fishing

Rock climbing

River rafting

Mountain bike riding

Horse riding, and

Bungee jumping

Business Tourism: India has become emerging market in the convention and international business. India is among the top 10 countries holding meetings, conferencing including business travels, incentive and meeting event.

Historically the global business tourism in India focused on the domestic markets. But as the Indian economy is growing at a very fast rate more than many other developing countries in the world, it has become a market of business tourism hub. With enormous amount of multinational companies gaining market share in India, the business tourism in India has increased manifold in past few years. The development of the country’s global tourism and the opening of Indian convention and exhibition centers are representing a high opportunity towards adding another dimension to the country’s image. The developments in business tourism have significant impact on the country’s economic base. Foreign companies like Microsoft, IBM, HP and many more hold their business meetings in India and these meeting become the part of their business trips and tourism.

Study Tourism: India is the country of IIT’s and IIM’s and many more renowned universities providing significant courses and degrees. Study tourism has also seen rise in the country in the past few years. The country offers ideal environment for studying with quality education providers, natural assets and attractions, hospitable community, safe environment and warm climate along with world-class infrastructure and support services.

Study tourism means travelling for undertaking some university course, or a recreational course. The country boosts various technology and management colleges that are world renowned like Indian Institute of technology and Indian institute of management. With the advent of foreign universities in the country the amount of study tourists are increasing in the country.

Event Tourism: In the past one decade the profile of event tourism has escalated in the country. In India particular attention is give towards optimization of economic benefits of these events for the different communities. There are three types of events happening in the country. First are the Mega events, second the hall mark events and thirdly the community-based events. Different festive events within the country add to the event tourism within the country. Community events have continued to play an important role in country’s event calendars for the local residents. The development of mega events in the country and its strategies does not fit in the infrastructural profile of the country at the time the strategy is written. Few cities in the country also provide for adventure tourism with excellent climate and landscape. The experience seek by adventure tourists involve significant amount of risks.

Health tourism: Travelling for health is the fastest growing sector in the tourism industry. This market include travel to:

An environment or place or climate where tourists can make the most out of health benefits.

The place where tourists can revitalize their mind and body

The place where tourists can relax and unwind

The place where the tourists can utilize their health infrastructure and various services available for some specific medical reason.

As the list has indicated that the visitors need not to be necessarily ill for being health and wellness tourists. Most people travelling for health reasons also seek self-improvements and

Youth culture tourism: Youth cultures are highly prevalent in the Indian states. Various festivals in the country include the youth events including other cultural events. from its fun to the annual pilgrimage of the country’s youth, India has a strong association with every culture. Within the overall Indian market, the country is full of youth population studying in different schools, colleges and universities. The youth culture tourism market represents numerous opportunities for India as the major place of celebrating popular events. In India particular attention is give towards optimization of economic benefits of these events for the different communities. There are three types of events happening in the country. First are the Mega events, second the hall mark events and thirdly the community-based events. Different festive events within the country add to the event tourism within the country. Community events have continued to play an important role in country’s event calendars for the local residents.

Marine Tourism: Indian has various coastal areas like Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, which are added attractions toward marine tourism. The Indian council has been active in promotion of India as a marine tourist destination. The infrastructural requirements in the country are improving for attracting Super Yacht owners and builders in the costal areas. The niche market of sport tourism needs to concentrate on active sport tourism. Given that India does not have advantage in nostalgic sport tourist market, event sport tourist needs to be incorporated in overall development of niche event tourism. The events like commonwealth games in India are another attraction towards sports tourisms. Also, there are traditional sports events in the country like events in the festivals and various cricketing events that could attract tourism in the country.

Management of Trips

Within the tourism industry, special interest tourism is considered to be the fastest growing area worldwide. It comprises mainly of diverse groups of tourism activities that stands distinct from the different traditional tourism products, suggesting how tourists are beginning to demand stimulating and varied holiday experiences. The special interest tourism today has become a niche market for any country’s tourism industry.

Tourists will increasingly seek products that will fulfill their particular tourist needs. Accordingly, many visitors are attracted towards the country mainly for customized special experiences, like education, business or sports experiences. The special interests visitors are referred as niche markets by their tourism departments and agencies. The convergence of tourists’ endeavors with sporting pursuits has provoked an increasing interest, understanding and recognition of the market. There has been an emergence of niche market referred to as sport tourism.

Different tour Packages for the tourists
Trip To Andaman Islands:
Trip to Darjeeling and Gangtok
Trip to Sunder bans
Trip to Ladakh
Trip to Kashmir
Trip to Rajasthan
Trip to Kerela
Trip to Assam including Sikkim, Manipur and Mizoram

Management of Trips: The management has to make some policies for the management of the trips including the following:

All payments should be taken in advance

Hotel for accommodation should have check-out time as 7:00 am as this will save another day rent for the company.

Rates should be changed in case of any changes in transport and hotel and increase in government taxes.

Limitations should be made on free baggage allowed during the trip

Company should reserve the right of rescheduling the trip, sequence of activities including sightseeing.

Company should provide holiday insurance to its customers at minimal extra costs.

Company should make appropriate policy towards the trip cancellation fee along with the number of days for each penalty of cancellation.

Conclusion

The development of the targeted tourism products to attract niche markets to India represents an excellent opportunity to move ahead of leisure and recreation along with investing in one self by visiting various places in India.

The mixture of different products and service will attract more special interest tourism into the country.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Based on the question 1, I have observed and I have my own point of view what can I make to improve the tourism in Malaysia. I have stated 5 points for Ministry of Tourism can develop or improves more. Malaysia is peaceful country therefore we must keep it stay this way. The views of mine what is needed to develop is very good because it can bring Malaysia to succeed. Besides that, Malaysia has education and culture that can be learned for more knowledge as well as to raise the fame of Malaysia and bring Malaysia’s tourism to a whole new adapt level as well as in technology.

INTRODUCTION (QUESTION 1)

The Ministry of Tourism in Malaysia is in charge who everything about Tourism for this country. In Malaysia, the Tourism that is very succeed and a head from other countries in Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur, capital city and Putrajaya is the country’s administrative capital. The Ministry of Tourism develop tourism in Malaysia because of an interesting places and historical places. Not only that, Ministry of Tourism has their important role to make Malaysia better and modern in Tourism. Ministry of Tourism also build up the central region.

Every building or places in Malaysia have its own mark, if we describe it, we knew that was the building or the place. Example of the central region are vibrant towns and cities, towering buildings and exciting places of interest make up the urban landscape of Malaysia’s central region. This region comprises the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya as well as the state of Selangor. The region boast gleaming megastructures, heritage quarters and world – class events. The majestic Petronas Twin Towers is a major draw among visitor to Kuala Lumpur. It is one of the country’s iconic landmarks, and one of the world’s tallest buildings. Further south, Putrajaya is hailed as the ‘Intelligent Garden City’ for its harmonious blend of infrastructure and nature. In Selangor, the ultra – modern Sepang International Circuit (SIC) sets the stage for the annual Petronas Malaysia Formula 1 Grand Prix, attracting motorsports fans from around the globe.

As the country’s hub for commerce and finance, the central region is equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and top-notch facilities. It is home to Kuala Lumpur International Airport as well as Port Klang, the largest port in the country. Filled with unique attractions, the central region is a lively and exciting destination. Discover a microcosm of modern Malaysia in this region.

1.1 HOW MINISTRY OF TOURISM CAN DEVELOP THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

The Ministry of Tourism can upgrade the tourism and can develop more Tourism in Malaysia. First thing, Ministry of tourism should do a promotion and tells the world wide about the fascinating of Malaysia to other countries so that can attract them comes to our country. The Ministry of Tourism can tell other countries by showing our tourism websites, they can calls straight to the office, build more big giant screen at the side of the roads so that the citizens can see about the Tourism of Malaysia when they pass by, brochures and flyers will distributes to all over the countries.

Second thing, some places of interest that the Ministry of Tourism can develop more is Kl Tower, Jalan Puncak, Off Jalan P.Ramlee. The Ministry Tourism must create more beautiful inside it so that the tourist can enjoy a magnificent view from the observation tower. Next, upgrade dine at the Atmosphere 360 Revolving Restaurant, adding more interesting and delicious dishes. Then for the Animal Zone, Ministry can develop by adding more animals so that it will bring more exciting to the tourist. XD Theatre can upgrade the system so that the movie be more good quality.

Third thing, about the transportation. There are many types of transportation in Malaysia. By air, from the airport to the city, by sea, by road, by rail and others. Tourism of Malaysia must improves the transportation. It is for the safety and also make the citizens in Malaysia more comfortable. I take air as example. By air, the state-of-art Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is the main gate away into the country. KLIA is situated in Sepang, about 55 km from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia airlines is complemented by AirAsia, the budget carrier and also Malaysia (MAS). Ministry of Tourism can improves more the facilities in both plane.

The fourth Tourism Malaysia also needs to develop more Shopping & Dining places. Selangor has an abundance of shopping malls. Most shopping malls, are designed with special themes and boast plenty of recreational facilities for all in the family. Especially the shopping malls, the tourism of Malaysia must build more shopping malls because Malaysian people loves to go for shopping. Every day in shopping malls, at least 10,000 people comes went for shopping. The management in shopping malls must include shop that is different from other countries and that can only have in Malaysia. This can make tourist from other country comes to Malaysia to buy it. Next is the dining, the food and beverages should add more variety of dish out a variety of local, western and international cuisine. This will attract the tourist to come to Malaysia to have a try. The Ministry of Tourism must develop more choices for the visitors and tourist that came to Malaysia. They must add more air – conditioner in the restaurants.

The fifth Ministry of Tourism can develop is Malaysia’s Events and Recreation. Selangor is a great venue for a wide range of events, from cultural celebrations to action-packed sporting activities. Malaysia should add more events and recreation. The tourist loves to travel and likes to do activities. By this method, Malaysia can gain more profit if the Ministry of Malaysia develop more recreation places. Nowadays, most everyone likes the theme park and extreme park. For theme park, tourism of Malaysia can improves the Sunway Lagoon more exciting games for all the Malaysia and tourist to enjoy an exhilarating time with the various rides and games. For the extreme park, most of teenagers loves to play this for them to release their stress. This is a great place for professionals and amateurs of extreme games to flaunt their stuff.

2.0 CONCLUSION

Based on question 1, the 5 points that I stated, the Ministry of Tourism really should develop that in order for Malaysia to succeed. Ministry of Tourism can take Malaysia country to lead in tourism. I feel confident that if the Ministry of Tourism can do the points that I have stated, I am sure that Malaysia’s Tourism can get to the highest rank of tourism all over the world. Malaysia also have the potential to gain more profit if the Ministry of Tourism can attract the tourist to come to Malaysia and also keep the Malaysian citizens stays in Malaysia. Not only that, the benefits if the Ministry of Tourism do my alternative is citizen from other countries can say to their friends from other countries that Malaysia is really a good place to visit and an interesting place to gain experience and also create memorable memories.

3.0 INTRODUCTION (QUESTION 2)

Malaysia’s population represents almost all of the main ethnic group of Asia. New updates of population for now in Malaysia is about millions of them. Malaysia has a number of other races too. Malaysia is a free and peaceful country. In Malaysia, we have our Prime Minister who is Dato’ Seri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. The major people who stayed in Malaysia is, Malay, Chinese and Indian. For the other races besides the major races is called minority races. For example, Punjabi, Sarawakian and also Sabahan races. In addition, there was a history about Malaysia and also Malaysian people. Due to the history, the Peranakans of the ‘Straits Chinese’ is built and the meaning of that is mixed of Chinese – Malay blood. Besides that, in Malaysia, Islam is the official religion in this country. Therefore, the biggest population in Malaysia mostly is Muslims and because of this, there is many attraction that pull them to convert. Nowadays in Malaysia, some of them many has converted to Muslim.

Malaysia is popular with their foods, games, the tourism, beaches, forest and other nature. The national language in Malaysia is Bahasa Malaysia and is official language. Other languages used in Malaysia are, in English, Tamil, Chinese, Telegu and Punjabi. For Chinese people, there are many different types of Chinese languages spoken by them. Cantonese is widely spoken by Chinese people in Malaysia. Besides that, Mandrin, Hokkien, Hakka and also Foochow. The ministry of education has stated and make a decision that in each school, all subject must be taught to the students in Bahasa Malaysia and also English Language only. Others than this is not appropriate to be taught because this is not fair to other foreign students who studied in that schools.

Most Malaysian citizen is very good and we in here respect every culture and religion.

3.1 CULTURE OF MALAYSIA

There are many culture in Malaysia, with different ethnics of group. Everyone in Malaysia has its own culture and traditions. There was a history of culture in Malaysia long time ago back in 1971. The government has come up with a ‘National Cultural Policy. This terms defined as Malaysian culture. Malaysia is a fair and balance country to the citizens. Malaysia provides a number holidays based on a festivals, normal public holidays on Saturday and Sunday. Besides that, during very important Birthday of Royal’s, King, Sultan and also the date of date of someone important to this country. For example, the date of Prophet’s Birthday. The public holidays in Malaysia is different. Each states will have the different date of public holidays. There is one public holidays that are same for all over the states in Malaysia, the most important dates in is Hari Merdeka (Independence Day) on 31 August, commemorating the independence of the Federation of Malaysia in 1957. Another one that is also same public holiday are Labour Day (1 May).

Now about each major religion for each citizens in Malaysia. Islam is the official religion in Malaysia. For Muslim, the holiday falls on Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Hari Raya Aidiladha, and Maulidur Rasul. Next for Chinese people holidays are Chinese New year, Cap Goh Mei and also their Mooncake festival. Next, for Hindus people, they will have their holidays on Deepavali and Thaipusam. The Hindus people will celebrate and gather together at the Batu Caves. Then, the Christians will have their Christmas Day on 25 December every year.

3.2 MALAY CULTURE & TRADITION

We will start with culture. There are 3 main culture in Malaysia. First is Malay culture. Malay is very a polite religion. For Malays, they believes with Allah, heaven and hell. Malays must obey the rules and must pray 5 times a day. It defined as ‘Solat’. Malays will use their hands when they eat. They will wash their hands and eat with hands. Malays will open their shoes before they entered each house and when they meet their relatives, they will shake hand.

For younger, they will kiss the hands who is older than them. It shows as a respect for the elder. But for Muslims, there are rules where the Malay women and Malay man who did not get married yet can’t touch each other hands. For example, only Malay women can shake hands with women same goes with Malay man can shake hands with everyone except Malay women that is not related to. So if they meet, they can only smile and bow instead touching each other. The Malays have their own traditional clothes. For clothes, Malays have their own traditional clothes. For girls and women, they have Tudung, Baju Kurung, Baju Kebaya, Jubah. For boys and man, they have Baju Melayu, Songkok and Sampin. Next, the tradition games for Malays. These games usually only practice at village and hometown by our old great grandfather and grandmother. There are known as Hopscotch, Congkak, Gasing, Sepak Takraw, Batu Seremban and Silat. But these days, nothing is played anymore at this generation by kids and teenagers,

Next, Malays food, Malays people are allowed to eat ‘Halal’ food only. There is variety of food especially during Hari Raya. Rendang, Ketupat, variety of Hari Raya biscuits, Lemang is the main dish that will be served only one time a year. Malays food usually is hot and spicy. During Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the Malays will make an ‘open house’. Malays is popular with their ‘Sambals’ in every dishes or rice. Malays also celebrated their festivals. Malays have its own unique festivals such as engagements and wedding. For example, Malays man can get married for 4 times and they can have 4 wives only not more than that if they can afford to take care of them. Then they will make a ceremony when they get married. They will invite their family members and friends to their wedding.

3.3 CHINESE CULTURE & TRADITION

Second main culture in Malaysia is Chinese. They have their own believes. They always respect the elders so much. They have loving culture. Most of them lived together in on house. For example, the grandparents until their grandchildren lived in together. This is what brings their family so close and never fall apart. They respect each other. They help each other and they will own their self in their family business.

The Chinese people also practice a handshake. For them is slightly different from the Malays. Chinese believes for Man and Women can shake their hands whether they have married or not. But many older Chinese lower their eyes during the greeting as it is also sign as respect to each other. Their tradition has comes in. It has stated must avoid with white wrapping paper as it symbolizes death and mourning. They must avoid yellow wrapping paper too as it is the colour of royalty. Next is their traditional clothes. Every year their theme is in Red colour. For girls and women, Cheongsam is their tradition clothes. Cheongsam comes in short and also long types. Both is very nice when they wear it. For boys and man, Samfu. Samfu comes in many colours.

Besides that, if they get an offer gifts, they must take it with the right hand and if the gift they receive is quite large, they must take it with both hands. Next, the gifts that they received they cannot just opened it. During their festivals, Chinese New Year, it is in tradition that they will have an Oranges. A boxes of oranges. Then they will distribute and share it with friends or their customers. But during on the first day of Chinese New Year, they cannot sweep the floor. They believes that it will give a bad luck to them. They always make ‘Makan Besar’ where there is a lot variety of food that is served on the tables during Chinese New Year

In Malaysia, the Chinese practices that people that got married already usually must give ‘Angpau’ to those who still did not married yet and to the small kids. But in other country like China, those who started work already must give the ‘Angpau’.

3.4 INDIAN CULTURE & TRADITION

Last main culture in Malaysia is India. Indian people has its own believes. They are polite people and really respectful people. They are patient even though usually many people looked down on them. They also have their own language, religion, food and the arts. For Indian language, the most popular that they use for their spoken is Tamil, Telungu and Malayam. Nowadays, about 13 percent Indian is now has converted to Indian Muslims

Indian foods is really popular with their spices and herbs. There are thousands of spices and herbs that can cure sick peoples. Indian tradition foods really brings name at the highest spot in Malaysia. Especially the curries. There are many types of curries that can be make, chicken curry, fish curry, mutton curry and a lot more. The most famous cuisine of the Indian is Thosai, Roti Canai and Idli. This dishes can be eaten with Daahl, Curry and Chutney to make the dishes become more delicious. Muruku is very usually have when Deepavali festivals. Besides that, Most of the Hindus are vegetarian and the Indians cannot eat beef because they have their own believes.

Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday is a fore father. He is a member of past generations that has tribute good things and bring Indian people into peace. He is born on 2 of October. Not only Diwali the Indian celebrate, the Indian also celebrates Thaipusam. Based on their festival, it defines as the festival of lights. They will mark ‘Ponggal’. It defines only when new year they will put it at home-based and doors with all family gathers together.

India have many temples that are build and popular all over the world. The most well-known example of Indian architecture is the Taj Mahal, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to honor his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Mahal is always came up in Television. The actors usually make a filming at there because it is so nice and beautiful place. It combines elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles. That is some of the unique of Indians.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Based on these 3 different cultures and traditions, I have learnt a lot of knowledge about them. I respect their cultures and their traditions. Each cultures and traditions have their own believes and trust. For Chinese, I really adored with their customs ’Angpau’ and an oranges. I’m impress with their tradition that all family lives together in one big house. Besides that, their traditional clothes are very nice in Red colour. One of the reason I adore because red colour is one of my favourite colour too. For the Indian cultures and tradition, I find it their foods are really good and mostly Indian foods that attracts people in Malaysia. For me, their curry chicken and roti canai is what attracts me. I love to eat that food. Last but not least, Malay, my own religion, culture and tradition. I am really glad and proud with it. There are many rules we have to obey, like obey to our parents. During the Hari Raya Aidilfitri, all types of foods, family all gathering together and also with the traditional clothes. Baju Kebaya is most likely I wear during any festivals. I really feel excited and happy to know about others culture and tradition. Now I want to know more about it so that I can more gain knowledge as it bring goods for people in Malaysia future.

Introduction

Egypt was always known as the land of Pharaohs, nevertheless, Pharaonic civilization was just one part of Egypt’s whole history because Egypt has witnessed many cultures and a lot of civilizations like the Romans or the Greeks, and also the Christian and the Islamic expansions; Egypt has always been a center of the world interest.

We know history and study it from the monuments, because monuments are the real link between us nowadays and our ancestors in the past; Monuments show us their achievements, their civilization, and they tell us how they have lived.

Those monuments are our responsibility now, we must preserve them in order to show them to the next generations as they can learn from them just like the way we did; We must understand that those monuments are not durable or indestructible, because nowadays there are many monuments that are definitely suffering from negligence and carelessness because of low funding or the ignorance of their value. A lot of monuments are also threatened by the urban activities and their polluting effect.

Egyptian monuments have been subjected to looting, plundering, and robbery from 2000 years up till now, especially in the 19th century when many monuments were severely damaged or even sometimes completely destroyed by the industrialization appeared, but that was not the only threat during that period because hundreds of explorers have come from Europe to Egypt in order to discover and know about the Egyptian history, but as they did many monuments were destroyed and more were stolen.

The Egyptian history are in our hands now, it is our responsibility and it also shall be the of the whole world as well, therefore there must be continuous maintenance and protection of those monuments, and as the illegal threats such as looting and robbery may increase, the legal strength has to increase.

In general, monuments are subjected to many threats that may lead to their destruction, those threats are:

The weather and its effects (Acid rain).
Urban pollution.
Agricultural damage.
Robbery and plundering.
Overpopulation.
Natural disasters (floods, and earthquakes).
Lack of funds.
The extraction of raw materials.
Wars.

Some organizations are formed nowadays to save our history, they have just one mission preserve our history and protect it from all the threats by enhancing the awareness of the people of Egypt and abroad as well about the culture that Egypt has inherited in its history and its role in the civilization of the world, they also develop cultural programmes to conserve and protect that cultural heritage, on the other they assist in fighting looting and illicit trade of the antiquities. And at last they fund cultural researches and exchanges between our universities and foreign universities to gain more knowledge and experience that will definitely aid them to protect and improve the tourism in Egypt.

There is a very important thing that we must understand; Tourism has a huge effect on Egypt’s economy, and that would be easy to understand if you realized that only in the year 2000 foreign tourists numbers have reached about 6 million, with more than 4 million coming from Europe, the income that year from tourism only was 4.5 billion American Dollars. That means that we have to exert more efforts to improve the tourism in Egypt, because with better the tourism in Egypt, more tourists will come over which will in return increase the national income which will end in a better life.

To improve the tourism in Egypt we will have to ask ourselves some questions and their answers will absolutely be the solution:

What do the tourists want?
How to attract more tourists?
Can we just rely on historical monuments?
How can we enhance our tourism in the European Union market?

In that paper I will discuss the importance of our history, what have we lost? how can we just get it back?, and finally I will explain how important is tourism in our economy and how to improve modern tourism in order to attract more tourists and improve the economy of our beloved country Egypt.

Body
Development of tourism in Egypt:

Since 1982 the tourism industry has been developing significantly in Egypt , has the number of tourists in Egypt was 1,500,000 and it started to increase in a very rapid way, while on the 1990s that number was very high sometimes while other times was very low and that was because of 5 important reasons:

1. The peace process.

2. The aggressive policy of tourism promotion.

3. The low quality services.

4. Terrorism especially in July 1992 after killing a tourist and in November 1997 after the attacks on tourists in Luxor.

5. The Gulf war in 1991.

So if we took for example 2 sub periods (Table I) where the first period is from 1982 to 1993 and the 2nd one is from 2000 to 2007 we will find that the tourist arrivals number was 1,500,000 in 1982 and increased to 11,100,000 in 2007 which means that the tourist arrivals number is increasing with a rate of 9.2%; while the tourism capacity (Tourist villages and hotels) has increased from 27,300 rooms to 190,2000 through the period from 1985 till 2007; Another important finding is that the nights spent by tourists in Egypt have increased from 9,000,000 to 111,500,000 with a rate of growth of 12.1% annually, on the other hand income from tourism has raised from 315,000,000 American Dollars to about 9,500,000,000 American Dollars. Egypt today hosts about 25% of the whole tourism in the region of the Middle East.

The effect of tourism on the Egyptian economy

There is a very important thing that we must understand; Tourism has a huge effect on Egypt’s economy, and that would be easy to understand if you realized that only in the year 2000 foreign tourists numbers have reached about 6 million, with more than 4 million coming from Europe, the income that year from tourism only was 4.5 billion American Dollars, and that is the reason that we must enhance and develop the quality of our tourism industry.

How to improve tourism in Egypt?
Retrieving our stolen history.

Ancient Egyptians used to bury valuable objects with their dead bodies, the thing that attracted many robbers and grave thieves. The tombs that were at higher risk and more subjected to robbery were definitely the royal and rich tombs, nevertheless, the poor tombs were also robbed because they also contained valuable stuff that were buried with the dead to be offered as a sacrifice. Tombs had many warnings on their walls but that didn’t stop or prevent the robbery; there were also times that robbing graves was done at the time of burial itself, and it is expected to be done by the undertakers or the tomb guards, in such cases tombs’ entrances are found intact but bodies are searched and valuables are gone.

The 21st family for example had their high ranked women mummified and they were discovered recently in Thebes tomb undisturbed, nevertheless, their golden faces were stolen and another jewelry were taken even before the completion of the wrapping process

In the Roman age grave robbery reached its maximum, a lot of Egyptian antiquities and valuable objects were transported from their home to Rome especially, and it would be obvious if you realized that there are fifteen obelisks in Rome nowadays. While in the middle age trading and trafficking of monuments and antiquities have flourished and the reason that Crusaders had thought that some Egyptian antiquities have curing effect from certain diseases; Also in the Renaissance the whole world was crazy about art, therefore, more interest in our monuments appeared; another thing to be mentioned is that Ottoman and before them Mamluke khedives didn’t realize the value of the Egyptian monuments.

Among the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries many valuable historical objects were shipped to Europe for diplomatic reasons. For example Khedia Abbas and also Said Pasha had given a lot of monuments to Archidum Maximium, a prince in Austria, as a gift and it is present now as the 1st collection in the Vienna museum; another incident when Mohammad Ali pasha has given an obelisk to king Philip of France and it is nowadays in Paris in the Place de la Concorde in exchange of the clock of the citadel.

Nowadays there are only few bodies that are still in their original tombs, and there are fewer that may be still in the real place they were inserted. In 1995 Egypt has succeeded to regain the artifacts monuments that were stolen during the Israeli occupation of Sinai by Israel itself, robbing ancient Egyptian monuments is a very old business whoever it became stronger with time till the moment, and there are still a lot of other monuments that were robbed by Israel and didn’t come back until now, in the 60s and the 70s hundreds of Egyptian antiquities were stolen by Israel but we have returned many of them to the EHCA (Egyptian Higher Council for Antiquities) from 2002 till 2005, however, Ibrahim El Nawawi, an Egyptian Archaeologist and a was committee member that prepared the monuments return, has stated that we have only returned a small piece of a huge treasure.

Now that we realized the importance of our history and how it was carelessly sold or stolen, we will need security and protection over our monuments and we need a new law. The general secretary of the SCA (Supreme Council of Antiquities) Mr.Zahi Hawass has stated that the law 117/1983 is not suitable anymore and it needs to be modified or changed because it doesn’t impose hard penalties on antiquities trafficking, and it needs to be harder in order to prevent any more trafficking.

The 1st antiquities law was issued in 1853 and it was changed 5 times till now with the most effective changes in 1912 and another one in 1983, some laws contained weakness points and they also didn’t prevent urban encroachment.

Improving the quality of tourism in Egypt

Improving the quality of any business is a very complex mission, because improving means changing, and changing is definitely stressful, you can’t just use magic to improve any business; you need stable systems and quality management in order to have a successful business, and those systems must be founded on strong bases of understanding the real objectives and aims of the business.

Tourism may be the most important business that has a great effect on the country’s economy, the number of visitors has risen from 1,500,000 visitors in 1982 to 6,000,000 in 2003 and it has risen in spite of the great political disturbances especially among the last few years, and in order to increase that number, the quality of service will definitely need to improve as well. For example, in order to compete, you will need to cater for the different needs of the clients; therefore the tourism product had become an industry that serves the needs of the clients, such as the niche market (Spa, health care, nature tourism, sport travel, culture tourism, religious travel and ship cruises) that are rapidly developing nowadays, so we will have to care more about improving the niche market because it is simply what the tourists need, in addition to that we must realize that tourists nowadays need the most value for money, the best quality, and the most flexible travelling experiences.

The WTO (World Tourism Organization) has stated 6 standards that has to be focused on by any tourism destination management when it’s improving any tourist service or product, those standards are:

Security and safety: the tourism product must not have any threats to life or even any dangerous effect on health, Security and safety standards are stated by law.

Accessibility: the communication, the services, and the products must be allowed to all the clients with no discrimination even with people that have disabilities.

Hygiene: the tourism product must be clean and safe.

Authenticity: it may be the hardest standard to be applied, it is to make the product distinct and unique from the other similar products in order to attract the customer’s attention and meet all of his expectations at the same time.

Harmony: it refers to the relation between the human and the natural environment and how to maintain quality of the products and the markets.

Transparency: it means providing the customer with all the true information that he may need about the product including its characteristics and its price.

In this chapter the subject of this assignment will be introduced. An orientation of the problem can be found. This chapter will outline the main problem of this report, namely the satisfaction of breakfast guests and the breakfast operations in The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. After a description After exploring the subject and the company of this case study the problem is stated together with the research questions.

1.2 Problem orientation

The hotel subject to this research is The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. This hotel is situated in the center of the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam. It is situated close to the central station of Amsterdam and all major tourist attractions. The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel has 8 floors and one extra wing of 3 floors with 402 guest rooms of which 4 junior suites and 2 royal suites.

The Renaissance Hotel is part of the Renaissance Brand of the hotel chain Marriott International. MI has several different brands (Appendix 1). According to Renaissance, guests are Discoverers. This means either leisure or business travelers whose mission is to “take in all in”. These guests are considered to be people who travel frequently with a sophisticated taste an appreciate style, decor, and interesting beverage and food.

The three core values of the Renaissance brand are: Intriguing, Indigenous and Independent. These three core values are also taken into consideration with the design of the hotel which can be described as ’boutique’. Boutique hotels differ in regular or mass hotels because of their unique design and personalized services, opposed to big chain hotels with all the same design and services.

One of the indigenous aspects of the hotel is the Koepel Church, a big meeting hall in a dome church with a spectacular outlook. The total meeting facilities are occupy 4.922 square meters. These consist out of 11 meeting rooms of different sizes and the Koepel Church.

Besides meeting facilities, the hotel also has several F&B outlets. These are “2B Lounge Bar” a lounge bar serving cocktails and finger food, but also provides a full-menu when asked for. Besides that the 2B Bar can be used for more casual business meetings or receptions, up to 200 people. The Koepelcafe is a typical Dutch Brown cafe. The food served here is typical Dutch bar food. In the summertime there is a terrace outside overlooking the beautiful crooked houses of the Kattengat and the Koepel Church. In-Room Dining is the room service outlet of the hotel, offering a full menu 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At last the hotel has a restaurant, Restaurant ‘Scossa’. The concept of the restaurant is “Contemporary, Casual and Cool” and offers Mediterranean inspired dishes from an open kitchen, 6 nights a week. Restaurant Scossa is also used as breakfast restaurant of the hotel.

This research focuses on the breakfast service in restaurant Scossa. In a hotel, dinner is often promoted on the website, throughout the hotel and through other channels. The hotel invests on employees that have enough experience, are known to deliver good service and are representative. This is a different case in breakfast service. In the RAH employees from different departments ended up in breakfast service, because they were not functioning well in their first position. Where for dinner new menus and promotions are created every couple of months, breakfast is basically always the same. The average age of the employees working in breakfast is 40+ and they have been doing the same work for a long time. Such a work environment can result in demotivated employees if nobody engages them in learning new skills or encourages them to change there work routines. Although this work environment, the employees are expected to deliver service up to the standards of MI. MI has a global vision, mission, goals and core values (discussed in chapter 3 of this report). Each single hotel has to perform conform these core values and service standards have to be reached. But what is actually done to motivate this people to do so? Where other employees get trained in several aspects of their job, breakfast employees never get training. They are expected to know already what they have to do, and often the only time they hear about their performance is when something is not going the way it is supposed to.

On the moment the research of this assignment started the guest satisfaction is 62.5%, too low compared to the brand standard (72%) and just under the RAH goal (62.7%) for breakfast(appendices 2-3)In this assignment it will be researched if guest satisfaction can be improved by training, motivating and engaging the employees.

Breakfast service and dinner service should be up to the same standards, guests leave a hotel mostly after having breakfast, not after having dinner. If the breakfast experience is really bad, guests will forget the good dinner they had and the overall food and beverage experience will be downgraded.

1.3 Problem statement and research questions

The problem statement is derived from the above described problem in the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel.

“Improving breakfast guest satisfaction by improving employee satisfaction”

A case study in the Renaissance Amsterdam hotel

The following questions are designed to answer this problem statement:

1. What is the hotels’ current position?

2. What is guest satisfaction?

3. What is employee satisfaction?

4. How is the breakfast service currently operated?

5. How to motivate and train the employees of the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel?

6. What is the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction?

1.4 Overview

The next chapter will elaborate on the methodology of this research. It will give a theoretical overview of different research methods and instruments. Furthermore all research questions will be discussed together with the research method and instrument chosen for this question. At the end of this chapter there will be an overview of all research questions, methods and instruments applied and there will be explained why certain choices have been made. Once all research methods and instruments are decided on, the actual research can be done.

Chapter 2: Methodology

2.1 Preview

In this chapter the methodology of the research will be discussed. A theoretical overview over different research methods and instruments will be given and for every research question it will be discussed what method and instrument will be used in order to get the best answer to the question. And the end of this chapter an overview can be found of the different research questions and the different methods and instruments.

2.2 Research methods and instruments
2.2.1 Research Methods

When designing a research, it is very important to consider the different research methods in order to get all the information relevant to the research. In this paragraph it is described wich research methods can be used and when these methods are applicable. After discussing these methods a decision will be made which method is usefull for this assignment.

Qualitative research vs. Quantitative research

When conducting a research, a distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is made.

“Quality is the essential character or nature of something; quantity is the amount. Quality is the what; quantity is the how much. Qualitative refers to the meaning, the definition or analogy or model or metaphor characterizing something, while quantitative assumes the meaning and refers to a measure of it” (Steinbeck, 1941)

Qualitative research is a type of research that provides information about the “human” side of a subject. The data of a qualitative research will reflect behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions and relationships of people. Qualitative research is a good type of research to use when researching the behavior, perspectives or feelings of a small population. (Denzin NK, 2001)

Qualitative research methods are for example; in – depth interviews used for collecting more personal information, or focus groups where a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a certain subject, mostly questions are asked in an interactive group setting.

Quantitative research is a research technique that is used to gather quantitative data, information dealing with statistics and numbers, everything that is measurable. Statistics, tables and graphs are methods to present this type of information. The most common quantitative research method is a survey questionnaire done by a large population (over 100).

The main difference between qualitative and quantitative research is that the outcome of a qualitative research is more reliable on the skills of the researcher, interview skills and observations skills for example are very important. On the other hand the outcome of a quantitative research is more reliable on the strength of the research instrument. (Clark M, 1998) A well set-up survey with the right questions is really important in order to get a good overview of the population. Furthermore quantitative surveys use pre-coded closed questions. If a research is done to “how muchaˆ¦” or how oftenaˆ¦” those questions are perfect, but, when a researcher wants to know more about for example how people feel about a certain topic a qualitative research would be more appropriate. Although people can scale their negative feeling towards the working atmosphere between 0 and 5, with 5 the most negative, you never know exactly how much this negative feeling really is. Amongst a lot of researchers it is discussed what would be the best type of research. But, the type of research should always be driven from the type of subject and therefore be the most applicable to that subject. (Andrew Sanchez, 2006)

Into addition to this separation between qualitative and quantitative research methods, there is also a distinction between desk research and field research. Desk research is a research of information already gathered for other purposes that the current research. This information or data are also called “Secondary Data”. The main purposes of desk research are to gain information about the company, hotel, subject of the research, the competitors, economic trends, market trends and demographic trends. All already produced information is used to gain more information about the research topic. Desk research is often done throughout the research and therefore can also help to do a proper field research. A field research is done by direct contact with the researcher and the subject of research. The information derived from this research can’t be found by doing desk research. The data gathered by this research is called “Primary Data” these are data that has been only gathered for the purpose of the specific research. Research I

2.2.4 Research Instruments

Research instruments are data collection tools helping the researcher to answer the research question. Different research instruments can be used to answer the same research question. Different research methods request different research instruments. In this paragraph different instruments are discussed and the instruments useful for this research will be chosen

In-Depth interview

This instrument is a qualitative instrument and can also be called a personal interview. This is a two way conversation initiated by a researcher to obtain information from a respondent. The greatest advantage is the depth of information and detail that can be secured. It far exceeds the information secured from telephone and self-administered studies, mails surveys or computer. The interviewer can also do more things to improve the quality of the information received than with another method(Cooper, 1998). The interviewer does have more control, they can see the behavior of the respondent, if the person is cynical, emotional or angry about a certain subject. A disadvantage is that personal interviews are time consuming. If a high amount of respondents is needed, a lot of interviews have to be done. Besides that, people can be reluctant to talk with strangers (if the interviewer is a stranger) or on the other hand doesn’t want to give too much personal information or show feelings if the interviewer is known to the respondent.

Focus groups

A focus group is a panel of people led by a moderator who meet for 90 minutes to 2 hours. The facilitator or moderator uses group dynamics principles to focus or guide the group in an exchange of ideas, feelings, and experiences on a specific topic. Focus groups can be used to generate and evaluate ideas or assessment of needs (Cooper, 1998). The advantages of focus groups are that they provide a manager or researcher a quick grasp of the core issues of a topic or problem. Participants can respond in their own words and they can react to each others responses what can lead to interesting discussions about the subject. A disadvantage is that there is a limited sampling accuracy and to get a better overview quantitative instrument will be needed.

Case studies

Case studies place more emphasis on a full contextual analysis of events or conditions and their relationships (Cooper, 1998). Single case studies can be done as well as multiple case studies. The advantage of a single case study is the in-depth information and knowledge that is gained about a single subject. The disadvantage of a case study that it relies on a lot of qualitative and quantitative data.

Self-Administered (mail) Surveys

In a mail survey, the respondent can take more time to collect fact, talk with others, or consider replies than is possible with personal interviews. May surveys are more impersonal and providing more anonymity than other interview methods. The main advantage is that it is not too time consuming and anonymity will stimulate people to give honest answers. The major disadvantage is that there is no control over the response. Furthermore there is a limitation on the length of an interview, as respondents will refuse to cooperate with long or complex questionnaires.

Document analysis

Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating documents. The documents contain text or images that were not recorded for the purposes of the research. It is a qualitative research that requires that data are examined and interpreted by the researcher in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge(Corbin & Straus, 2008). This instrument is often used prior to a study and the information will be incorporated in the report. It is often used in combination with other qualitative instruments. The advantage of this instrument is that it gives a lot of in-depth information about the subject. A disadvantage is that there is a lot of information available and it depends on the researchers’ skill to separate the useful information and interpret it in the right way in order to make it applicable for the research.

2.3 Chosen research methods

Due to the subject of the research both types of research are needed in order to come to a proper outcome. Nevertheless most of the research will be Qualitative research. This because, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, qualitative research is all about the human aspects. Satisfaction is an emotion or a feeling people have in a certain situation and is therefore very human. Qualitative research will help answering the research questions about guest satisfaction and employee satisfaction, and to get an overview of the current breakfast operations in the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel. Quantitative research is needed to get an overview over a larger population of guests and employees. This will give an outcome that can be measured and presented in a table. All these data used for the research are Primary data gathered through field research. Furthermore secondary data will be gathered by conducting a desk research searching information about the hotel, and theories about guest- and employee satisfaction.

2.4 Chosen research instruments

In order to find answers to the research questions different research instruments will be used. First of all document analysis will be used to gather in-depth information about the subject, but also to get a better understanding about the subject. In order to get a good overview of the hotel, documents will be analyzed that give information about the environment in and outside the hotel. To analyze this information different strategic analyzing tools will be used. To gain better knowledge about guest- and employee satisfaction, literature about these subjects will be reviewed. This instrument is chosen because it is necessary to have in-depth information about guest- and employee satisfaction before it can be analyzed for this specific hotel.

Case study will be used to get a good overview about how the breakfast is operated in the hotel. This will be a single case study. As it has been said, case studies do rely on qualitative and quantitative data. This data will be gathered through the use of focus groups and self-administered surveys.

To determine guest satisfaction, email surveys will be used. Every guest that visited gets the opportunity to leave there email address upon check-out. After the checkout, surveys about the overall experience during the guests stay will be send to these email addresses. In these surveys guests can score there breakfasts experiences from 1-10, judging on the food quality experience and service quality experience. All rates above 7 will be counted as ‘satisfied’ to calculate the guest satisfaction percentage. The expected response will be 30 per month based on previous months. A higher response would be preferable but according to Marriott Standards, it is not allowed to push a guest to fill in a survey, or ask the guest to fill out surveys during their stay (MGS). However, these 30 guests will be representative for the other guests that stayed in the hotel at that moment. This instrument in preferred above in-depth interviews because more honest answers will be given, as the guest will react anonymous.

The employee satisfaction is measured by a self-administered survey. This survey will be an automated survey and every employee can fill this out anonymous. Therefore it is excepted to receive honest answers from all employees. The questions of this survey can be found in appendix .. This is not the original outlook of the questionnaire, which is conducted by computer, but gives an overview of the questions asked. As all employees are obligatory to fill out this survey a response of 30 is expected. Although this survey might have the limitation that less in-depth information is received, the outcome of the survey can be discussed in a focus group when necessary.

The focus groups instrument is used to determine the training and motivation needs of the employees. In this focus group will consist of all breakfast employees, both full time and part time. The breakfast team consists of 30 people in total. Not all people will be reached at the same time, therefore 3 sessions with 10 people each time will be scheduled. During these sessions the training and motivations needs of the employees will be the main discussion point. In appendix .. the design of this focus group discussion will be presented. As the employees are working in a team and interact with each other, this method will be more useful than in-depth interviews. Furthermore in-depth interviews will be more time consuming and therefore found of less use for this research.

2.5 Research instruments applied

2.5.1 Overview

In the following table for each research question is stipulated what kind of research will be done and what instruments will be used to answer the research question.

Problem statement
Quantitative or
Qualitative
Desk or
Field
Instruments

What is the hotels’ current position? (strategic analysis)

Qualitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Document analysis.

Several strategic analyzing tools from management books.

Hotel Data

MGS

What is guest satisfaction?

Qualitative and quantitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Field, use of primary data

Document analysis

Hospitality books (literature review)

Hotel data.

GSS surveys

What is employee satisfaction?

Qualitative and quantitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Field, use of primary data

Document analysis

Hospitality books (literature review)

Hotel data

Employee surveys

How’s the breakfast service currently operated?

Qualitative

Desk, use of secondary data

Field, use of primary data

Hotel data, guest comments, employee comments, focus groups.

How to motivate and train the employees of the Renaissance Amsterdam hotel?

Qualitative

Desk research,

Field, analyzing motivation &training needs

Document analysis

HR books.

Focus groups

Comments from employees

What is the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction?

Qualitative

Desk research

Field, GSS

Document analysis

GSS comments

2.4.2 Explanation overview

What is the hotels’ current position? (strategic analysis)

This question is chosen in order to get more inside information about the hotel. To come up with recommendations, an in-depth vision of the hotel is necessary. Therefore is chosen to do a strategic analysis of the company.

This analysis is a qualitative research since the intention is to find out about the essential character (Cooper & Schindler, 1998) of the company, and can also be characterized as a case-study.

Both desk and field research will be applied to answer this research question the best way. Desk research will be done by document analysis, reviewing data gathered from the hotel (Secondary information). All this information will be put together in order to analyze the company with the help of strategic analyzing tools from management books.

What is guest satisfaction?

This question is chosen to understand the definition “guest satisfaction”. To answer this question a literature review will be conducted. This analysis is a qualitative analysis and can as well be characterized as document analysis, desk research.

What is employee satisfaction?

This question is chosen to understand the definition “guest satisfaction”. To answer this question an extensive literature review will be conducted. This analysis is a qualitative analysis and can as well be characterized as document analysis, desk research.

How is the breakfast service currently operated?

This question is chosen to get a better view of the breakfast in the hotel. The question is separated from the first question (a view of the hotels’ current position could also discus breakfast) because this is the main focus of the research. This analysis is a qualitative research and can as well be characterized as a case-study. Desk and field research will be done. Information from the hotel will be used in order to get a better insight in how breakfast is currently managed. The breakfast service operations will be studied and employees will be interviewed through focus groups.

In this part the actual guest satisfaction of the RAH will be measured. This will be done trough an survey conducted by email. This will be a quantitative research done by field research.

Furthermore the actual employee satisfaction of the RAH will be measured as well. This will be done trough a self-administered survey conducted with all breakfast employees. This will be a quantitative research done by field research.

How to motivate and train the employees of the Renaissance Amsterdam hotel?

To answer this question a literature review will be done to get more insight in motivation and training employees. This analysis is a qualitative analysis and can as well be characterized as document analysis, done by desk research. Furthermore another qualitative research instrument , focus groups will be used to observe the motivation and training needs of the employees.

What is the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction?

With this question the relationship between employee- and guest satisfaction will be researched. There for an desk analysis will be done by document analysis (Qualitative Research) Furthermore the data of the Guest satisfaction surveys and employee satisfaction surveys (Quantitative data) will be discussed and linked to the theory, this field research can be characterized as a case-study.

2.5 Summary

In this chapter the different research methods and instruments were discussed. After a study of the theory about these subjects, the methods and instruments for this research were chosen. The main research method will be qualitative, this because satisfaction is a feeling a person has about a certain experience and therefore very human. Qualitative research is about the human aspects of an subject, opposed to quantitative research, where outcomes are measured and can be put in tables or graphics The main instrument will be document-analysis (secondary data analysis), this document analysis will be done by using literature about the subjects discussed in this report.

To analyze the current breakfast operations, the breakfast operation will be observed and the employees will be able to discuss their opinion in a focus-group. The focus groups is important to analyze the interaction between the different employees en get a more in-depth view in their opinions and experiences.

There will be also quantitative methods used in this research. This is used to give guests and employees the opportunity to give an anonymous feedback on the breakfast service. This is used instead of in-depth interviews as people can feel more limited when not being anonymous.

These methods and instruments are used to give a proper answer on all research methods. The information gathered by using these instruments are displayed in the next chapter of this report.

Chapter 3: Results

3.1 Preview

In this chapter the results of the research will be presented. The results will be presented per research question….etc etc nog niet af…..

3.2 What is the hotel’s current position?

3.2.1 Internal analysis

The internal analysis was done using the 7 s Model, developed two consultants of the McKinsey Company in the early 1980’s (Proven Models B.V., 2011). This model discusses internal aspects that should be analyzed and aligned in order for a company to function properly. These factors are the following; strategy, structure, systems, staff, style, skills and shared values. In the introduction the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel major characteristics have already been described. In this chapter the internal environment of the hotel will be described according to the previous mentioned 7 S Model.

Strategy

The vision, mission, objectives and core values of MI are the driving forces behind every hotel part of the Marriott chain.

– Vision: “To be the Global Hospitality Leader”. This vision is grounded in the intense focus on taking care of the guest, extensive operational knowledge, the development of a highly skilled and diverse workforce, and offering the best portfolio of lodging brands in the industry. As MI is considered in the top three of hotel chains worldwide, this is an achievable vision.

– Mission: “To build brand loyalty and preference to maximise shareholder value”. The ideals from the vision are expressed in this mission statement. A mission statement guides a hotel as it seeks to achieve the long term objectives (Olsen, 1998). This mission statement indicates that through brand loyalty and preference, which includes guests as well as employees, the shareholder value will be maximized. As almost all Marriott Hotels are managed by the chain and not owned, it is very important maximise the shareholder value and be able to grow.

– Goals: as an extension of the mission and vision goals were designed. The first goal is: “Solidify product and service leadership, drive profit and optimize growth”. This goal gives a method for achieving the mission. The second goal gives a more measurable indication of the vision: “Double the presence of Marriott in Europe”

– Core Values: The core values are based on the concept of the “Spirit to Serve” this spirit includes fundamental ideals of service to associates, customers, and community which serve as the cornerstone for all Marriott Associates (MGS)

To adhere to this strategy, the Renaissance brand has developed its own set of standards and initiatives to reflect on the values stated above, these are called the R-Ways. There are 20 R-Ways and those are strategy, behavioural or community based (Appendix ..). The R-ways are rotating every day and discussed at pre-shift meetings. Herewith the operational staff is able to discuss the different R-ways and get more involved in the objectives of the hotel.

Another very important strategy is the selling strategy of the hotel, as how the hotel performs depends on the sale of rooms. The most important channels for this are online bookings and the group bookings done by the Events Booking Centre. The pricing strategy used for the sale of rooms is “rational” this means that it is easy for the guest to understand why a rate is asked for a specific room. Therefore a base price is set for the Deluxe room (standard room) and between the different room types, always the same price difference is used. Furthermore MI has the “look no further” guarantee. Herewith it is guaranteed that the price listed on the Marriott website is the best rate available everywhere, with exception of corporate rate promotions. The daily rate is based on an estimated demand. This estimated demand is determined by the system Marriott One Yield LRTP (Long Range Project Tool). This system uses historical data and current reservations to determine trends that help to predict the demand for that specific day. In appendix .. a table is shown that compares the figures of the RHI to the figures from the Hosta Benchmark Report. This figure shows that the occupancy and room rate are higher than benchmarked.

Structure

The Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel employs around 215 employees of at least 25 different nationalities. The structure of the hotel is of functional design. This means grouping managers and employees according to their areas of expertise and the resources they use to perform their jobs (Hellregiel et al, 2005). This structure has economical benefits because the simple structure keeps administrative expenses low as everyone in a department can share training, experience and resources. Furthermore, career paths are clearly to be seen by employees within their own department. An organizational chart can be found in appendix … Disadvantages of the structure can be that an inadequate communication between units can occur as departments focus more on their departmental rather than organizational issues and goals. Furthermore horizontal linkages are difficult to make as employees are specifically trained. For example an food and beverage employee won’t be able to assist at the front office. However, since the tasks and responsibilities are very specific and di