Author: Andre Coleman

Introduction

Nowadays the range of luxury hotels all over the world is very big. There are different types of luxury hotels and all of them have their own policy, procedures and missions. Competition among these kinds of hotels is huge nowadays. The competition is based not on prices or percentage of discounts but it is based on values, exclusivity, atmosphere and quality of service. One of these competitors is world known, luxury brand Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. However Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts managed to differentiate them from all other competitors in the Hotel Industry. In Four Seasons, management has a huge value of their employees, because they know that the power of service is in human resources. Human Recourse Management in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts definitely plays very important role for providing success of the company and delivering premises to their employees and customers. The following research provides readers with full picture of Human Resource Management Policy of Four Seasons hotels and Resorts. Also additional recommendations and comments are given in order to clarify the policy and mission of Human Resource Management. The research includes five important questions about HRM. Answers for these questions can be used as tools to improve the human resource policy of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. As for readers the research will help them to understand the value and mission of Human Resource Management in Hospitality Industry.

Introduce the Company and its positions in the Hospitality Industry. Is it an employer of choice?

“Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts” Company was founded in 1960 by Isadore Sharp and positioned as luxury hotel chain. The first hotel was opened in 1961 in the downtown area of Toronto, Canada. Isadore Sharp started a new kind of luxury hotels by making it personalized, taking care of each customer and offering an excellent service for their guests. For funds Sharp involved his brother-in-law, Eddie Creed and his friend, Maurry Koffler. Each of them contributed to the project. From 1970 till 1976 there were opened several Four season Hotels and resorts in London, Ontario and Bahamas. In 1976 Four Seasons hotels and Resorts grew and decided to expand in North America. So in 1976 they entered the US market in San-Francisco. So in 1977, Isadore Sharp along with Creed and Korrler decided to convert Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts into private company. Four Seasons has created a new niche in luxurious segment of Hospitality Industry, thus provided themselves with a great opportunity to grow. In 1986 the company went public, by being presented on stock market, but in 2007 it became private company again. By 1991 the company had around 36 hotels all over the world and around 13 sales and corporate offices. However Four Seasons faced with some financial issues and was rescued by investor from Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed. In 1994 he purchased 25 percent of Four Seasons’ stocks and invested around C$100 million. After investing by Saudi Prince, the Four Seasons continued their expiation and opened new properties in Singapore, Mexico City, Berlin and Prague. In mid-nineties, whole hotel industry faced a downturn. As a result Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts turned to managing style rather owning hotels because it was much more profitable in the long run. (Four Seasons Hotels Inc’s HR Practice., 2009). Nowadays Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has 84 properties all over the world with exclusive service and very clear company’s culture. Nowadays Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has several competitors in Hospitality Industry. They are Fairmont Hotels, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

Positions of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts are very strong now. Despite on financial problems they faced in 1994, Four Seasons managed to stabilize and continue growing in hospitality industry. Four Seasons continues to have more of its hotels designated as AAA Five Diamond properties than any other hotel company and it has the most Mobil Five Star awards in the industry. The company is also consistently highly ranked in readers’ surveys in publications such as Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Institutional Investor, Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report and the Zagat Survey. (Hospitalitynet, 2010).

First of all, the writer would like to give the definition of term “Employer of choice”. “Any employer of any size in the public, private, or not-for-profit sector that attracts, optimize and holds top talent for long tenure, because the employees choose to be there”. (Herman and Gioia, 2002, p. xi). Personalized service is a unique feature of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. But in order to make the service unique for their guests, the company pays attention to their employees. Four seasons Management teams do value their staff and treat them as guests, also with uniqueness. As one of employees said: “You’re never threated like just and employee. You are a guest.” (Four Seasons Hotels Inc’s HR Practice., 2009). This is the one and the most important reason why Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts became an Employer of choice. The company is recognized by many popular magazines as an Employer of Choice. For example, since 1998 Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts are among 100 “The best Companies to Work for”, by Fortune Magazine. In 2009 Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Company was awarded “The best Workplace” by Great Place to Work Institute Canada. Later in 2009 the Company was awarded “Lifetime Commitment Award” by National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH). In addition they were awarded “Inductee to Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures” Hall of Fame 2010. Also Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts pay a lot of attention to trainings and development programs, thus in 2010 the company was listed in “Training top 125” by Training Magazine. (FourSeason, 2010). As Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in an international company and has many hotels all over the world, some of Four Seasons’ properties were also recognized by leading tourism and hospitality magazines. For example Four Seasons Hotels in the United Kingdom were “The Best place to Work in Hospitality” in 2008; Four Seasons Hotel Dublin received Business Award Status, based on the Hotel’s best practices in “Recruitment and Selection” and “Learning, Development and Progression”; in 2008 Four Seasons Hotel Prague was awarded as “Company of the Year 2008”. This award is given to the companies who supporting the employment of hearing-challenged individuals. (FourSeason, 2010). All these awards and recognitions are the main indicator of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts culture and a result of well-organized corporate environment.

Explain its culture, its unique to the Company, how does this vary from its major competitors.

Four Seasons Hotels and resorts has their own and unique service culture. The culture is mainly based on “Golden Rule” by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The philosophy of “Golden Rule” is very simple and clear. As the CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Isadore Shard defined it: “The Golden Rule – do unto others, as you would have them to do unto you” (Four Seasons Hotels Inc’s HR Practice., 2009). According to Mr. Sharp definition it is very important to treat everyone: guests, colleagues and partners as you would want them to treat you. Within Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts the “Golden Rule” applied to every person in the company and it does not matter whether you are manager or front line employee. What Four Seasons calls its unique service culture is based on a series of insights and beliefs about the person who provides the act of service, and the one who receives it. In writer’s opinion, the “Golden Rule” makes the uniqueness and creating a very positive atmosphere within all company and all properties around the world. The scheme below represents the forming of the culture. (Scheme 1)

Scheme 1

As readers can see from the Scheme 1 there are several steps leading to the organizational culture. The first step is “Philosophy of company’s founder.” As it was mentioned above Mr. sharp has his own philosophy of service and company’s culture which is based on making the service exclusive and personalized. By implementing his own view of the service into Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Company’s structure, Isadore Sharp has created absolutely new type of culture not only for his personal need but also for whole the company. The next step is “Selection Criteria”, which is based on recruiting and selection of candidates. As we know from the case-study of Four Seasons Hotels Inc., each potential candidate for any position in four seasons Hotels and Resorts had to pass through five interviews and the final one was with the General Manager of the Hotel. In the example above readers can see that selection process in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is very difficult. It means that the company needs the best employees from the best. The selection process is very important for the company, because managers look for really professionalized persons or persons who have potential to learn and to be trained. The thing is that Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts based on personal service, that’s why they have such complicated selection process. The next steps of analyzing Four Seasons’ culture are “Top Management” and “Socialization”. Top Management plays very important role in forming company’s culture. As readers can see, in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Company, senior executives help to establish behavioral standards that can be adopted by the company. Socialization is a process which helps new employees to adopt into company’s culture and implement skills and advantages in practice, by making service in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts personalized. In addition the Socialization step can be separated into several stages like Pre-arrival stage, Encounter stage and Metamorphosis stage. All these stages directly helps in the process of forming the culture of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

In writer’s opinion, Four Seasons’ company culture is much differentiated form its main competitors. As an example, the company’s culture of Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts is based on “Gold Standards” of the company. “Gold Standards” consist of six parts which includes the credo, the motto of the company, the three steps of service, service values, the 6th diamonds and the employee promises. (Gold Standards of Ritz-Carlton, 2010). As if follows, Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton cultures are focused on making the service they provide more personalized, but in addition Four Seasons hotels and Resorts are focused on their employees. As a result, readers can make a conclusion that in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the culture is as guests oriented as employees oriented. To prove this statement, the writer would like to present a phrase maintained in the case-study: “Loyalty to guests is important, but employees come first.” (Four Seasons Hotels Inc’s HR Practice., 2009). One of the most important Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts’ differences from major competitors is that the company is more employees oriented rather other companies in Hospitality industry. As a result it attracts more and more employees to join Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

How does HRM fit into the company’s vision, mission & values? Do these reflect a strategic purpose? How does HRM fit into the overall identity of the company, its managers and employees, make recommendations for any improvement and justify these.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts haves their own vision, mission and values which are behead on “Golden Rule”. From HRM point of view, it directly into company’s values, vision and mission. From the strategic nature of HRM in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, they deal with day-to-day issues, but it is also proactive in nature and integrated with other management functions. In addition HRM makes more clarified strategic view of human resource in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. From the recruitment point of view, human resource management makes sophisticated recruitment for all employees. In addition it has strong internal labour market for core employees. (Henderson, 2008). One of the most important values of Four Seasons hotels and Resorts is empowerment. HRM is responsible for delivering this feature to employees’ vision. Empowerment is management responsibility of sharing information, rewards, and power with employees so that they can take personal initiative and make decisions to solve problems and issues of the guests and improve service quality and performance of the company. It is based concept of giving employees the skills, resources, authority, opportunity, motivation, as well giving them responsibilities of their actions. (BusinessDictionary, 2010). In Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts management pay lots of attention to empowerment because it helps to increase the level of service and in addition it makes employees feeling more responsible and important for the company. That’s why in all Four Seasons’ properties employees can act and take decisions independently. It means that for human recourse management, employees’ satisfaction is very important as guests’ satisfaction. Based on this writer can definitely say that Human Resource Management make big contribution into company’s vision, value and mission. In Human Resource Management, trainings play also an important role in employees’ development and success. As for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, trainings are transformed into learning and development philosophy transcending job-related training programs. The advantage of trainings in Four Seasons is that all trainings are designed foal all levels of employees including non-management. In addition trainings are designed to develop leadership and personal skills. For example Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has a special program designed for graduates of hotel schools. Applying to Manager In Training Programs (MIT) is meant that candidates has the attitude to be trained, accept “Golden Rule” and successfully implement it in their job. (Manager In Training Programms, 2010).

In order to improve HRM policy of Four Seasons Hotels and Resort the writer would suggest several steps to make it more balanced between guest oriented policy and employees oriented policy. Four Seasons are trying to balance these two subjects, but it seems that they are a bit confused about it. The solution of this issue is to provide more benefits for their employees. First of all it would increase the flow of qualified persons who have ability to be learnt. From the other hand it would motivate employees to increase their level of education, to apply for mote training programs in order to get career development in the future. The third advantage of increasing employees’ benefits is that this would change and directly review the policy of the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts thus make it more employees oriented. But for the other hand the company should not forget about their main goals – personalized service for each customer. That is why Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts make their employees empowered. The HRM policy of the company is also based on forwarding employees to the right way, the way of “Golden Rule”. They don’t do anything special, but their work is not easy, because Human Resource Department is the first who faced with employees’ challenges and in addition they have to bring the ideas and values of “Golden Rules” into employees’ minds, in order to reach company’s goals which are based on exclusive and personalized service in all Four seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Does it have effective policies and procedures in HRM? Critically evaluate the ones you have identified.

As readers can see from examples above, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts have very specific HRM policy. The thing is that in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Human Resource Management is based on standards, but they don’t have lots of rules. As they prefer personalized customer service they do empower their employees, so they can act in any situations. This allows employees to take actions and to feel free to respond all customers’ needs. As in all situations, there is a risk of making wrong decision. The employee will be responsible for this, but in all cases the company can lose their customer which will affect the company as a whole. As Human Resource policy in Four Seasons Hotels and resorts is more company’s philosophy orientated the employee turnover is just a half compared with the whole industry. Four Seasons created their own niche in the hospitality industry. Nowadays Four Seasons Hotels and resort has several main competitors. From HRM point of view, employees’ benefits are one of the most attractive parts for people who are interested in joining company. The term “employees’ benefits” is common for all industries. Employee benefits are all benefits and services, other from wages for time worked, that are provided to employees in whole or in part by their employers. (Definition of Employee benefits, 2010). Below, the researcher presented the table of benefits, which presents the whole picture of benefits policy of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and its main competitor Ritz-Carlton. The table will help readers to analyze and examine employee benefits of two main competitors in luxury mid-size hotel niche. In addition both competitors use management contracts model of managing properties. This is very good decision. The thing is that there are several recent examples that show that franchising method of managing properties doesn’t work in a proper way nowadays.

Development of employees’ commitment or loyalty directly depends on job conditions provided by employer. That is why providing basic benefits in necessary for big companied like Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. But in order to attract more employees whey included more benefits in basic conditions. Definitely this action would influence the flow of employees and would increase motivation, which will positive effect the company.

Table 1

Benefits

Hotel Brands

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts

Career growth opportunities

Career growth/promotions opportunities

Unique deep culture

Discounts on spa treatments

Best-in Industry training

Childcare discounts

Luxury environment in magnificent locations world wide

Tuition reimbursement

Profit sharing / incentive bonus / competitive salaries

Income replacement programs (both short and long-term disability)

Complimentary stays at Four Seasons properties with discounted meals

Discounted accommodation in all Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts

Paid holidays / vacation

Paid vacation, sick and holiday leave

Educational assistance

Health and wellness insurance programs

Dental and medical / disability / life insurance

Life/health/dental/vision insurance

Retirement benefits / pension

Retirement savings and profit sharing plans

Employee service awards

Healthcare and dependent care spending accounts

Annual employee party / social and sporting events

Service anniversary awards

Complimentary meals in dedicated employee restaurants

Complimentary or low cost meals in your Employee Dining Room

(Four Seasons Benefits, 2010), (Ritz-Carlton: Understand Benefits, 2010)

After careful comparison of both employees’ benefits, readers can define several differences, which directly influence the loyalty of employees. In order to make HRM policy more reliable, writer would suggest to enlarge number of benefits. In addition increasing different incentives for line-staff employees would also positive effect Human Resource policy of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

If you were the VP of HRM how would you move the company forward in the next five years?

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is very developed luxury hotel chain.

Introduction

· Human resource management (HRM) is the tactical and logical approach to the management of an organization’s most esteemed property – the people working there who independently and together contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. …

· All methods and functions concerning the recruitment and development of personnel as human resources, with the aim of efficiency and greater output in a company, government administration, or other organization

· Human resource management (HRM) is the perceptive and application of the policy and procedures that directly involve the people working within the task team and working group. These policies include recruitment, maintenance, repayment, personal development, training and career development.

· is the effective use of human resources in order to improve managerial performance.

· The management of the workforce of a business to ensure satisfactory staff levels with the right skills, properly satisfied and motivated.

· Staffing function of the business. It includes the activities of human resources planning, recruitment, orientation, selection, , training, performance, payment, appraisal and safety.

What is HRM?

Human Resource Management (“HRM”) is a way of management that links people-related behavior to the tactic of a business or organization. HRM is often referred to as “strategic HRM”. It has numerous goals:

– To meet the needs of the business and management (rather than serve the interests of employees);

– To bond human resource strategies / policies to the company goals and objectives;

– To find ways for human resources to “add value” to an industry;

– To help a business gain the obligation of employees to its values, goals and objectives

Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries

This takes an incorporated look at HRM policies and practices in the tourism and hospitality industries. Utilizing existing human resource management (HRM) theory and carry out, it contextualizes it to the tourism and hospitality industries by looking at the specific employment practices of these industries, such as how to manage tour reps or working in the airline industry.

It initially sets the picture with a open review of the facts of HRM practice within the tourism and hospitality industries. Having identified the broader picture, the text then begin to focus much more plainly on a variety of HR policies and practices such as:

Recruitment and selection: the effects of ICT, skills required specific for the industry and the nature of advertising
Legislation and identical opportunities: illegal intolerance and managing assortment
Staff health and welfare: aggression in the workplace, working time orders, smoking and alcohol and drug misuse
wage strategies in the industry

Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries will be illustrated throughout with both examples of best practice for dictatorial training and discussion, and international case studies to put into effect problem solving techniques and contextualize learning. It incorporates a user friendly design and includes educational features such as: chapter outlines and objectives, HRM in practice –

The nature of HRM in hospitality and tourism; executive culture and the search for service quality; Labor markets; staffing and selection; equivalent Opportunities; Training and improvement; Staff health and welfare; Employee relations, involvement and participation; Performance management; compensation strategies in hospitality and tourism; Disciplinary and complaint procedures.

Development in HRM in hospitality and tourism

It is common knowledge that the performance of human resource management ( HRM ) is established in most organizations ranging from small- to medium- to large-scale corporations. The current-day human resource ( HR ) manager has direct control on the strategic direction and judgment of both private and public sector organizations. Tourism is the broad umbrella that drives related indicators within local and national economies. Hospitality organizations are motivated by public and private sector tourism policies and practices. The increase of telecommunication technologies along with the development of multinational hospitality organizations has generated an understanding of tourism policies on a global level. Sustainable tourism is a long-term mutual systems approach to establishing and maintaining pleasant-sounding relationships among hospitality/travel-related organizations and the social, cultural and environmental aspects associated with tourist destinations.

While the process of sustainable tourism involves the establishment and maintenance of harmonious relationships, the goal is the creation of continued possibility and development of tourism-related entities. Proponents of sustainable tourism slot in in a process of creating a mutually favorable balance between the microenvironment (social, cultural and environmental aspects) and the microenvironment (internal workings of a specific organization).

The objective of this process is the institutionalization of the tourism industry as a contributor to the sociocultural welfare and development of each and every destination. In essence, this aim seeks what might be called a ‘ triple win ‘ outcome. Successful sustainable tourism initiatives result in positive outcomes for consumers (guests, travelers and customers), organizations (commercial enterprises) as well as the society (indigenous people and cultures). But how does the practice of hospitality human resource management fit into this picture?

CAREER PATHS

As part of the commitment to the social environment of the community, human resource practitioners in sustainable tourism-based organizations must agree on the career goals and desires of host country citizens. While certain individuals will exist who do not possess progressive career aspirations, there will be others who will view the organization as a means to pursue professional development activities. For this reason, job design processes should provide a clear snapshot of knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes for every position within the organization through job descriptions and job specifications.

The job descriptions and job specifications provide foundational information to track logical paths of career progression among the many disciplines found within the operations and administrative areas of a medium-to-large hospitality enterprise. Once these paths are discovered, human resource practitioners may engage in career counseling activities aimed at communicating activities to attain the necessary job requirements for internal promotions. Human resource practitioners may choose to take this one step further through formal succession planning programs

coupled with training development activities. Many cases of global expansion within hospitality organizations include the placement of expatriate managers from home nations into positions at host country locations. STO strategies might be aimed at the temporary placement of such individuals until citizens of the host nation are adequately prepared to assume senior management positions. An advantage to this strategy would be the assimilation into the mainstream culture of the host nation by establishing a representation of senior management positions that are held by qualified host nationals.

PROPORTION OF LOCAL STAFF MEMBERS

It makes good business sense for human resource practitioners to scan the external environment of the host nation to determine the statistical representation of various groups of individuals by ethnicity, age, sex, race, national origin and in some cases religion. Once the demographics for the locale are discovered, the human resource manager would enact strategies aimed at a statistical representation within the organization that is somewhat similar to those evident within the region. Some reactive hospitality organizations might claim to have sufficient numbers of represented groups within their companies. Upon further inspection, however, it could be determined that the representation exists exclusively for lower-level position holders.

OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO HR MANAGERS TO IMPROVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR STAFF
Career options: Human Resource Management

human Resource Management professionals are employed in medium & large enterprises across all sectors of the workplace. The Australian Human Resources Institute defines the diverse roles of human resource practitioners as follows:

They provide a support service and serve as technical advisers to line managers on issues such as recruitment, training and safety.
They play an important role in defining the personnel policies that guarantee fair treatment of all employees, recognition of staff needs and democratic organization.
They serve an audit role ensuring that managerial decisions agree with the personnel policies and are consistent across the organization.
They explore ways of improving employee productivity and satisfaction, and keep managers informed about changes in employment legislation.
They manage changing business processes brought about by a dynamic business environment, for example business restructures.
They provide an ethical and legal understanding of the frameworks required for managing people in various types of business.
Senior HR managers provide strategic input into the decision-making processes within their organizations.
They build the ‘corporate wisdom’ of their organizations through staff development and managing human resource information systems.
They assist the organization to be ‘customer focused’ by aligning the needs and requirements of the employees with those of the customers.

In addition to knowledge and skills directly related to your program of study, you have also developed a range of other skills (e.g. teamwork, analytical, communication) through academic study, employment, voluntary work, sporting activities and life experience. These are often referred to as transferable skills because they can be utilized in different environments. Recognizing the value employers place on these skills is an important factor in your graduate job search.

Positions and employers

Many graduate employers recruit from a wide range of disciplines. The major directory of graduate recruitment in Australia, Graduate Opportunities, lists employers by the disciplines from which they are recruiting. You might be surprised by the range of employers recruiting from your degree and the sectors of the workplace where you might establish a career.

Synopsis

Human Resource Management is very important in business management.

Management is an organizational function, like sales, marketing or finance. It doesn’t necessarily mean managing people. We can manage ourselves or the material assigned to us at work. If you managed a project very well on your own, it would mean that you did the job in a well-organized, efficient manner, making good use of all resources at your disposal.

Human resource management is fundamentally about ensuring that the right person with the right personality, knowledge base and skill set is best matched for a particular role within the company. Human resources professionals may also be responsible for organizing training needs, advertising vacancies, interviewing, selection, aptitude testing and disciplinary procedures in the event that an employee is not meeting expectations.

When the company expands, production and cost management is very important to the existence of organization when considering about more profit, the executive level has to manage variety of resources of the organization.

To have a efficient use of the physical resources of the organization, there should be a proper control of staff management. That’s what we call Human Resources Management.

It has been a busy start for Tanith Dodge, who only took up her new position running the HR department at Marks and Spencer HQ a year ago. Thelast 12 months or so havewitnessed the announcement of 1,200 job losses, 27 store closures and a hefty slump in profits. But despite the recent turbulence, Dodge has lived up to her name, and been swift to deal with the issues affecting the organisation, quickly cementing herself into the M & S family.

But then, this is not surprising for a woman of Dodge’s pedigree. Her list of credentials includes a graduate traineeship at British Aerospace, an employee relations consultant at Prudential and a five year stint as HRD at WH Smith. And while HR is herbackground, it is in leadership development that Dodgeis carvinga name for herself. Indeed, her passion for transforming people in the organisation has been effectively channelled into her latest venture: Lead to Succeed which is being heralded as the company’s flagship development programme and is considered to be a key component in its future people strategy.

“We are doing quite a bit of work on how senior leaders take reorgani sation through a period of change, and making understanding how to lead change and make change happen a part of their toolkit is absolutely key.”

Launched last year, the programme targets the development of the 300 most senior M&S employees, and is designed to identify and train the next generation of leaders. “Lead to Succeed is designed around our business strategy going forwards; what we need to deliver over the next couple of years,” says Dodge. “We have taken a lot of the research that was done around the core attributes of leader – head, hearts and guts – and that underpins the programme. But then we’ve looked at what is it that M&S really needs in terms of its leadership attributes going forwards, so our core values around trust, value service, quality and innovation.”

Dodge has ensured that the programme is both robust and practical by looking at potential leaders as individuals rather than simply names on a list. This is then underpinned by coaching and business simulation which is designed around some of the challenges M&S experiences as an organisation: “We ask things like: are you leveraging your own strengths as a leader, how do you then galvanise your team, how do you take the leadership and create that coalition across the organisation and as leaders how do you influence shareholder value? So it is very practical,” she adds.

And for Dodge, a focus on practice rather than theory is particularly pertinent at the moment, mainly as many of the senior staff have never before experienced any kind of economic turbulence. “It is unprecedented,” she says. “The ways of doing things in the past are not necessarily the ways that will make you successful going forward. We are doing quite a bit of work on how senior leaders take reorganisation through a period of change, and making understanding how to lead change and make change happen a part of their toolkit is absolutely key.”

Reflecting this, Marks & Spencer devotes significant time and resources to developing its leaders and nurturing its talent. “Continuing to invest in your talent for now is absolutely key,” Dodge emphasises. “Organisations that stop that investment risk cutting the Achilles heel. You have to keep these people and do it in ways that aren’t ridiculously expensive.” To this end, Dodge has developed a thorough, robust succession process which has done away with annual reviews and instead focuses ongoing conversations which enables her and her team to look at individuals’ capabilities against specific indicators which demarcate them as ‘high potential’.

“Continuing to invest in your talent for now is absolutely key. Organisations that stop that investment risk cutting the Achilles heel.”

“We do it at all levels from our senior people through to store managers, who have got the potential to develop into another role going forward. We also look at what roles are critical for us going forward and whether we have got enough pipeline of talent coming through for those critical jobs.” In addition, she runs the annual staff survey – ‘Your Say’ which gives employees the opportunity to voice their views on a range of issues including training and development.

Early reports suggest that the programme is a huge success, with the company witnessing significant change in the way that people behave as a result of the training, and the way that they challenge problems within the organisation. Dodge believes that the success of such schemes are very much dependent on those that facilitate them: not only does it show employees how their leaders behave but it sets a precedent so when they themselves reach the higher echelons of the organisation, they too can lead by example.

“It is very much about you as an individual leader, your impact on your style with your team and then your impact on your style with your organisation,” she concludes. “So it builds on the whole ‘Your M&S’message – yourself, your team, your organisation.”

Today ethical leadership is more important than ever. The world is more transparent and connected than it has ever been. The actions and philosophies of organisations are scrutinised by the media and the general public as never before. This coincides with massively increased awareness and interest among people everywhere in corporate responsibility and the many related concepts, such as Fair Trade, sustainability, social and community responsibility (see the ethical leadership and ethical organisations page). The modern leader needs to understand and aspire to leading people and achieving greatness in all these areas.

Here is (was..) an Excellent 30 minute BBC Radio 4 Discussion about Modern Leadership – (first broadcast 2 Sept 2006, part of the ‘Sound Advice’ series). Its mere existence is evidence of changed attitudes to leadership. Such a programme would not have warranted BBC airtime a generation ago due to lack of audience interest. Today there is huge awareness of, and interest in, more modern leadership methods. The radio discussion highlighted the need for effective modern leaders to have emotional strength and sensitivity, far beyond traditional ideas of more limited autocratic leadership styles. I’m sorry (if still) this linked item is unavailable from the BBC website, especially if the recording is lost forever in the BBC’s archives. If you know a suitably influential executive at the Beeb who can liberate it please contact me.

Incidentally as a quick case-study, the BBC illustrates an important aspect of leadership, namely philosophy.

Philosophy (you could call it ‘fundamental purpose’) is the foundation on which to build strategy, management, operational activities, and pretty well everything else that happens in an organization.

Whatever the size of the organization, operational activities need to be reconcilable with a single congruent (fitting, harmonious) philosophy.

Executives, managers, staff, customers, suppliers, stakeholders, etc., need solid philosophical principles (another term would be a ‘frame of reference’) on which to base their expectations, decisions and actions. In a vast complex organization like the BBC, leadership will be very challenging at the best of times due to reasons of size, diversity, political and public interest, etc. Having a conflicting philosophy dramatically increases these difficulties for everyone, not least the leader, because the frame of reference is confusing.

For leadership to work well, people (employees and interested outsiders) must be able to connect their expectations, aims and activities to a basic purpose or philosophy of the organization. This foundational philosophy should provide vital reference points for employees’ decisions and actions – an increasingly significant factor in modern ’empowered’ organizations. Seeing a clear philosophy and purpose is also essential for staff, customers and outsiders in assessing crucial organizational characteristics such as integrity, ethics, fairness, quality and performance. A clear philosophy is vital to the ‘psychological contract’ – whether stated or unstated (almost always unstated) – on which people (employees, customers or observers) tend to judge their relationships and transactions.

The BBC is an example (it’s not the only one) of an organization which has a confusing organizational philosophy. At times it is inherently conflicting. For example: Who are its owners? Who are its customers? What are its priorities and obligations? Are its commercial operations a means to an end, or an end in themselves? Is its main aim to provide commercial mainstream entertainment, or non-commercial education and information? Is it a public service, or is it a commercial provider? Will it one day be privatised in part or whole? If so will this threaten me or benefit me? As an employee am I sharing in something, or being exploited? As a customer (if the description is apt) am I also an owner? Or am I funding somebody else’s gravy train? What are the organization’s obligations to the state and to government?

Given such uncertainties, not only is there a very unclear basic philosophy and purpose, but also, it’s very difficult to achieve consistency for leadership messages to staff and customers. Also, how can staff and customers align their efforts and expectations with such confusing aims and principles?

The BBC is just an example. There are many organizations, large and small, with conflicting and confusing fundamental aims. The lesson is that philosophy – or underpinning purpose – is the foundation on which leadership (for strategy, management, motivation, everything) is built. If the foundation is not solid and viable, and is not totally congruent with what follows, then everything built onto it is prone to wobble, and at times can fall over completely.

Get the philosophy right – solid and in harmony with the activities – and the foundation is strong.

This of course gives rise to the question of what to do if you find yourself leading a team or organization which lacks clarity of fundamental philosophy and purpose, and here lies an inescapable difference between managing and leading:

As a leader your responsibility extends beyond leading the people. True leadership also includes – as far as your situation allows – the responsibility to protect or refine fundamental purpose and philosophy.

See also the notes and processes for incorporating fundamental philosophy within strategic business development and marketing.

allegiance and leadership

Different leaders have different ideas about leadership. For example, see below Jack Welch’s perspective, which even though quite modern compared to many leaders, is nevertheless based on quite traditional leadership principles.

First here is a deeper more philosophical view of effective modern leadership which addresses the foundations of effective leadership, rather than the styles and methods built on top, which are explained later.

A British government initiative surfaced in March 2008, which suggested that young people should swear an oath of allegiance to ‘Queen and Country’, seemingly as a means of improving national loyalty, identity, and allegiance.

While packaged as a suggestion to address ‘disaffection’ among young people, the idea was essentially concerned with leadership – or more precisely a failing leadership.

The idea was rightly and unanimously dismissed by all sensible commentators as foolhardy nonsense, but it does provide a wonderful perspective by which to examine and illustrate the actual important principles of leadership:

Always, when leaders say that the people are not following, it’s the leaders who are lost, not the people.
Leaders get lost because of isolation, delusion, arrogance, plain stupidity, etc., but above all because they become obsessed with imposing their authority, instead of truly leading.
Incidentally, leading is helping people achieve a shared vision, not telling people what to do.
It is not possible for a leader to understand and lead people when the leader’s head is high in the clouds or stuck firmly up his backside.
That is to say – loyalty to leadership relies on the leader having a connection with and understanding of people’s needs and wishes and possibilities. Solutions to leadership challenges do not lie in the leader’s needs and wishes. Leadership solutions lie in the needs and wishes of the followers.
The suggestion that loyalty and a following can be built by simply asking or forcing people to be loyal is not any basis for effective leadership.
Prior to expecting anyone to follow, a leader first needs to demonstrate a vision and values worthy of a following.
A given type of leadership inevitably attracts the same type of followers. Put another way, a leadership cannot behave in any way that it asks its people not to.
In other words, for people to embrace and follow modern compassionate, honest, ethical, peaceful, and fair principles, they must see these qualities demonstrated by their leadership.
People are a lot cleverer than most leaders think.
People have a much keener sense of truth than most leaders think.
People quickly lose faith in a leader who behaves as if points 10 and 11 do not exist.
People generally have the answers which elude the leaders – they just have better things to do than help the leader to lead – like getting on with their own lives.
A leadership which screws up in a big way should come clean and admit their errors. People will generally forgive mistakes but they do not tolerate being treated like idiots by leaders.
And on the question of mistakes, a mistake is an opportunity to be better, and to show remorse and a lesson learned. This is how civilisation progresses.
A leader should be brave enough to talk when lesser people want to fight. Anyone can resort to threats and aggression. Being aggressive is not leading. It might have been a couple of thousand years ago, but it’s not now. The nature of humankind and civilisation is to become more civilised. Leaders should enable not obstruct this process.
traditional leadership tips – jack welch style..

Jack Welch, respected business leader and writer is quoted as proposing these fundamental leadership principles (notably these principles are expanded in his 2001 book ‘Jack: Straight From The Gut’):

There is only one way – the straight way. It sets the tone of the organisation.
Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organisation.
Get the right people in the right jobs – it is more important than developing a strategy.
An informal atmosphere is a competitive advantage.
Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
Legitimate self-confidence is a winner – the true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
Business has to be fun – celebrations energise and organisation.
Never underestimate the other guy.
Understand where real value is added and put your best people there.
Know when to meddle and when to let go – this is pure instinct.

As a leader, your main priority is to get the job done, whatever the job is. Leaders make things happen by:

knowing your objectives and having a plan how to achieve them
building a team committed to achieving the objectives
helping each team member to give their best efforts

As a leader you must know yourself. Know your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can build the best team around you.

However – always remember the philosophical platform – this ethical platform is not a technique or a process – it’s the foundation on which all the techniques and methodologies are based.

Plan carefully, with your people where appropriate, how you will achieve your aims. You may have to redefine or develop your own new aims and priorities. Leadership can be daunting for many people simply because no-one else is issuing the aims – leadership often means you have to create your own from a blank sheet of paper. Set and agree clear standards. Keep the right balance between ‘doing’ yourself and managing others ‘to do’.

Build teams. Ensure you look after people and that communications and relationships are good. Select good people and help them to develop. Develop people via training and experience, particularly by agreeing objectives and responsibilities that will interest and stretch them, and always support people while they strive to improve and take on extra tasks. Follow the rules about delegation closely – this process is crucial. Ensure that your managers are applying the same principles. Good leadership principles must cascade down through the whole organisation. This means that if you are leading a large organisation you must check that the processes for managing, communicating and developing people are in place and working properly.

Communication is critical. Listen, consult, involve, explain why as well as what needs to be done.

Some leaders lead by example and are very ‘hands on’; others are more distanced and let their people do it. Whatever – your example is paramount – the way you work and conduct yourself will be the most you can possibly expect from your people. If you set low standards you are to blame for low standards in your people.

“… Praise loudly, blame softly.” (Catherine the Great). Follow this maxim.

If you seek one singlemost important behaviour that will rapidly earn you respect and trust among your people, this is it: Always give your people the credit for your achievements and successes. Never take the credit yourself – even if it’s all down to you, which would be unlikely anyway. You must however take the blame and accept responsibility for any failings or mistakes that your people make. Never never never publicly blame another person for a failing. Their failing is your responsibility – true leadership offers is no hiding place for a true leader.

Take time to listen to and really understand people. Walk the job. Ask and learn about what people do and think, and how they think improvements can be made.

Accentuate the positive. Express things in terms of what should be done, not what should not be done. If you accentuate the negative, people are more likely to veer towards it. Like the mother who left her five-year-old for a minute unsupervised in the kitchen, saying as she left the room, “…don’t you go putting those beans up your nose…”

Have faith in people to do great things – given space and air and time, everyone can achieve more than they hope for. Provide people with relevant interesting opportunities, with proper measures and rewards and they will more than repay your faith.

Take difficult decisions bravely, and be truthful and sensitive when you implement them.

Constantly seek to learn from the people around you – they will teach you more about yourself than anything else. They will also tell you 90% of what you need to know to achieve your business goals.

Embrace change, but not for change’s sake. Begin to plan your own succession as soon as you take up your new post, and in this regard, ensure that the only promises you ever make are those that you can guarantee to deliver.

Here are some processes and tips for training and developing leadership.

leadership behaviours and development of leadership style and skills

Leadership skills are based on leadership behaviour. Skills alone do not make leaders – style and behaviour do. If you are interested in leadership training and development – start with leadership behaviour.

The growing awareness and demand for idealist principles in leadership are increasing the emphasis (in terms of leadership characteristics) on business ethics, corporate responsibility, emotional maturity, personal integrity, and what is popularly now known as the ‘triple bottom line’ (abbreviated to TBL or 3BL, representing ‘profit, people, planet’).

For many people (staff, customers, suppliers, investors, commentators, visionaries, etc) these are becoming the most significant areas of attitude/behaviour/appreciation required in modern business and organisational leaders.

3BL (triple bottom line – profit, people, planet) also provides an excellent multi-dimensional framework for explaining, developing and assessing leadership potential and capability, and also links strongly with psychology aspects if for instance psychometrics (personality testing) features in leadership selection and development methods: each of us is more naturally inclined to one or the other (profit, people, planet) by virtue of our personality, which can be referenced to Jung, Myers Briggs, etc.

Much debate persists as to the validity of ‘triple bottom line accounting’, since standards and measures are some way from being clearly defined and agreed, but this does not reduce the relevance of the concept, nor the growing public awareness of it, which effectively and continuously re-shapes markets and therefore corporate behaviour. Accordingly leaders need to understand and respond to such huge attitudinal trends, whether they can be reliably accounted for or not at the moment.

Adaptability and vision – as might be demonstrated via project development scenarios or tasks – especially involving modern communications and knowledge technologies – are also critical for certain leadership roles, and provide unlimited scope for leadership development processes, methods and activities.

Cultural diversity is another topical and very relevant area requiring leadership involvement, if not mastery. Large organisations particularly must recognise that the market-place, in terms of staff, customers and suppliers, is truly global now, and leaders must be able to function and appreciate and adapt to all aspects of cultural diversification. A leaders who fails to relate culturally well and widely and openly inevitably condemns the entire organisation to adopt the same narrow focus and bias exhibited by the leader.

Bear in mind that different leadership jobs (and chairman) require different types of leaders – Churchill was fine for war but not good for peacetime re-building. There’s a big difference between short-term return on investment versus long-term change. Each warrants a different type of leadership style, and actually very few leaders are able to adapt from one to the other. (Again see the personality styles section: short-term results and profit require strong Jungian ‘thinking’ orientation, or frontal left brain dominance; whereas long-term vision and change require ‘intuition’ orientation, or frontal right brain dominance).

If it’s not clear already, leadership is without doubt mostly about behaviour, especially towards others. People who strive for these things generally come to be regarded and respected as a leader by their people:

Integrity – the most important requirement; without it everything else is for nothing.
Having an effective appreciation and approach towards corporate responsibility, (Triple Bottom Line, Fair Trade, etc), so that the need to make profit is balanced with wider social and environmental responsibilities.
Being very grown-up – never getting emotionally negative with people – no shouting or ranting, even if you feel very upset or angry.
Leading by example – always be seen to be working harder and more determinedly than anyone else.
Helping alongside your people when they need it.
Fairness – treating everyone equally and on merit.
Being firm and clear in dealing with bad or unethical behaviour.
Listening to and really understanding people, and show them that you understand (this doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone – understanding is different to agreeing).
Always taking the responsibility and blame for your people’s mistakes.
Always giving your people the credit for your successes.
Never self-promoting.
Backing-up and supporting your people.
Being decisive – even if the decision is to delegate or do nothing if appropriate – but be seen to be making fair and balanced decisions.
Asking for people’s views, but remain neutral and objective.
Being honest but sensitive in the way that you give bad news or criticism.
Always doing what you say you will do – keeping your promises.
Working hard to become expert at what you do technically, and at understanding your people’s technical abilities and challenges.
Encouraging your people to grow, to learn and to take on as much as they want to, at a pace they can handle.
Always accentuating the positive (say ‘do it like this’, not ‘don’t do it like that’).
Smiling and encouraging others to be happy and enjoy themselves.
Relaxing – breaking down the barriers and the leadership awe – and giving your people and yourself time to get to know and respect each other.
Taking notes and keeping good records.
Planning and prioritising.
Managing your time well and helping others to do so too.
Involving your people in your thinking and especially in managing change.
Reading good books, and taking advice from good people, to help develop your own understanding of yourself, and particularly of other people’s weaknesses (some of the best books for leadership are not about business at all – they are about people who triumph over adversity).
Achieve the company tasks and objectives, while maintaining your integrity, the trust of your people, are a balancing the corporate aims with the needs of the world beyond.
great leadership quotes and inspirational quotes

Some of these quotes are available as free motivational posters.

“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss…. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads and the boss drives.” (Theodore Roosevelt)

“The marksman hitteth the target partly by pulling, partly by letting go. The boatsman reacheth the landing partly by pulling, partly by letting go.” (Egyptian proverb)

“No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.” (William Penn)

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” (President Harry S Truman)

“I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” (Woodrow Wilson)

“What should it profit a man if he would gain the whole world yet lose his soul.” (The Holy Bible, Mark 8:36)

“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” (Harvey Mackay)

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to look after them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” (John Steinbeck)

“I keep six honest serving-men, They taught me all I knew; Their names are What and Why and When, And How and Where and Who.” (Rudyard Kipling, from ‘Just So Stories’, 1902.)

“A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than the giant himself.” (Didacus Stella, circa AD60 – and, as a matter of interest, abridged on the edge of an English ?2 coin)

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” (Samuel Johnson 1709-84)

“The most important thing in life is not to capitalise on your successes – any fool can do that. The really important thing is to profit from your mistakes.” (William Bolitho, from ‘Twelve against the Gods’)

“Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be, For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud: Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but unbowed . . . . . It matters not how strait the gait, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” (WE Henley, 1849-1903, from ‘Invictus’)

“Everybody can get angry – that’s easy. But getting angry at the right person, with the right intensity, at the right time, for the right reason and in the right way – that’s hard.” (Aristotle)

“Management means helping people to get the best out of themselves, not organising things.” (Lauren Appley)

“It’s not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred with the sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause and who, at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” (Theodore Roosevelt.)

“Behind an able man there are always other able men.” (Chinese Proverb.)

“I praise loudly. I blame softly.” (Catherine the Great, 1729-1796.)

“Experto Credite.” (“Trust one who has proved it.” Virgil, 2,000 years ago.)

more great leadership and inspirational quotes
see also the free motivational posters for leadership quotes
leadership development exercises and games

The are various games and exercises on the f

Pakistan is a federation of four provinces, a capital territory and a group of federally administered tribal areas. The government of Pakistan exercises de facto jurisdiction over the Pakistan stern parts of the disputed Kashmir region,[6] organized as two separate political entities (Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan). Prior to 2001, the sub-provincial tier of government was composed of 26 divisions with two further tiers (districts and tehsils) administered directly from the provincial level.

Pakistan is a multilingual country with more than sixty languages being spoken. English is the official language of Pakistan and used in official business, government, and legal contracts, [29] while Urdu is the national language.

Pakistan is a great place for tourism as it has the most appealing and breathtaking views of mountains, plateaus and deserts. It has the high potential to attract a large number of foreign tourists, along with that, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) had set up 27 motels and 3 restaurants for the convienience of these foreign tourists, PTDC need to intensify their marketing ability in order to attract tourists from countries like, China, Middle East Korea, Japan, and many other countries. Moreover Pakistan government need to take certain actions, in order to promote and acknowledge Tourism in Pakistan, as doing so will not only benefit us financially but will also bring unity, compatibility and harmony among nations. Moreover government also need to encourage private sector to develop tourism-friendly environment which will result in financial stability.

Research methodology:

Most of the data obtained for this research will come secondary sources including book, internet, magazine etc but to increase the accuracy of information I will conduct primary research to validate my results from secondary data .

Tourism in Pakistan

Due to its diverse culture, people and landscape, Tourism is growing industry in Pakistan, even after considered as one of the most dangerous country in the world, According to British Magzine “The Economist”. In Pakistan there are number of varieties of attraction that ranges from the ruins of ancient civilization such as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Taxila, to the Himalayan hill-stations, that attract those interested in field and winter sports. Moreover, Pakistan has several mountain peaks of height over 8,000 metres (26,250 ft), that attract adventurers and mountaineers from around the world, especially to K2. Many domestic and International tourist visit these areas most often in the month starting from Aprail to September. Tourism has become the source of income for local people.

In 2009, Pakistan was ranked 113 out of 130 countries to visit, According to the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR). Although due to Political instability, sucide attacks, religious conflict, kidnapping of foreigner and uncertainty in the country had badly affected the Tourism throughout the country, especially NWFP, which is currently renamed as Pakhtoonkhwa.

For decades, Ecotourism has become the significant part of the tourism business in Pakistan, As it has offered many tremendous experience along with the stunning mountains of NWFP, attracting number of tourists all over the world for hiking, skating, forest camping, climbing, and exploring the region’s natural parks and forests. Pakistan ecotourism destination is unforgettable for those who have ever visited it.

Especially, Swat, Hunza, Ayubia, Abbottabad, Murrree, Naran and Kaghan have yet been known as the ideal tourists spot for both summer and winter season. The snow-peaked mountains, the natural parks and the wildlife in the forests offered an thrilling experience especially for the one who are in search of adventure.

The natural beauty of these mountainous scenery have attracted number of tourists generating vital jobs for local people in the hospitality-related businesses. Moreover the Swat valley alone – known as the “Switzerland of the East” – has become the centre for 800 hotels. Over 40,000 local people Pakistan employed directly in hospitality.

Impact of war on tourism in Pakistan:

Over the past decade, and especially since 2007, the rapid spread of terriorism have not only created uncertainty in the country but also crushed the major sector of economy that causes unemployment, Sucide bombing has become common in everywhere likewise, in shops, markets, public places, business centres and institutes. War and conflict is not limited to a particular city. Its effect is everywhere, anybody can be victim of it.

Due to fight between military and religious forces, the NWFP- which is considered 70% of the country’s tourists site, and where millions of people involved in the tourism industry are badly beaten. Continuous war and terror has weaken both the economy and defence of the area.

Due to worst security situation and many of the popular location are converted into war zones, hardly few travellers now visit Pakistan. Although after 9/11 attack in USA, there was a slow decline of tourists in Pakistan but the recent military operations and suicide attacks have been the last nail in the smashing of tourism industry.

Since the initiation of the major religious and military offensive, The earning that come from tourism has been declining dramatically. From Rs 16 billion in 2007, revenues halved in 2008, with a further major fall in 2009. The industry is now facing a $50 million annual loss as a result of the military operations.

The hospitality business had experienced a major fall of 40% in room occupancy countrywide. Moreover in NWFP, the insurgency has caused the shutdown of tourist industry. From the last three years the hotels have been closed while the industry has lost of Rs 600 billion. Moreover the transport industry is also going through tough times. Due to huge job losses in tourism and other related industry, majority of the people have migrated to other cities in the search of employment

Moreover the revenue that was generated from tourism has been declined by 11.8% in 2008, while 12% in 2009. The average family involved in tourism business used to earn around 40,000 per mouth and soon after war their earning has droped to 5000/ month.

With more than 25,000 people killed and more than a million displaced in the past year, planned hotel projects have been put on hold. The number of mountain climbers and foreign trekkers has reached zero. Barbarism and bloodshed now run rampant in places which once offered peace and tranquillity. No-one would dream of visiting these places for pleasure now.

Moreover adding to the crises faced by these shattered tourism industry, the federal budget has also been cut by 36 percent for 2010-2011 comparatively with the previous year. The only project this year will be to reconstruction and renovation of existing buildings. There isn’t any scheme introduced in order to help overcome terriorism.

With the Pakistani political leadership appears to unaware of the real potential of industry, that show little or no prospect in the coming years of tourism attaining momentum that it lost. With the whole industry standing on the boundary of collapse the future looks blank for Pakistan most spectacularly beautiful locations.

Pakistan strategy to control extremism:

In the eighth year of the global war on terror, the international community has realized that it is a war of ideas that cannot be won through force. Eventually Pakistan see that countries today have adopted unique approaches towards deradicalization according to the requirements of their cultural, political situation, and social specification. The aim of these practicing deradicalization programmes in Middle East and South East Asia, at a collective level, is to change the worldview of the affected persons. Private sectors or at some places government and private sectors together adopted the approach of ‘rehabilitation and re-education of the detainees’.

The failing war on terror on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border has also some structural causes such as exclusion of Taliban from Afghan government, public perception of Pakistan’s policies as a key US ally, use of force as a priority option, continued US drone attacks, denial of any relief and transitional justice to the victims of military operation, issue of Afghan refugees, and lack of trust between US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There exists a clear linkage between the lack of human security and the phenomenon of extremism. Rise in extremism can lead to human insecurity and vice versa. The governments of South Asian states have not been able to provide their people with the basic, minimum human security since these states became independent. Governments and ruling classes, instead of focusing on dealing with the issues of human survival and development, embarked upon perpetuating their poPakistanr and influence. Subsequently, no South Asian country has been able to free itself from discriminatory and exploitative policies, which increased insecurity and led to the rising number of communal and terrorist outfits. Despite the problems these outfits have created, no serious efforts Pakistanre made by the governments or the civil society to curtail the rise in extremist trends at the initial stages. All of the regional states are facing the menace of extremism and terrorism in one or other form.

The South Asian region currently faces grave security threats due to the increasing extremism and terrorism. There are various factors that have led towards this situation.

The politics of violence and extremism in South Asia is mainly the result of faulty national policies and interference of external powers. The region’s vast potential is hostage to unresolved inter-state and intra-state conflicts. In most of the states, the governments (either democratic or military) have failed in providing good governance and solving social problems such as unemployment, social injustice, and poverty. The political culture in these states was unable to meet the imperatives of globalization. In addition, instead of promoting unity and integration (both at national and regional levels) it led to ethnic solidarities and identification with religion and culture.

Source : http://www.cssforum.com.pk/general/news-articles/articles/26177-causes-extremism-south-asia-pakistan.html

How tourism situation could improve in Pakistan

The tourism sector is being overlooked by the successive governments and quite tiny amount is allocated in Public Sector Development Programme that hardly cater for it demands. At global level, Pakistan is wrongly projected in the media and tourists are advised not to visit this south Asian country, which offer four-season tourism opportunities.

It’s not just the security issue that haunt tourism as there as so many other factors that add to woes of this multi billion dollar trade the world over.

Lack of infrastructure, facilities to the tourists, transport, discouraging response from officials circles etc are some of the prime areas that need to be improved on war-footing.

?Until and unless take this (tourism) industry on priority basis, Pakistan are not going to see it flourishing. Pakistan also need to put in maximum resource in our tourism sector,

Pakistan is the most blessed country on the map of the world and stands unique in the comity of nations owing to its diverse cultures, rich archaeological heritage, remains of ancient civilizations including Gadara and Indus, five out of 14 mountain peaks above 8000 metre, serene valleys, gushing rivers, vast deserts of Tharparkar and Cholistan.

What has been explored so far in terms of tourism in Pakistan is a tip of an ice-berg with a lot more still awaiting to be discovered.

Pakistan will plan to explore more sites in Murree, Punjab, Balochistan where, Pakistan hope, a tremendous potential exists,He opined that promotion of tourism could help Pakistan and its people forge friendly relation with the people and governments of neighbouring countries.? Tourism could also be put to new dimensions if Pakistan improve relations with other countries.

Pakistan is a rich country in its diversity, culture, and adventure tourism, as we have four main provinces and seven destinations – the Gilgit-Blatistan, NWFP, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Azad, and Kashmir and Islamabad – each has its own attractions and different cultures. When visiting these regions, you feel that you are in another country. Also we have, at the same time, different weather, and you can enjoy the four seasons travelling in one trip. For example, you can [go from] the extreme cold [to the] extreme hot – we have summer in the north, and winter in the south.

Pakistan is a unique destination [and] offers unique products for tourists. People visiting us enjoyed their stay [because of] our hospitality and what we offer them, and trust me, that no other destination in the region has the diversity that [is] available in Pakistan. The features from region to region [are] different; the language, the culture is also different; the appearance of the people is also different; so here you can enjoy and return home with strong experiences and [an] unforgettable trip.

Pakistan have the K2, which is the second-highest mountain in the world. The unique thing [is] that when you drive [by] bus, you can see from your window the K2, which is over 8,000 meters [in] height. This view is not available [at] any other place. Here also we have very beautiful enhancing valleys, rivers, and small villages; also deserts, forts, and hustling, bustling cities. On the seaside, resorts and hotels are offering wonderful accommodation and sea views with sea sports facilities. However, our main attraction is the adventure tourism in the K2.

Security situation for tourist in Pakistan:

We can count on my fingers, the places that tourist don’t advice, but we cannot count the places that is safe and wonderful. The foreign media is so against Pakistan; they publish so negative and fake news and exaggerate about Pakistan, which is not true, and they affect our tourism industry, so it’s the media which presents the wrong pictures of Pakistan. Before this campaign in the foreign media, tourists were coming in good numbers, Yes, Pakistan have areas where some problems are happening and some issues in a very few parts of the country where tourists should not go; yes, Pakistan have problems in such places like [the] Suat Area, but [the] media do not say in detail which places are not safe – they say Pakistan in general, which is not true. Southern parts are totally secure, Penjab and the K2 area are secure, and there was no report in history about unsecured things happening. [The] mountain area [is] so beautiful, so clean. Most of the country [is] safe, and you can ask the people who came here and visited Pakistan – they will report to you how much they enjoyed [it], and they can give their remarks and ideas. if you ask those who came here, they will give you the correct story and not from the media.

Pakistan is receiving thousands of tourists from China and India coming here to Pakistan, simply because they don’t trust and they don’t listen to the media that shows Pakistan as a burning or dangerous country. They are coming and enjoying their stay and return with [a] very positive experience. Also, adventure tourists are coming because they know that Pakistan is a safe place, and because they are trusting when people told them [they] are welcome, they come from all parts of the world.

Adventure tourism in Pakistan is like Makah for religious tourism. Although in the region we have Nepal and other parts, but here we have huge mountains like the Eastern Himalaya and others. Over 8,000 meters [in] height, [the] longest chain of mountains, we have created incentives; they took the charges and reduced the fees to visit the mountains – 50 percent, this is one incentive – not a single bad event happened. Here you can do tracking, exploration, rafting, whatever, hiking. Just you are here in the most wonderful area, and you are free to enjoy it at your most.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

Pakistan is unique ! Situated in the heart of the South Asian sub-continent, it is a country with its own history and cultural heritage, fascinating in its own right. Pakistan was the site for one of the world’s earliest human settlements, the great prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization, the crucible of ancient empires, religions and cultures.

The land of Pakistan ranges from lofty mountains in the north, the Karakoram and the Himalayas, through dissected plateaus to the rich alluvial plains of the Punjab. Then follows desolate barrenness of Baluchistan and the hot, dry deserts of Sindh blending into miles and miles of golden beaches of Makran coast. Come and Explore the Treasures of Pakistan with us. A visitor to Pakistan is more than a tourist – to us he is an honored guest.

Competitive advantage of Pakistan over other countries:

o compete, a country has to possess a competitive advantage in terms of what it can offer better than the other countries. The other part of the competitive advantage equation is that the advantage the country possesses needs to get translated and communicated in marketing terms to the rest of the world. The advantage normally comes from the resources it has, and, more than that, the quality and quantity of these resources. The three major resources are financial, physical and human ones. These in economic terms are also known as factors of production i.e. land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship.

the tourism potential in the Northern Areas is no secret. The beautiful landscape and the unique cultural heritage give the Northern Areas a competitive advantage in attracting tourists. So our question is not how to identify the tourism potential, but rather to consider how tourism can help conserve this unique natural and cultural heritage while also contributing to desired improvements in the quality of life in the Northern Areas. These are the general goals, as I see them, of ecotourism. In order to understand how ecotourism might help to achieve this potential, we need to understand just what ecotourism is. This convention is about sustainable tourism, so we must also understand what we mean by sustainable tourism, and what are the similarities and differences between sustainable tourism and ecotourism.

Gilgit Baltistan is, perhaps, the most spectacular region of Pakistan in terms of its geography and scenic beauty. Here world’s three mightiest mountain ranges: the Karakoram, the Handukuch and the Himalayas – meet. The whole of Gilgit Baltistan is like a paradise for mountaineers, trekkers and anglers. The region has a rich cultural heritage and variety of rare fauna and flora. Historically, the area ha remained a flash point of political and military rivalries amongst the Russian, British and Chinese empires. Immediately after the end of British rule in the sub-continent in 1947, the people of this region decided to join Pakistan through a popular local revolt against the government of Maharaja of Kashmir.

Five out of the fourteen mountain peaks with height of over 8000 meters including the K-2 (world’s second heights peak) and some of the largest glaciers outside polar regions are located in Gilgit Baltistan. Acknowledging the vast potential of tourism and its effects on downstream industries, the Government of Pakistan as well as the Gilgit Baltistan Administration are focusing on tourism for creation of employment opportunities, achieving higher economic growth and to introduce to the outside world, “the hidden treasures” of Gilgit Baltistan.

Beautiful landscape, unique cultural heritage and rich biological diversity given the Gilgit Baltistan a competitive advantage in attracting tourists from all over the world.

The number of tourists visiting Gilgit Baltistan has steadily increased over the years, not-withstanding the dip-in figures immediately following 9/11. However, the challenge ahead is not merely to increase the number of tourists visiting Gilgit Baltistan but also to consider how tourism can be better promoted without affecting the natural and cultural heritage of the area, while also improving the quality of life of people to the desired levels.

Mohenjo-Daro was a city located in the south of Modern Pakistan in the Sind Province, on the right bank of the Indus River. It was built between four and five thousand years ago, and lasted until 3,700 BP. It was part of the Harrapan Civilization, and the city had at least 35,000 residents. Mohenjo-Daro means “mound of the dead”. The city was approximately one square mile in size. In 1922-1927 large scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro Pakistanre carried out by R. D. Banarjee and continued by M. S. Vats and K. N. Dikshit under the direction of Sir John Marshall. E. J. H. MacKay carried out further excavations from 1927 to1931. Sir Mortimer Wheeler made small excavations in1950.

As a result of this extensive work almost one-third of the area of the old city was exposed, revealing for the first time the remains of one of the most ancient civilizations in the Indus Valley. Typical of most large and planned cities, Mohenjo-daro had planned city streets and buildings. The settlement was thought to house roughly 5,000 people, and had houses, a granary, baths, assembly halls and toPakistanrs. The city was divided into two parts, the Citadel included an elaborate tank or bath created with fine quality brickwork and drains; this was surrounded by a verandah. Also located here was a giant granary, a large residential structure, and at least two aisled assembly halls. To the east of the citadel was the loPakistanr city, laid out in a grid pattern. The streets Pakistanre straight, and Pakistanre drained to keep the area sanitary. The people of the city used very little stone in their construction. They used two types of bricks- mud bricks, and wood bricks, which Pakistanre created by burning wood. They used timber to create the flat roofs of their buildings; there are brick stairways leading to the roofs of many houses. Some houses Pakistanre small, and others Pakistanre larger with interior courtyards. Most had small bathrooms. Potter’s kilns, dyer’s vats, as Pakistanll as metalworking, bead making, and shell-working shops have all been discovered. The people Pakistanre good at irrigation and flood control. HoPakistanver, when the Indus River changed its course around 3700 years ago, the civilization died.

In Balochistan there are many caves for cavers and tourists to visit especially the Juniper Shaft Cave, the Murghagull Gharra cave, Mughall saa cave, and Pakistan’s naturally decorated cave, the Mangocher Cave. Pakistan is a member country of the Union International de Speleologie (UIS).

The northern parts of Pakistan are home to several historical fortresses, toPakistanrs and other architecture including the Hunza and Chitral valleys, the latter being home to the Kalash, a small pre-Islamic Animist community.[Punjab is also the site of Alexander’s battle on the Jhelum River. The historic city of Lahore is considered Pakistan’s cultural centre and has many examples of Mughal architecture such as the Badshahi Masjid, Shalimar Gardens, Tomb of Jahangir and the Lahore Fort. The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) also helps promote tourism in the country. HoPakistanver, tourism is still limited because of the lack of proper infrastructure and the worsening security situation in the country. The recent militancy in Pakistan’s scenic sites, including Swat in Khybar Pakhtoon Kawa province, have dealt a massive blow to the tourism industry. Many of the troubles in these tourist destinations are also blamed on the frail travel network, tourism regulatory framework, low prioritization of the tourism industry by the government, low effectiveness of marketing and a constricted tourism perception. After these areas Pakistanre being cleared off the militant groups in late 2009, the government, with financial support from the USAID, started a campaign to reintroduce tourism in Swat valley. Pakistan receives 500,000 tourists annually, with almost half of them heading to northern Pakistan

Strategies to improve tourism in Pakistan:

2. Safety

3. Emergency evacuations

4. Easy bookings of hotels and resorts, train and air services, cabs etc.

Tourism is, in the current period, one of the areas that can provide regional and country, a profitable and economic development. Natural and anthropogenic potential which Romania has is necessary to be properly exploited, providing promotion and development of investment programs, able to attract a large number of tourists. The project is presenting a series of specific mountain tourism development through investment programs focused on strategic quality tourism services and protect the natural environment.

Airports are the gateway to the country. Facilities and handling provided at the

international airports from a lasting impression on the foreign tourist. Our airports suffer from a number of drawbacks despite the vast improvements undertaken in recent years.

Sufficient attention has not been paid to the periodic training and education of personnel involved in handling immigration, security and health checks. Personnel at the airports would be encouraged to learn at least one foreign language. Suitable financial incentive will be provided for this purpose. Facilitation counters located in the immigration area will be manned by the personal of PTDC. Accredited representatives of recognized travel agencies would be given identity cards valid up to airline and immigration counters.

Baggage handling and clearance system should be improved.

The tour operators will arrange insurance cover for the tourist groups handled by them.

The existing requirement of police registration and restriction of movement of foreigners would be removed except where specifically required under security considerations.

Most tourists visiting Pakistan require visas, which are issued by Pakistani Embassies or High Commissions in other countries. While implementation is satisfactory, visas are an irritant to tourism and add to the cost of a holiday. Visas for nationals from some

neighbouring states include considerable restrictions, which puts significant limitations on the development of regional tourism. However, as a part of its policy to facilitate tourism, the government has recently eased restrictions on visas.

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation maintains 21 Tourist Information

Centers at various sites across the country; in addition, there are information offices

operated by provincial tourism authorities. However, the standard of service offered isvariable and a rationalization of all centers is required, with staff training in foreign languages and customer relations. High-tech Tourist Information Centers of the kind available at Karachi International Airport, with e-mail, fax, and website facilities need to be established at the other major airports and city centers.

A website of 1500 pages showing Pakistanis scenic tourist sites and cultural heritage has recently been launched which will greatly enhance awareness both nationally and internationally.

There are approximately 41 tour operators in Pakistan that provide destination

management services for domestic and foreign tourists. As their services are critical to the development of international tourism, they need to be treated as a primary sub-sector and supported accordingly.

Several areas of regulation impact negatively on tourism, such as the forbidden

photography of bridges and airports, and restricted zones where trekkers require special permission to enter. These restricted areas could be limited and perhaps renamed permit zones. Tribal leaders may be involved in the development of ?? tourism activities in their areas.

Although Pakistan possesses world-class tourist attractions, the international tourist

potential of areas such as the Swat Valley has been considerably reduced because of the lack of planning regulations, over-development and environmental degradation. Due to lack of co-ordination between the tourism industry and authorities in charge of natural, historical or religious sites, the tourism potential of such sites is not fully realized.

Conclusion:

It’s the only industry, which needed more and more exploration’ (Zamir Sheikh)

Pakistan is a major tourist attraction because it is blessed with natural beauty and

Historical places that can yield huge foreign exchange if properly and methodically

Exploited. Tourism could become foreign exchange earning industry for the country.

Though Pakistan, has lately taken initiative but still there is dire need of tireless efforts to exploit this sector and to add more dimensions to attract the tourists.

No proper attention was paid to harness the God gifted opportunity to earn more and

More foreign tourists and foreign exchange which would open up new vistas of

Employment in the tourism sector. Moreover the tourists may find and explore the market of their interest in Pakistan.

Involvement of private sector was important to give boost to tourism. Private sector

Should be given not only tax exemption but they also should be provided with vast

Opportunities to invest and they must be facilitated also in terms of money; a network of five stars hotels and motels should be constructed at all tourists’ spots and tourist

Operators may be provided necessary facilities, which on the one hand helped reduce unemployment while on the other harness foreign exchange.

Private sector should take initiative to develop and exploit all tourist attraction and

Historical location in the province, which unfortunately, has suffered due to negative

Concept about its law and order.

Good hotel industry acceptable to the international standards would give boost to the

Tourist industry, which has suffered because of a number of reasons and one of them, was lack of proper accommodation for local as well as foreign tourists. At present there are about 4000 to 4500 rooms available in five star hotels throughout Pakistan, which were insufficient to the demand.

It is fair to say that internet has revolutionized the way we buy airline tickets or choose our holidays. The internet is responsible for a major shift in airline and travel industry. This was not the same some years before as when the internet was in its infancy, the main problem of booking airline ticket online was to find out what you are looking for and also having the confidence to buy it online due to the money involved in it. Booking tickets online is not something that is uncommon these days. But nowadays it has become like a second nature for large number of people to open up the search engines and purchase all kind of things from electronic items, foods to air tickets. “David J http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_J_Cook”

The success of internet giants like Amazon and eBay with its secured payment systems like PayPal has given confidence to the buyers to purchase things online and today almost everyone knows the advantages and benefits of buying flight tickets online for the domestic as well as international travel. Although it’s not very easy task but the airline and travel agent websites has made internet travel booking so simple that even a person with little computer knowledge can purchase cheap tickets online and enjoy benefits. Quick booking facilities and best profitable bargains can be enjoyed at the ease of sitting at home rather than standing in queues for hours on airline ticket counters. The online buyer can easily compare the airfares of different airlines and can choose the best bargain and online booking is the best solution to get cheap flights tickets and also the best travel solution for those travelers who cannot afford to spend too much on traveling. “David J http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_J_Cook”

And cheap tickets are not hard to find now, it’s easily available online through the convenience of doing it at home rather than visiting a travel agent or airline office to book it and within few clicks tickets can be booked using your credit or debit card and within few days the e-ticket is delivered in your mailbox and at your correspondence address. Today there are lots of other websites other than airline official websites where the travelers can book their tickets and these websites are designed in such a way that a traveler has to just specify the date of travel and destination and the search engine within that websites pick up the best deals and the discounted offers from any airline. In recent times there are lot many deals offered by airline companies and travel agents exclusively for online booking, which is one of the another reason to book tickets online. “http://www.articlesbase.com/flights-articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-buying-airline-tickets-online-447497.html#ixzz14spqtU1q”

The advantages of online booking or the services which the airline websites offers for online booking are discussed below

Convenience

Booking tickets online removes a lot of direct or personal contact with the travel agents or airlines as booking the ticket on the window counter of airlines sometimes requires a long time waiting in queue and airline reservation over the telephone often requires dialing the customer care number of particular airline or travel agent and then selecting the complicated options and then waiting in queue to talk to the customer service representative of that company.

Booking online eliminates all this layers of difficultly and provides ease to customers to book ticket their anytime whether day or night and online reservation also provides the convenience of electronically check in for the flight sitting at home and can choose their seats in accordance to their comfort.

Security

Booking online provides security as compared to traditional method of booking through call centre and when purchasing tickets through telephone, a customer has to provide the bank card or credit card details and other sensitive information to the person we don’t know but online booking is far more secure than it as when booking the ticket online, only information essential for the transaction is collected over a secure connection.

Cost

When the ticket is purchased online or a reservation is done online, the booking process is handled by automation services due to which travel companies can pass the savings to customers in the form of special discounted rates, coupons as there is no need to pay salary to employees. And many discount airlines provides special online fares which are available to customers who book their tickets online.

Control

One of the most compelling advantages of online booking is Control. A passenger can not only see the flight arrangements, but can also select his seat and choose his meal. As online booking doesn’t require any interactions with travel agent so the customer can search for more possible options and search different airlines fares at once for the specific destination. A traveler can also book his hotel online by seeing all the available rooms and can also check the rooms with its competitor for the best available option.

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Airlines offer a range of services to passengers who book their tickets online like:

Airline credit cards: Many airlines offer airline credit cards like platinum and gold cards to their customers. These credit cards give additional services to the cardholders like excess baggage allowances, enrollment benefits and other privileges to cardholders.

Mobile phone information services: Many airlines use mobile phone to keep their customers updated. They send instant flight status, flight alert and schedule on mobile phones. Thus this helps the customers to know instantly about the delays and cancellations of flights.

Manage booking service: This online service enables the customers to provide their contact details and other information about their while booking their tickets online which can be later modified at any time, the modifications can be made as late as 24 hours before the departure date.

Mobile Ticketing services: Now tickets can also be booked using mobile phone internet anytime and anywhere. Payments can be made, manage bookings, cancellation of bookings and refunds of payments. All this are possible using mobile internet services.

Multi Journey: Some airlines also provide the option of breaking journey online. That means if a traveler is planning to tour another destination before reaching or returning to its destination, all the tickets can be booked at once.

Hotel bookings: Some airlines also provides the facility of booking hotels on their websites which can help the traveler save time in searching for hotel booking and traveler can also rely on the hotel booking on the website of airline as that hotels are the airline trusted hotels.

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The process of online booking is quite simple but there few circumstances where the customers can gets frustrated while searching for the best deal. This can happen due to the lack of knowledge of right place where to search for cheap tickets and book tickets. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky as some people just end up with jumping from one website to other which consumes a lot of time and this make it hard to search the best deal available. One other problem which customer might face is as the transactions is carried online, the customer is not dealing with the real person so the customer might not get much help or assistance needed but if the customer is dealing with the travel agents, they might give suggestion regarding upcoming deals or cheaper deals in near future.

To sum it up, the internet has completely changed the way the customers book their flights, buying tickets online has make life easier as the customer don’t have to go physically to the travel agent or airline office. Everything can be done at the comfort of the home and customers can also take advantage of the additional services offered by the airline companies exclusively for web. However searching for the ticket on the right website is of utmost important so that customer won’t end up in spending more time and still not getting the best deal available.

Referencing

“David J http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_J_Cook”

“http://www.articlesbase.com/flights-articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-buying-airline-tickets-online-447497.html#ixzz14spqtU1q”

“The Advantages of Online Booking | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_6167630_advantages-online-booking.html#ixzz14grTodas”

“http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Parinaz_Driver”

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of home stay accommodation to Thai tourism. The first concern of this paper is to identify the definition of home stay, identify the group of customers who like to use home stay accommodation in Thailand and also discover the activities that prove to be attractive to them. The second concern of this paper is that the development and expansion of a home stay destination should lead to advantages such as an increase in local income and employment opportunities. On the other hand, when too many tourists come to an unspoilt area it can have an adverse effect on the balance of natural ecology. For example, two places, namely “Pai in Mae Hong Son province”, one of the most popular home stay destinations in the North which is over developed , and “Chiang Khan in Loei province”, a developing home stay destination in the northeast of Thailand. Some people said that Chiang Khan is Pai of the past. Within Pai itself, there is a movement to resist against the excesses that has spoilt Pai and destroyed its peaceful rural character that had drawn people to it in the first place.

Thailand is a developing country that attempts to grow and tourism is an industry that can significantly help stimulate economic growth. Consequently, when home stay tourism improves, it will expand the power of supply and help draw more tourists. Therefore, sustainable development is the better way to balance the development and maintain the original character. Logically, the more travel destinations developed, the more tourists will come and the more money the country will earn.

Keywords: Home stay, Thailand, Sustainable development

Introduction

Tourism makes a major contribution to Thailand’s economy. Most tourists come to Thailand for various reasons — mostly for the beaches and relaxation. The friendly, easy-going ways of the Thai people also proves a draw to most tourists, as well as the rich Thai culture, customs and history. The new marketing slogan which was adopted in mid 2009, “Amazing Thailand, Amazing Value”, and the government’s stimulation package also seemed to have helped reverse the downward trend for the latter half of 2009 and for the present year.

Moreover, nowadays, most people are concerned about the effect of global warming and are returning to nature; in another word “Green” has become a new catchword for tourists. Not only “Green” but also “Sustainable” are the popular words more and more tourists are fanning out into the countryside to be closer to nature. Consequently, rural tourism makes use of the countryside as a destination. It is a significant sector of overall tourism market in many countries. It will affect not only the environment but also the economy and social structure of the countryside. The number of activities that tourists participate in has grown. For example, agri-tourism (agricultural, festivals and other cultural events), green tourism (considered to be more environmentally friendly) and ecotourism (nature tourism). Home stay is a part of rural tourism. In addition, sustainable tourism development is synonymous with rural tourism. Nowadays, home stay tourism in Thailand has become very popular for both domestic and foreign tourists. Part of the reason may be due to the effect of the world economic crisis, with most tourists worrying about their budget and travelling in this kind of home stay tourism costs less. So, the Thai Government rapidly develop Thai home stay to meet this new demand for economical packages. But it can be a two-edged sword with both positive and negative sides. Therefore, we must find the right balance.

Definition of Home stay

Home stay is a form of tourism that allows the visitor to rent a room from a local family to stay and better learn the local lifestyle and share their culture. It is comparable to the western concept of bed and breakfasts. A home stay property is a non-commercialized, private residence that accommodates paying guest(s) who enjoy staying in the comfort and security of a family home. In Thailand, the history of home stay began with students who were volunteers for rural development camps and who stayed with the local people during the course of their camp. Then, National Economic and Social plan 8th emphasized the development of communities and decentralization to local areas and home stay had its first formal recognition. The attraction of home stay is the way of life of the local people and natural attractions are not always considered an essential part. There are two types of home stay in Thailand which are the “original” and “practical”. In the original home stay concept, tourists stay with the host and live under the same conditions as the owner. In the practical home stay, conditions are improved for more physical comfort but the concept of an easy way of life and unique culture is not abandoned.

However, the significance of home stay is participation in community life in which local people manage activities together. The activities vary from place to place and according to seasonal variations. They may include Thai culinary, Thai massage, farm life etc. Moreover, OTOP (One tambon one product) is a concept whereby local people are encouraged to make local products for sale to boost their income. The owners are encouraged to think that each visitor is “a guest, not just a tourist” (tourismthailand.org). They are a part of the family. Home stay is just another job for the home owner. When tourists come he will extend them his welcome but he still retains his main job such as fisherman or farmer. The advantages of home stay are the local knowledge that will be gained from the host, understanding the easy way of life and experience the natural kindness of the local people. Moreover, the local people receive more income but they do not abandon their main job. In addition, they share the experience with the tourists, get more friends and the community can become strong. In the age of globalization, many people live in a competitive world so many people now want to explore the easy life and a life of simple sufficiency as an alternative way of life.

An additional benefit of home stay accommodation is that most of the money earned goes to the grassroot local people, rather into a large conglomerate? The local home owners get most of the money paid by the tourists. This has a more substantial benefit to a community, rather that if a large hotel chain was to open a large hotel and merely employ local people as hotel staff. Most of the earnings will then go to the hotel chain, with most of it likely sent out of the country.

The owner and accommodation should meet the standard of home stay in Thailand. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has set 10 standards and 31 indicators.

Demand for home stay in Thailand

The majority of income in Thailand comes from agriculture and tourism. Income from tourism is significant for the Thai economy in terms of expanding and stability of the economy. Tourism in Thailand caters both to domestic and foreign travelers. Nowadays, Thailand in faced with negative situations which decreased the confidence of tourists from 2008 until now. “TAT expects the number of international tourists will grow at around 7 to 10% to approximately 15.0 to 15.5 million in 2010” (Tourism Authority of Thailand.com). The Bank of Thailand stated that “there are 1.6 million foreign tourists who traveled to Thailand in February 2010” which represented a drop from last year. “Domestic tourists were not particularly affected by the political situation. It was more influenced by the economic slowdown and fluctuating oil prices in the first and second quarters of 2009. Local travelers have changed their travelling habits, are more conscious of travel expenses, and are tending to visit tourist destinations closer to home” (Tourism Authority of Thailand.com). The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board predicted the economy would grow at 3 to 4% due to the global economic recovery and the government’s Thai Khem Khaeng (‘Stronger Thailand’) economic stimulus programme. New tourist attractions and activities that reflect the culture and style of a particular region will also be introduced. Therefore, the government supports and aims at the recovery of the Thai tourism market through marketing campaigns namely road shows to restore the image of Thailand and promotional advertisements under the Amazing Thailand, Amazing Value concept.

Home stay is one of the better destinations which has proved attractive to both international and domestic tourists. It is a part of tourism in Thailand which continues to grow and earn income because it is set in rural areas far from the negative effects of political disturbances, is not expensive and brings visitors into close contact with nature. The tourists can relax among friendly local people. Therefore, the measurement and understanding of the demand and supply for tourism is important to overall tourism planning and management. We will know overall picture of the development, growth and value of tourism. All tourist behavior or activity results from motivation. Motivation is the context of the demand for tourism.

Motivations have both push and pull factors together. The push factors are socio-psychological motives (person-specific factors). The pull factors are motives aroused by the destination (destination-specific factors). Tourists who go to home stay destinations usually have both push and pull factors. They want to relax, be close to nature and share knowledge, which are push factors. The pull factors are from the easy way of life of the people, unique culture and eco-friendliness. For example, a mini-farm is a magnet for tourists who travel with children. Mostly, domestic tourists usually go to home stay by car because some places are not far from urban centers such as Bangkok. It does not take too much time to immerse oneself in relaxation, fresh air and escape from the complicated city life. In contrast, international tourists mostly are backpackers usually stay a long time in home stays because of cheap prices but also because of the calmness, relaxed life style and the ability to explore new experience.

Supply of the Home stay in Thailand

On the supply side, the development of home stay is happening in Thailand. It is stimulated by the demand which comes from tourist needs. Some people want more comfort, some want plain, simple facilities, others demand higher standards. So, the local people work together toward the development of standards for home stay facilities in Thailand.

Sometime, the popularity of a destination can lead to mass tourism. Mass tourism is a situation where a large number of tourists go to one place, sometime leading to an overload of local facilities. This can lead to further development of transport and other utilities until the easy way of life disappears. Moreover, it will adversely affect to the environment.

Pai in Mae Hong Son province and Chiang Khan in Loei province are examples of popular home stay destinations in Thailand that have been developed to different degrees. One has already been spoilt and the other is resisting against a tendency toward over development. Pai is a small district in Mae Hong Son which was an ideal destination, being nestled in a small valley surrounded by mountains with cool weather. It was a romantic spot with friendly people can rich culture. Some people have referred to the village as called Uto-Pai, mimicking the name Utopia of Sir Thomas More. All this has made Pai very well known as hoards of tourists are drawn to it. Material development followed and soon the small village of Pai had its own air strip where tourists can arrive after a mere 25 minutes from Chiang Mai. Hotels and resorts also sprang up in its wake. All these development had a negative effect on the local inhabitant; while they used to be wont to retiring to bed early after a hard day’s work, they are now disturbed by loud music at entertainment places late at night. “Music festivals” became weekly events in the winter months. Some local people sold their land to capitalists and move to the foothills for the sake of peace and quiet. These changes reflect the fact that Pai is changing rapidly in both positive and negative ways. In addition, local children are falling to temptations from the western ways of tourists. Some local people said these development are more like deterioration.

Not only Pai but Chiang Khan (a district on the bank of the Mekong river in Loei province), a relatively recent home stay destination, is facing similar problems. The conflict between local people and government is looming. The government wants to develop the town to cater to more and more tourists, but many local people want to see a steady growth of Chiang Khan. They want Chiang Khan to be strong, to retain its rural qualities and control itself. They do not want more bright lights in Chiang Khan, do not want to follow the modern trend because tourists come and go rapidly and do not stay a long time. Nowadays, some of the local people in Chiang Khan are already closing rank in a fight against rapidly over development. They have formed a tourism association within which they discussed the problems of westernization and over development which has plagued Pai. They have started a website where every one is welcomed to add comments. They are fighting against bright lights, loud music and weekend concerts that have combined to destroyed Pai’s rural character. They want tourism in Chiang Khan to be sustainable. They do not want Chiang Khan to have luxury “boutique hotels”, modern pubs or franchise coffee shop chains. They want Chiang Khan to retain its rural character with an easy way of life, home stays based on original houses without elaborate decoration, so when tourists come they will feel like they are the part of the family and coffee is still hand-brewed traditional coffee. Some people said that Chiang Khan is Pai of the past. Therefore, before Chiang Khan changes like Pai we must to help each other.

Sustainable development of Home stay in Thailand

Tourism, if developed locally, can help to ease the poverty problem, reduce income disparity and achieve a friendly environment as well as common prosperity. Tourism brings not only benefits but also costs and if not well managed may undermine its sustainability in the long run. In Thailand, tourism has a positive income generating effect but potentially worsening income distribution (Mingsan Kaosa-ard 2006). The best way to balance the development is through sustainable development in which every part must work together.

Sustainable Development is development that satisfies the customer needs now but does not destroy tomorrow’s resources. The Pareto Optimum states that no one can be made better off by making someone worse off (businessdictionary.com).

Customer demands lead to marketing research and material development. That is the marketing process. After that, planning and management are essential for achieving successful tourism development.

Sustainable Tourism Development emphasizes the management of tourism industry must adapt itself according to the changing face of the world in term of sustainable pattern. There are three parameters of sustainability which are economic (well being), environment (ecological balance) and socio-cultural considerations (Sense of community and security). For example, the development should makes more money while at the same time have a minimum effect on the environment and social-cultural framework.

The key to sustainable tourism development is to educate communities so that they understand the negative impacts of mass tourism and the limit to the ecosystem’s carrying capacity, and to develop diversified tourist products that can minimize the negative impact of mass tourism.

For instance, in France they have standard and label for accommodation which confirm the standard and evaluate the standard and quality every five years. The label is one of marketing strategy which make good picture of the product. Moreover, they separate the demand equal in every areas and every part works together. Those are the good example for the development of home stay which Thailand should adapt for the development of home stay in Thailand.

Amphawa floating market (Plai Pong Pag community) is a good example of home stay in Thailand which supports many tourists every year. It affects the quality of life of the local people, while the rapidly rising number of tourists has unavoidably led to a deterioration in the environment. Most of the home stay places have not attained the standard of home stay in Thailand even though this is the first community to launch the concept of home stay, but they have failed to meet the home stay standards. Because some home stay have transformed their homes so much that they became more like resorts and they do not match the qualifications of the home stay standard. Home stay will get the standard when they do not add more building and tourists must stay with the owner. According to that problem, National economic and social plan 9th stated that sustainable tourism in Thailand which wants to be a quality destination and ready in supply of tourism for support many tourists.

We can transmit knowledge of France to Thailand; not in its entirety but we can adapt it. The government should have an effective and systemic plan such as setting policies or laws for the community and provide for penalties for culprits. It is hard for the government in Thailand to extend proper care to the home stay business in some communities because the local people worry about taxation and are not always forthcoming with information for the government. So, the government should establish an institute which can win the confidence of the local people and demonstrate the significance of the standard and effective management to the local people.

The negative impacts on Pai and Chiang Khan happened because of civilization, but the impact on Amphawa was due to the ignorance of the local people. Therefore, the development is a two-edged sword that can have both advantages and disadvantages if we are ineffective. The best solution is the cooperation of everybody, beginning with community participation and the support of the government. The government decentralizes budgets to the community but continue to give technical advices to the local people. After that, policies such as the limit on the number of tourists will happen not only to care for the environment but for the sake of tourists who do not want to be in a place crowded with other tourists; they can relax and be closer to nature. Moreover, the local people can take care of all tourists like a part of the family. Do not forget that sustainable development is the better way of development and sustainable concern three things which are economy, environment and also socio-cultural parts.

Conclusion

In conclusion, tourism constitutes a major part of the Thai economy, encompassing both domestic and international tourists. Home stay is an alternative form of tourism which is based in the rural area that tourists stay and live with the local people. They can share the experience and culture. In Thailand, home stay began with the student volunteer for rural development camps and after National economic and social plan 8th home stay was developed until now. The motivations for travel home stay have both push and pull factors. The push factors usually are for relaxation. Mostly, domestic tourists go to home stay by car and relax for two or three days, but international tourists often stay much longer. The pull factors usually are the easy way of life, close contact with nature and fresh air. Material development is significant for home stay because it has both positive and negative sides. Material development can help attract tourists, although consideration must be given to suitable forms of development that should not destroy the original attraction of the place. It is a good marketing strategy to improve the quality of home stay accommodation. The home stay standards have been laid down in Thailand, but most of the home stays in Thailand still do not meet them, such as in Amphawa. Moreover, some places such as Pai is overloaded with tourists while Chiang Khan is still trying to resist this trend toward over-development. Pai and Chiang Khan demonstrate both advantages and disadvantages of material development. The solution for a balance is sustainability which centers on economic, environmental and socio-cultural considerations. France can be a good example for sustainable development. Thai home stay should adapt it and adopt it right now. The government should start by educating the local people and then carry out research on customer needs, marketing strategy, planning and management. In addition, strong policies are significant, with a need for penalties for those who break the rules. The importance is the cooperation of everybody in the country, because everybody is part of the progression of Thailand.

In an era that is faced with the perceived consequences of economic, social and cultural shifts variously labeled ‘post-modernity’, ‘globalization’ and ‘the post-industrial revolution’, an increasing number of urban authorities in the UK and beyond have adopted strategies of ‘re-imaging’ their cities as ‘creative cities’ and/or attractive locations for footloose capital. The production of spectacular urban events has frequently played a central role in such strategies (Harcup, 2000:p.215). Therefore this essay evaluates how and why an event can be used to promote a destination image with Birmingham serving as a case study. It also focuses on the strategies deployed by Birmingham and how the city has used a combination of ‘mega sport events’, and event bids to further its reputation as tourist destinations (Smith, 2006:p.77).

The transformation, enhancement and promotion of urban image have emerged as central planks of the entrepreneurial governance of western cities. Both the number of cities engaged in place promotion and the variety of media used has grown in recent years (Barke & Harrop, 1994:p.93-114).The economic rationale behind these efforts is to attract jobs, tourists and residents to replace declining former manufacturing economies (Harvey, 1989:p.3-17, Dicken and Tickell, 1992; Haughton and Lawless, 1992; Decker and Crompton, 1993). Consequently, place promotion has been widely posited as a tangible part of the urban development process. Place marketing has thus become much more than merely selling the area to attract mobile companies and tourists. It can now be viewed as a fundamental part of planning, a fundamental part of guiding the development of places in a desired fashion (Fretter, 1993:p.165).

Images play a fundamental role in determining the success of tourist destinations (Smith, 2006:p.77). Destination image is defined as not only the perceptions of individual destination attributes but also the holistic impression made by the destination. Destination image consists of functional characteristics, concerning the more tangible aspects of the destination, and psychological characteristics, concerning the more intangible aspects (Echtner & Brent Ritchie, 2003:p.43). Within destination image research the concept of branding is used in two different ways. The first involves analyzing the relationship between cities and established consumer brands. In recent years the distinction between cities and such brands has been eroded due to various initiatives which aim to use brands to boost city images and vice versa (Smith,2006:p,79). The second way branding is used in destination image literature is as a broader concept, imported from marketing theory. In such analysis the focus is not the relationship between destinations and established brands, but on creating a destination brand using various conceptual models and schema. This type of brand building can also be linked to sport events. Indeed, several cities have deployed sport as the main theme of their branding (Smith,2006:p.80). Many types of attractions are identified and promoted as potential lures for tourists but traditionally tourist destinations have been categorized into natural or man-made attractions. Ritchie identified another attraction category which can enhance destination image and therefore tourist appeal. The category to which Ritchie refers is that of ‘hallmark events’ which are defined as, ‘Major one-time or recurring events of limited duration developed to primarily enhance the awareness, appeal and profitability of a destination in the short and/or long term. These events rely for their success on uniqueness, status, or timely significance to create interest and attract attention'(Ritchie, 1984:p.2-11)The examples of typical ‘hallmark events’ illustrated by Ritchie are international trade fairs, culturally unique events and sporting events which capture a market interest larger than those of local enthusiasts (Riley & Van Doren, 1992:p.268).

One such city that benefits from ‘hallmark events’ as a reimaging theme is Birmingham. The term ”reimaging” refers to attempts by urban destinations to purposefully reconfigure these ideas and conceptions (Smith,2005:p.219).Whitelegg (2000:p.83) identifies, sport has been used as a central component in this restructuring of the urban image. In the UK, Birmingham has adopted an economic strategy based on attracting major sports events to their area as a catalyst to stimulate economic regeneration (Gratton & Henry, 2001:p.39). Birmingham was the host city in Euro 96 and has been designated as the ‘National Cities of Sport’. Birmingham’s sport-led regeneration strategies were motivated by destination image considerations (Smith, 2002) and thus provide illustrative examples of sport reimaging (Gratton & Henry, 2001:p.35).There is significant evidence that the city has deliberately used sports events to enhance its image (Loftman & Navin, 1996;Smith,2005a).

Over the past 20 years, Birmingham has aimed to become a city capable of attracting and entertaining visitors. This ambition has been supported by several major sport initiatives, including the city’s bid to host the 1992 Olympic Games, an annual ‘Super Prix’ motor race around the city’s streets, and the construction of the National Indoor Arena (NIA). This Arena has enabled the city to stage a number of high-profile sport events, including Davis Cup tennis and international indoor athletics. According to several commentators, Birmingham’s image changed markedly because of the implementation of these and various other initiatives introduced during the 1980s (Lister, 1991). Smyth, (1994:p.180) observes that during this period Birmingham used a ‘tripartite thrust’ of business tourism, arts, and sports to promote the city. The city asserts in its Strategic Plan 2005-2010 that ‘developments in the arts, sport and leisure have been a key part of Birmingham’s renaissance over the last twenty years, helping to establish and sustain Birmingham’s image as a modern and creative city’ (Smith,2005:p.12). Thus it seems Birmingham sees modernity and creativity as two connotations that sport event initiatives may have helped to cultivate. According to the city’s Principal Officer-Sport (now Chief Executive of UK Sport) Richard Callicott, the mere association of sport with the city can generate positive feelings, such as excitement (personal communication, 1999). Callicott also feels that sport initiatives can become effective agents of image change, provoking associations with ‘dynamism, excitement, internationalism, athleticism’, and a ‘warm welcome’ (Smith, 2006).

A research was conducted to evaluate the value of sport reimaging by establishing if and how sport initiatives affect city images. This research attempted to establish what effects strategies adopted by Birmingham have had on city images held by potential tourists. To ascertain these effects, three main research areas were addressed. First, it was important to evaluate the extent to which potential tourists were aware of the initiatives that had been implemented, as it was assumed that initiatives could have little effect if tourists were not conscious of their existence. Second, the research evaluated if specific sport initiatives adopted in the city had affected the city image Third, more general information was sought from participants regarding their interpretation of urban sport initiatives. This information was required to identify some of the characteristics of sport reimaging that facilitate, or obstruct positive image change (Smith, 2005:p.222).

A semi structured interview was conducted which explored more detailed images of the city and the attitudes and meanings generated by associating sport with a city (Smith, 2005:p.223).Interviews were conducted with ‘potential tourists’, rather than tourists who had already decided to visit a particular destination (Smith,2006:p.85). The findings of the present study suggest that recent sport initiatives have not been a significant agent of Birmingham’s recent image change. None of the interviewees cited recent sport events when justifying why their image of Birmingham had changed over recent years, whilst only two interviewees specifically mentioned sport events when detailing their holistic images of Birmingham. No interviewees cited the city’s bid for the 1992 Olympic Games in the unprompted section of the interviews, suggesting that this bid has had little influence on Birmingham’s contemporary holistic image. Only one interviewee suggested that events had affected their image of the city. In a question relating to another city, this person indicated that they recognized Birmingham’s general efforts to attract sport events and felt that they had contributed to the enhancement of the city’s image. Other recollections of recent sporting events in Birmingham were not always as positive. Therefore, although events can provide important synecdochical images, these representations are not necessarily positive (Smith, 2006:p.85-86).

In general, the synecdochical effects of Birmingham’s event re-imaging are unremarkable. Birmingham’s sport initiatives do appear to be widely acknowledged by potential tourists. However, the actual impact of the National Indoor Arena and the Olympic bid on the city’s image, though evident, is unspectacular. More encouragingly, the National Indoor Arena has stimulated positive synecdochical images of Birmingham for some potential tourists. This effect has been facilitated by positive perceptions of the NIA’s immediate surroundings and its exposure via the popular television programme, Gladiators (Smith, 2006:p.87). Birmingham has also revealed its long-term commitment to hosting sport events through its stated intention to bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

For destinations ranging in size from small towns to countries, event tourism is increasingly becoming a key aspect of their overall tourism development efforts. Sport initiatives appear particularly proficient as tools for connoting that a city is more ‘interesting’ (Smith, 2006:p.94). These positive readings of sport event re-imaging have been enabled by the positive meanings attached to the concept of sport in contemporary culture. Despite diverse individual attitudes to sport, this shared interpretation allows sport event imagery to generate consistently positive meanings amongst potential tourists, generating the capacity to enhance holistic city images. Sport has the potential and the capacity to influence holistic images, both directly, through the development of new synecdochical images, and indirectly, via the meanings generated by city-sport event associations. Therefore, it is useful to revisit these key ideas to explore whether they help to explain if and how sport initiatives affect city images (Smith, 2006:p.94).

The economic effect of tourism on a country

Spending holidays abroad with family, is trendy these days. People around the world visit different places during summers and winters. I and my family too visit different places during vacations. When in a foreign country, I have always wondered, “How does the country benefit from attracting tourists?” I roughly knew the answer that the money that tourists spend in that particular country is the income of the tourism industry. But after this research, I have now understood that tourism is an important part of an economy and the money it earns is helpful to everyone.

GENERAL IMPACTS:
General Positive effects of tourism:

It creates employment for people of the country.
It promotes cultural awareness and also helps to preserve local culture and traditions.
Money gained from tourism can be used to develop the infrastructure and services e.g. new roads and airports.
In LEDCs money can be invested on developing education, clean water and sanitation.
The foreign money can become aid to local people.
Natural attractions can be protected using income from tourism.
GOOD ECONOMIC IMPACTS:

It generates foreign exchange.
It creates new job and employment opportunities.
It stimulates trade, income and entrepreneurship – especially in small business sectors.
The provision of new infrastructure which is available for non-tourism uses.
It increases regional development – particularly in isolated areas.
It generates greater collection of taxes and revenues.
General Negative impacts:

It can have a negative impact on the environment. It increases air travel and thereby contributes towards air pollution.
Mostly local people are employed in low skill, poorly paid work in unhygienic working conditions.
Travel agents, airline companies and hoteliers benefit more than local companies when holidays are booked to destinations in LEDCs.
Destroys local culture and traditions.
Locally run accommodation companies face competition with foreign companies which build hotels in this new tourist destination.
BAD ECONOMIC IMPACTS:

1) Necessity to import goods increase.

This is especially with small economies which often do not produce what the tourists demand, and therefore import to meet the demands of the tourist.

2) Displacement effects.

When a new tourism project takes customers away from an existing industry or facility, the economy is said to be shifted.

3) Over-dependence on tourism.

When initially developing, the tourism industry is in vigour. The people start investing their money in this industry, resulting in downfall of other industries that were initially present. But soon tourists begin to dislike the particular tourist location and the economy falls.

4) Over-reliance on labour.

As the tourists would increase, the labour required to fulfil their requirements would increase. The industry would extensively rely on labour; therefore these companies would highly exploit labour to meet the tourist demands.

5) Higher land values.

Higher number of tourists would require more accommodation. Therefore hotels, lodges and rest houses are built. These results in shortage of land and the prices shoot up, which affect the locals.

6) Prices of goods increases.

More tourists’ means more needs of supplies example: food, water, electricity, gas supply, etc. Also maintenance and repair would increase. These would make the market more expensive, making difficult for local people.

UNITED KINGDOM:

According to World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the industry grew by 1.3% in 2012. This rate of growth means that Tourism industry directly contributed ?35.6 billion to the British economy. The number of jobs that tourism supported was forecasted to increase by 250,000 between 2010 and 2020, from 2.645 million to 2.899 million. One in twelve jobs is currently supported by tourism.

The UK has the fifth largest tourism industry in the world. It comprises of 200,000 enterprises. 70,000 establishments include major world-class hotels, country house hotels, guest houses, holiday parks, 110,000 restaurants, bars and pubs are surviving on Tourism. Moreover 7,000 businesses including theme parks, museums, heritage sites, parks, gardens, zoos; 25,000 businesses staging conferences, festivals, exhibitions and concerts are also dependent on Tourism.

It has low barriers to entry making it able to respond quickly to changes in demand, and highly efficient in rapidly creating employment. Recently increased visa and Air Passenger Duty charges worsened the situation, as the UK’s VAT rates for accommodation and restaurants, have become twice of the main tourism industries in Europe. If these VAT rates are reduced, the Tourism industry might not suffer much.

FUTURE SCENARIOS: Tourism is forecasted to contribute over ?100 billion to the UK economy.

INDIA:

The demand tourism in India is expected to grow by 8.2 percent between 2010 and 2019 and will place India at the third position in the world. India’s tourism sector is expected to be the second largest employer in the world, employing 40,037,000 by 2019. The report forecasts India to get capital investment worth US$ 275.5 billion in 2018.

Positive Impacts:

It has generated income, resulted in poverty alleviation and has generated great number of jobs.
The tourism industry in India generated about US$100 billion in 2008 and that is expected to increase to US$275.5 billion by 2018 at a 9.4% annual growth rate.
It helps in preservation of heritage sites like old monuments (ex. Taj Mahal and Qutab Minar) and saving the biodiversity; therefore attracting more tourists and resulting in more income.
It encourages infrastructure development, health care facilities, recreation areas, hotels and restaurants; which again increases the number of tourist’s attractions.
Problem in India:

The major problem in the development of tourism in India is inadequate infrastructure including less air seat capacity, accessibility to tourist destinations, accommodation and trained manpower in sufficient number. Poor visitor experience and poor hygienic conditions are also some of the problems.

It sometimes leads to the destruction of social fabric of country. When too many tourists visit a place, the chances of development of crime and human trafficking may happen at a great extent. And therefore India has to spend money on crime control. It may lead to suspicion, tension and hostility between locals and the tourists, as they share different cultural backgrounds and lifestyles. This may lead to disputes and violence, overall reducing the tourist count.

AUSTRALIA:

In Australia, tourism directly and indirectly employed 907,100 persons.
In 2010-11, Australia nearly earned $73.3 billion from tourism industry.
The total output multiplier is 1.92, which means every $1 tourism industry earns, adds 92 cents extra indirectly to other parts of country’s economy.

State Tourism Satellite Accounts (2011) show that out of $65.4 billion, which were contributed by the states mostly were:

New South Walesaˆ”$21.3 billion (33 per cent)

Queenslandaˆ”$16.3 billion (25 per cent)

Victoria – $13.4 billion (21 per cent).

The number of tourists by 2021-2022 is forecasted to increase by 0.8 %, which means around 308 million tourists would visit in Australia.

SPAIN:

The tourist boom that began in the mid-1950s was based on the recreational assets of the Mediterranean seashore areas. In 1970s and 1980s, when the tourist boom was playing its role, tourism development lead to the loss of traditional jobs, when workers moved from industries such as : Farming, forestry, mining and Shing into service jobs in tourism and made a serious impact on the overall economy.

Tourists had spent around 49 billion Euros in Spain in 2010. The real foreign tourism has increased by 8.65 %. The income was about 159.9 billion Euros in 2011 according to world tourism and travel council. The industry is predicted to gain 180 billion Euros by 2022.

Tourism also contributed to 12.7% of total employment and 2,304,500 jobs were created. The employment number is predicted to rise to 2,369,000 by 2022. But if the country experiences major drawback in tourism industry in the future, it would for 12.7 % of the people to lose their jobs.

CHAPTER 1 – HOUSEKEEPING (INTRODUCTION)

1-1: An unfortunate truth-

It is unfortunately true that housekeeping department being the largest department is the least admired and appreciated department in a hotel, which is maybe because of its ‘back of the house’ identity, its limited contact with guests and its only job of cleaning and maintaining the hotel. Housekeepers are the unsung heroes of the hotel.
But today housekeeping department is no more a back of the house department, rather it is an important and integral department in a hotel. In accordance with the modernization and advancement in technology, housekeeping department has changed itself in a better way according to the present day scenario in the hotel industry.

1-2: What does Housekeeping department ensure?

An effective and efficient housekeeping department essentially ensures the cleanliness, secures the safeguard, maintains an aesthetic upkeep in the hotel and deals with all the ancillary services provided by the hotel.
The functions performed by hotel housekeeping department determines all the day to day operations of the hotel. Its main significance is to ensure cleanliness, comfort and safeguard in the hotel and to professionally upkeep a higher level of quality service at all times.
In today’s tough and competitive scenario, maintaining exquisiteness in the hotel is hard and satisfying guest with that exquisiteness is even harder.

1-3: Changes in the job of Housekeeping department-

In past times, the job of Housekeeping department was limited to the only responsibility of ensuring cleanliness and maintenance of the hotel on a timely basis, but today various and enormous changes have been made to the job of Housekeeping department ranging from the dealing with diverse cleaning chemicals, managing ‘lost and found’ and avoiding theft in the hotel.

CHAPTER 2 – HOUSEKEEPING MANAGERS AND HOUSEKEEPING

2-1: Latest trends going on in Housekeeping-

As the hotel industry is focusing more on recycling inventory, waste composition and environment conservation, housekeeping department needs to make some habitual changes and in order to meet the primary challenges it necessarily needs to follow the latest trends going on in the hotel industry, some of which are given down below:

2-1-1: Recycling and utilizing inventory – Using old linens as towels and aprons, purchasing cleaning and guest supplies in bulk to save money, exchanging old furniture and equipment’s with scrap dealer for money or donating them to institutions or charities are some of the emerging inventory trends going on in hotel housekeeping scenario.

2-1-2: Technology savvy – Nowadays hotels are largely depended upon the use of technology to save time, bring personalization in service and ensure quality service. The use of i-pads and i-pad minis in in-room service as an e-butler which allows the guest to access the options like remote control lighting and door locking system, entertainment services like music and camera and other options. This use of technology also helps the hotel to work efficiently in day to day jobs as it enables the optimal utilization of time at one click.

2-1-3: Housekeeping software – Hotel housekeeping software is a web based system that helps to cut the cost, save the time and reduce the human effort for efficient and effective management of housekeeping jobs. It enables the hotel management system to link with all the departments through web, it makes online reservations and booking features in order for hotel to increase the occupancy, it keeps the expense and usage records of the inventory and generates the reports within seconds.2-1-4: Eco-friendly practices – Hotel industry is increasingly focusing towards environmental awareness, becoming eco-friendly and moving towards reliable tourism. Hotel housekeepers emphasize eco-friendly policies in their daily briefings, creatively use local crafts in guestroom amenities and turn down services to promote and profit local trade, ensure that all the guestroom amenities are eco-friendly and no plastic and chemicals are used, encourage guests to participate in linen and towel re-use programs.

2-2: General challenges and problems in Housekeeping-

Some of the general challenges and problems faced by Housekeeping managers includes managing back to back situations, mismanagement of jobs, pest controlling, cleaning linen and towels and laundry, replenishing guestroom amenities and bathroom toiletries, bed making challenges, seasonal challenges, dealing with cleaning chemicals and equipment’s, security of guest’s belongings, etc., some of which are detailed down below:

2-2-1: Pest Controlling – The challenge of Housekeeping managers in pest controlling service is to deal with different kind of pests such as mosquitoes, cockroaches, insects and flies, lizards and rats. Save the hotel building from birds and their doing feces is also a difficult task. Housekeeping managers should coordinate with pest control vendor to ensure measures taken regarding all the pest control tasks and treatments such as timely spraying, fogging, fumigation, gel treatment, keeping gum boards for lizards and rats, using lemon grass oil spread to resist mosquitoes, birds gel and spikes and netting to resist the hotel building from birds.

2-2-2: Seasonal Challenges – Housekeeping managers encounter cleaning challenges mostly during rainy season. Cleanliness and maintenance of guest areas during rainy season becomes challenging because rainwater as flows down in guest areas along with soil leads to the algae growth and other issues in guest areas. Rainy season can also cause infestation in the hotel premises as it brings insects and flies along with it, so Housekeeping managers should ensure that there is no water logging and there is no possibility of insect infestation throughout the hotel premises. Keeping foot prints off the floor during rainy season is also a difficult challenge for housekeeping managers.

2-2-3: Security of guest’s belongings – There is always a certain extent of fear in guest’s mind when leaving their valuable items in hotel’s room. As this is a genuine fear of items getting lost or stolen. Housekeeping managers should always take some serious measures regarding guest’s valuables. Housekeeping managers need to create and circulate some strict rules to safeguard the guest’s valuable items being lost or stolen by the housekeepers. Nothing other than missing of guest’s valuables weakens the guest’s trust.

CHAPTER 3 – LINEN CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO CURRENT TRENDS

3-1: Change in linen trends –

There has been a scenario in hotel industry a few years ago wherein every hotel housekeeping used to repeat the same linens every year. This scenario was same for both bed and bath linens as well. Every guest could probably find the same white, plain and striped linens and same plain terry towels across every hotel they would visit. Despite this scenario has been changed as the trends has been changed as well.
Previously, hotel housekeeping used to have a maximum thread count of 400 but presently it has been lengthened to 1500 which ranges from 550 GSM to 700 GSM. Whereas, previously linens were made from 100% cotton but presently hotel housekeeping use linen made from the mixture of cotton and polyester and sometimes even 100% polyester made linen is also used. Mixing polyester and several other fabrics like organic cotton, Egyptian cotton, microfiber, nylon, etc., in linen increases the strength and durability of linen.
Housekeeping managers of many hotels even provide their guest with a linen menu which consists of a choice of pillows ranging from microfiber, cervical, soya, horse hair, memory foam, bamboo pillows and even a pillow concierge for assistance to ensure guests a happy sleep.
Housekeeping managers of many hotels are adopting the technique of RFID or Radio Frequency Identification that acts as a linen management system which enables the housekeeping managers to tackle the challenges and problems faced by them regarding the management of the linen and linen related issues.
Another upcoming trend in hotel housekeeping is the use linens made from organic products like bamboo, coir, jute, paper, wool, etc., and the use of linens which take less time in drying.
Ranging from energy saver lighting and water saver bathroom amenities to eco-friendly linens, hotel housekeeping are adopting various techniques to cut linen cost and long term operational cost to initiate more efficient and effective practices.

3-2: Linen challenges and problems –

The use of RFID technique by the hotel housekeeping for linen management like linen inventory control, linen purchase, etc., cannot be adopted by many hotels because it is a costly system that requires a high cost involvement.
The adaptation of energy efficient, environment friendly and organic products like eco-friendly linen, eco-friendly chemicals such as Eco booster, Eco soft, Eco tide, etc., by the hotel housekeeping is also reducing because it also requires a high cost involvement.
Cross contamination of clean linens is one of the major challenge faced by housekeeping managers. They face major problems in keeping clean linens fresh and keeping them away from dirty and contaminated linens.
Selecting appropriate and proper materials from which the linens are made up of is also a major challenge faced by housekeeping managers. They face major problem when selecting the materials like cotton, polyester, microfiber, nylon, wool, etc.
Linen is mostly damaged due to excess of chemicals during washing and excess of heat during drying. Regulating chemicals during washing linens and reducing heat during drying, can increase the life of linen. Increasing the life of linen for budgeting costs and managing linen inventory is an adequate and crucial factor in hotel housekeeping. Changing and replacement of linen can be a costly operation.

CHAPTER 4 – LAUNDRY CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO CURRENT TRENDS

4-1: Current laundry trends –

Housekeeping managers are adopting RFID or Radio Frequency Identification technique for laundry management as it oversees it by increasing productivity, preventing loss during linen exchange, budgeting costs, tracking and recording laundry activities, monitoring laundry functions, reducing labor costs and lowering operating expenses.
Housekeeping managers are adopting Ozone laundry system to reduce costs and implement environment efficient practices. The major advantage of Ozone laundry system is that it has an on premise installation and does not disrupt any other housekeeping operations. Ozone laundry system evaluates hotel laundry operations and enables the housekeeping managers for cost and energy savings.
Housekeeping managers are adopting the use of special detergents with color protection technology formulated to keep dark fabric dark and the original color retained, use of bleach pens for effective upkeep of fabrics with a fine point applier technology, use of fabric softeners and whiteners, spa like treatment with laundry detergents that care fabrics with aromatic therapeutic scents and wrinkle free sprays that softens and crisps the fabric without using an iron.
Housekeeping managers are adopting waterless laundry system with polymer bead technology which provides a solution to the problem of water, detergent and electricity usage and wastage. This system replaces 80% of water, uses 50% less detergent and electricity in contrast to the traditional used methods. This technology has outperformed the traditional laundry methods with today’s laundry methods used by the hotels.
Another trend followed by housekeeping managers is the transformation of in-house laundry operations into polymer bead laundry system which helps to cut laundry operational costs by 50% and enables efficiency in usage of water, detergent and electricity. This technology allows the tough stains on linen to remove and linen gets cleaned in betterment for extending the life of linen, so as to provide the guests with cleaner linens and keep the linen inventory in use for a long time.

4-2: Laundry challenges and problems –

A challenge faced by housekeeping managers is to wash anything and everything ranging from shoes, microfiber cloths, garments and mop heads. Washing all the laundry fabrics all together causes problems, damages the fabrics and even the machines. But at the same time, it can be expensive and excessive to wash them separately or wash them by hands.
In hotels, the stains of coffee, tea and chocolates can be washed, but washing the stains of blood and some permanent stains is a challenge for housekeeping managers. Nothing can be resolved other than discarding the linens with such stains, and replacing them can involve high cost.
A major challenge faced by housekeeping managers is that the removal of stains from fabrics takes time and needs patience, that housekeeping managers during laundry operations don’t have. The challenge housekeeping manager’s face is to identify and treat the stain based on the type of stain it is. Is it an oil based stain, an organic stain or a nonorganic water based stain.
Another challenge which housekeeping managers face is the smelly and dirty washing machines. After washing hundreds or thousands of fabrics in laundry in a week, washing machines needs to be washed once in a week too.
Housekeeping managers face a major challenge of labor intensiveness, which is the most expensive component in laundry operations. It is a cost factor which requires a high cost of involvement. The challenge is to cut labor costs by utilizing the laundry standards with efficiency and effectiveness.

CHAPTER 5 – GUEST SUPPLIES CHALLENGES IN REGARD TO CURRENT TRENDS

5-1: Change in guest supplies trends –

Other than providing friendly and personalized services, what interests and fantasizes the guests are the in-room guest supplies and amenities. Ranging from grooming products to cosmetic products or techno savvy products, in-room hotel guest supplies or amenities have been advanced as hotels all over the world are accepting and appreciating the latest guest’s trends.
The standard old trends in hotel guest supplies of keeping a chocolate on the pillow or other food amenities during turn down service, offering a welcome drink on check-in and providing complimentary Wi-Fi, no longer interests the guests now. In the world of high-end guests who expect high-end amenities look for extravagant facilities and services.
The new trends in in–room guest supplies that are emerging in hotel nowadays is providing whole minibar as complimentary amenity and offering the guests an amenity menu to choose the amenity of their choice.
The standard hotel bathroom with tiled floors and shower curtains no longer fantasize the guests now. Guests of today want the bathroom trending such as distinctive faucets and sinks, extravagant lighting systems, illuminated mirrors, glass paneled doors, which boosts the bathroom design.
Housekeeping managers have understood the change in trends of guest supplies and are shifting towards providing exclusive branded amenities to their guests. Accor’s luxury hotel segment Sofitel provides its guests an elegant refinement of products from exquisite brands such as Hermes, Lanvin, Cinq Mondes and Carita.

5-2: Guest supplies challenges and problems –

The major challenge faced by housekeeping managers in guest supplies is the cost-factor. Housekeeping managers face a cost-cutting problem which diversely affects the quality and quantity of the guest supplies and amenities provided to the guests.
Another challenge faced by housekeeping managers is the keeping minibar stocked or re-stocking of minibar amenities. Guests often complaint about the inflated price of the minibar amenities. So it is also a major challenge for the housekeeping managers.
The challenge which housekeeping managers face regarding minibar guest supplies is to use costly branded products and make it a complimentary amenity. Instead they can use local or less expensive products in minibar and make it complimentary.
Wi-Fi has been a standard amenity in the hotel guest’s supplies. Housekeeping managers regarding hotel Wi-Fi face cellular challenges of weak signal strength and network capacity issue.
Customizing and personalizing hotel guests supplies according to the specific preferences and demands of the guests and providing the best of quality services and facilities in guest’s supplies is another major challenge faced by housekeeping managers.

CHAPTER 6 – CONCLUSION

6-1: Critical Analysis –

All the hotels around the world are pursuing to look for efficient and effective ways of meeting the needs and demands of the guests and providing the best of quality services, in which hotel housekeeping department plays a vital and crucial role.

Hotel housekeeping department ensures to provide an all new element in the luxury to guests and guestrooms in the terms of linens, laundry, guest supplies and other ancillary amenities. The emerging trends of linens, laundry and guests supplies in hotel scenario directly collide with challenges faced by the housekeeping managers regarding these three aspects.

Changes in linen operations due to cost and other factors such as using single bed sheets instead of two bed sheets, mixing polyester and several other fabric materials with cotton to make linens, are some of the changes that are taking place.

Laundry operations where new washing techniques such as steam laundry, waterless laundry and ozone laundry are taking place because water is a perishable resource and need to be saved and for more environment efficient techniques.

In today’s hotel scenario of high-end guests who expect high-end amenities and look for extravagant facilities and services, demand for more due to the rise in their disposable income. And by providing exquisite guest supplies hotels can rise up to the expectation mark of the guests.

In the end I’d like to conclude that the housekeeping department is an important and initial part of the hotel which is not going to change anytime soon or later.

Anchit Garg

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The Regency Grand Hotel is one of the most prestigious and luxurious hotels in Bangkok, Thailand. Since its inception, it has earned a brand name in the industry owing to the exceptional salaries and benefits offered. The hotel staff and managers felt privileged being a member of the hotel, and perceived that they were being taken well care of under the leadership of the then General Manager.

The following case study illuminates the dilemma of the employees undergoing the management changeover following its acquisition by an international group.

In the earlier set-up, the employees were expected to follow the orders of their managers without questioning them. Initiatives to solve problems at personal level were discouraged and it led to lack of innovation and risk-averse behavior. Eventually, the hotel staff got accustomed to the style of management over the past fifteen years, and it made the work go smoothly with minimal number of conflicts.

However, the recent sale of the hotel to a new American group introduced an altogether new style of administration to the employees. The management style of the new GM was entirely opposite to what the staff was familiar to, and it caused problems bringing the hotel’s performance and reputation down the drain.

Problem symptoms and indications

The former style of management gave limited authority to the front line employees and did not permit them to take any action on the spot without referring to their superiors. On the contrary, the new General Manager (John Becker) encouraged them to perform beyond their routine duties to provide customized services and thus make them feel special. This is directly related to empowerment, which is a key aspect in the service industry especially the hotels (Hubrecht & Teare, 1993). Becker’s motive in employee empowerment was linked with his intention to achieve competitive advantage through upgrading the staff competencies. As stated by Wall, et.al (2002, p.147) employee empowerment results in motivation, inventiveness, implied knowledge, participation, and enthusiasm necessary to survive in today’s cutthroat competition.

Although, Becker saw empowerment as a means to enthuse employees and “delight the customers” (Barbee & Bott, 1991, p. 27) the hotel’s current managers expressed their disappointment. They were discontented with the idea of giving bottom line employees more authority and decision powers. The disparity in management approach is attributed to the cultural differences in these countries, for instance power distance, and uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1980, p.45-55).

Thailand and USA fall in the extreme ends of the cultural continuum presented by Hofstede (1980). Efforts are generally focused towards equal distribution of power in USA, while only a few people are given authority in Thailand given the larger power distance in the latter. Also, there is strong uncertainty avoidance in Thailand, calling for more written rules & regulations, whereas uncertainty is easily accepted in USA and emphasis is laid on minimal formal rules (Hofstede, 1980, p.51).

Becker failed to recognize these cultural differences while implementing his theories into practice. Joining a new organization and country demands awareness about the various social and cultural issues involved before transforming the existing practices (Lane & Beamish, 1990, p.88). What worsened the situation further was his previous experience in places with poor performance and low employee morale. It is noticeable that his new assignment was doing sound business; therefore, his approach ought to be different in this case.

Becker spent a great deal of time with the employees in an effort to elucidate his expectations from them. The role theory (Bush and Busch, 1981; Teas et al., 1979) mentions that the frontline employees have a greater need for role precision to carry out their duties efficiently. Role clarity perceived by the customer-contact employees is not only advantageous for customer satisfaction, but is also associated with employee’s job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance (de Ruyter et al., 2001).

Yet, he did not succeed in putting a clear demarcation between complex and small issues. This kind of uncertainty was a continuous threat and led to higher anxiety and stress among the employees since strong uncertainty avoidance prevails in Thailand (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p.47). The employees did not have a clear role perception due to role ambiguity. In this regard, Saks (1996, p.301-23) states that role perception is a result of role ambiguity, and with time this may result in stress specially when working under a new management.

In addition to that, the employees were not able to distinguish between a major and a minor problem because of the lack of training (assumption). They had never been assigned a decision-making role before, and unfortunately did not receive a proper guidance from their seniors in such difficult situations.

A further study into the Regency Grand Hotel shows that in quest of employee empowerment, power was transferred from the middle-line managers to the lower rank staff. Daft (1995) suggested that the recent trend of flatter organization structures have considerably altered the traditional role of supervisors. Consequently, the managers found their job meaningless and reversed employees’ decisions by terming them complex issues. They insisted that upper management’s approval is required to address such problems and thus, tried to regain their supremacy. The manager’s reactions are associated to their control needs, achievement needs, and recognition needs () that forced them to maintain their grip on routine decisions.

Furthermore, the employees did not receive any kind of support, feedback or appraisal for taking initiatives and going out of their way to enrich customers’ experience. As per Herzberg (1959) theory, motivation techniques such as superior’s support and a positive and timely feedback have enduring productive influence on the employee behavior and resulting performance.

In this context, experts have referred to the ABC’s of behavior modification theory (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p. 85-86) which states that employee behavior can be modified by managing its antecedents (for example encouraging staff to take initiative) and its consequences (for instance approving their decisions and constructive feedback). The theory further states that people have a propensity to repeat behaviors and actions that are followed by pleasant consequences, and extinction occurs when no consequences follow at all. Since the managers did not provide any support to the employees engaged in the desired work behavior, their self-driven decision-making process disappeared.

The absence of motivation from the superiors eroded the employees’ self-confidence and they started to totally rely on their superiors to make decisions on their behalf. This is because of the high collectivism in Thailand (Hofstede, 1980, p. 45) where there is a strong need for consensus.

The overall problem with the Grand Regency Hotel is directly linked to the MARS model, which identifies four key factors that have a direct effect on employee behavior, viz. motivation, ability, role perception, and situational factors. The employee performance levels drop if any of these factors is absent from the organizational context (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p. 36). It is apparent from the study that the employees were not motivated to continue the new task behaviors, and they lacked the ability to define the complexity of the decisions, which again led to ambiguous role perceptions.

Moreover, the dissatisfaction of the hotels’ staff affected their work behavior as evident by the increase in the number of turnovers and absenteeism. These are undoubtedly identifiable with the EVLN model of employee responses to dissatisfaction at work. It is found that exit is the most frequently used response of the four reactions in a notion that no better alternatives exist. (Withey & Cooper, 1989, p.533). As indicated by (Lau et al., 2003, p.77) role conflict and a low degree of job involvement leads to a higher absence rate. Low levels of supervisory support and immediate social control resulted in increased absenteeism. (Price, 1998, p.227-246).

The number of employees mistakes reported to upper management increased; this is because of the lack of training, feedback and motivation.

With passage of time, an organization wide culture emerged in the hotel where lower level employees throw their work over the wall to upper level employees indulging in counterproductive act (Lau, et al., 2003, p.75). As a result, the performance of the employees dragged the overall hotel performance down leading to an increase in the number of guest complaints.(Heskett, et al., in Koys, 2001, p.113) This was demonstrated in the heightened criticism in the newspaper and magazine reviews where the hotel was named as “one of the Asia’s nightmare hotels”.

The hotel General Manager and the employees experienced high levels of stress. Becker’s stress was clear from his statement “unless the hotel is on fire don’t let anyone disturb me”. He was annoyed by the increasing number of consultations from managers regarding minor issues, which otherwise were supposed to be sorted out by themselves. This reflects lack of training on the managers’ front as well. The role ambiguity was the main reason behind the employees stress as they misunderstood their roles. Role conflict and role ambiguity have been found to be the major causes of role stress (Boles & Babin in Siegall, 2000, p.427).

The ever-increasing stress levels experienced by the employees weakened all the good relationships that were existent under the older management. The employees were no longer united, and because of that, counterproductive behaviors surfaced in the form of backstabbing and employees not taking responsibility for their actions.

In brief, even though Becker introduced empowerment with kind intentions, his plan failed because of poor implementation. He acted too fast that the spontaneous empowerment in fact snatched power from everyone involved. He did not give sufficient time to the newly empowered to be trained or get mentally prepared for their new roles. The next blunder Becker made was of believing that the managers would readily pass on their powers to their subordinates the minute he declared empowerment program. In his zeal to initiate empowerment, he ignored all other factors to support his decision.

RECOMMENDATION

The recommendations for improving the performance of Regency Grand Hotel are presented for all the three hierarchal levels mentioned in the case study.

General Manager

The current managers of the hotel backlashed on the new General Manager’s decision of giving more decision powers to the front line employees. Those dissatisfactions were the consequences of cultural differences (low power distance in America, while high power distance in Thailand). Obviously, dealing with cultural clashes is difficult since cultural patterns change very slowly (Hofstede, 1980, p.53). Therefore, Becker should consider these issues and address them beforehand. We would recommend higher degree of compatibility in his leadership style. In this situation, he should conduct meetings with the managers in order to clarify their doubts, and communicate the same down the hierarchal levels. It would be logical to check on their performance on regular intervals of time.

Next, he should try to lessen the power distance between the managers and the front office staff by means of social events and gatherings. It would definitely ease out the managers’ egos and identify the hidden potential of their subordinates. In the end, this would help them to act like mentors to facilitate change rather than being directive in their approach. As said by Quang & William (1998, p.361) influence of multicultural leadership on flexibility, empathy, understanding problem solving, and communication leads to a successful organizational change.

Moreover, emphasizing on trust, communication and mutual objectives should be taken into account. Becker should train the managers in their new roles as coaches to assist the employees in taking independent decisions. Goal sharing for improving customer service and hotel’s overall performance should be implemented to bring them together as a team.

In order to have a successful implementation of empowerment we must have strong self-determination, meaning, competence and impact. If any of those four dimensions is weak then it reflects directly on the empowerment process. (Forrester, 2000) Though Becker’s idea of empowerment was positive in itself, yet his plan proved disastrous. One way to make the process more effective is selective empowerment, which limits delegating power to employees who display the appropriate competencies. Invest in enhancing their knowledge and skills through formal training, mentoring, and self-learning because rightful application of power depends on one’s capabilities. Employees should be given a chance to demonstrate expertise by employing simulations, case studies, mentors, and supervised trials. They should be assigned low-risk decisions first, and progressively work up to challenging judgments since achievement at the safer levels would boost confidence through expectancy of success. The employee performance could be improved due to the self fulfilling prophecy of the managers. (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p.80)

Becker should influence the managers’ perceptions that better results are obtained through empowerment than not. This may be done by following a sequential approach. First, focus on empowerment that does not steal complete authority from the mid level managers. Instead, enhance employees’ power by widening their knowledge set and providing them with more training and development opportunities. Second, begin the process from the top levels of management and trail down the changes to the subsequent lower ranks. This would allow the seniors exercise greater power and, going through a successful empowerment experience would raise their expectations from the change. Finally, concentrate on specific materialistic results, for instance initiating a performance appraisal and reward system based on the level of power demonstrated by a manager’s subordinate and reward more generously to team work as compared to individual performance. For successful implementation of empowerment, managers need to believe that they are in control of their outcomes.

Middle Managers

The employees were confused in differentiating major and minor problems, which originated from their lack of role clarification. Role clarity implies the required information that is provided for employees in order to do their jobs efficiently (Kelly and Hise, 1980 cited in Mukherjee and Malhotra, 2006, p.446). In the given case study, it could be prevented by following the three key essentails of role clarity, i.e. feedback, participation and finally team support. The effectiveness of employees depends on their perception about wielded power by superiors. (Yukl, 1981).

Managers should focus on providing their employees with feedback, paying more attention to normative feedback as it positively affects the individuals’ performance by improving either perceived competence, competence valuation (Sansone 1989) performance pressure (Butler &. Nisan, 1986; Ryan, 1982) or a combination these factors. The effect of positive normative feedback on the performance would not be relevant unless employees were well trained in a way that their skills would match the tasks they were entailed to handle. This would enhance their perceived competence (Sansone 1988), which is handling customers minor problems without referring back to their supervisors.

The employees were uncomfortable in their newly assigned role and hesitated to accept the responsibilities. In addition, lack of motivation from the seniors wore down their confidence. Instead, the performances should be followed by adequate rewards to ensure staff that they are on the right track (Locke and Latham, 1990, p.241). Providing on the job training to employees should be one of the middle managers’ priorities, as it has been proven a good way to learn (Wood, 1994). Also, well-trained employees will be better prepared to face the organizational change (Lange, 2006) occurring at the Regency Grand Hotel, which will in return help them overcome the challenges involved with the process of empowerment.

Employees

Apart from General Manager and the managers, the front line employees should also share responsibilities for making the empowerment program successful. McShane & Tavaglione (2007, p.186-89) identifies four core necessities in employees’ behavior, namely competencies, self-monitoring and designing natural rewards. To participate in the empowerment process, employees should possess adequate capabilities to deal with the additional decision making roles.

Another suggestion for the employees proposes practicing self-leadership. Certainly, it was the managers’ duty to provide the employees with proper training and feedback, but we should not overlook the part of employees themselves. They should try to set goals for themselves to create self-direction and self-motivation required to execute the new tasks. Self-leadership incorporates five key elements that is personal goal setting, constructive thought pattern, designing natural rewards, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement. Employees who indulge in all the above-mentioned practices would perform jobs better than the ones being supervised by others, and as Larkin asserts, high self-monitor generates more confident individuals to adapt to the empowerment approach.

In addition, “speaking up” of the employees should be regarded as an important solution (Premeaux & Bedeian, 2003, p.1537). They should express their point of views about work related issues, recommendations, or requirement of changes and alternative approaches. The problem rose in Grand Regency Hotel because employees were hesitant to speak out their positions due to the fear of punishment. McShane & Travaglione (2007) argue that the voice of employees should be established as a way to communicate dissatisfaction and to propose ideas to the manager to improve situations.

Finally, employees who possess self-awareness, as one of the four dimensions of emotional intelligence, would have better emotional responses. Higher level of working emotions and attitudes would help employees attain better performances and prevent the tensions among the hotel employees.

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