Author: Andre Coleman

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

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

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

1.2.2 THE RESPONSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE ASSISTANT MANAGER

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

1.2.3 THE RESPONSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE REPRESENTATIVE

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

1.2.4 THE RESPONSIBILITYS OF FRONT OFFICE NIGHT AUDITOR

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

1.2.5 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A CASHIER

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

1.2.6 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF RESERVATIONIST

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

1.2.7 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TELEPHONE OPERATORS

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

1.3 CONCLUSION

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

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

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

2.1 FRONT OFFICE STAFF SKILL
2.1.1 GOOD COMMUNICATION

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

2.1.2 APPEARANCE

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

2.1.3 GOOD LISTENING SKILL

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

2.1.4 POSTURE

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

2.1.5 EXPRESSION

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

2.1.6 GOOD EYE CONTACT

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

2.3 CONCLUSION

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

Adventure sports have seen a tremendous growth is the last six to seven years and the future looks very bright. The government is also doing its bit in order to promote adventure tourism in India. The Indian tourism industry has a lot of myriad players who want to latch on the opportunities that beckon in this field of the industry. But the industry and its players continue to be a house of disorder.

This paper looks into the clear and present opportunity that lies ahead of the Indian Tourism Industry in the form of Adventure Travel, and analysis the various aspects that need to be kept in mind as the investors go out in search for the suitable customers to cash in on this multimillion dollar cheque.

INTRODUCTION

“A man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore”, were the words of the famous French noble laureate Andre Gide and the increasing demand for the adventure sports indicates that people have entered the 21st century with renewed courage to find enjoyment in the thrills of the adventure filled outdoor activities. Thus, it can be seen like leisure tourism, adventure sports is becoming an integral determinant behind the tourism dynamics.

As a subject for academic analysis, tourism can be said has reached a stage of relative maturity. A casual review of journals serving the subject area reveals a number that have been in existence for over 25 years (e.g., Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research), with the Journal of Travel Research publishing its 45th annual volume in 2007. Similarly, the range of journals reveals the diversity of issues considered (e.g., Tourism Geographies, Tourism Economics, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing).

With the evident relative lack of research in the area of Adventure Sports Tourism, it would be sensible to turn to research in the area of promoting the various disciplines of adventure sports by integrating it with operations of tourism management. This research will look into the increasing demand for the adventure sports, breaking with the cultural and geographical conformism of conventional holidays and trips, and will analyse the potential for it to tap effectively.

OBJECTIVE

Research in the field of sports tourism has burgeoned over the last decade. In a study conducted by a renowned publication, unsurprisingly, the most studied activity was major event sports tourism like Olympics, World Cups, etc.(40% of articles), with outdoor and adventure sports tourism (29%) and skiing and winter sports (15%) being the other two significant areas.1 This being a clear indication of the increasing demand for the adventure sports, the objective of this paper will be to study the feasibility of marketing, conducting and benefitting from such events specifically in India.

This market study will broadly consist of two parts which will help the readers decide the readiness and the viability of the adventure sports market.

Part-1 discusses the concepts and approaches that might inform an analysis of adventure sports in Indian market.

And part-2 will conduct a critical evaluation and the determining factors of investing in this area of business.

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”Overall, the reader should after considering a personal perspective should be able to determine the likely success of new product or service ideas.

PART – 1

THE SERVICE

Landscape and topography of India lends itself to variety of Adventure Sports activities. Not many people would agree, due to its unexplored avenues, that India is a place where one can indulge in numerous adventure activities, if not all. Definition of adventure is different for different person and best thing about adventure tourism in India is that it provides adventure sports ranging from soft adventure to active and extreme adventure. Soft adventures are ideal for family and kids and require very little or no skill and experience. Extreme adventure in India can be physically and mentally demanding and require good experience.

The service which is being discussed here has two aspects to it one being the tourism in India and the other being the adventure sports. These two complement each other in the way that for a customer the need for one of the above may often lead to the demand for the other. For e.g. for someone visiting Manali, in the Northern part of India for a Holiday, a chance visit to the snow capped Rohtang Pass may encourage the trying of skiing which is promoted in the area. Thus it makes sense to look into both of these aspects individually to get a holistic view of the service being provided i.e. Adventure Travel.

TOURISM

Tourism for long has promised to be a sunrise industry for India. India is blessed with a vast range of practically everything that a successful tourism offer needs – from mountains to rivers to history to religion and culture. The economic and political case for investments is also politically attractive. Tourism promises an inflow of hard currency and at the same time also promotes goodwill. It creates demand for a variety of industries like transports, hotels, handicrafts, entertainment and so on. With improved tourism in India the overall quality of life is sure to improve over a period of time.

And yet India seems to be remarkably lethargic in making money out of tourism. The situation is rather pitiable and the following statistics emphasise that fact:

India’s share of global tourism market – 0.67%

Number of tourists visiting India – 2.6 million against China’s – 37 million.

In terms of tourism revenues as share of GDP India’s Rank is – 124th

The spirit, cohesiveness, and vision that have spurred India to the top of the heap in diverse industries is lacking in this sector. The absence of integrated vision is compounded by a lack of initiative and tardiness in implementing policies.

In a study conducted on Indian Tourism, it has been stated that, “while there exists an ability to invest there also exists an equal degree of unwillingness to break away from the beaten path and take risks.”

The country is sitting on a virtual goldmine with a wealth of sights cultural exuberance, diversity of terrain and that special something that only India can deliver. Tourism has the potential to do something bigger than what IT has done for India.

Priority should be given for development of tourist infrastructure in selected areas of tourist importance and for those products which are considered to be in demand in the existing and future markets so that limited resources are put to the best use

ADVENTURE SPORTS

IIndia, one of the most enchanting, incomparable and invigorating travel destinations all over the world, is a true treasure trove for the adventure enthusiasts. India has all the perfect ingredients that enchant its tourists with real fun and excitement.

WATER

The Himalayas offer you some of the toughest and most exciting river runs in the world. River sports in the rapids are the most popular, throughout the summers and can really get your adrenaline pumping.

White Water Rafting, Kayaking, Snorkelling or Scuba Diving if there is a concept of water sport in Adventure you can find it in this country.

TREKKING

Source : World Tourism Organisation

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?You can trek for one day or one month; backpack all your gear and wonder off in the wild or stroll comfortably with just a shoulder bag, water and camera whilst animals transport your camping gear, heavy baggage and logistic loads. You may set a challenging pace and go over difficult grades and high passes or just amble along, enjoying the wild nature, magnificent scenery, uncomplicated lives of people staying close to nature, stopping when you please, chatting with your companions, forging new relationships and hoarding a fund of fascinating memories to cherish.

More extreme ways of trekking are Rock Climbing and Mountaineering. Rock Climbing as a sport it took off only about 15 years ago. Rock climbing uses a minimum of aids and the challenge is to find the toughest route and scale in the least possible time. The availability of good climbing rocks not too far from the city gets greater access and participation from professionals as well as from the amateurs alike.

Mountaineering takes place at biggest adventure playground in the world -the Himalayas. Mountaineering is a serious activity undertaken with the primary goal of reaching a mountain’s summit. It requires a high degree of fitness and experience. Due to its high equipment costs and complexity, it is mostly taken up by foreign tourist coming to India.

Himalaya promises every climber their share of adventure, which lures them to the mountains.

AERO Experience

Just like on the land, there are various adventure opportunities in the air too. Man has for times immemorial, longed to glide and soar like a bird in the sky. Parasailing and Paragliding are indeed, experiences which combine the wonder of smooth sailing in the air and the thrill of soaring high. Once in the air, you experience the ethereal serenity of the sport. It is an experience that is, surprisingly, thrilling as well as becalming.

Other Activities

Other extreme sports include the likes of skiing which is seasonal in nature and can be only carried out during the winters.

Another very popular activity is bungee jumping which can be carried out even in the urban areas with the help of the required infrastructure.

The potential MARKET AREAS

Popular Destinations

HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh is a complex mosaic of hills, lush green valleys and snow-covered peaks. The name itself originates from the ancient Sanskrit – hima (snow) and achal (that which cannot be moved).

This land of fascination and mystery with its age-old culture kindles deep interest and commands respect. It is replete with dense forests, fast-flowing rivers, terraced fields, snow-covered mountains, small fairyland villages and friendly folk – all adding to its charm! Himachal Pradesh is also a treasure trove of ancient arts and crafts and rich traditions.

PRO’s

Established tourism Infrastructure like Hotels etc.

Abundance of natural resources for conducting activities.

Excellent govt. Support in setting up of new ventures.

Trained Human resources available.

CON’s

Market filled with unstructured profit making activities.

Overcrowding of popular tourist centres.

Local resistance present will affect the business.

Many areas inaccessible.

GOA

Goa is a paradise for water sports lovers and has always appealed beach enthusiast and water sports lovers. The long coastal stretches offer loads of opportunities to indulge in all sorts of water-sport activities and also to try on some new watery excitement. Surf the seas or float across the skies, the options of sport enjoyment is never ending in Goa. One can never get tired of scuba diving into the wreckage of the colonial ships. The para-gliding, para-sailing, acquatics sports, water-skiing and wind surfing will be completely thrilling.

Source: Ministry of Tourism, GOI

PRO’s

105km of coastline provides ample opportunity for implementing innovative ideas.

As shown above, Goa has the largest turnover of tourists in India.

Easy accessibility with good road and rail transport and fully functional Intl’ Airport.

CON’s

Lack of law and order.

Poor transport facilities within Goa.

Untrained hospitality staff.

High costs due to black marketing.

Untapped Destinations

North-East Region

The rich natural beauty, serenity and exotic flora and fauna of the area are invaluable resources for the development of ecotourism. The region is endowed with diverse tourist attractions and each State has its own distinct features. North East India presents some very outstanding and challenging adventure sports in India for the adventure enthusiasts coming from all over.

PRO’s

Untapped Market.

Ideal Terrain for adventure sports.

Readily available human resource which can be trained according to the needs.

Government of India attaches great importance to the development of tourist infrastructure in the North Eastern region in view of its immense tourism potential.

CON’s

Lack of infrastructure.

Climatic extremities are hard to overcome in some regions.

Social unrest can be disturbing.

ANDAMAN & NICOBAR Islands

This UT does not have any other competitive advantage that comes even remotely close to tourism, because of the beauty and abundance of its natural resources. There’s tremendous scope for adventure sports, scuba diving & snorkeling, swimming, sun-bathing, trekking and just soaking in nature at its most beautiful. However, till now, in the absence of a specifically stated tourism policy and a strategic implementation plan, and any gains accruing are more through serendipity rather than conscious effort.

PRO’s

Popular amongst both local and international tourists.

Tourism is the main stay of the region, thus all the development is centred towards the infrastructure for tourists activities.

Easy availability of human resources.

CON’s

Not an accessible region as travelling from mainland takes lots of time and money.

Dearth of basic infrastructure in areas except for the capital Port Blair.

Thus the analysis of the various regions indicates that Indian Tourism has loads of untapped potential. Evident lack of policy or vision from the government has resulted in its inability to scale up infrastructure. If that is taken care of there can a surge in the number of tourist indulging in adventure travel.

TARGET CUSTOMERS

Over the last ten years, India has witnessed substantial changes in its leisure and travel choices and demands. This can be attributed to the rapidly growing economy, supported by globalisation and privatisation, which has lead to increased spending power and greater leisure time. Now, instead of spending a holiday being herded around in a tour bus, the sophisticated Indian traveller wants ‘experience-oriented’ vacations. This has made adventure tourism a particularly exciting field to be in. According to Pranav Kukreti, Director, Marketing, of Treks ‘n’ Rapids, “The psychology of the modern Indian traveller has changed completely. Gone are the days when they were happy with simply staying in a resort in Shimla or Nainital. Now, they want excitement and adventure,”

The tourism industry fetches two million adventure tourists and is growing at over 35 per cent annually. It is estimated that India has the potential to attract another half a million foreign adventure tourists. The domestic market is also set to see a ten-fold growth in the next five years. This rise can be majorly attributed to the changing consumer behaviour of the urban population.

It will be appropriate to divide the study of the customers into Domestic and International.

Domestic

The key socio-economic trends which have contributed to the increase in demand of the adventure sports can be listed as follows:

Middle Class – The size of the middle class families have stated shrinking with growing industrialization, while their pockets have grown bigger and bigger. With the adoption of concept of nuclear families the size of the families has gone down from 8-4 and 4-2. The leisure time that the members of the family get to spend together is preferably spent on quality holidays. Thus, adventure travel offers an excellent opportunity for the people to make their kids have fun while they rejuvenate themselves from the maddening office schedules.

Urban Youth – Youths have always had a strong urge to be non-conformist, and this behaviour is evident in their spending decisions too. Now with this urge being supported by ample spending power, Indian youth is raring to enjoy the thrills of adventure sports. Jawaharlal Nehru had talked about India’s Tryst with Destiny at the stroke of midnight hour, India’s latest tryst with destiny, BPO, is equally connected to the midnight hour. This tryst is also about independence: the independence of the Indian youth. To the delight of the marketers, the ‘youth’ market they’ve been chasing all these years finally has a credit card with no supervised spending limit.

Corporate Promoted Activities – Another windfall for the industry has been created by the corporate sector with almost 70 per cent of the demand for adventure tours originating from here. Tour operators have special two to three day packages for corporate teams. The idea here is to link sports with skills like time and stress management or working under pressure. The exercise is meant to rejuvenate as well as re-skill.

Data of Foreign Travellers

Source: MoT, GOI, Annual Report

Adventurous Kids – The kids at present have more self-sufficiency and influencing power in the family. They are well networked (read social networking), well informed and social. The ability of the kids to nag their affluent in making them purchase stuff for them is known as “pester power”. This pester power is also enabling them to undertake various school trips and adventure camps where they enjoy with their individual social groups.

INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS

India is emerging very strongly as a brand. With the inquisitiveness about India rising all over the world, more and more foreign tourists are coming to India to experience its vibrant cultures. But while they visit the popular destination it can be a good value addition for their trip if they can be offered an experience of river rafting in the rapids of the Ganges or a paragliding experience may accompany their sun tanning on beaches of the Goa.

The foreign tourists have high spending power and if the infrastructure and quality adventure sports facilities are available to their discretion, the promoters can be rest assured of a significant contribution to their balance sheets in dollars.

The global meltdown combined with the Mumbai attacks have spelt disaster for the tourism industry with foreign tourist arrivals dropping by 2.1% and foreign exchange earnings down by 12.5%.

Reeling from these statistics, the tourism ministry is considering several sops for the hospitality and travel industry. Amongst these include offering free air travel and accommodation to foreign tourists who visit India for the third time. “This move, if approved, will mean encouraging genuine Indophiles and is in line with our effort to encourage repeat travellers,” an official from the Ministry of Tourism said while addressing the media.

Indicating the Significant growth of the middle class

Increasing Spending Power of the Domestic Market

PART – 2

Now that we have looked into the various characteristics of the adventure travel in India, it will be propitious to look into the various profitability and marketability aspects related to the business of Adventure Travel.

Considering Adventure Travel to be a brand, the marketing mix (given in terms of 4P’s by Philip Kotler) of brand Adventure Travel can be:

Product – Adventure travel should position itself as one of the competitive alternatives when it comes to attracting tourists. Marketing adventure travel needs special focus on influencing the psychology of the perspective customers by influencing them with its core competencies of thrill and adrenaline rush. A synergic attitude between the government agencies and the private parties can take the quality of adventure sports to a world class level and promote a surge of tourists to experience its excitement.

Collaborating with Major media houses to promote Adventure Travel in IndiaPrice – Hotel prices in the U.S start at around $300 (expedia.com) whereas the average rate for a deluxe room in India is around $100 only. Thus if the facilities for adventure sports are produced at a large scale in India its prices will surely be low, due to the low labour cost and manufacturing costs. Within the sector the competitive pricing of the adventure travel will depend on the collaboration between the service providers and the service facilitator. i.e. the parties which are able to provide a complete package to its customers including, travel, accommodation and the adventure activities will be more in demand as their operations cost will be significantly low and at the same time level of convenience very high.

Place – Though we have so far talked about the tourist destinations as being the ideal places for providing this service, it may not be a bad decision to have such activities in the areas in the vicinity of the cities. By providing such services at a relatively approachable distances the rate of new customers coming to experience the new and the talked about activities will be more. And it may also be easier for the working executives to take out some time from their schedule, like an excursion on the weekends. This though will be a completely strategic decision keeping in mind the competitors and the various alternatives in hand. While this strategy may not work in a city like Delhi which has various hill-stations in the vicinity but may work quite well in city like Ahmedabad where the people have a significant spending power and not many similar options either.

Promotion – If adventure travel in India has to be established as a global brand, first the communication needs to go out to the primary audience, i.e. the one billion people of this country. If the government, the media and the trade bodies are able to influence a part of the population, they can spread the word, which in this age of networking will surely spread like fire. Collaborative marketing efforts involving the traders, the media houses, government and a good network of brand ambassadors can provide a structured and a long term approach to brand development of Adventure Travel in India. For e.g. collaborating with the GOI’s Incredible India! Campaign and engaging the famous Hindi movies star Akshay Kumar (who is well known for his action and stunts) will go a long way in establishing a brand image in the minds of the Indian customers.

CASE STUDY
Water Sport & Adventure Tourism at Indira Sagar

Madhya Pradesh has a wide range of adventure sports such as wildlife sanctuaries, mountains, rivers that make MP an exotic place to visit, which is attracting the domestic as well as the international tourists.

Apart from these natural regions the Government of MP is intending to promote other regions such as Indira Sagar water reservoir for tourism. The GoMP has proposed to come-up with the Adventure Tourism Zone at Indira Sagar in Khandwa district.

This Zone would have two phases wherein one phase would be developed near the mentioned reservoir and the second phase would be developed on the island formed near the dam.

The Zone would have various water sports, trekking, mountaineering facilities along with the traditional accommodation facilities.

The project is expected to attract tourists primarily from the State and other parts of the Country.

The proposed location is well connected with the major cities of the State through road and rail.

Private Players have been invited to undertake the proposed project wherein the Private Player would build, own, maintain and operate the project.

PROJECT RATIONALE

The prime reason for increase in demand for adventure sports is the growth youth tourism which has been identified as one of the largest segments of global and domestic tourism. The growing number of young travellers is being fuelled by a number of factors such as increased participation in higher education, falling level of youth unemployment, increased travel budget through parental contribution, quest for exciting and unique experiences and cheaper long distance travel. These young travellers form a major contribute to adventure tourism revenue.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

The State Government would assist the private investor in identifying, immediate approval and clearance of the suitable land for the project. Further, the Government would also make basic infrastructure available at the site such as water, electricity, road etc. The State Government has identified adventure/ eco tourism as key segment of tourism and gives some incentives specific to the industry.

This case study gives the clear indication that this is an upcoming area of business and has huge potential and the best way forward is collaborating the effort towards successful brand building.

MARKET METRICS

Threats

Entry of multinational agencies to dominate the business.

Lack of Govt. Support

Low operational cost for the unorganised sector

Generic competition with other tourists attractions.

Opportunities

High growth rate of leisure travel

Rising influence of Indian Middle class

Holidaying becoming a status symbol.

Corporate support to adventure tours and travels

More consumption power.

WEAKNESS

High infrastructural cost.

Low level of marketing

Psychological resistance to adventure sports in Indian mentality.

Lack of collaboration and networking among the existing players.

STRENGTH

Offering something new and exciting to the huge Indian Population.

Success abroad can be emulated domestically by collaboration.

Increasing interest of foreign tourists in India.

High growth potential

The market metrics can be analysed by doing a SWOT analysis of the adventure travel in India.

MARKET GROWTH

Note:

The per capita income of the Indian citizen rose by 12.7 % during the fiscal year 2008-09.(Reserve Bank of India).

The foreign tourists arrival in India registered a growth of 5.6% during the year 2008.(Ministry of Tourism, Annual Report 2008-09)

Both of the above mentioned statistics indicate an increase in the demand for the adventure travel services. While the domestic travellers will continue to send their ever increasing earnings, the foreign tourists will continue to venture out to the lesser explored countries like India.

Thus, it is now in the hands of the industry players to tap the clear and present opportunity and act proactively with or without the collaboration of the government authorities to gain head on advantage in the upcoming field of business in the tourism industry.

Conclusion

High Price

High Quality

Low Price

Low Quality

As their country’s growth and recent success might suggest, Indian consumers are among the most optimistic. A June 2008 Nielsen Consumer Confidence Index among 48 countries found India to be the second most optimistic country behind Norway with an index of 122 (global average was 88).

They are also greatly value-driven, with an expectation that values should be customized and adapted to Indian culture-not an easy task when dialects change every 100 kilometres and almost

three-quarters of the population lives in hard-to-reach rural areas. Not surprisingly, the companies most likely to succeed with Indian consumers are those with the highest levels of patience, resilience and local understanding.

But this confidence surprisingly not enjoyed by the Adventure Travel service currently available in the tourism market as it is being offered to the customers at a quality which is nowhere close to world class and is relative expensive option for the Indian consumer. The industry needs to collaborate amongst itself and with the

support of the government try providing highly satisfactory Adventure travel to its customers at an affordable price. Only then will it be able to market its product convincingly and effectively to the customers, ensuring a growth oriented sustainable future.

Adventure tourism is an extremely confusing term. The definition of this term varies from person to person, organization to organization. However the nearest definition to what majority would agree is Outdoor activity involving the natural environment where the outcome perceived by the participants is unknown.

World history of Adventure Tourism

It is difficult to trace its origin but first adventure travelers were merchants. To brush up your memories a bit here are a few example; Erickson discovered North America. Columbus discovered America and Vasco Da Gama found out India. But that was when modernization had not been a part of our daily lives.

The adventure travel as we know it today began three and held decades back when people started exploring the Nepalian Himalayan mountain ranges. The wanderers discovered all of this by accident. They traveled to Bhutan, Afganistan, Algeria Bali, Nile and very recently the Alps. In the world people have been going around but in India adventure has developed quiet recently. But the rise has been steady and India is believed to be one among the top ten destinations of the world.

Present Situation

In India tourism is the largest service industry bringing in 6.23% of the national GDP. It brings in 8.78% of the total employment of the country. Each year there is increase in number of tourists visiting India by 5 million mark. Besides foreigners, locals alone count up to 527 million. In US figures Indian tourism industry is a 100 billion dollar affair which is predicted to increase to 275.5 billion by next decade. All the credit can be given The Ministry of Tourism which is the main working institute behind promotion in India. To create interest in tourism, the ministry introduced an ‘Incredible India’ campaign. The punch line of this campaign is ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ which means guest is our God.

Everything is not as rosy as it looks. India falls behind certain countries it faces serious issues in the face of inadequate number of hotel rooms. Until a year back India only had 25000 tourist hotel rooms. Other reason why tourism lags behind is that getting visa to the country is a complicated process. The Indian airports are crammed and foreigners do not take that fact too well. But despite all of it tourism is only expected to grow in the coming years.

This year saw a considerable decline in International tourism everywhere across the globe. But surprisingly the hospitality business in India was busy and flourishing. This happened as a result of service tax exemption and ending of fringe benefit tax.

This has resulted into luxurious expansive tourist destinations like the Kerala Backwaters or the Golden Triangle Tours to be affordable to foreign tourists. British have gone ahead and voted India as one of the top 10 overseas travel destinations.

Tourists that come to India are mesmerized by what they see here. The rich contrast of culture and varied topography topped with a huge diversification in weather is more than what a stranger in this land can handle. When he lands in a modern airport and when he steps out in the streets to honking horns and crammed streets with beggars on the roads and even cows sharing that space, the contrast mesmerizes. And this contrast is exactly what they come looking for. The colorful culture and vibrant helpful people, the lands, mountains and rivers, the religious places and thousand year old Yog tradition, India goes on attracting.

Major Adventure activities that you can avail here are:

Camel Safari

Thar Desert safari is one of Asia’s most popular adventure holidays. This safari also takes you through camel treks. These include camel treks which pass through the sand dunes of Jaisalmer.

Mountaineering

The Himalayan mountain ranges are the major reason why mountaineering and other related activities are so popular here. The mountains are perfect for rock climbing and rappelling. The gorges and valleys are challenging. People who go mountaineering also try jeep safaris, bike trips as well as biking trips to these high altitudes.

Elephant Safari

The large number of national parks and tiger reserves in India makes elephant safari the most done activity in India. Be it in Jaipur in the Amber fort or seeing the tiger from behind the elephants back, th experience of sitting on this giant animal is one you can never forget.

Scuba Diving

The long coast line of India makes scuba diving a much sought after sport. The marines’ life in the Andaman and Nicobar Island, Lakshadeep and Goa are so rich that one can have a helluva time simple snorkeling.

Skiing

Abundant snow and mountain in the winters make skiing a sport for all age group. Skiing in Alchi or any other cold place is a very obvious activity among tourists.

White Water Rafting in India

The rivers like Ganges, Brahmaputra, Kali and Yamuna are turbulent and offer great opportunities to the tourists to try white water rafting.

As much there is for a person to desire, India goes on quenching the thirst of all the adventure lovers.

In this second chapter of the literature review, the theoretical background of motivation is explained. This chapter will align major factors like the importance of motivation, what motivate individual to engage in adventure tourism, specially the baby boomers, and how motivation could help in the decision making process.

3.1. Motivation

The theory of motivation was first developed during the Post-World War II, more precisely during the 50s and 60s (Zehrer and Siller, 2007). The term Motivation is originated from the Latin word ‘Movere’, and this means ‘to move’ (Wing, 2011). Motivation can be defined as the process by which an individual will be determined to take action or behave in a certain manner (Decrop, 2006). Motivation is known to be one of the fundamental reasons to understand and explain why does behavior happened. (Snepenger, King, Marshall, and Uysal, 2006) in (Phan, 2010). Moreover, Solomon (2004) described motivation as a ‘driving force’ that pushes individuals to action. Motivation is all about a state of need and desire to do and achieve something (Moutinho, 2000) in (Esichaikul, 2012).

3.2. Motivation in the tourism context

Understanding the concept of motivation in tourism is to understand the basic motives and reasons for tourists to travel (Trang, 2011). Several studies have been undertaken on tourism motivations, it includes Plog (1974), Crompton (1979), Hudman (1980); Dann (1981); IsoAhola (1982); Beard and Ragheb (1983); Pearce and Caltabiano (1983); Mansfeld (1992); Uysal and Hagan (1993); Fodness (1994); Gibson and Yiannakis (2002); Kozak (2002); Horner andSwarbrooke (2004); Kurzman and Zauhar(2005); Decrop (2006); Zehrer and Siller (2007); Devonish and Jonsoon (2008); Romando (2008); Esichaikul (2012).

Lots of research has been undertaken on tourist motivation to travel to a particular destination but little has been done on motivation of tourists to participate in leisure or adventure activities. Few have been analyzed as part of research and most commonly and recent ones well known are from Hudson (2003); Pomfret (2004); Phan (2010); Smerek (2010); Reynolds and Hritz (2012).

Referring to Leiper’s philosophy, understanding tourist’s consumer behavior is an essential tool for successful tourism planning and marketing activity (Choibamrong, 2005). It is obvious that consumer’s behavior is by no means easy and is influenced by so many factors principally in globalization era

3.3. Adventure, baby boomers and Motivation

Sung et al (1997) in Sung et al (2004) stated thatin adventure travel it is significant to understand the main motives of people to engage in specific activities, analyzing the traveler’s characteristics such as demographic information, psychographics like main needs and wants and their principle expectation (Weber, 2001). Studies have demonstrated that older tourists perceived adventure tourism more tempting and want to adventure themselves to gain a personal satisfaction (Gibson and Singleton, 2011). Some older people have the desire to get away from stress and boredom of daily routine. They want to enjoy their holidays with a range of exciting and new physically challenging activities and meet new people to build up relationships (Camden and Mccoll-Kennedy, 1990; Kludge, 2005).To understand motivation in leisure activities is to understand what encouraged tourists to choose a certain activity (PhanThi Kim Lien, 2010).

Empirical studies have shown that the Travel Career Ladder (TCL) model was an adequate instrument in understanding travel motivation (Kim, 1997; Lee, 1998; Loker-Murphy, 1995; Mills, 1985; Pearce, 1988, 2005; Teichmann and Zins, 2009). The TCL model is the most probableapplication for the design of motivational research for special markets such as eco tourists for instance (Pearce, 2005). From this statement, we deduct that the model is thus observed to be a suitable tool for adventure tourism. The concept of the TCL model was initiated by Pearce (1988)and updated in his publication in 2005, The Tourist Behavior: Themes and Conceptual Schemes (McNeil and Williams, 2011).

Adapted from Maslow’s (1970), Pearce adopt the five hierarchical categories of influencing the tourist motivation (Teichmann and Zins, 2009). This includes Biological needs (Relaxation needs), safety and security needs (or level of stimulation), Relationship development and extension needs, self-esteem and development needs and Self-actualization and fulfillment needs. The TCL presumed that tourists when gaining more travel experience will go up the ladder towards high-level needs. Figure 2 demonstrate the hierarchy of Pearce Travel career ladder:This includes Fulfillment level, Self-esteem and development, relationship, stimulation and relaxation.

http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0160738398000449-gr1.gif

Figure 2: Hierarchy of Pearce Travel Career ladder

Source: Ryan (1998)

According to the TCL model and diverse tourist motivation and experience, people may start at different level of the ladder; this may varies with some up warding the ladder and some others down warding it (McNeil and Williams, 2011). For instance, a new tourist in adventure might wish to start with a soft activity like bird-watching or horse-riding, an activity that demand less physical efforts, low in risk and experience peace and harmony. Moreover considering the security and safety needs, one must wish an activity low from risk while the other one seeking for adrenaline might want an activity high in risk.

As per Phan (2010), someone might have a greater need for achievement rather than a need foraffiliation, power, or uniqueness. This can involve participating in an activity or doing something all alone isolating themselves from others so as to satisfy main needs and desires. Additionally, such individuals like to set personal goals that are neither too low in a way for it to be achievable nor too high that would be impossible.

It is significant to point out that similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the TCL coincide with the theoretical framework, because it clearly shows that as people acquire more experiences, their motivation tend to change (Ryan, 1998). Moreover, Ryan (1998) notes that those traveling for the first time might prefer to book a package tour for more security butin time and with more experience will opt for a more self-arranged travel itinerary (McNeil and Williams, 2011). Similarly, Crompton (1979) came out with seven dimensions of motivation as an influence to leisure this include escapism; relaxation; prestige; exploration and self-evaluation; regression; kinship relationships enhancement and facilitation of social interaction. It is further observed that motives for social interaction, enhancement of human relations and pleasure seeking has repetitively been observed and analyzed as major motivating factor in different studies (Beard and Ragheb, 1983; Kim and Chalip, 2004; Kozak, 2002; Wann, Ensor and Bilyeu 2001; Zhang and Lam, 1999), cited in (Regan and Carlson, 2009).

Another tool, well known in evaluating tourist motivation is the leisure motivation scale of Beard and Ragheb (1980; 1983). This is found to be a suitable tool in measuring leisure motivation factor since it encompassesintellectual, social, mastery/competence, and stimulus avoidance motives. The intellectual elements mean that people participating in leisure activities are in quest of discovery, increase their knowledge. The second factor is the social motive; this implies a personal motive that will satisfy human relationship with others, a sense of belonging, and respect from others (Maslow’s hierarchy, 1943). The third motivational factor is competence/mastery motive. This stimulates individuals engaging in leisure physical activities to “achieve, master, challenge and compete”. The last motive is the stimulus-avoidance motive, which is about escapism from the monotonous routine, stress and tension, or to refresh and have rest in a new environment (Phan, 2010; Niemela, 2010).

3.4. Segmentation based on motivation

According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2004: 158), “Market Segmentation can be defined as the process of dividing a market into distinct subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics and selecting one or more segments to target with a distinct market mix”.When talking about motivation, it is important to consider the aspect of segmentation. The baby boomers could be considered as one segment of new or future retirees but their motives are diverse (Phan, 2010). Categorizing the motives into different characteristics will help researchers and marketers to benefit from profound and useful information.

It has been observed that the expansion of adventure tourism is principally due to a demographic, personal, socio-economic, political and technological change (Swarbrookeet al. 2003). It is true that changes are not constant and keep updating, but such trends are known to be basis of forecasts for several researchers.

One of the most important influences of tourist motivation is the demographic characteristics (Rose and Kahle, 1998; Muso, Hall and Higham, 2004; Bonera, 2008). Demographics element consists of gender, age category, family patterns, nationality (Swarbrookeet al. 2003; Bonera, 2008; Devonish and Jonsson, 2008). Many women have few children or have already adult children living on their own and as part of family and household structure; there are more single-parent families and childless couples (Swarbrooke et al. 2003).

Another aspect which is gaining more persuasion on the tourist motivation is age (Bonera, 2008). Gibson and Yiannakis (2002) have studied this theory, underlying the tourism reason through a life cycle. This explains that those baby boomers aged from 47 to 50 are more motivated to travel and engage in activities due to superior economic benefit. This additionally led to a desire to show off their status reached, in quest of challenge and adrenaline or simply a desire to experience something new completely different from their usual routine. While those aged between 50 and 55 years old, and those over 65 are more involved in soft activities that demand less effort and where security is mended.

On the other hand other research has found that gender and age are factors affecting the perceived image and choice for particular leisure areas (Baloglu, 1997; Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Chen and Kerstetter, 1999; Walmsley and Jenkins, 1993).In opposition, Andreu, Kozac, Avci and Cifter (2005) found that age of someone do not have any striking influence on the motivation. The authors assessed that females had stronger motivations to travel than males where male tourists had a preference for more demanding recreational activities, asking for actionswhile female tourists had a stronger need for relaxation and escape-based motives (Devonish and Jonsson, 2008).

As mentioned earlier, nationality as well as culture can influence the tourist choice in engaging in adventure activities (Swarbrooke et al.2003). This includes tourists from cold areas traveling in warm areas or vice versa, choosing a destination where the climate might be more adequate and better to practice a particular activity than would have been in their country. This can include tourists from European market coming to exotic destination to do water sport activities like whitewater rafting, kite surfing, or wind surfing such activities being more suitable for exotic destination having the sea, good wind conditions and deep waves. These demographic trends are a result of a change in social advancement and more financial power; moreover there are socio-economic factors.

Socio-economic trends include income and time disposable, changing attitudes to ageing, lifelong education, Health and fitness. In today’s world, baby boomers have the time, tendency to travel and experience new activities but more importantly have the money to enjoy all the privilege of recreational activities (Patterson, 2006). It is observed that in nearly all developed countries, those people being 55 or above benefit from better discretionary income having all investments and debts cleared for the house, having adult children no longer dependent on them (Chon and Singh, 1995).

As seen previously, baby boomers tend to be more educated than their predecessors (Patterson, 2006). Mintel (2000b) state leisure is perceived as a personal growth since individuals turn out to be more full-grown and more educated. As a result, these people are more interested to engage in adventure for self-development and to improve lifelong education (Swarbrookeet al .2003). Moreover, an increase in healthier way of life is an indication of more baby boomer’s participation in adventure activities.

A modernization in technology has result in an impressive increase in adventure participation. This has improved the ease of access to many adventure recreation sites. Subsequently, technological improvements have brought some facilities to the skill of the participant primarily while engaging in dangerous proceedings or environments. There is also progression in clothing and equipment, for example climbing ropes (Ewert and Hollenhorst, 1997). Baby boomers are really concerned about safety and security aspects and such measures being taken by adventure operators has encourage further participation. In addition, due to the technological advancement, baby boomers are now arranging their own trip arrangement through direct reservation on the internet, looking on their own for discounted prices rather than going to tour operators. Parr (2012) identified this trend and argue that internet booking has known a rapid growth since 7years. In 2005, they used to book their holidays through direct travel agency but in 2012, this has dropped down and more baby boomers are now finding it easier and cheaper to book on the internet.

3.5. Push and Pull Factors

The key to comprehend tourism motives in any tourism literature is often categorized into the terms push and pull forces (Crouch et al, 2004). Dann (1977) was the first researcher to propose these two dimensions, other researchers relied on the theory as well (Crompton, 1979; Mannel and Iso-Ahola, 1987; Bandura, 1987; Yuan and Donald, 1990; Andreu, Bigne and Cooper, 2000; Kozak, 2002; Swarbrooke et al, 2003; Woodside and Martin, 2008).

3.5.1. Push factors

“Push” factors can be defined as “intangible factors that push a tourist away from his home”, while “Pull” factors are “tangible factors pulling tourists towards a destination” (Andreu, Bignr and Cooper, 2000) in (mo 44). Push factors are often related to inner motives such a desire for novelty and escapism (mo 29) and pull factors similar to outer motives like the attractiveness of a particular destination or activity (mo 29). Conventionally, push motives were considered as functional to elucidate the reasons for travelling, in this study engaging in the activities while pull motives is observed as practical to give explanation to the actual destination or activities’ choice (mo 27).

Push factors are principally known to be socio-psychological motives that affect the tourist consumer decision, whilst pull factors are those stimuli that pulled someone to try the experience (Mo 37). Crompton (1979) in partial agreement with Dann (1977) considers seven push factors include escapism from the daily routine, examination and evaluation of self-development and progress, in quest of new friendship and social relationship. The pull motives involve novelty and education (mo 47), (mo 6).

Baby boomers are mostly pushed in adventure tourism for fun (Hudson, 2003). Baby boomers are in quest of latest and exciting adventure experiences, test their physical abilities and continue to be more active. Swarbrooke et al (2003) (Mo 1). Patterson (2006) points out that some are really seeking bigger change, diversity, challenge to escape the monotony of everyday routine. On the other hand, Muller and O’Cass (2001) put forward the notion of ‘subjective age’ as foremost motive for baby boomers to take on adventure travel. Older people have this desire and nostalgia to feel younger and their trip and choice preferences are frequently similar to younger people (Patterson, 2006). There is nowadays an increasing consideration and need for personal development, this was principally due to higher education, professional development and excellence and thanks to globalization that such demand and motives have been popularized (Swarbrooke et al.,2003).

3.5.2 Pull factors

Pull factors are also known as outer motivations (Robinson et al, 2011), where individuals is ‘pulled’ or enticed by other factors to engage in something while the decision has already been made (Lam and Hsu, 2006). On the other hand, Jang and Cai (2002, p.114) state that pull elements is what influence someone in its decision, this encompass the ‘When, Where and How’ to do things.

In the context of Adventure Tourism, destination is one element of pull factors that play a vital role in the motivation of individuals (Ewert, 1985; Millington et al., 2001, p.77). This could be choosing a destination because of the beauty that comprise its natural surrounding, for instance taking the decision to go for Safari in Kenya or going for mountaineering in the Himalayas. Moreover, the pull factor could be due to a favorable weather condition (Pomfret, 2004).For example, to enjoy from a good weather conditions for kite surfing in Mauritius, one should participate in it during the winter season, starting from June to November. These periods are suitable since the island is under the South East Trade winds influence.

In addition, the natural environment in which the activity is occurred can be studied all the way through the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (Pomfret, 2004). The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum can be defined as the ‘availability of the choice to participate in a preferred recreation activity within a preferred setting and to enjoy the desired experience’ (The British Columbia Resources Inventory Committee, 1998, p. Iv). This encompasses a range of setting prior to the physical environment including majorly access, remoteness, naturalness as well as the countryside and topography (Clarke and Stankey, 1979). This natural setting in adventure tourism could be seen as an influential factor. For instance, a baby boomer might prefer a natural landscape where access is not so easy, requiring a minimum level of risk, being totally primitive and one with nature. On the contrary, another can be looking for a site where access is easy, easy-doing activities and where they could benefit from some facilities on-site. Therefore, it is to be noted that the decision to participate in the activity was already made; nevertheless the characteristics of the location could act as a dominant feature in the individual’s choice.

Finally, there are the marketing elements acting as basic stimuli as part of pull factor. This include the marketing mix which is product, place, price, promotion (Kotleret al., 2008), followed by promotional and advertising aspects (Goosens, 2000). Though through brochures, travel books and internet, individuals are persuaded or stimulated to engage in a particular activity.

Adventure sports has fast caught up in the Indian milieu. India offers immense opportunity for adventure lovers throughout its length and breadth. Enjoy the most unique adventure tour in India, involving trekking, jeep safaris, wildlife safaris,scubadiving, gliding ,skiing, river rafting,rock climbing,mountaineering,cycling, .

Trekking is a very good activity that is immensely useful for both body as well as mind. It is a kind of spiritual experience rejuvenating the mind preparing it for the daily diifficulties of life. The Indian Himalaya are an ultimate destination for adventure lovers and has attracted Trekkers and lovers of nature Indian himalayas are the source of significant life giver rivers, like Ganges Beas, Satluj and their tributariess. The himalayan mountain ranges of India offer breathtaking, highly challenging trekking routes.The list is endless and options are mind boggling.Mountaineering in India was introduced by the Europeans in the 18th century. India offers an exciting mountaineering experience to an adventure sport lover. The Himalayas that stretch from north-west of India to far north-east offers a number of high rise peaks that are considered ideal for mountaineering. Some of the wonderful places for mountaineering in India are Leh Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, Garhwal and Kumaon Himalayas in Uttarakhand, Kullu valley and Lahul Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim and some other parts of north-eastern region.

ANGLING & FISHING are two remarkable adventure activities among the many others that are offered in the India. They are specially suited to the Indian sub continent because of innumerable rivers that course through the expansive Gangetic Plains, and originate in the upper reaches of the magnificent Himalayas. The clear rushing waters of these various rivers and their tributaries provide excellent fishing and angling holidays spots that are captivating in their crisp and clean mountain beauty, as well as rich breeding ground of a number of different varieties of fish. The adventurous settings for angling and fishing range from the majestic Himalayan valleys, snow-fed streams and high altitude lakes to the wide coastal stretches of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

With a number of wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, India offers an excellent opportunity for wildlife tours in India. India is home to many wildlife animals; Asiatic lion and tiger are two prime attractions of the Indian jungles. These two animals are perhaps what attract most wildlife lovers to India. But that is not only attraction that India offers on its wildlife tours. The wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in India are teeming with a wide variety of flora and fauna.There are numerous places in India that are favorite among birdwatchers.

White-water rafting is a high-altitude, high adrenaline water adventure that has few other adventure sports matching its unique excitement and thrill! The turbulent water, the uncontrollable speeds, and the challenge of making it over the churning rapids is a hair-raising high that has one raring to go!

Adventure or just another Holiday?

Holidays these days are not a luxury. They are a necessity. Every year people wait for that time of the year when they can shut off their laptops and head off to a place where they can forget about appointments and deadlines. The more people work the more is their need to get away from it all. Owing to lesser and lesser time people have on hand, holidays are a way to be together with families.

Recently the recession has brought about changes in the way people travel. Recession has created a new set of travelers called flashpackers. They are actually backpackers who are on a budget trip who do not share their sleeping space but opt for private rooms. People mostly these days go for all inclusive holidays which are a great help. They let you help your budget yourself; let you keep a check on your food, drink, entertainment and accommodation.

The question is with little time on hand and lots of holiday agencies out there to lure you what would you go for? Is it a usual shopping-sightseeing-hogging type of a holiday or wellness treat that you look for? Does a yoga course soothe your senses or a rigorous trekking tour does it for you? According to official statistics families prefer to go on the predictable leisure holidays whereas youngsters and singles opt for adventurous trips.

A general myth about adventure travel is that it is full of risks and not everyone can do it. This draws a lot of people away including families. General trend in travel has constantly shown that when parents and children decide to holiday together they always prefer beaches and mountains where they can laze around in hotels, go sight seeing and eat dinners together. If observed closely adventure travel lets you do all of it and much more.

Adventure travel can be fun when the entire family is involved in doing a task together. And why just families group of friends or colleagues can have a good time on adventure travels. They are probably one way you can experience nature, be together, spend time and also learn about nature.

Talking about nature, eco tourism is a new trend in travel these days which has been beautifully blend with adventure vacations. If you care for the environment which you should, and want to do something about conserving it you should try an eco tour. You get a chance to travel the remotest of the places which have very less human presence and nature at its wildest best.

Some statistics here can give you a better idea about the growing demands of adventure tourism and why you should be a part of it.

Extreme Adventure vacations:There are many out there who have made a list which they call Ultimate 5 Lifetime Adventures. This one sorts out the adventures one must do before they die. Skydiving, Rappelling, A ropes challenge course supervised by the army trainer, Bike racing and Hot Air Ballooning.

Family adventure holidays:Families have started choosing theme parks and all inclusive resorts “more genuine nature-based, cultural, and education and learning excursions,” says Doyle. Theses holiday trips came forth owing to the increasing demands of people to have holidays where they can be closer to families and nature.

Soft adventure vacations:There is an increase in number of people who wish for theme based holidays. The theme can be eco tour or Yoga course with a short trekking trip. Infact Yog is a favorite and is combined with a lot of activities such as snow boarding or wind surfing. These kinds of holidays are quiet popular among women.

There is no doubt that modern tourism has become one of the biggest popular industries in the world nowadays. It is an activity in which people can recreate and relax themselves. Furthermore, it seems that tourism not only can improve the transportation and most public facilities of a country, but also it can improve local services such as entertainment, accommodation, catering and hospital for tourists and local people. For another thing, tourism stimulates the growth of local economy. Even more, large numbers of organizations and governments invest much money in this industry at present. However, this essay will elaborate advantages and disadvantages of the way in which modern tourism affects the popular tourist areas in relations to the local services, local economy and environment and the local people.

For one thing, one major advantage of tourism is the fact that developing travel industry can stimulate the popular tourist areas’ consumption ability and economy. “According to the OVTA, there are 12 million visitors who travel to Ottawa and consume 128million dollars each year. Moreover, the development of tourism leads to generating 45 million dollars income for the local government per year” (Chase, 2011). In addition, “China National Tourism Administration showed that there is a 15 percent increase of the price level of products which selling in the Middle East and Europe during the New Year holidays, compared to their daily price. However, these increases give some impacts on ecnomy and it is reported that in 2010, 52 million Chinese people travelled abroad” (Lixia, 2011). For another thing, tourism industry either can increase people’s income and the rate of employment. “As David Cameron says in Barnett (2010), if the UK tourism industry can attract 0.5% more international tourists, this could generate 50,000 new jobs for local citizens”. “Thus, it is obvious that tourism directly increase the employment rate because those industries like accommodation, tour, travel operations and factories manufacturing can provide large numbers of employment opportunities for the local people” (Nworisara, 2011). These business operations invisibly generate large revenue to the government. Therefore, most countries or investors make huge investments in the tourism industry because of its potential of boosting economic growth. Thus, developing tourism industry is the main contributor of the stimulation of the local economy.

Furthermore, tourism plays an important role on improving the living standards of the local people by improving community’s facilities and services. It can be seen that Hong Kong has become a famous and popular attraction, whether for mainland people or international people nowadays. “What is more, it is reported that the Tourism Commission invested HK$50 million to improve the tourism infrastructural. For example, it would improve the scenic square, the public facilities at Lantau Ngong Ping 360, the pedestrian bridge at the east of Tsim Sha Tsui, and upgrade some tourism signboards for tourists. Besides that, Hong Kong would improve the services of online ticket-selling, which make more convenient for tourists” (Mercier, 2009). There is no doubt that these kinds of infrastructures and facilities will considerably benefit for the local people and improve their living standards. Besides that, the transportation and public services have an impact on the tourism industry, which also influence the local people’s living standards and the tourism industry itself. “Take Beijing as an example: in order to welcome the Olympics Games, the government of China made regulations to improve environment and repair the tourism resources, public services and facilities. During the period of Olympics Games, ten million tourists visited Beijing and there was no complaint or dissatisfaction with the hotels, public services and attractions” (Alcantara, 2010). If facilities or services are not improved and cause tourists lots of inconvenient, this will easily push them to give up or change their travel plans.

Finally, it seems that it is a good opportunity to protect the culture and heritage when developing modern tourism. “The WTO estimates that there would be an increase of 15% in the areas of cultural tourism each year” (Nworisara, 2011). Most tourists are willing to spend money to learn and understand different cultures and customs of different countries. “Taking the European tourism industry as an example, a growing number of people prefer to visit Europe, especially Italy, France, Spain and so on. The main reason is that the governments of those countries understand the importance of the heritage and history of a country. It is a character or symbol of that country. Thus, the government is willing to spend money remodeling and restoring the heritage. For instance, the Indian government regarded Jammu and Kashmir as a heritage attraction for visitors. Thus, it foucused on it and started to protect it to attract tourists” (Naseem, 2009). It is well know that protecting a country’s culture and heritage is a big challenge, but it is very important because they represent the identity of the country. Moreover, visitors can understand deeply the local culture only by visiting it. Thus, in order to attract more tourists to popular tourist areas, both the government and the tourism industry have a responsibility to preserve the local heritage and culture.

However, firstly, it must be admitted that tourism brings many disadvantages. Without doubt the most obvious disadvantage is that tourism has negative effects on the local environment and the eco-system. “For instance, it is well known that the Hawaiian eco-system is the most diverse in the world. Nevertheless, due to the development of tourism industry, a large number of infrastructures such as hotels and restaurants were built, leading to the local environment’s deterioration. Besides that, it is reported that 60% of animal and plant species are dying out in Hawaii” (Darowski, Strilchuk, Sorochuk & Provost, 2006). “Bali is another example: it has been found that six tourist beaches, which include Kuta, Legian, Nusa Dua, Jimbaran, Tanjung Benoa and Canggue are contaminated. This is because the waste from hotels, restaurants and other hospitality and tourist-related businesses cannot be dealt with effectively” (Kencana A., 2010). It is obvious that a lot of businessmen do not care if the environment becomes bad, they just consider whether they can earn money or not. In addition, a number of tourists have the bad habit of throwing waste everywhere. Thus, the local environment becomes worse and influences the eco-systems.

Secondly, tourism has a bad impact on the society and culture of the popular tourist areas. “For example, it is well known that Indonesia is a special country which has a special cultural history. However, in order to attract more tourists and meet their needs, some original customs have changed, such as dances performed only in every 60 years while nowadays they are performed weekly. Besides that, original temples used to be quiet places while today they are always overcrowded with tourists. In addition, masks, costumes and jewelry which were used for religious rituals, have a special and unique meaning. In order to earn money, companies produce these productions largely and sell them in antique shops. Even more, most arts forms such as paintings and sculptures have been adjusted according to the taste of the current market. Furthermore, it seems that these cultural and social changes not only influence the local people, but also it may lead people to forget the original culture due to the commercial influences. For instance, in order to earn more money, investors have driven local communities out of their lands and even beaches, which influence the temples and local people of Bali. The resorts also would threaten the temple’s “cosmological primacy” (Wijaya, 2008).

Thirdly, although the development of tourism has lots of advantages, however, it often do some unethical behaviors from local people and industry. For instance, when they lack employees in the peak season, some hotels and restaurants recruit low skilled people or people who are under 18 years old. Even more, lots of illegal migrants are working in tourism and hospitality industry. “It is reported that there are around 12 million illegal immigrant people in the United States, and the American Tourism and Hospitality industry employed them because they would pay them a lower wage. In fact, it is argued that these illegal immigrants are substitutes for low-skilled workers” (Fedeli, 2010). It seems that recruiting employees who are low-skilled and unprofessional is only benefit to the companies because they get low salaries. Actually, this is not good for the tourists because it easily causes troubles as these employees cannot deal with at urgent situations. Thus, it gives unsafe feeling to the tourists and that leads to hinder the development of tourism industry and also gives a bad imagine to this popular tourist areas.

In conclusion, it is clear that there could be great benefits to develop the tourist industry if governments and companies take the local environment into consideration. Furthermore, if all tourists obeyed the local rules and culture, the beautiful attractions will not be contaminated. What is more, if each person is aware of the importance of protecting our history and culture, the tourism industry can develop better and more and more people can have the opportunity to explore the history of the popular tourist areas. There is no doubt that developing tourism industry is essential and one of the reasons for this is that people can learn more about this world. Therefore, each person has a responsibility to protect the popular tourist areas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

Tourism is the world’s biggest industry in the 20th century and has taken place for a very long time, it recognized as an important economic and social phenomenon. We are certainly believes that modern tourism can bring more advantages than disadvantages to popular tourist areas in terms of the culture, economic, environmental and society. In the following, we will focus to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of modern tourism in several areas which are mentioned before.

In terms of society, high amount of tourist arrival can lead to create more occupation opportunity to the citizen in that city or country, consequence that can reduce the unemployment rate of that country. According to research of UNWTO Tourism Highlight, The report mentions that “the international tourist arrival of the world has 2.9% rises on the average annual growth” (UNWTO, 2010). It can be positively estimated that increase of tourism can increase the demand in service and tourist industry such as travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, bars, theme parks and sightseeing attractions. Thus, it cause the companies create more job positions to provide service to the tourist. Secondly, Tourism is the largest single industry in the world and it regarded as an exciting global business nowadays. According to the special designated topic of tourism on ‘Independent Educational Magazine’, it mentions that “In the UK alone, 2.1 million people work in jobs supported by visitor spending. Both home and abroad, careers in the tourism industry attract a wide range of people with all sorts of interests and ambitions.” (Tourism: The world’s biggest single industry, 21 September 2006) In brief, it can be said that the tourism industry can effectively to create more job opportunity as well as reduce the unemployment rate to that country.

However, the modern tourism will bring several negative effects in our society. A vigorous of modern tourism causes concentration of tourism employment which is means the employees are lopsided in one of the tourist industry on that country. According to the Travel Daily News, “Dublin has the highest concentration of tourism employment, with one-third of the total, followed by the BMW region with 25% and the south-west which has 15%. In 2004, Faille Ireland trained just under 10,000 people for careers in hospitality and tourism”. (Theodore, 2005) In Dublin and other popular tourism of country, they will be facing a serious problem, because there have concentrated employment in one or few specific industry (e.g. hotels, bars, theme parks, transportation company). Consequently, the industry of the country will be focused on one-sided to the tourism and will put less effort to develop other area of industry, for example, the expense on education, citizen welfare or medical expense on general public. Furthermore, if the tourism becomes more saturated, the poor employment opportunities would be offered to the workers such as the job is often seasonal, exploited and low-paying. Secondly, the modern tourism may affect the security problem in popular tourist areas, consequence that country will become more serious and hazards to visit and stay, for instance during the World Cup 2010 event, the robbery and car hijackings are frequently occur in South Africa. From the travel news “World Cup 2010: crime threat to visitors is exaggerated”, it mentioned that “Much has been said in the build-up to the World Cup about South Africa’s crime problem and the threats to visiting supporters. The crime is a serious problem in South Africa, the country’s murder rate is 37.3 per 100,000 in 2009-10, and it is extremely high when compared to the global homicide rate of 7.6 per 100,000.” (Burger, 2010). It can be say that the rise of crime rate can be caused by tourism. Base on the not fully developed law system e.g. Africa, many lawbreakers will decide street robbery or muggings to the tourist when in high arrival rate of tourist during hosting the world event. In China, Pickpocketing, which is different to robbery, is more common in touristy areas especially in the crowed area (train stations, shopping hotspots, sightseeing attractions), because the criminals can easier to leave and Pickpocketing is easier happening on the foreign tourists. Thus, the crime activities can be increased by the modern tourism. Thirdly, the population problem will occur on some of countries or cities which are not big enough. Because of mass of the tourist arrival to the small city, the city becomes more crowded. For example, Hong Kong is a small city in China. Though, there have a mass of tourist travel in the city. There were 16.9 million of international tourist arrivals in Hong Kong in 2009 (UNWTO, 2010), In fact, many people and cars in the street and the place is very crowded no matter in the tourist spots, shopping Centre, restaurants and the hotels are always fully reserved by the tour agency. In short, the tourism will cause population problem to some small country or city that may certainly cause the citizen feel worse.

As regards the Economy of the country, the modern tourism will bring a high economic income to that country. In the UNWTO Tourism Highlights, Edition 2010 which mentioned the data of tourism receipts, it said “the international tourism receipts reached US$ 852 billion (611 billion euros) in year 2009” (UNWTO, 2010) which shows the country can get a high income from the tourist expense and therefore boost the economics of that area. Because the visitors expense their money on shopping, transportation, accommodation and dinning by spend theirs holiday in the unusual place. Moreover, the income comes from the tourism can be used on the national society. For example, it can used to improve the education system, infrastructure, welfare and promote its country. Eventually, the industry of economy of that country can be improved by the expenses of the modern tourism. Secondly, the modern tourism can provide more business opportunity and support to the small local company such as boat operating company, the souvenir shop. In Thailand, most of the local boat operating company provides some boat tour service to transport tourist to different islands for holiday to sightseeing and sea activities. Also, most of fishing boat will converse to the tour boat in the seasonal travel period, the fishing boat use to transport the tourist to gain additional income from tourism other than fishing. As a result, the local company and the fish boat operator can received more income from the tourism to support their own business.

On the other hand, the modern tourism can easily affected by the unstable economic market. For example, in the Late-2000s financial crisis in 2008 to 2009, the worlds’ tourist industries were facing a serious problem, because most of peoples were turn down their travel plan and cancel theirs trip even they reserved a tour. Due to the depressed economic environment, most of the employee was dismissed by the company and the hotels, bars, shops were forced to close, as well as the industry in current country were attacked deeply. Eventually, the modern tourism will be destructed by the seasonal and unstable economic market.

With regard to the Environment, the environmental sense of the general public can be improved by having environmental travel, because of environmental travel promotes environmental awareness to the traveler. In terms of Ecotourism, it means the tourists travel in the unpopular tourist spot, natural, and usually protected areas for example Amazon, New Zealand, South Africa (A. Martin, Lindsay D., 2011). Its purpose is to educate the tourist to protect our surrounding such as forest, river and the sea. On the other hand, the tourism activities of tourist will damage the environment and pollute the area. According to report of ‘Air Pollution from Ground Transportation’ from United Nations (2002 edition), it said “Transportation involves the combustion of fossil fuels to produce energy translated into motion. Pollution is created from incomplete carbon reactions, unburned hydrocarbons or other elements present in the fuel or air during combustion” (Gorham, 2002) Therefore, the transportation (airplane, tourist coach, etc.) causes air pollution which releases the green house gases, various gaseous and liquid vapor such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust particles and soot to our atmosphere during transporting to the destination place, seriously those product of combustion is responsible for the greenhouse effect. Moreover, the behavior of the tourist is needed to concern when they are traveling. Some low civism sense of the tourist may damage the historical relic and public property in the tourist spot. Consequence, the valuable historical relics are injured and cannot to repair at all.

In terms of Culture, tourism activities can speed up the spread of dangerous diseases from one country to another country by the modern transportation systems such as airplane, train, coach. According to the Globalization 101 of Health and Globalization report, it stated that “Between 2007 and 2008 there was a 1.8 percent increase in international travel. In the same way that ancient caravans and seagoing vessels carried illnesses from city to city, modern transportation systems do the same thing, only at a vastly greater speed.” (Globalization101, 2010) Also, it mentioned increase of international travel have played a major role on spread of HIV and AIDS. Some scientist found that the HIV virus was originated in West Africa. However, unfortunately, it spreads out to other region. The main reason is global travel can cause increased dispersion of contagions and also disease can spread by traveling to different place. For example, the passengers take a long distance flight on airplane, recirculate air may cause a significant threat to passengers for contracting diseases such as tuberculosis, which is common lung disease and it is extremely contagious in air. Therefore, the other passengers may have high chance to get sick after taking a long flight, if one of the passengers is carrying virus to take flight.

After we were focus to discuss the benefits and drawbacks in four dimension area (our society, economy, environment, and culture). It can be conclude that there are more advantages than disadvantage to popular tourist country or in specific area. The modern tourism can bring our government or industries receive more income and financial support. Also, more opportunity will be created by company to cope with a large amount of tourist arrival, and provide more job opportunity to the worker and small company. However, there still have many problem instigated by the modern tourism activities, we strongly believe that the government can completely solve these problems by setting up corresponding policy.

Introduction

Currently, the subject hospitality management is being offered by various colleges and universities all around the world. Students and graduates of hospitality management are becoming more and more in demand in hospitality industries all around the world.

Hospitality management is the academic study of the hospitality industry. Hospitality courses prepare students to face the challenges of the corporate world. Hospitality management courses also provide all the training for the students to cope with the workloads of the hospitality industry. Other than that, these hospitality management courses also prepare students with leadership skills and qualities so that students have the right kind of qualities and attitude to cope in the corporate world later on.

Hospitality management can be divided into various different disciplines such as culinary arts, hotel management, tourism management etc. Each different branch of this course prepares student and graduates to face the different challenges in different field of the hospitality industry. As hospitality grows into becoming one of the most important economic sectors in the world, more and more graduates of hospitality management is being demanded in to this fields.

What is hospitality industry? Why is it becoming an important in the economic sector around the world?

The dictionary definition of hospitality is the friendly reception and treatment of strangers. The hospitality industry consists of businesses and institutions involving food and beverage, tourism and all kinds of lodging establishments. The friendly reception and treatment of guests is the responsibility of the people who work in the hospitality industry.

1.1.1 According to statistics, Lodging is the seventh largest industry in the United States of America and food and beverage service is the fourth largest. Twenty-three cents of every dollar spent by a U.S. traveler are spent in a hotel and twenty-one cents are spent in a food and beverage establishment. This shows the importance of hospitality industry to a country’s economy. Almost half of every penny spent by a traveler is contributed to two of the largest establishment in hospitality industry.

1.2 Since we all know that there are very good opportunities and bright future working in the hospitality industry, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in the hospitality industry?

1.2.1 Servicing in the hospitality industry is subjected to personal interest. To people who are interested in social skills and interpersonal communication skills, they may find hospitality industry an interesting career field. This is because in hospitality industry, we are dealing with people, servicing people where almost all of them are strangers. A great deal of interpersonal communication skills are involved in this industry. This may be of an advantage or a disadvantage as not all people are born with fluency in interpersonal communication skills though it can be acquired through a great deal of training.

1.3 A career in the hospitality industry can provide one with responsibility, advancement, diversity and personal satisfaction. A career in the hospitality requires a great deal of responsibility due to the high amount of workload. Advancement in hospitality industry is so when opportunities are provided for employees to be promoted to a higher post in the industry.

1.3.1 As said earlier, hospitality industry is an industry which involves serving guests and customers who are strangers most of the time. This is meant by diversity in hospitality industry. Each day, employees of the hospitality industry face people who come from different part of the world; this proves the diversity of the hospitality industry. Other than that, people who are interested and have acquired skills such as interpersonal communication skills, they might achieve personal satisfaction working in this industry.

1.4 The hospitality industry is full of opportunities for great advancement provided one puts in a great deal of hard work. Hospitality industry can be divided into so many fields and branches. As stated earlier, hospitality industry is referred to as one of the fastest growing economic sector around the world.

In hospitality industry, there are countless job opportunities offered to employees. From waiter at a restaurant to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at large hotels, all of these jobs are classified under the hospitality line. Moreover, the hospitality industries nowadays are facing a serious problem on the lacking of human resources. More and more employees are needed in the hospitality industry. If one were to graduate with a degree in hospitality management subject, he or she will never have to worry about not getting a good job with good pay.

1.5 However, working in the hospitality industry brings some disadvantages too. Hospitality industry is known for its extended, odd and uncertain hours of operation. Most hospitality premises have to operate 24 hours per day, if any colleagues are on leave, others might have to extend their working time or work load in order to compensate the efficiency of work. For instance, ski or water sports resorts operate seasonally based on weather conditions. Some restaurants operate only during breakfast or lunch hours. Employees working under these sectors of the hospitality management have to cope themselves with the irregular working time. However, employees are human too; they need adequate rest time in order to maintain high work efficiency. There are cases where employees work over time just to compensate the work load of absent workers, they fell sick or ill.

1.6 Hospitality industry is also known for its tremendous workload. Employees working under the hospitality industry have to put in a great deal of hard work in order to cope up with the workload in the hospitality industry. However, if an employee graduates from any hospitality management sector, he or she will be trained to handle the workload that they might face when working in the corporate world later on.

1.7 Working under the hospitality industry allows one to gain a lot of skills which cannot be acquired through studying. Employees who worked under the hospitality industry have found to possess of effective communication skills, innovation, creativity, leadership qualities, critical thinking skills, decision making skills, negotiation and conflict management. If you consider the working routine and responsibility of one who work under the hospitality industry, you will find that these skills are relatively important for employees in order to serve the guests or customers well. From a front desk representative to a general manger in a hotel, they must at least possess of a few of the skills from the list above. Especially for those who work in the management level, they must possess of all the skills mentioned above so that he or she could lead the team well and also be a role model to his or her staff.

1.7.1 Working under the hospitality industry also enables employees to acquire a very important skill – teamwork. Teamwork is one of the most well regarded qualities in the corporate world. In the hospitality industry, staff of the whole operation work as a team and this requires a great deal of teamwork. When employees and employers practice good teamwork and work together to handle big cases, the problem seems to be solved efficiently and effectively.

CONCLUSION

Hospitality industry is a fast growing sector and is economically important to the world. Tourism which is one of the fields in the hospitality industry shrinks the world by providing a more in-depth look at the enormity and complexity of international travel. Working in the hospitality industry has both advantages and disadvantages and is subjected to people’s point of view. It also depends on one’s interest. As said earlier, people who have good interpersonal communication skills will find working in the hospitality industry an easy feat but to those who does not possess of good interpersonal communication skills, they would not like it in the hospitality industry.

Question 2: Find out the factors affecting travel and tourism. Explain in detail.
Introduction

Travel and tourism is a very common term when it comes under hospitality management. At least 20 years ago, travelling is considered as a big deal to most people but now with the aid of modern transportation, travelling seemed to be an easy feat for everyone.

Nowadays, with major airlines companies offering cheap fares and giving out various promotions, everyone can just travel to the destination of their choice at a relatively low price. This has indirectly affected the business of most tourism agency. More and more people can afford to travel to any destination of their choice without having to burn a hole in their pockets anymore.

The government in Malaysia has also come out with various efforts or ideas to promote travel and tourism in the country. Travel and tourism is a high profitable sector to the country’s economy. The Malaysian government is putting great effort into making the country a tourism country. The annual Matta Fair is organized by government bodies to promote tourism in the country as well as attracting tourists from other countries. Other than that, the government also has promoted Malaysia in many of the international expos and has greatly raised the name of Malaysia to the world.

Since travel and tourism is made such an easy feat for everyone nowadays, there are still some barriers that stop people from travelling or other factors that cause people to travel to that particular place regularly. Actually what are the factors that affect travel and tourism?

What is travel and tourism? According to the World Travel Organization (WTO), travel and tourism is regarded as the activities of persons travelling and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purpose. Therefore, people who are considered “travelers” or “tourists” are those who are away from their normal place or residence for a period of up to one year in which they will return home after that, taking part in activities that would normally be associated with leisure and tourism and on a visit that is temporary and short term.

2.1. Determinants are those factors that influence one individual’s decision-making process. In short, determinants are the factors affecting ones decision whether to travel or not. Determinants can be further subdivided onto two categories which are personal factors that influenced the tourist and external factors that influenced the tourist.

2.1.1 Personal determinants are one of the factors affecting tourist’s decision making. Personal determinants can be divided into four categories:

– Circumstances of the tourist such as the health, disposable income/savings, leisure time, work commitments and family commitments.

– Knowledge of tourist regarding the destination, availability of various tourist products and prices differences among competitive tourist products.

– Attitude and perception of the destination, tourism organization, political views, particular country and cultures, modes of travel, how advance to plan and book a trip and what constitutes value for money.

– Experience of types of holidays, different destinations, products offered among competitive tourism organizations, taking trips with particular individuals or groups and attempting to find discounted prices.

2.1.2 When the personal determinants are taken as whole for the entire population, it would represent a market opportunity for the tourism industry. For example, with the growing affluence of the workforce and pressure in the workplace, many people would look forward to a long weekend to take a short break or vacation. The need for tourists to take a short break from work is to stimulate and rejuvenate their energy.

2.1.3 Situational factors such as time, money, health or marketing influence can intervene, as a facilitator or as an inhibitor, in making travel decision. Tourists’ decisions are important as it directly affects the travel and tourism. Belk (1975) identified five types of situational variables which will affect tourist behavior and decision made:

– Physical surrounding – includes weather, geographical location, decor, sounds, lights, aromas, tangible signs and display of products, and other materials. The sunny weather can be considered as part of the destination’s physical surrounding.

– Social surrounding – includes other people and their characteristics, roles, and interactions. The social network can provide information and can act as influencer in a choice for a particular travel destination. Crowding is another situational variable, where people from crowded cities may seek isolated places to spend their holiday for a rest and to be alone for a while.

– Temporal perspective – includes the time period, time constraints, and elapsed or expected time. The time situation is important in tourism since many holidays are limited by duration of time. For example, holidays can only be taken during school holiday or during certain says when you go on an annual leave. Tourists also prefer to go for a holiday after a time elapsed since the last holiday travel.

– Task definition – includes the orientation, intent role, or frame of a person where certain situational may become relevant. For example, one would decide on certain criteria to go for a vacation during different time period.

– Antecedent states – is where a situation would shape the perception, evaluation, and acceptance of the current condition, such as a person receiving a bonus, may suddenly decide to go for holiday on a STAR cruise.

2.1.4 Social and cultural influences are other factor that affects the travel and tourism. Most of the social and cultural structures are pervasive and intangible in nature. However, most tourists are unaware of the influences of these structures, even if the structures are actually embedded in their travel decision making. One of the major social influences are groups including family members and relatives.

Reference group can be defines as a collection of people that an individual use as a standard for his or her attitudes, beliefs, values and behavior development. For example, since many officemates will be spending their holidays in China, one may be aspire to join the group by deciding to go along to the holiday in China.

Culture can be considered as a broad, impersonal reference group consisting of the knowledge, behaviors, customs, and techniques that are socially acquired or learned by an individual. It includes beliefs, values, norms, signs, habits and non-normative behavior.

Thus, culture can influence the way an individual behaves as a consumer or as a tourist. For example, one of the promotional themes to promote Malaysia as a tourist destination is to exhibit Malaysia as a melting pot of various cultures that are found in Asia. Cultures also exist within overall culture and are known as subcultures. Those subcultures are groups based on region, race, language, religion, age, social class or other factors. The island of Bali in Indonesia has been prominently promoted as a cultural destination, based on religion.

Social class is another example of subculture. Social class is a product of division in society on the basis of status and prestige. Education, occupation, wealth and income are some of the basis used to explain the belonging of one social class.

Some tourist destinations tend to appeal to certain groups of social class of people. For example, the French Riviera is favored among the higher social class people. Places like Langkawi Island may attract people from all social classes, but people may differentiate classes once they arrive on the island by staying at different kinds of hotel’s categories. In some society in Indonesia, travelling abroad is considered as a social status and sometimes the connotation of “Has Been Abroad or HBA” is attached to the individual.

2.2 Apart from personal determinants that we have discussed earlier, there are also some external determinants that may affect consumer travel decision making. Some of external determinants are:

1. Views from friends and relatives

2. Marketing activities in the tourism industry

3. The influence from the media

4. National-level politics and factors like economy, social and technology

5. International-level politics and factors like economy, social and technology

Most of these external determinants can be further subdivided into sub-factors:

Political sub-factors:

Government legislation and policy, like capital control restricting amount of money taken out of the country

Immigration restrictions and visa requirements

Civil disorder and terrorism

Taxation policy, for example, airport tax, exit fees

Media sub-factors

Travel channel — Holiday features reported on television, in newspaper, magazines and guidebooks.

Non-travel channel – news reported in national Geographic programs and in news programs

Marketing activities:

Marketing activities by national tourist organization

Brochures from travel agencies

Special promotions by hotels and other travel operators.

The extent of the personal and the external determinants influence the tourist behavior depend on factors such as tourists’ personality and their lifestyle. Extrovert people are more likely to take account of the external determinant such as the views from friends and relatives while the introvert people prefer to rely on their own experiences.

People who watch news regularly and are very much concerned about the world affairs may be influenced by those external determinants compared to those people who are not worried or do not know of the situation of that country, may not consider this external factor.

Some of these determinants can either be a catalyst or a constraint to the tourists’ motivation and desire to travel. For example, high disposable income is a catalyst and low disposable income is a constraint. Travel brochure with glossy and rosy picture of a resort destination would attract potential tourist to visit, in contrast to a cheap looking flyer.

Conclusion

Tourists do not make rational decision based on perfect information. They might not realize most of the determinants, as mentioned earlier.

There are tourists who are aware of the various determinants to be considered in the decision making, but choose to ignore these determinants. People tend to use other aspect of lie such as pressure and emotion, to dictate their travel decision.

Most literature in tourism marketing noted that there are relatively long periods spent in travel decision making process, like thinking about the vacation, collecting information, and evaluating the alternatives. Currently there is a growing trend in the tourist industry of the “last-minute purchase: decision to travel. Working people have a high desire to go for a short trip whenever there is an opportunity to do so and are more willingly to go to a less interesting destination if it is offered at a low price.