Category: Free Essays

A worldwide industry of festivals has grown and expanded since the 90’s. Nowadays, festivals are recognized as one of the top growing types of leisure- and tourism – related phenomena (Dimmock and Tiyce, 2001). As Mintel International Group (2006) suggests, festivals are forecasted to grow a total of 106% in the next five years period. South Australian Tourism Commission (1997, p. 2) suggests an easily understandable meaning of festival :” Festivals must have as a prime objective a maximum amount of people participation, which must be an experience that is different from, or broader than day to day living.” Festivals, and more specifically, music Festival Organizations are increasing in number every year worldwide. According to Frey (1994), the provision of music festivals has developed based on a constant increase in disposable incomes, accompanied by an augmented amount of time offered for holidays. Furthermore, another feature that makes music Festivals so popular, is the fact that music Festivals form special events which include a variety of activities associated with the music (Bowen and Daniels, 2005), unlike concerts which provide mainly live music performances, rather than various event attractions.

One of the most popular music Festivals in Greece for the last six years is the Synch Festival. The Synch Festival began its operation in 2004 at Lavrio Technological & Cultural Park, an ex industrial area of distinctive beauty, aimed at bringing the Greek and international audience, in touch with modern sounds and images. Music, arts and new technologies coexist in a two day festival. Keeping up with modernity, Synch offers its audience the possibility to experience some of the most interesting aspects of global culture. Synch”s main course is music but despite its focus on the various aspects of the contemporary electronic scene Synch denies all kinds of borders and separations that lead to limiting or rigidifying musical expression. The musicians participating in the festival originate from different backgrounds and currents to share their ideas discouraging easy categorization creating musical hybrids that constantly evolve. It forms an uncommonly open-minded curatorial sensibility, tapping everything from experimental micro sound to minimal house and banging techno to local outfits using rock, jazz, regional music and electronic elements. It’s got the perfect balance of industrial setting, a diverse multimedia program, cutting edge electronic acts and classic live acts.

Falassi (1987) argues that the collective role of a festival is directly connected to values that a community looks upon as vital to its ideology, such as social identity, historical continuity, and physical survival. Additionally, according to Arcodia and Robb (2000), a festival develops around the marking of unique occasions and around the festivity of important events. Thus, according to Usyal, Gahan and Martin (1993) a festival may be considered as the cultural resources of an area that make realizable the successful hosting of festival attendees. “The phenomenal growth, coupled with increased consumer awareness and choice, requires the industry to manage the sector effectively and efficiently to ensure sustained development and growth in the future” (Yeoman, Robertson, Ali-knight , 2004, p. xix). Therefore, according to Arcodia and Whitford (2010) festivals are expanding worldwide as an increasing and lively sector of the tourism and leisure industry, which have major economic, socio-cultural, and political impacts on the destination and on the host groups, if managed properly.

All the way through history, festivals have taken the forms of cultural traditions or have marked religious or historical occasions linked to the community staging the festival (Arcodia & Robb, 2000). According to Earls (1993) historically, the way festivals celebrated special occasions was through art, ritual, and festivity; they were seen as public meetings that make people’s joint wishes and dreams reality and offer a significant event for a unique experience in their lives. The basic origins of this type of communal celebration which has cultural importance to the host population (Pardy, 1991), can be traced back to the carnival of Europe ( Arcodia, Whitford, 2010). “The defining characteristic of a special event or festival is its transience” (Gilbert and Lizotte , 1998, pp. 73). This suggests that it would be difficult to encourage and maintain the same sense of occasion and enthusiasm, if such an event was to be held more often. Goldblatt (1997) defines a festival as “a special event that recognizes a unique moment in time with ceremony and ritual to satisfy specific needs”(Goldblatt, 1997, pp.33).According to Yeoman et al. (2004) the word festival derives from feast and means a time of celebration.

Yeoman, et al. (2004) argue that the features of festivals and events are unique, thus no common model of management fits them all. “These characteristics include intangibility , production, often taking place at the same time as consumption, and perishability” (Yeoman et al., 2004, pp.xx). Festivals and events have diverse levels of operating costs and they fall into both the not- for -profit and profit- making categories. They can array from locally based events, to large international festivals (Yeoman, et al, 2004). Previous studies on festival motivation (Uysal et al,1996, Nicholson and Pearce, 2001, Crompton and McKay, 1997) jointly demonstrate that the type of the festival is a significant predictor of motives. As a result, further exploration on various types of festivals should be conducted, in order to improve our understanding of the relationship between the kind of the festival and the visitor motives. A significant characteristic of a festival is the sense of community, belonging and celebration engendered by an event, which forms a communal and free social meeting including a variety of media such as arts, performances and shows (Goldblatt, 1997).

Cultural consumption is an intangible pleasure-seeking experience. The consumer experience in cultural products appears to have as its main elements the multisensory, fantastic and emotional characteristics of any consumer experience (Bourdeau, Paradis and Nyeck, 1997; Bourdeau, Decoster, Paradis; Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). In other words, it can be perceived as a self-gratifying consumer experience with an experiential perspective (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). The intangible characteristics of attendance at a cultural festival modify the event into a consumer facility. According to Bourdeau et al.(2001 ) more generally, it is a pleasure seeking experience in which consumers use their senses. “It is only after this hedonistic experience, when they leave the festival site, that they develop feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction” ( Bourdaeu, De coster Paradis,2001,pp.1). However, the intangible, hedonistic nature of a festival visit makes it difficult for managers to determine satisfaction levels amongst customers. Managers of a cultural scheme must supply to the festival attendees an intangible, hedonistic experience, preferably one that includes not only the fundamental service but secondary services as well (Eiglier and Langeard, 1987). The fundamental service is the principal reason for attending the festival. In the case of a music festival, it is the content of the event, which is the music. Secondary services are those surrounding the event such as festival information services. Swan and Combs (1976) have suggested that when the show does not meet up to the consumer’s expectations, dissatisfaction occurs, and when the content of the festival does meet their expectations, satisfaction arises. Howard (1977, p. 57) describes satisfaction, from an expectancy theory perspective, as “the consumer’s mental state of being adequately or inadequately rewarded for the sacrifice he or she has undergone”. The level of sufficiency results from comparing past experience with the reward that was expected from the brand (Bourdeau, De Coster, Paradis, 2001). One of the original service quality theories is that customers are satisfied when their judgment of the service they have received (perception) equals or exceeds what they expected: Customer Satisfaction (CS)= Perceptions(P) =Expectations (Williams and Buswell,2003,pp.60). This is identified as the gap analysis theory (Zeithalm et al., 1990) or Oliver’s expectancy disconfirmation (Oliver, 1997). Zeithaml et al. considered that the features that influence customer’s formation of their expectations are: word of mouth , personal needs, external communications, and past experience. Moreover, Johnson and Mathews (1997) noted that the expectations of a frequent user of a facility would rely more on the influence of past experiences than other means of information. Researchers have no way of knowing what a first-time user’s expectations are based upon. Dale (1994a) suggests that world class experiences are valuable in formulating expectations. Parasuraman et al. (1988) attempted to clarify customer expectations, by suggesting that they are what an organization should offer.

(table , pp. 67)

MOTIVATIONS :

The success of a festival is heavily dependent on the execution of a strategic marketing plan; an understanding of the relationship between a destination event and its visitors and the identification of target markets are critical factors in the process (Thomson and Schoefield, 2009). Festival organizers are likely to assert that their primary goal is to provide high quality, satisfying experiences that visitors perceive to be good value in order to increase the probability of the visitors returning in the future and/or recommending the festival to others in their social circle (Lee, Petrick and Crompton, 2007). Since competition among festivals and destinations is increasing, the need for information on festivals,

specifically analysis of motivations for attending festivals and events

(Getz, 1993), has become crucial. Actual attendance itself may be attributed to various motives or just a single motive. In order for the event organizers to manage to deliver a great experience, the event product definition is a vital step . The event product is a unique blend of activities, which are the tools for achieving the overall event aims and satisfying customer needs. “Event design should be customer orientated , and event organizers should create a mix that satisfies the largest number of potential customers” ( Salem, Jones, Morgan, 2004, pp.14,in Yeoman). Getz in 1997 argues that many events lack of a product orientation , which means that they attempt to promote their event with no consideration for what prospective customers need , desire, and are willing to pay for. Hall in 1992 identifies three important objectives of event marketing: to know what the customers need and what motivates them ,to build up products that meet their needs and expectations and to create a programme that communicates the event’s aim and objectives. Individuals, participating as audience at a festival or special event wish to satisfy their curiosity about place and people. Participants wish to emerge from the event with experiences to narrate back home. These people want to avoid insecure situations , anxiety, worries, uncertainties, embarrassment, having to make too many difficult decisions , or being cared as computer number and being made to feel an annoyance. According to Yeoman et al.(2004) it is a marketing saying that people do not buy products or services , they buy the expectation of benefits that these products or services will provide them with.

No matter the main aim of the festival, there is a wide variety of customers , each with dissimilar expectations , and this impacts on the management processes used for each individual festival (Yeoman, et al.,2004). Motivations are a theoretical construct for the driving forces of human behaviour (Kroeber et al, 2003) and clarify why people do what they do instead of choosing another choice. Burch (1969) states that the personal motivational drives of individuals are modified and readdressed by their workmates, family or friends. Therefore, it is obvious that the motives to attend a festival may evolve and differentiate throughout someone’s life, which enhances the need for motives to be constantly investigated. Pointless to say, event organizers might have false impression of their customers’ motivation. Wicks and Fesenmaier (1993) examined the perceptual gap on customer expectations between visitor and vendors, identifying those areas of the event that need improvement. The same equivalence also has applicability to the recognition of the motivation gap that may exist between attendees and festival providers. As Fodness (1994) highlights , the motivation stands for the major driving power in explaining human behaviour, even though it is not the only factor(Fodness, 1994). According to Lee and Lee(2001) dividing festival markets through motivations, allows event managers to discover the strengths and opportunities of the market and contributes in guaranteeing their contentment. In case festival visitors are diverse, a significant marketing instrument is the dividing of these visitors into groups and the comprehension of their features based on festival motivations. The segmentation allows event organizers to develop and support event features suggested and appreciated by specific visitor groups (Formica & Uysal, 1996).

Moreover, Crompton and McKay (1997) argue that event managers should make every effort possible to fully understand the motives of festival attendance in order to provide better services for them; since motives are a powerful predictor of satisfaction and a significant aspect in the decision making process, the exploration of the visitors’ motives can lead to advanced levels of attendance. For example, Crompton and McKay (1997) explored festival attendance motivation for the following reasons: firstly, it gives the opportunity to match the festival’s content to the visitors’ needs. Furthermore, it augments the visitors’ satisfaction levels since their needs are met; and lastly it increases the chances for the visitors to revisit the festival, a fact that plays a key role for the economic viability of the festival. Schoefield and Thomson (2007) also agree that it is critically important to discover festival visitor motivations and to measure consumers’ satisfaction levels from the point of view of the consumer. They suggest that from a planning and management perspective it is vital to determine visitor satisfaction and behavioural intention with respect to repeat visits and to help identify the factors which affect visitor motivation and their experiential outcomes. (Gelder, Robinson, 2009,) Bowen and Daniels (2005) state that understanding why people go to music festivals can help planners align their marketing efforts to emphasize the attributes that best reflect the mission and goals of each event . Nicholson and Pearce (2001) believe that these factors will become increasingly important as the growing number and diversity of events, especially festivals, lead to heightened competition , in particular when events are initiated or expanded to encourage tourism and thus boost local economies (Daniels, 2004). Apo Glastonbury pdf Getz (1993) also emphasized the importance of analyzing visitors’ motives for attending festivals and events. Identifying such motivations is a prerequisite for planning event programs effectively and marketing them to visitors (Crompton & McKay, 1997). Analysis of festival motivations also helps event managers to better position their festivals (Scott, 1996).

PURPOSES OF THE STUDY

By understanding what drives and motivates participation, the festival management could probably gain better insight into a strategy to maintain attendees and to drew new ones to the festival (Van Zyl, 2006). The primary aim of the present research is therefore to fill the gap in previous research by determining what motivational factors push and pull visitors to attend the Synch Festival, held in Athens, Greece, and participate in it, and what are their expectations. Comparisons will also be made with the point of view of the manager of the organizing company. By understanding attendee’s motivations you can give the opportunity to the event organizers to tailor promotions and develop desired services.

The research objectives are :

To explore and review the literature relevant to the motivation and expectations of people attending leisure events, with particular emphasis on music festivals.

To investigate what motivates people to attend the Synch Festival and their expectations of the event.

To explore and review the ways in which the Synch Festival is managed and organized, and in particular , the degree to which (if at all) customer expectation and motivation is considered.

To report the findings of my research and, where appropriate, make recommendations and suggestions to the event organizers , as well as fill the literature gap as far as the exploration of festival motivations at a national level, is concerned.

To achieve this, the article is structured as follows: the literature review is followed by a description of the research methods, followed by a discussion of the findings , followed by the conclusion-discussion part where recommendations will also be made.

The last few decades have been characterised by a radical change in management perceptions about the importance of the work force in achievement of strategic objectives of business organisations.

Management experts agree that in situations where competitors have similar financial resources and organisational infrastructures, competitive edge can be achieved only through well trained and intensely motivated employee forces.

The hotel industry has grown remarkably in the last two decades. With the industry expanding exponentially, capacity builds ups in business and tourism centres have created enormous competition in all its segments. Whilst hotel managers strive to provide good physical facilities to their clients, it is widely accepted that excellence in service quality is best achieved through the efforts of employees to meet customer needs.

Motivating employees is thus seen to be a critical task of hotel managers. The dissertation project aims to examine the importance of motivating employees in the hotel industry for the achievement of competitive advantage and the best possible ways and means of doing so.

The last few decades, especially the period that commenced from the 1970s, have been characterised by radical changes in management perceptions about the importance of the work force in achieving the strategic objectives of business organisations. [1]

Whilst traditional management theory treated workers, along with capital, land and machinery, as just one of the four important inputs of business enterprises, current management thought and practice, influenced on one hand by the opinions of experts like Drucker, Porter, Maslow and McGregor, and on the other by dramatically altered business conditions, perceive employees to be critical to organisational success and growth. [2]

Contemporary developments like globalisation, economic liberalisation, the deconstruction of trade and physical barriers, technological advances, the spread of the internet, instantaneous communication technology, cheaper travel costs and the emergence of China and India as economic power houses have made the world intensely competitive and diminished the superiority of Western business organisations. [3] Management experts agree that in economic scenarios where competitors have the same sort of financial resources and organisational infrastructures, competitive edge is mainly achieved through well trained and intensely motivated employee forces. [4]

The hotel industry has grown remarkably in the last two decades. Globalisation along with greater discretionary incomes in the populations of advanced and developing countries, cheaper travel, open borders and the opening of numerous business and tourists destinations have led to substantial increases in business travel and domestic and international tourism and created enormous opportunities for hotels.

Aims and Objectives

With the hotel industry expanding exponentially, capacity builds ups in business and tourism centres have created enormous competition in all sectors of the hotel industry. [5] Being service oriented in nature, hotels work towards achievement of service quality and improvement of customer satisfaction for achievement of competitive advantage. [6]

Whilst hotel ownerships strive to provide good physical facilities to their clients, it is widely accepted that excellence in service quality is best achieved through the efforts of employees to meet customer needs [7] Motivating employees is thus seen to be a critical task of hotel managements. [8]

This proposal aims to investigate the contribution of employees in achievement of profitability and competitive advantage in the hotel industry, the importance of motivation in improving employee performance, and the role of managers in motivating employees to improve their performance and commitment.

Its objectives are elaborated as follows:

To examine the ways and means in which employees can add to the service quality, efficiency, profitability and competitive advantage of the hotel industry.

To examine the impact of motivation on the performance of hotel employees.

To examine and assess the various ways of motivating employees.

To examine the roles of managers in motivating hotel employees.

2. Literature Review

Human resource management theory has changed radically over the past few decades. Whilst traditional HR theory was influenced and shaped by scientific management principles embodied in the approaches of Henry Ford and Fredrick Taylor for improvement of worker productivity, the post Second World War period saw the emergence of behavioural experts and psychologists like Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg and Vroom, who discarded Fordist and Taylorist principles and emphasised that worker performance could be much better enhanced by meeting the various needs of workers, training and developing them and empowering them to do their work to the best of their ability. [9]

Experts like Maslow and Herzberg stress that worker motivation is critical to worker performance and organisational managements need to motivate members of their work force in carefully thought out, well planned and deliberately implemented ways. Maslowaa‚¬a„?s theory of needs, McGregoraa‚¬a„?s exposition of theory X and theory Y, Herzbergaa‚¬a„?s detailing of hygiene and motivating factors, and Vroomaa‚¬a„?s work on motivating employees deal with the various needs of workers and how they can best be motivated by organisational managements. [10]

Extant HR theory also places great stress on the need of managers to know methods of motivation and use them appropriately in the work place. [11] The evolution of human resources as a management discipline has been characterised by numerous academic and research work on the best possible methods of motivating employees. [12]

Employees are seen as key inputs in the hotel industry and most well known hotel chains like The Marriot, The Mandarin Orient and The Ritz Carlton are known to have very carefully thought out and well implemented employee performance improvement programmes. [13] Motivation plays a key role in such programmes and is a key responsibility of hotel managers. [14]

The Ritz Carlton, the only two time winner of the famous Malcolm Baldridge awards for quality, is known to have an excellent employee training, development and motivation programme. [15] Employees at the Ritz Carlton are motivated through a complex system of policies and procedures that deal with remuneration, training, involvement, responsibility allocation, employee respect and empowerment. [16]

Employee motivation and the responsibilities of managers in motivating employees are key areas of focus in hotel management theory. [17]

3. Research Methodology
Research Hypotheses

The aims and objectives of the project, along with the information obtained during the course of review of available literature, lead to the following research hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Employees are critical for the achievement of service quality, profitability and competitive advantage in the hotel industry

Hypothesis 2: Employee motivation leads to improvement in employee performance

Hypothesis 3: Managers can motivate hotel employees in various ways.

Research Methods

The choice and adoption of appropriate research methods for projects are essentially decided by the nature of the project and the resources available with the researcher. [18] With there being two basic methods of social research, namely the quantitative and qualitative approaches, the choice of an appropriate method for this assignment will be shaped by the research hypotheses elaborated above. [19]

The research hypotheses essentially deal with issues and questions that are how, why and what in nature, and are thus best tackled by use of interpretative qualitative methods, rather than through analysis of the results of number based quantitative surveys. [20]

Information for the project will be obtained from primary and secondary sources. [21] Primary information sources are those that provide information directly from people and organisations who form the subject of research, whereas secondary information is obtained from sources created by people, (e.g. authors, researchers, or media publications), who are unconnected with the research subject. [22]

It is proposed to use both primary and secondary sources for this research project. [23] Whilst substantial information from secondary sources on human resource management, motivational theory, service quality, managerial responsibility and the responsibilities and methods of managers for motivating employees is available in the public domain, primary information can be obtained through study of hotel websites and interviews of people associated with the research subject. [24] With the hospitality industry now a globally important industry, a number of academic publications and research studies are available on different aspects of hotel management. [25] The study of such sources will enable the researcher to obtain accurate and extensive information on the subject under study. [26]

The methodology entails the collection of primary and secondary data from the sources elaborated earlier, the qualitative interpretation of obtained information, and its detailed analysis for the purpose of examining the validity of the hypothesis. [27]

Ethics

Care will be taken to ensure that all ethical requirements regarding the conduct of research projects are followed, especially with regard to protection of the rights and confidentiality of primary respondents. Adequate care will be taken to ensure that appropriate credit is given to all information sources. [28]

Constraints and Limitations

The study will be limited by the amount of primary and secondary information accessed by the researcher, as well as the amount of cooperation provided by the primary respondents from the hotel industry.

It is envisaged that obtaining appointments with hotel managers may be a difficult task and could delay the gathering of information and data. The researcher plans to start taking appointments with managers in the hotel industry at the earliest in order to maintain the research schedule.

4. Timeline

The research is expected to take six months to complete. The timeline of the project is provided below.

Function

Month

1

Month

2

Month

3

Month

4

Month

5

Month

6

Determining of Secondary Information Sources

*

Study of Secondary Information Sources

*
*
*

Determination of Primary Information Sources

*
*

Study of Primary Information Sources

*

Fixing of Appointments with Primary Respondents

*
*

Conducting of Interviews

*

Collation of Secondary Information

*

Compilation of Literature Review

*
*

Compilation of Primary Information

*

Collation of Data

*

Data Analysis and Interpretation

*

Preparation of Rough Draft of Dissertation

*

Discussion with Tutor

*

Preparation of Final Dissertation

*
Word Count: 1610 without Tables

Introduction

The tourism industry is considered one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world (Ninemeier & Perdue, 2008; Cooper & Hall, 2008). In the past few years many people have been travelling around the world for leisure, business and migratory purposes. Each individual traveler has different motive based on their needs, culture and lifestyle. A person needs give rise to motivations that forces them to act or behave in a specific way to satisfy the needs. Motivations are driven by the different force of push and pull factors that revolve around an individual which will reflect in both travel decision and behaviour. Therefore, it is important to understand the behavior of tourists, their backgrounds and what motivates them to travel as all ‘leisure involves a temporary escape of some kind’ (Leiper 1984: 249). The topic of this paper is based on trip in Langkawi and further understanding of what motivates the tourist to travel overseas and what sort of temporary escape are they intending to find here on this island.

The trip

Based on recommendations by friends, a 4 day trip to Langkawi (LGK) was an ideal place to have a weekend getaway and enjoy the slow paced beach life. It was also a trip of escaping reality and in search of inspirations. Yet, while observing the local people here, there is more to this than just escaping reality and the slow paced life. Actually many of the locals have travelled here for holidays and vacations but ended up extending their stay for many months, some even love the life here so much that they became part of the local people and took up jobs in bars and opening up small businesses. It was the first time staying in a guesthouse and it felt like the whole atmosphere brought in by the friendly people helps open a person’s character and that atmosphere of good vibes seems to grow even more by mingling with people from different parts of the world, hearing their stories and gaining exposure of different lifestyles and culture. When travelling alone, one also gets to understand the importance of being alert to the surroundings in a foreign land especially when one does not speak the common tongue; it also helps that person to be independent by looking out for himself, adapting and abiding to different cultures, managing the money wisely and having clarity in life as one tends to drift into their own thoughts easily when not distracted by the daily routines.

Lit review

Getting away from the mundane life of the city or their hometown has always been in the minds of many people. Crompton (1979; 416) noted that the desire to ‘escape from a perceived mundane environment’ became a major motive of inducing tourist vacation behaviour. Escapism is described as a push factor, which refers to factors that predispose an individual to travel (Dann, 1977). In contrast to Riley (1988: 317), when an opportunity presents itself, people tend to be attracted to exotic places like an island where the beach helps them to relax and rejuvenate and have a temporary escape from the dullness and monotony of their everyday routine. ‘A certain picture is built up of a world that marks an escape from present reality an environment for acting out psychic needs, and the playing of certain roles that cannot be fulfilled at home, and it is this which forms part and parcel of tourists’ motivations’ (Dann, 1976: 22). So when a destination attraction consists of those elements of a “non-home” place, people are more motivated to travel there or even extend their stay. According to Backman et al. (1995) motivations are associated with individual basic needs for participating in activities that associate with their personal goals, being influence by their friends/family members or due to the change of weather. For instance, Westerners love travelling to Asia because of the exotic feeling, discovery of ancient history and warm weather. The need to see the unseen and know the unknown drives people to travel to new places and motivates them to visit new destinations (Venkatesh, 2006). But March & Woodside (2005) also states that tourists are subjected to certain behaviour before, during and after travelling. These travel behaviours are mostly influence by external and internal factors. These could be explained using the Push-Pull motivation theory. Push factors are socio-psychological motivations that predispose, while the pull factors are those that attract a person to a specific destination when the decision to travel has been made (Oh et al., 1995).

(Mehmetoglu, 2011)

The ‘need’ to see things are the pull factors, Mehmetoglu’s model shows that these factors influence the tourist mindset of travelling. For instance, Image could be due to the sharing of photos through facebook and other social media platforms, Culture, for example Westerners at the age of 16 tends to be independent and they usually go on road trips after their collage and Price could be discounts given by accommodations or air flights at a particular destination. While the push factors are influenced by the socio-psychological mindset of that person. For example, the need to socialize or escape from their comfort zone pushes them to search for a better environment. Both of these factors lead to the length of stay for the tourist and it is controlled by ‘Control Variables’ which reflects on each individual tourist culture and background which not only determine the length of stay but also the destination.

The control variables could also make tourist migrate to another country. Before the concept of migrating appear in a persons’ mind, the person has planned on a destination to escape from the reality of his/her hometown, travelling to places to relax. After being satisfied with the current place, the external and psychological factors such as better economic/social opportunities, safer environment for building a family, slower paced lifestyle and realization of their spirituality plays a part in concluding the migration or longer stay of the tourist.

Methodology

The research method for this essay would be considered qualitative because learning more about the culture and lifestyle of the locals requires more time, more analytical data of the surroundings and time. Therefore, the methodology for this research paper is based on observation and interaction with the local people. These observations and interactions were compared with the local people and some of the few tourists who came to stay for a short period of time. Taking down notes during observations will help to determine what happened and at the same time triggering an answer to any research question during data analysis (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Pitney & Parker, 2009).

Data Analysis

Findings

While walking around the beach and streets of LGK, I manage to talk and find out that many of the locals were actually tourist before when travelling here for leisure but most of them ended up staying here as residents. Most of them came from Penang, Germany, KL, Thailand and even Brazil. Mostly, due to the slow paced lifestyle and their love for the beach, and better and nicer work environment which made them decide that they want to live here. I even talk to some of the tourists who travelled here for a few days ended up extending their stay for another day or so cause of the new friends they made.

Discussion

In order to predict travel behaviour it is important to understand how individual characteristics of a person interact with the characteristics of the situation, therefore understanding the positive and negative evaluative factors influencing destination choices of the tourists (March & Woodside, 2006; Laws, 1995; Holloway, 2004). Using this guy called ‘Captain’ as an example, he says before coming to work here in LGK, he was a Malaysian who works as a security guard and he did not like the environment there and his salary could not justify his work. Back then he was eager for a getaway, a temporary escape of some kind. So travelling to places nearby like LGK would be a good idea as it is affordable, easy to distress and communicating with the locals is easy. (Pearce, 2005; Pearce & Lee, 2005) came up with 14 core factors that describe travel motivation; they were built on items of interest from a rich array of previous studies and identified across the two large international samples. The defining forces were in order of importance, novelty, escape/relax, relationship strengthening, autonomy, seeking nature, self development through involvement with hosts or the site, stimulation, self-development of a personal kind, relationship security (enjoying being with similar others), self-actualisation (getting a new life perspective), isolation, nostalgia, romance and recognition (prestige of travelling).

(Pearce, 2005)

Using the model above, the Travel Career Patterns (TCP) concept shows that tourists in the Core motive are unchanging because these standard and important motives are the common motivations that push people like ‘Captain’ who travel to LGK for temporary escape to just relax and bond with friends and family. Eventually, ‘Captain’ TCP developed into the Middle layer as he is satisfied with the environment that he is in and ended up building more bonds with the locals and gaining self actualisation and self enhancement by setting up a private inn business catering to backpackers and tourists.

Some individuals like ‘Captain’ were push by escaping their life due to the political environment and individual background. Backing Pearce’s TCP model concept; McIntosh, Geoldner and Ritchie (1995) provides a deeper analysis of travel motives.

Source: Yeong, Eves & Scarles, (2004)

Using the above table, McIntosh, Geoldner and Ritchie derived with 4 categories which travel motivators can be classified into. Physical motivators’ factors are those that push the individual to travel for his/her own purpose such as fulfilling a thrill of adventure, getting away from the hectic life and seeking a stress free environment. Cultural motivators are people who want to visit their heritage, ancestral site or travel to pilgrims in search for their faith to discover more about their religion. The third category, interpersonal motivators is about travelling with friends/family or a love one to build greater relationship and experience the destination together. Lastly, Status and Prestige are motivators that people travel for status, ego enhancement it is possibility due to an opportunity given to travel in a more prestige way and to impress their neighbours.

Relating McIntosh, Goeldner and Ritchie’s theory and to Mehmetoglu’s model of push and pull factors. 2 siblings from Penang who work at a reggae bar along the street came here for leisure purposes. The brother is a cyclist who actively cycles with his group of friends around Malaysia twice every month. As what he said, it was a way of freeing his mind from his daily routines and his friends suggested going to LGK for a cycling session, group-based behaviour is a modification of individual behaviour, which makes individuals engage in activities they may not have done otherwise (Marcevova, 2011). Later on, he enjoyed living the island life and decided to carry on staying here and eventually, his sister and some of his friends came to LGK to stay and make a living here. Both the siblings and their friends decision was mostly based on social influence decision making and the pull factors of the destination. The political model of decision-making (Pettigrew, 1973; Pfeffer, 1981) is an example of an adaptive form of decision-making, recognising the fact that most decisions are not individual but made in the context of groups, which means even backpackers or solo travellers make their decision based on recommendations, travel sites, stories based on past experience; all these are based on the context of group information and ideas that push them to travel. Social influences are processes which individuals adjust their feelings and behaviours towards someone who are perceived to be similar, desirable, or an expert in that discussion.

Conclusion

In conclusion, tourist motivation is seen as a multidimensional concept that explains tourist decision (McCabe, 2000) and each individual behaviours set different motivation of travelling due to different cultural background, country that they come from and the push and pull factors that influence them. In the modern world, technology is advancing such as social media being an intermediary to show people what the place has to offer and it needs to be considered as a factor of motivation. The destination that attracts the tourist plays an important role as well because the personal motives (push motives) and the view of the characteristics of the tourism destination (pull motives) determine perceptions (Bashar Aref & Al-Haj, 2010) which could make tourists extend their stay or even bring in more people.

10 Most Sacred Places in the World

Faith is the driving power for billions of people around the world. Regardless of the religion or faith you belong to, there are sacred places for every kind of people throughout the world.

After going through many of such places and locations around the world, we have come up with what we think are top 10 in our mind regardless of the order. Below is a list these sacred places:

1-Masjid Al Haram-The Kaaba, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Masjid Al Haram is considered the most sacred place for Muslims. This place holds a significant value in the history of Islam and is the birth place and home to the last prophet and the most important and influential figure in Islam, the beloved Muhammad (PBUH).

This place is significant for other reasons too, like Hajj- the biggest annual gathering of over 16 million Muslims from all over the world conducted to show unity and love to the one and only God- ALLAH.

This place is surrounded by mountains and the ambiance and the atmosphere here exudes peace and tranquility. Praying-in and visiting this place really reinvigorates faith in your mind and soul and the feeling you get here is nothing you would have ever experienced in your entire life.

Visit: http://www.beautifulmosque.com/Masjid-al-Haram-Night-View-Saudi-Arabia

2-Cenote Sagrado, Mexico

Cenote is basically an underground water reservoir, and the Mayan people considered these to be very important for the sustenance of life, essentially due to water.

Cenote Sagrado is one such cenote which is considered to be a sacred place for these people. This cenote is created from natural limestone, and is located in the Yucatan Peninsula.

It is believed that unlike normal cenotes that provided people with daily life necessities like drinking and bathing, this cenote was used for ceremonies and special purposes like sacrificing children and women in the times of drought to please Chac, who was believed to be the God of Rain by the Mayans.

The place is so beautiful and peaceful that you’d want to stay there forever.

Visit: http://travel.prwave.ro/the-cenote-at-chichen-itza/

3-Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar

Shwedagon Pagoda is named by many travelers and tourists as the sacred place to visit. This beautiful monument of Gold is located some 100 yards over Rangoon, the largest and the former capital city of Burma.

This location especially comes to life at the evening and night times and is famous in Buddhist people due to it being home to Buddha’s remnants.

The Heart of Myanmar ~ Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon

4-Crater Lake, Oregon

This is a beautiful fresh water lake that is located in the central region of South Oregon.

It is a crater that has been considered sacred by the local Klamath tribe for centuries and is believed to have come into existence as result of an explosion in Mount Mazama some 8000 years ago.

The place is covered with lush green plantation and the beautiful lake water reflects the sky to turn into a deep blue color. The result is a stunning scenery, a wonder that eyes just cannot let go of, the serenity and peacefulness of the location just captivates your imagination like few other places can.

Visit: http://nexttriptourism.com/crater-lake-tourism-in-oregon/

5-Hagia Sophia, Turkey

Hagia Sophia can be considered as one of the most visited sacred places by tourists on Earth. This sacred place, unlike the rest is an architectural marvel, and reflects one of the finest pieces of craftsmanship you would ever encounter in your life.

The most unique and differentiating fact about this place is that although it is a sacred place for Muslims in particular, but it attracts tourists from all over the world regardless of their beliefs and religions.

Visit: http://nexttriptourism.com/hagia-sophia-is-a-unique-turkey/

6-Ghats of Varanasi, India

Ghat can be understood as a riverside place or the place on the river banks where one can sit or change before entering into the river.

Varanasi is a sacred city of India and the several Ghats present on riverside in this famous city provides for hundreds and thousands of believers with bathing opportunities, the place to meditate or even an opportunity to say the final ceremony of their loved ones.

The setting sun on this beautiful river is also a sight which will leave you speechless and in complete awe.

Visit: http://www.hindugodwallpaper.com/wallpaper-59-101.html

7-Spanish Synagogue, Czech Republic

If you are a Jew and happen to live in Europe, then you cannot miss to visit this sacred place. This is probably one of the most beautiful Synagogues in the Entire Europe, or better yet in the entire world.

Located in the beautiful city of Prague, this synagogue is loaded with Fascinating ancient drawings, designs and beautiful architecture that overwhelms you with its presence, and the calm and quite atmosphere revives the faith from within.

Visit: http://jbuff.com/shul%20prague%20spanish_synagogue.htm

8-Mount Kailash, Tibet

This is probably the most beautifully dangerous sacred destination on our list. Mount Kailash is of immense importance for more than one religion, it is considered a holy place in religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and the religion of Bon.

Annual trip to this wonderful and sacred mountain is made by many thousands who believe in its sacredness, but the road to the location is a very tricky one and you might need some assistance if you’re visiting for the first time.

Visit:http://www.mountainsoftravelphotos.com/Kailash/Inner%20Kora/slides/33%20Nandi%20From%20Above%20Nandi%20Pass%20On%20Mount%20Kailash%20Inner%20Kora%20Nandi%20Parikrama.html

9-Vatican City

Set foot in the world’s only carbon neutral state, the Vatican City is as beautiful as it is sacred. It is home to the Pope and presents some of the most beautiful and the scarcest pieces of art and backdrops you can find in Rome.

The city is absolutely full of lush green gardens and the atmosphere of the city just brings about the surge of emotions that are hard to feel in other cities of the world.

Visit: http://www.airpano.com/360Degree-VirtualTour.php?3D=Vatican

10-Jerusalem

Jerusalem is probably one of the oldest sacred places to have existed on this planet. Bearing its significance in some of the biggest religions in the world, it is a sacred and holy place for Muslims, Jews and Christians since thousands of years.

Many battles have been fought amongst Christians, Jews and Muslims in the history over this great city and it still to this day is the most important city for Muslims after Makkah and Madinah.

The mere history and the culture that this holy land presents is enough to attract millions from all over the Globe annually.

Visit: http://sharingjerusalem.org/

Corporate strategy of Qantas has been supporting all its business objectives and also employee level individual objectives so that the company produces better results for the satisfaction of customers. Airline industry is a huge place where different companies are working and if planning and strategic decisions do not meet the needs of the current environment of the business than it would be bad for the company. Marketing and Auditing are the key areas where the strategic decisions of the Qantas have to focus. In Australia the airline industry has been under crisis since 2000 so the Qantas had to tackle the situation by strategic moves and proper planning has to be done for that. Marketing auditing has been done by the company several times to check the effectiveness of the strategic decisions that were being made to support the marketing activities regarding new and old customers (Kain and Webb, 2003). In addition to these, a significant worldwide leaning in rapid look of low-cost transporter was empirical and the challenge for Qantas to maintain both the low cost and high quality standards was difficult but workable and it worked on it. Australian airline industry was not opposed to this, two reasonably priced airlines that is to say wish and Virgin Blue Airlines were launched in 2000 and so they created a sense of competition in terms of marketing activities for the company and thus auditing was becoming necessary.

USE OF BUSINESS TOOLS TO UNDERTAKE FORMAL MARKETING, AUDITING AND PLANNING

Business tools like strategies and customer services tools like software, plans and policies if used properly for the Qantas would help undertaking the formal marketing, auditing and planning. Formal Marketing would come if the marketing strategies are planned based on perfect business tools that are available in the market for market research, customer analysis and marketing strategy formulations. Similarly if we move toward the auditing side the structure could be formalized through several business tools that would automatically generate auditing report to analyze business strategies. Auditing tools like software tools and business packages should always be a source of support to undertake more formal strategies to be made, more complex analysis to be done and more accurate planning to be done. Planning is another major part which would generate results for the Qantas (Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton, and Armstrong, 2007). Planning is the most critical part because if it’s done well, ends well and if not so the outcome would also get disturbed Planning business tools available in the market allow us to utilize the resources at best of the capability to make them produce best results and this is what is needed at the point of time. Qantas has already been using several different business tools for marketing, auditing and planning and also producing results efficiently. If further utilized well Qantas can make it a competitive edge for the company and an effective way to satisfy the customers.

MOST IMPORTANT MACRO-ENVIRONMENT FACTORS IN QANTAS

Macro environment factors that are influencing the Qantas Airlines include Political, Economic, Societal, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors. All these factors are very critical for the success of Qantas. Political factors like Australian politics and the state laws are going to influence the trends of the company and the profit making would laws be disturbed if the taxation policies changes from the governmental authorities. So Qantas has to focus over such strategies very carefully and it has to be prepared for such changes because they are out of control of the company. Societal factors like changing trends among customers, introduction of new trends in the society and changing likeness and dislike of people are all such factors that should be prepared and should be decided in strategies (Kain, and Webb, 2003). Technological factors are changing day by day and thus this would have been a biggest challenge for Qantas to overcome such challenges and cope up with all new technological improvements happening day by day. Especially it has to be very strong in Research and Development so that every coming technology comes first in Qantas before hitting the competitor companies. Environmental factors like weather and surrounding countries and their policies are very important to be considered so that Qantas designs its strategies accordingly as it has been doing previously. Legal factors are last but not the least factors which play part in success of the company and they play very critical role in making such policies.

MOST IMPORTANT MICRO-ENVIRONMENT FACTORS IN QANTAS

Micro environment has been also very important and several factors are part of micro environment like strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the company. Qantas Airways, a national Australian airline established in 1920 is the world’s second oldest airline heading towards a century of age in 2020 (Harcourt, 2004).

Strengths

Along with its subsidiaries served destinees, a number of international flights includes almost all the continents like Africa, Oceania, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Being the most oldest in age, Qantas airways is far ahead in experience, operational accountability, technology and services.

For all classes including economy class a luxurious entertainment system is provided along with in flight internet facility and with every seat having a LCD screen.

Promising a comfortable journey, traveling by Qantas airlines is cost effective.

A complete cabin system is provided with First class, business class, premium economy class and economy class categorization.

A paramount commitment is assured through a proper customer charter including customer’s safety, in time departure and arrival, proper caretaking in case of any mishap and securing personal information of their customers.

An environment friendly approach through group environment policy considering all contemporary issue regarding environment for the attainment of green planet.

Airway team has always been working for providing every possible route that is extending day by day.

Shows their goodwill gestures at the time of emergency in their own region or for their own people settled abroad in the course of evacuation charter.

Qantas airways had been declared as World Skytrax Airline of the Year (for five consecutive years), Skytrax Best Airline Australia (2005, 2006, 2008), and Skytrax Best Regional Airline Australia (2006, 2008) for their services along with several wine design and entertainment awards.

Weaknesses

A conservative policy is implicated while flight that children traveling unaccompanied are not allowed to sit along with male travelers, which compels the men to feel sex discriminated as females can equally be suspected for child abuse.

Despite being the oldest among the airlines, Qantas airways had gone through one air accident in almost each decade which indicates inefficiency in technicality.

Due to environmental constraints, some long route direct flights are often delayed.

Opportunities

Proper policies are launched for regular flyers by points earning through any type of activity that includes money spending, either through hotel staying, credit card usage, car rentals, dining and much more. Members are also given different types of bounties time to time. Growing points increases customer value from silver, gold to platinum.

Leases has been announced for new aircraft fleet to cater more passengers, employment opportunities, services efficiencies and extending flying business.

For promoting businessmen access to world with no trouble a club has been organized for uninterrupted and luxurious travel with priority check in and certain business related and personal facilities. Subscription can be made from one to several years.

Threats

Strong response to global fuel price increase, by approximately half doubling the ticket on nearly 10% increase in fuel prices that has recently been noticed.

Certain attempts of extortion have been made that had an adverse effect on airline reputation but now they are almost sorted.

Qantas has been accused in 2006 and had been proved guilty for price fixing. They had to pay they were fined a huge deal of money, if this happens in future will prove a dire threat to airline reputation.

MARKETING RESEARCH AND MARKETING INTELLIGENCE

Presently the Qantas Group is among one of the few major airline groups in the world that are still making profits. Several airlines are making considerable losses, and few mergers have also been seen in past (for instance KLM-Air France), takeovers by some big companies and bankruptcies of firms (e.g Northwest and American Airlines). In spite of the apparent flushed first impression, the real profitability depiction across the Group has been diverse, with Jetstar’s domestic and global operations usually performing well, while the Qantas partition of the business has been performing less than them. This has been critically because business intelligence is very important. Market research has to be on priority to earn priorities and thus if company falls down the major issue is low research of market. Qantas’s market share has declined piercingly in the last decade. At the same time as the airline was in a leading market place with 34.4% of the passage to and from Australia, from 2010 to 2011 its market share had declined to 18.7% (Bamber, Lansbury, Rainthorpe, and Yazbeck, 2005). Intense market research has let it happen and the Qantas has always been very concerned about that and in response to market needs the launch of Jetstar was planned, which has fascinated 8% of global passage into and out of Australia parting the in general Qantas Group with a 26.5% market share at the end of 2011.

SEGMENTATION AND SPECIFIC SEGMENTATION VARIABLES

Segmentation is very important and critical for Qantas as it has been targeting the domestic and international markets together. The economic capability of the Qantas international business is, nevertheless, vital to the Qantas’s aims and goals. Dazzling this, a need to lower the costs is an essential resident of the Group’s plan for Qantas. According to the airline, the cost base is around 20% higher than major competitors (Porter, 1979). Segmentation should be done accordingly so that the needs are met and no spaces are left for the competitors to take over. But side by side it is also very important that the company follows its own capacities while targeting a market segment. It just does not have the little cost formation of many of the competitors, in particular the Asian competitors. Segmentation needs to be on the basis on geographic as age, gender and other factors do not really matter. Segmentation and specific segmentation variables like demographics, psychographics, buyer-graphics and geographic are critical if marketing of the company is planned. Pricing standards should be set according to the needs of the customers and segmentation can be based upon that as well.

UNDERSTANDING OF MARKET POSITIONING

Positioning has been very critical part of marketing strategy which has to be decided by the Qantas and it already has done it well. It has positioned its product domestically on the basis of price penetration while international the positioning is based over quality more. The major step of positioning policy is to be familiar with likely violent profits. Qantas has many times for differentiating its extent and augmented insistent benefit against its rival Virgin Blue from side to side product and service division (Coyne, and Sujit 1996). We know that Qantas is a most important provider of air transport; the central advantage that a client will take release of is ‘time-critical transport’.

UNDERSTANDING OF BUYER BEHAVIOR

Buying behavior of customer is another major factor which it considers well and behavior of clients towards the airlines. Customers have always thought of having privileges in terms of prices and quality of services. Customer behavior has always been a critical phenomenon to study when it comes to success or failure of a company (Brandenburger, and Nalebuff, 1995). Customer would like to have proper services and facilities during the flight with the sense of security and safety during the journey.

Customer’s preference should always be the center of attention for the company. Customer is always right and his attitudes and behaviors are always critical for the success of the Qantas. Behavior of the existing customer of Qantas toward the brand is loyal but the new customer or the customer who is using competitors services are not aware of the company strengths completely and this makes it difficult for them to choose Qantas among all. For this Qantas has to design a very strong marketing campaign that would bring benefit in terms of customer base and the societal awareness about Qantas. Customer base when increases bring a lot of benefits for the company and this should be the focus of Qantas right now.

CONCLUSION

The overall assessment of different factors of Qantas have made us realize that the market analysis and research is very critical and strategic decisions, planning, assessments and audition could be done fairly and more accurately after you have complete knowledge about internal and external factors of the company. Position of the product plays very significant role in its success or failure so Qantas should take care about that. Customer behavior also plays very important role and studying customer behaviors would again be done through the market research activities. Qantas if focuses all above precisely would get privilege to get success shortly and for long term.

Mont-Saint-Michel is a village located on a tiny island off the coasts of Normandy, in France. Surrounded by the Mont Saint Michel bay, the site is a tidal island: part of the land at low tide, but an island at high tide. Previously called the “Mont Tombe”, its current name comes from the St Michel Abbey (built in the 8th century), which is one of the several historical buildings of the site. It belongs to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites (since 1979), and is nicknamed “the Wonder of the West”. It is the more visited site in Normandy and the second one in France. Only 46 people are living in the village, but more than 3 million people visit it each year (Pierre Le Hir, in« Le Mont-Saint-Michel rendu a l’eau »). Mont Saint Michel is a part of French Culture and has inspired a lot of famous musicians and writers (for instance Guy De Maupassant).

In prehistoric times the mount was land. It became an island because of erosion. But this status was compromised by several human developments: polderisation, canalization of the Couesnon River (the main river around the mont), construction of a causeway to access the siteaˆ¦the French state had to start the “projet Mont-Saint-Michel” in order to remove the accumulated silt and make the Mont-Saint-Michel an island again. More recently, its status of “World Heritage Site” was threatened by a windmill project nearby the Mont Saint Michel. These windmills could waste the view and denature the landscapeaˆ¦

This illustrates the problem of sustainability when exploiting a cultural heritage site for tourism. Except the Saint Michel abbey, owned by the French state, the all site belongs to only three families. Why can we say that Mont-Saint-Michel belongs to the French cultural heritage? What do attract people so much and make them spend money on visiting this place? Who manage such a symbolic place? Is there a danger in melting culture and business?

Summary
I-A cultural Heritage

1) A place steeped in history

2) A tangible cultural heritage

3) Which intangible heritage?

II-Tourism in Mont-Saint-Michel

1) Pilgrimage

2) A touristic place

3) The impacts of mass tourism

III-Managing Mont-Saint-Michel

1)Stakeholders

2)Main sources of tension

3) A win-win equation

I) A cultural heritage

1) A place steeped in history

Mont Saint-Michel was previously called “Mont Tombe”. In 708, the archangel Saint-Michel appeared to Aubert, bishop of Avranches, to ask for the construction of a building to rent its merits. Thinking to become fool the bishop don’t do anything, but the third time the archangel appears, it last a proof of its powers: a circular hole in Aubert’s skull. This legend explains the origin of the construction of the first building on the Mont Tombe, a small church dedicated to Saint Michel, in 709.

In 966, Benedictines monks settle in the abbey. They are great builders: they build a church and a lot of accommodations around it. This date is considered as the foundation of the abbey. The place becomes famous and many pilgrims come to see the abbey, and village appears in the following years. After several disasters that discouraged the monks, Robert De Thorigny is elected abbot in 1154. He contributes to make the Mont Saint Michel more powerful, rich, and totally revitalized spiritually speaking.

During the Hundred Years’ war, Du Guesclin is named chief of the mount’s garrison. He wins all his battles and, although all Normandy is occupied by the English army, Mont Saint-Michel remains free. This victory is told to be due to Saint Michel, and ever more pilgrims come to the abbey. After the war, in 1523, Louis XI decides to turn it into a prison. He now nominates the abbot, who is generally not ecclesiasticaˆ¦this system raises huge contestations and finally ruin the abbey. The Revolution makes thing worst, the site becomes a full-time prison, and all monks are driven out the Mount in 1790

From this date the Mount is falling in ruins, but many writers like Hugo or Flaubert drive pressure on the government to restore the main buildings. The prison is closed in 1963 and the abbey is classified Historic Building in 1874. In 1898, the reparations are done and give to the Mount its current appearance. Tourism become to grow and a new community of monks settle in 1963.

2) An intangible heritage

The following map of Mont-Saint-Michel was taken from the website “http://www.le-mont-saint-michel.org ».

Figure 1: Map of Mont-Saint-Michel

It is really important to describe, even briefly, the monuments of the village. People come with some expectations of what they will see here.

a- The Abbey

The first bribe of the abbey was built in 708 by the bishop of Avranches, Aubert. Since that time the building totally changed due to many causes like the arrival of new monks, the need to welcome more pilgrims, the fear to face a war or catastrophes such as fires or collapses. The construction of the final building took 1200 yearsaˆ¦We can now watch three different styles of architecture: Romanesque, Gothic and Flamboyant. The abbey is divided in 2 parts: the abbey church (where the monks lived) and the Wonder (which is divided in 2 rooms themselves divided in 3 rooms each). The cloister is located inside the Wonder.

An important thing to understand is that the abbey is built on a pitched rock. Moreover the site was really hard to access, especially when carrying heavy raw materials. The simple fact of building something on here can be considered as a real tour de force.

b- Other points of interest

The abbey alone does not belong to the UNESCO list of World heritage site, but the entire village. 63 buildings are protected as Historical Buildings by the French minister or Culture: houses, fountains, garden, towers and walls, churches, chapelsaˆ¦

Some of them are really famous, as for instance:

-The wall around the city. Built to resist to the English invasion during the Hundred Years war, the fortifications are really well conserved. A short walk on the wall gives the opportunity of visiting the towers and offers an amazing view on the bay surrounding the village.

-Tiphaine’s house. Built by the French hero Du Guesclin for his wife during the Hundred Years war, it is all furnished like it was during the Middle Age. It gives a real idea of how knights were living at that time.

-The Bourg. In the South East of the mount stand the village. It has really narrow and winding streets. 12 houses built between the XIVth and the XVIth century still exist.

Mont-Saint-Michel could be a good example of “the world as exhibition” (Bella Dicks, 2004), each “common thing” tourists do here (have a coffee, walk in the streetaˆ¦) is a cultural experience.

-Food! It is an important part of the culture, which must not be forgotten. The omelet Poulard is a particular omelet, where the white and the yalk have been battered separately. Another reputed meal is the pre salted meat (lamb or sheep). Lambs and sheep often graze grass, that have been covered by seawater, that gives a really particular taste to their meat.

c-The bay

The bay surrounding the village offers an amazing landscape. Medieval pilgrims nicknamed the site “Saint Michel in peril of the sea” because of the amplitude of the tides: 14 meters between high marks and low marks. This tide is the biggest in Europe. Victor Hugo use to say that those tides change “as fast as a galloping horse” (original quotation: “a la vitesse d’un cheval au gallop”). Because of this speed and the presence of quicksand, a lot a pilgrims use to die trying to access the village by walking outside the common way. Owing to polderisation and human constructions, Mont Saint Michel became an island only during high tides of equinox (53 days a year). The spectacle of water coming quickly to surround the village is told to be the most spectacular thing to see when visiting the mount.

The bay belongs to the UNESCO list of World heritage site (since 1979). When the tide is low it becomes a natural reserve, and a great place for promenades.

3) Which intangible heritage?

By its history, the beauty of its building and the majesty of the landscape around it, Mont-Saint-Michel is one of the most visited touristic sites in France. It belongs to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 1979, rewarding both the human created beauty and the natural beauty of the landscape. But the “Wonder of the West” is not only a nice place, beloved for the beauty of its architecture and landscape. The fascination for the mount began during the middle age in France and was since then transmitted by art.

References can be found in “classical arts” like literature, paintingaˆ¦a few examples:

-Claude Debussy may have been inspired by the village when composing his piano prelude La Cathedrale engloutie (written between 1909 and 1913).

-Paul Feval wrote about legends of the Mont-Saint-Michel in La fee des greves in 1850

-In Le Horla (Guy De Maupassant) in 1887, the story ends in the Mont-Saint-Michel

But references can also be found in more modern form of art: cinema, cartoon, and even video gamesaˆ¦

-Bruno Bertin created in 1999 and 2000 two cartoons taking place at the Mont-Saint-Michel (called Les archanges du Mont-Saint-Michel: le testament, which means: Archangel of Mont-Saint-Michel: the testimony)

-The architecture and structure of the village inspired Peter Jackson to create the city of Minas Tirith, in his film The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King.

-Several scenes of the film Pauline a la plage (Pauline at the beach) from Eric Rohmer take place at the mount’s bay.

-The Mont-Saint-Michel is proposed as map for multiplayer games in the video game Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Microsoft)

A lot of other examples could be found. The important thing to notice is that the “Wonder of the West” has been and still is a real source of inspiration for artists. We can find references in old legends, in literature of the Renaissance, but also in new form of culture as for instance video games.

II) Tourism in Mont-Saint-Michel

1) Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage can be considered as the first form of tourism, induced by religious believing. The first pilgrim who went to the Mont Saint-Michel was the franc monk Bernard, between 867 and 868. In the following years the influx of pilgrims kept growing, especially during the XIth century. A really dense network of routes heading to the mount appeared, and with them hospitals, hostels where pilgrims received charity. Among those routes, called “way to heaven”, many churches and monasteries were built to give a little rest to the pilgrims. The influx grew so much that during the XIVth century, some people died from the overcrowding of the sanctuary. Pilgrims had the habit to bring back from Mont-Saint-Michel a small shell, symbol of the city.

But during the following century, pilgrimage decreased because of the Hundred Years war, but did not stop totally. The legend of Saint Michael, last defender of the kingdom, was reinforced by the heroic resistance of the village and pilgrims came from Netherlands, Rhinelandaˆ¦But pilgrimage continued to decrease, mostly after the French Revolution. Now pilgrims are not numerous to go to the Mont Saint-Michel, but another kind of visitors took their place: tourists.

2) A touristic place

In this paragraph, all data are taken from a study about tourism in Mont-Saint-Michel realized by Odit France (which is a group created to facilitate the development of tourism in France). This study has been realized in 2004. Odit France is a reliable organization; its work is used by a lot of professionals in the tourism industry.

Who is visiting Mont-Saint-Michel?

In total more than 3 million people visit the site each year. 75% of them go there by car: it means that almost 1 million cars take the road to the mount. 75% of the tourists are French, and 25% come from foreign countries: mostly Belgium and Great Britain, but also Japan, North America, Italy, Germany.

Most people come there in couple (40%) or with family (30%). Then follow friends groups (15.5%) and organized tours (14%). The remaining 0.5% contains people travelling alone (often pilgrims) or for business purpose.

Why do they go there?

People who already came there before are really faithful: it is in the mean the sixth time. If two third planned their trip a few months or weeks ago, only on third took the time to gather some information before. Only 26% go to the Tourism Office. For more than a half of them (53%), Mont-Saint-Michel is the main reason of the trip. 63% of total people take benefits from being in the area to go to Saint-Malo, and 25% to Avranches. Only 26% of them know the bayaˆ¦

What comes out is that Mont-Saint-Michel has a real attraction power, which contributes to make Normandy the second region for tourism in France. Mont-Saint-Michel is a primary destination, which means that most of tourists here really wanted to go there, that was the first objective of their trip. But tourists often profit from being here to visit other parts of Normandy, almost two third go to Saint-Malo during the same trip.

How do they behave?

The tourists often stay a few days: only 34% stay one day, 16% two days, 21% three days and 31% stay four days. It seems important regarding to the proximity of where they come from: only 18% travel more than 5 hours to go there. For 40% of the visitors, the travel last less than 2 hours. An average visit of the mount takes 3h10 and 25% buy a souvenir (for an average price of 28 euros). The most surprising data is that only one third of the tourists go to the Saint-Michel abbey!

It means that the village is an attractive place by itself, and not only because of the abbey. People come for the atmosphere, the history, the landscape, the global architectureaˆ¦and only visiting the village is an experience of cultural tourism .

3) The impacts of tourism

Such a mass tourism phenomenon has several impacts on the place where it occurs. 3 million people visit each year a place which has only 46 inhabitantsaˆ¦

The most obvious is of course the economic impact. It is divided in two categories: direct incomes and induced incomes. Direct incomes symbolize the amount directly given by tourists to the cultural institutions. For example entrance fees, guides, souvenirs…In the case of Mont-Saint-Michel, the amount is not really high. For example, the full price to visit the abbey is 13 euros, but important reductions exist (for groups, studentsaˆ¦). So this direct source of income represents a small part of the total amount generated by tourism. The most important part must be measured at a regional scale. All tourists spend money for accommodation, restaurant services, transport, shopping. This impact is hard to isolate from the “normal” incomes of the leisure sector. In the region the Manche, where the mount is located, tourism is the third source of incomes (estimated at 475 million euros), after building and civil work and agriculture [1] . The most part comes from annex activities (such as restaurants, bars, shops, other services) with 65% of the total amount. Accommodation comes next with 22% and finally leisure activities with 13%. In 2007 8% of the total employment in Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay was due to tourism [2] . To compare, the average rate in France is 4.6%, in Normandy 4%. Thanks to the tourism sector, Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay is the area where employment raises the more in Normandy [3] .

But mass tourism can also have huge negative impacts. Pollution is of course one of them. Buildings are deteriorating faster, the village is overcrowdedaˆ¦40% of the visitors declare to have been annoyed because of the overcrowding. 50% met circulation problems on the bridge. Another problem of mass tourism is the lack of authenticity. Tourists want to experience what they are happy to believe to be the authenticity of a place, but not necessarily its reality (McKercher and du Cros, 2002). So the place changes to meet the tourist’s standardsaˆ¦the tourists are given what they wanted to see, how they imagine it was (Bella Dicks, 2004). For instance, Tiphaine’s house has been totally made up, decorated with old furniture from everywhere in the village, to show how life was at this time. But it is presented as her house, because people want to have an accurate view on it. Tourism has become responsible for rendering most events superficial (Boorstin, 1964: 77-117).

What is the mechanism leading to such situations? Who have to pay for the building of new infrastructures, which will allow to welcome more tourists, and to be more respectful of the environment?

III) Managing Mont-Saint-Michel

1) Stakeholders

Even if the all island belongs to the French cultural heritage, the French state only owns the abbey. The management of Mont Saint-Michel was given to the National Building center, which is in charge of more than 100 historical buildings. It missions are to enhance the site, to restore and protect it, and also to publish literature that have a link with the Mont Saint-Michel.

All the other buildings are owned by only 3 families, which are sharing both economic and political power. Jean-Yves VETELE is the director of the firm Sodetour, which run several hotels in Mont-Saint-Michel. Patrick GAULOIS, mayor between March 2001 and March 2008, also owns restaurants and hotels. But the most powerful is Eric VANNIER, the current mayor (since 2008). He is the owner of the group “Mere Poulard”, which is in charge of half the restaurants, hotels and shops of the village. The group also owns some museums. The group really belongs to the traditions of Mont-Saint-Michel. Annette Poulard owned a restaurant at the beginning of the nineteen’s century. The place quickly became famous thanks to its omelettes, and Annette opened new restaurants and hotels in the village. Now the group not only own hotels and restaurants, but it produces and exports biscuits all over the world, and benefits from the image of authenticity of Annette Poulard. This stakeholder has a key role because he takes part both in the tourism industry and in the management of cultural heritage.

2) Main sources of tension

Nowadays, Mont-Saint-Michel bay is threatened by the accumulation of silt. This phenomenon is natural, and occurs in every bay. During high tides, the stream is fast and brings a large quantity of sediments to the bay. But during low tides, the stream is much slower. The biggest particles start to deposit. As the tide is going out, the particles progressively deposit. Usually, rivers clean up this accumulation of silt, and slow down the phenomenon: that is called the “flushing effect”.

But human constructions disturb this role in the case of Mont Saint Michel bay. The long tradition of polderisation started in the VIIIth century. Many dikes were built to divert rivers and create new fertile lands. In 1859 and 1863, two submersible dikes are built: they divert three rivers (the See, The Selune and the Couesnon). But they do not protect lands from the higher tides, which carry the more silt: In 1879, a dike is erected to give a permanent access to the mount. It immediately raised contestations, both from environmental defenders and from artists (Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant).Those interventions accelerate the natural phenomenon and during the middle of the XX century, this phenomenon was to be taken seriously: the island could become a real part of the land in the decades to come.

To face this problem, the French state started in 2005 the project “Mont Saint Michel”.

-The first step of this project was the construction of a new dam on the Couesnon. Built between 2006 and 2008, this dam stated to work in May 2009. It will follow the movement of the tide, in order to establish the flush effect back. The old one was destroyed in 2008.

-Then the river has been cleaned from all the silt, in order the have a stronger stream and to restore the “flushing effect”.

-The destruction of the old causeway and the old parking started last year. A new parking will be built 1.3 kilometers far from Mont-Saint-Michel (the end is planned for 2012). The mount will be freed from car noise and pollution and the visitors will be able to enjoy a little purest nature.

This cost of this project is evaluated at 164 million euros: 75.43 from the French state, 3.80 from the Water Company, 59.62 from the Mixt Syndicate (structure composed by local Territorial collectivities) and 21.15 from the European Regional Development Found (ERDF).

Another debate began in 2009, after the acceptation of a wind farm project near from Mont-Saint-Michel. An increasing number of associations and personalities got revolted, fearing the waste of one of the most famous landscape in France. In fact, the wind farm project concerns an area located 19 kilometers away from the mount. Two other projects in the same area, not accepted yet, raise the same contestations. Powerless, the associations asked the help of the UNESCO. During the summer 2010, the organism declared to be preoccupied by those projects, and asked more details about them. Mont-Saint-Michel could lose its belonging to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. This happened only twice since the signature of Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in 2007, the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany in 2009aˆ¦because of the building of a bridge in the valley). The answer will be known on June 2011.

There is a big debate in France concerning wind farming. Some defend it as a clean source of energy, others argue that it wastes the landscape and makes too much noise. The point is that with the figure of Mont-Saint-Michel, the “against” side have found a powerful symbol to defend. Because it represents the French culture, it is easier to convince the public opinion. For the tourism industry, the loss of the World Heritage site label could be a real disaster.

3) A win-win equation

“In entrepreneurial cities, there no longer appear to be clear demarcation between city government, commerce and civic culture” (Hubbard and Hall, 1998)

Many tensions could occur between the stakeholders that have to work together. But in each case, both parts have the same interest: the more diversified and qualitative the culture display is, the more attractive the place will be. And more tourists means more incomes for the tourism industry. This last makes easier the access to culture and by paying more taxes to the state, bring more grants by the government.

Those efforts, made by both tourism industry and cultural institutions, are more important when dealing with heritage. The risk could be to focus too much on the heritage, to stay fixed on the past. But these activities bring a dynamism that is highly benefic for Mont-Saint-Michel. For instance, concerts are organized almost each month in the abbey. During the summer (5 July- 31 August this year), it is possible to visit the abbey by night. Each year, during the summer, the festival “13 centuries between the sea and the sky” takes place in the streets of Mont-Saint-Michel. This festival of Christian Art targets to make people more aware of the spirituality of the mount by using art. Workshops, spectacles, concerts will be proposedaˆ¦but also meetings with Christian artists and religious communities, a walk and the pilgrim’s roadaˆ¦Many Christian volunteers take a part in the organization of the fourth edition of this important event. It symbolizes a will to remember the Christians origins of the mount, which have been relegated to the background by tourism. It is a way to reactivate the religious life in Mont-Saint-Michel.

Herve Novelli, French honorary minister in charge of tourism (2009): “[Mont-Saint-Michel] meets success because of a constant will to adapt and renew its offer”. He puts the emphasis of the importance for the tourism industry and the cultural institutions to work together, in order create always more value, attract more tourists and generate more incomes.

Conclusion

Mont-Saint-Michel is one of the most visited place in France. Steeped deeply into the French history, the mount brings together the beauty of nature and the beauty of human creation. Every building on this island is a real tour de force, and contrast with the majesty of the landscape. Mont-Saint-Michel really belongs to the French cultural heritage because it has both tangible and intangible assets. A large number of tourists, “modern times pilgrims”, are ready to travel and pay to experience it. If tourism can have huge negative impacts on the places where it occurs, it also brings the money needed to save and develop them. There are a lot of sources of tension in such a touristic area. They are even worse when tourism is by far the first source of incomes.

Tourism and cultural management are supplementary and can gain huge benefits by working together. In Mont-Saint-Michel, the weak number of stakeholders is a real advantage. One of them even belongs to both parts: Eric VANNIER, who owns hotels, restaurants and museums. It facilitates the cooperation and the mutual comprehension. This cooperation leads to a constant renewing of the offer, an adaptation to the demand, while preserving the cultural heritage. But totally merging business and culture would be dangerous, and could directly drive to a loss of authenticity. The balance is really fragileaˆ¦

To protect it, each side must have a really specific role. The two parts are needed to create and keep the balance. Tourism industry has to find out what are the needs and the expectations of cultural tourists. The cultural heritage management has to protect the authenticity of culture. The ideal cultural tourism would be a compromise between those two points of view.

References

– The Entrepreneurial City: Geographies of Politics, Regime and Representation, Tim Hall and Phil Hubbard (eds.), 1998

-Histoire du Mont Saint-Michel Patrick Sbalchiero 2005

-Cultural Tourism: The Partnership Between Tourism and Cultural Heritage Management

McKercher and du Cros, 2002

– Culture on Display: The production of contemporary visitability, Dicks B, 2004

-Cultural Tourism-Global and local perspectives, Greg Richards, 2007

-Newspaper Cent pour Cent Basse Normandie n°182, article « L’emploi en Basse Normandie : un role important pour les etablissements phares »

-Newspaper Le Monde, article« Le Mont-Saint-Michel rendu a l’eau », Pierre Le Hir (ae/29/1997)

-La Manche des pouvoirs naturels : les chiffres cles 2009 (2010)

-International cultural tourism charter (Managing Tourism at Places of Heritage Significance , 1999)

-http://www.ot-montsaintmichel.com

-http://www.le-mont-saint-michel.org

-http://www.manchetourisme.com

-http://paysage-et-territoire.over-blog.com

-http://abbayedumontsaintmichel.cef.fr

-http://www.projetmontsaintmichel.fr

-http://www.unesco.org

-http://www.lamanchelibre.fr

– http://www.lemonde.fr

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. Companies will follow the fashion and the taste of the people and then to do some changes on the meaningful paintings and sculptures. 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 about 12 million illegal immigrant people work in America, 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.

Nickson Journal is very good and he is very strong in his ideas but he had some weakness while describing, he is also good in applying his theories in the hospitality industry they had been more elaborated and he must have considered more number of evidences to support his theories and models. He told us that each and every author have their own opinion while defining HRM, he gave us the definition HRM based according to Storey (1999:5) but he must have considered the definition of the other authors on HRM. For example “Human resource management is the function within the organization that focuses on recruitment, management and providing direction for the people who work in the organization”.(By Susan .M.Heathfield).

Nickson is clear in telling us about the different factors about employment statistics in the hospitality industry. The hospitality sector provides large number of jobs than any other industry. The contribution of the travel, tourism and hospitality to the total employment is expected to rise from 219,810,000 jobs in 2009 7.6% of the total employment, or of 1 in every 13.1 jobs to 275,688,000 jobs (WTT, 2009).

About the models and theories what Nickson told us was correct but he must have explained them in a most elaborate way with proper evidence which might have helped us in understanding the models more clearly and which might help us properly in applying them to the hospitality sector .The hotel industry establishments must be just as careful as the manufacturing establishments in relation to the manner in which they recruit stheir staff (Hoque, 2000).

Best Practice

Nickson told us that there are some arguments which favour the best practice approaches to HRM. It is correct but he must have told what those arguments are, this makes contradict him with some authors where they described what those arguments are and he must also have told us what he means by the best practices as there is no particular definition for best practice. Some authors argue that there are certain practices of HRM in order to influence the organisational performance that must be abided for the improved performance which has to be achieved by the employee. These are referred to as the HRM “best practices” (Mess, 2000).As there is no particular definition for the best practice, but he must have tried to define it like some other authors did for example, “best practice methods in the HRM methods and systems will have universal, additive and positive effects on the organisational performance” (Jhonson 2000).HRM best practices are designed in such a way that they enhance the performance of the employees in the organisation resulting in the increase organisational performances (David Morris).

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Nickson told us about the best practice technique in the tourism and hospitality sector but he did not made clear to us what he is trying to say. This weakness of him was explained clearly by the other authors for example each best practice technique in the tourism and hospitality sector is developed in recruiting and development of the employee increasing their commitment and ultimately creating a competitive advantage. He must have clearly explained about the employee selection and it should be noted that large hotels engage in best practice selection due to the cost factors the small hotels unable to meet the best practice selection requirements (Jhonson 2000 pg7).

Nickson did mention what is the link between the employee and the organisational performance for example, without the conceptual relationship between the employees and an organisation in the hospitality sector, the service performance is meaningless (Baron, 2007)).There was a certain simplified chart for the best practice model. It is as shown below:

HR practices Employee Service Sales,

Commitment Quality Financial

Performance

The above diagram was “A Simple Model of HRM and Performances” (By GuestD 2000).

He must have considered the some of the researcher’s evidence for best practice that contrast him with other authors, some authors say that best practice has not completely diffused across service sectors-it mainly depends on can a firm or an organisation can afford, see the best benefits, practices(Boxall and Prucell 2000).

Best Fit

Nickson tried to describe most influential things to develop a model that recognises the need for a best fit between the competitive strategy and hrm (Schuller and Jackson 1987).He told us about what authors have told about the best fit in the organisations, he must have considered what they told about the best fit in the hospitality and tourism sectors. He told us about the innovation strategy but he did not explain what does he meant by it and how far they get benefit from the service innovation. But we can say that hospitality firms are the best examples in the market which get benefit from the service innovation (Reid and Sandler 1992).

It will always follow a contemporary approach. It gives the most effective means of managing people in that particular organisation, but it will be different for two different organisations. The best fit model claim that an organisation should be aligned to support its business strategy in order to achieve a competitive advantage. (David Morris).

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As we all think best fit is nothing but a contemporary approach. There is a lack of consistency in reward systems reported by using high performance working practices by large hotels (Huselid 1999).

He must have clearly explained about the external and internal fit. If we take the internal fit the employee performance should always reflect the hotels performance (Schuster and Zingheim 1993).Best fit always suggests that the rewards to the employees help in retain them and also attract new applicants (Lawler 1973 P g28). Schuster and Zingheim (1993) suggest that employee rewards should always be tied to organisational performance (Lawler, 1995) approach is truly contingent. His traditional management design option does not include any pay element that varies with organisational performance. There is evidence for the internal that further performance gains are to be found where HRM is introduced as mutually cohesive and institutionally supported package (Hoque Pg 141).

Soft vs. Hard

Nickson did not clearly tell about what is a soft approach and hard approach exactly means. He must have given a very detailed description of the models and relate them to the hospitality and tourism sectors. The incorporation of both the soft and hard within the one theory or model will be highly problematic as both rest on the different set of the assumptions in the key areas of the human nature and the managerial control strategies (Mc Gregor 1960).

These are the most widely used models of the human resource management which are completely based on opposing views of human nature and managerial control strategies. The dichotomy between the two models in HRM rather than in critical-evaluative traditions (Legge 1995b).At first these terminologies were used in the works of Guest (1987) and Storey (1987-1992).

Soft Approach

Nickson told us that the soft model is about a humanistic and developmental approach to hrm, it is true but he did not tell what will come under the soft model approach. Some authors described soft HRM as it is associated with human relations, utilisation of the individual talents (Guest 1987).Soft HRM also associated with the goals of flexibility and adaptability (Storey & Sisson, 1997).The soft model emphasizes commitment will be generated if employees are to be trusted and trained and developed, and if they are allowed to work autonomously and have control over their work (Purcell, 1994).

The soft approach of HRM emphasises on the employees in an organisation being resourceful and a competitive advantage by the use of the employee relations, which enhancing the service performance of the employees by motivation, communication and leadership to increase loyalty and commitment. The soft model considers as the increased satisfaction as the only way to go about in the management (Truss, 1997).

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Hard Model

Nickson told that hard version is seemed to be an instrumental and economical research to economically rational approach to human resource management. It is true but there is no support for what he is trying to tell us, he must have given certain evidence and explained in a more elaborate way. Some authors like (Storey Pg29) said hard model on the other hand stresses the quantitative, qualitative manages the human resource in as rational a way as for any other factor of production in business strategic aspects.

Nicksons did not give us the information about the problems in incorporation of both these models in HRM. For example McGregor (1960) used both these terms to characterize forms of managerial control. It is very problematic if both the models are incorporated because each rests on a different set of assumptions.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the role of HRM has undergone the considerable changes over the past few decades in hospitality industry (Roberts, Human resource practice in the hospitality industry , 1995).As Nickson told to us about how successful the Mc Donald’s in the U.K, we can say that not only in U.K , around the world the hospitality industry is dominated by the small and independent hotels, restaurants businesses, the major players like large hotel chains like Marriott, large catering establishments (Accor) who has to undergo major restricting in the past ten years to maintain their standards if they provide their services at cheaper rates. This is mainly due to the growth of competition nationally and globally (Roberts, 1995).They are changing their strategies of HRM as the labour become costlier and even the amount of money they spent on training and development is increasing. It is also said that the hotels will adopt HRM models based on the environment they are operating and the size of their establishment (Jackson, 2000).About the gendered division of personnel in the hospitality is changed now a day’s according to the survey and also from websites (ehotelier.com, Spectrum International, 2009) we can say the higher posts in the hotel are occupied females (30%-40%).It is better when compared to the past few years. It is true that the industry jobs are occupied by the seasonal and part-time workers but if we take the facts about the Chinese hospitality industry the 99.4% of the hospitality jobs are occupied by the graduates from the hospitality sector, the remaining 0.6% is from different fields. (Tom Baum, 2005).

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South africa is a country that a has a famous history of racial divisiveness and diversity, but today the rainbow nation is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Africa and in the world as a whole.

In the following report we will analyze the microeconomic situation in South Africa. This will help us decide weather the hotel we have chosen is, in fact, the best one.

In order to achieve our goal, we will look at the history of the country and talk about South African government and politics. We will also analyze the countries’ economic situation by looking at the economic growth since 1980, the principal trading partners, the impact of the 2010 World Cup and finally the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as the type of the market economy.

Furthermore we will analyze the local economy of the city of Cape Town where the Hotel is located. Thus looking at the lodging Industry and analyze weather the economic strategy is successful or not. We will achieve this by identifying its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the tourism industry as well as for the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa. Finally we will identify the competitors of the Hotel.

With this in mind we will begin to define what are our criteria to classify the “best hotel” and identify weather this Hotel is indeed the best one or not.

In the end we will present our conclusions that prove that Hotel can be classified as the best one in South Africa.

History of the Country

South Africa is located at the southernmost point of the African continent. It has a long 2798 km coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans. It is one of the largest and most powerful states in Africa with a population of over 50 million inhabitants.

The African country has been inhabited for more than three million years. This country is also known as the cradle of mankind. Diversity in South Africa began very early with the San and the Khoekhoe peoples in the 6th century BC and evolved ever since making it one of the most ethnical diverse country in the world. This diversity is a big part of the rainbow nation’s conflictual history. In 1487 white settlers set foot for the first time with the portuguese explorer Bartolomeo Dias Today. Later in 1961 it became a republic, but apartheid rules did not leave with the British retreat. Apartheid gave a bad image of South Africa in the world, and other wealthy nations of the world began to boycott its economy because of its racial policies and oppression.

But when Nelson Mandela was freed in 1991 the situation started to change, he was elected as president on the first non-racial elections on 27th of April 1994. Since then South Africa came a long way, a black man Jacob Zuma is currently at the head of the state since he was elected in May of 2009. The country has been given the trust and privilege to host last summer’s biggest event worldwide: the FIFA World Cup which showed the world what South Africa has achieved.

They have 11 official languages, the main ones are Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans followed by English. It is a member of the African Union, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Common Wealth of Nations, the International Monitory Fund and the NEPAD (New Partnership of Africa’s Development).

Mandela’s nation has three capitals, Cape Town which is the legislative capital, Pretoria which is the executive capital and Bloemfontein which is the judicial capital. Johannesburg is not a capital although it is the largest city.

It is a middle income emerging country that has a large amount of supplies thanks to their natural resources. The country has a very developed finance, communication, energy and transportation sectors and is ranked as 17th largest stock exchange in the world by the WTO and is in the top 30 in the world in accordance to its GDP.

Economy in South Africa

The South African economy is ranked as a upper-middle income economy by the World Bank. About a quarter of the population is unemployed and lives on less than US $1.25 a day.

This table shows the economy growth from 1980 to 2010 :

Year

Gross Domestic Product

(bln USD)

US Dollar Exchange

(early January)

Unemployment rate

Per Capita Income

(as % of USA)

1980

80.547

0.8267 Rand

9.2

22.56

1985

57.273

2.0052 Rand

15.5

9.81

1990

111.998

2.5419 Rand

18.8

13.10

1995

151.117

3.5486 Rand

16.7

13.24

2000

132.964

6.1188 Rand

25.6

8.47

2005

246.956

5.6497 Rand

26.7

12.34

2010

354.414

7.462 Rand

24.8

15.06

The majority of economical transactions occur around 4 areas: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Pretoria. They are the economical heart of the country and the hubs to the rest of the world. Although these megalopolis can be compared to those of the western world, disparity amongst the country’s region remains. The development is marginal and poverty and HIV are still prevalent.

The government demonstrated its commitment to open market, privatization and a favorable investment climate with its introduction of the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy which is a South African neoliberal macroeconomic strategy implemented in 1996. As its name says the GEAR strategy has four more objectives that are embedded on this strategy namely: economic growth, full employment, price stability and balance payment stability.

The Rand is the most actively trended emerging market currency in the world. The Rand was the best performing currency against the US dollar between 2002 and 2005, according to the Bloomberg Currency Scorecard.

Principal international trading partners of South Africa include Germany, the United States, China, Japan, The United Kingdom and Spain. Chief exports include corn, diamonds, fruits, gold, metals and minerals, sugar and wool. Machinery and transportation equipment make up more than 1/3 of the value of the country’s imports. Other imports are chemicals, manufactured goods and petroleum.

Also, South Africa has a big agricultural sector and an exporter of farming products. There are almost a thousand agricultural cooperatives and businesses throughout the country. Agricultural exports constituted 8 % of the country’s exports for the last 5 years and it contributes that 10% of formal employment to the country.

Finally, South Africa’s economy depends largely on the tourism industry which has been identified as one of the key economic sectors with excellent potential for growth. Directly and indirectly, tourism constitutes approximately 7% of employment in South Africa.

To develop and exploit the country’s tourism potential, infrastructure and support facilities of which hotels, like the one we chose, are an integral part. The hospitality industry in South Africa has experienced a steady growth during the past years. Different issues in the government really affected the hospitality sector of the country, but there is a reason now to be optimistic.

By hosting the FIFA World Cup it was a great opportunity to boost their economy and especially the tourism sector. A total of 309.554 foreign tourists arrived in South Africa for the primary purpose of attending the event. The continent counted 34% of the world’s foreign tourists, followed by Europe with 24% and Central and South America with 13%

The total expenditure in South Africa by tourists who came specifically for the 2010 FIFA World Cup amounted to 3.7 million euros.

The average length of stay of tourists during this period was 10.3 nights.Total awareness of South Africa as a leisure and tourism destination increased by 9% following the event. The intention to visit South Africa in the Short term increased by 35% following the event.

The industry is creating jobs and wealth, it could also play a crucial role in making the country’s economy to be a better one. However, fragmentation remained some serious impediments to South Africa’s hospitality industry growth. The industry revolved in different types of businesses, such as airlines, boats, bus companies, hotels, car hire, festivals and events, tour guides, retailing and sightseeing destinations. Therefore the South Africans must be proactive and take responsibility to continue to drive change.

After the positive market sentiment recorded last September 2010, the tourism industry is in a very good shape especially since 2009 was a particularly bad year also due to the world economy crisis. South Africa’s tourism boom has had a predictable effect on the performance of the country’s hotels.

South Africa GDP per capita

The GDP has grown by more than 4 times in 30 years, that is due to the political and social development since 1980 and especially the abolition of the apartheid which lead to more open economical choices.

According to the World Bank, South Africa’s GDP per capita is currently U$D 3,764 (South Africa’s GDP adjusted by inflation, divided by the total population). From 1960 until 2008 this figure was U$D 3096.02, with a historical peak of U$D 3764 in December 2008 and a historical low of U$D 2207 in 1960.

Although the GDP seems to be increasingly rising, the unemployment rate has reached a dramatical number, 24.8% of the South African’s population is unemployed the rate rose by 15 points since 1980.

Demand

According to the Horwath Worldwide Hotel Industry Study (2001) South Africa remained the most popular African destination in terms of arrivals in 2000.

South Africa is also increasingly becoming a popular international conference destination attracting a large amount of customers from the MICE market. In addition, South Africa’s hospitality industry continues to attract international investors especially once it was set to host the FIFA world cup and since then investors have been flowing in. In 2010 South Africa recorded 5.5 million arrivals.

There was growth in tourist arrivals to South Africa from all regions, with the highest growth coming from the Americas at 91.3% (74,545). Asia and Australasia grew by 41.0% (30,216) and the Africa air markets grew by 30.8% (20,611), while Europe and the Africa land markets grew by 19.1% (43,672) and 5.3% (63,770) respectively.The demand in the tourism industry in South Africa is growing exponentially and the government, investors and hospitality professionals are working together so that the supply meets the constantly rising demand.

Supply

Profit maximization

Profit maximisation is the process by which a hotel determines the price and output level that returns the greatest profit.

There are 2 typical ways to achieve profit maximisation:

Focus on minimising and control expenses

Focus on maximising revenue

The Leisure and Tourism Industry

South Africa

South Africa is known as one of the most sophisticated and promising countries in the whole African continent, and has shown as we have seen it, a strong and consistent improvement in the economy. Its scenic beauty, cultural diversity and reputation for delivering value for money have made it one of the world’s fastest growing leisure and business travel destinations (BRICS countries).

Being highly diverse in terms of its, culture, tourist activities and infrastructure. It adapts to every tourism niche, from business, eco- and cultural tourism through to adventure and sport tourism.

Its tourism sector began growing significantly since 1994, and due to the importance government gives to tourism in the country. Tourism also generates much of South Africa’s tax revenue – as much as $655 billion in 2005 – and influences government spending in infrastructure – such as highways, airports, etc.

Growing three times faster then the world average. It has become a really important sector, which is creating millions of jobs, employing 212 millions of people.

South Africa is becoming more popular among tourist destinations, with 860 000 arrivals per month (statistics from 2008) from which over 10% come from outside of the African continent. The tourism industry has generated a revenue of $3.4 trillion, which represents around 3% GDP.

The hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in June and July 2010 remarkably contributed to the country’s economy and development of hundreds of hotels and other hospitality establishments

S??uth ??friN??° is therefore t?°rg?µting numerous different segments of tourism industry. Such as the afore mentioned domestic tourism, business tourism, eco tourism, cultural tourism but also the adventure tourism.

Business Tourism

The award of the 2010 FIFA World Cup was just one sign that South Africa was seen

as a stable and modern country compared to other African countries. It proved that it posses first-class infrastructure and is an ideal location for int?µrn?°ti??n?°l N???ngr?µss?µs ?°nd N???nv?µnti??ns.Th?µ N???untry h?°s w?µll ??v?µr 1 000 w??rld-N?l?°ss N???nf?µr?µnN??µ ?°nd ?µxhibiti??n N??µntr?µs.

S??uth ??friN??° is t?°rg?µting busin?µss tr?°v?µll?µrs for the main reason that they sp?µnd ??n ?°v?µr?°g?µ thr?µ?µ to four tim?µs m??r?µ th?°n the l?µisur?µ travellers. This thr??ugh t??urs and leisure activities – such as experiencing the African culture and safari, but also luxury golf courses, shopping and relaxation- b?µf??r?µ ??r ?°ft?µr th?µir busin?µss ?°N?tiviti?µs ?°nd thr??ugh r?µturn trips.

??n ?µstim?°t?µd 6-7% ??f S??uth ??friN??°’s f??r?µign visit??rs in 2007 w?µr?µ busin?µss t??urists. T??t?°l dir?µN?t sp?µnding by busin?µss t??urists t?? $ 2.4 billi??n that year. S??uth ??friN??°’s N???nf?µr?µnN??µ industry m??v?µd up t?? 3oth pl?°N??µ in th?µ Int?µrn?°ti??n?°l ????ngr?µss ?°nd ????nv?µnti??n ??ss??N?i?°ti??n’s l?°st?µst t??p-40 list ??f l?µ?°ding d?µstin?°ti??ns in th?µ w??rld.

Domestic Tourism

In 2006 domestic travel grew by 2.7%, nearly 12 million South Africans inhabitants took 37 million internal trips. In those trips 29 million tourists were visiting their family and friends, 2.8 million were traveling for holiday and 1.9 million for business reasons.

The issue the tourism department is dealing with, is the challenge to turn the domestic tourism market from visiting family to leisure tourism and thus optimize the increase in the market.

Furthermore, the tourism department is running a program called Sho’t Left, which works on the principle that encourages South African population to travel inside of the country. This is achieved by providing information about tourist attractions, access to tour operators, reasonable prices and tour packages.

Eco Tourism

Eco tourism is the fastest growing segment of tourism in South Africa thanks to its div?µrs?µ N?lim?°t?µs r?°ng?µ fr??m tr??piN??°l in th?µ s??uth-?µ?°st t?? d?µs?µrt in th?µ N??µntr?°l r?µgi??n. Th?µ N???untry’s wildlif?µ is v?°ri?µd , ?°nd is supp??rt?µd by ?°n ?µxtr?°??rdin?°ry bi??l??giN??°l div?µrsity. It creates opportunities for tourists which include bird-watching, nature photography, hiking and mountaineering, botanical studies and snorkeling.

National and provincial parks in South Africa – the world famous Kruger National Park – as well private reserves, involve local communities in the management and conservation of natural resources. These communities are becoming aware of their responsibility to the environment, and with that they are also financially benefiting from ecotourism. The country’s pr??t?µN?t?µd ?°r?µ?°s increased to 8%, ?°nd its m?°rin?µ pr??t?µN?t?µd ?°r?µ?°s grew up t?? 20%, in 2010.

Adventure Tourism

B?µing ?°t th?µ s??uth?µrn tip ??f ?° l?°rg?µ N???ntin?µnt, S??uth ??friN??° ??ff?µrs 3 000 kil??m?µtr?µs ??f N????°stlin?µ ?°l??ng with the m??unt?°ins. Th?µ N???untry’s div?µrs?µ t?µrr?°in, t??g?µth?µr with ?° N?lim?°t?µ suit?µd t?? ??utd????r ?°N?tiviti?µs m?°k?µ it ?°n id?µ?°l hunting gr??und f??r ?°dr?µn?°lin?µ s?µ?µk?µrs.

S??uth ??friN??° ??ff?µrs w??rld-N?l?°ss N?limbing, surfing, diving, hiking, h??rs?µb?°N?k riding, s?°f?°ri, m??unt?°in biking, riv?µr r?°fting ?°nd just ?°b??ut ?°ny ??th?µr ?µxtr?µm?µ ?°N?tivity.

Cape town

Cape Town is the most popular tourism destination for international arrivals as well as locals. Approximately 1.6 million tourists visited Cape Town in year 2006 and their total spending resulted in $10 billion of revenue.

Cape town has recently expanded their International Convention center and now hosts 10% of all conferences and meeting of Africa for international and local business tourists. Also real estate business and construction market has hit it’s peak, when during the 2010 World Cup many people started to buy summer houses in the city or relocating there permanently.

As we can see, there is a tendency for international tourists to visit South Africa more from year to year, which results in overnight stays and demand for accommodation and F&B.

Furthermore, the Cape Town beaches are very popular for their uniqueness and layout because of the difference in the water temperature. The Atlantic Coast average water temperature is around 13° Celsius, and the False Bay has an average temperature between 16 and 17° Celsius. Though colder, the Atlantic Coast is famous for its big waves and hosts different events including the Red Bull Big Wave Africa.

Issues

Unemployment

Has an extreme unemployment rate, which interacts with other social and economic problems( education, crime and poor health outcomes) over 60% of unemployed have been without jobs more than a year. In second quarter of 2010 a number of people with work fell from 61.000 to 12.700 million.

Income inequality

The country is ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for income inequality. Black people are poorer than colored people – Indians and Asians – who are poorer than Whites.

Public sector strikes

In August and September 2010 SA unions organized a 4 week national strike involving 1.3 million public sector workers, demanding a 8.6% wage increase. The strike ended when the government had raised its 5.2% wage increased to 7.5%.

Illegal immigration

Many South African employers have employed migrants from poorer neighboring countries( Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and others) for a lower pay than South African citizens.

Electricity crisis

After unsuccessful attempts by the government to encourage private construction of power generation capacity, the state-owned power supplier Eskom started experiencing deficiency in capacity in the electrical generating infrastructure in 2007. The lack of capacity was triggered by a failure at Koeberg nuclear power station. The supplier has been criticized for failing to adequately plan for and construct sufficient electrical generating capacity. The crisis was resolved in few month, but the margin between available capacity and national demand is still low. The government and Eskom are planning new power station (in 2025).

SWOT analysis of the Tourism Industry

Strengths: Weaknesses:

Emerging economy Union strikes

Low labor and fixed costs High poverty level

Low tax Lack of skilled labor

Better infrastructure and increased destination Unstable currency

awareness since FIFA 2010 High rates of HIV/AIDS

Opportunities: Threats:

Growth of tourism from USA and European countries High crime level

Low cost airlines companies (domestic market growth) Economic recession

Government spending in tourism Unstable US Dollar

Hosting of the 2020 summer Olympics?? Racial differences

Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa

Description

Created in 1998, the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is situated on the Southwestern coast of South Africa 45 minutes, by car, from Cape Town.

The hotel is embraced by the Kogelberg Mountains and bordered by the Bot River Lagoon. The Hotel is near the Cape Wine Route in the the souther tip of Africa near Cape Agulhas, and only 15-minute drive from Hermanus. Perfectly suitable for those who want to relax from the hectic life but don’t want to go far away from civilization, the region where the hotel is located is rich in bird life, exquisite mountain landscapes and endless recreational activities. For guests on business there are special conference facilities that deliver standards of professionalism and comfort.

General Manager

Rob Kucera has been promoted to GM of the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa after three years as a hotel manager at the Westin Grand in Cape Town. Rob joined The Westin Grand Cape Town Arabella Quays as an experienced hotelier, his most notable achievement is the establishment of an extremely focused and effective management team. His business acumen and leadership skills will undoubtedly add tremendous value to the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa and its employees. Rob Kucera has extensive experience, impeccable values and immense dedication added to a huge passion for the industry. These mentioned qualities have definitely earned him the respect from his seniors, peers, employees and guests alike.

“Rob Kucera has made a tremendous impact on the hotel industry this far in his career and we look forward to his continued success,” says Friedrich Schaefer, COO and Area General Manager of Arabella Starwood SA.

Facilities

Apart from the standard facilities and services as: business center, shopping mall, valet and car rental service, airport transportation service (pick up and drop off), beauty salon, 24 hours Front Desk and Concierge service, children’s playground and babysitting service, restaurants with classic or traditional food, an wireless high internet access coverage on the premisses. The Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa provides its guests with :

Chapter’s Library

Arabella Spa with indoor and outdoor pools and jacuzzis and massage treatments

The African Rainforest Experience- a world first sauna treatment developed in South Africa using African products and inspired by African rains

The Sport club with a fitness center, tennis courts, horseback riding, fishing and kayaking

The Unique golf course, recently voted the “Number Two Golf Course in South Africa” and the “Top Golf Course in the Western Cape” by The Complete Golfer magazine

Rooms and Rates

The Hotel has 265 rooms in total and brings

Deluxe Rooms ( Rate is 1.672 ZAR)

These large rooms are perfectly arranged for utmost comfort. Each Deluxe Room has a private balcony or terrace that overlooks garden or swimming pool. Most of 46 rooms are furnished with king size beds or twin single beds. The room can accommodate 2 adults and 1 child under two in a camping cot.

Grand Deluxe Rooms (Rate is 1.950 ZAR Around 213 Euro)

Offer the same style and comfort as Deluxe Room but has the additional benefit of a magnificent view of the Bot River Lagoon and Arabella Golf Course.

Deluxe Suites (Rate is 2.850ZAR around 310 Euro)

The room has a separate bedroom and lounge, divided by wooden sliding doors for additional privacy. The bathroom is large and for extra luxury equipped with TV set. A large balcony with loungers offers view of the perfectly manicured grounds and swimming pool. The Deluxe Suites can accommodate 2 adults and 2 children under the age of 12 and one child under the age of 2.

Grand Deluxe Suites (The Rate is 3.500 ZAR around 380 Euro)

The Grand Deluxe Suite provides the exceptional luxury and comfort of the Deluxe Room, with the addition of magnificent views of the Bot River Lagoon and Golf Course.

Presidential Suites (The Rate is 6.500 ZAR around 705 Euro)

The room offer luxury and comfort in a superbly appointed private setting complete with a 24 hours butler service to attend to your requirements. The entrance lobby affords access to the guest bathroom and beautiful lounge furnished with a fireplace. A study, accessible through the lounge, ensures a quite area to work or conduct business.

Awards

Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is the Winner of:

Africa’s Leading Luxury Hotel

Africa’s Leading Spa Resort South

Africa’s Leading Spa Resort

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc alliance

The Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is part of the Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. Founded by Barry Sternlicht, it is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, with 1000 properties in nearly 100 countries with over 145,000 employees. They have a variety of brands include : Le Meridien®, ElementSM Hotels, AloftSM Hotels, Sheraton® Hotels & Resorts, The Luxury Collection®, St. Regis® Hotels & Resorts, Westin® Hotels & Resorts, W Hotels® and Four Points® by Sheraton.

In 1993 Starwood Capital buys its first hotels and by 1994 owns interests in more than 30 properties.

Nowadays Starwood celebrates the opening of its 1000th hotel in China named The Sheraton Qiandao Lake hotel.

Environmental sustainability:

Starwood aims to conserve energy and water, reduce waste and enhance indoor environmental quality for Starwood guests.

“This year, in more than 90,000 rooms, guests staying in Starwood properties will be encouraged to turn off the lights. Properties will participate by dimming or turning off non-essential interior lighting, using candlelight in appropriate public areas such as restaurants and bars. Starwood’s trailblazing eco-chic boutique Element Hotels brand was launched as the first major hotel brand to mandate that all U.S. properties pursue the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certificate.

Globally, Starwood is increasingly focused on integrating environmental sustainability into its operations and it was important to create a partnership with a world-class organization like CI to continue to move that work forward in the most inpactful way,” said Sandy Swider, Vice President of Global Citizenship for Starwood.

SWOT analysis of the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa

Strengths:

Location: The Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is situated only 45 minutes from Cape Town offering all the benefits of the city but, at the same time, giving its guests the tranquility and privacy of a remote location.

Upscale hotel: Rated a 5 star hotel The Arabella offers only the highest quality service

Web page: Very interactive and beautifully designed

Starwood alliance: High quality standards and strength of the brand name, the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa profits of the Starwood’s achieved awards and new projects such as the “Green” policy

History of the country: Rich historical heritage – monuments and architecture

Multicultural surrounding

Developed infrastructure and superstructure

Weaknesses:

Location: The hotel is outside of the city area thus the hotel guests have some trouble getting transportation to it, even though the local transportation has improved, the regional transportation is not used at its fullest

Lack of skilled labor: All though the school enrollment percentage has grown, this mainly concerns the primary education level. Skilled hoteliers are therefore still foreigners, such as Hotel School students like ourselves.

Opportunities:

Sports tourism: As we have seen in 2010, South Africa has been given the FIFA World Cup and presented an important economical growth, increasing the potential of their tourism sector. Having this experience, South Africa qualifies for the 2020 summer Olympic Games. We think that The Arabella Western Hotel and Spa should prepare its facilities to accommodate not only the visitors there to watch the games but also the athletes and their needs.

Going green policy: Cape Town is ranked 30th “greenest” city in the world, plus the Arabella is following Starwood’s Green Project and by incorporating the ideas and start attracting an eco friendly market segment.

Threats:

Unemployment rate: With the recession the unemployment rate has increased over the years. making the recovery harder. Furthermore the growth in the South African tourism will feel the crisis if the unemployment rate doesn’t decrease, directly influencing the hotel.

Seasonality and Occupancy level

South Africa is rarely affected by seasonality issues because being situated at the most southern tip of Africa it has an ideal climate whole year round.

During high seasons : November – January, March – April, June – July and September – October; the occupancy level at the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is situated, in average, between 85%-95%

For the rest of the year, on few occasions that we can call a low season, the occupancy level at the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is in average 60%-65%.

Competitors

Within South Africa there are a lot of hotels and up and coming hotels. There is also a necessity for hotel rooms as there is a continuous increase of various tourists.

The Marine Hotel

Price: 200 a‚¬ for standard room

No of rooms:64

40 minutes ride to city center

Facilities: Spa, small conference room for 80 people and The collection boutique

Auberge Provence Guesthouse

Price : 390 a‚¬ for standard room

No of rooms:90

1 hour drive to city center

Facilities: 3 restaurants, Spa and Wellness center, conference rooms max 50 people.

Mosselberg On Grotto Beach

Price: 190 a‚¬

No of rooms: 110

1 hour ride to city center

Facilities: Swimming pool, Lounge area, Games center, Free Wireless.

One and only Cape town

Price : 550 Euros

No of rooms : 131

Located in the city center

Facilities : One&Only Spa Cape Town, Beauty Center, one Michelin star restaurant (chef Noby Matsuhisa), Conference room for 112 guests maximum.

The Vendome Hotel Cape Town

Price: 260 Euros

No of rooms: 143

Located in the city center

Facilities: outside pool, Conference facilities for approximately 220 guests, classic lounge, airport transfer.

Based on the research, all the nearest 5 star hotels are very similar when it comes to location. However the prices are different. We discovered that Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa is larger than all the nearest hotels. Our hotel is the best place and offers the most, not only for leisure travelers but also for business ones.

Long term sustainability

Finally we are looking at the actions and ideas that the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa can implement in order to continue to develop and become what we call “sustainable” in long term. An effective sustainable plan will help and maybe even ensure long life span for the hotel. By thinking about the environment and how our actions affect it we can predict issues that we will have to deal with in the near future. Therefore we can anticipate the loses and c

Miami – The city of Sun and Sea

Hello!

Miami is a large, coastal metropolis that is located on the southeastern tip of Florida. Its subtropical climate, white sandy beaches and the nightlife that never ends make Miami a heaven for tourists and a place where the rich and famous loosen up. It is also home to a portion of the Everglades National Parkthat is a major tourist attraction of Florida. Today, Miami is a major business center and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, arts and international trade. It has also been conferred the title of ‘America’s cleanest city’. Miami being a city that started with nothing is often described as the ‘only city of the world that started as a fantasy’. Whether you are into sports, beaches, salsa, shopping or adventure, you can enjoy this diverse paradise that is full of life any time of the year.

Best season to visit Miami

Miami is blessed with sunny days and breezy nights all year around. The peak tourist season is during the winter months from January to April when the weather is warm in Miami and cold in rest of the United States. Unlike other places, the crowd in Miami is not off-putting. Instead the continuous string of events and parties make the city a magical place. October to December is the shoulder season with pleasant temperatures. Hotels are available for a relatively lower price and this is a good time to visit. The summer months from May to September are off-season and this is when the days are scorching hot. Hence, the crowd is smaller and hotels cheaper. Irrespective of season, pack your sunglasses, sunscreen, bathing suit, beach towel and you are ready to enjoy Miami.

Highlights (Special things to do and experience in Miami)

Rejuvenate in the sun kissed beaches of Miami. Whether it is the South beach, Sunny Isles, Haulover beach or the Crandon beach, you will find a beach that will be perfect for you.
‘See and be seen’ in South Beach, the world’s trendiest beach.
Be a part of the electrifying nightlife of Miami.
Relax in the beautiful Key Biscayne.
Dive or snorkel in the turquoise blue waters of Emerald Reef and watch the marine life come to life in front of you.
Sail in a boat, yacht or catamaran and admire the beautiful skyline of Miami from the waters.
Take an airboat ride and enter a different world that is Everglades National Park.
Amaze yourself with the city’s iconic skyline and beautiful views of Biscayne Bay from Downtown Miami.
Take a lovely ride to Key West from Miami.
Start your day with a delicious Cuban breakfast at Little Havana.
Enjoy Brazilian cachaca cocktails with picture perfect views of Biscayne Bay at the Sunset Lounge, Miami Beach.
Take the wheel on a NASCAR race track and feel the adrenaline at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Indulge in shopping at the Lincoln road mall, Miami Beach.
Partake in the Carnaval on the Mile, a lively two day event celebrating Latin music, art and food. Enjoy what feels like an oversized block party in true Miami style.
Soak up art of all kinds in the free Art Walks hosted in different areas of Miami. The biggest and most popular ones are held in Wynwood Arts District and the Design District.
After all the fun in sun, unwind at the yoga classes held on the beach.

Hotspots (Places to visit in Miami)

Miami Beach

South Beach: South Beach, popularly nicknamed as SoBe, is a neighborhood in the city of Miami. This is one beach that attracts people of all varieties. You will see beautiful people everywhere flaunting themselves. The beach often draws celebrities and it is also a popular spot for fashion photo shoots and hip clubs. Sophisticated and hot, South Beach defines cool!
Lincoln Road: Lincoln Road is an eight-block long pedestrian walkway packed with shops, restaurants and cafes. It features the 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage, which is architecturally acclaimed for its unique appearance.

Key Biscayne Island

Key Biscayne: Your Miami holidays are incomplete without visiting the scenic and serene Key Biscayne that comprises of four different and beautiful beaches. This secluded island is a short drive over the Rickenbacker Causeway. Just six miles off the coast of Miami,this island is a peaceful paradise that feels a world away from the bustling urban center. It is the perfect place to unwind, relax and connect with Miami’s natural beauty.
Crandon Park beach: It is the largest and most popular beach on Key Biscayne.It is more than just a beach as it offers beach volleyball courts, kayak rentals, eco-adventure tours and other activities. Crandon Tennis center and Crandon Golf Key Biscayne located here are open to public and home to annual world-class professional events.
Bill BaggsCape Florida State Park: Located on the southern tip of Key Biscayne, the park includes Cape Florida Light (lighthouse), the oldest standing structure in Greater Miami. The beach itself is listed as one of the ‘Top 10 beaches in America’.
Virginia Key beach: The historic Virginia Key Beach is a beautiful and isolated beach just off the Rickenbacker Causeway which is the bridge between the mainland and Key Biscayne. Miami Seaquarium is located here.
Miami Seaquarium: Miami Seaquarium is a marine-life entertainment park featuring eight marine animal shows and presentations. Lolita, the Killer Whale, bottlenose dolphins and Salty, the Sea Lion are some of the animals it is home to. Visitors are allowed to interact with dolphins or walk underwater among tropical fish for additional fees.

Everglades National Park

Everglades Alligator Farm: The Everglades is the third largest National Park in the Continental U.S and also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Home to more than 2,000 alligators, the Everglades have been a part of Florida history for as long as Florida has had a history. A trip to Everglades Alligator Farm includes a thrilling airboat tour of the surrounding river of grass, a walking train around the farm to see alligators, crocodiles and exotic snakes.
Shark Valley: Shark Valley is part of the Everglades and is a 45-minute drive from Miami. Rent a bike and travel the 15-mile loop that makes up Shark Valley. Get close to the wildlife here that includes alligators, ibis, raccoons, wood storks and spoonbills among others. If you want to play it safe, opt for the two hour tram tour led by trained naturalists.

Downtown

Downtown Miami:Located right in the heart of Miami between the busy Brickell area, the beaches and rest of the mainland, Downtown is the perfect place to start your night. The famous American Airlines Arena that is home to the ‘Miami Heat’ of NBA and the Adrienne Arsht Center well known for its Opera and Broadway shows are located in the Downtown. Of course for all the club goers, Miami downtown has some of the hottest and diverse clubs in the world. It is here that you can eat atthe finest restaurants, dance in the hottest clubs, admire the iconic skyline and lose yourself in the beautiful views of Biscayne Bay!

Key west Island

Key West: No Miami holidays are complete without a journey to the Island of Key West. It is a day trip from Miami city. The 150-mile drive to the Key West is one of the most scenic and great American road trips. Once you are in the island, visit the Mallory Square; take a glass-bottom boat ride visiting the coral reef and snorkel in the blue green crystal clear waters of the Key West. It is the southernmost point in the continental USA between Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The lovely drive is one the unique experiences you will have in Miami.

Coconut grove

Village west:It is a lovely bayside village situated on Biscayne Bay. Laze around the streets of the village consisting of sidewalk cafes, pretty galleries and interesting boutiques.
Vizcaya museum and gardens: It is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deeringthat is located on Biscayne Bay in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami. The architecture of this stunningly beautiful American villa was influenced by Veneto and Tuscan Italian Renaissance models. The vizcaya museum contains more than seventy rooms of distinctive architectural interiors decorated with numerous antiques, with emphasis on European art. The villa, museum and the extensive Italian Renaissance gardens altogether make it a charming place to visit.

City of Sunny Isles Beach

Sunny Isles Beach: With two miles of pristine, white sandy beaches facing the luxurious resorts, Sunny Isles Beach is considered Florida’s Riviera for good reason. Whether it’s lounging poolside in a fancy oceanfront cabana or sinking your toes in the sand, Sunny Isles Beach offers clean, un-crowded and relaxing beaches perfect for a romantic getaway. If you are looking for a quieter, relaxing vacation stay then this is the place to be.

Watson Island

Jungle Island: It is an interactive zoological park in Miami. One can see a combination of animal and bird life like lions, panthers, lemurs, orangutans, parrots, flamingos, kangaroos and many more. Interactive sessions are available for extra cost.

Shopping in Miami

Aventura Mall consists of top U.S stores like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, JCPenney and many more that sum up to more than 300 specialty retailers. Shop and chill at this mall which also features a variety of restaurants and a movie theater.
A mix of upscale and casual shopping defines Miami International Mall, located near the airport and offering the favorite stores of locals.
For luxury shopping head to the stylish village of BalHarbour featuring stores like Chanel, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Dolce &Gabana and many more! You could also catch one of the many fashion events held at this place.
Bayside Marketplace blends shopping with pleasure as national retailers share space with culturally distinctive merchandise. And it doesn’t stop at shopping as it offers great seafood and Latin restaurants, all overlooking the lovely Biscayne Bay.
At Coconut Grove’s Cocowalk, shop in the sun and dance under the moon! This open-air shopping, dining and entertainment destination has the ambiance of a European town square. When the sun sets, Cocowalk heats up with live music, bars and restaurants.
Street-smart shopping in Downtown is one of the delights of Miami. It is home to one of the nation’s largest jewelry districts and hundreds of retailers. Clothes, accessories, electronics, sporting goods, cameras, cosmetics- you name it, they sell it!
Designer shopping on the streets of South Beach, whose Lincoln Road, Espanola Way and Ocean Drive stores provide a unique shopping experience, is a must do. In a place that offers souvenirs to gifts, books to jewelry, fashion to art, chocolate to cheese, you are bound to walk away with something special.

How to reach Miami:

Miami International Airport (MIA), located west of the city is an important hub for traffic between Europe, North America and South America.
If you are travelling from one of the U.S cities, then Fort Lauderdale International Airport is a better choice. It is about 30 minutes north of Miami, smaller and less trafficked than MIA.
Amtrak’s (train)Silver Service operates trains to Miami from New York, Washington D.C and other cities.
Drive to Miami through its three main highways, I-95, I-75 and U. S. Highway 1.

How to get around in Miami:

Renting a car is a comfortable option to travel in Miami. It is advisable to do so from Miami International Airport as the city has only a few car rental companies.
Hiring a Taxi too is a good option especially in North Miami Beach.
South Beach Local bus service is one of the cheaper ways to get around in the area of South Beach. It runs every 10-15 minutes throughout the day, is air-conditioned, clean and safe.
Metromover is a free mass transit train system in Miami. It serves Downtown Miami, Brickell, Park West and Omni neighborhoods. It s the best way to travel within Downtown Miami.
Miami Hop-on Hop-off is another great way to visit the entire city as it covers major attractions like Downtown, Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and more.

Top areas in Miami:

South Beach: South Beach is more than just white sand beaches and art deco buildings. This is a perfect place to stay for anybody who is vacationing in Miami. From world-class boutiques, casual beachside dining to great nightlife, it is a hotspot in every way.
Miami International airport: It is a fast-growing area with hotels and corporate offices. It is minutes away from several popular tourist attractions in Miami.
Downtown Miami: Downtown with its iconic skyline, historic shopping arcades, dining options with variety of culinary styles and of course amazing views from everywhere is the most popular place in Miami. This is a place where work meets play.
Little Havana:This Cuban neighborhood gives you the opportunity to enjoy the life of Cuba. It is a good place to stay for budget travelers as many Miami hotels are located here. Wake up and have the amazing Cuban breakfast, dance to salsa music that you keep hearing throughout the day from unseen sources, buy in one of the many street shops, eat to your heart’s content in Cuban restaurants and learn a little Spanish! That’s Little Havana for you.
Coconut Grove: Coconut grove is a very pretty bayside village within the urban dynamic of Miami. It is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami. It is filled with sidewalk cafes, galleries and boutiques. You can also relax in one of its many parks.
Coral Gables: Coral Gables located southwest of Downtown Miami is one of the most desirable and old-fashioned neighborhoods in the area.
Sunny Isles Beach: Have an opulent Miami holiday by staying in one of the finer resorts facing the Sunny Isles Beach. Relax in a spa or on the clean un-crowded beach with your loved ones.
Bal Harbour:Balharbour is a village with upscale hotels and condos offering oceanfront views and resort spas in a quiet and relaxing environment. Apart from shopping and fine dining, the village also offers complimentary fitness classes on the beach for guests of local hotels.
Key Biscayne: Surrounded by many attractions and a world in itself, Key Biscayne is away from the troubles of the mainland. Stay in one of the many ocean facing resorts located here to make your trip even more memorable.
Homestead: Located close to Key Biscayne and Everglades National Park and home to the NASCAR race track, this place is fascinating and unique.

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