Category: Free Essays

Introduction

Tourism is highly known as one of the world’s fastest growing industries and become the major contributor to the country’s economic growth in terms foreign exchange earnings and creates job opportunities in both large and small communities. Hence, the increasing economic importance of tourism has captured the attention and interest in most developing countries. However, people have not been thinking about the range of impacts resulted from tourism which is broad and could even negatively impact on the destination community. The uncontrolled rapid growth of tourism can poses a significant threat towards the environment and social community in other words tourism can result serious environmental and social-cultural problems. Therefore, in a way to controlled and minimize the negative impacts of tourism, sustainable tourism development need to be achieved.

Sustainable tourism today become highly important in the tourism industry and it is important to encourage more people to travel green and to ensure that the tourism is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. Many destinations have also recognized the importance of achieving sustainable tourism development. However, for many developing countries worldwide sustainable tourism has not properly been translated into wide practice and there can be economic, social, and physical barriers that tend to pose great hindrances to sustainable development. In order to determine how the tourism industry can move towards sustainability, it is important to examine the barriers that hinder sustainable tourism, and then develop strategies to reduce the barriers. Thus, aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the barriers of implementing sustainability initiatives and achieving sustainable tourism development particularly in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia.

2.0 Literature Review on Sustainable Tourism

Tourism is a significant global industry with a huge impact towards the environment. Tourism is also the world’s largest industry, with total receipts from the international tourism equaling US $682 billion (WTO, 2006). The tourism industry also employs an estimated of 10 percent of the global workforce and capital formation. Due to this significance of this industry and that environmental degradation has impacted most tourism destinations; the need to implement more sustainable practices has come to forefront of global issues (Graci, 2004). The need to plan for tourism in a sustainable manner is evident through the developments that have occurred worldwide since the United Nations Conference on Environment Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In the conference, tourism was identified as one of the five main industries in need for achieving sustainable development (Theobald 1998, Budeanu 1999, Pryce 2001). The World Tourism Organization, World Travel and Tourism Council, and the Earth Council published Agenda 21 for the travel and tourism industry in 1995, which this document aimed to establish systems and procedure to incorporate sustainable development considerations into the decision making process of tourism activities. It also highly emphasized the importance of partnership between tourism industry and government and demonstrated the benefits of making the whole industry sustainable, not only just the niche ecotourism sector (Pryce, 2001).

The idea of sustainable tourism has its roots in the concept of sustainable development, defined by the Brundtland Commission as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). Other effective adoption or concept of ecologically sustainable tourism, defined by the World Tourism Organization (2002) is:

“Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present generation tourists and host communities while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is highly emphasizes the management of all resources in such as a way that economic, social, and aesthetic needs are fulfilled while maintaining the cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems”.

(WTO, 2002)

This clearly means that sustainable tourism activities is aim to ensure that development will maximize enjoyment and create positive experience for tourists and communities, at the same time minimizing the negative impacts upon the destination site; the environment, community and local population. Therefore the sustainable implementation of sustainable development requires the duties of the tourism industry, environmental supporters and community or the three cycles which need to be interrelated. The latter should be based on three main principles of sustainable development (WTO 1993, Mowforth and Munt 1998):

Ecological sustainability which demonstrates that development is compatible with the maintenance of essential ecological processes, biological diversity and resources.

Social and cultural sustainability suggests that development increases people’s control over their lives and it is compatible with the culture and values of people affected by it which maintains and strengthens the community identity.

Economic sustainability ensures that development is economically efficient and that resources are being managed properly in order to support the future generations.

Further explanations by World Tourism Organization (2002) the need for achieving several objectives for ensuring sustainable tourism, which are involve the protection and conservation of resource include natural, historical, and cultural for future generations, whilst at the same time ensuring long term economic viability for businesses, and providing socio-cultural benefits to the wider society. Tourism development is also being planned and managed so that it does not negatively impact on the environment and cultural society, the overall environmental quality of tourism is maintained and improved as well.

3.0 Sustainable Tourism in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia

Gili Trawangan is known as the largest island located amongst the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok in Indonesia. The island is also known as a sun, sand and sea destination. It is approximately three by two kilometers and low-lying with a small hill to the south, rising to 72 meters above sea level (Hampton 1998). Gili Trawangan is considered as the most developed of all three Gili islands, which the other two islands Gili Air and Gili Meno are being the newly developed. There are several expatriates lives and work on the island as well and the majority of land on the island is used for tourism and the rest is coconut plantation and some small field of agricultural crops and livestock. Tourism is regarded as the major economic activity on the island with more than 80 percent of families is employed by tourism. However, Gili Trawangan is not highly developed tourism destination in terms of mass tourism, infrastructure, and services, and the island has limited resources of fresh water.

In terms of sustainable tourism, there have been some initiatives for developing sustainable tourism in Gili Trawangan. However, the initiatives have been faced with a slow implementation and have not been completely adopted in practice. The main of the initiatives developed by the dive operators on the island is known as the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust. This Gili Eco-trust was being set up in order to protect and conserve the coral reefs around the island against destructive fishing practices. While the main purpose of this organization is to manage the collection of a dive tax which guest are charged about US$3 per diver and US$1 per snorkeler. The dive tax is then used to pay the local fisherman to stop damaging the reefs and the funds are also used for beach cleaning, rubbish management and monitoring (Lombok Network 2009).

4.0 Barriers to sustainable tourism in Gili Trawangan

The Eco-trust is one of the initiatives developed by the dive operators on the Gili Trawangan Island for developing sustainable tourism. However they have encountered various barriers to sustainable tourism development in the area that has led to frustration on the island. Based on the research study which was conducted by Sonya Graci in the article, Accomodating Green: Examining Barriers to Sustainable Tourism Development (2004), number of barriers was documented in this research consisting of five main barriers to implementing and achieving sustainable tourism initiatives in the destination. The first barrier is the inadequate resources associated with high cost, lack of information, skills, knowledge, expertise, time and the reluctance to get assistance from outside consultants. The numerous ideas for initiatives such giving payments to fisherman to stop their illegal fishing can be a problem for the Island since they don’t have enough resources and many of these plans could fail. Another example such as that the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust also attempted to implement a waste management collection system by building of a landfill with areas to separate and organize recyclables. Yet, again with lack of resources the landfill development would failed. Besides, a number of business owners and the local government also have indentified that the inadequate of resources was the biggest barrier as it is realized on the island without any proper systems in place, the environment will degrade even further and this will eventually affect the tourism on Gili Trawangan. Thus, the destination needs the ability to implement those systems with the necessary funds and knowledge to develop feasible systems.

The second barrier being emphasized is the lack of momentum to take action concerning to the sustainability initiatives by business owners; restaurants, accommodations, dive operators, and bars. There was a belief by a number of business owners that current practices were lack, yet, there was a lack of momentum to move forward and implement sustainable initiatives. There are several business owners who did not want to take responsibility in managing the implementation of the initiatives especially involving time and money, and they also had complaints about the management of the environment, such only one business owner in conjunction with the local government to manage the eco tax funds to pay the fisherman. Thus, this is a practice that was not look upon favorably as a sustainable solution by many of the business owners and no other solutions were put forward.

The third barrier is related to the corporate culture of the island which comprised of the attitudes, experiences, beliefs, and values of the organization. The isolation of environmental issues from other aspects of the organization or destination, and the bureaucracy that exists within each of organization are barriers that have affected the implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives in the island. The corporate culture in the Island is one of the employees and local which are resistant to change though they realized the benefits associated with sustainable tourism initiatives such as reducing health problems in the community which arises from the lack of garbage collection. Generally this is because of the lack of education that the local people discouraged to participate in the sustainable tourism development. Another barrier to sustainable tourism development in the destination is related to government bureaucracy and corruption which usually arises in many developing countries. The provincial and national governments have consistently collected taxes from the Island without any investment in infrastructure or development of policy in the area. Moreover, in 1998 the provincial government of Western Nusa Dua developed the Gili Mantra Marine National Park strategy. However the marine park strategies were never implemented, but then it was the Gili Trawangan Eco-trust who implemented initiatives to stop illegal fishing to protect the reefs.

Lastly, infrastructure or physical attributes such location and age of facilities are another barriers faced in the destination at the same time this closely related to the problem of having lack of resources on the Island to purchase new technologies. Despite if initiatives such as solar power or a sewage treatment plant were installed, it would be difficult to fix or adapt to the technologies due to the isolation of the Island. The Island also may have an issue on having no enough space or room for businesses to install composters to dispose organic waste.

5.0 Recommendation

After indentifying the various barriers of implementing and achieving sustainable tourism in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, there could be some strategies or solutions to overcome the stated barriers which contribute to the development of sustainable tourism in Island of Gili Trawangan. The strategies can include the alternatives of composting, employing financial mechanism such as tourist taxes and developing a multi-stakeholder island committee to manage the development and implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives in the destination. Extensive consultation with the locals and all stakeholders on the Island who involves could be performed as well which this allows to motivate and support the implementation of sustainable initiatives in the area. Whereas, the inadequate of resources on the island particularly for financial resources should likely be obtained from outside or non-local interests since it might be difficult for local people in the destination to play a leading role as entrepreneurs in the tourism industry. Local government should also support for educational programs and tourism training on the island to improve the knowledge and skills of the people and therefore it will encourage them to participate in the development of sustainable tourism.

6.0 Conclusion

Achieving sustainable tourism development is highly important to the island of Gili Trawangan in Indonesia, in which it will help in protecting and conserving the local resources while minimizing the negative impacts of tourism and benefiting the island communities. However, despite the efforts from a number of local businesses, various barriers exist and affect the implementation of achieving sustainability initiatives in the tourism industry in the destination. Yet, a cohesive and inclusive strategy still can be developed to move this tourist destination towards sustainability.

Tourism policy and planning

Barriers to Sustainable Tourism Development in Peripheral Regions

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world (“Tip, B.Poon, 2009). So tourism industry becomes one of the most important economies in a country. According to Tearfund, tourism industry is the best industry that can grow easily and can increase the Gross Domestic Profits (GDP), especially in Lesser Developed Country. Thus sustainable tourism development is a key strategy for developing. “Sustainable tourism is tourism that developed in such a way so as to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (D. Weaver, L.Lawton, p-299, 2010). Sustain tourism can minimized the cost of environmental, social, culture and economic by maximizing the benefits of those (D.Weaver, L. Lawton, p-299, 2010). Also sustainable tourism is a carrying capacity of economic to destination. Sustainable tourism development is regarded to enhance the local development and for maintaining environment, social culture and natural resources in the international resolution (Sala, Castellan, 2010). In Bagan (Myanmar), the Tourism Board of Myanmar will focus on the nature-based tourism (heritage tourism site) to sustainable tourism development for local people in Bagan. Heritage based tourism can create the awareness of culture, traditional living standard and also the research about heritage site or knowledge of that heritage site. That sustainable tourism development can give so many opportunities to local with direct and indirect way, such as job opportunities and also that development can increase the income of local people and so on. The sustainable heritage based tourism development in Bagan is one of the essential to meet what the local community needs and wants. Furthermore, the development of heritage based tourism in Bagan can attract more tourists to the destination. “Sustainable tourism development is now widely promoted as a holistic concept that aims to integrate social, economic and cultural policies to ensure high quality growth in the context to which it is applied” (M.Reid, W.Schwab, 2006). All of the countries focused on sustainable tourism development for developing and engaging small medium enterprises. As an example, travel agency will engage with accommodation sectors of a tourist (hotel, model, inn, guest house). Also airline companies engaged with hotel for increasing not only their income but also increasing the GDP of destinations, e.g. Singapore Airline engages with Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Hotel. People who travel with Singapore Airline can get the discount in MBS Hotel. In addition, according to World Export Development Forum focus, Developed Countries try to engage with least developed counties or developing country (McIntyre, Kris, 2011). For Bagan, the agencies of German, France and other EU countries are engaged with Myanmar tour agencies and Tourism Board of Myanmar for developing tourism development in peripheral region (Bagan).

Bagan (Myanmar) is one of the peripheral regions of Myanmar where there has only attraction for tourists. According to Oxford dictionary, peripheral nations are the third world countries those are still in the developing stage with a very low standard of living (Oxford Dictionary). According to Brown (2000), the peripheral regions rely on conventional industries and there has no or low economic growth. Bagan is one of the destinations where full with tourist’s attractions but the government does not support anything to that area for economic growth. Actually the Bagan has attractive sceneries that are valuable for tourism industry. Most of the people in peripheral regions are old people because young generations rely on technologies and migrate to other place where developed areas (urban areas).

The main business of Myanmar is agriculture and the government should promote the country as a popular destination to become a developed country. Also Bagan is very interesting place. But there has so many barriers to develop the peripheral regions like Bagan, Myanmar. Some of the barriers are lack of knowledge, poor transportation system, lack of government support, lack of infrastructure and no tourism planning. In Bagan, local people are doing handicraft and most of the people are vendors and farmers so they have no knowledge about tourism. That is why the government should promote the destination (Bagan) to local tour agencies. Furthermore, there has no tour agency in Bagan. When the government promotes the place, tour agency will set up their company in destinations. And that company will provide the job and provide the trainee to local people for participating in sustainable tourism development and language section. Most of the people from peripheral region cannot speak international language, English. Provide the trainee sections that provide the acknowledgement of tourism is the best solution for solving the barrier (limited knowledge). Also should provide the English language class for people who want to work in tourism and hospitality industry. Knowing about tourism can be one of the opportunities to create job as well as can increase the local people income. There can be increase the number of visitors when developing sustainable tourism and that can improve the lifestyle of local people and can increase the Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) of country as well.

And another one of the main barriers is no tourism planning in that peripheral region (Bagan, Myanmar). The government should develop the tourism planning by cooperation with tour operator. Tour operator is the person or organization that can knew everything about the tourism such as what type of media should use, what kind of place can be tourist’s attraction, which type of people should we use in specific area and so on. The tourism planning is the very first step for developing sustainable tourism development. That tourism planning can address the policies, zoning and etc. The policy can make the local people happy. This is because the local people will feel upset when their place is more visitors than local people. Zoning can help not only to the natural resources but also to the local people. If the tour operator make zoning can help both tourism industry and local areas. As an example Bagan should create zone for tourists and that zone is especially for economic zone. This is because now Bagan is very few local people and that can affect to them if there has no zoning. Furthermore, the government should make long term plan. They should think at least ten years plan for local people. This is because there can appear many business (private companies) from around the country. If the government did not create long term plan, the local people will feel annoy to both tourists and private sectors. So government should consider for the local people because they are the main sector that can sustain tourism development in their region.

According to Parlato (2004), “an altruistic attitude towards the environment, resulting in behavioral change, is more likely to occur if motivation to do so is on a personal and individual level, through one’s own beliefs as well as value system rather than if it were enforced legally or simply viewed as a social or political ideal”. There cannot be sustainable tourism develop where there has no each local (personal) involvement in planning. Also each of everyone can change their mind in within a second so the government should do make sure plan for their future. In addition, the government should consider about the local people beliefs and values. Furthermore, local people will fully support when the government consider what they beliefs and values for their life. Those beliefs and values can build trust between local people and government. And that can solve the barriers of unbelievable in government. Effective local people cooperation is hardly to get when the government used power to them.

According to Butler (1999), the problem for sustainable tourism development is hardly to clarify the meaning of word and also that can focus on the weakness points of destination. The meaning of sustainable tourism development is rarely to hear for local people and sometime that can be misunderstanding between local people and other stakeholders. So the tour operators should introduce the exactly meaning and accurate information to local people for preventing the conflicts. The worse results can come out for development when there has problem with local people. This is because local people are the core center that can support in sustainable development.

Another barrier is the destination is lack of tourist’s facilities. Tourist’s facilities are hotel, motel, guest house for accommodation, train, car, bus for transportation, restaurant, bar for food and beverage and so on. The peripheral region like Bagan is lack of those facilities for attracting more tourists. Even there has no international accommodation such as Hilton, Marriott, etc. The government should open up the international business. This is because some tourists thinks they are so loyal while they stay at international standard as well as some tourists did not choose the place there has no international hotels. If the government wants to develop sustainable tourism, firstly they should create or open up the business for facilities. Furthermore, local hotel developers will come in and set up their business in the region. So that can be advantages for people who live in that destination. In addition, the local developer can observe knowledge from the international hotel for improving the standard and attract more visitors to come. Open up economic sector is the most important thing.

Sources: trading economics (2013)

This graph can show how important the open up economy is. This graph shows the number of tourists’ arrivals in Myanmar and can see the differences between before and after open up economy. Also transportation is one of the most important things that we have to think for developing. There will be less tourists will come when there has poor transportation system.

Having a bad tourism leaders can rain the sustain development. In peripheral region or people from developing countries have limited knowledge about tourism. Sometime they just emphasized on the short-term profits and never consider the things can happen in near future. For example, a tourism leader who has only skill that can make money or profits a lot but cannot sustain. So the tourism leader should be knowledgeable about tourism, also can motivate to people for supporting and cooperate as well. A features of good tourism leader is a person who

Can able to motivate others,
Can access to an extensive network both within and outside the community,
Can support the values of the community and enthusiastic about the region and its tourism potential as well (Moscardo, 2005).

As a summary, the tourism industry of Bagan cannot get profits as they expected because of the knowledge of tourism barriers. For solving those barriers, government should build the trust between local people also the good tourism leaders can manage all the things. In addition, the government or other stakeholders providing trainee section to local people for their lacking knowledge. As a result, that can develop a very successful stainable tourism development in peripheral region and can enter and improve the local standard to global standard of business.

References

Sala,S., & Castellan,V. (2010). Sustainable performance index for tourism policy development. Tourism development, 31(6), 971-880. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0261517709001721#

Tip, B. P. (2009). SUSTAINABLE TOURISM.International Trade Forum,(1), 21-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231383924?accountid=16285

Reid,M., & Schwab,W. (2006). Barriers to Sustainable Development. Aisan and Africa Studies, 41, 20. Retrieved from http://jas.sagepub.com.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/content/41/5-6/439.full.pdf+html

McIntyre, K. (2011). 2011 WEDF: SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT. International Trade Forum, (2), 9-11. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/896731062?accountid=16285

http://www.premierwritings.com/barriers-to-sustainable-tourism-development-in-peripheral-regions/

Brown, F. (2000). Tourism In Peripheral Areas: case Studies: Aspects of Tourism, MultilingualMatters.
Parlato, M. (2004). Ecotourism and the Maltese islands: A Case study. Rural Recreation and Tourism Publications of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, Unpublished Master’s Dissertation
Dodds, Rachel and Butler, Richard (2009): Barriers to implementing Sustainable Tourism Policy in Mass Tourism Destinations. Published in: TOURISMOS: An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, Vol. 5, No. 1 (15. April 2010): pp. 35-53

Trading Economics. (n.d.). International tourism – number of arrivals in Myanmar. Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/myanmar/international-tourism-number-of-arrivals-wb-data.html

Moscardo, G. (2005) Peripheral tourism development: Challenges, issues and success factors. Tourism Recreation Research, 30(1), 27-44.

Bangalore- Silicon Valley of India

Namaskara (Greetings in Kannada)

Once referred to as the Garden City of India, this huge metropolitan city has a wonderful vibrancy of both the contemporary and old world. It is one of the largest cities in the country and is home to the IT industry, hence the name Silicon Valley of India. The city has been recently renamed as Bengaluru and is well known for its numerous pubs, vast lakes and beautiful gardens. The gardens have been however on the diminishing side in the last decade or so. Situated at a height of 3000 feet above sea level, Bangalore is blessed with a magnificent climate and has been surveyed as one of the most liveable cities in the country. Bangalore is a huge cosmopolitan city and has a wonderful cultural blend making it one of the most eclectic cities in India.

Best season to visit Bangalore-

Bangalore has a tropical savanna climate and experiences moderate climatic conditions all through the year due to its elevation above sea level. The summer months from March to May are warm and the winter months from November to January are quite cool and nice. Monsoons hit the city in the months from June to August and are not very incessant. Tourists can visit Bangalore all year around due to these moderate climatic conditions.

Highlights (Things to do and experience in Bangalore)

Stroll along Brigade road in the evening and watch the world go by.

Go beer tasting at any of the many Bangalore pubs and micro breweries.

Revel in the electric nightlife of Bangalore.

Soak in the sereneness that the lovely Lalbagh and Cubbon parks offer. Lalbagh also conducts flower shows every year.

Walk along Ulsoor Lake, Sankey Tank or any of the many lake bodies spread across the city.

Enjoy live concerts that happen frequently at the Palace grounds. Many popular national and international bands perform in Bangalore.

Enjoy a traditional play at Rangashankara. There are numerous theatre groups that perform every weekend in the city.

Enjoy a walking tour and get to know more about the city’s history. There are numerous walking tours such as Victorian Bangalore walk, Lalbagh walk, etc. run by companies such as Unhurried and Bangalore Walks.

Visit the many fairs and shows that the city hosts. The popular ones are Peanut fair, Aero show, Sunday soul sante, etc.

Bring out the adventurer in you at Wonder La, a popular water theme park.

Be a part of the numerous short treks from Bangalore organized by a host of adventure companies. The popular treks are to Savandurga, Skandagiri, Antaragange and Makalidurga. Rock climbing is popular in Ramnagara, a short drive away from Bangalore.

Watch a cricket match at the Chinnaswamy stadium. Indian premier league matches are held in the months of April and May.

Taste the delicious traditional south Indian food at any of the darshinis spread across the city.

Enjoy a day at the creative and interactive Innovative film city which has a host of activities and shows for its visitors.

Indulge in the water sport facilities at Lumbini Park.

Hotspots (Things to see in Bangalore)

South Bangalore-

Bannerghatta National Park– This National Park offers a safari where one can spot numerous animals and is quite popular with tourists. There is also a zoo which has many caged animals. A butterfly conservatory near the park is another attraction.

Lalbagh Botanical Garden– This magnificent huge botanical garden houses innumerable plant species and many 100 year old trees. Additionally, it also has a deer park, an aquarium and a lake. The glass house and rose garden are quite popular. Flower shows are conducted every year at Lalbagh. Do not miss the opportunity to grab a snack and a cup of coffee at the nearby MTR restaurant, one of the iconic places to eat in Bangalore.

Gavipuram Gangadeshwara Temple – Take the lord’s blessings at the oldest temple in Bangalore. At more than 800 years old, this temple is located in the temple district of Bangalore.

Bull Temple– This is one of the most popular and visited temples in Bangalore and has a granite monolithic Nandi as its shrine. The temple ground also hosts the popular annual peanut festival.

North Bangalore

Bangalore Palace– This palace is the residence of the Wodeyar royal family. It has a beautiful exterior and is modelled on the Windsor Castle. A portion of it is open to the public and displays a wonderful collection of art.

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat– It is one of the renowned art schools and museums in the country. It has a wide display of art works and also has an impressive alumnus. Frequent art fests are conducted here.

East Bangalore

Aerospace museum– This is India’s first aerospace museum and has a wide display of aeronautical photographs, aircraft models and gives detailed information about the history of India’s aerospace.

West Bangalore

ISKCON Temple– Run by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, this temple has very attractive interiors and also sells numerous temple paraphernalia and artifacts.

Central Bangalore

Holy Trinity Church– This 19^th century church is built in English renaissance style and is a landmark building in the heart of the city.

Vidhana Soudha– Vidhan Soudha houses the state legislature and is a landmark building in the city. It has some wonderful exteriors and is built in Neo- Dravidian style. However, entry is not permitted.

Rangoli Metro Art centre– This small but wonderful gallery is the newest addition to Bangalore’s art galleries. Situated near the Metro station on M.G. Road, this art centre has a nice display of art work by various artists.

St. Mary’s Basilica– Built in gothic style with stained glass; this basilica has a wonderful external facade and attracts numerous devotees.

Tipu Sultan’s Palace– This wonderful palace of Tipu Sultan is adorned with nice architecture and frescoes. There is also a fort, a temple and a mosque in its surroundings.

Vishweshwaraya museum– This interactive industrial and technological museum is quite popular with both children and adults, and is well recommended while in Bangalore.

Venkattappa Art gallery and museum– It is one of the oldest museums in the country and has a wide display of art works, sculptures, Tanjore paintings and artifacts. It also has displays of antiques from the Mohenjedaro and Harappa civilization.

National Gallery of Modern Art– This wonderful museum has an impressive display of contemporary art and is a must visit for all art lovers.

Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium– This planetarium has wonderful visuals, is informative and would be a great visit for children.

Neighbourhood-

Devanahalli fort– This fort is the birth place of Tipu Sultan and is located ahead of the international airport. It has a fort wall, a few temples and a village that lives inside it.

Channapatna– Channapatna is well known for its wooden toys, and one can also see the artisans in work. Make sure to buy a few of their wonderful creations.

Nandi Hills– It has been one of the favoured getaway destinations for a very long time for the residents of Bangalore. The hills offer a panoramic view, has temple on top, a stepped well and a rest house. It is quite windy and cool on top, and that brings a lot of visitors to this nice little hill fort.

Shopping in Bangalore

Bangalore has numerous shopping avenues and these include the modern shopping malls and also the shopping streets which have been ever popular for years.

Shopping Malls– Bangalore has numerous shopping malls with many branded outlets, department stores, cafes, pubs, restaurants and cinema theatres. The popular ones are Forum mall, Garuda mall, Orion mall, UB City, Phoenix market city and Bangalore central.

Brigade Road– Brigade road has been well known as a shopping/ walking street for decades. Lined with shops, pubs and cafes on either sides, this is one of the most preferred shopping areas of the residents. If you are keen on artifacts, there are a couple of good options such as Kaveri emporium on M.G.Road, which runs perpendicular to Brigade road.

Commercial street– This is the place to head to if you are not keen on branded items. With a huge line of shops, the street offers a wide range of options to choose from.

Indira Nagar– 100 feet road and CMH road in Indira Nagar has numerous brand outlets and is one of the best shopping areas in Bangalore.

Koramangala– With a host of stores, Koramanagala has numerous shopping avenues. It also has many huge branded outlets.

Malleshwaram Sampige Road and Gandhi Bazaar in Basavanagudi – You should head to either of these places if you are looking for a traditional shopping experience.

How to reach Bangalore

With both international and domestic terminals, Kempegowda International airport, Bangalore is the best means to reach the city as it connects to all the major Indian cities and a host of cities across the world. Many international airlines connect Bangalore with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, Paris, Singapore, London, Bangkok, Colombo, Frankfurt and many other cities across the world. Pre- paid taxis and BMTC Volvo buses are easily available to take you to the central part of the city. The major railway station is Bangalore city station which is located opposite the Majestic bus stand (the main bus station). There are other railway stations at Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore Cantonment and Krishnarajapuram. Trains connect Bangalore to various big and small cities across the country. There are long distance buses, both private and government ones that ply to and from cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore, etc. The major bus stations are at Majestic and KR Market. The city is well connected by highways and driving into Bangalore is also well recommended.

How to get around Bangalore-

By Metro– Metro is new to Bangalore and has limited connectivity. However, it is the fastest mode of transport between the CBD area, Malleshwaram and Indira Nagar.

By Bus– Buses are easily available and connects to all areas of Bangalore. There are many Volvo buses run by BMTC which are comfortable to commute.

By Autorickshaws– Autorickshaws or tuk tuks can be hailed on the streets and are easily available. Make sure to run the meters beforehand. Pre-paid autorickshaws are available at Bangalore city railway station.

By Car– One can also drive around in a self-drive car; though be prepared to handle Bangalore’s slow traffic.

By Taxi– Taxis can be booked in advance and is the best option if one needs to go to the outskirts of the city.

Top areas of Bangalore

Indira Nagar– This is one of the major commercial and shopping areas with numerous brand outlets, restaurants and pubs. A section of it is upscale residential area.

Koramangala– Koramangala is well known for its wonderful restaurants, cafes and pubs. This is another upscale area and houses many commercial buildings including the Forum, the city’s best shopping mall.

MG Road– M.G.Road and its perpendicular Brigade road form the crux of the CBD area. With numerous shops, brand outlets, office spaces, hotels, restaurants, cafes and pubs, this is the biggest commercial area in Bangalore.

Residency road– It is one of the major areas in Bangalore with numerous commercial buildings, hotels and pubs.

Ulsoor– Ulsoor is one of the premium areas of the city with many office spaces, hotels and residential houses. The very popular Ulsoor Lake is located here.

Marathahalli– With numerous shopping avenues, restaurants, cinema theatres and commercial buildings, Marathahalli is one of the top areas of Bangalore

Whitefield– In addition to the numerous information technology companies that are located here, there are also shopping malls, restaurants and numerous hotels in Whitefield. It is also a top residential area.

Jayanagar– Jayanagar is one of the premium residential areas of Bangalore and also has numerous shopping and dining options.

Old Airport Road– This area is well known for its commercial buildings and luxury hotels.

Gandhinagar– Located closer to the railway station and major bus station, Gandhinagar has numerous commercial buildings and hotels.

Dhanyavadhagalu (Thank you in Kannada)

The objective of this project is providing an evaluation of sustainability in Changi Airport. By focusing Terminal 3, a lot of discussion and analysis have been done to examine Changi Airport’s sustainability. The project comprises four main components included the description of Changi Airport, identification and discussion of sustainability criteria, analysis of potential impacts and recommended planning tool.

Methodology:

The project takes full advantage of using qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data for the sustainable indicators and support for its arguments. Particularly, to qualitative method, a lot of site observations, evident pictures and interviews with relevant personal included face-to-face communication and email were conducted to examine Changi Airport’s sustainability (Hair et al. 2003, p.74).

Feinstein & Thomas (2002) determined that quantitative method is ‘the adoption from a range of mathematical and statistical techniques used to analyze data and information. The qualitative method was applied to obtain information through Changi Airport website, relevant journal articles and books from both online sources and the National Library Singapore.

Description of Changi Airport:

Singapore Changi Airport has always been known as the best airport in the world (Changi Airport Group (CAG) 2010). Their reputation has been expanded through a lot of annual worldwide awards such as: 2010 Best Green Service Provider – Airport, 2009 Asia’s Leading Airport, 2008 World’s Leading Eco-friendly Airport, 2007 World’s Leading Airport, etc (CAG 2010).

Establishing from 1981, Changi Airport is centrally located in the South East Asian region and is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) (Caudle 1996). The airport handles more than 80 airlines operating 5,100 weekly scheduled flights flying to about 200 cities in 60 countries (Hui & Wan2003). These big numbers of airlines operations allow the airport welcoming more than 5,000 arrivals and departures every week and over 37 million passengers a year (Hui & Wan 2003).

Changi Airport Terminal 3 opened on 9 January 2008. This S$1.75 billion terminal comprises 380000 square meter of space and can handle about 22 million passengers a year (NEWASIA Singapore 2010). The roof of the main terminal building is designed with 919 skylights that automatically adjust to sunlight and fill soft natural light into the inside of the terminal (NEWASIA Singapore 2010).

Terminal 3 consists of seven storeys (4 levels above ground and 3 levels below ground) which are considered as a small city with many services and amenities (NEWASIA Singapore 2010). There is a floor-to-ceiling viewing gallery on the fourth floor which allows visitors to enjoy watching the control tower, plane takeoff and land. Natural greenery is the main theme of the terminal’s architectural design (NEWASIA Singapore 2010). The green wall, a 5-storey tall and 300 meter long vertical garden is very good evidence with 4 waterfalls, layers of tropical foliage and sculptured sandstone art walls at the arrival hall (NEWASIA Singapore 2010).

Identification and Discussion of Sustainability Criteria:

Sustainability Criteria is known as the specific standards which organizations follow to achieve their purposes of minimizing at the lowest level of negative impacts and balancing the triple bottom lines (Swarbrooke 1999). To be well-known as a green destination, Changi Airport has put a lot of efforts to obtain sustainability in many ways.

(The table of sustainability indicators can refer to Appendix 1)

Environmental Indicators:
Water Management:

To Changi Airport, water management is very important to reduce as much as possible water consumption and the amount of water that takes from suppliers. They are quite successful to apply Rainwater Harvesting system that allows them to collect storm water for irrigating plants at Changi Airport Nursery and external landscape areas (CAG 2009).

Besides, NEWater (recycled water) is using as the main water source in Changi Airport for multiply purposes such as : irrigation, fire-fighting, sanitation and cooling purposes in place of potable water (CAG 2009).

Another efficiency practice in water conservation is installing flow rate regulators for wash basins in selected areas of the airport to decrease water usage by 66% from 6 liters per minute to 2 liters per minute (CAG 2009). Drinking water is also conserved in term of installing taps with water saving devices such as on-off sensors (CAG 2009).

One of the biggest sources of water usage is from toilets, so that Change Airport Introducing low-flush toilets that recycled water (NEWater) being used for flushing (CAG 2009).

Energy Management:

The airport has saved a lot of energy from its initiatives to improve energy efficiency. A typical practice is using natural lighting in passenger areas by installing double glazed glass and solar shading devices (CAG 2009). These practices allow the nature light to get into the buildings while minimizing heat gained from sunlight at the same time. From then on, it helps to decrease the need for artificial lighting and air conditioning. Inside the buildings, they also set up the efficient lighting system with motion sensors and sensor escalators and travellators (CAG 2009).

The other practices included shutting down escalators and travellators at night and during off-peak hours, turning off peripheral lighting during day time and looking for the best energy-efficient options when replacing their assets and equipments (CAG 2009).

The most remarkable practice is installing a 250kWp photovoltaic system with solar panel modules which cover a rooftop area of about 2,500m?. These panel modules generate over 280,000 kWh/year, it is calculated to reduce more than 122,000kg of carbon dioxide per year (CAG 2009).

Waste Management:

The whole idea of sustainable development has been developed very efficiently by Changi Airport through reducing waste generation and increasing the percentage of waste recycled.

The airport has introduced a new creative design of recycling bins which actually depicted an enlarged bottle, a can and a newspaper (CAG 2009). The purpose of these bins is trying to catch people’s attention and encourage them to be more considerate and participate in recycle waste.

With regards to reducing waste generation, the airport’s taxiway pavements are construed by recycled materials and recycled concrete is used to built roadways, drains, pavements and kerbs. Office refurbishments are also used drywall partitions instead of mortar and bricks to minimize waste generation (CAG 2009).These results in cost savings through waste disposal and raw material costs.

Noise Management:

Efficient noise management always challenges for aircraft operators all over the world. The activities such as: re-fuelling, baggage loading, engine maintenance, unloading and re-provisioning of aircraft usually generate a lot of noise which can affect directly to the nearby community.

At Changi Airport, noise management is considered as a very important factor to minimize the possible negative impacts to the community. All airlines and civil aircraft operating in Singapore have to commit to meet the noise standards stipulated by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s guidelines on Balanced Approach to Noise (CAG 2009).

Land use planning is conducted by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which zones land surrounding Changi Airport for residential use in accordance with international norms on noise levels. Noise studies are conducted regularly to update the noise contours around Changi Airport. The results of these studies are shared with URA for future land-use planning (CAG 2009).

Changi Airport also assigns runways to aircrafts to reduce air traffic and requires all aircraft that departing from Singapore to follow defined routes to avoid flying directly overhead residential areas (CAG 2009). Besides, the airport conducts regular inspections to maintain noise level and detect any abnormal noise activity (CAG 2009).

With a better effort to reduce noise level, Changi Airport Group (2009) cooperates with Singapore Amalgamated Services Co-operative Organization (SASCO), the nearby airside agency to ensure that the impact of noise from their compounds is minimized especially from 12 a.m. to 06 a.m.

Air Quality Control:

To Changi Airport, providing a good environment with best air quality is very important to protect their employee’s health and the local community. There are a lot of useful practices which allow them to minimize as much as possible the amount of carbon dioxide generating from airport vehicles, ground running of aircraft, road traffic, food preparation and air conditioning.

They only use hybrid tractors to sort baggage within Terminal 3 (CAG 2009). The Sky Train system is also used efficiently to transport passengers who make inter-terminal flight connections among Terminal 1, 2 and 3 (CAG, 2009). The system has total of seven stations: two each in Terminal 1 and 2, and three in Terminal 3. This high-speed “people mover system” is powered by electricity and creates zero local emissions (CAG 2009).

Moreover, the airport put their sustainable efforts in term of designing the airfield to maximize the number of rapid exit taxiways and connecting taxiways to limit congestion on the airfield (CAG 2009). This helps cutting down a lot of taxiing time of aircraft and reducing a large amount of engine emissions.

Another good practice which allows reducing a lot of carbon emissions from the airport is applying electronic car park system in 1,700 car park spaces and 130 motorcycle spaces (Changi Airport Singapore (CAS) 2010). With this helpful system, vehicles can quickly find the empty lots and decrease the big amount of carbon emissions from going around the car parks.

The key highlight of terminal 3 is the Green Wall, five-storey high vertical garden. The garden is designed with four cascading waterfalls, a sculptured sandstone art wall and a lot of climbing plants (Hui & Wan 2003). This green practice help creating fresh air, cooling the atmosphere inside the building and saving a large amount of energy consumptions through air conditioners.

Stress Level:

Changi Airport is well-known as one of the best airports all over the world which serves more than 80 airlines operating 5,100 weekly scheduled flights flying to about 200 cities in 60 countries (Hui & Wan2003). These big numbers of airlines operations allow the airport welcoming more than 5,000 arrivals and departures every week and over 37 million passengers a year (Hui & Wan 2003).

The whole airport is about 1,300 hectares with 870 hectares reclaimed from the sea (670 hectares using seafill and 200 hectares using landfill) (CAS 2010). There are more than 230 retails and services stores and about 100 food & beverage establishments here (CAS 2010).

Besides, terminal 3 has an annual handling capacity of 22 million passengers while the total handling capacity of Changi Airport is about 70 million passengers per year (CAS 2010).

Social-cultural Indicators:
Environmental Education:

There are many kinds of sustainable education which is conducted in Changi Airport through environmental exhibitions, campaigns, events, gallery and activities. Some remarkable activities that bring a lot of good green image of Changi Airport are:

Changi Airport Group and IATA launched environmental exhibition between 2 February 2010 and 28 February 2010 to highlight aviation’s commitment to the environment (Changi Airport Group & IATA 2010).

The airport practiced Earth Hour 2010 to raise environmental awareness among its stakeholders (CAS 2010).

Changi Airport cooperates with National Museum of Singapore and Double A Ltd. to promote “Making your own woodblock print with local icons” campaign to use the paper wisely (CAS 2010).

Value of foreign ownership:

The full beneficial ownership of Changi Airport belongs to the government of Singapore.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) is the regulatory authority (Channel Newasia 2009). Within CAAS, there are two entities:

One is in charge in the regulator, promoter and developer of the aviation industry (Channel Newasia 2009).

The corporatized entity is in charge to operate Changi Airport, the airport emergency services and exploit investment opportunities overseas (Channel Newasia 2009).

Locals jobs created through tourism:

Changi Airport is generating about 13,000 jobs for local community (CAS 2010).

Baseline Indicators:
Quality Management:

Changi Airport is known as the world’s most awarded airport with over 350 awards included 28 won in 2009 and 8 won as at May 2010 (CAG 2010). Some remarkable awards are:

2010 Best Green Service Provider – Airport

2009 Asia’s Leading Airport

2008 World’s Leading Airport

2008 World’s Leading Eco-friendly Airport

Potential Impacts of Changi Airport:

Tourism activities can cause a lot of impacts to the triple bottom lines included environment, economic and social-culture (Swarbrooke 1999). Changi Airport is well-known as an essential element in the aviation industry in particular and the whole tourism system (WTS) in general (Weaver & Lawton 2010). Therefore, it cannot ignore both negative and positive impacts from its transportation service to local community.

Environmental Impacts:

The good side of tourism development in Changi Airport is promoting people’s sustainable awareness and their responsibility in term of environmental conservation (Buckley 2000). There are also many cleaning programmes such as: the Clean Energy Programme Office (CEPO) to protect the attractiveness and green image of the best worldwide eco-friendly airport (Singapore Economic Development Board 2009). Besides, one of the best benefits which Changi Airport has created for the environment is promoting the development of using renewable sources such as: solar energy- 919 skylights, recycled water – the NEWater, etc (Manson 2003).

Together with the positive impact, there are also a lot of negative impacts which Changi Airport generates for the environment. Noise pollution is, for many people, the most obvious form of pollution related mainly to aircraft (Leiper, Braithwaite & Witsel 2008). Besides, its impacts on climate change, people’s health and contributing in depleting the stratospheric ozone layer are the most serious problems (Refer to Appendix 2 for more detail).

Social Impacts:

The development of tourism in Changi Airport has created more job opportunities and higher income to local residents. There are about 13,000 jobs are generated during last few years (CAS 2010). It also results in the development of more and better shopping, transport, the country’s medical facilities, cultural and recreational facilities and communication facilities (Khan et al. 1990). Crowne Plaza Hotel with 5- star rate is a very good example of how good infrastructure has been improved because of tourism development in Changi Airport (CAG 2010). Besides, it can bring locals ‘feeling of pride’ about their world’s best eco-friendly airport and consciousness of keeping the airport clean and attractive (Khan et al. 1990). The image of Singapore as a clean and beautiful city is also emerged to attract more and more tourists (Khan et al. 1990).

On the other hand, the development can cause vulnerability to the community. The difference in wealth between the locals and the tourists may result in the high number in drug abuse, prostitution, and theft and crime rate especially with the setup of gambling facilities at the two integrated resorts (Khan et al. 1990). Many locals complained that they have to pay higher prices for some good and services as well we their rentals for offices and shops were increased because of tourism development (Khan et al. 1990). Obviously, there are a lot of buildings around the Changi Airport area such as: 4 terminals, control tower, Crowne Plaza Hotel, etc. They will definitely cause the visual impact at the end (Weaver & Lawton 2010).

Economic Impacts:

The significant effects of tourism development in Changi Airport expand on the high number of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. There are more ten 13,000 job opportunities generated to cater passenger’s demand (CAG 2010). Another important benefit is generating indirect local revenue through the multiplier effect of money and jobs (Heng & Low 1990). Due to the development of the aviation industry, it also cause the stimulation of backward linkages of the other industries, includes agriculture, fisheries and construction (Heng & Low 1990). The full beneficial ownership of Changi Airport belongs to the government of Singapore; thus, it limits the negative impacts from high leakage due to foreign ownership (Channel Newasia 2009). Besides, the strong demand for Singapore dollars due to tourism expansion is resulting in the growth of the price of Singapore’s currency and exchange rate (Heng & Low 1990).

However, the high tourism dependence of Singapore economy in general and Changi Airport in particular can be a big problem. The uncontrollable outside forces such as: natural disasters (Tsunami), SARS and economic crisis will affect seriously to the whole economy of Singapore (Heng & Low 1990).

The aviation activities can cause a lot of problems; however, there still are many offsets that can organize to limit them at the lowest level. Changi Airport is a very successful representative for the aviation industry that owns a lot of initiatives to balance its negative impacts to triple bottom lines (Refer to Appendix 1). Their efforts in sustainable development have been proved through a lot of honor awards such as: the Green Mark Gold in October 2009, the inaugural Best Green Service Provider at the Annual Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards in 2010 (CAG 2009).

Recommended Planning Tool:

According to Newsome, Moore and Dowling (2002), the best planning tool is one that provides an effective monitoring in the areas with effective outcome, involve visitors and community and lead to sustainability of the resource. There are many tourism planning frameworks, but, the Visitor Impact Management Framework is the most suitable one for Changi Airport (Refer to Appendix 3).

Visitor Impact Management (VIM) Framework:

To Changi Airport, applying the VIM planning framework to ensure visitor impacts at acceptable levels seems a good idea which allows them to enhance visitors’ benefit and achieve their purpose in excellent service: “We are the best in our business” (CAG 2010).

Based on eight basic steps, the VIM framework can lead the managers not only focusing on reviewing existing data and management objectives, through selecting indicators and standards and using these to identify unacceptable impacts, but also helping them to indentify causes and appropriate management strategies (Newsome et al 2002).

The purpose of steps1 and 2 is reviewing the organization’s existing objectives, legislation, policies, pervious research and other data to identify problems. In these stages, Changi Airport can recognize the need for clear objectives (excellent service provider), better understanding the needs and wants from passengers and identify current problems within the process of organizing.

The next steps (steps 3 and 4) are selecting key impact indicators and standards for the whole terminal 3. Noise management, air quality control and passenger satisfaction seems to the best indicators that need to be highlighted for taking care of local community and passengers (Refer to Appendix 1). The following indicators such as: waste management, energy consumption, water quality control and quality management will be also useful to providing excellent service in the aviation industry.

After collecting enough data, the comparison between standards and existing conditions will necessary to examine whether it exceed the acceptable level or at that level. For instance, the desired standard for passenger satisfaction at Changi Airport was 94 % while passenger rates their satisfaction at lower or higher standard (CAG 2010). To maintain the service standard at a high level, monitoring programmers have been established with certain criteria. The purpose of this practice is making sure that they can win annual “Best Worldwide Airport” award (CAG 2010). Therefore, this award is used as a measuring method to ensure their standard of passenger satisfaction.

If their actual satisfaction level is below the desired standard, the Changi Airport Group will take action to identify probable causes of decreasing in passenger satisfaction level (Step 6) (CAG 2010). Some possible problems might be low in service delivery, lack of initiative in operation, etc (Tian-Cole & Cromption 2003).

From then on, the suitable planning and strategies are provided and implemented to get over limitations and enhance in service delivery (Steps 7 and 8). The ‘Be a Changi Millionaire’ Draw, which ‘kicked off’ monthly from1 June 2010 to choose the most lucky passenger who shopped at Changi Airport, is a very good evidence (CAG 2010). This activity is a very creative idea to promote the airport’s products and its wonderful service at the same time. Through this activity, passengers will be very happy and their satisfaction level will increase at the end.

Limitation of the report:

The report focuses mainly on Terminal 3 to collect data for the sustainable indicators. Thus, the quality of information collected might not be representative for the whole Changi Airport included: Terminal 1 and 2. Besides, there are some data and information cannot be gathered because the organization is outsourced its departments and some private information cannot be leaked out.

The paper only mentions about environmental impact, one important component in the triple bottom lines, thus, it is lack of convincing evidences to prove that the balance among triple bottom lines have been done in Changi Airport.

Conclusion:

The whole project provides a good understanding how Changi Airport can create its image and reputation as the best airport in the world. Especially, in term of sustainability, there are a lot of efforts have been done to take care of environment and local community. However, it cannot avoid the negative impacts which the aviation industry’s member causes for the environment. These problems are able to offset by taking full advantages of using management frameworks and planning tool such as: the VIM frameworks.

With this research, it is obvious that Singapore Changi Airport is meritorious to be known as the best green airport all over the world. In the future, it can strongly believe that Changi Airport will be more conscious about the environment with more green planning and strategies to maintain its reputation as well as develop as a green icon of sustainability.

There is no doubt about the fact that London is kind of home for many tourist. Though London as a whole has attracted many tourists internationally, yet the importance of Central London in this matter is very specific. Museums and parks and entertainment horizons of Central London had always been the centre of Attraction for many European and International tourists. The civilisations attached to London and the popular cultures being a part of it make it the most conformable place and an obvious choice to visit, for many tourists. The underlying principle for this project is to derive a Visitor Management Plan for the Central London. The approach is to look into all those perspectives and the arrangements of all kinds of assistance in order to offer the visitors with right kinds of exposure to the areas of Central London. The paper has been designed to grasp and to offer appropriate guidelines and necessary tips for managing with a pleasurable and a very relaxing way of dealing with the tourism sector of this place. This is an initiation led from the perspective of local tourism management organisations in order to understand the developmental and the systematic strategic plans for offering the area of Central London with the best possible tourism options and to attract visitors here for the betterment of tourism sector in London as a whole.

Outline and Analysis of Central London Tourism

The British Museum and the British Library in the Central London holds many aspects of literary exposures. These are the places that are most visited by the tourist to see and explore the original manuscripts of classics like the notebook of Jane Austen, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte Bronte’s manuscript of Jane Eyre added by the proof all those places that are being explored, dominated and eventually conquered by the British Empire. The British Museum and the British Library are the most renowned and very authentic place that most of the international visitors tries to visit, in order to see things that made history. Central London is very popular for other museums like Victoria and Albert Museum in the area of Kensington. This is the world’s largest museum that holds decorative design and arts, with an abundant collection of 4.5 million objects. The speciality of these museums are integral to the collection of things that are very much close to the cultures of North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. The best parts of these valuable sites are that they are all free of cost and visitors can make an entry very obviously. This is definitely is a very right kind of approach and as such more and more people are attracted towards it. Keeping the options free to tourists for these cultural and historical assets is a very strong approach and as such can be declared as a strong strategic plan in attaining worldwide popularity. However, minimal charges for these areas can be considered and that should be so minimal that people from any country can afford it. This is a plan that will keep a track of the number of visitor??s to these places added by some chance to earn a minimal amount for the maintenance of these places. The historical and cultural part of Central London is also comprised of places like Buckingham Palace. It has been estimated that an average of 15 million tourists come to Central London to see this Royal palace every year. In summer season, the visitors are even allowed to see some rooms of this palace and that is a real treat to them. Visits to Tower of London holding Crown Jewels of England is also very popular and visitors throng here to have the eternal glance of it. Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, London Eye, Covent Garden, Natural History Museum, London Zoo, Globe Theatre, Madame Tussauds and Charles Dickens Museum are some additional must visits for the tourists to Central London. Apart from all these locations, most of the people prefer to visit Central London for its wonderful parks and to wander along. Most of these parks are counted with Regent’s Park, Holland Park and Coram’s Fields. The preferences are all about having grass for walk, ball games and picnicking. Though some of the Royal parks are closed at nights and are very much guided by the police, yet the preferences for these places are very obvious and incredible among the tourists. Provisions for skating are made possible in Kensington Gardens along with Serpentine Road in Hyde Park. This is a very important provisions that have attracted many tourists and the same applications should be made possible in most of the other parks too. It is necessary to consider that people definitely come to Central London for relaxation, fun and to enjoy their holidays, and thus it s becomes the responsibility of the tourism industry in London to offer people with adequate amount of almost everything.

Visitors?? Bases and Statistics

According to Hard, R. (2010) there is a clear declaration about the visitor??s bases and the statistics to Central London. As per this declaration the total Central London visitors in the year 2007 has been estimated as 25.2 million added by 6.2 million of business visitors. The total leisure and other visitors to Central London has been declared as 11.55 million and 1,353 Central London Hotels were been occupied. The average room occupancy has been calculated as 82.2%. as for the declarations made by the Press Association (2007) over the developmental structure of tourism in Central London, they are pretty sure of its expansion by the year 2012. The most visited places as of now are the museums, theatres and the parks. Yet the expansion as declared by Press association will be inclusive of the Olympic game propaganda that will overcrowd the place for all possible reasons.

The following diagram forwarded by Office of National Statistics (2010), will illustrate the occupancy of visitors to Central London more clearly-

Figure SEQ Figure * ARABIC 1. Visits to and from UK

Source: Office of National Statistics 2010

As shown in the figure from 2008 onwards there is an extremely rise in the amount of visitors to UK, specifically to Central London then people going out from UK or the Central London in particular. As per the three-month trends that have been seasonally adjusted, the assessments are very clear and practically strong in favour of tourism in UK and Central London in particular. In the month of August, 2010 to the month of October, 2010, the estimations led by Office of National Statistics (2010), the number of visitors who visited Central London from overseas was up to 7.5 million. This was an estimation that actually attained a fall of ??4.2 billion. The rise of people going out of UK has deteriorated from the total amount of people that are getting into the state as tourists. As this assessment gets wider perspective of 12 months during the total number of visits by overseas residents to various places of UK making Central London as the core place attained a rate of 29.6 million which is again considered as unsatisfactory. The estimation of visits to the UK by people from various countries has been declared as following- Residents from Europe covered a space of 22.0 million Residents from North America got reduced from 3.5 million to 3.3 million, and Residents from other parts of the world offered an increase of 2 per cent and that attained a rise of 4.3 million It can be well attached that visits to UK, especially Central London has definitely got enormous increase, yet this is an increase that is exclusive of European and North Americans. The rise has been much supported by other countries of the world. Stakeholder Analysis

The basic stakeholders who are very important in the process of developing the tourism sector in Central London are identified as National Governing Bodies, Coaching Development and Newham Water Sports Group. These are the associations that are concentrating in adding activities and thematic persuasion to the tourism sector of Central London. The core concerns are predominated by adding entertainment and adequate amount of sports and adventures to all those tourists who wants to be a part of it. The persuasions are also handled to organise diversified tourists?? interests in different ways. The activities and the sight seeing activities are made better and very much supported by technological and other electronic modes, so that visitors get al kinds of conform and luxury during their travel. As declared by Mayor of Central London in London Gov. UK. (2005), there is the need to improve the IT and the sectors of sophistications in Central London so that it can offer the tourists with all the information that hey want and that too within no time. The demands were led over the application of Sub Regional Development Framework (SRDF) for Central London. The chief objective of this framework has been declared by the Mayor of Central London as-

“Central London is one of the world’s great places. Londoners and visitors identify with the unique mix of business, culture, entertainment and heritage found at the heart of London. It is a place that contains areas of considerable wealth alongside concentrations of deprivation. This SRDF strikes a balance between the needs of central London??s residents, workers and visitors as well as reflecting its status as a centre of global business and culture.”

The approaches are very practical and it is noteworthy that the contributions of the stakeholders, especially that of National Governing Bodies, Coaching Development and Newham Water Sports Group are very predominating. The concentrations are led over the persuasion of regulatory functions. Various examples in this context can be identified in terms of disciplinary action for rule infractions and over the matters of deciding rule changes in various sports that they govern. Governing bodies are structured and restructured in different scopes. The coverage is inclusive of international level, as for instance International Olympic Committee or the national level sports like Rugby Football League. The entire formulations are to promote various sports activities so that the area of Central London can acquire more attentions from the tourists. As these sports get conducted they turn up to be the sources for generating and encouraging more and more tourists to Central London. Pestle and SWOT

Application of Pestle and SWOT analysis in this aspect clarifies all those domains that need special attention and cooperation for the overall development of Central London Tourism in the upcoming years. As the concept of tourism in Central London gets analysed under PESTLE, the basic field of analysis are – Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors. From political point of view, there is much support led by the governance in developing Central London tourism. The support from local and central governments are very strong in this matter. Economic growth of Central London can be well marked by the increase in the hotel tariffs in last few years. Radical growth in the eurozone economy has been marked. An estimation of ??15billion each year is definitely is a great hype and this has been much supported by the tourism sector (Rodr??guez-Pose and Kr??ijer, 2009). The social dominance too has been much affected by the increase of tourists in Central London. The aspects are very much related to mixing of diversified cultures on the same trend and the sellers too get involved in offering customer-oriented products. As a result there is a kind of intermingleness among various social set ups of Central London that are getting different from the original trends, yet are much acclaimed internationally. Additions of upgrade technological supports in promoting in getting visitors from all over the world are very well generated through Online marketing provisions. It is through online deals that most of the tourists are welcomed and are offered best of the services. The support led by customer care and other scopes are all dominated by upgrade communicative support led by technologies. Against all these facilities the legal peripheries in the activities of Central London are getting stricter. Administration and legislatures are all involved in offering the state with more safe and peaceful legal support. The purpose is to prevent Central London getting affected by risky outsiders and offering the tourists with the sense of security and safeguards n enjoying their holidays. However, when it comes to the issue of Environment, there is of course a tassel regarding the understanding of pollution and concerns related to the maintenance of good environmental condition n Central London. As declared in the News of European Space Agency (2010) YourAir service has made a prediction about the levels of pollutants that are actually increasing due to the excessive exposure of nitrogen dioxide, added by ozone and airborne particles. It has been further declared that necessary control to this is important as it might lead to diseases like, asthma, heart and lung problems. The role of tourism in creating these pollutants is definitely considered as a major factor. As there is an increase in the tourism sector more and more people gets into the town and as such the environmental balance gets distracted. As per the SWOT that is Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

The most predominated strength of the Central London tourism is its systematic and strategic persuasion of tourism structure. It is a very experience market in tourism and thus has attained enough success internationally on obvious terms The weakness of Central London tourism lies in the massive expansion of all kinds of business in a small demographical area. There is a huge demand for resources and manpower that is yet to meet by Central London tourism sector

Opportunities Threats

When it comes to opportunities, the tourism sector of Central London attains enough support from almost all kinds of segments. As it is a highly sophisticated region, it can afford all kinds of developmental and the best of the provisions for the tourist on worldwide basis. As the entire tourism sector of UK is evolving from Central London its responsibility increases and there is a regular demand of competitiveness and excellence led on it. The other areas too are creating enough competition to the Central London tourism and the threats of competitions are getting higher every year.

Development of Objectives

The developmental objectives of Central London tourism needs to be focussed on short, medium and longer term basis. It is important to note that the functionalities of Central London tourism must follow enough scope of development and economic growth for the country and needs to generate equal emphasis over the resources and the concerns of dealing with natural and human resources. The entire Central London tourism sector need more appropriate synchronisation to make its string enough against the increasing levels of competitions. Every promotional programme can be introduced as per the interests of the tourists and the same can be extended from a smaller zone to larger perspectives. To meet short, medium and longer terms of development, it is necessary for Central London tourism needs to get focus on higher density of building environment added by higher land values, excessive elevation in the daytime population and above all severe concentration over issues like regional and religious sentiments. Increasing levels of competitions authorised nationally and internationally should be well handled with a perception to meet the competitive gap with appropriate dominance. The specific developmental objectives can be noted as-

Increasing scopes for employment Maintenance of environmental insecurities Implementing situation oriented strategies to the tourism sector Meeting demands of the upcoming markets Offering support to the preservation of resources Dealing with issues that can create political, social or legal chaos Financial planning against the increased value in every aspect

Apart from all these, Central London tourism must have right kinds of audit and inspections for offering the entire region with adequate amount of security and systematic developmental proceedings for the maintenance of a good tourism oriented business. Financial support from the stakeholders and the support for exclusive management planning are very important to offer small, medium and longer sustainability to the Central London tourism industry. The demand for apt plan to meet international competition is the core demand in the current hors.

Detailed Strategies and Tactics

The strategic planning for offering Central London tourism industry with long terms sustainability and short and medium term profitability, there is the need for dealing with the current market trends and demands of the customers. There are some rigid categories that need to be well planned in order to attain proficiency levels in the Central London tourism sector.

Application of 4Ps

It is through the adoption of marketing mix that the Central London tourism can attain adequate amount of international tourism structure. This is a kind of structure that has been designed with an amalgamated formulation of 4Ps and 4Cs in the process of managing international tourism and the levels of competitiveness created by it. To attain effective results under 4Ps it is necessary for Central London tourism to use all the products and resources as per the detected demands of the market and the related cultural and social backgrounds. By means of 4Ps emphasis need to be led over the determination of Product, Price, Place and Promotion of the tourism perspectives in Central London (Banting and Ross, 1973). In a way everything that is considered as product for the tourist must be customised as per the specific customer. This also needs to be evaluated as per the affordability and the cost of preparation of the product. The design is very strict in terms of the specific places where it will be made available followed by right kind of promotional tools. In terms of promotions the instruments like banners, media to internet needs to be used exclusively so that every individual attains its brand and create the trust to try it. The formulation of 4Ps under marketing mix further needs to get extended by specific importance over People and Process. In this respect the Central London tourism need to laid emphasis over the tourists who are coming from developing countries (McCarthy, 1975). As declared above there is a radical rise in the tourists from developing countries, thus the extended implication of strategic planning must consider the extended People and Process concerns. In most cases it has been found that the tourism sector of Central London hardly offers importance to people from third world. There is a kind of block that sustain in them and that needs to get overcome. Giving importance to the tourists, irrespective of their origin needs to be inclusive in the developmental structure of Central London tourism.

Application of 4Cs

Implication of Commodity, Cost, Channel and Communication is considered as the root for sustainable success, especially for tourism these tools become mandatory (Koichi 2003 and 2009). Commodity in this case is all about the entire tourism industry of Central London that needs to specify its places like museums and parks as per the preferences or conveniences of the market, here tourists. According to Schullz, Tannenbaum and Lauterborn, (1993) the expenditure and the tour packages are what the Central London tourism sector need to consider as per the rate of currencies of all those countries that are joining in its tourism market. In this case special emphasis needs to be offered over the determination and the specification of monetary standards that prevails in the developing countries. Specialised and customised packages should be made to suit the customers from Asian and the African countries. As these people are participating more in visiting Central London, their conveniences should be considered as per their budget and currency values. The channels that need to be considered are the media that will expose the Central London tourism to the world. In many first world countries internet definitely is the strongest media. However, in the developing countries the demands of the traditional modes of publicity; like television, radio and print media are still very effective. Keeping these conditions under considerations, the Central London tourism needs to explore these domains to reach to the people in the most positive manner. The discriminatory attitudes or the laid back considerations are actually never suggested for a sustainable growth. Restricting the publication and scopes of media by Central London tourism can limit its expansion and thus is very much suggested to consider all kinds of channels to reach the target customers. The ways of communication in the developing and the developed countries are very common. This is the most convenient mode of communication and has been established by the social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. As against the traditional modes of communication the international communicative exchanges are more comfortably adopted through internet and Central London tourism need to apply the same for the tourists from both developed and developing countries. Determination of content will differ though; the basic approach needs to remain the same. Promotions through social networking sites and emails will also gain adequate response in the developing countries, built at the same time for wider publicity; it is important and necessary to add the traditional media too.

Recruitment and Professional Training

The entire Central London tourism needs to get reformed and restructured as per the demands of the customers. There is the need for applying absolute customer-oriented business modules so that the business of tourism can grow in all directions. Central London tourism need to employ more and more professional people and added to these recruitment proceedings there is the need for appropriate kind of marketing training to them so that they can deal with different demographical populations and cultures. The process of recruitment should be very strong and apt training in accordance to the target customer should be arranged. As for instance, communications with the customer for taking visits to Central London tourism can either be outsourced or can be initiated by local marketing agents to get right kinds of responses and persuasions. As more and more people will be approached in their language and as per their communication cultures, the response too will get positive and Central London tourism will expand in its marketing venture in getting more and more tourists.

Conclusions

Eventually, it can be considered that the tourism sector of London is definitely in good shape, yet is equally much threatened by the lack of resources and the increasing competitions on international front. As this plan gets approach there are many things that needs same specialised attentions and these need to get generated to offer support for long term sustainability of the entire sector. Hopes are very much positive with the persuasion of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Yet the systematic planning and making space for all kinds of visitors is a great challenge to Central London tourism. There is no denial to the fact that the Central London tourism has been recognised as the best tourism sector that is traditionally, socially and economically has been much acclaimed. From financial point of view, there is definitely no chance of running out of budget, yet possibilities of getting overspent with extreme misuse of financial assts can definitely take place. The entire Central London tourism is in severe need of expert financial consultants and people who can really mange Central London tourism n reference to diversified kinds of people who are getting into the market.

The limitations that can be noted in the implication of the advised plan can be pointed out as following—- Lack of adequate manpower Increasing risks of environmental pollution Deficiency in making arrangements for huge mass of people Need to compromise demographical expansion Unable to offer adequate international exposure in the developing countries. Against all these limitations, it becomes very mandatory for the Central London tourism to offer specialists in the financial and the management sectors so that regulations and related implications get enough support for each other. There is the severe demand to balance between the amounts earned and to regenerate in long term basis. Negligence in this aspect can result in successive failures and the entire Central London tourism can get trapped by the pressure of international competitiveness.

Relationship between customer satisfaction and hotel attributes, such as; service or facilities, will impact the preference of someone in choosing a hotel. Research in hotel selection criteria has focused on the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality or services and facilities. Whether or not they have experienced or it is their first time staying in a certain hotel, the hotel products characteristics which are intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable can create a perception to the potential customers as well as expectation which may results in future patronage (Parusaraman et al., 1985; Bitner, 1990). The attributes, features or benefits of the hotel consumer products can directly influence potential consumers to choose a certain hotel to stay which acts as determinant attributes. The chance to acquire potential customers increased when there is a attribute that is different with the competitors (Alpert, 1971; Kivela, 1996).

Wuest et al, (1996) mentioned that travellers’ satisfaction can be increased by service qualities and facilities given that match their perceptions of hotel attributes. Moreover, there have been researches on needs and characteristics of travellers. Many researchers have found that travellers consider the cleanliness, location, room rate, service quality, security and reputation of the hotel (Lewis, 1984 & 1985; Atkinson, 1988; Cardotte and Turgeonm, 1988; Wilkinsky and Buttle, 1988; Burton, 1990; Rivers et al., 1991; Ananth et al., 1992; Marshall, 1993; McCleary et al., 1993; Clow et al., 1994; Clow et al., 1994). Atkinson (1998) findings showed that first of all the customer will consider cleanliness of the hotel as the most important thing, security comes into second, followed by the value for money and last but not least is the service quality provided buy the staff such as helpfulness, sincerity and courtesy. This is strengthened by a research that mentioned travellers really take personal service, physical attributes of the hotel, standard of service, image and worth for money into their consideration (Wilensky and Buttle, 1998).

The results of Rivers’ et al (1991) study in examining factors affecting hotel selection for members and non-members in a hotel showed that convenience of location is the most important thing after service. Moreover, Ananth et al (1992) research asked 510 travelers to list down 57 hotel attributes in choosing a hotel. The result was price and quality was the priority in selecting a hotel regardless the age of the guests, security and convenience of location come in their mind after price and quality. Furthermore, there are five hotel factors that attract and signaling hotel’s image to the guests which are: physical environment, identity of hotel, staff, service quality and accessibility (LeBlanc and Nguyen, 1996). They also suggested highlighting the environmental factors in hotel marketing efforts in order to attract potential customers.

Attributes of Customer Satisfaction in Hotels

According to Wilkins et al (2007), customers have perceived value of the attributes to judge the hotel service quality during their stay in a hotel and Ekinci et al (2008) found that physical and service qualities of a hotel play important role on customer satisfaction. The criteria or factors sometimes are related to intangibility of service, tangibility of physical fundamentals and factor of “value for money” for instance, are more complicated to be determined (Mohsin and Lockyer, 2010).

Normally, service or customer service are related to intangible elements of a hotel as well as understanding the division of hotel management, guarantee and the ease of dealing transactions during a hotel stay. These kind of intangible elements in a hotel are as well received by restaurant customers. While the tangible elements are normally associated with the physical facilities or attributes of the hotel, the accessibility and quality of facilities provided in a hotel, for instance; facilities in the room itself (for example: air conditioner, coffee machine and towels or bathrobe) as well as facilities in the entire hotel (for example: swimming pool and fitness facilities).

The employees’ physical appearance (for example: uniform), the cleanliness of the public area of the hotel (for example: lobby and corridor) as well as the cleanliness of the room itself are also included in physical factors of the hotel. If the hotel owns a restaurant in the hotel itself, the cleanliness of the area and the food quality of the restaurant are also part of physical attribute that affect guests’ judgement of the hotel (Han et al., 2009; Wu and Liang, 2009).

Customers use a variety of attributes to judge the quality of service that they receive

during their stay in a hotel (Wilkins et al., 2007). Both physical and service qualities of

a hotel have positive impact on customer satisfaction (Ekinci et al., 2008). Some of these criteria or factors are related to the intangible service elements, some are related to the tangible physical elements, while some other factors for instance “value for money” are more complex to define (Mohsin and Lockyer, 2010). The intangible elements are essentially service related – customer service, understanding and caring on the part of hotel management, assurance, and the relative convenience of dealing with transactions while staying in a hotel. This will also include the service that the customer receives at the restaurant, if any, in the hotel.

The tangible elements are essentially related to the physical facilities – the availability and quality of various facilities in the room (e.g. coffee facilities and bathrobe) and in the entire hotel (e.g. swimming pool and gym). The physical appearance of hotel personnel, the cleanliness of the room as well as the entire hotel will also be included in the physical elements. If the hotel has its own restaurant for use by the guests, the cleanliness of the restaurant and quality of food are also some of the physical elements customers use to judge the quality of a hotel (Han et al., 2009; Wu and Liang, 2009).

Claver et al (2006) and Holverson and Revaz (2006) found that The intangible and tangible factors have been recognized to be able to win good feedback or may result in complaint from the hotel guest, however, the ability of the intangible and tangible factors to affect guests experience are different from one to another. The study of which factors or attributes that will increase the possibility of getting good feedback or factors that might result in complaints are important for the management of the hotel in order to enhance the customer satisfaction and to ensure customer loyalty to their hotel.

Moreover, Cadotte and Turgeon (1988) classified service attributes into four main factors or categories which are: criticals; satisfiers; dissatisfies and neutrals. Critical attributes are the attributes that normally contribute high possibilities for good feedback of the performance and at the same time provide high possibilities for complaints of poor performance. Cadotte and Turgeon (1988) found that rooms quietness in a hotel and the food quality in a restaurant are normally categorized in critical attributes. The critical attributes provide both an opportunity as well as a threat to the management. If the managers are able to identify the critical attributes of their establishment, they could overcome the threat and make it into an opportunity to perform better in the future.

Furthermore, according to them, satisfiers are in a category whereby unusual god performance by the staff results in compliments from the guests while if the staff perform below the par performance, there will be no complain from the guests. For example: hotel lobbies or the portions of food in a restaurant.

Silverman and Grover (1995) have categorized hotel service attributes using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) theory. The categorization is according to necessary, desirable and passive in order to describe the attributes’ ability in influencing the guests’ perceptions of quality that results in customers’ loyalty. They mentioned that in order for the guest to judge the hotel has a high quality service, necessary attributes must be performed or functioned properly. Whereby, desirable attributes put a base of quality perceptions that the quality is good but, desirable attributes might tend to reduce the quality perception of a guest, however, the judgement is not to the point whereby the service quality is poor.

Moreover, by using the same theory which is Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) theory, a framework has been found to identify the level of importance of perceived value of six hotels’ attributes that affect business and leisure guests to choose their hotel selection in Hong Kong. Recently, there was a research using the same IPA framework that identifies the behaviour of luxury hotel customer. The researcher (Mohsing and Lockyer, 2010) found that luxury hotel customers are associated with value for money of the hotel which is considered as ‘high importance’ for the luxury hotel customers. In addition, room furnishings or physical quality of the hotel and rapid response of the hotel’s reservation system play an important role as well.

By combining the ideas from Cadotte and Turgeon (1988) and Silverman and Grover (1995), Hartline et al (2003) classified the performance of hotel service in hotels as necessary, desirable or neutral. The survey found that, in order to guarantee the good perceptions of quality in a hotel, the front desk staff performance is the necessary factor that affects guest experience. The research has also found that the availability of parking lot in the hotel and the housekeeping staff performance are considered as desirable factor, whereas the room service performance and concierge or known as bell man were considered as neutral factor that affect customer satisfaction.

Last but not least, works of Ingram (1996) which were cited in Briggs et al (2007) mentioned that there are 2 types of hotel management: independent vs chain hotel) and assumed that high service quality are mostly provided and emphasized by hotels which are part of a chain hotel than an independent hotel. However, that assumption was not correlated to the findings which were obtained using questionnaire survey data. The findings showed that there is no significant difference in customer service ratings of operational attributes in a hotel (for example: friendliness of staff, standards practiced, personalized service and tangibles factors of hotel).

In conclusion, hotel attributes of customer satisfaction in hotels are related to intangibility of service and tangibility of physical factors (Mohsin and Lockyer, 2010). According to Han et al (2009) and Wu and Liang (2009), the tangible elements are related with physical factors of the hotel, for example, design of hotel, staff appearance, cleanliness, etc while the intangible factors are related to customer service. Both tangible and intangible aspects of hotel are important to win compliments from the guests or may result in complain from the guests (Claver et al., 2006; Holverson and Revaz, 2006). While there are many methods in determining the hotel attributes, it has been found that rooms’ quietness and food quality in restaurant as well as hotel are categorized as critical factors that affect customer satisfaction (Cadotte and Turgeon, 1988) and also front desk staff performance (Hartline et al, 2003).

Hotel’s Attributes Preferred by Leisure and Business Hotel Guests

As most of hotel guest are mainly consists of leisure and business guests, there have been researches on the attributes affecting leisure and business guests. Hotels generally meet the needs of both business and leisure guests.

There were an attempts to understand the preferences of both leisure and business guests. Past study by Clow et al (1994); McCleary et al (1993); Yavas and Babakus (2005) have shown that the most important attributes considered by business guests are cleanliness and location of the hotel while determining in which hotel they should stay. While in the same research, It has been found that security, personal interaction or service and pricing (room rates) are considered as major attributes in leisure guests hotel selection.

There was a research by Yavas and Babakus (2005) that examined whether the preferences of hotel attributes are equivalent between business and leisure guests. Their research discovered that availability of general amenities is the highest priority for both business and leisure guests. However, after general amenities, the next attributes are different between them. Business guests’ next ranked attributes were convenience, core service, room amenities and ambience accordingly, whereby, the order of preferred attributes of leisure guests were core service, convenience, ambience and room amenities which mean that there were no significant in preferred attributes by both type of guests.

Another research has found that guest’ perceived prices and guest’ perceived quality of hotel’s public areas were important in determining the ratings and return intention for both leisure and business guests. However, the findings showed that the impact or the effect of perceived quality and price of both type of guests were different. The quality of hotel’s room was the most factor affecting return intention and ratings for business guests but it was not significant in determining the behaviour or return intention of leisure guests.

Customer Satisfaction in Service Industry

Determining customer satisfaction is essential in order to delivery efficient and effective service. The idea involves reasonable and emotional processes (Churchill and Suprenant, 1996 ; Gundersen, Heigh and Olson, 1996). According to numerous studies, customer satisfaction can be described as evaluative post-consumption judgement by customers before purchasing a product or service. Oliver (1980) defined customer satisfaction as a result of a process that evaluate the pre-purchase service expectation of customers with the perceptions of service performance while experiencing as well as after experiencing the service or consumption.

There has been varieties of researches that were dedicated to investigate the satisfaction determinants. Barsky (1995) categorized the customer satisfaction as followed : expectations, consumer preferences and consumer satisfaction. Moreover, there was a finding that found atmosphere, availability, location, flexibility and communications between customers and service providers are the factors that may affect customer satisfaction (Choi and Chu, 2001). Zeithaml and Blittner (2003) explained that the customer satisfaction determinants are products and service characteristics, emotions of customers, success or failure of service attributes, fairness or equity perceptions, family members and friends or other consumers.

In hospitality industry, there have been several researches regarding attributes that customers seek in a hotel that are important to their satisfaction in a hotel stay. Based on Atkinson (1988); Barsky and Labagh (1992); Choi and Chu (2001) studies, it has been found that the most important attributes a customer seeks are staff service quality and friendliness, the location of the hotel, the cleanliness and comfort of room and security. He also mentioned that those factors are the factors that affect customer satisfaction in a hotel stay.

Even though researches have never clarified the connection between customer satisfaction and service quality, but Churchill and Surprenant (1982) ; Oliver (1997) ; Oh (1999) ; Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) researches acknowledged that one of the key triggers to enhance customer satisfaction is service quality.

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) argued that the gap between customer satisfaction and customer perceptions of a certain service is the most common comparison that customers make to determine whether they are satisfied or not. Therefore, according to Fornell (1992), in order to achieve customer satisfaction in service industry or hotel, service providers should meet the point of expectation or surpass beyond the guests’ expectation and perform an exceptional high quality service continuously as studies of customer satisfaction could affect the business results of a company. Whether the customer satisfaction is affecting the business directly or indirectly, it is understood that, customer satisfaction has an effect to a business’ future profits and customer satisfaction is touted as one of the most important indicators to improve and gain more profits in the future. Those statements from Fornell (1992) are strengthened by a research that found there is a significant correlation between customer satisfaction and business profitability in a hotel (Anderson et al., 1994; Yeung et al., 2002; Luo and Homburg, 2007). Moreover,

Soderlund (1998); Dimitriades (2006); Faullant et al (2008) also mentioned that customer satisfaction may lead to the spread of a good word of mouth, behaviour as well as the customer repurchase intentions of the hotel’s service or facilities.

Last but not least, the reasons why firms’ attempt to obtain and maintain customer satisfaction is the fact that “attracting new customers is much more expensive than keeping the old ones” (MarkoviA‡ et al, 2010)

Factors Contributing Customer Satisfaction Towards Guest Experience in Hotel Stay

According to Clowe et al (1994), McCleary et al (1993) and Yavas and Babakus (2005), there are 6 factors affecting guests’ experience in a hotel stay. The factors are customer service, cleanliness, facilities, price, food, and location which will be described one by one below.

(1) Customer service

Due to the direct communication or interaction between tourists and hotel staff, to maintain the quality service of a hotel is very important in order to create customer satisfaction. The statement is strengthened by numerous studies that argued service attitude provided by the staff has a critical effect in affecting customer satisfaction (Tas, 1983; Larsen and Bastiansen, 1991; Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Heskett and Schlesinger, 1994 Bach and Milman, 1996; Mayo and Collegain, 1997;

McColl-Kennedy and White, 1997; Kriegl, 2000). Moreover, there is a research that found employee service attitude is vital in successfulness of hotel operation (Guller, 1985). It has also been confirmed that there is a relationship that exists between customer satisfaction and service quality and attitude that are provided by the employee (Tornow and Wiley, 1991).

From the investigation of hotel attributes affecting customer satisfaction in hospitality industry, researches have suggested the hotel to consider or to maintain the cleanliness of hotel, rooms, service quality and staff behaviour, location, security as well as the goodwill of the hotel brand name or hotel chain, as those factors are considered important for hotel guests (Cadotte and Turgeon,1988; Atkinson, 1988; Barsky and Labagh, 1992; Ananth et al., 1992; Verespej, 1994; Worcester, 1999; Dube and Renaghan, 2000; Choi and Chu, 2001)

The process of conducting research on the business environment within which the organization operates and on the organization itself, in order to formulate and implementation of strategy for future business operations can be mentioned as Strategic analysis of hospitality organization. To do the assessment can use number of tools to process of strategic analysis, including PEST (sometimes PESTLE) for analyze external environment and, SWOT analysis use for the internal environmental scanning, and Michael Porter’s five forces model use to assists to understand the competitive forces, the attractiveness and current position in the industry.

An effective way to know the past, present and future potentials regarding the industry development is analyzing the industry background as the part of strategic analysis. The External analysis can assess the factors affecting the industry to be existed including political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental which have great impacts to run the business and use PESTLE analysis.

In any industry which it is domestic or international, whether relating to products or services, the rules of competition are personified in five competitive forces of entry of new competitors, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry among the existing competitors. According to Porter, one of the crucial determinants of firm profitability is industrial attractiveness.

In this assignment, a strategic analysis of the Galadhari hotel which is in hospitality industry has been done through the combination of both theoretical and practical facts regarding this property including organizational background and industry background of this hospitality sector in Sri Lanka, an assessment of the forces affecting the external environment (the use of PESTLE analysis) and an assessment of the attractiveness of this industry (the use of Porter’s 5 forces) regarding the future strategic action to grab more hospitality market share.

Background of the industry and about Organization

By concerning about the Sri Lankan market of tourism there can be seen growth in the tourist market. All this euphoria gives rise to the doubt about whether Sri Lanka Tourism is well on the way to recovery and growth or not. For the last seven months that ended July this year (2010), arrivals are up almost 50% year-on-year (YOY) (341,991), with income also keeping pace at 69% growth (Quarter 2; US$ 244.5 million). The hotel and travel Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) index has been increased by almost 200% for 2009. Today tourism is running on everyone’s minds, and it is difficult to open a local newspaper without seeing at least one written article on tourism.

The reason for the dramatic improvement in Sri Lanka’s tourism data is the victory of war in May 2009. This would be a remarkable result when compared with other regional tourism destinations. Another reason for this improvement was the leader of the terrorist has killed and there is reason for cautious optimism that the social situation in Sri Lanka can improve rapidly. We can hope the company can take advantage of the ‘peace dividend’ by increasing the number of destinations the airline serves.

Hotel Galadhari is one of the leading five star luxury hotels in the Sri Lanka. The story of the Galadari Hotel, Colombo which opened its doors in 1984, is a splendid tale of continual improvement of product and highest standard of quality in hospitality over the past 25 years.

The vision & beliefs of the hotel is firmly grounded in extending a true personalized service to all our guests, laced with an unforgettable luxury hotel experience with the finest traditions of international hotel-keeping.

The Galadari Hotel, Colombo, meticulous about maintaining the privacy of its guests has drawn in many an elite personality from around the world such as heads of government, prime ministers of leading nations, royalty, well known sports & music personalities over the past two and half decades.

Situated in Colombo city with many a historical building within walking distance and a panoramic view of the magnificent Indian ocean, the Galadari Hotel offers a rich blend of service and quality in five star luxury living with 450 room super luxury hotel in Sri Lanka that overlooks the Indian Ocean and is adjacent to the Presidential Secretariat, Banks and the World Trade Center, with easy access to the shopping areas in Colombo. In hotel they are so many facilities are available, coffee shop lobby bar, chine’s restaurant, Scheherazade Arabic restaurant, pastry shop and garden terrace, karaoke, pub and also have health club and pool, body care and massage therapy ,bed-and-breakfast hospitality properties are available to accommodate the guests and the basic requirements of their comfortable stay.

Hospitality sector is a great source of income generation for the new investors.For instance, annual turnover (in2008) was Rs. 164 (million), operating profit (in2008) was Rs.13.65(million), growth in turnover (in 2009) was 25 percent, number of rooms is 450 rooms, average occupancy rate was 80 percent and growth in local hospitality sector is 15 percent. Now, it is easy to understand that how much revenue earning Galadhari hotel in its sector of hospitality.

Mission of Hotel Galadari

We are exceptional operators of contemporary 4 and 5 star hotels and create value in every encounter with our owners, guests and associates.

Vision

Exceptional and personalized service, exceeding expectations, and inspiring a connection to our brand in the experiences we provide.

Values

Exceptional Service – Company understand that the value can be created with every encounter and this is reflected in its superior standard of service.

Integrity – honest and straightforward in our interactions with hotel owners, guests, colleagues and the communities in which hotel operate

Respect – Hotel Galadari respect the objectives of our stakeholders, the values of its guests, and the cultural difference in the locations that it operate.

Teamwork and Passion – We bring our individual expertise, creativity and passion for industry as a Hotel Galadari team member.

Continuous Improvement – Hotel is innovative and utilizes best practices to continually improve its management techniques, and the quality of products and services.

Strengths and Weakness

Strengths

Visitors from Western Europe also prefer to stay in hotels in the southern coastal belt where the main attraction is the beaches. So Location of the Hotel Galadhari is strength to the organization to enhance their businesses.

There has also been a downturn in the arrival of Indians, who prefer Colombo hotels.

Colombo city hotels have been able to maintain higher occupancy levels than hotels on the southern coastal belt because of more business travelers, and special visitors such as those coming for conferences. Hence Galadhari also have more business opportunities in the Colombo city.

Since then the leisure sector has under-performed hugely, and Galadhari hotel has more facilities to spend the day more leisurely.

Well expertise work group has Galadhari to give satisfied service to their customers

Weaknesses

The location of the hotel is in the high security zone in Colombo which is Located in Galle Face Green promenade and with views over the Indian Ocean, this property offers a high level of service and security. Hence it could get difficulties to the tourists. Situated right next to the World Trade Center and the President’s Residence, the hotel enjoys the most secure part of the city.

The distance to hotel between airport is very far and gets more time to re ach hotel. It could cause to the business conferences which are held in the hotel. The main purpose of the established of Galadari Hotel is to attract the overseas seminars & conferences to the Sri Lanka. Because of the distance to Airport and hotel is too far and get more time to reach to the destination. And also the traffic on the roads is mainly impact to the time it takes to come to the hotel. Because of these reasons the main purpose has not been achieved.

Galadhari has only few room facilities and they have enough land to build new hotel rooms in their own land.

Hotels Galadhari has high gearing, high costs to maintain staff, and for refurbishment.

Factors affecting the external environment in hospitality

In strategic planning, external analysis of hospitality industry has been done with the use of PESTLE analysis and Porter’s 5 (five) forces in defining the strategy, making decisions on allocating resources to pursue the strategy.

Source: http://www.sltda.lk/sites/default/files/Statistics_book.pdf (Access: 15th September 2010)

Source: http://www.sltda.lk/sites/default/files/Statistics_book.pdf (Access: 15th September 2010)

PESTLE Analysis
Political Factors

In Sri Lanka it is socialist republic, state. The government is a mixture of the parliamentary and presidential system. Head of the state is president and current President is Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha and he is the chief of armed forces and head of government.

When the companies formulate and implement the strategies the political arena has a huge impact upon the regulation of businesses, and the spending power of consumers and other businesses. We have to concern about how stable is the political environment, influence of polices, laws that regulate or tax your business, What is the government’s position on marketing ethics, government’s policy on the economy, government view on culture and religion, government involvement in trading agreements.

State has main responsibility to facilitate to the tourists and funding to the tourism products development projects and do promotions to attract the tourists to the country. On the other hand government has to encourage local and foreign investors to invest their money to develop tourism products and liberate taxes.

To growth of the tourism infrastructure facilities are directly affect. So government has the main responsibility to develop and maintain infrastructure. Educated workforce in international standard is also important to give good and satisfactory service to the customers. Because of that government has make rules and regulations to standardize.

A change in government party is directly impact to the any industry in the country because their policies it will effect to run the business. When the government strict their security policies it highly impact to the Galadhari hotel. Because tourist who are coming to the hotel. It leads to waste time and may be getting bad image among the tourists.

. The Tourism Act No 38 of 2005 came into effect in October 2007. With the flow of the new Tourism act, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Act No 10 of 1966, which was in effect for the past 41 years, was replaced.

In terms of the requirements contained in the new act, the Tourism Development Fund was officially constituted, with 2 main sources remitting finances to the fund. By way of 1/3 of the Airport Tax collections and 1% of the Turnover of all Sri Lanka Tourist Board registered establishments. The Act provided for the setting up of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, thereby replacing the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.

Economic factors

In Sri Lanka it has open economy and the Gross Domestic Pproduct grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% in the country. In Sri Lanka service sector is strong in the economy and it indicate 58%, fro agriculture its’ 12.8% and from industry 29.2%.

Almost everyone talks about Sri Lanka tourism being the engine of growth and expects it to play a pivotal role in the economy and it has improved in 6% in this year.

Tourism give benefits to the economy as well as it are the cost to the economy. Tourism process also involves economic costs, including the direct costs incurred by tourism businesses, government costs for infrastructure to better serve tourists, congestion and related costs borne by individuals in the community.

Economic impacts are also become crucial factors in marketing and management decisions which are directly effecting. Communities therefore need to understand the relative importance of tourism to their region, state or community.

Tourism provides great opportunities for regional development particularly for regional areas undergoing structural change. Being a labor intensive industry, with the right motivation tourism can deliver great employment and training opportunities particularly for young people who like to be professionals in this field.

Social Factor

Sri Lanka being a multi-religious, multi-ethnic country with a population of 22 million plus’s Lankan culture is a rich blend of the interaction of diverse cultural patterns both indigenous and derived from, trade, religions which are Buddhism – 69%, Islam – 15%, hinduism – 8%, Christianity – 8%. The cultural patterns of Sri Lanka today show the lasting impact of a diverse range of cultures..

The overall culture is largely the result of the impact of the introduction of Buddhism, more than 2,300 years ago and Hinduism the second most prevalent religion in Sri Lanka. This does not erase the heavy influence of Hinduism, together with the lesser impact of Islam, and Christianity.

By concerning about the education background the literacy rate of 92%, and 83% of the total population having had secondary education in the country. Sri Lanka has one of the most literate populations amongst developing countries.

Tourists appreciate the hospitality of Sri Lankan People. When the hotel Galadhari provide the services like cabare dancing, supplying prostitutes are not suitable to the Sri Lankan culture.

The bad effects of the tourism can said that tourism has affected the values of our people, particularly our youth. It is true that some tourists engage in anti – social acts. Some of the tourists are drug addicts or perverts and corrupt our youth and they spread incurable diseases such as aids. But we should keep in mind that all the tourists are not black sheep.

Technological Factors

Technological factors are also important fact which effect to the hotel industry in many ways which are comprises the utilization of the latest inventions and technologies facilitate the business activities which are digital telephone facilities, broadband Internet connection, Wi-Fi technology, multimedia projector, LCD screens, online reservation systems, property management software and online information exchange program (Point of Sale) etc.

Now a day’s technology is rapidly changing in the world day by day. As the five star hotel Galadhari should doubt to the new technology in the market. It will help the organization to have competitive advantages. Technology can used to reservation, online services like online booking, do the promotions.

The rapid development of technology is affecting the businesses in Sri Lanka and all over the world. Changes in the technology have changed the way businesses operate i.e. Internet booking for tickets and holidays.

Faster changing development in technology creates a need to react quickly for different businesses in order they want to maintain the competitive environment by providing the same innovative services, which their competitors are offering. Distribution of products by the use of technologies.

Legal Factor

When concerning about the legal factors include tourism act, discrimination law, consumer law, employment law and health and safety. These factors can affect how a hotel operates, its costs, and the demand for its products in tourist industry.

The Tourism Act No 38 of 2005 came into consequence in October 2007. With the flow of the new Tourism act, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Act No 10 of 1966, which was in achieve for the past more than forty years, was replaced. In conditions of the supplies controlled in the new act, the Tourism Development Fund was legally constituted, with two main sources remitting funds to the fund. By way of 1/3 of the Airport Tax collections and 1% of the earnings of all Sri Lanka Tourist Board registered establishments.

Attracting and promotion is handled by the Tourism Promotion Bureau. Tourism HRD functions and the Hotels School operations are undertaken by the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management. The Sri Lanka Convention Bureau was also restructured as a statutory body like other Institutions to be managed by an independent Board of Management

Environmental Factor

Hotel Galadhari is situated in the Colombo and in Colombo it hasn’t proper drainage disposal system and the hotel dispose its drainage to the sea. Because of that so many environmental issues occurred around that. When we promote tourism there are thousands and thousands of tourists unleashed annually in the country, without proper planning, there is bound to be serious environmental and sustainability issues. Such large-scale and fast track growth has to be carefully planned and managed within specific tourism zones to prevent environmental and cultural degradation.

Individual hotel developments will not suffice. Such well-planned, large-scale tourist resorts can be designed to encompass sound sustainable environmental practices (e.g., common self-contained sewage disposal facilities with recycling of water, solar lighting for resort public areas, no-build green belts within resorts, etc).

Such organized and well-managed, large-scale developments contained in several designated zones will help mitigate most of the possible negative fallout of the socio-cultural and environmental aspects. Building and subsequent maintenance should be under strict environmentally-sustainable guidelines.

Hotel industry directly affect to the environmental pollution in the country. As the five stars category hotel, Galadhari has the responsibility to protect our environment and also developments in the country and have to think about the pollution

Assessing the Attractiveness of the Hotel in the Industry

Treat of new entity

According to tourism act the new entrant has to abide by this regulation to establish a hotel as well as charges for the services. In the business arena, the number of competitors increases when any business organization makes good profit and has a good potentiality for future.

According to current situation, entry barriers are high and exit barriers are low, few new firms can enter into the industry and poorly performing firms can easily exit. After the war Sri Lankan government has opened the market to new investors to invest their money to build new hotels as the hotel industry is now booming in the country.

In that situation so many hotels are building in the north area and customers willing to go in those areas. New entities are use new technology and specialist knowledge to develop their business and it may be affect growth of the business of Galadhari hotel.

There are factors related with the threats of new entrants in the hotel industry in Sri Lanka which are as follows-

Easy credit facilities for new entrepreneurs in hospitality industry and Legal supports from the government for local entrepreneurs

Infrastructure development

Policies for foreign investors to establish world-class organization including tax exemptions, ownership, duty, tax law and remittance,

‘National Tourism Policy and Vision’ to boost up the tourism and hospitality industry,

Fewer numbers of competitors in the current marketplace. (Only 5 five-star hotels in Sri Lanka).

Higher profit margin

Threat of substitute products

As the hotel industry specifically targets on accommodation, entertainment and fooding facilities, the substitutes of these facilities may include other food industries (fast food and restaurants), entertainment (bar, discos, clubs etc.) and for accommodation facilities sharing with private establishment (visiting friends and relatives) and others related with accommodation facilities.

Every customer looks for high perceive value in their owned products. Substitute products are goods and services from outside a given industry that perform similar or the same function as a product that the industry produces. In this context, many organizations focus on their competitors rather than substitute products and the market share declines concurrently, therefore the market strategies should be flexible to cope with such threats.

In the hospitality industry, the substitutes may include various types of guest houses, inns, motels, private-owned guest houses, condominiums, small boutique hotels, bread-and-breakfast hotels and apartment hotels which might be the threats for a specific star-category hotel like Galadhari.

In this current marketplace, there are many substitutes of the star-category hotels in Colombo for accommodation – Jaj -Samudra, Gall face Hotel, Hilton, Mount Lavinia,.; for food – KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, BFC, Pizza Corner, Dominos Pizza etc.; for entertainment – night Clubs, many more which might distract the customers rather than the hospitality industry to have the products and services of a hotel.

Competitive Rivalry among existing players

In the conventional financial mock-up, contest between rival companies drives profits to zero and is not ideal and companies are not simple inactive price takers. Rather, companies struggle for a competitive benefit over their rivals. The strength of rivalry among firms varies across industries, and tactical analysts are paying attention in these differences.

In this current competitive period, the tough contest among business organizations increases when number of competitors are in the same marketplace based on their products categories, target markets, types of services, financial affordability, volume of the organization, profitability and potentiality of the market trends for long term business. In this case, price discount, special offers, lower profit margin and turn down in the market share are generally occurring between competitors.

In Colombo, the rivalry among competitors is really high as this hospitality is a booming sector in Sri Lanka and only few competitors in the five-star category hotels in Sri Lanka to serve the customers.

Moreover, the customers are trying to defend each other through products variation, service quality improvement, defining new target markets, exploring new products innovation and development and providing exclusive facilities to the guests.

The competitive rivalry is happening in hospitality industry in the Sri Lanka and it is also affect to the hotel like Galadhari. When the company implements their strategies they should have Varity in their products and services.

Bargaining power of suppliers

The suppliers can play one of the main roles in developing or declining the reflection of an organization .When the suppliers are more, the bargaining power of them generally goes down whereas fewer suppliers can demand more benefits from the organization.

Suppliers are those firms or individuals that provide contribution into the creation of an industry’s production on time. It could be in forms of resources and raw materials, services, employment, direct products and others obligatory stuff by the organization.

Now a day most of the services have out source in the companies. In the hotel industry, the suppliers are involved in various departments including rooms, food and beverages, IT, guest and travel bookings, security assurance, property management, transport, ensuring business facilities etc. The suppliers in case of hotel of Galadhari is including travel agents and tour operators for guest reservations as well as corporate clients, educational institutions for manpower supply, IT firms for property management software and IT solutions, local importers for international food and beverages supply, security agents for safety and security, local rent-a-car for special arrangement etc.

Bargaining power of customers

One of the main parties is customer in every organization. Customers mean consumers or intermediaries those who buy the production of an organization to have or resell it to someone else in the market. If there are various products and huge competition, customer bargaining power rises up and vice versa.

The bargaining power of customers depends on some factors like requirements of the customers, time and convenience to the desired destinations and thus, they can easily toggle into another product.

By considering the hotel industry in Sri Lanka, the bargaining power of customers are very high and they have enough options to toggle into another hotels by comparing in terms of costs, quality of service, product categories and special offers provided particularly for group bookings and long-term stay. Sometimes Galadhari hotel has rack rate of the hotel facilities.

In the pick seasons like December, the bargaining power of the customers becomes lower and lower. When in the tourism season the hotel has unbearable customers and their bargaining power also very high in this season.

7.0 Conclusion

The process of conducting research on the business environment within which the organization operates and on the organization itself, in order to formulate and implementation of strategy for future business operations can be mentioned as Strategic analysis of hospitality organization. To do the assessment can use number of tools to process of strategic analysis, including PEST (sometimes PESTLE) for analyze external environment and, SWOT analysis use for the internal environmental scanning, and Michael Porter’s five forces model use to assists to understand the competitive forces, the attractiveness and current position in the industry.

Jaipur, ‘The Pink City’ is a major tourist centre of the country. The city is packed with many attractions like beautiful and glorious forts, world famous theatres, gorgeous temples and many more. As a tourist you will be awestruck with the beauty of the monuments in the city. Flamboyant and vivacious bazaars bustle with attractive stuff.

Jaipur is legendary for its gemstone and gold jewelry work, fabrics, and ‘jutis or mozaries’ (traditional footwear) that possess quality are surely a cache for the shoppers. An opportunity to take along ‘the glory of the city’ as a souvenir of the visit is so amazing. You will wish to revisit the city to explore its beauty and intrigue to the fullest. Feel the grandeur of the Maharajas who lived in such magnificent forts and palaces

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II invoked the artisans from all over the world and facilitated them with all the things they required, to help in creating the exotic city of beautiful architecture as Jaipur. Today, Jaipur is a hub for rich wedding destinations. Royal weddings are organized here. Exquisite destinations are specially designed for marriages, and offer an experience of one of its kind. Jaipur’s forts, monuments, and museums can be read about further.

The temple of Sun God at Galta, Amber fort,Vidyadhar’s Garden, City palace, Sisodia Rani Palace, and Sanganer are some of the exquisite attractions that city comprises.

AMBER FORT

Distance from the city center: 10km

Built in: 1592

Charges:

Admission: Citizen INR 10/ Foreigner: INR 50

Photography charges: Citizen/foreigner: Rs 40/25

Video charges: Citizen/foreigner: Rs 100/150 but it includes all the three charges (entrance, still camera and video camera fee).

Timings: 1000 to 1600 hours

Specialty: Sheesh Mahal, Diwan-e-am

CITY PALACE

Distance from the city center: Situated at city center

Built in: 19th century

Charges: Indians Rs. 35.00 and for foreigners Rs.150.00 inclusive of entry to Jaigarh fort

Timings: 930 to 1645 hrs.

Specialty: Temple, Chandra Mahal, Govind Devji, Diwan-e-am

NAHARGARH FORT

Distance from city center: 15 km

Built in: 1734

Charges: Rs. 15 for Indians, Rs. 20 for Foreigners, 30/70 for Camera/Video

Entrance Fees for Indian Citizen Rs. 10.00, Foreign Citizen Rs. 80.00, Indian Students Rs. 2.00,

Vehicle Entrance Fees (Bus charges Rs. 100.00 Gypsy/Car/Jeep/Mini Bus Rs. 65.00 and Motorized two wheeler Rs.10.00

Timings: 1000 to 1700 hrs

Specialty: Madhavendra Bhawan, city view from top of the fort.

JAI GARH FORT

Distance from the city center: 15 km

Built in: 1726

Charges: Rs. 15.00 for Indians & Rs. 20.00 for foreigners

Timings: 1000 to 1845 hrs

Specialty: Collection of Ammunition, Worlds largest Canon

FORTS

The Maharajas and their royal families, the palaces where they lived are so exquisite that today, the city has become popular because of them. Initially, the foundation of the city was placed by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder and the ruler.

Amber fort was designed keeping in view his desires. He established his kingdom powerfully which effected the augmentation of the city. However, Jaipur was born as a place for the growing population and was made the capital. The ruler planned the architecture of the city majorly considering the security of the city. The lavish palace for the residence of the king was built ‘The City Palace’ and the rest is history. The famous forts of the city have been enlightened further.

AMBER FORT

The fort was built for the residence of the Maharaja & the royal family which today, stands as a monument to us. Amber was the capital of the Kachhwaha clan. And it is sited 10 km from Jaipur city. It was the residence of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. The fort was established keeping in view the desires of the ruler.

Diwan-e-Aam, Diwan-e-Khaas, Ganesh Pol, Jaleb Chowk, Singh Pol, Jai Mandir, Yash Mandir, Sukh Mandir, Sheesh Mahal (hall of mirrors), Suhag Mandir, Shila Devi temple, Bhool Bhulaiya, and Zanana Dyodhi (women’s apartments) are major attractions of the palace. This astonishing fort was accomplished in two centuries by consistence efforts of three consequent kings following Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. Amongst all Sheesh Mahal is legendary, mirror work done is so inimitable, and it is so artistically set that even a tiny ray use to fill the hall with light. Maotha Lake adds a charm to the Royal Palace.

CITY PALACE

The City Palace is the present-day residence of the current Maharaja of Jaipur, His Highness, Sawai Bhawani Singh Bahadur. It is also evident of the life spent by Late Raj Mata Gayatri Devi (Queen of Jaipur).

The palace was created using a combination of the Mughal and Rajasthani architecture. Mubarak Mahal, Shri Govind Devji Temple, Badal Mahal, Chandra Mahal, and the City Palace Museum are so appealing. This exquisite palace was built in the sovereignty of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II (1699-1744).

Beautifully carved two elephants welcome at the entrance, ‘The Mubarak Mahal’ appears first from the entrance. It is built by Maharaja Madho Singh II in 19th century. Further it is escorted by the Diwan-E-Khaas. It is an open hall also known as ‘Hall of private audience’, with two huge silver vessels on display. These vessels namely ‘Gangajali’ (carrier of water from holy Ganges) have been documented in Guinness book of World Records for their size.

Ensure that you must visit Diwan-E-Aam. Actually the hall was meant for the public. Chandra Mahal sports exquisite paintings, mirror work, and lovely floral decorations.

The temple of Govind DevJi is renowned for its structure, and is also recorded in Guinness Book of World Records for the Best Concrete Structure award. An area of 15,827 sq. feet was roofed up at a height of 119 feet which rests on four peripheral beams; the temple can put up 5000 people at a time. A display of amazing architecture!

NAHARGARH FORT

An astonishing palace, constructed during the reign of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. The Nahargarh Fort was built using a combination of the Indian and European style of architecture for residence and security. Nahargarh is situated at a height of approx 700 feet, and is about 15 km away from city. The fort was established in 1734, and also known as Tiger Fort. It is one of the first three forts of Jaipur. The name Nahargarh even carries a history with itself. Precisely, it was named after a dead Rathore prince named Nahar Singh. The fort is situated at the top of Aravali range of hills. The fort was made to uphold the city, along with Amber and Jaigarh Fort. With a breathtaking view from the fort, the Man Sagar Lake looks amazing and the sight of the city is stupendous from the top of the fort. It comes alive in the night with beautiful lights surrounding it.

JAI GARH FORT

The only fort in the world that encompasses world’s largest cannon on wheels “Jai Ban”. Jaigarh is crowned as ‘Fort of Victory’, constructed by Sawai Jai Singh II and Mirza Raja Jai Singh in 1726. It stands at a height of about 500 feet on the top of the hill named as Cheel ka Teela or Hill of Eagles. The fort is on walking distance from Amber.

The major attraction of the fort is “Jai Ban” the renowned cannon, it was assembled during the sovereignty of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II (1699-1743). With a diameter of 11 inches, its 20 feet and 2 inches long barrel weighs 50 tons. The circumference near the tip of the barrel is 7 feet 4 inches and that of the back is 9 feet 4 inches. The floral design on the barrel, an elephant on the tip of the barrel and a pair of peacocks is carved in the centre, a pair of ducks decorates the barrel’s posterior.

Built in 1691 A.D “Bajrang Ban” is other prestigious cannon. It is beautifully bedecked with dolphins and is stored in foundry of Jai garh. It was that bulky that it engaged thirty two oxen’s to drive it to the battlefield.

Famous Shri Ram Hari Har Temple in the fort has two big idols of Lord Shri Ram and Hari-Har. The idol of Lord Shri Ram has four faces depicting various incarnations of Lord Vishnu which are Lion, Boar, Tortoise and Fish. The temple was concluded in 1940 A.D under the dynasty of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. The gardens, the palaces, the old water harvesting system, the reservoirs, armory, gun foundry, museum and temples all are appealing. Forts also contain the royal Laxmi Vilas, the Dining Hall for Gents, the Dining Hall of Royal Ladies, and Lalit Mandir (summer palace).

MONUMENTS

Jaipur is famous for its monuments, gorgeous forts, and great observatories.

Hawa Mahal, the world famous palace is recognized as “Palace of Winds”. This beautiful monument captures so many beautiful views from the horizon to the hustle-bustle of the bazaar at the foot of the mahal. Almost whole of the city can be viewed without being noticed from the top of the palace.

Gaitore is the royal crematorium for the rulers of Jaipur. The chattris (cenotaphs) were built in respect of every departed ruler’s soul and are beautifully carved. Most of all, the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II’s cenotaph is magnificent. Gaitore also contains cenotaphs built in the remembrance of the Maharanis too.

JAL MAHAL

One of the most magnificent palaces, Jal Mahal is also recognized as the Water Palace. Built in 1799, Jal Mahal Palace was built in Man Sagar Lake enclosed by the Nahargarh Hills. The palace was once used for the imperial duck shooting parties. The first four floors of Jal Mahal are under water and only the top floor is higher than the water level.

Jal Mahal is on the way to Amber, at a distance of about 6.5 km from the city. It looks so majestic and romantic in night, where the beauty of the palace is enhanced with colorful lights installed. The mirror image of the palace in the lake, gives it a panoramic view. The lake environment is even a preferred home of a number of migratory and resident birds too.

JANTAR MANTAR

Jantar Mantar is one of the finest monuments and striking creations by astronomers and architectures. It is a compilation of architectural astronomical devices which provided accurate astronomical results. It has even struck the modern approach of science. Jantar Mantar is the most well-known observatories amongst all the buildings formed during the sovereignty of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II.

The observatory showcases two Ram Yantras containing the largest stone of the world and is unique in their isolation. The passion of the king resulted in the creation of such great observatory. These instruments were used to read and map the celestial movements of constellations and stars.

This amazing observatory was constructed in 18th century using red stone and marble. Its complex instruments, the settings, and the shapes are accurately designed. All the features make this monument so unique, and it is the sole in the world. The timings to visit are 0900 to 1630 hrs with an entry fee of Rs. 10.00

HAWA MAHAL

A beautiful and royal creation on display, this elite regal building is renowned for its royalty and architecture. Its 152 windows are arranged in a manner that the palace is also known as ‘Palace of Winds’. The concept behind the creation was to let the royal ladies watch the processions passing through the streets below, unnoticed by outsiders.

Built during the empire of Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, this building consist five stories. It is a semi-octagonal windowed building. Each storey of the building is carved with graceful stone and beautiful Jaalee’s and Jharokha’s (windows) which enhances it to an extra ordinary watch to the grand past.

“Jaipur Past and Present” is another museum which is a lesser form of an archaeological museum is an added star into the tourist spot list.The timings to visit the museum are 10.00 to 16.30 hrs, and the entry fee is Rs. 5.00, camera Rs 50.

As you will proceed from Hawa Mahal and reach the back-side of the monument, you can visit the Govind Devji Temple and then the City Palace situated close to each other. Each construction is legendary, all the monuments are arranged in such a manner that they can facilitate easy reach to the ruler.

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II lived in City Palace. So, Jantar Mantar was made at a distance that the king could see the actual time as he gets up in the morning. Later, the king wishes to visit the temple, so his desire turned in the form of Govind Devji Temple. It offered the king a convenient view of the temple idols from the palace itself.

Gaitore

This mesmerizing monument was fabricated for the purpose of cremation of the Royal bodies. Each Chhatri is created in the memory of the Kings and Princes. About 15 Km away from Jaipur, this monument is situated on Jaipur Amber Highway. Gaitore is considered to be the Hindi phrase `Gaye ka Thor` affirming `resting place of the departed souls`.

The cenotaphs are beautifully carved in typical forms. Good quality of marble and red stone is carved in such a manner that every chhatri or cenotaphs is exclusive and diverse from others. The main attraction amongst all of them is the one that was made for Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II.

MUSEUMS

Museums are a great place of collecting of art and craft specimens of the historical times. Jaipur has so many museums that hold up a huge collection of things that probably remained unseen. The Central Museum is the one that is under the Government. It houses about 19000 objects all together related to the rare old times. This place is a specialty of the city with architecture of the building, offering a great view. Museum’s carving is done following the Indo-Sarcenic technique of architecture. Another museum is the Dolls Museum of the city. It consists of a enormous compilation of dolls from all over the world.

Central Museum

Central museum is also known as ‘Albert museum’ or ‘Government Central Museum’. This is the oldest museum of the city and was constructed in 1876 beneath the command of Lt. Swinton Jacob. Initially the building was a town hall. But on the order of Maharaja Madho Singh it was transformed into an art museum.

The museum is positioned in the Ramnivas Gardens. The assortment, as well as the building is a sight to behold, with the pillars, the courtyards, and the arches worth seeing. This premium museum was created in 19th century. The museum comprises historic objects related to metal art, arms, furniture, weapons, tiger knives, hilts, swords, armor, and shields. Included are daggers, international art, the Egyptian collection, an Egyptian mummy, Japanese pottery, stone sculptures, pistols, pottery collection and revolvers. Moreover, chillums, musicali, miniature paintings, sculptures, ivory carvings, wood work, jewelry, carpets, lacquer work, and many more beautiful artifacts.

Time to Visit: Open on all days except on the festival of Holi

Preferred Timings: 0930 – 1630 hrs

Admission Fee: Citizen INR 5/ Foreigner: INR 30

City Palace Museum

Built in the 19th century, during the reign of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the City Palace has several sections to visit. A great collection has been arranged in the museum with mainly three departments. It consists of the textile, arms, and art museum.

The textile museum has a vast collection of the costumes and ornaments that were worn by the royal family members. The dresses were made of silk mostly. The arms museum consists of all the arms & ammunitions used in the medieval era. From the smallest to the largest, all of them are on display.

One can easily go back to the past by the view they offer with a vast variety of swords, daggers, knives, guns, and many more. The art collection is such that one can feel delighted with beautiful paintings, blue pottery, carpets, and other attractions. Worth watching are temples, the palace itself, the Mubarak Mahal, the gardens,Chandra Mahal, Badal Mahal, etc. This palace is one of the major attractions of Jaipur.

Preferred Timings: 0930 to 1645 hrs

Admission Fee: Indians Rs. 35.00 and for foreigners Rs.150.00 inclusive of entry to the Jaigarh fort.

Dolls Museum

The museum comprises of dolls from various parts of the country as well as international dolls. The museum is placed at a distance of 4 km from the city centre, and was build in 1974, and. Dolls of diverse attires look glorious. Dolls in bridal dresses of different states look colorful & beautiful. The Indian collection comprises of dolls in attires of classical dance forms such as Kathakali, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, and too.

The collections of international dolls showcase national dresses of countries like USA, Mexico, and Sweden. The display also contains dolls that are dressed in bridal costumes of different countries. The compilation consists of some other art forms too, like paintings, woodwork, pottery, sculpture, metal objects, etc.

Preferred Timings: 1000 to 1600 hrs

Entry Fee: 2 Rs.

ZOO

This beautiful city has several palaces, monuments, forts, hotels, museums, gardens and lots more. One of the jewels of the city is the Zoo, or Zoological Garden, located in Ram Niwas Bagh (garden). The garden was built in 1868 by Sawai Raja Pratap Singh, for the purpose of drought relief. As per the records, it cost a huge amount four lakhs to create this historical garden, at that time.

The zoological garden consists of such major attractions for the city containing the zoo, the Albert Hall, the Museum, the zoological park, sports complex, etc.

The zoo was built in 1886, during the reign of Sawai Ram Singh II. It is at a walking distance from Albert Hall. The zoo is divided into two parts. One consists of the animal zoo and the other remains as bird’s zoo. A great place for kids and people who love animals and wild life, it contains a collection of 71 varieties of fauna which are on display for visitors.

The bird collection include parrots, ducks, peacocks, white peacocks, geese, pheasants, storks, swans, love birds and lots many more. The zoo holds a big collection of rare animals and varied plant. It is also renowned for its crocodile breeding.

Preferred Timings: 0830 to 1730 hrs (closed on Tuesdays)

Entry fee- Indians Rs. 10/-, foreigners Rs. 100/- children blow 5 years free

ROYAL WEDDINGS

This beautiful city celebrates every occasion with enthusiasm, with magnificent colors and lights. Jaipur has been evident for some of the exquisite weddings of the world. The city is fully loaded for celebrations, beautiful locations, great arrangements, and many other things. This city has been a paradise on earth to celebrate the amalgamation of two souls bound for a lifetime. Some of the resorts and hotels prepare themselves for every requirement with the luxuries provided to the guests as regal as royal. The traditions of the city flow in the blood of Jaipur people. The cuisine in fact is fantastic. Few of the amazing places as royal wedding venues are:

Jai Mahal Palace

Ram Bagh Palace by Taj Group

Oberoi Raj Vilas

Samode Haveli

Khasa Kothi

Narain Niwas Palace

Samode Palace

Cambay Spa & resort

Hotel Le Meridien

Hotel Rajputana Sheraton

LAKES

Jaipur does not comprise so many natural lakes as it belongs to a desert state. But there have been lots of attractions for people who love to enjoy their days in proximity with nature. One of the major attractions of the royalty of kings is that they have been building all the things they are fascinated with. The biggest example of this is the Ramgarh Lake situated at a distance of about 25 km from Jaipur. This is the famous manmade lake which is a great attraction for the visitors. This is the place where the king stayed before reaching Amber. There are forts and temples that are enhancing the beauty of the place, and the royal architecture attracts the eyes of the visitors. The other lake near to Jaipur is the Sambhar Lake. It is a treasure lake sourcing us from years with salt. The renowned SA?mbhar Lake is the largest saline lake of India.

RAMGARH LAKE

Pink City is a treasure for all kind of events that can be enjoyed in holidays. For nature lovers a beautiful lake is situated at a distance of about 25 km from Jaipur. The lake offers various activities like boating, fishing, and trekking. The best time to visit the lake is in winter season starting form October and going till March. The beauty of the lake is in its full form during Monsoons, the greenery attract every visitor. Prior poignant to Amber the Kachhawaha’s established at Ramgarh, and the temple of Jamwa mata is the biggest evidence. The temple is very beautiful and the architecture is so royal, white temple gives an outstanding look to the lake. The length of this beautiful lake is 4 km and is 2 km in width. Boating can be enjoyed in this huge manmade lake during the time period of October to June, trekking on the mountains also is available. The lake is home for dweller and drifting birds, various species of birds can be observed here. The lake offers a perfect place for nature lovers.

SAMBHAR LAKE

Jaipur is very fortunate to be associated to such a big source of Salt. As we all our now habitual of salt, we must thank God for providing us such great source of salt, imagine if there was scarcity of salt? The Sambhar Lake is renowned resource of salt that has been providing salt from so many years. This is the largest saline lake of India (length 22.5 kms), situated at a distance of 60km from Jaipur. A small town named sambhar is situated on Jaipur Ajmer artery; the name sambhar means ‘salt’. As a tourist you can get this opportunity to visit such a legendary place and admire its beauty. This lake even offers a preferred home for a number of migratory and resident birds, Storks, pelicans, redshanks, sandpipers, black-winged stilts, etc. The wildlife lovers can adore these beauties!!

WILD LIFE

The Royal Kings have been fond of hunting; these desires of the kings were taken care by the grounds that were specially designed. The Ranthambore National Park was initially a ground that was used for the hunting games of the Kings. It was then taken under the Project of saving Tigers, and then finally it was declared as a National Park. Today these shelters are helping a lot in saving the endangered species. The other park namely Sariska National Park is about 107 Km from Jaipur and is serving with the same motto of saving the rare species of animals and birds. These parks not only serve the motive of saving Tigers but also maintain a wide range of Flaura & Fauna.

RANTHAMBORE NATIONAL PARK

This place can excite your senses; the park offers a view of the ‘King of jungle’ in its natural surroundings. This park was initially a hunting ground for the Maharaja (King); it was then taken under by ‘project tiger’ in 1972. The park is located about 145 km from Jaipur near a town named Sawai Madhopur. The park also consist a fort that is situated on the hill top known as Ranthambore Fort. In the year 1980 this hunting ground of the King took the shape of National Park. Best time to visit at the Ranthambore National park is Oct to June.

The park is having a vast area of 400 kms (approx) and is saving the wildlife in a very good manner. The park is surrounded with hills of Aravali’s and Vindya ranges. The park has maintained a wide range of wildlife; so many animals can be seen in their native environment. Tigers, Panthers, Jackals, Crocodiles, Mongoose, Hyenas, Foxes and so many more wild animals like Sambhar, Sloth, Lizards, Leopards, etc all are being conserved here.

There are about 30 tigers in the park. The park also consists of a good collection of Flora and Fauna. As per the records the park is having more than 300 genuses of birds & Plants. A beautiful range of migrating birds can also be seen along with the resident birds. Variety of Storks, black eagle, crashed hawk eagle, parakeets, peafowl’s, doves, etc. are some resident birds whereas grey lag goose, ruddy shelduck and pintails are few varieties of migratory birds. A wildlife lover can feel mesmerized by being a part of such a beauty.

Time Table Ranthambhor National Park
S.No.
Month
Morning Trip

1

1st October to 31st October

7.00 A.M. to 10.30 A.M.

2

1st November to 31st January

7.00 A.M. to 10.30 A.M.

3

1st February to 31st March

6.30 A.M. to 10.00 A.M.

4

1st April to 15th May

6.00 A.M. to 9.30 A.M.

5

15th May to 30th June

6.00 A.M. to 9.30 A.M.

The foreigners pay an entrance fee of Rs 200; Indians pay a fee of Rs 25, while the Indian students pay Rs 5 only. Additional charges are levied on electronic equipments like cameras and other stuffs.

SARISKA NATIONAL PARK

Sariska National park is about 107 km from Jaipur, the park is spread in a vast area of about 800 Km. The major attraction of the park are the famous Bengal Tigers, there are almost 35 tigers here. This park is positioned at Aravali Range’s northern part. Sariska National Park was acknowledged as sanctuary in 1955, whereas after coming beneath project tiger it finally became a National Park in the year 1982. Tigers, Panthers, Civets, Jackals, Caracal, Sambar, Chital, Hare, Nilgai, Hyenas, Porcupines, Chowsingha (four horned antelope), Leopards, Rhesus, Wild Boar and Langoor can be found in their natural habitat. The park has also reserved some rare species of Flora & Fauna; the variety of flora includes Peafowl’s, Partridge, Quail, Sand grouse, Tree Pie, Kingfisher, Woodpecker, Crested Serpent, Eagle and Great Indian Horned Owl. Various other activities can also be enjoyed like a drive around the surroundings. There are few temples nearby and a fort named Kankwadi is worth a sight for the people who love the architecture of the ancient period. The area is still intact from modern world, as you can even found the tribes over the surroundings. Siliserh Lake is yet another attraction offering nature in its full form. The Entry fee for Sariska National Park is Rs 25 per person. Extra charges have to be paid for cameras (about Rs 10) and vehicles (Rs 100 for a minibus; Rs 75 for jeeps and cars).

CAMEL & ELEPHANT SAFARI

Jaipur the pink city has been renowned for its royal culture & heritage. These animals have been once a trademark for the empires, and only source of transportation during that era. Elephants were used for the kings & queens as these were the signs of their royalty, and elsewhere the camels were with the officers of the Royal troops of the Royal kingdoms. These beautiful animals have been giving their services from decades; today also these are the part of the royal ceremonies. The kingdoms have been demolished now-a-days but the job of these animals and their owners is still continuing as this is the only source of earnings of these families. They have been now-a-days offering the rides from various places. Various monuments and resorts offer these rides as the special attraction like the Amber Palace, Chowki Dhani (resort), and Dessert Trail (resort), etc. Elephants & camels over here are ornamented with colorful stuff, and are beautifully decorated. One can experience the royalty by going through the ride!!

400-500

PRIDES OF JAIPUR

The city is renowned for so many things, in spite of all the famous things and monuments there are few specialty of the city. As we discuss about the prosthetic foot, we can go into the past and see that it was a dream for a physically challenged person to walk. But these few dreams are such that they changed into reality and served the mankind. Earlier the prosthetic foot was so costly that the people were not able to afford it, but today due to the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti it is in reach of every human being. The other pride is the Palace on wheels that does not requires any introduction. The train is amongst the 10 best trains all over the world. It offers a world class experience and a great tour to the city of royalty. The city developed according to the time, it was not too far from the silver screen. Raj Mandir Theatre is one of a kind cinema hall that is beautifully designed; one can even visit to the theatre just to adore its beauty.

JAIPUR FOOT

Jaipur Foot is renowned, and it has been changing lives of many physically challenged people. Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti has been working for humanitarian work from so many years. One thought of prosthetic foot has changed the lives of so many families. A person who is physically challenged suffers along with the family, in almost every field of life. Such helpless people are being aid by Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti. The Jaipur Foot was been developed in 1968, which was then carried forward by the Samiti for social cause, in 1975. This is a social organization, it provides all the artificial limbs, wheelchairs, crutches, calipers, ambulatory aids, hand paddled tricycles and other aids and appliances totally free of charge to the physically challenged people. The organization has sixteen branches for Limb / Caliper making, and 9 Permanent Satellite centers. The organization has done foot fitments in 22 foreign countries. The idea of making Jaipur foot was first conceived by Mr. Ram Chandra Sharma who designed and developed the foot and the limb. These limbs are manufactured keeping in view all the factors, the cost, the flexibility, this is made with such technology that it looks almost like natural limb. The limb is so efficient that a person can walk like a normal person, sit in a cross legs position, it helps them to go back to their jobs and can earn for their families. LINK OF THE SITE

PALACE ON WHEELS

Palace on Wheels or we should say Paradise on wheels!! The train is so exquisite and beautiful, that its experience is unforgettable. The train offers tour that includes the visits to the heritage and culture of the royal cities of Rajasthan. The experience is one-of-its-kind as one can see and adore so many diversities within few days. The tours to the cities are so exclusive, that the train itself is a great place to cherish. The train offers opportunity to visit the beautiful monument and places, this is immense. The train started on 26th Jan 1982, and is based totally on the royal culture and heritage and then equipped with the latest technology to fulfill the desires of the Guests. The train departs from New Delhi and during its tour of eight days; it travels around Rajasthan with stoppages at Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Sawai Madhopur, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur, Bharatpur, and Agra. There are 14 well furnished coaches in the train which are named after former Rajput states. The train is even famous for its restaurants namely ‘The Maharani’ and’ The Maharaja’ that serves all kind of cuisines specializing in royal Rajasthani cuisines. This royalty is incomplete without liqueur, the train has a lavish bar that is stocked nicely, and the lounge inbuilt enhances the facilities that are being provided in the train.

Jaipur is the first stoppage in the tour of eight days, where the train reaches at Jaipur on second day i.e. on Thursday at 02.00 hrs, and departs at 19.30 hrs. After completing the tour throughout the city that comprises of, the first

Using various websites / internet sources, compare Malaysia’s performance with Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Malaysia made up of Peninsular Malaysia and two states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Peninsular Malaysia is separated from Sabah and Sarawak by the South China Sea. In the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia lies Thailand and in the south, neighbouring Singapore. Sabah and Sarawak are bounded by Indonesia while Sarawak also shares borders with Brunei.

Malaysia Tourism Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, tourism associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Malaysia’s tourism industry. Tourism Sector Tourist shows the robust performance. Looking at the most recent data from Immigration Department, the country welcomed 15.38mn tourists over the January-August 2009 period, which means an increase of 4.4% year on year. August itself was a particularly strong month with tourist arrivals up by 10.4% at 2.03mn.

Although the major contributors to the economy profile in Malaysia are manufacturing and primary commodities, but travel and tourism has a highly important part of the Malaysian economy too. The tourism accommodation and air transportation sectors have growth. For example, AirAsia, the country’s premium low cost carrier, has expanded its operations and now offers many more routes within and outside the country and is regarded as a significant regional player. The hotel segment has been growing particularly rapidly, with the popularity of top-end boutique hotels continuing to increase.

This can testify by Malaysia has gain the tourism awards 2008/2009 at the PICC, Putrajaya on 9 Jan 2010 from hon. deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Hj Mohd Yassin. Not only that, The premier awards and merit awards got innovation homestay, innovative tourist attraction, innovative tour programme, best foreign tour operator, best tourism guide and hotel services, innovative restaurant and tourism publication.

The Malaysian tourism will continues to grow rapidly because the government have hold many progress to promote tourism, For example one of Malaysia programme used to promote tourism is My Second Home, which is organised and launched by the Malaysian Government to allow foreigners who fulfil certain criteria to stay in Malaysia for as long as possible on a multiple-entry social visit pass. This could encourage them to stay in Malaysia. And the benefits are the social visit pass is initially for a period of ten years and is renewable.

The promotion of education tourism also continues to be expanded to the development of Malaysia as a preferred destination for international students. The project foreign exchange earnings are estimated at RM 900 Million by 2010.

Not only that, The Minister of Health, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, said that health tourism generated about US$85mn in revenue in 2008 and treated 370,000 foreign patients. Focus on Health Tourism in June 2009, state news agency Bernama reported that the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board is embarking on a three year project seeks to increase the number of people visiting the country for medical treatment. Have a preferred medical tourism destination and politically stable, Malaysia has become a more profitable tourism industry.

As a visitor to Malaysia, they can have the opportunity to experience and appreciate its rich historic and cultural heritage, exotic culinary delights, shopping splendours, nature-based adventures and fun-filled activities. The enjoyable and hospitable nature of its people will make the foreigner come to Malaysia.

Thailand

Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia are important sources of visitors for Malaysia. By contraries, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea are the important destinations from where the large amounts of visitors come to Thailand. Apart from ASEAN countries, tourist arrivals from China and India will remain influential throughout the forecast period (2007-2011).

Thailand its shape and geography divide into four natural regions; the mountains and forests of the North; the vast rice fields of the Central Plains; the semi-arid farm lands of the Northeast plateau; and the tropical islands and long coastline of the peninsula south. Bangkok is the capital city and centre of political, commercial, industrial and cultural activities. It is also the seat of Thailand’s revered Royal Family.

Tourism is a major economic factor in Thailand, its contributing an estimated 6.7% to Thailand’s GDP in 2007. It is also expected that inbound tourist expenditure per head will increase by around 10.49% in 2011 as compared to 2006.

The Thai tourism industry is projected to end the year with a total of 13.8 million international visitor arrivals in 2006. Revenue earnings from tourism are now projected at 486 billion baht. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has targeted 14.8 million international visitor arrivals in 2007 with estimated target revenues of 547.5 billion baht.

Unfortunately, H1N1 incident make reflect on Thai tourism industry in 2009 decrease, further discouraged visitor arrivals. Tourist arrivals have fallen sharply in the first half of 2009. Figures released by the Office of Tourism Development (OTD) showed that tourist arrivals fell by 16.2% year on year to arrivals of only 6.6mn. This followed a decline of 2% as a whole, with Thailand being one of the first countries with affected by the global economic downturn.

But these tribulations no daunt to Thailand, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has worked hard to overcome difficulties and obstacles and bring forward the prosperity of Thailand’s tourism to meet international standards. Until now, Thailand has gained popularity from tourists all over the world for its quality and variety of tourist attractions. Thailand is also regarded as the premier shopping venue and ranked the topmost value-for-money tourist destination.

Besides attracting more quality international tourists to visit Thailand, the TAT has also promoting tourism by conduct many campaigns to attract tourist. For an example, Thailand has been promoting its healthcare tourism, where it is providing the visitors with private healthcare facilities. It is expected that the tourist arrival for the purpose of medical treatment will reach two Million by 2010. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is now preparing for the 8th Thailand Tourism Awards 2010, which aims to promote and sustain the Thai tourism industry with an international standard.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will host the 8th Thailand Tourism Awards 2010, which aims to promote and sustain international standards in the Thai tourism industry. The Thailand Tourism Awards helps ensure Thailand’s popularity as well as increase credibility among both domestic and international tourists. Thailand Tourism Awards project was initiated by TAT since 1996. The awards are divided into five categories including Tourist Attractions, Tourist Accommodation, Tour Programmes, Tourism Development and Promotion Organisations and Medical Tourism.

Singapore

The Republic of Singapore is an independent nation in Southeast Asia. Located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, separated only by the narrow Strait of Johor from the mainland, it is a prosperous nation whose people enjoy one of the highest standards of living in Asia.

Singapore may be small, but packs in quite a punch. It is Only about 655 square kilometers in area, it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with about 6430 people per square kilometer. Although it is one of the 20 smallest countries in the world, its economy is a world leader.

Singapore is a vibrant and colourful city where one can find a harmonious blend of culture, cuisine, art and architecture. And tourism in Singapore is a major industry and attracts millions of tourists each year. Singapore has always been his charming tropical scenery and hospitality and attracted visitors from all over the world tourists. Singapore is one of the most visiting tourist destinations in the world. It offers numerous travel attractions, natural as well as man-made marvels. Its cultural attraction can be attributed to its cultural diversity that reflects its colonial history and Chinese, Malay, Indian and Arab ethnicities. It is also environmentally friendly, and maintains natural and heritage conservation programs.

Tourism is one of the largest service sectors of Singapore. As of 2009, the tourism industry was estimated to reach S$6.4 billion and visitor arrivals to Singapore reached 4.5 million. This clearly shows the important role tourism industry plays in Singapore’s economy. And the country performance is Tourism receipts from visitors from Hong Kong (+11.3%) registered growth from January to June 2009. Visitor arrivals from Vietnam (+13.4%), the Philippines (+3.0%), Malaysia (+1.8%) and Germany (+1.3%) registered growth in the first half of 2009 versus the same period last year.

In additions, Singapore is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia-Pacific region and the tourism industry in Singapore is growing very rapidly for the past several years. This is because strengthening by the infrastructure developments, various events and the countries strategic location in the heart of region.

And the projected ranges for 2009 full-year tourism receipts and visitor arrivals of S$12.0 to S$12.5 billion and 9.0 to 9.5 million respectively remain unchanged, with travellers expected to stay cautious as uncertainties continue around Influenza A(H1N1-2009) and the general economic environment.

Indonesia

About the performance tourism in Indonesia, Tourism is an important component of the Indonesian economy as well as a significant source of foreign exchange revenues. With a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, the second longest shoreline in the world, over 700 languages and tropical climate, nature and culture are both major components of Indonesian tourism.

The number of tourist arrivals in Indonesia in the first half of 2009 rose 2.61 percent to 2.97 million from the same period last year, a tourist official said. Indonesia tourist arrivals rose in 2009 but spending declined. More foreign tourists visited Indonesia last year than in 2008, but they spent less, resulting in a sharp decline in total tourism revenue, “In June 2009 alone, the number of tourist arrivals rose 4.06 percent from a year earlier,” Domestic Promotion Director at the Culture and Tourism Ministry Fathul Bahri said.

Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) show the number of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia in June 2009 reached around 550,600, up 4.07 percent from June 2008, or 5.53 percent from May 2009. The number of foreign tourist arrivals through the country`s 11 main entry gates in June 2009 went up 4.95 percent to 466,900 from 444,900 in June 2008. “The figure is promising now that the number of tourist arrivals in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore recorded negative growth,” he said. In addition, he remained optimistic that the country would be able to achieve its tourist arrival target of 6.5 million for 2009.

However, tourism development had sometimes clashed with local people, they have created criticism over Indonesia’s tourism industry. Most of the disputes were related over land possession, local traditions and the impact of tourism development to the local people. In another area, tourism industry in Indonesia faces major threats. Since 2002, several warnings have been issued by some countries over terrorist threats and ethnic or religious conflicts in some areas, which significantly reduce the number of foreign visitors. Visit Indonesia is a good program but it lacks proper implementation which is said by Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, an economist from state-owned PT Danareksa Sekuritas.

After comparison with Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, the conclusion can made is Malaysia has better performance that the three country. Like compare to Indonesia, it miss their target that set before and still lags far behind its smaller neighbours in terms of tourist numbers. Malaysia is welcomed 15.38 million foreign tourists during the first eight months of 2009 alone, while Singapore saw 4.51 million tourist arrivals in the first half the year.

However, these three country also have their own strategic or technique to retrieval the tourism or to promote their tourism more. Planning is importing, lacking a more effective long-term strategy, the country’s tourism would likely only grow in line with the global economy.

Atlanta – Capital of the New South

Hello

Atlanta is the frontline of the New South, with the appeal and classiness of the old days. Home to over 5 million people in the world, it is a city that balances southern heritage with lustrous modernism. There are a lot of peach trees here and the tea is sweetened. This is one of the few cities which can claim to have three skylines and is home to the busiest airport in the world. This city has been destroyed and built up again; the terrors of war and agony of floods and droughts have all been seen by this city. Rebirth and survival, flows within the veins of Atlanta. Host to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, Atlanta, also is the birthplace of the greatest character in the civil rights movement. Capital city to the state of Georgia, Atlanta has become the persistent leader among American cities.

Best Season to visit Atlanta

May to August is the best time to visit Atlanta, when you can enjoy outdoor activities and concerts alike. You might also like the days of the spring and fall, if you want to avoid the warm summers. Winter trips are recommended if you want to save some money, as the hotel rates go down and the chilly weather keeps visitors away.

Highlights (Special Things to Do in Atlanta)

Let your imagination run wild with building blocks at the LEGOLAND® Discovery Center, located at the Phipps Plaza, Buckhead. Having one of the largest boxes of LEGO® bricks, kids will love spending the day here.
Watch a Broadway play at the Alliance Theatre. This Tony Award Winner, provides a lovely platform for classical plays, musicals and dramas which are presented here much before they are made available at the Big Apple.
Scream your lungs out as you take on the Goliath or the Scream Machine, both are gargantuan rides at Six Flags amusement park.
At Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum you can get close with mummies, of the ancient world. With permanent collections from all over the world and popular travelling exhibits on display, the history fanatic in you will be fascinated by everything from Egyptian mummies to Greek relics!
Dance or watch a game at the Philips Arena, home to NBA and WNBA teams, the Atlanta Hawks and Dream, the arena rocks all through the year with the world’s best concerts when the games are not on.
Take in the view at the Sun Dial Bar & View, the only 360 degree rotating restaurant located 72 stories above the Peachtree Street. You can see everything from Georgia Tech to the Stone Mountain and of course, everything in between!
Pay homage to the souls of great Atlantans at the Oakland Cemetery. The oldest cemetery here, is the final abode of over 70,000 souls, each accompanied by a fascinating tale to tell.
Carry extra bags for all shopping you would end up doing at the Atlantic Station! Whether you are looking for a major retailer or a quirky local boutique, this is the place to be.
Get a glimpse of the restored rooms of the Margaret Mitchell House, where the “Gone With the Wind” was written. You would even find the writer’s desk and original fixtures.
Submerge yourself in surround sound, with the Grammy-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and its cast of musicians are here to pamper you to a performance like you would have never seen.
Get personal with dinosaurs at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Travel back in time among the Giants of the Mesozoic, some of them are over 120 feet in length!
Open the doors of the Oval Office, at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum, you’ll find a replica of the Oval Office along with gifts that were given to him during his time in Whitehouse.
Grab a bottle of wine, along with a picnic basket and hit Chastain Park Amphitheatre for a night you will never forget. Gigs at Chastain Park Amphitheatre offer a whole range of options for everyone, from blues and soul to rock and roll.
Check out the Twin baby pandas! Mei Lun and Mei Huan, are the most sought after at the Atlanta Zoo.
Wander around Piedmont Park, home to the Atlanta Botanical Garden and Lake Clara Meer. Whether you bring your pet for playtime or just a book to read on the grass, the Piedmont Park is a place which gives u lot of options.
Hike through the treetops on Sky Hike or backpack to the top of the mountain for beautiful skyline vantage points.
Click the world famous graffiti at the Krog Street Tunnel, is a favourite haunt for photographers and graffiti fans alike.
Snorkel or SCUBA among the great whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium.

Hotspots of Atlanta

You can check out these places if you are looking for the Atlanta tourist attractions:

NE, Atlanta
Fox Theatre: Returned back to its original golden look of the 1920s, the theatre features the “Mighty Mo,” a classic Moller organ, comprising of over 3,600 pipes. Currently hosting Broadway musicals and comedy shows this extravagant theatre also caters to dance companies.
Atlanta Botanical Garden: Come into the magical & serene world of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where attractions like the Fuqua Orchid Center take the visitors through rare collections of beautiful orchids never found in nature in this region.
Piedmont Park: Home to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, this 185-acre park is popular with joggers and summer festivals are also held here.
High Museum of Art: High Museum was the first museum to ever showcase art lent from Paris’ Louvre and is a lovely place to admire its architecture as well as its exhibits.
Ebenezer Baptist Church: The campaign ground for King Jr. and his fore-fathers, all of whom were pastors here. This also is infamous for being the place where his mother was killed back in 1974.
Downtown
Georgia Aquarium: The sheer beauty of the world’s largest aquarium is hard to deny: beluga whales and whale sharks, theatre shows, where actors/trainers and intelligent bottlenose dolphins perform in tandem is a spectacle not to be missed.
World of Coca-Cola: This museum would prove enjoyable to fans of the fizzy drink. The climax of the tour comes with guests sampling Coke products from all over the world. There is also Andy Warhol pieces to see, a 4-D film to watch, company history milestones, and what would look like over 20 billion promotional items.
The Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception: This second oldest building in Atlanta was designed by William H. Parkins, a local architect. Built in 1873 and still in use and has survived the devastating fire that gutted the city in 1864.
Buckhead
Atlanta History Center: Located on 33 acres in the centre of Buckhead, it is the perfect gateway to Georgia’s past, taking you through award-winning exhibits; Centennial Olympic Games Museum; historic households, including 1928 Swan House and 1860s Smith Family Farm; 22 acres of beautiful gardens and trails; and the Kenan Research Center.
Grant Park
Oakland Cemetery: Step back in time in at the Oakland Cemetery. This heritage park is the final abode for many Civil War soldiers, the golfing exponent Bobby Jones, and the author of “Gone with the Wind”, Margaret Mitchell.
Poncey – Highland
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum: The Carter Presidential Library and Museum is an out of this world museum tracking the life and works of President Jimmy Carter, from the time he was a kid in the Plains to the work Mrs. Carter and he do all over the world to promote peace and health. Sitting on a hilltop, it exhibits highlights of Jimmy Carter’s life during the 1977–81 presidency; The Oval Office replica is a must see. Carter’s Nobel Prize is also displayed here. And the serene Japanese garden in the back is not to be missed either.
Old Fourth Ward
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site: A key attraction, the park draws over 500,000 visitors annually. Explore the house where the leader of the America Civil Rights movement was born, the church where he preached and the memorial site where he is buried.

Shopping in Atlanta

Atlanta shopping is spread-out all over the city, from antique and outlet centres to boutiques and art galleries. Head to Buckhead for the luxury shopping, you will find all major brands at the Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square Mall.

Come across the most happening boutiques in the shopping districts around Virginia Highland and Midtown; for funky vintage items head to Little Five Points. Westside is the place to go to for home goods.

Decatur Square – Considered one of the most pedestrian friendly locales, you can randomly walk around the wide spread of shops here. If you need rest between your jaunts, sip a coffee or grab a beer or a cocktail. This place is so versatile that you might as well pick up a book and soak in the sun.
Atlantic Station – You might need to carry an extra suitcase for all of the things you would end up picking up here. This spread-out outdoor shopping haven is a place for some serious retail therapy.
American Girl Boutique and Bistro – The ultimate daughter’s day out. A doll-shopping heaven, you could find the perfect doll, pick a matching outfit, have a tea party and even let your doll enjoy a day at the salon!
Sweet Auburn Curb Market – For local farm produce or meats, also exclusive eateries serving you soul food and gourmet hot dogs or just the good old ice cream, look no more than this farmer’s market with a urban twist.
Little Five Points – A place where you can pull off those skinny jeans and flannel shirt, head here for bar hopping and vibrant live performances. Vintage boutique shopping is a must here.

How to reach Atlanta

By Plane: The Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is located about 8 miles south of the city. The world’s busiest airport, its efficient layout makes it easy to navigate and keeps delays to a minimum. All major cities across all continents are connected from here.
By Train: Served by the Amtrak, the Crescent train runs daily and serves most major cities on the eastern belt. Located at 1688 Peachtree St. N.W., The Atlanta Amtrak Station is to the north of city.
By Bus: Greyhound Bus Lines provides bus service to Atlanta from many locations throughout the country. The Greyhound terminal at 232 Forsyth Street, located directly below MARTA’s Garnett Station.

Other bus services such as megabus.com and Bus Bank offer charters buses and can help plan a tour for you or your group.

By Car: The Interstate Highway System links Atlanta to the rest of the country. So driving down to the city is a very feasible option. The main interstate highways crossing Atlanta are I-75 (Detroit to Florida), I-85 (Mid-Atlantic to New Orleans) and I-20 (Texas to South Carolina).

How to get around in Atlanta

By Foot: Touring the city by foot is one of the best ways to see Atlanta. Most neighbourhoods are easy to walk around, with bars, restaurants, and shops being in close vicinity. In particular, walking times would not exceed 10–20 minutes, however buses and trains are recommended for longer jaunts.
By Transit: MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) operates both rapid rail and bus networks in the city of Atlanta and the neighbouring counties, Fulton and Dekalb.

Comprising of four lines: Red, Gold, Blue, and Green; where the Red and Gold lines run north-south, while the Blue and Green lines run east-west, meeting at the Five Points Station.

With over one hundred different bus routes, Bus service runs from 5AM until 1:30AM Monday-Friday and on the weekends or holidays they run all day.

By Taxi: Booking taxis is recommended, however it is possible to flag taxicabs down near tourist locations and watering holes in Downtown and Midtown.

24-Hour Taxicab Services:

Checker Cab
Atlanta Royal Cabbies

Fixed rates are available for Airport runs, insist on it even if the cabbie denies knowledge of the same.

By Car: All major car rental service is available around Atlanta. Cars are considered the most efficient way to move around the city in case you have to visit a lot of places. However do look out for peak hour traffic.

Top areas in Atlanta

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – If you are a business traveller and prefer to be located close to the busiest airport in the world, then the area around the Hartsfield-Jackson has a lot of hotel options to spend a night or more. You can find midrange to budget hotels to suit your needs.

Midtown – The second largest business district in Atlanta, situated between Downtown and Buckhead, Attracts over six million visitors every year. Marked for its cultural attractions, institutions of higher education, Midtown is also noteworthy for its architecture, and urban layout. Atlanta Hotels in Midtown are mostly high-end.

Pine Hills – Located to the east of Buckhead, the region is abundant of plant life. Its tall trees, such as the pine, oak and maple are home to a wide variety of animals such as chipmunks, squirrels and a variety of birds. Quite a few mid-range hotels can be found here.

Sandy Springs – Even though Sandy Springs is a separate area it extends into the city limits. Most of this region is affluent and is very scenic, with mansions on single-lane roads. You can find cheap Atlanta accommodation deals in this location.

Buckhead – Known for its nightlife, Buckhead Village has transferred into Buckhead Atlanta, with plenty of shopping options with Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square near here. Buckhead even has its own skyline of high-rise apartments/condominiums and office buildings. You will also find hotels across the range in this area.