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The scope of the hospitality industry comprises of a range of businesses that provide services and facilities such as accommodation, food and beverage, entertainment, gaming and related products.

The term “hospitality” has become accepted over the years as a generic word, which describes the well being of services and facilities related to tourists and travellers.

The hospitality industry is represented in every country in the world and is diverse and complex. It encompasses a range of free-standing hospitality businesses and is also a component of a wide range of venues whose primary function is not hospitality.

The hospitality industry consists of broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise line, and additional fields within the tourism industry. The hospitality industry is a several billion dollar industry that mostly depends on the availability of leisure time and disposable income. A hospitality unit such as a restaurant, hotel, or even an amusement park consists of multiple groups such as facility maintenance, direct operations (servers, housekeepers, porters, kitchen workers, bartenders, etc.), management, marketing, and human resources. /Sources: hospitality industry Wikipedia

The hospitality industry covers a wide range of organizations offering food service and accommodation. The hospitality industry is divided into sectors according to the skill-sets required for the work involved. Sectors include accommodation, food and beverage, meeting and events, gaming, entertainment and recreation, tourism services, and visitor information.

Usage rate is an important variable for the hospitality industry. Just as a factory owner would wish to have his or her productive asset in use as much as possible (as opposed to having to pay fixed costs while the factory isn’t producing), so do restaurants, hotels, and theme parks seek to maximize the number of customers they “process”.

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One of the adherent growing sectors of the economy of our time is the hotel industry. The hotel industry alone is a multi-billion dollar and growing enterprise. It is inspiring, never boring and offer unlimited opportunities. The hotel industry in diverse enough for people to work in different areas of interest and still at work within the hotel industry.
Twenty first century’s hotels provide modern precise services to their guests. The customers or guests are always right. This principle necessitated application of management principles in the hotel industry and the hotel professionals realized the instrumentality of marketing principles of managing the hotel industry.
The approach of total quality management is found getting and important function in the marketing management of hotels. The emerging positive trend in the tourism industry indicates that hotel industry is like a reservoir where the foreign exchange flows. This naturally draws our attention on Hotel Management. Like other industries, the hotel industry needs to explore avenues for innovation so that a fair blending of core and peripheral service is made possible. It is not to be forgotten that the leading hotel companies of the world have been intensifying research to enrich their peripheral services with the motto of adding additional attractions to their service mix. It is against this background that we find the service mix more flexible in nature.
The recruitment and training programmes are required to be developed in the features of the technical sophistication. The leading hotel companies have been found promoting an ongoing training programme so that the personnel come to know about the use of sophisticated communication technologies.
General classification of Hotel Industry
Classification of Hotels: on the basis of standards
Like most of the countries in the world, India could be an example and has also hotels divided in different categories depending on their location, facilities, infrastructures and amenities provided. All the star hotels in India are government approved with continuous control on the quality on the services offered.
Five Star Hotels – the most luxurious and conveniently hotels in India are grouped under Five Star Deluxe categories. Five Star Hotel in India are globally competitive in the quality of services provided, facilities offered and accommodation option. These are the top of the line hotels located mostly in big cities. These hotels provide all the modern facilities for accommodation and recreation matching international standards in hospitality. In such type of hotel HR department are established separately and to execute and to follow the concept of HR strictly, HR professionals are hired.
Four Star Hotels – A rung below five star hotels are Four Star Hotels, these hotels provide all modern amenities to the travellers with a limited budget .Quality of services is almost as high as five stars and above categories. These kinds of hotels are there for the travellers with the limited budget or for the places which might not get the tourist traffic associated with larger cities. In such type of hotel concept of HR is more or less followed.
Three Star Hotels – These are mainly economy class hotels located in the bigger and smaller cities and catering to the needs of budget travellers. Lesser in amenities and facilities, these hotels are value for money and gives good accommodation and related services in the reduced price. In such type of hotel concept of HR may or may not be present.
Two Star Hotels – This type of hotels are most available in the small cities and in the particular areas of larger cities. Catering for the backpacker tourist traffic, these hotels provide all the basic facilities needed for general accommodation and offer the lowest prices. In this type of hotel concept of HR is absent.

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One Star Hotels – The hotels with most basic facilities, small number of room’s location in the fur-flung areas are grouped under one star hotel category. These hotels are best when customers for looking cheapest available accommodation option. In this type of hotel concept of HR is alien words.
Organisational Structure of Hotel Industry
Core Operational Department:
Food and Beverage (F & B) Department
F & B deals mainly with food and beverage allied activities. Different divisions are there in F& B are Restaurants, Speciality Restaurants, Coffee Shop (24hrs), Bar, Banquets, Room Service etc. Apart from that they have Utility services (Cleaning) .
Housekeeping Department
The housekeeping Department is another important department in hospitality world. Housekeeping is responsible for cleaning the hotel’s guestrooms and public areas. This department has the largest staff, consisting of an assistant, room inspectors, room attendants, a house person crew, linen room attendants and personnel in charge of employee uniforms. They may have their own laundry and valet equipment may use it only for hotel linens and uniforms and send guest clothing to an outside service where can be handled with specialised equipment.
Front Office Department
The front office is the command post for the reservations, registering guests, take in charge of guest accounts (cashiering/payment), checking out guests. It is the front desk responsible to allocate their designated rooms, distribute their keys, send mails, emails or other information for guests. It is the also the most visible part of the front office area.
Food Production Department
Food production department handles with the preparation of food. Basically, it is their responsibility to prepare dishes or menus which are ordered by guest and afterward catered by the F & B Department. They can prepare different kind of Cuisine like Chinese, Indian, Thai, Filipino, Western food, Italian and a lot more.
Core Functional Departments
Marketing and Selling Department
Sales and marketing has become one of the most vital functions of the hotel business and integral part of modern of hotel management. It includes packaging of selling, sales promotion,, advertising and public relations. The marketing divisions is charged with the responsibility of keeping the rooms in the hotel occupied at the right price and with the right mix of guests.
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Safety and Security Department
The security of guests, employees, personal property and the hotel itself is an overriding concern for today’s hoteliers. In the past, most security precautions concentrated on the prevention on thefts from guests and the hotel. However, today such violent crimes as murder and rape have become a problem for some hotels. Unfortunately, crime rates in most major cities are arising. Hence today security department also concentrate on these additional criminal activities too.
Engineering and Maintenance Department
This department provides on the day-to-day basis the utility services, electricity, hot water, steams, air conditioning and other services and is responsible for repair and maintenance of the equipment, furniture and fixtures in the hotel.
Finance, Accounting and Control Department
The finance and accounting department is responsible for keeping track of the many business transactions that occur in the hotel. Accounting department does the bookkeeping regarding financial matters in an appropriate description. Whereby the control department is concern with cost control guidelines by the way reducing in investment, reduction in operating cost, control of food service cost, control of beverage costs, labour cost control, etc.
Administration Department
This department is responsible for all the work with the administration, personnel, manpower, employee’s welfare, medical and health security.

Scale, scope and diversity in a Hotel Industry

The primary purpose of hotels is to provide travellers with shelter, food, refreshment, and similar services and goods, offering on a commercial basis things that are customarily furnished within households but unavailable to people on a journey away from home. Hotel today not only cater to the basic needs of the guest like food and shelter provide much more than that, like personalized services etc. Many more and more people are travelling not only for business reasons but for leisure as well. As a matter of fact, because of the massive increase on tourism economy, tourism continues to grow as political freedom, economic wherewithal and social equality spread across the whole world. There was a growth in international travel and thereby growth in hotel industry.

Hotel development also involved diversification of hotel types. Most early hotels had been large urban luxury establishments, but newer variants quickly emerged. Resort hotels, designed to accommodate the rising tide of tourists, were built in panoramic rural landscapes far from the cities. Commercial hotels, more simply furnished and less expensive than the luxury variant, served the growing ranks of travelling salesmen and other commercial workers set in motion by the expanding economy. Railroad hotels were built at regular intervals along track lines to provide passengers and crews with places to eat and rest in the decades before the introduction of sleeping cars. Residential hotels, dedicated to the housing needs of families increasingly unable to afford private houses in expensive urban real estate markets, served as the prototypes for apartment buildings.

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Scale, scope and diversity in a Restaurant Industry

The restaurant industry, on the other hand, covers fine dining specialty restaurants, fast food outlets, canteens, and food courts. Fine dining and specialty restaurants offer a wide variety of international cuisines. The restaurant originated in France dating back to 1765 when one A. Boulanger, a soup vendor, opened an establishment advertising restoratives, or restaurants, referring to the soups and broths available within. The institution took its name from the advertisement, and “restaurant” now denotes a public eating place in English,

French, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Romanian, and many other languages, with some variations. In the Philippines, a new trend in the restaurant industry is rapidly gaining popularity, that is, “eat-all-you-can buffets”, which are offered at reasonable prices. A number of restaurants offer “buffets with no leftovers” at

50% off normal buffet prices. /Sources: http://dirp3.pids.gov.ph/ris/taps

Based on my own country Philippines, although local entrepreneurs own most fine dining restaurants, an overwhelming number of fast food outlets are American franchises. These outlets, therefore, pose serious competition for local franchises. Particularly since tastes and preferences of consumers tend to favour international, especially, fast foods and restaurants. Finally, product differentiation exists in the industry. Established firms have brand identification and customer loyalties, which stem from past advertising and customer service.

In the Philippines, tourism is one of the major industries that the WTTC noted as positioned at the epicentre of global travel and tourism growth and development. In 1997, tourism contributed 8.7% of the country’s GDP, generating 2.3 million jobs (or one in every nine nationwide), and accounting for

some 10.5% of Philippine investments. According to the Department of Tourism, international arrivals in 1999

stood at 2.17 million, a slight increase from the previous year’s total of 2.15 million visitors. Despite the economic crisis suffered by its Asian markets, the Philippines’ foreign exchange receipts from tourism went up by 5.83% from $2.41 billion in 1998 to $2.55 billion in 1999. Moreover, the Philippines enjoyed the highest repeat visitors in Asia at 54.22 percent, indicating that the tourism sector can survive external threats and competition in the region. As tourism serves as the main market for hotel and restaurant services, increase in visitor traffic over the past ten years resulted in a corresponding boom in the hotel and restaurant industry. During the last decade, the hotel and restaurant industry has flourished even as it struggled to cope with difficult challenges. New hotels mushroomed in the capital while older hotels have done their best to spruce-up both their interiors and upgrade services. Likewise, the growth of the restaurant sub-sector, the number of players and the variety of services offered, has been notable during the period. /Sources: http://dirp3.pids.gov.ph/ris/taps

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People 1st
The Academy’s role

To identify, endorse and promote qualifications and learning opportunities which are delivered to National Skills Academy standards. This delivery may take place in universities, colleges of further education, employer businesses and dedicated hospitality schools. It’s role is also to:

Focus on the areas related to management and leadership, customer service and craft skills which are central to addressing the industry challenges

Innovate and provide franchisable solutions

Ensure that funding is available where ever to support excellence in hospitality training.

People 1st is the Sector Skills Council for the Hospitality, Leisure, Travel and Tourism Sector. The People 1st sector footprint is defined across 14 separate industries: hotels; restaurants; pubs, bars and nightclubs; contract food service providers; hospitality providers; membership clubs; events; gambling; travel services; tourist services; visitor attractions; youth hostels; holiday parks; and self-catering accommodation. [1]

It is difficult to undertake a statistical analysis of the tourism and hospitality sector as the sector includes a number of different industries as defined by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. In the main, statistical analysis is usually concentrated on tourism related industries, the most important of which are hotels and restaurants.

Across the UK, People 1st industries generate an annual turnover of ?135 billion and employ 1.9 million in more than 180,000 establishments.

According to People 1st, there are 1,585 vacancies in the core hospitality sector, with the largest number of vacancies for kitchen and catering assistants, bar staff, chefs and cooks. Nearly a fifth of hospitality and tourism firms have indicated that they have hard to fill vacancies, and 48% of the unfilled vacancies are attributed to a failure to find individuals with the appropriate skills. A third of employers have reported skills gaps.

British Hospitality Management

The British Hospitality Association has been representing the hotel, restaurant and catering industry for 100 years. The Association exists to ensure that the views of the British hospitality industry are represented in a forceful, coherent and co-ordinated way to government and policy makers in the UK and internationally, in order that its members’ businesses can flourish.

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) was established in 1907 as the Incorporated Hotel Keepers Association. In 1910 it merged with a new and entirely separate organisation called Incorporated Association of Hotels and Restaurants, taking on the latter’s name.

In 1926 it became the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Great Britain, then the British Hotels and Restaurants Association in 1948 and the (ungrammatical) British Hotels, Restaurants and Caterers’ Association – after the merger with Caterers’ Association of Great Britain – in 1971.

It was re-named British Hospitality Association in 1992. Along the way, it lost some of its restaurant members

when they broke away to form the Restaurant Association of Great Britain in 1967.

Supported by some of the industry’s top independent restaurateurs, such as Prue Leith and Robert Carrier, the RAGB – later The Restaurant Association – fought exclusively for the interests of restaurants but the cost of such activity and the need to present a united front to government encouraged the merger with the BHA in 2003.

The Restaurant Association retains its own identity as a trading division of the BHA.

For a more detailed history, please read the official centenary booklet Hospitality: A Portrait. The British Hospitality Association 1907 – 2007 which gives a fascinating insight into the UK hospitality industry over the course of the past one hundred years. /Sources: Google

Assessment:

The People 1st focuses on the sector skills council for the hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism sector. The tourism and hospitality sector includes a massive number of different industries as defined by the Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC). The statistical analysis mostly concentrated on the hotels and restaurants industries. This association interact significantly on management and leadership, customer skills, job vacancies, innovate and franchisable solutions, and to make assurance that funding is available. Whereas, British Hospitality Management is an association that represents hotel, restaurants and catering industry. British Hospitality Industry are represented by this association to have a forceful, comprehensible, and combined way to UK’s government policy makers and internationally, in order that it members’ businesses can prosper.

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These two different groups of professional bodies in the field of hospitality services are very important in

order to have an organise and fruitful result in building businesses either on a hotel, restaurants, catering etc. The most significant aspect for any associations in hospitality industry is to work together and help with each other, exchanging ideas to give a most fascinating insight into UK industry and worldwide.

Organisational Structure/Chart of Hotel Industry

Organisational Structure of Hotel Industry
Core Operational Department:
Food and Beverage (F & B) Department
F & B deals mainly with food and beverage allied activities. Different divisions are there in F& B are Restaurants, Speciality Restaurants, Coffee Shop (24hrs), Bar, Banquets, Room Service etc. Apart from that they have Utility services (Cleaning) .
Housekeeping Department
The housekeeping Department is another important department in hospitality world. Housekeeping is responsible for cleaning the hotel’s guestrooms and public areas. This department has the largest staff, consisting of an assistant, room inspectors, room attendants, a house person crew, linen room attendants and personnel in charge of employee uniforms. They may have their own laundry and valet equipment may use it only for hotel linens and uniforms and send guest clothing to an outside service where can be handled with specialised equipment.
Front Office Department
The front office is the command post for the reservations, registering guests, take in charge of guest accounts (cashiering/payment), checking out guests. It is the front desk responsible to allocate their designated rooms, distribute their keys, send mails, emails or other information for guests. It is the also the most visible part of the front office area.
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Food Production Department

Food production department handles with the preparation of food. Basically, it is their responsibility to prepare dishes or menus which are ordered by guest and afterward catered by the F & B Department. They can prepare different kind of Cuisine like Chinese, Indian, Thai, Filipino, Western food, Italian and a lot more.

Core Functional Departments
Marketing and Selling Department
Sales and marketing has become one of the most vital functions of the hotel business and integral part of modern of hotel management. It includes packaging of selling, sales promotion,, advertising and public relations. The marketing divisions is charged with the responsibility of keeping the rooms in the hotel occupied at the right price and with the right mix of guests.
Safety and Security Department
The security of guests, employees, personal property and the hotel itself is an overriding concern for today’s hoteliers. In the past, most security precautions concentrated on the prevention on thefts from guests and the hotel. However, today such violent crimes as murder and rape have become a problem for some hotels. Unfortunately, crime rates in most major cities are arising. Hence today security department also concentrate on these additional criminal activities too.
Engineering and Maintenance Department
This department provides on the day-to-day basis the utility services, electricity, hot water, steams, air conditioning and other services and is responsible for repair and maintenance of the equipment, furniture and fixtures in the hotel.
Finance, Accounting and Control Department
The finance and accounting department is responsible for keeping track of the many business transactions that occur in the hotel. Accounting department does the bookkeeping regarding financial matters in an appropriate description. Whereby the control department is concern with cost control guidelines by the way reducing in investment, reduction in operating cost, control of food service cost, control of beverage costs, labour cost control, etc.
Administration Department
This department is responsible for all the work with the administration, personnel, manpower, employee’s welfare, medical and health security.
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Organisational Structure/Chart of a Restaurant Industry
Organisational Structure of Restaurant Industry

Chief Executive Director (CEO) – is in charge of making all final decisions, concerning the hotels, running meetings and presentations, launching new hotels, and making the final decisions of the operation managers for individual’s hotels.

Operations Manager – also known as operation directors oversee all other manager and report to the owners directly. It is the responsible of the restaurant operation manager to handle various aspects of the restaurant’s operation. They deal directly with customers and employees and are responsible for a diversity of duties that include financial record keeping and hiring, handling and firing employees. The duties and responsibilities of an operation manager is to generally managing the facility in which all the materials to be use in food preparation are being organised, serving and working properly and so with the employee resources as well.

Store Manager – a store manager could also be called as store general manager in which they usually at least one assistant manager working for them as well as various department managers and hourly employees. Store manager is responsible to communicate in some area managers department and get their assistance in improving store operation such as service in cleanliness.

Kitchen Manager – is responsible of overseeing the entire operation of the kitchen. The duties and responsibilities of a kitchen manager include supervising kitchen staff and make sure they are performing their duties very well. The kitchen manager must also make sure that the kitchen area meets health and safety requirements as well as food preparation. To ensure that all food is properly prepared and meet the standards set by the restaurant.

Schedule Manager – To avoid confusion in creating schedule for multiple employees, the schedule manager must be organised and it is advisable and very helpful to use a typical spreadsheet to easily simplify their work and spend less time in scheduling people and more time managing.

Maintenance Manager – a maintenance manager or facility manager is responsible for creating and maintaining all preventive maintenance programs to help keeps the restaurant running smoothly, such as maintaining kitchen equipment, lighting, point of sale system and the physical structure.

Service Supervisor –

Beverage Manager – it is the responsibility of the beverage manager to order, stocking, and managing all alcoholic beverages in the restaurant. In fact, this kind of position must have knowledge in different brands/kind of liquors and wines and can intelligibly explain and recommend selections to customers.

Main Chefs – The main duty of a chef is to prepare meals for guests according to the restaurant menu. Chefs are required to create recipes that are unique from other restaurants. Chefs should generally follow a specific recipe for each menu item; they should prepare to customise the dish to the guest’s requests. More duties include preparing daily menu, ordering supplies, and supervising kitchen staff.

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Dishwashers – Most of the restaurants uses a machine dishwasher to store all the messed dishes, cups, glasses, cutleries, casseroles, etc. and be washed at one at a time. While small restaurants/business hire a dishwasher to wash manually all the dishes.

Service Crews – a service crew is a group of co-workers that labour as a team to complete tasks of an employer. Waiters and waitresses are also called as service crews. However, service crews are not only working in a fast food but they are also working in a banquet and convention services, military, transportation, installation, and maintenance situations.

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RESTAURANTS
Operational:

Food Safety

Food safety refers to all those hazards, whether chronic or acute, that may make food injurious to the health of the consumer.

Food safety is and remains a top ten concern for food manufacturers and other food businesses. But a series of major food poisoning outbreaks and contamination incidents is happened in different ways and in several times.

In US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created to protect health by assuring the safety and security of the nation’s food supply, among many other things. All food facilities including restaurants must be registered with the FDA and must also give advance notice to the FDA on shipments of imported goods.

Based on my own experience, I worked in a Chinese restaurant and this restaurant also offers take away either in delivery or collection. In every ?14 or more purchase it will be delivered for free. I had observed that not all days the restaurant is busy. As a matter of fact, most of the orders are takeaway. The restaurant seems busy only during weekends like Friday and Saturday. In fact, many are also ordering by phone and be delivered. The company must ensure to pass the health and safety regulations including SODEXHO training in which certificates will be given like Food and Hygiene Certificate. All employees must be aware on their own health concern that they are well-fitted enough to work in these kind of industry especially working in a restaurant. For those very sick people like Tuberculosis, they are not allowed or be part of these industry. Moreover, all utensils must be washed properly and make sure that is also being sterilised to ensure health and safety.

Global sales of food additives were estimated at well in excess of USD25bn in value terms in 2007. Although the market is dominated by sectors such as flavours and hydrocolloids, recent growth has been most impressive in those additives most relevant to the prevailing trend towards lower-fat foods. In contrast, some sectors have been adversely affected by the effects of rising low-cost Chinese production, which has driven down market value in some instances. The Food Additives Market – Global Trends & Developments is a publication from Leatherhead Food International (now Leatherhead Food Research), which updates the previous edition published in 2005. The report identifies the major market forces influencing the global additives market, and presents a detailed analysis of trends in the market for 13 different additive categories. In addition to information on applications, market sizes and trends, and the leading companies in the industry, the report also discusses finished food trends impacting on additives and assesses future prospects for the industry. http://www.leatherheadfood.com

Managerial:

Security

Security in enterprise computing system is not simply a matter of technology and cannot be addressed satisfactorily with hardware and software alone. It also a matter of managing people, establishing and enforcing strong (right and clear) policies, implementing procedures and strengthen security, and periodically checking the effectiveness of the security architecture and making necessary changes. To become a successful security manager, he or she must constantly educate himself or herself and his or her staff.

Basically, when we talk about security it is generalised. Not only on computer or system security but accordingly on engineering, security on policies and regulations, security of the place and overall security.

Authentication mechanisms are used to identify the identity of subject and thus ensu

As per the evidence in the chapter 2, it is clear that tourism is an important sector and it has the ability to contribute for national development of many countries in developed and also in developing world. In this chapter, relationship between agritourism; a form of rural tourism and rural development is going to be studied to understand the level of contribution of agritourism for the rural development using existing literature especially in developing countries. Therefore, this chapter establishes the vital theoretical background for this research.

This chapter is consisted of three main sections. In the first section, information related to rural development including definitions, different sectors of rural development, a new paradigm of rural tourism and barriers of rural development in developing countries. The second section provides information related to agritourism such as the concept, definitions, theoretical basis of agritourism, activities of agritourism, factors affecting for successful agritourism, advantages and disadvantages of agritourism, impact of agritourism for local residents, important policies related to agritourism development and current situation and development of agritourism in the world and in Asia. In the last section, relationship between agritourism and rural development has been discussed in detail.

3.1 Concept of rural development

Before understand what rural development is, it is important to look at what rural areas are. In general, rural areas are geographical areas that are located outside the towns or cities. Hamlets, villages, towns, and other small settlements are in or surrounded by rural areas. Rural areas are open swath of lands that has few homes or other buildings, and not very many people. In rural areas, population density is lower than urban areas.

Still 70 percent of the world’s poor is living in rural areas (World Bank, 2010) and agriculture is the main source of income and employment. Agriculture and forestry represent activities which occupy many fields of land and play a primary role in the managing of the rich natural resources and in the formation of the landscape in the rural regions, where they constitute an essential part of the natural environment and cultural heritage. Wildlife is more frequently found in rural areas.

Rural development generally refers to the process of improving the quality of life and economic wellbeing of people living in relatively isolated and sparsely populated rural areas. It aims at the improvement of welfare of rural populations through the sustained growth of the rural economy. As a concept, it connotes overall development of rural areas with a view to improve the quality of life rural people. As a phenomenon, it is the result of various physical, technological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional factors. As a discipline, it is multi-disciplinary in nature representing an intersection of agricultural, social, behavioral and management of sciences (Fotiadis, 2009.).

Rural development is not simply an economic proposition; it has social, psychological and cultural dimensions as well. It is a multi-dimensional as well as multi-directional concept. Thus, rural development is a program designed to improve the socio-economic living conditions of the rural poor. It aims at raising their cultural level and reorienting their rich traditions. It seeks to achieve increase rural production and productivity, greater socio-economic equity and a higher standard of living for the rural poor. It is partly ameliorative and partly development-oriented (..). Development is interlinked with motivation, innovation and the active participation of the beneficiaries. Rural development recognizes the importance of improved food supplies and nutrition, as well as the importance of basic services such as health, housing, education and expanded communications, which will go a long way in enhancing the productivity of the rural poor. Moreover, it aims at providing gainful employment, so that the rural people too may contribute their mite to the national product. Rural development implies a fuller development of existing resources, including the construction of infrastructure, such as roads and irrigation works, the introduction of new production technology, the revival of traditional arts and crafts, and the creation of new types of institutions and organizations (Desai, 2005).

Not like traditional rural development approach that was based on modernization theory, the contemporary rural development is a new rural development approach, representing a policy model that seeks to focus less on the production of primary commodities and more on innovation and diversification (Ploeg et al., 2000). The model claims to encourage more democratic and effective rural development on the basis that different local stakeholders are involved as decision makers in the development process, and that the emergent development outcome is more innovative and integrated as a result. (Macken-Walsh, 2009).

3.1.1 Definitions of Rural Development

There is no universally accepted definition of rural development. The term is used in different ways in vastly divergent contexts.

Rural development can be defined as the development of regions excluding the urban areas such as the towns and cities. Smaller settlements such as villages, farmsteads, and market towns are normally included within the concept of rural, while most of the land area is expected to be used as agricultural land, forest or in its natural state (Apostolides. 2001?).

According to Robert Chambers, rural development is a strategy to enable a specific group of people, poor rural women and men, to gain for themselves, and their children more of what they want and need. It involves helping the poorest among those who seek a livelihood in the rural areas to demand and control more of the benefits of rural development. The group includes small-scale farmers, tenants and the landless.

Rural development may be defined as overall development of rural areas to improve the quality of life of rural people. It is an integrated process, which includes social, economical, political and spiritual development of the poorer sections of the society. Social or economic activities or initiatives designed to improve the standard of living in areas far away from large towns or cities.

Thus, the term rural development may be used to imply any one of the above-mentioned connotations. The avoid ineffective floundering among the myriad definitions, it can be defined as a process leading to sustainable improvement in the quality of life of rural people, especially the poor

3.1.2 Barriers for rural development

In many countries several problems can be identified against the rural development. They act as barriers to reach rural development. Most of them are common to number of countries. Some main barriers prevailing in developing countries can be summarized as follows.

Depleting natural resources, resulting in insecurity of food and employment, compelling over majority of the rural population to live in poverty.

Pollution of the environment and climate change, causing shortage of clean drinking water and adverse impact on agricultural production.

Lack of employment opportunities, forcing the landless and small farmers to migrate to urban areas reducing young labour for the activities of rural areas.

Poor access to education, resulting in low literacy and unemployment of the youth. Particularly among women having adverse effect on their skills development, employment productivity, family welfare and education of their children.

Poor health status due to lack of clean drinking water, hygiene, sanitation and drainage facilities;

Inadequate health care facilities, leading to high child mortality and morbidity; loss of labour productivity, economic loss, indebtedness and poor quality of life.

Poor infrastructure for receiving timely information on development opportunities, market demand and prices for agricultural commodities, new technologies, forward and backward linkages, credit facilities and development policies of the government and

Lack of technological skills to conduct processing and value addition to agricultural and other local products available in rural areas.

Lack of people’s organizations and participation for supporting various socio-economic development activities and governing themselves (Hegde, 2010; Walsh, 2009; Commission on Sustainable Development, 2007).

If we can overcome these problems, significant level of rural development can be obtained. It is the responsibility of the government to create a suitable environment for rural people to engage in

rural development activities to gain sustainable development.

3.1. 3 New rural development paradigm

As explained earlier, the traditional rural development approaches mainly based on industrial sector and modernization path. Decline in number of farms and a sharp drop in employment opportunities were seen as inevitable outcomes of this model. In addition, regional disparities increased and tensions grew between farming on the one hand and landscape, nature, environment and product on the other (Knickel 1990; Meyer 1996; Roep 2000). Until the early 1990s, due to scale-enlargement, intensification, specialization, within other sectors, a strong trend towards internalization was the parameters that circumscribed developments in the agricultural sector. With the understanding of these issues, present rural development means a new developmental model for the agricultural sector. This model entails society’s expectations of agriculture and with the interests, prospect and perspectives of increasing segments of the agrarian community. In brief, new rural development can be seen as the search for a new agricultural development model which is targeting to use rural resources in an effective manner to distribute benefits for the majority of the community. It is impossible and undesirable to refer to rural development as a new ‘blueprint,’ but understanding of what elements should comprise in this new model are emerging fast. (Mannion 1996; Saraceno 1996) Agritourism, an alternative for diversification of agriculture is one of the main elements of it.

3.2 Concept of Agritourism

Agritourism can be explained as a farm enterprise operated for the enjoyment and education of the public that may also generate additional income for the farmer by promoting farm products and experiences and giving many opportunities to local community to enhance their living standards (Wilson, Thilmany, & Sullins, 2006). The concept is gaining popularity and it’s providing a great escape for people in urban environment from their high-paced, strenuous and many times monotonous lifestyle. At the same time it’s helping the new generation to get first-hand experience of the rural life, which otherwise is limited only to the books for them. Spending time on the farms, interacting with the local people and farmers to get an insight into their day-to-day work and their traditions, participating in the local fairs and festivals, doing the actual work on the farm, milking the cow, riding a bullock cart, are some of the activities that can be enjoyed on an agritourism outing.

3.2.1 Theoretical basis of agritourism

Agritourism is multifunctional and cooperative strategy (Sidali, Spiller and Schulze, 2011; Wilson, 2007; Essex, et. al., 2005; Schmitt, 2010; Mason, 2000). The post-productivits agricultural system is the new approach in agricultural development. It is very complicated than subsistence and productivits agriculture systems (Topcu, 2007). Post-productivits agriculture system is a broad concept and the five main tasks of it are qualitative priorities in food production, alternative income sources for farmers and sustainability of agricultural lands, conservation of environment and new employment opportunities. Agritourism can easily link with these new aspects of agricultural development. Moreover, agritourism can be performed in five important sectors such as agricultural economic, socio-cultural, environmental and educational context in an effective manner. Further, since it is highly involved with the gender factor, agritourism as a gender approach is also having higher importance (Topcu, 2007; Sidali, Spiller and Schulze; 2011; Wilson, 2007; Essex, et. al., 2005).

3.2.2 Definitions of agritourism

Before 1990, only a little information has been published on agritourism. This lack of information was one of the reasons for the absence for the commonly accepted definition (Lack, 1997). However, after 1990, the research literature on agritourism has flourished and several number of definitions are available now (McGehee & Kim, 2004). Some selected definitions of agritourism are as follows.

Agritourism can be defined as the practice of engaging in activities, events and services that has been provided to consumers for recreational, entertainment, or educational purposes at a farm, ranch, or other agricultural, horticultural, or agribusiness operation in order to allow consumers to experience, learn about, and participate in various facets of agricultural industry, culinary pursuits, natural resources, and heritage (Colorado Agritourism Research Project, 2010).

Tew (2010) cited The Agribusiness Development Division of the Missouri Department of Agriculture (2010) defines agritourism as, “visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural, or agribusiness operation for the purpose of appreciation, enjoyment, education, or recreational involvement with agricultural, natural or heritage resources”

Agritourism as an innovative agricultural activity related to tourism and agriculture both in which has capacity to create additional source of income and employment opportunities to the farmers and local communities (Maruti, 2009).

Agritourism can be characterized as a business or activity that invites visitors to come on-farm or into a rural community to enjoy agriculture, its produce and the natural environment in which it exists. Agritourism is generally an additional enterprise added to the farm, integrating tourism into agri-business (Porcaro, 2009).

An activity, enterprise or business which combines primary elements and characteristics of agriculture and tourism and provides an experience for visitors which stimulates economic activity and impacts both farm and community income (Bruch, 2008).

Tourism on a working farm in which visitors can experience a direct connection with the

host farm, rural life and/or the local environment”.

There is not a consistent definition of agritourism in the literature, and it has been used interchangeably with other terms. For example, some studies have previously been synonymously linked to rural tourism, farm tourism, agro-tourism, agricultural tourism and farm based vacation (Seong-woo and Sou-yeon, 2006; Ilbery, 1998; Ilbery, 1991). However, the main idea of all of these definitions is more or less similar. As a whole, agritourism can be explained as an interaction among agricultural producers, visitors, and local residents. Operators (mainly farmers) can earn extra income from the farm, visitors can get real knowledge and experience on farming and local residents can enhance their living slandered in several ways.

3.2.3 Working definition for agritourism in the study

For the purpose of this study, agritourism is defined as “tourism activities that conduct in working farm and surrounding, for enjoyment, education, recreation of visitors, hoping an additional income for the operator from farm resources in special and sustainable local development in general”. This is the working definition for agritourism in this study that is suitable in Sri Lankan context. After having strong theoretical knowledge and practical experience in agritourism sector, this was developed, including considering the main purposes of agritourism visitors, motivation of agritourism operators and expectations of local residents for rural development. Economic, social, environmental dimensions have been included in this definition.

3.2.4 Activities involved in agritourism

Normally, agritourism activities are the tourism activities take place in agricultural lands and surrounding rural environments. The number of agritourism activities mainly depends on the size of the farm and nature of the farming activities. These activities are important for the visitors to enjoy and learn agriculture. Blacka et al (2001) has divided agritourism activities in Virginia, into six categories as lodging and camping (bed & breakfast, camp sites, youth camp, farm vacation, weddings, honeymoons), special events and festivals (music festivals, haunted house, holiday celebrations, harvest festivals) Off the farm (farmers’ markets, roadside produce stands), recreational activities and events (fee fishing, hiking, rock climbing, horseback riding, skeet shooting), tourism related direct marketing (pick your own fruits/vegetables, sell processed food on the farm, sell herbal organic products) an youth and or adult education (Organized tours, agricultural educational programs, demonstrations). Lack (1995) divided agritourism British Colombia, into three groups as retail sales/ direct marketing (goods produced on-site, customer harvested produce and goods produced off-site), Tours (tour of processing facilities, scenic tours and tours of production facilities) and activities (accommodation, cultural activities, recreation and educational or hands on experiences). It is important to include all the possible agritourism activities because it helps to increase the length of stay and satisfaction of the visitors. In European countries, in a farm there are activities for visitors even for several days. However, the number of agritourism activities is lower in Asian countries. Further, activities in agritourism and rural tourism haven’t clearly categorized yet and most of the time they are used interchangeably.

Briefly, a successful agritourism operation should have three aspects. They are the need to have things for visitors to see (educational tours, historical recreations, festivals/special events, crop arts), things for visitors to do (educational activities, petting zoos, hay rides, pick your own) and things for visitors to buy (food & drinks, farm products, souvenirs). Things to see and do are often offered free of charge. But, money can be earned by selling things to the visitors (Adam, 2001). Agritourism can be used as primary, supplementary or complementary enterprise. As a primary enterprise, agritourism would be the main activity in the farm. Agritourism could be a minor activity in supplementary enterprises and it would share equal footing in complementary enterprises (Blacka et al., 2001). Agritourism can consist of different alternatives such as temporary attraction or special event, part of a large agriculture-oriented destination, part of a large non-agriculture-oriented destination, and complete agritourism agritourism operation.

Different forms agritourism business

Farmers can incorporate agritourism activities to their farms in various ways according to the situation. Four possible ways are; as a supplementary, complementary or primary enterprise, farmer must be ready to think creatively and plan effectively in order to success the agritourism enterprise (Mnguni, 2010).

Supplementary enterprise

In a supplementary enterprise, agritourism could be a minor activity that would support the other products on the farm. For example, if the primary enterprise is crop production, educational and training programs can be introduced with marketing facility of value added crop products.

Complementary enterprise

In a complementary enterprise, agritourism activities have equal share with other enterprises in the farm product mix. For instance, if there is a grapes production enterprise on the farm, it the farmer wants to sell half of the grapes to a whole seller and the remainder to ”pick-your-own” operations for visitors on the farm, then the two enterprises would be complementary enterprises.

The primary enterprise

In the primary enterprise, agritourism would be the major activity on the farm. For example, suppose that a farmer wants to open a winery on the farm and invite guests to spend the day or the weekend tasting wine. As a part of the wine tasting package, farmer may include overnight lodging in a cottage on your farm. You may produce grapes for the wine on your farm to supplement your wine tasting activities. Here agritourism is the main part of the farm product mix and it becomes the primary enterprise (Bernardo, Valentin and Leatherman, 2007; Blacka, et al, 2001).

3.2.5 Issues and challenges of agritourism development

As agritourism is a business activity, lots of requirements are essential for the successfulness of it. However, as agritourism is conduct mainly in rural areas by farmers, presence of several issues and challenges is a common phenomenon. For example, a study by Lack (1995) in British Colombia, has discovered that, lack of training, marketing knowledge, quality control, finance, appropriate insurance, excessive regulations, personal challenges for farm families, conflict with primary agricultural production, distance from markets, infrastructure limitations and farm disease are the challenges of agritourism development in that country. Agritourism in Nova Scotia has some obstacles. Many agritourism operators face the problem of lack of assistance and the knowledge required to produce market-ready products as Nova Scotia Tourism and Culture is reluctant to include and to enhance agritourism in their marketing campaigns. This lack of support hinders the development of agritourism products and services resulting poorly developed and marketed products by farmers. So, farmers could not develop many skills required to operate an effective tourism business (Colton and Bissix, 2005).

A study in Haryana, India has reported that the Lack of funds for publicity and advertisement less number of visitors, Lack of technology to develop farm tourism, lack of motivation of farmers, inadequate price for farm products/activities as major constraints in establishing agritourism (Shehrawat, 2009).

In Sri Lanka, issues and challenges in agritourism are small size farm lands, lack of required skills for the operators, poor level of processing of agricultural products, low level of publicity and promotion are the significant factors. Furthermore, lack of visitors, environmental pollution, poor condition on infrastructure, are the common problems for all the operators (Malkanthi and Routray, 2011b). Although there are few differences, most of the issues and challenges are common for many countries. As issues and challenges are negatively affect for the growth of the sector, finding solutions is utmost important.

3.2.6 Sustainability in agritourism operations

Sustainable tourism development is supposed to meet the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing the opportunities for the future. It is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled, while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems (World Tourism Organization, 1999) Therefore, Sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability.

Same as other tourism destinations, sustainability of agritourism destinations are very important in long run. Although most of the destinations that are feasible in short run, face difficulties in survival in long run. So, economic feasibility, social acceptability and environmental friendliness of tourism operations are equally applicable to agritourism as well. World Tourism Organization (2001), defines sustainable development as “convene the requirement of present tourists and host regions as caring and improving opportunity for prospect. Its management of resources satisfies in way of economical, social and aesthetic needs satisfying while maintaining cultural integrity necessary for ecological processes, biological diversity and existence support system”. Markandya, et.al., (2003) have reported that the three main linkages among tourism and sustainable development are economic, social and environmental.

Tourism can kill itself if we mismanage the tourism activities and places (Yalcin Kuwan & Perran Akan, 2001). Unspoiled natural environment is an asset of the industry. It will create the competitive advantage to the industry (Cater, 1993). The implementation and success of policies of sustainability, in employing tourism income to support social and cultural development and wild life conservation, require strategy framework which guides tourism development in a balanced and coherent way (Hall, 1998).

Economic feasibility

As one element of destination’s economy, tourism must support a viable economic base. A healthy economy enables a country, region or city to pursue initiatives designed to enhance the quality of its residents (Ritchie & Crouch, 2003). Traditional way of management of tourism destination was rather productive and resource-centered. But since there are limits in adapting to the market, the present strategy is combined supply and market let approach. In this context, management of demand is highly responsible for the sustainable tourism development (Kastenholz, 2004). So, instead of profit maximization of a destination by damaging the environment in short term, now the principle is to obtain the optimum profit.

Economic benefits are positively related with the number of visitors. Further arrangement of traditional and cultural events is cost effective with this large number. However, as agritourism is a niche market, socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable, cooperation of cultural activities is very important.

Socio-cultural feasibility

It is widely accepted that local community participation is essential in sustainable tourism. Since agritourism is a service industry, goodwill and cooperation of host communities are the key factors of the success of the industry (Cole, 2006; Knowd, 2006). It is more important for the positive effects of tourism to the local community. It should be free from negative effects to the community. So, it is essential to test the social acceptability of tourism destinations (Gonzalez and Falcon, 2003). Convery, Dutson & Scott (2006) found out the importance of stronger link between tourism and surrounding communities. The study also emphasizes the importance of social capital and social network in remote upland rural locations for the success of the operation. Most common measurement in tourism socio cultural force is the relation of visitors to the local population. Vital indicators are the stay-over time and average length of stay (Mcelroy, 2003). Sharpley (2002) said that socio-cultural growth includes population of remote areas, development and maintenance of public services, renewal of local craft, customs and cultural recognition. So it influences the chance for social control and exchange.

Environmental feasibility

Tourism destination should less damage to the surrounding environment; especially it should be free from serious environmental pollution activities. So, it should match with environmental rules and regulations and followed by Environment Impact Assessment (United Nations, 1999). However, the literature reveals that little evidence is there regarding environment being considered by farmers, planners and tourism professionals (Kline et al. 2007).

Thus, sustainable agritourism should ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation. Also, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance. It should make careful use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.

Sustainable agritourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Achieving sustainable agritourism is a continuous process and it requires constant monitoring of impacts, introducing the necessary preventive and/or corrective measures whenever necessary. Furthermore, it should also maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience to the tourists, raising their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices amongst them.

Although it is difficult and expensive, agritourism development should follow the sustainable tourism procedures to obtain the real benefits of it forever. However, most of the operators in many countries mainly emphasize only on short term economic advantages without social and environmental benefits. This is the reason for the breakdown of many tourism operations including agritourism, within a short time period.

3.2.7 Government policies in agritourism

In general local government is the most important authority in establishing tourism development policies (Perce, 1989). However, the types and the content of its involvement vary from country to country based on the political, economic, and constitutional systems. In many European countries governments’ have supported the growth of the agritourism sector.

There are national policies for the support and development of agritourism in a number of countries for a long time. For instance, in France, state financial aids to support the renovation of redundant farm buildings into accommodation facilities were introduced in 1954. Farms in Italy, Germany and Denmark also have long benefited from national support for the development of tourist facilities (Frater, 1983; Nilsson, 2002). In Britain, Scheme offering financial incentives and advices about diversification, together with partial relaxation of planning restrictions, have facilitated the development of farm-based tourism. The farm diversification Grant Scheme introduced by the ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1988, was one of the first measures offering grants to farmers to help them develop diversification schemes (Walford, 2001).

According to Douglas & Douglas, (2001); Fernando, Rebollo & Biadal, (2003), it is important to develop policies in a proactive nature to lay the foundation and capture the development potential of tourism for rural communities. So, the national rural tourism strategy of a country must emphasis on infrastructure development, product development, accreditation and industrial standards, education and training, market analysis and the role of government authorities and industrial leaders in further developing the rural tourism product. Ritchie & Crouch (2003) reported that policy is an important factor which ensures the success of tourism destination. It also creates a friendly environment among stakeholders.

Therefore, the main objectives of agritourism policy are to minimize and alleviate negative environmental, s

Tour operator is a person or company who purchases the different items that make up an inclusive holiday in bulk, combines them together to produce package holiday and then sell the final product to the public either directly or through travel agencies (Yale 1995).

A package holiday consists of at least two of the following. Services must be sold to customer to cover a period of 24 hours and should include an overnight stay (Council Directive 90/314/EEC of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours): –

Transport (flights, ferry crossings, coaches)

Accommodation (for period of 24 hours)

Other tourist services (foreign exchange, airport transfers, guiding etc.)

To be able to serve customer a tour operator must know the customer as of what are the needs and requirements of a customer and how much he/she is willing to pay for the services offered. For a better understanding of customer, Customers are classified under six different socio-economic groups namely: –

A – Professionals (Lawyers, Doctors, Software Developers etc.)

Frequent travellers

B – Semi Professionals (Small-business owners, Craftspeople etc.)

C1 – Skilled Workers (Nurses, Clerical staff etc.)

C2 – Semi Skilled Workers (Shop assistants, Office workers etc.)

D – Unskilled Worker (Manual labourers, Agricultural workers etc.)

E – Unemployed

The standard of accommodation offered in a package must be suitable for different socio- economic group. For example:-

For group A to B, a hotel can be a 4 or 5 star.

For group C1 to C2, a hotel can be 3 or 2 star.

Similarly, the services offered in the accommodation should have facilities suitable for customers.

Spas and Golf courses for A and B clients.

Bars and Casinos for C and D clients.

Entertainment for E and beyond.

A tour operator may design a special product to target a particular group of customers; which can be based on different social, economical or geographical factors. Such sub setting of market is known as Niche Marketing. Stanton states niche marketing as “a method to meet customer needs through tailoring goods and services for small markets” (Stanton et al. 1994).

In the following assignment, the market research department of ABC Tours – a medium sized tour operator based in London, United Kingdom which specialises in a number of niche markets serving to customers in the A – B socio economic groups has come up with a new destination – Alaska

Alaska

Alaska – the largest state of United State of America has got everything to call itself an emerging tourist destination. From its assorted wildlife sanctuaries to scenic natural beauty; Alaska also offers is a unique blend of wilderness and native culture which coexist peacefully. DuFresne states that “Alaska is where human being stands on an equal footing with nature. Nowhere in United States is there such an undeveloped, unpopulated and untrampled place” (DuFresne et al. 2009).

Task One – Contracting Hotel Accommodation

Accommodation determines a major portion of cost of a package vacation; it also significantly influences the degree of satisfaction of the tourists who purchase such packages (R. D. Medina-Munoz et al. 2003). A tour operator must the following factors in mind while contracting accommodation for a packaged tour:-

Price – In a packaged tour, price of accommodation is a primary factor that affects the costing of tour.

Quality and Safety – The quality of accommodation must match the price paid for accommodation by a customer. Also, no compromises should be made with the level of safety in an accommodation. A tour operator must enquire if accommodation complies with the local health and safety regulations.

Right accommodation for the right customer – Different customers have different needs. Accommodation being an influential factor for tourist, it must be wisely chosen. For example, A couple going on a holiday with their children may require a hotel accommodation with children play area facility or in case of babies, babysitting facilities may be required.

Methods of contracting accommodation

‘Rack’ rate – This is the public price payable for an accommodation. A tour operator need no contractual relationship but is dependent on accommodation being available at the time of booking it and also will be paying the public price. To make a profit, you may need to charge more than the rack rate. This will ultimately result in an expensive product.

Ad-hoc rate – Tour operators have a contract with agreed price, below the rack rate, but the hotel does not guarantee room. Thus, operator does not guarantee bookings.

Commitment – As the term suggests, in this method the tour operator agrees to buy a set number of rooms for the coming season regardless of how many it actually manages to sell. This method of contracting bears a higher degree of risk as tour operator has a commitment with hotelier. Yale states, in a bad year commitment may mean the operator paying for lots of beds it is ultimately unable to sell (Yale 1995).

Allocation – Tour operators agree to take a specified number of rooms for the whole season. The contract will have a “release date” normally 21 or 28 days before arrival. At that point they can return any unsold room to the hotel with no financial commitment but they must then pay for all the room they have not released. Dale states that these contracts are popular with hoteliers (Dale & Oliver 2005). But this is also the way most large tour operators contract their accommodation and when holidays were sold in advance of travelling, it meant that operator carried no financial obligation of paying for unsold accommodation. Now, with late booking operator either have to hold on to the room and pay whether they sell them or not or release them back to hotel with the risk they cannot get them back if they want to make late sales.

Free sale rate or Sell and Report rate – In this method, Hotel guarantees accommodation for booking made by the tour operator. The operator simply reports the sale in due course. The hotel must provide the room until such time as it issues a stop sale notice or gives a list of ‘blackout’ dates to the tour operator. In these circumstances; operator must book room availability before confirming anything to the client.

Hotel and Contracting Term Suggested

Anchorage Marriott Downtown,
Anchorage, Alaska, United States of America

Located in the city centre Anchorage Marriott Downtown is the only four star luxury hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. It offers 390 guestrooms and 3 suites. The hotel is conveniently located in Downtown Anchorage and is close to 5th Avenue Mall, an upscale shopping mall located within minutes from hotel; other nearby attractions include AK Experiences Theatre, AK Mint & AK Zoo. The standard room amenities include cable /satellite television channels, oversized picture windows framing Chugach Mountain Range, wireless high-speed internet access. The hotel is at close proximity from Anchorage international airport. A shuttle service is provided by the hotel at an additional cost. During peak season, Average nightly rates are in the range from ?150-?350. Being a part of Marriott International Inc, Anchorage Marriott Downtown provides excellent customer service. As one of the guest reviews Anchorage Marriott Downtown as “…hotel staff was very friendly and accommodating…” (Anon 2010).

Contractual method suggested with Anchorage Marriott Downtown

From the above-listed methods of contracting hotel accommodation, Allocation method will be suggested as it holds lesser risks then commitment contracts, Commitment contracts are usually for those destinations which are already in mass demand or for those destinations whose image of a big experience has been matured. These destinations have more dependable market trends (political/ economic stability, climate, culture etc) which help the tour operator to reduce the risk involved in commitment contracts. However, for a not-so-matured destination like Alaska, an allotment contract would be an ideal option for a medium seized operator like ours. Reasons for opting allotment contract for accommodation in Alaska would be:-

Allotment contract averts a tour operator from paying for unsold service by allowing tour operator to release any unsold room to hotel by release date. This prevents tour operator from facing liquidity crunch in the event to poor sales season.

Contracting accommodation in a new destination like Alaska, there are number of threats which characterize the market; these are monetary fluctuations, climate, terrorist attacks and political/social conflicts. A tour operator cannot rely on such market trends which can adversely affect demand of a tourism product.

Contracting accommodation by method of allotment in such a price sensitive market also gives tour operator a scope to renegotiate prices with suppliers if the demand of a product is not as expected.

On the contrary, Commitment contracts are preferred by large tour operators as they have more bargaining power as compared to medium seized tour operators. Buhalis states that some big tour operators are able to obtain up to 70% of discount (Buhalis 2001).

Other Services to be contracted in Hotel

Excursions/ Safaris – Hotel have established links with local excursion providers. Such services can be contract from hotel at discounted rates and be sold to customers at premium rates. Excursion are usually booked and paid for in the resort and one of reps is to publicise them at the welcome party and take booking (Yale 1995).

Airport Transfer – Generally airport transfers are provided by the hotel but at Anchorage Marriott Downtown, airport transfer is an add-on. Hotel can be contacted to arrange airport transfer services at negotiated rates which are generally less than the rack rates. And we as tour operator can include the cost in the package deal and highlight it as a premium service.

Travel Assistance (Guiding) – Tour operators can contract the services of guides in hotel. As Anchorage Marriott Downtown has highly trained and multi lingual guides. Services of these guides can be contracted and can be sold separately to the customers.

Car Hire service – Anchorage Marriott Downtown offers car hiring services at discounted rate to their customers. Tour operator can offer these services to customers if they contract them during the time of contracting accommodation.

Task Two- Report on arranging transport to the destination

REPORT ON RECCOMENDATIONS REGARDING FLIGHT OPTIONS AVAILABLE FOR PACKAGED TOURS TO ALASKA.

Kunal Puri

– Addressing General Manager, ABC tours

Following is the report recommending flight options available to arrange transportation for the package tour from The UK to Alaska, US.

Considering the location of destination and also the fact that there are no direct flights available from The UK to Alaska, US. The flight journey has to include a technical stopover. The possible stopover point can be Seattle which is approximately 1500 miles from Alaska.

After evaluating various options available for our tour I found the following options to be most feasible for tours to Alaska, US.

Option One

Type: Scheduled Flight

Carrier: British Airways

Flight Itinerary: LHR-SEA-ANC___ANC-SEA-LHR

In the above option, a schedule flight has been recommended for transportation. Departing from London Heathrow, stopping at Seattle Tacoma Int. and then continuing its journey to Anchorage Ted Stevens Int. Alaska. Reasons for recommending a scheduled flight are:-

Competitive Rates – Scheduled flights used to be much more expensive then charter flights but due to level of competition in the aviation industry, prices of seats have come at par with those of charter flights.

Higher Standard of comfort & Service – Considering our itinerary, which is a long-haul flight from the UK to Alaska; the level of service delivered is generally higher if compared to short-haul flights. This is in view of providing better service to our customers of A-B socio-economic group.

Cost – We as a tour operator can contract flight seats from a scheduled airline at ad-hoc fares which are available on certain GDS systems. These fares do not require tickets issue until 21-28 days before departure; they can be cancelled up to 8 weeks before departure either free of charge or at minimal fee.

Financial Implications of contracting Scheduled flight seats

In case of Scheduled airlines, costing are usually done as soon as we enter into contract; we as a tour operator are able to make rough estimate of our future cash inflows and outflows. In case of cancellations, a minor fee is payable to scheduled airline which can be collected from the customer as cancellation fee. Prices of scheduled flights seat can increase or decrease according to demand; If it is anticipated properly we can make profit out of such contract.

Option Two

Type: Charter Flight

Carrier: XYZ Charters

Flight Itinerary: LGW-ORD-ANC___ANC-ORD-LGW

In this case, I analyzed the option of considering charter flight seats as transportation for our tour to Alaska. In this option, flight will be departing from London Gatwick, stopping at Chicago O’Hare Int. and then continuing its journey to Anchorage Ted Stevens Int. Alaska. After analyzing the option, the following were my observations:-

Availability – In case of charter flights, we as a tour operator can contract the seats for the whole season. Thus, the availability of aircraft is guaranteed.

Customisable – The in-flight service in a charter flight are customisable according to our needs. Services like entertainment, food and baggage allowance can be customised and delivered to the customer. This helps us to provide add-on services to clients at an extra cost.

Network – Charter flights have network advantage over scheduled flights as charter flights generally have operations from regional local airports. It can be beneficial for our tour to remote areas in Alaska.

Financial Implications of contracting Charter flight seats

Charter flight have right to increase prices if the price of fuel increases. And as we are aware fuel prices are on constant rise; which makes charter flights a risky business to get into. Also, we as tour operator might have to pay some variable charges such as landing fees (at some airports) duties and taxes; such unforeseen payments can make our profits suffer.

I, hereby submit the report on my recommendations for transportation for our tour to Alaska for your kind consideration.

– Kunal Puri

“Tourism may be further defined as the movement of people away from their normal place of residence” (J. Christopher Halloway, 1998)

This definition describes tourism as an action to see something new or different from daily life. The tourism industry is constantly growing and the economics of some countries are mainly based on it. Tourism can be seen in association with a lot of different factors like visitors attractions and hospitality.

This essay will deal with the multi-disciplinary nature of tourism as well as the Travel and Transport and especially on the railways industry. Furthermore will it focus on the history and the current practice in the railway industry.

Tourism is multi-disciplinary. One of its’ natures are Visitors attractions. J. Christophe Holloway and Neil Taylor described Visitor Attractions as followed.

“So we must accept that no clear definition exists for the term. It is easiest just to accept that any site that appeals to people sufficiently to encourage them to travel there in order to visit it should be judged a `visitor attraction`.” (J. Christopher Holloway and Neil Taylor,2006)

They can be categorized by factors like being built with a touristic purpose or being built with no touristic background. Examples of attractions which had during their construction no touristic purpose are The Eiffel Tower in the Paris and the Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen. These attractions attract in our modern world millions of tourist to Paris or Copenhagen. These examples are the best proves that attractions can be build without a touristic hidden thought.

The tourists visiting a attraction need an accommodation in case they are not day-tripper. The accommodation sector can be divided in the non-profit and the profit sector. The non-profit includes the visiting friends and relatives, which are still very important for tourism even though they are not spending any money on accommodation as tourists will still spend money throughout their stay in the area of interest. This category also includes hostels which do not try to make a profit.

The second sector has to make a profit to survive. This sectors comprises B&B, hotels and camping’s.

Transportation is also part of the tourism because it brings the tourists to attractions and accommodation. The most common transportation method is nowadays the plane. Other ways which are to consider are the coach or the train. The train was over the last decades suffering with falling numbers of passengers but seems now to be on the right track. Water-borne transport can be seen as a form of transportation which includes ferries or as a place of relaxation also on ocean liners which is getting more and more popular in the recent years.

Travel trading changed in the last few years. Travel agencies are used to be the place where every tourist has to book his holiday. In our modern society, a lot of people are using the internet for bookings. They leave the local travel agent out and book their holiday directly by the tour operator or by the coach company online. The travel agents reacted by creating online platforms as Expedia.co.uk which are in direct competition to tour operators.

Every holiday booking saves the workplace of several employees working in the travel industry. The money spend, has also an effect on the local economy as an the travel destination. An example, which illustrates this, is a holiday booked over the internet in the UK. One the hand, the tour operator or the online travel agency benefits in their UK head office. On the other hand, the local population at the destination profits from it. This example shows that people all over are making profit from holiday or a travel booked.

The historic development of the travel and transport sector is quite impressive. It all started when people from Egyptian were travelling to visit other cities, their culture and architecture. Unfortunately was the end of the Roman Empire at the same time the end of travel in his earliest form. People had to wait till the 16th century before starting travelling again(?). People at that time had tree possibilities to travel. One of them was walking, which was dedicated to poor people. The second one was riding a horse which was for richer people. Last but not least, carrier wagon’s or a litter were the other possibilities to travel. In the 19th century was a big change for the travel and transport industry as it resulted in a revolution for this industry. In the early part of the century, the invention of the railway had a great impact on travelling. The time of travel was reduced massively and people were able to travel in less “than 10 days from London to Edinburgh”(Quote). The first railway segment was opened in the UK in 1825 between Stockton and Darlington, from then on a lot of different train routes were opened in the upcoming years all over the world. The last great line was opened 1903 in Russia between Moscow and Vladivostok. The number of passenger was growing. The railway was much more comfortable and faster than the ordinary travel by road or on canal. Their success was created in a short period of time because of its reliability and was soon the most important method of transport. Thomas Cook was involved in the success of the train due to his usage of the railway as a way to bring tourists to their holiday destinations. Later, in the early 19th century the private railway companies were not able to handle the enormous costs. Most of the companies were in serious financial trouble. The only solution to save these companies was the involvement of the governments. Most of the countries in Western Europe were so dependent from their national railways companies that they were not able to afford the bankruptcies of these companies. The trouble for the railways companies was not over after their nationalization. The development of new transport possibilities after the Second World War like the plane brought the railway industry in new trouble. In the 1960ties more and more people were using coaches and their private car to go on holiday. The railway industry had no appropriated answer to these new ways of travel and followed their same old strategy.

Nowadays, the railway industry changed a lot . At the end of the 20th century most of the railways services all over Europe were denationalized. The private owners made them more competitive. The denationalization was indeed good for the industry but mainly for the customer because prices get more competitive. Today’s marketing concepts like party trains from London to the French Alps and discounts for people over 55 are used to attract people and to persuade them to travel with trains. A major trend can be seen all over the world to use high speed trains like the TGV and the ICE in Europe and the Shinkasen in Japan.

The railway industry is catching up with new features to make the journey more comfortable for their passengers. In today’s world passengers are able to obtain WIFI connections and audio entertainment services. These features are currently spreading in different forms of transport but are not available on all routes when it comes to for exapmle WIFI connection in trains. Nevertheless will WIFI be the norm in a few years time as well as video screens in the backseat with possibilities to game or to watch videos during your travel.

The railway stations are not only placse of leaving and arriving trains but they are getting more and more places which have shops in it. (Mintal ,2008) One of the examples to illustrate this statement can be found in Scotland more preciously in Aberdeen. The shopping Centre gives the possibility to go from the centre itself to the railway station. Another example is the “Hauptbahnhof” in Berlin where you can find all sort of shops. The railway industry is getting more and more innovative to attract and to persuade more people to see trains as an alternative to coaches, planes or cars.

Another trend, which is getting more and more popular, is the nostalgia of the trains. Alone in the UK there are several old trains running regularly as the Scotsman. The travel time varies from only a few hours to several days like The Ghan in Australia which is travelling between Melbourne and Sydney. These trains are normally extremely luxurious and are targeting old people.

There are three major trends in the future. One trend is to have high-speed trains which have a lot of multimedia features. Another future ambition is to operate trains on historical routes with all desirable luxury amenities. Currently the most recent trend is to convert normal railway stations to a sort of shopping centres.

The travel industry changed over the last years. They changed with new possibilities as the world wide web. The travel industry is in a permanent change to be up-to-date and to come up with new ideas. The railway industry, which suffered over the last four decades due to mismanagement and falling passenger numbers, also changed. Their denationalization had a positive effect on the whole industry which can be seen every day. As it was already mentioned earlier on, the industry is getting more innovative to catch up their arrears to other industries like the airline industry and the coach industry.

The transport system forms a key part of the tourism and the tourist experience at the destination. In many tourism studies, the important relationship between transport and the tourism sector was highlighted and defined in term of “accessibility” which means, transport was considered as an empirical link between tourist generating regions and tourism destination regions (Prideaux, 2000, 2002; Gronau & Kagermeier, 2007; Ferri, 2004; Jacobsen & Kristian, 1997; Nilsson, 2001). Tourists need to be able to get to tourism destinations, otherwise, the destination attractions will fail to meet their financial objectives. The ability of tourists to travel around destination regions is therefore vital for the tourism sector. Thus the role of transport has been a key subject of discussion in the tourism literature as an essential component of the entire tourism system.

In the recent decade, the event tourism has emerged as an important sector of tourism strategies and leisure behaviour globally. In Australia, the tourism destination development and tourism marketing have been occupied a large proportion in tourism investment, and now, the integration of key events into the national tourism organization’s domestic and international tourism marketing strategy is outlined in the Tourism Australia Act 2004 (Stokes, 2008). The Tourism Australia has launched a division to give specific attention to the business and major events sectors. Thus, the perception of the dynamics of event tourism strategy making across the country is now becoming a national interest (Stokes, 2008). Accordingly, the transport system performs a key part in building the fundamentals of the development of both domestic and international leisure activities and event tourism (Prideaux, 2000; Hall, 1999). Although the significance of the transport system has been recognised in many tourism studies since the 1970s, little work has been done to link transport specifically with the event tourism sector.

Research aims and the significance of the topic

The main aims of this research are to identify the importance of the role of transport system in the development of event tourism destination and of the tourists’ decision-making process in event destination selection, and ultimately to bridge a theoretical gap between the event tourism and transport systems.

The term of the “event tourism” has been described as “the planning, development and marketing of events as tourist attractions to maximize the number of tourists participating in events as either primary or secondary attractions” (Getz, 1997). Events are typically an essential motivator of tourism industry, and build outstandingly in the development and marketing plans of most tourism destinations (Getz, 2008). The strategically planned events within tourism are of growing significances for destinations’ competitiveness, and their function and impacts are important to be well recognised by the tourism destinations. Nowadays, Australia tourism sector is working in an increasingly competitive macro environment in which the tourism industry and governments around the world are insistently aspiring to grow their share of the global event tourism market. Hence, it is a fact that the event tourism has become well-known in the last few decades in the tourism industry and also in the research area, so that it is unsurprisingly the consequent growth of this realm can be described as impressive (Getz, 2008).

The event tourism represents a sector of activities that creates distinct challenges to the transport sector through: the high volumes of travel demand due to the increasing in event tourism demand; direct and indirect implications for transport operations such as extension of urban road system within the area of a mega event and the impact of possible road restrictions during the event may cause intensity of the public transportation; wider implications for the urban transport framework; and the emotional impacts on participants and visitors brought by the transport and traffic conditions on the journeys of going to and backing from a particular event (Schiefelbusch, Jain, Schafer, & Muller, 2007). However, among the existing event tourism literature, transport has rarely been considered as an important factor in event tourism destination development (Dickinson, Calver, Watters, & Wilkes, 2004; Schlich, Schonfelder, Hanson, & Axhausen, 2004; Schiefelbusch et al., 2007), either a factor which would impact on the tourists’ decision-making process in attending an upcoming event (Page, 1998). Nevertheless, the journeys to and from events should be seen as key elements of a strategy for reducing any un-satisfactions (or negative side-effects) of event participants and customers who involved in any event tourism, and at the same time, the integration of transport with the event tourism also opens up possibilities for new tourism experiences.

Literature Review

2.1. The role of the transport system in the tourism destination development

In the history, every breakthrough movement in the transport technology, from the engineering of road systems by the Romans to the construction of aircraft for travelling purpose in recent centenary, people have been enabled to travel further with the greater speed, at a lower cost (Prideaux, 2000). Kaul (1985) addressed that the transport system has a long history records which showed abundant evidence that the transport made an intense and deep effect on the development of tourists’ travelling from the ancient times. It was formally acknowledged in his research that the importance of transport development and communications as an essential component of successful development in the creation of new attractions for the growth of tourism destinations. The author also suggested that the “transport plays an important role in the successful creation and development of new attractions as well as the healthy growth of existing ones. Provision of suitable transport has transformed dead centres of tourist interest into active and prosperous places attracting multitudes of people”. In Australia, government regulations and the tourism policies exerted great effects in responsible for providing transport to the nation’s tourism market. The Commonwealth Department of Tourism (1992) stated that the development of tourism industry in Australia relied on the nation’s transport infrastructure which should be qualified and efficient. The Tourism and Transport Forum (2010) of Australia also asserted that transport system formed a core component in the tourism destination development project. An empirical evidence of the role of transport system in destination development and destination selection was made by Prideaux’s (2000) research, which intensely proved Crouch and Ritchie’s (1999) research which analysed the product in the context of tourism comparative and competitive advantage, stated that tourism planning and development would not be possible without roads, airports, harbours, electricity, sewage and potable water.

Hence, the transport and the tourism are two complimentary fields in both academic study and real world practice. Transport system forms a vital link between tourist and destination in the tourism system. It is defined as “the operation of, and interaction between, transport modes, ways and terminals that support tourism resorts in terms of passenger and freight flows into and out of destinations, and the provision of connecting transport modes in the tourism generating region” (Prideaux, 2000). Although many tourism studies mentioned the role of transport in event tourism perspective, and admitted that the requirement for efficient transport as an element leading to the successful programme of tourism development, only a few research have been undertaken on the issue that identifying the importance of transport as a factor in the development of event tourism (Robbins, Dickinson, & Calver, 2007).

In the context of event tourism, the transport system is considered as a key part in the planning and organising processes of events ranging from small scaled local festivals to large international mega events, enabling event goers and customers travelling to and from an event eventually aiming in success (Robbins, Dickinson, & Calver, 2007). Similarly, the National Business Event Strategy Group of Australia suggested that a strong and competitiveness transport system, especially the aviation industry, was vital for the development of the business event sector and for international inbound, national and regional business development (The Business Event Strategy Group, 2008). Although it is a fact that transport system often seems peripheral to the event tourism in the destination development and destination selection literature (Dickinson et al., 2004; Schlich et al., 2004; Schiefelbusch et al., 2007), the impacts brought by the planning and enhancing of transport system for the development of event tourism destinations should not be neglected. In order to better understand the distinctive contribution of transport system to the development of event tourism destination, making further efforts in affecting event tourists’ decision making process of event destination selection, a number of subjects and issues relating to tourism transport system should be identified and thoroughly analysed since they have made direct contribution to the tourism destination development. These are: the concept of “event geography”; economic issues of transport system at tourism destinations; transport system as a marketing component at the tourism destination; the role of government policy in relation to event tourism transport provision.

The concept of “event geography”

One of the major concepts relating transport and event tourism regards to the term of “event geography”, which refers to the interactions between people in spatial and temporal patterns of event activities, together with the impacts to the surrounding environment (Getz, 2004). The term explains that the location of an event is important contributor to the event success and further impact to the host community as well. The discipline of “event geography” was systematically outlined and presented by Getz (2004) who concentrated on the meaning and scope of event geography including tourism-related themes (Figure 1). It was illustrated that the event geography consisted of several major themes, amongst the temporal dimension and spatial distribution patterns and resources that the events brought to the tourism were most obviously observed and examined in the event geography literature.

Figure 1. Conceptual inter-relationship between event geography, event studies, and event tourism (Getz, 2004)

The concept of “event geography” was initially developed in the 1990s. Janiskee’s (1994) pioneering contributions to the “event geography” had to be acknowledged although his papers predominantly examined the spatial and temporal distribution of festivals in US, and he also examined the perceived constrains of which caused people not travel to the events. Another excellent event geographic study conducted by Janiskee (1996) was specifically related to the temporal dimension theme. The study predominately proved the feature of seasonality (or timing) of the event tourism created opportunities and stimulated the development of special events in the low seasons. Evidence showed that the nature of uniqueness of the event was able to present the once-only combination of the physical setting (venue and perceived environment), event management (planning and programming), and the human resource (event staff and participants), bringing up the significance to the economic, social and environmental levels. Ultimately, the event-related travel functioned as a medium that integrated all pieces as a whole.

Wicks and Fesenmaier (1995) examined event tourism market potential in a geographical perspective. They randomly surveyed 2100 households in US about the attendance of any special event in the previous year, and concluded that event patrons were more likely to regardless of the distance travelled to attend a special event than non event patrons, having a tendency to have more travels in forms of daytrips, overnight trips and long trips. It also was evidence that the supple-demand interactions in event geography could be used as a tool of event marketing and event demand mapping (Verhoven, Wall, & Cottrell, 1998). Bohlin (2000) used a classic technique, the distance decay function, to determine how far people travelled to various festivals in Sweden, and what factors made the most difference, and the author concluded that travel declined with distance although the well-organised and frequently held events had greater appeal.

Thus, the location (spatial pattern) of the event is important to the event itself in achieving success and is a significant contribution to bring impacts to the local region and the host community. For instance, events choose urban locations, particularly the large cities where have great population size and high population density, are able to use developed public transport network, including higher frequency bus services, subway system/city trains, ferry services, and/or light rail systems.

The economic issues of transport system at event destination

2.3.1. The “Transport Cost Model”

In more recent years, the role of transport in event tourism started to draw more attention in the tourism research. The transport cost model has become popular in examining the impacts of transport system in the context of tourism management.

The concept of “travel chains” of transport as a motivation

In very recent years, a remarkable research project which has been done by German researchers called “Transport Systems for Event-Tourism” sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research aimed to develop and test new transport concepts for events as part of the leisure experience (Schiefelbusch, Jain, Schafer, & Muller, 2007). The project brought up the concept of “travel chains” which means travellers should experience their journey as a “chain of services” within the transport sector associated with linking different means of travel with one another. The project also suggested that the development and implementation of more sustainable “travel chains” need to put on the agenda.

The impact of transport system in event tourism

When the purpose of travel is to attend an event, then the demand for travel is heavily constrained both in time and space. Visitors share a common location and very similar optimal times of travel. The impacts of the peak period of transport demand created by an event are profound. Transport impacts can be also apparent in other more unusual ways. For instance, during the Sydney Olympics, a large number of navigational restrictions were placed on Sydney Harbour (Widmer and Underwood, 2004). Studies of recreational boat traffic during this period showed that, contrary to expectations, there was not a widespread increase in boat traffic during the event, although Widmer and Underwood (2004) suggest this may be due to local people avoiding the area, which highlights an important recreational displacement issue.

The previous theoretical works that have been done so far, in a general and large scope, illustrate significance of transport systems in the event tourism perspective.

2.2. Demand side

With the growth in the interest of researchers in the field of event management, this notion of motivations has also been revisited in the last decade with respect to visitors to events and festivals (McMorland & Mactaggart, 2008). Insight into the area of event motivation is crucial for ongoing event success as it is the key to designing improved products and services, it is closely linked to satisfaction, and it is a crucial ingredient in understanding the visitor’s decision- making process (Crompton & McKay, 1997; Dewar, Meyer, & Wen, 2001; Nicholson & Pearce, 2001).

The economic significance of transport as a factor in tourism demand has been acknowledged by a number of researchers (Martin & Witt, 1988; Taplin, 1980; witt, 1980). In a study of the demand elasticities of short- and long-haul tourist Crouch (1994) found that there was evidence to suggest that the sensitivity of demand for long-haul travel was significantly different from that of short-haul tourists due to the sensitivity of long-haul tourist to transport costs. Martin and Witt (1988) noted that the cost of travel to substitute destinations could be expected to be a factor in destination selection.

Prideaux (2000) argued that if the ability of tourists to travel to preferred destinations was inhibited by inefficiencies in the transport system, there was some likelihood that they might seek alternative destinations.

2.3. Supply side

On the supply side, destinations develop, facilitate and promote events of all kinds to meet multiple goals: to attract tourists (especially in the off-peak seasons), serve as a catalyst (for urban renewal, and for increasing the infrastructure and tourism capacity of the destination), to foster a positive destination image and contribute to general place marketing (including contributions to fostering a better place in which to live, work and invest), and to animate specific attractions or areas (Getz, 2008).

2.3.1. Public Transport

The transport system within a city area is important to the accessibility of a particular event, such as public transport (train stations or bus services running near the venue, available car parking, and so on). Public transport upgrade is a major process of transport upgrading now in Australia, and examples are Sydney’s public transport system upgrading; duplication of Adelaide’s Southern Expressway; launching Brisbane’s first 24 hour bus service (Tourism & Transport Forum, 2010).

2.3.2. Aviation Sector

Another highlighted element in previous researches in Australia is the air transport, particularly the introduction and development of low coast carriers (LCCs). LCCs are needed to be emphasised as they are factors that impact on tourist’s decision in selection of travel mode and travel pattern and further affect tourist’s destination selection (Forsyth, 2003; Signorini, Pechlaner, & Rienzner, 2002).

The role of the government policy in relation to event tourism transport provision

Conclusion

Event associations, organisers, tourism sector and government are the primary target audience of this research. Australia is facing a serious challenge for event industry that an increasingly competitive global environment in which the countries in the world are seeking to grow their share of global event tourism market. It has become essential to build up reliable, fast, and enjoyable “journeys” for event participants, in order to add extra value to service provided by event host destinations.

Besides the 7,107 beautiful islands, Philippines has so much to offer, from its pristine white sand beaches, splendid views, abundant greens,diverse populations of flora and fauna, unique natural resources and vibrant culture. To add to it is the warm Filipino hospitality, affordable vacation rates that they provide to tourists, enabling them to travel cheap and enjoy the tourism experience even more.

Ironic as it may seem, this natural beauty is masked by the ugly face of poverty and despair. A majority of the Filipinos have been living in sub-human conditions – in constant struggle to battle deprivation and loss of dignity.

Non-Government Organizations such as Gawad Kalinga provide alternative solutions to the barefaced problem of poverty and despair in the Philippines. Gawad Kalinga (GK) has a vision of a slum-free, squatter-free nation – a country where Filipinos are at peace and are given the dignity that they deserve. Together with its partners, the process of nation building and Filipino empowerment has transformed over 900 communities all over the Philippines.

The Filipino people have the innate culture of giving and sharing, exemplified by the age-old concept of “bayanihan”. This unique Filipino spirit of being a hero to one another can be the desired push for voluntourism in the Philippines. Gawad Kalinga has, in its history of service, contributed to the domestic tourism scene. With community building and community development programs manifested mainly through its infrastructure and community empowerment activities across the nation, and an extensive number of communities which continue to increase, the organization encourages more volunteers to be involved in their efforts. This potentially relates to an increased movement of people across the country which may be associated with an increase in awareness of the destinations to which they are deployed, a potential increase in travel spending, and a prospective ensuring increase in tourism spending.

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

DOMESTIC TOURISM

Many countries have a rich tradition of domestic travel and holiday which not only predates but exceeds mass international travel. This is particularly the case in Asia where recent economic prosperity and trends in globalization have not merely spurred, but continue to shape traditions in domestic tourism (Singh, 2009). Tourism in the world is dominantly domestic not international (Cooper, Gilbert, Fletcher & Wanhill, 1993). Travel is usually done within one’s own country before one ventures out into travelling to destinations other than the country of residence. Domestic tourism involves residents of a country travelling only within that country but outside their usual environment. The main purpose of visit or travel is predominantly for leisure, business or other purposes (Cruz, 2000).

TOURISM PROMOTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

In the Philippines, the major agencies involved with tourism marketing and promotions are the Department of Tourism and the Tourism Promotions Board (former Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation). Through the years, tourism agencies have used various slogans to sell the Philippines as a destination. To name a few, in the 1970’s – “Where Asia wears a smile” and “An island to remember”; in the 1980’s – “Fiesta Islands”, “There’s a Fiesta for Everyone” and “Fiesta never ends in the Philippines”; in the 1990’s – “Islands Philippines”, “Our Islands Have It”, “Jeepney Islands” (in Europe), and “Musical Islands Philippines”; in 1999 – “Rediscovery Philippines”; and more recently, in the 2000’s – “WOW Philippines” (Cruz, 2000). The country’s new tourism campaign slogan is “Pilipinas Kay Ganda” under the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III. The slogan aims to “reinvigorate our country’s tourism campaign and double tourist arrivals within the next three years,” said a Malacanang press statement reads.

Promoting tourist destinations to potential vacationers is a difficult proposition. Most products and services use advertising to entice buyers and compete for the limited time and attention of the media-harried consumers. Likewise, current tourism advertising lacks the resources needed to prolong destination exposure in order to capture awareness and sustain the interest of potential consumers.

In the domestic tourism scene, the local government units are tasked to promote their own destinations. These LGUs are given the liberty to formulate their own promotional strategies, according to the market niche that they are targeting realizing that different markets have different needs or motivations for travel.

At present, the new administration is allocating budget for new media promotions, which includes launching a new website. This is due to the increasing trend of gathering information thru the World Wide Web.

MOTIVATION FOR TRAVEL

Throughout history, there have been different reasons why travellers set out on journeys or trips. The chief motivations noted in history were – travel for escape, cultural curiosity, spirituality, education, and social status. People go on tours or trips to satisfy a range of needs from excitement and arousal to self-development and personal growth.

The work of Stanley Plog, which is often critically accepted as the major approach to tourist motivation, stressed that travellers could be categorized on psychocentric (nonadventurous, inward-looking) to allocentric (adventurous, outward-looking) scale. In a more recent version of the approach, a second dimension, energy versus lethargy, was added to the psychocentric -allocentric dimension, thus developing a four-part categorization scheme. Nevertheless, the approach is still limited because of its North American bias, and it does not consider the issues of multimotive behaviour, nor does it provide measurement details or consider the dynamic nature of motives in the traveller’s life span (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006).

Iso-Ahola (1988), in his work “Toward a Social Psychological Theory of Tourism Motivation: A Rejoinder”, argues that tourist and leisure behaviour takes place within a framework of optimal arousal and incongruity. That is, while individuals seek different levels of stimulation, they share the need to avoid either overstimulation (mental and physical exhaustion) or boredom (too little stimulation) (quoted by Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006, p.262).

The travel-needs model articulated by Pearce (1988) and co-workers is more explicitly concerned with tourists and their motives and argues that people have a career in their travel behaviour that reflects a hierarchy of their travel motives. People may start at different levels and are likely to change their levels during their life cycle. They may also be inhibited in their travel by money, health, and other people (quoted by Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006, p. 263).

The grades or levels on the Pearce’s Travel-needs or Career model were likened to a ladder and was built on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The earliest version of the travel-needs ladder retained Maslow’s ideas that lower levels on the ladder have to be satisfied before the individual moves to a higher level. Recent and ongoing revisions of this model place less emphasis on the strict hierarchy of needs and more on the changing patterns of motives. More importantly, the travel-needs ladder approach emphasizes that people have a range of motives for seeking out holiday experiences (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006).

In the travel-needs model, destinations are seen as settings where vastly different holiday experiences are possible. Thus, traveller’s motives influence what they seek from a destination, and destinations will vary in their capacity to provide a range of holiday experiences (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006).

Richards and Wilson proposes that “the search for new travel experiences is primarily argued to reflect people’s increasing recognition and reaction to the homogenous nature of traditional tourism products as well as their increasing desire for altruism, self-change and an ability to confirm their identities and provide coherence within an uncertain and fragmented post-modern life” (quoted by McIntosh & Zahra, 2007, p. 542).

VOLUNTOURISM (VOLUNTEER TOURISM)

Volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, is an alternative type of tourism which applies to tourists who, for various reasons, volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research into aspects of society or environment (Wearing, 2001). Voluntourism is seen as utilizing one’s discretionary time and income to go out of the regular sphere of activity to assist others in need (McGehee & Santos, 2005).

Voluntourism, is an alternative type of tourism which applies to tourists who volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research into aspects of society or environment.

Munt suggests that “volunteer tourism should be seen as an expression of what is recognized as the ‘other’ dimension of postmodern tourism” (quoted by Uriely, Reichel & Ron, 2003, p. 58). It is, by default, mass tourism in its early pre-tourism development stage and can be viewed as a development strategy leading to sustainable development and centering to the convergence of natural resource qualities, locals and the visitor that all benefit from the tourism activity (Wearing, 2001).

Voluntourism activities [volunteer vacations] involve participants paying to join organized projects (Broad, 2003). It is also described as donating one’s time and manpower while on vacation, even if it is just part of their trips (Brown & Morrison, 2003). Mead and Metraux describe volunteer vacations as “giving time and energy for a good cause and paying for the privilege. It can be taken around the corner in one’s home country, or around the world in a far off land. It may involve travel expenses only, or they may cost more than traditional trips” (quoted by Brown & Morrison, 2003, p. 73).

Callanan and Thomas states that “volunteer tourism fosters a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship between the host and the guest and is seen as offering an opportunity for sustainable ‘alternative’ travel that is more rewarding and meaningful than other holidays. It focuses on the altruistic and self-development experiences that participants can gain and the assistance that can be delivered to communities in terms of community development, scientific research or ecological/heritage restoration” (quoted by McIntosh & Zahra, 2007, p. 543). With voluntourism, there is an intense rather than a superficial social interaction that occurs. The accounts between hosts and guests that is created are more engaging, genuine, creative and mutually beneficial. The nature of the experiences gained by tourists is more authentic, genuine, and reflexive, of contemporary cultural content and a meaningful impersonal experience (McIntosh & Zahra, 2007).

Cohen, Mittelberg, Uriely and Reichel all agree that “with respect to tourism studies, the term working holidays was attached to individuals who combine volunteer activity with leisure/tourism pursuits while traveling” (quoted by Limjoco & Magtoto, 2006, p. 12). In certain aspects, the concept of a working holiday may be considered as a dubious form of relaxation because initially, tourists expect a vacation to be as effortless as possible. Nonetheless, comprising practically of altruistic aims, its palatable appeal gives it an edge in the tourist market.

VOLUNTOURISM ACTIVITIES

Voluntourism can take place in varied locations such as rainforests and cloudforests, biological reserves and conservation areas. Activities can vary across many areas, such as scientific research (wildlife, land and water), conservation projects, medical assistance, economic and social development (including agriculture, construction and education) and cultural restoration (Wearing, 2001). It may also include opportunities for teaching [conversational English], nurturing at-risk infants and children, renovating and painting community buildings, assisting with health care, and natural resource projects (Brown & Morrison, 2003).

In his book Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others, Bill McMillon categorizes potential volunteer activities into the following groups: “accompaniment and amnesty work; agricultural and farm work; archaeology; community development; environmental protection; environmental research; executive and technical assistance; historical restoration; marine research; medical and dental; museums; outdoor and recreation; public health; railroads; religious organizations; scientific research; social action; state and national parks and forests; trail building and management; and work camps” (quoted by Brown & Morrison, 2003, p. 77).

VOLUNTOURISTS

Gazley deems that “volunteer vacationers appear to have the same motivations as long-term volunteers but the relative value of various factors is different with self-actualization being very important for short-term volunteers”. He further suggests that “it may lead volunteers to look for opportunities not only for service but for learning and growth in volunteering which may be increasingly focused on education” (quoted by Ellis, 2003, p. 46). The only essential skill required by volunteer organizations is the desire to help others (Brown & Morrison, 2003).

There is usually, however, the opportunity for volunteers to take part in local activities and interact further with the community. Hence, the volunteer tourist contribution is bilateral, in that the most important development that may occur in the volunteer tourist experience is that of a personal nature, that of a greater awareness of self. Volunteer tourists will almost always pay in some way to participate in these activities. Furthermore, the amount is usually more than an average tourist would expect to pay on a ‘normal’ holiday to a similar location (Wearing, 2001).

Bud Philbrook, president and CEO of Global Volunteers, sums up the excitement of doing volunteer work on a vacation, “when someone adds a volunteer dimension to their vacation, they gain a unique perspective of the community they’re re-visiting. They have the opportunity to learn from and about the local people and make genuine friendships in the process. It is an exceptional experience and very often the highlight of any tripaˆ¦” (quoted by Brown & Morrison, 2003, p. 75).

VOLUNTOURISM MOTIVATION

Wearing states that “in a global society that increasingly finds dogma and marketing used to instill values and exploit social relations, volunteer tourism represents both an opportunity and a means of value-adding in an industry that seems to represent consumer capitalism at its worse” (quoted by Brown & Morrison, 2003, p. 75).

Resource mobilization theory argues that the networks an activist establishes, both within and outside of a particular movement, are vital to its success. Social psychological theories purport that, among other things, a consciousness-raising experience is a necessary precursor to social movement participation (McGehee &Santos, 2005).

The motives afforded by voluntourism would provide an outlet for those seeking unconventional travel experiences to pursue their own benevolent agendas. Furthermore, it can prove to be a far more satisfying experience than those offered by conventional tourism. Volunteer tourism would be a perfect venue wherein the travelers could satisfy their desires for a more in-depth understanding of the people within the tourist destination. It not only would have an impact on the tourists, but also on the locals themselves. Many travelers seek a chance to become immersed in a community or assist with projects when they travel rather than just passing through (Proceedings of “Travel with a Purpose” Symposium, 2000).

MOTIVATIONS TO CONTINUE VOLUNTEERING

Sherr (2003) classified the reasons that volunteers maintain their service through time into five factors. First, good communication within the organization is a very important factor to maintain the volunteer’s work in the long run. Good communication is a flow of quality information from the organization to its volunteers. Information flow consists of, for example, general news within the organization, the organization’s 32 expectations of its volunteers, rules and regulations, recognition, and feedback given to the volunteers. There are a variety of forms of communication, such as face-to-face interactions, newsletters, bulletin boards, and more complicated forms such as public displays of recognition. It is reported that face-to-face conversation is the most effective factor to serve the satisfaction of the volunteers and increase their level of commitment. Providing informal recognition and appreciation early in the volunteer experience can affect the volunteers’ tenure of service at an organization (Stevens, 1991). If the volunteers are satisfied with the quality of the communication, they are likely to stay longer.

Second, scheduling, work assignment, and work allocation are crucial factors to maintain the volunteers’ efforts. Volunteers tend to be satisfied with work if they can schedule their own volunteer hours and days, especially if the schedule is flexible. In addition, they are apt to continue volunteering if they are assigned to work on tasks that allow them to utilize their personal talent or specific skills.

Next, if the volunteers can see that the outcome of their volunteering efforts really benefit somebody, they have a propensity to remain in the service. This factor will be reinforced if there is a connection, particularly direct contact, between the volunteers and the people benefiting from their services. In other words, if the volunteers feel that their efforts are worthwhile and important, they will be motivated to continue volunteering. On the contrary, if they feel useless or incapable, they tend to terminate their volunteer work sooner (Wharton, 1991).

Fourth, volunteers expect good support from the organization they work for, such as training support and emotional support. Volunteers who participate in training report 33 higher levels of satisfaction than those who do not (Galindo-Kuhn & Guzely, 2001). Organizations offering longer training sessions and a variety of training topics are also likely to have a larger number of volunteers who are satisfied and committed (Cyr & Dowrick, 1991; Paradis & Usui, 1989). Volunteers need emotional support not only from the organization’s paid staff, but also among the volunteers themselves. Volunteers have a propensity to continue their service when they perceive that they are a part of the team and each member is willing to collaborate in problem solving, cooperate on projects, and encourage the volunteer initiative and activity (Cyr & Dowrick, 1991). On the contrary, if they feel like they are being treated without respect, such as being told what to do and what not to do, they will lose their interest and motive for participating in that volunteer effort.

Lastly, a strong sense of group integration is another important factor that keeps the volunteer in service. Group integration refers to the bonds that tie volunteers affectively to one another and the organization. Such relationships are independent of the work; instead, they provide a social aspect of the volunteer experience that is associated with satisfaction and commitment. The study by Field and Johnson (1993) indicated that volunteers are more satisfied when they have contact with other volunteers, not only in the work, but also at social events or casual socializing outside of the workplace, such as having an informal dinner with the paid staff and other volunteers, or being invited to join holiday parties (Sherr, 2008).

VOLUNTOURISM AND SOCIAL AWARENESS

Volunteer tourism presents a unique opportunity for exposure to social inequalities, as well as environmental and political issues, subsequently increasing social awareness, sympathy and/or support (McGehee & Santos, 2005).

McGehee and Santos explored how an increased social awareness through voluntourism can influence subsequent social activism. A voluntourism experience may provide an indirect or informal channel for an exchange of ideas regarding the issues and inequalities that exist. Though the observation of these social issues and inequalities and the exchange of ideas occur in the local community, it can be deemed apparent that the same occurs elsewhere.

It has been proposed that volunteer tourism experiences have the potential to change voluntourists’ perceptions about society (at a global as well as local level). In the study conducted by McGehee and Santos, consciousness-raising occurred prior to, during, and after the volunteer tourism experiences. It has been found out that many volunteer tourism expeditions improve what is called as “global citizenship”.

One of the many interesting topics in the field of tourism research is that of tourism’s potential contribution to global peace and understanding. There are examples from around the globe, of tours that are seeking conflict resolution, greater understanding and even movements for global social justice. However, it remains a matter of some dispute among tourism analysts as to whether tourism can help foster peace and secure a more harmonious world (Higgins-Desbiolles, F., 2003).

VOLUNTOURISM AND CULTURAL TOURISM

It is unlikely that [other] cultural tourists will gain the same depth of interaction and experience as a volunteer tourist (McIntosh & Zahra, 2007). Admittedly though, this conclusion still requires further empirical validation.

In their paper, McIntosh and Zahra examined the nature of the volunteer experience in the search for alternative and sustainable experiences through cultural tourism, in the case of Australian visitors to a Maori community. The findings of the study showed that the main motivation for undertaking the volunteer project was not primarily related to sightseeing but to volunteering, to ‘work; not just to be tourists’, ‘to give’ and ‘to experience a service project’. It was examined how open and responsive the host community were initially, and throughout the volunteering project, and what impact the volunteers left on the community.

It was found out that the nature of the volunteer tourism experience was mutually beneficial to both the host and the voluntourist. The nature of the experiences gained by the voluntourists were seemingly different from those gained by cultural tourists experiencing the traditional cultural products, as the latter’s experience border on commodified cultural products.

VOLUNTOURISM AND ECOTOURISM

Wearing impresses that “volunteering on nature conservation projects has become increasingly popular in the last two decades” (quoted by Halpenny & Caissie, 2003, p. 25). Non-government organizations and government agencies charged with managing biologically significant and recreation-oriented areas are expanding the use of volunteers in their programs designed to conserve biodiversity, foster healthy environments, and operate recreation and conservation programs.

In a paper by Halpenny and Caissie, they explored the attitudes and values regarding nature, and the perceptions of nature by the volunteers who participated in the Volunteer for Nature program, a Canadian-based conservation volunteer project. A majority of the volunteers stressed the importance of nature and the environment as a context for self-centered activities such as recreation and therapeutic interaction. The importance of nature’s existence value, the satisfaction of knowing that nature exists and is being protected was also apparent. Many of the participants expressed concern and empathy for the wildlife and threatened environments.

Wearing describes volunteer ecotourism as a “bright alternative that promotes host self-determination, local control, sustainability, environmental stewardship and the privileging of local culture and values” (quoted by Gray & Campbell, 2007, p. 466).

III. GAWAD KALINGA

THE POWER OF AUDACIOUS GOALS

1. GK777

Meloto knows the importance of coming up with a compelling vision to inspire people. Thus, he came up with GK777. Launched in 2003, GK777 goal to construct 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in seven years. The objective of the project is to help the poorest of the poor, regain their trust, build their confidence, make them think and act as a community and to share the joy of a country rising from poverty.”

2. GK2024

A logical extension of GK777 is GK2024, which “seeks to uplift five million Filipinos.The first phase of the journey (from the year 2003 to 2010) aims to achieve “Social Justice,” and is captured in GK777. The goal has been restated as: “raising 700,000 home lots and starting up 7,000 communities by the end of 2010.”

The second phase (from 2011 to 2017) is the stewardship phase called “Social Artistry,” and aims to empower GK communities for self-governance, self-reliance, and self sufficiency through community-based programs for health, education, environment, and productivity. It also aims to build a village culture that honours Filipino values and heritage.

The final phase (from 2018 to 2024) is envisioned as a time of “Social Progress,” and “seeks to achieve scale and sustainability by developing the grassroots economy and expanding the reach and influence of GK to five million families with support from key sectors of society in the Philippines and partners abroad” (Gawad Kalinga, 2009). During this phase, the Filipino will lift himself from poverty by unleashing his potential for productivity and hard work in the right environment.

According to the Gawad Kalinga web site, “the 21-year journey of Gawad Kalinga represents one generation of Filipinos who will journey from poverty to prosperity, fromneglect to same to honour, from third- world to first world, from second-class to first-class citizen of the world.

1. Companies (private sector)

Gawad Kalinga has successfully propagated the idea that the participation of big business in GK is more than just exercising their corporate social responsibility (CSR). They are also involved in a bigger project that is nation-building. Because of GK’s novel approach of actively engaging their corporate donors in implementing GK programs and activities ‘on the ground’ (rather than simply raising funds), the partnership takes on some special meaning for the.

2. Government (public sector)

In 2002, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo challenged GK to build 1,000 homes with P30 million from her presidential fund. In spite of its lack of experience in building at such a scale back then, GK succeeded in building the houses in 70 sites throughout the country within a year.

President Arroyo’s highly-publicized initiative served as a major boost for GK, which began to attract leaders from both sides of the political fence, including opposition leader Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who provided P40 million from his Countryside Development Fund for schools, livelihood centers, sewage and path walks. Support also came from other senators. Hundreds of governors and mayors have since joined the bandwagon.

SERVICE EXPANSION MODEL

For several government agencies, partnership with Gawad Kalinga allows them to fulfill their public-service mandates more effectively. Worth noting are the partnerships of GK with the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Tourism (DOT).

The partnership between GK and DA took the form of Bayan-Anihan, the food-sufficiency program of Gawad Kalinga. Bayan-Anihan aims to eradicate hunger by empowering families in GK communities to produce their own food.

Under this program, GK families would each be given a 10-square meter lot where they could start a vegetable garden with okra, tomatoes, eggplants, and kangkong for their daily consumption. Launched in 2009, the program seeks to launch 2,500 farms in the next three years to feed at least 500,000 people for life.

Another innovative program is GK Mabuhay, which promotes GK sites as tourist destinations. This is a result of the collaboration between GK and DOT. GK villages have become a cultural attraction in themselves, owing to the fact that they were built with the people working together as members of the community.

Under this program, GK villagers welcome visitors with warmth and hospitality brought about by their renewed sense of hope. Both GK and the DOT call this campaign the “new face of community tourism.” Taking center stage are the Mabuhay Ladies, a group of women residents who were chosen to be tour guides in the GK communities that were opened as travel destinations. The DOT conducted workshops for the Mabuhay Ladies, giving them practical guiding tips and techniques on how to be effective tourist hosts and good communicators.

The concept of community tourism, according to DOT Secretary Ace Durano, is fairly new. This has been a sought-after activity among the more adventurous travelers, who choose not just to travel but to take part in community concerns. “This travel-for-a-cause stance has been supported by the DOT through its other partnerships with socio-civic groups,” Durano said

BUiLDING THE GK BRAND

Contributing to the rapid growth of Gawad Kalinga is the reputation it has built over the years. Gawad Kalinga has succeeded in creating an image that appeals to donors, volunteers, and other stakeholders. For example, GK is fashioned as a nation-building movement. It seeks to build a nation “empowered by people with faith and patriotism” and one that is made up of “caring and sharing communities, dedicated to eradicate poverty and restore human dignity” (GKBI, 2009).

Since it was founded in 1995, Gawad Kalinga has managed to put a unique spin to its programs and activities. Because of this, GK has always looked fresh and dynamic to interested observers. For example, GK was originally known for building “faith communities” because of its values formation programs, and because of its association with the Couples for Christ. When it made inroads in building homes in war-torn Mindanao,

GK communities were dubbed as “peace zones” where Muslims and Christians work together to address poverty. Recently, GK communities have become “eco-friendly villages” as well because they have begun to integrate environmentally-sound practices in their way of living.

GK villages have likewise been transformed into “tourist spots” that showcase the inherent charm and uniqueness of each place. Aside from the colorful houses and beautifully landscaped surroundings, each GK community offers the warmth, hospitality, and inspiring stories of its residents, who represent the triumph of the Filipino people against poverty and oppression.

IV. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The conceptual framework is presented by Figures 1 and 2, which are the Concept Map and Concept Table respectively.

Figure 1. Concept Map of the Study

GK

cm3

Premise: Tourism promotions play a large role in encouraging people to engage in tourism ventures. The natural beauty or landscape of the destinations, the facilities and services of the tourism supplier, and the organizations – government mandated and non-government mandated, stimulate tourism response.

Domestic tourism is an amalgam of internal and inbound tourism. At present, traditional or conventional tourists dominate the domestic tourism markets

What is a franchise according to the American heritage dictionary franchising means using one that is granted to use a business model in a certain area for a fee. Well it does not matter how the transaction or agreements are done whether it includes license, joint venture, consulting and supply agreement, and dealership when these terms are included in the contract, it’s a franchise (Grueneberg & Solish, 2010). Legally franchising is viewed as contractual arrangement between the two legally independent parties where the franchisee pays the franchisor for the right to sell the franchisor’s product or the right to use his trademarks in a given location for a specified time period (Francine Lafontaine & Kathryn L. Shaw, 1999). As franchising sector is growing at rapid pace franchisor should look for expansion in international market as the home market specifically developed countries like us Canada, Europe is becoming saturated. It is vital import for a firm to have a strategic plan to successfully establish in global economy (Richard & John, 2004).

The global franchising prospect seems great as said by Hoffman and Preble (1993) after their global survey of global franchise association around the world. The survey came out true as according to the United States census bureau revels that in US total franchise business accounted for 1.3 trillion and total work force of 59 million the report also showed that Limited-service restaurants, sometimes called fast food restaurants, had the highest number of franchise establishments with paid employees (124,898), followed by gas stations with convenience stores (33,991), and full-service restaurants (30,130). Thus the data revels franchise in hospitality industry is observing massive growth (U.S.CensusBureau, 2010).

The massive upward growth in information and technology and simple long distance travel has made the world a small and well interconnected. Organizations should and are taking advantage of these developments and trends to pursue a global expansion. As the global market around the world are opening up and the market in developed countries are at the point of saturation companies are trying to tap into these newly opened markets for example China with one quarter of world population and high number of mid income group is considered as most under-retailed country in the world (Richard & John, 2004).

The concept of franchise is flexible and basically suits service sector. Given that franchise relation are influenced to an extent to which the system can be transfer and sustain in local market in terms of product acceptance, local support and service (John, 1999). Thus due to consistent economic importance of franchise we can find lots of research and literature to help us understand the concept.

Franchising is a major expansion strategy for hospitality firms into a global market, especially hotels and restaurants to name a few Marriott’s, Hyatt, Hilton Accor, IHG, McDonalds, KFC are a very few examples. In global markets franchising add value to the chain by enhancing and understanding the local values culture and customs. Franchising is one of the two main types of operations of which the other one owning. Franchising provides restaurants and hotels with stable franchising revenue through royalties and fees regularly according to the agreement and the time frame of the period (Koh, Lee, & Boo, 2009). Unlike most other service sectors, the hotel industry is generally capital-intensive and its logistics and supply chain can be as complex and difficult to manage as those in manufacturing operations. Thus for hospitality related organization, this can be a huge complication to an equity-based expansion model in various markets, particularly in the international market. Thus, it raises the issue of the importance of the internationalization process through franchising as a non-equity-based expansion strategy(Alon, Ni, & Wang, 2012). But as a matter of fact franchising in international market delivers a scope for rapid expansion and global presence and hotels do have potential to overcome the hurdles like cultural, linguistic, technical, legal, and employment problems commonly associated with franchising internationally.

Hotel industry in particular is different among another service franchisee as it requires big financial investment to establish facilities to start the business. To give a rough idea the total investment required by Choice Hotels International ranges from $2.3 to 14.6 million, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) $2-20 million, Motel 6, $1.9-2.3 million, and Hilton 53.4-90.1 million due to such huge capital requirement makes acquiring and setup a franchise hotel a complex process (Alon et al., 2012).

Franchising in Australia originated in a significant way in the early 1970’s under the influence of the franchised US fast food systems – KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds – which commenced operations here at the time. Increased intensity in business competition during the 1970s and early 1980s resulted in the failure of many small and medium sized businesses and encouraged growth in franchising. Franchising continued to grow at an accelerated rate during the 1980s. This was attributed to an increase in interest from the financial and public sectors (Frazer, 2000). Over the last two decades franchising in Australia saw a rapid growth and has developed into a highly significant and dynamic business activity The Australian franchise sector with 71000 units and 1,100 business format contributes AUD $ 61 billion to Australian economy in year 2007 thus these sector is of vital important top Australian economy (Scott, Lorelle, & Jeff, 2010).

Comparing the franchising sector in Australia and New Zealand is not new for years there has been a friendly rival among the two countries for title of most franchised country in the world. When the survey carried out New Zealand was more franchised than Australia with 450 franchise system and around 24000 franchise system which was 17% higher than Australia on per individual basis (Lord, 2011).

Franchising in New Zealand is not taken seriously enough compared to other business due to lack of legislation and treating franchise as just a business deal. The franchise sector is substantially larger than many people realize, says Graham Billings, GM of the Franchise Association of New Zealand (FANZ). Current estimates suggest turnover of between $15 billion and $20 billion, representing between eight percent and ten percent of GDP (Moore, 2009).

Taking into consideration the various hotel franchises across New Zealand and Australia gives a clear picture about the franchise investments in the market. Australia has the following well Known International hotel franchise:

Swissotel * Hilton

Accor * Radisson

Four Seasons * Best western Hotel

Sheraton * Marriott

IHG * Shangri- La

Hyatt * Starwood’s

* Choice hotels (expedia.com, 2012).

These are the some of the many brands which have presence in Australian market

when compared to the brands present in New Zealand which are:

*IHG *Accor

*Marriot *Hilton (expedia.com, 2012).

Thus when compared the hotel franchise sector in both the countries Australia definitely has much mature market for franchising then New Zealand as many big hotel organization are yet to tap the New Zealand market like Hyatt, four-season, Shangri-La, Starwood’s.

To get a better picture of comparison between role of franchising in hotel industry in Australia and New Zealand let’s compare two cities in both the countries. Instead of comparing between the cities like Sydney and Auckland will not give fair information as Sydney is far bigger Metro than Auckland. Hence we will compare the role of franchising between Auckland and Brisbane as they are equal in many aspects and also they are known as sister cities.

With parks and botany gardens and population, urban area and economy almost similar to each other helps to compare the role of franchising easier and comparable to each other. Thus when searching for hotels on www.expeidia.com

for hotels in Brisbane there are 145 hotels listed on web site the result for hotels in Auckland are 149, the search result shows the hospitality sector are very similar in both the cities. But when we see the ratio of number of five star category hotels the difference is more than double as Auckland has around 20 five star hotels as compared Brisbane has only 7. After comparing the brands owned by franchise as mentioned above the number shows a slight difference of Auckland having more number(9) of franchised hotels as compared to Brisbane(7).

Hence if we consider the various factors like Number of visitors, density of the hospitality market and economy franchise sector in New Zealand is much denser and bigger than compared to Australia. This shows despite size and regulatory environment franchising has much in common on both the sides. Also when consider the basic hospitality franchising and various local franchised restaurants franchising in New Zealand has much denser network of franchising. It also concludes that the franchising process is market-sensitive and as a result market characteristics play an important role in affecting franchising operations. These factors may include, among others, the market segment, the degree of control, either by the hotel industry sector or by government policy, the risks and costs of entry, and similarities of cultural norms and business. In addition, other situational factors which that affect how hotel franchising is carried out in a market such as Australia and New Zealand which are mature and stable in both the countries, the level of technology infrastructure development in the market, and the overall economic and financial conditions in the financial market of Australia and New Zealand (Alon et al., 2012).

Tourism is fundamentally about the difference of place (Relph, 1996). “definitions of tourism can be classified into two main groups. First, there are conceptual definitions which attempt to elucidate the essential nature of tourism as an activity. Secondly, there are technical definitions which are used to designate those who take part in this activity (the tourist, visitor, holidaymaker, excursionist and day tripper) and are employed by the various agencies responsible for compiling statistics and reports on tourism. Conceptual definitions of tourism subdivide into those which emphasize the demand or market aspects of tourism, and those which regard tourism from the vantage point of its links with recreation and leisure activity.” (John Heeley, Lecturer in tourism studies Scottish Hotel School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 1980). Tourism researchers have often drawn parallels between holiday making and consumption, and Richard (2002) identifies a convergence between experiential consumption, work on what tourist eat and why, and Wolf (2002) work on culinary tourist. The increasing competition among territories forces tourism industry to define new strategies in order to improve the position of each area, thus attracting more tourism flows (Dwyer, 2009; Yeoman, 2009) and enhancing economic advantages (Zhang, 2009; Bornhorst, 2010). According to Mathieson and Wall, 1982, tourism is “The temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the facilities created to cater to these needs” (Gunn, 1988).

Food description

Food is an important component in tourism. Food as a significant attraction while people travel (Bessiere, 1998; Cohen & Avieli,2004). Traditional food and cuisine could be excellent tourist attraction in rural travel destinations and also claimed that eating local cuisine might be an integral part of the travel experience because food serves ad both entertainment and a cultural activity (Bessiere,1998). As a signi¬?cant component of contemporary lifestyles it should therefore be of little surprise that speci¬?c forms of wine and food consumption have also become an important part of tourism (Hall and Mitchell, 2000). Food is a significant means to penetrate into another culture (Long, 1998). Local food is a fundamental component of a destination’s attributes, adding to the range of attractions and the overall tourist experience (Symons, 1999). Traveling for food has taken an entirely new meaning from what it used to when voyages were undertaken for spice trade, but voyagers still carried dried food, as the local cuisines were looked upon with suspicion (Tannahill, 1988). Food is also described as any substance that provides the nutrients necessary to maintain life and growth when ingested. Food without the appliance of gastronomy is the style of art of cooking in a particular area. Food is of course, a component of gastronomy but it is gastronomy’s subject whereas gastronomy is the style of procedure for preparing food. In some instances, gastronomy can represent a key feature of importance in the attractiveness of a tourist area. The catering industry is often a vital component of the lure to tourists as to represent a substantial amount of the overall attraction. In many European and Asian countries there is a strong gastronomic tradition and this represents an important element in tourist decision-making. If the gastronomy tradition is strong, this means that life-style and participation of the inhabitants in maintaining their way of life is reflected in their appreciation of their traditional food. Appreciation of wine and food is a very subjective experience that is based on individual sensory perception, experience, tastes and attitudes. The food tourist experience is shaped by the subjective nature of the individual consumer. Regionality is clearly important, particularly in term of promoting the attributes of food and tourism product of a given place. Food has always been a powerful motivation for almost all human activities and sitting at a richly decked table is a gratification common to people of any social condition. Probably the best way to described this is the one use by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarian at the beginning of 19th century in his “the physiology of taste”:

“the pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all condition, to all countries,

and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure. At a later day when the human species was

more widely extended, the widely traveler used to sit at

such board and tell what he had seen

in foreign land. Thus hospitality was produced,

and its right were recognized everywhere.

There was never any one so ferocious as not to respect him

who had partaken of his bread and salt.”

The understanding of the importance of food as significant component in tourism is nowadays well accepted. The tourist pursue of striking experience is a basic driving force, and the attempt of developing features that can be recognized as distinguishing characteristics that could make it more appealing for visitors is a common effort of every tourism destination.

Culinary and cuisine description

Individual cities or even whole countries can be appealing for their special culinary attraction (Cohen and Avieli, 2004). Long (2003) mention that: “Explore food as both a destination and a vehicle for tourism”. A unique and memorable culinary identity was an indispensable assets for any successful tourist destination (Fox, 2007). Once the tourists have a good culinary experience, especially satisfaction level, the like of revisiting is high. The significant relationships suggest that food images and food attributes satisfaction are to be the key factor in heightening tourist behavior intentions. Major differences in world cuisines can be traced to ecological restraints and opportunities that differ from one region to another (Harris, 1985).

Culinary Tourism / culinary travel description

Based from the International Culinary Tourism Association, culinary tourism is the pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences. This means there is a particular audience of people who are willing to travel the world in order to sample and experience authentic international cuisines. Culinary tourism, an exploratory relationship to the edible world, is the subject of this beautifully conceived book. Whether we go to food or food comes to us, the nature of the encounter is what defines a food experience as culinary tourism. Culinary tourism is about food as a subject, destination and vehicle for tourism. It is about individual exploring foods new to them as well as using food to explore new culture and ways of being. It is about group using food to sell their histories and to construct marketable and publicly attractive identities, and it is about individual satisfying curiosity. Culinary tourism is not only appealing to tourists, but also contributes to the social, economic and environmental development of a destination (Corigliano, 2002). The term culinary tourism was first used by Dr. Lucy Long in 1998 to express the idea of experiencing other cultures through food (Wolf, 2002). Dr. Long states that “culinary tourism is about food; exploring and discovering culture and history through food and food related activities in the creation of memorable experiences” (Long, 2005). It was long (2003) who fist coined the term “Culinary Tourism” in 1998 to express the idea of experiencing other culture through food. Culinary and gastronomy tourism is travel in order to search and enjoy prepared food and drink. Experience also have the power to modify our eating preferences and tastes as well as imbue us with experience of the culture that we are visiting (John & Kivela, 2001; Kivela & Crotts, 2006; Kivela & Johns, 2002). Its normal that we should experience pleasure as an essential part of a holiday experience and that dining out should be a pleasurable and memorable part of that experience. The growth of culinary tourism is seen as an outcome of a trend where people spend much less time cooking, but choose to pursue their interest in food as a part of a leisure experience such as watching cooking shows, dining out and the like (Sharples, 2003). Food and tourism have a close relationship and food is a critical tourism resource (Henderson, 2004; Quan and Wang, 2004). According to the Travel Industry Association (TIA), culinary tourism is a growing travel trend. Many other states and regions of the world are actively developing and promoting Culinary Tourism. Research and policy development activities in the Michigan Department of Agriculture in recent years have indicated that wine and food tourism can make greater contributions to the economy and provide opportunities for producers of many specialty crops (Agricultural Tourism Commission – 2007 and Food Policy Council – 2006). To accomplish this goal, efforts must be coordinated to develop promotional messages and trip planning tools for consumers, and engage more Michigan restaurants in supporting local specialty crop producers. It is appropriate to say that the relationship between culinary and tourist destination is symbiotic because the destination provides the food, recipes, chef, and the cultural background that make culinary an ideal product for tourist consumption (Fields, 2002; Richard, 2002; Scarpato, 2002). The existential culinary tourists seek food and beverage combinations and eating experience that foster learning. For these type of tourist, food and beverage consumption does not only satisfy hunger and thirsty but important for them such consumption, knowledge about local regional cuisine, wine, and beverage and of the destination culture. The existential culinary tourists avoid expensive restaurant not only because of the price but also because the extravagant decor and service that often happens (Finkelstein, 1989). The potential of niche or special interest tourism such as culinary tourism as a trip generator has been questioned by some researchers (McKercher and Chan 2005). What is known is that food is an experiential tourist component of any tourist experience; there are tourists that will seek out food related activities at a destination instead of going to other attractions and that some tourists travel just for food. Young couples were also interested in culinary tourism (Lang-Research, 2001). Culinary travel is travel to learn about or enjoy unique and memorable eating and drinking experience, not necessarily just those that are exclusive or highly acclaimed, but all memorable eating and drinking experiences. Culinary traveler is an individual who has participated in one or more culinary activities while traveling in the past years. Cuisine is a saleable experience. Dining is the most memorable tourism experience. Nearly one hundred percentages of tourists dine out when traveling. Dining is consistently one of the top three favourite tourist activities. The higher the dinner bill, the more likely the patrons are tourist. Many culinary tourism are affluent individuals earning above average income. Interest in cuisine in travel is not reserved to a particular age, gender or ethnic of group. Unlike other travel activities and attraction, cuisine is available year around. Cuisine is experiential as it satisfies new traveler demands for interactive experience. Dining is a way to experience local culture. Directing tourist to exemplary cuisine experience adds value to tourist trips resulting in increased tourism spending, longer stay and repeat visits. Culinary tourism is not new. It is a subset of Agri-tourism that focuses specifically on the search for, and enjoyment of, prepared food and drink. Culinary tourism promotes all distinctive and impressive gastronomic experiences, not just those that have earned 4 stars or better. Previously overlooked, “culinary tourism” is an important new niche that fosters economic and community development and new intercultural insights. Culinary tourism can be found in rural or urban areas and should available to visit all year ’round. Defining culinary tourism was described as a deceptively simple task. It was acknowledged that eating is a fundamental aspect of every travel experience; however, articulating a definition for the multi-faceted, structured linkages between cuisine and tourism that form the foundation of culinary tourism was identified as a complex undertaking.

“When I was asked to speak on

‘What is Culinary Tourism?’

aˆ¦ I realized that it is a very, ve ry complex concept.”

“aˆ¦It is likely that we have to create a whole philosophy, a whole idea, and

ma rket Canada as an eating destination.

There are other countries that have been very successful at doing thisaˆ¦

Take France aˆ¦ in France you do have some exce llent restaurants, but

really not a lot more per capita than other parts of the world. But you have

an incredible amount of very good restaurants. So maybe it is more about

the consistency of a product, then it is about a few incredible destinations,

or a few events.”

– Stefan Czapalay, Chef / Owner

Essence Food Consulting

The importance of food to travel is obvious to anyone whohas heard about someone’s vacation. Returning travelers tell of new foods eaten, new habits learned, and sometimes, in the case of spa and cooking-school vacations, of travel specifically for the food. In 1998, folklorist Lucy Long (a Penn Ph.D.) first used the term “culinary tourism” to indicate travel for the purpose of experiencing other cultures through their food. Culinary tourism has since engendered a number of academic books and articles. Culinary tourism providers see a range of ages among food tourists, but people in their 40s and 50s are most common. “Culinary tourism is shock treatment. It brings life into view through the surprises afforded by the unexpected and the unplanned Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” as John Lennon is said.

Connection between food and tourism

Consumption is an integral aspect of the tourist experience, with the tourist consuming not only the sights and sounds, but also the taste of a place. Nearly, all tourists eat and dine out. . Local food is a fundamental component of a destination’s attributes, adding to the range of attractions and the overall tourist experience (Symons, 1999). This makes food an essential constituent of tourism production as well as consumption. Such developments have spurred an interest in experiencing the unique and indigenous food, food products and cuisines of a destination, so much so that people are often traveling to a destination specifically to experience the local cuisines or to taste the dishes of its ‘celebrity chef’ (Mitchell & Hall, 2003). Traveling for food has taken an entirely new meaning from what it used to when voyages were undertaken for spice trade, but voyagers still carried dried food, as the local cuisines were looked upon with suspicion (Tannahill, 1988). Local food or cuisines that are unique to an area are one of the distinctive resources that may be used as marketing tools to get more visitors. The growth of eating out as a form of consumption and the market forces of globalization have made the food products and cuisines from all over the world more accessible. This has stimulated the emergence of food as a theme in magazines (Cuisine, Gourmet Traveler, Food and Travel), radio shows (Chef’s Table, Splendid Table), and television, particularly cable television, with food shows focusing on travel and travel shows on food. In fact, the popularity of twenty-four hour television channels, such as the Food Network devoted to food and the place that food comes from, intertwines food with tourism so much that quite often it is hard to determine whether one is watching a food show or a travel show.

The Relationship between Food and Tourism

Food has been recognized as an effective promotional and positioning tool of a destination (Hjalager & Richards, 2002). Similarly, with increasing interest in local cuisine, more destinations are focusing on food as their core tourism product. For example, France, Italy, and Thailand have been known for their cuisine. The importance of the connection between food and tourism cannot be ignored. Each destination has different levels of attractiveness that can draw tourists from different countries (Au & Law, 2002). Authentic and interesting food can attract visitors to a destination. The destination will use food as the main attraction and will develop marketing strategies that will focus on the food. It is important for marketers of a culinary destination to know the image currently held by its targeted customers and how to affect their intention to visit through effective marketing strategies. Frochot (2003) recommended food images can be utilized to exhibit the cultural aspects of a country. As such, destinations can use food to represent its cultural experience, status, cultural identity, and communicating. Cuisines that are highly known for their taste and quality can be developed into tourist products (Hobsbawn & Ranger, 1983). Jones and Jenkins (2002) recommended that food is not only a basic need for tourists, but also a cultural element that can positively present a destination. Given that food can be used to project the identity and culture of a destination, food consumption can be used in the development of a destination image (Quan & Wang, 2004). In addition, food consumption also contributes to the economy of a destination, and provides tourists with a local experience. Culinary or gastronomical activities of a destination also are categorized as part of cultural tourism. Cultural tourism may include experiencing the cultural attractions as well as sampling the local food (Richards, 1996). Food can convey unique experience and enjoyment to travelers (Quan and Wang, 2004). Specifically, food may totally enhance tourists’ experience and can be the most memorable part of the trip.

Malaysian culinary

Malaysian cuisine or culinary part represents a culinary diversity originating from Malaysia’s multiethnic society. For many centuries, Malaysia is considered to be the melting pot of Asia endowed with a potpourri of international class cuisine. Malaysian food is a culinary diversity originating from its multi-ethnic population of Malay, Indian, Chinese, Nyonya, Eurasian and the indigenous people of Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak), hence, offering a diverse menu as well as some very unique blends of their multi-ethnic dishes making the country a gourmet’s paradise. The problem for a tourist is not to find fine food, but deciding what to eat. The pleasure of enjoy the fabulous Malaysian cuisine is a culinary delight not to be found in any other country beside Malaysia itself. Malaysian food worldwide and generating their behaviors, because image has been shown to be an important influence in the selection of a destination (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Beerli and Martin, 2004). Since tourists are likely to rely on image, all effective marketing strategies should aim at improving the Malaysian food image in the minds of tourists. Tourist satisfaction with the quality and value of food and accessibility convenience were relatively high. Malaysian food is renowned for its multiple combinations of flavors and variety. It is great challenge to stimulate international tourist to enjoy the food and to strengthen Malaysia position as a world class food attribute satisfaction from international tourist perspective and subsequently assess their overall satisfaction with eating experience and behavioral intention. Malaysian food contributes to eating pleasure, eating Malaysian food adds to visiting enjoyment, and the food experience in Malaysia meets expectation. This indicated that Malaysian food played an important role to impart memorable and positive image of Malaysia as a tourism destination as tourist were agreeable that Malaysian food added value to their vacation experience in Malaysia. The culture of Malaysia through Malaysian food was rated slightly a bit high compared to other attributed.

Major drivers of culinary tourism

The increased interest in culinary tourism can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, today’s consumers have become environmentally and health conscious leading to demand for pure, fresh, and healthful ingredients derived through responsible agricultural practices (Getz, 2000; Wolf, 2002). Food is now seen not just as a source of nutrition, but also as a part of a slower-paced, quality lifestyle. Dedicate to slowing down different aspect of life and to promoting authentic, traditional local food, as well as to improving our overall quality of life (Slow Food, 2001). Other factors fueling the culinary tourism phenomenon include growing interest in specialty food and beverages associated with multicultural societies like Canada and the U.S as well as culture-specific product sampling (Getz, 2000; Wolf, 2002). For instance, the mixing of different cultures has led to increased sophistication in tastes and expectations and has raised consumer curiosity about different cuisines and ingredients. Even when food is not the main focus of travel, eat one must, whether or not a memorable experience is the goal. Making experiences memorable is a way the travel industry adds value and profit to an essential service like food. Indeed, the tourism and hospitality industries design experiences, including culinary ones, within the constraints of the tourist’s time, space, and means.

Tourist perception and behavior

Visitors interested in both food and wine tended to have the highest socio-economic profiles, engaged in more activities than the other two sectors, traveled for different reasons and were most likely to stay at spas, hotels, inns and resorts (Ignatov, 2003). Tourist satisfaction is a result of comparing tourist experiences at the destination visited and expectations about destination (Pizam, Neumann, and Reichel, 1978). The impact of Malaysian food images on tourist overall satisfaction with food experience was significantly different. The relationship between satisfaction with food attributes and overall satisfaction also was significant. The influence of overall satisfaction has an important effect on tourist behavior intentions. It has been generally accepted in the literature that intention to revisit has a strong relationship with overall satisfaction with the perceived food experience during visiting (Kivela and Crotts, 2006; Ryu and Jang, 2006). One of the functions of the destination foodservice industries is the provision of those experiences and feeling that individuals believe they should be having while on holiday or while travelling (Johns & Kivela, 2001). It is normal that we should experience pleasure as an essential part of a holiday experience, and dining out or a culinary or tour. Human’s research (1986) indicates that many individuals feel that ethnic food in their own country would be better than the same food in the country of origin’ needs further exploration. For the tourism industry, quality will not just be about better services, better food within the gastronomy context. It will be required that the cultural product be looked at from a holistic approach, regarded not merely as a tourist product but as the essence of a precious heritage which needs to be enhanced and its authenticity retained. The tourist industry has an important task to promote change and allow continuity. The tourism industry implies that eating is a major part of the tourist experience but not a major generator of travel itself (Hudman, 1986). The tourist of the third millennium travelling to a destination are more educated and better informed that their predecessors and are more willing to have a direct experience of the cultural and natural differences. When anything visible can be seen on television or explored in front of a computer connected to the internet, eating the food of another culture could as extreme case, be the only experience motivating the physical move to a different location (Game, 1991). Tourists enjoy native food, particularly the products of local or ethnic nature (McIntosh and Goelder, 1990). The knowledge of local, regional and national cuisine is of great interest for every tourist and is an important part of the tourist experience; palate satisfaction is at the first place among the pleasures of a travelling experience. The impression that the traveler retains strongly influences the value and memory of the trip, not only from the restaurant visited, but also everything experienced during the trip. The aftertaste of a vacation period is strongly individual, affected mostly by immaterial factors where the boundary between self and enjoyment of the vacation is almost invisible. It is very difficult to find the right level to reach the tourist demand and more to satisfy it.

Gastronomy as tourist motivation

According to National restaurant association research, more than two thirds of restaurant operator reported that tourists are important to their business (NRA, 2002). The importance og gastronomy for the tourism industry is testified by a number of surveys, although dedicated research in this field is not very thoroughly developed. More than 67 million travelers said that they dine out when travelling, and that dining out was the most popular activity planned after tourists arrive at a destination (Travel industry association of America, 1998). The level of participation in food preparation varies quite a bit from location to location and tour to tour. Where food is the focus of travel, as in gastronomic tourism, itineraries are organized around cooking schools, wineries, restaurants, and food festivals.

Development of food habits

The term food habits refers to the ways in which human use food, including how food is obtained and stored, how it is prepared, how it is served and to whom, how its consumed. A.H.Maslow’s theory of human maturation as applied to food habits explain how food use progresses from eating for existence to eating for self actualization (Lowenberg, 1970). The correlation between what people eat, how other perceives them, and how they characterize themselves is striking. Food as self expression is especially evident in experience of dining out. Conversely, exposure to different foods in restaurant is sometimes the first step in adopting new food items at home (McComber & Postel, 1992).

Role of culture in food habit

Culture is broadly defined as the values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices accepted by a community of individuals. Cultural behavior patterns are reinforced when a group is isolated by geography or segregated by socioeconomic status. Culture is learned, not inherited, it is passed from generation to generation through a process called enculturation (Plawecki, 1992). Culturally based food habits are often one of the last traditions people change through acculturation. Consumption of new items is often independent of traditional food habits (Pelto et al, 1981; Dewey et all, 1984; Szathmary et all, 1987). Each cultural group has a unique outlook on life based on the beliefs, attitude, values, and practices they share. Food habits are also indicative of worldview (Schilling & Brannon, 1986; Randall David, 1989). Cultural tourists are generally interested in the products and culture of a particular destination as well as experiencing and learning about the culture (Richards, 1996). The cuisine of a country can showcase its cultural or national identity (Rand, Heath, & Alberts, 2003).

Tourist Food Consumption

Food consumption is helpful in understanding food tourism. Combining the macro theory of globalization and the micro theory of cultural capital to explain food tourism. The dynamics of world culture theory of globalization (Robertson, 1991, 1992) are at play in the tourist food consumption. level of exposure to the foreign foods and cuisines at home depends on one’s position in the socio-cultural echelon. Extrapolating from the cultural capital theory, tourists who possess the cultural capital to appreciate and enjoy foreign food at home are the ones who are more likely to experience the local food at the destination (Cohen & Avieli, 2004). , since eating out is a necessary element of the vacation experience, and almost all tourists eat out, destinations become a playground for accruing as well as deploying one’s cultural capital. Where the tourist eats and what he eats exhibits the socio-cultural echelons he belongs to, and makes food an ideal tool for social cohesion and social stratification. Travelers who are more interested in eating than cooking also have organized touring options. When tourist travel through the world exploring food, they get interesting window about the culture and the environment because food is the bridge between the land and the culture.

Relationships between Malaysian Tourist Satisfaction and Behavioral Intention

Malaysian population is built on ethnic diversity, inheriting ancestral norms, culture, native language and culinary heritage that are being practiced till today. Over time, the ethnic assimilation formed a unique Malaysian culture. This multiculturalism among the different races produced a distinctive cuisine of Malaysia is described as Asia greatest cuisine meet and mingle that have been bedrock in forming and shaping the dishes. Traditional cuisine and warm hospitality coupled with mouth watering cuisine forms the perfect ingredient to produce a positive image to tourist. These strengths can be capitalized to further enhance images that portray the true Malaysia.

Factors influencing Consumers’ Preferred Shopping Location for Food

http://www.agrifood.info/connections/2008/Stringer_Umberger_files/image003.gif

Food tourism as niche and special interest tourism. Source: After Hall & Sharples, 2003

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C:UsersUser1Desktopblm diliatThe 3 Steps to Culinary Tourism – International Culinary Tourism Association_files3steps.png

3 Steps to Culinary Tourism describe the 3 phases of the culinary tourism life cycle as it pertains to acquiring and leveraging knowledge of the industry. Every single business and destination around the globe can be described by one of the 3 steps

STEP 1: LEARN. In this step, know what is culinary tourism and what does the International Culinary Tourism Association do. This step is for build a solid understanding of the culinary tourism industry.

STEP 2: DEVELOP. This develop step is for leverage that knowledge into something productive, ready to develop your product. The International Culinary Tourism Association an advantage over competitors.

STEP 3: PROMOTE. In this step, promoting products is the thing to do. Developed unique ways to help you promote business

Destination No. of tourists

Brunei

4,154

Cambodia

161,973

Indonesia

517,356

Laos

29,770

Malaysia

367,567

Myanmar

15,623

Philippines

395,012

Singapore

594,511

Thailand

1,277,638

Vietnam

411,557

Total

3,775,161

Source: ASEAN Promotion Centre on Trade, Investment and Tourism 2007, 100.

This study was empirically tested with two hypotheses as follows:

Tourist satisfactions toward their behavior of the image of Malaysian food will signifantly contribute to tourist revisit intention.

There is a relationship tourist behavior and region of the tourist come from (demographic profile of the tourist)

Food and culinary

Introduction

Strategic planning has been previously used for the tangible products rather than being used for services like the hospitability or the tourism industry which has just recently gone through a massive change.. Previously strategic management was not applied to the sector as it was only restricted to the product industry whereas now the new dynamics have changed the workings and now strategic management has become a part of this service industry as well and not only that but now it is alos used extensively in the service sector.

Having said that , still the strategic management literature found regarding the hospitability and the tourism industry is very restricted as very less work has been done in this regard. The industry is still in its infancy so the limited relevant literature is an important issue. (Gilbert and Kapur,1990)

It will be noticed that marketing plays a very evident role in the process of strategic management because all the material found on the subject matter is referring to marketing while defining the business strategic business planning. This essay will attempt to define strategy and strategic planning using a case study of Disneyland Florida in relation to tourism to make a critical assessment.

This will be done by use of the internet, journals, books, and an attempt to speak to someone at county hall and the London Development Agency. The limitations for the study includes time constraints,, lack of literature that is accessible and constraint computer facilities.

Strategic planning theory

Strategic planning is considered as the vital function in the tourism and hospitability industry because it enables the firm to stay aware of the latest trends of the industry along with keeping the customers satisfied. This also gives a competitive advantage to the company over its competitors and helps it to work smoothly in the competitive and fast paced industy .

It is a very powerful marketing tool; which is used to identify the customer, the customer’s needs and wants to provide for those needs and wants.

Strategic planning is the process wherby abn organisation evvaluaates itself in order to determine its intended destination and formulates guidelines or ideas on how best to achieve it.

O’ Connor has defined it as an incorporated process where th success is based on the longer success mangagement of an organization. (O’Conner,2000)

Francis Buttle has defined it as a plan of action which is used to achieve the objectives. (Hotel and Food Service Marketing, 1993).

Further to elaborate the process has been described as a methodology where a fit is maintained beteeen the organization’s abilities , resources and the transforming oppportunites in the market. (Kotler, Bowen, Makens,2003)

Buttle has differentiated between the tactics and the policies where the policy has been defined as lasting conditions which are imjposed upon deceision making while a strategy is refered to as rather a flexible thing where the practices are change according to the situations.

Thus a strategy is an evolving process which keeps on changing . Hall has identified the procrss as very integral because it allows enough developments in the tourism while the unequal preparation and development activities with reference to tourism are connected to an entire wide tourism plan to provide an entire frame for tourism.

The strategic plans are considered as a long term goal which identifies chief means due to which the achieving goals has specified the important resource allocation to turn up at the ways. It has been considered as flexible and constantly evolving phenomena.

In 2005 Mc Gee has called at a transforming phenomenon which should be changed according to the ecxternal environment. Hospitality and tourism industry, countries, hotels and tour operations are always competing with each othere. Give the ficklenesss of consumers and the speed with which they are willing to move to other providers, it is imperative that organisations formulate strategies that would keep their target markets interested and attract new customers.

Kotler in 2003 has defined the term as a process where a fit is made beteen the organization and the resource in the presence of th transforming marketing opportuniteies. Thus, when formulating a strategy, an organisations’s employees are crucially important in the executing of these strategies. A successful outcome is wholly dependant on how consumers perceive tha organisation through the representation by its employees and that is the most important reason why the wworkforce is considered and an integral asset for a company.

Importance of strategic planning

It is requird to formulate current goal with a complete plan in the mind. The planning is important because it includes the feedback from all the stakeholders. Hereas when one fails to plamn the tourism trip them he may go through various sever problems or negative situations at the destinations, thus, the planning of tourism is considered as a very integral approach for the policy maker who are planning tourism development. (Hall,2008)

By planning the tourism development the things in the process could be made relatively easy. The actors in the presence of a plan may respond in fewer spans of time which may be beneficial for the policy ,makers and the tourism development as well and along with it, it would also provide a route to the planning process.

Destinations in general function in an extremely aggressive situation where customers have a broad variety to choose from and which are very often comparable within a district or country . The confront destinations have been forced to face is to the development of something which is an exclusive thing or a physical situation, or a culture, or perhaps a set of products that has the ability to not only satisfy one time visitors but repeated ones also. (ESCAP2010)

3. Tourism planning approaches

3.1. incremental growth approach:

Incremental growth refers to making sure that transformation can be done as the development processes opens up. In tourism this would be interpreted as that if formerly a plan has been made and the recommendations are also done, then the development alternatives are chosen prudently and is then implemented steadily and observed frequently until the objectives would have been met (Getz 1986). Even when the objectives are met, the incremental approach suggests a constant evaluation and check to make sure that the development supports cultural integrity and ecological integrity. Generally the theory which is applied at its best to the planning that generally takes place at different destinations and various levels that are site -specific. ( Tomothy and Tosun 2003).

The approach is significant because of its flexibility and the fact that it enables high levels of predictability. (Getz, 1986). The process which is incremental development enables flexibility and encourages efficiency as it gives space for adjustments and changes in the process of development in the cases where various situations exist which have not been seen previously and may hamper the development of tourism.

The advent o the incremental development has been contributed by the dissatisfaction of the conventional control which usually has focussed on quick development and partial flexibility. Previously a lot of stress is made on preparing the plan as the final prodfuct of a planning effort. Thus the approach manages to maintain that the planning process is constantly changing and is a continuous process, which should be adaptable keeping in mind the way of meeting the objectives of development. (Inskeep,1991).

In 1992 Timothy suggested at quite a few places that in today’s world quite a few clear examples of incremental tourism can be found because this newly developed concept has not been tried and tested much. Thus there are various examples of this around the world as well where long term strategic planning is doen in the manner that scatters physical and various othere forms of development initiatives into different development periods which may vary from 5 or 10 or 20 years. In 1991 it was suggested by Inskeep that the today’s modern tourism plans have adopeted the approach as a way which would enable it to check the progress and assure the viability of development programs.

It is important to note that when looking and evaluating tourism, incremental plans make things slightly complicated. Since, there are so many variations in the trends, the tourism industry is affected them by them increasingly. Consequently, it is important to ensure that plans for development are made keeping these things int consideration. According to Timothy and Touson (2003) there needs to be an incremental plan hich may be introduced. This incremental plan is all about a careful preparation of toruism based plans and it looks at the future potentials of the touism industry and also allows for a certain deal of flexibility coming along. This way even the future goals and aims can be looked upon judged and evaluated.

3.2 community approach

In relation to this perspective, Murphy (1985) argues and favours the community form of tourism as being more sustainable in contrast to traditional mass tourism. The one reason why this happens to be the case is because it allows for a greater ease and flexibility to the locals as compared to the traditional ways when strong leaders made most of the decisions regarding tourism. Also there must be a great deal of consideration to the local ecology before any means to allow an increasing amount of tourism are introduced.

According to cooper and hall (2008) the community based tourism approach has emerged during the 1970s and particularly has thought about by tourism secondly the main factors. Firstly, there needs to be a consideration of the ethical and social along with the economic negative externalities brought about by tourism . Next ,, It should also be noticed that if a tourism decision has to be made successful and effective, there needs to be a greater involvement of the local community in the decision making process.

Murphy (1985) points out htat the fact the local needs are looked upon to is an important phenomenon in tourism industry today. Take the instance of st Lucia and the street party nearby the fishing village of Anse La Raye. The place was particularly famous for the local fish fry project which involved the selling of the local sea food in the traditional way. The particular street was held out and its local touch manintained out against the increasing traffic and the great inflos of tourists from across the world (Competing with the Best).

Despite the many advantages that this approach has with it should be remembered that implementing such an approach has two main problems. Firstly, the approach is very time consuming and expensive to be implemented. This is because no clear decision can be made as to who decides how tourism plans should be made and finally who has the final verdict. Also since, its means of developing tourism may not be of a direct benefit to the country’s economy, the government may also be reluctant to encourage it.

In other words it may be said that he community approach to tourism focuses mainly on the development of the community rather than on the development of the individuals who make up the community. Thus the community in itself tends to be more important than the locals (hall 2008). The approach makes and gives a greater authority to the local stake holders than otherwise.

3.3 collaborative approach

With respect to the community based approach , hall states that collaboration of people in this case tends to be highly important.

There should be a constructive use of the many opinions and a joint decision should be reached

Gray (1989) states that a stake holder looks upon to analyse if the current circumstances help to serve his interest or not and that if there would be any collaboration that could be reached upon the various stake holders before reaching a proper decision about what to do.

When there is a joint deciosion which needs to be reached upon by everyone in general. It is important to note that the power does not rest within one individual but with all the people in total (wood and gray 1991). Thus , gray (1988) suggests that it is important for the stake holders to be responsible or eligible for the tasks that are to be carried put if the right type of a decision needs to be made. Also the stakeholders may not have an access to most resources which is also an important issue which may be needed to be taken into consideration.

Coordination has become one of the pre requisite for the planning and policy making of tourism. The term refers to the relating issues and decisions which enable them to match with one another and operate in a consistent manner.

Coordination for tourism takes place in 2 manners which is horizontally, an example of which would be between the gobernment agencies which would be answerable for different tourism- related actions at the similar level of governance which includes the national parks, tourism and transportation while vertically the example would be that among diverse levels of government (like local, regional and provincial with in an secretarial and procedure systems (hall, 1999). In order to attain complete tourism development, collaboration between planning sectors at all levels is very important.

4. practice of strategic

A business can have the best ideas and plans, however if the human resoures is not able to understand and carry forward the instructions, thus it may take the organization towards the failure.

Therefore it is necessary that an organisation conduct a SWOT analysis before formulating a strategic plan. Internal analysis of the organization which includes the strengths and weaknesses and the external environment for the opportunities and threats, the organisation would better understand how best to proceed with its strategic planning.

The strategic process of planning includes the indemnification of an organization’s , vision, and the environmental scanning and strategy formulation and strategy implementation. (www.quickmba.com). Carrying out a PEST analysis is also beneficial to the strategic planning process. It has been considered that the economic stability is very important for the financial safety. Sociyt and the culture of the operational area should be taken into consideration when planning and technological advancement would keep the organisation abreast and ahead of global developments.

5. Disneyland Paris in Europe (community approach)

Disneyland Paris in Europe is practical example of community approach.

Tokyo’s success made it clear to the management that the Europe Park would be a good idea. Dissatisfied with the Tokyo deal, the Europe Park was managed in a very different manner. Disney has now managed to negotiate a larger stake in the park, nearby hotels and restaurant amenities. This huge opportunity got with itself immense risks as well . in april 1992, Euro Disney welcomed the European visitors.

Euro Disney is located 40 km from the central Paris and as planned it has managed to be the most lavish and the biggest theme park that had to be built till now. (bigger than Anaheim’, Orlando’s or Tokyo’s parks). It was also projected to be a sure-fire money maker for its parent Disney. Neverthelesss, to the management’s surprise the natives failed to take goofy over Mickey .

The company struggled to get the consumers or huge sales, in the early years it had to ace a decline of over 10% . By summer 1994 Euro Disney had lost some $900 million, and up to today., Disneyland Resort Paris is still not profitable. Disney Group thought that they get success in Tokyo with Disneyland Tokyo now they had better idea and plan for other cultures to adopt the American Disney concept. Because of this they charged highly than others. When the Disneyland Paris was opened, in a limited time it gave shock to the Disney group that the plans failed to achieve their expectation. Due to this Disneyland paris faced a great loss in beginning and the condition start worse.

As a result, it was thought seriously by the management to shut down the park. In such a situation the Saudi al-wahid bin abdul-aziz al-saud provided the essential cash injection ($500 million) which became the life support for the management as it enabled the organization for the reorganization and the financial stability for temporary basis. This helped the park a lot and it managed to get back the foot fall of the consumers. The immense profit that the company has gained has encouraged it to expand with another “Disney Studio” and a retail and office compound in Paris.

5.1 Reason of Disneyland Paris Failure at the beginning

The reason of disneland paris failure at the beginning, Disney failed to approach public and public involvement. Due to cultural difference. This was the main reason of Disney failure and they experienced huge loss. The concept of disneland paris is similar to Tokyo and united states.

The concept of Euro Disney consider and known as American. The French people are very sensitive about their history, language and custom. They protect their culture and language against English. The environment of Disneyland Paris was totally based on American style and culture.

Disneyland Paris planning analysis

Analysis of the Disneyland planning shows that the concept of the Disneyland paris is very unique. The Disneyland brand is very famous in Europe. The Disneyland Groupe is well known in all over the world. The idea and plan of Disneyland is successful in California, orland and Tokyo. The location they chosen is good and target the all big markets such as united kingdom, germany, france, etc. The exudation of strategy is good. From theory strategic planning to reality the implementation of plan in action is well introduced. There is nothing wrong with structure and construction. Walt Disney company had built the bigger and most lavish theme park than other parks. The project is perfect but failed to work as Disney management whished.

6. result

From above mentioned data it shows that the strategy planning not always goes right and gets success. It’s important to achieve the task we should completely analyse all other aspects, because strategy planning is not sufficient for success. The other aspects that are related to strategy should be studying well weather it is related to loacation , finance, marketing, socially, economically, public approach and pubic involvement, advantages and disadvantages of strategy, profits and loss, a complete analysis of strategy is essential before exudation and implementation of strategic plan. Because the strategic out come depend on this . the result we get helps us to make a conclusion about how much the rate of success we achieve from this strategy. At the beginning Disneyland paris was not successful but after changing the strategy and again strat with new strategy process. In 1995 disneyland paris starts work well and European theme park become successful. The number of visitors is increasing day by day to visit Disneyland Paris.

7. island of timor-leste (incremental approach)

The island of Timor-Leste (Tourism development strategies for Timor – Leste is a classic example to show how tourism development can be allowed by using the incremental approach. The place is located near Indonesia and has emerged as a new country for tourism development. The tourist attractions in this country are magnificent landscapes along with ancient cultures as well as an attractive and distinct history. However , the island lacks infrastructure facilities in addition to an adequate level o financial investments and funding. Moreover, there is a need for a popular legalisation and the documentation of the various historical sites. There also needs to be a careful ensuring of the fact that the cultural buildings and monuments are properly secured (tourism development strategies for Timor-Leste)

According to the Timorese the incremental approach is the best policy to allow for a strong and sustainable tourism development because it considers community participation in addition to sustainability. The islanders believe that there are no hard and fast rules to provide a great deal of facilities to the tourists coming in. (tourism development strategies for timor-leste) the island tourists are against the hasty construction of buildings and thus aim to avoid them. However , they care for the sustainability of their environment which is and important step for the future because this timor lestor approach to develop tourism allows the maximum benefit of the local community.

Recommendation

Thus it can be assured that the Timor Lester approach allows for the maximum benefit of the local population and is therefore important for future developments as well since it focuses on step by step building of facilities and infrastructure which would be beneficial for everyone that is , the tourism industry, the tourists and also the economy of the country.

Conclusion

I have chosen examples of two different approaches of strategic planning related to tourism one is community approach and other is incremental growth approach. Disneyland Paris study analysis represents community based approach. Though the concept of Disney was good but initially they faced problems. In initially the Disneyland Paris strategic approach was not completely community based approach. Disney is copied same strategy of Tokyo and U.S. They failed to get people attraction. Disneyland management didn’t recognize the cultural and custom difference between America and Europe. That was the main reason Disneyland Paris failure at the beginning and experienced a great loss. The condition become worse Disneyland Paris failed to work as owners want. But later they start with new strategy that was completely based on community approach. Disneyland Paris starts work well and they succeeded in getting public interest. In incremental growth approach when planning stage is begin and after the preparation of the plan the options are chosen very carefully. Exudates step by step and monitored continuously until the task have been achieved. I believe that there are enormous advantage to this approach because tourism is multifaceted industry. In tourism the choices of tourist change rapidly. Island of Timor-leste near Indonesia has a unique magnificent landscapes, ancient culture and textured history. Its new for tourism development. The Island lack many facilities such as water supply, accommodation, roads and electricity, it is also lack of finance . according to ” In Trimorese” opinion incremental approach is the best because there are few programme for development those focuses on keeping natural environment. Incremental approach initiates a plan and use local support. Different locations have different criteria it’s not necessary that if one strategy is successful in elsewhere and when same strategy transfer in somewhere else it will get same response.

Introduction & Executive Summary:

Ritz – Carlton was founded by Mr. Cesar Ritz who initially worked in finest Hotels and restaurants in Paris. He owned grand Hotel Ritz and within one year he expanded wings in London and opened Hotel Carlton which became Ritz – Carlton Hotel Company. He believed in excellent personalized services which satisfied the discerning guest. Ritz – Carlton expanded to North America and ownership changed during 1983 to Johnson Company. During 1983 – 1987 Ritz – Carlton expanded domestically and internationally under new ownership. [i]

During 1997 Marriott International purchased Ritz – Carlton and by 2000 it became primarily a management company operating 38 Hotels and resorts worldwide with minority stake in 10 properties and outright ownership of 3 hotels. The company used to obtain management contracts for new hotels and resorts around the world.

Over the year’s hotel conglomerate won & acclaimed for its services and had been awarded Best Hotel in Asia – Pacific in the eight Business Traveler Asia / Pacific magazine Travel Awards Subscribe Survey and for two consecutive years Best Business Hotel in Malaysia.

The Ritz – Carlton Hotel Company for the first time now wants to open a hotel in historic Foggy Bottom district of Washington D C in Multi – Use facility complex owned by Millennium Partners. The Hospitality Complex is 162 Luxury Condominiums, sports club, splash Spa, three restaurant, and 40,000 square feet of street -level restaurants and retail shops and 300-room hotel.

Millennium partners founded in 1990 that set up high end luxury apartments and Lincoln square four building complex in New York was their first project and exhibited their future intensions. Millennium partners ended up in hotel business.

In this case study Essence of Ritz-Carlton experience, the Ritz-Carlton selling, how the Ritz-Carlton creates “Ladies and Gentlemen” in only 7 days. Also McBride, Ritz-Carlton GM, to lengthen the amount of time spent on training hotel employees before hotel opening. McBride should consider a total overhaul of the hotel opening process.

Products and Services

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company develops and Operates luxury hotels. Hotels are designed and identified to appeal to and suit the requirements of major customers including meeting event planners, Business travelers and leisure travelers. Ritz- Carlton set out to open any new hotel Ritz-Carlton including detailed analysis of site selection, new product and service development and feasibility study. The detailed analysis also includes target customers, their needs and expectations. The each hotel customized to meet local market demand. Innovation through make use of latest technology for enhancing customer satisfaction level – Link restaurant services through internet KobaltExpress.com. It allows customers to decide menus ahead of time and also select the choice of table. Differential aesthetic look and best quality interior was few of the additional features.

Core Values & Business Model

Following are the core values and Business model exist at Ritz Carlton:

Core values: Trust, honesty, integrity and commitment.

A great emphasizing on human resources, believes it important and biggest assets

Foster work environment to fulfill individual aspirations

Focus on Service but not sales

Guest greets at Airport with mimosas and discount coupons on a silver tray

Airport check – in concierge

Techno savvy to ensure customer’s needs satisfied

Event Planners

Ritz -Carlton managed properties for Millennium partners who were one of several hotel owners. Ritz – Carlton charged management fees of 3% of total revenue besides wholly owned luxury hotels around the world. The customer segment was Independent travelers and Meeting Event planners. The key success indicators of hotel business were “Average Daily Rate” and Revenue per Available Room”.

Independent travelers were influenced through special services like providing discounting coupons at airports, created hotel room at airport and also introduced “Technology Butler”. The specialized services increased customer convenience and outpaced the competition.

The nature of services is perishable and individual travelers are aiding in profitability. The event business / meeting business are growing and desirable for the sustainable profitability. The management contracts tend to meet needs of owners and operators.

Quality at Ritz – Carlton:

Ritz Carlton has a great emphasizing on human resources. Robust HRM practices envisage right people for the right job and inducted to become perfect lady and gentleman. The total quality management philosophy began to permeate the organization. Company focused on new activities and measures including quality standards, continuous improvements for delivering better service & quality. New programs designed to meet customer specific need and service quality indicators. The Quality policy believes in “Exceeding Standards”. Warm and sincere greeting, anticipation and compliances of guest needs and warm good bye are key service steps.

Human resources at Ritz – Carlton:

Human resources is critical element in the process for understanding of the service to be delivered and priorities in doing so, are aligned closely with customers’ expectations and marketing communications by the organization. For managers, the service climate needs to support and reward employees in their efforts to deliver the service product reliably at the promised standard.

The value creation for customer –

If the customer perceives quality of the service to be higher than the cost incurred, the customer receives value.

The greater the difference between the quality of service and the cost, greater will be the satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Ritz – Carlton turnover rate was 20% compared to hotel industry average rate of 100%. This exhibits how Ritz – Carlton cares about their employees and viewed their employees as one of the important and biggest assets and has passion for the people. Ritz – Carlton nurtured and maximizes talent of each individual. Through the extensive formal and informal training employee were prepared to meet current obligations and also higher responsibilities in future. Employees were also trained to meet futuristic obligations and encouraged to cross train and learn about many different aspects. Performance was not only criteria but also managed by the employees themselves.

Employees monitoring their own performance and recognized for outstanding work.

Staffing:

To minimize failure in delivering services, key HRM practices like employee recruitment, selection and training focused and implemented. People having aptitude, talent and attitude to serve people, training schedule made sure to shape out staff for delivering exceptional services. The key of maintaining exceptional service standards was to keep high morale and motivation of each employee. Various tools were used to attract applicants for the various positions include visiting competitor’s restaurants, advertisement in news papers and visiting hospitality schools. Ritz – Carlton job fair was organized for mass recruitment. Aspirants treated well including convenient reaching to destination of job fair, offering snacks and beverages, make them aware about organization.

“Service Oriented Approach of Ritz-Carlton

The customer service oriented approach has three elements: For whom services and products created who will deliver and how will be delivered.

Customer Value

Customer relationships and customer loyalty

Different communication and pricing strategies

Assessment of customer satisfaction and complaints

Making customer value more tangible

People

Role of employees in value creation

Nature of competencies required to deliver services

Empowerment of employees

Reduction of stress

Operations and Technology

Designing processes to create value

Design and location of facilities

Role of technology

Capacity management

The Ritz Carlton having different value and philosophy in business which includes and they operate The Credo, The Motto, The Three Steps of Service, Service Values, the 6th Diamond & the Employee Promise.

The company is engage in the services oriented which have the unique characteristics for providing the services in order to meet the expectation of the customer. Some of the highlights have been captured depicted below:-

Excellence in service not in Selling

The Ritz-Carlton Philosophy states as they are not in the hotel business. The Ritz-Carlton is selling an experience, and experience that is based on excellence of service. As stated by Schulze, “We are not in the hotel business. The hotel business is about selling rooms, selling food, selling the bar. We do those things incidentally, but our business is service. We charge for service. Our commitment to our customers is excellence in service”.

Their commitment to customers is excellence in service. Service is their profession. The total service oriented approach.

The Credo

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of guests is the highest mission. Pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience. The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfils even the unexpressed wishes and needs of guests.

Motto

At The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” This motto exemplifies the anticipatory service provided by all staff members.

Motto of the company, Employee commitment, The credo, employee promises and twenty basics are gold standards and success mantras. Gold standards reinforced on daily basis in order to build the habits of employees to deliver the highest level of services

The three steps of service,- A warm and sincere greeting. Use the guest’s name. Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest’s needs Fond farewell give a warm good-bye and use the guest’s name.

Service Values:

Employees feel proud To Be Ritz-Carlton as they have opportunity to do following which gives them job satisfaction. The Ritz Carlton is known for service excellence and follow following principals to provide excellent service to their customers..

1. Employee satisfaction.

2. Leadership involvement.

3. Determination, commitment, and accountability.

4. Attend to “voice of the customers.”

5. Two-way communication.

6. Freedom to act.

7. Employees as ambassadors.

8. Adapt service recovery model (L.A.S.T.: Listen, Apologize, Solve, and Thank You.)

9. Anticipate needs.

10. Scripting to convey the right message [ii]

The 6th Diamond – is Mystique, Emotional Engagement & Functional , these all cared by Ritz- Carlton and known 6th Diamond.

Employee Promises – At The Ritz-Carlton Ladies and Gentlemen are the most important resource in service commitment to guests. By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment, they nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company.

The Ritz-Carlton fosters a work environment where diversity is valued, quality of life is enhanced, individual aspirations are fulfilled, and The Ritz-Carlton Mystique is strengthened. [iii]

Creating Service Oriented culture through orientation

Servitisation approach means bundling goods & services and makes a integrated package. This approach more focus on associated services than product

Four steps in creating servitisation approach:-

Knowing your customers

Organizing service delivery systems

Making sure employees have appropriate skills

Employing technology

A services discipline is defined by the following main features:

The benefits it offers to customers

The need to integrate, manage and deliver processes

The importance of establishing and maintaining relationships

The Ritz-Carlton As a premium hotel whose utmost mission is to provide “genuine care and comfort to guests,” The Ritz-Carlton pledges to “provide the finest personal service and facilities to the guests who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed yet refined ambience.”And this objective can only be fulfilled by satisfied and engaged employees.

The three goals of Ritz are financial results, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. These goals are not exclusive from each other. They are very closely interrelated. Without satisfied and engaged employees, there is no way to achieve excellent financial results and guest satisfaction.

To ensure such high service standards, Management team look for people who will fit the existing culture and see the following qualities in the people.

People who share the same values and purpose.

People who care for and respect others.

People who smile naturally.

People who seek a long term relationship.

People who have talent for the job

Process of Ritz to create “Ladies and Gentlemen” in only 7 days

The seven days countdown was formulated for hotel opening process which was refined during in the process of last several years , this was the new employee’s first encounter with hotel, which started exactly seven days before the grand opening of the hotel.

The first two (2) days were devoted to orienting employees to the company culture and values.

The next five days were devoted to more skills training and trial runs of service delivery.

To ensure that employees are get aligned with organization mission and core values.

Trainers from 23 nationalities

The orientation process is slow and thorough, and ensures that the employees are aligned with the organization’s mission and a great deal of focus is kept on the conveying the values of the organization.

The trainers for the orientation program are gathered from 23 different countries, all considered the “best of the best” in their role within the organization. These trainers are responsible for ensuring that each employee is at the required level or standard in their specific job function at the hotel.

Schulze addresses the new team by stating, “You are not servants. We are not servants. Our profession is service. We are ladies and gentleman. We are ladies and gentleman and should be respected as such.” He conveys a message of unity, a message of equality and team work during his address, and he again insists that “We are ladies and gentleman serving ladies and gentleman”, as per the Ritz Carlton motto.

The Ritz-Carlton employed the “Gold Standards” to ensure this message was communicated effectively to all employees; the Gold Standard included “The Credo, The Three Steps of Service, The Motto, The Employee Promise and the Twenty Basics” to ensure employees were focused on the organizations values.

Through continuous communication and brain storming session and directives from top to down level and intensive training, skill development and an aligned HRM strategy, within 7 days the Ritz-Carlton managed to create ladies and gentleman out of their employees.

The steps for making Ladies and Gentleman
Training and daily line-up:

During the first two days employees were aware, trained and dipped into the culture and values of the organization and remaining five days devoted to specific skill training and trial runs of service delivery ensuring everything perfect and meeting service standards. The orientation process ensures aligns the worker with the mission of company and ensured service philosophy ingrained in all its employees, they ingrained the message that all employees are in the service business and not the hotel business.

The executive team and Human Resources explain The Ritz-Carlton Credo, Employee Promise, and 12 Service Values. After that, they will receive 30 days of training from a certified trainer from the department. On Day 21, new employees are asked to give the management feedback on how they can improve their training program for future training and recertification. In addition, every employee gets a minimum of 130 hours of training every year, which spans training for his or her department, company culture, and language and computer skills. Day 365 is recognition of one year of loyal service and is an opportunity to reinforce the hotel’s culture. Every employee will also go through annual recertification after they pass written tests, role-play and interviews on culture and skill.

Daily line-up – is a daily briefing to reiterate the company’s standard and convey important business messages. It takes place every morning in each department. While each department may conduct briefings differently, the message they convey is the same worldwide: they will talk about one of the 12 Service Values.

Listening and communication: –

Communication is important and creates abundant opportunities to interact with employees beginning with the interview and continuing through monthly breakfast meetings and his daily rounds of the hotel: Human Resources also holds a monthly feedback session with randomly selected employees for 1 to 1.5 hours to discuss their concerns. Overall, every employee has one opportunity every year to speak with the General Manager or HR Director in private. In addition, the hotel conducts annual employee satisfaction surveys, and on an ongoing basis, collects opinions on employee issues and posts them in public areas identifying those responsible for solving them. The executive team then notes the number of issues solved and measures the satisfaction of the employees.

Empowerment and continuous improvement:

Employees are also encouraged to be innovative and creative when it comes to improving their jobs. Money is not the key motivator; employees are rewarded for improving the goals measured by guest satisfaction, financial performance and employee satisfaction at year-end. Employees are rewarded and recognized for their outstanding customer service. [iv]

Information support:

Through their numerous interactions with guests throughout their stay like check in, room service, and housekeeping, employees continuously record guest preferences and needs in Guest Preference Forms. Every night, such preferences and needs are entered into The Ritz-Carlton’s worldwide database Project Mystique, so whenever guests make a reservation at a Ritz-Carlton hotel, their needs and preferences are known and taken care of.

Reward and recognition:

At The Portman Ritz-Carlton, employees are recognized and rewarded both financially and non-financially. Mark DeCocinis believes if you want your people to be the best, you must pay them top market salaries. While money is not the key motivator, employees are rewarded for improving the goals measured by guest satisfaction, financial performance and employee satisfaction at year end. Employees are rewarded and recognized for their outstanding customer service. Every quarter, a Five-Star Employee Award is granted; with the winner receiving a five-night stay for two at a Ritz-Carlton anywhere in the world, along with round-trip tickets for two and US$500 allowance.

At Ritz -Carlton human resources are very well planned they treat with hospitality. As per their President who says you are not servant. We are not servant. Our profession is service. We are ladies and gentleman, just as the guests are whom we respect as ladies and gentleman. If you impart such culture be sure you will create ladies and gentle to serve.

Give the respect & take the respect, which costs nothing only wins, the heart of the customer who is taking the service & will have regards for the service provider.

Employee orientation schedule

Employee orientation is key part of the training and development process which introduces employees to the jobs, colleagues and organization. Researchers have found that formal orientation can achieve significant cost savings by reducing anxiety of new employees, fostering positive attitudes, job satisfaction and sense of commitment at the start of the employment relationship.

The 7 day countdown was a Hallmark of Ritz Carlton’s well defined hotel opening process which synchronized all steps leading to the opening of a new hotel. It was Ritz Carlton’s orientation process aimed at aligning the employee with the vision and mission of the organization. The 7 day orientation process was standardized and ensured that Ritz Carlton has the right employees to support its vision which was “Excellent Personalized Service”.

The seven day countdown was a worldwide best practice for the organization but in our opinion McBride should lengthen the 7 day countdown because of the following reasons:

Current difficulty faced in training new hires to meet the high expectation of Ritz Carlton’s standards in only 7 days. An increase in the training period would help employees understand their role in achieving the key success factors and creating the ‘The Ritz Carlton Mystique’.

By lengthening the 7 day countdown the service could become flawless which in turn could help translate the 5% dissatisfied customers to satisfied customers. This would result in occupancy going up from 80% to 88% due to increase in satisfaction level translating to $300 million.

Extending the 7 day countdown means investing in long standing excellence in areas such as employee orientation and customer oriented training resulting in increased customer engagement and satisfaction. Research on guest-spending patterns indicates that a four percent increase in customer engagement company-wide would generate an extra $40 million in incremental revenue.

Employee’s morale is boosted as they are protected from feeling overwhelmed. A longer employee engagement would also mean further decrease in the annual turnover which stood at 18%.

Adults by virtue of having lived longer accumulate greater volume, knowledge and mind-sets. It would help to have more time for the employees to o un-learn and learn new things.

Continuous improvement was absolutely critical to keep the commitment to customer for excellence in service and extending the 7 day countdown would help the process.

Would help thwart competition from ‘The Four Seasons’ by offering flawless service which can be achieved by increasing the orientation period.

Would help meet the expectations of the Millennium Partners about this hotel offering ‘great great service’ which means it expected Service par excellence.

Thus we believe that Ritz Carlton should therefore increase the length of the orientation to further ingrain service excellence in its new employees which will ensure higher productivity and foster competitiveness.

An assessment of 7 days vs 14 days training program

50% occupancy revenue = $5,000,000

Cost of the 7 day training program = $10,00,000 (estimated)

80% occupancy revenue = $8,000,000

Cost of the 14 day training program = $20,00,000 (estimated)

Benefit of the program = 3,000,000

Additional Cost = 1000,000

Return On Investment = 300%

Every investment including investment for employee training associated with cost and benefit. The cost and benefit mean cost involved in training of employees, direct revenue benefit, intangible benefits. The increase / decrease training schedule also adversely / favorably impact.

Ritz – Carlton is well known name to the industry and known for service centric approach. Initial Occupancy may not affected by training period but message of customer care approach need to be ingrained. Local culture also affects the training schedule as behavior of individual employees need to framed up in line of the global approach.

Change in hotel opening process

Change is part of life. World scenario is becoming dynamic and industry is coming up with innovative products to lure customers. In order to stay ahead in competition, Ritz – Carlton also need to think differently.

The entire training module, customer expectancy needs overhaul of the hotel opening process. The defects need to eliminate within shortest time frame.. Additional training and development will increase the cost but it will build up confidence and set new industry bench mark.

Ongoing operation is very different from the opening a new hotel. The opening hotel require two core competencies

One is dealing with the development of the site.

Human resource processes necessary to get the hotel up & running.

Ritz-Carlton regarded employees as the cornerstone of its exceptional service culture. The company understood that, as a service organization, the quality of its end product was only as good as the people providing it. Therefore it took care to see that it not only recruited the right kind of employees, but also provided them with the necessary inputs to enable them to provide exceptional service.

Although Ritz-Carlton’s salaries were not significantly higher than those of other comparable organizations in the hospitality industry, the company was a preferred employer because of its organizational culture and the way it treated its employees. Ritz-Carlton’s organizational culture not only helped the company provide exemplary customer service, but also created an atmosphere where employees felt valued.

It is difficult to train new hires to meet the high expectation of the Ritz Carlton service standards in only seven days, but it worked in Ritz Carlton. Training should not be longer which will not be cost effective in the short span of the time.

The employees already working should be given chance to in the second opening millennium to avoid taking risk at the opening itself.

Recruitment should be done for the Ritz Carlton not for the millennium because the employee can be transferred as per the requirement.

The employees of the Millennium partners can be taken for the opening, as the partner’s employees will feel proud to work jointly as a team. This will give opportunity to the partner’s employee who knows the brand & fame of the Ritz Carlton by giving the Ritz Carlton basics.

Ritz-Carlton management takes the following four steps to ensure that employees maintain the company’s high standards for quality and service

Excellence, as articulated in the Gold Standards: (i) rigorous employee selection process, (ii) employee orientation, (iii) employee training certification, and (iv) continuous coaching.

Conclusion:

The service industry is becoming more competitive. Global aspirations and technological innovations are challenges for the industry. Customers are loyal to the services rather than company. The services need to revisit and provide latest offers. World’s best organizations believe in beating their own standards and developing innovating products to serve and win customer hearts.

100 % employee pride & Joy, Zero customer difficulty and 100% customer loyalty are performance criteria of performance excellence set by Ritz – Carlton Hotels. The road map created for performance excellence through strategic planning, leadership, Human resources, Processes & Systems, customer focus, information & analysis finally business results.

Employees groomed and equipped to exceed (Not meet) customer requirements. Regular updating training needs, deliverance evaluation, PDCA (Plan, Do Check, Act) and Z- back approach; unlearning – learning approach aided in meeting industry challenges.