toptermpaper.com

Balearic Islands with total area of 5,014 km consist of four islands which are 2 by Formentera, 11 by Eivissa, 14 by Menorca and 73 by Mallorca (Bull 1997, 140). Mallorca is the largest island of the Balearic archipelago with 555km of the total coast length of the island (Garcia and Servera 2003, 288) which covered for nearly three quarters of the land with approximately 3640 km? in Balearic Island.

The climate of Mallorca is typically Mediterranean with moderate average temperatures. During the summer, the dry and warm season takes place. The average annual rainfalls are 625 mm, with average temperature 16°C and 17°C except in the high mountain (Guijarro 1986). With its favorable climate, extensive coastline and beautiful beaches it have lured visitors coming over for many centuries.

In 1950s the development of tourism increasingly creates an opportunity to the local in generating additional jobs and income. On the other side it has resulted in a large flux of immigrants from Iberian Peninsula to Mallorca. At the same time when the tourism industry developed, the local economy became dependent on this source of revenue. Consequently, in 1955 there is 30 of the population was working for the sector however in 1996 it was almost 76 (Garcia and Servera 2003, 288).

The development of Mass Tourism (Mallorca)

Definition of Mass tourism

Burkart and Medlik (1974, 42) states “Mass tourism is essentially a quantitative notion, based on the proportion of the population participating in tourism or on the volume of tourist activity”. However, in the context of Bramwell (2004) relate it to tourism industry’s large-scale replication of standardized holiday packages combining accommodation and transport to cater large numbers of people from diverse social groups.

Basically both definitions have pointed out the key element of mass tourism that is all about large volume and large scale of replication production with local participation involvement to cater vast numbers of visitors. Since 1950s tourism in Mallorca has closely aligned with a standard mass holiday package aimed at a very price-sensitive of European tourist (Aguilo et al. 2005, 221). Having such characteristic of the climate, sun and beach is perfectly match with the mass tourist who in search of hot weather and suntan within the framework of a rigidly packaged holiday.

Butler’s life cycle of Mallorca

Exploration & involvement stage-1930s

The butler’s lifecycle model (1980), describes a tourist destination from the exploration to development up to stagnation and decline phases can be best apply in the destination of Mallorca from the growth stage to post-stagnation stage. In the period of “exploration and involvement” stages tourism takes place in Mallorca act merely “as an instrument for stimulating cultural and intellectual activity” (Bull 1997, 141).

Early development stage – 1955s

When it comes to 1955 Mallorca Island is in development stage where mass tourism started to grow during that period. There was a re-establishment of the tourist board that have significantly change the tourism on the island whereby the tourism become more very much linked with the development of package holidays and mass tourism from the growing markets in western and northern Europe (Pearce 1991 and Williams 1997). However in 1959, Spanish government took the initiate to simplify the procedure of visiting the country in order to modernize the economy by gaining overseas revenue through (Stabilisation Act of 1959). The numbers of visitors started to growth constantly in early 1960s, majority of the visitors were dominated from UK and Germany in large volumes concentrated especially during summer season (Clark 1988) (Figure 1).

Consolidation stage-1980s-1990s

Between 1960s-1980s the consequences from the boom of international tourism to Mallorca, it led to an increasing resort development along the coastline. Most of the island began from the rapid growth of inexpensive package holidays in the 1960s. However in the late of 1970s, many buildings, resorts and apartments were built in order to cater large numbers of visitors and growing number of the populations. Majority of these early resorts were portrayed by standard apartment building architecture, short of appropriate infrastructure and lack of planning, which lead to the consolidation stages. Buswell (1996, 321) described the growth of tourist resolution on Mallorca as “unplanned and piecemeal, even chaotic”. Later, stricter planning laws was set up in 1980s and 1990s against the problem that arisen. Subsequently Mallorca managed to maintain its good reputation with tourists, particularly from UK and Germany moreover constantly attracts about 10 m visitors per year (Buswell 1996 and Government Balear 2003)

Stagnation and Decline stage-1990s-2000s

In late 1990s, environmental pressures begin to emerge in Mallorca regarding to the issue such as water shortages, climate change, overcrowding, and over commercialization as well as anti-social behavior by its visitors. This eventually causes an overall of decline in number of visitors arrive to its destination. In provisions of destination life cycle dynamics, the tourism product of Mallorca was beginning to ‘stagnate’ and ‘decline’ and required management planning and policy intervention to bring about its ‘rejuvenation’ (Butler, 1980).

Development of Mass tourism in Calvia, Mallorca

Calvia is a municipality of Mallorca which is also one of the largest tourism receiving areas. It accounted about one third of the total flow of tourists to Balearic Islands. It covers 145 km? and has a coastal strip of 56 Km of beaches and cliffs which caused it absolutely suitable destination for mass tourism. It offers accommodation for 120,000 bedspaces and with approximately up to 1.6 million visitors a year (Aguilo, Algere and Sard, 2005). Furthermore, with its location in tiny distance from the airport of Palma creates an easily accessible to the visitors. The population of the resident increased from 3000 in habitants during 1960 up to 30,000 in the late nineties (Dodds 2007).

Since 19th century, tourism began to be as main economic activity of its island (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda, 2005). Tourism development in Calvia boomed in the 1960s and has been based on short-term economic gain. As Aguilo et al. (2005) states, it was one of the first municipalities to experience negative effects of mass tourism. Lack of planning regulations resulted in urban sprawl and lack of environmental regard, similar to many Mediterranean resorts.

The model of tourism development in Mallorca has been “based on short-term interest, unlimited building out of tune with local conditions, and an unsustainable exploitation of exceptional natural resources”. Tourist development took place in 1960s to 1980s and was hasty and unplanned.

Economy

In economic point of view, tourism is important as it create job opportunities, infrastructure development as well as foreign exchange. The unemployment rate is much lower than national average (Ministerio de Trabajo 2005) as there are about 31,793 people employed in restaurant-bars, 2057 involved in transportation rental, 483 in supermarkets, 398 people employed in souvenir shops and with 1,684 works in other tourist facilities. Meanwhile 1,402 involved in beach business and 18,003 are involved in providing tourist activities. In Calvia it was estimated about 61749 vacancies in terms of providing tourist activities (Molz 2004). It has 30 higher income per capital of national and 5 higher of E.U. levels (Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda 2005). Looking at these figures it becomes absolutely obvious 85 of Balearic Island’s GNP is from tourist industry, and tourism is the main source of income for the city of Calvia whereby economy is completely reliant upon it.

From the statistics numbers given, it can be conclude that there is high number of labour force joining the labour market, the tourist monoculture especially during the peak seasonal pattern, labour with a low salary system, and pressure of work during high season (Local Agenda 21 2001).

Socio culture impact

While tourism provides certain economic benefits to a region in any case in the short term, however it does causes annoyance to the local way of life. To the locals the concerns may derive due to the unfulfilled promises, disruption of a traditional way of life, insufficiency of employment opportunities or frustration with the economic changes which came with mass tourism development.

Before tourism takes place, Calvia was fundamentally a poor and rural area with little outside contact and general history of emigration with its own language and culture of Catalan roots (Ruzza 2004). However tourism has wholly altered these features; a vast number of immigration from the Spanish peninsula arrived to fulfill the demand for labour created by the growth of mass tourism, particularly in the building industry and the hotel business. Consequent to that the temporary immigrant population, has gradually turn into resident, eventually this causes the loss of cultural identity, conflict over language issues, and lack of social integration within local and immigrant population and tiny participation in local social life.

Although Calvia is Spain’s richest municipality and one of the richest in Europe, it has the lowest level of education in Spain which itself the lowest in Europe (Ayuntament de Calvia 1995). Besides, most of employments given for waiters and house cleaner which did not trained by a professional skilled.

Consequences of too many visitors

Reason tourist choose Calvia as holiday destination

The persistence of the sun and sand model (2005, 222), describes that the reason induces tourists to choose the particular sun and sand destination include the climate of 76.2, the beaches (51.2), the price (36.4), and the quality of the hotels (22.2). Among all, climate is the fundamental reason followed by the beaches which induces tourists for choosing such destination. As a result Calvia received a growing number of visitors who travel to a mass tourism holiday destination attracted by the climate, sun and beaches. Calvia were seen as a model based on value, in terms of price competition it has lure many visitors especially from UK and German with it standardization of the holiday experience (CIITIB, 2002).

Social impact

For the local point of view, visitors seem to utilize the physical environment from the local however the profit that generated from the visitors are not share with the local community. Thus it creates undesirable impacts on livelihoods without sharing benefits with the local people who bear the cost of both human and natural environment. Eventually conflicts arise among local populations with vast number of visitors as they need to compete for limited use of resources such as water, sanitation, energy and land uses.

In point of tourist view it is frequently recapitulate with the statements with “this used to be a paradise but now it is ruined” because of overcrowding, over commercialization or overdevelopment. The “mass tourism” tackiness and the variety of problems experienced in Calvia have too often formed blemish alongside beautiful natural scenery; crowded with vast numbers of tourists as if they were many cattle; ruined traditional cultures and occupational patterns by creating a insidious tourism industry portrayed as low paying jobs service and manipulative values; without concerning the needs of local citizens and the community values that were inconsistent with pragmatic economic requirements of the tourism industry.

Environmental impact

The risen numbers of visitors and residents have immense environmental pressure in Calvia. As mentioned in butler’s life cycle, Mallorca was in the period of ‘stagnation’ in 1990s may lay on the line by rising of environmental pressure mainly due to water shortages and climatic change.

Inadequate water supply

The issue of inadequate water supply especially during peak period and summer season, water supplies is aggravated by visitors’ flows for use in hotels, swimming pools and golf course. According to the statistic documented in 1995, the water consumption by visitors amounted of 160 liters per day whereby resident is only 130 liters.

High demand in energy consumption

The annual consumption of primary energy in Calvia amount to 72,000 TEP per year of which only 2 is renewable. However, the consumption per day was 6.47 kwh and visitors stay one night in hotel the consumption amounted to 2.14 kwh (Dodds 2007).

Pollution by Transports

Of 1,400,000 tones emission of carbon dioxide, 58 is due to transporting tourist in and out of Mallorca. In Calvia 1995 statistic, visitors are the major causes of traffic congestion where of 70 million journeys 50 million were from visitors.

Urban waste

In 1995 Calvia produced 41000 tons of urban waste with roughly 1.25 kg per day by the resident however 1kg per visitors a day. Moreover there is a limited option for disposal. The production of wastewater and solid waste in visitor areas often surpass the carrying capacity of local infrastructure due the high seasonal demand.

Deterioration of the Land use

Building development in Calvia has been excessive with mass occupation of sandy beaches and important enclaves along the rocky coastline (Pappas 2007). With over 60 of Calvia region was caused by soil erosion. However land area was reducing drastically because of urbanization. Furthermore, as a result of urbanization, quarries and waste dumps were increasing. Forest fires also sparked further destruction of the land. According to an accounting of the distribution of the entire area of Calvia made by Schmitt (Molz 2004) in 1991 the build-up-area has quadrupled in the years from 1968 to 1991 (+311.6). However 57 of archaeological heritage were at high risk of deterioration.

Overcrowded beach

Almost 80 of the analyzed cases show overcrowding despite an urban beach or natural beach. There is a strong seasonal concentration of visitors between June and September because of the demand for sun and beaches. Subsequently this led to overcrowded beach with less than 6 m? of beach surface per person with increasing anthropogenic pressure over the coastal zone (Garcia and Jaume 2003, 287).

Solution

Calvia is an example of a mass tourism destination which, from a result of tourism pressure in the late 1980s, faced significant economic, social and environmental decline. As mentioned by Butler (1993) “tourism is an activity because of its reliance upon the maintenance of natural environment and natural processes, should lent itself toward sustainable development.” Therefore, sustainable development must always be tourism’s main objective. Without natural environment and natural processes there would not be any tourism activity at all. In the case of Calvia the decrease of tourism numbers and Balearic Island as a whole driven regulations and efforts to move towards addressing the problems of the degradation of the environment, deterioration of social systems and facilities and the threat of further tourism decline.

Definition of Planning and Policy

Mass tourism is a key issue in the global tourism industry, may it be in Mallorca or Brazil or Iceland. The word “MASS” alone brings about one fear: mass-destruction. Without careful tourism planning, it brings about unseen consequences that can make “tourism destroying tourism” become a reality and nightmare.

By looking at the definition of planning is extremely ambiguous and difficult to define. Chadwick (1971, 24) states that “planning is a process of human thought with an action based upon the thought – in point of fact, forethought, thought for the future, nothing more or less than this is planning”. Meanwhile Hall (2008, 90) supported Chadwick’s ideas to conclude that “most important aspect of planning is that it is directed towards the future”. However, planning cannot be accomplished without policy because it is closely related terms. Wilkinson (1997) linked planning and policy by stating planning is a course of action, whereas policy is the implementation of the planned course of action.

Planning and policy in the case of Calvia

Calvia Plan for tourist Excellent – 1990

The plan was developed in 1990 as to target the threat of decline. It comes along with the Balearic Autonomous community in cooperation with the municipalities as to modernize, improve and diversify the tourism. This plan included building clearance to regain open space, try to counterbalance the seasonal nature of tourism and training and employment. However this plan is mainly focused on the industry supply side instead of sustainability of the destination and host community did not involve at all. As a result, it did not attempt to overcome the growing issues that have arisen.

Calvia Local Agenda 21 (LA21) – 1995

At the end of 1994, the Town council of Calvia, together with a range of working groups, drew up the “Local Agenda 21 for Calvia” as a long term strategies integrated with economic, social, territorial and environment actions. In formulating LA21 in 1995 and Action Plan in 1997, the Municipality of Calvia actively involved the support of local community, all the stakeholders, NGO as well as national and EU governments.

The key objectives for LA21 Calvia concentrating on entering a new way of life based on sustainable and participatory urban and tourism planning; emphasize environmental management of the destination, look for for agreement and consensus with social representatives, control development and act for more stable employment in the area. (Calvia Agenda Local 21, Mallorca, Spain 2004).

In 1998 New Balearic Law in Calvia was set out as to limit accommodation growth, restore existing hotels and to protect 40 of natural areas. The objectives of the LA21 comprises of 10 strategic lines of action and 40 initiatives.

Key results that have been achieved since the implementation of Calvia’s 1997 plan

The LA21 Action Plan which were set out in 1997 were seems to have improvement in a general movement toward sustainability within the region and as Calvia is fairly autonomous, it was able to adopt and implement many initiatives without the need for collaboration from higher government. Among those key results that have been achieved since the implementation of the LA21 action plan are stated below:

Planning and Regeneration

Decline of 200 bed without raise in number of hotels and apartments

1993-2002-about 30 building clearance plan actions including actual building demolition and purchase of urban plots as to prevent further construction were carried out

Demolished buildings on more than 13,500m? of the total surface area

Upgraded area in Magaluf & Palma Nova tourist area with pedestrian zones and planting tree as to improve quality of the area.

In Paseo de Calvia 32 km cycling and walking path was built

Environmental instruments

Tax was imposing on water consumption for conservation with awareness campaigns on promoting its use.

The recycling & urban waste reduction plans successfully separated 70 of the urban waste at origin, assisting by reducing cost of recycling effort, minimizing land fill.

Sea dredging which used to generate beaches has been terminated while measures on environmental friendly were put in place to minimize erosion.

New regulation for limiting anchor damage & harbor congestion cause by boats

Protect wild life & ecosystems with the establishment of Marine Park & terrestrial protected areas.

Economic instruments

Impose an eco-tax in 2002 by Balearic Government as to carry out Calvia council rehabilitation and regenerative projects.

Voluntary instruments

Renovation programmes for hotels, tourist accommodation and tourist facilities established to upgrade quality and attract a higher yield tourist

Socio cultural instruments

Programmes to combat crime, housing and other social issues

Multi-cultural and social programmes such as dance, underwater photography and language classes established to help integrate immigrants into Mallorquin culture.

Calvia has been recognized internationally for its efforts

conclusion

Calvia

2.0 The development of mass tourism in Calvia, Mallorca.

2.1 Definition of Mass Tourism

Introduction

Customer satisfaction has been established as a psychological concept that involves the feeling of customer’s well-being and pleasure which results from obtaining what he or she hopes for and expects from consuming an appealing product and/or service (Florian and Maren, 2007; Christian, 2005; Abraham and Taylor, 1999). While different scholarly write-ups have confirmed variety of approaches to the explanation of customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction in marketing, in a comprehensive work done by Abraham and Taylor (1999), they developed nine distinct theories of customer satisfaction: namely expectancy disconfirmation; assimilation or cognitive dissonance; contrast; assimilation-contrast; equity; attribution; comparison-level; generalized negativity; and value-precept (Oh and Park, 1997). Customer satisfaction and service quality have also been confirmed to be critical issues in most service industries, and are even highly important for Airline service providers that offer generally undifferentiated products. For example, in the airline industry, the main approach to differentiation and the principal means by which one Airline can distinguish itself from another is service before and after sales services (Stafford et al, 1998).

Otherwise, companies will be generally unable to differentiate their services based on market offerings because Airlines offer state-mandated standardized products/services. The recent emphasis on service quality and customer satisfaction in the Airline industry illustrates the increased importance Airlines are placing on customer quality and satisfaction (Halil et al, 2008). As such, service quality measurement and customer satisfaction are increasingly becoming important for service firms to stay in the business (Parasuraman et al. 1988). And these service quality measurements processes differs across different industrial domains, because the service manager will account for the unique nature of services, while different service attributes in each organizations are acting as determinants of customer satisfaction because of the complex interrelationship and dependability that exist between them (Fochen and Robert, 2003).

Customer satisfaction, one of the central marketing objectives, is closely linked to customer loyalty, the likelihood of recommendation to others, cross-buying behavior; up-grading and lower price sensitivity (Anderson, 1994; Matzler, 2005; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Zeithaml, 2000). Literatures like Kurt et al (2006), have explore the dimensionality of price satisfaction as a means to determine customer satisfaction. In their paper, they empirically find that price satisfaction is a complex construct consisting of several dimensions, i.e. price-quality ratio, price fairness, price transparency, price reliability and relative price. Their analyses of these dimensions are given as thus; price transparency is defined as increasing access to information, access to more alternatives, more simplified transactions, increasing communication between customers and a general distrust and resentment among customers. They argued that as a consequence, customers will increasingly demand open, honest and complete information on products and prices.

Thus, price transparency can be considered as an important aspect of pricing policy. They concluded that price transparency exists when the customer can easily get a clear, comprehensive, current and effortless overview about a company’s quoted prices (Matzler et al, 2006). They also explained that price-quality ratio is when the consumers ascribe value to a product or service subject to their perception of two factors: perceived price and perceived quality, or, in other words, the price-quality ratio. They defined customer value as a cognition-based construct that captures any benefit-sacrifice discrepancy. They said if perceived quality exceeds perceived costs, customer value is high, if cost exceeds quality, customer value is low. In their conclusion, they explained that the buyers’ perceptions of value represent a trade-off between the qualities of benefits they perceive in the product relative to the sacrifice they perceive by paying the price.

1.1 Background of the study

The history of Saudi Airline could be traced to 1945 when the then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave a Douglas DC-3 plane as a token gift to the then Saudi Arabia King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud. This event actually marked the Muslim Kingdom’s gradual development in the civil aviation industry. The Kingdom’s main carrier Saudi Arabian Airlines was founded in September 1946, which is fully owned and controlled by Saudi government under the control of the Ministry of Defense.

In addition to the above development, the airline took extra two delivery of Boeing 720s in 1962, giving it an opportunity to officially register its operations on 19 February 1963. This continuous development has led into establishing the Kingdom’s airline as one of the leading in the industry, especially Asia in particular (). In fact, Saudi Airline has been confirmed as the region’s second-largest airline by turnover after the giant Emirates airline (). This is because Saudi airline has continuously remained larger than the Qatar Airways in terms of its revenue, and also rated larger than the current fast growing airline popularly called Etihad (). But if measured by the numbers of traffics in the region, the Saudi Arabian airline will still be number three behind the Qatar Airways and the Emirates ().

Part of the arguments in favour of Saudi airline is that it is strategically located at the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe and also serving as the largest country within the Arabian Peninsula (). But very important concerns among its transportation stakeholders is how to maximize this external opportunity in conjunction with its current population of about 28 million people that are still depending on few rail network and air travels, an issue that have been argued as a critical component to the economic development of Saudi Arabia ().

Following this trend was why the Kingdom’s government encouraged the idea of strategically allowing the privately owned low cost airline competitors to rival with the Saudi Arabian Airlines both in the domestic and international markets (). This initiative from the government was subsequently reciprocated by the private investors first through the establishment of NAS airline in February 2007, and Sama airline in Marh, 2007 both initially focusing on various trucks routes within the country ().

1.2 Research problem

Due to excessive subsidy of the transport system in Saudi Arabia, both the air and land transport marketers are strategically challenged on best approach to apply in order to efficiently acquire, service and retain profitable customers both within and outside the country (). This issue of subsidized fuel prices does not exclude the Saudi Arabian airline, but practitioners have continuously argued in favour of the need to remove the fare cap so that marketers can conveniently compete without any fear of fare restrictions (). This and many more are the reasons that experts believe serves as the primary cause of Saudi Arabia airline inability to strategically compete with other international airlines like the Emirates and the Qatar Airlines ().

Sequel to the above practical issues in Saudi Arabia airline, several authors have argued that service quality can be a strong differentiating factor for any Airline that wants to boost up their market shares and profit position (Halil et al, 2008; Fochen and Robert, 2003; Dennis et al, 1993). Also very recent among the scholarly write-up on Airline Customer Satisfaction is Ekiz et al. (2006), that developed an alternative to SERVQUAL and called it AIRQUAL. They emphasized that this scale is to overcome the psychometrical application of existing problems in Airline Service Quality scales, as initially guided by Churchill (1979) and Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988).

The findings of Ekiz et al (2006), through their AIRQUAL identified a scale of five distinct dimensions, i.e. (airline tangibles, terminal tangibles, personnel, empathy, and image) as a means to successfully manage and measure the quality perceptions of airline customers.

Although, it is confirmed that they successfully developed the AIRQUAL scale, but evidences from other scholars shows that their findings failed to identified the impact of Airline price, solution quality, and employee job satisfaction on customer satisfaction, because these variables have been proven to be very significant in determining customer loyalty (Dean, 2007; Kau and Loh, 2006; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). Considering Ekiz et al (2006) and other authors’ limitation and given the importance of these dimensions to the Airline industry, this proposed study wishes to develop on the findings of Ekiz et al.’s (2006) and other related literatures on Airline service quality and customer satisfaction. And studies like this will assist in determining the true behavioral intentions of airline customers in Saudi Arabia and the world at large. This proposed research work has develop an additional variable (Price) with specific reference to literatures like Kurt et al (2006), which has explore the dimensionality of price satisfaction as a means to determine customer satisfaction. In their paper, they empirically find that price satisfaction is a complex construct consisting of several dimensions, i.e. price-quality ratio, price fairness, price transparency, price reliability and relative price. Besides service quality and employee satisfaction, another strong factor that has a direct bearing on a customer’s satisfaction with a service provider is the quality of the solution that the service provider provides for the customer’s business problem (Whyte, Bytheway, and Edwards, 1997). To achieve the intended purpose of this proposed study, below is a proposed conceptual framework for this research:

Price

Customer Loyalty

Loyalty

Customer Satisfaction

Satisfaction

Service/Product Quality

Quality

Solution Quality

Employee Satisfaction

Satisfaction

+
+
+
+
1.3 Research Questions

The following questions are based on the issues discussed in the research problem by analyzing the practices of Airline industry in order to find out the impact of Price, Product/Service Quality, and Solution Quality on Customer satisfaction. These research questions are meant to get a feedback from Airline customers that patronize Saudi Airline and a comparable industry leader such as Singapore Airline on what actually constitute their Satisfaction and loyalty.

How does Price/Fare affect Customer satisfaction in Airline Industry?
How does Product/Service Quality affect Customer satisfaction in Airline Industry?
How does Employee Job Satisfaction affect Product/Service Quality in Airline Industry?
How does Employee Job Satisfaction affect Solution Quality in Airline Industry?
How does Solution Quality affect Customer satisfaction in Airline Industry?
How does Customer satisfaction affect Customer Retention in Airline Industry?
1.4 Research Objectives

This primary objective of this study is to establish the interdependence of Price perception, Service Quality, Employee Job Satisfaction and Solution Quality on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. To achieve this, this study plans to measure the impact of metrics such as Price perception, Service Quality, Employee Job Satisfaction and Solution Quality on customer’s satisfaction and loyalty in the Airline industry. Equally included in the study objective is to test the mediating impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty, an issue the researcher believes will strong assist in better understanding the mechanism that are behind the relationships between the antecedents and outcome of customer satisfactions within the airline industry. The theoretical framework is based on market orientation approach as a means to exploring and establishing the relationship between Efficient Airline projects as the independent variable and customer’s loyalty as the dependent variable.

To simplify this, the researcher has designed the following objectives to capture the research problem and provide answers to the research questions.

To test a model that can explain the impact of Price, Service Quality, Employee Job Satisfaction and Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty.
Research objective 2:
To determine the mediating effects of Customer Satisfaction on Customer Retention/Loyalty.
1.5 Scope of the study

The focus of this study is to understand what aspect of Airline operations determines Customer satisfaction. This research is limited to the Airline industry, where Saudi Arabia Airline and a leading Airline such as Singapore Airline will be selected for investigation with a set of sampling technique to explore the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The focus of this research is limited to the airline industry, where selected customers from the airline industry will be investigated with a set of sampling technique to explore their perceptions of the airline services within tourism industry as a strategic part of tourism marketing.

The theoretical background of the research is base on market orientation approach and customer satisfaction theories, while airline Tourism will be study from the perspective of the customers. The researcher is planning to structure this research study as a triangulated exploratory investigation that will integrate both qualitative and quantitative techniques, which will be primarily based on an in-depth interview with managers and professionals from the Saudi Arabia airline industry.

1.6 Significance of the research

Airline Industry has been chosen as the subject of this study because it will assist in identifying those variables that determine customer satisfaction and loyalty. To the Airline industry, this proposed research work will assist in establishing industry standard and assist the academics in developing alternative theories and models that will facilitate the general operations of the Airline Industry (Halil et al, 2008; Fochen and Robert, 2003; Dennis et al, 1993).

Significance to the Academics

Very important to the academics on this research is the detail explorations of the linkages that are between airline operational processes, service quality and contemporary customer satisfaction theories. Arguably, the existing literatures have implied that there exist a relationship between airline operation processes and customer satisfaction (), but till date there is very little published empirical research in this area that is looking at the impact of price, solution quality and employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition to this, existing theoretical gaps have indicated that there is need for the academics to further explore, analyze, explain and expand the links between customer satisfaction theories and airline operation processes.

Given the aforementioned, this research will be primarily contributing to the academics through its conceptualization and empirically testing the impacts of airline operational processes like price, service/product quality, employee job satisfaction and solution quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty within the airline industry. Through the developments of a measure that can determine the impact of airline operational processes on customer satisfaction and loyalty will provide the empirical methods for the academics in better understanding and able to predict the actual relationship that is existing between service quality and customer satisfaction theories within the airline industry. Measuring the impact of price will provide the knowledge to determine if increase or decrease in the prices of airline services will lead to better customer satisfaction and improved customer relationship performance or not.

Significance to the Practitioners

Airline management and managers will benefit by better understanding those factors that actually influence the relationships that exist between their operation processes and customer satisfaction and intention to repurchase. In particular, airline mangers will benefit from their understanding of how solution quality and price can affects their relationship with the customer, and how key attributes in airline services can be developed and supported by operational processes.

Both the HR and Production managers will benefit how employee satisfaction can be of significant impact to their service quality and solution quality, specifically through their understanding of the key relationships that exist between airline operational processes and their customer relationship performances. The enhanced knowledge though this research would a long way assist the airline management decision-making processes when they are evaluating their customer relationship performances.

In the final analysis, it is worth mentioning here that service quality cannot be separated from the concept of customer satisfaction. This is because the nature or characteristics of the service has also been found to influence the relative importance of the drivers of customer satisfaction (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000).

1.7 Proposed Methodology and data collection process

Though there are many methods of collecting data via survey. In this proposed research work, primary data for the intending statistical analysis will be collected through questionnaire design among the selected Airline customers in Saudi Arabia. The researcher is planning to adopt a second qualitative measurement to affirm research findings and assist in the interpretations of the research results with the help of the Airline Experts/Managers. The Unit of Analysis is who or what that is being studied in a given research. Evidences from the social science research have established a unit of analysis as an organization, an individual, a social interaction or a group of organization/individual. Relating the above into this research, the unit of analysis are the Airline customers that will be surveyed.

1.8 STRUCTURE OF THIS STUDY

Chapter one introduces the research topic “determinants of customer satisfaction in airline industry” and argues on the reasons for using price, service quality and solution quality, also included in it were statement of the research problem, the research questions, the research objectives, scope and limitations of the study and significance of the research.

Chapter two will define the dimensions of service quality and offer the theoretical background of airline marketing through a series of literature reviews on tourism marketing and customer satisfaction. The theoretical background upon which the researcher plans to develop a theoretical framework and hypothesis in form of summary will equally be contained in chapter two.

Chapter three will introduce the research methodology to be employed in this research, by providing a detailed qualitative and quantitative approach to be applied on each case study; and also contain the procedures for the selection of each case, data collection and discussion of data quality that will assist to determine the validity of the research.

Chapter four will consist of the descriptions and analyzes of the practices of the airline projects in Saudi airline. The outcomes of the findings on Saudi airline will be presented for discussion in chapter five. While chapter six will analyze, discuss and make conclusions regarding the research questions and points to the theoretical contribution along with the managerial implications contained in the research. Also to be included in chapter six are the alternative recommendations as a direction for future research.

Galle is the capital of a district with the same name and is also called the Gateway to the South. This port city, 119 km from Colombo, has managed to retain its old colonial town feel even today and is also known for its Dutch walled fortress.

It is believed that Galle is the biblical seaport of Tarshish, from which King Solomon obtained gold, ivory, peacocks and other valuables. Being on the strategic sea-route between Arabia, India and Southeast Asia, as well a natural harbour, Galle became an important trading port for Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Malays, Indians and Chinese.

According to other schools of thought, the name Galle derives from ‘Gallus’ (chicken in Dutch), or from ‘Gaala’, in Sinhala, meaning a herding place for cattle. Before the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century, Galle was known as ‘Gimhathiththa’. In less than 100 yrs, the Dutch had taken over and reinforced the fort. The Galle fort is now a world heritage site and shows the amalgamation of European architectural styles with south Asian traditions.

Beyond Galle, lies a stretch of coast with a series of beaches like Unawatuna and Thalpe, the latter also being famous for its stilt fishermen. In cricketing circles, Galle is known for its cricket ground, which has rebuilt itself successfully after the tsunami destruction.

Other prominent landmarks are the natural harbour, the National Maritime Museum, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Amangalla the historic luxury hotel and one of Sri Lanka’s main Shiva temples. Other natural attractions, temples and forts are also tourist hotspots.

By itself Galle is a large town, with a busy bus station and market are its heart. It provides varying attractions for its tourists with multiple art festivals. The annual Galle Literary Festival attracts litterateurs from all over the world.

Hotel Overview
General info on accommodation options and specific info on types of accommodation according to location

Words: 100

A wide range of accommodations from guest houses, bed and breakfast, star hotels, to boutique resorts is available in Galle. There is something for every budget, with prices ranging from 20 USD to 600 USD for exclusive properties. Most of the hotels in Galle are situated in the Fort and Beach area. However, one can find hotels located within the city limits as well. There are also a number of villas offering luxurious accommodation.

Among the high end hotels, the Amangalla and the Galle Fort Hotel inside the Fort and The Dutch House outside promise luxurious colonial style accommodation.

Among the medium range properties, The Lady Hill is the best option. The Fort House and Tamarind Hut are other options..

The budget properties are mostly family run guesthouses, offering homely lodgings and home cooked food. Beach Haven, Weltevreden and Rampart View are some such properties.

The villas are generally historic houses or tea plantation bungalows. The Last House, Auraliya and The Beach House are the few high end ones. The Fort House and Tamarind Hut come with lower budgets.

Info on International and major domestic hotel chains

Words: 50

There are no major international chains of hotels operating in Galle. A local chain of hotels, Jetwing does however have properties here.

Focus on business & leisure travel

Words: 50

Most of the hotels here have business and leisure facilities. One can find conference halls, wireless internet and fax facility in most of the hotels.

High end hotels also have in house entertainment choices for guests, which takes of the leisure needs of tourists.

Pricing variation according to season and events

Words: 100

The monsoon months from April to September are less busy and the prices are slightly on the lesser side during these months. Otherwise, Galle is a typical tropical coastal town and weather remains warm and welcoming throughout the year.

Things to Do
Things to Do – Overview
Overview of what all can be done in the destination across various categories of Things to do. Also, duration based possibilities to be listed.

Words: 200

There are lots of things to do in Galle. It has beaches, cultural attractions, temples, tea plantations, paddy fields and also shopping and dining. Everyone can find an activity of their choice here.

Old Galle has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. The well preserved 17th century colonial Galle Fort is the major attraction here. The fort is an example of the colonial style of architecture.

There is a museum inside the fort which represents the art and culture of the Southern Province. The Maritime Museum also inside the fort provides the history of Galle’s maritime successes. The Dutch Reformed Church has been restored and is worth a visit for its atmosphere and architecture.

The Galle harbour still handles shipping, and one can get a view of cruising yachts now and then. The cricket stadium here reminds one of the Dutch architecture.

Guided bike tours are also available to get a view of the countryside. Around Galle, trips to the Koggala lagoon, the Sea Turtle Hatchery, Whale watching trips from Mirissa and Kottawa Rainforest and Arboretum make for day outings. The beaches of Unawatuna and Thalpe are also good options.

Sightseeing – Overview
Overview on the sightseeing in the destination, including the popular ones and thematic ones

Words: 200

The main attraction for sight seers in Galle is its old colonial Fort. With a lot of reconstruction work done lately, the Fort has recently been restored. Inside the ramparts of the fort, there are a lot of old buildings and colonial structures to see.

The Dutch Reformed Church and The All Saints’ Church are the Dutch and Anglican places of worship. The National Museum, Maritime Museum and the Historical Maritime Museum have some ancient artefacts.

Themed walking tours of the Fort, adapted to individual interests can be taken to get some new insights into the life of Fort residents as well as see some off the beat aspects of the Fort.

The Koggala Lagoon, with several islands, is a place for bird watching. The Temple Island here has an old Buddhist temple, which is still in use and attracts many visitors on full moon (Poya) day. The Cinnamon Island is also worth exploring and Ananda Spice Garden are other sightseeing options here.

The Kottawa Rainforest and Arboretum, on the road to Udugama introduces one to the Sri Lankan rainforest.

Sightseeing – Individual level write-ups

Words: 20 write ups of 200 words each (Total: 4000 words)

For example:
Name of the attraction

Dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text, dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text, dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text, dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text,

Address: Dummy text, dummy text

Timing: 9 a.m – 5:30 p.m (Monday to Friday)

9 a.m – 9:00 p.m (Saturday and Sunday)

Admission Fees: RM 3.00 per entry for adult and RM 0.50 for children and students.

The Galle Fort

This fort, initially built by the Portuguese, was taken over by the Dutch in 1640. They further fortified it over the next 6-7 decades, also building a new elaborate system of sewers. Every high tide they would be flooded, taking the sewage out to the sea.

This walled city, within the city gives a peak into Galle’s colonial past. The pillars and the facades, courtyards full of the shops selling spices and sarongs, antiques and modern curios give a glimpse of the old times.

The Fort is a common pastime of tourists as well as locals. Walking tours, organized by Juliet Coombe and Daisy Perry, may be adapted according to individual tastes – wildlife, history or architecture.

National Museum, (Church Street, Tues – Sat, 9am to 5pm, LKR 300), Historical Mansion Museum (Leyn Baan Street, daily, 9am to 6pm, donations optional) and Maritime Museum (Queen’s Street) are located inside the Fort.

Koggala Lagoon:

‘Koggala Lagoon’, approx 20 km from Galle has mangroves which are home to birds and reptiles like monitor lizards and snakes. There is also a beach which stretches upto the Ahangama and Midigama bays.

There are several islands within the lagoon. On Poya (full moon) day, many people visit the Temple Island, which has an old Buddhist Temple. One can also explore the Cinnamon Island, or the Ananda Spice Garden on a separate island.

Visitors to Koggala can also visit the Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Art Museum. Beyond Koggala, in the town of Ahangama, one can see a lot of stilt fishermen as they fish on stilts, surrounded by water. Further on, Midigama offers surfing options.

Kottawa Rainforest and Arboterum

Located 16 km from Galle, this is easily accessible and introduces the Sri Lankan rainforest to the tourists. A 1 km walking trail is shaded by dipterocarps. One can find purple faced langurs, giant squirrels, muntjacs and sambars residing here. There are also different varieties of birds and reptiles. Guided tours for groups are run by Rainforest Rescue International (LKR 2250 – LKR 3000).

Address: 14 km post, Udugama Road

Timing: 8 am – 5 pm

Admission Fees: LKR 600

Activities – Overview
Info on the kind of activities possible in the destination

Words: 200

One can explore the Fort and the surrounding area either on foot or on a bicycle. The bicycle rides can range from sedate 2 -3 hr ones to whole day trips. Surfing at Midigama and Ahangama is another option for surfing enthusiasts. Unawatuna and Hikkaduwa offer beautiful beaches. Galle also offers the option of diving to see rock and coral reefs and also some artificial reefs which have come up on wrecks.

One can also go to Habaraduwa, to see baby turtles hatching at the Sea Turtle Hatchery. For those interested in gems and jewellery, Millenium Gems offers a range of gem stones and jewellery.

Activities – Generic, Individual level write-ups
Overview of any 3 top, generic activities of the destination

Words: 3 write ups of 150 words each (Total: 450 words)

Headline –

Dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text, dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text, dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text, dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text dummy text, around 200 words, dummy text,

Address and contact details (if applicable.)

Sea Turtle Hatchery – Habaraduwa

With the aim to aid the survival of sea turtles, Sea Turtle Farm and Hatchery is a not- for- profit organization which has opened a “Turtle Farm” in Habaraduwa (Galle District) near a beach. This 8is km from the Galle Matara road. The farm was opened in 1986 and to date have released over 500,000 sea turtles into the sea

.

With the entry fee of LKR 300 only, one can experience a baby turtle hatching out and making its way to the sea.

Millennium Gems:

To see a range of gem stones and ready-made jewellery, one can visit Millennium Gems in the Fort area. A fifth generation jeweller, the owner, Mr Mahesh, has over 20 years of experience in making custom jewellery. All the jewellery on offer is hand-made. Millennium Gems specialize in Moonstones and are licensed exporters for it.

Tel.: 00 94 91 438 1621

Email: [email protected]

Surfing

Surfing is a popular activity in Galle. There are many beaches in and around the city where one can take part in water sporting activities including water surfing. However, one should avoid the monsoon months if one wishes to enjoy the water sporting activities here, as the beaches are closed during the monsoon months. A popular location for surfing in the region is Ahangama and Midigama, which are less crowded than some other areas.

Excursions & Tours – Overview
Info on the type of excursions and tours possible from the destination and the popular ones depending on choice and budget

Words: 200

Excursions to Kottawa Rainforest and Arboretum and Hiyare Rainforest Park are possible as full day outings. The Samakanda eco-tourism project (www.samakanda.org) has a 60 acre organic farm and eco-retreat. Day trips can also be organised to visit tea plantations and tea processing factories for approx LKR 750-1000 per person

The Yala Wildlife Sanctuary has leopards, elephants and crocodiles. There is also rich birdlife here, especially from October to March when migratory birds arrive.

Whale watching is another activity possible near Galle. The seas south of Dondra are a good location to see blue whales. Recent observers also say that it may be possible to see blue whales and sperm whales together.

Restaurants – Overview
Info on Main cuisines, types of establishments, Street food, Specialities etc.

Words: 200

A range of restaurants offering western as well as local cuisine are available in Galle. Most restaurants are expensive, but a lot of cafes have also come up to cater light meals at reasonable prices. Several guesthouses in the Fort area also dish out home-made local cooking for budget travelers.

Seafood is popular, and the traditional cuisine has a whole range of vegetarian options as well. Pan asian food is also easily available. Most cafes offer rice and curry at lunchtime, as well as soups, salads and sandwiches. Restaurants at Amangalla an Galle Fort Hotel are quite popular.

Restaurants with other international cuisines are also coming up. Though not many Indian restaurants are available, one can find rice and curry options at most places. Indian Hut, (on the format of Pizza Hut) offers a range of Indian, Pakistani and Chinese dishes for decent price.

(DO NoT give addresses / contact details in restaurant.)

Shopping – Overview
Info on main shopping districts, duty-free, bargains, specialities, VAT refund etc.

Words: 200

A number of galleries and boutiques have come up in Galle. These offer both the western requisites and native artefacts. Galle is also famous for its handicrafts. Teas, spices, antiques and handicrafts are some of the main shopping items for tourists.

The Dutch Market is known for selling the freshest fruits and vegetables and dates back 300 years. Elephant Walk has a good selection of spices, potions and handicrafts. Kanthisiri is a good option to buy good quality cotton fabrics. Traditional Sri Lankan apparel can be bought at Shoba Apparel

Traditional craftspeople can be seen creating jewellery, leatherwork, batik, lace and embroidery at the South Ceylon Industrial Agency & Handicraft Factories. For antique Dutch furniture and reproductions, one can visit Olanda .

Attractions – Overview
Overview of the main destination’s highlights

(This will be a sum-up of 5 to 6 main attractions from sightseeing, activities, excursions, shopping and restaurants, as applicable)

Words: 200

The Galle Fort is the landmark attraction. The fort dates back to 1640 and has recently been restored after lot of reconstruction and beautification work. There are many old structured within the fort to see and explore.

The Dutch Reformed Church is the oldest church in the region. An old pipe organ with manual bellows, though not in working condition can still be seen inside the church.

The Galle lighthouse on Point Utrecht bastion is also popular. Peace Pagoda, a Buddhist temple, and Meeran Jumma Masjid can also be visited. The beaches of Unawatuna are also a major attraction. The traffic free part of Main Street offers the local colour of small shops and pavement traders.

Whale watching is also a very popular attraction. Apart from all that, one can go surfing on the various beaches here. There is also the sea turtle hatchery at Habaraduwa which one can visit. The hatchery is a non profit organisation where tourists can see purple turtles laying their eggs.

The Yala national Park houses many species of plants and animals. The place gets a lot of migratory birds during the month of October, which makes it good for bird watching.

Travelling To
Travelling to – Overview
Overview of how to travel to the destination

Words: 150

At present, the only way to get to Sri Lanka is to fly into the island’s international airport at Katunayake, just north of Colombo. Sri Lanka is well connected by international airlines and to the Asian air networks.

From India, regular non-stop flights of Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Air India and SriLankan Airlines are available from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappali and Delhi. As such, one stop connection is available to Colombo from almost all Indian cities. A few cruise liners that sail between India and Maldives also stop at Colombo.

After getting out of the airport, one can take a tuk-tuk or taxi to the train station less than 1 km away. This station can be used to catch a train to Colombo and onwards to Galle. Alternatively one can take a taxi to Colombo and then catch the train to Galle. A single one way trip to Galle from Colombo costs Rs 100 to Rs 340 per person, depending on the class of travel.

One can also go to Galle by road, either by a taxi or by bus. The distance from the international airport to Galle is 130 km. It takes about four hours to reach Galle from the airport by taxi or bus, depending on the traffic density.

Best way of reaching the destination – will be site specific, including connecting flights.

Words: 150

Taxis or rental cars are the fastest and most comfortable way to reach Galle from the airport or Colombo. However, taxis are an expensive option. There are standard taxis and deluxe taxis, which are air conditioned, available from outside the airport.

Trains and buses are a cheaper alternative to taxis and car rentals. Intercity express is available from Colombo to Galle and offers comfortable seating. However, trains are usually late and do not run frequently.

Buses are another option to reach Galle from the airport. Majority of the buses are run by the government, although there are private operators as well. Buses run frequently, at an interval of 15-20 minutes. However, buses can get crowded as they are the most popular mode of transport among locals.

Flights
Airport info: Location in city, info on airport itself and services available, on the terminals.

Words: 150

The Bandaranaike International Airport is 130 km from Galle. It has 39 check-in desks, 4 gates, short term parking spaces, 3 Airport Hotels, Banks, Post Office, Restaurants, Cafeterias, Bars, VIP Lounge, Duty Free Shop, Gift Shops, Travel Agent, Tourist Help Desk, Car Rental, Taxi Service/Rank, First Aid, Baby/Parent Room and Disabled Access/Facilities.

Six banks operate in the arrival lobby for currency exchange facilities. Telephone booths are available in the arrival, departure and transit areas. A communications counter with international direct dialling and fax facilities is located in the transit lounge.

Travelers can also avail the bond baggage facility at the airport. Day rooms are available for transit passengers.

There are ATMs and currency exchange counters easily available at the airport.

If airport is nearby, include distance, mode of transport and traveling time

Words: 150

The airport is 130 km from Galle. From the airport, one can take a bus or a taxi to come to Colombo. Taxis and buses are available at the airport. From Colombo to Galle, one can take a train or bus or taxi. The journey from Colombo to Galle takes approx 2.5 to 3 hrs.

The buses from airport to Colombo Fort Railway Station (Bus # 187) run frequently and cost about LKR 50 per person, (may charge additional LKR 50 per piece of baggage) and take approximately 1.5 hrs.

There are taxis available directly from the airport to Galle. The journey by taxi takes about four hours and is the most expensive option to travel.

Transfers to city (from the airport)
Taxi/Bus/Metro etc., distance and travelling time

Words: 100

From the airport, one can rent a car or hire a taxi, to Colombo or beyond to Galle itself. Alternately, take bus #187 from the airport to The Fort Railway Station in Colombo. From Colombo, a bus or a train or a taxi can be taken to Galle.

Buses do not run directly to Galle. However, one can catch a bus to Colombo and then catch a connecting bus to Colombo. The journey by bus takes about 4 hours form the airport to Galle. Trains are another option to reach Galle. However, to catch the train, one has to come to Colombo Fort station from the airport.

The distance between Colombo and Galle is 117 km and the journey by train takes about 2 hours.

Trains
Train station info: Basic info on the station/s. Location and distance from city landmarks. Facilities at the station

Words: 100

The train station in Galle is located close to the cricket ground and near the fort area. The bus stand is just 500 m away from the station. One can catch a bus form the station for travelling around the city. The station has ATMs and currency exchange counters.

There is also a supermarket outside the station from where one can buy groceries and other stuff. The Galle Fort is at a walking distance from the Galle railway station. One can also train timings at www.bluehaventours.com

If nearby train station, include distance, mode of transport and traveling time

Words: 100

The bus station is close to the train station and there are buses available to other parts of the city as well as other neighbouring areas. Buses run frequently from the station and the cheapest mode of transport to travel. However, they can get crowded. Three wheelers and taxis are also available from outside the station.

The three wheelers or the tuk tuks do not have a metre installed, which is why one has to negotiate a price before boarding the three wheeler.

Facilities available in the trains

Words: 50

The intercity express is a train which runs from Colombo to Galle. The train has sleeper class and prior reservation is needed to board the train. The train has large seats and spacious interiors.

Buses
Bus station info: If multiple bus stations, mention them and share info

Words: 200

The main bus station of Galle is located in the central area of the city, outside the train station. Buses originate from here and travel to other parts of the city and also neighbouring cities. There are air conditioned buses as well as standard buses available from the bus station.

The buses run at regular intervals, usually at a gap of 15-20 minutes. There are bus stands near major tourist attractions, and buses provide good connectivity within the city. However, buses can get crowded, as they are the popular mode of transport in the city.

Operators: Govt. and Private, Frequency of operation

Words: 100

Both government and private buses ply on the Colombo – Galle route. Frequency of the buses ranges from 15 to 30 mins.

Weather
Summary: General climate, Best time to visit

Words: 200

Galle’s weather remains pleasant throughout the year. Coastal and low-land areas have a high temperature around 30 C. Humidity is high, sometimes upto 90%. Galle being on the south-western coast experiences the southwest monsoon from late April or May to September/October, with May and June being the wettest months.

The best time to visit Galle is from November to mid April. Galle being a cosmopolitan with a number of expats settled here, does not close down in the monsoon season like some other smaller towns. However, the sea remains choppy during this season and activities may be restricted. Cotton clothes are advisable throughout the year, with additional waterproof protective clothing required during the monsoon season.

Visa
Visa info: Basic introduction on visa

Words: 200

It is easy for Indians to obtain the Sri Lankan visa, because of the various tie ups and the 1954 agreement between India and Sri Lanka.

India is one of the 80 countries listed in the schedule “A” of Sri Lanka Visa list. Residents of any of these countries can obtain the visiting visa at the port of entry in Sri Lanka. The documents required are valid passport, application form, photographs and visa fees. Default validity of visa is 30 days which can be extended by 2 months. Visa fee is approximately LKR 150 with a tax of LKR 1.50.

Tourists can also get transit visa at the entry port if the traveler is making an incident journey to Sri Lanka during his/her onward journey to his/her final destinations.

Sri Lanka also has a guest Visa scheme, which encourages foreign investors to reside with family in Sri Lanka and contribute to the socio economic development of the country. The resident’s visa can be availed by the spouse, children, and parents of the primary applicant along with the applicant. There are some investment requirements to be fulfilled in order to obtain the resident guest scheme of visa.

For further information, please contact:

Sri Lanka High Comission , India

196, T. T. K. Road, Alwarpet

600 018 Chennai India

Phone:

+91-44-498-7896

+91-44-498-7612

Fax:

+91-44-498-7894

Email:

[email protected]

Or

Department of Immigration and Emigration

#41, Ananda Rajakaruna Mawatha,

Maradana,

Colombo 10

Tele : +00-94-11-5329000, +00-94-11-5329316/20/21/25

E-Mail: [email protected]

Website: www.immigration.gov.lk

Based on originating country – time period, on arrival availability etc

Words: 200

If one is from India, one can get a visa on arrival in Sri Lanka. However, if one wishes to apply for a Visa before landing in Sri Lanka, one can do so by applying at the Sri Lankan high commission in the country. It usually takes 3-4 days to get the visa for Sri Lanka.

One needs a valid passport, two passport sized photographs, a duly filled application form and visa fee to apply for a visa to the country.

Residents of Britain, Australia, US, Canada, Japan and other EU countries do not require a visa to visit Sri Lanka.

Tourists from the following countries are issued visas free of charge for a period of 30 days on arrival at Colombo Airport (facility applicable only for the tourists):

(b) nationals of Albania, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China (PR, including Hong Kong), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Korea (Rep), Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Montenegro, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates;

(c) nationals of CIS countries.

However, all business travelers to the country need a visa.
Documents required, Processing time etc.

Words: 100

India is one of the countries listed in the schedule “A” of Sri Lanka Visa list. One can obtain the visit visa on arrival in Sri Lanka with the documents such as valid passport, application form, photographs and visa fees. If one is applying for a visa before coming to the country, it usually takes 3-4 working days for the application to get processed. The visa allows a 30 day of stay validity along with an extension for 2 months allowed with reasons. Visa fee is nearly 150INR with a tax of 1.50INR.

Currency
Overview: Name, denominations etc.

Words: 50

The currency used is the Sri Lankan Rupee represented as LKR. Each rupee has 100 cents. Coins come in denominations of LKR 10, 5,2 and 1 and 25 and 50 cents. Notes are available in denominations of LKR 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 and 2000. It is advisable to keep change handy as change may not be available with all shopkeepers.

Accepted Currencies: Other currencies widely accepted

Words: 50

Most of the hotels and travel services quote their rates in US Dollar or Euros. However the payments still need to be made in the Sri Lankan Rupee. The Indian Rupee also cannot be used for any transactions and must be converted. Some hotels may accept payments from credit cards of another currency.

Currency availability: Best locations where to convert currencies, ATM, Money changers, acceptability of traveller’s cheques and international credit cards, Comparative fees charged for these services

One can exchange the currency at the airport itself, which has many exchange counters, which are open 24/7. The exchange rates at the airport are usually the best.

There are also various ATMs available on the airport itself, if one needs to withdraw money. However, the banks may deduct some service charges for withdrawing money from an ATM. ATMs and money exchangers can also be found near the fort area or in markets. However, the money exchangers in this area do not offer very good exchange rates.

Private banks, like Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank, HSBC and Sampath Bank offer a quicker service than their government-run competitors (Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank and National Savings Bank).

It is always advised to make all foreign exchange transactions through authorised banks or exchanges with the provision of an encashment receipt. Changing money through unauthorised dealers is illegal. Unspent rupees may be reconverted at a commercial bank before one leaves the country.

Travellers’ cheques (T/Cs) issued by American Express and Thomas Cook (in UK?, US$ or Euro a‚¬) are best and are accepted without difficulty and give a slightly better exchange rate than currency notes in Sri Lanka. They also offer the security of replacement if lost or stolen.

Banking Hours

Mon – Fri Most banks are open from 9.00 am to 3.00 pm, while certain banks are open till 5.00 pm

Saturday Most banks are open on Saturdays till 1.00 pm

Sundays Banks are closed

Info on Forex changers and possibilities of best prices

Words: 50

Foreign currency can be exchanged at the Bandaranaike International Airport as well as banks, hotels and authorised exchanges found all over the city. However, one should avoid hotels, which always charge huge premium over the rates available in the city locations.

Alert on scams and tips to avoid them

Words: 50

Sri Lanka, along with many countries has a major problem with credit/debit card fraud card skimming etc. People have even had problems at the airport. Therefore, it is best advised to use the credit cards only when extremely necessary.

Some establishments may try to add a surcharge on the credit cards payments, whi

The title of this research paper, as it entails, is Decline in Tourism of Pakistan. The main purpose of this project is to determine the real causes of downfall in Pakistan’s Tourism. In order to further elaborate the purpose, the objectives of study are to obtain the rating and ranking of various issues which are considered to be the likely causes of decline in tourism; examine and investigate the role of Government of Pakistan (Ministry of Tourism, PTDC, TDCP) in running the tourism industry; determining how far the public sector of Pakistan is responsible for the downfall of tourism and determining how far the private sector of Pakistan has its role to play in the decline of tourism. Multiple sources were used to collect secondary data such as periodicals, government sources, regional publications, media sources and commercial sources. A hybrid research methodology is used which consists of questionnaire survey research, a personal interview and a focus group interview. Through the multi-dimensional research, it was observed that out of the ten issues which posed as likely causes for tourism downfall, nine proved to be real causes which are constantly decaying the tourism industry of Pakistan. Except the terrorism factor, which acts as both an internal and external force, all issues are consequences of government’s incompetence and corruption. Nevertheless, the Pakistani media, being a key stakeholder is not helping to portray the soft image of Pakistan to the world and within. In order for curbing these issues, the it is primarily the responsibility of Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab(TDCP), Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation(PTDC) and all provincial tourism ministries’ to foster infrastructural development related to tourist services and facilities; establish cohesion and coordination amongst state departments in order to smoothly carry out tourism development projects. Public-Private Sector partnership is the need of the hour and if the government sincerely works on establishing productive partnerships with private sector enterprise then it will be an all-win situation not only for the tourism industry but for the economy of Pakistan as a whole. The Media of Pakistan should emphasize more on the national interest and curb the continuous and over-emphasized broadcasting of news related to disasters, violence and terrorist attacks as it results in portrayal of negative image of the country in the world. As for terrorism, since now it has become more deep rooted in Pakistani society, the current government and the governments to come would have to be equipped with a package – considering the national interest- of radical social, economic and educational reforms which should be planned and implemented in order to stop the development of provocative and extreme mindsets in the society which further lead to conflicts in the name of religion, castes and socio-economic classes.

This research project brings a deteriorating industry of Pakistan into limelight which is continuously underperforming for the past 5 years. Pakistan is a home of approximately 180 million people and most of the population is earning less than US$ 1 per day (Fakhar, 2008). Pakistan just like any other beautiful European country is a big market for tourism because it offers not only beauty of nature but also variety and diversity in cultures (Fakhar, 2008). In fact tourism is the most profitable and entrepreneurial business (Fakhar, 2008), especially for people living in the mountain areas as it creates new job opportunities and reduces the unemployment level for them (Fakhar, 2008). But unfortunately, tourists’ visit to Pakistan is decreasing tremendously with ups and downs each year (Fakhar, A.H, 2008). [1]

Therefore the title of my research project is ‘Decline in tourism of Pakistan’.

BACKGROUND

Pakistan, after its independence from British India appeared as a modern nation on 14 august 1947(Fakhar, 2008). All four provinces of Pakistan are gifted with heritage and culture and one of the fertile and unique collection of majestic and lush fields, rivers, rugged mountains, lakes, deserts, landscapes and seashores enriched with friendly and hospitable people thus making it a heavenly destination for tourists with different tastes (Fakhar, 2008). Pakistan is known in the world of tourism because of the Karakoram, mountainous regions of the north, the Great Himalaya and the Hindukush who form the densest concentration of one of the world’s highest peaks. Pakistan’s Kalam (Swat valley) is known as the Switzerland of Asia (Fakhar, 2008).The hunza and chitral valleys in pakistan were the home to a small Pre-Islamic animist Kalasha community who claim descent from the army of Alexander the Great (Fakhar, 2008). The historical and archaeological sites of the Gandhara and Indus Valley civilizations, Taxila, the Mughal Empire and Mohenjo-Daro are the examples of oldest civilizations in Pakistan (Fakhar, 2008). This multicultural nature of the country also contributes to the tourism industry in the way that it offers various traditions, customs and festivals for the tourists to explore and enjoy (Fakhar, 2008). [2] Tourism in Pakistan has been stated by the Lonely Planet magazine as being the tourism industry’s “next big thing” (Wikipedia, 2012). Pakistan’s tourism industry was in its heyday during the 1970s when the country received unprecedented amounts of foreign tourists, thanks to the Hippie Trail (Wikipedia, 2012). The main destinations of choice for these tourists were the Khyber Pass, Swat, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi (Wikipedia, 2012). In 2009, The World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report ranked Pakistan as one of the top 25% tourist destinations for its World Heritage sites ranging from mangroves in the South, to Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa of the 5,000-year-old cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (Wikipedia, 2012).

One year after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake i.e. October 2006, British Newspaper The Guardian released a piece of information what it described as “The top five tourist sites in Pakistan” in order to help the country’s tourism industry (Wikipedia, 2012). The five sites included Lahore, Taxila, Karimabad, The Karakoram Highway, and Lake Saiful Muluk. In order to promote Pakistan’s unique and various cultural heritage, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz launched the “Visit Pakistan” marketing campaign in 2007 (Wikipedia, 2012). This campaign involved various events throughout the year including fairs and religious festivals, regional sporting events, various arts and craft shows, folk festivals and several openings of historical museums (Wikipedia, 2012). [3]

Based on the above Information, It seems like Pakistan is a perfect place to be visited by the tourists but still the tourists’ arrival is decreasing day by day(Fakhar, 2008) especially if the timeframe from 2007 to 2011 is considered.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Various international and national think tanks, renowned authors and scholars have highlighted the main causes of decline in tourism of Pakistan over the years. Seemingly, some of these causes are so grave and deep rooted in nature that it might take the Government of Pakistan decades to eliminate them provided it carry out the process of elimination with utmost dedication, coordination among other departments, effectiveness and efficiency. Due to adverse publicity in negative travel advisories, continued terrorism international media and deteriorated state of law and order in the country, the prospects for revival of inbound foreign tourism are very poor in near future. But still the scope for growth in domestic tourism does exist [4] . Lack of coordination among different government bodies, poor infrastructure, less attention paid on improving the image of the country by national campaigns are just some of the reasons for the decline of the sector in the present years. Terrorism and lack of security has also caused a severe blow to Pakistan’s tourism industry and can be listed as the major reason for its poor performance. [5] According to the tourists the biggest problem they are facing while travelling is security issues which include the current insurgency in Pakistan (Fakhar, 2008). Even the domestic tourists don’t feel like travelling in their own country. Furthermore, the negative image of Pakistan portrayed by media to the outside world (Fakhar, 2008). Lack of infrastructure; ineffective promotional policies; inadequate tourist’s services and facilities; lack of initiative by concerned government departments; inadequate knowledge and training of personnel in tourism sector; law and order situation especially in the high tourist attraction areas; inadequate infrastructure facilities; lack of incentives in the tourist sector; failure to show and project the positive image of the country via media to the outside world; low allocation of annual tourist budget; lack of development and facilities in the mountain regions; lack of understanding to the tourist needs; the overtaking and change of governments and administration within the country(army rule); high inflation rate are the key points which have altogether made tourism an unsuccessful industry in Pakistan (Fakhar, 2008) [6] . There was 0.8 percent and 3 percent decline in the number of foreign and domestic tourists, respectively (Correspondent, 2012, March 27). Official data revealed that the Taxila Museum was visted by 2,434 foreign tourists with various other archeological sites especially Sirkap and Dharmarajika Stupa located in the valley as compared to 2010 when it was recorded 2,474(Correspondent, 2012, March 27). 87,173 domestic tourists visited the sites last year as compared to 92,660 in 2010 (Correspondent, 2012, March 27). [7]

How far terrorism affected tourism?

The way terrorism, whether international or national, undoubtedly eroded the economy of Pakistan has also plagued the tourism of the country with the same gravity and notoriousness. The countries or regions that depend heavily on tourism have been found to suffer significant economic losses due to the persistence of terrorism (Ali, 2011). Gilgit-Baltistan and the NWFP are important destinations in Pakistan and people living there depend on tourism (Ali, 2011). For example, Swat was an important tourist destination in Pakistan which attracted people from across the world not only to its natural beauty but also to see its rich civilization and history. Swat supports all sorts of tourism, i.e., spiritual tourism, culture/heritage tourism, eco-tourism, adventure tourism, sports and commercial tourism [8] . There are over 855 hotels, which include 405 restaurants, in the valley and around 40,000 people are directly and indirectly associated with these hotels (Ali, 2011). But they have mostly remained closed during the past three years due to militancy and the subsequent military operation (Ali, 2011). According to government’s own estimates, the hotel industry in Swat valley suffered a loss of Rs. 60 billion from 2007 to 2009 (Ali, 2011). The workers associated with the hotel industry also lost their jobs due to the ongoing incidents of terrorism. Moreover, the transport industry faced a severe blow and both the national and international transport services either closed down or decreased their services from Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore (Ali, 2011). Therefore, the hotel association offered a very cheap package of 10-day free stay in hotels in the valley Swat starting with the New Year 2010 (Ali, 2011). Consequently, in the financial year 2008-2009, the overall real GDP growth fell to 2 percent [9] (Ali, 2011). Pakistan ranked 113 out of 130 countries in 2009 as a tourist destination. The low ranking attributes to incidents of terrorism and the lack of a tourism regulatory framework in Pakistan (Ali, 2011). Sources said that many motels in the country’s restive northwest were closed down as tourists were banned from those areas and the staff had migrated to other cities for work [10] (Ali, 2011).According to Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011 [11] , Out of 139 countries, Pakistan has further dropped to the 125 mark as a tourist destination.

The Role of Ministry Of Tourism, PTDC, TDCP and other Tourism Development Organisations of Pakistan

Government intervention may be necessary to enhance the contribution of tourism to socio-economic development and poverty reduction. Of all governments’ principal roles, one is to set policy and legislative frameworks for tourism. The reasons why governments should formulate tourism development strategy are firstly the tourist industry has many negative externalities, particularly negative environmental and social impacts that need to be regulated and managed at national or local levels. Secondly, tourism can offer substantial opportunities for local economic development, which can augment the positive effects of tourism on local socio-economic development and poverty reduction. the Planning Commission of India has already identified tourism as one of the major vehicles for generating employment and promoting sustainable livelihoods (UNESCAP, 2007, pp. 84-85). [12] A 2007 UNESCAP report highlighted the importance and functioning of public sector in the development of a country’s tourism. As tourism moves up the national agenda, the departments of government dealing with tourism may need to be upgraded and strengthened. To achieve sustainable management of tourism, tourism ministry staff needs networking, support of colleagues and coordination and in other ministries and in a range of sub national administrations. Such needs emerge because the administration and governance of tourism takes places in localities where tourists and host communities interact, while incentives and regulations aare applied within a framework laid down at the national level. The tourism ministries have to be watchful to the impact of institutional fragmentation on the governance of tourism. Major decisions about management of cultural and natural assets, planning, labour regulations, environmental impact assessments, taxation policy and financial incentives are often the responsibility of other ministries, where there might not be adequate awareness about the impact on tourism plans and policies. The functions of tourism ministries should go beyond marketing and promotion, regulating tourism businesses and include wider consultation and coordination. For example, the air transport has changed considerably in recent years due in part to policy initiatives, such as adding a substantial number of new routes, deregulation of air services and allowing operations by low-cost carriers; all of which would aim to increase the number of tourists. Since the economic benefits of tourism are now explicitly evaluated in aviation policy in countries such as Singapore, tourism ministries have to consider the implications for tourism plans, strategies and policies. Tourism ministries can provide the government and its agencies with systematic and a good quality data, particularly about the effects of different types of tourism on local socio-economic development. The provision of such data can help to substantiate the contribution of tourism and convince policy makers (UNESCAP, 2007, p. 85). [13] In 2010, the Punjab Resource Management Program with collaboration of A.F Ferguson & Co. prepared a recommendations report to reform the TDCP (Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab). The above mentioned consultant firm aided in developing tourism models for various developed and developing countries including Thailand, India, Malaysia, USA, Switzerland and Australia. In all the cases, it was concluded that the public sector of any country is the main driving force for the tourism industry. As mentioned in this report, the functions and duties of Ministry of Tourism were as follows:

Development & Promotion of Tourism in Pakistan.

Establishment of Pakistan National Tourism Council.

Establishment and publicity of tourists centers in Pakistan and abroad.

Development of tourism information centers for the service and guidance of domestic and foreign tourists in Pakistan.

Establishment of tourist facilities in tourist potential areas where private sector is reluctant to invest.

Regulation and Control of tourist industries and associated service.

Establishment of International organizations and agreements relating to tourism.

Controlling Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation.

Promoting Facilitation of travel in Pakistan for tourists.

Development of Tourism and Hotel training institutes.

Encouraging training and research in tourism in Pakistan and abroad. [14] (A.F Ferguson & Co. 2010)

However the Ministry has been abolished on June 30th,2011 after the 18th amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan ensuring transfer of tourism ministries to the provinces. A.F Ferguson & Co. recognized the importance of TDCP in running the tourism industry of Pakistan. The consultants proposed the following roles and functions of TDCP which the organization should adopt:

Encouraging the tourism activities and industry in the province

Performing the planning and development of tourism sites

Offering one window service to facilitate the tourists

Offering assistance to the Tourism and Resort Development Department

Facilitating the organization and promotion of tourism events and activities

Creating an environment which ensures capacity building in tourism industry

Encouraging and facilitating public-private partnerships. [15] (A.F Ferguson & Co. 2010)

As per an analysis of tourism management of Pakistan, the stated objectives of PTDC are as follows:

To establish and develop tourism infrastructure on an all Pakistan basis

To act as an instrument on behalf of the Federal Government for the production of tourist literature and publicity for tourism both in terms of domestic and international.

To act as a catalyst to encourage the private sector to play an active role in tourism development.

To undertake tour operations and facilitate ground handling facilities for group tours.

PTDC has an administrative structure which is responsible to control and operate all its involvement in the tourism sector. These are:

Planning and Development Wing/Engineering Department; undertakes identification and implementation of projects concerned with tourism infrastructure such as recreation units, motels, resorts etc.

Publicity and Promotion/Marketing Department; undertakes the production and publication of tourist literature in foreign and domestic tourist markets.

PTDC Motels Ltd; carry out the management of all hospitality units operated by PTDC in various tourist destinations in Pakistan.

Pakistan Tours Ltd; facilitates ground handling and transport facilities for international and domestic tourist groups and also acts as an inbound tour operator. [16] (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009)

The provincial governments of other provinces have not adequately realized the importance of tourism for which the federal government is partially responsible. As far as only the realization is concerned, after assessing the performance of TDCP and realizing the fact that most of the tourist assets are situated in jurisdiction of NWFP or Khyber Pakhtunkhwaa(KPK), The provincial government of KPK established Sarhad Tourism Corporation (STC) in 1991. The aims and objectives of STC are as follows:

To motivate the private sector to step forward and support tourism development in the form of tour operations and accommodation facilities at potentially attractive regions;

Provide long-term, leases to private sector for development of properties through

Joint ventures with STC;

Serve as a spring board for fruitful interaction between the private sector and Government, PTDC for proper development of tourism industry;

Cooperate with private sector in developing, distributing and sale of quality information and publicity materials. [17] (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009)

The 2007 UNESCAP report also suggested ways how governments can channelize the progress of tourism of a country. Real progress can be facilitated by using a wide range of instruments. Many of these have been identified by the World Tourism Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme and are categorized into measurement instruments which include sustainability indicators and monitoring; identification of limits, command and control instruments which include legislation, regulation, rules and licensing; land use planning and development control, voluntary instruments (guidelines and codes of conduct, reporting and auditing, and voluntary certification), supporting instruments (infrastructure provision and management, capacity-building, and marketing and information services) and economic instruments (pricing, charges and taxation; property rights and trading; financial incentives; and voluntary contributions). The right mix of policies and instruments will vary depending on the situation, objectives and government structures (UNESCAP, 2007, p.84). [18]

The analysis on tourism management sheds light on the fact that over the years, the Ministry of Tourism remained unsuccessful in gaining the respect or confidence of the private sector. Nevertheless, the ministry was not fully empowered to handle the problems faced by tourists since most of the related responsibilities were assigned to other ministries/divisions, hence the focus on the problem solving lacked altogether. Furthermore, lack of funding had serious implications (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009) regarding the effective management of the tourism sector (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009). The Ministry of tourism never proved itself to be a source of effective and meaningful data, hence no comprehensive survey on tourism on its credit (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009). As far as PTDC is concerned, serious problems relating to recruitment, training, management style and finances are prevalent. The ministry is not fully responsible for recruiting the personnel. All the staff is not hired directly by the ministry

Therefore a problem of dual management persists as half of the employees (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009) hired by the ministry are generalists whereas half of them hired directly by PTDC acquire inadequate experience. As a result, internal cooperation and coordination lacks among departments hence reporting procedure is also affected. The personnel hired, either by PTDC or Ministry of Tourism are not well trained and sufficiently qualified. Ironically over the years a major chunk of funding received from government (Baloch, 2007) has been spent in administration and staff costs. However, considering the training of personnel in the tourism industry, the Government of Pakistan back in December 1960 established a training institute which was initially a cooking school known as Pakistan Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management (PITHM). A 2009 HEC Analysis stated “the main function and activity of the Institute is to impart knowledge by training manpower for the Travel and Tourism Industry and Hospitality in Pakistan. This is done by seminars, workshops, regular courses and on the job training etc. It cooperates with PIA’s training center in Karachi and provides courses for the Pakistan Navy. Furthermore, it offers consultancy services when and where required” (Pakistan Research Repository, 2009). [19] The analysis also remarked on the condition and the performance of this institution:

“Since its foundation the Institute has been located in rented buildings, which could not cater for the demands of a professional education institute. Hence this has been a major constraint on its effectiveness and its ability to train students to the standards indicated in its aims and objectives. Lately the institute has moved to a newly ill-constructed building lacking numerous important facilities and equipment and has yet to resolve many problems to enable it to provide better training and facilities and environment for students and staff.

For the last decade, the institution has had no official Director and the current Acting Director has inadequate management or training skills and is not compatible with the requirements of the hospitality industry. The existing staff is de-motivated and unqualified as instructors are entrenched in outdated syllabuses and teaching methods. Resultantly, the image of the school throughout the industry is very negative, chiefly due to lack of knowledge as to the industry needs and what the school can provide.

The incapability of the school is further compounded by government controls and establishment employment scales where it is not possible to attract national or international qualified trainers at suitable private sector levels. [20] “(Pakistan Research Repository, 2009)

In June 2011, The National Assembly of Pakistan passed the 18th amendment according to which the Ministry of Tourism was devolved into the provinces. In response to this development UNESCO published a report to examine the post-devolution situation in the culture and tourism sector of Pakistan. According to the findings of this report, a number of stakeholders remarked that culture policies are an instrument for the promotion of creativity and must therefore recognize and incorporate heritage, tradition, crafts, classical and the performing arts. The majority of stakeholders both from the public and private sector supported devolution as they felt it would give empowerment to the provincial identities and pride and ownership at grass root level, which was the main purpose of the 18th amendment. The other side of the coin reflects the critical point of view on devolutionary process attributed to the 18th amendment. The stakeholders who hold the particular point of view also include those in the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism and Culture. Critiques of the devolutionary process, including those in the Senate Standing Committee on Tourism and Culture, as well as those emerging from stakeholder consultations pointed out that the provinces will not be able to harmonize a cohesive cultural heritage; instead this will lead to its fragmentation, and increase divisiveness within the country. Similarly some senior government representatives in Islamabad also did not support devolution, pointing out that the provinces lack capacity, resources and funds to completely manage cultural departments. Devolution was feared to not cause inter-provincial disharmony, but make communication with key donors more difficult, and cause delays in securing technical assistance. It was thus argued that the Ministry of Culture should remain the focal point and coordinate with the provinces. [21]

The Role of Private Sector

The tourism sector investments in the country are dominated by private sector with the role of public sector mainly as a facilitator. Nearly the entire restaurant, hotel, travel agency and tour operator business is in the private sector. Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) is also operating a limited number of hotels and roadside facilities in areas where the private sector has been reluctant. The Department of Tourist Services (DTS) is responsible for maintaining the standard and categorization of hotel industry. A 2012 report by Planning Commission of Pakistan remarked on the tourism development of Pakistan. The Ministry of Tourism looks after the entire public sector interventions including formulation of policies and overseeing the legal and regulatory framework. [22] The hotel and transport business is in the hands of the private sector, which has not contributed much to meeting the development costs. However the Planning Commission of Pakistan has envisaged to strengthen and regulate the private sector institutions operating in the hotel management and training sector in the 2011-2014 MTDF (Medium Term Development Framework) period. The hotel management and training institutes in the country are not delivering the desired results due to lack of management, regulation and teaching staff. Similarly, the host of private sector institutions providing ticketing and travel courses are not regulated which results in variable standards in the sector. As against the annual training needs of the tourism industry of about 3000 skilled staff, the total output of the existing training institutes is only about 500. (Planning Commission, 2012)

The Hotel Industry of Pakistan

Ali, et al., (2012) highlighted the importance of hospitality industry in South Asia and the current state of hospitality industry in Pakistan:

The Hotel industry is among the top three constituents of the world economy after oil and autos and is growing faster than the petroleum and arms. It’s larger than agriculture in the U.S.A, automobile industry in Japan and banking in Switzerland. Developing economies of South Asia are in rapid transit towards becoming service economies and therefore competitiveness of hospitality industry is emerging as a crucial factor influencing the overall competitiveness of a country, and Pakistan is no exception to this, where the share of services is increasing. It is unfortunate that instead of growing with international trend, the hospitality industry in Pakistan, co

Presentation of the Problem

Tourism covers numerous forms of travel and a broad range of destinations. Dark Tourism describes a niche type of tourism which covers the visitation of places where tragedies or historically noteworthy deaths have occurred of institutions dealing with the heritage of humanity (Tarlow, 2005). Especially in the last decades, dark tourism has become seemingly more popular and has received more attention (Stone, 2009). Foley and Lennon (1999) state that tourism associated with sites of death is registering a rapid growth. Smith (1996) found in her research on war and tourism that the memorabilia of warfare and allied products probably forms the largest single category of tourist attractions in the world, despite the tragedies and dissuasive incidents which have happened there. One of the earliest examples of dark tourist sites in the beginning of the 19th century was a jailhouse in the United States of America, which received public interest because of its architectural innovations and novel practices (Stone, 2009).

Meanwhile, visiting sites of death and disaster has developed into a worldwide phenomenon. But the demand for dark tourism spots is versatile. Beside the matter of death, interest in culture, history or simply the desire for entertainment are possible reasons why millions of people are visiting places of dark tourism (Stone, 2006). Despite an increasing amount of studies on the topic (Seaton, 1996; Lennon and Foley, 2000; Sharpley and Stone, 2009) there is still a lack of understanding what actually motivates humans to visit sites of dark tourism and to engage themselves with the topics of death, disaster and genocide. Due to the fact that dark tourism is a growing form of tourism, it is necessary to understand why people are motivated to visit places where other people have suffered.

Aims of the Bachelor Thesis

The purpose of this study is to identify the motives of visitors visiting former battlefields where historically important battles have been fought. This study will give a better, theoretically informed understanding of tourist motivation and its role in the decision making process. The following questions will be examined in regards to this topic:

Which push factors play a role in visitors? motivation to battlefields?
Which pull factors play a role in visitors? motivation?
What role do particularly level of education, interest in history, media and personal connection play in visitors? motivation?
Which other visitor motives influence the decision to visit battlefields?
Methodology
Structure of the Thesis

This Bachelor Thesis is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part. The goal of the theoretical part is to provide and explain the theories, terms and definitions used in this study to form a thorough literature review to review literature for designing the research and interpreting the findings.

Dark Tourism
Definition of Dark Tourism

Lennon and Foley described the term dark tourism as “…the phenomenon which encompasses the presentation and consumption (by visitors) of real and commodified death and disaster sites” (1996:198). An example of very early forms of dark tourism would be the gladiatorial games of the Roman area or public executions in medieval age (Stone, 2009). Boorstin (1964, in Stone 2009) states that the first organised tour in England in 1838 was a trip by train to witness the hanging of two murderers.

Dark tourism sites and attractions are not only becoming more and more popular (Sharpley, 2005) but also vary enormously in their presentation of death. They reach from jocular houses of horror, over death sites of famous people to places of mass murder like the Holocaust death camps. Seaton (1996) cites a number of attractions, including the battlefield of Waterloo and the buried city of Pompeii; the latter is said to be the greatest and most famous thanatoptic travel destination of the Romantic period (Seaton, 1996).

In contrast to Stone, Seaton prefers using the definition “thanatourism” instead of dark tourism. He describes thanatourism as being the “…travel to a location wholly, or partially, motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death, particularly, but not exclusively, violent death, which may, to a varying degree be activated by the person-specific features of those whose deaths are its focal objects” (1996:240). This would mean that people, travelling to dark sites, are active going there in order to experience the aura of such places. In addition to this, he believes that thanatourism is defined by the consumer’s motives and that individual traveler motivation do play a role in this kind of tourism.

Another definition synced with dark tourism is the term “black spots”, which are “…commercial developments of grave sites and sites in which celebrities or large numbers of peoples have met with sudden and violent deaths” (Rojek, 1993:136). Rojek shows three different examples of Black Spots – the anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, Texas, the annual candlelight vigil in memory of Elvis Presley and the annual pilgrimage to the part of the Californian highway where James Dean died in a car crash.

Both the expressions “dark tourism” and “thanatourism” will be used in this research, because they have the same meaning, but are differently interpreted. Thanatourism is based on the motivational aspect, while dark tourism is attraction respectively location based. In contrast, black spots are a parts of the dark tourism spectrum and rather describe places of sudden and violent death. In this case, cemeteries would not be part of black spot sites. Seatons interpretation will be used in the following study. As I am investigating motives of people visiting dark tourist sites, I adopt the definition of Seaton because it is more detailed and better understandable than the definitions of Rojek, Lennon and Foley. Furthermore the definition fits better as motivational perspective.

Categorisation of dark tourism

Dark tourism is, in its various forms, multi-faceted, multi tiered and exists in a variety of social, cultural, geographical and political contexts (Stone, 2009). A full categorisation of all death-related attractions is very complex and difficult. Furthermore, in contrast to Foley and Lennon, Seaton (2006) states that thanatourism works on coherence between two elements: first, if the traveler has only one or more motives to visit a place of death, and secondly, the extend to which the interest in death is person-centered or scale-of-death centered.

Referring to Figure 1, it can be concluded that people visiting sites of death, for example a battlefield or a prison where a relative has died or has suffered, have a weak thanatourism element in their motivation. The interest in death is person-centered because this is the purpose of visit in the first instance. In contrast, people who are visiting the same sights but have no relatives or friends which might have suffered there, show a strong thanatourism element. They are interested in death itself and are fascinated by those sights.

Dark tourism supply and demand

It is obvious that people have long been attracted to places of death and disaster. In terms of supply, there has been a rapid growth in the provision of such attractions or experiences; indeed, there appears to be an increasing number of people keen to profit from places of death as tourist attractions, such as a farmer in Pennsylvania who offered a tour of the crash site of the United Airlines Flight 93 – one of the 9/11 aircraft (Bly, 2003). Marcel (2004) recognised that there is a huge range and diversity of dark tourism supply when she examined whether “death makes a holiday”, and denoted that dark tourism is a part of the tourism phenomenon and called it “dirty little secret”.

In order to investigate the phenomenon of consumer demand of dark tourist sites, it is necessary to examine the topic both from the supply and demand perspective. As Seaton (1996) believes, “dark tourism is essentially a behavioral phenomenon, defined by tourist’ motives as opposed to particular characteristics of a site or attraction”. To construct any framework, both demand and supply needs to be taken into consideration.

For Foley and Lennon, dark tourism is a temporally, basically western phenomenon “based upon non-purposeful visits due to serendipity, the itinerary of tour companies or the merely curious who happen to be in the vicinity” (2000:23). Therewith, in the two researcher’s opinion, dark tourism demand is created unintentionally and is now part of tour companies’ programs, with the objective to make money by getting tourists to a “dark” area which is located close to the routes. In this case, the researchers strongly declare that dark tourism is supply-driven. Due to the question whether people coincidentally come across dark tourist sites, as Foley and Lennon (2000) believe, this topic has to be considered critically.

It has to be mentioned that demand and supply are dynamic and always changing. For example, London Dungeon has always exposed horrifying and gory sculptures. These exhibits were the main reason why people came to visit this place. If the management would decide to remove the electric chair, the demand would decrease rapidly (Sharpley, 2009).

It is still unclear whether thanatourism is still getting more and more popular because of the increasing amount and diversity of attractions, or because of the growing interest of people looking for the macabre and frightening (West, 2004). According to Sharpley (2009), there exists a ‘continuum of purpose’ of supply of dark tourism sites or experiences. He believes that there are tourist attractions which have become dark tourist sites ‘by accident’ and places which are directly intended to make profit. Figure 2 shows the four ‘shades’ of tourism, reaching from ‘pale’ to ‘black’ tourism.

According to Sharpley (2009), the four shades of dark tourism are devided into four categories. Tourists with a low interest in in death and who are visiting sites which are unintended to be tourist attractions are “pale tourists”. Its oposite would summarise people with a high fascination with death and visiting dark tourist sites on purpose. This kind of dark tourism is referred as “the darkest tourism possible”. Concerning supply and demand, tourists with fascination with death but visiting unintendet dark tourism sites are demanding grey tourism. Grey tourism supply would delineate sites which are intentionally established to exploit death, attracting visitor with only a minor interest in death.

Battlefield tourism

Battlefield tourism refers to the visitation to sites associated with warfare. These include locations like battlefields, memorials or military graves as well as museums and other structures that commemorate wars, battles and associated events or atrocities (Seaton, 1999). Places like these have attracted tourists from all over the world for more than thousand years. Alexander the Great was one of the first known battlefield tourists, when he visited the Tomb of Achilles and ancient Troy during his invasion of Asia (Wilcken, 1967). Battlefield tourism increased significantly during the last century, which could be ascribed to the growing number of military conflicts since the early 1900s and more generally, the continuing growth of tourism (Sharpley, 2009). Especially the time after the First World War represented a turning point in the history of battlefield tourism. Visits to battlefield sites like Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte’s last battle near Brussels in 1815, started to become more and more popular (Lloyd, 1998).

The ongoing search by the tourism industry for new attractions has created a very relevant tourism phenomenon around battlefield tourism (Ryan, 2007). The paradox of a site of battle or war is that visitors are able to move around freely on a once unsafe place where many people have lost their lives. Considering the macabre and abhorrent atmosphere which is radiated by place of war, it is remarkable that some tourists are accepting a long journey in order to get impressed by a site of war, express gladness or even experience sadness.

Battlefield Tours

For a battlefield tour visitor, a battlefield tour has the purpose of understanding what happened and why (Sharpley, 2006). Therefore it can be concluded that tourists belonging to this form of visitation are primary interested in history and the very details of the battle. Even pictures, closest studies and primary sources can not describe the atmosphere of a place where fights have taken place. For example, it is necessary to stand at the beach of Ford Island, Hawaii, to understand how the feeling must have been when the Japanese striking force, consisting of 400 warplanes, attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7 in 1941. With a little bit of imagination, the visitor can see through the eyes of the soldier, although the site may have changed over the years.

To go into more detail and to figure out why tourists visit battlefields, it is important to distinguish between the types of visitation. In order to categorise the survey in Chapter …, categories of visitations have been pointed out and confronted in pairs: Are the tourists visiting battlefields as a part of an organised tour or are they individual visitors? Do visitors have a weak or a strong thanatoursim element in their motivation? Did people come to battelfield sites voluntarily (Leisure visitors) or have they been “invited” as part of a company outing or an advanced training course (Business/Educational visitors)?

Pilgrimage

Battlefield pilgrimages can be defined as “the travelling for remembrance with the focus on the spiritual and emotional experience of visiting graves and memorials” (Stone, 2009:194). Beside veterans, immediate family members may also visit a battlefield for remembrance. For example, when death was the reason why a couple’s marriage ended, it can be very important for the personal healing process of the widow to visit the battlefield where her husband died or the grave where he is buried. In these cases again, a weak thanatoursim element is perceptible beacause the dead are know and the interest in death is person-centred.

But not only immediate relatives have a spiritual relationship to family members who died in war. Also children, whose grandfather lost his life in a battle, can show their pride of having a great warrior. Furthermore, travelling together in a group to a battlefield can be major social event, such as an anniversary. A pilgrimage can also encourage conversations between generations which might not happen anywhere else.

Types of Battlefield visitors
Leisure visitors

According to a survey commissioned by the Royal British Legion in 2006 (based upon a sample of 1000 respondents across the United Kingdom) leisure visitors are the majority of modern tourists at battlefields (Stone, 2009). These visitors show a strong interest in history, especially military history. This popular interest arose from a fascination with the soldier and the battle, due to the fact that the proportion of the population who is serving in the military is diminishing (Holmes, 2006). Another reason for the increasing interest in soldiers could be popular films like Inglorious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino, USA 2009. Depending if leisure visitors travel to battlefield sites on their own or as part of tours, they can either show a high interest (or thanaourism element) in death and disaster or just regard them as side trips of the whole tour being unconcerned with dark tourism.

Educational Visits and Visits by the Military

Visits to battlefields, if procurable, are undertaken by schools and other educational establishments. An opportunity is given to young people and students to understand the background and context of topics learned at school or university. Educational visits to battlefields differ from general leisure visits in points of learning objectives and the chance to provide support for certain parts of the national curriculum (Sharpley, 2006). Furthermore, teachers with personal interests in military history are able to share their enthusiasm and can provoke some thoughts about morality in their student’s minds, which is also an important part of education.

Members of the Armed Forces, who view the battlefield as part of the future, also belong to the category of educational visitors. The British Armed Forces use battlefields for tactical training and study (Ryan, 2007), leadership lessons and planning how modern troops would operate on the same ground. Non-military organisations in the United Kingdom, like Corporate Battlefields and Business Battlefields are also using battlefields for leadership or management development programs. People participating in such events are thought to learn from the lessons in history and build effective leading teams to increase business performance. Often, members of such excursion are forced to participate and cannot afford to decline in order to keep their jobs. Therefore it can be concluded that, educational visits, are not “voluntarily” by the majority.

Veterans

Even if this is just a small part of battlefield tour visitors, some veterans still have the desire to visit once more the place where they have fought, to re-experience the place, maybe for the last time in their lives. Some of them make themselves available for tours to narrate their stories to other visitors, who get the chance to get a better and very authentic presentation of the site. Others simply want to understand what happened or the significance of their own role when they fought a war (Stone, 2009). It can be assumed that, for these kind of visitors and according to Seatons (1996) Thanatoursim continuum, there is no specific interest in death and desaster observable.

Tourist Motivation

Tourist motivation can be defined “as the global integrating network of biological and cultural forces which gives value and direction to travel choices, behavior and experience” (Pearce, Morrison & Rutledge, 1998) Motivation has always been an important factor of leisure and tourism study and a basic topic in tourism research (Crompton, 1979; Veal, 1997). According to Wahab (1975), it is fundamental that, for tourism studies and development, the area of travel motivation is taken into consideration. This means that tourism suppliers can benefit from understanding what travelers want in order to predict future travel patterns and adapt the offer. Furthermore, certain tourist types can be selected as target segments for travel and tourist marketing (Smith, 1996) According to Pearce (2007:50), motivation could also be the “driving force behind all actions”. People do things because they have a number of motives which can differ enormously from each other. Some visitors travel to Paris for seeing the Eiffel Tower because of its height and the beautiful view over the city, others go to the same city for shopping and the good food. The destination is the same, but different motives brought individuals there and different or even same activities could be based on different motives. Seaton (1997) believes that motivation is generated by an internal feeling, also called an individual’s “need”, which drives people to achieve certain goals. When all goals have been reached, the need reduces and the individual returns to the initial point until new motives, which are coming up soon after the satisfaction of the last ones, have to be met.

Tourists can be easily classified in terms of demographics, types of travel, economic well being and many other factors, but it is difficult to identify why tourists “do what they do” (Woodside and Martin, 2008). In contrast to the purpose of travel which can be, for example, classified in “business” or “leisure”, the private needs and wants are very hard to measure, as they vary between individuals. There is a wide range of human wants and needs and also difficulties in measuring them which poses problems in making theories about travel motivation. To understand how people form their decisions, the decision making process will be briefly touched and also a better explanation of human needs, referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, has to be provided.

Decision Making Process

Decision making can be summarised as the process of eliminating or reducing doubt about any alternatives to make an expedient choice from among them (Solomon, 2006). Nearly all decisions involve a certain amount of risks because there can never, or rarely, be complete knowledge about all alternatives. Furthermore there has to be a degree of uncertainity; otherwise, if not, people would always choose the right way and would never do any mistakes in their lives. In order to determine an ideal decision, a perfect decision environment has to be the basis including all the information of all alternatives. Limitations like time and effort interfere in making ideal decision. For example, nobody would spend 2 hours driving around in the city waiting for the closest parking lot to the supermarket to get vacant.

The decision-making process is influenced by internal and external variables. Attitudes, beliefs, intentions and motivation belong to the psychological part. Variables like time, price and pull factors are completing the external or nonpsychological part. These factors are predetermined, for example the good weather in the Caribbean or the time for going there because of limited holidays. The decision making process involves five stages:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Maslow is said to be one of the founders of humanistic psychology, a school of psychology concerned with the human context for the development of psychological theory (Hoffman, 1999). In Motivation and Personality, first published in 1954, Maslow describes his hierarchy of needs and its relation to motivation in general. In his opinion, all human needs can be organised in a pyramid, consisting of five stages: physiological needs on the bottom and self-actualisation on the top. In between, safety needs, belongingness or acceptance and esteem needs have to be satisfied before reaching the highest level. An individual normally tries to satisfy the physiological needs fist, before higher-leveled needs are emerging. According to Maslow, all human beings follow this order, with slight variations. Sometimes higher levels of needs can predominate, although some basic needs have not been satisfied fully (Maslow, 1970). Figure … shows Maslow’s 5 stages of needs in a pyramid. Adapted from Chaman, 2001-4

Based on this information, the theory has to be applied on tourist motivation. Pearce (1993), for example, has analysed 400 travel experiences of travelers in Europe, Canada, Australia and the USA. One positive and one negative experience had to be written down by the 200 respondents. In accordance to the pyramid of needs, the data was analysed and coded into five categories. For positive experiences, the following result for each need satisfied could me indicated:

To summarise these findings, Pearce (1993) states that travel motivations show characteristics of an “approach-avoidance paradigm” (Woodside, 2008). This means that, for travelers, positive experiences contribute to the higher-leveled stages, while negative experiences rather contribute to the medium leveled stages. Further, Pearce (1993) believes that holiday destinations attract people because tourists see a chance in fulfilling personal growth and love needs.

Push and Pull Factors

According to Dann (1981), tourists are motivated by a push or pull to a destination in order to satisfy needs. He defines push and pull factors in tourism as forces which drive people to move away from a place (push) and factors which draw them to new locations (pull). For example, someone leaves his/her city of birth because of an increasing crime rate and low quality of life (push) and moves to another city with a good infrastructure and where his/her family lives (pull) . Crompton (1979) states that the travel industry focuses more on pull factors and that there is a lack for push factors. Pull factors can be, in contrast to push factors, much better influenced because they are rarely internal. Therefore, travel agencies and tour operators pull tourists to certain sites with the help of creating needs. If someone wants to escape from everyday life and finds a picture of the Caribbean, the tourism supplier pulls potential visitors away from their current locations. Crompton (1979) also mentioned socio-psychological motives which can be the driving forces to make holidays but the effective choice of destination was the pulling power of the destination itself. He believes that socio-psychological motives can direct tourists towards a particular destination but, in the bottom line is that pull factors are prevailing in the decision making process.

In contrast, Uzzell (1984) believes that tourists are rather motivated to visit destinations which match their psychological needs than going to places because of the specific qualities which are offered there. He does not believe that both push and pull factors are motivation fatctors. In his opinion, pull factors are rather explanations for common touristic activities then relevant motivators. He adds that pull factors should even be eliminated from the study of toursim motivation. Crompton (1979) states that, in reality, individuals experience simultaneously mixtures of both push and pull factors and those factors do not necessarily stand alone. As mentioned before, there can be several push factors motivating an individual but also more than one pull factor offered by a site. For example, someone might be pushed to visit Pearl Harbour because his/her grandfather has died there during World War II. Apart from that, a travel agency is offering a two-week holidays package in Hawaii especially prepared for singles, pulling people to the island. Consequently, idividuals might experience both push and pull facors.

Push and Pull factors should not be treated as acting independently from each other, even though they might correspond to individual stages in travel decision making (Crompton, 1979). Individuals travel because they are pulled by destinations and attractions and at the same time pushed by their own internal forces.

Expectancy theory

In contrast to the theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, the expectancy theory, which was invented by Victor Vroom in 1964, focuses rather on outcomes than on needs. In order to be motivated, Vroom linked effort, performance and outcomes to motivation. There are three variables which are mentioned: Expectancy, Valence and Instrumentality. Increased performance is the result of increased effort, which is the basic belief of expectancy (Green, 1992). An example of expectancy would be the belief that something will get better if someone works harder for it. The second variable, instrumentality, is the belief that someone performs well, a valued outcome will be received (Green, 1992). In example, if someone does a good job, it will be valued and he/she maybe gets a pay raise. Valence is defined as the importance that the individual places upon the expected outcome (Green, 1992). This would mean that if an employee is mainly motivated by money, he/she would not value other offers like a new office or additional time off.

Having understood these variables, the basic idea behind the theory is that individuals adapt their level of effort depending on the possible outcome. In Vroom’s opinion, if somebody believes that if he/she is working harder but the rewards and performances will not be increased and furthermore offered rewards are not valued, the individual will not be motivated. It is important to mention that all three variables have to be fulfilled in order to achieve motivation. The theory can be applied to any situation where someone expects a certain outcome to happen. In relation to dark tourism and the visitation of battlefields, tourists expect certain, in most cases intangible, outcomes. Regarding the example of pilgrimage and spiritual experience, people believe that the visitation of graves or places where relatives or friends have died can result in better understanding the past events and an increased personal healing process.

Motivational Strength

It depends on motivational strength whether somebody prefers reaching one goal opposed to another. Despite the diversity of studies and theories, most of them are sharing a basic idea: individuals have a certain amount of energy which must be directed towards goals (Pearce, 1993). From a psychological perspective, reaching a goal can be equalised with being motivated. If a need arouses, which is growing by and by, the individual wants to satisfy it as soon as possible. For example, if someone is hungry, he/she wants to stop this unpleasant feeling by eating food. As soon as the need is satisfied, the balanced state returns which is called homeostasis (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard and Hogg, 2006). Human behaviour is driven by a basic mechanism to reduce unpleasant tensions, which is termed drive theory. In terms of marketing, the unpleasant state reffers to the need of goods and services which are desired. Though, to be more precise, the degree of motivation is not always the same. For example, the motivation to buy a new one is very high because the old one has been used for many years. If the person who desires a new TV would have bought one a few months ago, the motivation to go again to the store and spend money would be much lower.

The research on motivation in order to understand what actually drives behaviour focuses more on cognitive factors rather than on biological ones. For this research, the drive theory is not crucial and will not be applied. Though, another theory about motivation is taken into consideration. The Expectancy theory suggests that people prefer one product or service over another because they believe that this choice has “more positive consequences” for them (Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard and Hogg, 2006:93). For this study it is important to find out which positive consequences could be important to visitors to battlefields and to dark tourism sites in general.

Motivators
Motivation: History

According to Smith (1996), sites of war attract basically people with a strong interest in history and military strategists. These individuals are keen to analyse the events of the past while walking around the area. This would mean that a battlefield visitor does not necessarily have to be attracted by the presence of death; interest in history can also be the reason why people visit battlefields.

The same results were found by Crompton (1979) and Anderton (1995), who stated that cultural and historical interest can be a strong motivator for pleasure travel. Further, Crompton (1979) drew the conclusion, from interviewing 42 adult people, that education and novelty are important travel motivators. In contrast to this, Beech (2000), who, amongst other topics, investigated the visitors? motivation to concentration camps, does not wholeheartedly believe that visitors with no connection to the camp are motivated by only interest in learning or history. The same theory can be applied to battlefield tourism.

There is, from a historical perspective, a demand in battlefield tourism, National Geographic released in 1992 a guide for battle sites including their histories called the Guide to Civil War National Battlefield Parks in the USA, including photographs and maps showing troop movements. Today there are huge amounts of books dealing with battlefield tours and

The main aim of this chapter is to review the theories and previous research papers which are mainly concentrated on the evaluation of customer satisfaction in the airlines industry.

Shaw, S. (2004) has defined the “consumers” are those people who actually travel. They make existence clear by reporting for flights and their requirements. They are therefore usually given a great deal of attention by marketers in the airlines business. However, the consumers may not be the decision-makers about the things that matter. In the marketing theories, such decision makers are defined as “Customers”. Furthermore, there are three customer decisions which must be analyzed:

This decision is mainly aimed to the business travelers. For many firms today, the cost of travel is a major item of cooperate expense. Especially, in the recessionary period, most of the firms will attempt to reduce expenditure in order to minimize the effect of recession. In such situation, the business trips will be replaced by other methods such as the phone, video-conferencing or email.

There are different choices for passengers to select for their air ticket class in the cabin with different kinds of services and price such as First Class (mostly selected for the long-haul flights), Business Class, Economy Class or Coach Class.

Additionally, the business travelers will have a little or no say in the decision as to which class will be purchased. Because most of the firms have their travel policy whereby very senior executives are allowed to take First Class, those in the middle rank in Business Class, and the junior employees have to be satisfied with Economy Class. Interestingly, during recessionary periods, most of the firms have to be downgraded their travel policy in order to save money so that the First Class and Business Class travel being eliminated.

The question of the choice of the airline is obviously a crucial one. In the leisure air travel, many airlines focus on selling the blocks of seats to tour operators and travel agencies so that the individual travelers will have very little say in the airlines that they fly with.

Otherwise, in the business air travel, during the time 1990s, more and more companies centralized travel purchasing in order to gain access to cooperate discounts from airlines. Such policies narrowed the choice which the individual travelers could exercise, even if they were not restricted to using a single airline.

Finally, the choice of airlines still depends on the person who has to travel and the airline schedule as well. If the airline schedule is suitable, the passengers will choose to fly with the airline as their choice.

The comprehensive definition of customer satisfaction is given by Oliver (1997); “Customer satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfillment judgment that a product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption- related fulfillment, included level of under-or over fulfillment.”

Today, the airlines have to face with the significant competition within the industry so that level of customer satisfaction becomes more important. Besides that, the passenger satisfaction includes the various types of services which are related to the airlines industry such as the satisfaction of the online check-in service, ground handling service and the quality of food on board as well. Next, the customer satisfaction factor plays a major role in the airlines industry and it also impacts directly to the profit of an airline company.

At the same time, according to Yi (1991), customer satisfaction may be defined into two basic ways: either as an outcome or as a process (table 1.1)

Definition

The buyer’s cognitive state of being adequately or in-adequately rewarded for the sacrifices he has under gone

An emotional response to the experience provided by (or associated with) particular products or services purchased, retailed outlets, or even molar patterns of behavior, as well as the overall marketplace

An outcome of purchase and use resulting from the buyer’s comparison of the rewards and the costs of the purchase in relation to the anticipated consequences

An evaluation rendered that the experience was at least as good as it was supposed to be

An evaluation that the chosen alternative consistent with prior beliefs with respect to that alternative

The consumer’s respond to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy between prior expectations and the actual performance of the products as perceived after its consumption

Approach

Satisfaction as an outcome

Satisfaction as a process

Figure 1.1: Definition of customer satisfaction (Yi, 1991)

Source: Adopted from Grigoroudis & Siskos (2010, p.4)

Otherwise, losing customers would mean that the airline organizations would have to win new customers to keep the business going, by doing so, the cost of promotions and attracting new customers would cost the airline organizations more money, Hill, N. and Alexander, J. (2000).

The report by Kazim, S, K. (2005), starts with the introduction to Emirate Airlines and its innovation in the in-flight products to achieve the high level of customer satisfaction. Next, Emirate Airlines has mainly focused to develop the onboard connectivity for ultra long haul flights (8-14 hours). This is important especially for in the cases of business travelers and cooperate travelers as these ultra long haul flights can be a very attractive proposition for them because of the accessibility and fast connection from one end of the world to another.

The report’s result is that Emirate Airlines has a successfully innovated to build up their market positioning and achieve the high level of customer satisfaction through the onboard connectivity.

3.2) Measuring the customer satisfaction in the airlines industry:

This part is mainly focused on the measurement of customer satisfaction in the airlines industry which is based on the tangibles of service and the intangibles of product. Besides that, these important elements will be used in the questionnaires and will be analyzed as a part of this research paper’s objective to indentify customer satisfaction motivating factors in the aviation industry.

3.2.1) Why is customer satisfaction measured?

Hill, N. Brierley, J. and MacDougall, R. (1999), explains the reasons why the customer satisfaction factor needs to be measured. A customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) programme will therefore enable us to understand how customers perceive your organization and whether your performance meets their expectations. Furthermore, the airline organizations are able to understand their passenger’ expectations so that they will have their own strategies and methods to achieve those passenger’s requirement.

At the same time, if the airline companies manage the customer satisfaction measurement well, they will be able to set the goals for their service improvement and monitor progress against a passenger satisfaction index. Likewise, the airlines can increase their profits through improved the customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and retention.

Business Success
Customer Loyalty
Customer Satisfaction

Figure 1.2: Business performing modeling

Source: Adopted from Hill, Brierley & MacDougall (1999, p.7)

There are many airline organizations and especially the in the USA have recognized the significance of CSM so that they have developed the “business performance model” (see figure 1.2), enabling them to forecast financial performance from shift in their CSM data. Some can even take the model back as far as employee satisfaction.

Based on the figure 1.2 above, it shows us the relation between “customer satisfaction” and “customer loyalty” and then both factors are linked closely to the success of business. Next, the diagram above would mean that the airline organizations should achieve the high level of passenger satisfaction and therefore they will also be able to maintain effectively the passenger loyalty and it will lead to the success in business of those airline organizations.

Additionally, these elements would contribute to add up to a customer satisfaction level and retention. By understanding the non-traditional customer satisfaction elements such as the below could allow the airline organizations to adopt and improve on their customer retention methods.

3.2.2) Elements of service require for satisfaction:

This portion shall be based on the theory of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry’s (1988) which is presented the five elements of reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy which makes up service quality.

The SERVQUAL model above (see figure 1.3) is essentially an instrument for measuring how customer perceived the quality of service they receive. Furthermore, the evaluation is based mainly on the five elements of services which are expected from the air passengers.

The Reliability:

The airlines’ services must be dependable and consistent in their performance, it includes accurate in their performance. Besides that, it also means the airline company’s employees should perform the desired services correctly in the first time round. For example: providing the check-in service for passengers effectively.

The Responsiveness:

It means the airlines’ services should deliver the services such as the on-board services and services at the airport promptly to passenger (rather than ignores the passengers and leaves them waiting). Besides that, the airline’s employees are always willing and ready to serve and help the passengers. E.g. the air hostess should be always ready to serve quickly when the passenger’s query has been made.

The assurance:

The air service staffs have to assure that they have the knowledge, skills, abilities and courtesy to perform their duties. E.g. knowledge of the air hostess about the destinations, reputation of the airline organizations and security.

Staff empathy:

This service element is related to the airlines staffs’ ability to provide passengers with individual attention. Next, the airlines’ employees need to treat individually and need to show their concern, caring to passengers as well. E.g. recognize the regular passenger’s name, learning passenger’s specific requirement.

Tangibles:

This element is considered as the physical evidence of service. For example: appearance of personnel, the equipment used to provide the service.

3.2.3) Elements of product require for satisfaction:

In this portion, I would like to mention to the five elements of product which associate with customer satisfaction within the aviation industry. Moreover, I would include these elements into my questionnaires later to ask the respondents rank accordingly for their satisfaction level.

Quality of services:

The quality of airlines services such as check-in service, food and beverage on board and ground handling service impacts directly to the passenger’s decision making. Especially, some passengers will select the airline for its good services even though the air fare is higher than other airlines?

Location:

The location of airline offices and its authorized agencies should be convenient and easy to access for passengers.

Airfare’s price:

The airfare’s price is considered as the most important factors for a specific airline to compete with their competitors. Next, the airfare should offer with reasonable price.

Layout, decoration and entertainment service:

This portion is to mention to the interior design of the air craft and the uniform of air hostess which are considered as the cultural factors for an airline company. Next, some additional on-board entertainment services (videos, music and games) are also the competitive elements in the aviation industry.

Loyalty program:

This part is to emphasis the functions of VIP cards or other methods that are used by the airline organizations to bring back passengers through discount, vouchers, higher priority and free gift.

For example: the Golden Lotus Program of Vietnam Airlines and SIA’s Kris Flyers program.

3.3) Understanding the passenger requirements:

This part is concentrated to understand the passenger requirements in the business travel market so that the airline organizations will be easier to achieve the higher level of customer satisfaction and also to improve the service quality efficiently.

Shaw, S (2004), airlines do not just have to be indentify the passenger’s needs but they also have to prioritize. Below is are the options to the nature of passengers needs and the discussion shall be divided between the corporate and independent sub-segments of business travel demand, and between short and long hauls routes.

3.3.1) Short-haul and long-haul routes:
3.3.1.1) Frequency and Timings:

In the airlines industry, the “frequency and timings” factors are very important to the air passengers, especially for the short-haul markets. Today all the business travelers are extremely busy and their plan is rescheduled often at the short notice. And therefore, an airline offering them a high frequency will have crucial advantages. Besides that, frequency will ensure that business travelers can fly out for the meeting shortly before it is due to begin and return to their offices or homes very soon after it has been completed.

Moreover, the flight’s timings are also a vital consideration and there should be extensive opportunities on short-haul routes for business travelers to make day-return trips. And therefore most of the flights need to be concentrated in the early morning and evening periods.

3.3.1.2) Punctuality:

The flight’s punctuality is a crucial importance to the business travelers and there is no airline dare to hope to obtain a big number of passengers if they perform a poor punctuality reputation.

Likewise, the flight delays meaning inconvenience, missed appointment and perhaps the loss of customers.

Especially, almost of the long-haul passengers are the connecting passengers and they are usually taking the transit or stop-over flights so that this factor becomes extremely significant for them. Once delay, it will annoy the point-to-point travelers and may destroy their entire flight itinerary.

3.3.1.3) Ticket flexibility:

Seat accessibility is considered as a piece of aviation jargon which refers to the probability of passengers who are being able to grab a seat shortly before the flight is due to depart. Next, it is a crucial product need for business travelers.

The short-haul passenger’s requirement about ticket flexibility is a little bit unfair for the airlines because many business travelers expect the right to no-show for the flight, and then to be re-booked on the next flights out later without any penalty being charged. Of course, because of this, airlines have to face with so many difficulties and issues.

Nonetheless, these factors are lower importance on the long-haul routes and the last minute availability of seat is less important on the long-haul flights. Normally, the long-haul passengers will take note carefully for their flights three days before the departure date due to the its lower frequencies and high cost of penalty when missing the flight.

3.3.1.4) Frequent flyer benefits:

Today, almost of the airlines operate their own frequent flyer programme or the passenger loyalty schemes to gain the re-support of their regular passengers. At the same time, the frequent flyers will have chance to accumulate the number of mileage points and then they can use those points to exchange to some kinds of benefit such as rewards, hotel or restaurant vouchers, free gifts or free air ticket for the next time travelling.

Nevertheless, there is a difference of the attitudes to frequent flyer points between short and long-haul markets. On the long-haul route, substantial numbers of points are stake. In fact, for many programmes, the passengers are taking the long-haul flights with a particular airlines (at least in the First or Business Class), they could earn sufficiency mileage for a short-haul flight on that airline’s network with free of charge. Because of this issue, so many long-haul passengers have selected the airlines whose frequent flyer points they are supporting; even they are not really satisfied with the flight timing or frequency.

3.3.1.5) Ground service:

It is not surprising that the airport service should be a significant factor in select of airline decisions. Of course, all the business travelers will wish to spend as less time as possible in the airport. Besides that, they wish to check-in very late for the flight, by using the separately check-in counters as well. And so that, the airport service provided should be very effective and helpful to satisfy the demand of air passengers.

However, the offer of very late check-in time for the long-haul passengers is less important. Besides that, most of the long-haul passengers prefer to check-in earlier than those in the short trips because of the greater penalty of missing flight and lower frequencies as well.

3.3.1.6) In-flight service:

On the short-haul routes, the fact that the flight duration is short so that in-flight service often assumes a lower priority than frequency, punctuality and airport service in selection of airline decisions. However, it still can extremely important and directly influent to the passenger’s in-flight experiences.

On the other hand, there are differences between the expectations for in-flight service on long and short haul flights. On the long-haul routes, the seating comfort on board, a separate cabin to allow for sleep and work, meal quality and in-flight entertainment are taken more concern from the passengers.

3.3.1.7) Direct flights for long-haul routes:

Especially, a significant consideration alongside the frequency is often that there should be direct and non-stop flights available for the long-haul routes. In the competitive aviation industry, that is no longer the impossible expectations, as aircrafts manufactures have innovated with aircraft having longer and longer ranges so it has become possible to fly greater and greater number of the world’s air routes on a non-stop basic.

Today, there is really no way for an airline operating a stopping service to compete for the high-yielding traffic with the competitors which are able to offer the direct, non-stop flights.

3.3.2) The differences between cooperate and independent travelers:

This portion would differentiate the requirements of cooperate business travels and independent travelers. First of all, for the independent business travelers, the terms of frequency, timings, safety, punctuality, seat accessibility and ticket flexibility need to remain the same. Moreover, the independent travelers are more concern about the airfare’s cost than other factors such as standard of seating comfort and quality of in-flight meals. Next, the independent travelers will normally trade off the cheaper airfare because the ticket’s cost is coming out from their own pocket.

Secondly, for the cooperate travelers, the attractive perk of the job and providing opportunities to enjoy free leisure flights are considered more important than the benefits of frequent flyer points.

3.4) Form the alliances to enhance customer satisfaction:

In this part, it mainly concentrates on the airlines alliance which is the important factors to improve the customer satisfaction and develop the airlines business. Otherwise, the theories are based on the explanations of reliable authors and other academic articles on the same research’s topic.

3.4.1) Introduce to airlines alliances:

Shaw, S (2004), the air carriers have usually preferred the comfort of co-operative rather than competitive relationships. In 1993, KLM and Northwest Airlines announced their desire to create a strategic partnership. Then, the United States government gave them immunity from the US Anti-Trust laws, which it did following the signing of an “Open Skies” agreement between the US and Netherlands governments. After that, the two national airways, Lufthansa and United Airlines proposed to join hand with KLM and Northwest Airlines to become the Star Alliance in 1995. Again, the Anti-Trust was available between US and Germany governments. In additional, Star Alliance grew rapidly in terms of the number of members it had, with it currently consisting of 27 member airlines in 2010.

Alongside the available of Star Alliance, there were other formations of airlines alliance such as One World alliance and Skyteam alliance. Likewise, the formation of One World alliance by British Airways (BA), American Airlines (UA) and Cathay Pacific (CX) was announced in one year after the establishment of Star Alliance. Besides that, the evaluation of the modern alliance was completed in 1999 when Air France and Delta Airlines formed the Skyteam Alliance.

Otherwise, Thompson, A. and Strickland, A, J. (2004) stated that airlines which enter alliances to gain competitive advantage. These are the following main motivations to make the airline companies enter alliances.

To gain the technology knowledge and experience

To enter a new markets

To better exploit economies of scale

Having said this, it is quite obvious that airlines which enter into co-operative alliance relationships are seeking cost reductions. Next, if the alliance members can negotiate together, this may help to increase their power to bargain with the suppliers of airport services.

Next, According to Chareonsup, N. (2006), the strategic alliances become increasingly important in the very competitive aviation industry. This study mainly focuses on key success factors in managing strategic alliances for Thai Airways International as member of Star Alliance. Particularly in the global airlines industry, the strategic alliances enable the small firms to face with the difficulties, while also the large firms are still able to obtain their benefits, while remaining small. As the small airline carrier of the Star Alliance, Thai Airways is considered as an available opportunity to understand and investigate strategic alliances in clearer picture. Lastly, upon the result of this research, it can be concluded that Thai Airways has a high potential to adapt itself in a big alliances.

3.4.2) Definition of airlines alliances:

According to Yoshino, M, Y. and Rangan, U, S. (1995), alliances are defined as the long-term beneficial relationship between two or more airline organizations. Besides that, these airline companies have agreed upon achievement to meet a critical business need while staying independent of each other. Next, it is a synergistic agreement between two or more airline organizations agree to cooperate in carrying out of business activity where each brings different strengths and abilities to the agreement.

Moreover, Sawler, J, H. (2000), has tried to define of strategic alliances in a clearer picture. It is defined as the relationship between two or more airline firms that involves the sharing of resources: capital, technology, experience, distribution network, etc., in which is involved with cooperative activities which go beyond ordinary arm’s length transaction, but fall short of mergers.

3.4.3) The benefits of customer from airlines alliances:

Kleymann, B. and Seristo, H. (2004), this part will get an idea of the Alliance Marker’s views and analyze how the airlines alliances bring more benefits to their customers. Besides that, this portion is based on the interviews with senior airline executive (Vice-president up to Deputy CEO Levels) involved in alliancing.

Bob Ayling, Chief Executive of British Airways, said: “his customers have shared with him they prefer airlines to work together to increase the standard of services across the world. Furthermore, alliances bring together leading airlines to maximize the benefits for customers, employees and shareholders.”

Don Carty, Chief Executive of American Airlines, said: “the purposes that they started the alliance are to enhance the travel experience for the customers, improve the competitive position of their respective airlines and thus provide opportunities for their employees, as well as create value for their shareholders by building the world’s premier airline network.”

Kevin Benson, Chief Executive of Canadian Airlines, said: “One world alliance will deliver unrivalled benefits across our partner airlines, ensuring that the customers are recognized across all airlines as if they were their own.”

David Turnbull, Chief Executive of Cathay Pacific Airways, said: “This alliance is superb news for Cathay Pacific’s customers and those of our partner alliances. Customers travelling on Oneworld will receive the highest levels of services and product available.”

James Strong, Chief Executive of Qantas Airways, said: “Oneworld alliance will provide each of them with a great opportunity to provide worldwide high quality service to customers through airline partners acknowledged as world leaders in the airlines industry.”

In additional, Doganis, R. (2001), stated that the airlines alliances produce more benefits for the air-passengers such as arise from higher frequencies, offer more available destinations with on-line connections with airlines in the same alliance, improve the transfer times and levels of in-flight and ground service, as well as more attractive of loyalty schemes. As so far, alliance may lead to lower operating cost for the airlines through the realization of cost synergies, so that customers will likely have chance to grab the lower airfare easier if any cost saving are reflected in the lower fare.

This portion is ended with the case study of “Airlines industry partnership” which also analyzed the customers’ benefits from airlines alliances clearly. Customer benefits from partnership include seamless travel with association between connections, sharing of airport lounges, and cross-use of frequent flyer programmes where customers will have chance to enjoy the lower average airfares from airlines within the alliances due to the power of partnership as well. Besides that, the latter open-skies model of partnership has facilitated the reduction in fares through cooperative pricing which gives a certain amount of benefit to each partner. At the same time, most of the partnership shares routes and operates the code-share routes (passengers could buy a ticket for one airline and end up on a plane of the other partners) so that customers may have chances to enjoy travel experiences with different airlines in the same alliance. (Donaldson, B. and Toole, T, O. 2007).

3.5) Competition leads to the development of service quality:
3.5.1) Definite the competition:

Pride, W, M. Hughes, R, J. and Kapoor, J, R. (2008), “business competition is essential a rivalry among businesses for sales to potential customers”. Moreover, competition also ensure that the airlines will survive only if it is able to serve and satisfy customers well by providing products and services that meet needs.

3.5.2) Porter’s Five Forces framework:

Porter, (1998), the five forces comprises threat of new entrance, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat of substitute as well as competitive rivalry, as show in the figure 1.4. Furthermore, the framework helps to identify the sources of competition in the airlines industry as to facilitate the development of service quality for the airlines to serve passengers better.

New Entrants

– Deregulation of airlines

– More airlines serving the region

– Emergence of budget carriers

Bargaining Power of Supplier

– Aircraft Manufacturers

– Travel Agent

– Internet

– Fuel suppliers

Buyers Power

– Wide choice of airlines

(low switching costs for

passengers)

– Customers have stronger

bargaining power

Rivalry in the Industry

– Increasing number of international flights

– Load factors utilization

– Price wars due to load factors

– Advertising campaigns

Substitutes

– Teleconferencing and video conferencing

– Email

– Interstate transportation modes for domestic carriers – rail, bus, car

Figure 1.4: Porter’s Five Forces Framework – Industrial Analysis

Source: Adopted from Porter, M, E., Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors.

3.5.2.1) Threat of new entrants:

In the airlines industry, the threat of new entrants is low due to the barriers to entry such as high capital, costs of training and differentiated products. On the other hand, opening sky policy contributes to stimulate the potential cross passenger service between the airlines and the new entrants.

3.5.2.2) Bargaining power of supplier:

“Buyers are more willing to switch suppliers due to low switching cost and diverse source of supply that is available” (Grant, 2005). Today, airlines are willing to switch between two giant suppliers, Airbus and Boeing due to the expectation in modern aircrafts in term of high load factor, less fuel consumption, CO2 emission and quieter engines.

3.5.2.3) Bargaining power of buyers:

Although customers are able to book the air-tickets online due to the high technology systems, travel agencies constitute a major portion of the customer base to the industry. Besides that, these travel agencies have the strong chances to influent customers who have no strong brand preferences as to what travel decision they should make. Next, travel agencies understand their advantage position in the industry therefore they use their high bargaining power with airlines to get the better deals in area such as extra commission.

Moreover, due to the bargaining power, travel agencies have the authorization to offer some special kinds of fare which customers are unable to book by other ways. Like, for a group of travelers, customers will have chance to book the GV2 tickets (from 2 passengers and above take the same return flight and date) or GV10 tickets which is offered specially by Singapore Airlines (from 10 passengers and above take the exactly same return flight and date). And of course, the airfare’s cost should so much be cheaper compare with the basic single air ticket. Finally, travel agencies are using their bargaining power effectively to earn extra commission and help the travelers to get better deals with airlines as well.

3.5.2.4) Threat of substitute:

The improvement of technology is also one of the threats to the airlines industry today. Likewise, the online business communication technologies are considered as an alternative to travel. Next, the high usages of international calls lead to the reduction in business travel as well.

3.5.2.5) Competitive rivalry:

The rivalry among existing players in the market is the dominant force in the framework. The intensity of rivalry which is the most obvious of the five forces in t

In economics, a service is an intangible commodity. More specifically, services are an intangible equivalent of economic goods. It sets a onetime benefit; delivered from the accountable service provider, mostly in close coactions with his internal and external service suppliers, effectuated by distinct functions of technical systems and by distinct activities of individuals, respectively, commissioned according to the needs of his service consumers by the service customer from the accountable service provider, rendered individually to an authorized service consumer at his/her dedicated trigger, and, finally, consumed and utilized by the triggering service consumer for executing his/her upcoming business activity or private activity.

The nature of the service, strategies for improvement, and understand the customer’s perception of having that is very popular among researchers over the past two decades (for examples, leonard and sasser, 1982; lockwood, 1996; johns and lee-ross, 1998). Increases the other hand, the growing economic importance of the service sector in many countries has been in quality initiatives including guided centrally based European Foundation for Quality Management. Many hospitality, tourism organization have taken this challenge focuses on customer orientation employee performance in the interface, the recognition of the centrality of meeting service

By this definition, customer / employee interviews have the potential for conflicts. In a service context that feeling cannot be met exactly, but it provides a cautionary note for Service Manager, because the customer’s perception of product quality connection often depends on the interaction between customers and employees.

The History of Hotels: From Economic To Extravagant
http://www.searchandgo.com/travel/hotels-history.php

The hotel has a very long history, but not as we know it today, back in the 6th Century began to develop BC, when the first inn in and around the city of London. The first match for travelers, offering them a simple roof to stay. This condition of the hotel was long before the industrial revolution in England, the new ideas and developments made aˆ‹aˆ‹in the field to keep the inn. The invention of the steam engine to travel even more important. Who had more and more people are traveling not only for business but also for the sake of recreation. This will lead to the actual development of the hotel industry, as we know it today. Hotel today not only provide the basic needs of customers, such as food and shelter much more personalized services such as hotels, etc. are now a “home away from home.

“Evidence of the hotels and restaurants has as far back as biblical times, when Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem collected during the census. As shown in the Bible, Mary and Joseph were refused accommodations because it”. No room in the inn “Since the dawn of time, people have traveled for trade, religion, family, health, immigration, education and recreation.

Such as Texas Tech University, cited the word “hospitality” from the Latin root meaning “host” or “hospice.” The University has also noted that the first hotels were only private homes open to the public. Most unfortunately had a bad reputation. Under the influence of the Roman Empire and breakfast and hotels catering to the delight of travelers began in an effort to encourage visitors.

The first hostel in America was recorded in 1607 and paves the way for many other firsts in the hospitality industry. The first hotel of the public (City Hotel), owned in New York opened in 1792. The first modern (Tremont) opened in Boston in 1809 and the hotel first opened (Buffalo Statler) in 1908.

Current trends in hotel industry

Hospitality Industry continued to change, which has made it more practical and functional in the world! The types of services and facilities that are offered by the great industry and has emerged from the past decade. All this is possible because of the widespread use of technology, environment friendly services, pricing, market division, regional preferences, etc. The relation of technology and hospitality industry will grow stronger in the years to come. The use of technology is present in all departments of the hotel, the upgrade reflects the motion of the hotel services.

http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/leisure-travel/20120419117728.htm

Keeping the entire latest trend in the memory of the hospitality industry, KONEKT V4 application that you would definitely want to explore. This is the application that will help you reach your customers in one click. The main attraction is the “dashboard” application. Is an unconventional marketing tracker is sensitive facts giving minute to give you the latest campaigns and activities conducted by you. The time, name and number of customers who liked your Facebook page, make your table reservation, you asked for any questions or comments about your application also can track comments on the same page!

CRM systems help you to increase the advertising campaigns for events, and you can send informative mailers to customers, after core build your brand. It is a system that works on all digital platforms and databases also you can get more for clients achieve your Hotel, Restaurant and Resorts. It is the only system to integrate the old with the new database, so that you can get, it’s data in a single view. It works perfectly with the iPhone and iPad systems. It is built in a way that let you miss any opinion or report, even when you’re away!

Travelers increasingly will turn to their mobile devices not only research accommodation and travel options, but to book and communicate directly with the hotel options. Booking mobile channel has been multiplied by four between 2008 and 2010 according to Forrester Research. In addition, Google provides the mobile PC that exceed the device the most common internet access by 2013! To smart phones and tablets travel at a rapid pace, it is imperative for hoteliers to use their website for mobile capture potential mobile transactions.

Revenue management has changed since the days it was first introduced by the airline industry in 1970 to be a complex science today. Managers always lowering prices to stimulate sales when demand is low and prices have risen during periods of peak demand. Hotels are now able to update prices for all future arrival dates to meet the market demands every day, through the application of advanced market information. TravelClick has reported passenger demand and visualize group bookings a year in advance. In addition, the Smith Travel Research reports that will soon provide information by looking at future bookings, rather than historical figures that. (By Robert A. Rauch, CHA)

http://ehotelier.com/hospitality-news/item.php?id=P22373

Gueridon a form of service in restaurants food service to their customers is provided. This type of service includes the preparation of food (mainly salads, main dishes such as beef stroganoff, or desserts) in direct view of the customer, with a “round table”. A table usually consists of a trolley equipped for cooking, preparing and serving food. There is a gas stove, cutting board, cutlery drawer, cold room (depending on the type of carriage) region and for general working capital.

Dishes such as these are generally Crepes Suzette, Caesar Salad, Cherries Jubilee, and banana flambe steak tartar

Read more: http://www.cooksinfo.com/gueridon-service#ixzz2Dq1Y1MxT

FUTURE Trends of hotel industry

The hotel industry is in the midst of a transformation that affects virtually all aspects of the industry and its stakeholders. Essences the transformation of the hotel industry is changing its approach to concentrate more focused on the customer and brand insentive. Product and support services are developed around the perceived needs and desires of the customer for customer satisfaction. In the future, the focus will be customer focused to a level that transcends medical examinations. It will focus on the emotional and psychological needs and wants more precisely defined target audience. Hotels then use this knowledge to market a wide range of products and services through strong brands to a loyal customer for life. Some ramifications of changes will be made as reserves, trading activities and high taste information will be more automated. There will be a greater personal guest of technology accurate and fast service. Services and mobile technologies will be prompted to supply any service in the property. Supports functions such as accounting, human resources, reservations, etc. will be centralized at the place the most profitable worldwide.

Medium sized hotels will be taken by brand chain like the Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Ramada, etc. while location will be the priority to choose a hotel by future traveler, brand names will be the next preference.

Another aspect of future trends would be fusion of cuisines. The French started this trend with the ‘Nouvelle Cuisine’ mixing eastern food products with western ones. Fusions restaurant will grow as the new adventurous public will search for new gastronomic experiences.

(Intro to Hospitality & Tourism
By Sudhir Andrews)

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=PrRdc5SI_R4C&pg=PT188&dq=future+of+hospitality+industry&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H327UJX5I8LsrAfKg4HgAg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA

A bunkhouse is a youth hostel or barracks-like building that historically was used to cowboys working on ranches in North America. Like most cowboys were young single men, the standard bunkhouse was a large open room with narrow beds or cots for each individual and little privacy. The bunkhouse of the late 19th century was generally heated by a wood stove and personal needs were attended to in an outbuilding.

A capsule hotel is a type of hotel, developed in Japan, which is a large number of very small “rooms” (capsules) cheap and easy accommodation for guests who do not require offers the services of more conventional hotel services offered.

A condo hotel, also known as the hotel-condo or a Condotel, is a building used as a hotel and two condominium. Condo hotels are usually high-rise buildings developed and operated as luxury hotels in major cities and resorts in general. These residential units which allow someone to have a holiday full service. If they do not use this home can be used to ensure that the marketing and management of the hotel chain and manage the condo unit than any other hotel room is.

An ice hotel is a temporary hotel made up of snow, sculpted blocks of ice, and, in some cases, some steel framing. They are promoted by their sponsors and have special features for travelers who are interested in novelties and unusual environments, and thus are in the class of destination hotels. Their lobbies are often filled with ice sculptures, and food and drinks are specially chosen for the circumstances.

A pop-up hotel is a hotel that is temporary, being in one place for a short period before being moved. These hotels can be constructed from prefabricated modules that are connected together on site or from removable structures such as tents or they can be completely mobile, being built on a large vehicle. These hotels provide accommodation for seasonal events or unique such as music festivals in the outdoors.

A Turbaza is, generally the Soviet era, the Russian form of cheap, spartan, holiday, a visit or a base camp tour. Turbazas are generally rented to groups or companies who rent the entire facility for holiday accommodation Oops for their members or employees. They are gene rally rustic located in rural areas that offer outdoor recreation. Eat, sleep, and often is housed in a large open space and common.

A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy for sexual activities.

(^ Schreiber, Mark, “Back to the future of a ‘hotel for 2001?”,Japan Times, 16 January 2011, pp. 7-8).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hotel_types

Manager’s problems

In the hotel managers are responsible for all management of human resources, or as appropriate, all managers have the responsibility to understand their human resources. When providing services to our clients, our primary resource is our people, our workers, our employees. Successful hospitality managers must be able to work with people. We need to develop guidance of people in our management approach. As a manager with responsibilities for human resources, your concern is that people of their needs, wants, and desires fit the needs and desires of the hotel company.

We define managers as the implementation of strategies, plans and programs to attract, motivate, develop, reward and retain the best people to meet the objectives of the organization.

Mike Hurst also emphasizes the role of management changes over management in the past and in conduit. The hospitality is based on the gift of friendship friendly people who care, it has become imperative in a service management concentrate on the benefits to the people and his style.

The managers of today have earned a place of respect for their contribution to organizational value. The contemporary role of managers with the human resources responsibilities is a critical one to any hospitality organization. Most of the people spends more than one-third of their waking hours at their jobs, and as a manager you will make the decision that affects and influence the lives, dreams, goals and ambitions of these individual and their families.

Manager in the hospitality industry participate in strategic planning sessions, understand financial documents relating to the work and the bottom line. Many managers in the host organization is part of the management team. The manager’s role is more important than ever before in the hospitality industry. It is up to us to keep management informed of what their needs and desires of people to be productive, and to be faithful.

There are some things that came into consideration to keep them loyal; management should recognize the importance of balancing work and personal life. An opportunity to grow within the organization. A better explanation of employee benefit. A feeling that their coworker have the necessary skills to do their jobs.

(Mary L. Tanke, march 2000)

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=1PcrHgw-FO0C&pg=PA4&dq=problems+faced+by+managers+in+hospitality+industry&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hDK6UM_TIcrWrQfDqYDQDQ&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=problems%20faced%20by%20managers%20in%20hospitality%20industry&f=true

The globalization of labor and continuing advances in technology are changing the way the labor market. Knowledge workers are known for their special properties. These are people who analyze, synthesize and evaluate information to solve different problems. Knowledge workers actually use their intelligence, ideas, products, services and processes to implement. Your most important asset of an organization is its ability to collect and analyze data and make decisions that benefit company (Jyothi, 2010), (Bohlander G. a., 2009)

Technology has had a positive effect on the internal processes of an organization, but also changed the way the work of the HR staff. Some managers in the hospitality industry will see the application of technologies to operational issues as a problem. It is true that technological systems used in the bar, front office, restaurants, etc. much more advanced and complex than those currently available only for a short time, continue to grow, these systems quickly. The approval of the computer and other technologies from all levels of an organization is a major challenge in view of the sponsoring organizations. For example, if the systems are updated and new technologies have made aˆ‹aˆ‹the workers’ struggle to adapt. It is not a positive attitude towards it. (Bohlander G. a., 2009), (Hayes, 2009)

The economic environment is very unpredictable and implementing change processes for each organization to make progress. Globalization and technology are the two main factors that drove the change in today’s organizations. Globalization has opened new doors for business opportunities. It has led to many interventions, but also for how reform, reorganization, merger, downsizing, etc., in order to succeed, companies need to make these changes that have taken place with staff to manage the challenges occur. Change Management Sun is working smoothly for the vital organization. To do this, for example, when the new software is installed, which allows you to install the company has knowledge workers refuse to work on it. (Bohlander G. a., 2009)

Due to the shortage of workers in the industry and the defection of customers of the quality of service that is affected. If the workload increases the performance of the employee moves. By too much work pressure, reduces the employee’s performance and, in turn, affects the quality of service.

It is very important to overcome the various challenges faced by the organization to success. Company is now a day to develop the human resource function, because the meaning of HRM have been seen in the highly competitive market that exists today. In today’s world of increased competition in the local and global. To succeed, businesses become stronger, more flexible and customer-oriented. Hr after for these changing market trends is adjusted.

(Karan, Challenges faced by HR in the hotel industry, 2009).

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/challenges-faced-by-hr-in-indian-hospitality-industry-management-essay.php

Staff turnover is critical for a hotel, especially if you have a high quality hotel as we do. The goal of our hotel is on exceptional customer service that will exceed customer expectations, and therefore, we invest heavily in our people. A high rate of staff turnover has an immediate effect in the hotel industry, particularly in the areas of customer service, and therefore we can not afford to lose a single employee. The rate of staff turnover in the hospitality industry is generally higher than in other sectors. One reason for this is that many of our employees are students to work at the hotel is a first step in a career for them, and as soon as they graduate from the institute, they may consider working in their field of specialization. (Jason C. Cho, 14 June 2011)

The hotel industry has a high turnover, which decreases productivity and costs companies time and resources. A number of factors affect the fluctuation in the hotel and one of the reasons is ineffective in recruiting. Identify many hotels and difficult to recruit the right people. Hotel staff need advanced knowledge of beverages, which are difficult to measure for recruiters during the interview. However, recruiters develop recruitment strategies that will identify the best opportunities and recruit the best workers. Do you understand what a candidate looking at the recruitment stage can help the hotel staff turnover. (Rose Johnson, 2008)

Read more:http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business_for_business/article/staff-turnover-in-the-hotel-industry-two-realities/438729.html#ixzz2DpWNZeiu

The Moscow Times

To overcome this staff turnover keep in mind few thing. Which help in reduction on turnover.

Understanding why employees leave. All organizations should conduct a confidential face-to-face exit interview with a HR manager (instead of the boss). Benchmark your company against current industry and geographical location. If you work in a restaurant business, you will naturally have a much higher turnover than auditing and consulting firm. Context and location are key. Set clear promotion and development policies that are transparent and fair. If an employee feels they do not progress in their role, and has no control over career development, after a certain time they will begin to look externally for a new position. Develop effective workplace policies and maintain a positive culture. Opened on appeal, bullying and harassment, the employee should be in an environment where employees feel confident to communicate about reporting problems. Investing in people management training for executives. This will enable them to not only support and reward employees effectively, but also to intervene before small problems or escalating workloads are a reason for leaving..

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/02/06/2010/333690/How-to-manage-staff-turnover.htm

The recruitment process can only be doing well if only the organization understands its requirements. The candidates should be selected according to the requirements of the organization. Different strategies are required for focusing on hiring high performers and average performers. The strategy has to be clear about the amount of experience they require. It can range from an experienced senior professional to a new fresher. It should also describe as in from which industry they require the employee. That is from the same industry, different industry, employed or unemployed professionals.

According hospitality association of Britain The hotel sector is in the centre of its imperative period of construction in the history, As of 2002, a sum of figure transcending 74,000 fresh hotel accommodations had emerged in stream with an additional 15,000 were approximately constructed in 2009, and 31,000 rooms are still in planning or in the stage of construction for 2010 and ahead. The Trends and Developments report of British hospitality association2008 proposed, that the current cycle of construction would be one of the most massive in the history of hotel industry, overwhelming the influential period of the early 1960 boom. The CEO of BHA, Bob Cotton has expressed that there is no suspicion that UK hotel sector is in the midst of an “massively significant era of fresh construction”.”If these plans becomes true ,then more than 120,000 fresh rooms will be constructed by the finish of the phase .The British hospitality association estimates ventures, which includes renovation of present properties, exceeding ?5bn in one year at the current level – in spite of the credit crunch.”Till now, the economic crisis hasn’t greatly affected all these estimates, partially for the reason of the lengthy lead-time required for the construction of hotel , but it may decrease the speed of plans in future,” Cotton expressed “that, the 2012Olympic Games are expending pressure on hotels that are new and are expected to be done in time.”Also the budget properties are till now the chief gainers of this up rise in UK hospitality sector, with its amount of rooms increasing from 50,000 in the year 2001 nearing 97,000 in 2008 and more in future years. But a broad choice of highly-priced, complete-service providing properties has also emerged, as of 2002 indicating near about 32,000 fresh rooms in a period where boom is building up. This has resulted all through the UK, with Wales ,Northern Ireland and Scotland also gaining from this.

Hospitality in middle of boom articlehttp://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2008/10/10/323978/Hospitality-is-in-the-middle-of-a-building-boom-says.htm adapted from article by Gemma Sharkey, 10th October 2008

Important facets of demand (a review of the literature)

Definition of demand

What the law says?

Rest of the factors staying as it is (ceteris paribus) there’s an opposite result between the demand and cost of goods.

Fall in price will result in increase in demand

Rise in price, will result in decrease in demand

What is ceteris paribus?

Understanding ceteris paribus is the way to understand microeconomics. There are many factors that affect demand, but the Economists presume all these factors to be constant (i.e. does not change) apart from one thing – the cost of the product. Change in the factor which is held as it is, nullify the assumption of ceteris paribus

Criteria on which demand is based

Demand in economics must be effective that means, when a customer desire to purchase a good, then it shows his/her capacity to pay for that good. This demand in fact puts an effect over the marketplace. Customers should have adequate buying power to put any effect on scarce resource allocation.

The market Demand

Market demand means total of the every person’s demand for the good from a single customer in the marketplace .If extra customer enters the market place who have the capability to pay for goods on sale, then at each level of price ,the demand will go up.

http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/as-markets-demand.html adapted from site author: Geoff riley, Elton College, September 2006

Demand curve of UK hotels showing upward trend

(A general representation of demand curve)

Shifts in the Demand Curve Caused by Changes in the Conditions of Demand

http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/as-markets-demand.html adapted from site author :Geoff riley, Elton college, September 2006

The above diagram shows two possibilities of the demand curve .The first possibility shows a shift from d1 to d2, which is an outward shift showing increase in demand .In this, at each price more amount of service or product is demanded. On the other hand the second possibility shows an inward movement in demand curve i.e.d1 to d2, which is an inward movement of demand curve, showing decrease in demand. In this case, at each price fewer amounts is demanded.

In the case of UK hotels, the first possibility is more appropriate, because the uk hotels are approaching a high demand stage, as the Olympic is getting closer. According to British hospitality association, the economic downturn has not affected the plans, because of the long time required for the construction of hotels. In fact the ascertained future hotel demand for London alone is very high .Instances of high hotel demand can be understood from current constructions that are in progress, for e.g. Leicester Square will include an iconic 194 room hotel. Thistle’s former Bloomsbury Hotel has gain opened as The Kingsley incurring a ?10m renovation. New Plans have been proposed for a luxury property development near Thames at Blackfriars to substitute Mermaid House. Four Seasons has declared plans for a third property in London to be situated on Bishops gate and would be a part of the Heron Plaza. The biggest Holiday Inn Express in Europe will be opened at Heathrow 5th Terminal in 2011 May. The first 125 rooms of 300 rooms will be complete one year before, as effort has already begun on turning a current 128-room property at the airport into the Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow Terminal 5. Also IHG has agreed a franchise about a hotel with the Crimson Hotels Group.

http://www.industry.visitsoutheastengland.com/xsdbimgs/UK_hotels_forecast_not_out_of_the_woods_yet.pdf pg 18

Imperative factors that influence demand of hotels in UK

Future events (Olympic 2012 and Paralympics)

To make sure that the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games will be an majestic event, the present reserve of accessible rooms will be required to be analysed and are expected to increase. Steps will have to be taken to recognize the current reserve and its features and analyse the planned improvement and compare this with the demand expected for accessible accommodation. As per , Bid papers, some of the UK’S most prominent 5 star hotels on Park Lane have agreed and signed on the suitable undertakings and promises that, London 2012 will fully offer accessible facilities and rooms for officials. At present only Inter-Continental and London Hilton of Mayfair area provides accessible rooms as evaluated by Holiday Care and that to only Category standard three (accessible to somebody with less mobility). Hence, additional accessible accommodation will be necessary for the hotels in London and these properties will upgrade their amenities accordingly. Apart from demand by 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games spectators, press, coaches and volunteers, there is possibility of demand for accessible accommodation following the finishing point of the London Games, with Paralympics sportspersons and officers and their families, staying on in the capital (travelling will be difficult for disabled and anecdotally, as they get there at a destination they might spend extra time there).

http://www.london.gov.uk/archive/mayor/planning/docs/hotel-demand-study.pdf pg 50-51

International tourist destination

The last 25 years saw stable growth in the amount of international visitors to the country,

with visits by international residents rising from 12.4m in 1980 to 30.0m in the year 20055.

Visitors to London have also increased, with overseas visitors to London increasing from 9.6m in 1993 to a predicted 14.3m in the year 2005 and further more in 2009 and 2010. The capital has since long acted as a “doorway to the UK, from over 72% of international visitors entrying.through one of Capital’s airports. International tourists also spend their time in London, with near about 40% of

all nights stayed in the UK by international tourists in 2004 (also in further years) was spent in Capital. This was more than 34% in 1993 and before. It must be accepted that the success of Capital as a tourism spot is connected to the success of country as a whole as a tourist point, with many visitors visiting Capital prior to going to other parts of the country. On the other hand other big cities also have a big impact on UK tourism. The cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds also make it a ideal choice for visitors apart from London. In addition, the UK gained ‘Approved Destination Status’ from China in the year January 2005 and the Mayor of London and the Mayor of Beijing also went on to sign an agreement to jointly encourage their cities and country in April 200613. Both the agreements are expected to further persuade Chinese travellers to Capital. Also the rising richness in India along strong cultural connections might also add to increase in visits to the country by Indian citizens surpassing the next decade and more.

http://www.london.gov.uk/archive/mayor/planning/docs/hotel-demand-study.pdf pg 18 of mayor’s report

Corporate conferences

Until lately there hasn’t been an accurate understanding between central and local government of the significance of business travellers or its role to the national and local economies. A single business traveller is at least thrice the total of one free time tourist in economic terms. The incentive and conference travel sector has grown over the last few decade into a established business division. It is gradually clearer that associations and businesses can’t operate efficiently without, in person meetings. Over the ten years to 2004, there was a 50% boost in all corporate trips (with 27% of international visitors travelling on businesses to the country in 2004 and following years) transcending the overall tourism growth rate of tourism. On an international scale, 16% of International visitors arrivals worldwide were for the purpose of business in 2004 and ahead.

The main part of the business visitor market is from events/corporate attendance. London leads the countries market with 60% of business organisers having an event in London (30% Birmingham, 27% Manchester).As per statistics, particularly as of 2005 ,Uk experienced a massive optimism in its meeting venues with sales rising and 65% expecting further growth ahead.

http://www.london.gov.uk/archive/mayor/planning/docs/hotel-demand-study.pdf pg 23

What is strategy in organisational contexts?

Strategy in organizational context means a mixture of judgments, characterized by an unique feature, meant to reach the objective of the organizations. An unbeaten strategy is that, which improves the worth of the organization in the future years through the improvement of long term competitive benefit. The offshoot of any strategy is to gain competitive advantage for the company and an unbeaten competitive advantage is the strategy that can’t be copied by other organisation. .Theoretically speaking, Michael porter proposed generic strategies that can be applied to an organisation. This may be implemented to increase competitive benefit through focus, differentiation, and cost leadership.

Imperative strategies that should be focussed by Hospitality organisation to gain competitive advantage
Cost advantage strategy

The ratio of inputs to outputs is known as efficiency. Inputs is any materials, labour or overheads that is allocated to the service or product. On the other hand outputs is measured as the amount of services performed or product produced. The Hospitality organisation that achieves the maximum competence for the same delivery of service can broaden the space between price and perceptual value and might have larger revenue margins.

There are lots of ways an organisation can boost efficiency. Effectiveness is improved if, the held output is steady, inputs are decreased; or if held inputs steady, outputs are raised. Inputs can be decreased in lots of ways. The input of labour in hotel can be decreased if workers are properly trained so that amount of time used to monitor each person’s output, is decreased.

Decrease in materials needed can come from decreased amount of waste. If there is a strategy that can be developed to cut waste, then it would enhance effectiveness. Outputs can be improved by rising the capacity, a device can deliver in the specified time. Reducing downtime can also raise efficiency. For example, if bay loading lift of a hotel frequently breaks down by which linen cages are brought down every day ,would create a delay for the services to be provided by room attendants in guest rooms .Late services would tarnish the image of the work force.Then in that case, searching a method to reduce this downtime would maximize the the speed of service .

It is frequently seen that big properties are more capable since they can attain economies of scale which other organisations un able to reach. big hotels generally offer extra services in each service line, and therefore their services helps guests to fullfill many different types of requests. bigger organisatioons can supply to a bigger population,an additional amount of service, because of masive size, On the other hand smaller organisations have smaller amount of resources and should specialize or become victim to bigger and more effective organisation.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Product differentiation strategy

Product or service differentiation is attained by presenting a valued difference of the physical service or product . The capability to distinguish a product and service differs very much along a range depending on the particular product or service. In the book Principles of Marketing(1999), authors Philip Kotler and Garry Armstrong notes out that distinguishing of a service or product can take place by manipulating a lot of features, including style,design ,reliability ,consistency, performance, reparability. Distinction lets an organisation to target particular type populations.

It’s simple to think of organisations which have utilized these features for their service or product promotion. The Mayfair hotel of the Radisson Edwardian has differentiated itself by presenting itself as a glamourous celebrity luxury hotel”Celebrities who finds home outside home.

numerous food chains distinguish themselves with style and consistency. If a customer has a much-loved platter at her local Pizza hut restaurant,he/she can be confident that it will taste and look similar at any Pizza hut food chain, everywhere in the UK. And, the fashion of theme or topic restaurants is the imperative key to various establishments. Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood gains from their topical themes.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Service differentiation strategy

Organisations can also distinguish the services that escort the physical service or product. Any two hotel can proffer an alike service or product, but the organisation that proffers supplementary services are able to charge a bit higher for their services. The Mayfair hotel offers luxury stay which are quite similar to the services proffered by other luxury properties; but Mayfair provides extra bed ,refrigerator ,babycot free of charge,which differentiates itself from other hotels . This additional service allows Mayfair to charge a bit more for their services .

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

People differentiation strategy

Training and hiring skillfull employees than the rival may come out to be an invaluable competitive benefit for an organisation. An organisation’s workforce are many a times ignored, but must be given watchful thought. This HR-based benefit is hard for a rival to emulate since the basis of the benefit Might not be so clear to an Alien. According to the Moneymagazine report, Herb Kelleher, Chief executive of Southwest Airlines, says that the action,attitude,belief and culture of his workers comprise his mightiest competitive benefit: “The untouchable factor is more imperative than the touchable as organisations may everytime emulate the tangibles i.e. rivals can buy similar aeroplane, they can rent similar rate of ticket . But the toughest thing for somebody to copy is the character of your workforce.”

This type of competitive benefit can include numerous facets. Employers who focus interest in employees, assessing their commitment and performance , might see themselves in a mighty competitive benefit. A properly-trained staff will deliver an enhanced quality of service. Yet, a rival might not be intelligent enough to differentiate if the benefit is due to superior rooms, equipment or workforce. Therefore People differentiation is very imperative when customers deals openly with workforce.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Identity Differentiation

Kotler and Arstrong marked out in the Principles of Marketing as to when rival services or products are same, purchasers may make out a distinction on the basis of brand picture and image. therefore organisations must put effort to create an identity that distinguishes them from their rivals. A positive brand identity requires a considerable quantity of period and timeto build. Sadly , a single off-putting impression may tarnish the identity in reality at once. Anything that an organisation does should support their identity and goodwill. The Mayfair hotels “Rebirth of an icon” punch line required to be backed up in every possibilities, including advertisements, oriental decor of hotel, floor presentation, and customer service.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html adapted from article Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Quality differentiation

The guarantee that ,the service is dependable is called quality in a logic that executes the job it has been framed to do. Considering competitive benefit, one can’t assume the quality by relating to the service. Quality of the raw material ,which goes in the product or knowledge and spontaneity of employee is very important.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html adapted from aricle by Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Cost Leadership strategy.

An organisation which is a leader in low cost gets competitive benefit in any type of market as they are able to produce many products at lowest price. Companies are maintained and built, worker is hired and properly trained to give out the lowest costs of the production. Therefore ‘Cost benefit is the main focus. expenses are trimmed off from every part of value chain.’But still, low price does not every times leads to a low cost. Manufacturers or service providers could charge at competitive rate, utilizing the advantage of a greater margin than rivals. Some organizations, such as McDonald and subway, are very good not only at preparing hygienically made foods, but they also have the image of brand and skills of marketing that makes them to use effective policy of pricing.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html adapted from article by Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Focus or Niche strategy. Where a company cant afford a broad scope leadership in costing nor a distinguishing strategy which is wide in scope, niche would be suitable.In this case companies focuses on effort and resource on narrow base. This strategy is generally used by smaller organisation. An organisation may either use a price focus or a distinguish based focus.

Being cost focus an organisation focuses staying the lowest price producer in the niche segment. With a focus on differentiation,the orgainisation creates the advantage of competetion through differentiating its product or services within segment or niche. Problems are there with the niche approach,as Small niches which are specialist may vanish in ascertained future or long term e.g. Indian restaurants in uk

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Bun-Comp/Competitive-Advantage.html Dena Waggoner and revised by Anthony Inman

Conclusion: To conclude with ,we can say that UK Hospitality market has benefitted from major event of Olympics ahead in 2012.This has estimated the boom and demand of UK hospitality to higher level.Apart from that big cities like Birmingham, Leeds,Manchester and especially London which is also the financial capital and capital of the country has faced more demand in form of international tourist and Business meetings and also a special section of disabled tourist,which has led to more demand of accessible rooms .Apart from that strategies presented in this assignment have come out to be useful to understand Hospitality business environment.

From the period 1990 to the current age, the aviation industry has been one of the most booming sectors. Worldwide increase in GDP created a wave in the economy. The demand to travel resulted in the growth of the airline industry. During the year 2000 the airline industry suffered one of its most tragic phases regarding to the growth of the industry. This happen mainly due to the problems faced by the world, for instance the terrorist attacks on the world trade centre and the deadly virus named ‘SARS’ which claimed a lot of lives in south east Asia. Many travelers reduced their travel and preferred avoiding few critical places of the world. Due to this there was a major impact which led to the downfall of the airline industry. The crisis initially stared a slowdown in the demand for airlines and as the crisis evolved the demand started to decrease in a rapid manner.

British airways completed 90 years of service on 25th August 2009. The origin of British airways could be traced back from the 19th century. Its first ever flight took off on 25th august 1919. Since then British Airways has seen a lot of changes and developments. The first flight operated from London to Paris and it carried only a single passenger and the cargo included newspapers, Devonshire cream and grouse. During the year 1924 many airlines emerged. Out of these four airlines joint hands and formed Imperial Airways limited. They basically provided services to Paris, Brussels, Basle, Cologne and Zurich. In the year 1930 handful of UK air transport companies joint hands to form British Airways Limited which emerged to become the biggest competitor for Imperial Airways. Due to nationalization by the UK government British Airways and Imperial Airways formed British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in the year 1939.

Domestic and Continental flights were operated by another airline, British European Airways. In the year 1972 British airways Board which was established in the year 1960 merged BOAC and BEA which led to the formation of British Airways in the year 1974.

Marketing Strategies of British Airways:

Marketing is nothing but a mix of Place, Product, Price and promotion. British Airways have based their marketing strategies based on the marketing mix. They have a product strategy, pricing strategy, Promotion strategy.

Product Strategy of British Airways:

Introduction to product strategy:

Product is the main and the key feature of any sector or a company. Place, price, promotion comes along with product. Without a product the other three marketing mixes, place, price, promotion cannot be considered.

The main product of British Airways is providing air carriers (flights) to the customers who wish to travel. It provides various services which are intangible. These services become a part of the product which is sold by British Airways. British airways have different types of classes for travelling which are executive class, business class, club class and economy class. The product sold by British Airways has been divided into different product levels.

The first being the core product what a customer is purchasing. In the case of British Airways it’s the flight tickets which are been purchased by a customer. He buys them basically to satisfy his need to travel from one place to the other.

The second is the basic product. In the case of British Airways it is the flight. The customers here book the flights to their destinations on the basis of the schedule provided by British Airways. British airways has a very big network and it connects UK to all parts of the world.The British airways flies to 95 different cities in Europe and 60 other destinations throughout the world. It is rated as one of the busiest airline in the world.

The third is the expected product by the customer. In the case of British Airways it would be the various products such as complimentary meals, drinks, allocated seats and onboard entertainment and other services.

British Airways also provides extra services such as various executive classes. British airways provide gold class, silver class and the blue class. They have different kinds of services to fulfill different kinds of needs of their customers.

Pricing strategy of British Airways:

Pricing is nothing but a method by which the price or the value of the product is been calculated. It’s the amount paid by a customer in order to enjoy the product or service. While setting the price the company needs to keep to basic things in mind. They are quality and the price. If the price is higher than the quality, the company would run under losses. And if the price and quality are balanced then the company would reach its profits soon.

British Airways has three different strategies. They are;

Premium price strategy:

In this kind of strategy the people of higher class in the society are targeted as they can afford such kind of cost. The main customers for this strategy are executive and business class users. They have been given high quality services as they pay a high price.

Medium price strategy:

In this kind of pricing strategy the medium class of the society is been targeted. Here the quality of services provided is lower than the premium price .in every kind of strategy the quality keeps deteriorating but at a minimum level. This strategy is basically used in order to give competition to various other airlines which provide the same services.

Low price strategy:

This strategy is basically used to compete with low cost carriers like Raynair. British airways provide low cost fares along with added quality services and its name. People would obviously prefer British airways than the other low coast carriers as they are getting British airways at the same cost along with their name.

Considering other competitors British airways revised its pricing policy. The factors determining them are;

-Determining the pricing objectives

-Acting according to the demand

-Cost estimation

-comparing competitors prices and costs

-selection of a pricing method

PROMOTION STRATEGY:

British airways have provided various offers during festivals like Christmas. This ticket is generally known as British airways escape ticket. Rates have been slashed to a large extent and also people who travel in silver and gold class have been given free upgrades but only one way of the journey. Domestic flying rates have also been slashed.

PROBLEMS FACED BY BRITISH AIRWAYS:

-TERRORISM:

The attacks on the World Trade Centre in the year 2001 created fear among the travelers and since then the airline industry at a whole faced a huge downfall. Despite all security measures taken in recent time’s people travelers are not able to regain their confidence. Due to this there is a slight decrease in travel. But in recent years terrorism has been controlled due to which airline industry has picked up in a rapid manner

-Oil prices:

Increase of crude oil prices created an economic downfall due to which the airline industry was badly hit. British airways being a part of it faced the problems dude to which they had to increase their fares. The increase in fares led to people choosing low cost carriers and thus British Airways lost a lot of business.

Volcanic ash:

The volcano which erupted in Iceland created lot of disruption in the airspace of UK due to which 4000 flights were cancelled on 15th April 2010. Thos went on for nearly 3 weeks due to which many airlines faced huge losses. British airways were one of them.

Strikes:

The crew of British airways seems to go on strikes for everything possible. In recent years crew members have resorted to strikes based on salaries and staffing issues. Die to this many flights were cancelled. Low cost carriers took advantage of this and British airways started losing its business and the respect of its brand. People started to prefer other airlines due to the strikes. British airways is losing business due to this. The issue is still not been resolved.

Competitors:

The different types of marketing strategies used by rival airlines are much more effective due to which British airways is losing its valuable customers. Various competitors like emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa are providing travelers with better services than British airways.

These problems are general in-flight problems faced by the passengers who are travelling on British airways. These problems are based on the feedback and reviews of the customers

-Passengers travelling have complained about the food which is been served to them during the journey

-Passengers are complaining about the entertainment provided on the flight

-passengers also have complained about the staff and they say that they don’t seem to be caring and are only professional.

SWOT analysis:

Strengths: British airways have purchased a new fleet of aircrafts which are highly equipped with the latest technologies available. Its competitors are still on the way to get changing their inventory. British airways have its main strength in its name. The very name of it marks its respect.

Weakness: The marketing strategies of BA aren’t as good as its competitors. The reason behind this is that BA is using simple and outdated strategies. Whereas its competitors are using intense marketing strategies which are developed by highly skilled market analysts. British airways suffer losses due to number of strikes every year.

Opportunities: As British airways provide various services, it has got the potential to score customers in the global market. If they do so then globalization can be their strength instead of their weakness.

Threats: the threats of British airways are internal as their decision making is poor. Due to this there is loss in business. British airways have its prime focus on local issues and national issues due to which it fails to see global. Thus globalization is been ignored.

Ecotourism has been the fastest growing segment of the global tourism industry and has developed on the tourism market within the core of environmental movement as well as becoming continuously important in the tourism industry (Matei, 2011). However, before ecotourism is emerged, tourism has been rapidly become one of the most important part of economic growth in the world. While tourism has been contributed to the source of economic development, conventional mass tourism growth has resulted in the numerous negative impacts on tourism destination, such as the destruction of ecological systems, loss of cultural heritage, cultural commodification and inter-cultural conflict (Weaver, 2008; Lansing & Vries, 2007). In late 1980s, the realization of these problems has led to the development of sustainable tourism (Hugo, 2010). Sustainable tourism has been on the basis of responsible travel to natural areas that preserve the destination’s environment and has reminded as a type of tourism, which positively contributes to visitor satisfaction, incorporates an element of environmental education, delivers benefit to poor local communities and also assists the local communities to maintain their cultural features (Matei, 2011). Additionally, sustainable tourism is regarded as the role of marketing tool to promote and advertise any form of tourism associated with nature based and also the money from sustainable tourism is reinvested in order to environmentally protect and preserve tourism destination as well as significantly develop the access of the local people to jobs creation and civilization (Matei, 2011). In addition, these new forms of tourism are proposed to simultaneously fulfill the needs of different parties involved, such as delivering revenues and profits to the tourism industry, responsible travel experiences to the increasingly wealthy tourist and economic growth combined with environmental and socio-cultural protection to host countries and communities (Lansing & Vries, 2007). As a result of this reason, many countries have considered of sustainable tourism, which is meant by a travel to natural destinations (remote areas) under environmental protection at the international, national, regional or private level (Honey, 2008).

Current Approaches to Ecotourism

The core current approaches to ecotourism development are suggested two ideal types of the approaches in relation to the level of sustainability outcomes. Those approaches are “comprehensive approach and minimalist approach”. The first ideal type of the approaches to ecotourism is “minimalist approach”. The minimalists approach emphasizes a basic or shallow understanding and learning opportunities based on elemental perspective. An elemental approach is evident at the other end of the continuum when a product focuses on specific non-captive animals or plants that are deemed to be particularly attractive or interesting, such as charismatic megafauna or megaflaora a (Weaver, 2005). In contrast, the other ideal type of the approaches to ecotourism is “comprehensive approach” which adopts a holistic perspective on the product that incorporates the ecosystem into associated human influences so that the implication of cultural component is more likely to be integrated into the interpretive experiences than recognized as attraction (Schianetz, Kavanagh & Lockington, 2007). The minimalist approach does not intentionally have desire for transforming values or behavior and its approach to sustainability is associated with site-specific, status quo oriented as well merely as natural environment (Weaver, 2005) whereas the comprehensive approach is purposed to enhance deep understanding and deliberately transform participant attitudes and behavior (Schianetz, Kavanagh & Lockington, 2007).

Furthermore, according to Weaver (2005), it is believed that the implementation of the comprehensive approach utilized by the managers in destinations is more likely to provide the objectives of environmental and sociocultural sustainability to tourism destinations. By fostering a more environmentally aware and activist market, comprehensive approach is conducive to the development of the product that benefits from donations and eagerness to engage in volunteer activity such as research assistance, and informal policing. When the comprehensive approach combines with the emphasis on enhancement based global and environmental and sociocultural enhancement, the volunteer activity for the rehabilitation and reclamation of habitat, which has been considerably transformed by human activity is channeled though the opportunity emerged. By contrast, according to Weaver (2005), the minimalist approach may hinder the attainment of the sustainability objectives. Therefore, the problems of the minimalist approach is mainly likely to be occurred from the element approach to construct species hierarchies, and thereby charismatic megafauna is more likely to be highly assessed by the managers but is not less ecologically valuable species. However, its attention will be able to ironically become damaging consequences to the charismatic megafauna by encouraging prolonged intrusive contact with humans. Generally, the process of observing wildlife is more likely to result in subtle negative effects by carrying out an inadvertently inappropriate manner. From a sustainability perspective that is global enhancement within a combined environmental, sociocultural and economic that includes local community, both minimalist and comprehensive approach appear to fulfill the imperatives of financial sustainability and high levels of satisfaction (Schianetz, Kavanagh & Lockington, 2007).

Examples of Ecotourism

Two-ecotourism case study have been identified and analyzed. The first ecotourism case is Sumba Island in Indonesia. The remote island of Sumba is one of the poorest islands in Indonesia although Sumba Island is culturally one of the richest islands with very strong ancient tradition and strong heritage (The Sumba Foundation, 2012). In Sumba Island, most of the residents live without access to clean water, basic health care and education and also malnutrition is among the highest in the world (The Sumba Foundation, 2012). Nihiwatu has become a major employer of villagers in Sumba Island and the purpose of Nihiwatu is to develop the quality of life for it Sumbanese neighbor throughout responsible tourism (Nihiwatu, 2012). The main stakeholders are eco resort villages that obtain a large amount of funding from guest vacationing in order to support the local community projects by donating (Nihiwatu, 2012). Nihiwatu as an eco resort has commenced local community development projects and has closely cooperated with The Sumba Foundation to take the projects to a higher level (Nihiwatu, 2012). The projects are in relation to creating sustainable livelihood and jobs, achieving energy efficiency and adequate supply, food and water supply. The project makes peoples’ lives clearly visible so health and local welfare has been changed much better and the hygiene conditions of clinics and villages are significantly improved (The Sumba Foundation, 2012). From the project’s perspective, Nihiwatu eco resort has importantly taken the concepts of sustainable development. The resort has considered of local residents neighbors by having responsibility so after purchasing land, the landowner has taken not only the land, but also the responsibility of taking care of the land and its society (Nihiwatu, 2012). Moreover, Nihiwatu eco resort has become one of the merely hotels in the world which utilize 100% powered by bio-fuel and renewable energy source as well as recycling everything so that carbon emission which results in climate change has been decreased (Sumba, 2012).

Eco resort village in Sumba Island culturally and socially influences on young generation. The value of frequent informal interaction with tourists is likely to afford the opportunities to practice English skills and also to experience adverse social cultural impacts associated with ecotourism, which is concerned with the impact on young generation conduct between unappreciated sexual conduct and consumption alcohol that is vastly different from their culture (Clifton & Benson, 2006). Furthermore, the economic benefit associated with eco resort village tourism provides the optimism in regard to income generating opportunities, which derive from direct employment, rental of accommodation for tourists or the sale of handicrafts and food (Clifton & Benson, 2006). It is seen that the rental of accommodation has economically generated the benefits for the wide local communities because the accommodations has been owned and operated by the local residents as well as having been built specifically for the purpose. In addition, the sale of handicrafts and food has provided the opportunity to participation in to a greater variety of individuals and groups, such as women, the young and old members of the local communities (Clifton & Benson, 2006). Consequently, this eco resort village is fundamentally important for residents’ life so if the village culture is damaged, the residents will be ruined. This benefits related with village ecotourism is likely to be regard as both reflecting and reinforcing social capital in the local communities (Clifton & Benson, 2006).

The second ecotourism case is Song Saa Private Island in Combodia. Song Saa Private Island is officially known as Koh Bong and Koh Quen and has renown for the rich and diverse marine life in their surrounding waters (Song Saa, 2012). Song Saa Private Island integrates commercial development with the triple bottom lines of ecological (biophysical), social and economic sustainability by emphasizing on sustainability and high exemplary environmental standards (Song Saa, 2012). The relevance of the triple bottom-line concept and sustainability approach are the central to the purpose and mission statement of Song Saa private Island so as to improve the environment, the condition of local communities and the economy (Song Saa, 2012). Song Saa Private Island positively or negatively influences on environment in terms of water, energy, solid waste, biodiversity, pollution and contamination. According to the report (Sustainable Management Plan, 2012), Water discharged from Song Saa Private Island, such as grey-water, sewage and storm-water sources results in damage to local wildlife and ecosystems and alteration of water has negative impact on human communities and local ecosystems. The inefficient use of energy has increased carbon in the atmosphere and contributed to global warming (climate change). Solid waste inflows have negative impact on local flora and fauna and associated habitats. Construction and operation of the resort and guest and staff activities have an adverse impact on local biodiversity by destroying, displacing or stressing animals, vegetation or their associated ecosystems. Physical, visual and ambient pollution detracts from amenity, intrinsic and cultural values of the landscape and the environment. Chemicals (cleaning products, insecticides, chlorine & herbicides), guest and staff sunscreens, insect repellants result in damage to reef systems.

In addition, Song Saa Private Island also has negative or positive effects on social cultural and economic based on the local communities. Song Saa Private Island provides the opportunities throughout the local community program and conservation program to weave together the needs of local peoples (Sustainable Management Plan, 2012). These programs focuses on the support communities throughout activities that promote sustainable livelihoods and the process which create enabling conditions that generate local welfare. This development of the projects is fundamentally based on working with government and community institutions, networks and norms to achieve tangible and positive outcomes (Sustainable Management Plan, 2012). Song Saa’ community and conservation program provides the development of educational opportunities for the local villagers so that local people increase their awareness and understanding of environmental issue and opportunities; increasing the knowledge and understanding of marine conservation among the inhabitants of local fishing village (Song Saa Conservation and Community Program, 2012). Furthermore, the conservation and community projects efficiently manage the flow of solid waste from the villages. This management provides an income stream through the provision of incentive payments to the village waste collectors and an additional income stream though the sale of recyclable materials for the local community when the solid waste and recycle management contributes to the health of the village (Song Saa Conservation and Community Program, 2012). Song Saa Private Island has participated in the water system, which is established for local community health as a core component of sustainable livelihood maintenance throughout the provision of safe domestic water supply and the protection of water supply from contamination. The water system works with the local community and local providers to improve environmentally sensitive water treatment and waste reticulation system so as a result of the water systems, local community is given an effective water management and unique livelihood activities such as snail and frog rearing (Song Saa Conservation and Community Program, 2012).

Ecotourism – the Ideal versus the Real

In order to establish sustainable tourism development, the strong interaction between environment and human must need. However, it is not easy to fulfill and assess the sustainability of tourism destination because of the complex conduct and the use of the variety approaches, which are in possession of different strengths and weaknesses depending on the characteristics of the tourism destinations. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the available approaches and use its correct usage in order to develop sustainable tourism. The possible approach to develop sustainable tourism development needs to be carefully considered of the positive impact on the relationship between economic, social cultural and environment component within the triple bottom line approach. The triple bottom line approach requires the balance of three components (ecological, economic and social) in order to generate sustainability to the tourism development.

As described two ecotourism cases, the triple bottom line is basically associated with sustainability so if the ecotourism development and products do not carefully consider of three components, one of components will gain damage by unbalancing three components. For example, if tourism development is more likely to provide the benefit to the tourists without any concern about environment in the destinations, the environment in the destinations will suffer from tourists’ activity. In addition, local community and culture will be also damaged by visiting tourists if not considered of local environment and culture when the tourism develops. The local culture may be probably changed by direct or indirect impact from tourist’ behavior and attitude toward local community. Although by contacting with tourists, the positive or negative different culture is likely to come into local community, the problem is that the local community will not be able to conserve.

Therefore, in order to protect and prevent these potential problems in the tourism destinations, comprehensive approach is more likely to be appropriate for the current sustainable tourism development than minimalist approach because comprehensive ecotourism considers nature-based and cultural as the attractions as well as global, environmental and sociocultural enhancement for sustainability. For example, minimalist ecotourism focuses on particular species so this approach is easy to provide the greater tourist satisfaction but the approach is less likely to contribute to the development of local community and culture without changes. However, comprehensive approach tends to have the more positive impacts on both environmental and local community in terms of economic, social culture and ecological because of the broader attractions (including nature-based and culture), deep understanding and learning of the tourism destinations. So, this approach will be reasonably utilized as an appreciate approach according to the characteristic of the tourism destinations and the needs of environment and local community in regard of ecological, social cultural and economic.

Conclusion

Ecotourism is the biggest movement among tourism industry and also has been rapidly growing up in global tourism industry. Sustainable tourism development associated with ecotourism is regarded as the important tourism approach to tourism destinations in the world. With sustainability approach, the tourism destinations have been significantly considering of environmental and socio cultural protection. This big movement directly or indirectly influences on environment and local community and culture in the tourism destination. Consequently, the accurate approaches toward the tourism development and products are considerately required according to the characteristic of the tourism destinations in order to sustain the tourism development.

Reference lists

Clifton, J., & Benson, A. (2006). Planning for sustainable ecotourism: the case for research

ecotourism in developing country destinations. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 14(3),

238-254.

Honey, M. (2008). Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, Who Owns Paradise? (2nd ed.).

Washington, DC: America, Island Press.

Hugo, M. L. (1999). A comprehensive approach towards the planning, grading and auditing

of hiking trails as ecotourism products, Current Issues in Tourism, 2(2/3), 138-173. Matei, E. (2011). The ecotourism’s development in the Romanian Carpathians’ protected

areas: facts, figures and needs. Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography, 5(2), 31-39.

Schianetz, K., Kavanagh, L., & Lockington, D. (2007). Concepts and tools for

comprehensive sustainability assessments for tourism destination: a comparative

review. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 15(4), 369-389.

Sumba: an iconic island to demonstrate the potential of renewable energy. (2012).

Retrieved from: http://www.hivos.nl

Song Saa. (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.songsaa.com

Sustainable Management Plan. (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.songsaa.com

Song Saa Conservation and Community Program. (2012). Retrieved from: http//www.songsaa.com

The Sumba Foundation. (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.sumbafoundation.org

Weaver, D. B. (2005). Comprehensive and minimalist dimensions of ecotourism. Annals of

Tourism Research, 32(2), 439-455.

Weaver, D. (2008). Ecotourism (2nd ed.). Milton: Australia, John Wiley & Sons Australia.