toptermpaper.com

Cruise Tourism is one of the major growth areas of world tourism Peisley, 1992; Hobson, 1993; Cruise Lines International Association, 1995. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit:

There seems little doubt that, by the turn of the century, cruising will be firmly established as one of the world’s major tourism industries with significant markets in North America, the UK, Europe and Asia. The total number of annual passengers will have reached 8 million plus –

Cruising is the fastest-growing sector of the international holiday scene (The Passenger Shipping Association, 2003). Cruise tourism can be defined as the use of ships for pleasure cruising and not merely for transportation (UNWTO, 1997). Ocean and coastal cruise tourism is unique in the manner in which it provides a combination of transportation, accommodation, entertainment, retail and destination services. Cruise liners can be regarded as floating resort facilities, which have the major advantage of seasonal repositioning.

From its predominantly Caribbean base, cruise tourism has spread across the world, increasing ports of call in all regions. As well as this, river and canal cruising has grown rapidly, particularly in Europe and China. The cruise industry is growing, expanding and accessing new markets by, in part, bringing into reach a diversity of popular and successful destinations that are new for cruise tourism, by exploiting previously under-utilised ports (Younger, 2003).

2.1.1 The cruise industry

The growth of the cruise market throughout the world, and perhaps more notably in the United Kingdom (UK) has been one of the most remarkable phenomena of the 1990s (Wild & Dearing, 2000). The cruise industry is the fastest growing segment of the travel industry – achieving more than 2,100 percent growth since 1970, when an estimated 500,000 people took a cruise. Industry estimates are that 13.5 million people took a cruise vacation in 2009, with a total of 14.3 million passengers forecasted to sail in 2010. (Cruise Lines International Association [CLIA], 2010).

In early 2001, 64 new and larger capacity ships were in production, expanding passenger capacities by 35%. More than 50% of these ships are dedicated to the United States tourism market and are now operating throughout the Caribbean (Sparrow, 2004). The cruise industry’s growth is also reflected in its expanding guest capacity. Nearly 40 new ships were built in the 1980s and during the 1990s, nearly 80 new ships debuted. By the end of 2009, over 100 new ships were introduced since 2000, with 12 new vessels on the way for 2010. (CLIA, 2010)

These new vessels carry more passengers, more crew, generate more waste and consume more goods and services.

2.2 Theoretical Framework

According to Weaver and Oppermann (2000), tourism is a complex phenomenon involving many actors and interactive factors. Some of the actors are tourists, tour operators, cruise lines and airlines. To be able to understand the complicated nature of the tourism industry, a system based approach is suitable. Leiper’s tourism model can be used as the theoretical framework as it views tourism as a form of a system in which there is an operational structure built up of interacting components. Leiper who was an early supporter of the adoption of a systems approach towards understanding tourism defined tourism as:

. . . the system involving the discretionary travel and temporary stay of persons away from their

usual place of residence for one or more nights, excepting tours made for the primary purpose

of earning remuneration from points en route. The elements of the system are tourists, generating

regions, transit routes, destination regions and a tourist industry. These five elements are

arranged in spatial and functional connections. Having the characteristics of an open system,

the organisation of five elements operates within broader environments: physical, cultural,

social, economic, political, technological with which it interacts.

The components of the tourism system are shown in the model below (fig 1.1). This whole tourism system approach helps to organise our knowledge about tourism and its relationship with cruises. Leiper’s approach was to try and understand destinations, generating areas, transit zones, the environment and flows within the context of a wider tourism system rather than seeing them as separate independent entities.

In the model there are three interactive components: (i) the tourism generating region, (ii) the destination region and (iii) transit routes which link the two regions. It is evident that transport forms an integral part of the tourism system by linking the tourist generating and destination regions together. Collier (1994) classifies tourism transport on several bases (e.g. public or private sector transport, water/land/air transport; domestic and international transport and mode of transport). Cruise tourism is considered as a system in which cruisers and operators are major actors. The tourism-generating region and the destination region are linked together through cruising which is also a tourism product. This makes cruise ships a unique form of tourism transport. People go on a “cruise” more than they go to a place. And yet their major competition is not other forms of transport but real places. As Morrison et al. (1996: 15) put it:

Instead of competing with the airlines, the cruise lines have become their

partners and now compete with destinations, resorts, and other vacation

alternatives. The cruise ship itself has become a floating resort providing the

maximum possible leisure and entertainment facilities.

However Leiper’s model has been criticized for being simplistic (Prosser, 1998). Prosser provided a more detailed model that, he claimed, represents more effectively the inner complexities of the tourism environment.

2.3 SWOT analysis for Mauritius

SWOT is an acronym where the letters stand for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is a commonly used analytical tool in business environments that has become firmly established in the literature of strategic management (Evans, et al. 2003). A SWOT analysis is a useful way of assessing the situation that a destination faces in its effort to develop cruise tourism.

. According to Weihrich (1982), the SWOT analysis is the process of analysing organisations and their environments based on their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This includes the environmental analysis, the process of scanning the business environment for threats and opportunities, which is considered as external factors, and the organisational analysis, the process of analysing a firm’s strengths and weaknesses as internal factors.

Internal factors
Strengths
Weaknesses

A strategically located port in the Indian Ocean

Capacity and Infrastructure constraints- too few berths

Safe and wonderful tourism destination

Cyclonic period during the months of November to May

Pleasant climate practically whole year round

Nautical constraints- For many big cruise vessels at the same time

Variety of land-based and water-based attractions

Poor maintenance of beaches and attractions

A great variety of cultures

Low awareness in the market about cruise tourism in Mauritius

Relatively good basic structures(hospitals, roads) and a good transport system

Mauritius considered as an expensive destination and not within the reach of many

World class quality services by Tour Operators, Hotels, Restaurants, and Travel Agents.

Poor service at the port and untrained staff

Minimum formalities on arrival of cruise vessels

Poor road links to certain location and place of interest

Lack of industry cohesion

No strategic plan at MPA and MOT level

External Factors
Opportunities
Threats

Estimated two million tourists by the year 2015

Seasonality of the industry

Brand name- ‘Ile Maurice un plaisir’

Threats by terrorists and Somalian Pirates

The cruise market Potential is strong for Regional/ International growth

Competition from other exotic tourism destinations

Improvement of physical infrastructure including adequate parking facilities at places of interest and other recreational areas

Likely increase in oil prices affecting cost of travel

Political stability of market of origin

Economic uncertainty- late bookings and close-to-home cruises to avoid expense on flying

Air network expansion facilitating Fly-cruise concept

Strong growth of European demand (German, French and Spanish markets)

2.4 Sustainable development issues of cruise tourism:

Although a relatively new phenomenon, tourism has become one of the world’s largest industries in recent years. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO, 2004), “sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future”. In 2008, International tourism arrival reached there were 922 million worldwide, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. (WTO)

Given its total significance, it is not surprising that the tourism industry has a substantial environmental impact. In particular, tourism development is associated with environmental problems like deforestation, soil or beach erosion, and coral ecosystem destruction. Since tourism development also tends to result in rapid urbanization, it can contribute to such problems as increased air and water pollution, as well as inadequate solid waste management (Baver and Lynch 2006, 5). The scale and gravity of these impacts tend to be amplified in the Caribbean, where the environment comprises some of the most fragile ecosystems on earth, including beaches, coral reefs, and tropical forests (Lynch 2006, 158).

‘When sustainable tourism has been applied to the industry, more emphasis has been given to tourism’s effects upon the environment and economy, rather than to factors related to its effect on communities’ (Hardy et al, 2002: 491)

Cruise tourism is currently going through a period of revival with new vessels being launched and sailing to ever more exotic places.

Criticisms

Hunter (1997) argues that different interpretations of sustainable tourism are appropriate urder different circumstances. The study of sustainable tourism should not be a rigid framework, but an ‘adaptive paradigm which legitimizes a variety of approaches according to specific circtimstances’ (Htinter, 1997: 851).

Premier Inn is the UKs biggest and fastest growing hotel company, owned by Whitbread. And the company contributes 70 of the total profits of Whitbread (Annual Report, 2009). As the hotel industry, the development of Premier Inn is highly dependent on the macro-environment, especially the tourism industry. Indeed, hotel industry and tourism industry have been so close that the following reduce in tourism after the economic crisis has strong impact on hotel operations. However, the British hotel industry has been suffered significant loss although it has manifested recovery during the previous years.

Last year, the continuing crisis in global finance and trade has triggered the world’s worst economic plunge. UK’ unprecedented economic contraction was described by Sir Terry, Tesco’s chief executive, as low point. However, from the second half of year 2009, the UK economy appears to be in a slowly recovery. Companies have begun to hire and consumers seem to be increasing. This paper focuses on the strategies used by Premier Inn in this situation. Then we will review these strategies, and recommend some resolutions to close the gap. The following section will also use PEST analysis to audit the macro-environment that Premier Inn is facing.

2. Review on the Strategy Used by Premier Inn

In this part, we will review the strategies that used by Premier Inn. And we will only focus on the marketing strategy and operating strategy.

2.1 Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is very important and even could be the biggest factor in the success or failure of the company. Premier Inn also attached great importance to the marketing strategy. In this year, the company makes an additional 8 million pound in marketing investment (Annual Report, 2009).

First, Premier Inn has start out a commercial action plan to enhance its status as the preferred hotel brand for travelers and to attract more leisure customers. They put in place four key levers in their marketing plan: “focused advertising; increased sales activity; Premier Offers; and widening reservation distribution” (Annual Report, 2009).

Furthermore, the new website went live in November 2008 and has increased visits by 80, and now the site helps to attract over three million visits per month (Annual Report, 2009).

Third, Premier Inn has also set out development of a new 267 bedroom budget hotel at Stratford, which adjacent to the Olympic Stadium (Annual Report, 2009). It can be seen that Premier Inn has already prepared for the 2012 Olympic Games.

2.2 Operating Strategy

This paper considers that operating strategies in Premier Inn are as follows:

First, Premier Inn has specific short and medium term growth programs, which give employees a specific direction. For instance, the company wants to increase room numbers in November 2010 by over 2500 rooms and target a 32 increase to 55000 rooms in the UK by the end of 2014 (Annual Report, 2009).

In addition, the Premier Inn has decreased the overheads instead of adopting streamlining management, promoting the “back-office processes” and delivering a series of procurement initiatives. The company want to control cost tightly, through both procurement and operation efficiencies. And this helped underpin its operation margin.

Last but not the least, the Whitbread launched Good Together program in January 2010, to drive sustainable performance and further deepen its corporate responsibility. This program has set goals for CO2 reduction, sustainable sourcing and waste management (Annual Report, 2009). Premier Inn also announced that they would build green hotel. The 60 bedroom Premier Inn, starting the business in autumn 2010, will use the best level sustainable construction materials to reduce 30 carbon emission and 40 water savings.

3. Evaluation on the Strategy Used by Premier Inn

A PEST analysis is an outliner that classifies environmental influences such as political, economic, social and technological forces (Camison, 2000). The analysis examines the impact of each of these factors on the business(I¤I±IˆI±I?I¬I?I·,2009). The results can be used to seize the opportunities or to make contingency plans for threats when preparing business and strategic plans (Byars, 1991; Cooper, 2000). In this part, we will use PEST analysis to evaluation the strategy adopted by Premier Inn. Owing to the limited understanding of the technology, we will focus on the political, economic and social factors. At the end of this part, we will give recommendation on the strategy used by Premier Inn.

3.1 Political Factors

Government policy is a major influence factor; its decisions will affect company both directly and indirectly, as they provide both opportunities and threats. After the global economic downturn in 2008, the government has issued a series of policies to boost economic growth. However, the policy aimed at hotel industry or tourism industry is very rare. But when the United Kingdom general election of 2010 was held, the three parties all put forward many programs to promote the tourism industry. Meanwhile, the British Tourism Association and Hospitality Association has lobby the government to issues some policies that are positive to tourist industry and hotel industry. Besides, in 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered the proposed program “Low Carbon Industrial Strategy”, which plans to provide more than 1.4 billion pound for the low carbon sector and those already adopted, and outlay 10.4 billion pound for low carbon investment over the next three years (Plesch, Austin & Grant, 2005) .

Based on these political factors, this paper considers that the strategies Premier Inn adopted are valid, especially the operating strategy. First, the operating strategy in Premier Inn is aggressive which just meet the political situation. Second, the Premier Inn has launched Good Together program which aims at CO2 reduction. These practices not fit the proposal the government advocated, but fit the society’s environmental demands.

3.2 Economic Factors

Economic conditions affect how easy or how difficult it is to be successful and profitable (Thompson, 2002). The UK government has held a serious of international sporting events in 2009, such as the Ashes and the ICC World Twenty 20. These events may promote visitor numbers and then boost the hotel industry. In addition, the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will hold in London. This will provide the Britain hotel industry with a huge chance.

Obviously, Premier Inn has already seized the opportunity because it has already developed some hotel which is adjacent to the Olympic Stadium. And the new website will play a significant role in convenient the consumers. Actually, the marketing strategy that Premier Inn adopted has already worked. From the annual report of the Whitbread, Premier Inn outperformed its competitors during October 2009. Regional revpar was down 6.4 during the year, compared to a decline of 8.5 in the regional budget hotel sector and a decline of 9.6 across the whole regional hotel market (Annual Report, 2009).

3.3 Social Factors

Social factors also play an important part in the development of enterprises. Living conditions, income distribution and lifestyle all have tremendous influence on the operating methods of enterprises. With the improvement of living conditions, people are willing to spend more money in enjoying life and choose to relax after working, because their work are so busy and they have rare spare time. Therefore, the services provided by high-level hotels just meet the demands. But after economic crisis, the domestic demand has been weak, and an increasing number of British people choose to travel aboard instead of domestic travel. These social factors are clearly not advantage for the hotel industry.

The marketing strategy Premier Inn adopted, as we described above, does not aim at this social situation. In the author’s opinion, these strategies have more concern about the external market other than the domestic social conditions. But on the other hand, the increase in the number of non-profit environmental organizations indicates that public’s sensitivity to environmental issues has significantly increased. The society has become more anxious and critical about the environmental practices of firms. Good Together program of Premier Inn not only shows the efforts made in environmental protection, but also enhances the corporate image and upgrades its enterprise competitiveness.

3.4Technique Factors

Technology is widely recognized as an important competitive advantage (Chu & Choi, 2000). As the hotel industry, technique factor seems have little relationship with the hotel development. But sometimes new and proper technology could provide unexpected harvest.

From the strategy we mentioned above, Premier Inn have adopted the new website that now attracts over three million visits per month. Moreover, the company has used streamlining management to reduce the internal cost.

In general, we think the strategy used by Premier Inn is very appropriate under the current situation. But the problem is that it is too much reliance on the international tourist industry. Once the outbreak of the economic crisis, this mode of operation is very dangerous and company may get into trouble. Actually, the domestic business and conference market is a buoyant sector for hotel (1996); meanwhile the economic gradual recovery will help to stimulate the hotel market. So Premier Inn should make some strategies to attract these potential consumers.

4. Conclusion

In this paper, we focus on the strategies used by Premier Inn after the serious economic crisis. The article mainly analyzes the marketing and operating strategies with PEST analysis in the current situation. In general, we consider that Premier Inn has adopted appropriate strategies to boost its development. But the problems in the strategies were pointed out. In the author’s opinion, Premier Inn should pay more attention on its domestic market.

Ecotourism can be seen as a solution or contribution to the problems related to environmental conservation, and also as a threat. This is because by promoting the integration of locals and tourists to areas of high ecological value, such as natural reserves and forests, fauna and flora of these sites may be affected negatively. In addition, ecotourism promotes the development of infrastructure and facilities that protect the activity, such as gazebos, trails, eco-lodges, among others. Similarly, it is critical that only promotes local economic development. On the other side, ecotourism activity helps keep wildlife healthy. Some places, like the Galapagos Islands, ranches in Namibia, wetlands in Brazil, among others, thanks to tourism and what derives from it, residents of such places are motivated to work for conservation, in the way to keep a tourist activity.

Ecotourism is more than people visiting a new place, it has to do with the environment and the activities in which a person involved that may harm the environment.

There are some objectives that were implanted with ecotourism:

First of all, the most important aim that emerged from the implementation of ecotourism is that travellers need to be more aware of the environment and damage, their actions as travellers and members of the society on earth.

The main objectives are to minimize the potential environmental impact on natural and cultural environments of sites visited. Generate awareness about the nature and care. Tourism experiences that are favourable for visitors and locals.

Funds arising from these tourist activities to the preservation of the place are one of the ends sought to ecotourism, thus establishing the basis for the maintenance of ecological tourism and growth. Funds like these can improve economic development that can lead of having more activities and ways that tourists could use and admire the nature of the land without destroying it.

Another factor that usually does not consider is that ecotourism is a source of income for civilizations not too close to the cities. Usually, they have the same attraction for a city because in reality, there is much to do in a forest or something. But nature has much to offer as well. So if the countries with the special nature can find activities that the public would like to participate, visit the site and those who live there are going to collect the benefits of nature.

UN acknowledges in its report “World Resources 2002”, “for the most part, nature tourism fails to meet the ideals of social responsibility implicit in this definition”.

It also ensures that “you may travel destinations and are marketed as ecotourism opportunities to focus on providing accommodation to the environment more favourable to community development, conservation and tourism education.” Therefore, the reality of these trips is that they can sustain ecosystems and degrade at the same time. Given that the majority of ecotourists come from North America and Europe and most destinations are in the developing world would be doing a damage to these countries if they do not get that nature tourism is compatible with conservation.

But the UN also recognizes that “even some of the ecosystems that are carefully managed under the principles of ecotourism are showing signs of degradation.” To illustrate the dangers that ecotourism can lead to natural ecosystems, the UN report takes the example of the Galapagos Islands, a natural paradise and the nerve center of biodiversity. Not surprisingly, half of birds, 32% of plants and 90% of the reptiles that live there do not exist anywhere else in the world. At first glance, the report says, the Galapagos Islands exemplify the promise of ecotourism. Each year the archipelago attracts over 62,000 visitors who pay to dive and walk among the 120 volcanic islands and ecosystems, among other exotic species, contain the turtles are named for the islands.

According to UN figures, tourism in Galapagos produces up to 60 million dollars a year and is the source of income of 80% of its residents. Since 1970, the number of visitors has increased tenfold, helping to expand the resources of the park service to Ecuador and create a model of ecotourism high quality and low impact. However, when things look closer displayed the consideration involved.

Thus, the permanent population of the islands has tripled in the last 15 years due to the arrival of immigrants seeking work in the tourism economy of the islands, which also leads to increased pollution and exploitation of fisheries resources. And, contrary to the purport ecotourism, it is estimated that only 15% of the capital that is entered from tourism goes directly to the Galapagos economy. In some cases not even a single pound reinvested in conservation and tourist park management, but that money goes to government treasury or at the hands of corrupt officials of the park.

Ecotourism Impacts

The impact of ecotourism is not only economic, but socio-economic, since it involves the communities. The achievements in the economic order can even benefit communities and areas of the country that usually are depressed from the position of economics and finance, but have very specific natural resources and with hospitable people, traditions and very special charms.

Ecotourism is also a channel to link the activities of local governments or municipalities with other state and society as a whole, but also engages the municipality with the outside world, thus breaking the isolation internal and external know yet many of our communities. In the United States of America, for example, has realized that without direct intervention by local governments is impossible to develop ecotourism. Recall that in this vast country emerged from the beginning of the twentieth century, the first spaces and protected natural areas that would become national parks, without which they would have lost significant wealth who today are usufruct by the communities living in the vicinity .

In short, ecotourism is an important ingredient to strengthening cultural identity.

The close links we forge between everything that defines us as people, that is our way of life and production, our culture, our identity, and nature is what will make us turn this activity called eco-concrete manifestation of that symbiosis, as a social practice that opens new horizons in today’s changing world, where the features that differentiate us from other countries are put in evidence and become thus a unique appeal to attract new tourists and stimulate us.

In short, ecotourism combines natural resource management, environmental protection and land to productive action of society, generating jobs, income and new procedures, forms and techniques of living and working in areas rural and urban areas.

As such, ecotourism is an economic activity, environmental and cultural battle against the scourge of poverty, social exclusion and the exodus that started the inhabitant of a town of traditions, and why not, to overcome their limitations along with its people. Ecotourism development contributes to motorized, national and local, comprehensive and sustainable.

Devastating effects from ecotourism

Several studies reported any adverse effect on Environment ecotourism course offerings.

The “ecotourism’s” offers may be generated in many cases more harm than good for environmental conservation, according to recent scientific studies on various tourist destinations in the expanding mode that is presented by defining as environment-friendly and lovers whose main customers are reported in Nature.

For example, orcas living in the United States coast are struggling to communicate with the noise generated by boats full of tourists looking to find out, as reflected in a study by the University of Durham (United Kingdom) and the Whale Museum in Washington and published in the journal Nature.

As the number of killer whale watching boats has been increasing over the past decade – currently 72 commercial ships and 22 small private boats surrounding the whales every day – the length of calls of these animals has also extended in an effort to overpower the engine noise. The calls have duration of approximately 15% higher when the number of vessels is higher.

Also, the British magazine New Scientist ‘reported that the presence of tourists in natural environments of species such as polar bears, penguins, dolphins and many types of birds in animals generated nervousness situations that begin to result in difficulties chronic for playback.

The impact of human presence in the natural environment of animals may seem a priori mild or nonexistent. However, small changes in animals – such as rapid heartbeat, changes in hormone levels and alteration of eating habits – are raising fears of long-term survival of certain species.

A team from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) has observed the dolphins along the coast of New Zealand since 1996 and has found these marine mammals reach a state of frenzy by the presence of the boatloads of tourists, reducing or virtually eliminating its quiet time.

Also, Canadian researchers at the University of Manitoba have reported the saturation of photographic tourism with the polar bears as protagonists. The presence of tourists in the bears’ habitat during the months of October and November produces irreversible condition for the animal, because in those months is bound to an almost total rest to preserve a surplus of body fat.

Other examples of the undesirable consequences of ecotourism are the lower the weight of the baby penguin, and therefore less chance of survival in areas with presence of travelers – because the parents neglect their offspring feed to be entertained by tourists -, reproductive problems experienced by some types of pheasants in the Amazon, where it was found that only 15% of nests containing a baby in the areas visited by tourists, compared to 50% in regions fully protected.

Though casino was their major way to earn revenue because of high gamblers addict all over the world, both of these resorts also added wide varieties of attractions and amenities for tourist attraction such as skypark, universal studios Singapore, celebrity chef’s restaurant, museums, convention and exhibition centre, floating pavilion, etc. to attract not only the gamers but also families and children’s.

In total both the resorts offer 33,500sqm of MICE space and more than 4000 hotel rooms.

Attractions helped in many ways such as:

Universal Studios Singapore- welcomed 13.2 million visitor and 22.3 billion tourism receipts last year (STB 2012).

Both resorts support more than 40,000 jobs throughout which includes wide number of sectors such as retail, F&B and transportation. Approx. 22,000 employees have been hired by these integrated resorts (Michael 2012).

Both the IR hope to achieve 17 million visitors a year and generate about US $21 billion by 2015 (Katie 2011).

Singapore’s both integrated resorts have a total development investment of more than S$13 billion (Iswaran 2010). The IR helped to broaden the range of job and career opportunities for Singaporeans with the bulk of jobs in for them in areas such as theme park operation, retain and Food and Beverage, etc.

Both the resorts plan to continue re-invest and enhance their attractions to appeal to visitors an visitorship trends, benchmarks with respect to similar international attractions, industry standards and so on (Israwan 2011).

Since both these resorts have done wonder full things for the people as well as tourist such as giving jobs to locals or providing attractions to tourist it also have negative impact on society as gamble addicts are borrowing money from loan sharks and when they are unable to repay the loan money they abandon their wives and children so as to feed their gambling addiction that leads women into forced prostitution to feed their kids (Dinah Lee-Phua 2011). Gambling leads to bankruptcy, imprisonment, family violence/breakdown.

Economic Impacts: Singapore’s decision to build casino-based destination resorts was in part based on that argument, that the country could not ignore the potential economic significance of the IRs as it will not only boost the tourism industry, increase jobs but also the investment of billions of dollars to the economy; in other words growth, as opposed to stagnation (Wong, 2005).

Singapore’s economy is diversified and is not based solely on tourism or the IRs but the income certainly could be useful. Such revenue for the state or country could be used to develop infrastructure and superstructures; essentially an economic development tool for the state or country as a whole.

One of the other reasons that states or territories decide to legalize gambling and thus

build casinos is to attract tourists to the area. These tourism products can complement and enhance the other tourism products and thus motivate tourist to the state or territory.

Tourism is one of the key sectors that contribute to the Singapore economy. The goal is to achieve SDG$30 billion in tourism receipts with 17 million visitors by

2015 (STB, 2010).

Proponents of casinos or casino-based resorts argue that the gaming element will increase tourism numbers. When Singapore legalized gambling, it was to increase the demand for and motivate tourists to the island state (Remesh,

2010).

Casinos had to be part of the tourism product to be of significant economic value (Eadington, 1999).

Families could be attracted to such places and there will be reason for the adults to stay longer. Going by the revenues that Macau received, the argument might be valid.

The demand for non-gaming products, services and amenities will subsequently go up; in essence, the casinos could be for the greater good because on the whole the economy will be better off and thus the majority of the people within the gaming jurisdiction will benefit.

Social Impacts: When the decision is made to legalize gambling, a state or country will experience not just positive impacts but negative social impacts as well. Petty theft and fraud linking casino employees have arisen. Traffic jams have increased, and environmental conditions have deteriorated. Consumer spending is neither reduced nor substituted. Bankruptcy, suicides, depression, lowered productivity and crime like fraud, are most prevalent with gambling.

As if costs to the community like suicides, bankruptcies and lowered productivity are not enough, 5 to 10 other people were affected for every single problem gambler, (Australian Commission, 2009). The carrying capacity of a region could affect how the locals perceive the tourists within the gaming jurisdiction. There was no conclusive evidence that crime increased as a result of the casinos. Crime rates were contained in the initial opening of the casinos due to the increase in staffing by the local law enforcement agencies. However this increase in staff could not be sustained and as a result crime rates increased over time due to the casinos. Increase of child abuse may also occur due tom negligence of guidance from the parents addicted to gambling. As parents who lose money on gambling table often end up taking their frustration out on their kids or abusing them physically.

Problems of borrowing from loan sharks are seen in Singapore due to high addiction of gambling. This happens due to people losing everything on gambling table thus deterioting them financially and forcing them to borrow more from loan sharks.

They were also concerned that casino’s would escalate gambling addition of locals, which would create financial difficulties for families and hence effect the Singapore economy altogether. Family harmony would be affected, while the good Singapore work ethic would be compromised. Social ills would also resurface (Withiam 2011).

Resort World Sentosa has led to damaging of environmental effects on the country’s physical resources, ecological resources and terrestrial ecosystem. It has also resulted in the habitat destruction, removal of airshed, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and water contamination (EIA Abhineet 2011).

Bellagio is a luxury resort and casino in Las Vegas in Nevada. It is owned by MGM Resorts International and is famed for its elegance. It has total of 3,950 rooms with three different towers and is home to the most watched and famous “Cirque du Soleil” aquatic production commonly referred as “O”. It was opened on October 15 1988 and the total cost was approx US$88 million. It has number of attractions such as Gaming room, Fountains of Bellagio, Conservatory and Botanical gardens, Gallery of Fine Art, etc. with number of famous restaurants such as Le Cirque, Circo, Picasso, etc.

Political Impacts: as we all know that Las Vegas is famous for casino’s and has lot of casino at a stretch but for it to operate smoothly the casino are to updated with latest trends so as to keep up with the laws in a timely manner. Bellagio has a casino license and runs over more than 50 slot machines and more than 10 tables so as to pay a certain amount in tax per table in a month so as to not violate any laws.

Economic Impacts: The casino creates jobs and reduces the level of unemployment. It contributes to improvement in community and infrastructure mainly in the transportation side as well as reducing public spending. The casino development has been targeted where economic development benefits the community and jobs scarcity has been reduced (J.P.Girard 2001). With Bellagio casino being so big it has helped the locals of Las Vegas and also the foreigners to earn their livelihood by working in the casino. Because of gambling, Las Vegas has shown impressive job growth, developed into a major city with a low tax burden that many state and local governments look at with envy, and has spawned significant private and public sector investment. However society would only support this if the benefits outweighs the costs.

Social Impacts: But also it has affected the economy as local residents who used to travel outside of the region and gamble now stay within the region. Local residents who used to go to restaurants now spend their money in the casino. Then the casino has no net economic benefit. Tourists who used to spend money on other activities within the region now go to a gambling facility within the region. Still casino plays an important part on society as Bellagio Las Vegas is a testament of the powerful ability of gambling to foster economic development. But casinos leave a negative impact on society causing increase in traffic congestion, increased gambling addiction, drug use and prostitution. Tourists from abroad spend more time and money within the region. It was noted that alcohol and drug use increased between gamblers due to their loss in the casino or for people seeking treatment for gambling problems. Family breakdowns and mental health issues such as depression, psychiatric disorders, past histories of sexual or physical abuse and low self-esteem were found among the gamblers. Due to high addiction of gambling there has been an expenditure growth in casino industry than the growth in personal income (Ricardo 2008). It has been researched and proved that profound gamblers often suffer from profound marital difficulties. Gaming has jeopardized the quality of life of individuals and families in past (Burke 2003). A lot of financial difficulties involving money, laundering, paying high interest rates on debts and suicide have been seen so far.

Technology: helps Bellagio to offer more luxury, better customer service and an overall increase in customer satisfaction. Fast and easy communication service provides Bellagio with a competitive advantage compared to other hotel. Bellagio’s website helps the customer to give information about the latest happenings anywhere anytime. Bellagio has full range of services on their website such as customers can take virtual tour, see the rooms and make the reservation online.

Environmental Impacts: a casino usually generates about 20,000 to 30,000 customer vehicles and 6,000 or more employee vehicles each day leading to air pollution due to increased traffic. With a casino comes a heavy parking demand and more congestion. It draws down scarce groundwater and also threaten endangered species. Correcting all this cost between $5.5 to$7.7 million per year leading to waste of money and resources.

Though Las Vegas is commonly known as Sin City so the crime rates are expected to be high. It was noted that last year fall the crime rates including shop lifting, stealing of casino chips, etc. increased a lot due to proper security management. It was reported that last year December 14, Anthony Michael Carleo stole $1,500,000 worth of Bellagio chips from Bellagio casino and was sentenced to 35 years of imprisonment last month (Pitt 2012). So Bellagio took this this really seriously and did a stringent screening and drug test on its employees to reduce internal threats. It was also noted that there were fake Bellagio chips being sold in the local market at a reasonable price that attracted lot of people and those people even had links with the security guards of the casino so as to take the chips inside (LAPD 2008). So as to avoid all this in future a proper security system was installed in Bellagio that had its eye everywhere. Systems such as 24 hours monitored security alarm, smoke alarms in all non-smoking rooms were installed to ensure the safety of the hotel as well as the customers. Every corner of the casino had a camera with 2 control rooms to look out for thief and to ensure safety of everyone there. There was 24 hours security and the security came from the best security department in USA. Bellagio used proper safety measures in case of emergency such as fire, accidents, deaths, etc. by keeping proper safety measures such as medical kit, qualified doctors in the house, etc. with all such steps/measures.

Mixed use development simply involves the addition of residential units to a standard resort concept as a part of a sometimes rather dubious way to finance the whole development (Philip 2009). Bellagio has been using it for years now and everytime when possible tries to upgrade it. It provides customer with a variety of accommodation styles, sporting and leisure activities, security, a lifestyle living experience. Bellagio attracts lot of its customer via the casino as it is home to many professional poker players due to high table limit including high stakes and also because it holds world poker tournament as well. But it does not only attract the gamblers it also succeeds in attracting non-gamblers, family and children while using mixed use development concept as it has a very famous show “O” by Cirque du Soleil as it has international cast of world class acrobats, divers, swimmers performing on water to create a breath taking experience for its customers. Fountains of Bellagio that is set in 8 acre man-made lake with 4.500 lights and have lot of performance for the people to enjoy at night. The conservatory and botanical gardens is a must watch as it shows five seasonal themes such as Chinese new year from January to march displaying the bromeliads and orchids as well as animal of Chinese zodiac, spring displaying varieties of tropical flower, summer, fall and winter. Along with all this Bellagio has also focused on relaxation and fitness for its customer by providing variety of spa packages along with fitness centre. It is home to many golf lovers and those who wants to learn golf can learn at a reasonable rate at Bellagio with different courses available for different needs. Bellagio is famous in Las Vegas for its nightlife as it has many bar, lounge and clubs for party animals to enjoy the sin city and have a memorable time. Bellagio offers high range of exclusive shops for gifts, accessories, jewellery and fragrances and is a must shopping place for ladies. Though Bellagio use a mixed use development concept but it also takes care of the environment by using reclaimed water and on-site power generation plant and has also constructed a 5.300 space parking garage for the employees as well as customers so as to avoid traffic congestion.

In today’s date it is very important for any hotel to develop sustainability plan in order to survive in the market and stay ahead of its competitor. Bellagio is committed to conservation efforts that support living in the desert. These practices extend beyond Bellagio and reach the local community by educating employees about conserving natural resources at home as well as partnering with local, eco-minded organizations (Drew 2007). Bellagio is using $70 million alone to refurbish all the guest rooms so as to make it more attractive for the guest and they are changing everything in their restaurants to the exteriors of the hotel. Bellagio has achieved sustainable development and will keep on achieving it by following four most important steps towards sustainable development that is to guide and be guided by a clear vision of sustainable development and goals to achieve highest ranking among all hotels. It reviews the whole system as well as its parts considering the well-being of social, ecological and economic systems, their state as well as the direction and rate of change of that state, their parts and use of these parts. It has adopted a time horizon long enough to capture human and ecosystem time scales to know what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve and also what’s best for their customers in terms of needs, necessities, etc. they take in the advice of their customers very seriously to make themselves better and also to outbeat the rest of the hotels. The employees are well trained and educated and provide ongoing support in the decision making process. Bellagio has been home to many events in the casino as well as in the clubs or lounges and has also been shown in many movies. They have kept this tradition alive by calling someone or the other every year to perform in their hotel and this year also they are doing the same but on a large scale as they are inviting the Korean pop dancer/singer PSY to perform in their casino on February 23rd starting around 9 pm and there would be lot of songs sung by him and his world famous song Oppa Gangnam Style. Tickets are going at &100, $200 and $300 with lots of surprises for the guest and there would be lot of games as well and the winner will get an autograph t-shirt by PSY himself and an opportunity to dance with him on the stage created in casino. Thus all this helps and will keep on helping the Bellagio hotel to remain on track and be one of the top most preferred hotel of Las Vegas in near future also.

Marketing is a prime asset of any companies in today’s market. Marketing department is the backbone of any companies any d if the company doesn’t have this can be called handicapped. It context to a hotel it also a has vital role, as the hospitality is a fast growing industry and has tough competition everywhere; so it is very important to be ahead of the competition. In this context marketing plays a fatherly role. Marketing department is the area which comes in contact with the customers and tells about the product and the services provided by the hotel and compare it with its competition. During this project the author has given the introduction and importance of marketing about marketing in comparison to a hotel.

A brief about taj hotels palace and resorts has given in relation to its history and segment of customers served. The main objective of this particular project to learn, analyze and propose solutions wherever required to the various marketing strategies undergone by the “Taj Palace, New Delhi” hotel and also giving the reason for the proposed solutions to it.

This project would also allow the author to know and learn about the city and would also allow the author to understand about the hospitality trends in the city. It would also help the author to understand the competitors of “Taj Palace, New Delhi” and providing significant reasons and facts for supporting the reasons of the provided solutions and suggestions.

This will also help to learn about the city and will learn what the trends of hospitality in the city are. It will help to learn what strategies are the competitors of “Taj Palace, New Delhi” to compress it competition.

Marketing: An Introduction

“For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does” – Stuart H. Britt, US advertising consultant

Marketing is a social and managerial process to obtain they need and want through creating and exchanging products of what they need. Kotler defines marketing as “The key to achieving organisational goals consist in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors.” marketing today helps in understanding the psychology of customers so that products can be innovated accordingly. . In the Hospitality Industry, leaders like the Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces, Marriott International, Hilton, Hyatt, etc are increasing their market share at the expense of smaller chains and independent operators because they possess a thorough understanding of marketing which is essential to ensure steady flow of customers.

Marketing involves the following questions:

How to find the right customers?

Different products?

How does one reduce cost of customer acquisition?

The scope of marketing is quite broad. The implication is that the firm uses to acquire customers and manage the relation with them. The Kotler definition encompasses both development of new products and services and their delivery to customers. Marketing expert Regis McKenna expressed a similar viewpoint in his influential 1991 Harvard Business Review article “Marketing is everything.” McKenna argued that because marketing management encompasses all factors that influence a company’s ability to deliver value to customers; it must be “all-pervasive, part of everyone’s job description, from the receptionists to the Board of Directors.”

The Importance of Marketing in Context to the Hospitality Sector

Marketing is one of the most important tool in the in the hospitality sector as well as other sectors which plays a major role. In other industries selling of products are sold is marketing but in the hospitality sector it is sold with a slight variance. In a hotel it is not the product it is the service that is provided to the guest. Both service marketing and goods marketing start with a crucial need – identification and product design functions; goods generally are produced before sold and services generally are sold before produced. Service industry has less influence on comparison with the other industries. The influence is slow comparison to the industries. The customers who have not witnessed the product may have a different opinion. Good’s marketers may be able to move prospective customers from brand awareness to brand preference with packaging, promotion, pricing and distribution whereas service’s marketers usually cannot.

The services provided in a hotel are intangible. This type of service makes it more difficult to describe the services provided to the customers so the customers can only feel the services. Customer’s perception of risk tends to be high for services because services cannot be touched, smelled, tasted or tried on before purchase. Customers can try a new product like a test drive of a car but to experience the services of a hotel he has register as a guest in the hotel. Service marketers can create brand awareness and induce trial before the sale, but they demonstrate benefits and build brand preference most effectively after the sale. Superior service can only be felt it can’t be packed and given to customers.

Introduction to Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces

Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) is a subsidiary of Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces which is a part of the TATA Group which is Asia’s largest group and one of the finest and the oldest companies of India. The first hotel built by Taj was Taj Mahal Palace built in 1903 and it was built because Indians were not allowed to stay in prestigious hotels and not allowed in clubs during the British rule. This lead in the foundation of the Tata Group by Mr. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. The hotel alone stands for more than a century.

The main development of the group started in the 70’s under the leadership of the then Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Ajit Kerkar. In the starting came the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur. They started with the concept of converting century old palaces into hotels, which is now USP of the Company. During the years many more hotels like Taj Coromandel and the Fisherman’s Cove, Fort Aguada Beach Resort were built. In the 80’s the company came up with two more hotels in the capital city and Bangalore. These hotels are ethnic in nature and they are setup according to international standards.

The Taj is symbol of hospitality in India and completed 100 years in 2003. Till date the company has 78 hotels including resorts and palaces. Out of which 18 are abroad which are in Malaysia, United Kingdom, United States of America, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Africa, the Middle East and Australia. In India it has 60 hotels across 45 locations like Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Goa etc. as the brand holds such diverse network it symbolises Indian hospitality in India and Abroad. The Managing Director, R.K. Krishnakumar says “The vision for the Taj Group is for it to be a select chain, present globally. Asian, perhaps in character, but absolutely international in terms of systems and processes and with a strong West European focus. The way forward was to make sure that the entire Taj team is imbued with the missionary zeal to sell the brand.” The Taj caters all types of hotels like luxury, business and premium. Amongst the clientele, international travellers form the bulk of the market for the Taj particularly in the metros. Even the profiles of the Indian customers are changing with time.

Categories of Taj Hotels

Taj Hotels Palaces and Resorts is an international hospitality group with strong roots in India. For the past 100 years they had build their own reputation on legendary properties, unparalleled facilities and impeccable service. They operate in the luxury, premium, mid market and value segments of the market through their following brands:

Taj (luxury full-services resorts and palaces) is their flagship brand for the world’s most discerning travellers seeking authentic experiences given that luxury is a way of life to which there are accustomed. Spanning world renewed landmarks, modern business hotels idyllic beach resorts, authentic Rajput palaces and rustic safari lodges ,each Taj hotel reinterprets the tradition of hospitality in a refreshingly modern way to create experiences and lifelong memories.

Taj also encompasses a unique set of iconic properties rooted history and tradition that deliver truly unforgettable experience. A collection of outstanding properties with strong heritage as hotels or palaces which offer something more than great physical product and except cal service. This group is defined by the emotional and unique equity of its iconic properties that are authentic, non-replicable with great potential to crate memories and stories.

Taj Exotica is their resort and spa brand found in the most exotic and relaxing locales of the world. The properties are defined by the privacy and intimacy they provide. The hotels are clearly differentiated by their product philosophy and service design. They are centred on high and accommodation, intimacy and an environment that allow its guest unrivalled comfort and privacy. They are defined by a sensibility of intimate design and by their varied and electric culinary experiences, impeccable service and authentic Indian spa sanctuaries.

Taj Safaris are wildlife lodges that allow travellers to experiences the unparallel beauty of the Indian jungle amidst luxurious surrounding. They offer India’s first and only wildlife luxury lodge circuit .Taj safaris provide sustainable ecotourism model.

Premium Hotels (premium full-service hotels and resorts) provide a new generation of travellers a contemporary and creative hospitality experience that matches their work-hard play-hard lifestyles. Stylish interiors, innovative cuisine, hip bars and a focus on technology set these properties apart.

The Gateway Hotel (upscale/mid-market service hotels and resorts) is a pan India network of hotel s and resorts that offers business and leisure travels a hotel designed, keeping the modern nomad in mind. At the Gateway hotel people believe in keeping things simple. This is why Taj hotels are divided into 7 simple zones stay, hangout, meet, work, unwind and explore.

Ginger (Economy Hotels) is their revolutionary concept in hospitality for the value segment. Intelligently designed facilities, consistency and affordable are hallmarks of this brand targeted at travellers who value simplicity and self service.

Client profile

Taj hotels have a client profile consultation service provided wherein they diagnose the clientele needs and with that information they try and provide the required facilities to their customers. Generally Taj concentrates on the upper class of the society who can spend lavishly on the luxury provided.

Vision

The Taj group hotels commit itself to the overall improvement of the ecological environment, which all the people are a part of.

We recognize that we are not owners but caretakers of the planet and owe it to our children and future generations of humankind.

It is our endeavour not only to conserve and protect but also to renew and regenerate the environment in which we live and operate.

Our commitment encompasses all actions related to our products, services, associates, partners, vendors and communities.

We will partner and engage with our environment through EARTH:

ENVIRONMENT AWARENESS AND RENEWAL AT TAJ HOTELS. For us earth is not a program, nor a process, it is a way of life.

Mission

Embrace talent and harness expertise to leverage standards of excellence in the art of hospitality to grow our International presence. Increase domestic dominance and create value for all stakeholders.

Earth

In an endeavour to reinstate its vision and efforts to boost sustainable tourism and integrate environment management in all business areas Taj hotels and resorts and palaces presents EARTH (ENVIRONMENT AWARENESS AND RENEWAL AT TAJ HOTELS) a project which presents and indicates the conscious effort of one of Asia’s largest and finest group of hotels to commit to energy conservation and environment management. EARTH has received certification from green globe the only worldwide environmental certification program for travel and tourism.

Taj values

PEOPLE DIVERSITY, INTEGRITY AND RESPECT
PASSION FOE EXCELLENCE
EXCEED EXPECTATIONS
INNOVATIONS
SENSE OF URGENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
JOY AT WORK
Taj promises

At the Taj group their commitment is to service excellence is rooted in our two guiding principles. One of Taj key priorities is to empower the people to deliver on their legacy of impeccable service3.

Four steps of service are:-

A warm and sincere welcome. Use the guest name, whenever possible.

Fulfil guests need and provide anticipatory service.

Defect free products and services.

Fond farewell using the guest name, whenever possible.

The following philosophy is a summary of our beliefs and values towards our employees.

Introduction to Taj Palace, New Delhi

Taj palace one of the most popular 5 star hotels to stay in Delhi it provides one of the best and marvellous international facilities and world class services to the guests. It has 461 rooms which attracts a majority of big shots of the state and government officials. Top business tycoons love to stay in the hotel during their business trips. The hotel is located is Sardar Patel Marg, Diplomatic Enclave near to Dhaula Kuan area. The national and international airport is just a 10 mins drive from the hotel.

The hotel has 12 banquet halls with world class facilities for all kind of functions like meetings, seminars, weddings and casual parties. The capacity of the hall is around 700-1000 guests. The hotel provides all kind of recreational activities for its guests. The hotel look is all n different in the area. It is a perfect embodiment of all the qualities associated with Taj hotels, Resorts and Palaces.

The luxurious and fabulous rooms are mainly divided into 7 categories superior rooms, deluxe rooms, Taj Club rooms, Executive suite, Grand Luxury Suite and Grand Presidential suite. The Grand Presidential suite is one of the rooms in the city in comparison to its competition hotels. The rooms have different views available as per the guest continence like garden view, pool view and city view.

The hotel serves fantastic food in its 4 different restaurant specially the award winning Oriental express which provides excellent luxury and services to its guests and itself is one of the best restaurants in the city to dine in.

Competitors of Taj Palace, New Delhi

Though Taj Palace is well reputed hotel it faces tough competition. As the hotel is situated in Delhi which is the Metro city and the capital, there are many other five star properties of Taj and other brands, these hotels provide tough competition because they provide the same services in comparison with the hotel as they have market share with them. The Hotels providing immense competition are:

ITC Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi: it is a 440 room property and it the main competition to the hotel as it is the nearest situated hotel. It is a Welcomgroup property and it provides world class facilitates to its guest. It is one of the most popular hotel for dinning in the city because of its world famous restaurant BUKHARA which specialise in North West frontier cuisine. The hotel truly creates magic on the hearts and the minds of the travellers with its luxury accommodation and its state-of-the-art facilities and warm hospitality.

Hotel Hyatt Regency, New Delhi: located in the area of Bikaji Cama Place in South Delhi, this 520 room property provides state-of-the-art services to its customers and is one of the well reputed hotels in the area. This particular hotel provides a very tough competition to its competitors. The hotel provides all types of rooms from the poolside facing to executive rooms to The Presidential Suite. The interior of the hotel is bed-lighted with selective traditional art work, elegant furnishing, artful antiquities blended with some fabulous service provided by the well trained staff.

Le Meridien, New Delhi: Situated in the Raisina Road, with its proximity to the shopping, commercial and cultural center act as a potent factor for this particular hotel. This Hotel a part of a very well reputed brand Le Meridien group of Hotels, is one of the most popular hotels present in the city. This 355 room property provide all types of rooms to its travellers from Deluxe to the presidential suites with all types of facilities ranging from in-room safe to high speed internet access in its rooms. Its Food and Beverage outlets providing different cuisines such as the Golden Pheonix (Chinese cuisine), Pakwan (North Western Frontier Cuisine), the Pierre (French Cuisine), Henri’s bar and Aloha bar gives this hotel and extra edge and gives a tough competition to the taj palace.

The Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi.-The hotel reflects a nice blend of tradition and contemporary sophistication. The hotel is situated near to the city center, business, commercial and shopping districts. The hotel has a prestigious golf course on one side and on the other side it has a Humayun’s tomb. Placed in the Dr. Zakir Hussein Marg, New Delhi, it is roughly 20 mins. Away from the airport. It has been awarded as the “Best Hotel in Delhi” and “Among the Top 100 Hotels in the world” by the Institutional Investor, 2009 the world’s best Hotels. This hotel has also being awarded with a number of other awards also such as “The best hotel in Delhi” by TTG Travel Awards, 2009 and “Amongst best hotels and Resorts in the World” by Forbes Traveller 400- the world’s best hotels and resorts 2009. This 350 room property provides all kinds of world class services to its travellers and hence is the biggest threats to the taj.

Shangri-la-Eros Hotel, New Delhi: It is most centrally located hotel in the city. The hotel is situated in Connaught place which is like the lifeline of Delhi as the Business, Commercial and Shopping District definitely makes it one of the preferred hotels for the guest to stay into. It is 17 floor hotel which has 350 luxurious rooms which target both business and leisure travellers and is definitely popular 5 star property in the city. It is a very famous food and beverage out known as “cafe uno” along with other outlets is famous among the guest who comes to the city.

Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi: It is one of the distinguished properties in the capital city. It is the sister hotel of Taj Palace. The hotel is located in the lutyens residential place in Delhi. It is a landmark by itself. . Although it is located a bit far away from the airport approximately 40 mins., but is near to the bustling city center, Connaught Place, Pragati Maidan, Government Offices and Diplomatic Missions. This 294 room property also has been awarded as the “5 star diamond award” by “American Academy of Hospitality”

Radisson Hotel, New Delhi: This 5 star property in the National Capital Region, located less than 5 km from the Domestic and International airport of Delhi and the near to the business hub of Gurgaon, The Radisson Hotel is truly one of the easiest ways in which one can make its trip to Delhi a memorable one. The Radisson Hotel simply oozes luxury and promises its guest a stay with an experience of a lifetime. This 29 room property also gets an edge with its five Food and Beverage services; specially one of the famous Restaurants in Delhi i.e. “The Kabab Factory” truly gives an edge to this property.

About The Capital City

Delhi is capital city of India and is the largest metropolis by area and second largest by population. It also stands 8th in the world largest metropolis with more than 12.25 million inhabitant in the territory and over 15.9 million residents in the NCR (national Capital region) which includes Noida, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad. It is a modern city which has a history all around it. A tour of Delhi provides the visitors with much to see and admire ranging from the Mughal monuments to Modern Malls, from Traditional arts and crafts to trendy fashion shows. Delhi is a city which combines the historic and the modern in a unique way.

Delhi was the second most visited place after Andhra Pradesh with increase in foreign tourist to 2.3 million in the year 2008 as compared to 2.01 million in the year 2007 and 1.9 million in 2006.It became the capital of India in the year 1911, after the British East India Company gained control of India during the 18th and 19th century and George V. the head of the East India Company decided to move back to Delhi and it announced it as the capital city of India. It was when the India gained independence from the British Rule, New Delhi was declared as its capital and seat of the government. New Delhi houses important offices of the federal Govt. including the parliament of India.

With the estimated net State Domestic Product of the Fiscal Year of 2007 of Rs.1.82 billion (US$24.5 Billion) in nominal terms and Rs. 3,364 billion (US$69.8 billion), Delhi is the largest commercial center in Northern India. Delhi had a per capita income of Rs. 66,728 (US$1,450) in 2007 at current prices; it is the third highest in India after Chandigarh and Goa. Delhi has the largest and one of the fastest growing retail industries in India, because of which land prices are booming and it is currently ranked at 7th most expensive office hotspot in the world with prices at $145.16 per square foot.

Along with its contribution in the economy, Delhi plays a significant role in being one of the hot tourist destinations in India because of numerous historical monuments present in the city. This can be seen with the example of many monuments of significance found in the city. With the Archaeological survey of India recognizes 1200 heritage buildings and 175 monuments in Delhi as national heritage sites. With the presence of the three worlds heritage sites i.e. The Red Fort, Qutub Minar and Humayun’s Tomb along with the architectural marvels like the Jama Masjid which is India’s Largest Mosque and India Gate gives as extra edge of attraction for the tourist in Delhi.

S.W.O.T. analysis of Taj Palace, New Delhi

SWOT analysis is divided into 4 parts

Strength

Weakness

Opportunity

Threats

Strengths

It has the largest convention center which can handle 700 personals at a single point of time.

The Orient express restaurant, one of the popular restaurants in the city, adds as an promoter to the hotel and helps in generating extra revenue.

The hotel is located in one of the prime locations and is very near to the airport which is a 10 min drive. As it is centrally located so it has a well connectivity with the city. Hence, easy access to travellers.

The rooms are divided into many types and also give the guests of option of different views as per guest connivance like pool view, garden view and city view.

For a pick up and drop facility the guest has an option of one of most luxurious car that is JAGUAR.

The 12 banquet halls can accommodate different types of function at the same time and which generates good revenue for the hotel.

Its spacious rooms give a full luxury experience with some extra luxurious options as per convenience of the guest.

It has the largest convention center which can handle 700 personals at a single point of time.

The Orient express restaurant, one of the popular restaurants in the city, adds as an promoter to the hotel and helps in generating extra revenue.

Weakness

The lighting in the lobby gives it a very dull look which creates a dull atmosphere in the lobby and for the guest who enters the hotel for the first time.

The parking area in the hotel is very less which generates problem during high occupancy and banquet functions.

Staffing of the not adequate which again is a problem during high occupancy.

It is located in an area in Sardar Patel Marg, which faces a massive problem of traffic jams which does keeps the traveller waiting on roads and hence, leads to reducing the curiosity of the traveller for visiting the hotel.

Less aggressive promotional activities taken place by the hotel in order to promote their product which in turn looses out its customers.

In comparison to its competitors the food and beverage outlets are very costly which again a drawback for the hotel.

The Oriental Express restaurant mostly invites the guests to the restaurant instead of allowing the walk-ins.

Opportunities

To promote and generate more revenue the hotel should be more aggressive in the promotion of the hotel. To promote the hotel some activities like food fest and exhibition can be held to promote the hotel.

The hotel should promote its food and beverage outlets to give stiff competition to its competitors for e.g. the oriental express which is a very famous restaurant should be promoted to give a good competition to ITC Maurya Sheraton’s Bukhara and generate more revenue.

Different schemes related to room tariff should be made and be promoted so the occupancy be increased and generates more revenue.

Contractual staff can be increased in order to provide efficient service to its guests during peak seasons.

The parking area should be improved so that it gives convenience to guests which are a problem in the food and beverage outlets.

Walk in guests should be allowed in the main restaurants like Oriental express so that it helps in increasing the revenue of the hotel.

Threats

There is a very tough competition of well known 5 stars in the city along with the upcoming hotels not only in the city but also in the NCR area are a big threat to the Taj Palace.

The hotel should be more aggressive in promoting the hotel in the area of food and beverage and the aim should be eating up the market of is competition hotels.

The food and beverage staff is not adequate which leads to customer dissatisfaction and leads to less revenue.

There should be a specialized restaurant in the hotel as it is the latest trend in the hotel industry like its competition hotels has such as the Bukhara by the ITC Maurya Sheraton Dakshin by Sheraton, New Delhi Hotel aims at eating up the market demand of the Taj Palace hotel, which indirectly reduces the revenue of the hotel.

Next door property by the ITC Welcomgroup i.e. ITC Maurya Sheraton aims at eating up the market share of “Taj Palace. New Delhi”

Marketing strategies taken by Taj Palace, New Delhi

The market strategies are mainly divided into 3 parts mainly

Segmentation

Targeting

Positioning

Market Segmentation

Different marketing strategies are being used to promote the hotel and generate the max revenue where market consists of buyers, the buyers always by many reasons like needs, wants, locations, buying attitude and buying practices. For eg the needs and wants of the customers of a hotel in Goa will be different from the needs and wants of a guest in Cochin.

The Taj Palace is a luxury hotel by categorization, if the geographical segmentation is taken then the hotel mainly aims to target all the leisure guests who visit the city as the hotel is near to the airport is also tries to cater all the business clientele who comes on business trips in the city and it also try to take in the function of these guests like business meetings, seminars and conferences.

Taking the local crowed into consideration Taj Palace, New Delhi hotel tries to attract guest by providing them also with facilities of 12 banquet halls which can be used simultaneously and with 4 different types of Food and Beverage Outlets. It mainly aims at capturing the customers with upper and upper-middle classes i.e. mainly tourist or businessmen.

Targeting

The main target market has been set up by Taj Palace; it mainly aims at leisure and business clientele. As the hotel is situated the capital city the so the tourist who mainly visits the city are business and leisure. The leisure clientele will visit the city because of its history and historic monuments in the city which is a major attraction among the tourist.

There are significant offers and packages provided by the hotel to attract the customers. They are mainly seasonal packages. They also try attracting the local by its four restaurants and twelve banquet halls which can cater 700 guests. It also aims at meeting the standards of the company with the fact of satisfying its customers and generating maximum amount of revenue. Over the years Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi has been able to meet the objectives by generating maximum revenue by maximum guest satisfaction.

Positioning

“Taj” as a brand name in India which is something which is being accepted by the people of India as something with which they can associate themselves. It gives them a feeling of warmth and harmony to associate and a sense of pride in using the services of this brand. “Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi” takes this as the opportunity to attract the travellers and guest to its hotel. This helps in attracting the local crowed as well as the domestic travellers towards the product they offer. With the name “Taj” which is associated with this hotel it helps the hotel in taking up the advantage to attract the foreign travellers who intend to stay in India and it is one of the branded hotels i.e. “Taj Palace” with which they associate India with, especially when it comes down to staying in Delhi. Delhi being the Capital of India and “palace” as a word associated with the brand name “Taj” creates a psychological effect in the minds of the customers and hence it helps in increasing the revenue for the hotel.

Along with its rooms and extra facilities provided by the hotel, the Food and Beverage outlets such as the “Oriental Express” provided by the hotel have been welcomed by the locals as well as travellers. This helps in creating a well planned and a good promotional tool in creating the psychological effect in the minds of the customers and helps in create repeat customers and hence generating revenue.

Critique by the author on the Marketing Strategies

The position of the hotel is that it is well accepted by the local crowd and the visiting guests. The hotel is also well settled because it is now operating for many years and it is clear about its target market. The Taj Palace is one of the land mark hotels in the city and has been publicized at a very good rate and has been able to capture the market since a long time.

The current scenario in the hospitality industry in the capital has completely changed, from the time the hotel was setup. Now there are a lot more 5 stars in the city which has given a stiff competition to Taj Palace and these hotels are eating up the market share of the hotel.

If we compare the promotional strategies of Taj Palace with its competition it is clear that its competition is much ahead than Taj Palace. Activities like food festivals or using media as the source of promotion is very less. Even the sister hotel Taj Mahal is much ahead than Taj Palace. Significant difference in the market positioning of the hotel has been seen over the years

Outline the key requirements for good research and identify how research might support policy-making.

Research, defined as a broad range of processes designed to provide policy makers and managers with information that is objective, reliable and as reproducible as possible (Bull, 1999) is a vital business tool used to support policy makers in making decisions. Page (2003) also suggests that tourism policy-making is inherently a political activity, affected by the formal structure of government. A wide range of forces affects policy making, and policy does not exist in a vacuum, because various agencies exist to implement it. Drew (1980) suggests that research is conducted to solve problems and to expand knowledge, and stresses that research is a systematic way of asking questions, a systematic method of enquiry (taken from Bell, 1999).

As previously mentioned, policy making is a fundamental business tool, however it must be noted that undertaking research is also a very expensive, time consuming and complex task and researchers must be able to select the right information to avoid further implications. Research activity supports policy-making in a number of ways. First of all if a company is deciding to open a new site in a different country for example, they will need to know who their competitors are, how accessible is the place, where will the labour come from, what impact will this have on the locals? How safe is the area? How will the marketing and advertising be conducted to ensure its success? It is clear from this simple example how complicated and time consuming information gathering can be. Primary data, secondary data, or both may be used in a research investigation. Primary data is original data gathered for a specific purpose as for example interviewing the local community, while secondary data is data that has already been collated for similar purposes, i.e. crime statistics. Data here, could be collected either through quantitative, therefore utilising a positivist approach, or qualitative methods therefore adopting a phenomenological approach. Policy makers will need to know whether that policy is going to be successful, politically/legally/ethnically acceptable, the costs involved, the number of staff needed to implement that policy and whether it fits with the wants, needs and aspirations of the people directed at (Ritchie and Goeldner,1994).

Taking into consideration the fact that research can be an expensive and time consuming task and that this may make or break policy decisions, some key requirements for good research have been identified. Bell (1999) suggests that the following are to be considered as key requirements for good research to be conducted: the utility of data, therefore the data that can be used, the cost-effectiveness whereby benefits must be greater than costs; timeliness therefore data that will be there when needed; accuracy, data will need to be accurate; and finally whatever procedure for collecting data is selected, it should always be examined critically to assess to what extent it is likely to be reliable. Reliability is the extent to which a procedure provides similar results under constant conditions on all occasion, however due to the nature of tourism this is not always the case.

Three policies examples will now be provided to show how research generated the information that was needed to make those policy decisions. The first policy considered is that of Stonehenge. As suggested by Chris Blandford Associates (2000) this World Heritage Site survived for thousands of years and not so long ago two roads were introduced into the landscape, bringing with them ever increasing traffic and serious environmental problems. Government’s proposal to close the A344 and to place the A303 in a 2 Kilometre tunnel where it passes the stone has raised many arguments. The policy for Stonehenge all started with the vision to save this site from environmental degradation and placing it back in its original and unique settings, by eliminating the impact on the environment made by the noise and sight of traffic. The way in which this could be achieved was by closing one road, the A344, and introducing a two kilometre tunnel. It is important to stress that the decision of policy makers to close the road and introduce the tunnel to solve the problem, has not been decided overnight, but has been the result of extensive study and consultation since 1991, and alternative ways have been considered prior to the decision.

Between 1991 and 1993 other 50 possible routes were considered. At this stage researchers decided to gather primary data, by means of a panel, from local bodies and organisations in order to have their views on the matter. Each representative gave their own view, and during the process all the possible alternatives were considered and discussed. A Public Consultation was held in April 1993, whereby four routes were put forward as a possible solution to the problem. In 1994 two national bodies organised a one-day international to debate solutions for both a road improvement and a new visitor centre for Stonehenge (Chris Blandford Associates, 2000). A Public Exhibition was held in September 1995 and a Planning Conference followed in November 1995 to understand publics and other interested organisation’s perceptions and ideas of the proposal. A further public consultation was held in 1999, and once again households in the vicinity were consulted (Chris Blandford Associates, 2000). In November 2000, the Highway Agency conducted primary research to gather qualitative and quantitative data by means of desk study and field

Set above the market town of Otley, in West Yorkshire, you will find unspoiled woodlands, secluded accommodation and glorious fishing lakes.

With 49 recently refurbished hotel rooms and log cabins- you will feel a million mile from it all. However you will also find bustling markets, fine dining restaurants, bars, galleries and shopping just minutes away.

Eating at our beautifully extended lakeside Restaurant is a must. Whether you are here for business or pleasure, you will leave refreshed and totally relaxed.

A HOTEL WITH HEART AND SOUL

A RENOWNED AREA OF SCENIC BEAUTY, The Yorkshire Dales is a landscape brimming with history, tradition and nature. Situated on the very southern edge of the Dales, Chevin Country Park Hotel & Spa sits within 44 acres of silver birch woodland on the brow of the Chevin forest. The unique timber buildings of the hotel and lodges sit naturally amidst this seclusion.

The hotel takes its name from the wooded hillside overlooking the mediaeval market town of Otley. This offers stunning views of the wharfe vally and surrounding countryside. Our ambition for Chevin is for it to remain as the Hotel of choice in West Yorkshire, At the same time preserving the beauty of the natural environment and the character of the original building.

At Chevin Country park hotel & Spa we will put our heart and soul into giving you a great hotel befitting of such a great location and promise to make your visit as special and unique as the setting itself.

PADDY CRERAR.

Aims & Objectives:

The aim of this research is to investigate the factors affecting implementation plans of management which has affected loss of business and profit.

Objectives:

To investigate concept of management based on literature review.

To establish theoretical background to changing management.

To investigate factors that affect implementation of plan by management.

To clarify recent conditions with help of hypothesis.

Analyses the data collected and give evaluation.

PROBLEM ACCORDING TO MANAGEMENT:

In Chevin Country Park Hotel, these are different types of problems according to management:

Problem is about service. Guest has not given nice feedback, most of them are complaining about service. They are saying that, every time they have to wait for food.

Management doesn’t want to hire more staff for Kitchen as well as Service.

Hotels don’t have enough machinery.

Rules marketing strategies laid by new management.

Staff turnover

RESEARCH:

Research is defined as, any gathering of data, information & facts for advancement of knowledge.

Research is discerning pursuit of the truth

Today there are thousands of companies, whose primary activity involves providing research services that helps business key strategies, tactical and operational question. Research has become more formalized & technical. But its purpose remains much the same as enquiries undertaken by the Phoenician merchants. How do I find answer to improve my performance and make life better for customer, employees, and owner?

Business research is design to answer these questions.

OBSERVATION

Due to shortage of time I couldn’t be part of staff or cannot be employee of hotel, so method I chose was direct observation. I started my observation at reception as checking in the hotel.

I was standing at reception as walking guest. I observed following facts:

About Staff:

Staff was not up to the standards.

Were confused and less experienced.

Were delaying check-in process & were annoying customers standing in queue.

Were talking to themselves in their native language

Were rude to customers.

They were confused with issuing of keys to the customer creating panic among themselves.

Were not properly dressed.

Were creating a chaos.

Were not attending guest’s requests, which were living in the hotel.

Were confused while attending call and guests simultaneously.

Proper coordination between staff was missing.

2. At Reception desk:

At the reception, the flowers used for decoration were not fresh..

Bell boy were not available, as a result guests had to carry their own luggage.

Keys were placed in haphazard manner, which was confusing the receptionist while assigning it to the guests.

Three telephones were placed on reception desk but only one receptionist was responsible for attending all three telephones, and she was not able to manage them. Ringing other two telephones while attending one call , was making that receptionist and guests annoyed.

The floor near the reception was not cleaned regularly ,as a result many footprints were printed near the lobby, making floor dirty.

3.In Hotel Room:

When I entered my room, I observed following things:

The floor of the room was not properly cleaned; I could sense the dust on the floor as my shoes were leaving footprints on the floor.

In refrigerator, I could see some empty cans, which projected that it was not restocked.

There were some fingerprints on the mirror, which showed mirror was not cleaned regularly.

The bed spreads also had some marks.

Dusting was not done properly, as there was dust on the table.

Towels in the bathroom were not up to the standards. It seemed like used before by someone else.

The mattress outside the bathroom was stinky.

Toilet tissues near the WC were not assembled in the tissue holder.

AC in the room was not working properly.

Also Wi-Fi signal in the room was very poor.

One of the bulbs in the room was not glowing.

There was no instruction manual for using electronic equipments.

There was no instruction manual for operating AC.

TV was not connected to DVD player and it was mentioned no where how to connect TV and DVD player.

There was no manual for how to operate a washing machine.

4. In Hotel Restaurant :

About restaurant, the service of food was very slow.

Staff didn’t have enough knowledge about food and wine.

Service staff couldn’t even explain to guest what were the ingredients in dishes, like what kind of sauces served with pork or beef?

Even staff didn’t know that which wine goes with specific dishes

e.g.: red wine goes with red meat.

Management had changed the menu & staff was not briefed properly.

There was no sufficient place between two table, making it uncomfortable for people to move to and from the aisles.

Cutlery which was used on table which was not polished.

Also table cloths on the table, were having food stains mark.

Staff used to speak their native languages loudly standing behind the counters.

Also there was loud sound of glasses, cutlery coming from service area behind.

It seemed like they were not able to make proper atmosphere in restaurant.

Restaurant Manager was very rude while handling guest complaints.

5. About Hotel Infrastructure:

Infrastructure of the restaurant was one of the important problems of this hotel. Hotel is having 2 floor restaurants. Upstairs floor having lake view balcony. So guest will prefer to sit upstairs. But it’s very difficult for staff to give proper service to guest. Also bar is not situated near restaurant, so that each and every time they have to go to bar to take drinks for guest.

HYPOTHESIS:

Hypothesis can be defined as observable phenomena or experimental observation. It guides the direction of research. If it seriously conducted, it helps to know what shall be done and what shouldn’t.

Co relational Hypothesis:

Co relational hypothesis occurs together in some specified manner without implying that one cause another.

In this case management is independent and all staff, machinery, rooms, services etc are dependent.

According to the Hypothesis and my observation the results which I found are:

Hotel staff is not maintaining proper grooming standards like hair cut, wearing jewellery etc.

Front office staff is not much capable to handle guest. Also not having enough experience to handle situation.

Food service very slow in restaurant, because of that guest has to wait long for every course. Also staff not having enough knowledge about food and wine. Staff attitude towards guest is not good.

Manager behavior towards guest as well as staff is very rude.

Quantity of food is less

Hotel rooms are not clean properly, when I entered in room, that time I saw that dusting in room not done properly.

Direction signs are not accurate

Infrastructure of the restaurant, some of the facilities in the hotel are not working properly.

Casual staff is working , most of the all department,. Actually management get casual staff on more cheaper rate who are not trained.

CASE STUDY:

A case study at the Front desk: NANCY SWANGER,

Morgan Black appointed as researcher by corporate office.

The Coug Inn is a 150 room’s full serviced property with several medium sized banquets. it caters mostly to business travelers and visitors affiliated to local university. Hotel is very busy between august and may, with periods classes are not in session being extremely slow. Occupancy has been declining for the last year or so. Since arriving at The Coug Inn, Morgan made several observations about hotel situation. It seems that most of the problem with front desk. After reviewing comments card from last month, Morgan has sensed real dissatisfaction with the check-in process. Paper work at check in is perceived as lengthy and hard to fill out. Guest

has been checked into rooms that were not clean. After discussing problem with front office manager, front office manager complaints that reservation staff does not always submit the day’s reservation to the front desk in a timely manner. So when guest arrive, desk further with over 65 % of the hotel staff speaking first language other than English. So communication is difficult. Front office manager further told that, the new hotel in town, the suit to sleep inn. Has an earlier checked in time and it seems to work ok for them. Morgan asks front office manager how the staff might respond to moving to a fully automated property management system. The respond was not favorable. Also corporate office had not put any money into the place in years. In attempt to reach a compromise, Morgan considers changing the check-in time in exchange for the front desk manager’s support of the conversation to an automated system.

What must Morgan take into consideration before final decisions are made to adjust checked in time and install fully automated property management system?

How should Morgan proceed in resolving the communication issue?

Who needs to be involved in the final decisions?

How might Morgan present the case to the corporate office?

(Hotel Management and Operation By Michael J. O’fallon, Denney G. Rutherford, Page no:162)

RESEARCH METHOD USED TO RESOLVE PROBLEM:
Research:

After reviewing the assessment form, I would like to use Evaluation Research. This will help hotel to get profit.

There are three types of research:

Descriptive

Is finding out & describing what it is

Explanatory

Explaining why or how things are there.

Evaluation

In process of Evaluation research participant contribution plays important role.

Participant contribution term means manager should specify their problem & provide the researcher adequate background information relating to them.

As manager explained the entire situation about hotel. As manager told, all problem which hotel is facing, needs to be solved as soon as possible. There are many problems with service, kitchen as well as infrastructure. Actualy all these problems are related to each other.

DATA COLLECTION:

The main step in Evaluation Process is Data Collection.

Data Collection identify issues from the people directly involved in the program identify further issues from the programmed documents, observing how the program is actually working.

Through manager, I got assessment forms, Restaurant & Bar comment card given by guest, also appraisal form which is filled by employees.

To solve these problems, we need to evaluate current employees to determine their productivity, job satisfaction and commitment.

DIFFERENT RESEARCH METHODS USED TO REACH THE CORE OF PROBLEM:
SELF APPRAISAL QUESTIONNAIRE:
Employee Name:
Department:
Position:
Start Date:

How do you feel about the work environment at Chevin Park Hotel?

How do you enjoy most about your position?

What do you feel about strongest work areas?

In what area do you feel you have made improvements or changes?

In what areas would you like more training or more work experience?

What are your goals for next years?

COMMENTS:

Thank you.

Guest Comment Card:

Chevin Country Park Hotel & Spa

Chevin country park hotel & spa really care about what you think. Sending feedback help us to provide you better level of service on your next visit with us. Please feel free to to comment on our site, our hotel or any other matter on your mind.

Rate us:

Excellent
Good
Average
Fair
Poor
Physical appearance of the hotel
Check in process
Cleanliness of hotel
Quality of food
Your overall experience

Better:

Is there an area where you think we could do a better job?

Employee:

Did you particular hotel employee make your stay with us especially enjoyable?

Comments:

Additional comments you wish to makeaˆ¦

Thank you.

CASE STUDY:
SAMOUEL’S GREEK CUISINE RESTAURANT;

Samouel’s Greek Cuisine Restaurant is located in London. Phil Samouel, owner of the Samouel’s Greek Cuisine Restaurant, believes his profit are not as high as they could be. He wants to increase sale. He wants to attract new customer. He also wants to ensure that restaurant running smoothly. Phil Samouel is new to this business. So he decided to hire restaurant consultant. He contacted Ad mark International, ask them to conduct a preliminary assessment of his restaurant operations and prepare research proposal for him to review.

After discussions with Phil Samouel and several of his employees, the account manager from the research firm conclude that the primary questions facing samouels restaurant are:

Are employees being managed to maximize their productivity as well as commitment to the success of the restaurant?

What are the different way to attract new customer?

These are the two separate issues but they are related to each other. First project will evaluate current employees to determine their productivity, job satisfaction and commitment. Second project evaluate the survey of customer.

The employee assessment project:

How do employees feel about work environment?

How committed are the employees to helping make the restaurant success?

Do different group of employees have different feeling about working at samouels?

Customer assessment project:

What is the level of satisfaction of samouel’s customer?

What factors contribute to restaurant customer satisfaction?

Do customers rate Gino’s more favorably than they do samouel’s?

( name of the book )

Solution:
For rooms:

There should be either permanent staff or contract staff for cleaning the rooms , proper cleaning equipment like vacuumed cleaner, glass wiper, all solutions etc. should be purchased to make cleaning easier and faster. A supervisor should supervise the rooms.

The towels and mattresses , bedspreads in the rooms should be properly cleaned and dried. Laundry should take this responsibility.

Maintenance persons, at least 2 should be hired as permanent staff for emergencies & which will also save money of management to look after all the electronic equipments in the hotel.

Staff should be given training before actual service & briefing should be done by manager with the staff so the staff is aware of daily specials, soup of the day & availabilities of the dishes from the menu.

Restaurant:

The staff should be given the training related to food and beverage prior to attending guests.

Staff should be given training, for meeting & greeting guests as per hotel standards laid by new management.

Manager should have an idea of handling all the problems that may happen in the hotel.

Fast and proper service should be given to the guests.

Staff should be given knowledge about what are the ingredients of the served dish.

Staff should be given training based on type of wine and the dish with which it can be served.

The tables should be arranged properly prior to the party or the event organized. There should be proper spacing between the tables so that waiter can move freely for serving.

The plates and cutlery should be properly cleaned and polished. A plate polished should be arranged by the hotel.

Table clothes on the table should be cleaned, and the responsibility has to be taken by laundry team. They should ensure that there are no stain marks on the table clothes.

Staff should use only English while in the hotel, conversation in native language should not be allowed, as it is confusing for the guests of the hotel.

About Staff :

There should be either permanent staff or contract staff for cleaning the rooms

Staff should be provided proper training prior to joining job.

At Reception desk:

This is the most import place in hotel as all the guests are received at Reception.

Flowers at the reception should be fresh and placed properly.

Floor should be cleaned regularly.

If there are more than two telephones at the desk, more than one person should be available at desk to attend the calls.

A personnel should be appointed for handling only guest complaints, and should be handled carefully.

Bell boy should be available at the reception to carry guest’s luggage.

About Hotel Infrastructure:

Infrastructure of the hotel is the major part affecting the service of the hotel. So infrastructure should be designed properly to meet the requirements.

Bar should be situated near the restaurant, so that it will be easy to provide proper service to the guests.

Infrastructure of the hotel is the major part affecting the service of the hotel. So infrastructure should be designed properly to meet the requirements.

(FLOOR PLAN FOR RESTAURANT / BAR/ RECEPTION)

As per shown in diagram, Restaurant is situated on lake. Bar is situated behind the Reception. That’s why distance between restaurant and bar is too long. So every time service staff has to walk through it. Also if you go from service area then also it takes time. That’s why guest are keep complaining about service, slow service.

If you see in diagram, lounge is situated exactly besides of the restaurant on lake. If we make setup of bar in Lounge, and Lounge will goes instead of Bar. This will save lots of time, also because of this it will look nice. So guest can go themselves on Bar and have their drinks. That will useful for guest as well as staff.

If management ready to change infrastructure, this will be the important change, which need to be done. Surely this will help to improve service quality.

Cleanliness:

Proper Cleanliness should be maintained.

All the used utensils should be cleaned at the end of the day so that it can be used next day.

Oven should be cleaned regularly so that it is free from any odor.

Gas stove should be cleaned regularly so that there are no stain marks on it.

planning :

All the events should be planned properly so that there are no confusions at any events.

All the tables should be arranged properly in the night, so that in the morning there won’t be any wastage of time in arranging the table.

Training:

The staff should be given proper “Behavioral Training” so that they should know how to handle guests.

The staff who is working in service section of restaurant should be given proper training on serving and should be given knowledge on ingredients of the dishes served.

The staff should be given

Meetings:

Meetings for staff should be arranged regularly by manager so as to discuss the goals to be achieved and should also discuss what technique should be used for the same.

Meetings should be arranged on daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis.

All the problems faced by staff should be discussed in these meetings.

Feedbacks:

There should be a personnel appointed for handling feedbacks given by guest.

Proper measures should be taken to work on it.

It should be discussed regularly with manager so that the areas where hotel need to be improved is highlighted.

Manager Behavior:

Manager should be experienced, should know how to handle all the situations that a hotel may face.

He should be trained properly so that he can handle annoyed guests.

He should offer some complimentary service to guests in case of any mistakes committed by hotel unknowingly.

Advanced Equipment / Machinery:

Hotel should buy advanced equipment in case of necessity so as to make all the processes fast. For example :

Hotel should buy an automatic dish cleaners so as to make dish cleaning faster and effective.

Hotel should buy number of vaccum cleaner so that cleaning of dust is an fast an easy procedure.

Dish polisher should be bought to polish dish.

Floor cleaning machinery should be bought to make floor cleaning faster.

In laundry, no of washing machines should be present so that bed spreads, mattress and table covers should be washed regularly and kept clean.

Driers should be available so that all the table covers and other clothes are dried and can be used for next day.

Technical Problems:

For handling technical problem a technical team should be hired. For example:

To handle problems related to bulb, tube light fitting, a electrician should be available for hotel.

To handle problems related to network, LAN, wi-fi, internet connection

a technical personnel should be hired.

3. To handle defects in washing machine, oven, geyser, lifts, fans, TV, dvd players a technical team should be there.

Supervision:

A supervisory team should be assigned to do following things:

To supervise room cleanliness.

To supervise floor cleanliness.

To supervise whether electronic equipments are working properly.

To supervise whether cleanliness is maintained at kitchen.

CONCLUSION

As elaborated above, if the mentioned policies are implemented by the hotel management, the expected result would be:

1. Increase in staff skills

2. Rise in customer satisfaction

3. Rise in employee satisfaction

4. Increase in hotel profit

5. Improve in hotel standard

The mentioned policies would help hotel to maintain its position in this competitive world of business and would help hotel to grow at a faster rate, improving its market standards and market values.

This would even help hotel and its employees to be at a stronger position even when market is down. Would help them to handle all the situations that would be beneficiary for the organization.

This chapter outlines the rationale for the research approach and methodology methods chosen and also explains the various processes involved in the research process itself. The methodology is a descriptive part of the research project which provides an evaluation of the methods, techniques and procedures used throughout the investigation. It is used to describe the scope and aims of the various research processes in detail. The subdivision will also briefly outline the meaning and differences between research methods and research methodology. The chapter will also momentarily framework adopting qualitative and quantitative processes. Finally, the research process itself will then be explained and justified and the process of raw data collection will be commented on.

3.2 Meaning of Research

It is known that ‘research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge.’ [Kothari, 2004: 25]. There are various definitions of research, one of which suggests that ‘research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data: making deductions and reaching conclusions: and at last carefully testing the conclusion to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis.’ [Kothari, 2004: 25]. However, Kumar [2010: 11] argues that research is the ‘pursuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison and experiment.’ Therefore, the purpose of research aims to determine answer or questions through the application of scientific procedures. Kothari [2004: 25] further illustrates that ‘the main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered yet.’

3.3 Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

A mixed method research can be defined in several definitions which have emerged over time incorporating various elements of methods, research processes, and philosophy and research design. Croswell and Clark [2008: 2] outline mixed methods as the combination of ‘qualitative and quantitative approach in the methodology of study.’ It is the type of research in which the researcher combines elements of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Croswell and Clark [2008: 4] illustrate that mixed method approach is used ‘for the purpose if breadth and depth of understanding and corroboration.’

Therefore a mixed method research approach combining both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be used throughout the research as it accounts for ‘the primary purpose of a study conducted with a mixed methods way of thinking it to better understand the complexity of the social phenomena being studied.’ [Greene, 2007: 20].

3.4 Qualitative Research

A Qualitative approach to the research is to be taken as it will provide an insight into the setting of the problem to generate ideas and/or hypotheses for later quantitative research. Qualitative research allows an individual to obtain information that is not necessarily all statistical if any at all by conducting interviews, producing questionnaires for numerous amounts of people or providing personal information. Qualitative research can also be best identified as a ‘natural setting where the researcher is an instrument of data collection, who gathers words or pictures, analyses them inductively, focuses on the meaning of participants, and describes a process that is expressive and persuasive language.’ [Creswell, 2008: 14].

Patton (2002) also suggests that the ‘thought of research design substitutes and method adoptions can identify directly to the relative strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and quantitative data, therefore the answer to particular questions is primarily a pragmatic one’.

Other definition of qualitative can be seen as:-

Qualitative research…. is based more on information expressed in words…This approach is common whenever people are the focus of the study.

(Walliman, 2006: 187)

Patton [2002: 14] identifies that qualitative method ‘require the use of standardised measure so that the varying perspectives and experiences of people can fit into a limited number of predetermined response categories to which are assigned.’ Furthering to this Patton [2002: 15] argues that qualitative methods characteristically produce a wealth of detailed information from a much smaller sample population that increases the ‘depth of understanding of the cases and studies but reduces generalizability’ [Merriam, 2014: 100], thus, the overall purposes of qualitative research is to achieve ‘understanding of how people make sense out of their lives, delineate the process of meaning-making, and describe how people interpret what they experience.’ [Merriam, 2014: 100]. Hennink, Hutter and Bailey (2011: 97) state that ‘qualitative research is a broad umbrella term that covers a wide range of techniques and philosophies.’ Subsequently, it is not to define as in broad terms qualitative research is an approach that allows a person to examine people’s experiences in details, by using a specific set of research methods.

3.4.1 Strengths of Qualitative Research

There are much strength in terms of qualitative research, in forms of personal experiences and a way to gather suitable data which might not have been investigated before. Tracey [2013: 97] states that ‘qualitative research is excellent for studying contexts you are personally curious about but have never had a ‘valid’ reason for entering’. In addition to personal interest or disciplined voyeurism, qualitative data provide insight into cultural activities that might not otherwise be missed in structured surveys or experiments.’ (Tracey, 2013: 97). As a result of these strengths the qualitative research method will be a good research approach as it will identify personal and emotional experiences data and not just statistical this will entail the researcher a better understanding of what emotional motivations people have when travelling, thus reflecting back to the aim is commonly known as quantitative research which compact data that is numerical form which is later evaluated using statistical methods to aid with finding of the outcome of the research obtained.

3.5 Quantitative Research

The second research approach will be quantitative research. Quantitative research is scientific investigation that includes both experiments and other systematic methods that emphasize control and quantified measures of performance (Proctor & Capaldi, 2006 cited in Hoy, 2009: 1]. Quantitative research is essentially about collecting numerical data to explain a particular phenomenon, particularly questions seem immediately suited to being answered using qualitative methods.’ [Muijs, 2011: 1]

‘Quantitative analysis deals with numbers and uses mathematical operations to investigate the properties of data.’ [Walliman, 2012: 179]. The main characteristic of quantitative data is that it consists of information that is, in some way or other, quantifiably [Rasinger, 2012: 10]. Therefore quantitative data can be implemented into numbers, figures and graphs, and processes it using statistical procedures.

3.6 Research Methods

After identifying the types of research approaches that will be used, the next fragment looks at what methods will be most appropriate to this research project. Identifying appropriate research methods are important as Rugg, Gordon, Pete and Marian [2007:2] identifies ‘research determines the overall structure of your research’.

3.6.1 Qualitative Research Methods

3.6.2 Interviews

Interviews will be the only qualitative research method used within the research. The purpose of in depth interviewing is not to test hypotheses, and not to ‘evaluate’ as the term that is normally used.’ [Seidman 2013: 9]. Interviews are inherently more flexible, whatever the level of structure, ranging as they do from ‘listening in’ and asking questions in a real-life setting to the standardized recording schedules used by market researchers.’ [Gilham, 2005: 3].

Dougherty [2014: 94] state that ‘different types of interviews produce different types of responses from different people.’ The researcher will identify the most appropriate form of interview to be implemented during qualitative research. There are three common types of interviews; unstructured, structured and open-ended, and structure and fixed response.

3.6.3 Unstructured interviews, Structured and Open-ended, Structured Fix Response Interview

Unstructured interviews are characterised by a minimal direction of their content by the interviewer and allow for adapting the questions depending on the respondent [Dougherty, 2014: 94], whereas, structured and open-ended interviews consist of a set of preselected questions that the consultant asks the interviewee. Dougherty [2014: 94] illustrates that ‘this type of interview is considered more flexible than procedures such as surveys and checklists.’ The final type of interview is structured and fixed response. Structured and fix response interviews provide both predetermined questions and responses from which to choose. They allow for standardization and tend to have a high level of reliability. [Beaver and Busse, 2000]

3.6.4 Semi-structured interviews

The researcher will therefore use the Semi-structured interview technique used during qualitative research as stated previously ‘unstructured interviews are characterised by a minimal direction of their content by the interviewer [Dougherty, 2014: 94]. By using semi-structured interviews the researcher can seek both clarification and elaboration on the answer given and record qualitative information regarding the topic [Fisher, 2007]. Schensul [1999: 149] best defines semi-structured interviews as a:-

‘predetermined questions related to domains of interest, administrated to a representative sample of respondents to confirms study domains, and identify factors, variables, and items or attributes of variables for analysis or use in a survey’.

Semi-structured interviews combine the flexibility of the unstructured, open-ended interview with the directionality and agenda of the survey instrument to produce focused, qualitative, textual data at the factor level’ [Schensul,1999:149].

Semi- structured interviews will therefore accomplish the following objectives, firstly to further clarify the central domains and factors in the study, secondly to operationalize factors variables, thirdly to develop preliminary hypotheses and finally, develop a qualitative base for the construction of an ethnographic survey if required one [Schensul, 1999: 150]. The characteristics of semi-structured interviews are that although there is a question framework to ensure consistency, answers are open-ended and will allow the respondents to communicate their ideas freely.

Similar the structured interview, the semi-structured interviews are constructed around a core of standard questions as illustrated in appendix one which identifies the check list the researcher will use to ensure all appropriate questions are asked. The researcher may probe the participant and obtain further classification or detail on a certain topic. As Oppenheim [1998: 81] states ‘the respondent are allowed to say what they think and to do so with greater richness and spontaneity’.

3.6.5 Letter’s to organisations

The semi-structured interviews were agreed by the referral of letter as seen in appendix two. The researcher obtained conformation by requesting the arrangement to interview the individual by letter. The letter provided all relevant information regarding the main objectives of the letter and areas of interest, necessary information regarding what the research was about and the need for investigation for the research. The researcher will also request each individual to fill in a consent form, as seen in appendix three.

3.6.5 Who will the interviews by with?

The researchers chose three tourism related individuals who all had some kind of relation to the tourism industry within New Quay to conduct interviews with. These particular individuals were chosen as they would be the most appropriate candidate to provide relevant information in regards to the research project.

The first interviewee was the General Manager of Quay West. The researcher chose to undertake one of three semi-structured interviews with as Quay West was one of Haven’s Britain’s favourite seaside holiday resort which labelled themselves as ‘Britain’s largest provider of domestic holidays.’ [Haven, 2014]. The researcher could then ask significant tourism related questions that provide interesting findings.

The second interviewee was a customer service advisor within the tourist information centre in New Quay. The researcher decided to arrange a semi-structure interview with the tourism information centre as the interviwer can question and obtain an inside knowledge of what types of tourist visit, what motivates tourism to New Quay and their opinion in terms of the reliance of tourism within New Quay.

Finally, the researcher requested an interview with a member of the New Quay council. The research choose a member of the New Quay Council with the hope that they can obtain relevant information, first hand experiences with tourism within the town and finally a personal opinion on their thoughts and feeling in terms of tourism within New Quay.

3.7 Strategy of Researcher In Doing Mixed Method Approach

The strategy of the researcher in doing the mixed method approach of both qualitative and quantitative research methods was to undertake semi-structured interviews to provide relevant questions reflecting back on the answers that were given to create pilot questionnaires and questionnaires to gather quantitative research.

3.8 Quantitative Research Methods

3.8.1 Pilot Questionnaires and Questionnaires

Cargan [2007: 116] defines that ‘a pretest or pilot study is a means of checking whether the survey can be administered and provide accurate data.’ The advantages of questionnaires over interview, for instance, are; it tends to be more reliable, it encourages age’s greater honesty because it is anonymous, its more economical then the interview in terms of time and money and there is the possibility that it may be mailed [Cohen, Manion, Morriosn, 2011: 209]. The researcher will aim to efficiently organize questionnaires as Gillham [2000:6] notes that ‘response to even large-scale questionnaires can be pulled within a matter of weeks’, ensuring questionnaires are returned as prompt as possible. This is why the combined mix methods approach of qualitative and quantitative was used to accomplish more of an accurate research within this dissertation. Consequently, a research instrument like a questionnaire to collect data will be used as the quantitative research methods for its known validity and reliability this can be seen in appendix four.

Baring in mind the researcher will also take into consideration the disadvantages of a questionnaire. Which are; there is often too low a percentage of return, if only closed items are used, the questionnaire may lack coverage or authenticity and as Gillham [2000: 2] states ‘they seek to get answers just by asking questions.’ ‘Therefore, Cohen et al [2011: 209] state that ‘there is a need, therefore, to pilot questionnaires and refine their contents, wording and length, etc. as appropriate for the sample is being targeted.’

3.7 Role of the researchers

The first element of the researcher’s role was to contact and arrange interviews via email, the second was to create and distribute questionnaires from answers implemented from the previous interviews. Contacting the interviewee’s was done via sending consent letters to conduct an interview via email as seen in appendix one. Many of the interviews were held during mid-week, Wednesday and Thursday. This was because this was the most convenient time for all interviewee’s and the researcher. The questionnaires were the second element of the researcher’s role. The researcher firstly created a pilot questionnaire as identified in appendix five. This was to ensure all questions asked were appropriate to the research and to ensure the format was correct. Once done the researcher then finalized and distributed the questionnaires on Saturday afternoon during half term in New Quay town. The distribution of questionnaires was 10am to 4pm, providing with enough time to collect effective data from passing tourists. After the distribution of questionnaires the researcher then collected and analysed.

3.8 Validity, Reliability and Research Ethics

The techniques of research selected within the methodology were for the reason that they were convenient, relevant and effective. Alternative motives were that the researcher was able to travel to interviews arranged and collect questionnaires that were distributed. The researcher already had an idea of the area and therefore could co-ordinate her time efficiently during the distribution of questionnaires to the busy areas of the town.

To ensure the research was reliable the researcher firstly conducted interviews, from the interviewee’s responses the researcher was than able to create a pilot questionnaire and requested one participant to fill it in as seen in appendix five. Ensuring the pilot questionnaire with all the relevant questions asked was important, once this was clarified the researcher was then able to finalize and distribute the questionnaires, this can also been seen in appendix four.

The researcher furthermore had to require ethical approval before data collection commences as ethics is a primary responsibility of conduct of the ethical research which lies with the researcher. This ensured that the data collected during the research process was ethical and did not contravene any of Cardiff Metropolitan University’s ethical regulations.

Ethical approval can also be known as a safeguard to the researcher when conducting the research. the research the researcher also considered that occasionally there can be Ethical issues in Research, this includes researchers can be exposed to moral and ethical dilemmas and issues such as two dominant ethical principles in research with human subjects; informed consent and the protection of subject harm.

1.0 Executive summary

The current situation of Air market is not steady and could satisfy needs of customers, more and more negative news appear to show depression of AirAsia. AirAsia is a Malaysian-based company which owns airlines in Asia with low cost and provide 400 flight lines over 25 countries, the AirAsia was first founded in 1993 and operated in 1998 (Sen & Ng, 2008). With almost 20-year history, AirAsia could be regarded as the most successful company in Asia.

Brief analysis of AirAsia will be given in the report and further information will be provided to further support assistance for readers to know about AirAsia.

2.0 Introduction

The air market is struggling at present, more competitors are involved in the battle and the competence seems intense than ever before, higher price of energy and lower price of flights drive most of airplane companies loss profit and reduce revenue (Kernchen, 2007). Airline market in Europe, America especially in Asia is developing in opposite direction, with effects of financial crisis, less customers go out to travel by plane; economy is also influenced by crisis which drives less businessmen go aboard to invest by plane (Shaw, 2011). The airline companies around world are all affected by crisis, decrease the revenue. At the same time, the speed of development of technology is beyond imagination of people, most airline companies purchase new planes from countries expert in measuring planes such as America, China and Russia, which increase cost and make more difficult to balance finance. The objective of the report is to supply information of AirAsia for readers and assist them to better understand the factors affecting AirAsia in the future, potential threats AirAsia will face with. The report will state an analysis of AirAsia with PESTEL method, from various aspects to show the key external factors affect the development of AirAsia. Then the second part will discuss how the Market Liberalization in the Asia-Pacific assisted AirAsia’ growth in the region. The third part of report will implement data to show a SWOT analysis of AirAsia and Porter’s five forces to further supply information of AirAsia. With SWOT analysis and Porter’s five forces, potential challenges will be given which AirAsia will face in the future. Finally a conclusion will be referred to.

3.0 External factors affect AirAsia

Many factors will affect the development of an industry, which could easily divided into external and internal factors. To drive organizations progress better in the changeable world, to analyze and know what potential factors will affect organizations is essential. Eternal factors are easy to handle and organizations could prepare in advance before problems appear, especially for countries in Asia, most countries are at developing groups, external factors such as politics, economy or climates will affect organizations’ development in long-term (Kohama, 2003). Airline industry is easy affected by those external factors, so the following content will give a PESTEL analysis to help readers know what will affect AirAsia.

3.1 PESTEL analysis

PESTEL analysis is used by managers as one of the most essential frameworks to study the external factors that affect development of organizations, PESTEL stands for ‘Political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal’ ( William & Green, 1997). The following content will focus on situation in Asia in the view of PESTEL analysis.

Political factors: Asia is a mixed region compared with other areas, there are various countries with different government systems, besides, Asia has a long history, however, most Asian seem to have the similar cultural backgrounds, the policies each country hold are totally different, and the independence movements are continues recently ( Zhang, 2003). AirAsia owns many subsidiaries in many Asian countries, since cold war, with intense relationship between China and Japan, Taiwan, continues conflict between South Korea and North Korea, the flights of AirAsia are affected by these political factors, the relationships among Asian countries are difficult to fortell and the politics in each country seem unsteady ( Yahuda,2005).

Economic factors: The economic growth in Asia increased faster since 1945, especially China and Japan, with independent and away from wars, these two countries develop beyond imagination. However, influenced by financial crisis, most Asian countries are struggling economic depression, the inflation rate raise, exchange rates change daily (Adams, 2006). All these unsteady factors drive less export and less people spend money on tourism which directly affects the revenue of AirAsia. The profit decline with less customers and less export for AirAsia.

Social factors: In Asia, tourism is not thought about as usual as Europeans, which means, under the effects of cultural background, Asians spend less money on tourism. However, Asians are sensitive to change of price, especially when they desire to go out by plane, lower price will attract them, AirAsia holds the advantages of lower price. With more branches set up in Asian countries, AirAsia will appeal more Asian customers. The population in Asia increase fast, changeable population in Asia drive more young people change locations to live, China and India, these two biggest countries in Asia means change of demand for AirAsia (Sanderson & Tan, 1995)

Technological factors: Technology plays important role in the airline industry especially for AirAsia which implement the low cost carriers. With more and more experts appearance in Asia, competitors in the field of airline are able to invent new things to reduce cost to win in the battle, if AirAsia wants win finally, the key is to invite more professional experts to join them. Innovation of competitors affects revenue of AirAsia, too. New airplanes with high technology would appeal to customers to change purchasing habits.

Environmental factors: Climate is a key factor which influences the revenue of AirAsia, however, natural factors are not planned or changed by human beings. Most of Asia countries realize the importance of protection for environment, with globalization and development of technology, the pollution raise and the living surroundings are damaged. Now, the slogan of ‘energy saving and emission reduction’ is popular in China, governments request most organizations use clear energy to produce, especially for airline companies, lower cost but less pollutions to environment, fuel or gas must conform to law of countries.

Legal factors: Taxation requested for customers will be increase by most countries, which will affect the revenue of AirAsia. Facing more taxation for tickets, customers will feel uncomfortable and ask to reduce the price of tickets. Tariff will change according to current economic situation of the world, especially for Asian countries who export goods with lower cost to compete with domestic industry. Environmental protection regulations will change to request AirAsia to use clear fuel or gas which increase cost and reduce revenue. Laws of export and import will also affect AirAsia, all these depend on policies of Asian countries and economy of the world.

3.2 SWOT analysis

After stating key external factors which will affect the revenue of AirAsia, the company also needs tools to analyze under these factors, what the development in the future, the SWOT analysis pursues an integrated strategic position by providing internal information to conclude the strengths, weakness and external information of opportunities and threats ( Bohm, 2009). The SWOT analysis of AirAsia can be seen below:

Figure 1:

Strengths:

Low cost compared with other competitors, the core value of AirAsia is low cost in Asia.

Effective management, correct strategic positions, target customers.

Simple models implemented in AirAsia, exploring for long time to find out suitable developing models.

Secure time and high quality of service attract more customers.

Expansion with more than five countries in Asia, multi-skilled employees in company means efficient workforce.

Continues innovation, experts teams to invent new type of airplanes.

Various airlines for customers, proving more choices for customers.

Weakness:

Lower cost means lower salary for employees, could not appeal skilled employees.

Government regulation and policies often change towards airports, higher taxation for customers and tariff for export and import.

More needs of customers, higher compensation asked by passengers increase cost of the company.

New entrants in this field, more intense competition in Asia.

Increasing price of gas and fuel, less profit for AirAsia.

Brand is vital for market, airplanes only with service worse than competitors who ask for higher price.

Opportunities:

Airlines from Asia to other countries should be provided.

Different model but still keep the principle of lower cost carriers.

Increase quality of customer service and try to set up a full-service with low fare.

Aggressive competition will drive air market prospers for new routes.

Higher price of fuel will push competitors out of air industry.

Threats:

Full service increase cost of AirAsia.

Entrants of air industry with lower cost.

Accident, change of climate and disaster will influence confidence of consumers.

Close relationship among each system in AirAis will limit development of company.

Higher salary asked by skilled employees, increasing cost of labor.

Government regulations and intense relationship among specific countries, unsteady politics in Asia.

(Lim, 2012)

3.3 Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s five forces are used by managers to predict potential threats from competitors which will provide a model for managers to better understand the industry (Roy, 2011). After stating PESTEL and SWOT analysis of AirAsia, further information related with competitors will be provided in the following part. The diagram of Porter’s five forces could better help readers to know more about potential threats for AirAsia.

Figure 2?s

Rivalry

Strong competitors from China and Singapore with the similar motto ‘everyone can afford the air ticket’ as AirAsia.

Examples such as Spring Airlines in China and Value Air, Tiger Airways in Singapore are strong competitors for AirAsia.

Substitutes

In the field of air industry, the substitutes are not essential threats for AirAsia. Cars and trains are main substitutes, however, trains are chosen by passages only in China and India, with lower price and safe condition, not affected by change of climate, trains are influence air industry. Cars can be regarded as threats for AirAsia in limited conditions, only for customers who like driving and do not care time.

Threats of new entrants

Asian air market is a huge market with potential for most companies, not only for Asian air companies, new entrants from Europe and America also involve in intense competition with AirAsia. New entrants will change the supply and demand, affecting AirAsia’ market share. New airplanes and special service will attract loyal customers from AirAsia to new entrants.

Bargaining power of buyers.

Consumers have more choices facing large numbers of air companies; they will request higher quality of service and be strict with the take off time and arrival time. They will compare prices of competitors with AirAsia, complaining lower price of other airlines to reduce revenue of AirAsia.

Bargaining power of suppliers

Suppliers concentrated, fuel or gas suppliers are mainly in East Asia, and the price of fuel and gas are changing without any bargaining of air companies. Fewer suppliers for fuel and aircrafts mean higher price they could ask for.

The growth of AirAsia depends on many factors; the report has stated key external factors which will influence revenue of AirAsia, internal factors of strengths and weakness of AirAsia.

4.0 Conclusion

In conclusion, the report has stated three analysis of AirAsia in order to supply enough information for readers to understand the strategic positions and models the company implement. With PESTEL analysis, key external factors influencing AirAsia are mentioning and SWOT analysis to provide AirAsia’ strengths and weakness, AirAsia should keep the core value and supply better service with low cost carriers in long term. Porter’s five forces analysis also shows potential threats for AirAsia should notice in the future, with new entrants and existing competitors, AirAsia should change management strategy and appeal to more skilled staff.

Malaysia is a central of constitutional monarchy system in Southeast Asia. It is based on 13 states and three federal territories and has a total large are of land of 329,847 square kilometres. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur while Putrajaya is the base of the federal government. The population in 2009 is at over 28 million.

Since its independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with Gross Domestic Product growing an average 6.5% for the first 50 years of independence. It is an institution member of the Association of Southeast Asian Country and the Organization of Islamic Conference, and a member of Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Non-Aligned Movement. The economy of the country has traditionally been established by its natural resources, but is now also expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.

It has a diversity range of flora and fauna, and is considered one of the 17 different parts of countries. Malaysia is a impressive diverse country, with a great number of species. Two of three parts of Malaysia in large land of trees with a high quantity of lowland arise below an altitude of 760 meters. Like Borneo, East Malaysia was originally covered with lowland rainforests even though it is largely has been cleared causing most of the wildlife to escape into the upland rainforest. Rainforests in Malaysia are made of different types of living variety, mainly dipterocarp forests. The forest is the existing place of the largest flower in the world, Rafflesia which also has a unique unpleasant smell. Due to the declination of forests in Malaysia, the government has taken actions to solve the problem. Malaysian forests also consists of 1450 square mangroves in different parts of area.

1.2 Background of the Study

Malaysia is known for it’s richness in different perspectives of natural landscapes and environment especially among all the national parks. Tourism has becoming one of the most important elements in contributing into Malaysia’s economy sector.

Malaysia has some of the best national parks ready to be explored for its breathtaking view and inspiring landscape.

However, there are disappointments especially among Malaysians that do not see local national parks as a place to spend their holidays. Most Malaysians prefer anything else but having an engagement with the nature. People are still looking nature parks as an unexciting place to spend their holidays. Instead, it is more popular among foreign tourists. The reason why we Malaysians do not appreciate the nature that we have, it is because Malaysians do care less about nature. We are not educated enough about the importance of preserving the nature and understanding the concept of natural tourism.

1.3 Problem Statements

Ecotourism among youths in Malaysia is always the poor relation of tourism. Due to the growing travel eagerness and power spending among young people has recently brought ecotourism to a failing attraction among youths. The tourism market among young people is mainly attracted to materialistic aspect like shopping and dining for a much higher cost. The problem is based on various aspects of youths, starting with the young people that are not exposed enough to ecotourism. Young generations in Malaysia are not taught to love the environment since small. They are only concentrated on academic wise and ignoring the importance of keeping our nature spirit alive. Young people in recent time are not adventurous in traveling while in fact they are many destinations in Malaysia to be visit.

When people are no longer interested in ecotourism, people who are actually involved in ecotourism are lacking in their duties due to no support in financially and economically by the tourism ministry. They tend to loose interest in taking care of the ecotourism places and is not taken care of. The tourism ministry in Malaysia is not in fact being very supportive and not changing perceptions of social class boundaries. They are not taking any supportive action to improve ecotourism among young generation

1.4 Research Objectives

The objective of this study is to acknowledge the relationship between educational background and the effective aspect based on ecotourism among Malaysian youths.

To mark the stage of exploration regarding the theme of ecotourism for Malaysian youths.

To study the purpose in incorporating the ideas of youths view the range of vision and maintenance to the community.

Provide young people a chance to volunteer and adapt to new surroundings and get equally comfortable with their surroundings through ecotourism.

To require an opportunity to select an environment in variety and work together with the nature also teach exciting learning of environment for our future generations.

To search the involvement of youths in Malaysia guided by using quantitative methodology.

To provide the importance of ecotourism by adding implications and develop planning and practice.

Understanding the awareness among Malaysian youths in ecotourism, also increase an improvement in understanding responsible ecotourism destinations and better managed to the world.

1.5 Research Questions

Does level of knowledge affect the awareness level of Malaysian youths towards Ecotourism?

Does educational background affect the awareness level of Malaysian youths towards Ecotourism?

Why do Malaysian youths are not responsible in Ecotourism?

How does the Ministry of Tourism being supportive to Ecotourism?

1.6 Hypothesis Statement

Shell Malaysia Sustainable Development (SD) Grants Programme (2008) seeks to assist qualifying Malaysia-based NGOs, local academic institutions, schools, societies and individuals in executing their SD initiatives. They conduct an environmental conservation projects to conserve biodiversity, natural resources and ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, and aerial in nature. The company is doing this to increase environmental awareness amongst the youth who live within the environmental heritage of Tanjung Kupang. Kelab Alami is a club build for the youth of Mukim Tg Kupang, Gelang Patah, Johor. The club works to increase environmental awareness amongst the young of this area so that they can understand and appreciate the natural heritage that is their backyard. Not only are they engaged in a constant series of environmental education programs, but they are trained as Youth Rangers who monitor the surrounding ecosystems and conduct regular habitat studies and experiments in the sea grass and mangroves also guided by scientist advisors. They are also trained as ecotourism guides for visiting schools or tourists so that they can share their environment with others.

According to Richards (2005) of ISTC/UNWTO he implies that the movement of in young people in higher education is an important source of income in many countries. Many countries mentioned the relationship between tourism and the wide range

of student exchange programme in operation scheme for intercultural exchange for university students. A link was also made between student travel and special interests related to the area of study, such as cultural heritage and architecture, which are important markets for the country. Student tourism also refers to

ECOTOURISM
TOURISM FEATURES

High spending tourists

Supports local Economy

Conserve local heritage

travel by schoolchildren, often related to learning about the history and culture of their own country. According to Richards, youth travel are well integrated in Malaysia, under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), student tourism has become a priority development area:

In view of the tremendous potential for education tourism and student tourism, greater efforts were made to promote Malaysia as a centre of educational excellence. During the review period, a Committee on Education Tourism was established to spearhead the development of education tourism, which includes marketing and promotion of education as well as the facilitation of administrative procedures for students and parents. Apart from participating in nine educational promotion activities organized by international agencies, Malaysia also conducted a total of 15 exhibitions and road shows in selected countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions.

Students are often viewed as a low income market, for which special provision needs to be made in terms of discounted tourism services.

As stated by Manurung R. (2000) about the awareness in raising an education towards youth and the effective planning in Effort Improvement Several criteria.

He agreed that it must be deal with an issue in planning ecotourism development specifically the different uniqueness of natural experiences like ecosystem and geographical area for flora and fauna. He also stated that infrastructure in Malaysia are often lack of care with limited transport to ecotourism destinations, dividing departments of local land, threats to the ecosystem and the society’s acceptance of tourists. According to M.R. Yacob, A. Radam (2009), there are three institutional central figure involved in promoting tourism and ecotourism. The government, the private sector and the society. The government is related through the Ministries of Transportation and Telecommunication, the State Ministry for Tourism and Arts, the Environmental Impact Management Agency and local government. The government is the highest organization of tourism development, while travel agents, and other component part are the implementation of the body. The central government encourage the visual of diversity in Malaysia as a whole, but every area of organization has the power to do promotion of their own products. The movement between the three figures must be increased as the State Ministry for Tourism and Arts could not handle all tourism issues. However, the new characteristic political figure does not mean that the central government is free from duty to tourism, considering that tourism development is dimensional, subjective and component system. Restricted supply of funs, unorganized use of funds, safety precaution problems and the infrequency of leaders in government who have high levels of dedication and motivation to handle tourism development are simulative. The lack of professional resources and promotional funds are concerns. Even more, every challenge is seen as an opportunity. Promotion of tourist attractions or destinations must be increased, especially because of the poor image of Malaysia at the moment in the eyes of potential tourists. Promotion should be reasonable and standardized, for if the real situation is different to show by the promotion, it would only worsen the image of the whole country. Hence, M.R. Yacob, A. Radam (2009) stated that by being part of Asian nations, it can be used to promote ecotourism in Malaysia. In ecotourism, the officials of State Minister of Environment work together in managing environmental level, also being responsible for distinctive natural policy. In another point, Potential Impact Management Agency was set up to participate in ecotourism resources between two marine parks in Peninsular Malaysia. Because of this, this research approximate the value of ecotourism resources by using environmental economic devices features dependent method. Visitors are willing to pay by the research result that it may provide official advice to marine parks and to help develop management policies that improve ecotourism contribution to sustainable development in Malaysia. Abdullah M., Kamaruzaman J., Altaf H.S., Amat R.Y. (2008) together made a research on local community in their participation in ecotourism activities and resource protection and in protected areas that can be pursued through working together in the same management. Currently, the natural resources are degrading due to unselective use by the locals and visitors mainly in the form of exceeding the limits and tourism unsuitable activities. The study investigates the problems that affected natural resources and local community involvement in management to make things with such problem. MFC Jamil, BS Nor’Aini Yusof (2010) stated that the investigations that the relationship between organizational culture and financial performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in ecotourism area are affected. R.A. Aziz (2009) claims that general domestic tourism has been boosted by the increasing number of corporate retreats, family recreation, youth camps held at various tourist destinations around the country, the more affordable domestic air travel to various local destinations. The various affordable package tours being introduced and promoted to sustain interests and attract local as well as foreign tourists besides shopping, sports and recreational activities. The tourism products and services include cultural and heritage including geological tourism, eco-tourism, agro-tourism, homestay programme, thematic events and meeting incentives, and health tourism to cater to the varying interests and preferences. Infrastructure and communication facilities are expanded and upgraded. Road, rail, air and sea transportation improved. A total of approximately RM1.8 billion has been allocated under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to further develop and enhance Malaysia tourism industry. However, promoting heritage tourism could have environmental costs physically, socially and culturally. If it is not well-managed and regulated, heritage exploitation and consumption approach adopted in the pursuit for ‘tourist dollars’ has created irreparable damage to the physical character of many heritage places and sites. Development and construction of various tourist-related facilities and infrastructures near or sometime within the heritage resource itself – have also contributed to the damage of the social and economic structure of the area where the heritage is located. Amran Hamah (2004) stated that an educational tourism programme was developed by MOCAT and the Ministry of Education in 2001 to encourage local travel through the establishment of tourism clubs in schools. By doing so, students are being targeted as the catalyst to persuade their families to travel more regularly within the country. Recently, this Program Pelancongan Pelajar or Students Tourism Programme (PPP) has managed to attract tour operators as partners in the implementation and promotion of the programme. Potentially, this programme could be extended to include educational establishments and tourism destinations within the region. In the long run, it would be able to encourage more social contact and cultural exchanges as well as understanding between the youths in the region. There are weaknesses and opportunities of Malaysia’s tourism industry.

The weakness is its ‘low yield’ economic return, forced upon by the underselling of hotel rates, hence affecting the profit margin of most 4 to 5 star hotels. Consequently, the low profit margin has affected HRD and training and hotel refurbishment programmes, which in turn, has affected service quality. At sensitive areas such as islands and hill resorts, environmental degradation has also worsened over the last few years due to the lack of management and enforcement. Until the economic outlook for hoteliers improve, the tourism industry is expected to play safe and ‘keep what they have’ rather than embark on cross-border selling of tour packages.

As mentioned earlier, the opportunities for multi destination or cross border tourism have been vastly improved by the advent of budget airlines which are able to profitable serve destinations. In addition, the branding associated with World Heritage Sites and the growing interest in themed tours also provides new opportunities for intra regional travel. In the long term, youth travel within the country and possibly within the region will not only boost Asian cohesion but also develop a travelling culture amongst the nation and region’ s youth. In turn, the social benefit of youth travel has the potential to be transformed into an economic benefit in the future. Another main reason for their reluctance to be actively involved in tourism is the lack of mechanism for direct revenue capture given that almost all income from tourism are channelled back to the Federal government coffers. During a conference for youth tourism M. T. Mirza (2005) only focused on Japanese students by staying at Malaysian Homestay Association. The local young people is neglected and not supported by the Youth Organization. J. Jamil, M. Badaruddin, P. Ahmad (2007) developed an allocation by the Central government is more focused on physical developments such as road infrastructure, housing estates and public facilities in Penang Island. This scenario makes the tourism sector “being left behind” and its status is not guaranteed as the infrastructure construction is still been given the first priority. Competition of space and land use between infrastructure project and tourism attraction are always stiff. However, physical infrastructure will always take the lead. The government has no initiative to make replacement or maintenance work if the tourism areas are damaged or intruded by other physical economic developments. In Penang Island a survey result shows, out of seven tourist attractions that have been taken over for infrastructure development, only one have been replaced or given an alternative tourist site.

1.7 Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Destination
Education Attractions
Target Market Economy Impact
Environment
1.8 Significance of the Study

The suggestion that is put forward to have significance in spite of the fact that the study in ecotourism among youth in Malaysia is much related to the roots of heritage and cultural aspect. It gives an impact towards economy and local environment. The development of ecotourism programmes among youth is an area that has received non-sufficient treatment both in theory and practice. The recreation field is used for the purpose of demonstrating fundamental differences between young explorer and young tourists. Ecotourism services are to develop meaningful programmes, utilize a recreation in satisfying the future generations as well as profitable organization. This will guide to professionalism in conducting an appropriate ecotourism programme including establishment of the sustainable design of ecotourism.

1.9 Scope and Limitations

The scope for this study mainly based on ecotourism industry that is growing fast in Malaysia in the 21st century. The importance of this sector to the economy of a developing country like Malaysia is significant, but difficult to measure with any precision. According to Malaysian Tourism Industry, young travellers grew from 14.6% in 1980 to 20% in 2001, and had been projected to reach 25% by 2005. As a matter of fact, youth travel is believed to be the fastest growing travel market segment, surpassing even ecotourism and cultural tourism. Mirza Mohammad Taiyab (2005). Ecotourism in Malaysia is a way to travel with definitions including an element of education and far from being uninhabited wilderness. The tourist accommodation is likewise sited some distance from the village, and is built in the traditional style using local materials taking advantages of any breeze. This study will look into the governmental issue of kind of infrastructure they build for ecotourism market.

The limitation was the sources to be found. The searches were done by Google Scholar with journals and articles, KDU Library and online book. Research for references were very limited as the topic above does not fulfil full requirement online. Besides, several journals and articles need to be purchased or log in as a member in order to read.

CHAPTER TWO
2.1 Literature Review
Definition of Ecotourism

People among youths travel and explore inside the country and other country for holiday. The are several purposes to travel by visiting friends, on holiday, study abroad, understand different cultures as well as for relaxation and adventure. Youth travel is a part of their process of changes to adulthood. Young people who are used to stay at home youth travel is considered as an additional segment of the education process which familiarize youths with their own country. The definition of youth travel market figure in ecotourism is not widely accepted due to the lack of seen through quality in measuring its size and characteristics. Youth travelers are recognized today as a great value to make an important contribution to the local economy. By visiting new places in their own country, they can develop personal skills, social connection and cultural chain in their search for new experience. The youth travel market in ecotourism can be divided into two categories. A youth travel that depends on their own self and youth travel with a number of people sharing experience together. Youth group travel consists of a group of six or more young people traveling together. A few experienced people in the industry has divide an additional to the youth group travel component into two groups. Youth which travel in groups in school also often referred to as student travel and also youth which travels in a group outside school. School-based youth group travel is specifically authorized by the sponsoring school, school board or school district.

Based on a study by Opperman (1992), he claimed that until the year of 1990, after 15 years of implementation of the Tourism Master Plan, tourism development was still unequally distributed amongst the region as suggested. Rapid development are more accumulate in West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia than on the East Coast. King (1993) however stated that Sabah and Sarawak were far behind in attracting tourists. Leong (1997) claimed that the disparity of tourism development among the region of tourists was caused by lack promoting in the tourism market. According to Din (1982) he also noted that the plan has a small reference to the (New Environmental Paradigm) NEP in terms of suggesting how would the government agencies play their role to encourage Bumiputeras to get involve in tourism industry. The criticism has been responded by the federal government and in 1990 National Development Policy (NDP) has been launched. The NDP also stressed on the importance of nationally integrated development. The strategies were brought from NEP objectives to eradicate poverty and restructure national society. Sixth Malaysia Plan (1995) proposed a two-pronged strategy of tourism development to increase foreign tourists inflows and to promote domestic tourists to reduce foreign exchange outflows on account of Malaysian travelers. The loss of many invaluable heritage by beeing natural and cultural seem to lead by the process of too many old buildings and monuments are destroyed to make way for new and modern ones. However, promoting heritage tourism could have environmental costs physically, socially and culturally if it is not well-managed and regulated. In many developing countries heritage exploitation and consumption approach adopted in the pursuit for tourists has created irreparable damage to the physical character of many heritage places and sites.

Development and construction of various tourist-related facilities and infrastructures – near or sometime within the heritage resource itself – have also contributed to the damage of the social and economic structure of the area where the heritage is located. Since the identified heritage are the very basis for the heritage tourism in the first place, it is important to rehabilitate, conserve, protect and even preserve those heritage. In so doing the natural or cultural resources would not be damaged or run down and thus could benefit future generations. Also, to do so would not only be in accordance with the objectives of sustainable development, but would also facilitate the inherent characteristics of the different areas besides promoting sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism being defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the

geographical character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the wellbeing of its inhabitants (World Heritage Alliance Principles). Such tourism would help preserve both the environmental integrity of the sites as well as the cultural heritage of surrounding communities. Sustainable tourism also contribute to the sustainability of the local economies where livelihoods are often based on the cultivation of their natural environment and the income from the tourist industry.

Most local communities in tourist destinations are enthusiastic to participate in tourism activities. Tosun (2006) found that the majority (more than 80 percent) of the local community in a local destination would like to take the leading role as entrepreneurs and workers at all levels, besides encouraging other locals to invest in and work for the tourism industry. Confidence, support and motivation must come from the participants and authority in ensuring the sustainability of the homestay project. Obviously, not every form of community participation can contribute to the realization of the expected benefits of tourism.

In fact, most of the homestay projects in Malaysia require participation of not just the host family but the whole community including the school children and the youth club. For example, school children participate in the greeting ceremony as kompang players (a traditional musical instrument) while members of the youth club organise the traditional games demonstration. As a result, the homestay program helps in maintaining the traditional values of team work that creates the feeling of togetherness as well as nourishes social values within the community. The youths, and children may also generate their own income by taking part in cultural activities such as playing traditional musical instruments and performing dances.

Melaka International Youth Dialogue (2007) organized by the World Assembly of Youth (WAY) bring young people and youth leaders together from around the world to discuss themes including globalization and human capital development. MIYD selected a realization of the vast opportunities available to young people in ecotourism sector. Their objective is to:

Develop youth policies and laws to enhance youth participation in tourism sector

Create an enabling environment for youth participation in tourism sector

Establish credit schemes to provide soft loans for youth who are already in the industry and tourism industry player.

According to Dr T. Shanka, J. Musca (1998) more Malaysians (46%) took day trips compared with Singaporean students who took overnight trips (53%). Respondents from Malaysia (35%) or single (30%) or those aged between 20-24 years of age (31%) also would recommend the Albany/Esperance region overnight trips. Based on a supporting element of research by Dr. Prakorb Phon-ngam (2007) Youth tourism has a long history in Malaysia. Young people independently travel through the networks of youth hostel and railways for their own pleasure. Tourists can even check in for short courses in university campus, they could choose to stay in university dormitory, hostel, or with host family. As for Malaysian tourism planning research group, 2006, Youth Tourism becomes very important in many countries around the world, as can be seen recently, there was a Youth Tourism conference in Malaysia on May 3rd to May 5th 2006, organized by the Tourism of Malaysia. The main focuses of the conference were to provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences with all the best practices in relation to youth tourism. By establishing youth ecotourism to identify problems, issues and prospects are in as a focus area for the ecotourism industry and to recommend policies. All the product development programs and strategic marketing approaches the youth to improve the quality of youth ecotourism as a commercial venture as well as a catalyst for cultural exchange and regional integration.

CHAPTER THREE
Research Methodology
3.1 General Methodology
http://scholar.google.com/scholar

www.pdftop.com/ebook/ecotourism+malaysia/

The Star ; February 17th 2004

New Straits Times ; February 19th 2004

Yahaya I. ; A.R.A. Rasid (2009) Homestay Program and Rural Community Development in Malaysia

Din, K.H. (1982). Tourism in Malaysia: competing needs in a plural society. Annals of Tourism Research

King, V.T. (1993). Tourism and Culture in Malaysia. In Hitchcock, M., King, V.T. & Parnwell, M.J.G. (Eds.) Tourism in South-East Asia

Leong, F.P. (1997). Tourism development in Malaysia: the role of domestic tourism in national integration

Oppermann, M. (1992) Spatial structure of tourism in Peninsular Malaysia: a preliminary study. Tourism Recreation Research

Marzuki A. (2010) TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA. A REVIEW ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT POLICIES

Amran H. (2004) POLICY AND PLANNING OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

RA AZIZ – (2009)

Abdullah M., Kamaruzaman J., Altaf H.S., Amat R.Y. (2008)

MR Yacob, A Radam (2009) – Journal of Sustainable Development

Richards G. Survey on Student and Youth Tourism among

National Tourism Administrations/Organizations

Ricardo M. (2000)

Ecotourism in Indonesia

Mirza M.T. (2005) The Role and Importance of Youth Tourism In The Malaysian Tourism Industry.

MFC Jamil, BS Nor’Aini Yusof (2010) – World Applied Sciences Journal

Jamil J., Badaruddin M., Puad A.(2007)

CRITICAL TOURIST DESTINATION: THE IMPACT OF THE

MALAYSIAN DEVELOPMENT AGENDA TOWARDS NATUREBASED

TOURIST ATTRACTION

Tosun, C. (2006) Expected Nature of Community Participation in Tourism Development Tourism Management

Dr Tekle Shanka and Mr John Musca

Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference 1998

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’

INVOLVEMENT IN DOMESTIC TOURISM

– A WEST AUSTRALIAN CASE

Dr. Prakorb Phon-ngam

Vice President for International Affairs and Quality Assurance (2007)

GMS Discoveries: Borderless Issues for Regional Strengthening

and Sustainable Development