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The study investigates American customers’ perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S., using the importance – performance analysis approach. This study also examines which attributes of Chinese restaurants influence American customers, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The IPA shows that environmental cleanliness and attentive service are two important areas where Chinese restaurateurs can make improvements. In addition, food taste and service reliability appear to be key attributes for Chinese restaurants’ success. Overall, this study indicates that food quality, service reliability and environmental cleanliness are three pivotal attributes to create satisfied customers and positive post – dining behavioural intentions. Chinese restaurant managers should reasonably allocate their limited resources to restaurant attributes based on their contributions to customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Table of Content: Page No.

Title Page i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

Chapter One 1

Literature Review

Research Method

Code of ethics

Summary

Chapter Two 5

Introduction

Tourism

Mass tourism

Visitor Types

Tourist motivation

International Coastal Destination

Environmental Impact

Regional government strategies

Conclusion

Chapter three 11

Introduction

Objective one

Objective two

Summary

Chapter four 15

Local community of Goa

Travel Agents and tour operators

Magazines and Journal

Businessmen and Restaurant Owner

Chapter Five 16

Introduction

Questionnaire findings

Statistical data

Email Interview

Telephonic Interview

Chapter Six 19

Introduction

Objective one

Objective two

Chapter Seven 21

Conclusion and Recommendation

Impact of mass tourism on the environment of Goa

Positive Impact

Negative Impact

Chapter Eight 24

List of References 31

Appendices 33

Chapter: 1 Introduction

Introduction:

Aim of Project:

Perception of Chinese restaurant in the U.S: What affects customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions?

Objectives:

To analyse the customer’s behavioural intentions for Chinese restaurant in U.S.

To analyse the perception of Chinese restaurant in the U.S.

To evaluate and analyse what affects customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

The United States is a multicultural and multiethnic nation and this national trend of diversity is expected to consistently increase (Josiam and Monteiro, 2004; Sukalakamala and Boyce, 2007). One reflection of this cultural and ethnic diversity is the variety and prosperity of ethnic restaurants in the American foodservice market. The U.S. ethnic food market generates $75 billion in annual sales, around 65% of which is attributed to the foodservice industry (US ethnic food market, 2005). Yet, the fast growth of ethnic restaurants is not driven entirely by the growing number of new immigrants. In fact, 75% of ethnic food consumption comes from non-ethnic customers (US ethnic food market, 2005). As lifestyles change and dining out becomes more and more commonplace, many customer’s desire new flavours and experiences.

Along with this popularity is the rapid development of Chinese restaurants. According to Chinese restaurants news (2007), there are about 43,139 Chinese restaurants in the United States, which is more than the total number of all McDonalds Wendy’s and burger king domestic outlets combined. Chinese restaurants generate over $17.5 billion annual sales, accounting for about one fourth of overall annual sales generated by ethnic restaurants in the U.S. (Chinese Restaurant News, 2007). Known for its good taste and great value for the price, Chinese cuisine is among the “big three” most popular ethnic cuisines in the U.S. food service market (National Restaurant association, 1995). It is estimated that 90% of the American population has tried Chinese food and 63% of Americans eat Chinese food each month (George, 2001). Facing more sophisticated American consumers and increasing competition in the restaurant industry, Chinese restaurants can no longer succeed by depending on good taste or low price alone. According to National Restaurant Association (2000a,b), due to an increased familiarity with ethnic food. American consumers’ attitudes toward ethnic cuisine have recently changed. Today, an exotic experience is not enough to attract consumers to an ethnic restaurant. Customers are no longer willing to trade off inferior service or atmosphere for an opportunity to try new flavours. They prefer an excellent overall dining experience. Moreover,

Chinese restaurants are facing increasing challenges from other emerging Asian restaurants and from the changing tastes of American customers who prefer healthy or spicy food. Therefore, a better understanding of the key attributes influencing customer satisfaction and post dining behavioural intentions in Chinese restaurants will provide important practical implications for Chinese restaurants operators.

Literature review:

At all stages in the elaboration of a dissertation, the author must exert control over both the content and the way it is organised. The literature review is what shows that the author understand the chosen topic and keeps to the aim. ‘In researching for your dissertation or project, you will generally be expected to source material for yourself’ says MacMillan (2007, p.61). Meanwhile, Swetnam (2005, p.76) gives examples and his definition is that ‘the literature review is central to the dissertation and in all styles of work. It has a number of functions, for example, it shows that you have read widely around your chosen topic, it demonstrates your critical understanding of the theory; it informs and modifies your own research. White (2006, p.83) gives a newer definition that the literature review ‘will help you to discuss the dissertation in its relevant context, together with any theoretical frameworks which may be involved. It may also trigger your imagination and help you set the work in a new and different light’ because the author learns and understands more, which can stimulate further analysis.

Research Method:

The researcher need way to get the data will be from books, magazines, newspaper and through internet. As there are so many websites, no. of books, newspaper and magazines from where researcher will get updated information regarding the research. Through qualitative method the researcher will be able to find out easier way for doing research and by getting direct information related with the research. And the other thing is that in qualitative method accuracy rate is good not all time but, mostly.Quantitative method also very helpful to do the research.

Code of Ethics:

The world tourism organisation developed a code of ethics. This is recognition of the need to enshrine many of the principles of global action on the environment and the rights of tourists and workers. The basic principles inherit in the code are:

Implementation of the principles of the code of ethics of hospitality.

Mutual understanding and respect between peoples and societies.

Restaurant as a beneficial activity for host countries and communities.

Summary:

This work will introduced the conceptual issues associated with the research of “customer satisfaction from Chinese restaurant in US” and also demonstrate what is happening with people of the local community.

Chapter: 2 Literature Review
Literature Review: An Introduction

At all stages in the elaboration of a dissertation, the author must exert control over both the content and the way it is organised. The literature review is what shows that the author understand the chosen topic and keeps to the aim. ‘In researching for your dissertation or project, you will generally be expected to source material for yourself’ says MacMillan (2007, p.61). Meanwhile, Swetnam (2005, p.76) gives examples and his definition is that ‘the literature review is central to the dissertation and in all styles of work. It has a number of functions, for example, it shows that you have read widely around your chosen topic, it demonstrates your critical understanding of the theory, it informs and modifies your own research. White (2006, p.83) gives a newer definition that the literature review ‘will help you to discuss the dissertation in its relevant context, together with any theoretical frameworks which may be involved. It may also trigger your imagination and help you set the work in a new and different light’ because the author learns and understands more, which can stimulate further analysis.

Chapter: 1 Ethnic cuisine development and Chinese restaurants in the US.

In the past few decades, with the influx of new immigrants as well as diversifying tastes of Americans, ethnic foods have become widely available and increasingly popular in the U.S. food service market (Josiam and monteiro, 2004). Traditional ethnic cuisines such as Italian, Mexican and Cantonese Chinese have become so familiar to American customer that they are perceived as mainstream American foods (Mills, 2000). In the meanwhile, many emerging ethnic cuisines such as Caribbean, Mediterranean and Pan – Asian have also gained wide acceptance in recent years (US ethnic food market, 2005).

Chinese cuisine arrived in the U.S. with the first railroad construction workers brought over to the west coast of the U.S. in the nineteenth century (Freeman, 2008). From the first Cantonese style Chinese restaurant opened in San Francisco in 1849, it rapidly penetrated towns and cities all over the U.S. and became part of the American experience (Chen and Bowen, 2001). Cantonese style cuisine, characterised by its light sweet and sour flavours, is the most popular Chinese cuisine in the U.S. In the recent years, other styles of Chinese cuisine have also become familiar to American customers, such as Szechwan, Hunan and Mandarin styles. The first two styles are famous for their hot and spicy flavours, while the last one is characterised by light, elegant and mildly seasoned foods (George, 2001). According to the National Restaurant Association (1995), customer perceived Chinese cuisine as a great value for the price, good for carryout, rich in flavour and difficult to prepare at home.

Although there a few Chinese restaurant chains operating in the U.S. such as P. F. Chang’s China Bistro and Panda Express, most Chinese restaurant has a Chinese name outside, is decorated with Chinese styled pictures and artifacts, such as Chinese brush landscape paintings red lanterns, offers a menu printed in both Chinese and English, and provides Chinese characterised tableware, such as chopsticks and Chinese restaurants have been facing intense competition among themselves due to fast development and expansion in the U.S., as well as from other emerging Asian restaurants such as Indian, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese ( Jang et al., 2009). Thus, maintaining customer satisfaction and repeat patronage may be more important for Chinese restaurants than ever before.

Chapter: 2 Customer satisfaction and related theories

The topic of “customer satisfaction” has held a significant position in the marketing literature over the decades since satisfied customers can be generate long-term benefits for companies, including customer loyalty and sustained profitability (Homburg et al., 2006). Researchers have explained the mechanism of customer satisfaction with number of distinct theories, such as expectancy-disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1981), contrast theory (Howard and Sheth, 1969), assimilation or cognitive dissonance theory (Anderson, 1973), equity theory (Oliver and Swan, 1989), and value percept theory (Westbrook and Reilly, 1983). Among them, the most widely accepted theory is the expectancy – disconfirmation theory. According to this theory, customers’ satisfaction judgements are the results of comparisons between customers’ expectations and perceived performance. If the perceived performance exceeds the expectation, the expectation is positively disconfirmed and the customer is satisfied. On the contrary, if the perceived performance falls short of the expectation, the expectation is negatively disconfirmed and the customer is dissatisfied. Another influential theory for customer satisfaction is the equity theory. This theory suggests that satisfaction occurs when customers perceived that they have obtained more benefits compared to their cost (e.g. money, time and effort) and perceived value is an appropriate factor in measuring satisfaction (Oliver and Swan, 1989; Yuan and Jang, 2008).

Another commonly used theory, the three factor theory, provides a basic explanation for the structure of customer satisfaction. This theory claims that three independent satisfaction factors influence customer satisfaction in different ways (Kano, 1984; Matzler and Sauerwein, 2002). Basic factors are minimum requirement for satisfaction. Failure to fulfil the minimum requirements causes dissatisfaction, whereas fulfilling or exceeding them does not necessarily lead to satisfaction. Excitement factors increase customer satisfaction if delivered but do not cause dissatisfaction if not delivered. Performance factors lead to satisfaction if performance is high and to dissatisfaction if performance is low (Fuller and Matzler, 2008). This theory has been validated empirical studies (e.g. Fuchs, 2004; Matzler et al., 2006) and could provide an additional perspective for understanding the effects of restaurant attributes on customer satisfaction. Basic factors can be seen as the prerequisites for the satisfaction, signifying that customer take that for granted. Performance factors are a critical competitive area and directly related to customers’ explicit needs and wants. Excitement factors are unexpected by customers, so they can be a “surprise gift” that generates extra delight (Fuller and Matzler, 2008).

Chapter: 3 Behavioural Intentions

Behavioural intention can be defined as the degree to which a person has formulated conscious plans to perform or not perform some specified future behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). According to the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), behavioural intention is the motivational component of a volitional behavioural and is highly correlated with behaviour itself (Jang and Feng, 2007). Although there are still arguments about the level of correlation between behavioural intentions and actual actions, it seems to be generally agreed that behavioural intention is a reasonable variable for predicting future behaviour (Quelette and Wood, 1988). Thus, a good understanding of the determinants of favourable post-dinning behavioural intentions such as saying positive things about the restaurant, recommending the restaurant to others, and repeat purchasing can provide practical guidance for restaurant practitioners.

Another construct that is highly related to behavioural intentions is customer satisfaction. It is regarded as one of the key antecedents of post purchase behavioural intentions because customer satisfaction has a positive effect on the customer’s attitude towards the product or service and can reinforce the customer’s conscious effort to purchase the product or service again in the future (Oliver, 1989, 1999). However, previous studies have also suggested that factors that influence customer satisfaction are not always in accordance with factors influencing customer behavioural intention, for example, Sulek and Hensley (2004) found that food, atmosphere, and fairness of the seating order were all significant predictors of a customer’s overall dining satisfaction, but only food quality predicted post-dining behavioural intention. In examining food quality in restaurants, Namkung and Jang (2007) reported that food temperature had a significant effect on customer satisfaction but no effect on behavioural intention. Conversely, healthy options were a direct determinant of behavioural intentions but did not influence customer satisfaction. Therefore, there is a practical need to investigate the effects of restaurant attributes on both customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Chapter: 4 Factors influencing customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions in restaurants

Reuland et al. (1985) suggested that hospitality services consist of a harmonious mixture of three elements: the material product, the behaviour and attitude of the employees, and the environment. Berry et al. (2002) also proposed three categories of cues that present themselves in the service experience: functional cues (technical quality of service), mechanic cues (nonhuman elements in the service environment) and humanic cues (behaviour of service employees). Based on these propositions, the basic restaurant attributes can be said to be include food, service and environment. Though a literature review of dining satisfaction and behaviour intention, all three basic elements were found to directly or indirectly contribute to customer’s overall satisfaction with a restaurant experience and their post dining behavioural intentions.

Chapter: 5 Food Quality

As the core product of a restaurant, food plays a pivotal role in the restaurant experience. Food quality has been generally accepted as major factor influencing customer satisfaction and post dining behavioural intention. For example, Dube et al. (1994) measured the relative importance of seven restaurant attributes in repeat purchase intention in an upscale restaurant setting and found that food quality was far more important to restaurant customers than all others attributes, Sulek and Hensley (2004) investigated the relative importance of food and physical setting, and service in a full-service restaurant and found that food quality was the most important factor influencing satisfaction and the only factor predicting behavioural intention. Namkung and Jang (2007) evaluated the relationship of individual attributes that constitute food quality (e.g. food presentation, menu variety, healthy options, taste, food freshness and temperature) with customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The findings indicated that food presentation, taste and temperature were significantly related to customer satisfaction whereas food presentation, taste and healthy options (instead of temperature) were significant predictors of behavioural intention. Besides the above- mentioned six individual attributes, “food safety” is also an important cue for evaluating food quality. “Although food-safety defects are not always immediately apparent, customers do tend to notice undercooked food, food with an off taste, or foreign material in their food” (Sulek and Hensley, 2004). Thus, food may serve as the most basic and lowest standard when judging quality.

Service Quality:

In the service literature, perceived service quality is defined as the customer’s judgement of the overall excellence or superiority of the service (Zeithaml, 2008). It is the customer’s subjective evaluation, resulting from a comparison of expectations and perceived performance. SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al, 2008) is the instrument most often used for measuring perceived service quality in the marketing literature. It consists of five service dimension, namely, tangibles (physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel), reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately), and responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence) and empathy (caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers). To adapt SERVQUAL to the restaurant industry, Stevens et al. (2005) modified several items from the original SERVQUAL and developed DINESERV to measure perceived service quality in restaurants. In the restaurant industry, since customers not only evaluate the quality of food but also the service encounters during their dining experience, perceived service quality is seen as another core determinant of customers satisfaction and behavioural intention. For example Kivela et al. (2009) proposed a comprehensive model for dining satisfaction and return patronage. Their study indicated that the probability of return patronage was dependent on customer’s satisfaction with five aspects of a restaurant: first the last impressions, service quality, and ambience quality, food quality and feeling comfortable eating there and reservation and parking. Ladhari et al. (2008) investigated determinants of dining satisfaction and post-dining behavioural intentions, and concluded that perceived service quality influenced customer satisfaction through both positive and negative emotions, Customer satisfaction, in turn, influenced recommendations, customer loyalty and willingness to pay more. Their results suggested that compared with food quality/reliability, physical design and price, service responsiveness was the most important contributor to customer satisfaction.

ATMOSPHERICS

Atmospherics is perceived as the quality of the surroundings space. According to Kotler (2006) it is the conscious designing of space to produce specific emotional effects in buyers that enhance their purchase probability. Atmospherics is made up of a set of elements, such as music, lighting, colour and scent.

Research in environmental psychology has suggested that atmospherics has a powerful impact on people’s emotions, attitude and behaviour. Mehrabian and Russell (2005) first introduced a theoretical model to explain the impact of environmental stimuli on individual behaviour. The model claims that the physical environment could influence people’s emotional response (such as pleasure and arousal), which in turn elicits approach or avoidance behaviour toward the environment. The model has gained consistent support from the numerous empirical studies in different service settings, such as retail stores and hotels (Baker and Cameroon, 2006). In the restaurant context, Ryu and Jang (2007) explored the combined effect of multiple atmospheric variables on behavioural intentions in upscale restaurants. Their findings supported that ambience (example music, aroma, and temperature) and employee appearance had the most important influence n customer’s post dining behavioural intentions.

OTHER FACTORS-PRICE FAIRNESS AND AUTHENCITY

Besides food, service and atmospherics, perceived price fairness could be another factor that influences the customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions (Bei and Chiao, 2007). It is based on consumer internal reference prices, which could be generated by the last price paid, the price most frequently paid and the market prices in similar transactions (Kahneman et al.2006). This principle posits that firms are entitled to a reasonable profit and customers are entitled to a reasonable price. An increase in price is preserved to be fair if it is due to a cost increase. Otherwise, it is preserved to be unfair if the price is increased without any underlying cost increase. Perceived fairness of price is found to be positively related to customer satisfaction and loyalty (Bei and Chiao, 2007), whereas perceived unfairness of price can lead to immediate negative attitudinal and behavioural responses such as dissatisfaction, complaining and switching to other providers (Xia et al. 2005).

Authenticity is an attribute that could be specifically relevant to ethnic restaurants. Authenticity refers to whether the food and ethnic origin. In other words, the environment and cuisines are not adjusted to meet local tastes and customers who are familiar with the culture of the ethnic origin can be judging its authenticity (Ebster and Guist 2006). Compared with Americans restaurants, ethnic restaurants usually make use of ethnic art, decor, music and customers. Some scholars even describe ethnic restaurants as cultural ambassadors of the home country and the dining experience in an ethnic as culinary tourism (Wood and Munoz, 2006).

Summary

Based on the literature review, this study investigated customer perception of Chinese restaurant in terms of food related attributes service related attributes, atmosphere related attributes and other attributes (price and authenticity), and identified the key attributes affecting customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Chapter: 3 Research Method

Introduction:

Methodology is the study of methods and it raises all sorts of philosophical questions about what it is possible for researcher to know and how valid their claims to knowledge might be (Fisher, 2007, p.40) The researcher has to consider the nature of the setting being studied or the ‘question’ being asked, as well as any possible limitations on the study, such as time and resources. Resources may be human being or monetary resources, or research tools such as computers or computer assisted telephone interviewing laboratories. There also needs to be to be a match between the study topic and methodology. For example, a research question that seeks to determine the size of the visiting friends and relatives market in an area would use a quantitative methodology, not a qualitative methodology, because the focus is on quantification.

A methodology is a systematic and orderly approach taken towards the collection and analysis of data so that information can be obtained from those data. Data are raw, specific, undigested and therefore largely meaningless; information, in contrast, is what you get when data have been arranged in such a way that uncertainty is lessened, queries resolved, and questions answered. In the words of Jankowicz (2005, p.220) “Everything you do in your empirical work should be directed to the one end of gathering and presenting data from which information can be easily and simply derived”. Veal (2006, p. 125)

The research approach:

The author will use primary sources in the dissertation. Two interviews will be conducted:

with one member of Dancing Dragon, Teesside (one of manager )

with one regular customer of Dancing Dragon restaurant

The two chosen people one from Dancing Dragon and another from a regular customer of Chinese restaurant. Therefore, that customer will be capable of answering all questions and give new examples. The experience for the author is important because the answers will be based on true stories, examples and theories that are necessary for the dissertation. The interviews will be done by email and telephone, which could give the author an opportunity to gain some extra information if the interview exceeds the prepared questions and some new information will come from the interviews.

Practicality of research:

The interviews are a very good research method and are also practical. The information gained in the process is something new because it is primary source, then from secondary source, which must be checked. Primary source data can help the help to avoid incorrect or approximate information to learn and present further on, there is no need for the author to check it before including it in the dissertation.

Also, Face to face interview can also help the author to conduct the interviews on time. The appointments must be made on time and dates are set, interviewees will not have chance to put off the interviews.

Finally, it is an interesting process for the author. Sitting with a lot of books or magazine articles in the learning centre sometimes does not arise any interest in the author and the creativity in this case is poor, but to go out and to speak with people makes impressive ideas and final work can differ a lot.

Five Codes of Ethics:

The author of this dissertation will comply with five codes of ethics, and they will also be the limitations:

will not collect information in such a way that participants are not aware of it

will explain for what purpose information is required

will choose to interview random individuals and will not exert pressure of any kind on them

will not change information provided by participants

will maintain confidentially at the request of participants

The author will strictly follow the Five Codes of Ethics to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding that could develop between the author and interviewees. It is important to respect the interviewees’ wishes if they have them. It is the best way to say “Thank You” to respect for the time they have devoted and the knowledge for the author.

Methodology:

‘Methodology is the philosophical framework with which the research is conducted or the foundation upon which the research is based. To word it differently, methodology is the rationale for the particular methods you use in your researching and in that type of research in general’ says Berman (2006, p. 12). That means that methodology is needed to provide the author with the means to find the research needed for the written dissertation.

For the purpose of this research, the primary data will consist of two interviews and they will cover all three objectives, first, with one regular customer of ‘Dancing dragon restaurant’ and the second with one member of the Chinese restaurant. The interviews will be conducted through email and telephone , and will be formal. There will be 10 questions. The interviews will give advice from people who have substantial experience in the industry.

Primary and Secondary Data:

Data can be drawn from both primary and secondary sources. A secondary source of information already exists and has been gathered by someone else. Official statistics, previous studies, journal, magazine and newspapers articles are all sources of secondary information, and will be used in the research project for findings, analysis and recommendations.

There are many styles of primary research – experiments, ethnographic research and surveys. Bedford (2006, p.61) defines ‘primary data which comes from the source at the time of the event; it may be a report, newspaper article, film footage, or a live or recorded interview.’ That means that primary

Penang Island or also known by the name of Pearl of the Orient is a small island located in the north-western coast of Peninsular Malaysia covering 285 sq Km and also a narrow strip comprising 760 sq km over on the mainland known as Seberang Perai. . Also known to be a melting pot for culture and religion, Penang has a estimated population of almost 1 million with a healthy mix of all major races in Malaysia with the Malays 32%, the Chinese 59% and the Indians 7%. With the different cultures and religion Penang is rich in heritage and culture which projects as a kaleidoscope of festivals and a variety of celebrations throughout the year (travelmasti,2011). This makes Penang one of the most visited states in Malaysia as a tourism spots. Tourism is considered one of the main mechanism that drives the economy and bringing in better yields for the state.

The history of Penang backdates to as early as the 16th century where Portuguese traders sailing from Goa, India to the Far East in search for spices as well as to replenish their supply of food and water to continue their journey. They then named the island “Pulo Pinaom” which translates as Betel Nut Island. This is because of the abundant supply of areca nut palm trees available. These trees are called Pinang by the local Malays (Tourism Penang, 2010).

It was during the 18th century, when the British took interest in the island to service them as a port for ship repairs and a good source of supply to spice and opium that was considered a lucrative and valuable trade at that time. Penang, whose originally was under the Sultanate of Kedah was then offered by the Sultan of Kedah to the British in exchange for protection against their enemy but did not receive any agreement by the superiors in the East India Company. However, on 11th August 1876, Captain Francis Light in order to secure Penang Island as port for the British, made an agreement with the Sultan of Kedah by agreeing to offer protection to Kedah against their enemy without the consent of the company thus making the agreement null. In 1781, a treaty was signed between the Sultan of Kedah and British whereby, an honorarium of 6000 Spanish dollars per annum will be paid to the Sultan which later changed to 10000 Spanish dollars in exchange for the island which was later renamed as the Prince of Wales Island. This amount is still paid by the Malaysia Federal Government till today. One of the main heritage sites in Penang today is the Fort Cornwallis as it is the site where the Union Jack was raised. The first township was established nearby called Georgetown. Georgetown was mainly made up of four main streets that existed till today such as Beach Street, Light Street, Pitt Street now known as Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and lastly, Chulia Street(Malaysian Explorer, 2008).

Achieving UNESCO Heritage Status

Finally, on 7th July 2008, after 12 long years of assessment after applying, Penang Island has finally achieved its recognition as one of the UNESCO Heritage Status together with the state of Malacca where its uniqueness in architectural and cultural landscape in it towns makes it so special compared to any other places (Malaysian Explorer, 2008) The title has enabled the state to promote to use it as a new branding while boosting the tourism industry and the state’s economy.

In the year of 2008 , Penang has experienced a good year as the state managed to bring in a total amount of 6.3 million tourist based on hotel sources excluding tourist that arrive by arrive by cruises and those staying friends and family compared to the year before with a total number of 5.2 million tourist in the previous year(Penangtourism,2009).This status has enabled Penang to attract enthusiastic travelers around the world by giving them an new option of destination to visit.

The recognition of UNESCO Heritage status is an international acknowledgement that highlights the global significance of that particular area. This is a symbol of honour Penang and great privilege that will able to contribute to its social and economic sector. With the great impact that the status is able to deliver, to be able to be listed in the World Heritage List is therefore, very selective. Attaining this recognition is not a one off award as there are guidelines and responsibilities that have to be followed from time to time in order to maintain the status as it can be revoked. Penang has spend a total of 12 years in order to achieve this recognition which both time consuming and costly to maintain conservation of the sites this the commitment and responsibility to maintain this status should not be handled lightly( Penang Tourism, 2009).

1.3. Contributions

By conducting this study, the Penang tourism board will be able to it measure the interest and trends of travelers that are fast changing as time passes. Demands to visit and learn more about heritage sites are increasing as awareness and appreciation for these sites are instilled into the younger generation which are inherited by the older generation. These heritages are rich with the roots of culture and the achievements that contribute to what Penang is today.

With the world economic down, disaster, climate and possible treats like terrorism people are switching their travelling options to cheaper, safer the offers an equal value for money tourism spots which enhance the shifting of trends towards tourism heritage. This is because tourism has always been one of the most resilient industries in the world despite any given situations (Koehl,2002). With the extra branding heritage status, this offers the best opportunity that offers Penang an extra edge to boost and maximize the benefits to boosts its economy in terms of revenue and employment.( Imons, et al.n.d).

With the given opportunity and resources that is available, it is also

reflects importance of the cooperation and private and government

organizations that cooperate with each other in order to double the effort to

maximize the benefits for both parties. This is because there is a positive

relationship between state, tourism industry, locals and tourist.

Problem Statement

The effort to attain the UNESCO Heritage Site status was not easily obtained within a short period of time but has gone through a series of application and also a strict scrutinizing evaluation process which takes up to 12 years of With the contribution in income and benefits that Penang is able to generate from status of UNESCO Heritage Site, there are several problem statement such as, is Penang able to maintain the status of its “trump card” in the long run as this status can be revoked if not properly maintained according to the criteria and requirement set by the organization itself so that a clear line could be adhered to avoid unwanted development in the core zones within the heritage enclaves.(Penang Economic Monthly,2009)

Cooperation between the state government and the tourism board has to be synchronized and properly planned is important to ensure that development plan for the state does not clash with the conditions and guidelines drafted by UNESCO in order to avoid the heritage status from being revoked.

Proper funds need to be allocated in so that maintenance and restoration jobs can be executed from time to time as restoration process in for these heritage buildings require special labour skills that not many is able to perform and different kind of materials in order to preserve the original style of the buildings. This will result in a higher cost to maintain them thus making fund a vital part in maintaining this status

Research Question

The research question for this research is as follows :

1. Which are the main perspectives that play the main role in attracting tourist to visit

Penang?

2. What are the current interest that tourist are looking for?

3. Are the events organized and held interesting and informative enough for the tourist?

4. How is the quality of services offered by staffs in the places of attraction that are visited?

5. Are the tour packages offered enough to fulfill the demands of the tourist?

6. What is the satisfaction level of tourist towards the heritage sites in Penang?

7. Was Penang able to deliver and offer a money satisfying trip to its tourist?

Chapter 2 – Literature review

As one of the new upcoming heritage tourism sites, armed with the richness and uniqueness of its own heritage compared to other places in the world, Penang has all the opportunity and resources to promote and market its tourism industry globally but in order to succeed, it is important to imply an effective economic framework for any decision making process that is able to help the state government in planning and implementation. This is important as each decision varies as each tourism sector differs from one another as well as the impact of it that reflects differently on the culture, people and the economy of the place. Therefore, a suggestion in extensions of micro economic models such as ecological economics is highly encouraged to cater to the constant changes in trends of tourist demand towards a destination and to enable a certain tourist spot to maintain a sustainable market demand that is crucial to in boosting the economy (Tourism and Hospitality Research,2010).

Tourism is always considered an industry that can be easily affected by a incidents happening around it such as terrorism, epidermis treats, natural disaster and many more but has always maintain as one of the strongest industry that brings in a major role of keeping the revenue coming in. This is because, trends and preference may change from time to time but not reduced. Therefore, it is vital for Penang tourism to keep track of the changes in current trends and demand, recognize the opportunity and implication to the state as a great competitive step in maintaining its sustainability (Bailey,2010)

However, by any means of promoting a certain heritage site as a tourism spot, there are also concerns about the speeding up in deterioration of the sites which means it clashes with the main aim UNESCO’s mission to preserve and conserve the heritage area that is considered a legacy that is handed down by past generations. This is an issue that is a huge concern as heritage sites are places from the past that is irreplaceable and restoration works are costly as it takes special skilled labour and specific materials to maintain its original structure and style (Harrison,2005).

Compared to the past, where heritage sites are rarely heard and received only a small niche of demand my visitors, with the awareness and curiosity of travelers to gain knowledge, heritages sites around the world is fast gaining popularity thus

Title: Festival and Event in sustainability of Tourism: Penang Hot Air Balloon Festival

Tourism is an activity that can have a really huge effect on sustainable development. Sustainability of tourism includes for reaching cooperation between visitor organizations, traveler destinations and national, provincial and local authorities so as to cover a wide group of difficulties and in the meantime to stay focused. Opportunities for sustainable tourism development and protection of its competitiveness, is generally affected by the nature of the earth, to protect and alluring common and cultural heritage and different qualities, merchandise and assets. For sustainable it is viewed as any sort of tourism that contributes forever for the assurance and advancement of the nature, common and different assets, social qualities and respectability of the nearby group.

The study of festivals and events is presently a critical and productive territory of tourism exploration enquiry. Festivals and events have thrived in recent decades and enthusiasm for comprehension their essentialness in the tourism foundation has risen as needs be. A festival is a celebration of life. Festivals convey peace and bliss to the masses. They break the repetitiveness of life. Festivals and events give credibility and uniqueness, particularly with events in view of investment indigenous qualities, helpful neighborliness and moderateness, theming and images for members and observers.

As per Brundtland Commission in our basic Future, 1987, sustainable means addressing the needs of the present without bargaining the capacity of future eras to address their own particular issues. Some individuals characterized “event and festival tourism” as activities, planning, and management practices associated with public, themed events. UNWTO characterizes sustainable tourism as “tourism that makes full note of its present and future financial, social and ecological effects, tending to the needs of guests, the industry, and nature and host groups. Subsequently, sustainable tourism ought to make ideal utilization of natural assets, regard the socio-cultural validness of host groups and give reasonable, long-term financial profits to all. Sustainable tourism development addresses the issues of present tourists and host regions while ensuring and improving opportunities for the future. It is imagined as prompting to administration of all resources in such a route to the point of economic, social and aesthetic needs can be satisfied while keeping up cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support networks, (WTO, 2002e).

Festivals are seen as apparatuses set up advertising and destination image making, and are esteemed for their capacity to animate urban areas, resorts and attractions (Andersson and Getz, 2008:200). The overall public of urban centers facilitating festivals from time to time to determines any vocation opportunities from festival tourism (Janiskee and Drews, 1998). Festivals are being more generous for regional tourism planning activities. It plays various part of significant roles in a town or area. Getz (1997) distinguishes these as “attractions, picture producers, artists of static attractions and impetuses for further advancement.

Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta will give guests a chance to have a great experience. There will be 15 hot air balloons over a 2-day festival and this event is open to all ages from 6am to 9pm at Padang Polo (Polo Ground) with balloon set-up at 7am and free-flying balloon shows that will amazement you at 7:30am. The event is upheld by the Penang state government in collaboration with the Penang Island Municipal Council and the Penang Global Tourism in a joint effort with Tourism Malaysia. This is also the first time that the island is having the Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2015.

Marketing and motivation

In the recent decades, festival and event tourism has been one of the quickest developing segments of the world recreation industry (Getz, 1991; Nicholson & Pearce, 2001), and has gotten expanding consideration by scholarly researches. In addition to commonly targeted topics, for example economic impact, promoting marketing strategies of mega-events, and festival management (Ralston & Hamilton, 1992). There is a developing stream of research concentrating on the inspirations of attendees. It has been concurred that understanding motivations, or the “internal element that arouses, coordinates, and incorporate a person’s behavior” (Iso-Ahola 1980, cited in Crompton & McKay, 1997, p.425), prompts better planning and advertising of festivals and events, and better division of members.

From a tourism point of view, events clearly require audiences. As Faulkner, Chalip, Brown, Jago, March and Woodside (2000) argue, the destination improvement caused by an event is to a great extent driven by the participation it is required to create. Then, as Whitelegg (2000) notes, the effect of mega events on global tourism is identified with their ability to attract worldwide groups. Consequently, the advancement and advertising of events is a key territory of investment, and the inquiry in the matter of what motivates people to go to the events has been an imperative social mental inquiry going back to the early 1990s.

Tourism motivation is conceptualized as an element methodoloy of internal psychological factors (needs and wants) that produce a condition of tension or disequilibrium inside people. The festival’s purposes are two-fold. To begin with, it is to show and honor social custom. The second purpose for the festival is economic. Approximately 1.62 million visits are recorded at festival events.

Is sustainable tourism achievable?

Tourism will never be completely sustainable as every industry has impacts, however it can work towards getting to be more sustainable. Sustainable tourism is about re-focusing and adjusting. A balance must be found in the middle of points, so that continuous changing, checking and planning guarantee that tourism can be overseen. This requires thinking long-term 10 or 20+ years and understanding that change is frequently cumulative, steady and irreversible. Economic, social and ecological aspects of sustainable development must incorporate the interests of all stakeholders including indigenous individuals, local communities, visitors, industry and government.

Events and give various profits to a group and tourism area including expanded appearance and consumption, diminished seasonality, repeat visitation, elevated regional awareness and word of mouth recommendation. They can also give the jolt to extra infrastructure development in the local area and building community pride. Understanding the inspirations of event attendees and event exhibitors is vital in developing an appropriate event or festival that aligns with community values. Potential event attendees and exhibitors may be affected by an extensive variety of elements including substance and topic, area and access, event reputation, perceived quality and value for money, safety and security and support facilities. It is also essential to understand and deal with the effects of events for nearby groups.

Events require physical settings in urban or provincial ranges, in forest, by streams, in open fields and purpose-built amenities. Media scope produced by events helps destinations fabricate certainty and a positive image in the tourism marketplace. Festivals are appealing to groups looking to address issues of urban configuration, local pride and character, heritage, conservation, urban reestablishment, employment generation, investment and financial improvement. There is a developing enthusiasm for the idea that festivals and events represent the host community’s sense of itself and sense of place. The arts and cultural industries, particularly through festivals and special events, can offer something for the tourism sector to endavor experience (Reiss, 1993).

Early Discoveries

In the first issue of “Festival Management & Event Tourism”, two papers (Uysal, Gahan & Martin, 1993; Mohr, Backman, Gahan & Backman, 1993) on South Carolina events were considered as “ a beginning stage for understanding the inspirations individuals have for attending festivals” Scott, 1996, p.122). Utilizing the 1991 Corn Festival as a study case, Utysal et al. decreased arrangement of 24 motivations to five elements.

In the same vein, Mohr et al. (1993) studied a hot air balloon festival and identified a comparable bunch of inspiration subscales, however in an alternative request. Motivations were found to be a capacity of guest sorts. Huge contrasts existed between first time and repeat visitors as for the inspiration measurement of “excitement” and “event curiosity”, and their relating fulfillment levels. In particular, the attendees who never went to other festivals yet were repeat visitors to the hot air balloon festival showed an extraordinary inspiration structure.

Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2015

Without precedent for Penang, a unique experience can be found at the Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. There will be 15 hot air balloons over the two-day festival and they will float against the pleasant background of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of George Town. Other than the impressive hot air balloons, there will likewise be family-friendly activities such as fun inflatable playgrounds, imaginative workshops, photography rivalry and more! Penang is the place that festivities never end and in this year of festivals, the Fabulous February Fiesta sees Thaipusam, the Hot Air Balloon festival where visitors have the capacity to experience floating above strong ground alongside the effectively vigorous Chinese New Year celebrations and Tropfest SEA festival that showcases original short films.

In conjunction with Penang Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, the Penang Hot Air Balloon Fun Run held without precedent for Penang Padang Polo. The run will give members a chance to have a unique experience on running with balloon together witness the hot air balloons take off in Youth Park and Padang Polo. There will be eight local and three international flying balloons and additionally four tethered balloons. This event is open to all ages and will incorporate other side exercises such as fun inflatable playgrounds, imaginative workshops, photography rivalry, kite flying and more.

Problem statement

Nowadays, to be a host for any worldwide tourism event is no more a benefit for certain developing countries. The position is coveted by numerous developing countries in view of the upcoming advantages the country will get toward the end of the day. The accomplishment from facilitating any prominent tourism event will not only make the country proud yet it additionally expands the financial result and exceeds the political effects. Economic factor is one of the critical components in advancing prominent international events as the monetary measurement of event has dependably been connected to economic growth and making new outskirts for the economy.

As what we can see over the previous decade, Malaysia had been developing interest and intensive government investment in tourism industry (Ishak, 2005). However, other than all the positive impacts of facilitating event and festival, there are some negative impacts on the economy that need to be considered.

Why organise a sustainable event?

Organizing sustainable events diminishes their environmental impact, as well as advantage the main factors involved. Such profits include:

Financial advantages – Conserving energy, diminishing waste, purchasing local products and basically expanding less – all can bring out in money saved. In spite of an occasionally higher investment of assets to research new frameworks or put resources into new apparatuses, applying sustainability standards can bring immediate savings (e.g. by printing less material and having less waste to collect). They can likewise have long-term financial benefits, because of the more proficient utilization of assets and simply access to credit lines and sponsors.

Positive reputation and enhanced image – Promoting the way that you are arranging or facilitating a sustainable event will raise the profile of the event, draw in members that are getting to be progressively aware of sustainability issues and potentially connect the media’s consideration. It might likewise be increased in value by the general public as in addition partners and potential contributors.

Social advantages – If arranged and executed precisely, the event can give advantages to the region by creating jobs, empowering neighborhood, including local Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and can advance better meeting expectations conditions and social incorporation. It can also act as a catalyst for empowering ecological and practical best practices over the locale, and also enhancing the relationship between the coordinator and the local community.

Opportunities for International Hot Air Balloon Festival

The possibility to connect with more than 250,000 visitors going to the event more than a four day period.
The huge number of side-events at the festival and throngs of guests to the festival which originate from all walks of makes it conceivable to streamline your organization to its intended interest.
Cost compelling method of connecting with your target market with a substantial return-on-investment (ROI).
The chance to coordinate your organization’s message with visitors’ experience.
The festival gives a gigantic chance to systems administration with different corporations, individuals to take your association on to more prominent statures.
The four-day period of the festival, including two weekend days (Saturday and Sunday) gives the possibility to connect with repeat visitors.
Sponsorship has been ended up being one of the strongest manifestations of publicizing and advertising to customers.
The chance to connect with potential clients directly with the collaboration between your organization and guests at the festival.
The chance to enliven your customers and corporate visitors with frienliness sponsorship bundles.
The chance to showcase and show your product or service to guests.

Sustainability in an event

Sustainability can be characterized numerous ways yet the fundamental thoughts and ideas continue as before: adjusting a developing economy, protection for the nature, and social responsibility, so they together prompt an enhanced personal satisfaction for us and future eras.

Event Location Selection:

At the point when choosing a venue, search for one that has embraced sustainability policies and practices. An area that already is endeavoring efforts that harmonize with your event objectives can just serve to benefit you in attaining to what you need. Identify areas that are easily accessible from public transportation. Event locations that can be accessed by walking; by transport, or train will ease not just the strain on nature caused by car pollution, additionally can be cost beneficial if your venue charges for parking.

Event Materials:

Utilize new media and electronic innovation at whatever point conceivable to eliminate paper utilization. Ideas include making a conference web site; offer electronic registration and confirmations; and promote utilizing the web or email. Be sure to survey which materials will be need for the participant packets. If information must be offered in print format use environmentally sound paper and make sure to print double-sided. Plus, incorporate data about sustainability objectives in the materials. Name identification holders can be reused from event to event. Ask your visitors to give back their name badge holders toward the end of your event and give a container to them.

Waste

Reduce, reuse and recycle as much as you can; your local authority or local community group might have the capacity to help; attempt to enlist a group of green volunteers who will help deal with the recycling during and after the event; verify you have enough bins and do not give them to get too full, otherwise people will just throw their waste into the nearest available container.

At the Venue:

Ask the office to give visible and available diminishment, reuse and recycling services for paper, metal, plastic and glass. Put recycling bins in prominent areas and make declarations during the event reminding your visitors to recycle and direct them to bins. Avoid utilizing dates on signage so that they can be utilized again for different events.

Transport

Encourage people to go to your event by public transport, to walk or cycle. Give a lot of secure bicycle parking and minimal parking for; if outside, you could utilize bike rickshaws for transporting merchandise around the site and consider utilizing local contractors so you are not driving marquees all the way across the country just because it might save you a few quid!

Getting ready for sustainable tourism development really alludes to environment protection planning and in that capacity incorporate a mixture of research activities and analysis before the choice for deciding the direction of the advancement. All these exercises are attempted so as to keep from the intensive utilization of assets in some particular territory, without previous care for the protection of the assets.

An indicated by Hall, sustainable development and the utilized term “conservation” clearly endeavours to review the conflicting quality positions regarding of the environment. The author depicts sustainable development as a “essentially disputed idea”. Sustainable development could be seen uniquely in contrast to everyone, and is effortlessly acknowledged by any group. An indicated by few authors, this idea is seen as the development and intensification of tourism, while others understand this idea as an alternative tourism to the advancement of mass tourism.

Planning and sustainable development can be investigated from two viewpoints, specifically:

In terms of the local community
In terms of the idea of the nature of tourism

The local community must be included in the planning procedure and the development of tourism, particularly when it comes to the advancement of those segments of the tourist community which will bring advantages for the community. Such planning methodology ought to be applied mainly.

We can enhance the sustainability of the event in order to make sure that next time while the event held at Penang, we will get more response from the local people as well as the tourists.

Conclusion

For a traveler destination to be sustainable, among other, it ought to make a solitary personality. You need to have a decent condition for residence which are not in “conflict” with other natural values, to emphasize the uniqueness of their way of life and heritage and depicts its population as very kindly. The extension and significance of tourism unmistakably demonstrates that it is insufficient just to develop new types of alternative tourism, regarding minimizing unfavorable impacts and build positive effects of tourism development. The whole tourism sector must be developed and must be managed with it thus does not destroy the natural and socio-cultural environment, it is a commitment and responsibility of the tourism economy of anywhere in the world.

Sustainable development can only work effectively when four of its constituent components, economic, social, cultural and environmental parts have roughly equivalent significance and strength and conditioning and interconnection without the domination of any part of these components. Sustainable tourism development basically relies on upon the capacity of the environment to guarantee a stable and lasting basis for development.

Pattaya – Sin city!

Sawasdee (Hello in Thai)!

Known for its go-go and beer bars, Pattaya is coastal resort on the coasts of the Gulf of Thailand. It is around 150 km away from Bangkok. Sex tourism is the main attraction here; however this resort city is also visited by local families and travelers from all over the world.

The vast range of hotels and guest houses here make it a popular weekend retreat that offers a wide range of things to do and a myriad of multi cuisine eating options. It is mainly populated by a vibrant fusion of various cultures from all over the world. The family-friendly Jomtien Beachnearby is recommended if the visually raunchy feel of Pattaya does not appeal you.

Best Season to visit Pattaya

November to April are the most favorable months to visit Pattaya. You may look at the cool season between December and March when the humidity is low, the skies are clear and the rain is minimal.

Highlights (Things to Do in Pattaya)

Experience the spectacular transvestite cabaret show at the Tiffany’s Show.
Be enthralled by the structure at The Sanctuary of Truth, made entirely of teak wood and one that is a testimonial to Thai workmanship.
Haggle at the Pattaya Floating Market, an extensive market place functioning entirely on boats and floating structures.
Go around the world in around two hours at the Mini Siam where you have replicas of nearly hundred world famous structures on display here.
Defy your perception at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not, with over 300 exhibits.
Get dunked in water at the world’s largest water fight, during the Songkran or the Thai New Year.
Ride an elephant at the Elephant Village, experience how they are tamed and see demonstrations of training techniques.
Walk down any of the various Street Markets and experience a mix of cultures, cuisine and artifacts being sold there.
Be one among the fishes and sea life at the Underwater World, one of the largest aquariums in Asia.
Get hugged by a Bengal Tiger at the Pattaya Tiger Zoo.
Take a stroll at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden, walk across different landscapes based on different civilizations.
Pray at the Viharnra Sien, a beautiful three story Chinese temple.
Get picked up at Walking Street, probably one of the most (in) famous street in Pattaya, known for the Go Go Bars, discos and Cabaret shows that line the street.

Hotspots of Pattaya

You can check out these places if you are looking at the top Pattaya Tourism places to visit.

Na Kluea

Sanctuary of Truth – This structure has been made totally with teak wood. Even metal nails have not been used to hold it together. With a spiritual view of the ocean, the Sanctuary of Truth is considered to be an unrealistic setting: it seems like a fusion of art, religion and culture. It has four dedicated sections with carvings from the Thai, Chinese, Indian and Khmer origins.

Sattahip

Anek Kusala Sala (Viharn Sien) – Though the official name is Anek Kuson Sala, it is also known known as Vihara Sien because of the Chinese saints housed here. This grand three-storied temple is a place of worship, as well as a museum. It contains over 300 remarkable pieces of Chinese artefact, made of bronze and brass. Buddhist deities can also be found here. This temple was built as a friendship and bonding venture.

Hat Ko Lan – This is a small island around 7km off the coast of Pattaya. Weekends attract the crowds and all five beaches are jam packed.
Khao Phra Tamnak – The best way to find this place would be to look for a giant golden seated Buddha on top of a forested hill. This statue has been here since the time Pattaya used to be a small fishing village.
Tiffany’s Cabaret Show – The only transvestite cabaret show in this part of the world, Tiffany’s show is arguably one of the most recommended tourist destinations here. The show has been going on for over 28 years and has been one of the front runners to contribute the most in the growth of Pattaya as a tourist destination.
Elephant Village – This is a non-profit organization taking care of former working elephants. It is around 7km away from Pattaya. Here you can see training techniques, elephant shows and also go on elephant treks.
Underwater World – Walk through the clear glass tunnels running across the walkthrough aquarium to be mesmerized by the vibrant aquatic life around you.
Pattaya Floating Market – Seen both as an attraction and a place for shopping, the floating market is a culmination of traditions and culture from all corners of Thailand. Traditional Thai food is offered by most merchants here when you visit their shops.
Mimosa Pattaya – It is a new upcoming attraction and shopping area near Pattaya. The place provides a good and beautiful location for relaxation and is also a favorite haunt for photography. You will also find massage centers and cafes around here.
Pattaya Park – A well-known tourist attraction known for its panoramic view which also offers activities to jump off the view point.
Million-Year Stone Park and Crocodile Farm – One of the largest farms housing crocodiles and rare animals like albinos, it is all set among a beautifully landscaped flower and rock garden. You also get to come close and play with the animals here.
Khao Chi Chan – It is a sculpture erected in the honor of his Majesty King Bhumibol during the 50^th anniversary of his ruling. The sitting figure called Pang Man Wichai is over 100 meters high.

Shopping in Pattaya

A favorite pastime among tourists and locals alike, it is easy to go to Pattaya without any luggage, but impossible to leave without extra baggage. You have numerous shopping malls along the beach road and you can get anything under the sun here, from handicrafts and souvenirs, to counterfeit goods and cheap ‘made in china’ clothes.

You can buy literally anything here with some cash and credit cards and at considerably cheaper rates than your home country.

Few of the top areas to shop in Pattaya are:

The Avenue – Known for the best life style and sportswear stores, it also has an 8 screen multiplex and numerous restaurants and eateries.

Royal Garden Plaza – You cannot miss this building because of the red airplane sticking out of the building. It is known for its chain stores eateries and the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum.

Walking Street – with only pedestrian access, this street sells antiques, souvenirs and jewelry. The main attractions here in terms of shopping are the custom tailor shops which would make clothes are cheap rates.

Pattaya Floating Market – This is the place to visit for items that are culturally and traditionally from all corners of Thailand. Buy the local produce or savor the local delicacies at the local merchants,

Street Shopping – It is here that you will get tacky good and beach wear all across Pattaya. You would also get a wide array of goods which could traverse the likes of surf shorts, fake football shirts, flick-knives, bikinis, Buddha statues, ethnic crafts, hardcore porn DVDs, rude T-shirts, and even stun guns and Samurai swords.

How to reach Pattaya

Land –

Bus – You have bus service running between Bangkok and Pattaya all day at regular intervals.
Train – One train travels daily between Bangkok and Pattaya.
Car – Pattaya is just about 150 km from Bangkok and transit time would not exceed two hours. You can rent cars after reaching SuvarnabhumiAirport in Bangkok and head to Pattaya by road.

Air –

U-Tapao-Rayong-Pattaya International Airport – You have good connectivity with major cities in Asia and other parts of the world. You can take mini buses or airport shuttle taxis from the airport to the main city.
Alternatively you can also transit through Suvarnabhumi Airport or the Don Muang Airport, in Bangkok and travel by road to Pattaya.

How to get around in Pattaya

Songthaew – These are the main public mode of transport here. Blue in color and basically pickup trucks converted to buses. They are also called Bhat Buses. Cost varies from 5 to 10 Baht depending on your travel time and destination.
Beach Bus – The Beach Bus basically runs a circular route across the Pattaya coastline. The ticket costs around 30 baht.
Motosai (Motorcycle Taxi) – One of the fastest ways to get around the city is on two wheelers. You can hail them at any of the Motosai Stands scattered around the city or even flag one down that is passing by. Potentially cheaper than Songthaew, however not safe as the drivers are pretty reckless.
Taxi – Even though metered taxis are a common sight around Pattaya, none of them want to go as per the meter. Most of them are from Bangkok who come to drop travelers off to Pattaya and stay back to get a good fare. They are a lot more expensive than Songthaews.
Rentals – You can rent four wheelers and two wheelers all across the city and you also have some of the popular rentals around the world serving here. However be aware of the traffic here as they can get very erratic and confusing.

Top Areas in Pattaya

Central Pattaya – You will find the highest concentration of hotels here. Accommodation is cheap and all places you would like to visit are a stone’s throw from here. But the place can feel congested and claustrophobic for many.

Jomtien Beach – Located around 3kms south of Pattaya, this is one of the cleanest beaches in this region. It is a 6km long beach which has the Beach Road running along the shore. Families prefer this location in Pattaya as it is a bit sobered down when compared to Pattaya Beach. Most of the mid-range accommodation can be found here.

Pattaya Beach – It is a crescent shaped beach, roughly 4km long and has the Beach Road running along with it. Most of the higher end accommodation options can be found around here.

Phra Tamnak Hill – It is a small hill between South Pattaya and Jomtien Beach which provides a spectacular panoramic view of the crescent shaped bay. You can find plenty of mid-range accommodation here.

South Pattaya – You will find a lot of cheap accommodation options here. It lies on the way to Jomtien Beach from Pattaya.

Naklua Beach – If you are looking a clean secluded beach with luxurious accommodation, this is the place to head to. You have a lot of 3, 4 and 5 star hotels around here.

Koh Larn – It is a 4km long island off the coast of Pattaya. It is around 8km away from the mainland and it takes about 40 minutes to reach there. Accommodation around here is cheap.

Khaup Kun (Thank you in Thai)!!

The Caribbean includes the over seven thousand islands. As in most developing countries, the Caribbean is recognised as an area heavily dependent on the tourism industry for economic survival ( Manley 1995 & Jessop 2000) . According to the Caribbean Tourism Statistics, in 2002 the area attracted more than 14 million tourists per year. The main attractions are the beautiful sandy beaches, clean sea and a warm climate; “…the Caribbean has more amazing beaches and sun than you can shake a stick at” (www.lastminute.com) . By looking at both the negative and positive impacts of the developments in the tourism industry in the Caribbean enables a better understanding of the impact on the local communities. Therefore, is it “Paradise on Earth” as promised by tour operators trying to sell holidays to the Caribbean, or merely an image presented to the tourist “…[the] tourist-consumer appears to buy paradise in the travel agency or airline ticket office…”(Strachan, 2002) .

“The Caribbean is a nature lover’s dream, welcoming visitors in search of the wonders of the natural world-creatures plants and landscapes unmatched in diversity and beauty”(www.caribbeantravel.com) . Is this still the truth? According to Barberia (2003) the area’s natural resources attract a large number of tourists, but mass tourism brings environmental damage to the ecosystem, as well as impacting on the economy and it damages the social and cultural environment of the Caribbean islands. The main attraction for visitors are “the 3 S’s”/ This means sun, sea, sand. But in modern world, visitors are seeking something more Nowadays , sex tourism is becoming one of the main constitutions that attracts tourist to the destination. Nowadays, tourism to the Caribbean islands has become mass tourism ( Archer & Davies 2007).

As in many developing countries, tourism to the Caribbean offers some advantages to the area, including reducing the level of poverty in the area by providing job opportunities for the local community, generating income which leads to economic growth (Palmer 1993) . However, tourism not only provides direct jobs through accommodation, hospitality, transport, shops and casinos. Tourism also helps support investment in the local infrastructure including; medical centres, new roads, utilities as well as other shopping facilities. It is also a main source of government revenue through the taxing of goods and services (Bryan 2001). The World Tourism Organisation (2001) believes that in 2012 the tourism industry created around 3 million jobs in Caribbean.

On the other hand, the economy in the Caribbean was traditionally dependent on agriculture. The sugar crop industry was the leading industry, followed by banana, coffee, cocoa, rice and citrus. However, in recent times the Caribbean has become heavily dependent on the tourism industry (Steinberg 1978). It has been argued that the locals prefer working in the tourism industry rather than in difficult, low paying, traditional work in fishing or agriculture. An extract from the Pattullo (1996) book describes this scenario “…working in de hotel in de harbour last year, even though man getting paid really bad wage I at least know dat each week I gonna get dollar for pay for food and thing.” The young man here is explaining that, for him, there is better work available in the tourism industry. Even though he earns a small amount of money there is greater uncertainty working in agriculture or fishing (Pattullo 1996,p 55). Moreover, it has been suggested that most local people living in poverty look “exotic and different” to wealthy visitors, in many cases visitors treating the locals as slaves. It has been hard for Caribbean people to escape from the feelings of injustice that were instigated by slavery and the experiences of poverty after slavery. Tourism is still being seen as an extension of this system of slavery, with the locals there for the visitor’s luxury, amusement and comfort (Bryan 2001). According to this view, locals are there to serve the wealthy clients and are in effect still being treated as slaves. Their tourism industry is largely controlled by white people with the local black population employed in a service capacity for minimal remuneration (Miller 2006, p 39) . The low level of education in the area does not give equal opportunity for the indigenous staff to secure jobs in highly skilled, high paid jobs (Goodwin, 2008) .

Nowadays, some of the visitors come to the Caribbean not only for the “3S’s” but also for another “S”; sex tourism. Sex tourism involves the prostitution of men and women and sex trafficking of young people and children. It has been suggested that this has had a damaging effect on the local community (Bryan 2001). Moreover, it has created a negative image of local women – who are not prostitutes, but whose service includes cleaning rooms, washing cloth and sex (Sanchez-Taylor & O’Connell 1998/1999,p 1). Adverts from major tour operators construct an image of the Caribbean that suggests “… a dream Caribbean holiday has it all and more”( http://www.directline-holidays.co.uk) however, the popularity of ‘sex tourism’ has succeeded in increasing the number of sexually transmitted diseases – such as HIV, and Hepatitis, within the local communities. The number of sexually transmitted diseases is steadily increasing each year , with the current estimate of HIV cases alone believed to be between 500,000 and 700,000. Ironically, sex tourism has put at huge risk, not only the locals and the visitors, but their tourism industry as a whole, which could have a damning impact on the island’s major source of revenue. In Jamaica, where the economy is in decline, and with the country increasingly relying on income from tourism, not only for the obvious benefits, but also for the prostitution of men and women who see this as the only way to earn money to survive (UNAIDS ,2001) .

The large volume of tourism in the Caribbean is mostly generated by two areas, all-inclusive and cruise tourism (Duval 2004, p10).The all- inclusive vacation is the easiest way to control guests’ experience and their expenditure, Controlling what to eat, drink, entertainment and what to buy, whilst conveniently preventing them from sharing in the culture of the natives living on the islands, and their hardships. Tourists spend most of their money before coming to Caribbean i.e. “The traveller is buying into the resort and its image, not the location”.(Henthorne & Miller 2003, p 8) Is this of benefit to the local community? Most resorts are owned by multinational corporations, and so the money usually doesn’t remain within the locally economy. The food and beverages are imported and only low paid jobs are provides for locals is benefit community . On the other hand, some of the local natural resources are no longer accessible as well as some areas on which locals have traditionally depended for their livelihood, entertainment and work. Moreover, the community has suffered from water shortages during the dry season partly as a result of water provided to hotels and resorts (Bayer & Lynch 2006,p 8) . When coastal tourism started to grow, extensive damage was done to sand dunes and lagoons resulting in the deaths of various species of animals and fish. Jamaica has the highest number of animal and plant species which are under the threat of disappearance in Caribbean. The Caribbean has become the largest destination for cruise tourism in the world. According to Wood (2004), cruise tourism amounted to only 12 percent of all tourism spending in the Caribbean in 2000. Caribbean communities get the smallest economic benefits from cruise tourism. Governments of some countries in the Caribbean, in order to attract a large number of cruise ships to the port destinations, have been competing to relax the environmental standards. As with all inclusive resorts, the cruise ships are largely owned by foreign companies, exploiting the local work force, and it could be argued, not reinvesting the profits into the local economy. Also, the ‘cruise’ industry has had a major environmental impact on the coastal waters, and marine life. Ships dump waste into the ocean, destroying coral reef ecosystems (Wood, 2000) scuba drivers and snorkelers are damaging coral reefs through repeated excessive contact, as well as the locals who remove the corals to sell it as tourist souvenirs in a desperate attempt to escape the extreme poverty accentuated by the tourist trade.

Conclusion

In revision of all the negative and positive impacts raised in this essay, I conclude that tourism cannot solely destroy the Caribbean sun, the beaches and water, but ironically, it can drastically reduce and eventually destroy this wonderful habitat, the very thing that brings the tourists to the Caribbean in the first place. Most tourists search out the area for typical reasons: beaches, landscape and climate, they are looking for “a holiday of a lifetime” experience , to visit a real live paradise, without totally comprehending the effects on the local environment.

It could be argued that the image of this paradise was in fact created by tour operators, in an attempt to increase the number of visitors (and their profits!). With the increased availability of cheaper air travel over the last decade or so, there is now a growing demand for people wanting to honeymoon, and even marry in this paradise-like region of the world, a”…blue water paradise, there are abundant islands offering pristine beaches, all types of water activities, green landscapes and awesome sunsets to set that romantic mood for two.” (http://www.honeymoonersreviewguide.com/caribbean/)

“The tourist/consumer appears to buy paradise in travel agents…,but actually, this traveller has purchased only the promise of “paradise”: the collection of ideas, the myth…”( sited on presentation, appendix 1). Each person has a different view of paradise: some look for a few weeks of luxury, to be waited on hand and foot, to experience a different way of life, to escape from the stresses of home. Other visitors associate the Caribbean with sex and/or romance, where the abject poverty present, again allows the ‘affluent’ to have every whim catered to. However, most tourists have a limited view of these islands: all they see is the airport, the ports, the hotels, the beaches and sights, often never even leaving the hotel complex. This short sighted vision of the region helps attract tourism to the island, giving the perfect holiday experience for them but at the same time damage environments and having a negative impact on life within the local community. The real life and experiences of locals and all their problems are conveniently hidden behind “the hedges” of these all- inclusive resorts.(Henthorne &Miller 2003)

Tourism has a predisposition to be more negative than positive when used as the single or most important, chain for development and when taken out of the hands of the local people who are most impacted. As with most third world destinations, the Caribbean is, at this time experiencing many of the negative side effects of the tourism trade. The paradise that exists in holiday brochures and in visitors’ observations of the Caribbean could become a hell for the local community if there is not a suitable reinvestment of tourist cash put back into improving the infrastructure within these idyllic islands . The sustainability in tourism development has to be ensured for the future benefits of the Caribbean, and it’s peoples and become a true “paradise on Earth” and not only in image.

Pakistan is a good place for tourism as it has the most appealing and breathtaking views of mountains, plateaus and deserts. It has the high potential to attract a large number of foreign tourists, along with that, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) had set up 27 motels and 3 restaurants for the convienience of these foreign tourists, PTDC need to intensify their marketing ability in order to attract tourists from countries like, China, Middle East Korea, Japan, and many other countries. Moreover Pakistan government need to take certain actions, in order to promote and acknowledge Tourism in Pakistan, as doing so will not only benefit us financially but will also bring unity, compatibility and harmony among nations. Moreover government also need to encourage private sector to develop tourism-friendly environment which will result in financial stability.

Source: PTDC page on mountaineering, http://www.tourism.gov.pk/mountain.html

Research methodology:

Most of the data obtained for this research will come secondary sources including book, internet, magazine etc but to increase the accuracy of information I will conduct primary research to validate my results from secondary data .

Primary research for this assignment was conducted through a telephonic interview with people who are influence by the tourists. I have taken a sample size of 30 people who belong to different places but have one thing in common and that is they have interest in tourism in Pakistan.

The sample selected [people who are either potential customer for tourism in Pakistan ir those who belong to promote tourism in Pakistan together with those who earn their living by providing service to foreign tourist.

Following are the few questions which I have ask to these people in order to gather the data for my research.

How are conditions in Pakistan for foreign tourists

Do Pakistan has got enough place for foreign tourist to visit.

How is security situation across the country

What place would you suggest to foreign tourist to visit

Do government of Pakistan taking enough steps to promote tourism

Do people of Pakistan welcome tourist in their country

In response to first question 70% of people interviewed responded that conditions in Pakistan are good enough to tourist. The condition include security situation but also include infrastructure road network and other conditions while the raining 30% were quall divide for example 15% said conational Pakistan are not favourable for foreign tourist while remaining 15% said they were not really sure.

Out of the total sample I have selected 90% people do believe that Pakistan has enough place for many tourist to see and therefore had the other issue such security etc resolve Pakistan has much to offer foreign tourist while 10% people were not sure if Pakistan had enough place to offer to foreign tourist.

In response to question of security conditions most people who were outside the Pakistan believe that Pakistan is not very secure country for foreign tourist and that accounted for the 80% of them while remaining 20% whom majority were Pakistanis in United Kingdom believe that Pakistan is though affected by terrorism and other issue but still security conditions in the country are satisfactory enough for the foreign tourist. While remaining people who were inside the country and when whether foreign tourist should Pakistan without risking their security have replied positively.

When I ask on few places that people know should be interesting for tourist many people replied by pointing out historical place such Taxila, Mohn Jo daro to sea beeches of Karachi and beautiful natural place in Gilgit-Bilistan. But sadly people who were outside the Pakistan were not really sure the famous places to visit in Pakistan.

In response to the question of whether government of Pakistan is promoting tourism in Pakistan whether it’s domestic tourism or foreign. Almost 70% of people said that government of Pakistan should do more and is not doing enough to promote positive image of the country. While remaining 30% were not sure about the government action to promote tourism.

When I ask the question whether Pakistani people welcome tourist almost 90% agree that Pakistani people do welcome tourist either they are coming from other part of the country or from the other of the world.

Tourism in Pakistan

Due to its diverse culture, people and landscape, Tourism is growing industry in Pakistan, even after considered as one of the most dangerous country in the world, According to British Magazine “The Economist”. In Pakistan there are number of varieties of attraction that ranges from the ruins of ancient civilization such as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Taxila, to the Himalayan hill-stations that attract those interested in field and winter sports. Moreover, Pakistan has several mountain peaks of height over 8,000 metres (26,250 ft), that attract adventurers and mountaineers from around the world, especially to K2. Many domestic and International tourists visit these areas most often in the month starting from April to September. Tourism has become the source of income for local people.

In 2009, Pakistan was ranked 113 out of 130 countries to visit, According to the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR). Although due to Political instability, suicide attacks, religious conflict, kidnapping of foreigner and uncertainty in the country had badly affected the Tourism throughout the country, especially NWFP, which is currently renamed as Pakhtoonkhwa.

Source:

Eco tourism:

For decades, Ecotourism has become the significant part of the tourism business in Pakistan, as it has offered much tremendous experience along with the stunning mountains of NWFP, attracting number of tourists all over the world for hiking, skating, forest camping, climbing, and exploring the region’s natural parks and forests. Pakistan ecotourism destination is unforgettable for those who have ever visited it.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

Especially, Swat, Huns, Aruba, Abbott bad, Murfree, Narran and Kahn have yet been known as the ideal tourists spot for both summer and winter season. The snow-peaked mountains, the natural parks and the wildlife in the forests offered a thrilling experience especially for the one who is in search of adventure.

The natural beauty of this mountainous scenery has attracted number of tourists generating vital jobs for local people in the hospitality-related businesses. Moreover the Swat valley alone – known as the “Switzerland of the East” – has become the centre for 800 hotels. Over 40,000 local people Pakistan employed directly in hospitality.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

Impact of war on tourism in Pakistan:

Over the past decade, and especially since 2007, the rapid spread of terrorism have not only created uncertainty in the country but also crushed the major sector of economy that causes unemployment, Suicide bombing has become common in everywhere likewise, in shops, markets, public places, business centres and institutes. War and conflict is not limited to a particular city. Its effect is everywhere, anybody can be victim of it.

Due to fight between military and religious forces, the NWFP- which is considered 70% of the country’s tourists site, and where millions of people involved in the tourism industry are badly beaten. Continuous war and terror has weaken both the economy and defence of the area.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/tellis_pakistan_final.pdf

Due to worst security situation and many of the popular location are converted into war zones, hardly few travellers now visit Pakistan. Although after 9/11 attack in USA, there was a slow decline of tourists in Pakistan but the recent military operations and suicide attacks have been the last nail in the smashing of tourism industry.

Since the initiation of the major religious and military offensive, the earning that comes from tourism has been declining dramatically. From Rs 16 billion in 2007, revenues halved in 2008, with a further major fall in 2009. The industry is now facing a $50 million annual loss as a result of the military operations.

The hospitality business had experienced a major fall of 40% in room occupancy countrywide. Moreover in NWFP, the insurgency has caused the shutdown of tourist industry. From the last three years the hotels have been closed while the industry has lost of Rs 600 billion. Moreover the transport industry is also going through tough times. Due to huge job losses in tourism and other related industry, majority of the people have migrated to other cities in the search of employment.

Moreover the revenue that was generated from tourism has been declined by 11.8% in 2008, while 12% in 2009. The average family involved in tourism business used to earn around 40,000 per mouth and soon after war their earning has dropped to 5000/ month.

With more than 25,000 people killed and more than a million displaced in the past year, planned hotel projects have been put on hold. The number of mountain climbers and foreign trekkers has reached zero. Barbarism and bloodshed now run rampant in places which once offered peace and tranquillity. No-one would dream of visiting these places for pleasure now.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/tellis_pakistan_final.pdf

Moreover adding to the crises faced by these shattered tourism industry, the federal budget has also been cut by 36 percent for 2010-2011 comparatively with the previous year. The only project this year will be to reconstruction and renovation of existing buildings. There isn’t any scheme introduced in order to help overcome terrorism.

With the Pakistani political leadership appears to unaware of the real potential of industry, that show little or no prospect in the coming years of tourism attaining momentum that it lost. With the whole industry standing on the boundary of collapse the future looks blank for Pakistan most spectacularly beautiful locations.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/tellis_pakistan_final.pdf

Pakistan strategy to control extremism:

In the eighth year of the global war on terror, the international community has realized that it is a war of ideas that cannot be won through force. Eventually Pakistan sees that countries today have adopted unique approaches towards deradicalization according to the requirements of their cultural, political situation, and social specification. The aim of these practicing deradicalization programmes in Middle East and South East Asia, at a collective level, is to change the worldview of the affected persons. Private sectors or at some places government and private sectors together adopted the approach of ‘rehabilitation and re-education of the detainees’.

The reason behind the failing of war on terror on both sides of Pak-Afghan border has also some structural causes such as refusal of Taliban from Afghan government, public perception of Pakistan’s policies as a key US ally, use of force as a priority option, continued US drone attacks, denial of any relief and transitional justice to the victims of military operation, issue of Afghan refugees, and lack of trust between US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There is a strong tie between lack of human security and terrorism. Rise in extremism can lead to human insecurity and vice versa. Since independence, government of particular south Asian states have not been providing their people with minimum security. Governments and ruling classes, instead of focusing on dealing with the issues of human survival and development, embarked upon perpetuating their poPakistanr and influence. Subsequently, no South Asian country has been able to free itself from discriminatory and exploitative policies, which led to increased insecurity and to the rising number of communal and terrorist outfits. Even after the problem these outfits have made, no serious action has been taken by the government or civil society in order to diminish rise in extremist trend at the initial stage. All of the regional states are facing the menace of extremism and terrorism in one or other form.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Analyst_Defeating_Extremism_In_Pakistan_Requires_Regional_Strategy/1368724.html

Currently south Asian region are facing serious security threat which is due to increment of terrorism and extremism. There are various factors that have led towards this situation.

The politics of violence and extremism in South Asia is mainly the result of faulty national policies and interference of external powers. The region’s vast potential is hostage to unresolved inter-state and intra-state conflicts. In most of the states, the governments (either democratic or military) have failed in providing good governance and solving social problems such as unemployment, social injustice, and poverty. The political culture in these states was unable to meet the imperatives of globalization. In addition, instead of promoting unity and integration (both at national and regional levels) it led to ethnic solidarities and identification with religion and culture.

Source : http://www.cssforum.com.pk/general/news-articles/articles/26177-causes-extremism-south-asia-pakistan.html

How tourism situation could improve in Pakistan

The tourism sector is being overlooked by the successive governments and quite tiny amount is allocated in Public Sector Development Programme that hardly caters for it demands. At global level, Pakistan is wrongly projected in the media and tourists are advised not to visit this south Asian country, which offer four-season tourism opportunities.

Security is just not only the issue that has haunt the terrorism but there are also some other factors involved which add to woes of this multibillion dollar trade the world over. These factors involve like,

Moreover, Lack of infrastructure, facilities to the tourists, transport, discouraging response from officials circles etc are also some of the areas that are need to be improved.`

Until and unless take this (tourism) industry on priority basis, Pakistan are not going to see it flourishing. Pakistan also needs to put in maximum resource in our tourism sector.

Pakistan has very diverse and rich culture to offer tourist together with lots of opportunity for adventure tourism as the four provinces and three territories of Pakistan are very diverse and so different that it doesn’t look like to foreign tourist that they are in same country with different culture, attractions and different seasons.

Pakistan should improve the image of country by first of improving security situation in order to convince foreign tourist that they are safe in the country because in the past the incident like kidnapping of American journalist and attack on srilankan team together with bomb blast in big cities of the country lead to a feeling among the west that Pakistan is not a safe country which is main cause of declining tourism in the country especially tourist from western countries are reluctant to visit Pakistan because of the fear that country is not safe enough.

Together with these measure Pakistan need to improve its image by promoting itself on various platforms around the world and together promoting hospitality industry through giving them incentives, Pakistan can catch significant number of tourist looking for adventurism or natural beauty visit Pakistan and contribute significant revenue for the government of the country while providing employment to big number of its population.

Security situation for tourist in Pakistan:

Pakistan have got a number of places where tourist can visit and these places are safe and secure especially the southern part of Pakistan is very much safe together with northern areas like gilgit and biltistan which are very beautiful and well received by tourist that even though when war on terror going on bu the tourism in northern areas is increasing and every more and more foreign tourist are visiting these areas. The mountain there are very clean and beautiful which catch the attention tourist and that s the prime reason why many people who visited Pakistan will be able to tell you that how beautiful the place which is though not very promote but well received by people around the world.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

Every year thousands fo people from the countries such India and china are coming to see the Pakistan and they came here andseee the country hwile goi ng back they told their families and friends about the country which is not told on media.every Pakistan receive a grea t number of adventure tourist who came here because they believe that Pakistan is safe when they return with positive experience they act as advertisement for the country.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

The people of Pakistan are welcoming and they give respect to visitors and greet them, show them local custome anad tribal way of doing things which tourist find attractive and interesting.

For the adventure tourist especially Pakistan is very good place, as in Pakistan there are huge mountains like the eastern Himalaya and other, these mountain have a height of over 8000 metres and are longest chain of mountain where people can do tracking, exploration, or anything in this beautiful area.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

Pakistan is unique ! Situated in the heart of the South Asian sub-continent, it is a country with its own history and cultural heritage, fascinating in its own right. Pakistan was the site for one of the world’s earliest human settlements, the great prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization, the crucible of ancient empires, religions and cultures.

The land of Pakistan ranges from lofty mountains in the north, the Karakoram and the Himalayas, through dissected plateaus to the rich alluvial plains of the Punjab. Then follows desolate barrenness of Baluchistan and the hot, dry deserts of Sind blending into miles and miles of golden beaches of Makran coast. Come and Explore the Treasures of Pakistan with us. A visitor to Pakistan is more than a tourist – to us he is an honoured guest.

Competitive advantage of Pakistan over other countries:

In order to compete in this environment every country in the competition to catch tourist have to offer competitive advantage which is the things that country can do best. The possession of competitive advantage is in itself is not enough but countries like industries to communicate it to potential tourist in rest of the world. The basis of competitive is always lie in the resources of the country with prime important is the way that country use these resource in order to get competitive advantage and also with the fact that the resource which formed the basis of competitive advantage are of sufficient quantity and quality. The three major resources for country are financial resource, physical and human resource . While these resource of financial human and other physical are in economics refer as land, labour and capital with the basic skills entrepreneurship.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/pakistan/images/badshahi-mosque-pakistan$24057-10

It’s a open secret that northern areas of the country are very rich for attracting the potential tourist where the natural beautify of landscape with their traditional cultural heritage have made a heaven for eco tourist especially. But sadly those northern areas of the country are not very well developed and considered by government and therefore are not very well protected and their natural beauty with their unique cultural heritage couldn’t effectively conserved by government of Pakistan till today.

Though when considering adventure tourism we think about Nepal and other countries located in the region but Pakistan has enough to offer in adventure tourism such as five out of fourteen mountain peaks of K2 are situated in the Pakistan where there height reach to as much high as 8000 meter and together with this some of the largest glaciers are situated within the territory of gilgit-bilistan as these are largest glaciers outside the polar region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgit-Baltistan

Mohenjo-Daro was a city located in the south of Modern Pakistan in the Sind Province, on the right bank of the Indus River. It was built between four and five thousand years ago, and lasted until 3,700 BP. It was part of the Harrapan Civilization, and the city had at least 35,000 residents. Mohenjo-Daro means “mound of the dead”. The city was approximately one square mile in size. In 1922-1927 large scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro Pakistanre carried out by R. D. Banarjee and continued by M. S. Vats and K. N. Dikshit under the direction of Sir John Marshall. E. J. H. MacKay carried out further excavations from 1927 to1931. Sir Mortimer Wheeler made small excavations in1950.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

In Balochistan there are many caves for cavers and tourists to visit especially the Juniper Shaft Cave, the Murghagull Gharra cave, Mughall saa cave, and Pakistan’s naturally decorated cave, the Mango her Cave. Pakistan is a member country of the Union International de Speleologie (UIS).

The northern parts of Pakistan are home to several historical fortresses, toPakistanrs and other architecture including the Huns and Chitral valleys, the latter being home to the Kalash, a small pre-Islamic Animist community.[Punjab is also the site of Alexander’s battle on the Jhelum River. The historic city of Lahore is considered Pakistan’s cultural centre and has many examples of Mughal architecture such as the Badshahi Masjid, Shalimar Gardens, Tomb of Jahangir and the Lahore Fort. The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) also helps promote tourism in the country. HoPakistanver, tourism is still limited because of the lack of proper infrastructure and the worsening security situation in the country. The recent militancy in Pakistan’s scenic sites, including Swat in Khyber Parkton Kawa province, have dealt a massive blow to the tourism industry. Many of the troubles in these tourist destinations are also blamed on the frail travel network, tourism regulatory framework, and low prioritization of the tourism industry by the government, low effectiveness of marketing and a constricted tourism perception. After these areas Pakistanre being cleared off the militant groups in late 2009, the government, with financial support from the USAID, started a campaign to reintroduce tourism in Swat valley. Pakistan receives 500,000 tourists annually, with almost half of them heading to northern Pakistan

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

Strategies to improve tourism in Pakistan:

1. Safety

2. Emergency evacuations

3. Easy bookings of hotels and resorts, train and air services, cabs etc.

Tourism is, in the current period, one of the areas that can provide regional and country, a profitable and economic development. Natural and anthropogenic potential which Romania has is necessary to be properly exploited, providing promotion and development of investment programs, able to attract a large number of tourists. The project is presenting a series of specific mountain tourism development through investment programs focused on strategic quality tourism services and protect the natural environment.

Airports are the gateway to the country. Facilities and handling provided at the

International airports from a lasting impression on the foreign tourist. Our airports suffer from a number of drawbacks despite the vast improvements undertaken in recent years.

Sufficient attention has not been paid to the periodic training and education of personnel involved in handling immigration, security and health checks. Personnel at the airports would be encouraged to learn at least one foreign language. Suitable financial incentive will be provided for this purpose. Facilitation counters located in the immigration area will be manned by the personal of PTDC. Accredited representatives of recognized travel agencies would be given identity cards valid up to airline and immigration counters.

Baggage handling and clearance system should be improved.

The tour operators will arrange insurance cover for the tourist groups handled by them. The existing requirement of police registration and restriction of movement of foreigners would be removed except where specifically required under security considerations. Most tourists visiting Pakistan require visas, which are issued by Pakistani Embassies or High Commissions in other countries. While implementation is satisfactory, visas are an irritant to tourism and add to the cost of a holiday. Visas for nationals from some neighbouring states include considerable restrictions, which puts significant limitations on the development of regional tourism.

However, as a part of its policy to facilitate tourism, the government has recently eased restrictions on visas.

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.pk/travel_guide.html

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation maintains 21 Tourist Information

Centres at various sites across the country; in addition, there are information offices

Operated by provincial tourism authorities. However, the standard of service offered invariable and a rationalization of all centres is required, with staff training in foreign languages and customer relations. High-tech Tourist Information Centres of the kind available at Karachi International Airport, with e-mail, fax, and website facilities need to be established at the other major airports and city centres.

A website of 1500 pages showing Pakistanis scenic tourist sites and cultural heritage has recently been launched which will greatly enhance awareness both nationally and internationally.

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.pk/travel_guide.html

There are approximately 41 tour operators in Pakistan that provide destination

Management services for domestic and foreign tourists. As their services are critical to the development of international tourism, they need to be treated as a primary sub-sector and supported accordingly.

Several areas of regulation impact negatively on tourism, such as the forbidden

Photography of bridges and airports, and restricted zones where trekkers require special permission to enter. These restricted areas could be limited and perhaps renamed permit zones. Tribal leaders may be involved in the development of tourism activities in their areas.

Although Pakistan possesses world-class tourist attractions, the international tourist

Potential of areas such as the Swat Valley has been considerably reduced because of the lack of planning regulations, over-development and environmental degradation. Due to lack of co-ordination between the tourism industry and authorities in charge of natural, historical or religious sites, the tourism potential of such sites is not fully realized.

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.pk/travel_guide.html

Conclusion:

It’s the only industry, which needed more and more exploration’ (Zamar Sheikh)

Pakistan is a major tourist attraction because it is blessed with natural beauty and

Historical places that can yield huge foreign exchange if properly and methodically

Exploited. Tourism could become foreign exchange earning industry for the country.

Though Pakistan, has lately taken initiative but still there is dire need of tireless efforts to exploit this sector and to add more dimensions to attract the tourists.

No proper attention was paid to harness the God gifted opportunity to earn more and

More foreign tourists and foreign exchange which would open up new vistas of

Employment in the tourism sector. Moreover the tourists may find and explore the market of their interest in Pakistan.

Involvement of private sector was important to give boost to tourism. Private sector

Should be given not only tax exemption but they also should be provided with vast

Opportunities to invest and they must be facilitated also in terms of money; a network of five stars hotels and motels should be constructed at all tourists’ spots and tourist

Operators may be provided necessary facilities, which on the one hand helped reduce unemployment while on the other harness foreign exchange.

Private sector should take initiative to develop and exploit all tourist attraction and

Historical location in the province, which unfortunately, has suffered due to negative

Concept about its law and order.

Good hotel industry acceptable to the international standards would give boost to the

Tourist industry, which has suffered because of a number of reasons and one of them, was lack of proper accommodation for local as well as foreign tourists. At present there are about 4000 to 4500 rooms available in five star hotels throughout Pakistan, which were insufficient to the demand.

There are problems n Pakistan which prevent this country from attracting its due share of international tourist and therefore to attract the tourist and to boost economy the government of Pakistan have to take serious measure to prevent threat of security to tourist together Pakistan need to promote itself as tourist destination at international forums but these both measure are equally important .

The most important aspect security concern of tourist and therefore without taking proper measures to avoid security threat of security. the government of Pakistan should be conscious and careful when people visit this country and must show them how humble and welcoming they are and how interested people in Pakistan are to greet the foreign tourist as well as local tourist alike. Pakistan has truly potential for being a hot tourist spot in region especially for adventure tourism and eco tourism its potential is not unseen but need of the hour is promote itself and to reduce the concerns tourists.

Marriott International, Inc.is a worldwide operator and franchisor of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company is now led by son J.W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr. Today, Marriott International has about 3,150 lodging properties located in the United States and 67 other countries and territories.

Marriott International was formed in 1992 when Marriott Corporation split into two companies, Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation.

In 2002 Marriott International began a major restructuring by spinning off many Senior Living Services Communities (which is now part of Sunrise Senior Living) and Marriott Distribution Services, so that it could focus on hotel ownership and management. The changes were completed in 2003.

In April 1995, Marriott International acquired a 49% interest in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC. Marriott International owned Ramada International Hotels & Resorts until its sale on September 15, 2004 to Cendant. It is the first hotel chain to serve food that is completely free of Tran’s fats at all of its North American properties.

In 2005, Marriott International and Marriott Vacation Club International comprised two of the 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.

On July 19, 2006, Marriott announced that all lodging buildings they operate in the United States and Canada would become non-smoking beginning September 2006. “The new policy includes all guest rooms, restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public space and employee work areas.”

Marriott International announced today the signing of four additional hotels for its portfolio in India, bringing the total to 29 properties now under construction or in planning in India. When all are opened by the end of 2013, Marriott International will have 40 hotels under management in the country; today, Marriott manages 11 hotels in India represented by five brands

Marriott International will introduce its moderately-priced Courtyard by Marriott brand in Vietnam, under a management agreement announced today with CY – Ham Tan Resort Limited Company. When opened in 2012, the property will be the first high-quality, internationally-branded mid-tier hotel in the area.

ORGANIZATION CULTURE:

Handy suggests that we can classify organisations into a broad range of four cultures. The formation of ‘culture’ will depend upon a whole host of factors including company history, ownership, organisation structure, technology, critical business incidents and environment, etc.

The four cultures he discusses are Power’, ‘Role’, ‘Task’ and ‘People’. The purpose of the analysis is to assess the degree to which the predominant culture reflects the real needs and constraints of the organisation.

Strong Culture

“Culture is the life-thread and glue that links our past, present, and future.” – J.W. Marriott, Jr.

Fair treatment of associates and to providing advancement opportunities

“Do Whatever it Takes to Take Care of the Customer”

Actively supports community and volunteerism

Pay extraordinary attention to detail

Creativity

Pride in their physical surroundings

Our people are the most important asset

Environment that supports associate growth & personal development

Reputation of employing caring, dependable associates, who are ethical and trustworthy

Home-like atmosphere

Performance-reward system

Pride in name, accomplishments, & success

“Courtyard is a very popular brand in India and is expanding rapidly,” said Rajeev Menon, area vice president for India, Pakistan, the Maldives and Malaysia. “It offers excellent value in the mid-tier market that is currently underserved. The hotels adapt well to the lifestyle needs of both its domestic and international guests.”

COMPARISON WITH HOTEL INDUSTRY:

In the world of hospitality the customer reigns supreme. In order to remain competitive it is essential for hoteliers not only to meet consumer expectations, but also to exceed them. Hilton International – the hotel part of The Hilton Group plc that also includes betting and gaming, and Living Well Fitness Centers – realized that in order to deliver the quality service associated with the brand, it needed to invest in the training and development of staff who are essential to ensuring that guests have a good experience during their stay.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE SUITABLE TO ITS CULTURE:

The overall structure of the Marriott is tall, however

within each different department there are both tall and flat

structures.

Marriott finds that its own properties are often a source of innovative new practices. As a result, the company has adopted formal and informal communication channels to encourage employees to share best practices. For example, through a quarterly program called the Worldwide Business Forum, managers in Poland can learn from practices in Peru.

TASK 3:
Human Resources

This department in a business ensures that the associates have a

comfortable relationship with their managers, so that they are more

motivated in their jobs. This involves providing the staff with the

professional abilities to take on more jobs. Staff are encouraged to

study for non work related subjects. This means that the management

allow each member of staff to have a variety of responsibilities, so

that they can improve in different areas. Staff training is viewed as

very important and large amount of money is put into the training and

development project. It tries to motivate subordinates to work harder,

this makes the job security effective for that individual. Therefore,

the staff provides excellent customer service. The Human resources

department is considered to spend more money to provide facilities for

staff personnel development and training, in order to make staff more

efficient. However as the human resources department has a low staff

turnover rate of 9%, this means that recruitment costs are much lower

compared to departments like the food and beverage.

Human resources makes sure that each member of staff is treated

fairly, and advices the staff on the certain things they can do and be

involved in to improve themselves. This department ensures the health

and safety of each individual, guaranteeing that the environment they

work in is not dangerous. This department looks for the well being of

all the associates in the hotel. Human resources gives training, which

tries to increase staff motivation and loyalty within the organisation

so that they will become more efficient in what they are doing.

DEPARTMENTAL STRUCTURE:

The overall structure of the Marriott is tall, however

within each different department there are both tall and flat

structures. the human resources department has far fewer

subordinates (only 6 people) and therefore it does not have many

managers, assistant managers and supervisors compared to the food and

beverage department. Therefore it can be said that the human resources

department is a flat structure. Within the Marriott organization

structure every member of staff has a detailed job description, knows

his/her manager. It is a formal structure with clear lines of

communication.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER AND AUTHORITY WITHIN DEPARTMENT:

There is a line of command from top to bottom of the hierarchy within

an organization. Information is communicated from each managing head

or director, and any orders are passed through this chain. Orders pass

through many different people within the hierarchy. For example a

“manager” sends information to an “assistant manager” within a certain

department, and then it is sent to a “supervisor”. Then they would

send the various messages to the “worker” in that department. This is

an example of how messages are sent down the chain of command with a

department in the Marriott. This type of structure can be effective as

it helps give a clear understanding to staff to whom he/she is

responsible.

STYLE OF LEADERSHIP OF THE HEAD OF FUNCTIONAL DEPARTMENT:

This is the number of subordinates directly supervised by one person

(manager). A narrow span means tight supervision, less discretion and

therefore less chance of making mistakes. A narrow span may mean more

levels in the hierarchy and therefore a greater chance of promotions.

A wide span of control reduces supervision and leads to greater

delegation. The span of control can change depending upon certain

circumstances. These can be seen below:

* The more difficult the supervision tasks as checking work can be

hard and time consuming, the smaller the span of control. Another

reason why supervision

tasks can be challenging maybe because the subordinates are not

specialised in their job.

* A small span of control maybe necessary if communication with

subordinates is time consuming.

* The better the supervisor, the more people he or she can supervise

and as a result there will be a wide span of control.

It can be seen from the organizational structure of the Marriott that

each department manager has some sort of span of control. It can be

said that the overall structure of the Marriott has both narrow and

wide spans of control, for example in the food and beverage department

there is a wide span of control as there are several restaurants and

therefore the number of people the worker controls is much more.

However within the human resources department there is a much narrower

span of control as there are only six people in the department.

PROPOSALS:

The longer the chain of command within an organization the

more difficult it can get for messages to get sent across. Messages

can get lost or distorted as they travel across the chain of command.

This problem has been prevented within the Marriott by having daily

meetings with departments so that each member of staff knows what

he/she is doing.

TASK 4
MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES:
Theory M: Motivating with money

Hourly workers are not motivated by programs designed to increase their enthusiasm and loyalty-they are motivated by being paid what they’re worth. Here is a motivational program that establishes a direct link between productivity and pay

Marriott recognizes and rewards loyalty and performance over time. Virtually all promotions are from within and transfers and special assignments go to those who have clearly earned them with their consistent performance in serving the guest’s interests. Various perks, benefits and compensation are awarded to those who consistently demonstrate a ‘guest obsession’. Tuition reimbursements are used to attract the best workers; good health benefits are aimed at attracting and keeping those with families; and dozens of timely smaal perks are used to add to personal thank yous, which leaders at all levels make a point of giving.

GOAL-SETTING THEORY:

Goal-setting theory refers to different types of goals motivate us differently.

Using a massive, five-year database of its own employment history, Marriott found that the cost of certain rewards was offset by lower turnover. And so it took a comprehensive look at its entire rewards program to align compensation and benefits with its associates’ needs; improve attraction and retention; enhance productivity; and increase its return on the billions of dollars it invests annually in people and achieve its required goals. It did this while demonstrating the bottom-line impact of the resultant strategy.

EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT:

High-performance businesses actively manage their talent, matching the right people with the right jobs and hiring for fit rather than for specific skills. As a result, these companies are rewarded with engaged, productive and creative workforces.

From recruitment to training and support to retaining employees, Marriott stands out because it focuses on the entire talent development chain. Hiring by gut instinct is frowned upon; instead, hiring managers use a quantitative, predictive model that combines an assessment of candidates’ job skills with an evaluation of their attitudes and values-attributes that Marriott considers more important than specific skills or experience.

Marriott’s success with employees at all levels makes for great press. The company regularly appears on lists of best companies to work for-for example, in the top 100 rankings for both Fortune (eight consecutive years) and Working Mother (15 years). And the company’s voluntary turnover rates are among the lowest in the industry.

Part of the reason can be found in Marriott’s benefits and compensation packages. “Our largest group of employees is housekeepers-largely women with families,” explains Keegan. “We’ve found that medical benefits are a critical driver of retention-it keeps our turnover low.” But that’s only part of the story. Training, career opportunities and the cultivation of emotional ties all play important roles in helping Marriott retain employees in an industry marked by high turnover.

Once it makes a hiring decision, Marriott devotes considerable resources to training and developing its people at every level. Senior managers attend a four-week, in-house executive development program designed to help them cultivate a broad, externally focused point of view. For hourly workers, the emphasis is on structured, task-driven, on-the-job learning. The company even incorporates a training budget requirement into its contracts with franchisees and managed-property owners. Career-growth opportunities are another key to high retention rates. Nearly half of the company’s managers were promoted from within the ranks of hourly workers.

Marriott keeps its managers engaged by providing many opportunities for development and advancement. Senior executives have spent an average of 22 years with the company, while their direct reports have an average tenure of 15 years. The company prefers to promote from within and provides cross-functional opportunities for key senior managers as a way to cultivate its future leaders.

Another reason for employee loyalty-and another important intangible-is the emotional connection workers have to the company. Marriott conducted research that showed that this connection was based largely on employees’ belief that Marriott treats them fairly. Marriott found that its survey results surpassed industry benchmarks, leading company executives to believe that their employees trust the organization’s leadership to look out for their best interests. HR Khief Keegan: Hiring managers use a quantitative, predictive model that combines an assessment of candidates’ job skills with an evaluation of their attitudes and values-attributes that Marriott considers more important than specific skills or experience.

Since the businesses are becoming more consumer driven because of the increasing completion retailing became a kind of science. The location of the store, its offerings and customer service are all parts that should be considered and studied in retailing. Not so long ago malls started to develop in different areas not only in the U.A.E. but around the world. In Dubai, which one of the fastest economically growing city there are several malls some of them are efficient and others aren’t. Due to this growing interest in retailing marketing students are required to develop an understanding of how an effective retail environment looks and feels. Also, they are required to develop an analytical capability to compare different retail environments in their efficiency and effectiveness.

Earlier this semester we performed a field trip to three malls in Dubai; Mirdif city center, Festival city and Dubai mall. We were required to evaluate each of the malls on a set of criteria that are important in retailing. These criteria included parking efficiency, car accessibility, shop assortment, layout of the mall, empty areas and several others. After evaluating each mall we had to compare the three of them and show the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them. In this paper I will be presenting the evaluations of each mall based on the criteria specified. This field trip helped us connect what we learned in theory with what happens in reality. Also, having a colleague walking around with me in the mall helped me discuss some of the observations.

Car accessibility towards the mall:-

This criterion discusses how easy it is for the shoppers to reach the mall, the number of routes available and the complexity of these routes. It is one of the criteria that people take into consideration when visiting malls. Some malls are located in areas where there are several detours and others are located near major high ways with clear signs showing the location of the mall. If the mall was well located and reaching it was easy then more shoppers will come in. if the mall was badly located then shoppers will decide to go to a more convenient mall.

Dubai mall can be accessed through Sheikh zayed road and business bay. The signs on sheikh zayed road are efficient enough to show the location of the mall. In addition there are several routes and bridges that give direct access to the mall parking lots. Also, there a metro station near Burj Khalifa for better access to the mall. Moreover, there is a big number of parking spaces, several bus stops around the mall and there is an area where the shopper can take a taxi.

Festival city can be accessed through four routes from Alramoul Bridge, from business bay, emirates road, and Algarhoud bridge. The business bay route is filled with traffic lights which is a bit inconvenient. However, festival city has got its own roads near the center which provides easier access to the center and out of it.

Car parking efficiency:-

This criterion evaluates the efficiency of the parking spaces. It considers the number of parking spaces, the easiness in which people park and the easiness in which people navigate through the parking area. Also, it considers the parking services offered to customers. This is an important criterion in retailing because if shoppers cannot find a parking they may choose to go another mall. Mirdif city center scored 8, festival city scored 9 and Dubai mall scored 7.

There are more than 7000 parking spaces in Mirdif city center. These spaces are located at different levels P1, P2 and P3. Each parking area has an access to the mall itself. The parking areas are designed in way to provide the shoppers easy access to and out of the mall. Unlike Festival city and Dubai mall the parking areas are not distinguished by names instead each one is named P1, P2 or P3. Similar to the other malls these areas provide access to different parts of the mall. P1 provides access to the western section of the mall, P2 provides access to the southern and eastern section, P3 provides access to the northern section of the mall.

Dubai mall contains several thousand parking spaces on different levels to contain as many shoppers. The main areas are cinema parking, fashion parking and grand parking with parking spaces on different levels. To make it easier for the shoppers to park their car there is a valet parking and a board that shows the number of parking spaces available. Also, there is a machine that provides the shopper with a card that shows where he/she parked. Festival city has valet parking but not electronic boards and electronic cards, instead they have a sensor at each parking. In addition, each parking area has got a color the grand area is red, fashion is blue, and cinema is green. In these parking areas each parking area has a number, as an example all the cars that park in the middle have number 42 parking spaces. Also, each parking area provides access to a different part of the mall the grand parking provides access to the grand atrium and the souk atrium, fashion parking provides faster access to the fountain, and cinema parking provides direct access to the cinema. A major drawback in the design of the parking area in Dubai mall is the signs, the location of the exit and the location of parking spaces. If a shopper is driving through the parking area in Dubai mall whether this shopper is exiting the mall or looking for a parking, this shopper goes through a maze. The shopper can see an empty parking space on the opposite side but the shopper has to go through several turns to reach the spot

Festival city has large parking spaces inside and outside the mall. The parking areas outside the mall provide the shoppers with easier access to and from the mall. Similar to Dubai mall the parking areas are distinguished spice, silk and gold. Each one of those parking areas provides access to different sections of the mall. The spice area provides access to the northern section, gold area provides access to the middle section and the silk area provides access to the southern section. There are out door parking areas for access to Ikea and Hyper panda. Each one of them has a different color spice is red, silk is blue and gold is gold. Each parking space has a sensor that turns red when a car is parked and those sensors are placed above the parking spaces so that they are visible. Dubai mall uses electronic boards to show the available spaces instead of sensors. Also, similar to Dubai mall valet parking is available at the main entrance to the mall. Unlike Dubai mall, there the parking is easy to navigate and the exit is easily found. Also, parking spaces are reached easily without going through a maze.

Efficiency of indoor pedestrian areas:-

This criteria can be defined as the number of shoppers in the mall and how easy it is for those shoppers to walk around in the mall. If the pedestrian areas were designed to be wide and the mall itself had appealing offerings, it will have a better efficiency. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall had a score of 8, and festival city had a score of 6.

In Mirdif city center the pedestrian areas were wide and easy to navigate. In addition there weren’t several kiosks located in the middle of those areas expect for a small area near Carrefour but it probably won’t disturb traffic. In addition, in some of the areas kiosks and booths for different companies were located under the escalators were no pedestrians will walk and these kiosks are noticeable. However, there weren’t several shoppers at the mall, maybe because of the time of the visit or because it was recently opened. When compared to Dubai mall and Festival city we can notice that there are several offerings in both of these malls that attract shoppers more than Mirdif city center.

Unlike Mirdif city center, the main pedestrian areas in Festival city were narrow and filled with kiosks in the middle of the areas which compresses traffic into one narrow area specially on weekends and that is not efficient. Other pedestrian areas that were hard to locate did not include any kiosks and there weren’t any people there. The inner design of the mall was different than the others I visited and it looked good but the narrow pedestrian areas and the way the pedestrian areas were deigned makes the shopper feel that the mall is too big and in fact it isn’t. Despite that, on the weekends the mall is filled with shoppers because it has several coffee shops located on the canal. At the time of the visit, a few were shopping and were sitting in the coffee shops. Dubai mall also faces a huge traffic flow, but the pedestrian areas a wide, so that that is not of a problem to them.

Similar to Mirdif city center, Dubai mall had wide pedestrian areas, wider that the ones in Mirdif city center. There weren’t several kiosks in these areas but some coffee shops had their outdoor area there which creates traffic for the coffee shop and does not disturb traffic because the pedestrian are is very wide. The inner design of the mall did not have a specific theme and the mall contained several turns and areas which gives the shopper the feeling that it is huge. Also, the mall has got several tourist attraction sites such as the fountain and the aquarium. Even at the time I visited the mall which was at 2:00 pm most of the shoppers were concentrated in that area. Also, it was nearly lunch time, so the food court was filled and there weren’t any places for me and my partner to sit.

Overall layout of the mall:-

This criteria discusses the general appeal of the mall, how it looks from the outside and the inside. Well designed malls look more appealing and can attract more shoppers. For this criteria, Mirdif city center scored 9, Dubai mall scored 8, and festival city scored 7.

Mirdif city center was designed similar to a rectangle where every shop is visible and reachable which makes walking around in this mall comfortable although it is big. From the inside the mall had bright colors and sufficient lighting which brings out the color. There is an area in front of the main gate were palm trees are planted in the middle with small fountains in some parts. I believe that this adds an atmosphere of comfort to the shopper. In addition, the mall stands out compared to the other establishments in the area because of its size and design.

On the other hand, Dubai mall is designed similarly to Mirdif city center but the way the areas are divided and because the mall is huge, it can take shoppers a whole day to walk around the mall. Similar to Mirdif city center, there were bright colors inside the mall and the way it is lighted reflects those colors and gives the shopper a good feeling. There were other areas that had different designs like the aquarium area that had a ceiling with shiny dots that looks like stars. Also, there is an area near Galleria Lafayette were the area looks like an alley in a European country. In addition, there is a separate entity that follows the mall called souk al bahar that has a unique design that reflects the traditional Arabian souk. I think that the shoppers enjoy those different designs.

When comparing Festival city to Dubai mall and Mirdif city center, it has a different layout and inner design. Festival city was different, this mall had a theme but I couldn’t identify it, most probably it was related to the Arab culture or history. Unlike the previously mentioned malls, this one was inefficiently designed, the mall isn’t too big but the length of the pedestrian areas and the location of others makes the shopper feel that it is large. On the inside, dark colors dominate the pedestrian areas and the lighting gives brightness to these colors but the colors are different than the other malls. In the section where IKEA and Hyper panda are located the inner design is different as it is much brighter with bright colors.

Empty spaces/ vacuum areas within the mall:-

This criteria refers to the places that are hardly accessible by the shoppers or hidden areas that the shoppers cannot find. If a shopping mall contained several vacuum areas then its design is inefficient and the shops in those areas are badly located. Even if these shops are destination stores it won’t be easy for the shoppers to reach them. For this criteria Mirdif city center scored 9, Dubai mall scored 8, and festival city scored 7.

Mirdif city center was efficiently designed and I did not locate several empty or vacuum areas inside the mall expect for one in an area opposite to fitness first where a spa and a health center were located. Those two are maybe destination stores because they are the only ones available but they should have made them more visible to the shoppers. There weren’t several shoppers in the mall at the time I visited so I could identify some areas as being vacuum or not. However, all the shops were visible and most of them can be accessed. Most of the shoppers where sitting in coffee shops probably because the time of the visit was early in the morning.

In Dubai mall there were several shoppers in some areas and in others there weren’t any although some of them were big. The gold souk is an empty area because of its location, the shop is located in the middle of other shops that sell garments and its not noticeable. Another area was on the right of Galleria Laffayette, in this area some of the shops on one side were open on the main pedestrian area but on the other side there are shops that nobody notices. The area was empty except for some coffee shops that viewed the world cup game. In addition, there weren’t any shoppers in souk al bahar although it had an appealing look. As I noticed from the several visits to Dubai mall shoppers go to the fountain, the coffee shops beside the fountain, the aquarium and the food court. This is where all the traffic was located.

In festival city there were two areas that were completely isolated and in one of them the fashion store Kelvin Klein was located. Even if Kelvin Klein is a destination store these areas are hard to be found. There were several turns that lead to different almost hidden areas in the mall but some of them were not completely dead. Also, there is an area that is accessed through a bridge on the canal in which some cafes like orchestra are located. In this area the cafes are full especially on weekends but there are shops that sell rugs and they are always empty. I’ve been to that area several times at different times of the day and those shops are always empty. Even on weekends all the shoppers are in the canal, the food court or the cinema.

Shop assortments:-

This criteria discusses the number of shops available at the mall and the different kinds of shops. Basically, the larger the assortment the more shoppers the mall will attract. A trend that is noticeable in most of the shopping malls is that all of them contain several clothing stores. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall scored 8, and Festival city scored 9.

Like most of the malls, Mirdif city center had a wide assortment of clothing stores in addition to other stores that sold electrical appliances, jewelry and confectionaries. Unfortunately, in some areas the shops were not organized, in one area there were several clothing stores on both sides and suddenly there was an optics store in the middle. Also, Patchi which is a confectionary store was located in the middle of an area were the electrical appliances shops were located. Also, Jewelry stores were located at different locations in the mall. At the same time, there were some well organized areas; there was an area where there were several kids clothing stores located. The other two malls were more organized probable because they have existed for a longer time.

Dubai mall was more organized that Mirdif city center but probably because Mirdif city center was recently opened. The thing that drew my attention was the area where Armani is located, the luxury stores are in one area located in two stories. There were some discrepancies; some areas had different kinds of stores all in one place. The shop assortment in Dubai mall is more than needed; I believe that they stuffed the mall with these shops while they could have used parts of the mall for different purposes. The way the shops are organized in this mall makes it easier for the customers to shop but I had the feeling that the mall owners just wanted to fill the mall with shops. From my point of view, there was an unnecessary wide assortment of shops in Dubai mall, Festival city and Mirdif city center had a similar assortment but a much lesser number of shops.

Similar to the shop organization in Dubai mall is Festival city were the shops are well organized. Also, there is a wide assortment of stores like clothing, jewelry and confectionary. The place where IKEA is located was a different part of the mall, the shops were located everywhere without a particular organization. The shop assortment in Festival city was similar to Mirdif city center but more organized.

Security and safety for customers:-

This is an important criterion for shopper since every shopper needs to feel safe and protected while shopping. Although robbery is not a common incident in the malls in Dubai, certain acts by the teenagers who visit the mall need to be controlled. Also, there are undercover intelligence personnel to control these acts and protect the customers. These personnel are found in every mall in Dubai and their number is determined by the amount of traffic in a mall. As an example, on weekends you find several of these personnel walking around in Dubai mall, mall of the Emirates and others.

In Mirdif city center and Dubai mall there were several security members at different locations. However, in festival city I didn’t notice several security guards but there were security cameras just like Dubai mall. In addition, each shop has got a theft detector at the entrance in case someone decides to steal which doesn’t happen often. Also, in every mall in the U.A.E. specially the crowded ones like Dubai mall there are undercover police officers who ensure that the shoppers are safe. In addition, our instructor informed us not to talk notes while walking in the mall because it may raise suspicion. Regarding emergencies I am not sure about the preparations at Merdif city center and Festival city. However, in Dubai mall when the aquarium broke and started leaking they contained the situation effectively and efficiently, they had a specialized team to fix the aquarium.

Prayer room:-

Since we live in a Islamic country several Muslims visit shopping malls. Each mall should have a number of prayer rooms located at convenient places for the shoppers. Although this is not a criterion for most of the shoppers to consider when visiting malls it has to be discussed. Dubai mall scored 9, festival city scored 8 and Mirdif city center scored 7. The prayer rooms are almost the same in most of the shopping malls, there is a place for wodou’ and sometimes there is a toilet, and there is a rack where the shoes are put. The difference is in the number of these rooms and their locations.

In Mirdif city center there was one prayer room located in the second floor near E-max. On the contrary, in Festival city there were five prayer rooms located at different places in the mall which is more efficient. One is located in Ikea, another near Hyper panda, one in the south oval court and another in the north oval court. In this mall the prayer rooms are located at different convenient locations. The shoppers can have access to a prayer room at different places in the mall.

Similar to festival city, Dubai mall had prayer rooms located at each floor. In addition, the prayer rooms are separate for men and women at each level. The difference between Dubai mall and festival city is that the prayer rooms’ locations were more scattered than in festival city. Also, it is easier to locate the prayer rooms in Dubai mall than in festival city.

Directions within the mall:-

This criterion evaluates the effectiveness of how the mall provides the shoppers with proper directions. It includes the signs in different areas of the mall, mal guides and location map boards. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall scored 8, while festival city scored 7.

Mirdif city center has a simple design, during my visit I found my way easily and the signs were efficient because of the efficient design. Also, the mall guide contains a simple map with the location of each store and entity in the mall. In addition there were location map boards with simple maps at different places. Furthermore, there were information desks at different locations.

On the other hand, Dubai mall was too large and the signs were not efficient enough to lead the shopper to where he/she wants to go. As an example, if a shopper wants to go to the fountain from the other end of the mall on the second level he/she have to ask for directions because the signs can be misleading. However, the mall guide is very simple and the names of the different sections of the mall written on the actual map for easier directions. However, the reader must discover by his own that each square on the map represents a shop, as an example square number f5 in the lower ground level refers to Aptic mobile. In addition to the several information desks at different places in the mall, Dubai mall is quite efficient in terms of providing directions.

Un fortunately, in festival city the signs are not very reliable and can be misleading probably because of the strange design of the mall that makes shoppers lose their way easily. Also the mall guide is a little confusing, there are not many information desks and on weekends they are always crowded.

Toilets:-

This criterion discusses the number, location and the availability of toilets at the malls. Mirdif city center scored 8, Dubai mall scored 9, and Festival city scored 7.

The toilets were located at the entrances to the mall in Mirdif city center, except for the toilets in the food courts. There are 7 toilets on the first level one of them is in the north food court. In the ground level there are 6 toilets at the entrances only. None of the toilets were found in the pedestrian areas but the locations aren’t efficient enough. Overall, there are several toilets and they are easily located.

In Dubai mall there are several washrooms on each level in convenient locations. There are toilets in the food courts and pedestrian areas. In festival city, the toilets are few and hard to locate but they are found at convenient locations such as the food court and the main pedestrian area. In the three malls the toilets were clean and well maintained.

Customer service/information counters:-

Usually, when shopper visit a mall they have queries or questions about directions, offers, shops and services in the mall. That is why it is important that a mall has an enough number of these desks with clerks who are trained to deal with customers. Dubai mall scored 9, Mirdif city center scored 8, and festival city scored 7.

In Mirdif city center there were information counters at different locations. The clerks there are friendly and provide customers with full information about any queries even on the phone. When I arrived at the mall I went to the information desk to ask for the directions to Starbucks. When I asked for directions she showed me the exact location. There was a man asking about a gift voucher and the clerk was very efficient when providing him with information.

In Dubai mall there are numerous information desks at different locations more than Mirdif city center. It is similar to Mirdif city in a sense that they provide people with the same information whether it is about directions or gift vouchers. The information desks are located at vital areas, there are two near the ice rink, one not too far from the aquarium and one near the cinemas. Other information desks are located at the grand atrium, star atrium and other locations. The ground floor has the largest number of information desks.

Unlike Dubai mall and Mirdif city center, Festival city did not have as many information desks, I think they have two only. The information desk on the first level near Paris gallery is always crowded and the other one is on the other side of the mall near Ikea. Just like the other two malls the clerks are friendly and provide customers with all information needed.

Entertainment offer:-

This criterion measures the number and uniqueness of the entertainment offerings at the malls. This is an important criterion for most of the families who want to visit the mall. The more entertainment the mall offers the more shoppers it gets. Dubai mall has the best offers that is why it is always crowded. Dubai mall scored 9, Dubai mall scored 9, Mirdif city center and festival city scored 8.

Mirdif city center had different entertainment offers but it was different from the other malls and did not offer something unique like the fountain in Dubai mall or momento in Festival city. In this mall they had play areas only, Magic Planet, Play nation and an area called aqua play in the north food court. Also, there is a cinema in the first floor. Play nation had different offerings from the other malls. However, these offerings are better suited for children.

Dubai mall has entertainment offerings suited for both adults and children. There is a huge aquarium, Ice rink, Sega Republic, underwater zoo kidzania and reel cinema. What differentiates this mall from the other malls is the huge aquarium and kidzania. People can go to the aquarium and watch different kinds of fish from the outside for free or they pay fees to watch these fish swimming around them in a tunnel. In kidzania, children have their own world, they ask the child what he/she wants to work then give the child fake money to buy daily needs with it just like an adult. This is one unique offering that most of the families like. There is nothing special about the ice rink except that Dubai mall is the only mall with an ice rink inside. It is better than Mirdif city center because of the different and unique offerings that are suited for adults and children.

In festival city there aren’t many entertainment offerings, there is momento, boat ride on the canal, a family entertainment center and a movie theater. Compared to the other malls, it is better than Mirdif city center because it has momento for adults but not as good as Dubai mall and Mirdif city center in the entertainment for kids.

ATMs:-

The ATM machines are very important to be found in malls since people use them to draw cash. They have to be located at different areas and near vital ones such as food courts. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall had a score of 8, festival city had a score of 7.

In Mirdif city there are 10 ATM machines available at the entrances to the mall. In the first level there are 10 ATM machines as well at each entrance. Since the north food court and the play areas are located near the entrances the ATM machines are close to those areas and the location of the ATMs is shown in the mall guide. Also, there are branches for two banks, Abu Dhabi bank and Emirates Dubai bank. Festival city has several ATM machines in different areas inside the mall.

In Dubai mall there were several ATM machines as well in different areas but their locations were not shown in the mall guide. The ones that I was able to see are the ATM near Reel cinema and the ones located in the parking lots entrances to the mall. These machines belonged to several banks such as HSBC and Dubai Islamic Bank.

In festival city, the machines were located in different areas near Ikea and Hyper panda and near the food court. The location of the ATM machines was shown in the mall guide map for easier directions. Similar to the other two malls they belonged to different banks. The difference between this mall and the others is the fewer number of ATM machines but they were easily located.

Food courts:-

This is another criterion for families to consider when visiting a mall. They consider the number of food courts available at a mall and the variety of restaurants it has. Usually, after a long day of shopping or running after the kids parent are too tired to go home to cook. Also, going out to eat is considered entertaining since it is different than home. That is why each mall needs to have a number and variety of restaurants and cuisines for its shoppers. Dubai mall scored 9, festival city and Mirdif city center scored 8 for this criteria.

Mirdif city center offers a wide range of assortment when it comes to food for its shoppers. There are two food courts each one with different restaurants. The north food court has the Chinese palace, Pizza Hut, KFC and several others that serve fast food, Chinese and Arabian food. The other south food court has Panda, Taco Bell, Somo and other restaurants. The problem is that the two are located on one side of the mall, north and south, so what if a family wants restraints that exist in both. Other than the food courts there are restaurants located at some entrance to the mall like Tony Romas that is located at the main entrance. Unlike Festival city and Dubai mall, Mirdif city center does not have an outdoor dining area but has almost the same variety of restaurants.

Dubai mall has a wide variety of restaurants located at the food courts and different areas of the mall. There is a food court in the lower ground level and a large one in the second level unlike Mirdif city center that has the two courts on one level. Both courts have outdoor areas so that people can enjoy the weather in the winter. The food court in the lower ground level is located near star atrium and the one in the second level is located near Reel cinema. Other restaurants are available in different areas of the mall especially in the lower ground level where people can sit in the restaurant to eat or smoke shisha and enjoy the fountain.

In festival city the food courts are located in the first level. These courts offer a variety of restaurants from different countries with an outdoor area similar to Dubai mall. What is different in this mall is that most of the restaurants are located on one level except for some restaurants near the canal. The food courts offer fast food from restaurants like Windeys, Hardees, and KFC. Other varieties include Aracian, Chinese and Indian. One major disadvantage in Festival city is that the pedestrian area in front of the restaurants is very narrow and gets crowded easily.

Coffee shops:-

Coffee shops are becoming the place where people like to spend their time drinking beverages and socializing. Each mall has a number of coffee shops at different locations to attract the shoppers. For this criterion Mirdif city center scored 9, Dubai mall scored 8 and festival city scored 7.

In Mirdif city center there was almost a coffee shop at every corner. The people can shop and drink coffee at anytime anywhere. Also, there was a book shop called borders with a coffee shop included for the shop visitors. Each coffee shop had the same offering but not similar decors. Similar to Dubai mall there are several coffee shops. However, in Mirdif city center none of the coffee shops served shisha and all were similar to Starbucks.

Since Dubai mall is large it has several coffee shops at different locations. Some of the coffee shops included in Dubai mall are Armani coffee shop, cafe blanc, cafe Havana and several others. These coffee shop do not vary by their offerings they vary by the atmospheric sense they provide. Armani coffee shop is located in front of Armani store in the middle of an area filled with fashion stores. This provides the shopper with a luxurious feeling, and Caribou coffee is a

The staffs available in EDC hotel are total with 60 people for all post. Amount the 60 people they are separate in 4 categories, which is permanent staff, contract staff, permanent part-time staff and temporary staff. The numbers of permanent staff are in 4 people, contract staff 34 people, permanent part-time staff are 8 people and the temporary staffs are 14 people.

The General Manager of Hotel EDC is Mrs Suzzaini. She has been a lecturer in UUM before and now her as a full time staff in EDC. She also as the head who interview us when we doing research in EDC Hotel. For the other position and names by all the staff are shows with organization chart below:

The human resource policies are under control by the Human Resource or HR Department. The HR department is using to manage and control the operation working of staff. Now, we are going to discuss about the human resource policies under EDC hotel.

The EDC hotel are choosing 2 types of staff when they making selection after recruitment. The 2 types of staff they taken are temporary staff and also permanent staff. The duty times for these 2 types of staff are different. For the temporary staff are getting shorter working time and the salary are fewer than the permanent staff. By the permanent staff working times are full times, that mean they are working whole days however is a public holiday.

The EDC hotel is facing the problems lack of staff. The cause of making this problem happen is most of the staff inside EDC Hotel are temporary workers of staff. So, the staff inside EDC are working more than 1 job however they are getting same salary. Like an example, For the security guard of EDC Hotel at the front exit are also working as a cleaner for guard house and also a staff of control rooms like control all the lights in EDC.

EDC hotel also provide the training program for the UUM students. The HR department is choosing the practical students from UUM as a temporary staff and also gives the take part in training program. This have helpful for solve the problems of workers shortage. After the students finish practical, EDC hotel are give them chance to choose stay or leave the hotel and the HR department will choose another practical students to work in hotel again.

Besides that, the EDC Hotel will also give chances for those students are wish to work in hotel when holidays or free times in hotel. The students who wish that will as a part-time workers, this mean the student can quit anytime and wont tight by a contract.

The HR department also working as confirms that all the staff inside EDC is working, because they must make sure that the hotel is keep operation smoothly. Through the information above we have know the types and the operation of managing of staff inside EDC Hotel.

The Sales and Marketing Strategies

Sales is an important part in a hotel operation, the sales are good or not can affect the hotel operation also. The sales can bring the income and also the famous of the hotel. Every hotels are trying to push their sales at the top, even if EDC UUM also.

Through the hotel we making the research, EDC UUM we have get the information of the sales of the hotel are separate in 2 parts. The first one is from the room sales of EDC hotel. The hotel EDC is located near the UUM so most of the consumers are students and their parents. And we also get that, the hotel EDC are get two peak season in every years, that is when the UUM running the week of orientation and during the convocation. The rooms of hotel EDC are fully booking by many students and their parents during peak season. So, for someone they are late booking they can’t get the room. Through the staff in EDC, we also get know that, for who like to get rooms when convocation or orientation weeks, they must booking earlier than 1 month before.

We also get the information from the GM about that, at the normal days the rooms are available in anytime. It means every people can get booking at the time u like or u can choose direct to EDC and asking for the available rooms’ u can get. So for those parents and friends come to visit their children and friends in UUM can get accommodation with easily by EDC Hotel.

One more part of the sale that supports the hotel income and operation is through the food and beverage department in EDC hotel. The restaurant in EDC hotel is available for public. This mean although u do not rent the hotel rooms in EDC u also can go enjoy the meals they provide after u pay it. This have attract many UUM students those are feeling boredom of the food provide in the food courts of UUM are going to EDC to enjoy the different meals in campus.

Management and Functions of Each Department

There were eight management departments in EDC – UUM such as front office, housekeeping, sales and marketing, food and beverage, human resources, finance and administrative, facilities and maintenance, and safety and security. Each department has their own function and responsibility to operate.

Front Office Department

Front office department plays very important roles in EDC hotel. The

department can be separate into two sections; there are front desk and back office. Each section of front office services has their own responsibilities. The main function of the department is selling, register and assign guestroom to the customers. They also responsibilities to handle the phone call in the hotel and make reservation for the customers. Front office service specialists also have a good understanding to take part in guest settlement such as resolve conflicts with customers and handle weirdly customers if certain cases had happen.

Housekeeping Department

The function of housekeeping department is maintained the cleanliness and order, building and furniture in the hotel. Besides cleanliness, housekeeping department must make sure the comfortable in the hotel such as softness of pillow, comfort of mattresses and quality of bed. These department personnel include chief of housekeeping department, supervisors, senior maids and maids which their jobs are checking the quality in the hotel periodically. Housekeeping department is one of the hotel services that are very strict regulation. Each position has its own well defined instructions.

Sales and Marketing Department

The main function of sales and marketing department is to promote the hotel products and services to the customers. They offer and selling the hotel’s room to individual guest for holiday purpose or diverse conferences facilities to certain customers. In addition, they also make an improvement on sales and public relations and brand image of hotel in the market. The department always acts as an agent to provide latest information and updating to the hotel.

Food and Beverage Department

The function of the department is providing food and beverage to the customers. They also provide food and beverage for meetings, groups, conferences and theme parties. Meanwhile, EDC hotel also responsibilities provided banquet events to customers. The banquet events involve many service styles; there are buffet services, family style service and so on. When during any festival, EDC hotel also provided Ramadhan package and offered to every customers to enjoy delicious food in the hotel.

Human Resources Department

Human Resource Department is a department that combines the traditional administrative function and well-being employees within the organization. They involve the activities such as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling employees at work. The department is responsible on hiring, terminating and training staff for the development and application of ongoing research on strategic advances. They also responsible for understanding their employees and identify their individual needs and career goal, develop positive interaction between workers to ensure verify and constructive enterprise productivity and provide remedial measures in the form of seminars or workshops for the worker who are lack of knowledge or insufficient training. On the other hand, HR also focuses on recruit the required workforce and manages staff effectively to success meet strategic goal.

Finance Department

The accounting department is monitoring the financial activities in the hotel. They prepare the budget and assign revenue to different department. They also prepare the financial statement of the hotel. Meanwhile, the department also collects the revenue from guests and giving salaries to employees. They always keep check on the account of F&B cost, other purchases and expenditure under several heads for each department.

Facilities and Maintenance Department

The function of facilities and maintenance department in EDC hotel is provide a well repairing and maintenance services included structural, mechanical and electronic services, painting, air-conditioners repair and maintenance and so on. The department is also responsible to maintain all the furniture and fixtures in the hotel. Furthermore, they also work closely with the front office to ensure the guests satisfaction. The department must always make sure there have a safety and healthy work environment to the employees in the hotel.

Safety and Security Department

The security officers in the EDC hotel is responsible provide a safety and security environment to the hotel workers to work and business man to do business even customers who are stay in the hotel. Apart from that, security in the hotel also became an essential and strongly force in preventing losses and missing property. In addition, security guard also working as cleaners in the guard house and staff in the control room to control all the air-conditioner and PA system in the hotel while any activities were in the progress.

Cost of Running Operation

We have been gone to the EDC hotel and interview their manager, Mrs.Suzzaini to interview how many the costs they are used in running a hotel. However, Mrs Suzzaini did not provide us very detail about the budgeting of the hotel because it is private and confidential. She just provided us the cost of electric and water cost; there are about 52 thousand and 400 thousand per month. Below is a general costs that always will use to run a hotel but its only can act as a references.

Basically, running a hotel need a lot of money to maintain stage. Cost of the publicity is one of the costs that cannot less. Most of the hotel are depend advertising and package to attract customers come and stay at their hotel. Then, a hotel needs some costs to make improvement on infrastructure and facilities and also maintenance on the building, electronic and water even any structural in the hotel.

Meanwhile, hotel management also needs to pay taxes of the building and other fixed asset. To prepare F&B to customers, hotel management also needs some cost to purchase food and do banquet for customers. And the last but not least, accounting department also needs pay salary, incentive and bonus to their employees in the hotel.

Common Problem Faced By Hotel

The common problem that faced by EDC hotel is administrative problem such as movement of the staffs. When the staffs are leave, the hotel management needs some time to hire and training news staffs. Therefore, EDC hotel always faced lack of staffs in hotel department.

Overbooking also is a problem that always faced by EDC hotel. When during convocation time and orientation week, there are many parents and graduate came to the hotel and stay at there. EDC hotel is one of the hotels that very near to the UUM compared to the other hotel, in order to convenience and no waste many time, EDC hotel always happen the rooms were overbooking. So, the hotel management now was build an extension of the hotel to overcame the hotel’s rooms overbooking in certain festival.

Customer’s complaints are very normal incident that always occurred in every hotel. The common problem that customers always complaints are poor customers service such as attitude and behavior of the workers, the food not delicious, waiting for more than 30 minute to eat in a restaurant and so on. Meanwhile, some customers also complaint about the pricing of the room, food even a service charge were very expensive. Therefore, hotel management must always train their staffs to fulfill the customer’s needs.

ABSTRACT:

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco), an Internet technology company, had an organizational structure comprising of various cross-functional teams. The key decisions in the company were taken by councils, boards and working groups. These committees (around 60 as of 2009) working at different levels were cross-functional in nature, and according to the company, lent Cisco speed, scale, flexibility, and rapid replication.

Cisco had made the shift to this type of organizational structure in 2001 and had refined it in subsequent years. According to John T. Chambers (Chambers), the Chairman and CEO of Cisco, the company had reorganized to break free of the silo culture in the company prior to 2001, so that it could remain agile and innovative in a rapidly changing industry. The company felt that the traditional command-and-control model had lost its relevance, and the future would be about collaborate models of decision making. He also claimed that the new organizational model had served the company well and helped implement its aggressive growth strategy amidst the economic downturn.

Industry observers and organizational experts were divided in their opinion about Cisco’s organizational structure and approach to decision making. While some industry observers felt that such a model was effective, others felt that the management-by-committee approach would slow down decision making and impede innovation. Some experts were extremely critical of Cisco’s organizational model. But others believed that if Cisco could further refine the model by addressing some of the lacunae associated with it, it could very well be adopted more widely and be accepted as a radical management innovation.

Cisco was founded by a group of computer scientists, who had together designed a software system named IOS (Internet Operating System), which could send streams of data from one computer to another. Right from its initial years, Cisco had a flat organizational structure. Over the years, the company had brought about certain changes in its organizational structure focusing on cross functional teams…

Speaking about the organizations structure, Chambers, said, “Our organization structure leverages the power of communities of interest which we call councils which we believe are $10 billion opportunities, boards that we see as $1 billion opportunities and working groups. The idea for the new structure occurred during the economic down turn in 2001, when Cisco wrote off US$2.2 billion in losses. Realizing the Cisco’s hierarchical structure was preventing it from moving fast, Chambers started grouping executives into cross-functional teams…

In late 2008, while Cisco’s stock was witnessing a decline, analysts said that the company was still in a strong financial position with US$26 billion in cash. “Not only do we have the $26 billion, we now have 26 new market adjacencies that are not relevant to our revenue today, but they will be three to four years from now,” said Chambers. Some industry observers and analysts felt that Cisco’s organizational structure and its collaborative approach to decision making was an effective one – potentially the organization of the future. “Now instead of a small group of executives telling everybody else what to do, people have authority to figure out for themselves what to do.

However, some analysts and ex-employees of Cisco were not happy with the new organizational structure at Cisco. The structure led to chaos and slowed down decision making at times, they said. “Right now it’s chaos because there’s so much on everybody’s plate,” said Geoffrey Moore, a management consultant who has worked with Cisco. Chambers acknowledged that his critics could be right in their criticism of Cisco’s organizational structure and its approach to decision making. However, he said that the company had arrived at its organizational structure after giving a lot of thought to it, continuously refining it since it was introduced in 2001. In November 2009, speaking about Cisco’s future strategy, Chambers said, “The improving economic outlook combined with what appears to be a very solid execution on our growth strategy due to our organization structure and innovative business model enabled Cisco to move into 30 plus market adjacencies while reducing non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% year over year and also reducing headcount.”aa‚¬A¦.

Tips to answer the tasks:

CASE DETAILS:

Period: 2001-2010

Published Date: 2010

Organisation: Cisco Systems. Inc.

Industry: Information Technology

Countries: US ; Global

Consider key words like matrix structure, functional or operational structure and the like.

TASK -1

COMPARE: Cisco organizational structure.

The company use to organizational structure silo (flat) before use to 2001. But the company use to organizational structure cross (matrix) after use to 2001.

The company use to silo structure so the company communication is easily. but the company use to matrix structure so the company communication is difficult.

The company use to silo structure so the company work is hierarchic. But the company use to matrix structure so the company work is individual.

The company use to silo structure so the company is not made good product. But the company use to matrix structure so the company is made good product.

The company use to silo structure so the company is going to loss. But the company use to matrix Structure so the company are good profit.

CONTRAST: Cisco organizational structure

Silo (flat)

Cross (matrix)

This company is work hierarchic.

This company is not come to new idea made the product.

This company is same work of every people.

This company is made many IT product. But product is not good.

This structure is going to company loss to $2.2 billion.

This company is work of individual.

This company is come to new idea made the product.

This company is diffident work of every group.

This company is made IT product very good.

This company is made profit use to this structure.

TASK -2

ANALYSES: The company use to organizational structure silo (flat) before use to 2001.

The company use to silo structure so the company communication is easily. The company use to silo structure so the company is not made good product. The company use to silo structure so the company is not made good product. The company use to silo structure so the company is going to loss. This company is not come to new idea made the product. The company is same work of every people. The company is made many IT product. But product is not good. The structure is going to company loss to $2.2 billion. This reason company was decline stage. The company business process is slow. The company was going to market. The company sales are decline. So the company business performance is bad.

The company use to organizational structure cross (matrix) after use at 2001. The company use to matrix structure so the company communication is difficult. The company use to matrix structure so the company work is individual. the company use to matrix structure so the company is made good product. the company use to matrix Structure so the company are good profit. This company is come to new idea made the product. This company is diffident work of every group. The company is made IT product very good. The company is made profit use to this structure. The company use to this structure business performance is good. So the company work is improvement. The company is come to market. The company is financial strong. The company was made new product.In November 2009, speaking about Cisco’s future strategy, Chambers said, “The improving economic outlook combined with what appears to be a very solid execution on our growth strategy due to our organization structure and innovative business model enabled Cisco to move into 30 plus market adjacencies while reducing non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% year over year and also reducing headcount.”

TASK -3

Organization structures affect the individual behaviour at work. The individual behaviour at works affect the factorsaa‚¬A¦.

1. Flexibility

2. Motionvational

3. Authority

4. Scope / Idea

5. Environalment

6. Society

1. Flexibility: the company use to new organization structure .so the company employees are individual work do freedom. The employees work do end any time and go to home.

2. Motionvational: A group the works do end go home. So other group work is fast. So he is go to home. The employees performance is improvement of salary, promotion etc.

3. Authority: the company is made many products. So the company made product 1. So product 1 groups different. Product 1 any massages go to individual department. Product 1 groups any decision do them self

4. Scope / Idea: the company deviated the product different groups. The group made the product new idea. The product made new technology.

5. Environalment: the company in the work employees any cast. The employees do work in deviated. Employees are into the company happy for every people.

6. Society: the company is made in the good society. The employee is works in the company before give the company of money. The employees take the money and develop the your personality.

.
MERIT
TASK -4

Present and communicate the appropriate organisational structure and culture for the case in discussion. (M3.1)

This case in the company use to cross (matrix) organization structure. This organization structure company for very good. The new organizational structure at Cisco. The structure led to chaos and slowed down decision making at times, they said. “Right now it’s chaos because there’s so much on everybody’s plate,” said Geoffrey Moore, a management consultant who has worked with Cisco. Chambers acknowledged that his critics could be right in their criticism of Cisco’s organizational structure and its approach to decision making. However, he said that the company had arrived at its organizational structure after giving a lot of thought to it, continuously refining it since it was introduced in 2001. In November 2009, speaking about Cisco’s future strategy, Chambers said, “The improving economic outlook combined with what appears to be a very solid execution on our growth strategy due to our organization structure and innovative business model enabled Cisco to move into 30 plus market adjacencies while reducing non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% year over year and also reducing headcount. The company use to organizational structure cross (matrix) after use at 2001. The company use to matrix structure so the company communication is difficult. The company use to matrix structure so the company work is individual. The company use to matrix structure so the company is made good product. The company use to matrix Structure so the company are good profit. This company is come to new idea made the product. This company is diffident work of every group. The company is made IT product very good. The company is made profit use to this structure. The company use to this structure business performance is good. So the company work is improvement. The company is come to market. The company is financial strong. The company was made new product. the company use to new organization structure .so the company employees are individual work do freedom. The employees work do end any time and go to home. A group the works do end go home. So other group work is fast. So he is go to home. The employees performance is improvement of salary, promotion etc.