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INTRODUCTION

As per British Hospitality Association, hospitality is UK’s 4^th largest industry which employs 2.7 million people in the UK and accounted for 27.7% of total job growth in the UK. Importance of this industry to the UK’s economy can never be overemphasised. In recent past the UK’s economy has faced radical changes which led the organisation to adapt and change in order to survive and grow. The aim of this research is to analyse the impact of business environment on the success of an organisation chosen from this ever growing Hospitality and Tourism industry. The study choses McDonald corporation which is a key food service retailer. McDonalds serves over 69 million customers in over 100 countries through its 36000 locations. The organisation stepped in the UK market in 1974 and has more than 1200 restaurants across the UK.

References:

http://www.bha.org.uk/

http://news.mcdonalds.com/Corporate/Press-Releases/Financial-Release?xmlreleaseid=123062

1.2 FACTORS AFFECTING AN ORGANISATION: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ENVIORNMENTAL FACTORS

As per www.study.com there are a number of events and situations that impact an organisation and they can be classified into: internal environmental factors and external environmental factors (referred to as IEF and EEF hereafter). Few examples of IEF would be changes in the management, cultural changes and employee morale changes etc. Similarly few examples of EEF will be industry regulations, economic and political factors, government regulations etc.

References:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/internal-and-external-environments-of-business-lesson-quiz.html

1.2.1 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ENVIORNMENTAL FACTORS IN THE CASE OF MCDONALDS: As per Campden BRI which is a food and drink research firm, there are six challenges that this industry will face in 2012 and beyond. The Campden report broadly classifies these factors as

Manufacturing challenges
Innovation
Food Drink and the Consumer
Safety
Knowledge

The tables below classifies the Campden BRI’s six factors as IEF and EEF applied in the case of McDonalds.

Factors / Challenges for food industry as per Campden BRI.

How this factor applies in the case of McDonalds as an IEF or an EEF.

Raw Material

External environmental factor: to be able to secure and sustain an efficient supply chain right from raw material procurement stage.

Manufacturing Challenges.

Internal environmental factor: Improving efficiency in the manufacturing process, cost control and optimisation, assuring effectiveness though out the operations.

Innovation

Internal environmental factor: Innovation in the use of raw material, packaging material.

Food, drink and the consumer

External environmental factor: Understanding of consumer, consumer choices and their behaviour.

Safety

External environmental factor: Compliance to regulatory safety standards for better understanding of allergens and contamination in the food.

knowledge

Internal environmental factor: Continual process improvement is possible through efficient knowledge management and knowledge transfer.

Source: http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Supply-Chain/Campden-BRI-s-six-food-industry-challenges

1.2.2 ANALYSING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ENVIORNMENTAL FACTORS IN CASE OF MCDONALDS

This section tries to analyse various IEF and EEF based on

1.2.2.1 RAW MATERIAL CHALLENGES/SUPPLIERS- AN EXTERNAL ENVIORNMENTAL FACTOR

The foremost supporters for McDonalds are their supplier as they are the one of the largest company to supply burgers in the US. Customer’s reputation is highlighted through maintained system of service, quality and cleanliness in every aspect. They have also met or exceed USDA standards that are strictest in the food industry. The public supporters are in general multiple support clubs and with respect to customer group represents multi fan sites and blogs.

1.2.2.2 MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES / AN INTERNAL ENVIROMENT FACTOR

Analysing the business environment will attempt to demonstrate the complexity of issues arise with the organisation. They have developed network operation and distribution system. The company has been able to achieve consistent product taste. Their focus is on delivery sales and protecting its life time reputation. McDonalds has also done culture adaption to consider vegetarian options for their all universal food branch.

1.2.2.3 INNOVATION / AN INTERNAL ENVIROMENT FACTOR

The innovation will increase both product quality and longevity.

1.2.2.4 FOOD, DRINK AND THE CONSUMER /

McDonald’s had maintained the quite low bargaining power of buyers. They are very low risk of switching customers into other brands. There was quite stagnant image among the customers through quality of differentiation, customer care and other promotions.

1.2.2.5 SAFETY / REGULATORY AND STATUTORY COMPLIANCE

1.2.2.6: KNOWLEDGE /

1.2.2.7 EXPANSION/ NEW GEOGRAPHICAL MARKET

A number of key internal and external environmental factors constitute the elements of long term sustainable growth plan and it will not be wrong to say that the geographical diversification is vital element to fuel growth. As per the company’s corporate website:

“We believe these priorities align with our customers’ evolving needs, and – combined with our competitive advantages of convenience, menu variety, geographic diversification and System alignment – will drive long-term sustainable growth.”

Looking into the recent trends it can be said that McDonald’s growth is fuelled by its franchise business.

As per the company’s official website

“We view ourselves primarily as a franchisor and believe franchising is important to delivering great customer experiences and driving profitability. At year-end 2014, more than 80% of McDonald’s restaurants were franchised.

SOURCE: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/investors/company_profile.html

http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/investors/company_profile.html

References:

http://www.bha.org.uk/

http://news.mcdonalds.com/Corporate/Press-Releases/Financial-Release?xmlreleaseid=123062

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Aboutus/Franchising.html

Competitive advantage

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Aboutus/Development/Locations_and_contacts.html

McDonald is very open about its grown plans. On the official website the company has posted geographical regions for its intended growth region and invites the public to propose a development site. The study feel that by using this approach McDonalds is making an effective use of public information by providing an open platform for the local. This information gathering methodology not only is more efficient in terms of using local public knowledge about the area, but is also effective way of reducing planning, research and development cost and time that goes is development of a new site. This marketing strategy also adds to Brand awareness, brand recognition and stronger connect via the local people.

Negative: The Company may end up losing a lot of time effort cost in moving in a direction which may not be fruitful.

To afford a comparative analysis of the internal and external environment of McDonalds this study has used KFC’s corresponding data.

It’s structured as an independent business with responsible accounting operations, community relations, training and human resources. They offer both counter service and drive through service with indoor and outdoor seating. In 2006, introduction of forever young brand was to redesign the current structure outlet of restaurant. One of the cornerstones of McDonald’s success in the UK is its property portfolio, which provides a well located and convenient network of restaurants throughout the country for our customers to use and enjoy. There are almost 1200 restaurants to be found in a variety of locations such as traditional high streets; shopping centres; retail parks; roadside locations; leisure centres; railway and airport termini and motorway service areas. We are renowned for being the pioneers of the drive-thru restaurant concept and are the UK and world leader in this sector. This continues to be the key focus for our growth.

Due to the growing success of the Company, the intention is to increase the pace of acquisitions with a target of 40 new restaurant openings per year from 2014, which will create up to 2,400 new job opportunities annually.

The primary vehicle for this expansion will be freestanding drive-thru restaurants where convenience is key or locations in new or existing retail and leisure parks and transport hubs where visits are often part of a linked trip.

Competitors

http://www.kfc.co.uk/join-us/become-a-franchisee/

Mc Donald’s has a much stronger presence in the UK Market as compared to its competitors whereas a key rival KFC has 800 branches across the UK.

http://www.kfc.co.uk/join-us/become-a-franchisee/

As evident from the information openly available on the website of Mc Donald’s KFC it appres that the cost of opening a Mc Donald’s franchise is much less as compared to cost of opening a KFC franchise.

They suffer tough competition through burger king’s that are specialised in beef products. Wendy has also been added as a competitor due to high hamburger chains. They are other companies as well who are gaining market shares due to specialised in gourmet coffees, pasties and fresh sub sandwiches like Subway, Greggs and Starbucks.

http://www.kfcdevelopment.co.uk/faqs/

KFC pays finders fee

Do you pay finder’s fees for introducing a site?

Yes we pay generous finder’s fees for recognised introductions – ?20,000 for DT sites and ?12,500 for food courts/restaurants.*

Figure: Competitors of McDonald’s

A table showing a comparative analysis relating to the franchise between Mc Donald’s (UK) and KFC (UK) based on information directly available from the website.

Mc Donald’s

KFC

Number of Locations

1200

800

Cost of Setting up a Franchise

Ranges from ?125,000 to ?325,000

As per the KFC official website

“At least ?5m if you’re a business. (?2m must be your own investment)”

Franchise Ratio

80%

75%

Finder’s Fee for franchise business

Information not available

Yes

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Aboutus/Franchising/the-finance-bit.html

http://www.kfc.co.uk/join-us/become-a-franchisee/

Opponents

McDonald’s has been targeted due to their popularity in the food industry. Recently there was criticism about the cow disease crisis which showed serious threats towards world health. Children welfare society also opposes this company about their advertisement on happy meal which continuously attract children to buy their products. The other opponents are mainly animal rights groups that supported animal cruelty, which are against the manufacture of food produced by killing animals.

Environment Analysis

McDonald’s differs from its Competitors
All leases are taken in the McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd name
McDonald’s take leases up to 25 years
McDonald’s has a superior covenant strength achieving yields of between 5% and 6%
Site requirements
Mixed Use/Retail Parks/Leisure Parks/Main Arterial Routes
Co-location opportunities with hotels and petrol stations considered
Ideal site size is 0.5+ acres
All opportunities considered: Standalone units/Leasehold or Freehold – sites up to one acre

Our Recommendations:

The research asserts that being in food industry the importance of maintaining a healthy and clean image in the eye of the public can never be overemphasized. Having said that, the increasing competition in the industry may lead to targeted negative criticism towards McDonalds. Developing a proactive crisis management team will be key element to manage any crisis situation.

This study feels that there is a direct correlation between growth planning and the number of outlets that an organisation can open in new geographical areas across the UK. The franchise model plays a key role in deciding the growth path in the UK market and how well McDonald’s and its competitors manage this model will determine the organisations future share in this industry segment in the foreseeable future. Below are some key recommendations:

Proactive measures to find a store location in the newer markets: Whereas, inviting public to propose a site for an outlet is a very cost effective and efficient way for growth planning, at the same time the study feels that McDonalds should take proactive steps to capture all the key locations in the major towns and cities. Using extensive market research, talking to local people and other direct means of research will be highly recommended for this purpose.
Encouraging active participation of local resources: From finding a new location to the stage of complete set up of a franchise store, the process may involve a close liaison with local public. The study feels that there should be more incentive for the local parties to take an enthusiastic participation in this process. The study found that the KFC offers a ‘Finder’s Fee’ covenant openly disclosed under the FAQ section whereas provision for such a clause was missing from McDonalds website.
Full disclosure of key information which is vital for decision making: If the franchise procedure is explained well, it could play a key role in encouraging people to show active participation in the process. Whereas KFC’s website discloses information about handing of planning permission and the time duration involved in the whole set up process very openly, this was found missing from the franchise FAQs section of the McDonalds website. Clear and full disclosure of the vital facts will afford more tools for informed decision making in the hands of perspective franchisee.

The destination marketing plan will be based on a small island, which is not even visible on the world map, called Mauritius. It is a volcanic island of lagoons and beaches in the Indian Ocean, it is known for its stability and racial harmony among its blend of population. It is an island situated at about 900 kilometres east of Madagascar and about 3,943 kilometres south-west of India. (Blunt 2005)

It has more that 150 kilometres of beaches and the lagoon is protected by the world’s third largest coral reef. Its population is estimated to 1,2 million which forms a blend of cultures from India, Africa, Europe and China.

Mauritius was discovered by a Portuguese sailor, Don Pedro Mascarenhas. It was occupied by the Dutch (1598 – 1710), French (1715 – 1810) and British (1810 – 1968). It gained its independence on the 12th March 1968 and its Republic status on 12th March 1992. It has a democracy based on the British democracy. The currency used there is the Mauritian Rupee, made up of 100cents and its capital city is Port Louis. The Mauritian economy is dependent upon the textile, tourism and sugar industry.

Currently the destination is attracting tourist mainly from European Countries and the destination’s current mission to keep its loyal customer and promote in countries where people are not aware of Mauritius as a tourist destination. They want to maintain the image of Mauritius as being a “paradise” to their current markets.

The Destination would want to regain the French market following the chikunguya disease, to attract more tourists from American countries and become the number one tourist destination in the Indian Ocean.

Jobber (2004:210) defines segmentation as the “identification of individuals or organizations with similar characteristics that have significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy”. In other words it means dividing a segment into sub-segments because customers differ in tastes, needs, attitudes, lifestyles, family size and composition. Identifying these submarkets will help the destination to serve its customers with similar requirements efficiently and effectively. The more a destination knows about its customers the better they will be able to satisfy their needs. A segment is identified by dividing them according to the purpose of travel, the buyer’s need/motivations and benefits sought, the buyer’s behaviour, their psychographic profile, the price of the ticket and the demographic, economic and geographic profile.

The identified segments for Mauritius were people aged 25 and upwards with a medium to high income per year, because the price of a ticket for the destination is around ?600 – ?700 and the life cycle identified was newly married couples, full nest II, empty nest I and empty nest II. It has been found that it is mostly leisure tourists that come to the destinations and their motivation honeymoon, young married couple seeking paradise for their honeymoons, looking for a quiet place, this applies to retired people, families willing to escape the European winter and seeking sea and beach holiday, individuals seeking for water- sports and tourist coming for cultural interest. Most of the tourists coming to Mauritius are Loyal and spend a lot during their stay. Regarding price, tourists are quite sensitive to this variable when the price is high less tourist travel to the destination when the price is reduced more tourists travel. Price is also an indicator of the perceived quality, so when playing with the price variable one should be careful of the quality that it is going to reflect.

Market Positioning

Position is about the perceived image of the destination by customers compared to other nearby destinations. Customer’s has this perceived image of Mauritius being paradise when they look at the brochure and see the white sandy beaches and the turquoise ocean. This perceived image would help to make the island the number one destination in the Indian Ocean.

Marketing Mix/branding image

The marketing mix is defined as a combination of controllable variables that can be used to achieve the desired levels of sales in target markets. This combination is known as the 4 Ps, which includes product, price, place and promotion.

Product

In terms of the tourism industry, the product covers the complete experience from the time a tourist reaches their destination to the time he/she leaves. Therefore the tourism product is a mixture of attraction and facilities at the destination, facility and destination. The role of marketing is to increase awareness of the product, improve their presentation and their delivery to customers. One has to bear in mind that when a customer buys a tourism product they are actually buying the expectation of benefits; it is the benefits that are the product. Thus the product should match customer’s needs.

The tourism product comprises of five components:

Destination attractions and environment

Destination facilities and services

Accessibility of the destination

Images of the destination

Price to the consumer (Middleton 1994)

The destination’s approach to the product mix will be doing a market research to see what customer perceptions of the product are and used the information meet their needs. It can also be done on non-users to see what attraction or facilities the destination will need to build up. To attract more customers the destination will introduce packages made by tour operators such as when tourists staying in certain hotels they will have free admission at certain attraction. This type of package will particularly suit families. Extending the usage of the products will help to achieve this strategy as well, such as offering one free night to customers if they are staying for a weekend. The destination could also introduce an airline, like Ryanair in Europe, which would do flights in the Indian Ocean only, such as flights from Mauritius to other island in the Indian Ocean at a low price.

Price

Tourism businesses deal with different segments at the same time and they frequently use different price for the different segments. Pricing is a very complex decision due to the high degree of competition and the inaccuracy in forecasting levels of demand. It may vary not only because of the industry’s characteristics but also due to other factors such as weather, terrorism and strikes. There exists no universal way of pricing, price will always vary. Pricing acts as an indicator of quality, thus it can be used to assess quality before purchase.

The characteristics that affect pricing are the following:

Perishability:

Intensive capital investment

Cost of intensive staff employed

Customer’s characteristics

Regarding pricing the destination will use a low pricing strategy at the beginning to encourage long-run demands, capture market share from competitors and discourage any potential new entrant to enter the market. If it is observed that there is a high proportion frequent customer, this means that the customers are satisfied with the product and customer loyalty has been created. Then price could be raised at a reasonable level to maximise profits. The price could also be lowered during off-peak season to attract customer and non-users as well that could try the destination. Special price could be given to newly married couples for their honeymoon, if they did like the destination by word of mouth they will tell it to their other friends who might use the destination for their honeymoons. (Ernie 1992)

Place

Place is the element of the marketing mix which includes channel of distribution and physical distribution. Channel distribution includes tour operators, retailers and travel agents. Channels should be chosen according to the other the other three marketing mix. Choice of location, which is the point of sale, should be well located to increase the flow of customers (Ernie 1992)

Since we already know who our target markets are the destination will choose tour operators which specialize in their target market and travel agencies that are located where their target market are. For instance if the destination is targeting at families they will choose a travel agent that is specialize in that market and located in area where families live. Since the destination is aiming at non- users they will have to find an operator in these countries.

Promotion

Promotion mix consists of four elements: advertising, personal selling, publicity and sales promotion. They are designed to create excitement and interest about the destination. These elements should communicate similar, consistent and non-conflicting messages to each of their target markets. (Ernie 1992)

The aim of the destination is to increase advertising in target’s market countries and in non-user’s countries as well. Mass media advertising and aggressive advertising will be used to send the message that Mauritius was made first and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius. This message will be sent through the use of televisions, radios, newspapers and billboards. Market research could be use here to see what image our target markets have of the destination and use it for the advertising. The destination will advertise in trade magazines to reach tour operators and travel agents. The destination will use travel agents as an intermediary for personal selling and they could also be used as a way of promoting the destination. Using sales promotion would help to achieve the objectives mentioned earlier, the destination will use price promotion, special merchandise use to promote the destination and familiarization tours for travel agents. Price promotion could be used when there is festival going on at the destination, such as the Independence Day, which would include discount on attractions, restaurants and hotels. Selling merchandise such as T-shirts, key chains and souvenirs will help to promote the destination by word of mouth when tourists go back to their countries, this might encourage prospective customers to visit the destination. Familiarization tours are free trips for travel agents to let them experience the tourist destination before the customers. This would be for travel agents operating in an area where there non-users of the destination, the travel agents would be able advise non-users on the destination. Promotional impact can be managed by carefully managing the four elements of the promotion mix.

TALC
Tourism Area life Cycle

Tourism Area Life cycle a framework concept by Buttler (1980) highlights the tourism attractions and resources of a particular country. It mainly involves according to Butler (1980) a six stage evolution of tourism namely exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and post stagnation. . Mauritius Island can be classified between a

Development stage and stagnation in the TALC (buttler 1980) more people are reaching Mauritius (see tourist Arrival stats) by years, more people discover the destination, and the word spreads about its attractions and the amenities which are increased and improved ( development) with the approach of the carrying capacity* (define below next content) stagnation rise with the social and environmental limits. Buttler (1980) mentioned that a rise from Exploration to Stagnation happens very rapidly, as implied by the exponential nature of the growth curve. As this is the case for Mauritius in a rise of infrastructure, development in Technologies, improving services for quality customers. For Instance carrying capacity clearly explains the rest of the situation.

Carrying Capacity
Definition of carrying capacity

Carrying capacity can be defined as “the maximum number of people who can use a site without an unacceptable decline in the quality of experience gained by visitors” (karma;2001 65) .Lime(1976) points to a substantial expansion of the meaning of carrying capacity – from a focus on numbers of visitors to the entire topic of “how to plan and manage a particular recreation resource “.

Findings in Carrying capacity

Carrying capacities are usually determined for the planning area involving features of key attractions, development sites and even the tourist transit point. The carrying capacity analysis implying the institution of upper limits on development in other words, the number of tourists in terms of days, feedbacks and market forecasts, Moreover, carrying capacities can be established both for the developing as well as developed tourist destination.( Kamra;2001:68) he also argues that carrying capacity analyse most the number of tourist arrivals to the number of inhabitants in the destination area, in a result they found to be genuinely measuring the elements of socio-cultural environment and physical. More elements such as economical and infrastructure issues are to be seen as a part of the carrying capacity.

A source of pollution can be a source of major problem in an environmental aspect, for example the beaches in Mauritius are well preserved by the government and by the hotels themselves, pollution (land) might affect the tourism industry, if not taken into consideration it might result to a decrease in tourist arrivals in the destination, this one major issue can be classified as being a physical more on that is the preservation of wild life animals, the animals in Mauritius Island such as “the kestrel” and the Mauritian Parakeet are unique in the species, preservation of those natural resources have large impacts on tourism industry. Economical benefits are mostly crucial for the government of Mauritius, as this is tourism industry is being as a major source of income, tourism industry also bring employment for the local communities for example hotel resorts have been built in the coastal areas.

SWOT ANALYSIS
SWOT

SWOT, is a tool use to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the destination. The aim of SWOT is to isolate the key environmental factors that are important to the destination.

Strengths:

Distinctive and exotic environment

Mauritius is known for its exotic environment and its natural park.

The opening up of new hotels

Lately in Mauritius there a lot of new hotels opening up, this is an advantage for the island because now they accommodate more tourists than before.

High purchasing power for tourists

?1 = Rs 63.6447, which means that with ?1 UK tourist could more things in Mauritius than in their country. (Anon 2006)

Excellent service provided by hotels

The tropical island is not also known for its physical asset but also for the high quality service provided by hotels. (Anon 2005)

Weaknesses:

Diseases

Lately in Mauritius there has been a disease, chikunguya, which is caused by mosquito bites and because of this the number of French tourist has declined.

Language Barrier

Although the official language is English, not all Mauritian speak English and

It is hard for tourist to communicate since most of the tourists are English speaking.

Long haul flights

– The flights to Mauritius from Europe, America and Asian countries is a 12hr flight, which is very tiring.

Opportunities:

Exploit Golf tourist market

It has notice that golf tourist spend a lot when they come to Mauritius, thereby Mauritius try to attract more golf tourist to maximise their revenues.

Growth in Spa tourism

New air routes such as flight to Russia has been open thus creating a new market and if exploited wisely could bring in more revenues for the island.

Increase in the number of flight to Mauritius

– There are now two new airlines doing the flights to Mauritius, TUIfly Nordic and Corsairfly. (Chateau 2006)

Threats:

Competition

Future competition from the surrounding islands might be an issue; Mauritius will have to find a way of gaining the competitive advantage over them.

Tsunamis

Following the tsunami that hit Indonesia in December there were some minor effects felt in Mauritius. Since that time there are still some tourists that feel it is unsafe to visit the island. (Anonb 2006)

Recommendations:

Mauritius Island has the best possible ability to become the pioneer in Tourism industry in the Indian Ocean , The Government of Mauritius understand very well the importance of Tourists for the Economy, the improvement of the Hotels infrastructure is to be made ( now in process 2008-2010 project) , the preservation of the wildlife park such as the rare animals and rare plants species, the introduction of a new airport also under future planning of the Government, the size of tourists arrivals is increasing with years and several discounts on Air Fares are available.

2665 words

Tourism Industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Tourism has long been a central component of the economic, social and cultural shift that has left its imprint on the world system of cities in the past two decades (Dumond; 2005 cited in Beben; 2006;1). According to the statistics of World Trade Organization, there was 693 million tourist arrivals across the globe in 2002 (Beben; 2006). Moreover, WTO and the World Tourism and Travel Council announced a possible increase in the number of tourists to close to 1 billion by the end of 2010 (Massound; 2010).

Mass tourism is seen as a large number of people participating in tourism as well as inflexible and packaged standardized holidays (Poon; 1993). Starting from the 50’s a new tourist demand leaded to a new stage in this evolutionary process. Tourism industry just like other Fordist industries has been supplying mass products, mostly considered under the label of mass tourism (Conti; Perelli; 2004). According to Conti and Perelli (2004;3), Thomas Cook created the tourism packages in the 19th century as “the pioneering forms of mass tourism and the opportunity for the definitive shift from the aristocratic forms of vacation to the mass mobility of workers spending their paid holidays travelling”. The concept of Cookism was used in a place of Fordism to express the era of mass tourism. Others seen mass tourism as consuming places by the large number of visitors (Urry; 1995). More recently mass tourism consumption experience has been linked to the ideas of “a McDonaldization, Disneyfication or McDisneyfication of societies” (Ritzer and Liska; 1997 cited in Conti and Perelli; 2004;3). The impact of those consumption patterns has been considered as the typical Fordist “leading to a reduction of the cultural diversity by mean of the demand of a tourist experience that will be more and more reproducing the everyday life patterns of consumption” (Contti and Perelli; 2004).

Mass tourism is strongly linked to seasonality. The impact of schools closure for the holiday periods as well as companiesA? work programmes and the destination specific weather conditions, all that aspects are gathering great number of tourists at the same time (Shaw and Williams; 1995). Before tourism was a luxury, available mostly for higher class but after the introduction of packaged holidays and development of mobility and technology, travelling became more accessible for everyone.

Tourism has aroused on the market as a forceful industry making changes which have both positive and negative economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts. The development of tourism industry is very important for economy of the country especially for less developed countries as it increase foreign exchange earnings and generates employment. According to UNWTO, tourism stands for 8% of employment and 9% of global GDP and by the year 2019 will provide 296 million jobs (UNWTO cited in MercoPress, 2010). Tourism can have a powerful and beneficial direction for both economic and sociio-cultural change but at the same time it can be destroying. Do actual benefits from tourism go to the host community? Is governmentA?s priority in development are to provide the needs of the tourists instead of local community? The government blinded by the opportunity of the country to generate the money from the development tourism is forgetting about the negative aspects that the industry can bring. Most of the attention has been made to economic aspects of the tourism growth and environmental and socio-cultural issues have been swept out to the second plan. Although to make tourism sustainable it is very important to look at those aspects.

As mentioned before tourism enables the development of the destination although, the lack of own capital and a weak economy of some underdeveloped destinations makes foreign investors to build a new hotels that makes tourism being beneficial mostly for the developed countries. The same is with employment. It seems like tourism would give jobs to the local community but in the meantime the investors from developed countries employed the workers with a better education and abilities so the developing country stays with almost nothing. When the development is lower than the position of a country is worse. Leakage is an amount of money that escapes from the local economy (France; 1997). According to Kripperdorf(1982;136), “tourism planning is usually in the hands of outside promoters the local population are regarded merely as landowners or as a reserve of labour, not as people entitled to participate in decision making”. For example, tour operators owning resorts and sending the customers to the destination which mean that local community won’t benefit much from those tourists. They export food for the tourist and employ British stuff.

How tourism can be sustainable if itA?s breaking the basic rules of it. The tourism control and planning strategy is crucial in developing sustainable tourism but how can it be done if even government is closing their eyes on the unfair practices in the Tourism sector of that region. The uncontrolled tourism in Goa has a strong impact on host community who has to face the food and water shortage (Almeida; 1996). Moreover, Goan has to face with “electricity problems, there is a severe water shortage. The water pipeline that was originally meant for the villagers is now being utilised by the hotels. The transport too is insufficient to transport both locals and tourists” (Misquita, 1996a cited in Noronha;1999;101). Very fast process of urbanisation has changed Goa into the concrete jungle. Police is closing their eyes on the drug fulfilled parties. Barely 10 % of Goans have benefited from tourism development, moreover, the foreign investors are buying large amounts of lands in the region (Almeida; 1996).All those examples illustrate how unsustainable tourism it is.

Moreover, as suggested by Wall and Wright (1977); physical impacts to the tourist destination include “alterations to the natural environment, including air, water, soils, vegetation and wildlife as well as changes to the build environment” (Mathiesen and Wall; 1999; 38).

Mass tourism affects strongly beaches, cliff-side, environment and degraded landscape. In some mass destinations ground water is in an alarmingly low level which is largely consumed by agricultural sector, by the irritation of a great number of gardens constructed due to the development of new summer houses and second homes and golf courses (Molz; 2004;5). Also the beaches have been extended in order to meet tourist demand. The unlimited constructions and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources will lead to the serious environmental problems. Recreational activities organized for tourists have also strong impact. Tourists by touching reefs when diving and snorkeling are damaging them. Also by the great number of boat trips tourist are disturbing marine animals. According to Kripperdorf (1982;135), “the mass phenomena of modern tourism have initiated the paradoxial process “Tourism destroys tourism”. The landscape loses its tourist value through its use, or rather over-use, by the tourist”.

Mass tourism is not only a problem of coastal regions but also the winter season is strongly connected to mass tourism. In Alps the number of tourists doubles every 7 years (Dziedzic; 1998). In Tyrol the ski slope is going through the endangered forests. Every year more than 500 hectares of agricultural land is used to make new skiing resorts and slopes (Dziedzic; 1998). Environmental degradation destroys the meaning of existence of tourism itself. The number of tourists is growing every year. According to the World Travel report (cited in Hickman; 2006) “by 2020 the natural features of some of the wonders of the world will be damaged by global warming, while other resorts will become seriously overcrowded”.

The carrying capacity has been described as greatest number of people who can use the place without any damage to the natural resources and without degradation of the environment (Wall and Mathiasen; 1999). The attrition of historical buildings and the saturation of the coasts are one of the problems were carrying capacity has been overtaken. Changes in tourist destinations are inevitable but the concept of carrying capacity has the chance to indicate the amount and the way of change and to assess to which point those changes are acceptable (Mathiesen and Wall; 1999).

The socio-cultural impacts are the other aspect of a great importance when looking at the changes in tourism as it strongly changes the way of life of the local communities. Mass tourism is causing displacement of indigenous population by tourists. For example in Hawaii there are about 1 million of indigenous inhabitants, which is a quarter of the whole population (Dziedzic; 1998). In human relationships, the disappearing traditional hospitality is a very important aspect. Especially in the big tourist resorts, these relations were long ago converted into a commodity for sale.

Kuhn (2007; cited in Hanna; 2010 HHhhKKKK) argues that sustainable tourism attempts to preserve traditional cultures in a way that the western tourist deems as ‘authentic’. If sustainable tourism will lead into that direction it will not be very successful. Tourist resorts also offer its guests a more refined, but a fake version of its folklore and traditions, adapted to the stereotypical images of the visited country. According to Mathieson and Wall (1992; 4) “the commercialization of culture, through the marketing and sale of artefacts, may revive traditional art forms or modify them so that they are scarcely recognizable”. Which in a long term might create a “phony folk culture” but at the same moment it can lessen existing unemployment problems and create more jobs.

The Tourism authorities are pleased of the fact that tourism is developing in the country but some of the local communities have different opinions on that. According to Ignacio Cembrero in “View from Fez” (2006), “the country’s Islamist party frequently rails against hotel casinos, restaurants that serve alcohol and the growing gay club scene” (Ranger; 2006). The tourist must accept the cultural differences of other countries. The most of Moroccans are very religious and tourist has to respect it. Even more tolerate Moroccans can become tired of tourists when seeing nudity on the beaches or tourists wearing t-shirts or short trousers in the churches. It insults their believes and rules. “A lack of consideration by tourists for local norms, culture, people or the environment of tourist receiving destinations” is leading to unsustainable tourism practices (Poon; 1993 in Wahab and Pigram; 2004;51). This point was also commented by Obrador et al (2009;3) who suggest that “local cultures are seen as eroded by a homogenous inauthentic, consumer culture”.

Moreover, overcrowding and growth of the bad reputation of the destination by breaking ethical rules can be destructive for the destination. There are many places in the world which have been spoiled by mass tourism and after the development of low cost airlines many cities has lost their “shine.

As most of the products also destinations have a lifecycle. It was clearly presented by Butler (1980) in his model of lifecycle of a tourist destination. He evaluated six stages a destination goes through when tourism development takes place: “exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, concluding with either rejuvenation or decline.”

At this stage the destination is visited by small number of tourists who are keen to explore cultural and natural beauty of the place but the number of visitors is limited due to accessibility difficulties and lack of facilities. Here the attraction of the place yet remains unmodified by tourism. In the next stage of involvement advertising and local initiatives are seen as the element of promotion of the destination which results in increase of the tourist number with the pressure on the public sector to develop infrastructure. Next step in the cycle is development in which further initiatives for development of facilities are made by national and multinational companies. In this stage the control of the public sector is necessary as the popularity of the destination and increasing number of visitors may not only be the reason of success but also cause failure and “the destination may suffer a change in quality through problems of over-use and deterioration of facilities” (Butler; 1980;92). The consolidation is the next level of tourism life cycle when tourism becomes a great part of the local community. Next step of stagnation occurs when after reaching peak numbers of visitors the destination is no longer popular and only conservative visitors are still coming back. In this stage the environmental, economical as well as socio-cultural problems can be seen as the reason. The last stage is decline where effort is need to maintain the tourist arrivals by introducing new types of facilities like for example casinos.

Prague is only one of the examples of the life cycle destination. The city has become one of the most visited cities in Europe after Czech Republic became a member of EU and after the growth of mobility (Global Travel Industry News; 2010). This beautiful, full of historical monuments city was rejuvenated in the last two decades. The commercialization of the city took place and the old town became surrounded by souvenir vendors, Irish pubs and beer gardens losing its authenticity. Also the prices have gone up and all locals who couldnA?t afford been forced to move out of town. It’s one of the examples when the way of making quick cash has prevailed over the unspoiled charm of the historic Prague.

Mass tourism has led to the development of sustainable tourism in order to reduce negative impacts of tourism growth. Later in time the concept of Post Fordism was seen as the customers seem to acquire more power in determining market tendencies. According to Contti and Perelli (2004;9), “this change also tend to meet the new demand for environmental friendly tourism products, being new tourists generally perceived as more educated, interested in local communities culture and in a real interaction with the surrounding environment”. Since 1980 the sustainable tourism has began to be an important issue in the tourism industry (Swarbrooke; 1999). By creating a new infrastructure, hotels and businesses the employment is increasing. By travelling people have a chance to experience new cultures and traditions, although not every tourist is keen to do that and some visitors are not interested in it and ignore host communities. Sustainable tourism development is directed especially to create a better understanding of tourism, of how to achieve balance between economic, cultural and environmental aspects of tourism development. It is necessary to encourage people to take responsibility for the environment. Moreover, fair distribution of tourism benefits is necessary and the bigger involvement of local community in the tourism development decisions of their region has to be improved. The sustainable tourism directs to reduce negative impact on environment by introduction of quieter, more fuel efficient aircraft to start from to maximizing economic benefits for the host community rather than the visitors countries. Mass tourism is strongly connected to the high seasonal tourism caused by the great demand of 3’s tourism tourists all over the world (Bramwell; 2004). That is why diversification of tourism like development of rural tourism has been developed to minimize saturation of the beaches in the high seasons and to avoid mass tourism. The development of sustainable tourism in very important for the countries where tourism industry is a main element of the local economy because the traditional beach holidays will decline caused by the saturation if the mass tourism will be increasing with that speed (Swarbrooke; 1999). According to Perry (2001), the climate change caused by humans will result in future modification of the climate conditions for example in the Mediterranean area, whereas the northern and western Europe climate will be improved.

In 1992 on the conference in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil the first strategy document on sustainable tourism has been announced – Agenda 21 as the basic economic model of tourism in XXI century (Hanna; 2010). Although, the Agenda 21 has meet various criticism mostly “due to its non-binding treaties allowing most of the recommendations surrounding climate change and various other cultural issues to be ignored by the international community” (Hanna; 2010). Nowadays, alternative forms of tourism have been emphasized but taking in account that even small group tours can be damaging the sustainable tourism is hard to accomplish.

Latest debate of Tourism Concern came to a conclusion “that all-inclusive holidays, arguably the epitome of mass-packaged tourism consumption should be banned” (Farrington; 1999 cited in Sharpley and Telfer; 2002; 304). For example Gambia’s tourism authorities have banned all-inclusive holidays in 1999 (Sharpley and Telfer; 2002). It is an effective contribution to the development of destination. This could be a possible solution of applying sustainable tourism into a real life but it is doubtful if it would work for every country. Another alternative solution suggested by France (1997;89) is “the development of holiday complexes which provide artificial A?sun-warm water` environments (e.g. Center Parc villages), located at points of maximum market access” which could be an exit for achieving sustainable tourism just if the great number of people would choose it instead of “normal” holidays.

In conclusion, the growth of tourism seems to be inevitably unsustainable. Tourism is giving employment and economic benefits but for example in the Third World countries the division of money is unequal. The powerful developed countries are always going to be stronger than less developed countries if management will not be carefully planned. So even if tourism is bringing money, it is not always bringing it to the right place. Nowadays people blinded by money forgetting about more important things like passing their tradition to the next generation by conserving it.

Mass tourism is termed as a neo-colonialism which can be compared to army forces where instead of their invasion we have an invasion of the tourist influx (Dziedzic; 1998). There is no solution to stop people from travelling. The great understanding of negative impacts would lead to better sustainable tourism development but this need a high number of people involved in it which is hard to accomplish as nowadays people donA?t think much about the future risk related to the planet because “not to go away is like not possessing a car or a nice house. It is a marker of status in modern societies” (Urry; 1990;4). There is a lack of sustainable understanding and adequate tourism control to develop sustainable tourism. Sustainable tourism will not eliminate negative impacts of tourism but it could be a way to minimize its impact. Because if the growth in mass tourism will continue as fast as it does now the global warming will be arising and some destinations will suffer unbearably high temperatures with an increase in the risk of fire. All those changes will lead tourists to changes in their holiday destinations, which not necessarily means stop of mass tourism. Tourist will continue with transport use even if they will reduce their travels, it will be still environmental damaging. All the facts are coming into conclusion that the best way for sustainable tourism would be staying at home.

Chichen Itza is a famous tourism and archaeological site in Mexico. It is situated in the Yucatan Peninsula state of Mexico. Chichen Itza was built by the Mayas, one of the oldest existing habitations of Mexico and the world. The site was also known “Uucyabnal”, which means “Seven Great Rulers” (Henderson,1997). It is located at approximately 25 miles southeast of the city of Merida. It is also known as one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In year of 1988, it was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since 2007, when Chichen-Itza’s “El Castillo” (Kukulkan Pyramid) was named in the list as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World after a worldwide vote, the number of visiting tourists increased by 75 per cent. Now the Mexican tourism board is expecting to double this tourist number by 2012. Almost 2.5 million tourists visited Chichen ltza in 2009 (Mexico tourism statistics, 2010).

The pyramid of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent God (also known as Quetzalcoatl to the Toltecs and Aztecs) is the largest and most important ruin structure at Chichen Itza. The old Spaniards (Mexico was ruled by Spain in past) called it El Castillo, which means the Castle. However, the pyramid does not look like a castle and in old times it was used for religious and astronomical purposes.

This legendary ninety-foot tall pyramid was built during the 11th to 13th centuries. The basic structure is based upon the previous pyramid (Barkin, 2000). The architecture of the pyramid shows some specific information about the old Mayan calendar, it is directly linked to the solstices and equinoxes. According to equinoxes two times a year there is an illusion of a snake, which is created by the sun, the pyramid has a set of 91 steps each side, which when linked together with the shared step of the stage at the top, total 365 steps which is indicative of the number of days in a year.

The core ball court was the biggest ball court of those times, the size of the ball court is 166 x 68 meters and the sides are lined with sculptures of ball players (similar to the game of basketball). El Caracole (the central pyramid), or the Snail, is a round building with a twisting staircase that served as an observatory. The pyramid contained various instruments to help determine important dates and details in the Mayan calendar. Particularly, the equinox and the solstice were important in view of astronomy. An interesting and famous fact by the Mayan calendar is December 21, 2012 as this is the last day of the earth which is also depicted as “doomsday” (Tencati, 2007). This site is open almost every day of the year during the hours of 8 am to 5 pm. There is a light and sound show performed at 7 pm every day to attract tourists. Research says, this light and sound show is very harmful for Chichen Itza in view of sustainability.

Management issues at the site

1. Mass Tourism and Damage

1.1 Current and Future of Mass Tourism

Since the late 1930s tourism has grown worldwide. Due to the fact that after World War II western people were crucial in introducing free time and leisure activities to the working class, consequently there is more spending money for holidays (Judd & Fainstein, 1999). This phenomenon has been the major cause in the increasing volume of tourism in Mexico. In the book “Archaeological Tourism” Walker (2009) refers to four H’s of cultural or indigenous tourism: habitat, history, handicrafts and heritage researched by Valene Smith (1996): habitat means the geographic setting and underlying platform for the visit. History implies post-contact relations between Westerners and aboriginal groups. Handicrafts often are created for souvenirs and made from local goods, which are relative to the market demands of tourism. Lastly, heritage refers to the body of knowledge and skills associated with human survival in terms of individual values and beliefs. In this case, the tourism interaction of Chichen Itza offered all of these elements and more.

Chichen Itza and its dominating features have become the symbol of Mexico for example; the pyramids of Kukulcan and El Catillo. The achievements of the Mayan Riviera in astronomy are also widely known in the cycles of the heavens namely in the Maya calendar. As a result, there is an influx of visitors to Mexico who are timing their travels, to coincide with astronomical phenomena.

Furthermore during the spring and fall equinoxes, the pyramid presents a graphic depiction of darkness and light, symbolizing day and night. The sun of the late afternoon creates the illusion of a snake creeping slowly down the northern staircase (The University of North Carolina, 2011), large crowds of visitors come to the site to view this spectacle. Juan Jose Marti Pacheco, a secretary for the Tourist Promotion of Yucatan has identified the number of visitors to Chichen Itza has increased by 75 percent since being named a wonder of the world (New 7 Wonders, 2010). In addition the number of tourists expected to visit Chichen Itza will double by 2012 (Lyn M, 2008).

In response to this influx of tourists for the near future, the World Heritage Alliance (an international organization which is responsible for supporting World Heritage conservation, sustainable tourism and local economic development for communities in and around UNESCO World Heritage sites). Is working with the Secretary of Tourism for Mexico and the Mexican Tourism Board, along with the founding partners of the World Heritage Alliance, Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) and the United Nations Foundation, have extended more partnership to promote and preserve World Heritage sites especially Chichen Itza through 2012 (Consejo de Promocion Turistica de Mexico, 2007).

1.2 Carrying Capacity Management

The impact of over tourism is also related to the natural resources in Chichen Itza. Many archaeologists are concerned about the public consequences of their research and restoration in heritage sites and are making important efforts to provide archaeologically and environmentally responsible, sustainable, and educationally sound contributions to local communities and national governments (Walker, 2009).

In particular the responses of local government, the Nature Conservancy and the Rainforest Alliance have been working to build capacity for conservation by working with local communities and promoting sustainable livelihoods that support forest health and biodiversity conservation in the Maya Forest region (Ayen, 2007). On the other hand the planning for the construction of water management in the ancient city of Chichen Itza takes into account practical considerations for the needs of a growing population, as well as preventing flooding during the rainy season that may be the cause of architecture collapse (Rocio, Osorio & Schmidt, 2009).

1.3 Security in Mass Tourism

The security concerns separate into two issues. First is the security of their own material patrimony such as artifacts on display in a museum, monuments and archaeological materials. Second is the safety and comfort of visitors. Breglia (2006) explained that preventive measures at that site included the installation of ropes or chains to assist in climbing certain structures and to prohibit public access to others. The stairs of the structure are narrow footholds and also difficult for visitors to navigate even under dry conditions. Moreover, there is no an official policy to warn visitors against climbing, even when the lightest rains turn climbing into a slippery and dangerous undertaking.

Although tourism is the only product where the consumer must go to the source to consume, this is more apparent in the Maya world where major archaeological destinations namely Chichen Itza in Mexico, expected in the order of over million visitors a year (Meethan, Anderson & Miles, 2009). However, citing concerns over safety after various incidents of death and serious injury that visitors have sustained over the years at Chichen Itza, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico has closed down most of the popular monuments to solve the tourist traffic problem on the site (Cyark, 2011). For instance, El Castillo, the main pyramid of Chichen Itza was closed after a tourist fell to her death in 2006. In addition, the Jaguar Throne room was also closed down in 2007.

2. Vendors

The next problem on this site is the local vendors, who try to sell local craft carved stone, cheap price Mexican cloth and food. This site has more than 500 vendors in the corridor of the pyramid. These vendors create some big hassles for tourists and management because they try to up sale their vending items to the tourists. The more important thing is that these vendors have unstructured shops in the protected area of the pyramid. During the season, this number reaches in the thousands. The visual appeal of site is affected by their tables and blankets in the park. Almost every tourist is affected by these vendors and their push selling strategies.

The federal government has developed a new plan for these vendors. The director of Regional Programs on site, Juan Carlos Arnau says, “There is a project to build a space outside the archaeological zone for the sale of crafts and to offer complementary productive alternatives for the local communities”. This plan is in progress with coordination of the state government of Yucatan and diverse local municipal governments. But yet, there is no defined date to start this project but it is targeted to finish by the year 2012.

3. Economic Inequality

Tourism in Chichen Itza is a main source of economic growth in the Yucatan Peninsula. According to the book ‘Population, Development and Environment on the Yucatan’ Lutz, Prieto and Sanderson (2000) identified that the next 20 years of tourism in Yucatan Peninsula, tourism will be the most dynamic economic activity on Yucatan peninsula in both the short and medium terms. With the increasing tourism and population, it might be a main factor which affects environmental problems directly. Thus ecotourism should be a right technique to balance both a big amount of tourists and environment. Due to that fact that ecotourism is an accessible ‘Engine of economic growth’ which without excessively heavy investment can help a country generate foreign exchange and added to this is the hope it will be green and sustainable (Barrow, 2006).

Infrastructure Development

Improvements have been made in Yucatan since 1990, for example; the international airport and highway transportation system. The purposes of this practice is to provide a more accessible gateway to the ancient Maya site of Chichen Itza and also to the new maquila plants opening around Valladolid (Baklanoff & Moseley, 2008). At this time, the main causeway under construction aims to access directly and indirectly to the center of the Chichen Itza site, integrated by the Group of the Castle and the Group of the Thousand Columns, both built on top of the Great Leveling (Ruiz, 2009). Chichen Itza has become the nexus of this great metropolis, and the strict internal political control that existed through this sophisticated network.

4. Land Ownership

Chichen Itza sold (A conflict between property owner and government is finished)

It is a great mystery for the millions of visitors around the world who trip to the site each year that, Chichen Itza has been privately owned for the past 500 years. On March 29, 2010, Hans Jurgen Thies Barbachano, owner of the 200 acre property on which some of the world’s most identifiable monuments stand, EL Castillo, the ball court and the temple of warriors, decided to sell his belongings to the state of Yucatan for $220 million Mexican ($17.6 million US).

This property war ended after more than a decade of debate between the property owner and the state federal government. Various stakeholders such as the vendors and the local people have been affected by this decision.

According to an interview of Barbachano Gomez Rul, brother of the property owner during the years of 2005 and 2006,the owner has received a certain percentage of tourist tickets sold. The owner has his own entrance gate and has developed his own hotel in front of the pyramid named the Maya land resort (Alright, 2000).

The owner said in interviews that he was not opposed to selling Chichen Itza, he only wanted a reasonable price, which he estimated at $250 million in US dollars which was a huge amount. According to the director of INAH at the time, Alfonso Maria y Fields, INAH made a formal offer for pyramid and that all archeological zone of $8 million Mexican, but again received no response from the owner. By the end of 2006 the owner was dead and his Chichen Itza property belonged to his grandson, Han Jurgen Thies Barbachano. The new owner had accepted the new deal of the government and Chichen Itza was sold to the state government for $220 million Mexican peso or $17.6 million US dollar, on 29 March 2010. Although, the owner is still waiting to receive the money, the principal parties signed a purchase contract in front of a press conference.

Jorge Esma Bazan, director of Yucatan’s Culture, illustrated a 10-point policy plan for the future of this archeological site. This policy regulation explained future work with cooperation INAH. This contract also has some points to discuss with vendors and try to find out a solution for them. The policy is focused on the creation more opportunities for the local Mayan people. The policy also illustrates future major tasks for the state government in the field of research and restoration of Chichen Itza.

Current Management Practices at the site

To support the growing tourism of Chichen Itza in 2012, the government has to manage the main issue that is mass tourism. Dr. Steven Fly (2011), the author of Plugging Yucatan into the Tourism Circuit in Yucatan Living Online Magazine, mentions Plan Maetro Chichen Itza (Master plan of Chichen Itza) 2011 that this Yucatan tourism project is part of an integrated plan with the archaeological sites, two new attractions (Museum of the Maya World in Merida and Palace of the Maya Civilization) and the circuit of infrastructure.

With the large number of tourists predicted for the future, Chichen Itza will not be the only place to encounter this fast tourism in the Yucatan. New attractions have been created for this reason. The Palace of the Maya Civilization is a museum which is proposed in Yaxcaba, located approximately ten kilometers from Chichen Itza. The museum reveals the origins of the Maya world and includes a 300-seat IMAX theater and gift shop, a courtyard and outdoor amphitheater. Museum of the Maya World in Merida closed to the Siglo XXI convention centre on December 21, the significant date is from the belief of the Maya calendar, which is the end of the world in 2012. Moreover the government is also creating the tourist complex in Rio Largartoes city with government owned resorts and hotels. As well as a tourist intelligence information system offered by the state government will introduce tourists to the new attractions and will assist the state in a part of capacity management.

The circuit of infrastructure consists of the network of four features in the peninsula are archaeology, colonial, ecological and coastal circuits. These tourist circuits are redesigned and rebuilt roadways. In part of infrastructure in the Mayan World will be started with improvements and remodeling of the Chichen Itza International Airport in Kaua. Next project will be the redesign and renovation of the Malecon in Progreso which is a major port that will have an increase in traffic due to several cruise ship lines each year. Finally, there is the construction of cross peninsular trenes rapidos (fast train) named “Bullet Train”. The major route will be across the Yucatan Peninsula, from Merida to Chichen Itza and Valladolid.

Recommendations for Sustainable Management

The state government should limit the numbers of tourists on the site per day and arrange a timetable by online reservation for group tours and individually.

To enhance security on the site, the government has to provide more infrastructures, for examples; the international public signs, the gates surrounding the site and general facilities.

Due to the mass tourism, the impact may lead to pollution problems in the future. Thus the government should prepare for waste management.

Local government and INAH should support the locality by buying the art works and refuse purchasing products from endangered animals or being offered illegal products. Moreover, most of indigenous products can be value added when displayed in art galleries and art museums.

Government should reduce the trading hours of the site. Currently its open 365 days consisting 10 hours each day. Possibly it should be 5 days a week for tourism sustainability.

Local government and INAH can buy this art and can sell to tourists in proper art gallery or can show in an art museum which is beneficial for both, vendors and government. Tourist can also enjoy this art in meaningful manner and can enjoy trip without vendors hassle.

Local Craft institute can be an option to support this art and vendors to educate the locals and vendors.

Conclusion

With support and promotion by the Mexican government, Chichen Itza has become one of the globally well-known sites as the symbol of Mexico. Chichen Itza is also faced with many management issues such as mass tourism, vendors, economic inequality and land ownership since being one of Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. As a result, the state government has to invest the budget in infrastructure, new attractions and accommodations to encounter an increasing number of tourists everyday. However, the side-effect of this practice leads to excessive tourism accessing the main attractions. Therefore, the government should start limiting the number of tourists allowed at the site. Due to the fact that uncontrolled tourism will damage existing structures, new infrastructure and nature. As well as the government needs to find the solution for the waste problem from over-visitation in the near future.

Introduction

As we know that motivation is a process where our need activates a selected behavior thanks to we can try to achieve our goal, It drives us to act in a way to achieve our desire goal and it’ s the general term for all processes involved in starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities. Maslow hierarchy of needs theory is one of the most popular motivation theories and it’s also considered one of the most important theories in psychology. According to Maslow people has a specific needs and they are motivated by their desire to satisfy these needs. In addition to this he arranged these needs in hierarchical order, he put physiological needs at the bottom of hierarchy ,followed by safety needs ,the belongingness and love needs after that esteem needs and at the top of hierarchy self -actualization need. He proposed that the lower -level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become important. Travel motivation reflects one’s needs and wants and can be viewed as a critical variable in relation to their purchase decisions. Maslow hierarchy theory help us to understand the different needs that motivate travelers and in other hand it will be enhancing service providers’ knowledge about what kinds of experiences travelers seek, especially for certain groups of people. Maslow’s hierarchy is considered a useful tool for understanding consumer motivations, developing marketing strategy, appropriate advertising appeals and as the basis for market segmentation and product positioning because consumer goods often serve to satisfy each of the need levels

The determinants of travel decision-making and the influential factors would also be examined since they are related to the travel motivations. Understanding of travelers’ motivations is critical to predict future travel patterns. Maslow’s five-level hierarchy need theory has been broadly accepted and used to explain travel behavior. This paper will try to discuss the Maslow hierarchy theory in tourism and the importance of this theory in tourism field .this paper also involves some studies in tourism which based on Maslow hierarchy theory and how the authors applied this theory in tourism field.

Maslow hierarchy of needs theory

Hierarchy of needs theory was proposed in the 1943 by Abraham Maslow who was born in April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BA in 1930, his MA in 1931, and his PhD in 1934, all in psychology, all from the University of Wisconsin. Maslow presented hierarchy of needs. On the bottom of the pyramid are all physiological and safety needs such us food, water, air, rest etc. Higher levels represent higher needs, which are more complex. An affiliation on the third level of the pyramid says about belonging to a groups such as family, school or work colleagues groups; a need of love and friendship. On the forth level are self-esteem needs such as respect, achievement, confidence, need of being recognized. Self-actualization needs are on the last level of the Maslow’s pyramid are creativity, morality, spontaneity, problem solving etc.

He also proposed that the lower -level needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs become important in addition to this Maslow in 1970 also discus two important needs related directly with tourism ;the aesthetic need and the need to know and understand .(maslow,1987)

The basic need hierarchy

1-Physiological needs: – in this level of hierarchy people must be satisfied their physiological need which involves basic survival needs such as the needs of air, water, food and shelter. People can’t become concerned with other higher-order needs before they satisfy these needs

2-Safety needs: – this level is the second level of maslow;s hierarchy of needs which concerns people’s need to be secure and safe in their environment. It includes the need for protection psychological and physical harm.

3-Belongingness and love need: – these needs include dealing with and acceptance by other people, giving and receiving affection and friendship. Based on Maslow’s theory people can’t reach to this level until satisfied their physiological and safety needs

4-Esteem needs: – according to Maslow theses needs may be classified in to two subsidiary sets. First, the desire for achievement, adequacy, strength, competence and freedom.seconde we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige, status, recognition importance and dignity.

5-Self actualization needs: – people need for self- actualization represents their desire to fulfill their potential, maximizing the use of their skills and abilities .malsow proposed that even if all the previous need are satisfied we may still often expect that anew discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual is doing what he or she, individually is fitted for.(Hitt ,Miller andColella,2006)

There is no doubt that , all these needs affect the choice of destination selected by tourists by tourists, an extreme -adventure tourists might forgo all lower needs to satisfy self actualization.

The basic idea of Maslow’s theory is that individuals are waiting beings they always desire more and that they want relays on what they already have. It’s necessary to know that Maslow’s theory relates to individual development and motivation in life and not just to the behavior of people at work. That’s mean the hierarchy of needs can be applied to the satisfaction of the needs and expectations of tourists as well as to members of workers who work in tourist establishment. (Mulins, 1998)

Maslow theory in tourism

This theory is very important in tourism sector because the determinants of travel decision-making and the influential factors would also be examined since they are related to the travel motivations. Understanding of travelers’ motivations is critical to predict future travel patterns. Maslow’s five-level hierarchy need theory has been broadly accepted and used to explain travel behavior. In addition to this, the satisfaction of people (tourists, employees) needs plays a vital role to develop this sector.

According to Horner and Swarbrooke, (2001) satisfying the tourists in tourism is very important for three reasons:-

It leads to positive word -of -mouth recommendation of the service to friends and families, which in turn brings in new tourists.

Creating a repeat customer by satisfying them with their first use of product brings a steady source of income with no need for extra marketing expenditure

Dealing with complaints is expensive, time-consuming and bad for the organization’s reputation .further more; it can bring direct cost through compensation payment.

In tourism we have two customers one who pay and the other who is working in tourist’s establishments’ .when we satisfy the workers need in workplace that will be reflected in their works and quality of service which provide to tourists.

Maslow as we know that also discuss two important needs related directly with tourism ;the aesthetic need and the need to know and understand. these needs are less known to people because they were not included in the hierarchical needs model .however, from tourism standpoint , these needs carry more weight than others beyond the hierarchical needs model .people travel to learn about something new and to be exposed to objects of beauty. Unfortunately, a few tourism studies have applied Maslow’s model in relation to these two sets of human needs. (Hsu and Huang, 2008)

Examples of tourist’s studies

TOURISM MARKETING FOR CITIES AND TOWNS

Using Branding and events to attract tourists

By Bonita M. Kolb

The author in his book used this theory when he discuss the factors which affect on a person behavior to chose tourist destination, we can observe that the Hierarchy of needs theory has direct application for marketing because many of these needs are satisfied through the purchase of services and products . Of course, person must continue to satisfy his basic need for food, clothing shelter and security even while they are satisfying his belonging and self-esteem needs. A well-designed tourism package will give

Chance to tourists to satisfy many of their needs at the same time. After all, on matter how exciting is the place’s attraction, the tourist will still needing good food, a comfortable be, and personal security. Therefore, tourism marketers must provide information in their promotional on how tourists can satisfy their basic needs while stimunesaly promoting how a visit to the place will satisfy tourists’ need for belonging, self- esteem, and even self-actualization needs.

Satisfying physiological and safety needs

Tourists want assurance that the place can provide a suitable hotel rooms and high quality restaurants. Inn addition to this the tourists information about the place’s safety can encourage them to visit this place. Promotional materials must provide information on the place’s restaurants, hotels and safety[mark. in other hand money is one hotels award that is potentially related to these needs to the extent that it provides for food and shelter. , in addition to this workers must consider their jobs are security factors and as means for keeping what they have acquired ( mulins,1998)

Satisfying belonging needs

The social belonging and self -esteem needs play a key role to motivate people to visit any place by using a good promotion such as a small places or tourists destination can satisfy tourists belonging need by communicating a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

A large destination also can satisfy these needs through the number of tourists from every where can be helped to make tourists feel like they are apart of new social group. In addition to this when the tourists build a strong relationship with a local community that may help to motivate a repeat visit. In addition to this, Workers satisfaction in hotels may come from family relationships, a job usually provides an additional source of relationships, The manager can use this theory when he wants to motivate workers through give them money in order to satisfy them basic needs after that by communication can make a good work environment .also when the worker feels there are affair system in hotel that’s mean career development he will be more satisfy

To satisfy tourists belonging need, all tourists destination have to provide a social events and activities that allow tourists to deal with indigenous people and with other tourists .in other hand the workers in tourists establishment must satisfy their belonging needs

Satisfying self esteem

These needs also can be used to motivate people to visit by sharing the information about the trip with others after returning home.

Tourists can satisfy their self -esteem by traveling to learn or improve skill or pursue anew or existing interest .in other hand these needs can be also be enhanced by participation in events that are unique or of limited availability .workers also can satisfy their esteem needs by money and financial rewards because they provide signals of people’s worth to the hotels.

Satisfying self – actualization

Tourism may provide the chance for tourists to improve their own special skills or interests to a professional level; tourism marketers could improve a tourist package that involves advanced lectures by experts or training by celebrities.

Self actualization also involves the need to do good for others; tourism marketers also must consider hosting special activities for tourists that also have an altruistic purpose.

Maslow’s hierarchy and food tourism in Finland: five cases
By Irma Tikkanen
The author in this paper attempted to explore the field of food tourism in Finland by using Maslow’s theory in classification and how can the food tourism promoters emphasize on the need of people to motivate them
According to Tikkanen food and beverage expenditure amount to one-third of overall tourist expenditure of the global tourism because eating is one of our physiological needs ,in addition to this in his paper he attempted to find the link between needs and motivations in hierarchy of needs and also how are they linked with tourism .
As we know that Food need is one of the most important basic needs which person cant survive without it but also catering services and food images are very important ingredient of cultural tourism.
In this paper the author mentioned that If the physiological needs are relatively well gratified, consequently, a new set of needs emerge, which may be categorized roughly as the safety needs, The safety needs represent the desire to be free of danger ,it is also a multidisciplinary problem. That includes food processing and legislation; management systems and organizational culture; microbiological, chemical and physical hazards; and human behavior. After the physiological and safety needs satisfied, needs of the need for love, affection and belongingness arise.

The esteem needs show an individual desire for a feeling of self-confidence and adequacy. This may reflect internal feelings of strength, achievement, independence, or external desires of reputation, prestige, recognition, attention, etc

Even if all these needs are satisfied, we may still often expect that a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop, unless the individual has an inward vocation. In other words, what a man can be, he must be. These needs called self-actualization.

Food tourism defined as”a visitation to primary and secondary food producers, food festivals, restaurants and specific locations for which food tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of specialist food production region are the primary motivating factor for travel. The authors believe that this definition is insufficient in explaining all food tourism and he agrees with the opinion which said that food and tourism have a strong related and Food has recognized as:

a part of the local culture, which tourists consume;

a part of tourist promotion;

a potential component of local agricultural and economic development; and a regional factor that is affected by the consumption patterns and perceived preferences of the tourists.

The authors in his study used multiple-case design because the evidence obtained this way is often regarded as more impressive and assuring. In addition to this five cases representing each type of need in Maslow’s theory of needs were selected. The goal of the identified five sectors with cases is to explain the case study findings with related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its applicability into food tourism.

According to authors the five sector of food tourism in Finland are; food tourism based on physiological needs, food tourism based on safety needs, food tourism based on esteem needs, and food tourism based on self-actualizing needs. In this paper author discussed food tourism respect to hierarchy of needs.

Food tourism based on psychological needs:-

When the main motivation of food tourism is physiological needs, food is then seen as a tourist attraction such as, on cruise ships the quality and the variety of the meals is attracting tourists, That’s mean the tourists want to satisfy their psychological needs through food tourism. The authors discussed the situation of food tourism in Finland and he mentioned that the international cruising food tourism dates back to the 1960s when cruising tourism started between Finland and Sweden. At that time the assortment of foodstuffs in shops was narrow, and the display was imperfect compared to that of today, and also he focused on the alcohol which was one of the main motivations for the international cruising tourism between Finland and Sweden as well as Finland and Estonia. In addition to this In the Suonenjoki region, strawberry picking attracts tourists from Russian Carelia every summer offering seasonal income. Self-service strawberry picking attracts tourists locally and regionally on a smaller scale.

Food tourism based on safety needs:-

In this sector of food tourism , it respected to safety needs which consists mainly of local and international food, as well as health and safety conferences, where participants are mostly university researchers, health officers and retailers .the authors emphases on the international conferences of safety food which organized February 1-3, 2003 in Paris, France and one of the One of the companies sending delegates to this event on an annual basis is Kesko, the second biggest retailer in Finland.

Food tourism based on social needs:-

In this sector of food tourism the author mentioned that Food is becoming the main point of festivals and special activities that attracts tourists as well as indigenous residents in addition to this Food and food activities can be viewed as complementing the trip and helping to the trip’s success, the tourist’s consumption experience, but they can also form a top activity during the trip. Therefore, food and the activities linked to it may become the region’s core attraction such as; the International Wine Festival in Kuopio collected about 50,000 visitors in 2003.

Food tourism based on esteem needs:-

As we said that before esteem needs show an individual desire for a feeling of self-confidence and adequacy, the authors focused on Provincial a la carte projects which established to promote culinary food tourism and organized in the following regions: Kainuu, Lake Finland, Lapland, Middle Finland, Northern Savo, Northern Carelia, and Ostrobotnia. One of the most important aim of this project is to increase information of the regional food tradition and main materials and to use them in the modern catering services

Food tourism based on self-actualizing needs:-

In this type of food tourism the authors emphasized on categorized business to be the purpose of a visit in meetings and conferences. According to thee authors Food trade fair tourism involves of international and domestic food trade fairs. There are many international food trade fairs, such as BioFach – World Organic Trade Fair in Nuremberg, Germany. International food conferences attract food scientists to increase their knowledge. One annually organized domestic food conference is the Finnish Food Congress which has been organized annually since 1970. It is the largest professional educational event for the food sector in Finland. Through these conferences we can satisfy self actualization of food experts who seek new kinds of culinary ideas and new food products. Such as cooks, restaurant managers, food wholesale buyers etc.

The authors in his paper used the empirical findings which indicate that when classifying food tourism by sectors, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and motivations can be used as the basis in the classification.

Travel motivation: a critical review of the concept’s development.
By Cathy H.C Hsu and Songshan Huang.

The intent of this study represents the development of travel motivation concept over the year; the authors apply Maslow’s hierarchy theory to travel motivation theory. in addition to this they highlights the two conceptual framework ; travel career leader and travel career pattern . The study also discussed other concepts which influence in travel motivation such as push and pull, Mannel and Iso-Ahlo model of escaping and seeking dimensions, merits of Plog’s allocentrism / phsycontrism. In addition the study explained methodological issues in tourist motivation research. We will focus only on the uses of Maslow’s hierarchy in this study.

According to Hsu and Huang (2008) travel motivation related to why people travel motivation related to why people travel so this area is relatively difficult research area of tourism enquiry . Based on this problem this paper reviews some of the most important research pieces relating to the subject, and which document the conceptual development of the motivation construct.

Authors mentioned that sociology and social psychology is root of theoretical framework of travel motivation studies. In addition Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be used to analyze the theoretical of many tourism researches because is one of the most influential motivation theories in the academic and in the public domain, one reason of this popularity of theory is its simplicity. Maslow’s theory was developed by clinical psychology, the premise is applicable to others sectors such as counseling, marketing, tourism and organizational psychology.

The study also explained how Pears in (1982) used Maslow’s hierarchy theory in his study “the social psychology of tourism behavior “. Pears in his study analyzed 400 cases of travel experiences provided by some 200 tourists in Australia, Europe, U.S.A and Canada .he wrote down each respondent one positive experience and one negative experience.

Pears analyzed and coded the tourists experience data in to five categories in accordance to Maslow’s hierarchy. Based on the information s which collected through analyzed, he suggested that travel motivation has the properties of an approach-avoidance paradigm and travelers attracted to holiday destination because of the possibility satisfying self-actualization, love and belongingness and physiological needs in that order of importance. (Hsu and Huang ,2008)

This paper also mentioned hat Maslow in his theory discussed two others important human needs: aesthetic needs and the need to know and understand something new. These needs are very important in tourism field because person travels in order to see and learn about something new. But these needs were not included in the hierarchy of needs so the needs are less know to people.

Maslow’s of needs theory as applied to tourism field has been one of the significant main point in travel motivation research, as we said that before this study also highlights the two conceptual framework in understanding travel motivation; travel career leader (TCL) and travel career pattern (TCP).

Travel career leader can be traced to Pearce’s earlier work in tourist behavior and it is based upon Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Based on the TCL tourist’s needs or motivations are organized in a hierarchy with relaxation needs at the lowest level followed by safety needs, relationship needs, self-esteem and development needs and finally fulfillment need. The main idea underlying this conceptual framework is that a person’s travel motivation changes with his /her travel experience. (Hsu and Huang,2008)

The second conceptual framework which presented recently by Pearce and his friend Lee in (2003) is Travel Career Pattern (TCP), it is also known as adjusted version of TCL. In fact it’s quite different of travel career leader.

This concept tested by Pearce and lee in two studies and generate very similar motivation factors ,these factors can be classified in two groups ; the first one involves the most significant and common motivation factors to tourists such as novelty ,relax and relationship while the other group involves motivation factors that were less significant to respondents e.g. stimulation ,isolation and social status. In addition Pearce and lee proposed three levels of TCP they put significant common motives e.g. relax, relationship and novelty in the main layer, the next layer which surrounding the main layer involves the moderately important travel motives e.g. self -actualization. The outer layer includes of common and less important travel motives e.g. social status, isolation and nostalgia. In addition Pearce and Lee explained that pleasure tourists at all levels of TCP are affected by the most important and central travel motives as well as by less important motives. Travel Career Patterns as a tourist motivation model is still underdevelopment and it’s validity requires further rigorous tests. (Hsu and Huang,2008)

We can observe the relationship between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and TCP and how can Pearce and his colleagues Lee in 666 used maslow’s theory to introduce this new model.

4-Travel motivations of package tour travellers

By Jui Chi Chang

In this study the authors examined travel motives as well as travel decision-making of Taiwanese travellers with a group package tour abroad. Tourism is an industry for people who are looking for something different and they want to be treated as valuable customers travel motivation as we know reflects one’s needs and wants and can be viewed as a critical variable in relation to their purchase decisions and outcome of satisfaction. Motivation emerges when an individual wants to satisfy a need.

According to Maslow theory a person has different needs which he wants to satisfy it and these needs motivate person to act anything in order to satisfy his needs , the author mentioned that , Studying travel motivation helps one to understand customers’ needs, thus enhancing service providers’ knowledge about what kinds of experiences travellers seek, especially for certain groups of people in addition to this Understanding of travellers’ motivations is critical to predict future travel patterns. that’s mean it’s necessary to study motivation theory especially the Maslow theory of need which determine the person need

According to the author Maslow’s five-level hierarchy need theory has been broadly accepted and used to explain travel behaviour. Self actualization, the highest need in Maslow’s hierarchy, generates internal satisfaction and explains the necessity of acquiring knowledge and learning about different cultures. Fulfilling higher-order needs might also be associated with lower-order needs to which multiple motives contribute. Still, it is arguable that not all travellers are able to fulfil the highest need of self-actualization since some people may not consider it to be so significant.

The author mentioned that It is difficult to determine which stimulation triggers one’s needs in the first place. Besides, one person’s needs may not be the same as another’s, even though they are in the same life cycle. Nevertheless, theories of motivation have played an important role in the development of tourism psychology

This study suggests that socio-psychological needs are an important motivation for travel, and socio-economic considerations are regarded as a crucial motivation for travel decision-making. Furthermore, travellers’ decision-making may be strongly influenced by their social relationships – friends/relatives’ recommendations.

Finally we can say that Maslow hierarchy theory can used to explain travel behaviour and can help to determine which factor play a vital role to effect on person decision to visit destination and practice some activities.

Conclusion

There is a wide variety of theoretical frameworks that have been developed and used in attempts to explain the issues of motivation and satisfaction. As we know that, Human needs can be divided into different categories and the successful in tourism field based on how can tourism satisfy stakeholders’ needs in tourism sector,.

Maslow’s hierarchical needs theory, although developed in the field of clinical psychology has become widely influential as the best-known general theory of motivation and has been applied to explain motivation in many social disciplines, and areas such as business, marketing and tourism. it has been called an ’emotional trigger’ that enables marketers to communicate with their target audiences on a personal, meaningful level that goes beyond product benefits.

This theory has been broadly accepted and used to explain travel behaviour. Self actualization, the highest need in Maslow’s hierarchy, generates internal satisfaction and explains the necessity of acquiring knowledge and learning about different cultures. Fulfilling higher-order needs might also be associated with lower-order needs to which multiple motives contribute. Still, it is arguable that not all travellers are able to fulfil the highest need of self-actualization since some people may not consider it to be so significant.

One of the main reasons for the popularity of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is probably its simplicity. This hierarchy could be related to the travel industry in the sense that unless individuals have their physiological and safety needs met, they are less likely to be interested in travelling the world to make a difference. Self actualization can, in fact, be considered the end or goal of leisure.

Finally we can say that, Maslow’s five-level hierarchy need theory plays a vital role to determine these needs and helps all the parties to understand the different needs of people in order to satisfy it and achieve success in tourism field.

1.1 Sri Lanka is being of the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is very famous for Tourism. The surrounded wonderful beaches, the different climates in the same country at the same time within short distance, the unique animals and the trees and wild life all matters for Tourism. Despite all these reason there was one another importance reason which is unique to the country which attracted the foreigners. Masks!! Sri Lanka is very famous for masks. And that is very unique to the Country. Sometimes there were visitors specially visit Sri Lanka to buy masks. And Ambalangoda is the area which is the most popular area for Masks and Ambalangoda is the city which has the Mask museum in Sri Lanka. Ambalangoda is located in the middle of two cities, Hikkaduwa and Benthota which are most popular for tourism. But apparently this industry is not developing and showing a declining over the past years.

CHAPTER 2
AIM

2.1 The aim of this re-search is to identify the facts that blocking the mask industry development in Ambalangoda in Southern province Sri Lanka and investigate what measures and actions should be taken place for the growth and expansion of the Masks Industry in order to increase the earning of foreign currency.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

2.2 Over the Past few years, the Masks Industry in Ambalangoda is not showing any growth or expansion. Instead it shows a reduction of the manufacturing, selling and reduction of the foreign attraction. Hence this has shown a reason of attenuation of the foreign currency coming to Sri Lanka. At the same time due to the limited man power and masks are being fully done by the pure man power, the manufacturing is not sufficient to meet the demand.

HYPOTHESIS

2.3 The diminution of the Sri Lanka Tourism due to the war, caused Sri Lanka naming as a threaten country which most of the countries announced their residents not to visit Sri Lanka and also the tsunami affected the Sri Lanka tourism and that actually caused declination of the Sri Lankan Masks Industry.

2.4 Masks becoming an undemanding business, the Masks manufactures started giving up the Masks manufacturing and they started working on other opportunities which they could earn money. Also manufactures tended to produce masks for low cost with low quality which at least they could sell masks to the local market.

PREVIEW

2.5 The ultimate objective of this effort is to consider what genuine facts that cause the decrease of the Sri Lankan Masks Industry and what are the next steps that should be taken to augment the Masks Industry in Sri Lanka.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

2.6 To identify the difficulties and obstacles affected declining the Masks Industry in Sri Lanka. As Ambalangoda is the only city which has the Masks Industry in massive for a long time, Masks Industry in Ambalangoda will be considered in this research.

CHAPTER 3
THE ORIGIN OF THE MAKS INDUSTRY IN AMBALANGODA
WHAT IS A MASK AND WHY MAKS?

3.1 The authentic Masks and Masking Traditions of Sri Lanka are extra ordinary culture phenomenon and a significant contribution Sri Lanka has made to the Asian Cultural spectrum.

3.2 The area around Ambalangoda, about 25 Km up the coast from Galle (about 85 Km from Colombo), is well known for the craft of traditional masks production. The Masks are worn in dances and are also sold to the tourist trade and institutions for display.

3.3 Ambalangoda has a private Mask museum and institution named “Ariyapala and Sons”. They do have commercial outfit selling masks that are made by hand on the premises it self in the Masks Museum.

HOW DOES THE MASKS MAKE

3.4 The traditional Masks are carved from light Balsa like Kaduru wood (Nux Vomica). Kaduru trees grow in the marshy lands bordering paddy fields. This wood is light, soft and easy to Carve. We can view the traditional Masks craftsmen busy in the Ambalangoda Masks museum at their workshop crafting Masks.

Kaduru tree –

Craftsmen need especial set of tools for Masks carving.

Equipment needed –

3.5 Firstly, the trunks of felt tree are kept under hot sun to dry and to drain out the sticky juice. Then it is measured and cut into pieces of required sizes of various masks. Then the carver gives the basic shape of the mask. There measurements of carving have been given in ancient manuscripts. After this, the masks are kept on a stall of hearth for six to seven days to get the smoke to season the wood. This is a very important step as well as a traditional method to keep masks free from insects.

Carving Masks –

3.6 Before a mask is painted, it is smoothen with Motadelia leaved and Delsavaran which is obtained from the Breadfruit tree. As a first step of painting, light yellow is applied on the surface of every mask. Then onwards colors are applied according to the ancient manuscripts. Colors are mixed with “Dorana Oil” to assure the durability of colors. Each mask has its own particular colors to depict their characteristics feature.

Coloring Masks –

It is amazing how a raw wood finally become a nice valuable mask.

MASKS DANCING

3.7 There are three kinds of Masked Dances.

Kolam Masks – Are used in storytelling performances.

Raksha(Demon) Masks- Are used in processions and festivals.

Sanni (Devil Dance) Masks – are used in curing ceremonies.

3.8 Traditional and original masks dancing can be seen at the Bandu Wijesuriya School of Dancing and they do have weekly scheduled dancing shows. Typically show begins with Kolam dance and then follows several ritual Dances.

THE VALUE OF MASKS INDUSTRY TO SRI LANKA

3.9 Not only the foreign market but also the local market is also open for the Masks industry.

Many of the locals buy and hang masks in their own houses for the goodness and to get the God’s wishing to the house.

3.10 Foreigners also somewhat believe the believing of the Masks hanging in their houses. More than that foreigners buy masks for their uniqueness and traditionalism that a mask contain. The colors and the expressions the masks get the foreigners attraction.

The Ambalangoda Masks Museum has many of the very old, original traditional masks and they do present the history and the details of the masks to the visitors to the museum. This massively supports to increase the foreigners Masks awareness and the marketing.

3.11 And there are Masks dancing shows organize for the foreigners at Ambalangoda. Foreigners get more attract to masks once they see the Masks dancing done wearing Masks. Its make them more understandable of the meaning of different kind of masks as well.

3.12 According to the facts from the Ambalangoda Masks Museum, and from the outlet sellers, sometimes they get large orders from foreigners and the Masks sellers provide the facility of doing the shipment to the customers’ doorstep.

3.13 Masks Industry has been one of the main sources of foreign currency to the Sri Lanka. And it opens the door for many job opportunities. The job opportunities start from the Kaduru tree suppliers, the other painting material suppliers, craftsmen, masks painters, sellers, masks dancers, tourist guides and shipping lines etc.

TOURISM INVOLVEMENT ON MASKS INDUSTRY

3.14 Masks manufacturing and the selling is mainly depend on the tourism. Though there is a local market open for the Masks industry, the most of the selling and the profits are from the foreign market.

3.15 In the other hand, the tourism totally depends on the country situation. According to the statistics on tourists arrivals (data from the Airport Surveys and Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority); there has been a significant increase of tourist arrival during the peace period starting from 2002. But unfortunately with the war in 2008 to 2009; it shows a considerable drop on the tourists’ arrivals which affected the Masks Industry. In 2010, statistics shows an increase in the tourism, which would be a good sign for the Mask Industry as well. More statistics on tourist arrivals are presented in Chapter4 and 5.

3.16 In addition to the war, Sri Lankan tourism was badly affected by the tsunami. According to the statistics, the data shows the tourist arrivals have been increased in 2006. This is a very important point, which most of the foreigners visited Sri Lanka to support the people affected by the tsunami. Most of the hotels in coastal areas are affected by the tsunami. And the momentum of the tourist on visiting for holidays and to enjoyment was reduced vastly. During this time there wasn’t much focus on selling items to foreigners rather the focus was on getting foreigners support to re-establish the destroyed hotels and peoples life in coastal areas. Hence, during this time period also there wasn’t any focus on the Mask industry.

CRAFTSMENS AND RAW MATERIALS AVAILABILITY FOR MASKS INDUSTRY

3.17 As explained in previous chapters, the raw materials used for Masks Industry are mostly from the villages itself and not available in any other country to import. According to the facts gathered from the Masks Manufactures in Ambalangoda, they do have a separate set of workers who supply the Kaduru wood to the manufactures. But according to the facts from the manufactures it self, it was raised the concern that now a days, the supply is slightly meeting the requirement. The manufactures gave the reason as; the suppliers don’t grow the Kaduru tree purposely for their business and they cut the existing Kaduru trees in the area and then supply. Hence the manufactures already have the concern of not having enough supply to meet the demand. As per the manufactures, they don’t have any alternative wood also to use for Masks Carving.

3.18 And the craftsmen that involve in Masks industry are mostly from the tradition and they don’t have much of higher educational background as well. As per the facts from manufactures, most of the craftsmen join the masks carving just after giving up the school and they don’t have any suitability and education or financial strength for higher education. Manufactures don’t see this as a drawback as they are doing the Masks Carving job at their best. But manufactures have seen the facts that now a days, it is very less number of people give-up the school at least before their Advance Level and most people go for the higher education or other careers and the trend of craftsmen joining the industry on Masks carving ahs been very minimal. Up to the painting of masks it has to be Male employees who do the work on most of the time it is Female employees who work on the final part of paining the masks.

3.19 As per the facts from the Manufactures they do have a separate outsourcing craftsmen who supply the completed Masks it selves to the masks manufactures or to the Mask selling people. These outsourcing craftsmen do the buy or find the raw materials by them selves and do the masks carving and sell to the manufactures or the selling outlets directly according to the demand. And one important point that manufactures mentioned about this out sourcing craftsmen are, their main income source or their main occupation is not the masks carving. They do have some other income sources and they do the Masks carving on need basis or on demand basis as another source of income.

3.20 Further, manufactures mentioned this Masks outsourcing method was initiated and started during the War period. As the tourism decreases, the Masks Industry also decreases and hence most of the craftsmen were asked resign from the large manufactures and then these craftsmen started looking for other occupation and they did the Masks carving if there is any demand only. They are still continuing this and as per the facts, in year late 2009 to 2010 they have more involved in Masks Carving with the increase of tourism which is resulting more masks demand.

3.21 More statistics on the human and raw material resources are explained and discussed in the Chapter 4.

GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT AND SUPPORT TOT EH MASKS INDUSTRY

3.22 According the information gathered from the manufactures, there has not been a significant support from the government to the Masks Industry. In 1980 decade there has been events organized by the Government for the Masks industry publication around other countries and during that time the Government has given sponsorships to the Masks Manufactures and traditional Masks Dancers to visit different countries and participating on commercial activities.

3.23 But after that with the other main problems the government facing such as the tsunami, the war and the other huge development projects, the government has not focused or put any effort on the Masks Industry development.

3.24 As per the Traditional Masks Manufactures and Masks Dancers opinion, Masks is a subject which can be included in the university subjects and make the new generation aware of the value of the industry. This way they should be able to get much more visibility towards to the Masks Industry and specially the Masks Dancing. Masks Dancing is a very demanding among the foreign countries and that should be promote as a one of the main foreign income source to the Sri Lanka.

IMPROVEMENT THAT CAN BE TAKEN FOR THE MASK INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT

3.25 As per the facts given by manufactures, Tourism is the main success factor of the Masks industry development and ways and simply increasing the tourist awareness and attraction to the Masks is the key point that can help on Masks Industry development.

3.26 Mean time, additional to the Traditional Masks manufactures, there are many small size business masks manufacturing beginners also popping up and having or giving them the opportunity to for publicity and marketing through out by events organized by the government such as exhibitions in Sri Lanka and other countries, and opening up contacts and connections for the local sellers to the foreign markets also would be very helpful for the Masks Industry development.

CHAPTER 4
DATA CAPTURING AND ANALYSIS

4.1 As the Mask Industry is greatly depend on the Tourism, it is really important to analyze the tourism facts to evaluate the Mask industry over the past 10 years to now and how that has affected the Mask industry as a whole.

TOURIST ARRIVAL

4.2 Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) is the Sri Lankan Government department which was formed as the apex body for the Sri Lanka Tourism. The vision of the SLTDA is transforming Sri Lanka to be the Asia’s foremost tourism destination. Towards that vision SLTDA has done many data capturing and surveys to analyze the Sri Lankan Tourism.

4.3 One significant data they are presenting is the number of tourist arrivals over the past Ten years. For the year 2010 they have actually captured the data only up to the month of September yet. Hence the data presentations of the Tourist arrival below will be presented only up to the Month of September for the year 2010.

Tourist arrival for the past Ten years

Year

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Arrivals

436440

400412

336794

393171

500642

566200

549308

559608

494008

438475

447890

445225

Table 1.01

Graphical representation of the Tourist Arrival from the year 1999 to year 2010:

4.4 According to the Data it shows, the tourist arrival has increased to the max during the year 2004. This is during the peace period and just before the tsunami.

4.5 This figure explains many things. Before the year 2002 also the tourist arrival has not increased due to the internal country situation. But after the year 2002; that means after the ceasefire agreement was signed in 2002, the tourist arrival has increased significantly until the year 2005. Unfortunately Sri Lanka was severely affected by the tsunami in end of the year 2005. Though the foreigners attraction to the Sri Lanka was high due to the beauty of coastal areas and the nice whether, the coastal it self became a reason for the foreigners not to visit Sri Lanka. Instead of foreigners thinking of spending their holiday/vacation in Sri Lanka with a risk, they more tend to select another country to spend their leisure time.

4.6 This reason it self caused the decrease of the global business in the Masks Industry. When it is lessening the tourist visiting to Sri Lanka, directly it lessens the demand in the Masks Industry.

4.7 The figures display a slight increase of the tourist in the year 2006 than in the year 2005. There is a very valid reason for that. After the Sri Lanka was affected by the tsunami in December 2004, many of the foreigners came to Sri Lanka at the beginning and throughout the year 2006 to support and give donations to the people in tsunami affected areas. But according to the Masks Manufactures, this has not helped in any case for the Masks Industry as there wasn’t any focus about leisure in Sri Lanka among the Tourist during this period of time.

4.8 Again from 2007 to 2008 the data shows a decrease of the tourist arrival to Sri Lanka. This is mainly due to the civil war that was at a higher point during this time. During the period of war, many countries officially announced and declared Sri Lanka is a threaten country that their residence should not visit. Due to these reason the tourist arrival and the tourism faced a huge problem where there were lots of hotels ran on lost and many of the employees worked in hotel industry lost their jobs or most of them left to foreign countries looking for new jobs.

4.9 As per the facts gathered from Masks manufactures, during this period of time they also had faced a big problem of selling their Masks. As the main buyers of the Masks are the tourist, and due to the lack of tourism, Masks manufactures faced a huge crisis of selling their products. Hence most of the manufactured has had to ask their craftsmen to resign from their workshops and cut down the employees or the staffs in their outlets.

4.10 Meantime, there has not been any support from the government also to the Masks industry to export Masks, to have any exhibition or any sales promotion in foreign countries during this time period. Hence most of the Masks manufactures also has loosen their focus on the Masks industry as an income source and they also has started looking for other alternative business as their income sources.

4.11 With the end of the war in 2009, the data shows the tourist arrival is being increased; but slightly. It is very difficult to reason out and interpret the reason of not showing significant increase on the tourist arrivals even after the war. Is it because the foreigners are still uncertain on visiting and having a nice time in Sri Lanka, they are not confident enough about the security situation in Sri Lanka or the foreigners are much more interested in visiting other Asian countries than Sri Lanka? To get these question answered, we should capture tourist arrivals and we should do tourists satisfaction surveys at least for 2 more years and should analyze the data and conclude. As like the Masks Industry, there are many more commercial industries which are directly depend on the Sri Lankan tourism.

4.12 According to the Survey done among the Masks Manufactures, they do not have much of outlets or stocks of Masks in hotels or Laksala or any other places other than their own outlets at Ambalangoda. This is also very important information or a reason for the Masks Industry drop off. If foreigner see and get the accurate and clear information about the value of masks and historical back ground in their convenient, it would have been a much more convenient way or better marketing of the Masks among foreigners. But according to the Masks manufactures, this needs more investments to have staff locate in hotels. As especially the Masks have traditional history and very important purposes; the salesmen must aware of historical and theoretical facts in details of individual Mask for them to explain to foreigners and make them attractive and interested on Masks.

4.13 According to the interviews done with the Masks Manufactures at Ambalangoda, there is one another important reason for the Masks Industry drop off; the written and verbal English knowledge of the people in the industry. Most of the craftsmen and the people who involves on Masks dancing which are the expert of the knowledge of the Masks and the Masks history are not highly educated people. Hence their communication skills in English or in any other foreign language are not in a higher standard to clearly explain about the Masks to the tourists. Most of the time it is the tourist guide who translate and explain the information about the masks to the tourists. And some times, the Masks Manufactures itself should explain to the tourist for better explanation and make better deals on Masks. As per the Masks manufactures, when ever they are getting large orders, the Masks manufactures have to have the direct communication with the foreign customer.

WORKERS EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

4.14 Craftsmen educational background was measured by the survey done among masks manufactures targeting 110 workers (craftsmen and people who involve on masks painting as well) and the data is as below;

Education Level

Less Than GCE O/L

GCE O/L Pass

GCE O/L Pass but Before GCE A/L

GCE A/L Pass

Any Higher Education

(Degree/Diploma)

Total

Count

21

36

43

8

2

110

4.15 According to the data captured form the survey on the Masks Industry craftsmen educational level and educational background, it shows most of the workers who involve in the Masks industry doesn’t have much of Educational background. Most of the people have the educational level up to the Ordinary level and before completing the Advance level.

4.16 This shows and implies the fact that it doesn’t need much of educational background to be Masks craftsmen or low educated people involve in the Masks carving. This can be affected in two ways. These workers will not leave the Masks Industry even if they don’t earn much money as they don’t have much of educational background to move into another industry or in the future the workers that will be joining the Masks industry can be lessen as now a days most of the people are going for higher education and the number of students who give-up the education before the Ordinary level or the Advance level is very much less. Hence the Masks manufactures already has started facing the problem of recruiting craftsmen. The people who have more educational background join other better jobs and the focus on the Masks carving as a career has been considerably reduces.

WORKERS REASON TO JOIN THE MASKS INDUSTRY

4.17 According to the data captured about their reason of joining the masks Industry, among the employees; the most of the employees has joined the Masks industry from the generation or Family background. And the “Social Acceptance” is the least selected reason for the Masks Industry employees. This indicates that still there are no training programs or any plan available for the Masks carving and Masks Dancing as a profitable and respectable profession as still the reason for most of the peoples joining the Masks Industry is from the family background or from the generation.

WORKERS EXPERIENCE IN THE MASKS INDUSTRY

4.18 Workers experience was captured through the survey and the highest percentage of the employees has the experience between 5 to 10 years and the least percentage is for the less than 2 years experience category. This indicates the fact that employees newly joining to the industry is less and most of the employees in the Masks industry are the ones which has been in the masks industry for a long time.

MASK MANUFACTURES STATISTICS FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS

4.19 According to the data captured from the Department Of Small Scale Industries and the Industrial Development Board of Ceylon regarding the Masks industry, there have not been any new business registrations during the past few years. It shows that they have not been any interested parties which have not done any new investment on the mask industry where as there has been little new registration on other foreign or tourist investments.

4.20 Below shows the figures captured from the Department of Census and Statistics on the number of employees in the tourism:

Employment in Tourist Industry
Category of Establishments
No. of Establishments
Total Employed
2006
2007
2008
2009
2006
2007
2008

1. Hotels and Restaurants

1128

1205

1246

1264

36017

39758

31626

2. Travel Agents/Tour Operators

472

532

495

500

6825

7538

6725

3. Airlines

23

20

20

20

6056

5396

5251

4. Agencies Providing Recreational Facilities

8

15

15

21

132

297

259

5. Guides

–
–
–
–

2010

3450

3460

6. Tourist Shops

219

145

144

151

2396

1585

1485

7. National Tourist Organization

1

3

4

4

303

305

313

8. State Sector

16

18

18

18

1910

2187

2187

Total

1867

1938

1942

1978

55649

60516

51306

Source – Department of census and Statistics

4.21 The number of newly established employment and the total Employment in the tourist industry is as of above for the years 2006 to 2009. These numbers clearly shows the total employed in the tourist industry has been increased in the year 2007 and has been significantly decreased in the year 2008 and that has been slightly increased in the year 2009. At the moment the statistics for the year 2010 is not yet released. The below graph clearly show this information:

4.22 The data shows the total employment on the tourism industry has been significantly reduced during the year 2008. This is the time period where the LTTE war was in the peak and the tourism was very much negatively impacted. Hence the data shows the same fact that Masks manufactures also raised where due to the lack of foreigners visiting Sri Lanka, the Masks Industry was also turn down and most of the craftsmen and other people involve on the Masks Industry giving up their career in the Masks industry to other careers.

4.23 Also the workers who work under the Masks industry comes under the “Tourist Shops” category and that numbers also shows a significant reduction of the total employment from 1585 to 1485 in the year 2007 to 2008. And again has increased from 1485 to 1546 from the year 2008 to 2009. This is due to the lack of tourist coming to Sri Lanka due to the War in the year 2008.

4.24 Below data shows the total employment distribution during the years 2006 to 2009 according to the given categories:

4.25 The drop off on the total employment in tourism does clearly shows for the “Hotel and Restaurant” category.

4.26 Simply these facts proves the fact that the Tourism has been dropped-off during the year 2008 which was affected by the War the Sri Lanka faced during that period of time which resulted the drop off of the Masks Industry as the Masks industry main customers and the main market are the foreigners and foreign countries.

EMPLOYMENT IN THE MASKS INDUSTRY

4.27 As per the facts gathered from the Masks Manufactures, The workers who involve in the Masks Industry; craftsmen and all other workers don’t have a much of idea or a trust on the stability of the Masks Industry or the future of the Masks industry. Hence the employment to the Masks industry from the younger educated generation is very much less. As Masks carving or the history of the Masks is not included in any of the subjects the student learnt, the new generation doesn’t have a much of a good idea of the Masks Industry or the heritage value of the Masks Industry. Hence there is not any official or a government channel available to pass the information about the Masks industry to the new generation. This is also a reason for the Mask Industry being not developed or the drop off of the masks industry. According to the Masks manufactures, the employment from the younger generation to the Masks industry is very much less and they already do have the fear of not having enough employment for the Masks carving and all other employment related to the Masks Industry.

THE FUTURE OF THE MASK INDUSTRY

4.28 For the further development of the masks industry to have a better future for the masks industry, it is essential to develop the tourism. Hence it is important to analyze facts on improving and increasing the Sri Lankan tourism. To develop the tourism in Sri Lanka it is required to analyze below facts:

The Purpose of visitors

The Interest and most attracted areas of visitors

Most highest Masks Selling Countries

The Purpose of visitors
Purpose
2008
2009

Pleasure

73.2

80

Business

8.5

8.6

Visiting Friends and Relations

8.3

5.2

Convention and meetings

1.3

1.4

Religious and cultural

2.6

2

Others

6.1

2.8

Source: SLTDA, Annual statistical report 2009

4.29 The purpose of the foreign visits is mostly on the “Pleasure” and that has been increased from 2008 to 2009. This indicates; after the war in Sri Lanka the foreign visiting for the pleasure has been increased. This is good sign for all the employment in the tourist industry. Once the tourism in Sri Lanka increased, that directly positively affect for the Masks Industry as well.

4.30 The information gathered from the Masks manufactures proves this fact. Below are the figures of rough annual sales information captured from eight Masks Manufactures in the Ambalangoda area:

Year

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Total Annual Sales

53.0

51.0

47.0

54.0

57.5

64.5

61.0

35.0

46.0

32.5

49.5

58.5

4.31 The figures are in Millions and in the currency Rupees.

4.32 The figures show the sales have reached the peak at the year 2004. And a slight decrease in the year 2005. But unfortunate with the affect of tsunami at the end of the year 2005, the sales have been terrifically

Masai Mara is known as the greatest wildlife reserve in Africa. The reserve is located in the southwest Kenya. The reserve is famous for the huge numbers of lions, the Great Wildebeest Migration and the Masai people who are well known for the culture and dress. The Masai Mara National Reserve is considered as Africa’s most famous safari destination (McBrewster et al. 2010).

The Masai Mara has a rich resource of ecosystem that holds one of the highest densities of the lions and the reserve is the place where two million Wildebeest, Zebra and Thomson’s Gazelle migrate annually. The Masai Mara hosts over 95 species of mammals and more than 570 recorded species of birds. All the members of the Big Five (lion, leopard, African elephant, African buffalo, and Black Rhino) can be founded in Masai Mara National Reserve (Gibbons 2004).

Kenya hospitality and tourism introduction

From 1998 to 2006, the total number of visitors increases from 890,000 to 1,600,000. (See Appendix 2) The Gross receipts increase from USD $ 502 million to USD $ 579 million. In 2006, visitors spend an average of USD $ 1,875 in coastal area meanwhile visitors spend USD $ 4,375 in the wildlife areas. In 2010, the hospitality and tourism industry has brought 439,000 jobs for Kenya (Honey 2008).

Sustainable tourism and development
2.1 Sustainable tourism

Sustainable tourism is an industry commitment that making a low impact on the environment and local culture meanwhile helping local people to get more employment opportunities. The aim of the sustainable tourism is to bring the sustainable development for the local people, tourism companies and tourists themselves (Weaver 2007).

2.2 Sustainable development

In the Bruntland Report, the sustainable development is defined:

…ability to make development sustainable as well as to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs (WCED 1987, p.16).

Furthermore, the Johannesburg Declaration has provided a detailed definition:

…a collective responsibility to advance and strengthen the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection at local, national, regional and global levels (WSSD 2002, p.1).

Thus, the purpose of the sustainable tourism is to provide the economic development, social development and environmental protection in the destination.

Social sustainable development and hospitality and tourism industry

The social sustainable development can be concluded that the future generation should have the same or greater social resources as the current generation. The social resources include cultures, basic human rights, and community (Galea 2004).

The Kenya has a 40% of unemployment rate country wide in 2009 and about 50% of the population is below poverty line. The population who live with HIV is about 1.2 million in 2009. Thus, the social sustainable development in Kenya, especially in Masai Mara National Reserve is to providing job opportunities meanwhile increasing the living quality (CIA 2010).

The Social Sustainable developments in Masai Mara National Reserve are implementing in following principles:

3.1 Equity

Individuals have the right to gain sufficient resources to participate fully in their community and have opportunities for their personal development and advancement. A fair distribution of the resources in communities are good for social sustainable development (Rabe 2001).

The UNDP (United Nation Development Program) is supporting Kenya in sustainable development and management in resources. The Masai Mara National Reserve is supported by the UNDP to solving the poverty in the area and implement development with the help of the business organizations in the area. The reserve is also working with the UNDP to reduce the unemployment poverty to below the national rate of 56% and 47% by cooperate with the hospitality industry in the area.

3.2 Social inclusion and interaction

Individuals in the communities have their own rights and opportunity to participate in, enjoy all aspects of the community life, and interact with other members in the community (Gui and Sugden 2005).

The Kenya government has established few regulation to the protect the Kenyans’ rights when they interact with the community and other members, especially in the hospitality industry, the regulation protects labours from low salary and poor working conditions.

3.3 Security

Individuals will fully contribute to the community life if they have the economic security, safe living condition, supportive and healthy environment (Pieters 2006).

The KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) community enterprise development and human-wildlife conflict resolutions.

The KWS Community Enterprise Development is designed for communities and private landowners to develop their capacity establish and manage economically viable and sustainable nature-based enterprises within targeted landscapes of Kenya. The goal of the program is to build the capacity of communities to increase social benefits meanwhile reduce the dependence syndrome.

The program guarantees to employ local people, procure locally and pay fixed. It also promoted the gender equality that provides men and women same working condition and salary. The guaranteed incomes, which make local Masai landowners first time, receive direct, predictable income from wildlife resources, allowing local people to plan for the future and encourage them for wildlife conservation (Dolan and Prins 2000).

On the other hand, the Community Enterprise Development program can also motivate the communities to adopt new land use ways that are more compatible with wildlife conservation and management, which might be a good way of solving the human-wildlife conflict.

The KWS has paid many efforts to minimize the human-wildlife conflicts in Masai Mara National Reserve. Measures such as fencing off protected areas to encouraging community tourism enterprises and providing compensations for livestock killed and crops damaged by wildlife to local communities have been taken. The KWS also provides technical support and education for wildlife conservation and management issues.

The KWS also holds a series of local events to raise money for interventions, including the famous Rhino Charge four-wheel-drive challenge and the Lewa Safari Marathon.

The cooperation between KWS and local communities creates a win-win situation for both wildlife and human beings. The wildlife conservation and management has become more efficient than before. The wildlife resources being conserved may contain valuable compounds for all humankind. It also helps local communities to realize the benefits from the sustainable wildlife conservation (Rabinowitz et al. 2003).

Marrakesh – The Red City

As-salam alaykom! (Hello in Arabic)

Marrakesh is the third largest city of Morocco and is situated at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. It is the most important of the four imperial cities of Morocco and has a rich history. A city of palaces, tombs, markets and myriad entertainments, Marrakesh is a treat for the senses. It is easy to get lost in its many alleys and markets, and the action packed Djemaa El-Fna square at the city center is enough to keep you occupied and intrigued for an entire day. The modern half of the city, Gueliz is a contrast and offers a getaway from the hustle and bustle of the Old Town. Visiting Marrakesh is an exhilarating experience that is sure to leave a lasting imprint on all travelers, who will return impressed with its beautiful architecture and unique culture.

Best Season to Visit Marrakesh

Marrakesh, with its sunny weather presents itself as a year round destination. However spring (March to May) and autumn (October to November) are the best months to explore this city, with lower temperatures and lesser crowds. The Easter Weekend is an exception and crowds throng the city as a getaway from their hectic schedules. While early summer can still be pleasant enough, the later months (July to September) can be unbearable if you are not used to the heat. In spite of this, summer is the peak tourist season and prices for everything skyrocket during this time. Many festive events are held during summer. Winter (December to February) brings along sunny days and cold nights, and there is snowfall in the nearby Atlas Mountains. Tourists visiting around this time can take off to the ski resorts in the mountains and enjoy the snow.

Highlights (Special Things to Do in Marrakesh)

Visit the La Mamounia for a buffet lunch by the poolside and be floored by the splendor and glamour of this spectacular hotel.
Go back in history and view artifacts from the past at the Dar Si Said Museum that includes exquisitely carved cedar wood pieces that have been rescued from the ruins and monuments in the city.
Soak in the pungent and medieval experience of Marrakesh by visiting the Tannery District and watch the tanners at work as they cure the animal hides with foul-smelling liquids that transform them into finished leather products ready for sale.
Head to a luxury bath at one of the many Hammams for an authentic Moroccan experience of luxury and indulgence
For a belly dancing performance, head to the Comptoir Darna, the first lounge dining restaurant in Marrakesh. Beautiful ambience, great food and wonderful performances make it a perfect place to soak in the true feel of Morocco.
Immerse yourself into street food at the Djemaa El-Fna and feast on the many exotic varieties of meat available at the various counters.
Indulge in some souvenir shopping and visit the traditional markets known as Souks that sell everything from handicrafts to antiques, spices to ornaments, carpets, cashmere and even items made of “cactus silk”!
Head out on a city break to the nearby sand dunes of Erg Chegaga or Erg Chebbi for an exotic camel ride and desert safari.
Ski in the snow in the nearby ski resort of Oukaimeden, situated in the Atlas Mountains where snowfall occurs in the winter months.

Attractions in Marrakesh

Medina:

Djeema El-Fna: Originally a place of public executions (back in AD 1050), this is the main public square of Marrakesh. Filled with snake charmers and medicine men during the day, the square really comes alive as the day ends. Musicians, story tellers and entertainers fill up the square and the open air acts begin as a visual treat. Hundreds of food stalls also line up to provide exotic, hot, mouth-watering delicacies.
Koutoubia Mosque: The mosque is made of red sandstone and is the largest in the city. It is most famous for its minaret, built in Almohad style and rising to a height of 70m. The minaret was an inspiration for many later towers including the La Giralda in Seville, Spain. Non-Muslims are not allowed inside, but a walk around its periphery may be enough to marvel at this masterpiece.
El Badi Palace: Largely in ruins, this impressive palace was built in the 15^th century and its name translates into “The Incomparable Palace” in English. It is easy to imagine the grandeur and luxurious lifestyle of its royal inhabitants as you walk through the large pavilions, sunken gardens and abandoned pools.
El Bahia Palace: Built in the late 19^th century, this grand building is a great example of Eastern Architecture. Lavish decorations and beautifully landscaped gardens are reasons enough to visit this palace.
Almoravid Koubba: Considered to be the oldest building in the city, it is also the only surviving monument from the Almoravid era.
Bab Agnaou: It is one among the 19 gates that serve as entry and exit points to the Medina and was constructed in the 12^th century.
Ben Youssef Madrassa: One of the largest madrassas in North Africa, it is home to some very beautiful artwork.
Saadian Tombs: The tombs were constructed to hold the graves of the Sultan Ahmed Al-Mansur who reigned in the 15^th century, and his family. Lavishly built with Italian marble, cedar woodwork and intricate decorations and carvings, the tombs are sure to inspire awe among the visitors.

Gueliz:

Majorelle Garden: This delightful garden is worth a visit for the extensive use of the Majorelle Blue colored walls and ponds, as well as the many colorful fountains and large variety of cacti that are found within it. Spread over 12 acres, it offers a respite from the heat of the city.

Menara:

Menara Gardens: Situated near the outskirts of Marrakesh at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, The gardens are spread across orchards and olive groves with a pavilion and a lake in the center. The snowcapped Atlas Mountains form a great backdrop to the beautiful gardens.

Shopping in Marrakesh

Shopping in Marrakesh can be an assault on your senses, as you take in the colors, the atmosphere and the vibrancy of the markets. Almost all shopping in Marrakesh needs to done in the traditional markets that are called Souks and it is possible to find anything- yes, anything, in the narrow lanes of the souks that you navigate, as you move from one shop to the next. The Souk Semmarine is the main lane that runs from the Djemaa El-Fna to the Ben Youssef Mosque and is flanked by a never ending array of souks that sell a wide variety of products.

If it is spices that you are interested in, visit the Rahba Kedima (Spice Square) that has stalls selling a plethora of spices from saffron to cumin, cinnamon to mace and even Argan oil that is almost exclusively produced in Morocco. A number of stalls selling herbal remedies, cosmetics, essential oils are also to be found.
For shoes and footwear, look no further than the Souk Smata, where brightly colored Moroccan slippers are a must-buy. Other leather items can be found at the Souk el Kebir and Souk Cherratin that specialize in camel leather goods like belts, wallets and purses.
Visit Souk el Attarin if it is fragrances and perfumes that you are looking for.
Souk Zrabia is the place to be if Berber carpets interests you, and for clothing and fabrics, stroll through the Souk Larzal and Souk des Teinturiers markets.

How to reach Marrakesh

Marrakesh is well connected to many European cities due to its popularity with the European tourists. The Marrakesh-Menara International Airport has direct flights that connect the city with destinations like Paris, London, Stockholm and Madrid, to name a few. Those flying in from North America, Asia and elsewhere will need to change flights at Casablanca. The airport is located at a distance 5km from the city and there are air conditioned buses plying every 30 minutes between the airport and the city. Marrakesh is also connected by train service to other major cities of Morocco. There are regular trains connecting Marrakesh with Casablanca and Rabat. Night trains are also available with sleeper cars for farther off destinations like Tangiers. A number of long distance bus services are also available for those wishing to take the roadways to travel between the Moroccan cities.

How to get around in Marrakesh

Marrakesh has a good bus service that can get you anywhere within the city. The Medina is small enough that everything can be covered on foot, although an umbrella is necessary to protect you from the sun. Taxis and horse drawn carriages are also available to explore the city.

The Bus service is quite good and covers all parts of the city that tourists will want to visit. Most buses stop at Djemaa El-Fna in the Old Town and Place Youssef Ben Tachfine in the New Town. Fares are dependent on the distance, but most of the time you will be paying between 2-5dh. Airport buses run at frequencies of 30 minutes from early morning until 9:30 in the night.
An Open Topped Sightseeing Bus is available that will take you around the city with headphones to provide commentary on the various tourist locations. You can get down anywhere to explore the location at your leisure and then board another bus to continue. Tickets are valid for 24 hours and cost 145 Dh.
An alternate way to get around the city is the small horse-drawn carriages called Caleche. It is better to negotiate on a price before getting onto them. The Caleche offers a romantic way to explore the city.
Taxis are generally not to be preferred, since they will try to rip you off with high charges for getting you to the destination. Some may even try to charge you for the bags that you are carrying. If getting into one, always ask them to use the meter. Petit taxis are smaller taxis that accommodate 3 passengers and can be boarded on a sharing basis.
If you are inside the Medina, Walking is the best way to cover all the destinations. All places are quite nearby and easily findable by directions from the locals or by using GPS.

Top Areas of Marrakesh

Medina: The Medina is the older, historic part of the city and is centered on the main square, Djeema El-Fna. A lot of the stay options in this district consist of the Riads, which are basically furnished Moroccan houses with a courtyard.
Gueliz: This is the modern, European half of Marrakesh that is characterized by upmarket restaurants, cafes and luxury boutiques.
Hivernage: Situated quite close by to the Medina, the Hivernage Quarter is a quiet, residential part of the town characterized by broad, tree-lined avenues, rooftop restaurants and luxury hotels.
Palmeraie: The Palm grove Quarter is an oasis situated outside of the city. A few luxury resorts are available here.
Agdal: An area of recent development, it is situated outside of the city and is being built as a major hub for further expansion of the city. A number of shopping arcades and expensive hotels are coming up in this locality.

Shukran! (Thank you in Arabic)

Abstract-

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is UK based one of the biggest retailers in the world, Over 895 store in more than 40 territories around the world are being operated by the Company. Plan A that consists of 100 commitments such as climate change, waste, sustainable raw materials, and fair partnership has been announced by M&S to become a world first environmental friendly retailer of the world by 2015. Company believes that it will=

Become carbon neutral
Send no waste to landfill
Extend sustainable sourcing
Help improve the lives of people in their supply chain
Help customers and employees live a healthier life-style

In January 2008, Marks and Spencer share price has fallen down by 18% following publication of their trading statement. Though it was a serious set back for their target to become a first environmental friendly retailer but in February 2010 M&S reconfirm that due to moral reason they will continue their project Plan A but it will be fully completed by 2015 instead of 2012.

The now iconic brown, reusable, environmental friendly bag was first introduced in 2007 as an early part of this plan. It is hope that this will reduce the use of plastic carrier bags over the next few years.

Importance of project planning:

Project planning is first and very important phase in project management which determines what the project is based on and what requirement does a project need to complete the project efficiently and timely. But it is understood that M&S has failed to get its target that were supposed to be completed by 2012.

Though project planning is very important and it has to be made before starting a project but it is mostly to bring some changes during the course of project. So, it is essential to update constantly and regularly.

If a project plan has been done on the basis of inadequate resources and information and if any inefficient person plans any project than that project will most likely to fail.

A project needs a team to do its entire task and tasks have to be specified on the project plan. Project planner has to provide formula for both to plan and to communicate what needs project has to done.

Project manager must be able to provide outline of the project both to plan and to communicate and necessary task of the project.

Apart from structure, several unrelated tasks have to be done according to needs.

So, it is essential to confirm that project must have work breakdown.

Priority of works has been explained below-

Work Breakdown Structure
Area-

M&S is a large company. Their project such as Plan A is a large retailer too where the company is investing ?200 million. Therefore the project has to be dealt by an efficient and experienced project manager.

Project Leadership-

Selection of Project manager is very vital stage to get success for a project. Project manager must be self-discipline. He/she must be able handle any good or bad situation such as coaching, technical difficulties, political pressure. He must have project management experience. He has to set his communicate goals clearly, manage the project team as a group, build relationship through communication and consideration.

Staffing Plan-

Staffing plan is pre-requisite stage to get success for a project. Determine the level of skills, identify experience requirements are two critical factor for a successful project.

Project organization-

Project roles and responsibilities documentation such as map Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) is one of the key stage for planning a project.

Publish and maintain organization chart; address conflicting goals and loyalities; promote team ownership of integrated solutions

Project Team Building-

Articulate a team building vision, objectives, and strategy; provide goals, supportive resources and tools, and meaningful measures of success; develop team ownership of this process

Identify criteria for successful team performance; articulate strategy and plan for achieving team goals; develop metrics and monitor status; invest to improve team dynamics and cohesiveness.

Conduct team sessions to improve communications and facilitate issue identification and resolution; build team identity; solicit and address team concerns

Recruitment, selection and training of personnel

Marks & Spencer has been Developing a long-running strategy / Evolving a family-friendly strategy for a large and diverse workforce. M&S recruitment, selection training of personnel has been made on the basis some key factors.

M&S human resource management issues can be analysed in terms of legal, moral and business consideration. With reference to the stated aims of recruitment, this consideration could be said to be:

Legal- To complies with anti-discrimination legislation.
Moral- To avoids unfair discrimination for moral reasons as well as obedience to the law.
Business- To ensures that all efforts are directed towards achieving corporate and not personal goal.

Marks and spacer believes in a systematic approach to conduct their recruitment and selection process on the basis of company human resource strategy and equal opportunities goal.

Equality of Opportunity for Everyone

M&S always emphasis on ensuring equality of opportunity for every member of M&S team. Promoting a working environment free from discrimination, harasement and victimisation. on the basis of:

gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment
race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin,
hours of work
religious or political beliefs
disability
age

Raise staff awareness by designing and delivering training programmes that support the Equal Opportunities aims.

Comply with the law and communicate to our stakeholders the responsibility to protect both individuals and the company.

Personal effectiveness:

M&S personal effectiveness programmes consists of several things such as communication skills, confidence building, conflict management, creativity and innovation, personal presentation, presentation skills, time and pressure management.

Organizational change:

Efficiency and professional approach of the M&S staffs towards their work is making the company success. Dedicated human resources of the major source of competitive advantage.

The case with M&S is a scenario of rapid organisational transformation, which was based on a vision imposed on the company in a mainly directive fashion, down from the top, by its management and CEO, but which could potentially lead to a widespread change of attitudes and behaviours in the company. This change in the middle of the trading period was a risky action and would bring a big confusion for the staff, putting a high pressure on their performance.

Source- www.ivoryresearch.com

Power politics-

Though marks and spencers believes in equal oppoturnaities and fair trade they are trying to keep political connection. M & S recruited their new CEO who is an active and influential conservative leader. It is assumed that Convervative party is most likely to come to the power.

Conflict resolution-

Usually conflict is the result of poor communication which can be resolved with openness and mutual trust. M&S staffs always been trained to increase interpersonal communication skills.

Recruiting

M&S employed around 71,000 people in the UK, 75,000 worldwide. The company has the lowest employee turnover rates in UK retail, at 27% for customer assistants and 12% for management. Around 40% of our people have been with us for over 5 years and 22% for more than ten years.

Staff recruitment can become a major proposal task for any project. The project manager may need to utitilize member of his own staff or HR department to handle the many aspects of recruitment. But it can be a good idea to have a processs in place and a perhaps a few checklists to help organizing recruitment efforts. M&S has been using different types of techniques to recruit it’s staff. Some of the techniques are explained below-

The scale and scope of the opportunities on offer at Marks & Spencer is really higher than others competitors.

Trainee management scheme:

M&S claimed that their trainee management program is one of the pretty unique recruitment systems. Under this program trainee managers enables to reach commercial manager level within two years. On top of that those managers are getting best salary on the high street.

Graduate management trainee scheme:

Graduate Management Trainee scheme is one of the best in retail industry. This scheme has been recognised by TARGETjobs National Graduate Recruitment Awards 2009 which has been published in The Times.

Graduate Events-

M&S is regularly attending graduate events such as Cambridge career fair, leeds career fair, national graduate recruitment fair Olympia, National Graduate recruitment fair NEC.

Apart from that regular scheme M&S recruit their staff with a highly professional online recruitment process.

Selection Procedure-

Retailers like Marks and Spencer have complex recruitment needs and have to deal with high volumes of applications to fill a large number of similar positions. Marks and Spencer manages all applications for store jobs via WCN’s Applicant Tracking System. The system is based on complex two way integration with the Marks and Spencer HR system.

The system now allows candidates who are successful after applying and completing online tests, to book their own interview within an hour of completing their application. Stores input vacancies and give available assessment times on the Marks and Spencer HR system, this data is then transferred to the WCN system and displayed to candidates online. The functionality was launched in July 2006 and over 42,000 candidates were able to schedule their own interviews for Christmas vacancies that year.

It should be mentioned here that M&S e-recruitment software, which was innovated by WCN Plc, has been awarded 2007 winners of the Onrec.com Award for Best Technical Innovation in Online Recruitment. That award was their second achievement since introduce their recruitment software.

Training of personnel-

Marks and Spencer’s believe that en extra ordinary strategy must be made to get competitive advantages over the competitors. And this led to a need for change. The focus of change was on core areas These include quality, value and service. Customers also expect innovation (bringing in new ideas) and a shop they can trust.

Any innovative changes can be brought by the trained and creative staffs. Marks and Spencers trained it’s staff are at three levels.

Trainee managers who have just passed A-level
University student who have just passed their degree.
Experienced maangers from other areas.

Each manager requires a number of skills. These include team working, financial skills or leadership. Marks and Spencer is able to spot skills gaps. It matches current skills against those required for the job. Where these do not match, training can take place. At the end of every six months, an appraisal takes place. This is a discussion between manager and staff. It highlights where staff have improved. It also shows where more training is needed. This helps staff to construct a career path. This process creates a cycle of improvement.

Part-3 of the assignment

Teamwork, discussion of relevant concepts and theories

Teamwork is the joint effort by a group of people to achieve a common goal. M&S has been maintaining some kind of performance indicator to measure it’s achievement. Interpersonal behaviour is more important than interpersonal relationship to do a good teamwork.

M&S measures their teamwork with applying the principles of performance management to the groups behaviour. The emphasized on group performance rather than individual. They have set their reward system for group basis.

Some basic steps involves with group behaviour, these are explained below-

Team work-

Identifying what teamwork behaviours will lead to better performance. One way to identify target teamwork behaviours is to complete the ITPQ(TM) (Ideal Team Profile Questionnaire(TM)) instrument. This can be completed by the team, peer groups, staff, customers, senior management and others to provide a wide range of views of what would make the team successful.

Identifying and manage conflicting expectation of them between, say, management and customers.
Ask a wide perspective when setting behavioura goals for themselves, which should prove the quality of those goals.
Facilitate a dialogue within the team and with others outside the team on how to mprove performance.
Take a wide perspective when setting behavioural goals for themselves, which whould improve the quality of those goals.
Current behavior

Assessing which teamwork behaviors are currently being used. It is understood current behaviors may be influenced by some key factors, such as:

The Organizational structure
The performance of team members
Current circumstances
Feedback from people outside the team.

Many other factors One way to identify current behaviours is to complete the MTRi (Management Team Roles-indicator (TM) instrument.

This is completed by the individuals within the team, and it indentifies the roles they are currently performing which can be aggregated to show the collective team behaviours.

However, M&S have built trust and engagement and a shared sense of common purpose over time are reaping the reward in terms of motivated employees willing to go the extra mile, despite the tough environment.

Some of the M & S staff s have been interviewed to get some information about M & S in regards to managing staff. Most of the employees feel a strong sense of family within their teams, but some of them said manager’s attitude towards their staff is not appropriate. About 9 of 10 male and female colleagues believe their colleagues care about each other. Working together gives them a buzz and almost every staff believes teammates are very fun. Staffs are working at Marks and Spencer as their own business but they believe that company does care very little about that. Though some kind of reward has been given by the company but colleagues believe that reward is not adequate.

Everyone believes that dedicated staffs can make difference in the organization with reaching their goals and direction.

Marks and spencer always try to bring theory but in real life they are not practicing it properly. Some of the managers are very keen to empower their manager to achieve their target but some of them like to run their store with a dictatorship attitude.

Half of the interviewed staff says their managers are not open and honest in regards to work. Very few of them said they are getting appreciation for their good job. Everyone said that senior managers are visiting their premises very often even work on the sales floor. Senior manager’s attitude showing that they want to connect with the teams,

Leadership

The term ‘Leadership’ is easy to explain, In a practical field leadership is a very tough task. Behavioral attitude is first quality for a leader than skills. A good leaders are trusted and respected by his/her followers. Leadership is little bit different from the management. Planning, organization and communication skills are main responsibilities for management. Though leadership relies on management skills too, but more so on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion, sensitivity and a degree of personal charisma.

Leadership can be performed with different styles. Some leaders have one style, which is right for certain, situations and wrong for others. Some leaders can adapt and use different leadership styles for given situations.

The Greening of Marks and Spencer: An example of creative leadership

Stuart Rose, CEO of the M&S announced a policy document that will make M&S a first green retailer of world by 2015.

It commits the retailer to a range of specific actions at an estimated cost of some ?200 million over the next five years. The plan has been welcomed by a range of commentators. Yet, closer inspection suggests it is a shrewd concession to corporate responsibility rather than a radical move that might frighten traditional commercial investors. It can also be seen as an example of creative leadership.

In a flurry of personal interviews, Stuart Rose announced a hundred-point, five year plan for M&S that aims at re-engineering the company’s activities to meet a range of socially responsible goals from carbon neutrality, ethical-trading, sustainable-sourcing, and health-promoting products and projects.

He told the BBC that the company has estimated five year-costs of the plan to be in the region of ?200 million pounds. In one interview, Green in his ‘show and tell’ mode had brought along plastic bottles and a coat (purporting to ) incorporate the plastic from similar bottles after recycling.

M&S Leadership: Dictatorial leaderships history in M&S

M&S leadership has been dominating by men. Micheal Marks founder of M&S had the traits of an entrepreneur. As the leadership was passed on through the family, increased competition within the heirs led to emergence of stronger characters. Micheal’s son Simon Marks and later Simon’s brother in law Israel Sieff changed the leadership style towards a stronger dictatorial influence.

1998-99 period was a underperforming duration for M&S. About 40% of M&S share price has fallen down. As the Zara and Next took market share from the top end of the market while the same time value offering were attached by the supermarkets who were increasingly entering the same market.

Rose leadership-

In 2004 performance was poor, with customer defecting to competitors. Investors were uneasy and showing sighns of losing confidence.

Its leadership team does not encompass the right mix of skills, knowledge and experience to enable the company to regain its long-held position as a market leader. This was the scenario which Stuart Rose stepped into, when he became CEO of UK retail giant, M&S, in May 2004. Rose was determined to:

Make fundamental changes
Change from bureaucratic old fashioned organization into a modern dynamic force.
Implement the missing ‘Shared values’ to complete the transformational leadership model.

Rose’s leadership strategy- Engaging employees at all levels:

Before 2004, A major side effect of the loss of confidence in M&S was low employee morals. Rose focused on re-building employee pride and commitment. But he was also ruthless in removing some long-term employee perks which had grown to become rights. He introduced more professional, performance based contracts for staff which were desighend to reinforce and reward behaviours whicch support organizational performance.

Though Mr. Rose has been running the company with some dictatorial attitude but the results were striking. But above all, the success of these changes are founded on confidence and belief in Rtuart Rose as a leader.

M&S leadership- In-house practice

M&S has developed it’s leadership strategy with some extra ordinary key features to implement it through leadership training, coaching and development.

Tanith Dodghe, group HR director of Marks and Spencer mentioned this strategy as ‘this is not just leadership, its M&S leadership’

Motivation
Employee Motivation: Giving power to the people

Frederick Herzberg – Two Factor theory In 1957, Herzberg devised his ‘ motivation hygiene’ theory which stated that two groups of factors affect employee motivation. Herzberg said that certain elements in a job motivate people to do better. He called these elements ‘Satisfiers’. They include:

Achievement
Recognition
Responsibility
Advancement
Personal growth
Actual work itself

Other elements do not motivate people to work harder. These are referred to as hygiene factors. They are:

Pay and conditions
Status within the company
Job security
Benefits
Relationships with fellow workers
Quality of the company’s managers
Frederic Taylor- Scientific Management

Taylor worked as a factorysuperintendent in a locomotive factory in the USA. From carrying outstudies of how people worked making axles, he concluded that:

Employees were successful in getting jobs there because they knew

the managers, not because they were good at the job.

Employees did not work hard enough for fear of their friends losing

their job

Employers paid their employees aslittleas they could possibly get

away with

Employees were given little instruction of how to do their job and

it was often done badly. The amount and quality of products produced

was very poor.

Taylor said that his ideas would improve matters:

Money was the only thing that motivated employees to work hard. If

the workers were paid per item made, they would want to make more and

would work harder.

Trained managers should run the company and supervise employees with

firm but fair discipline procedures.

Employees must be properly trained to do their job
Employee should be properly and fairly selected for jobs through

tests and interviews. This is to make sure that the right person gets

the job.

How Marks and Spencer’s performance management/training and development systems have been influenced by the motivational theories M&S use Maslow’s theory by helping staff set and reach their goals at work, they encourage their staff and praise them when they are doing well and staff also receive rewards for good work. M&S use Herzberg’s two factor theory by treated their employees well by giving them a good salary, good working conditions and by giving them sick pays and pension’s schemes, they also give their staff responsibilities to make them feel like there are important to the company and motivate them. M&S use Mcgregor’s theory by having managers who have trust in the workers and help them improve and do their best and also by giving managers bonuses to motivate them. Marks and Spencer’s also use Taylor’s Scientific Management theory by paying its employees in order to work and by having able managers control the staff.

Cross cultural Issues in M&S-
M&S diversity

M&S has a diverse range of employee and they are maintaining a active equal opportunities policy. This not just to cover the recruitment and selection procedures but runs through training and development, apraisal, promostion opportunities and eventually to retirement.

We promote an environment free from discrimination, harassment and victimisation and work hard to ensure everyone is offered equality of opportunity to achieve their full potential. All the decisions we make relating to employment practices are objective, free from bias and based solely upon work criteria and individual merit.

The hospitality industry of india is expected to grow at a rate of 8.8% from 2007-16, placing India the second-fastest growing tourism market in the world. Progress like massive investment in hotel infrastructure and open sky policies which are made by the government are all aimed at propelling growth in the hospitality sector.

Hotel and hospitality industries are the biggest employment generators in the country. Towards helping its growth, the government should confer infrastructure status to the hotel industries, several taxation issues also need to be rationalised. Further permits and licenses which are required for the hotel operations needs to be rationalised by offering a “single window” mechanism.

The hotel industry is divided into 4 categories:

Large hotels

Medium hotels

Resort hotels

Small hotels

MARKET SHARE OF THE MAJOR HOTELS IN INDIA:
TIE -UPS OF INDIAN HOTELS WITH INTERNATIONAL HOTELS:

Most players, exempting of IHCL and EIH, have entered into marketing Tie-up with major international hotel chains. Thus we have Hyatt Regency which are tied up with AHL, Leela tied up with Kempinski and ITCH having a franchisee agreement with ITT Sheraton.

For the Indian hotel owners and international hotel chains the benefit is mutual, Tie-up with an international hotel chain will put the hotel on the global map. Associations with international brand play a major role in image building and attracting foreign tourists. However value of the international brand will get diluted if a foreign entity enters an agreement with several Indian companies.

MARKET SHARE OF TARIFF PLANS BY DIFFERENT HOTELS

Luxury hotels operate under single tariff structure whereby the foreign tourists are charged in dollar terms whereas the domestic guest is charged the equivalent amount in rupees. The luxury hotels earn about two-thirds of their revenue from foreign tourists. Leisure travellers constitute approximately 76.5% of the total tourist arrivals whereas business travellers constitute 21% of the total arrivals. The remainder is accounted by students.

Hotels benefit from rupee depreciation as over 60% of revenues in the luxury hotel Segment is in foreign currencies. Thus any depreciation of the rupee goes directly to the bottom line (FOREX income is also fully tax exempt), as none of the costs are directly linked to the exchange rate. The hotel debt environment is also improving. While many countries are hampered by a still sluggish economy, those with a low interest rate environment with relatively stable-banking conditions will provide opportunities for hotel investors to raise capital. For hotel lenders, from a risk/return basis, there has never been a better time to provide new capital to this industry in India.

CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS ECONOMY

The hotel and restaurant industry of India was Rs. 658.89 billion during 2007-08. Travel & Tourism Industry of India was valued at US$35.73 billion in 2007, contributing 3.56% to India’s GDP. The number of foreign tourists arriving to India reached 5.08 million compared with 4.45 million in the year 2006, showing growth of 14.16%. India’s share in international tourist arrivals at global level gradually improved from 0.46% in 2004 to 0.49% in 2005 and further to 0.52% in 2006 and 0.56% in 2007.

The number of domestic tourists in India was 526.57 million compared with 461.76 Million in 2006, showing growth of 14.03%. There are 1,437 hotels approved and Classified by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, with a total capacity of 84,327 hotel rooms as on December 31, 2007. Indian hotel industry is currently adding about 60,000 quality rooms, which are expected to be ready by 2012.

INTERNATIONAL TOURIST CONTRIBUTION IN INDIA

The foreign tourist arrivals in India increased at CAGR of 5.5per cent from 2.29 Million in 1996 to 3.92 million in 2005. Significantly, the bulk of international arrivals into India, both in 2004 and 2005, have been business travellers. Main reason for this increase has been following fundamental factors:

India’s strong GDP growth.

Opening of sectors of the economy to private sector/ foreign investment.

Strengthening of ties with the developed world.

Reforms in aviation sector which led to better connectivity with many countries (such as ASEAN) and created additional capacity on existing routes (for e.g. USA, Middle East).

Also, introduction of low cost airlines also contributed to the demand. The increase in International flights, seat capacity and frequency into the country and the decision to allow private airlines like Jet Airways and Air Sahara to fly overseas has had a positive impact on tourist and business arrivals into India, by way of providing additional seats.

3.1.2 NATURE OF COMPETITION:

It is the most competitive market .Business travelers drive over 70 per cent of the Indian hospitality business and the race to accommodate them, and do it well, is hotting up. But with current demand outstripping supply, hotels in the big cities have managed to up their rates to match those in Paris and London.

The major competition comes from the other companies in the same sector .so the rivals are to be found and make their primary and secondary strategies which makes the company competitive in the market. There are also pricing strategies which play fewer roles in competitive market and should think of the non pricing strategies which can be more competitive in the market.

The pricing of a hotel like this one is done on system called “rate of the day” based on demand. As the rooms get taken the price goes up and on a busy day a room like this one in Mumbai or Delhi will cost as much as you would have to pay for one in Paris or London.

Adding more facilities to the five star rated hotels like Wi-Fi, spas, gyms, online booking etc. to maintain their guest loyalties which give competitive advantage to its company.

To become competitive in the market the flexible pricing is the key. Some suggested steps to realign rates and segments to the changed market place; gain control of business; and increase profitability are:

Create an online booking presence.

Ensure that the hotel’s online booking engine is part of the hotel’s web site, and controlled by the hotel, not by a third party or GDS-based system.

Ensure that the online booking engine is the best and accomplishes the hotel’s goals.

Ensure that the online booking engine is easy to use from a customer’s perspective.

Expertly create and maintain an online distribution and maximization strategy to ensure the hotel’s visibility.

Promote and ensure that the lowest published rates are on the hotel’s own web site, to promote customer loyalty, as done with the airlines.

Establish a new market segmentation model, for greater control of the business. Eliminate RACK RATE and replace with SELL RATE, defined as Rack, Promotional, Consortia, and any other customer not affiliated with any discount.

A simplified sample version is:

Sell Rate

Corporate Rate

Group Rate

Weekend Rate

Establish the Sell Rate based on anticipated demand patterns, after the core business and group blocks are factored in. The rate fluctuates on a daily basis.

Set rates in all market segments within the range of your competitive set to establish positioning.

TAJ GROUP OF HOTELS:

A Tata company shall fully strive for the establishment and support of a competitive, open market economy in India and abroad, and shall cooperate in efforts to promote the progressive and judicious liberalisation of trade and investment by a country. Specifically, a Tata company shall not engage in activities that generate or support the formation of monopolies, dominant market positions, cartels and similar unfair trade practices.

A Tata company shall market its products and services on its own merits and shall not make unfair and misleading statements about competitors’ products and services. Any collection of competitive information shall be made only in the normal course of business and shall be obtained only through legally permitted sources and means.

Direct Competitors:

Oberoi Hotels

Oriental Hotels

ITC Welcomgroup

Hotel Leela etc.

Potential Target market : The upper class of the society is targeted. i.e. the richer people in the society. Their fares or tariffs are high as the luxuries provided by them are also standard and 5-star. Thus, this is in context to the Indian branches of Taj Hotels.

OBEROI GROUP OF HOTELS (EAST INDIA HOTELS LTD.):

Team Street is out with an investment idea that could help the portfolio in the current market conditions. The recent correction in the market has been sharp as the benchmark index or the Sensex has given up more than 7 percent from a recent high of 21,108.

OBEROI PROPERTIES RECOGNITION INTERNATIONALLY:

The Oberoi Vanyavilas, Ranthambore

Rated the 2nd best resort in Asia

Rated the 2nd best hotel in the World

The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur

Rated the best hotel in Asia

Rated 4th best hotel in the World

The Oberoi Amarvilas. Agra

Rated the 2nd best hotel in Asia

Rated the 8th best hotel in the World

The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur

Rated the 5th best hotel in Asia

Rated amongst the top 25 hotels in the World

Wildflower Hall, Shimla in the Himalayas

Rated the 5th best resort in Asia

The Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur

Rated No.1 hotel in Asia

Rated 2nd best hotel in the World

The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur

Rated No. 2 hotel in Asia

Rated 4th best hotel in the World

The Oberoi Amarvilas. Agra

Rated No. 3 hotel in Asia

Rated 6th best hotel in the World

3.1.3 SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS:

1. Natural and cultural diversity: India has a rich cultural heritage. The “unity in diversity” tag attracts most tourists. The coastlines, sunny beaches, backwaters of Kerala, snow capped Himalayas and the quiescent lakes are incredible.

2. Demand-supply gap: Indian hotel industry is facing a mismatch between the demand and supply of rooms leading to higher room rates and occupancy levels. With the privilege of hosting Commonwealth Games 2010 there is more demand of rooms in five star hotels. This has led to the rapid expansion of the sector.

3. Government support: The government has realized the importance of tourism and has proposed a budget of Rs. 540 crore for the development of the industry. The priority is being given to the development of the infrastructure and of new tourist destinations and circuits. The Department of Tourism (DOT) has already started the “Incredible India” campaign for the promotion of tourism in India.

4. Increase in the market share: India’s share in international tourism and hospitality market is expected to increase over the long-term. New budget and star hotels are being established. Moreover, foreign hospitality players are heading towards Indian markets.

WEAKNESSES:

1.Poor support infrastructure: Though the government is taking necessary steps, many more things need to be done to improve the infrastructure. In 2003, the total expenditure made in this regard was US $150 billion in China compared to US$ 21 billion in India.

2. Slow implementation: The lack of adequate recognition for the tourism industry has been hampering its growth prospects. Whatever steps are being taken by the government are implemented at a slower pace.

3. Susceptible to political events: The internal security scenario and social unrest also hamper the foreign tourist arrival rates.

OPPORTUNITIES:

1.Rising income: Owing to the rise in income levels, Indians have more spare money to spend, which is expected to enhance leisure tourism.

2. Open sky benefits: With the open sky policy, the travel and tourism industry has seen an increase in business. Increased airline activity has stimulated demand and has helped improve the infrastructure. It has benefited both international and domestic travels.

THREATS:

1. Fluctuations in international tourist arrivals: The total dependency on foreign tourists can be risky, as there are wide fluctuations in international tourism. Domestic tourism needs to be given equal importance and measures should be taken to promote it.

2. Increasing competition: Several international majors like the Four Seasons, Shangri-La and Aman Resorts are entering the Indian markets. Two other groups – the Carlson Group and the Marriott chain – are also looking forward to join this race. This will increase the competition for the existing Indian hotel majors.

CHALLENGES FOR HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

1. Shortage of skilled employees: One of the greatest challenges plaguing the hospitality industry is the unavailability of quality workforce in different skill levels. The hospitality industry has failed to retain good professionals.

2. Retaining quality workforce: Retention of the workforce through training and development in the hotel industry is a problem and attrition levels are too high. One of the reasons for this is unattractive wage packages. Though there is boom in the service sector, most of the hotel management graduates are joining other sectors like retail and aviation.

3. Shortage of rooms: The hotel industry is facing heavy shortage of rooms. It is estimated that the current requirement is of 1,50,000 rooms. Though the new investment plan would add 53,000 rooms by 2011, the shortage will still persist.

4. Intense competition and image of India: The industry is witnessing heightened competition with the arrival of new players, new products and new systems. The competition from neighboring countries and negative perceptions about Indian tourism product constrains the growth of tourism. The image of India as a country overrun by poverty, political instability, safety concerns and diseases also harms the tourism industry.

5. Customer expectations: As India is emerging as a destination on the global travel map, expectations of customers are rising. The companies have to focus on customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

6. Manual back-end: Though most reputed chains have IT enabled systems for property management, reservations, etc., almost all the data which actually make the company work are filled in manual log books or are simply not tracked.

7. Human resource development: Some of the services required in the tourism and hotel industries are highly personalized, and no amount of automation can substitute for personal service providers. India is focusing more on white collar jobs than blue collar jobs. The shortage of blue collar employees will pose various threats to the industry.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF MAJOR HOTELS:
TAJ GROUP OF HOTELS:
Strengths:

The group has enormous power and strengths, which makes it the best and competitive, some of them are:

It consists of 75 properties in 40 locations across India and 18 international hotels.

Its stylish variety of hotels like; Taj exotica, Taj safari, The gateway hotels, Ginger hotels, Jivas spa etc.

Its effective and efficient management techniques and staff.

Its brand name.

The presence of Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces in various countries like United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Dubai, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Russia and the United States of America.

Securing management contracts at Palm Island, Jumeirah in Dubai, Saraya Islands in Ras Al Khaimah, Aldar Group in Abu Dhabi, UAE Langkawi in Malaysia and Thimpu in Bhutan.

The various initiatives taken like; rollout of Customer Feedback System, Tata Business Excellence Model, IT initiatives, Ginger hotels etc.

Weakness:

Taj hotels being such a big brand, has a lot of advantages but every big company faces some odds and so does Taj. Some of its weakness;

Its hard to maintain such a huge chain of subsidiaries and there are more chances of mishaps in management.

Its huge competitors like Oberoi, Leela, Oriental, ITC etc are also providing same facilities and thus it becomes a weakness for Taj hotels.

Its very costly for the Indians to afford the tariffs and service charges set by Taj hotels. Thus, they loose a major part of their market share.

They need a lot of investment.

As Taj hotels is a popular group, it is always in the eyes of the terrorists, as taj has already faced such an incident. Therefore, it proves to be a weakness some times, to be so popular.

Opportunities:

The Group is poised strategically to take advantage of the following situation:

In the backdrop of a healthy economy having its positive fallouts on the Tourism Sector leading to rapid growth in markets in India, South Asia and key gateway cities in source-market destinations.

Rapid expansion in both International and Domestic destinations, with top-of-the-line Luxury, Leisure and Business properties.

Meeting growing demand in the budget and mid-market segments.

Extending the product portfolio into related offerings viz. luxury residences, wildlife lodges and health spas.

Threats:

The threats identified by the Group are related mainly to the markets in which the Group operates and general factors related to the tourism industry. Significant among these are:

Cheaper international airfares, increasing affordability of travel to International destinations, especially South East Asia, Europe and Australia.

Growing presence of international hospitality chains competing in the Luxury and Business segments, to meet excess demand situation.

Appreciating Indian Rupee vis-a-vis the US Dollar, resulting in lower realisation on foreign exchange earnings.

Slowdown of international demand resulting in reduction of revenues.

OBEROI GROUP OF HOTELS:
Strengths:

Cost advantage

Asset leverage

Effective communication

High R&D

Innovation

Online growth

Loyal customers

Market share leadership

Strong management team

Strong brand equity

Weaknesses:

Bad communication

Diseconomies to scale

Over leveraged financial position

Low R&D

Low market share

No online presence

Not innovative

Not diversified

Poor supply chain

Weak management team

Weak real estate

Opportunities:

Acquisitions

Asset leverage

Financial markets (raise money through debt, etc)

Emerging markets and expansion abroad

Innovation

Online

Product and services expansion

Takeovers

Threats:

Competition

Cheaper technology

Economic slowdown

External changes (government, politics, taxes, etc)

Exchange rate fluctuations

Lower cost competitors or imports

Maturing categories, products, or services

Price wars

ITDC:
STRENGTHS:

One of the oldest five star hotels in India preferred by a vast number of tourists as well as localites.

Amenities provided are state of the art and of very high quality.

Staff is known to be very hospitable and supportive of their guests.

Has the largest conference hall in India and hence it’s the most preferred conference hall for most of the important conferences held in India.

Provides Privilege Card for their frequent guests which lure more number of people to become their regular customers.

It has New Delhi’s most magnificent Banquet venue.

The architecture is still considered as a benchmark to most of the buildings that are created today.

WEAKNESSES:

Prices are higher than other five star hotels in New Delhi.

There have not been many changes in the building since the time that it has been set up.

According to the guests the walls are dirty and the hallways are not maintained well which makes many of them think twice about coming back there.

It is quite far away (15kms) from the international airport because of which many guest opt for hotels closer for their own convenience.

They seem to rely on their past laurels and are not taking any new initiatives to satisfy their customers.

3.2 DEMOGRAPHICS OF BUYERS- MARKET SEGMENTATION:
CLASSIFICATION OF HOTELS:

Classification is based on many criteria and classifying hotels into different types is not an easy task. The hotel industry is so vast that many hotels do not fit into single well defined category. Industry can be classified in various ways, based on location, size of property etc. The main hotel chains of India are: The Taj Group of Hotels, the Oberoi Group and ITC Welcome group.

Some of the international chains are Hyatt, Marriott, and Le Meridian etc. these properties have also come up in India now.

1. Based on Location

City center: Generally located in the heart of city within a short distance from business centre, shopping arcade. Rates are normally high due to their location advantages. They have high traffic on weekdays and the occupancy is generally high.

Motels: They are located primarily on highways, they provide lodging to highway travellers and also provide ample parking space. The length of stay is usually overnight.

Suburban hotels: They are located in suburban areas, it generally have high traffic on weekend. It is ideal for budget travellers. In this type of hotel rates are moderately low.

Airport hotels: These hotels are set up near by the airport. They have transit guest who stay over between flights.

Resort hotels: They are also termed as health resort or beach hill resort and so depending on their position and location. They cater a person who wants to relax, enjoy themselves at hill station. Most resort work to full capacity during peak season. Sales and revenue fluctuate from season to season.

Floating hotels: As name implies these hotels are established on luxury liners or ship. It is located on river, sea or big lakes. In cruise ships, rooms are generally small and all furniture is fixed down. It has long stay guest.

Boatels: A house boat hotels is referred as boatels. The SHIKARAS of Kashmir and KETTUVALLAM of Kerala are houseboats in India which offers luxurious accommodation to travelers.

Rotels: These novel variants are hotel on wheel. Our very own “palace on wheels” and “Deccan Odessey” are trains providing a luxurious hotel atmosphere. Their interior is done like hotel room. They are normally used by small group of travelers.

2. Based on Size of Property

Small hotel: hotel with 100 rooms and less may be termed as small hotels.

Medium sized hotel: hotel which has 100-300 rooms is known as medium sized hotel.

Large hotels: hotel which have more than 300 rooms are termed as large hotels.

Mega hotels: are those hotels with more than 1000 rooms.

Chain hotels: these are the groups that have hotels in much number of locations in India and international venues.

3. Based on the Level of Service

Economy/ Budget hotels: These hotels meet the basic need of the guest by providing comfortable and clean room for a comfortable stay.

Mid market hotels: It is suite hotel that offers small living room with appropriate furniture and small bed room with king sized bed.

Luxury hotels: These offer world class service providing restaurant and lounges, concierge service, meeting rooms, dining facilities. Bath linen is provided to the guest and is replaced accordingly. These guest rooms contains furnishing, artwork etc. prime market for these hotels are celebrities, business executives and high ranking political figures. Example: Hyatt Regency, New Delhi.

4. Based on the Length of Stay

Transient Hotel: These are the hotel where guest stays for a day or even less, they are usually five star hotels. The occupancy rate is usually very high. These hotels are situated near airport.

Residential hotels: These are the hotel where guest can stay for a minimum period of one month and up to a year. The rent can be paid on monthly or quarterly basis. They provide sitting room, bed room and kitchenette.

Semi residential hotels: These hotels incorporate features of both transient and residential hotel.

5. Based on Theme

Heritage hotel: In this hotel a guest is graciously welcomed, offered room that have their own history, serve traditional cuisine and are entertained by folk artist. These hotels put their best efforts to give the glimpse of their region.

Example: Jai Mahal palace in Jaipur.

Ecotels: these are environment friendly hotels these hotel use eco friendly items in the room. Example: Orchid Mumbai is Asia first and most popular five star Ecotels.

Boutique hotels: This hotel provides exceptional accommodation, furniture in a themed and stylish manner and caters to corporate travelers. Example: In India the park Bangalore is a boutique hotel.

Spas: is a resort which provide therapeutic bath and massage along with other features of luxury hotels in India Ananda spa in Himalaya are the most popular Spa.

6. Based on Target Market

Commercial hotel: They are situated in the heart of the city in busy commercial areas so as to get good and high business. They cater mostly businessmen.

Convention hotels: These hotels have large convention complex and cater to people attending a convention, conference.

Example: Le meridien, Cochin, is a hotel with largest convention center in south India.

Resort hotels: These leisure hotels are mainly for vacationers who want to relax and enjoy with their family. The occupancy varies as per season. The atmosphere is more relaxed. These are spread out in vast areas so many resorts have solar powered carts for the transport of guest.

Suite hotels: These hotel offer rooms that may include compact kitchenette. They cater to people who are relocating act as like lawyers, executives who are away from home for a long business stay.

Casino hotels: Hotel with predominantly gambling facilities comes under this category, they have guest room and food and operation too. These hotels tend to cater leisure and vacation travelers. Gambling activities at some casino hotels operate 24 hours a day and 365 days.

Today’s ways of booking make it difficult to identify the purpose of the trip. Segment by default the individual bookings for short midweek stays as business. Identify as leisure the booking of a double room over the week-end.

As the new technology was developing, corporate travel departments, as well as the independent consumer, turned to travel agents to get the best discounts. As the GDS technology influenced booking and buying practices, additional segments were created, resulting in the following market segment model:

Rack Rates: Without any affiliations to warrant discounts, the Rack Rated customer paid the published rate, which was the highest rate.

Consortia Rates: This was the same customer who booked through a travel agent using the GDS and received a 5%-10% discount off Rack Rates.

Corporate Rates: Having met the hotel’s qualifying criteria, such as volume, businesses were guaranteed discounted rates.

Group Rates: With a block of rooms, rates varied based on time of year and the nature of the group.

Weekend Rates: Individual leisure travelers, usually within a drive distance to the hotel.

Promotional rates: These rates were originally used sparingly and used as a means to stimulate business by using discounted rates to anyone, regardless of affiliation.

Domestic Consumer is the largest segment of the hotels & motels industry in India accounting for 52.9% of the industry’s total value. The domestic business segment accounts for a further 24.4% of the industry.