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This business report addresses the impacts of cruise tourism offered by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. on the environment and its related issues. It aims to attend the necessity of Ecotourism as a sustainable business for the company.

Although Royal Caribbean (the world’s second largest cruise with 23.8% of world’s market share) has contributed positively to regional growth by diversification, creating job opportunity, earning foreign reserves but it has diverse issues related to economic, socio cultural and the environment. However the main focus will be on environment which is strongly affected by the increase in cruise lines and there is a need to protect the ecosystem.

The issues of cruise tourism pertaining to the environment arises because of three important reasons; lack of proper waste management, selection of improper tourists destinations, and lastly because cruises doesn’t restrict to the number of visitor carrying capacity of the tourism destinations, resulting in site congestion, gathering of wastes, deterioration of archaeological and historical sites. Tourist destinations should be national parks, flora and fauna instead of fragile destinations. Due to ocean pollution the company has to pay penalty which raises its expenses, incur losses and also social impact.

Even if cruise tourism is the fastest growing business of the travel industry however if the growth is not planned properly it may cause economic, environment and socio-cultural impacts on tourist destinations. Thus, the need for responsible tourism is highly recommended for the sustainability of the business, which can be achieved by ecotourism. Ecotourism is one form of tourism, which addresses the negative impacts associated with mass tourism through the implementation of sustainable practices. Its impacts and benefits are critically analysed and it was recommended for the company to implement it.

Necessity of Ecotourism as a sustainable measure for Royal Caribbean
1. Introduction

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is the world’s second largest cruise company founded in 1969 and it. The company is responsible for giving a new dimension to the cruise industry transforming a simple ocean carrier service into a mega vacation option. It sails in more than 160 destinations with a variety of travel options. The two brands are “Royal Caribbean International” and “Celebrity Cruises”. It operates globally, however majority of its passengers are from North America. Main competitors are Carnival Corporation, NCL Corporation, and Star Cruises Ltd. (Royal Caribbean International, n.d.)

The main objective of this report is to identify the issues, analyze the impacts of the issue on the sustainability, recommend a solution to fix the issue, find out its benefit, and its implementation by the company making it a sustainable business.

The issues and challenges faced by Royal Caribbean cruises in terms of social, economical and environmental factors are discussed in this report. The problem that was identified with the cruise tourism of RCCL was the improper waste management which lead to ocean pollution thus affecting the marine as well as terrestrial environment. The poisonous oil leakage from the vessels killed people and also had harmful effects causing deadly diseases. This impacted the environment as well as society. The economy of the company was negatively impacted because Royal Caribbean had to pay heavy penalty for polluting the environment. This raises the issue of sustainability because for the company’s long term business, it is essential to have a balance between these three factors. Ecotourism is suggested as a tool for sustainability. However it is important to critically analyze the potential of ecotourism as a strategy for development, evaluate the impacts and benefits of ecotourism, and the ways to improve ecotourism practices and policies for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

2. Issues

With the increase in popularity of leisure tourism, the company focuses on providing adventure, relaxation and entertainment to passengers from across the globe and tourist destinations as a part of the cruise package deals. However it is also necessary to maintain the glory of such destinations as it is linked to the environmental performance and the future of tourism also depends on it. Marine life should be protected which is the base of shipping industry. Cruises generate a high volume of wastes, pollutants into the water body which affects the marine environment. Royal Caribbean was found guilty of illegal waste-handling by disposing the toxic waste into the Alaska’s Inland Passage waters thereby polluting the marine environment and for which it has to pay a fine of $18 M. But the company was convicted by the U.S Federal for 11 times in charge of ocean pollution. The $9M and $18M fines each were the highest record set for the largest pollution penalty for a cruise-ship company (Fishman, 2000). These pollution scandals not only increased the expenses but also affected the company’s gracious public image. The socio- cultural issue in Haiti has also put Royal Caribbean under a heavy media fire. The company brings the vacationers to a private resort maintained by it in Labadee, Haiti, which is 60 miles away from the earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince (Bennett, 2010). Ms. Martinez, Manager Corporate Communications said, “the company is very sensitive to the idea of delivering a vacation experience so close to the epicentre of the earthquake,” but given the financial and social challenges the country is now facing, it needs the positive economic benefits Royal Caribbean’s cruises provide. Despite Royal Caribbean’s help to the Haiti relief effort, $1 M donation as relief fund, the company is charged for bringing cruisers to this place. It is criticized saying that the cruise line should never have tried to mix its commerce and humanitarian efforts in telling its side of the story (Bush, 2010).

In a nutshell, the main issue figured out was cruise tourism which had the serious problems like lack of provision for waste disposal leading to environment and economic crisis, destination selection raising social issues. We will further analyse the effects of cruise tourism in this report.

Impacts of Cruise Tourism on the Environment

The cruise tourism is likely to have effects on various aspects of the maritime and terrestrial environments. There is always a high possibility of oil spills by the ships in the sea which is very difficult to clean up in the cold remote locations. The impact of vessel activity in the breeding ground and feeding areas of marine mammals risks the wild life and is an area of concern. Whereas the terrestrial environment is affected by the numerous passengers who often make shore visit to places of natural and historical interests as a part of their cruise holiday package, either by speed boats, zodiac or helicopters thereby creating noise pollution and destroying the archaeological sites. Another potential threat is there to the flora and fauna of the place because these species have low tolerance capacity which leads to the destruction of the ecosystem. Not only this, there is a social and cultural disruption among indigenous people whose communities play host to cruise visitors on an increasingly regular basis.

While cruise tourism has the potential to disrupt local communities it also has the capacity to enrich them. It can contribute positively to the economies of remote communities and also can be viewed as an environmentally sustainable option.

Aspects of global environmental change with relevance to cruise tourism

The effects are on three sectors: Infrastructure, Access, and Attractions. Cruise tourism increases the open water which leads to storm surges and shoreline erosions. This creates structural damage and raises construction and engineering problems. An effect on Access is because of declination in sea-ice extent causing extended shipping season and melting of glaciers also causes iceberg hazards. Effect on the attractions is because environmental changes alter local activity possibilities, changes scenic values locally and variations in ecosystem lead to alterations in distribution and abundance of existing animal species (Gissling & Hall, 2005, p. 44).

3. Recommendations

Royal Caribbean should adapt Ecotourism business to address the sustainability dimensions which will provide a diversity of economic benefits to the company, environment and the community. The benefits of implementing this sustainability practice will reduce operating costs, protect the brand image, provide credible marketing advantage, increase client base, and improve the business efficiency.

It is recommended for Royal Caribbean to discourage mass tourism because travelling in small groups helps to conserve energy and the waste needs of passengers are managed in a better way, thereby having low impact on the environment (Paul F. J. Eagles, 2002, p. 20). The travellers should be educated on practices respectful to the local environment and the benefits of small-group responsible tourism. So limit in cruisers number will help to protect the local tourism infrastructure for future generations.

Cruise destination should be selected wisely because travel to unspoiled virgin areas is harmful and may damage areas of the environment that are exceedingly rare and fragile. It should sail to nature based places like national parks, areas of conservations where flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle should be the strategy for waste management. It should recycle all materials like glass, plastic, paper etc. Water bottles can be reused; special processing of wastes such as toner cartridges, wooden pallets and cooking oil should be done by approved shore side vendors. The outstanding garbage can be reused in some countries as road fill, or can be treated as special waste for further processing or disposed of in a landfill. The unconsumed foodstuffs by the guests can be sent to the crew galleys; remaining food scraps can be treated inside the vacuum system of the ship and can be discharged to the sea. Similarly water waste is filtered and purified into potable water.

Tour can contribute financially toward the local economy and nature conservation (WTO & UNEP, 2005, pp. 9-10). It should contact the local guides, local activity providers for the travel guide to the local places; the cruisers can purchase from the local buyers thereby promoting the local business, visit the national parks.

Support the integrity of local cultures by integrating tours within the cultural fabric of the sites. The passengers should be encouraged to stay in local hotels, visit places, and participate in activities that foster meaningful interactions with them. It helps in providing employment, encourages cultural exchange and strengthening of intercultural understanding and tolerance for both guests and hosts.

Ecotourism

Martha Honey defines as “Travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strive to be low impact and (usually) small scale. It helps educate the traveller, provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities, and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.” (Honey, 1999, p. 25)

Advantages of Ecotourism

It can help in protecting the ecosystems, preserving natural areas and increase the tourism.

Increase the awareness on environment; educate people about the consequences of exploiting natural resources.

Help in providing employment to the local and regional people, e.g. selling of handicrafts, local food items etc.; this also creates some entrepreneurial skills (Leader-Williams, Hashimova, & Guliyeva, 2004, p. 45).

Increases foreign reserves of the region, enhances economic growth.

Raises the warmth to multitude country’s political, environmental and social climate

Cultivate a feeling of pride and community through a revival or safeguarding of customary beliefs, practices and enriching techniques.

Untouched destinations and natural activities may become a craze for tourists creating scope for ecotourism.

Diversifying the tourism package into interesting events such as halt in country boats, trail walks etc. will help retaining the revenue generated with the local people and promote local economy.

Figure 1: Sustainable Development Triangle (World Conservation Union, 2003)

Utilizing the above figure of sustainable development triangle we can say that ecotourism puts a balance between these three sides i.e. economy, environment, and the society. For the long term development of a company it is necessary to be sustainable; Ecotourism will bring future and current benefits as well as work as a form of sustainable development. SWOT Analysis of Ecotourism can be referred in the Appendix attached at the last.

4. Implementation

The company should get the new criteria for selecting destinations in a cruise ship port of call from the tourism council. It should follow the guidelines on ecotourism destinations set by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. After that a third party verification of its land excursions adhering to Global Sustainable Tourism Council-recognized standard by 2015 should be done. Once final GSTC Criteria for Destinations are in place, they will provide another standard by which Royal Caribbean can judge ports of call. (Wilkinson, Global Sustainable Tourism Council, 2012)

Timeline: An approval from the CEO has to be obtained and then the company should follow GSTC for obtaining the criteria. This process of implementation will take around 3 years which is the timeline.

Instead of activities like snorkelling, scuba diving etc. which has impact on the marine life there can be other attractions like visiting conservation area, Plantation house, lush forest trekking, catamaran ride to beaches where the guests can have beach barbeque. Maintaining the quality of these experiences means integrating the guidelines of sustainability, with the help of a GSTC consultant.

Timeline: There should be an approval received from the strategic planning department and It can be implemented within 6 months from now.

There should be proper waste disposal system in the cruises. Modern equipment like exhaust gas scrubbers should installed on smokestacks, superior wastewater purification should be on the vessels. RCCL can implement these systems on the newer ships as a measure to treat all kind of wastes like solid waste, water waste and air waste. It can also have highly developed systems like reverse Osmosis system that uses only 35 percent of the electricity consumed as compared to older units for converting sea water into drinkable ship water.

Timeline: Approval from the corporate governance department should be obtained and this can be implemented within 6 months from now.

In order to preserve the environment from dumping things overboard RCCL can initiate programs for educating the cruisers, travellers, crews for recycling all the wastes like aluminium canes, water bottles, food stuffs etc. It can also purchase more than one million pounds of recycled products each year. An approval from the CEO can be obtained for immediately implementing the plan and the sanction for purchasing recycled products can also be got from finance department.

Timeline: This can be implemented within 2 month.

5. Conclusion

Ecotourism is a win-win solution for destinations where the conservation efforts for the environment are also associated with the livelihood opportunities of the local people. For ecotourism to be effective in its true sense there is a need to develop a proper ecotourism package which should be different from the existing mass tourism packages.

Royal Caribbean’s plan to implement Ecotourism as a sustainability measure is indeed a commendable decision. The company’s initiative to sponsor programs such as setting new criteria for selecting holiday destinations, running programs like “Save the Waves” with mission as reduce, reuse, recycle will certainly help it for a long term development and overcome the challenges to sustain its business. Although RCCL’s investment will be more on these sustainable measures but it will not have a negative impact on the environment, social image and the economy as well because there will be no threat for hefty fines for creating pollution.

Introduction

Over the years the world’s poorest countries have become popular tourist destinations, drawing visitors with images of exotic environments and cultures (Harrison, 1995; WTO, 2004). Increasing cheap and easy travel has made long distance vacations a reality. Tourism countries is growing steadily in developing, urged by this governments, and by the international community, which includes the World Bank, as a means of encouraging economic diversi¬?cation, stimulating local incomes and earning most foreign exchange (Brohman, 1996; Christie, 2001; Harrison, 1995; Markandya et al., 2004; WTO, 2002, 2004, 2005; WTTC, 2005).But Tourism industry is prone to fluctuate and is a uncertain strategy which often strikes with minimal warning. Tourism promotion could be an economic relief to many developing and under developing countries but, if situations to become unfavourable; it could affect the ones engaged in a worse economic situation than they were before when introduced to tourism. The risks of over-concentration on a single sector of the economy can be high (Feenstra & Hanson, 1996) and this is especially true in poor counties of the world where tourism domineers the economy. The island of Bali in Indonesia is one example, peace was wrecked by terrorist bombs in October 2002, and again in October 2005. The bombs which exploded in October 2002 killed 202 people this was only the beginning, the immediate impact on it was devastating. More than 18,700 scared tourists fled Bali in three days, which is three times as more than during a normal month. After the first two weeks after the attack, visitor arrivals dropped by 80%. And hotel occupancy plunged from 73% to just 14% after the attack. Within a week of the attack major tour operators promptly drew back their holiday programmes from Bali and resorts throughout Indonesia.

This paper aims at proposing marketing strategies that could be adopted in Bali, to revoke Tourism after its terrorist attacks. They are Marketing Product, Promotion and distribution systems, Prices and retargeting. This paper will discuss all the strengths and weakness of these marketing strategies and also present a conclusion based on strategies which can be adopted to alleviate the impacts of terrorism in Bali.

Marketing In Tourism:

Industry don’t `evolve ‘. Instead time eager to overturn the present industry order challenge `accepted practise’, redraw segment boundaries, set new price performance expectations and re-invent the product or service concept (Hamel and Prahalad,1994:303).

Marketing and promotions are the key factors that should be considered when tourism industry has been shattered in a country that has suffered a crisis. Marketing Bali after terrorist attack is mainly bringing back economy to the country by the means of tourism since its economy majorly depends on tourism. There are several marketing strategies which can be implemented such as Promotion and distribution, Prices and Re targeting.

Promotion and distribution systems

Innovative techniques such as internet play a very important role in promotion and distribution channel in terms of volume and gathering information to choose trips and buy tourism services at the lowest possible price. A considerable increase in Internet sales has opened up a new way to improve and develop the management of distribution in the businesses. Systems integrate functions such as: marketing, information, sales and end-product integration by pulling together all the elements of a tourism trip. Due to its unique characteristics, growing number of countries are promoting their products through the Internet. Distribution no longer depends on traditional channels, that is, operators and travel agencies. The reduction or elimination of commissions on ticket sales and car hires is leading to the establishment of service fees, which is a fixed amount in many cases, and to a growing emphasis on the consulting or advisory function of travel agents. Virtual distribution channels are or tend to be interactive television, call centres, direct sales via the Internet, and websites of conventional travel agencies. The role of tour operators, traditionally associated with conventional sun-and-sand holidays, is being contained. There is a continuing trend towards consolidation and vertical integration among tour operators. In order to adapt to demand, they are also becoming more flexible and are segmenting their products to a greater degree. Among the objectives of this consolidation processes are: to better control operating costs, to make better use of their airplanes and to use their information systems more efficiently. Among travel agencies, cooperatives are gaining

increased prominence using a model that has been successful in the United States, as well as the establishment of a mix of distribution channels that take advantage of new technologies. The management of the chain of production is geared towards profitability, with key strategies being:

increasing the load factor of own planes, achieving economies of scale, reducing risk by diversifying into new markets and consolidating brands that cover various products in order to increase customer loyalty.

The Internet has a growing role but has not yet displaced print publications, television and radio, especially coupled with direct marketing, the Internet itself, the specialized press and special promotions.

A message to address safety concerns must be issued in order to let people know that the Bali has tightened up its security and it is now safe for the tourist. Bali tourism officials can plan to invite all their major travel agents check new safety measures which has been implemented. Travel agents provide bulk hotel bookings; it is very important to encourage them to take personal tours to make them aware of all new security measures implemented. This will create a good image of Bali to travel agents so they feel confident on promoting Bali as a tourist destination again. It can also invite important trade partners. Concerning security and safety, JATA (Japan Association of Travel Agents), China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Singapore Travel Agencies expressesing their satisfaction with heightened security measures implemented in the aftermath blast which can help improve tourism form Japan, China and Singapore.

Advertisements.

Diplomatic and celebrity endorsement can be done to bring up the market. Advertisement about a new refreshing image of Bali introducing new idea’s such as surfing, honeymoon vacation, religious tourism can be enhanced better. But advertisements have to be targeted carefully. For instance, Caribbean islands invested a massive US$16 million publicity campaign to attract US tourist and tourist were still diminishing, This campaign had been suspended until and after the congressional elections of 5th November 2002. Americans were clearly not in the mood for travel, and no amount of advertising seems to be able to change.

Prices:

Prices are strongly influence travel purchase decisions. Price strategies have varied from straight price reductions, discounts for accompanying persons or even free travel for accompanying children, to added services. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have been especially affected by the downward trend in the price of tourism services. According to the International Federation of Tour Operators, we have gone through a year of falling demand, which has been stimulated through pricing. The effect of this factor is to reduce business revenues. Destinations with the best prices and where tour operators have own accommodations have a certain advantage of others.

Use price – follow PR with attractive price-led offers: both Malaysia and Sri Lanka did this very successfully post September 11th. Domestic airlines, including the national flag carrier Garuda and its subsidiary Merpati airlines, are to offer special discounts for visitors coming to Bali for the Muslim holiday of Idul Fitri, and also for Christmas and the New Year. The Indonesian Tourism Ministry and the Bali Tourist Board will work with the industry to prepare special, affordable holiday packages.

Retargeting

Domestic – the Chairman of the Bali Tourist Board has stated: “For the time being it would be wiser to focus first on the domestic market”. It is appreciated that the domestic market has far lower spending power that the international one, but it can at least serve to keep the product functioning even though profits will be low. Indonesia’s 1000 Steps to Bali domestic promotion campaign was launched on 2nd November.

The Government has announced that it will rework the public holiday calendar to create

more long weekends, thus boosting the domestic market.

Intraregional – Singapore, for example, will concentrate on India and China, both markets likely to be less affected by this type of event. Malaysians too are apparently unphased by the events in Bali, according to feedback from MATTA, the country’s biggest travel fair: they are responding avidly to good value offers.

Indonesia is also aiming to promote more in the Middle East (currently only 0.8% of total visitors).

The Government has instructed all state companies, as well as encouraging private ones, to hold their corporate functions in Bali.

Experienced travellers, not first timers – first timers are naturally more nervous.

Individuals – with a passion: special interest markets held up remarkably well post September 11th. Sport, culture, newlyweds – anything which gives a distinctive impetus to a trip should be targeted.

Co-operation

The main lessons which the tourism industry learned post September 11th is the importance of working together. The type of co-operation which it can be so hard to achieve in normal circumstances – like even persuading two resorts in the same country to advertise together – starts to happen spontaneously in times of crisis. The Australian Tourism Task Force’s immediate reaction to the attack in Bali was: “This means getting our marketing agencies together so that we have a co-ordinated campaign to remind Australians about the advantages of travelling at home and to remind the rest of the world that Australia remains a safe place for a holiday”.

Good security also requires national co-operation between Ministers, police, local authorities and the private sector.

But the emphasis on co-operation post September 11th went wider than this. Commercial organisations and Governments started to work together more closely, not only across sector groups, but also across geographical boundaries. For example, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji came together to do joint advertising. It is important that the WTO should keep encouraging this trend.

ASEAN, which held their 8th Summit between the 4th and 7th of November in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, had signed an important new Tourism Cooperation and Promotion Agreement. Malaysian Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said the decision to deepen tourism cooperation was made two years ago but the Bali tragedy had given it more urgency. The 10 member grouping (plus 3 affiliated countries – China, Japan and Korea) aims to promote the area as a single tourism destination in the international market, launch joint marketing programmes, introduce “thematic” tour packages to specific areas of interest, and harmonise visa issuance to foreigners. But the core theme of the pact is to boost intra-regional movement by phasing out travel taxes and extending visa exemptions to ASEAN’s 500 million citizens. The pact also aims to establish an integrated network of tourism and travel services, to encourage commercial agreements among regional airlines and to promote cruising, travel by ferries and leisure boats.

ASEAN feels that if they stop visiting each other, the terrorists will have won. But, in an

illustration of the complexity of the current situation, John Koldowski from PATA

commented that it was the right move for ASEAN to turn inward to revive the industry but it

must not compromise national security in its rush to facilitate movement within the region.

Product:

We can develop events as part of the recovery phase, for instance, Indonesia will on 15thNovember invite the families of the victims to a special service in Bali to pray together. This will reinforce in a respectful way the generic spiritual image of the destination.

Tour operators, airlines and cruise lines, and strive to maintain capacity. Governments need to work closely with the industry in difficult times to ensure that there is not a damaging loss of product which could limit recovery when better times come.

Conclusion

Promotion and distributions, Co operation and Prices inter connecting play a vital part while marketing a tourist destination. Promotion and distributions is a huge channel of communication through various sources of media like television, radios, news and newspaper, internet etc… We can make a renewed image on Bali with proper media sources which will create a positive impact for tourists or travel agents. Thus it has power to reach people and can make a good impression. Co operation also is a very key strategy in marketing a destination where its needs supports from various countries to develop tourism. Good security also requires national co-operation between Ministers, police, local authorities and the private sector. Commercial organisations and Governments can work closely in joint advertising which such as straight price reductions, discounts for accompanying persons or even free travel for accompanying children, to added services and other offers which can help redeem the economy of Bali.

The potential contribution of the 2012 Olympic Games to tourism
Abstract

With budgets for the hosting of the Olympic Games often requiring significant upward revision before final costs are calculated there has been an increasing level of concern about the areas of benefits that these events bring to the host cities and nations. Much of this concern is focused upon the tourism benefits.

Using three previous Olympic events together with the staging of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester as case studies, this research seeks to ascertain whether the predicted tourism benefit from hosting the 2012 Olympic Games can realistically be achieved or if they are simply estimates raised in an effort to justify the huge capital investment required to stage the games.

The results of the case study into the three Olympic events show mixed results in terms of reality matching expectations. In particular, the area of concern in all of these events has been the failure of the cities to see a continuation of improvement to employment.

However, the Manchester case study produced a positive result on all counts of tourism benefits, including employment. What makes this event different from the others is that the organisers in this case concentrated a considerable amount of effort on developing a sustainable legacy programme. The committee responsible for this programme have treated it as a separate project and this has enabled the focus of achieving benefits to be maintained.

It is considered that if the LOCOG incorporates the positive aspects of this research into their Olympic planning it will be able to achieve the estimated expectations.

1. Introduction

In March 2005, four months before bid for the 2012 Olympic Games was won by London, the UK government extended the budget for this event from ?2.4 billion to ?9.35 billion, a nearly fourfold increase (BBC News 2005). In justifying this enormous increase in costs and echoing the comments of other Olympic cities in the past, the UK government and 2012 Olympic organisers have said there will be ongoing economic benefits resulting from the event being held in London.

It has been suggested that many of these benefits will accrue to the tourism and hospitality sector. In support of this comment the organisers, LOCOG^[1] (2007) and ODA^[2], point to the fact that it is increasing hotel accommodation in the London area and, in addition, providing a number of new sporting and cultural facilities that will be available for use in the future, attracting continual leisure and tourism activities. Furthermore, it is stated the increase in tourists during the event will have the effect of increasing subsequent tourist visits to London and the UK as a whole as well as their impact during the event itself. These moves are also expected to have a positive long term impact upon tourism businesses and employment in the area. However, reports into the results of tourism benefits achieved from previous events of this nature show a different view (Madden 2002) and suggest that the claims being made by the LOCOG and other stakeholders might be optimistic.

It is the resolution of this dichotomy of opinions that forms the focus for this paper. The aim of this research is to assess whether the pre-event claims being made by the 2012 Olympic organisers, which are supported by research conducted by independent researchers (Blake 2005 and Oxford Economics 2007) will bring tourism benefits to London and the UK. These will be measured against three factors, these being tourism numbers and financial benefit, hotel occupancy, and tourism and hospitality employment levels.

1.1. Aims and objectives

In order to address the issues focused upon within this study, the following research question being resolved is: –

Whether the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games in London will provide the City and the UK tourism industry with potential benefits both during and post the event.

To provide a framework and direction aimed at addressing this question, two main objectives have also been set.

London 2012 Olympic Games legacy

There will be a detailed and critical analysis of the intended legacy of the Games which will also examine the supporting evidence.

Previous event results

For comparison purposes post event reports on three significant previous events of a similar nature will be presented and evaluated.

1.2. Overview

Following this introduction, section two provides an overview of the data collection method used. In section three the findings will be presented and discussed before the study is brought to a conclusion in section four, where appropriate recommendations will be made.

2. Methodology

Due to the limitations in terms of time, cost and geographical location, it has been decided that the appropriate research method to be used for this research will rely upon the collection of data from secondary sources. These will include information collected from the official 2012 Olympic websites of the LOCOG (2007) and other related stakeholders as well as independent research conducted by academics and other tourism stakeholders. Other resources have also been used, including publications available from bookshops and libraries and journal articles. Similar resource locations have been relied upon for the collection of data relating to the comparative events.

Although it is sometimes perceived that there are limitations to the secondary data collection approach in this case it was considered that the depth of previous and immediate research is sufficiently robust to add value to the findings of this study. For example, sufficient academic and practical research material is available to be able to provide a direct comparison between the intentions of the 2012 Olympic Games legacy expectations and the actual results that have been achieved from previous events, including those held within the UK and in other international locations.

3. Discussion of research findings

In all events apart from the London 2012 the research conducted for this study has included the examination of the legacy claimed to result from hosting special events by the organisers and the findings from subsequent research and reviews conducted by various academic and tourism stakeholders.

For ease of reference this section of the research has been divided into relevant segments. The findings of the research are presented within the first three segments and these are followed by a discussion, analysis and evaluation of these findings that will provide a conclusion to the research question.

3.1. London 2012 Olympic Games legacy

In their official legacy for the games, the London 2012 Olympic organisers have highlighted several benefits that they expect to result from hosting the games. In relation to the tourism sector, these can be identified in the following six key areas according to the LOCOG (2007), all of which are considered to have longer term benefits that will accrue to the hospitality and tourism sectors.

Accommodation

Included within the infrastructure costs of the games is the construction of an additional 15,000 hotel rooms, increasing current accommodation in the London area by around 15%.

Employment

It is anticipated that the event will require a significant increase in the numbers of persons employed within the tourism sector. This increase is expected to occur across a range of areas including hotels, restaurants and bars and other destination and attraction facilities.

Numbers of tourists

With 9 million tickets being printed for the games, added to the participating teams, their support staff and the international media attendance, it is expected that in excess of 10 million tourists will be attracted to London during the course of the event.

Sporting facilities

Of the sporting facilities being built for the games five of these will be made available for tourism, sporting and leisure use post the games themselves.

Infrastructure

Improvements are being made to transportation links and a regeneration programme for areas of London will be taking place, thus making these places more attractive to tourists.

Destinations and attractions

The creation of a new Olympic Park, which in addition to recreational facilities will have areas dedicated to the creation of natural wildlife habitats, is designed to add to the attraction of London as a tourist destination.

3.2. Findings of anticipated tourism benefits of the 2012 Olympic Games

Several studies have been commissioned and conducted in an attempt to evaluate and predict the economic benefit that will result from London’s hosting of the Olympic Games. Having considered these studies, it has been decided that those most appropriate to this study are the study conducted by Oxford Economics (2007) and Blake (2005). In both cases the central determinates of expectations have been used.

The findings of the Oxford Economics (2007) study were based upon a comparison of the results studied from fifteen previous events of the same nature. The results suggested that the net tourism gain in financial terms during the years from 2007- 2017 will be ?2.09 billion, of which ?1.47 (70.33%) will be directly attributable to London. In analysing this result, the following can be drawn from these figures when compared between the pre-games; event and post event periods (figure 1).

Figure 1 Tourism financial benefits

Benefit

Pre-Games

Games

Post games

London Percentage

17%

35%

48%

UK Percentage

15%

31%

54%

London Fiscal

?249.9 million

?514.5 million

? 705.6 million

RUK Fiscal

? 63.6 million

?133.4 million

? 423.0 million

UK fiscal

?313.5 million

?647.9 million

?1128.6 million

Data source: Oxford Economics (2007)

These results are largely supported by the research conducted by Adam Blake (2005) who, by using a combination of prediction methods, also agrees that although there is a small rise in pre-games spending the major benefits are attributable to the year of the event and the subsequent period. However, in addition to the financial statistics Blake’s research also provides statistical information in respect of the three main issues being studied within this paper.

For example, in terms of the increase in tourist numbers because of the event it is anticipated within this research that the following changes in percentage terms would be achieved (figure 2) over and above the anticipated growth in this area.

With regard to the increased numbers of full time employment position created, Blake (2005) also anticipates that this will increase because of the games, particularly within the following areas (see figure 3).

Figure 3 increase in FTE

Sector

2005-2011

Pre-Games

2012

Games

2013-2016

Post games

Sports Facilities

-302

4,361

708

Hotels

2,554

1,686

2,972

Bars

2,094

952

2,359

Land Transport

292

3,057

-701

Air Transport

661

191

745

Visitor attractions

-11

1,062

-40

Therefore, it is concluded by both of the studies examined that the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games by London will produce positive and lasting tourism benefits for both the city itself and the country as a whole.

3.3 Findings from previous similar events

For comparison purposes, four previous events have been used within this research. These include three prior Olympic Games held in Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) and the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester in 2002.

To provide a detailed analysis of the tourism benefits in the case of the four the research has been concentrated upon analysing the statistical returns for the six years prior to the event, the year of the event and the four subsequent years. In terms of timescale this therefore will relate to the 12 year period being used for estimations by the researchers into the tourism benefits of the London Olympic Games event (Blake 2005) and therefore is anticipated to produce a reasonable set of comparatives.

Atlanta 1996

The 1996 Olympic Games, hosted by Atlanta, also saw its financial cost rise from a budgeted $1.7 to over $2 billion, which equated to a 30% increase (Humphreys and Plummer 2003), much of which increase (70%) had to be funded from the public purse.

Tourism numbers and their spending in Georgia during the year of the Atlanta Olympic Games increased by approximately $1.5 billion, achieving a record $14.7 billion in 1996, which was a considerable increase upon the previous seven years results. However, this revenue fell back in the following three years and only exceeded the 1996 record in 2000 when revenues reached $15.5 billion.

Tourism numbers for the state of Georgia also increased during 1996 and 1997 as a direct result of the games. In the subsequent years however, as Engle (1999) research indicated, this did not resolve itself into longer term benefits, due partly to the fact that the city of Atlanta lost a considerable amount of business convention tourism. This has affected hotel occupancy post the games event, which has remained static at 64% throughout the twelve year period.

In terms of the tourism benefit for employment, the result in this case was that in the 77,000 additional jobs anticipated were created as estimated by the year of the games. However, a considerable percentage of these were short-term positions and less than half that number remained long-term (Engle 1999). Nevertheless, this does show a positive benefit to the community.

Sydney 2000

In real terms the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 cost twice as much as its predecessor, with even the estimated budget of $4 billion (Madden 2002, p.9) being exceeded when the actual costs were computed.

The tourism benefits relating to the numbers of tourists and their spending in this instance can only be identified for Australia as a whole^[3]. These show that the numbers of tourists grew from just under 5.8 million in 1994 to 8.672 million in the year 2000, an increase of 47.33% during the period, nearly a quarter of which was achieved in the year of the games being staged. In the four years subsequent to this time there has been a further increase in tourism of 14.24%. All of the increase was achieved in 2004 following three years that showed a total drop of 2.39%. However, in terms of revenue impact, the statistics show that tourism spends has fallen in the twelve year period by around 2%. These results have been reflected in the rate of growth of hotel occupancy, which has seen a similar pattern of growth during the period under review (Arthur Andersen 2000).

However, one are of concern relative to potential tourism benefits from the Sydney games is the poor performance of employment. Despite a rapid growth in this area in the years leading up to the games, post the event there has been a sharp reversal of this trend (figure 4), with the New South Wales showing the sharpest fall.

Two other issues that have detracted from the tourism benefits of the Sydney 2000 games include the fact that the city has still not managed to make some of the facilities pay for themselves, which has left the authorities with a bill of around $46 million per annum (Owen 2005). Secondly, although during the year of the games tourism spend increased in the areas and for the businesses located close to the facilities, those not within the immediate vicinity suffered a loss in revenues during 2000 (Owen 2005). These costs are seldom accounted for by bid organisers and promoters but they do have an impact of the profitability levels for the tourism and hospitality sectors.

These results show that the legacy of the Sydney games has been mixed in terms of the subsequent tourism benefits that it has brought to the city and the country.

Athens 2004

The cost of the Athens Olympic Games again doubled against the previous games (Associated Press 2004). However, in this case there was a mitigating circumstances as these were the first games to be held post the 9/11 event, which led to additional security costs totalling $1.5 billion, a factor that is becoming increasingly important at events of this nature ((Baade and Matheson. 2002a, p.5).

Athens has seen mixed results in terms of the tourism benefits culminating from the games. In terms of the tourism numbers in the year subsequent to the games this showed a rise of 10%. (Hubbard 2005). However, other subsequent reports reveal that the facilities constructed for the games have not been made full use of in the past four years (Hersh 2008), leaving the country’s tourism sector in a position where it has not capitalised upon the impact of the event. Nevertheless, in terms of the revenue received from tourism in Greece, in the four years from 2000 to 2004, this rose from $17.7 billion to $29.6 billion, an increase of over 67% for the period. This has resulted in an increase in hotel occupancy during the same period.

However, like other of the case study cities, there has not been a marked improvement in the levels of employment in the tourism industry experienced since 2000. Therefore, it would appear that some of the tourism benefits from the Athens Olympics have centred solely on the year of the event whilst others have had an extended lifespan.

Manchester 2002

The last major international sporting event to be held in the UK was the Commonwealth games in Manchester in 2002. In regards to cost the budget and eventual cost of this event was insignificant when compared with the Olympic Games but, at around ?80 million it is still an investment that is expected to produce a positive return in relation to tourism benefits for the area.

The Manchester Commonwealth Games legacy programme anticipated that the games would produce the following benefits for tourism in the area (Ecotec 2007): –

300,000 new visitors a year spending ?18 million in the local economy
Increase in mid-range hotel accommodation
6,400 new jobs

According to recent reports (Ottewell 2006) tourism in Manchester has seen a significant growth in the past eight years, which reflects the benefit that hosting the Commonwealth Games has brought to the area. Visitor numbers have risen from 79 million to 94 million between 2000 and 2005 and tourism spend has seen a growth to a level of ?3.92 billion (?3.05 billion in 2000). Furthermore, in terms of tourism related employment, this figure has also risen to 59,046 in 2005 (51,704 in 2000), an increase of 7,342. When these figures are compared with the estimates that were produced as part of the original bid calculations it is apparent that in all areas the expectations have been exceeded.

This shows that the city has certainly benefitted from the legacy programme that used a considerable element of the capital budget set aside for the games has had the desired effect and produced the required returns (Eurotec 2007). The positive result achieved in this instance is further evidenced by a statement given by one of the games organisers in 2007.

“We estimated that ?22m in business benefits across the northwest derived from the Games at the time,” says Rosin. “There was ?2.7m added value for every ?1m invested. There has been investment in the financial sectors, in the city centre and in particular in east Manchester. Associated retail development and the creation of employment for local people in this area can be directly attributed to the Commonwealth Games” (Editorial (2007).

These results have occurred despite the fact that in other areas of the economy, including the GDP, Manchester has seen less of an improvement (Ecotec 2007).

3.4. Discussion

Perhaps the most important aspect of the findings to note is that, from the time of the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, the cost of hosting this four year event has escalated at an ever increasing rate. In fact, as the following graph shows (figure 4) the capital investment has doubled on every occasion, including the latest event in Bejjing in 2008.

Despite the fact that in most cases a proportion of the costs can be defrayed as a result of sales of media coverage and sponsorship, valued at in excess of $1 billion per event (CBS 1988), this cost escalation does mean that the expectation in regards to the return achieved on this investment has also risen. In other words the benefits, including those enjoyed by the tourism sector, need to have shown significant improvements.

However, if the cost of the London Olympic Games in 2012 does not escalate from its current costs of around ?9 billion, it will not only be the first time the games cost have reduced since 1996 but also its return expectations will be lower.

Nevertheless, when the expectations of the LOCOG (2007) and other researchers (Blake 2005) are considered against the actual results that have attached to the three previous Olympic Games events being used as comparisons, it is apparent that there are concerns that the London organisers need to consider. In particular, two issues seem to be a recurring problem during the years following the games. The first of these is the use and capitalisation of the sporting venues. In the cases of both Sydney and Athens these have proved difficult to make economically viable post the event. The second issue is tourism employment. In all three Olympic Games case studies, this area of benefits does not seem to have continued to any great extent post the games.

However, the result of the Manchester experience has shown that there can be tourism benefits in all of the major areas that have formed the focus of this study. In this city tourism numbers, tourist spend, hotel occupancy and employment have all seen continued growth both at the time of the Commonwealth Games and during the subsequent three years. One of the major differences between this case and the others is that a considerable amount of the investment raised for the games was directed into a definitive legacy programme, which was treated as a separate project and aimed to be an ongoing process rather than culminating in 2002.

3.5. Summary and evaluation

One of the difficulties of evaluating a research issue of this nature is that it is impossible to perform an exact comparison as each event takes place during a different chronological period. For example, an issue that can be said to significant alter the results would be the economic position of the country and other countries during the timescale being evaluated. Furthermore, the detailed statistics in each case is kept in a differing format which adds to the analytical difficulties.

However, by accessing and comparing the information relating to each case study from a range of previous researches it is considered that the information and findings presented have been able to be appropriately verified and can therefore be considered reliable. Therefore, although studies by other researchers (Baade, Robert A. & Victor Matheson. (2002) and Gratton and Henry (2001)) have indicated that the Games have not impacted upon following years GDP as a whole, it is considered that this has been due to other economic factors and not relevant to the benefits or otherwise of tourism.

4. Conclusion and recommendations

The research question set at the commencement of this research sought to determine: –

Whether the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games in London will provide the City and the UK tourism industry with potential benefits both during and post the event.

Despite the limitations of the research conducted for this paper, this being restricted to five sporting events that have occurred within the past twelve years, it is considered that, with certain provisions, the response to this question is that the hosting of the 2012 Olympic games can produce potential tourism benefits for London and UK both during and in the years following the event. Whilst the comment of Baade and Matheson (2002, p.98) that “the evidence suggests that the economic impact of the Olympics is transitory, onetime changes rather than a ‘steady-state’ change,” is concurred with to a certain extent, it must be tempered with the fact that in certain areas of tourism benefits have been achieved. The poor results they refer to is more due to lack of planning and management by the organisers rather than any external forces or influences.

In this respect therefore, it is important to provide the following recommendations to the organisers of the London Olympic Games that should be considered if they wish to achieve a successful and sustainable outcome for the tourism industry.

4.1. Recommendations

In essence recommendations being made can be determined within two main areas, these being related to the planning and execution stages.

Planning

An essential element of the planning for Olympic Games events is to take notice of the research that has been conducted For example, in this instance the research conducted into the three games that have been used as case studies within this research have all identified areas where improvements might have been made, both at the planning stage and subsequently.

Furthermore, research into the Manchester sporting event has shown the benefit of have an identifiable and robust legacy programme which, to a certain extent, should operate independently of the event itself and continue into following years. This position has provided dividends for the Manchester tourism industry that have surpassed the expectations.

Execution

Secondly, the execution of the legacy strategy is important. All aspects of the post event period have to be meticulously planned and implemented within the required timescale, which as the Greek tourism minister indicated, includes the immediate six or seven months post the games (Hersh 2008), as this is a critical time to build foundations for future success.

4.2. Summary

If the London organisers learn from the lessons of past events and particularly take on board the successes that have been achieved in Manchester, there is no reason why the games should not produce a series of lasting benefits for the London and UK tourism sectors.

References

Arthur Andersen (2000) “The Sydney Olympic Performance Survey: The Sydney Olympic Games on the Australian Hotel Industry,” Mimeograph, November 2000, pp.1-7.

Associated Press (2004). Games cost Athens over $8.5 Billion. Available from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5761646/ (Accessed 23 December 2008)

Baade, Robert A. & Victor Matheson. (2002). Bidding for the Olympics: Fool’s Gold? In Transatlantic Sport, edited by Barros, Ibrahim, and Szymanski. Edward Elgar Publishing. New York, US.

Baade, Robert A. & Victor Matheson. (2002a). Mega-Sporting Events in Dveloping Nations: Playing the Way to Prosperity. Available from: http://www.williams.edu/Economics/wp/mathesonprosperity.pdf (Accessed 23 December 2008)

BBC News (2005). London plan at a glance. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/london_2012/4025027.stm (Accessed 22 December 2008)

Blake, A (2005). The Economic Impact of the London 2012 Olympics. Nottingham University Business School, Nottingham, UK

CBS (1998). Television, sponsorship revenue could top $800 million. CBS Sportsline wire reports. Available from: http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/olympics/nagano98/news/feb98/revenue2398.htm (Accessed 24 December 2008)

Ecotec (2007) An Evaluation of the Commonwealth Games Legacy Programme. Available from: http://www.manchester.gov.uk/downloads/Evaluation_of_Commonwealth_Games_Legacy_programme.pdf (Accessed 23 December 2008)

Engle. S.M (1999). The Olympic Legacy in Atlanta. University of New South Wales Law Journal. Vol. 38

Fizel, John., Gustafson, Elizabeth and Hadley, Lawrence (1999). Sports Economics: Current Research. Praeger Publishers. Westport, US.

Fort, Rodney D and Fizel, John (2004). International Sports Economics. Praeger Publishers. Westport, US.

Hersh, P (2008). Athens post-Olympic Legacy: Empty spaces, unsightly venues, uncertain tomorrow. Chicargo Tribune, Chicago, US

Hubbard, A (2005). Olympic Games: Athens’ legacy bigger than the pounds 7 billion bill. The Independent, London, UK

Gratton, Chris and Henry, Ian (2001) Sport in the City: The Role of Sport in Economic and Social Regeneration. Routledge. London, UK

Humphreys, Jeffrey L and Plummer, Michael K (2003). The economic impact of hosting the 1996 summer Olympics. Available from: http://www.selig.uga.edu/forecast/olympics/OLYMTEXT.HTM (Accessed 22 December 2008)

Humphreys, Jeffrey M. and Michael K. Plummer (1995). The Economic Impact of Hosting the 1996 Summer Olympics. Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Atlanta, US.

LOCOG (2007). UK Olympics: Our plans. London 2012. Available from: http://www.london2012.com/plans/index.php (Accessed 28 December 2008)

Madden, John R

Seasonality has been recognised as one of the most typical feature of the tourism industry derived from the movement of people resulting fluctuations in the demand(Bulter,1994;Baum,1999).The phenomenon, its causes and impact on destination regions have been widely researched within the academic literature and often seasonality is perceived as a problem for the industry.

Seasonality affects the human resource practices in any hospitality and tourism business and it is often held responsible for the seasonal employment, underemployment and unemployment (Jolliffe and Farnsworth, 2003).The pattern is particularly influencing peripheral destinations which experience increased demand (Baum and Hagen,1999).Due to the variations in demand, some resorts have a very short season lasting four to five months, which creates challenges for human resource managers.

The literature addressing the impact of seasonality on businesses located in peripheral regions is mainly concerned on strategies how to overcome seasonality or reduce the impact of it. There are few strategies focused on the HRM .In addition, little research has been conducted on the specific difficulties to HR managers in recruiting and training front office employees.

Tourism is one of the biggest and fastest growing sectors in the European community, greatly contribution to the European economy(CORDIS,2008).The industry plays an essential role in the employment growth as Europe is the world`s number 1 destination (EU,2010)

Aims and Objectives

The dissertation aims at providing a better understanding of the impact of seasonality on HRM practices in relation to recruiting and training front office employees in resort hotels in Europe

The objectives to achieve the aim of this study are:

To identify and critically analyse the literature in regards to seasonality and its consequences to human resource management practices within the hospitality industry in particular front office employees in resort hotels in Europe

Investigate the current practices applied by different resort hotels in Europe and to what extent the seasonality affects the HRM

Evaluate the most popular approaches outlined in the literature

Provide recommendations

Dissertation Structure

In order to achieve the outlined objectives above the work is structured as follows: starting with Chapter 1 establishing the rationale for aˆ¦., .

Research methodology

This following section will be focused on the type of research methods used to complete the dissertation.

Research Approach
Research Process

The first step in the research process was to generate a research idea that would be interesting to examine. There is a range of techniques that can be used to find and select a topic and the process used for this dissertation, named as rational thinking (Saunders et al.,2003),involved consideration of author`s interests and taking into account past and current projects. However, Altinay and Paraskevas(2008) suggest that applying more than one technique can only be beneficial to the project , thus relevance trees, a creative technique, has been used to ensure author`s interest and motivation will maintain throughout the research process(Saunders et al.,2003).Once a research idea was generated, in order to achieve author`s goals, objectives were established (Zikmund et al.,2010), which were amended a few times during the research process.

Secondary Data

In order to achieve the aims and objectives of this study, the author has chosen to use only secondary research data. Secondary data is defined as …….. Literature review is the initial step, in order to gain the knowledge required to set the dissertation objectives(Veal,1997).This allowed the author to review the existing literature and become more aware of the existing knowledge related to the research topic (Brotherton, 2008), and therefore identify a gap within then literature. Academic literature and journal articles have provided information about HRM practices and tourism seasonality

Primary Data
Justifications
Limitations
Summary

100 words max

This study aims at providing the reader with a deep understanding of the impact of seasonality on HRM. As mentioned aboveaˆ¦. The topic has been chosen as the author aˆ¦aˆ¦.

Chapter 2 Seasonality

In order to be able to analyse the impact of seasonality on HRM practices in resorts for front office employees, it is necessary to understand the phenomenon seasonality. Hence, this chapter will critically review and evaluate existing literature by firstly providing a definition of seasonality, proceeding then to its causes and finally the impact of its occurrence will be assessed.

Seasonality

Seasonality, a key characteristic of the tourism, is a major issue for the industry as it can place a great pressure on businesses in all aspects: social, financial and environmental. There is a variety of definitions of seasonality within the academic literature, depending on the context (Butler,1994, Baum,1999; Butler,2001, Bar-On,1975, Hartman,1986; Hinch and Jackson,2000; Mitchel and Hall,2003).Generally considered as a peaking of demand at different times of the year (Kennedy,1999; McEniff,1992;Krakover,2000; Moore,1989 in Baum and Hagen,1999; Jang,2004) and has a spatial component expressed in terms of number of visitors, employment and hotel occupancy rates(Butler and Mao, 1997). Baron(1973;1999) suggests that seasonality is concerned with as the effects occurring every year due to climate changes or national holidays, defined by Jolliffe and Farnsworth (2003:312) as “cyclical variations in tourism demand”.

The phenomenon is recognised as one of the most predominant and least understood features of tourism(Jolliffe and Farnsworth,2003) causing major problems to the tourism industry (Krakover,1999; Cooper et al.,2005;). It has been argued by Butler(1994) that seasonality can be measured in the number of visitors and employment, resulting fluctuation in demand and placing a great pressure on hotels located in peripheral resorts (Murphy,1997).

Before proceeding to the causes of seasonality, it is essential to be noted that in this paper seasonality is referred to the phenomena, which has stable and well-established seasonal patterns (Witt and Moutnho,1995).

Those hotels are usually located in the regional areas ……..

Causes of Seasonality

Seasonality occurs not only in tourism but also in a range of other sectors, and the causes of seasonality in general have been classified into three groups: weather, calendar effects and timing decisions(Hylleberg,1992 in Koenig and Bischoff,2005).Similarly the causes of seasonality in tourism have been categorised by various authors . Table xx presents a summary of the key authors and causes.

Causes of Seasonality
Authors
Causes

BarOn(1975)

Natural, Institutional, calendar, sociological and economic factors

Hartmann(1986)

Natural and Institutional factors

Butler(1994)

Natural and Institutional factors, social pressure, sporting events, inertia and tradition

Butler and Mao(1997)

Physical and socio/cultural factors in the tourism generating and receiving areas

Flechtling (1996)

Climate/whether, Social customs/holidays, business customs, calendar effects

Baum and Hagen (1999)

Climate/whether, Social customs/holidays, business customs, calendar effects and supply side constrains

Adapted from

It is generally established that seasonality can originate from two factors, “natural” (physical) and “institutional”(social and cultural) (BarOn, 1975) involving both the origin and destination region(Butler and Mao,1997). There is a high level of interdependence between the two (Baum and Lundtorp, 1999; Hartmann, 1986),shown in figure xx below. Natural seasonality is the result of cyclical climatic variations such as rainfall, temperature and snowfall (Baum and Lundtorp, 1999; Butler and Mao, 1997). As every country has different climatic patterns (BarOn,1975) some European coastal resorts located on the Mediterranean have higher demand in the summer compared to resorts in Alps where winter is the high season (Shaw and Willams,1998; Andriotios,2005).These causes affect businesses every year in the same way ,yet there are some differences over the years as whether cannot be precisely predicted (BarOn,1975)

Institutional seasonality, on the other hand, is the result of consumer decisions based on cultural, social and/or religious factors and therefore less predictable than natural (Butler, 1994 in Baum and Lundtorp,1999, Hingham and Hinch,2002).School and public holidays such as Christmas and Easter are playing an essential role in the volume of tourism demand as people have the time to go on holiday during those periods (BarOn,1975).

In addition to the generally recognised natural and institutional factors of seasonality, Butler (1994) identifies other three causes: social pressure, sporting events, one of the newest form, and inertia or tradition. Inertia is a factor related to the tendency of people to take holidays at certain time of the year besides the fact that it is no longer necessary, for example after children have left school (Butler,1994).However, Hingham and Hinch (2002) imply that social pressure and sporting causes can be classified into “institutional” category .On the other side, Hinch and Jackson (2000) argue that “inertia” cannot be classified as a cause of seasonal demand. The identified causes of seasonality by Butler overlap to great extend with the work of Frechtling (1996), who identifies four main causes of seasonality in tourism demand, extended to five by Baum and Hagen (1997) and displayed in Table xx.

Based on the findings of the key authors and taking into consideration the spatial component of seasonality (Butler and Mao,1997),Lundtorp et al.,(1999) classified all the causes into pull and push factors shown in diagram xx

Source: Based on Baum(1997), Frechtling(1996), Butler(1994),Butler and Mao(1997)

This dissertation will be focused on the seasonality caused by natural factors, which are predictable and recur relatively at the same time of the year.The climate in the receiving area will be the pull factor of seasonality.

Based on the variations in the demand, seasonality is presented in three different patterns identified as single peak, most of the summer destinations in Europe(e.i. Mediterranean destinations); two-peak, often evident in mountain resorts, for example in the Alps, where there are two seasons-summer and winter; and non-peak seasonality mostly happening in urban areas(e.i. London, Paris) (Butler and Mao,1997). Despite the fact of knowing the patterns of seasonality as well as the origins, the phenomenon is still seen as a complicated feature of tourism (Butler,1994), as the factors influencing seasonality are highly interrelated in both origin and destination regions(Butler and Mao,1997), which brings a number of issues for management of businesses located in peripheral areas, such as resort hotels.

The difference in demand generates seasonal variations such as peak, shoulder and off-peak season (Kennedy,1999). MORE

Impact of Seasonality

Much of the literature on seasonality recognises that the phenomenon can have significant impacts on hospitality businesses and it is often viewed as a challenge (Jolliffe and Farnsworth,2003) .Taking into consideration the identified causes of seasonality above , it has become clear that the causes are often unmanageable by any hospitality business, although this is not always the case (Butler,2001;Witt and Moutinho,1995).The impact of seasonality can vary significantly based on the location of the hotel (Baum and Hagen,1999).

negative impacts

Seen as a major problem by most authors in the tourism sector, seasonality is often perceived as bringing a number of disadvantages to the business itself as well as to the public and region, in relation to employment, costs and facilities and recently raised environmental aspects (Buler,1994; Hartmann,1986 ; Witt and Moutinho,1995).

From an economic point of view, seasonality can defer any investments into the business due to the short duration of high season and the instability of return on income (Commons and Page,2001; Goulding et al., 2004; Jang,2004;). Furthermore, there is a high risk of under- and over- utilisation of resources. It is essential to mention that there is a need to cover annual fixed costs throughout the high-season and generate profits in a limited time (Adler and Adler,2003;Duval,2004), which requires a good quality cash flow management(Cooper et al.,2005; Commons and Page,2001).As a result, businesses are forced to increase prices during peak seasons (Commons and Page,2001) and reduce rates in shoulder periods to attract customers(Koenig and Bischoff,2005). This is particularly affecting small businesses, for which seasonal closures would be the most cost-effective solution(Getz and Nillson,2004).

Another serious problem of seasonality is the effect on employment (Ball,1989; Krakover,2000). Seasonality creates seasonal employment, underemployment and unemployment (Jolliffe and Farnsworth,2003). The irregular variations in the demand, creates pattern of employing people on a seasonal basis, which leads to a repeatable cost of recruitment and training (Cooper et al., 2005). The high recruitment costs caused by seasonality (Mourdoukoutas,1988,Krakover,2000) leads to reduction in remuneration packages(Commons and Page; Goulding et al.,2004). In addition, the effects of seasonality upon employment in the tourism industry have been further explored and it is argued that employees lack sufficient training and career opportunities as well as commitment (Jang,2004; Krakover,2000), which leads to problems in quality service(Shaw and William,1997; Baum and Lundtorp,2001).

An additional area impacted by seasonality, environmental protection and safety, has been investigated by Witt and Moutinho(1995). The variations in demand can harm the local environment by creating high level of air pollution, noise and increased possibility of crime and terrorism due to overcrowding (Butler,2001;Jang,2004).It is also discussed in the literature that the high demand at certain times of the year puts a pressure on transport system, heavy traffic and exhaustion of the infrastructure(Commons and Page,2001;Ashworth and Thomas,1999).

positive effects

Undoubtedly, the literature provides an impression that seasonality in tourism is a major difficulty, seen as a “‘problem’ to be ‘tackled’ at a policy, marketing and operational level”(Baum and Lundtorp,2001,p.2). However, some authors have noted that besides the limited research on the advantages of seasonality to destination areas, there are certain benefits of the pattern (Butler,1994).One area of emphasis is the environmental side, as only the off-season allows the environmental pressure to be reduced (Nilsson and Getz,2004) and resource to be recovered(Witt and Moutinho,1995).Further benefits are recognised in relation to employment(Krakover,2000; Commons and Page,2001).The seasonal demand provides a need for casual and part-time work allowing locals to earn some extra income(Krakover,2000).

The local community can consider seasonality in a positive manner (Lundtropt et al., 1999) as low-demand seasons provide residents with time to rest (Goulding et al.,2004) and this is essential for small “family businesses” where owners` contribution is high (Nilsson and Getz,2004).In addition, the pressure from over-crowding in the high season on transport system (Commons and Page,2001) is reduced, allowing time for reconstruction on the infrastructure if needed.

Seasonal work

Seasonal work is characterized as being short term (Lautsch, 2002) recurring on an annual basis depending on the demand and it will end usually at a specified time (Marshall,1999). Often seen as unskilled, highly pressured and underpaid (Lee-Ross,1999),seasonal work tends to attract less educated workers (Koenig and Bischoff,2005). The seasonal labour market in the tourism industry consist of high proportion of young workers (Joliffe and Farnsworth,2003;).According to Lee-Ross(1995 in Lee-Ross,1999) seasonal employees are often expected to work long “unsociable” hours.However, despite all the existing research on seasonal work there is still debate over the definitions and differences between contingent, temporary and non-standard employment(Ainsworth and Purss,2008).Those terms will be used interchangeably throughout this paper.

While seasonal work is precarious, it has been acknowledged the possibility of seasonal re-engagement (Ainsworth and Purss,2008).Besides the fact that contingent workers have been characterized as being less motivated, less reliable and less committed (De Gilder,2003), it is very realistic to assume that due to the cyclical nature of seasonality, employees might develop an implicit expectation towards the organisation(Ainsworth and Purss,2008)

The nature of seasonality creates unstable demand for hospitality and tourism services which makes the industry unattractive to potential employees (Pizam,1982 cited in Krakover,2000)

HR Implications

As noted earlier, hospitality and tourism employment is influenced by seasonality, supported by various authors in the academic literature (Ashworth and Thomas,1999;Flognfeld,2001; Krakover,2000).Jolliffe and Farnsworth(2003) argue that seasonality has a profound impact on the industry employment leading to high fluctuations. As a result high levels of short term employment and high level of off-season unemployment are evident (Baum,1999). Krakover(2000) looks at the adjustments of labour to variations in demand researching the trends in eight tourist centres in Israel .His study indicates that besides the fact of knowing the patterns of seasonality, hotel operators are still unable to match their recruitment and dismissal procedures to the demand.

The tourism industry as a general and in particular resorts depend on the seasonal employment as it is a prerequisite to deliver customer service (Ainsworth and Purss,2009).The high level of human involvement in the delivery of services places a great emphasis on the role of human recourses as through the right attitude of employees quality can be improved (Baum and Lockstone,2008).As the seasonality causes workforce instability, the pressure on the operational standards is greater, requiring sufficient training of employees(Baum,1995),often insufficient for seasonal workers(Baum,1999) and short in time (Krakover,2000).Furthermore, the greatest issue being recruiting (Adler and Adler,2003),seasonality is undesired by quality employees as they prefer year-round employment(Getz and Nilsson,2004).However, Adriotios(2005) argues that seasonality has created a seasonal balance in the employment in combination of jobs in tourism and agriculture based on his research of seasonality in the island of Crete.

It has to be noted that the success of HR practices in highly seasonal businesses is dependent on company`s business strategy. Jolliffe and Farnsworth (2003) suggest that some companies respond to seasonality by “embracing” it meaning that the business accepts the patterns of seasonality, whereas others “challenge” the seasonal nature of their sector trying to extend their season. Getz and Nisson (2003) identify similar strategies based on research in family businesses on the island of Bronholm, Denmark .Their study suggests that businesses can adopt either coping or combating strategies, where coping involves actions such as closing the business, while the latter approach is characterized by staying open all year round.

HR practices are based on the chosen strategy presented in table xx

Embrace seasonality HR practices Challenge seasonality

Focus on temporary workers

Recruitment and Selection

Focus on full-time core workers

Limited training on the job, brief introduction

Training and Development

Continual development and training, formal appraisal techniques

Source: Adapted from Jolliffe and Farnsworth,2003

Labour market features

The labour market in tourism industry is with limited skills and issues such as formal education and training are often evident in the sector(Baum,2008).In peripheral regions where hotels are highly influenced by seasonality, there are numerous challenges in terms of employing staff able to deliver service quality(Baum and Lundtorp,2000).The impact of seasonality on employment has been further investigated by Baum and Hagen(1999) in the environment of small islands.

There are several characteristics of the tourism labour market mainly related to the role of labour in the delivery of services summarized by Shaw and Williams(2002).One of the most common strategy in labour market is the one referring to the theoretical framework of Atkinson, who distinguished the workers between core and peripheral and seasonal workers belong to the latter group. The core workers are functionally flexible full time employees with job security and high salaries, willing to move between departments. The Peripheral workforce, on the other site, is a secondary labour often recruited on a part time, temporary or short-term contract as a response to increase in demand. This group is numerically flexible. The model of Atkinson, “flexible firm”, is strongly linked to the theoretical framework of Doeringer and Piore (1971 in Shaw and Williams,2002;Krakover,2000) of internal and external labour market.

Resort hotels in peripheral regions
The Concept of resorts

Resorts can be defined as “complexes providing a variety of recreations and social settings at one location” (Gunn, 1988, p.108) Similar to Destinations

Limited research has been carried out

Metelka (1990, p.46) defines destination resort as “generally a large property offering a wide variety of facilities, services and activities”. A resort hotel is the most common form of resort development, often located in areas with beautiful natural characteristics, such as mountains and beaches(Mill,2001).

For the purpose of this dissertation the term resort hotel will be used meaning….

The resort industry is characterized by seasonality causing fluctuations in the numbers of customers and guests expenditures (Adler and Adler,2003)

Seasonality creates several implications for the tourist destinations limiting the business demand and therefore profitability of hotels (Getz and Nillson,2004).

Europe , hospitality and tourism industry; current figures and trends

The Summer Resort hotels, the winter resort hotels

It is clear that seasonality causes

the degree of seasonality varies within the resorts, reflecting on the physical conditions (Butler and Mao,xxx) and depending on the form of seasonality (Appendix-forms of seasonality-one-peak;two-peak;non-peak)Examples.

It has been suggested that hotels in regional areas are greatly affected by seasonality compared to hotels in urban areas as the transportation links are better and the pool of potential talented employees if greater (Butler and Mao,1997)

The impact of seasonality (mcEniff,1992);

Baum(1999) points out that all aspects of the hospitality organisations are influenced including the finance and labour turnover.

Discussion of the implications of seasonality to human resource management in resort hotels in the literature is very limited, yet there are some evidences. Few authors, Baum and Conlin(1994) and Conlin and Baum(2003) have focused on the issues faced by tourism businesses in remote areas in terms of the impact of seasonality and the limited talent workforce within the local market, concentrating within the context of small island locations. Similarly, Baum and Hagen(1999) address the impact of seasonality on employment in peripheral, cold-water tourism regions, mainly but not only within the environment of small islands. The most comprehensive study on seasonality and the management of flexible workforce in resorts is by Adler and Adler(2003).They explore the employment of workers within a hotel in Hawaii, looking at the contingent workers employed in resort hotels as a solution to seasonality.

Peripheral regions

A peripheral, remote and insular areas have been defined as the one in a distance from urban regions, being hardly reachable to and from the markets (Brown and Hall,2000;Buhalis,1999).In this context, peripheral places are also characterized with certain qualities such as natural beauty such as beaches. Often if developed and not managed well, peripheral destinations suffer from overcrowd and environment pressure. Botterill et al.,(2000) research some of the key issues that surround the context of periphery in the Welsh tourism industry identifying key differences between core and peripheral areas. Seaside resorts are typically located in peripheral areas (Botterill,2000) attracting tourists with summer heat, sun and beaches (Bramwell,2006).However, whether influences the coastal resorts and restricts the length of season (Wanhill and Buhalis,1999). For example, Mediterranean seaside resorts in Greece have more than 70% of their tourists between May and October forcing hoteliers to close down for rest of the year(Buhalis,1999). However, there are number of businesses that stay open all year round, for example in Costa del Sol, Spain . Islands are considered as peripheral destinations and Konstantinos (2000 in Bramwell,2000) have analysed the island tourism in Greece suggesting that those destinations suffer from isolation and scarcity of sources supported further by Buhalis(1999).As the seasonality is strongly influencing such locations, businesses are faced with human resource challenges.

Chapter 3 Human Resource Management
HRM

Definition

HRM no clear definition; as a competitive advantage

HRM is it the same as Personal Management (Legge,2005;Worsfold,1999)

Differences in appendix (Guest,1987;Baum,1995, Storey 1990 and 1995 Lashley,).

Practices associated with HRM and how they differ (Enz and Siguaw,2000; Redman and Mathews,1998;Guest,1997 ; Viney and Tyson,1997 and Schneider,1994)

The problems of labour turnover (Torrington,2005)

(Keltner and Finegold,1996) no quality investment in training

HRM plays a key role in the service quality (Haynes ad Fryer,2000)

HRM in the hospitality and tourism industry
Recruitment and Selection
Training

Training as a form of human capital investment(Becker,1975 in Tuers and Hill,2002)

Chapter 4 Analysis and evaluation
Strategic HRM in seasonal employment

In recent years, it has been widely recognised the benefits for businesses when human resource policies are formed on the basis of the corporate strategy(Michie and Sheeten,2005). This is defined as Strategic human resource management (SHRM), enabling the firm to achieve its goals, by employing people who will provide the source of competitive advantage(Writhg and McMahan,1992 cited in Jollife and Farnsworth,2003).It covers all HR strategies in a firm and the way they impact on the performance(Boxall,Purcell and Wright,2007).

HRM practices (Jolliffe and Farnsworth,2003)

Recruitment and selection

Training

Internal and external labour market (Krakover,2000; Connell and Burgess,2002)

Temporary workers and core employees; similarities, differences(Koene,2005; Shaw and Williams,1994)

HR challenges

Using temp – the relationship(Burgess and Connel,2006); the commitment; motivation (Lundberg,Gudmundson,Andersson,2008; Ainsworth and Purss, 2009); service quality

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendations

1000 words

References

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Introduction

Tourism, a very advance and complicated sector, is still very difficult to express. The tourism sector of any country can never be measured easily. Many countries which do not have much foreign goods exchange from their country rely on their tourism income. Even small countries like Singapore and Malaysia are having more than half of their income coming from tourism sector. These are those counties which are growing only because of their tourism income.

Impact of Tourism over the Economy of a Country

The overall economic growth of a country depends upon two things viz. foreign exchange and internal rising income. Among these two, the foreign exchange contributes to approximately 60% of the increase in revenue of the country. Tourism is a part of foreign exchange where the country earns from the incoming and outgoing tourists. It plays a vital role in economic growth of any country. In most of the countries tourism has become their main source of foreign income. A number of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries contribute to about 65% of tourism activity. Countries like France, Germany and Australia comes under OECD member list. The WTO (World Tourism Organization) reports that about 700 million people traveled to a foreign country in 2000, spending over US$ 480 billion while on the tour. (UAE tourism, 2010)

Positive and Negative aspects of Tourism Income

Of course every market issue comes with a good point and a bad point. The positive point of tourism is that it helps in growing the economy of the country and it increases the value of the country in the world market. It also increases employment opportunities and improves the socio-cultural level of the local mass. The local products reach a good amount value and are commercialized over the world market. But the coin has two sides. The negative side of the coin i.e. the negative points of tourism includes spoiling of the historical and antique monuments of the country. It also contributes to the increase in terrorism. It can also lead to information leakage of the classified documents which can cause some country to easily ground them. No one can ever say to what extent tourism can lead a country to.

Adding to which, on increasing tourism there is a loss to the environmental aspects that is, it results in raising the consumption of ground, water and energy which ultimately leads to destruction of land and environment. The tourists knowingly or unknowingly spoil the cleanliness of some other place. There is an imbalance in the ecosystem and leads to species getting endangered. In the worst cases tourism can also add to an increase in the prostitution business (sexual tourism). Moreover the narcotics market is also flourishing through tourism. It has been observed that most of the youth are getting drugs from the outside mass coming to their country.

What attracts a tourist?

As far as the cultural issues are concerned tourism helps in advancing the cultural aspects of any country to the whole world. Most of the tourists going from one country to another are very much inspired from the cultural outlook of other country. Everyone needs a change, needs a place to go and chill, so they prefer travelling to other country and enjoying the essence of their culture and their way of living. So this is also a route through which the tourism sector can flourish.

Beside the cultural trait the thing that attracts a tourist to go and visit another country is their history. They say, ‘it is the history of a country that affects its future’, well this statement is completely right reflecting the reason why tourist want to visit some other country. People like to visit Egypt to see their historical Pyramids and their famous stories of Mummies. Similarly the seven wonders of the world are visited regularly by thousands of people from different parts of the world. Most of the time people visit other country just for leisure. (UAE tourism, 2010)

Race between countries over tourist income

Seeing the overwhelming tourist coming to a country, every country wants to increase their own share of tourism income and it is quite obvious. To attract more and more tourist, people includes different tourism packages just to increase their income. They are willing to cut down their own food just to give them their share of food and that too not in good sense but only to have better income. Special privileges are given to tourist like some of the specific tourist spots are given much attention by the government. This helps them to have a better show off on their income masses.

UAE, the most attractive tourist spot

The UAE has strengthened its position in the tourism sector by offering a wide range of leisure and sports activity. This is the main point of attraction in UAE. There is no question that UAE is one of the most attractive and most visited country in the whole world. Beside the economic income from the oil business the government does not completely rely on its income from it and it has led them to put more emphasis on making several multi-billion and huge projects in both public as well as private sectors. These have led to attract many tourists from different parts of the world.

According to a report from the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) it is estimated that by the 2015 tourism in UAE would increase by about 7% from today’s data. On the increasing accounts of Dubai’s expensive projects this percentage can even go higher. These include projects such as the Palms in Dubai, Burj Khalifa, the Waterfront and the Marina.

Dubai has been known for its fabulous ethnicity and hospitality. It has been one of the most favorite places with respect to tourist invasion. It has become a worldwide travel and business destination. According to files Dubai has attracted over 5 million tourists from all over the world to visit its great architecture. A wide range of hotels and beach side resorts have made it comfortable for the tourist to stay in Dubai.

Conclusion

From the above discussion it can be concluded that tourism is a sector which has major impact on economy of any country. Factor of being a favorite tourist place can vary country to country. Dubai is one of the favorite tourist places. Tourism also associates some negative factors also. (UAE tourism, 2010)

Impact of tourism on wildlife

Since humans began to interact with animals they have always been fascinated by them. The animals give al, they live with there instincts and there way of living. If we see a animal that I hurt we want to help, and if one come up to you and look at you with there eyes that say I am hungry, how can you not help them? The way of using animals for tourist have been going on for many years. People having elephants that can do trick and monkeys that you can hold. Humans toke animals in to circuses and showed them of so that we could see that they were not that dangerous. So when humans al over the world got use to having animals in animals parks or at the circuses they need more. So to interact with animals in the wild was the next step, to have a photo of you feeding a cut koala or petting a tiger. That is were the wild life tourism is to day, with live interactions. The reason that it is big and that people want to do this thing is because over history with animals make us want to do things with them. Animals is a very good attraction (Reynolds and Brathwaite 2001), the travelling circuses knotweed that 100 of years ago, and it still works, have a interesting animal and people come for it. The easiest to show this is to think about what symbols is used with big companies to marketing there products for example the panda for WWF and the bull for red bull. The cute panda that everyone associates with helping the planet and a bull that make you think that drinking it makes you strong as a bull.

So in this essay we will be looking at the impact that the wildlife tourism have and have had on the animals.

Key points:

The negative effect wildlife tourism have on animals are the effects of feeding animals, cars in parking lots that might injury or kill animals and habitat changes. The positive effect is when the wildlife interactions are under proper supervision there will be a financial contribution, and also education to the tourist and the people helping. So to see why this effect are fighter negative or positive lets look deeper on the different aspects.

The wildlife tourisms biggest problem is when the animals get to used to being around people, when the peoples point with the trip is to get as close as possible, and in many cases to feed the animals (Orams 1996). What tourist do when they feed wild animals is that they changes there natural behaviors and then the future for the animals (Marint and R’eale 2007). What happens is that the young animals/ next generations learn from the beginning that humans give food. The adult animals will not teach the young ones how to find there oven food and they will relay on humans. So what happens when one animals attack for food and the managers forbid al feeding. How can the animals then find food if humans stop feeding them? Is this really the way we want the wild animals to behave? Do we want them to be pets as well, to have all the animals obeying the human? As already stated one problem with feeding animals is that they can become aggressive if they don’t get enough food, or that more dangerous animals come in to camping ground to find food from trashcans and in the peoples tenths and caravans. The one that suffer from this is not the humans, it is the animals, they can get bad food. They way to handle the animals that don’t fit in to the standards set by humans is to take them away. Ether by relocate them or to put them to sleep, humans have change the nature, and are saying that the nature have to follow the changes.

An other thing that can happen is that the animals get direct injury or death by cars (Green and Higginbottom 2000). That animals at parking lots that have gotten used to get food at cars will go up to the cars and them and get hit by them (wallabies on cradle mountain national park in Tasmania, skira and smith 1991). This is a big impact since in most cases the animals die, what can be done is that if it used to be a popular area to feed the animals to put up signs so that the new tourist know that they are not allowed to feed the animals. Also to show them that there are wild animals in the area so the look where they are going, it is hard to see behind the car, but if the people are more aware of the animals they might not miss them.

But Humans don’t only accidental kill the animals, they also interfering and go in to the animals habitats. That disturbs the animals behavior and inducing more stress in to there normal life (Green and Higginbottom 2000). There have been a lot of studys made that proves that when the animals here human, get photo taken of them and have cars stop close there stress levels get higher. So they then spend more energy on moving away from humans instead on their growth or reproduction (shaughnessy et.al 2008 and Courbis 2007). The main impact that humans have on animals when it comes to interfering is changing their habitat. That can happens in many of ways, one is to make the environment more friendly to humans like putting in walking or driving roads roads. This is bad, because if many humans walk on the road the animals will move away to be left alone, then the new road have to be made to get to then animals. The problem when not bilding walking tracks is that the tourist will walk to the animals the way they can, so it can be the fast or the one that everyone els walks. It will still be a big impact ether way, because if people walk their oven way more of the habitat will be affected. But with walking tracks normal paths for the animals can be cut off. The effect that new drive roads can have is that people can get to the animals essayer. That will give higher speed on the cars and busses, more road kills and more contamination of gases from the cars. It will also give a higer presur on the location that it can handle more people, like car parks and trash caring. The biggest problem when people are coming in to the animals habitat is that they want to go beyond the barriers. So the fact that in national parks the guides are not well paid, so they will break the law of the park if the visitor bribes them with money (Sekhar 2003). This often happens so the tourist can go closer to the animals and that disturbs the animals more. The way to stop this is to pay the guides more and educate them so the know why it is bad for the animals. Even draw the parallel to that if the animals get disturb to much they might move away and the guide can loss their small income.

One other problem that the wild life industry have is to measure the impact. That the animals get more street by human presents is a fact (Courbis 2007 and Shaughnessy et.al 2008). But that is the only way of measuring it there are still animals that will come closer to the people to get food. One way of dealing with this is to use the precautionary principle, this is a principle that implies that there is a responsibility to protect the humans from exposure to harm where scientific investigation discovers a possible risk (Matthee, Vermersch 2000 and Orams 2002). So the principle is to be carefully when in this case staring a wildlife tourism. Is it known that animals can attack, and injury them self or/and the people. So to work with wild animals there need to be some precaution to protect both the animals and the humans. This principle is use not only by wildlife tourism, but in every way it is needed. One thing that management and evolution of the al tourism have given is wisdom, so that humans don’t keep on doing the same mistake over and over again. As said by Reynolds P, Braithwaite D (2001) that the problem with the precautionary principle it that people operation after the precautionary principle where not understood by the people coming to see the animals. And when the recognition with that it is the best way of managing something is gone the managing falls.

The positive effects are fewer then the negative one, but that makes them no less important, since it is them that will help the wildlife tourisms. The financial help is the major factor that keeps the wildlife tourism working. The entry fees and guide tours contribute to some of the conservation for the animals and there habitat. That the tourist se that the money goes back to protect the animals and also to the people that work to help them. The problem is often that the rangers and other people working don’t see the money since it goes in to the government and then back to the parks. So they can?t see how the fees are contributing to their work wish would be a reason why it is easy to bribe some of them. The fact that the workers are not well paid is a reason that they are easy to bride as said above, what to do about that? It is hard to change how money gets distributed, the reason that there is protections is for the animals, so the money should go to them. But when the one that should follow the rules to protect the animals break them because of money, maybe more of the money should go to them so they will protect the animals better. There can always be a debate on were the money should be spend, but in the end, money will be a good help to help the tourism industry to work. For example when tourist pays to go out on boats to see whales or to dive at protected places, there is a extra fee to pay. That money goes back to the mangier that will keep the protection and be able to see that the industry is interact in with the animals the right way.

The other positive effect that the tourism industries have is education. To give to the visitors so that they know how they are helping the animals and can be spread the knowledge’s around. There is no better way to spread something then to from mouth to mouth. Education will also make the people to see that it is a wild animals and not a pet. That the wild animals should live like they are not to be petted or feed. If people want to feed wild animals they should go to animal parks, not in to the wild where the animals later will be the one suffering. So to educate everyone, the rangers/ park workers and the tourist is the best way to get more people aware of the problem that can occur with wild animals.

When looking at the effect that tourist have on the wild life it looks like the negative is more and have a bigger effect on the outcome then the positive. That is not the entire truth and the reason for that is the money. Tourism is one of the most money making industry. The tourism brings a lot of money in to the governments and have a huge impact on countries economy, so to have a tourism that draw people is important. As said above animal is a good way to market your product, and have always fascinated humans. So to have a big wildlife tourism is important for the economy of the world, so to stop is not the way to go, but to have it sustainable and a good managing plan is important. A lot of the negative effects have been pointed out above to be solved by relocating the animals or killing them. This is not a good method, why should the animal suffer when the humans change the natural way of things? The people were the ones going in to the forest giving animals food, or leving food scraps behind. The people are the ones that are changing everything in the first place and then we blame the animals for it. So to solve this good managing need to be dune to help the animals live in there habitat as they are mean to live.

To stop humans from changing the environment for the animals and then blaming them for not adapting Reynolds and Brathwaite (2001) said that controlling the encounters it the best way. And that leads back to the management and that they have to solve the problem that humans started by feeding and wanting to get close to wild animals.

One thing that have been mentions above is management, that to have a wildlife interaction the management have to be good. But what can they do? Looking at the negative effects that wildlife tourism can have there is a lot to be work on. That is not the case. Most of the negative effects have been work in since the where detected. Speed limits on road were wild animals might be present or fence put up and special animal rout to get a cross have been made. In most place were animals still get feed by humans they have restricted the amount of food that will be distributed so they animals still need to find food some were else. Also what Cinner and Aswani (2007) did was to get the local people to be involved to conserve there recourses. If the people living in the area and the tourist know the problem a lot of the problem is not there to begin with. So the education that is there is a fine managing plan, if the tourist know more before they get to the animals they will be lest likely to do the stupid

things like petting a wild animal. So good management is the key to success. With the management the education of people comes to be, one of the best example on this is how people that where living on collection souvenirs of the animals for tourist. Like getting sea horses from the sea, or hunting gorillas to trade with their meat. Got educated and told that they where destroying their lively hood. That go them thinking and with help they instead focused on protection there resource and get more tourist to come and see it instead of selling it of and losing it al in the end.

The key point to see in this is that when it comes down to the wild life industry. The people working with it and the tourist coming to enjoy it is that first word, wild. The reason people go in boat out to see and interact with whales or in to the jungle to see giant pandas (Guangming 2008) is to see and be with them in there natural habitat. One more thing to point out is natural. What happened a lot in the beginning with the interactions between humans and animals where that humans tried to change the natural way of things. The nature where here before humans, and will be here after humans if people don’t destroy it before they are gone.

Conclusion.

There are some problems that make interactions with wild animals both hard and dangerous. One is that wildlife tourism is having a lot of different components in it, so management is hard. As talk above that tying to us the precautionary principle is good, but it needs to be shown of in a good way, with education. We should not be able to feed or pet animals to keep the wild, when people accept that the conservation can be done in a bigger scale. The management are of the wild life tourism is what is helping the animals the most, since to protect them from being souvenirs or in captivity keep them alive and in the wild. Humans are trying to restore what have been lost and help the animals, and even though to leave the animals alone to be wild, might be the best for the animals, the money and educations that the wildlife tourism gives back to humans is what will save the industry and the animals in the end.

Reference

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Courbis 2007 Effect of spinner dolphin presence on level of swimmer and vessel activity in hawaiian bays. Tourism in marine enviorments vol. 4 no 1 1-14

Green R. 2000 The effects of non-consumptive wildlife tourism on free-ranging wildlife : a review Pacific cons. Bio. vol.6 pp. 183-197

Guangming Xiaodong Wei Liu, Bearer, Shiqiang Zhou Yeqing Zhang Ouyang Jianguo 2008 Distribution of Economic Benefits from Ecotourism: A Case Study of Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas in China Environmental Management 42:1017–1025

Martin J.G.A. R?eale D. 2008: Animal temperament and human disturbance: Implications for the response of wildlife to tourism Behavioural Processes 77 pp.66–72

Matthee, Vermersch 2000. Are the Precautionary Principle and the International Trade of Genetically Modified Organisms Reconcilable? Journal of agriculture and environmental ethics. V.12 no.1 59-70

Nagothu Udaya Sekhar 2003: Local people’s attitudes towards conservation and wildlife tourismaround Sariska Tiger Reserve, India Journal of Environmental Management no. 69 pp. 339–347

Orams M 1996: Conceptual model of tourist-wildlife interaction : the case for education as a management strategy, Australian geographer vol.27 no.1 pp. 39-51

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Tourism Management no.22 31-42

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Skira, Smitsh 1991 feeding wildelife in narionalparks. South australia regional seminar on national parks and wildelife management, Tasmanina.

Introduction

The students of International Tourism and Hospitality Management from SEGi University College went on a case study research at Penang Island from the 12th November to the 15th November. In these 3 three days and two nights study, the students managed to interviewed as many as 60 local residents of the state to probe and investigate on the impact of tourism towards Penang Island.

Literature Review- Penang Island, A Place for Tourism and Heritage!

The main reason why our study trip chose Penang Island is because of the historical sites and heritage places. Penang incorporates modernity with a touch of traditions and old world charm that is sure to captivates the heart of many tourists and travelers alike. With George Town which was recently listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site makes visiting Penang an even more eventful trip. Penang also entices the tourists with its rich and plentiful scrumptious cuisines and mouth-watering food. Home to the Baba Nyonya descendants, this beautiful state is also rich with cultures and traditions all living harmoniously under the one same roof!

Penang is located at the Northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Straits of Malacca. It is the second smallest state in Malaysia right after Perlis. The name Penang is actually derived from a tree called Pokok Pinang that is widely found along the sea side of Penang Island. Generally the state of Penang could be sub divided into two geographies; the Penang Island and also the Seberang Perai. Penang which is widely made out of hilly topography has a limited low land area for development hence the land reclamation project near the coastal area.

In an average day, the temperature at this place varies from 27 degree Celsius to 30 degree during the day time while the night time promises a temperature from 22 degree Celsius to 24. Since Malaysia is located on the Equator line, this place has a very high humidity and the average annual rainfall is approximately 2670 mm.

All in all, the students of ITHM find that Penang Island is indeed filled with abundant of cultures and traditions that many other places in Malaysia is definitely lack off. The culture and heritage sites at these beautiful places are still intact and maintained to perfection. Tourism undeniably has change the way of life for the Penangites vastly.

Here I enclosed in the Itinerary of the whole 3D2N study trip of ITHM students. (*Refer to Appendix IV)

Methodology

Questionnaire- Method of Data Collection

During the fieldtrip to Penang on the month of November, the students of ITHM manage to compile a total of 60 pieces of questionnaires per group on the impacts of tourism on Penang Island. Local residents of Penang were informed of the survey and requested to answer 10 simple questions regarding on the issue.

The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions divided into three parts: Impacts of tourism on local environment, impact of tourism on local people- socio-cultural, and impact of tourism on local economy. The answers to the questions are in the form of ‘Yes or No’ and could be ticked in boxes.

A total of 60 respondents were found and they agreed wholeheartedly to help us out on the mission to uncover the facts about tourism in Penang. Of the 60 respondents, the highest number of responses agreed that Tourism Penang has indeed brought about positive feedback on the economics of the state. Even though some respondents had difficulty understanding the questions given, but we manage to sort it out by slowly explaining to them on what the questions are all about.

The analysis of the response was done in two ways. We divided our group member into two units, where one unit is assigned to complete the (i) 30 pieces of questionnaire by asking local hawker peoples opinion, whereas the remaining (ii) 30 pieces are distributed among the local residents whom are not working at the current moment. Nonetheless all of whom answered the questionnaire were from the local people of Penang Island.

Discussion
Tourism Development- Infrastructures

Unlike any other states in Malaysia, Penang is labelled as one of the leading destination in the country today and many tourists who visited Malaysia would definitely anticipate the visit to this very heritage site. The main reason why Penang has been where it is today is mainly because it also has a better and more developed infrastructure than most of the other places in the country.

Generally there are two stadiums located at Penang for the convenience of the locals as well as to attract tourists and outsiders to take part in any sports event over here. The City Stadium or more commonly known as Stadium Bandaraya Pulau Pinang is the first and oldest stadium which is still in use up till today. It was built by the British in 1932 and ever since then had become a popular spot for any football matches. The other stadium mentioned is the Penang State Stadium. This newly completed stadium back at the year 2000 has a capacity of 40, 000 spectators.

The next cutting edge design infrastructure built in Penang is none other than the Geodesic Dome located at Komtar. This progressive and advance looking dome is a multipurpose hall used for official functions, performances, state’s events and many other event purposes. The design of this dome comes from the concept study by R. Buckminster Fuller who is the master mind behind this partial-spherical structure. The main entrance to this dome is through the level five roof top which only makes it even more appealing to the tourists and visitors.

In terms of highways infrastructure, Penang is certainly quite commendable as well. Highways such as the Bayan Lepas Elevated Highway, Jelutong Expressway and Butterworth Outer Ring Road are the few expressways constructed for the convenience of the automobile users. And let us not forget about the advanced-looking Penang international airport. The Penang International Airport (PEN) is the main airport for the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. At present, the airlines flying to the Penang International Airport includes AirAsia, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Firefly, Jetstar Asia, China Southern Airlines, Kartika Airlines, Lion Air, Malaysia Airlines, Silkair, Singapore Airlines, Sriwijaya Air, Thai Airways and Tiger Airways. This airport is also known as the fourth biggest airport in Malaysia after KLIA, Kota Kinabalu International Airport and Kuching International Airport. It has also been awarded as the Airport of the Year for 2009 Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific Aerospace and Defence for airports for the category of below 15-million-passenger.

Economic Impact of Tourism

The main economic development in Penang would most certainly relies on the tourism sector as it turns out that this sector yield major contribution towards the income and financial growth of the state. Based on the record by the Tourism Ministry, Penang has recorded a 40 per cent increase in the number of international tourist arrivals between January and June this year (2010). There were 405,932 tourists up till June, as compared to 244,146 in the same period last year. Of the tourist arrivals, Indonesians topped the list at over 92,000, followed by Singaporeans (51,392), China (16,000), Australia, Japan, Latin America and India (12,000 each), United States (10,000) and Middle East countries (1,360).

The economic benefits of tourism were readily acknowledged by research participants in this study. Nearly everyone interviewed agreed that tourism led to the creation of jobs and it somewhat turns out to be the main source of income for most of the family as well. Residents of the communities commented that tourism often brings about positive feedbacks on the economics of the state and the standard of living too. A resident of the local neighbouring town said that, “Without tourism, the economy would be stagnant.” Another resident also noted, “With the existence of tourism in Penang, we get to enjoy many top notch facilities and infrastructures such as the better public transportation system and the Penang stadium.” For some there was a sense of certainty about the likelihood of tourism flourishing in this state. With so many demands from tourists all over the world, regardless of domestic or international, many believed that tourism was expected to take place whether or not local residents desired it.

The Swettenham Cruise Terminal which was recently redevelopment has added an extra entry point into the island. Based on the statistic from Penang Economics Monthly April 2010 Issue 4.10, it states that in year 2009, a total of 680, 000 cruise passengers are recorded to have arrived in Penang. It has been estimated that this year at least 890, 000 numbers of tourists will turn up. “The average cruise passenger spends anywhere between US$85 (rm280) to US$115 (rm350) a day when they come on land. That’s not bad considering they are in Penang for less than 12 hours. Penang’s the perfect destination for cruise passengers with limited time, the minute they step off the pier, they’re already in a World Heritage Site,” said Battistotti, PGT director, who is also the chairman of the Malaysian Association of Hotels (Penang chapter) and the General Manager of G Hotel.

Another factor that contributes to Penang’s thriving economic from the tourism sector is no doubt the Tourism Malaysia’s active ‘courtship’ of the Middle Eastern market. It has been clear that 11th September incidence is a significant factor influencing the increase of Middle Eastern tourist arrivals to Malaysia. There are however other factors such as tourist expenses in Malaysia, tourist income, travelling expenses and the standard of living in this country that affect vastly on the number of tourists arrivals as well. Based on the work done by Norlida Hanim Mohd Salleh (2010, pp. 37-52), she mention that, “The importance of the Middle East tourists to the Malaysian tourism industry can be viewed from several indicators such as number of tourist arrivals, tourism receipts, the average length of stay and potential of future tourism market.” She also mentioned that the average spending of the Middle Easterners have a higher purchasing power than other tourists over here. According to the case study, the average expenditure of the Middle Easterners was RM3, 503 during the year 2003 whereas tourists from other places only spent RM2, 013.

In general, tourism has a variety of economic impact on the Penang Island. All these could be explained using the Multiplier Effects Theory. From the work done by Daniel J. Stynes (1997, pp. 11-14), he mentioned that;

The most direct effects occur within the primary tourism sectors –lodging, restaurants, transportation, amusements, and retail trade. Through secondary effects, tourism affects most sectors of the economy… The study might use a sales multiplier of 2.0 to indicate that each dollar of direct sales generates another dollar in secondary sales in this region.

This clearly shows us that tourism the main the effect of this Multiplier theory where with tourism it brings about the development of other industries as well such as restaurants, shopping malls, and theme parks.

However there are still numerous negative impacts of tourism for Penang Island. For one, a country that relies on tourism industry alone as their main source of revenue could be risky and dangerous. Economic dependence should always be versatile and all-rounded in order for a state to prosper and flourish. This is because tourism business is very seasonal. During peak season, tourist arrivals will increase tremendously especially during the year end period. Conversely the number of tourist will dropped drastically during off-peak season. And this can post immerse danger to the state’s wellbeing as it might create a high rate of unemployment.

Environment Impacts of Tourism

It is important to understand that although tourism has boosted the economics of Penang vastly but one shall never forget on the value of the environment and natural habitat of the very island. For what we know, land is a very scarce resource in Penang Island. This is mainly due to the fact that Penang is largely made up of hilly topography and most of the low land area has already been accommodated and developed.

Based on the research done by Ngai Weng Chan (1998, pp: 305-318), he also mentioned that the efforts at industrialization and the development of other economic sectors had bring about the improvement of the state’s urbanization. Unfortunately this had also caused greater pressure on the land usage. As a result, the Government act upon on the land reclamation as a solution but it is still not enough to satisfy the high demand for land in the island. At present, many developers have already resort to the remaining hill land and also the reclamation area on the island for their next huge projects. Example of such project would be the Waterfront City Project (*refer to appendix I), which represents one of the highest proportions of leisure-based services anywhere in South East Asia. Promising as it may seem, this project which is to be built on the 338 acres of reclaimed land along Penang’s eastern coastline will majorly impact on the condition and status of the island’s wellbeing. To begin with, placing fill in a reclamation area could disturb the water quality of the adjoining sea as well as threatening the flourishing existence of fish stocks and habitats found in coastal seas and connecting lochs and lagoons.

Another example of project built without the heed and consideration of the environmental issues would be the Tanjung Bungah suburb which is situated between Georgetown and Batu Ferringhi. This village was built at the hill land areas which could post many dangers to the environment and also on the inhabitants over there. Based on the journal written by Adrian M. Steinberg (2010, pp. 318-340), he mentioned that, “There are many environment risk by project at hill site areas in Tanjung Bungah, Batu Ferringhi.” Tanjung Bungah used to be a peaceful village only lodged by small groups of families and fishermen. However over the years, many huge corporate chose this very spot to build commercial buildings for tourism purposes. Example of these recreational structures includes the Tanjung Bungah Floating Mosque and also the Penang Water Sport Centres. Hence, the quality of the sea water deteriorates due to the discharge of raw sewage and the resulting pollution makes it a breeding ground for jelly fish. As a result, the sea all along the northern belt is no longer suitable for swimming anymore.

Penang Hill which is another famous tourist destination spot is an example of tourism development at hill land area. Located high above the land, Penang Hill is perfect as a holiday sanctuary due to the breezy and cooler environment. The state Government permitted this development because it brings forth higher monetary and fiscal policy to the state’s economy. Based on another case study by Ngai Weng Chan (1998, pp. 14-27), he mentioned that, “Massive hill development, especially the clearing of vegetation and the cutting of hill slopes will bring about increased and accelerated run-off, increased soil erosion and a high probability of landslips and landslides. In the event of heavy rainfall, such as that which coincided with Tropical Storm Ryan on 18 September 1995, landslips and landslides would occur. In fact, a total of about 60 landslides were reported along roads on Penang Hill and its vicinity after the heavy rainfall during the above storm.” This clearly shows that without a proper planning and preparation, many inadvertent events might occur.

Paya Terubong used to be a predominantly agriculture area. As the years gone by, it slowly turns into a working-class neighbourhood in the central part of Penang Island. Based on a case study by Ngai Weng Chan (1998, pp. 14-27), he found that there is a total of 60 landslides reported along the roads of Penang Hill after the destructive Tropical Storm Ryan which happened back at 18 September 1995. Landslides not only harm the residents of an area but, in fact, it post tremendous dangers to motorists as well. In addition, it might pollute the river and in long-term run, may results in flood at low land area. The massive expansion project at Paya Terubong is the most apparent example of hill land development at Penang which is rather an impulsive and foolish action. The project which mostly accentuate on housing, infrastructure and a new township is actually one of the main tourist attraction at Penang Island at current. According to the Malaysian Law however, hill land with slopes of more than 20 degrees should be safeguard and conserved in its natural state, generally as a forest reserves. Ngai also stated in his case study that the Paya Terubong hill land development is a major failure of the state island by saying, “According to the Consumer Association of Penang (in its April 1996 issue), the Paya Terubong housing project is an invitation to a disaster, possibly comparing the Majestic Heights as similar to the Highland Towers which collapsed in 1993. Soon after this report, the extensive mudflows occurred in early May 1996. Chan (1997) has demonstrated how rapid development on the hill slopes of the Paya Terubong valley in Penang has given rise to landslides, mudflows, sedimentation of rivers and downstream flooding.” (*refer to Appendix II)

Culture and Heritage Impacts of Tourism

Even though the official religion of the country and state is Islam, the residents in Penang are all given the freedom and rights to follow on their personal beliefs. Buddhism is still the main religion over here. As such, the Peranakan or more commonly known as the Baba Nyonyas made 5% out of the 2 million residents of Penang. The Baba Nyonya is actually a descendent of the Chinese immigrants who partially adopt Malay customs with a touch of Chinese as well. This made the Penang Island rich with an abundant of cultures and traditions. For Penang Global Tourism’s (PGT) new managing director Ooi Geok Ling, she exclaimed that if she were to describe Penang as a dish, she would go for the Rojak;

“All the individual fruits and veggies retain their individualism, and the rojak sauce brings everything together. This is what makes Penang so unique, our diversity and our pride in being Penangites.”

This clearly indicates that Penang has a presence of people from so many ethnicities and religions living together in harmony. All these could be reflected in the many festivities that are being celebrated throughout the year, ranging from the Chinese New Year to the Indian Festival, Thaipusam. Besides, Pesta Pulau Penang which is an annual carnival event makes the city all vibrant and vivacious.

Besides that, Penang is also famous with the Dragon Boat Festival. Since 1979, it has been a culture to hold the International Dragon Boat Festival over the Teluk Bahang Dam. Besides attracting international tourists during the period of this event, this amazing festival also strengthens and tightens the bonds between the each and every citizen. Another remarkable festival held yearly over this state would none other be the Chingay Festival. This interesting event which all started back at 1919 to celebrate on the birthday of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy displays a wonderful act of skill in the form of a procession. (*refer to Appendix III)

George Town’s entry into the Unesco World Heritage Sites listing is a big recognition of Penang’s unique history. This big recognition was declared back at July 2008. George Town which was one if the first British colonies to be established back many years ago is indeed filled with many historical sites. Besides that, Penang is also famous for many other historical sites that some even dated back at centuries ago. All these factors contributed to the rising numbers of tourist arrivals into the state regardless of domestic or non-domestic.

Conclusion

After all the investigations done on the impact of tourism on Penang Island, we found that tourism has indefinitely brought about many changes to the used-to-be-peaceful island. The most apparent changes would definitely be on the environment of the island. Noted as one of the best and most relaxing destination in Malaysia, Penang was once a very serene and calming place to holiday at. Currently however, many unplanned and unorganized development had cause many environment degradation.

In terms of state’s economic, there is no doubt that tourism plays a major role in sustaining the monetary of the country. Tourism brings positive impact on economy by providing more job employment for the local peoples.

With proper action and care from the Government and the residents of the state. Penang will definitely continue to flourish and blossom into a more majestic and magnificent state in Malaysia!

The term sustainability is used in order to consider socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural impact of tourism on destination and in order to avoid negative effect of the tourism, the following factors must be consider and keep in balance in order to gain permanent sustainability.

A tourism destination will be said as sustainable if it contains the following characteristic.

There must be limited impact on environment is the key and essential element and therefore the use of resource must be in way that doesn’t affect the natural ecological process and that tourism mustn’t affect/ disturb the biodiversity or natural heritage of the destination.

A tourism will be said as sustainable if it doesn’t affect/disturb the culture of the destination and do not make changes in the way of living, culture and native value of the destination and their inhabitants instead the sustaibilile tourism is one which promote the understand of each others culture (culture of host and guest) and therefore sustain able tourism lead increase understanding between guest and host communities and increase their level of tolerance to each other.

A sustainable tourism must generate economic return for the host destination and their communities and these return should be equally distributed to those who deserve it not to be taken by some one else and spend for other purpose but instead a true sustainable tourism improve the socioeconomic life of host destination without affecting their culture and values. The return from sustainable tourism may be distribute in local communities through increasing opportunities for employment and generate income directly to host destination and furthermore this revenue must be used in improving the quality of life of inhabitant in host destination.

Tourism in Maldives:

Maldives is country made up of some twelve hundred islands but some around two hundred island are inhabited while the remaining though some are build as tourist resort but are even untouched including them some are given to external organization for different projects for example few of them are used for fisheries. Including fisheries.

This trend of leasing island started when the tourism development and promotion of Maldives with name as Maldives Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) which has presence through the country , the creation MTDC was a step towards Maldives government to develop its island with name Herathera in Addu Atoll , a wonderful resort for the tourist nad from this day a new chapter of Maldives history was initiated of allowing tourist to use its inhabited island and with the passage of time this concept modified and change into the trend of leasing part of land in island which has got airport for domestic travel to hotels.

The tourism best use of accommodation in Maldives is based on a concept one island one resort and it is estimate that some six hundred thousand people visited Maldives in a year before recession and tsunami affected the island, this number is almost double than the local population of Maldives which is estimate at around three hundred thousand people..

Importance and key development on Sustainable in Maldives:

Maldives is located at the south west of srilanka in the Indian Ocean. The special structure of Maldives make at most vulnerable place to be affected from global warming and the rise in the sea level.

The current sustainability strategy based on vision 2020 focused economic, social and environmental priorities and Maldives has gain substantially from the objectives of vision 2020 in every area of social, economic and environment impact.

How the destination has been planned and developed to achieve sustainability, including identification and actions to correct any areas of un-sustainability.

The growing industry of tourism has posed serious risk to sustainability of culture of host destination together with leaving negative impact of environment and this issue doesn’t apply to any one area or country sustainability is the issue of every country in the world

Maldives’ was an initial few nation who join agenda 21 Millennium development goals and Johannesburg plan for implementation. The vision 2020 launch in the year of 1999 provide the basic frame work towards the sustainable development in Maldives. This vision has covered many areas from socio economic and environmental goal and the plan to achieve these goals together with setting objectives to preservation of natural resource such as biodiversity and natural environment.

Dearden and Harron

(1994) the tourists undertaking this type of tourism are often interested in a quite specific

Attraction, be it a particular animal, mountain, cultural site, or people. The sustainability of

Tourism is hence directly tied to maintaining the integrity of that attraction and mediating the

Interaction between the tourists and the attraction over time, such that interest is maintained

The Maldives national sustainability development strategy is basically drawn on the foundation of national development plan, together with it incorporate the environmental assessment and vision 2020. The strategy is bases on the key significant challenges face by Maldives including social integration and economic growth together environmental conservation.

Based on these three objective the strategy develop have got to do address following key challenges.

Sustainable use of resources in order to protect environment together the national development of Maldives which ensure prosperous life in healthy environment for the current generation and for the future generations to come.

Due to its location and climate Maldives is one the most vulnerable island from climate change as some 8% of Total Island in Maldives are situated just over with in one meter from the sea level and therefore understandably making the future this beautiful island at risk due to climate and melting of ice leading to rise in sea level. In Maldives many of its island are not protected through any king coastal protection and therefore are prone to be affected from the flood and rising tidal wave and with the global warming causing melting of ice and rise in sea it is more difficult for people living in these flood prone dangerous island to save the lives as result increasing frequency of tidal waves and erosion.

But this rising sea level is not posing danger to human life but also it posses’ great threat to coral reef ecosystem because increase in sea level lead to change in temperature and coral reef ecosystem is very critical for economic development together with fisheries and tourism.

The second part of sustainability development strategy launch in 2005 based on national development plan and vision 2020 is regarding the economic development whose main purpose is to division of the this economic gain among people through giving them proper education and reducing poverty and increase employment opportunities for Maldives’ people. Maldives has gain very substantial growth during past 80s and 90s period but the devastating tsunami have considerable impact on economy of this island as before that country’s average GDP growth was over 7.5 percent in past fifteen years. The economy suffers badly since then with negative growth of -5.5% in 2005.

The third objective of sustainability development strategy of Maldives is regarding social factors such provision of education, health and care with housing to Maldives people and Maldives have gain substantially on this factors as social factors of Maldives are very promising as country has witness fall in infant mortality rate, rising literacy rate. But still there are number of areas where Maldives have to work in order to be sustainable island on this planet such unemployment rate in Maldives is more than average and there strategy though brought benefits to people on Maldives on social but still there is much to do.

When a park, marine or land is owned by the government or state of country it is proven fact there is less chances of unsustainibilities issues because state try and make sure to invest sufficient resource in infrastructural maintenance . In Maldives government use model of management as that applied in Europe or USA which create more sustainability issues (Adam and McShane,) 1992 but the problem with sustainability was still there and therefore the result of allowing companies to use island and designate them as protected area cause serious sustainability problems especially arising due to lack of care and high entrance charges and underinvestment in infrastructure together lack of preservation of bio diversity and in appropriate integration with the economy of Maldives, country as a whole.

The use of deregulation in Maldives affect sustainability and to achieve suitability strong regulation is required but there may be case where deregulation and private ownership goes hand in hand with sustainability of destination to get this some bold steps are required such as private origination charge fees just enough to cover its operating cost and local goods and service usage should be encourage and that makes tourist destination integrated with economy

How the destination has been and is being managed to achieve sustainability.

Maldives is a small island for this island to survive, sustainability is very important and unavoidable the goal of sustainability development must be set and strategies to achieve on this goal must take into account the sustainable requirement community involvement.

Maldives is going through very difficult, economic and environmental challenges and in order sustain its tourism and promote sustain bile tourism Maldives should take into account and take measure in order to attract more and more sustainable tourist.

The problem is not only related with sustainable tourism but also could impact the whole basis of Maldives economy and therefore for the islands like Maldives which consist of very small island spread into different geographical locations Maldives have to plan sustainable tourism through an active intra sect orally active planning and Maldives have proved that they are following a sustainable plan strategy which is develop in consistency with goal and vision set for the future of nation and each and every sector of Maldives whether it is governmental or private plays an important part in the development of sustainable Maldives.

The reason why foreigner businesses operate and prefer operation in Maldives are numerous but mainly due to liberal fiscal policies adapted by Maldives government and as there no capital gain tax and other many incentive offered by malice’s government but problem with foreign business operating in Maldives’ are not very concern about sustainability of Maldives such as cultural sustainability although foreign business contribute significantly in the revenue which is ultimately use for the sustainable development of islands.

Recently Maldives president announce a plan for its country to be able to become carbon in decade time is one of the evidence of government commitment towards long term sustainability of the country as rising sea level present on many of Maldives islands which are just above the sea level is a great threat for the country and its future.

The plan to make Maldives a carbon neutral country will make Maldives first country to take such a lead and it’s in its own interest to do so. It is estimate by the 2020 Maldives will get rid of energy from fossil fuels on its archipelago.

The dangerous location of Maldives as most of its island are situated just 1 meter form the sea level and therefore a rise in sea level will completely finish this country and its inhibit at including 385,000 people.

Maldives is a poor country but much active on sustainable development and now its ambition plan of being carbon neutral till 2020 will make it first to take such lead towards sustainable future and it’s a message Maldives to the rich countries to follow Maldives because they have all the resource but on the hand Maldives is poor country but still fighting for sustainable future.

In order to analyse the impact of tourism on sustainability and therefore to make a tourist destination as sustainable, we need to understand that the carrying capacity and open access are the two important concept which must be looked thoroughly. Maldives have sufferer the sustainability issues in the past especially regarding environmental degradation due to rapid expansion of tourism and inadequate and dispersal response from the government of Maldives. It is very difficult to identify and define the carrying capacity of destination but it can be known while on the other hand the social and cultural unsustainbility due to tourism can not be measured.

If we discuss open access resource that such resource such as beautiful scenic view etc lead to generate less revenue and even taking more tourist than carrying capacity lead to the degradation of environment together with affecting culture and society of destination.

Countries often run in race of getting more and more tourist and therefore generate more revenue while ignoring the sustainability factors from tourism and it’s a high time for countries like Maldives to take the lead and make them a sustainable tourist destination not only to protect its environment but to sustain their culture and value and Maldives has always and till now is most active country in taking sustainable measures and has learn from the past.

Conclusion:

In order to promote itself as sustainable tourist destination the government of Maldives have taken some concrete and timely steps like one recently to make country carbon neutral country, being a poor country taking such lead highly commendable and shows the sincerity of Maldives towards sustainability but sustainability is the need of the hour for Maldives and therefore there must be informed participation from every stakeholder like local community, government, tourism organization operation in Maldives and government of Maldives need to provide leadership in order to make Maldives free from fossil fuels and make it most sustainable country in the world. Maldives is leading the sustainability initiative around the world but being a poor it has limited resource and therefore the government in sustain its economy and live of its habitats promote consensus in world towards a more sustainable world.

It must be understand here that sustainbilibity is not one time issue but its continues process and therefore sustainable tourist in order remain sustainable must make efforts with changing times.

Maldives being a sustainable tourist destination is very popular and visitor find good exciting holidays in the country together with high level of satisfaction and making their journey to part of the world a meaningful experience of their lives while sustainability is in itself a very effective marketing tool for host destination.

There are only two mega sport events namely the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics based on the scale of media interest. It means mega-sport event has unique natures such as outstanding reputation, adequate attention and worldwide scope already. A well-managed mega-sport event such as FIFA World Cup will attracts millions of visitors to a place.

The tourism related to mega-sport event can be classified as sport event tourism that Foo L. M (2000) defined sport events tourism as the main purpose of the travel is to take part in an ‘organized’ sporting activity, either as a spectator, participant or official. For example, the diverse preparations in Sydney for the 2000 Games not only cater for the 11,116 athletes, but also take into consideration the potential tourism inflow from Olympic spectators (which could number in the millions), athletes’ families, and estimated 15,000 media personnel (Groote, 2005).

During the event holding, tourists spend money in related tourism businesses like restaurant, shop and hotel, and they may also visit surrounding tourist destinations and attractions. Obviously, tourism obtains benefits directly and indirectly from mega-sport event; while these benefits are various and long-term. In case of 2000 Sydney Olympics (Australian Tourist Commision, 2001):

Visitors to Australia: 406,500 international visitors in September 2000, 15% higher than September 1999 (Australian Bureau of Statistics preliminary data).

Worldwide Olympic TV audience: 3.7 billion in 220 countries (IOC)

Worldwide Olympic Internet audience: 20 million (IOC)

Brand Australia has been advanced by ten years, meaning what the world now knows about Australia, it wouldn’t have known until 2010 had Sydney not hosted the Games (ATC).

The ATC’s media relations program generated an addition A$3.8 billion in publicity for Australia between 1997 and 2000 (ATC)

The ATC’s partnerships with major Olympic sponsors, such as Visa, McDonald’s, Kodak and Coca-Cola generated in additional A$300 million in additional advertising exposure for Australia (ATC).

In late 1999, the ATC launched the Australia 2000 – fun and games campaign to encourage visitation to Australia in 2000. This was aimed at insuring against avoidance, as had been the experience of other major event host cities and countries. In 2000, visitor arrivals to Australia increased by 10.9% to almost five million according to preliminary Australian Bureau of Statistics figures (ABS).

In excess of 100 business events, generating millions of additional export dollars for Australia can be directly attributed to the ATC’s New Century. New World, Australia 2001 campaign aimed at capturing business tourism for Australia off the back of the Games. (ATC) etc.

Furthermore, Hudson S. (2003) summarized relevant benefits for the host as follows:

Major sport events can be catalysts for new facilities and new or improved infrastructure

When sport facilities are built, they become permanent event venues

Major sport events can be catalysts for attracting training sessions and other types of events, such as meetings and exhibitions

There is potential for various sport events year round

Sport events can reflect and enhance culture and local traditions, helping to create a unique and attractive sense of place

Media coverage and its impact on developing a sport destination image can be more important than actual visitor spending

Sport events can assist in destination branding by providing powerful, active lifestyle images and making cultural themes come alive

However, hosting a major sports event also has high risks that mainly affect the sustainability of the tourism. For example the Olympic Games of 1976 in Montreal, it was a financial disaster for the city that almost bankrupt (Newton, 2012) and afterwards they were still faced with the financial debts until 2006 (CBC News, 2006).

2.2 Marketing in tourism

2.2.1 Mega-sport event marketing

Funk D. C (2008) believed that effective marketing activities are able to shape the image of the city and stimulate the economy for the host; to reach specific target markets and position the destination to non-residents for the tourism marketers; to build community identification and create jobs for governments; to increase brand awareness, launch new products and services, and open new markets for sponsors.

In terms of mega-sport event which is in essence experiential, interactive, targeted, and relational; these features are highly relevant and desirable given the modern marketing environment (Crowther, 2011) which can be explained as “events create a social setting for attendees and help raise attendees’ involvement level; therefore, attendees are apt to be more receptive to marketing messages and images associated with the event than they are to those presented via other methods (Pope & Voges, 2000; Meenachan & Shipley, 1999)”.

Therefore, event marketing is defined as a tool for experiential marketing that focuses on consumer experiences, and treats emotionally and rationally driven consumption as a holistic experience (Vel & Sharma, 2010) and it offers an additional advantage, in that it actively engages the consumer with the brand and its personality (Sneath, et al., 2005).

2.2.2 Motivation of sport event tourist

MacInnis D. J, Moorman C. & Jaworski B. J (1991) defined motivation as an internal factor that arouses and prompts goal-directed behavior. Furthermore, Schiffman L. G & Kanuk L. L (2001) detailed a motivation process which includes five stages: needs, tension, drive, want and goal. (Figure 1)

Need recognition

Goal behavior

Want pathway

Drive state

Tension reductionFigure 1

Sport and event consumer motivation process

Source: e.g., Schiffman L. G & Kanuk L. L (2001)

In the first stage: need recognition, Reisinger (2009) mentioned that potential consumers recognize a need when faced with a “problem”, we can understand the “problem” as a catalyst. As mentioned above, the “problem” of sport event consumer is the desire to seek the experiences.

Second stage is the customers are considering how to satisfy this need and at the third stage, people will consider the pathways by their preference to reduce or eliminate the unpleasant state. Want pathway can be considered as decision-making processes and finally the goal behavior which can be understand as the acquisition satisfy people’s need, reduce tension and restore balance.

A well-understanding of motivation process will help the marketer to know (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2007):

When to attempt to influence consumers (focusing marketing activities at the time when most consumers are making decisions to buy a particular product)

The choice of advertising media based on which media the majority of consumers use to gain information about tourism products

The selection of appropriate distribution channels or marketing intermediaries

For example, the VisitBritain’s strategy for 2012 London Olympic Games focused to inspire visitors to explore Britain (VisitBritain, 2010)

As the figure shows, the marketing strategy of VisitBritain focuses Awareness (inspire) and Intention (explore) stages. The marketing challenges are:

Inspire: (long-term develop):

Address the loss of market share and maximise the value of tourism working with the nations and regions of Britain

Develop new product offers to stimulate demand in partnership with the nations and regions

Explore: (Britain-led):

Gain market share

Grow Britain brand awareness

Challenge negative perceptions of welcome, value and quality

2.2.3 Marketing strategy related to tourism

Foxall (1981) defined marketing strategy as being an indication of how each element of the marketing mix will be used to achieve the marketing objectives. It is simple but easily to understand. Normally, the marketing objectives in tourism of mega-sport event host should be:

To maximize the economic benefits for tourism across the host city/country

To enhance the image of the host as a visitor destination

To deliver- and showcase – a world class welcome in and after the event

A widely used marketing mix is the 4 Ps that product, price, place and promotion.

Product

Funk (2008) summarized unique aspects of the mega-sport event product: it is an intangible product; social facilitation via sport and reliance on product extensions. Intangible means it is an experiential product and social facilitation via sport means it has great impacts as mentioned above. However, these features are natural.

Therefore, exploring on extension product is the key to stimulate and meet the demands of tourist. Such as UK launched new 50p coins to commemorating the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (BBC, 2010) and create new travel routes for tourists as an event-related tour products and etc.

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Furthermore, as sport has the ability to directly and indirectly influences a number of aspects in a person’s life (Beaton & Funk, 2008), sport marketers are likely to package themselves as the forefront in the battle to improve quality of life as sport and leisure activities become central components of promoting health lifestyles, and building more integrated communities (Funk, 2008).

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Price

Price can be understood by if it is valuable. Getz and Cheyne (1997) found that focus group participants identified important quality factors that can influence a decision to travel to an event, including reputation of the event, caliber of participants (the best in their field), international scope, and the presence of celebrities, rarity is also a factor. Obviously, mega-sport event has all these factors: outstanding reputation; national caliber; international tourism market; celebrities (NBA stars etc.) and once in four years.

As mentioned above, mega-sport tourists pay for an experience which often involves sensory, emotional, cognitive, behavioural and relational values that replace functional values (Schmitt, 1999). A well-managed service system should be marketed to the audience as favourable factor. In adverse, weakness of service will lead tourist doubt to come. For example, a safety doubt emerging after the news that “with one week remaining before the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, it only has 4,000 guards trained and ready which was expected to provide over 10,000 security personnel for the event (Bartnik, 2012)”.

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Place

It refers to the place where the customers can buy the product and how the product reaches out to that place. The most effective way is media such as Internet, PR and TV. Many scholars believe that media coverage of sport events will help countries to present themselves in favorable terms (Whitson & Macintosh, 1996), and will assist destinations in building a positive image that helps to generate future tourist demand (Faulkner et al., 2000).

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Social media such as Facebook, Flickr and TripAdvisor are increasingly being exploited within mega-sport event marketing campaigns. For example, Facebook has more than 300 million active users, 50% of whom log on everyday. The internet provides a worldwide platform to distribute the information.

Recently emerging channel is mobile. According to VisitBritain (2010), “400m are already using the mobile internet – and this will double by 2012; 87% of people are already using their mobile for media consumption at home”, and 2012 London Olympic Games became the first mobile internet Games.

Development of technology help marketers delivers the information more effective, however, traditional media still important such as newspaper, which are still widely used by old peoples; TV, which covers lots of computer illiterate and broadcast, which can reach the people who have no time to look such as taxi driver.

Promotion

Promotion is the business of communication to the customers such as what benefits the company or organization has to offer rather than exhibit the features.

Hosting the mega-sport events means a valuable promotion opportunity as it can improving a destination’s image and building a destination’s brand for sustainable development (Getz, 1997; Hall, 1992; Jago, et al., 2010; Prentice & Andersen, 2003; Ritchie, 1984) . This means that the city can show off its tourist attractions and the infrastructure that has been generated (Chalip, 2002; Owen, 2005; Whitson & Horne, 2006). Awareness of the region is also positively impacted which again brings in domestic and international tourists and potential investors (Gursoy & Kendall, 2006; Solberg & Preuss, 2007).

For example, in a study examining the effect of special events on a country’s brand building, Jun and Lee (2008) reported a positive relationship between the role of special events on the attitudes of young Korean students towards Germany, specifically, the more exposure Korean students had to special events held in Germany, the more likely they were to form positive attitudes toward Germany. These findings supported Chalip and Costa’s (Chalip & Costa, 2005)general theory that special events can be an extension of a destination brand or can be promoted as certain features of destination brand.

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2.3 Destination service quality

Even though marketing strategy is well managed, tourists’ experience of a hotel, restaurant, or casino will imparts a different sort of knowledge than simply reading or hearing about it (La Tour, et al., 2009).

Destination management includes how competition in tourism increasingly involves geographical systems where suppliers of hospitality, transportation, entertainment, and cultural services collaborate to increase the attractiveness of the destination and improve its ability to acquire customers (Bieger, 1998; Bieger, 2000; Buhalis, 2000; Ritchie & Crouch, 2000; Go & Crompton, 2000).

Event managers are often preoccupied with delivering a high quality program (Getz, 1998), which is basically what visitors come to experience, but equal attention to service quality is essential for ensuring visitor satisfaction.

SA Tourism (2008) concedes to the following ten challenges for 2010: 1) poor access to channels of tourism information, 2) insufficient accommodation, and 3) compelling attractions and activities, 4) inadequate service levels and skills shortage, 5) inadequate public transport, 6) insufficient focus on tourist safety and security, 7) limited institutional capacity, 8) managing expectations, 9) demand management and 10) displacement of general tourists.

In the public eyes, hosting an event is a stimulator of tourism industry to the host city. Fourie and Santana-Gallego (2011) did a research on the impact of mega-sport events on tourist arrivals and resulted at there will be 8% increase of the arrivals on average to the host. The Olympics and FIFA World Cup are more than the average.

For instance, by the data from ForwardKeys (2012), “bookings made by 12th May show a 13% increase in the expected number of arrivals to London during the Olympics Periods” and the rest of UK also receive 4% increase.

Such a rapidly inflow of tourists will bring lots of problems such as transport disasters. Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic Game has provided a cautionary tale of mega-sport event travel chaos: “with bus drivers getting lost, athletes arriving moments before their events and overloaded trains that couldn’t get residents home (Wheatley, 2011).

Therefore, how to provide quality destination service to tourists’ experience, while an influx occurs during the mega-sport event is one of the key factors of the successful tourism operation in mega-sport tourism marketing.

Gronroos (1983) described service quality construct relates the level of experienced quality to both technical and functional dimensions of serve provision (see figure 10.1):

Technical quality – refers to the result of the service and/or the question, what has been provided?

Functional quality – on the other hand, refers to the way the service has been delivered and relates to the question, how has the service been provided?

2.3.1 Technical quality

Technical quality refers to the relatively quantifiable aspects of the service such as “The hotel guest will get a room and a bed to sleep in, the consumer of a restaurant’s services will get a meal, and the train passenger will be transported from one place to anotheraˆ¦” (Gronroos, 1984). In terms of mega-sport event, as influx of tourists, the capability of original infrastructure is not able to meet the needs. That is why Terret (2008) mentioned cities are interested in hosting of the Olympics Games as they can accelerate infrastructure projects.

For example, Olympic experience shows that a highly robust and resilient public transport system is a prerequisite to handle exceptional Olympic mega event traffic demands (Bovy, 2006). In terms of London, it struggles with constraints on the Tube, which handles 12 million trips a day during normal times and the Olympics is estimated to add three million trips on the busiest days (Kirka, 2012). Therefore, it invested ?80m in permanent transport improvements for DLR (Media centre – Press release, 2008), we have seen new rail links created in East London, and improvements to existing underground and overground train services (Pettinger, 2009) and the increase of capability achieved that a train arriving in the Olympic Park area every 15 seconds (London Olympics Transport Upgrade, 2012).

This improvement will shorten the time that tourist move in and out the Olympic Park and reduce the crowd risk. In other hand, a strong public transport will also encourage tourist to choose so that avoid general car traffic on the primary Olympic transport network accordingly.

2.3.2 Functional quality

Local human resource support

Functional quality creates a competitive edge by focusing on the more personal aspects of the service encounter such as “The accessibility of a teller machine, a restaurant or a business consultant, the appearance and behavior of waiters, bank tellers, travel agency representatives, bus drivers, cabin attendants, business consultants, plumbers, how these service firm employees perform, what they say and how they say it do also have an impact on the customer’s view of the serviceaˆ¦ (Gronroos, 1984)”

In terms of mega-sport event, a special group – volunteers – was critical to the successful staging of mega-event because they provided the substantial amount of unpaid additional labour that was needed and also the outstanding service that help the tourists.

For example, in Beijing 2008 Olympic games, there were 70,000 volunteers (Associated Press, 2007) applied in various positions such as translation and interpretation, protocol and reception, contest organization, food and beverage, medical services, security and transportation et al (Volunteer Positions & Requirements, 2008).

To ensure the service quality of the volunteer, a series of training was made before volunteers officially starting their services. In terms of Beijing 2008 Olympic Game, the training includes 4 parts (Organization and Administration of Olympic Volunteering, 2008)

1. General training: basic Olympic knowledge, brief introduction to the Beijing

Olympic and Paralympic Games, Chinese history and traditional culture, history and cultural life in Beijing, knowledge and skills necessary to serve the disabled, etiquette norm, medical knowledge and first-aid skills.

2. Professional training: professional knowledge and skills required in voluntary services.

3. Venue training: venue functions, knowledge concerning the sports held in the venue, internal facilities, organizational structure, rules and regulations.

4. Job training: job responsibilities, specific work, business procedures, and operating norms.

These well-trained volunteers helped the foreign visitors overcome language and cultural barriers, and provide professional service so that enhance the satisfaction of tourist’s experience in great extent and assist Olympic Games operating smoothly.

However, Bejou et al. (1996) mentioned that there are non-standardized services in which the knowledge, behavior and commitment of the service providers are crucial. O’neil et. al. (1999) believe that this experiential “product” (such as event) is produced and consumed simultaneously, is highly heterogeneous and very difficult to store and/or control, but basically, if expectations are met, service quality is perceived to be satisfactory; if unmet, less than satisfactory; if exceeded, more than satisfactory.

In contrary, poor events may causes by such as an emphasis on quantity rather than quality, a product rather than a market orientation, poor physical conditions and lack of information, and poorly selected or inadequately trained personnel (Jackson & Schneider, 1990).

2.4 Sustainable tourism development

The evaluation of the sustainability impacts of any mega-sport event is a complex and difficult task and it involves far more than simply estimating its potential revenue and expenditure (Dodouras & James, 2004). As hosting a mega-sport event can also constituted a unique opportunity for the diversification and enrichment of the host’s tourism product, this legacy will benefit the tourism development in the future. For example, the building of tourism infrastructure in the case of Barcelona significantly enhanced its image and credibility as an international tourist destination (Duran, 2005).

Musgrave & Raj (2009) summarized the three sustainable aspects that influenced by mega-sport event as Figure 1:

Mega-sport Events

Social

Environmental
Economic

Positive:

Induced development and construction expenditure

Long-term promotional benefits

Civic pride

Community development

Increased employment opportunities

Positive:
Raising awareness of environmental issues
Development of waste land
Long-term conservation of area
Positive:
Direct/indirect expenditure
Increased property value due to regeneration
Additional trade and business development
Induced development and construction expenditure
Event product extensions

Negative:

Future use of infrastructure not maximized

Interruption of normal business

Resident exodus

Disruption of lifestyle

Media impacts

Community apathy and antagonism

Increased risk of security issues

Unequal distribution of wealth

Negative:
Site/location damage – short- and long-term
Waste and pollution
Noise pollution
Traffic disruption and congestion
Increase in energy demands and other natural resources
Negative:
Cost of event failure to local/national economy
Inflated price of products, services and amenities
Unequal distribution of wealth

Fig. 1. 1. The ‘three pillar impacts’ of events (Musgrave & Raj, 2009)

Consequently, the objectives of sustainable development are: optimizing socio-cultural impacts; minimizing environmental impacts and maximizing economic impacts (Smith-Christensen, 2009). Specifically, in terms of tourism, these impacts can be operationalized in the post-event period to attain, magnify and sustain their objectives as a sustainable sport tourism legacy. And accordingly, the sustainability of strategies that originate from sport tourism development policies, which according to sustainable development principles should maintain economic efficiency, social equity, and environmental integrity (Campell, 1996; Fitzgerald & Leigh, 2002).

2.4.1 Social impact

“By social impacts we mean the consequences to human populations of any public or private actions that alter the ways in which people live, work, play, relate to one another, organize to meet their needs and generally cope as members of society. The term also includes cultural impacts involving changes to the norms, values, and beliefs that guide and rationalize their cognition of themselves and their society (Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles, 1994)”.

To achieve the outcome that optimizing socio-cultural impact, the organizer should reduce the negative impacts and magnify the positive impacts. Tassiopoulos & Johnson (2009) summarized the social impacts that brought by event tourism as follow:

Negative impacts of tourism:

Sex

The sexual industry has grown rapidly rely on the mega-sport event due to some event attendees’ travel abroad to enjoy uninhibited casual sexual encounters and result on a bad impact of the local. For example, as many as 40,000 women could enter South Africa to work as prostitutes during this year’s football World Cup 2010 (The Telegraph, 2010). The grave danger of this growth has led to the spreading of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (Cooper, et al., 2005).

Health

There are diseases such as swine flu should be noted when people from different countries interact. For example, the recording of more than 8500 cases of malaria infections in the UK, which have been a result of tourist and visiting friends and relatives (VFT) traffic to malaria-infected destinations. These diseases may not fatal but they can cause social and economic stress to the host community.

Commodification

Commodification implies that the demands of tourism (inclusive of events) have led to the mutation and sometimes the destruction of the meaning of cultural performances and special events. Staged authenticity refers to simulated experiences that are developed to satisfy the needs of the visitor. Standardization refers to where the visitor attending an event searches for the familiar, leading to a loss of cultural diversity (Cooper, et al., 2005).

Disruption of lifestyle of residents

Sherwood (2007) refers to increases in traffic and noise and the general disruption to normal daily routines caused by the hosting of an event in the destination. Furthermore, overcrowding, congestion and noise are ascribed to an influx of event visitors in the host destination. This may cause that resident exodus, for instance, third of Britons holidaying abroad this summer have deliberately chosen dates to avoid London 2012 (Gerges, 2012).

Crime and vandalism

Many scholars such as Mathieson and Wall (1982) have suggested that large numbers of visitors to an event carrying relatively large amounts of money and valuables with them will provide a source for illegal activities including drug trafficking, robbery, vandalism and violence. For example, only 10 weeks before the FIFA World Cup 2010, in South Africa, there were 50 murders happened in one day while the South Africa’s murder rate actually dropped slightly last year (Tay, 2010).

Positive impacts of tourism:

The fostering of community/civic pride

Events can be used to put new life into ceremonies and rituals, making them come alive, combining them with skills and crafts. This can inspire and assist with fostering local pride of a host community and provides the best possible experience for the event attendee (Tassiopoulos & Johnson, 2009).

Creating sociocultural awareness and peace

Events take people to new places and can broaden their understanding and knowledge of other cultures and environments. This can be regarded as an educational process and, if channeled properly, this education can lead to greater awareness of, and sympathy and admiration for, other societies. Cultural exchange that takes place between the event attendee and the host community can assist in fostering peace. The belief in the relationship between tourism and peace is so strong that in 1986 the International Institute for Peace through Tourism was set up.

Shared infrastructure

When developments for events take place, for example, the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the local infrastructure is often enhanced to meet the needs of the developments. The host community can find that the quality of their life is enhanced through being able to enjoy this improved infrastructure. This type of infrastructure can include upgrading sporting venues, improvement of airports and general transportation.

Direct sociocultural support

The funding generated from various events can provide funds to assist to restore heritage sites, conserve natural and cultural sites, or assist local charities. The proceeds earned from these events in terms of registration fees and goods sold are donated to various charities within the local community.

2.4.2 Environmental impact

The environmental impact indicates that (Mathieson & Wall, 1982; Jenner & Smith, 1991; Boers & Bosch, 1994; Puczko & Ratz, 2002; 2005):

Impacts on the natural environment, i.e. air quality, geological factors, water quality, depletion of natural resources, flora and fauna;

Impacts on the man-made environment, i.e. buildings visual impacts, changes in land use, infrastructure;

Impacts on the ecosystem.

The depletion of natural resources is accelerated by the use of fossil fuels in transportation, the heating of accommodation and the operation of catering facilities (which are usually non-renewable energy sources like coal, crude oil or natural gas). In more environment-friendly solutions, heating and energy consumption is based on hydro, solar or wind energy.

Wasteful and careless use of the drinking water supply significantly impairs the effectiveness of water management, and decreases available freshwater resources. The wasteful use of the water supply could be avoided by a more environmentally friendly attitude and modern technology.

The positive elements of the environmental impacts most commonly catalogued relate to the new facilities that might not have been politically or financially feasible without the event.

On the negative side, growing attention is being focused on the environmental damage due to development for mega sports events (Tolios, 1997).

2.4.3 Economic impact

Event tourism can generate positive economic impacts, in addition to longer-term place marketing benefits and media exposure for destination, along with sporting or cultural policy benefits (Musgrave & Raj, 2009).

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While these impacts are extremely relevant and often very important, an honest assessment of the value of a particular mega sports event must also include estimates of the negative impacts, such as commodity price increases a

Abstract: The current economic crisis has had a large effect on Greece. Two of the most important economic sectors, tourism and shipping, were seriously affected. This resulted in increased poverty and political instability. This paper focuses on describing the impact of economic crisis on Greek tourism. Therefore, the article presents the relationship between tourism and economic issues, while emphasizing the role of the European Union in fighting the Greek debt crisis. The practical part of the paper presents the results of an online survey regarding Greece’s financial problems and tourism sector attractiveness. The survey includes Romanian respondents who have visited Greece at least once. Results of the study show that most Romanians will continue to travel to Greece despite country’s economic problems. Thus, the article offers relevant support in determining the impact of economic crisis on Greek tourism. Moreover, the article emphasizes tourism sector importance and encourages further research.

JEL classification: G01, H12, L83

Key words: economic crisis; tourism; Greek debt crisis; tourist arrivals; Romania

1. Introduction

Tourism accounts for almost 20% of Greek gross domestic product and almost 17.5 million tourists visit Greece every year. However, the current recession hit Greece very strong. The violent protests and strikes in Athens, as well as the declining euro have determined many tourists to change their travel destination. Nowadays, Greece faces serious debts, increasing unemployment rates and a country image that is slowly deteriorating. In this paper, the author seeks to emphasize the impact of the economic crisis on Greek tourism. Thus, the article describes the evolution of major statistical indicators regarding Greek tourism during 2008-2010 and analyses Romanian preferences for Greek destinations in times of economic decline. Therefore, the author carried out a survey among Romanian population during January-February 2011, to provide relevant information about tourism in Greece. Results of the study show that Greek tourism remains in the top preferences of travel destinations for 2011. The reasons regard Romanians’ belief that Greece is a safe country despite the negative economical context and the cheap travel packages that Greeks offer in order to attract tourists. To conclude, the article presents an in-depth review on an important economic issue while providing significant support to institutions and associations oriented towards tourism in general.

2. Greek tourism during the economic crisis

According to the Greek National Statistical Service, Greece is among the first 15 travel destinations in the world and the second most visited country in Europe. More than 9000 hotels and 400 campsites accommodate international and domestic visitors every year.

The economic downturn started in 2008, caused significant losses in Greek tourism and hotel industry. The situation got worse in 2009, when the Institute for Tourist Research and Forecasts announced that Greece was down 20% from 2008. However, the significant drop in tourist arrivals was not entirely due to Greece’s debt crisis. Countries worldwide were facing serious economic problems and, as the unemployment rates were rapidly increasing, more people decided to postpone their vacations (Conrady, 2010). In promoting travel packages, many public institutions tried to encourage tourism among consumers through marketing campaigns (Serban, 2011).

Realizing the importance of maintaining the cash flows in tourism, the Greek government dropped prices and made the country less expensive for foreign visitors. Still, strikes by Greek workers and frequent protests have disrupted travel plans for many people, making them reconsider their travel to Greece.

Greek government main priority is to keep the crisis primarily economic and encourage the development of tourism and shipping, two of the most important sectors of the economy.

According to the report “Greece – Second Review Under the Stand-by Arrangement” issued by the International Monetary Fund in December 2010, Greece is still fighting the debt crisis, though some economic sectors have shown signs of slow recovery.

Figure 1 presents the evolution of tourism and shipping sector in Greece, during the economic crisis. The shipping sector experienced a downturn in 2009 but managed to recover very well by July 2010. Tourism, however, hardly registered positive values during the period 2008-2010.

Source: Bank of Greece

Figure no. 1 Evolution of tourism and shipping in Greece during January 2008 – July 2010

Recent statistics on tourism provided by the European Travel Commission in the report “European Tourism in 2010: Trends and Prospects, Quarterly Report (Q4/2010)” show that Greece has registered low rates both in foreign visits and hotel occupancy (figure 2 and figure 3).

Source: TourMIS, ETC,*Date varies by destination

Figure no. 2 Foreign visits to selected destinations, 2010

As regards foreign visits, Greece has experienced low rates in the last quarter of 2010 – almost 2%. Aside from the economic crisis, another reason could be country’s orientation towards summer tourism. The hotel occupancy rates registered negative values – almost -5%, unlike most of the European countries.

Source: STR Global

Figure no. 3 Hotel occupancy rates in different countries, 2010

3. Study among romanians regarding the impact of the economic crisis on greek tourism

3.1 Purpose

The purpose of this study is to describe the extent to which the economic crisis in Greece has changed Romanians perceptions about traveling to this country.

3.2 Methodology

The study was based on a survey conducted in January-February 2011. The survey included a self-administrated questionnaire and was considered valid only for respondents which have traveled to Greece at least once. The objective was to determine the probability of returning on vacation in this country given the rigid economical context.

The study included a total sample of 67 respondents, out of which 15 respondents were eliminated because of incomplete responses or not having passed the filter question. Therefore, a final sample of 52 respondents was considered in the final research.

Respondents were selected by using the random sampling method.

The questionnaire was applied in public places: universities, shopping malls, hypermarkets. The questionnaire included one filter question (aˆzHow many times did you travel to Greece?”), 5 questions related to the topic and 4 socio-demographic questions related to age, sex of respondent, level of education and occupation. The questions were structured and closed, with one-choice answer.

3.3 Analyses

In analyzing the answers, the completed questionnaires were at first validated. The first question included a filter in order to separate the respondents who have traveled to Greece before from the ones who had never been to Greece (figure 4). Therefore, only 52 questionnaires were considered valid.

The answers to the first question showed that most respondents traveled to Greece at least once in their life – more than 48% of respondents agreed. The second option was “less than 3 times” in their life (36%), while only 15% of respondents admitted to have visited Greece more than 3 times in their life.

Figure no. 4 Frequency of travel to Greece among Romanians

The second question described the types of tourism one can choose from while traveling to Greece. Though Greece is not a big country, it holds great historical landmarks, various landforms and beautiful religious sites.

Figure 5 shows that most Romanians prefer going to Greece during the summer -30% of respondents agreed. However, a considerable number of respondents prefer Greece for its culture (17%), while others for its religious sites (19%).

Figure no. 5 Romanian preferences regarding Greek tourism

Figure 6 shows the reasons for which most respondents choose to travel to Greece. The most important factor is beautiful sightseeing – 25% of respondents answered this way. Other important factors were: cultural attractions, better accommodation and similar prices to Romania.

Figure no. 6 Description of reasons for traveling to Greece

In addressing the economic crisis issue, the questionnaire included 3 questions. The first question described the impact of the Greek debt crisis on country’s tourism. As figure 7 shows, most Romanians consider that the economic crisis had a great influence on Greece’s tourism – more than 73% of respondents agreed. 2 respondents considered the impact to be low, while 13 respondents said the impact was medium.

Figure no. 7 Impact of the economic crisis on Greek tourism

The answers to the following questions were grouped and presented in figure 8. As a result, Romanians consider going to Greece in spite of the economic crisis (77%). Most respondents agree that the tourism sector was not seriously affected by the economic context and recent travel packages offers have made the country more attractive.

Figure no. 8 Description of reasons for traveling to Greece during the economic crisis

Moreover, Greece holds second position among the top foreign travel destinations for Romanians. Along with Bulgaria and Turkey, Greece is considered to be a perfect country to spend summer vacations.

The reasons for which Romanians choose Greece in times of economic crisis are: cheaper accommodation (34%), special offers: bonus trips, extra-meals or airport taxes included (25%), promotional flight prices and lower docking fees for cruise ships.

5. Conclusions

In this paper, the author presented some important aspects of the economic crisis in Greece. Thus, the article described the relationship between the tourism sector and the economical context in Greece as well as their relevance to the consumer.

The practical part of the paper presented the results of a survey among Romanian consumers regarding Greece’s economic decline and its impact on tourism. Results showed that Greece’s approach for 2010 – continue to reduce prices and increase the quality of services – was successful among Romanians. Moreover, travel agencies in both countries indicated that the number of Romanians who cancelled their holiday to Greece because of the protests in Athens was considerable small compared to those who chose to travel to Greece in the same period. Better travel packages and a strong belief in the national safety of the country convinced many Romanians to travel to Greece in spite of the demonstrations.

Another advantage of Greece in these difficult times is citizens’ long experience in tourism. Greece stands for tradition and culture and its values are well preserved by the population. In attracting tourists, Greeks show respect to their guests and, above all, hospitality. All these things, make the Greece’s debt crisis less dramatic for the Romanian consumers.

By analyzing the case of Greece, the article presents some important view-points regarding the economic crisis in Europe. The information provided reflects the amplitude of the economic crisis worldwide and its rapid spread in most areas of activity. The focus on Greek tourism and its relationship with Romania can offer specialized associations a starting point in further analyzing Romanian tourism and the current tourism strategies.