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Chapter 2Literature Review
2.1 Introduction

The purpose for this work is to review the literature on factors that affect the demand for air transportation and, ascertain what the airline companies did to their management in their effort to stick to the changes in the desire for air transportation. To promote the demand for air transportation, airlines implemented different advertising and marketing strategies. With the development of technology, airlines have taken marketing to digital era; promotion and online sales are among the strategies of marketing that are being used by airlines globally.

2.2 Markets
2.2.1 Definition of a Market

Armstrong & Kotler (2009) and Quester, McGuiggan, Perreault & McCarthy 2007) definitions of marketing always come from people as advertising and selling. Though, they afterward show that advertising and selling are only basics of marketing.

The first certified definition of marketing was accepted in 1935 and was presented by the National Association of Marketing Teachers as “aˆ¦those business activities involved in the flow of goods and services from production to consumption” (Gunlach 2007, p. 243). In 2007, the new certified definition of marketing was given by the American Marketing Association. “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, client, partners, and society at large” (Keefe 2008, p. 29). These different definitions confirms how the idea of marketing has modified over the years from the concepts of transaction like distribution, promotion and pricing to the concepts of relationship such as the significance of commitment, risk and trust (Baines, Fill & Page 2008).

2.2.2 The Airline Marketing Environment

The airline business in terms of the ability to make profit according to different business experts (i.e. Belobaba, Odoni, and Barnhart 2009; Doganis 2006) was explained as being recurring and fundamentally unstable. Doganis (2006) portrays the business as also being consistently battered by developments and restraints both externally and internally. Over the last forty years, the airline business has gone through a five to six years of satisfactory gains which was shortly followed by two to four years of diminishing gains (Doganis 2006). The net profits of the world airlines as commented by Belobaba, Odoni, and Barnhart (2009) have been recurring and very variable over the past three decades after the 1978 deregulation Act. In Figure 1, sources of data from the Air Transport Association (ATA) have also shown the recurring nature of the business in which the amplitude of the reoccurrence is seen to be getting bigger and bigger over the past thirty years.

According to Doganis (2006), the airline business in the new millennium has had to cope not only with many unfavorable external shocks but also with changing and possibly shaking internal developments. Much research has examined the airline business during and after deregulation. According to Doganis (2006), the business has been reshaped in several ways; some of which are the distribution and selling online, transfer of state owned carriers and new low cost no add-ons carries are just some of the vital developments that have been putting impacts on the airline industry at the time of falling air fees.

Competition from carriers with low cost and the decreased readiness in travelers for business to pay for a higher fee charged by full fee airlines continues to play a part in a major way to the poor financial functioning of airlines with full fare. The performance of poor finance still remains as one of the greatest challenges faced by today by the airline industry (Belobaba, Odoni, and Barnhart 2009). Other outside factors such as Iraq war in 2003 and the SARS outbreak have also influenced many airlines not in the United States. Routes that leads to and passes through the Middle East took the biggest blow, affecting many different airlines round the world while airlines in East Asia such as Cathay Pacific, Thai airways and Singapore airlines saw the levels of their traffic collapse over 50% and finally took many months to get back (Doganis 2006).

The universal airline business today comprises of over 2000 airlines managing more than 23,000 business aircraft, providing service to more than 3700 airports (ATAG 2008). The world’s airlines in 2007 transported more than 2.2 billion passengers in 29 million scheduled flights (IATA 2008). The need for air travel is very much connected to the economic climate of the world. When the economy slows down, the increase in demand for air traffic and that of air freight also slows down (Doganis 2006). The major stimulant for air travel is the growth of the economy. On the average, 5-6% of yearly growth in air travel has been fed by an average of 2-3% yearly growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) worldwide (Belobaba, Odoni, and Barnhart 2009).

Though the growth in air traffic is connected with the performance of the world’s economy, the airline business on its own is a major force in the economy, with respects to the way it operates and its impact in industries that are related such as tourism and manufacturing of aircraft (Belobaba, Odoni, and Barnhart 2009). For instance, airlines in Singapore in 2009 transported to and from New Zealand, 470,000 passengers and the tourism in New Zealand have grabbed the opportunity to advance its tourism. Tourism New Zealand had in recent times entered into an agreement with airlines in Singapore to jointly grow and advance tourism to New Zealand under the service of airline in Singapore (Tourism New Zealand 2009). This has clearly confirmed how the operation in one airline can affect the business in another sector such as the tourism business. Taking a cursory look at the future of airline business, Doganis alleged that the long term view for air transport seemed good, proposing that the long term predictions for the growth in air traffic making reference to the world’s GDP, would be around 5% over the first 20 years of the present millennium. Doganis (2006) also drew conclusions that the factors that affects the performance of airlines’ finance may vary between markets or different regions. Consequently, the airlines’ performance in a specific region may fail to match to the global economy (Doganis 2006).

In combination with the assumption of Doganis (2006), Belobaba, Odoni and Barnhart (2009), also concurred that based on history, the yearly growth in air transportation has been almost two times the yearly growth in Gross Domestic Product. In spite of the positive predictions in yearly traffic growth, Belobaba, Odoni, and Barnhart (2009) also claimed that after 30 years of deregulation and following liberalization of many other markets round the globe, the business remains delicate.

2.2.4 Marketing process

The planning process of marketing which includes all features of managing marketing consists of the analysis of marketing, strategy development and the application of the market mix (Dibb 2002; Rankin 2009) is broadly embraced by industries from all different type of business and is extensively discussed in business publications, journal articles and marketing texts. The reassessment of planning theory and practice for marketing have seen a huge number of studies such as Greenley and Bayus (1994), Peter and Donnelly (2004), Ardley (2006), McDonald (2007), Armstrong and Kotler (2009). The planning for marketing was found not as direct as the strict literature suggests. Greenley and Bayus (1994) reviewed on the decision making of marketing planning between industries. The result indicated that by making use of a multifaceted approach, industries were made to understand the process of marketing planning

The objectives of marketing can be achieved by using strategies for marketing which are largely concerned with the marketing mix (McDonald 2006). According to Peter and Donnelly (2004) the marketing process included calculated plan, marketing plan, implementation and control and marketing information system and marketing research. Marketing was also stated by Armstrong and Kotler (2009), as the process by which companies create values for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return. This process as stated above involves understanding the customer needs and wants and the marketplace, the design of the market strategy driven by the customer, the making of an incorporated marketing program that offers superior value, enabling customer relationships and lastly, capturing values from customers.

Ardley (2006) conducted an examination on a narratological approach to the planning of marketing and found out that the narratives used by the marketing managers in the examination were intensely convinced by the constructing of meaning and act in the setting of an organization. The study done by Dibb (2002) also showed that the efficiency of the process is not certain depending on how industries enact the process thus the planning for marketing must be dependent on a clearly organized and well presented process.

2.2.5 Marketing Strategies and Practices for Airlines

Though the products and services in the airline business are varied with various structures of market, sectioning markets by class flow is not longer a suitable indicator for recognizing varied customer segments (Teichert, Shehu and von Wartburg 2007). Also, the level of air service in these different products is rather the same between airlines (Doganis 2002). Airlines distinguish products and services from other airlines in competition, according to Doganis (2002), by being the first to release new types of aircraft, put in more on ground services and in-flight catering, increase rate of service and most essentially by price competition. Hanlon (2007) specified that by doing a marketing campaign, a number of passengers can be increased without any price changes. This section of the literature will consider some of the marketing strategies and practices of airline which includes online sales and promotion, advertising, cost cutting, management of brand and recurrent flyer programs used by airlines so as to get new passengers and keep the ones that are already their customers.

2.2.5.1 Market segmentation and strategies

In the airline business, the decisions that customers make are usually based on flight schedule, price of ticket and conditions, the quality of service, the socioeconomic characteristics of travelers and the purpose of the trip. As market and the buying behavior of customers change, it is essential to access the nature of the behavior of the customer in the future (Teichert, Shehu & von Wartburg 2008). As part of the strategies of the airline business, airlines are first of all needed to section the market so as to permit efficient marketing to be used. Subdivision of the market has been reviewed by many researchers (for example Chin 2002; Palmer & Miller 2004; Teichert, Shehu &von Wartburg 2008; Claussen & O’ Higgins 2010). There is a wide accord among the investigators that subdivision is a basic component of the strategy of marketing. Subdivision has been observed to contribute in understanding customers, adaptation of the product mix, distribution of resources, in addition to the development and assessment of new products and market approaches (Palmer & Miller 2004).

Conventionally, the airline market is sectioned into economy and business passengers; nevertheless, the research by Teichert, Shehu & von Wartburg (2008) showed that depending on flight class as the criterion for subdivision may result in ineffective offerings and marketing guidelines. The researchers suggested the leisure and business market with the new subdivision of effectiveness, comfort and price-oriented offerings for future market success of airlines. On the other hand, the leisure and business market can also be divided into different sections with various features and demands. Claussen & O’ Higgins (2010) sectioned the business market based on its position and the level of revenue. Nevertheless, the leisure markets have been sectioned into service oriented customers, flexibility and price.

As there is an increase in distance and travel time, the frequency of flight might reduce and the number of airlines that provide straightforward flights drop. This is because these airlines tend to make more profit from short distance trip especially from those passengers on vacation. Therefore, the buying behavior of customers could be influenced by these factors. Market sectioning plays an essential part when constructing the strategies of marketing as failure to properly section customers may result in misinterpretation of the customer’s behavior and lastly inefficient strategies of marketing.

Advertising

One of the communication methods of marketing used by airlines is advertising. Shaw (2007) has studied what advertising can and cannot do for airlines. The research found that the advertising can be used to upgrade the brand values and image of the airline but cannot be used to brain wash the customers if the service delivered is below standard as the customers will tell the difference between what is being advertised and their experience. In addition, rather than being a tool for marketing, advertising has also been used as a form of communication in organizational crisis. Research by Cowden and Sellnow (2002) looked into the use of advertising as part of the image restoration strategies of Northwest Airlines related to the 1998 pilots’ strike. Squalli (2009) researched the relationship between the expenditure of airline advertising and the safety perception of customers and found that airlines do not increase advertising in relation to accidents but increase it to portray the aspect of safety and discount promotions in different seasons.

Gilbert, Child and Bennett (2001) examined various strategies of advertising specifically of low cost carriers in Europe. The research found that most of the low cost carriers follow a means to success that is learnt from the United States low cost carriers which believe that it is necessary to create the awareness of customers in the chosen market. Examples of media used by these carriers for advertising include magazines, radio, poster sites and newspapers. Advertising plays an essential role in airline business. Many businesses and airlines have already used advertising to boost their image and brand and create the awareness of the products to the customer which in turn encourages more customers. In some cases, advertising is also used as a part of the crisis communication tool of industries.

Online Sales and Promotions

Businesses are making use of the immense growth in the internet to unequivocally sell their products. The internet is seen by airlines as an area of great potential growth especially when airlines started to give discount for online bookings. Gilbert, Child and Bennett (2001) found that many low cost carriers gave discount for booking online because the online service is easy to access, provides a cheap cost of operating and is an exceptional means of advertising and distribution. The behavior of the customer and benefits of using the internet as a channel to buy flight tickets have been reviewed by many investigators (for example Brunger & Perelli 2008; Kolsaker, Lee-Kelley & Pui Ching 2004; Sonal & Preeta 2005; Toh & Raven 2003). Sonal & Preeta (2005) found that exclusive features of the internet have encouraged the progress of electronic trade and increased occurrence of net-based sales promotion. The features include interactive medium, global access, effectiveness of cost, and possibility of customization. Sonal & Preeta (2005) also found that the existence o the internet also increases the efficiency of other communication tools.

Brunger & Perelli (2008) examined the effect of the internet on the fees of airline based on the viewpoint of customers. The study showed that internet extent of search and improved personal control while lower fees are a side effect of wider and more detailed search. Toh & Raven (2003) studied the importance of using strategies of Integrated Internet Marketing (IIM) by airlines. The research found out that using the strategies of IIM have increased suitability for customer, gave lower price, and reduced unfairness that customer might experience when using travel agents. Though the web is used as a substitute to promote and allocate the products, research by Kolsaker, Lee-Kelley &Pui Ching (2004) observed that risks which include the privacy concern, security and poor customer services have been found to be associated with the willingness of customer to purchase ticket through the internet. On the other hand, the research also stated that suitability which includes site usability, time savings and information provision can encourage the willingness of customers. It can be observed that the internet is largely used by airlines and is becoming an essential and efficient communication tool in marketing. The features of the internet provide a substitute option of searching for information and online buying. Internet reductions have captivated the attention of customers especially for those who follow the low cost carriers who used internet as allocation channel and to lessen their cost of operation which can in turn raise the demand of passengers especially those that are price elastic.

Pricing

The biased pricing and distribution of price have already been studied by many researchers such as Chi & Koo (2009), Hanlon (2007), and Martin & Koo (2009). The factors that influence the variations of everyday air fees have been studied by Martin & Koo (2009). The research revealed that the price distribution was affected by demand in the market and pressure on competition developed from the presence of low cost carriers; however, the legacy airlines seem to use a more insistent high-low strategy of pricing in reaction to the presence of low cost carriers. Chi & Koo (2009) also carried out a research on the pricing behavior of airlines in the United States airline business. The research observed that in the same market condition, the pricing techniques among these United States airline differed.

According to Hanlon (2007), the legacy airlines have occupied high market shares and might bring in a price cuts so as to destabilize their counterparts. These practices were used seriously by legacy airlines particularly after the 1978 deregulation. The air transport market competition has gone up while the real air fees have dropped as observed by Chi & Koo (2009). Airlines have offered reductions in their fees in order to get more customers in some market. Shaw (2007) has studied some of the practices of airline on the reduction in air fees. The study showed that the reduction in air fees normally come with limit such as the conditions for minimum and maximum stay, special fees, tour package and standby ticket. In the market of these days after the development of low cost carriers, the need for air travel has considerably increased. Reacting to the changes in the buying behavior of customers, some airlines with full fees have developed new strategies for pricing such as reduction ticket with boundaries together with higher quality of service so as to be in competition with low cost carriers.

2.3 Airline Customers

Today, airlines are more and more involved in the extremely competitive business. This part examines airline customers in various markets such as; leisure and business so as to make sure airlines have an accurate target market.

2.3.1 Business customers

Many airlines have taken those travelers who go for business as being at the peak of their marketing efforts since the benefits received per distance traveled by a passenger had generally been quite bigger than those gotten from those who travel for leisure (Shaw 2007). Airlines normally provide greater frequencies for flight for passengers that take the business route since these passengers have been observed to place higher value on their time (Dresner 2006). Claussen and O’ Higgins (2010) also suggest that on some business trips where the demand for business class flights reached the greatest point such as the London to New York route, airline companies offered premium flight to this business market by eliminating the first class and less profitable economy class cabins.

For that reason, aiming right customers in the business market is essential specifically during falling periods which many establishments have a demoting policy in order to economize money specifically using the First Class and Business Class. As shown by Shaw (2007), airlines will have to aim at those who made the decisions about the corporate travel policy of the company or even managerial secretaries by showing the advantages of paying to travel in the best cabins of the aircraft. In spite of the fact that airlines mainly section their customers into economy and business passengers and align the strategy of their product with suppleness in business market and price for passengers embarking for leisure trips, a study by Teichert, Shehu & von Wartburg (2007) claimed that in the well spirited and intelligibility market, separation of airline passenger markets into leisure and business class did not adequately take the preference extensiveness among customers and could lead to a misinterpretation of the preferences of the customer. Passengers that travel for business are observed to become very appealing to airlines because the carrier will make a huge income from this market if they can set up and sustain loyalty of these passengers. Getting acquainted with the need of customers and their buying behavior is vital to effective marketing (Peter and Donnelly 2004).

2.3.2 Leisure Customers

As low cost carriers have come into the business and increase their market share, the proportion between business travelers and leisure travelers as travelers that travel on leisure accounts for a larger percentage of total traffic (Dresner 2006). These fluctuations in the market have led to tougher competition in the airline business. Dresner (2006) and Shaw (2007) claimed that the increase in the business of leisure passengers was influenced by the increase in the number of carriers with low cost, infrastructural development of air transportation and increase in non-refundable income. Some investigators (Dresner 2006; Njegovan 2006; Papatheodorou & Lei 2006) showed that leisure passengers were normally considered as highly flexible in price and time rich than business passengers. That is to say, charging reduced prices on routes for vacation could maximize the revenues of airline.

According to Shaw (2007), the income earned per distance covered by a passenger on leisure trip is lower than that of a passenger on business trip; on the contrary, these passengers do not need regular service and normally travel during the peak periods in different seasons. This earned income allows airlines to use comparatively large aircraft which can carry more load so as to reduce the difference between available and income per cost of distance traveled by passenger. Nonetheless, Njegovan (2006) claimed that the need for air transportation was reasonably not elastic as regards air fees; nevertheless, the need was rather sensitive to the fluctuations in the total expenditure of the customer.

Doganis (2002) also supported the above claim that when forecasting the need for air services, the need for all other types of expenses that passengers would experience must also be forecasted. In addition, Dresner (2006) observed that the percentage of passengers that embark on business and leisure trips did not cause airlines to make considerable modification to their operations while Doganis (2002) argued that mixing passengers that travel for leisure and business purposes has significant effects on marketing and pricing strategies. By comprehending the need of the leisure market, airlines will have the ability to create the business plan in line with the market demand. However, the airlines must make sure that air travel will be chosen and the vacation is booked within one of the routes of the airline rather than that of a competitor.

2.4 Demands for Air Travel

This section seek to identify the different factors that affects the demand for air travel and the strategies airlines have embraced to encourage the demand for air travel. The demand for air travel occurs from different factors. Current developments towards international air services liberalization has permitted many low cost operations to spread into many new markets, resulting in falling air fees (Doganis 2006). In addition to the depreciating air fees, an increase in personal income has led to an increase in demand for leisure tours. According to Chin (2002), liberalization of trade, natural growth of population, globalization and accelerated economic growth has had a positive impact on the demand for business travel. In combination, Doganis (2006) also made a remark that the growth in demand for air traffic and for air freight seems to be closely related to the economic climate of the world.

On the other hand, Chin (2002) noted that the demand for air services depends on the volume of air traffic on the particular route. The factors that affects demand on particular route is again linked to the comparative attractiveness of the destination of the traveler, the exchange rate of the currency, comparative cost of holidays, extent of migration as well as the price of goods. Again, Chin (2002) specified that the nature of commercial and industrial activities surrounding the environs of the airport has also played a part on the influences of volume in business traffic. Most especially the pattern and growth of demand of any route are affected by the demographic and economic feature of the market at both ends of the route (Chin 2002).

In spite of all the different factors stated above, many airlines have agreed to use the Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) to encourage the demand for air travel. FFPs are intended to achieve a high degree of brand reliability specifically among business travelers and at the same time to draw primary demand (Brancatelli 1986). According to Lederman (2007), the improvements to an airline’s FFP are also related with the increase in its demand on routes in which the airline is specifically dominant on.

2.4.1 Loyalty Programs

Loyalty plans form part of an overall marketing strategy for airlines and can be more advantageous than other forms of marketing. Hanlon (2007) provided three types of the loyalty plans which are the Frequent Flyer Programs (FFP), Travel Agency Commission Overrides (TACOs) and corporate discount. On the other hand, the FFP deals with passengers while the other two focus mainly on travel agents and industries individually. Generally, the FFPs were explained by many authors (for example Chin 2002; Hanlon 2007; Long, McMellon, Clark & Schiffman 2006) as the most popular and successful marketing strategy created by airlines so that the loyalty of travelers are induced and captured.

The FFPs give incentives to the passenger for repeat patronage of the services of a specific airline or airlines through associations by offering upgrades and free travel to the passenger. According to Chin (2002), FFPs are majorly designed to achieve a high degree of brand loyalty specifically among passengers who travel for business. The FFPs are also made to get the attention of primary demand, efficiently dissuade the competition of new carrier, and give airlines direct and effective tools to communicate with their customers. In addition, FFPs are made to protect market share, erosion of profit and revenues as a result of the FFPs of their competitors. Long, McMellon, Clark & Schiffman (2006) also contributes by saying that the frequency marketing program rather than FFPs in airline business is also broadly used by many types of business such as credit cards, hotels, car rentals, and telephone companies.

Despite the fact that the FFPs are usually used by airlines to capture the loyalty of customers, a study done by Whyte (2003) claimed that the repeat purchase behavior of some customers create a negative impression of loyalty as they do not want to waste the points they have gained and repurchase the services to get enough points for a free flight. The efficiency of FFPs used in many airlines as a marketing tool has been researched by some researchers (e.g. Chin 2002; Long, McMellon, Clark & Schiffman 2006). Passengers that travel for business seem to be more interested in the FFPs while passengers on leisure trip are more interested with the real benefits and onboard treatment (Long, McMellon, Clark & Schiffman 2006). Chin (2002) found that the network coverage of airline, duration and distance of flight, features of an individual FFPs and the market share of airlines could affect the efficiency of FFPs.

In terms of demand, study on the effect of international FFPs on local airline demand by Lederman (2007) indicated that improvements to an airline’s FFPs have the greatest influence on demand and fees particularly on routes that set out from an airline’s most heavily occupied airports. The study done by Chin (2002) also showed that the FFPs are more efficient in increasing the demand within the group of FFPs member rather than among the non-FFPs members. It can be seen that the FFPs are seriously used by airlines to make bigger their market and build the brand loyalty. Passengers on business trip seem to be more concerned with the FFPs not only through the frequent flyer miles but also from access to benefits gained from airline’s partners, priority seating and airline’s lounge. From the total results, the FFPs are one of the most efficient instruments for marketing used by airlines and have been found to increase the passengers demand.

2.4.2 Industry Supply

When there is a demand, a supply must also be available to cater for the needs of the demand. The airline industry supply side factor includes factors such as frequency of service, availability of seat, time of departure and arrival and number of in-transit stops influences the distribution of demand between competing carriers and play a major role in affecting the specific demand of airline (Chin 2002). Increasing the frequency of departures on a specific route can enhance the suitability of air travel for passengers. By doing so not only does the high motivation of demand in air travel is satisfied, the airlines were also able to benefit from higher traffic and incomes associated with this increased frequency (Belobaba, Odoni & Barnhart 2009).

According to Doganis (2006), since restraints in the growth of traffic can be caused by the insufficiency of the aviation infrastructure in several parts of the world, the sustained growth of traffic at around 5% a year will put the existing infrastructure on pressure. The infrastructure insufficiency will eventually limit the supply side of the airline industry as insufficient infrastructure such as runways slots can possibly affect the number of flights departing and arriving from the airport thus, affecting the supply output of the airlines.

2.5 Conclusion

The findings from this review suggest that getting to know the customer behavior is a vital point to success of airline business. Airlines need to understand the need of customers in various markets and provide the right product for the customers. However, the behavior of customer may also change with the effect of the economy. Thus airlines need to have a working plan in order to support the change of travel pattern

TERM OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Service providers such as restaurants, hotels, motels, inns are classified under the umbrella of the hospitality industry. The hospitality word come from a French word “hospice” meaning to provide care for travelers from distant countries to feel at home in the county they are visiting. Hospitality industry is growing by day and it span all over the world.

1.2) Advantages

Our country Malaysia will gain a lot of advantages from the hospitality industry as this industry will create job opportunities for the country and increases the revenue of the country through tourism. Taking for example the high level or the 4/5 stars hotel like Golden Sand Hotel, having to hire enough man power or part time workers to cater for the increase of tourist. Workers need will be at the Front Desk department and the Housekeeping Department. This not only benefits permanent staff but also those students who need extra income to finance their studies.

The hospitality industry is not the only industry which will profit when the numbers for tourist from other countries increases. Every industry players in the country also wants to gain some profit such as when tourist visit a country for a day or more they would have to search for a suitable place to stay. Looking for accommodation one has to assess the purpose of their visit and Traders Hotel is the best choice for business visits. If the tourist visiting a country to relax themselves, then budget hotels and above would be a better choice.

Food and Beverage Industry is the second industry which will benefit to earn a large amount of profit. Travellers visiting a country will travel around to find food when hungry. Malaysia food or our local cuisine will be their choice and with this income will be generated for the Food and Beverage Industry. In case any local wishing to operate a restaurant out station, tourist will have to the opportunity to try it and their food will be easily be accepted,

Tourist from countries like Gengland, Germany and Japan were impressed to see our beautiful beaches and our historical buildings. The tallest tower in Kuala Lumpur, the Twin Tower will be a great surprise to them as their country does not have such tall tower or structure. They will also tell their friend at home of the magnificence things that Malaysia has offered. Malaysia will create a name for herself when tourist visits Malaysia. With this the hospitality and tourism industry will bloom when the satisfied tourist return to visit. Malaysia “Visit Malaysia Year” promotion will be permitted to put up posters advertisement on the public transport.

Business and trade opportunities will flourish with visitors visiting Malaysia via the Hospitality Industry. They will be captivated by some of the resources that Malaysia can offer such as rubber and tin ore and in return the economy of Malaysia will improve. Science and Technology in countries like America, China and Japan are more advanced than Malaysia who is still slightly behind will gain better knowledge by learning from these advanced countries.

The professional and cons of everything. The benefits of the Hospitality Industry are that it will make Malaysia shine but at the same time it will also bring in some disadvantages to our country.

1.3) Disadvantages

The increase in crime rate is what we see as the most disadvantages that our country will face. It must be forgotten that al tourist from other countries that apply visa to visit our country comes with good intention. There may be some criminal from other countries coming to Malaysia to escape from the law of their own country. They might commit crimes in our country such as murder, robbery and other things associated with crime.

On the other hand, visiting tourist from other countries visiting Malaysia, they will stay in hotels and this in return bring in profits to the lodging Industry. This is good for our country. With the increase in arrival of tourist there might not be enough rooms to cater especially during the peak season. Three or four stars hotel normally does not have a lot of rooms unlike the five star hotels, so the question is where are these travelers going to stay?

These day, frequent raids have been conducted on night sport, entertainment outlets, bars and small shady hotel to wipe out foreigners who enter the country on tourist visa as many have exploited their visa by working illegally in the country especially in the night entertainment industry. This has caused a lot of home to break as the men would visit these places frequently, thus divorce rate might increase by 40%.

Another factor to be looked into is the policy of the government caught between the two sectors. They might be caught in between upgrading the airport or to build new factories. At times the choice made may not be correct. If upgrading the airport is their choice than the Hospitality and Tourism Industry will flourish and on the other hand they might ignore the development or manufacturing industry. At such the country’s growth will not be in balance.

Culture change and beliefs will be another factory that Malaysia needs to address due to the arrival of tourist whereby they will bring in such cultures and beliefs that may not benefit our country. One example is the dressing whereby our youngsters were influence to start wearing western dressing which is short and revealing. Due to all these our conservative nature, old tradition will phase off and soon forgotten.

In conclusion, Hospitality Industry needs to be upgraded so as to generate enough income for the country’s development. On the other hand our government needs to put in more effort to preserve the tradition of our country.

2.0) QUESTION 2

Find out the factors that affecting travel and tourism. Explain in detail.

2.1) FACTORS THAT AFFECTING TRAVEL AND TOURISM

It is the dream of every country to be listed as the first country one would like to visit for holidays or business. The popularity and so is the economy will be increased when having tourist from other countries. Hoping to draw in more tourists most countries are frequently into ways to develop or improve or upgrade their tourist spots. To further attract tourist promotions and advertisement have to be done often. There are several factors that can have negative effect on the Travel and Tourism Industry which cannot be avoided such as below.

Weather Conditions

One factor that can deter a tourist from visiting a country is weather which human do not have the capability to combat it since it is the product of nature. If a country encounters extreme bad weather such as a blizzard, heat wave or heavy snow fall off no tourist will want to make that visit. During certain times of the year some countries experience heavy rainfall resulting in floods and that will hamper the tourist to make visits as it will be very inconvenient to do shopping or sightseeing.

Natural Disasters

Earthquakes or tsunamis are act of god and cannot be controlled by human. During any earthquake occurrence loss of lives, serious damaged to properties and infrastructure will be badly damaged. Taking for example the recent earthquake that hit Japan. All tourists had their booking for the holidays either have their booking cancelled and some opted for change to a safer destination.

Disease Outbreaks or Plagues

A human brain works better compared to that of animals and that allows us to think logically. In case where there is an outbreak of disease and plague in a country, tourist will avoid making visits to that country. To persuade a tourist to visit a country down with such disaster is not easy especially those who do not want to take any chance of falling ill. No tourist would like to take chances or put their family in danger by going to such affected places no matter how much the visit means to them or for whatever reasons as some disease like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) would be fatal.

Countries at War

No tourist of sound mind would like to visit a war-torn country. People visiting this war-torn country are mostly journalist sent to cover news of the war and also some who would like to see the suffering of the people of that country. During such period the government of that country is more concern about winning the war and not attracting tourist. In short that very country will no longer have places of attraction or scenic beauty which is safe for tourist from other country to admire or enjoy as lives will be lost daily due to the unrest. Who would like to be caught in the crossfire of the two opposing forces in the country?

Economy

In times of economic recession people will be more careful in the way their money is spent. Saving money will be their main agenda and the money they will spend will be concentrated on food instead of other shopping. Even though there is a need to have a break they will go to a places nearer to home where they do not have to pay accommodation charges or other charges which were increased to cushion the inflation by staying in hotels for a day or two. Tourist will also be discouraged to travel until such time when the recession is over.

Season

The kind of holidays and the climate suitable is the decision tourist takes in consideration when planning their holidays. Some tourists prefer to visit countries during winter to enjoy the snow and also winter sports. Older people prefer to go to countries to enjoy the sunshine because most of the older people dislike cold and freezing places. Family with children will definitely look towards holidays in places where they can share the fun with their children in theme parks like Sunway Lagoon and etc.

Insufficient Promotions or Advertisements

Tourist will not take chances to visit places that they are not well informed about the people, country and sceneries. They might not be able to visualize if the country they are visiting lives up to their expectation.

In conclusion, a country well maintained free from diseases, minimal crime rate, good economy and free from war is the most preferred destination a tourist would look forward to.

Many factors play a big role in determining community participation in ecotourism planning initiatives. In addition community participation differ in their needs,

2.8.1 Social benefits

The theoretical roots of social benefits of community participation in eco-tourism are date back to the social exchange theory. The social exchange theory assumes that social relations involve exchange of resources among groups seeking mutual benefits from exchange relationships. The central idea of social exchange theory is that the exchange of social and material resources is a fundamental determinant of human interaction. Research on residents’ reactions to tourism development based on the theoretical constructs of the Social Exchange Theory has examined the relationship between and among the perception of the benefits, costs, impacts, and support for tourism (Gursoy et. al.2002, Lindberg & Johnson 1997, Jurowski et al. 1997).

The present study is focusing on two social benefits of community participation named by awareness of changing way of life and satisfaction level of promoting local traditional and culture.

As a study by Hunter and Green, (1995) defined Interaction between cultures and hosting visitors may lead to a decline in the local culture, therefore, it may lead to the neglect of the local population of their heritage and tradition of tourists, especially young people. This concept is recognized as a ‘demonstration’ where ‘the local population to modify their behavior and aspirations and by following the example of tourists. Therefore Shaw and Williams (1994), emphasized the social benefits that influence a positive impact on society, particularly those who seek to improve education and standard of living or to seek equality between the genders, demonstration effect and usually occurs among young people the host population. The consequence of this effect is the conflicts within the community among young people “modern” and the elder “traditional. According to Ceballos-Lascurain (1996), tourism may offer employment to host residents, presenting women and youths the opportunity to earn a wage, which before was not possible, this may also cause conflict within homes, where the incomes of women or the youths may empower them, allowing them to challenge their traditional roles at home and in society. The challenging of traditional roles will also lead to changes in the culture. Concealed pre-existing divisions between communities members may be enhanced as certain individuals may benefit from tourism while others could be excluded from participating. As tourism develops there may be many economic potentials, where the first to capitalize may be quick to dominate the market. This may erupt in issues of fairness, jealousy and resentment within the community. However, in recent years social and cultural aspects have become increasingly important in the sustainable tourism debate, especially in the context of developing countries where poverty is a widespread problem (Strasdas, 2005). Garrod (2003) identified Social aspect to the ability of the local community to determine the social impacts of ecotourism development. Social empowerment will result in ecotourism making a contribution to the social cohesion and integrity of the local community, rather than detracting from it. it is most likely to be found in those communities where part of the net returns from ecotourism are recycled back into the local community in the form of investment in local infrastructure of the founding of social projects. According to Pongponrat & Pongquan (2007) that social relations and interactions within the community became stronger among various stakeholders involved in this fair. In addition, visitors learned local traditions and culture which will help the community to solicit their support on local cultural promotion and preservation in future. Even though the idea of ecotourism already contains social and cultural compatibility as well as the generation of benefits to local people as important elements, the focus is more on nature conservation.

Awareness of changing way of life

Tanya , Piyaphan and Suwipa ( 2009) conducted a study to investigate the need and readiness of community in managing community-based ecotourism; and to gather and assemble local knowledge to develop guideline for community-based ecotourism management The Hmong and Karen stakeholders from 14 villages of Mae Wang and Mae Chaem district, Chiang Mai Province, within responsible area of the Mae Hae Royal Project Development Station, were involved in this study Northern Thailand, the authors investigate relationship between awareness of changing way of life& level of community participation the authors fund the result of Attraction of culture and way of life satisfied, In addition, visitors learned local traditions and culture which will help the community to solicit their support on local cultural promotion and preservation in future.

A study conducted by Assefa and Olav (2005) to examine the local people’s participation in the management and development of ecotourism projects in the Adwa district, Northern Ethiopia, the authors investigate the relationship between awareness of impacts of tourism on local life & level of community participation, the authors found a negative relationship, arguing that people are more aware of the negative effects on their life and their culture of tourism more than what is on the natural environment. Ceballos-Lascurain (1996), believed that the challenging of traditional roles will also lead to changes in the culture. Therefore, Hunter and Green, (1995) refers Interaction between cultures and hosting visitors may lead to a decline in the local culture, therefore, it may lead to the neglect of the local population of their heritage and tradition of tourists, especially young people.

Satisfaction level of promoting local traditional and culture

Tanya Promburom, et.al 2009 conducted a study to investigate the need and readiness of community in managing community-based ecotourism; and to gather and assemble local knowledge to develop guideline for community-based ecotourism management The Hmong and Karen stakeholders from 14 villages of Mae Wang and Mae Chaem district, Chiang Mai Province, within responsible area of the Mae Hae Royal Project Development Station, were involved in this study Northern Thailand the authors investigate the relationship between promote their culture and level of community participation the authors fund the result high percentage of the village leaders and villagers had positive attitude toward tourism because it could promote their culture. (2009) recent study found that the level of participation is high, namely the relationship is significantly related between level of community participation and preservation of culture, and this study conducted by Hasnol, to interpret and develop the indicators for success of local community participation and ecotourism sites in Sabah, the author investigated the relationship between level of community participation and preservation of culture. Pongponrat and Pongquan, (2007), conducted a study to explores various aspects of community participation in local tourism development planning on Samui Island in the south of Thailand and identifies factors associated with intensity of participation of local people in the planning process organized by the Nathon community on Samui Island, the authors investigate the relationship between satisfaction level of promoting local traditional and culture – among all factors- & level of community participation in all phases, the authors found relationship between this factor & implementation phase to be associates with the intensity of people’s participation in this stage. According to Piyaphan and Suwipa (2009), visitors learned local traditions and culture which will help the community to solicit their support on local cultural promotion and preservation in future.

Economic benefits

The social exchange theory is widely used for theorizing the economic benefits of community participation in eco-tourism. The social exchange theory argues that tourism development comes with economic benefits (Claiborne, 2010).

The present study is focusing on three benefits of community participation on eco-tourism named by household income, creating employment opportunities, and creating investment input.

Wang and Tong (2009) emphasizes that the economic Aspects of vulnerability in improving the standard of living of the local population, and income from eco-tourism should not be used only to protect the ecological environment but also benefit the local population. Aref and Ma’arof (2008) defined that the community participation in tourism development is necessary if they are to provide equitable distribution of benefits of local economic. Therefore the concept of community participation is regarded as a tool to assist in ecotourism and local economic development in rural communities (Sebola and Fourie, 2006). Brandon (1993) highlights the fact that many ecotourism projects have adopted the generation of economic benefits for the local community as one of their major aims. However, it is significant that only a handful of such projects have opened up the decision making process by which the scale and distribution of these economic benefits are determined to local people.

According to Brandon (1993), ecotourism projects that generate a lot of economic benefits to the community, however, these projects have opened the process of decision-making and distribution of these economic benefits to the local population. Brandon (1993) refers the linkage between economic benefits and conservation can be made more direct. One way of doing this is to ensure that any access fees that are changed are channelled directly into efforts concerned with the management of ecotourism activity and the conservation of its resource base. A good example where this already takes place is in the management of whale shark tourism in the Ningaloo Marine Park in Western Australia (Davis and Tisedell, 1998). Whale shark tourism began in the 1980s and, while the initial volume of visits was relatively small, the industry grew so rapidly that by the mid-1990s deep concerns were being expressed about the adverse impacts of tourism on the whale shark population. In a study by Garrod (2002) involving the use of the Delphi technique to gather expert opinion on how ecotourism might best be defined, the principle that locals should benefit in economic terms from ecotourism was included in over 81 per cent of the final selection of definitions. In contrast, the principle that local people should participate in the decision-making processes through which the scale and distribution of those economic benefits are determined was included in only 27 per cent of the final selection of definitions. Butler (1999) refers that, tourism is an industry generating rapid growth of capital flows to the destination location. Diversified economies are more vulnerable to the integration of tourism in their economy, compared to the least developed (single or double-export) economies, where the effects can be severe and unexpected. Key issues relevant to the local economy and employment, and the quantity of local goods and services used to run the tourism. Lea, (1988) emphasizes that the employment provided to local communities are less skilled and lower wage earning jobs, such as cleaners, bartenders, waiters, and transport operators, cooks and this impacts negatively on society and the local population feel they are not benefiting from tourism. Lockhart and Drakakis-Smith (1997) are often imported from outside the community, such as managers and workers in two languages. Tour operators usually import skilled labour because they do not have to invest in the training of the local population. Moreover, employment in the tourism industry, seasonal, and therefore may not be secure income.

As a study by Fennell (1999) emphasized import that substitute labour and/or goods cause leakage in economic benefits to the host economy. Mowforth and Munt (1998) considered that the real estate market in the destination location is a driving force for the growth of the tourism industry and as a tool to enable investors to Earth has lifted the market value of land by purchase from the local population and development. The local population profit from the sale of land in the beginning, but in the long term, they recognize the sovereignty of the new owners of the land and therefore the new owners of the land access to energy in the development process. Archer and Cooper (1998) believe investment in tourism infrastructure that could benefit the community through improvements in telecommunications networks, roads and ports. This may allow for other economic opportunities for the local area.

Household income

Hoque and Itohara. (2008), conducted a study to know the present status of rural women’s participation and decision making role in economic activities in Bangladesh, the author found relationship between household income – among others- and level of participation in decision making phase, contribution of women’s personal income on their role in family decision making they are being capable to contribute in household income which is improving their status in the family even some cases they are playing active role in taking decision regarding some family issues. Thus it is proved that due to participation in EAs women in the rural areas are contributing in household income that has also improved their role in family decision making than before. Ye Zhang (2010) conducted a study to investigate the preferences of residents in the Midwestern United States on how they would like to be involved in tourism planning and development, and the personal factors that influenced their preferences, the author fund people who preferred spontaneous participation had higher household income than those who preferred induced participation. Robert S. Pomeroya, Enrique G. Oracionb, Richard B. Pollnacc, Demberge A. Caballes 2005 conducted a study to examines factors influencing the sustainability of ICM projects in the Philippines, specifically, the study focused on two locations in the country, Bais Bay area of Negros Oriental Province and Mabini-Tingloy (known as Anilao), the author investigate relationship between household income and level of community participation this relationship positive relate. Tanya Promburom, Piyaphan Klunklin and Suwipa Champawalaya 2009 conducted a study to investigate the need and readiness of community in managing community-based ecotourism; and to gather and assemble local knowledge to develop guideline for community-based ecotourism management The Hmong and Karen stakeholders from 14 villages of Mae Wang and Mae Chaem district, Chiang Mai Province, within responsible area of the Mae Hae Royal Project Development Station, were involved in this study Northern Thailand the authors investigate the relationship between promote their culture &level of community participation the authors fund the result high percentage of the village leaders and villagers had positive attitude toward tourism because it could generate additional income, promote their culture, and improve infrastructure. Pongponrat. K. Pongquan.S, (2007), conducted a study to explores various aspects of community participation in local tourism development planning on Samui Island in the south of Thailand and identifies factors associated with intensity of participation of local people in the planning process organized by the Nathon community on Samui Island, the authors found relationship between household income – among others- and level of local community participation in all phases and specifically in decision making and implementation phases, this mean that local people who had relatively better- off income tended to participant intensively, this implies that these people had more time to be involved in planning activities than those in the low income category, who are busy earning their living and contributed less time in planning and implementation activities. Brandon (1993) believed that the ecotourism projects have adopted the generation of economic benefits for the local community as one of their major aims. However, it is significant that only a handful of such projects have opened up the decision making process by which the scale and distribution of these economic benefits are determined to local people.

Creating employment opportunities

Robert S. Pomeroya, Enrique G. Oracionb, Richard B. Pollnacc, Demberge A. Caballes 2005 conducted a study to examine factors influencing the sustainability of ICM projects in the Philippines specifically, the study focused on two locations in the country, Bais Bay area of Negros Oriental Province and Mabini-Tingloy (known as Anilao), the authors investigate relationship between the employment opportunities and level of community participation the authors fund this relationship positive relate. Liu Tao, Xu Fuying, 2005 conducted a study to summarize the community participation model of rural tourism, and then analyzes the benefit appeals and the contradictories of main stakeholders of community participation in rural tourism from the following five aspects: government, community collective agency, community resident, rural tourism enterprises and rural tourists in China, the authors argued local government hopes creating more employment opportunities, driving the development of related industries, promoting the current new rural construction, and enhancing the popularity of the destination and so on through the development of rural tourism. Assefa T. & Olav Oyhus A. 2005, conducted a study to examine the local people’s participation in the management and development of ecotourism projects in the Adwa district, Northern Ethiopia, the authors investigate the relationship between employment opportunities level of community participation the authors fund the relationship positive relate, argued that the majority of the population can be sober beneficiaries of job opportunities and get a direct benefit and that members of society must be sober-the direct beneficiaries. Denman, (2001) conducted a study to identify some general principles, and highlight some practical considerations for community-based ecotourism, the author investigated the relationship between creating employment opportunities and level of community participation, the author found that variable increase from degree of community participation. Lea, (1988) emphasizes that the employment provided to local communities are less skilled and lower wage earning jobs, such as cleaners, bartenders, waiters, and transport operators, cooks and this impacts negatively on society and the local population feel they are not benefiting from tourism.

Environment benefits

Similarly to social and economic benefits, the social exchange theory can be used to theorize the environmental benefits of community participation in tourism such as increasing conservation of local environment and increasing management skills in resources utilization.

The theory provides the basis for recognizing people`s need to engage in an interaction process where they seek something of value, be it material, social, or psychological. The present study is focusing on two benefits of community participation on eco-tourism named by increasing conservation of local environment and increasing management skills in resources utilization.

The study by Hunter and Green, (1995) to determine the impacts of tourism on the environment, they reported that these impacts are negative and may not always be clear, since it takes a lot of time before it appears. However the consumption of resources, built environment, land use, behavior of tourists and amount of tourism will affect the host destination’s environment (Swarbrooke, 1999).

According to Hunter and Green (1996), environmental degradation may occur in the form of:

Overexploitation of natural resources

Biodiversity loss

Disruption of species breeding habits

Soil erosion & land reclamation

Soil contamination from waste disposal

Coastal and ground water pollution from waste, sewage and oil disposal.

Consumption of tourists will increase demand on local natural resources, which in many cases has led to environmental degradation. As the demand for wood for cooking, heating increased in parallel with the increasing number of hikers in mountainous areas. Thus, this demand has led to further deforestation and soil erosion to be so negative impact on the environment and society (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1996). Miller (1999) noted that land reclamation is often a result of the pressures on coastal areas affects the local environment and population, leading to negatively impact the environment and local residents, particularly mangrove forests are typical targets due to their shallow waters. In addition to they are also the nursery ground for a wide range of marine life and prevent coastal erosion. In addition to local people reported a very high degree of benefit regarding increased management skill in resource utilisation relating to environmental aspects; all other aspects relating to social, and economic benefits were rated at a high level. Likewise, local people were satisfied with the community participation in local tourism development in various social, economic, and environmental aspects (Pongponrat & Pongquan, 2007). People reported a very high degree of benefit regarding increased management skill in resource utilisation relating to environmental aspects; all other aspects relating to social, economic and environment benefits were rated at a high level.

Knowledge and understanding of the principles and objectives of a participation approach are key factors associated with the intensity of people’s participation leading local people to participate in group meetings, identifying problems and needs and plan for their group’s activities (Pantong 1996). In other studies, age, length of membership, favourable attitude towards the group, income, and perceived benefits obtained from the group were found substantially associated with the intensity of their participation (Sirisongkram et al. 1999 and Pattarnarakha 2003). In addition, the willingness to participate in a development activity is another factor to be considered as this will be greater when the people could see immediate benefits to be obtained from a project in which they are going to participate (Gurung 1981:34). Likewise, local people were satisfied with the community participation in local tourism development in various social, economic, and environmental aspects.

Setty (1994) and Garrod (2003) identified certain factors inhibiting people’s participation.

Those factors comprise self-interest, encouragement provided by local leaders, knowledge and skills, availability of time, resource and materials, interest in welfare of community, costs-benefits of participation, quick results, gender, age, pattern of local internal communication and influence of culture and religion.

Garrod (2003) found Social aspect refers to the ability of the local community to determine the social impacts of ecotourism development. Social empowerment will result in ecotourism making a contribution to the social cohesion and integrity of the local community, rather than detracting from it. it is most likely to be found in those communities where part of the net returns from ecotourism are recycled back into the local community in the form of investment in local infrastructure of the founding of social projects. Garrod (2003) Economic aspect refers to the local community’s ability to make and take opportunities for economic development through the development of ecotourism. It may also refer to the local community’s access to the productive resources that are being targeted by ecotourism. A community that is economically empowered is one where incomes are being enhanced and lasting employment is generated, where the economic benefits of ecotourism development are shared equitably among the community as a whole, and where the local community retains access rights to community’s resources base.

Conservation of the environment

Hassnol (2009) conducted a study to interpret and develop the indicators for success of local community participation and ecotourism sites in Sabah, the author investigated the relationship between level of community participation & conservation of the environment the author found that the level of participation is high, namely the relationship is significantly related. Denman (2001) conducted a study to identify some general principles, and highlight some practical considerations for community-based ecotourism the author investigate the relationship between level of community participation and conservation , the author found that conservation enabling the community to influence activity and earn income from tourism namely that relationship significantly relate. Himoonde (2007) conducted a study to examine what local benefits accrue to the community and the level at which they participate in ecotourism, the author investigate the relationship between conservation of environment and level of community participation, and found the relationship high and significant.

Degree of benefits gained in the increase of management skills in resources utilization

Pongponrat. K. Pongquan.S, (2007), conducted a study to explores various aspects of community participation in local tourism development planning on Samui Island in the south of Thailand and identifies factors associated with intensity of participation of local people in the planning process organized by the Nathon community on Samui Island, the authors investigate the relationship between degree of benefits gained in the increase of management skills in resources utilization – among all factors- and level of community participation in all phases the authors found relationship between this factor & decision making and implementation to be associates with intensity of community participation in this phases and decision making phase in particular Researcher in this factor need to know the response of society to participate in the planning of eco-tourism in a country such as Yemen is one of the third world countries. Abdullah (2008) conducted a study to investigates the problems that affected natural resources and local community involvement in management to mitigate such problem in Bangladesh, the author investigate the relationship between management skills resources utilization and level of community participation the findings show relationship significant relate. Sebola (2005) conducted a study to investigate the ecotourism potential of the Maleboho Nature Reserve, and the manner in which such potential may be utilised to benefit the local communities around the nature reserve, the author investigate relationship between management skills and level of community participation, the findings show that relationship significant relate.

2.9 Hypotheses development
2.9.1 Social benefits

There are several studies provide empirical evidence of the positive relationship between social benefits and level of community participation in ecotourism (see for example, Shaw and Williams (1994), Strasdas (2005) and Pongponrat & Pongquan, (2007)

In recent years social and cultural aspects have become increasingly important in the sustainable tourism debate, especially in the context of developing countries where poverty is a widespread problem. Hence, that social relations and interactions within the community became stronger among various stakeholders involved in this fair. In addition, visitors learned local traditions and culture which will help the community to solicit their support on local cultural promotion and preservation in future.

2.9.1.1 Awareness of changing way of life

Theoretically, Michael (2009) argued that tourism development contributes positively towards poverty alleviation and improvement of services, employment and training projects and increase awareness of the changing way of life, which increases in participation by the community. Piyaphan and Suwipa (2009) Believed to change the way of life to attract culture in addition to teaching visitors local traditions and culture which helps the community to get support for the promotion of local culture and maintain in the future and that encourages community participation in tourism. Schulenkorf (2008) argued that there are positive effects of change the way of life and this leads to improvement of general living conditions in communities and increase the quality of life of the people. However, the way of life, are ideally suited to become tourism products because they encompass the features that make a community unique and are experiential in nature (McKercher and Ho 2006).

Piyaphan and Suwipa (2009), McKercher and Ho (2006), Schulenkorf (2008). all provide empirical support of the positive relationship between employment opportunities and level of community participation in ecotourism.

Thus, it is interesting to reexamine the relationship between Awareness of changing way of life and level of community participation in ecotourism in Yemen context that differ significantly in its economic, social, and environmental conditions from the countries in which this relationship was tested. This may help improve our understanding of the impact of this factor on level of community participation in ecotourism.

Therefore, based on the above argument, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: there is a positive relationship between Awareness of changing way of life and level of community participation in ecotourism in Yemen.

2.9.1.2 Promoting local traditional and culture

Theoretically, Promburom, et.al 2009 argued that promote culture and traditional the village leaders and villagers had positive attitude toward tourism because it could promote their culture. Piyaphan and Suwipa ( 2009), believed visitors learned local traditions and culture which will help the community to solicit their support on local cultural promotion and preservation in future.

Promburom, et al, (2009), Hassnol (2009), Pongponrat. K. Pongquan.S, (2007), all provide empirical support of the positive relationship between promoting local traditional and culture and level of community participation in ecotourism.

Thus, it is interesting to reexamine the relationship between Promoting local traditional and culture and level of community participation in ecotourism in Yemen context that differ significantly in its economic, social, and environmental conditions from the countries in which this relationship was tested. This may help improve our understanding of the impact of this factor on level of community participation in ecotourism.

Therefore, based on the above argument, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: there is a positive relationship between Promoting local traditional and culture and level of community participation in ecotourism in Yemen.

2.9.2 Economic benefits

Brandon (1993), Butler (1999), Sebola and Fourie, (2006), Wang and Tong (2009), all provide empirical support of the positive relationship between economic benefits and level of community participation in ecotourism. It is argued that economic benefits;

To get different benefits to improving the standard of living of the local population. Moreover, that many ecotourism projects have adopted the generation of economic benefits for the local community as one of their major aims. In addition ecotourism projects that generate a lot of economic benefits to the community, however, these projects have opened the process of decision-making and distribution of these economic benefits to the local population. As well as tou

CLASSICAL TIMES TO 1800 AD

EGYPT:Evidence of pleasure tourism are to be found on early pyramids and graffiti found date to 1244BC.The urge to leave behind something to posterity is not of modern origin.

ANCIENT GREECE:The Olympic Games at Olympia had tens of thousands of visitors and can be considered as an example of the oldest tourist resort.

AD 100-500:THE ROMAN EMPIRE:A superb network of roads with proper foundations and drainage covers the empire.International travel becomes more efficient and more effective.

AD 1100-1300:PILGRIMAGES:Visits to holy places of veneration.The word holiday is derived from holy days.Pilgrims consist of all social groups but are mainly middle-class.Some 300,000 visitors flock to Rome in the year 1300.

AD 1550-1800:SPA TOURISM:The term originating from the Latin Salus Per Aqua meaning health through water.In Europe there are many old towns where natural springs offer palliative care for those who believe.In the UK famous spas are Bath,Tunbridge Wells,Epsom.Bath becomes a fashionable watering place with invalid accommodation,theatres and entertainment being attached to the pools and pump rooms.

The period of 1600-1800 heralds a democratisation of tourism.The Grand Tour enables a young gentleman to prepare for prospective placements furthering a career.It develops into sightseeing rather than education with the professional middle class now engaging in such pursuits visiting Turin,Verona,Venice,the Rhone Valley,Austria,Switzerland and Germany.The Grand Tour like all tourist movements was the product of a particular social and cultural environment.

THE BIRTH OF THE SEASIDE RESORT: A certain Dr Richard Russell wrote a tract entitled Concerning the Use of Sea Water which gained popularity in knowledgeable circles and to the realisation that minerals to be found in the spa water with relaxing and balming effects could be found in seawater also.Seaside resorts appeared everywhere along the coast with Blackpool,Brighton and Southend becoming prominent.Facilities were supplied providing entertainment,food,accommodation.Some benefited from the inauguration of a steamship service operating at the beginning of the eighteenth century with the provision of piers still surviving in the present. Rapid extension of the railway network in the nineteenth century resulted in growth of seaside resorts;their distance from dense urban conurbations having been dramatically reduced.The Fleetwood line gave birth to Blackpool.The railway companies even promoted the favoured few.Cleethorpes arose with the Great Central;Morecombe by the Midland Railway.

The HOLIDAY CAMP appeared in the 30s and rapidly mushroomed after the WWII with Butlins and Pontins showing the way,only to wane in popularity with the emergence of the package tour.

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY: Car ownership assumed increasing importance after the World War as it provided for personal freedom through time flexibility.There was an increase in the amount of trips around the country and to the coast.An indication of this urge for personal freedom provided by the car is to be seen by the figures for ownership.These amounted to 2 million in 1950 to 11 million in 1970 and more than 20 million for 2000.This rate of progress inevitably affected public transport figures.Rail journeys fell from 48% of total journeys in 1950 to barely 9% in 1990.

The really significant progress has been with the aircraft industry.Rapid technological advance in aircraft design as a result of war provided climate for application to the commercial sector.Holiday travel by air became a reality for the first time because of the proliferation of surplus aircraft available and the emergence of able entrepreneurs such as the likes of Harold Bamberg and Freddie Laker.Britain was foremost for the jet age with the arrival of the Comet.However tragic misfortune occurred because of metal fatigue and the model was withdrawn;only with the arrival of the Boeing 707 in 1958 did it become feasible to accommodate the needs of mass tourism.The 1960s witnessed a demand surge for scheduled and charter flights.Multipart provision developed with accommodation and couriers offering what is called the package tour.

TIME OF THE ENTREPRENEUR AND PACKAGE HOLIDAYS

The huge surplus of transport aircraft that became available featured a very useful and resilient aircraft the Douglas Dakota together with experienced pilots to fly them.These were commandeered and utilitised for innovative charter flights into Europe;Ostend,Paris and other destinations becoming very popular.It was the time for the entrepreneur.Vladimir Raitz pioneered the way in 1950 with his newly fledged company of Horizon.A two-week holiday was organised for an all-inclusive cost of ?32. The following years witnessed rapid progress. Palma(1952),Lourdes(1953), Costa Brava(1954), Sardinina(1954), Minorca(1955), Porto(1956), Costa Blanca(1957), Costa del Sol(1959). Parallel to such developments as this was a steady rise in domestic living standards which with low unit costs provided by the carriers sustained international development for travel.

The devaluation of the Spanish peseta at the end of the fifties highlighted this country as a particularly attractive proposition.It had a very low cost of living index.Spain with the Balearic Islands became a focus of destination peaking around the 1980s.British tour operations were constantly searching and the Algarve in Portugal was also included together with the Greek Islands,Morocco,Turkey,Tunisia and more recently Croatia. Long-haul destinations involving flights across time zones such as the USA,India,the Far East and Australia have become more popular supported by the inevitable advancement of aircraft technology and the provision of reasonable prices.British tourists are favouring such destinations as Florida,the Caribbean,Hong Kong and South Africa.

ELECTRONIC BOOKING SYSTEMS:

The Travel and Tourism industry has of necessity always responded to any technological advancement.The computer has become indispensable with commonplace infrastructure within industry consisting of extensive databases and sophisticated layered central reservation systems(CRS).Advancements in transportation such as the Channel Tunnel and recent aircraft design have been accompanied by applied tailor-made seamless computer systems.Various booking systems are able to deliver instantaneous access on behalf of the customer into banks of relevant data.Global computer reservation systems such as Galileo,Worldspan,Sabre and Amadeus facilitate information transfer for tourist destinations,transport,railways,ships,aircraft.

Rapid developments in technology infrastructure of transport systems with the arrival of the jumbo jets and low-cost airflights have now enabled a variety of choices to become available.

SOME FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS:

Parallel to such developments are marked improvements for standards of living.People are living to a greater age and now have more time for leisure and are becoming more discerning as to what they now require for a satisfying away-break.In recent years second holidays have appeared because of more discretionary income-income available after other household costs have been met-becoming available.A popular combination consists of a package to an all-inclusive resort and a seasonal variation such as a ski resort,weekend breaks or visits to other cities.

There will be more leisure time available with a consequent demand for shorter time span holidays.The population will contain a far larger proportion of senior citizens who will have a greater concern over matters of personal health thereby promoting a demand for medical tourism and spa destinations.The youth market will probably seek more adventure themes and customized holiday programmes may well affect the packaged format.Transport and accommodation prices might rise significantly because of Government action through taxes concerning greenhouse gas emissions.Borders will dissolve via the internet enabling customers to locate cheap products.Internet predominance will be the driving force for travel and tourism distribution methods.Marketing will be directed towards the experiental prompting the question of what is there to do when I arrive.The development of new airports will give rise to new destinations but for shorter trips the railway will become prominent.

The airship has always figured in futuristic considerations and it is quite possible that hotels of the skies will appear.Solar-powered patterned on dirigibles.Under the sea is another voyeuristic domain,the Hydropolis being constructed in Dubai and expected to be operational in 2009 is a forerunner of such splendid enterprise and endeavour.On the surface it is likely the cruise ship will develop a stage further becoming literally a floating city.And in areas where a resort is unacceptable for various reasons,including the political it is likely that the floating pod will appear able to be constructed literally anywhere on planet’s surface.

THE FRAMEWORK OF THE INDUSTRY is usually acknowledged to consist of at least six categories.They comprise firstly in any order of ATTRACTIONS-these being of nature or constructed by Man.The Lake District and the beach at Blackpool are good examples.Any theme park for the family and others such as the London Eye.TRANSPORT is vital for the prospective tourist to be able to reach any chosen destination with at least two options of assisted transportation being necessary to do so.High standards of information are assumed and expected in our times.

Extensive modernisation has been applied to the railway network and there are now a number of private companies actively competing with each other.Eurostar,GNER and Virgin for example.There has been some decline for train journeys but the industry seems to be holding its own and there are reported to be some 5 million passengers a year conveyed by Eurostar alone.A very decent and economical mode of transport is the coach network exemplified by National Express and Eurolines who have more than 12 million passengers a year visiting over 1200 destinations.

At least three quarters of the ever popular package tour makes use of the airways.Time scheduling is a prominent feature of modern times and so it is with the airways who either supply the business person or are used for arrivals at no set time by the charter firms/airlines.

Sea ferries have maintained a high level of preference and suitability for passengers to Ireland and France.The P&O is still viable and very much so with cruises becoming more and more popular for the Mediterranean.

Another virtal category for the holiday is of course ACCOMODATION.Again in modern times overall standards have had to improve.There is a variety available for any traveller of whatever category.Self-catering villas are becoming very popular and there are other forms such as the Travel Inn,B&B’s,caravans and camp-sites.

It is the TOUR OPERATOR who puts together a miscellany of necessaries that comprise the package tour.It is he who deals with and negotiates contracts for supplying the accommodation and transport to the destination.Bulk purchasing provides low unit and overhead costs enabling provision for the prospective tourist who is able to receive the prepared brochure of what has been put together in the package.

On the present scene there are essentially four major tour operators.First Choice,Thomson,Thomas Cook and My Travel and these together form what is known as TUI.They have formed themselves via a phenomenon known as vertical integration that functions at more than one level within what is known as the holiday chain.They are examples of mass market suppliers.The industry has been transformed as a result of repeated integration resulting in a market for specialised clientele;the singles market,gourmet cookery vacations for example who are being catered by small niche companies who are still able to survive despite the Big Four.

INTEGRATION AND ITS IMPACT

Vertical integration has an organisation taking over another at a different level of the buying chain.

Tui Travel buys Travelmood

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Russell Parsons

Tui Travel has acquired Travelmood for an undisclosed sum in a bid to strengthen its long-haul portfolio.

This latest acquisition follows the ?85.2 million Tui Travel has spent on 10 acquisitions between since last September.

There can be advantages to such happenings as it enables the organisation control over pricing with excellent communication at all levels of the distribution chain.

What is called Horizontal integration is less common and this as the name implies concerns an organisation buying another on the same level of the chain.British Airways was bought out of its acquisition of Go by EasyJet with power branding being a resultant so that all logos were owned by EasyJet.EasyJet had more market space available for self-promtion.Horizontal integration can reduce effective competition.Stenna Sealink and P&O argued such a case for a prospect of immediate service improvement.

There is a much more larger share of the market to be had by tour operators as compared to travel agents with the rate of commission available to the tour agent being controlled by the tour operator.

Horizontal and Vertical integration has reduced competition within the industry that has been accompanied with ever present public demand.The Big Four and large companies should be able to weather storms but the smaller concerns will have their backs to the wall in harder times that may be with us for some time.

Tour operators have a much larger market share than travel agents.Thus upon integration with a tour operator the agent sells and promotes the services of the operator.The rate of commission is in the control of the tour operator.

The independent travel agents are seriously affected by integration.The tour operators and airlines will sell their products over the internet directly. As a result niche markets are developing to meet the needs of the customers in the high street who prefer personal attention in such matters

The airlines have also been affected by integration.British Airways tried to merge with American Airlines but IATA said no,because such a pairing would dominate totally transatlantic flights.

Horizontal and vertical integration has significantly reduced competition within the industry.The demand from the public has set a pattern.Smaller companies are not going to be able to cope.A large organisation can absorb failure impact if the arrangement does not work but for a smaller company such failure would spell ruin.

TRAVEL AGENTS do their job of selling the brochures.This is the link between tour operators and the public.They usually cater for specialist holidays.There are multiple travel agents with agencies all around the UK.The most famous are Going Places,Thomson and Lunn Poly.There are miniples consisting of about twenty to thirty shops.Independent travel agents are small and family owned.Very popular are Call Centres where the customer can book a holiday by phone.

TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT situated all over the country ensure that prospective visitors learn of their location and all it has to offer by extensive advertising and promotion work with availability for advice and information including the capability to undertake research.Blue Badge guides have very intensive and specific training to provide tours of their respective regions for visitors.A chain of distribution therefore comes into existence by which a product eg a package holiday is distributed from the principal/producer to the tourist/consumer.This occurs very often via the tour operators and travel agents(wholesalers and retailers).

There are services related to the Travel and Tourism industry provided by public,private and voluntary.Public sector services are accountable to elected bodies.Most are non-profit making.Local authorities support tourism information centres.Visit Britain is an example of the Public Sector.Its objectives are to promote Britain as a tourist destination to overseas customers and to encourage domestic customers to take more frequent and longer holidays within the country; to provide advice and support for broader government objectives;for other tourist boards to partner them in building a tourism industry within the country;and for its staff ,to achieve goals by utilising resources more efficiently,through openness,accessibility,professionalism,accountability and responsiveness.

PUBLIC PRIVATE AND VOLUNTARY SECTORS

The private sector consists of a multitude of commercial companies whose aim is naturally to generate profit in services and products provided for their customers.Household names include Thomas Cook,Rank and Granada.These contribute significantly to the wealth of the UK.

Voluntary sector organisations consist essentially of volunteer staff.Their status is of a charity operating on a non-profit basis. They may have rate and VAT relief on any investments,deposits or covenants.If registered as charities they have to satisfy certain conditions.Objectives may be charitable,with purposes beneficial on behalf of the communities they serve.

LIEPER’S TOURIST SYSTEM

Without the Tourist would be no tourist industry so what is of special interest to which there are many unanswered questions is the phenomena of mass flows of tourists as to their origins and other related matters of interest.A systems approach is favoured,and that of Leiper’s system lends itself to clear thought heuristic In Leiper’s basic tourism system there are three defined geographical regions/entities.They consist of the Traveller generating regions.The Tourist destination regions and the Transit route regions The travel and tourism industry concerns itself with free flow circulation and the activities of the tourist within the three defined regions. The generating region is where there is preparation for the journey with consequent arrival at a destination.The generating region pushes motivation towards travel.Here they make their booking and check out.Destination is where the tourist actually becomes a tourist;it is where the tourism activity occurs.Here managers effect their strategies.Geographically the pull factor is variable, dependent upon the actual location.Demand is created here.The transit region encompasses all places visited along the way to the actual destination.It should be self evident that one part of such a system cannot function without the others.

Europe,Australasia and Indonesia,Philippines with Brunei are the push regions for Singapore for example.Many tourists within the variety of flows visiting the country will use it as a stop over location.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Sharpley,R.(1999) Tourism,Tourists and Society.ELM Publications.

Page,S.(2003) Tourism Management:Managing for Change.Butterworth-Heinemann

Bray R and V.Raitz(2001 Flight to the Sun: The Story of the Holiday Revolution. Thomson Learning

Cooper,C.et al(2005) Tourism:Principles and practice.FT Prentice Hall

Pakistan appeared as a modern nation on 14 August 1947. There are four provinces and all four are gifted with heritage and culture. It is one of fertile and unique collections of majestic and rugged mountains, lush fields, deserts, rivers, lakes, seashores and landscapes enriched with friendly and hospitable people thus making it a heavenly destination for tourists with different tastes. Pakistan is known in the world of tourism because of the mountainous regions of the north, the Hindukush, Karakoram and the Great Himalaya who form the densest concentration of high peaks in the world. Kalam (Swat valley) in Pakistan is known as the Switzerland of Asia. The Hunza and Chitral valleys in Pakistan were the home to a small pre-Islamic animist Kalasha community who claim descent from the army of Alexander the Great (Mapsofworld.com). The historical and archaeological sites of Ghandhara and Indus Valley civilizations, Mohenjo-Daro, Taxila and the Mughal Empire are the examples of oldest civilizations in Pakistan. This multicultural nature of the country also contributes to the tourism industry in the way that it offers various traditions, customs and festivals for the tourists to explore and enjoy.

Problem statement:

According to the above paragraph, Pakistan seems to be a perfect place for tourists to be visited but still the tourist’s arrival is decreasing day by day if we take into consideration the years from 1995 till 2008.

Aims and Objectives:

The aim of my thesis is to find out the positive and negative factors which are affecting the Pakistan tourism industry and also the cause of tourists declining ratio. Find out the role of the government towards the development of this industry and suggest some strategies that can improve this sector and also discover the hidden potential of tourism industry. Another motivation behind this research is to examine and compare the economic effect of tourism in terms of money and job generation in our country as compared to the neighboring countries.

Research Questions:

The research questions are:

What are the factors affecting tourism industry in Pakistan?

How much potential Pakistan has got in tourism industry?

How tourism industry created revenue and job for the country?

What will be the strategies to develop the tourism industry in Pakistan?

What the government should do to develop the tourism industry in Pakistan?

Literature review and theoretical background:

In this chapter, I will discuss some of the available literature and compare it with my research work giving a broader picture of the unique nature of the work and its practical usefulness.

Literature review:

Kakar et al. 2007, in their research thesis provided a relation between tourism and employment in Pakistan. The purpose of this research was to determine the rate of employment generated in different occupations from the tourism sector. The survey was carried out by personal visit to the hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, travel agents, car hire firms, tour operators and airline offices. They designed a questionnaire for this purpose. The survey was restricted in the sense that it was carried out in only two cities of Pakistan i.e. Swat and Abbottabad and secondly it was carried out in hotels and restaurants. No attempt was made to determine the total impact of tourism on different employment sectors like taxis, guides, entertainment, travel agencies etc. furthermore the statistical data provided on the number of hotels, number of beds and the number of people employed is limited in the sense that there is no proper information about the time/date/year in which the data was recorded.

Baloch (2007) in his research of managing tourism in Pakistan deals with the issue of diagnosing the cause of crawling nature of Pakistan’s tourism growth and suggest ways to develop this industry through natural, historical and cultural resources. The research was carried in Chitral valley only. The methodology used was recording the views of tourists, locals, hoteliers and data collection from Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and Ministry of Tourism. The research is restricted in the sense that the deteriorating condition of this industry is explained only for 2006 and there is no proper statistical data provided for Chitral valley. The data was collected from the concerned departments and there is no proper findings obtained from the tourists and hoteliers.

Although some of the studies found and discussed above are related to the tourism industry in Pakistan but there is hardly any research that focuses mainly on positive and negative factors effecting Pakistan tourism industry on a whole and compare this industry to its neighboring countries. I’ll focus on factors effecting tourism, its impact on employment and the revenue earned for the whole country. The research will include statistical data for last fourteen years which will help in comparing the performance of this sector with other countries also.

Theoretical Background:

There are many positive and negative factors which are affecting Pakistan tourism industry. These are as follows:

Positive factors:

The tourists usually travel to see different places and things other like climate, nature, cultures, people, customs, arts, cuisines, languages, unique festivals, old historical buildings and sites etc. the reason why Pakistan has a great potential in tourism industry is that it posses every single thing that could meet the demand of visitors. Following are the types of tourism in Pakistan:

Diaspora Tourism:

According to Clarke (2003) the term Diaspora refers to a person who is from one country but originates from another and identifies with the country of origin. The term Diaspora can be approached from two different directions, as a typological tool and as a social condition. When the term is used typologically it refers to a group of people who have moved from one place to another and who still identify with their homeland. The homeland is just a metaphor, it may not even exist but it still carries significance for the individual. Clarke (2003) argues that Diaspora is people who have relocated for any of five different reasons; victim, labor, trade, imperial and culture. All of these reasons are in some way forced upon the individual, which is the central idea behind this type of approach to the Diasporas’ phenomena. For example, the British who immigrated involuntarily to the different colonies were imperial Diasporas. The typological approach to the Diasporas’ issue is that it disregards the differences within the different groups. So it is more accurate to describe Diaspora as a condition. “The condition of being from one place but of another and identify with sentiments towards a homeland” (Clarke, 2003)

According to Ali Eteraz (2008), more than 7 million Pakistani people are living outside from Pakistan. Pakistan has got a large number of Pakistani Diaspora which can contribute a positive role in the economy of Pakistan. Apart from Diaspora, visiting friends and family tourism is also very important. Many of these Pakistani Diasporas have friends and families living in Pakistan, and they continue to visit these friends and families playing more positive role in the development of Pakistani tourism.

Domestic Tourism:

According to Richter (1989), many countries of the world take domestic tourism as a “poor cousin” and didn’t pay much attention but according to Boniface and Cooper domestic tourism make up 80% of the world tourism flow. In Pakistan, there are many worthwhile places which not only attract international tourists but also domestic tourists.

Heritage Tourism:

Pakistan is a home to the most spectacular ancient cities of the world including the Indus and Gandhara civilization. Taxila, Moenjodaro and Harrppa, museums, Mughal heritage and the silk route, Badshahi Masjid, Shalimar Gardens, Tomb of Jahangir and the Lahore Fort (UNIC, 2011).

Lahore Fort K Ali

Figure 2: Lahore Fort (Source: http://www.gardenvisit.com/garden/lahore_fort)

Religious/ Spiritual or Pilgrimage Tourism:

Pakistan is also famous for its shrines and temples. Each year not only Muslims from different countries come to visit the holy shrines but also the Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhist visit Pakistan for pilgrimage (UNIC, 2011).

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vuyNCoZLd4w/Sr9cYGLGnzI/AAAAAAAAAtc/3ZQU4lOhpp8/s400/shrine-abdullah-shah-ghazi.jpg

Figure 3: Shrines of Pakistan (Source: http://pak-istan.blogspot.com/2009/09/shrines-of-pakistan.html)

Cultural Tourism:

Besides archaeological sites and architecture masterpieces of Mughal emperors and British antecedents, Pakistani cuisine and festivals are yet another interesting part of rich Pakistani culture. The food streets in Pakistan are becoming a major source of attraction for tourists as they can enjoy the local Pakistani food as well as the colorful streets and people shopping in the streets at the same time. Famous food streets in Pakistan are Food Street Gawalmandi and Anarkali in Lahore, Melody and blue area Food Street in Islamabad, Burns Road in Karachi, and Ghantar Ghar in Peshawar. Festivals tend to provide celebration, joy, mental and physical refreshment to not only local people but also the tourists who come with the aim to explore and enjoy different cultures and festivals. Some of the famous cultural ceremonies and festivals of Pakistan include Lok virsa mela, Horse and cattle shows, Basant or kite flying, Festivals of lamps, Northern areas festivals including the famous Kalash festivals and Silk route festivals etc (UNIC, 2011).

Food Street, Lahore –

Figure 4: Food Street Lahore (Source: http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/sites/country/26292.php)

Adventure or ECO Tourism:

ECO or adventure tourism is the most significant part of the tourism industry as Pakistan is blessed with worlds most beautiful and renowned mountains, lakes valleys, glaciers and passes. Tourists not only enjoy the site viewing but also perform activities like skiing, hiking, surfing, camping and cruising. Mountaineering and trekking are the most exciting activities that tourists enjoy. World 2nd largest mountain K2 and Switzerland of Asia known as Swat valley is also located in Pakistan. Silk route is also included among Pakistan attractions as it is an ancient route connecting east and the west. Pakistan is also home to 31 natural and manmade lakes and reservoirs. The helicopter or train safari is also very famous among tourists as they travel to see the most spectacular views of landscapes and mines across the country. The helicopter safari is the latest means of travelling as it takes the tourists high in the sky so they can enjoy the highest peaks in the north and deserts in the south (UNIC, 2011).

click here to enlarge

Figure 5: Ayubia (Source: http://www.offthemap.ca/diaster.php)

Wild Life Tourism:

There are about 14 national parks which give a beautiful glimpse of the rich Flora and Fauna of Pakistan. And there are 2 safari parks with various types of animals like tigers, lions, monkeys, elephants, giraffes, pythons, birds, deer’s etc (UNIC, 2011).

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_POvZp_cG6SE/S55MVLBkT_I/AAAAAAAABYw/4wlNU1_pjL4/s320/CIMG2056.JPG

Figure 6: Kund Wild Life Park (Source: http://kiranpalwasha.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html)

Sports Tourism:

Pakistan is popular as a tourist sports destination. Himalayan range which is the world’s highest mountain range in the world demands for professional trekking along with general trekking. Other types of sports tourism include white water rafting, wild boar hunting in deep forests, shandur polo games, mountain biking, golf, ice climbing, rock climbing, snowboarding, skiing, caving and pot holding etc. rich people and prince come from middle east for deer hunting in Pakistan.

All the above mentioned factors contribute positively to Pakistan tourism industry but along with these, there are also negative factors which are affecting Pakistan tourism industry and have resulted in the loss of tourists’ arrival in Pakistan.

Negative Factors:

The negative factors effecting Pakistan tourism industry are the views and opinions of domestic and international tourists obtained via questionnaire and interview. According to the tourists, the biggest problem they are facing while travelling is security issues which include the current insurgency in Pakistan. Even the domestic tourists don’t feel like travelling in their own country. Second issue of tourists decline is negative image of Pakistan portrayed by media to the outside world. Lack of infrastructure, ineffective promotional policies, inadequate tourist’s services and facilities, lack of initiatives by concerned government departments, inadequate knowledge and training of personnel in tourism sector, law and order situation especially in the high tourists attraction areas, inadequate infrastructure facilities, lack of incentives in the tourist sector, failure to show and project the positive image of the country via media to the outside world, low allocation of annual tourist budget, lack of development and facilities in the mountain regions, lack of understanding to the tourist needs, the overtaking and change of governments and administration within the country (army rule) and high inflation rate are the key points which have altogether made tourism an unsuccessful industry in Pakistan. The tourism Ministry is not playing sufficient role and tourist faces difficulties in getting timely visa and other information’s. The tourism authorities must focus on this sector as tourism is the only sector, which can contribute substantially in the poverty alleviation and improving the living standards of the local community.

Factors Effecting Tourism

Positive Factors Negative Factors

Security problems for the tourists

Less marketing and publicity on international level

Weak travel and tourism framework

Low allocation of annual tourist budget

High inflation rate

Overtaking and change of governments

Lack of initiative by concerned government departments

Presence of tourist attractions

Mountains

Valleys

Lakes

Historical places

Rich culture

Rich food

Salt mines

Spring festivals

5 stars hotel chains

Restaurants

Handicrafts

Museums

Business environment

Factors effecting tourism

Figure 8: Factors effecting tourism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the effect of different service quality factors as quality of food, music, ambience, waiter service on customer satisfaction in a restaurant and to study how the customer satisfaction ultimately relates to customer loyalty for the restaurant.

Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was given to MBA students of XLRI Jamshedpur in the age group of 21-30 asking questions to ascertain the different levels of service in the Sonnet restaurant. The results of these questionnaires were analyzed using factor analysis.

Findings – The factors that are crucial for obtaining customer loyalty are waiter politeness, waiter promptness, space, music and food quality. The waiter promptness, space, food quality are partially mediated by customer satisfaction. Of these factors, music negatively affects customer loyalty and positively affects customer satisfaction. Only waiter promptness, aesthetics, music and food quality affect the customer satisfaction. With customer satisfaction as the mediating factor to obtain customer loyalty, we find waiter politeness, waiter promptness, space, music and food quality are significant factors.

Research limitations – The study was limited only to the patrons of Sonnet, Jamshedpur. The respondents to the survey consisted of students of XLRI Jamshedpur who have visited Sonnet. Future research may be done on number of restaurants instead of a particular restaurant.

Future research may also be conducted such that the respondents reflect a more heterogeneous group in terms of age, income level and location. The solitary effect of servicescape on the overall satisfaction level for the customer may also be explored in future research.

Practical Implication – Hoteliers and restaurant operators should try to ascertain which aspect of the service quality is perceived as more important by their patrons. They can then focus more to improve on these particular aspects as in future these would lead to more satisfaction for the customer. The customer satisfaction in turn will lead to customer loyalty and thus will increase the overall profit for the organization.

Originality/value – This paper provides insights into how music affects the satisfaction and loyalty for restaurant patrons. The effect of music on customer loyalty has not been conclusively proved in any research paper so far. The other factors of service quality that affect the satisfaction level and loyalty of a patron of the Sonnet restaurant in Jamshedpur have also been explored to provide a complete picture.

Keywords – Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty

Introduction
In today’s fast paced world meals are no longer a very well planned event, on most occasions it is an afterthought. The proportion of women in the workforce has increased, As a result women have less time to cook meals at home. Hence there has been an increase in the trend of eating out. This results in a flourishing restaurant industry. Like any lucrative industry which attracts a number of players, the restaurant industry is also highly competitive. It is very important to get a feel of this industry from the viewpoint of the customer. It is the customer who makes the final decision of how much to spend and what, when and most importantly where to eat. Thus in order to offer the right service to the customers, restaurant owners and managers need to have a clear understanding of the factors that influence customer satisfaction.
Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the state of the fulfillment of the customer’s expectations from the establishment. When the difference facets of the service provided to the customers exceed the expected level, then the customer is positively satisfied. On the contrary if the perceived level is less than the expected level then the customer may develop negative perceptions towards the establishment.

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty basically indicates a repeat patronage of the particular facility whose services have already been experienced by the customer. Loyalty consists of both a behavioral dimension as well as an attitudinal dimension. Once a customer has a strong positive experience with an establishment, he is more likely to be loyal to it which may be exhibited through behavior as repeat patronage and recommendation (generally exhibited through positive word of mouth).

Constituents of service quality

The different factors of service quality which influence the customer satisfaction level include:

Music: The music played at restaurant has a significant impact on the satisfaction level of the customer. Customers are generally more satisfied in an environment playing music they preferred than in an environment of no music. Music may also have an impact on the spending pattern of customers.

Food Quality: Although restaurants have gained importance as a place for socializing, food is the primary reason why a customer visits a restaurant. Thus the quality of food and beverages as well as the variety influences the customer satisfaction level.

Waiter Service: Waiters serve as the medium of interaction between the restaurant owners and the customers. Thus the service provided by the waiters often forms the image of a restaurant. Careful, pleasant and attentive behavior on the part of the waiter leads to high customer satisfaction.

Ambience: Ambience ( decor and artifact, odor, noise level , temperature, spatial layout) forms the impression of the restaurant.

Research background and hypothesis
Music and Customer Satisfaction

It has been often agreed upon by researchers that different aspects of service like ambience and layout affect the experience quality of a customer and thus influence his satisfaction. Music helps in creating the proper ambience in the restaurant and has important role to play in customer satisfaction. Studies in social psychology often indicate that there is a strong correlation between music and the social context in which the customer hears it. This relationship can also be extended to the setting of a restaurant. In 1996, North and Hargreaves studied the effect of music on atmosphere in a university cafeteria (North and Hargreaves, 1996). Results suggested that customers’ ‘liking’ of the cafeteria increased with their ‘liking’ for the music played within it. In their research conducted in 1996 North and Hargreaves also found that liking the music in a restaurant had a positive relationship with the customer returning to the establishment in future.

According to Stephanie Wilson in her article, ‘The effect of music on perceived atmosphere and purchase intention in a restaurant’ the music could be used by restaurants to create the proper atmosphere. This can also be used to distinguish itself from the competitors. The research states that the absence of music had the most negative impact on the atmosphere and thus on customer satisfaction. Wilson in her research actually found out that in an environment of no music the respondents were willing to pay the least maximum price. Wilson also found out that the type of music played may also have an important bearing on the customers overall experience as well as his spending habits.

Ronald Milliman, in his article ‘The Influence of Background Music on the Behavior of Restaurant Patrons’, has proved that background music can significantly influence the behavior of patrons in a restaurant. This view is supplemented by Smith and Curnow (1966), who have proved that inappropriate, loud music creates an avoidance condition and thus can affect the customer perception about a restaurant negatively. In such cases music actually detracts from the service experience.

J. Duncan Herrington and Louis M. Capella in their article “Effects of music in service environments” have stated that often music can be used by service providers in order to a distinctive image in the minds of the customers and thus get a competitive edge. Restaurants can take the aid of music to create an environment which complements their service offerings. Restaurants serving international food can play the music of the particular nation and restaurants serving a particular type of food can also similarly use music.

Food and Customer Satisfaction:

Variety and presentation of food and beverages and quality of the menu are one of the most important factors influencing the customer’s feelings towards the restaurant. According to Kincaid and Baloglou, in their article “What Really brings them Back” (2008), this has tremendous practical significance for restaurant operators. It should be made sure that an interesting variety of food and drinks are presented in unique ways. Food and drink quality is very important to the patrons of a restaurant and restaurant operators should ensure that a strict quality control is in place to make sure that only high quality food is being offered to the customers.

Andaleeb and Conway in their article “Customer satisfaction in the restaurant industry: an examination of the transaction-specific model”(2006) has also opined that food quality is one of the major components which can be improved in order to enhance customer satisfaction.

Hong Qin and Victor R. Prybutok in their research, “Perceived service quality in fast-food restaurants: empirical evidence from China” found that the quality of food was a critical factor in the customer’s overall level of satisfaction and often influenced the customer’s decision about selection of a restaurant.

Ambience and Customer Satisfaction

The ambience and layout of the establishment has an important role to play in the experience quality of the customer. Bitner (1992) coined a new term servicescape which denoted the physical constituents of a service environment. The different tangible constituents of servicescape such as optimum temperature, noise, furnishings and layout combine together to influence the customer satisfaction and repeat patronage level. In comparison to other service industries as banks servicescape plays a more important role in service industries as restaurants where the customer spends a greater period of time.

Wakefield and Blodgett(1996) proposed a servicescape framework, the service environment comprised of five important factors:

Proper layout and accessibility of the premises (i.e. how furniture, service area and equipments are organized within the establishment)

Aesthetics of the establishment ( the interior decoration and architectural design)

Seating comfort

Electronic equipment ( arrangement of displays and lighting and electronic equipment)

Cleanliness

All these five factors together had a combined effect on customer satisfaction.

As per Grayson and Mc Neill in ‘Using Atmospheric conditions in service retailing’, the proper servicescape leads to customer comfort. This comfort has two aspects: Physical comfort and emotional comfort and safety Both these factors together affect the satisfaction level of the customer.

Han & Ryu in their research “The Roles of the Physical Environment, Price Perception, and Customer Satisfaction in Determining Customer Loyalty in the Restaurant Industry” had studied the effect of physical environment on customer satisfaction. In the research they categorized the physical environment into decor and artifacts (which contributed to the attractiveness of the physical environment i.e. floor coverings, wall decorations, pictures, paintings etc), spatial layout (arrangement of objects as furniture and equipment) and ambient conditions (background characteristics as scent, temperature, lighting etc) . The research showed that of all the three decor and artifacts had the most significant and direct effect on customer satisfaction. The researchers have expressed their opinion that restaurateurs should give paramount importance to physical elements in the restaurant. These can be used as marketing and operational tools to improve the customer experience and resultantly improve the customer behavior.

Waiter Service and Customer Satisfaction:

How a patron is actually treated by the waiter in the course of service is also an important parameter which contributes to his satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Even if there is a service failure, a competent employee can take proper actions which can actually lead to service recovery (Bitner and Booms, 1990). Hence waiter and waitresses who serve as a liaison between the restaurant and the customer play the most important role in the success of the establishment.

J.D. Pratten in his article ‘The importance of Waiting Staff’ discusses that poor waiter service may consist of slow service, serving cold food, spoiling the presentation at the table, causing delay in the carriage of food (as a result of which different dishes at the same table may arrive at different times) failure to have all the accompaniments as sauces at the table, not having the proper cutlery etc. Any of the above occurrences may spoil the experience of a customer thus leading to customer dissatisfaction. A lot of competency and effort is required from the waiting staff to ensure that the experience of the customer is pleasant thus leading to satisfaction.

Apart from the basic competencies mentioned above, the personal contact attributes of the waiters and waitresses with the customers including whether the employees were helpful, attentive, prompt, courteous, neat in appearance, and understood customer needs are also very important. Winsted in his study “Service Behavior that leads to Satisfied Customers” found that the three most important qualities which had a strong correlation with customer satisfaction in a restaurant are careful (.77), attentive (.76) and pleasant (.75).

It has been also suggested that managers and owners of restaurants can actually have specialized training programs which will enable as well as encourage the employees to improve their service quality. This, coupled with regular tracking of performance can lead to increase in the customer satisfaction level. Pratten in his article “Customer satisfaction and waiting staff ” (2003) emphasizes that the role of waiting staff in customer satisfaction is paramount and thus if this is not recognized and acted upon there will be a loss of business for firms.

Customer satisfaction as a Mediating Variable
Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty:

It seems only logical that satisfied customers of any establishment will turn into loyal customers and will grant their patronage again. Researchers have also found that there exists a strong relationship between the two. As per Szymanski and Henard (2001), there are fifteen significant positive correlations between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Bearden and Teel (1986) have also proved that there is a relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. Thus a satisfied customer turns into a loyal one and brings more revenue to the restaurant. Fornell,Rust & Dekimpe, in their research “The Effect of Customer Satisfaction on Consumer Spending Growth” has proved that an increase in customer satisfaction leads to growth in future customer spending.

On the other hand, an unsatisfied customer can cause negative word of mouth publicity. He can actually cause other prospective patrons to turn away from a particular restaurant.

Smith and Swindyard (1983) found that in case of a service which is consumed by the customer at the spot, the attitude and the satisfaction level of the customer is an excellent predictor of future purchases. Thus extending this if the consumers are satisfied by the service level at a restaurant then it is actually increases the probability of revisit by the customer.

Namkung and Young (2007) in their research found out that food quality significantly affects customer satisfaction as well as behavioral intentions and the relationship between customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions is mediated by satisfaction.

Kivela, Inbakaran and Reece in their research “Consumer research in the restaurant environment, Part 1: A conceptual model of dining satisfaction and return patronage” (2000) made certain observations related to dining satisfaction and return patronage. The study revealed that satisfaction had a strong positive influence on return patronage .The factors having significant influence on the customer included first and last impressions, service excellence, food excellence and ambience.

Hypotheses

From the above literature review, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H1: Waiter service is positively related to Customer loyalty which is mediated by Customer Satisfaction

H2: Ambience is positively related to Customer loyalty which is mediated by Customer Satisfaction

H3: Music is positively related to Customer loyalty which is mediated by Customer Satisfaction

H4: Food quality is positively related to Customer Loyalty which is mediated by Customer Satisfaction

Methods
Sample

The young men and women of age between 21 to 29 years were identified as the target respondent group for the survey. One of the major reasons for choosing this specific respondent group was its availability and ease in communicating to them the questionnaire and getting the response. Since majority among this population has visited Hotel Sonnet during their stay in Jamshedpur, Sonnet was chosen as the hotel on which the questions would be based. The questionnaire was floated through a website and the respondents were asked to fill the questionnaire online. To encourage participation and increase the number of responses a disclaimer declaring the confidentiality of individual data was assured. A total of 164 respondents filled the questionnaire of which 156 responses were considered for the analysis and hypothesis testing. The reasons for not including the rest of the responses were incomplete data set and falling out of our target respondent group.

Measures

Based on the discussion in the above sections a theoretical model was developed and the following constructs were measured using different scales.

Waiter Service

Food Quality

Ambience

Music

Customer Loyalty

Customer Satisfaction

Waiter Service, Ambience, Music, and Food Quality are considered as factors that determine Customer Satisfaction which in turn leads to Customer Loyalty.

Waiter Service: Participants were asked to respond to Likert-type scales of 21 questions. The scale used was adapted from Kivela et al. (1999). The questions framed to assess consumer knowledge are consistent with prior literature. The scoring rule was to assign a numerical value to each of the response ranging from 1= “Least Important” to 5 = “Very Important”. Factor analysis has been done on the individual responses to determine the factors that constitute waiter service. The appendix reports the questionnaire items used. The content validity for the used scale has been established in the study and since we have used a very similar questionnaire and the scale, the scale can be considered as content valid.

Ambience: The significance of ambience to an individual has been measured through 20 questions asked in the questionnaire. The scale used was adapted from Kivela et al. (1999). The questions framed to assess consumer knowledge are based on the questions used in the study and the literature review done during the research. The responses were recorded using 5-point Likert-type scales ranging from “Least Important” to “Very Important”. Questions asked to ascertain the importance of ambience are present in the questionnaire attached in the appendix. The individual responses were run through factor analysis to obtain the factors that determine the importance of ambience. The scale has been adopted from the aforementioned study and content validity has been established in the study.

Music: Significance of music has been measured on a five-point Likert-type scale adapted from Kivela et al (1999). The individual responses have been subjected to factor analysis to obtain the factors that determine the significance of music. The content validity for the used scale has been established in the study and since we have used a very similar questionnaire and the scale, the scale can be considered as content valid. The appendix reports the questionnaire items used.

Food Quality: 7 Likert-type scales have been used to determine the importance of food quality to an individual. Factor analysis has been done on these individual responses to get the factors that determine the food quality. The questions have been framed in accordance with the scale used by Kivela et al (1999). The questionnaire attached in the appendix.

Customer Loyalty: 3 questions of Likert type scales have been used to obtain the responses from the respondents. Factor analysis has been run to obtain the factors comprising the customer satisfaction. Questionnaire used by Kivel et al (1999) has been used and the scale is content validated. The appendix reports the questionnaire items used.

Customer Satisfaction: 4 questions have been asked regarding customer satisfaction and factor analysis has been run on this data to obtain the factors affecting customer satisfaction. The questionnaire used is same as one used by Kivela et al (1999). The questionnaire attached in the appendix.

Analysis

The factors for Ambience were found out by running exploratory factor analysis on the 20 items related to Ambience. It was found to contain 2 factors. Similarly the factor analysis was run on Waiter service (21 items), Music (9 items), Food quality (7 items), Customer satisfaction (4 items) and Customer loyalty (3 items) and they were found to contain 2,1,1,1 and 1 factors respectively.

The three-step method developed by Erich B. Bergiel, Vinh Q. Nguyen et all for mediation analysis is used in this study. The first step uses Customer loyalty as the criterion variable in the regression equation and the 6 factors identified as predictors. The second step uses Customer satisfaction as the criterion variable in the regression equation and the 6 factors identified as predictors. The third step uses Customer loyalty as the criterion variable in the regression equation and the 6 factors identified as well as customer satisfaction as the predictors.

Initially, multicollinearity was found initially between Customer satisfaction and Customer Loyalty (tolerance of 0.161 and VIF greater than 5 were observed). In order to solve this, a factor analysis with all the items corresponding to the 6 factors, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty were done. The items which were correlated to other factors were eliminated. Thus the items corresponding to the factors were brought down. After this, the three-step method of Erich B. Bergiel was used.

Results

The following were the factors that were identified and the component scores of items under each factor:

Waiter service

Waiter politeness

Respects me

.928

Uses very polite language

.944

Is helpful and understanding

.925

Makes me feel comfortable

.932

Waiter promptness

Responds to my comments

.882

Is quick to attend and serve

.804

Tables were cleaned quickly

.780

Aesthetics

Pleasant fragrance

.816

Floor and carpet that are done with aesthetics

.816

Ambience

Space

Spacious ceiling composition

.837

Adequate parking facilities

.890

Easily accessible location

.854

Music

Music

I feel relaxed when my favorite music is being played in the restaurant

.799

I like it when my friends like the music played in the restaurant

.799

Food quality

Food quality

The food meets the expectations from the description in the menu

.787

The food is a good value for money

.787

The KMO of all the above factors were above 0.5 suggesting that the factors were sound. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant for all the factors. The communality of all the items was above 0.4. The total variance explained was above 60% for all the factors.

Varimax rotation was used to ensure homogeneity of items within factors and heterogeneity with other factors.

The correlations between the factors are as follows:

Customer loyalty factor

Waiter Service Factor 1

Waiter Service Factor 2

Ambience Factor 1

Ambience Factor 2

Music Factor

Food Factor

Customer Satisfaction Factor

Customer loyalty factor

1.000

Waiter Service Factor 1

.632

1.000

Waiter Service Factor 2

.561

.180

1.000

Ambience Factor 1

.712

.779

.440

1.000

Ambience Factor 2

.431

.287

.452

.410

1.000

Music Factor

.349

.489

.455

.614

.414

1.000

Food Factor

.670

.596

.551

.673

.456

.542

1.000

Customer Satisfaction Factor

.665

.400

.683

.580

.494

.559

.658

1.000

All the above correlations were significant at 0.01 levels.

Regression Analysis

Regression analysis has been carried out with the following six identified factors on Customer Loyalty with Customer Satisfaction as the mediating variable.

Waiter Politeness

Waiter Promptness

Physical Space

Aesthetics

Music

Food

Step 1: Regression of the factors on Customer Loyalty

Model 1

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

Sig.

Collinearity Statistics

B

Beta

Tolerance

(Constant)

3.731

.000

Waiter Politeness

.358

.330

.000

.327

Waiter Promptness

.390

.360

.000

.537

Physical Space

.359

.331

.000

.269

Aesthetics

.092

.084

.118

.708

Music

-.341

-.314

.000

.557

Food

.200

.184

.010

.411

R Square

Adjusted R Square

.696

.684

The above table shows the results of regression with the six mentioned factors as independent variables and Customer Loyalty as dependent variable. The value of R square is 0.696 shows positive correlation between the six factors together and Customer Loyalty. The inference from Value of Beta and Significance is as follows:

Waiter Politeness on Customer Loyalty:

Significance of 0.00 and Beta of 0.33 shows that Waiter Politeness affects Customer Loyalty positively.

Waiter Promptness on Customer Loyalty:

Significance of 0.00 and Beta of 0.36 shows that Waiter Promptness affects Customer Loyalty positively.

Space on Customer Loyalty:

Significance of 0.00 and Beta of 0.331 shows that Restaurant Space affects Customer Loyalty positively.

Aesthetics on Customer Loyalty:

Significance of 0.118 is higher than a threshold of 0.05, which indicates that this has insignificant effect on Customer Loyalty.

Music on Customer Loyalty:

Significance of 0 and Beta of -0.314 shows that Music affects Customer Loyalty negatively.

Food on Customer Loyalty:

Significance of 0.01 and Beta of 0.184 indicates that Food affects Customer Loyalty partially.

Step 2: Regression of the factors on Customer Satisfaction

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

Sig.

Collinearity Statistics

B

Beta

Tolerance

(Constant)

.000

1.000

Waiter Politeness

-.014

-.014

.872

.327

Waiter Promptness

.384

.384

.000

.537

Physical Space

.132

.132

.175

.269

Aesthetics

.103

.103

.089

.708

Music

.134

.134

.050

.557

Food

.246

.246

.002

.411

R Square

Adjusted R Square

.621

.606

The above table shows the results of regression with the six mentioned factors as independent variables and Customer Satisfaction as dependent variable. The value of R square is 0.788 shows positive correlation between the six factors together and Customer Satisfaction. The inference from Value of Beta and Significance is as follows:

Waiter Politeness on Customer Satisfaction:

Significance of 0.872 shows that Waiter politeness on Customer Satisfaction is not significant. This indicates that the impact of Waiter Politeness on Customer Satisfaction is insignificant.

Waiter Promptness on Customer Satisfaction:

Significance of 0 and Beta of 0.384 shows that Waiter Promptness affects Customer Satisfaction positively.

Space on Customer Satisfaction:

Significance of 0.175 is higher than a threshold of 0.05, which means that we cannot comment on the effect of Space on Customer Satisfaction

Aesthetics on Customer Satisfaction:

Significance of 0.89 and Beta of 0.103 shows that Aesthetics affects Customer Satisfaction positively.

Music on Customer Satisfaction:

Significance of 0.05 and Beta of -0.134 shows that Music affects Customer Satisfaction partially in a positive manner.

Food on Customer Satisfaction:

Significance of 0.002 and Beta of 0.246 indicates that Food affects Customer Satisfaction partially in a positive manner.

Step 3: Regression of the 6 factors and the mediating variable (Customer Satisfaction) on Customer Loyalty

Unstandardi

Nowadays, there are many authors defined motivation as a major determinant of the tourists behavior. Mostly, the theory of motivation is related to the concept of need. Needs are seen as the force that arouses motivated behavior and it is assumed that, to understand human motivation, it is necessary to discover what needs people have and how they can be fulfilled. Maslow in 1943 was the first to attempt to do this with his needs hierarchy theory, now the best known of all motivation theories.

Physiological needs

Hunger, thirst, sex, sleep, air

Safety needs

Freedom from threat or danger

Social needs

Feeling of belonging, affection and friendship

Esteem needs

Self- respect, achievement. Self-confidence, reputation, recognition, prestige

Needs for self- actualization

Self-fulfillment, realizing one’s potential

Figure 4.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Source: Maslow, 1943)

Other attempts to explain tourist motivation have identified with Maslow’s needs hierarchy. Mill and Morrison (1985), for example, see travel as a need or want satisfier, and show how Maslow’s hierarchy ties in with travel motivations and the travel literature. Similarly, Dann’s (1977) tourism motivators can be linked to Maslow’s list of needs. He argued that there are basically two factors in a decision to travel, the push factors and the pull factors. The push factors are those that make you want to travel and the pull factors are those that affect where you travel. In his appraisal of tourism motivation, Dann proposed seven categories of travel motivation:

Travel as a response to what is lacking yet desired. We live in an anomic society and this, according to Dann, fosters a need in people for social interaction that is missing from the home environment.

Destination pull in response to motivational push

Motivation as a fantasy

Motivation as a classified purpose, such as visiting friends and relatives or study.

Motivational typologies

Motivation and tourist experiences

Motivation as auto-definition and meaning, suggesting that the way tourists define their situations will provide a greater understanding of tourist motivation than simply observing their behavior.

2.3 Destination Choice

There is few research studies of destination choice have been analyzed personal values to determine for the reason of consumers choose a particular destination. According to Muller (1991) stated, he has developed profiles for various section in an international tourism market in order to demonstrate the usefulness of profiling visitor segments in such a way that the importance of various tourism destination criteria could be attributed to specific value orientations. Besides that, he also believed that value-based data are easier to obtain than lifestyle profiles because a value survey is considerably shorter than a lifestyle questionnaire. The approach taken was to:

Isolate segments in the market, based on the importance visitors attach to several attributes of a city visit

Develop value-based profiles of these segments

Assess the marketing implications of the value profiles for tourism product development and promotional strategies.

According to Crompton, 1977, the destination choice has been conceptualized as having two phases which are generic phase and the second phase is concerned with where to go. The generic phase issue the fundamental issue of whether or not to have a holiday at all. Once the decision-making for vacation is made, the second phase is concerned with where to go such as plan for destination choice. On the other hand, Um and Crompton, 1990 also explored a concept as to probe the second phase with developing a framework of travel destination choice for consumer to provide a context for the study. In facts, the concepts used in the framework were consists of external inputs, internal inputs and cognitive constructs. For the external inputs part, the sum of social interactions and marketing communications to which a potential traveler is exposed and the internal inputs were viewed as a potential traveler which includes personal characteristics, motives, values and attitudes. For the last one of cognitive constructs which represent an combination of the internal and external inputs into the destinations and the evoked set of destinations.

2.2 Factor Affects the Consumer Behavior
2.2.1 Web

The rapid growth of the internet has changed the way people search information about hospitality and tourism services. Product knowledge, or expertise and familiarity, seem to influence travelers’ information search activities (Gursoy, 2003). The impact of multi-channel access on consumers’ decision making processes was discussed in Louviers et al. (2003) study of the global hotel industry. In a cross-cultural study of German and Japanese visitors to the US, Money and Crotts (2003) show that uncertainty avoidance as a cultural dimension influences consumers’ information search processes, including channel choices.

Difference between on-line shoppers and non-shoppers were examined in the context of travel purchases (Card et al., 2003). Although response speed was identified as one of the key ingredients to a successful recovery following an e-mail complaint to a hotel (Mattila and Mount, 2003a), hotels seem to be failing in this area. In a study of Singaporean travel agents, Murphy and Tan (2003) report that customers have a slim chance of receiving a reply to their e-mail inquiry. Similar disappointing results were reported in a Swiss context (Frey et al., 2003). Poria and Oppewal (2003) suggest that on-line news discussions might provide a new avenue for investigating consumer behavior. Dube et al. (2003), on the other hand, argue that “experience engineering” is a necessary component of value creation in today’s hospitality industry and that the internet could be effectively used to set stage for pleasurable experiences.

2.2.2 Safety and mature consumers

In the post-9/11 environment safety and security have resurfaced as topics of interest. While some cross-cultural differences exist in customer perceptions of airline service (Kim and Prideaux, 2003), Gilbert and Wong (2003) show that assurance, including safety concerns, is the most crucial service quality dimension among international travelers. Since safety is one of people’s intrinsic motivations, understanding tourists’ perceptions of crime is critical for destination marketing (Barker et al., 2003). George (2003), for example, examined tourist perceptions of safety while visiting Cape Town, a representative of destinations with an unsafe image. Looking at food safety issues, Reynolds and Balinbin (2003) show that educating consumers about Mad Cow disease positively influences their perceptions of beef as a safe choice.

The aging population is a major demographic shift in today’s Western world. To better understand that needs and wants of these mature consumers, many hospitality researchers have turned their attention to this growing market segment. On a positive note, an examination of economic and socio-demographic factors suggests that the demand for full-service restaurants is going to increase in the near future partly due to aging population (Kim and Geistfeld, 2003). Research by Moschis et al. (2003) suggests that mature consumers respond differently to various marketing promotions, but that monetary appeals might not be the most effective way of reaching this target population. These more mature consumers seem to strive for socialization when dinning out (Yamanaka et al., 2003). In terms of advertising, hospitality and tourism marketers need to understand how behavioral scripting in TV ads influences older consumers’ perceptions of hospitality products and services (Peterson and Sautter, 2003). A study in a casino context shows that elderly females might be a particularly attractive but somewhat vulnerable (due to low levels of education and income) market segment (Moseley et al., 2003).

2.2.3 Pricing and other studies

Asymmetric effects of positive and negative price deviations on price, quality and value were examined by Oh (2003b). Monty and Skidmore (2003) discussed the usefulness of hedonic pricing in estimating consumers’ willingness to pay more for bed and breakfast type accommodations. Contrary to common beliefs, Kincard and Corsun (2003) demonstrate that the layout if menu items is not linked to item sales. Noriega and Lin (2003) identified difference in attitudes and behaviors of gamblers based on their preferred gambling activity whereas people with disabilities served as a sample for the effectiveness of travel agents in Hong Kong (McKercher et al., 2003).

2.2.4 Tourism studies

Regarding tourism behavior, the topics covered in hospitality and tourism journals in 2003 seem to fall in the general categories of consumer research in tourism: destination choice/image, segmentation and decision-making or choice. Understanding the basic motivations in destination choice among various target markets was the key concept in many of the published studies. Andriotis and Vaughan (2003) studied the attitudes of urban residents toward tourism development on Crete. Trekkers perceptions of Nepal were identified by Holden (2003) while Mohsin and Ryan (2003) examined motives of backpackers in Northern Australia. Naoi (2003) used Lew’s cognitive perspective in analyzing Japanese tourists’ motivations. Uriely et al. (2003) examined how residents’ religious attitudes influence their attitudes toward heritage tourism in Israel. Teye and Leclerc (2003) studied the motivations of cruise line passengers from an ethnic perspective.

Rittichainuwat et al. (2003) examined the joint influence of destination image, travel satisfaction, motivation and inhibitors on repeat purchase intent in the context of Thailand. Rezende-Parker et al. (2003) explored US visitors’ image of Brazil as a vacation destination. Pike (2003) employed repertory grid method to destination image research. From a more conceptual perspective, Kim and Yoon (2003) concluded that affect is a more salient determinant of destination image than cognition. To obtain a more dynamic view of destination perceptions, Vogt and Andereck (2003) examined how destination knowledge and desirability perceptions change during the course of the vacation. As an interesting example of interdisciplinary co-operation between academic publications, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing had a special issue co-published with Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing. Many of the articles in that issue dealt with wine regions as tourist destinations (e.g., Hashimoto and Telfer (2003) examining the Niagara Region, Frochot (2003) investigating the impact of food images on French Regional Tourism and Du Rabd et al. (2003) focusing on food destination marketing in South Africa).

Culture or geographic location was the main focus in most of the segmentation studies. Sirakaya et al. (2003) examined the segments of Japanese visitors to Turkey. Chen and Uyasal (2003) developed a typology of leisure travelers visiting 10 eastern states and found support for two distinct groups: novelty seekers and acquaintance visitors. In another destination based study, Wisconsin rural tourists can be classified to five distinct segments. Individuality of German tourists visiting Norway was examined by Prebensen et al. (2003). Vacation styles were used as a segmentation variable for examining winter tourists in Aurstralia (Dolnicar and Leisch, 2003). McKercher and du Cros (2003) identified typologies for cultural tourism. Razzouk and Seitz (2003) found that individuals interested in nude recreation tend to be Middle-class, well-educated Caucasians who are family-oriented and fun-loving. In an attempt to reach out to emotions, Chen (2003a) explored tourists’ sentiments toward marketing as a segmentation variable. Form a methodological perspective, Chen (2003b) introduced a new segmentation framework (travel segmentation with chi-square automatic interaction detection) to the tourism literature.

With regard to decision-making, another important line of research in tourism behavior, Van Middelkoop and Timmermans (2003) showed that other heuristics such as the context might be more beneficial than utility maximization in explaining tourist choices regarding travel mode. Kang et al. (2003) examined family decision making and its impact on segmentation strategies. To enrich our understanding of tourism choice processes, Eugenio-Martin (2003) developed a five-stage, conceptual model using a discrete choice approach.

2.3 Effects of environment on consumer behavior

Traditionally, explanations of consumer behavior are cast in terms that are rooted in cognitive psychology (Bargh, 2002). Before people buy, or choose, or decide, they engage in more or less elaborate, conscious information processing (Chaiken, 1980; Petty, Cacioppo, & Schumann, 1983). Information processing may lead to certain attitudes, and these attitudes, in turn, may or may not affect decisions. The amount of information that is processed is dependent on various moderators, such as involvement (e.g., Fazio, 1990; Krugman, 1965). In addition, the sort of information that finally influences your attitudes can differ too. Attitudes can be based more on cognitive beliefs, such as when one finds a product very useful, or more on affect, such as when a product has important symbolic meanings (Venkatraman & MacInnes, 1985). However, various known moderators notwithstanding, the key always seems to be that people consciously process information before they decide what to buy (or eat, or drink, etc.). Although this emphasis on information processing is highly useful, it also has an inherent danger. The flavor of the approach is conscious and highly intrapersonal. That is, the general picture that emerges is that of a conscious decision maker who negotiates decisions based on processing the pros and cons of a certain product. There is no doubt that people sometimes do this, especially when such products are important and expensive, but very often they do not.

2.3.1 Malleable automatic attitudes

Given that consumer choices are at least partly based on automatically activated attitudes, the consequences of these findings are far-reaching. These automatically activated attitudes are not stable, and hence, they do not always lead to the same choices. Instead, such attitudes are partly determined by the current social environment and by current goals. Moreover, people are generally unaware of the moderating effects of these subtle influences.

2.4 The Identification of Factor Influencing Destination Choice

Choice has been defined as a transformation of motivation in purchasing action (Buhalis, 2000). The destination choice is made by alternative evaluation based on individual preferences and goals, while evaluation of tourist product is based on individual evaluative criteria (Moutinho, 1987).

Factors that influence consumer behaviour can be internal and external to the individual. Among the internal determinants are social and personal, while the external ones include confidence in the travel agency, the overall image of alternatives, previous travel experience, travel constraints (time, cost, etc), degree of perceived risk, etc. Among the major influences of individual travel behaviour are family, reference groups, social classes, culture and subculture that determine individual’s personality, learning, motivation, perception (of alternatives) and attitudes (Moutinho, 1987). Eilat and Einav (2004) add destination risk to be one of the factors that influence destination choice, which, according to him, is important for both developed and less-developed countries, while fashion, common boarder, common language, and distance are also important determinants especially in less-developed countries (Eilat and Einav, 2004).

To understand consumer behaviour, it is necessary to examine the complex interaction of many influencing internal and external factors (Moutinho, 1987). Moutinho’s study (1987) deals with determinants of behaviour, culture and reference group influences, the relationships between individuals and their environments, perceived risks, and family decision processes.

Numerous literature studies identify social, cultural, personal, and psychological factors that influence destination choice. Cultural factors consist of culture, sub-culture, and social class. Many researchers have noticed significance of culture.

Culture is a set of beliefs, values, ideas, attitudes and customs that characterise a particular society (Cateora and Keavency, 1987, cited in Pyne and Dimanche, 1996; Moutinho, 1987). Consumer behaviour is gradually determined by his/her culture. Culture with its norms and standards guide a consumer’s behaviour (Moutinho, 1987). Cultural norms have an impact on both tourists’ expectations and their perceptions of received service quality. People from different cultural background have different image perceptions of a destination (Bonn et al, 2005). According to Weiermair (2000), culture affects not only the way in which people experience and interpret goods and services, but it has also an impact on decision-making process and destination choice. Understanding of cultural particularities of a target group can explain and forecast tourists’ behaviour. The influence of culture and cultural differences on customer behaviour have been analysed in a variable marketing literature (Usinier, 1993; Keegan, 1984, cited in Weiermair, 2000).

Among the social factors are reference groups, family, roles and status. Reference groups – family, religion, ethic groups, trade union, neighbourhood etc – can be classified by primary (personal contact with a group) and secondary (occasionally), formal (trade union) and informal (neighbourhood) (Moutinho, 1987). Personal factors include age, life cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, and personality.

Psychological factors are perhaps the most complex and difficult to understand and consist of motivation (theories of human motivation: Marshall, Freud, Veblen, Herzberg, Maslow), perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

Another important determinant of tourist’s behaviour towards destinations and services is the tourist’s self-image – what a person thinks he or she is and what a person wants to be. There is a relationship between self-image and product image that determines tourist’s behaviour towards destinations and services. Perception and cognition influence the evaluation and judgemental process. Attitude and intention, created by learning and experience are other important concepts in tourists’ behaviour discussions (Moutinho, 1987).

The importance of previous travel experience in the destination choice has got wide discussions between the researchers. Many of them consider previous experience on the destination to be a significant factor in the destination selection process. Thus, Woodside and Lysonski (1989, cited in Oppermann, 1997) consider that previous travel experience is a significant factor at the motivation and information stage of the destination selection process rather than the actual destination choice. Crompton (1992, cited in Oppermann, 1997) also do not consider previous experience important however he mentions ‘unpleasant personal experience set’ as significant factor in the decision-making process of the tourists.

Chapter 5: Discussion, Implications and Suggestions
5.1 Introduction

The topic of the research is about consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industry in Kuala Lumpur. After the researcher had analyzed the result of questionnaire through the SPSS system, the researcher needs to find out whether the results match with the hypothesis. After finishing the discussion, the researcher will then need to provide suggestion for the research topic.

5.2 Discussion

In order to know consumer behavior is help to identify the target consumer in Kuala Lumpur. This research is to found out the target market and the behavior of consumer. Base on the research finding, it shows that more of the consumer had travel experience before. The result shows that 95.5 percent of people had travel before at least 1 to 5 times. Therefore, there are a small percentage of people that do not travel before. So, the researcher can target the consumer who had travel experience to get their behavior on travel.

In the chapter 1 of the research, the research had made some hypothesis of the research title. Hypothesis is use to predict the result before distribute the questionnaire to the public. I use correlation analysis to ascertain the relationship between the influencing factors and evaluation criteria. The first hypothesis is to examine the relationship between motivation and behavior of tourism and hospitality consumer. In the research, the researcher had asked about the reason and their travel behavior. Consumer may travel with some reason and the reason can motivate them. The reasons of consumers travel because of relaxing and leisure with 82.5 percent. It mean that they are more focus on reduce the stress and walk around the world. Therefore, the reason will link with consumer behavior which is they would like to travel with who. In the result show that 51 percent of consumer would like to travel with their friends which mean that they would like to travel for relaxing and leisure with their friends. Friends also can interact with the reason of shopping. Consumer may like to shop with their friend rather than family. Besides that, 41.5 percent of consumer may like to travel with their family for sigh-seeing. In the result, consumer behavior between motivation and behavior is clearly defined. One of the example is some of the consumer would like to travel with group because of adventure. They may think people in a group will help to care for each other’s while they are travel for adventure. This shows that the first hypothesis is accepted.

The second hypothesis is the factor that will influence consumer decision-making in hospitality and tourism industry. The researcher had list out five factors and rated the important of each sub-factor from one to five (completely unimportant to most.) The most factors that will influence the consumer decision-making is personal safety and security in a hotel. Consumers believe that to protect consumer personal safety and security mean to guarantee on consumer information will not spread out. The second factor that will influence consumer decision-making is the hygiene of the hotel with 75 percent. Yet, most of the consumer did not care about the reputation of the hotel. Reputation is the factor influencing consumer decision-making but on the result show that it will not be a big influence. Most of respondents think that safety and hotel hygiene are more important than the hotel reputation.

In tourism industry, the factors that will influence consumer’s decision-making were rated. According to the factor will influence consumer decision-making in hospitality, the safety and security also be a factor that will influence in tourism industry. With the higher rate of 77 percent, consumer may think safety and security is the most important factor. Road, traffic and public transport are the second important factor which also related with safety and security. Consumer believe that with high technological transport is convenient and safety. Therefore, the moderate rate is the cultural or historical of the country with 25.5 percent. This result show that it was just some of the consumers would like to travel for the destination’ cultural or historical. Cultural or historical may had the big influence on consumer decision-making although some of the consumer did not like the historical, for example, consumer may not travel in Japan because of the secondary war in second century. The second hypothesis was also accepted.

The third hypothesis is about the important to understanding consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industry. It is good for marketing in order to know their needs and wants. The researcher had do some survey to analyze out the consumer behavior. The result shows that 56.5 percent of respondents choose to stay in hotel and 32.5 percent of respondents choose to stay in resort surrounded by Nature Park with 33 percent. The reason of chosen the hotel or resort which is surrounded by Nature Park is to feel the natural and green environment with silent and comfortable place. Besides that, online travel package also important to match the consumer behavior. The result shows that 57.5 percent of consumer will buy the travel package and 42.5 percent would not buy. Consumer will buy the package because of the benefit of online travel package. The most of the consumer would like to buy online travel package because of buy one free one with 61 percent. They may think buy one free one is cheap. As a result, to know the consumer behavior may help to give the right information to marketing mix to produce some service and products that match the consumer needs and wants.

5.3 Suggestion

With the advancement of technology, consumers are in much better position today to travel that deal with real world while travelling. Theories and methods applied from cultural anthropology would enrich our understanding of consumption and its meaning in consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industry in Kuala Lumpur.

Apart from getting more understanding the consumer behavior, the researcher suggest that marketing of hospitality and tourism can focus on what the consumer behavior, the reason of motivation, consumer needs and wants in order to give the good products to them. Marketing mix can do the promotions that match the needs and wants of consumers in Kuala Lumpur.

5.4 Conclusion

As a conclusion, the hypothesis had matched the result of the research topic. Insights from consumer research have significant potential for positively influencing managerial marketing.

Talking about sustainable tourism, a crucial question comes to our mind that have we achieved any success till now. This question is crucial since in several countries sustainable tourism or ecotourism or other forms of tourism that generally talks of similar objectives stated almost for a couple of decades by now. However, evidences suggest that if for the time being we keep aside other components of sustainable tourism and focus on the environmental aspect of it, it is quite a controversial topic. The reason being total carbon emissions from tourism activities in absolute term have been increasing unabatedly though it has declined to some extent on per capita basis. The primary reason for the increase of carbon emissions from tourism activities is increase in number of tourists significantly. And, in that too international tourism has been increased significantly during the last decade or so.

Aviation industry itself is responsible for more than 40% of carbon emission that can be attributed to tourism activities. About 25% can be attributed to other surface transport. Fortunately, since technology has improved tremendously and rate of emissions has been reduced in all segments involved with tourism activities, we have been able to reduce per capita emissions of carbon and other green house gases. But, the reduction rate is not enough to meet the targets set for the tourism sector. If we need to meet the target set for 2020 regarding reducing carbon foot print of tourism sector, per year reduction rate should be about 6% from now onwards which is not only difficult but impossible.

Objective

we have discussed mostly negative about achieving sustainable tourism. However, that is not a complete picture. Several initiatives have been taken from all different stakeholders to adopt sustainability mode, especially in terms of environment. Lots of awareness generation activities, regulatory aspects, knowledge transfer, and sustainable business practices have been experienced by the tourism sector all over the world, particularly, in developed countries. The prime reason why this topic has been raised today is the importance of governance in driving sustainable tourism goals. Though there are positive governance shown in bits and pieces in some cases, in general the policies can be considered as a failure. To prove the governance as an “effective instrument” to reduce environmental impacts of sustainable tourism, “policy learning” is a must based on previous and new experiences.

Scope

A new dimension has been added by sustainable tourism that includes both the conservation and preservation of the physical and cultural environment of a particular region. Hence, under sustainable tourism natural resources of the locality are to be located within the parameters which would not degrade the natural assets and the traditional livelihood of the community.

By a positive approach, efforts are carried on to encourage the community members to set the pace and direction of tourism development in a manner consistent with their lifestyle and tradition in order to respect the cultural heritage of every region. Integrated .community participation between the local people, the local government and national level plan makers has to be adopted.

Ecology and economy are becoming ever more interwoven. Protection of the environment land development of tourism should not be seen as separate challenges. In order to be economically sustainable tourism must be environmentally sustainable to both the natural and the human environments.

It is the responsibility of the local community to wisely manage their regional assets for their own advancement and for a better quality of life. Clean physical surroundings and protected environment would provide better quality of life to the local community and the tourist alike.

Sustainable Tourism defined by World Tourism Report

The World Tourism Report defines sustainable tourism “as a model form of economic development that exemplifies stewardship of environment and sensitivity to community and cultural aspirations.”

The World Tourism Report signifies senses that the alienation of local inhabitants and takes into consideration the various sensitive issues while evolving the strategies of sustainable tourism. It realizes the sense of deprivation and marginalization of the local inhabitants.

According to the Report the broader vision could incorporate following guidelines for development of Sustainable tourism globally:

1) Tourism planning, development and operations should be in the spirit of sustainable development in being cross- sectoral and integrated, involving different government agencies, private corporations, citizens groups and individuals so as to provide for the widest possible benefits.

2) Agencies, corporations, groups and individuals should follow ethical principle which respects the culture and environment of the host area, the economy and traditional way of life, the community and traditional behavior, leadership and political patterns.

3) Due regard should be given to the protection and appropriate economic use of the natural and human environment in the host areas.

4) Tourism should be undertaken with equity in mind, with the idea of access to a fair distribution of benefits and costs among tourism promoters and host peoples and their areas.

5) Good information, research and communication on the nature of tourism and its effects on the human and cultural environment should be available prior to and during development. This information should be known to all parties, including the local people, so that they are in a position to participate in and influence the direction of, development in their area.

6) Local people should be encouraged to undertake leadership roles in the planning and development of their regional assets with the assistance of government, financial, business and other interests.

7) There should be integrated environmental, social and economic planning to link with existing uses, ways of life and environmental considerations.

8) Careful monitoring should be done to allow local community to take advantage of opportunities offered by new change.

Face of sustainable tourism in India

Sustainable tourism practices in India are not new, bound together by the twin

Travel dicta of Bharat Darshan and Atithi Devo Bhavah, now known the world over

Through the medium of the Incredible !ndia campaign.

In the fragile eco-systems, this takes on another crucial dimension. Local

Communities become the motive force for sustainable practices, especially in the

Preservation of cultural identities and natural heritage. While tempering the

Impact of the ecological footprint, this can also create the pressure point for an

Equitable local share in the economic benefits of tourism.

These considerations continue to be central to the Ministry of Tourism’s

Formulation of proposals for the 12th Five Year Plan.

This publication brings these strands together, with the expectation that tourism

Today will enable future communities and travelers to also gain from sustainable,

inclusive experiences.

12th Five Year Plan through Plan through the
following measures:

Major social awareness campaign under the ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’

Initiative

Involving schools, NGOs, industry associations, etc. in carrying out

sustained cleanliness drives at important tourist destinations.

Suitable incentives and awards will be provided to all organizations

and individuals involved in this initiative

Top most priority will be given for sanctioning Central Financial

Assistance for setting up of way-side amenities, bio-degradable

toilets, etc.

Target of 12th Five Year Plan for Growth of Foreign and Domestic Tourist

While making efforts for the targeted 12th Five Year Plan growth in Foreign and domestic tourists, the Ministry will endeavour to make the growth sustainable. This is proposed to be achieved through the following measures:

Sustainable Tourism criteria for India (STCI) and indicators for hotels,

tour operators have been finalized. Similarly, the criteria and indicators

for rural tourism and home-stays are being evolved. Action will be

initiated for Tourism industry constituents not yet covered.

The scope of Market Development Assistance scheme would be enlarged

to cover participation of representatives of recognised national

associations in workshops/ seminars on sustainable tourism organised

by reputed organisations in India or overseas.

Training of various stake holders under the existing plan schemes of the

Ministry.

Role of Governments – Central, State and Local

Governments – Central, State and Local – have a critical role in determining the policies for sustainable tourism. Moreover, many policies and much of the legislation surrounding sustainable tourism falls in the area of governance, such as land use, labour laws, environmental regulations and waste disposal. One of

the primary functions of the Government in enhancing Sustainable Tourism is

therefore to create an environment that enables or influences the private sector to

operate more sustainably, and influences patterns of visitor flows and behaviour

to optimize the impact of tourism. Positive intervention by the Government is thus

necessary, going beyond providing an enabling environment

Against this background, it was considered necessary to define criteria for

sustainable tourism to suit Indian conditions, specifically taking cognizance of

India’s attainments in sustainability while also considering criteria generated by

other sources including GSTC. As several stakeholders in sustainable tourism such

as airlines etc fall outside the ambit of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India,

the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India at present include only the tour

operators and the accommodation sectors which come directly within the

Ministry’s purview.

National Workshop on Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India

Accordingly, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India convened a National

Workshop on Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India in July 2010.

Based on the recommendations of this National Workshop on Sustainable Tourism

Criteria for India, a sub-committee chaired by Joint Secretary (Tourism),

Government of India and comprising expert stakeholders was constituted in 2010

for defining Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and indicators.

Key concerns kept in mind by the Committee were :

The key concerns for STCI , Ministry of Tourism, Government of India are as follows below

(i) Carrying capacity.

(ii) Anthropogenic character, applying to all major human impacts on the

environment.

(iii) Local community participation, engagement and benefit.

(iv) Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India guidelines.

(v) Bio-degradable toilets.

(vi) Water harvesting.

(vii) Lessons from successes and failures, national & international.

(viii) Institutional certification and viewpoints: ISO, BIS, BEE, LEED etc.

(ix) Polluter Pays Principle.

Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and indicators

The Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) and indicators, evolved by the Committee for the accommodation sector and the tour operators sector together with two case references, are annexed with this Report.

The ratification of these indicators and criteria by the industry associations has

progressed well and they are now accordingly planned for implementation.

Among the ensuing tasks the foremost is implementation of the criteria and

indicators for tour operators and the accommodation sector and the development

of criteria and indicators for rural tourism and home-stays and other sectors.

The implementation of Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India will progress on the basis of:

1. Workshops to advocate sustainability by the Ministry of Tourism,

Government of India for all stakeholders across the regions of the country.

2. Extensive range of incentives for establishments complying with STCI,

specially focusing on international market access through the Ministry’s

Market Development Assistance scheme and also operational advantage

concerning energy, water and other input requirements as feasible.

3. Ministry of Tourism, Government of India support to proposals from all

tourism sector associations for skill development as in ‘Hunar Se Rozgar’ for

unskilled, low-skilled and, semi-skilled and craftsperson categories.

4. MSME tourism service providers to be specially supported after meeting eligibility and STCI compliance conditions.

5. Certification through innovative use of existing mechanisms, there being to

need for appointing consultants or a project monitoring unit.

6. Training of Trainers for Sustainable Tourism through institutional

arrangements.

7. School and college curricula to incorporate sustainable tourism.

8. Advance calendar of participatory activies displayed on the Ministry’s

website.

9. Capacity building in industry and the Government by identifying institutions

for developing a pool of trainers, training of trainers, etc.

10. Evolving governance coefficients, using contemporary technology, for

incorporation in the rating / approval mechanism to enable realistic

monitoring and evaluation of sustainable tourism implementation by all

tourism industry constituents.

Projects Undertaken towards development of Sustainable Toursim

Charitable Projects within India

Greaves is dedicated to preserving the natural habitats of the places we serve and to improve the welfare of the people and communities who live in these areas. We are committed to a set of environmental ethics.

Below are some of the projects, Greaves are presently involved with and support through private and company contributions

Jaisalmer in Jeopard :

Greaves Travel has developed and maintained strong links with heritage conservation bodies working in India, particularly ‘Jaisalmer in Jeopardy’ (JiJ). Founded in 1996 by writer and photographer Sue Carpenter, with Mehera Dalton, Managing Director of Greaves Travel as a founder trustee and also Chairman of JIJ. Dalton is committed to the conservation of Indian heritage and has helped to sponsor JiJ’s events and site visits to Jaisalmer, as well as organised tours of JiJ projects.

JiJ’s objectives, as set out in its charity deeds, are “To secure, for the benefit of the public, the preservation and protection of the architectural and historical heritage of Jaisalmer and to educate the public in the history and architecture of the city”.

Rehwa Soceity:

Handloom weaving in Maheshwar has an ancient history, dating back to some 1500 years. The Maharaja of Indore from the Holker family, established the ‘Rehwa Society’ to revitalize this cottage industry. Today, through the Rehwa Society, the weavers can preserve this ancient Indian skill and look forward to preserving the traditions of this craftsmanship. Visits to Ahilya Vihar and the Ahilya School can be arranged as part of a tour to the region with accommodation at the gorgeous Ahilya Fort.

Greaves supports this art and industry, by purchasing their products, selling them and repatriating the funds to Rehwa. This helps to ensure the independence of the women weavers, providing them with their own source of income, which in turn, ensures their way of life and their family’s prosperity. Learn more about Rehwa projects by visiting their website www.rehwasociety.org Contact Greaves to arrange a private visit and tour of the Rehwa projects.

Happy Home & School for the Blind ,Mumbai ,India :

The entry way of a low built building in Worli, Mumbai, is decorated with a gorgeous life size mural of the tree of life. When you look closer, you will see that the mural has been made of tiny mosaic tiles, perfectly aligned and colour coordinated to create the beautiful design. This is the first example of the wonderful work of the blind children in this school. These designs, along with other mosaics created by the blind children in The Happy Home & School For The Blind, have been printed on Christmas cards. Greaves was proud to support the school by sponsoring the production and printing of these cards. This provided a lucrative source of funds for the school as the cards proved to be extremely popular and were sold out immediately. Greaves continues to provide support.

A visit to this school is inspiring not just for the atmosphere of hope and spotless surroundings, but to witness the possibilities that these children now have and the doors that are now open to them and their future. Meher Banaji’s many years of dedication as Principal, have given these children of India a home where they are cared for and trained to live a productive life.

Greaves would be happy to arrange a visit to the school when you are in Mumbai,

Travel Operation for Tigers :

Travel Operators for Tigers (TOFT) was created as a UK travel industry campaign, in cooperation with Global Tiger Patrol (GTP) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

The basic premise of the TOFT campaign is that legal, responsible, well managed tourism into India’s finest wildernesses and Tiger Reserves is the very best way to save the forests of India and its tigers. Tourism provides the economic imperative and the best reason for protecting Tigers, and if protected, a natural flow of protecting the landscapes and habitats that they exist on becomes invaluable and critically undervalued ‘ecological services’ that forests and their biodiversity provide in terms in water storage, medicines and carbon sinks to name just a few.

For every wild life tour booked with Greaves, we make a contribution of ?10.00 per person, which is sent to the TOFT campaign for use on host of visible TOFT sponsored projects in and around Project Tiger Parks. TOFT projects are presently in India’s National Parks of Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Panna, Pench, Ranthambore and Corbett. See our ‘A A Jungle Journey’ holiday tour for ideas on visiting some of these parks during your visit.

For more information on TOFT and how to become more involved, contact Greaves or visit the TOFT website at www.toftigers.org

Salaam Baalak Trust:

Salaam Baalak Trust runs five 24-hour full care shelters for children, one being devoted to girl children. These shelters, located in Delhi and Gurgaon, provide the children security, a sense of home, and an opportunity to receive all the critical inputs of childhood. They aim at restoring the childhood in children besides instilling in them the values of independence and decision-making, education and social values and financial self-dependence to become mature and responsible citizen of the country and caring and responsive members of the society.

For our travellers, Greaves arranges interesting city walks through the streets of the inner city of Paharganj and the New Delhi railway station area. These spirited youngsters of India will take you on a tour while sharing with you the journey of their lives. The walk is given from the perspective of the guides who enjoy sharing their lives and experiences.

The walk includes the living and built heritage of the area, taking you down the back streets to find hidden cultural practices and gives you a feel for life here in yesteryear. You will also see how the trust provides opportunities for street children of India and see what amazing things they can achieve when given an opportunity.

The city walk aims to sensitize people to the lives of street children in India. It’s a unique way of engaging people in the lives of children in distress. The walking tour also provides an opportunity for the young people of India to improve their communication and speaking skills. All proceeds go directly to the trust to enable more opportunities to be made for street children so the walk is 100% non-profit making.

USAID India:

USAID India focuses on the environmentally degraded neighborhoods within Agra near the Taj Mahal monument. The Crosscutting Program (CAP) is aimed at engaging youth and women from disadvantaged communities of India to address issues of livelihoods, sanitation and environment improvement in selected low-income settlements in the city. The project works to increase livelihoods and provide infrastructure upgrades around a Heritage Trail of lesser-known monuments in Agra.

CAP has empowered these communities of India by organizing community groups with the capacity to address their livelihood needs. At the community level there are now more organized groups addressing a diverse set of needs and participating in project implementation.

Women of India in particular have been empowered through their involvement in livelihood groups. They learn to operate bank accounts, receive and deposit check payments, manage finances and deal with clients and are now more financially secure and better able to advocate for their rights within their family.

Women of India in particular have been empowered through their involvement in livelihood groups. They learn to operate bank accounts, receive and deposit check payments, manage finances and deal with clients and are now more financially secure and better able to advocate for their rights within their family.

Building Knowledge and Capabilities for development of Tourism Sector in India

According to Ministry of tourism, Government of India with their active interactions with their stakeholders, various plans and programmes would be continuously prepared and implemented. Knowledge and capabilities of the officers and staff would be enhanced by refresher training programmes, deputing them to national and international seminars/ workshops on new areas of tourism development site visits to successful tourism spots, learning from the best practices around the world, etc. Regular market surveys and studies will be carried out to understand the requirements of tourists as also the impact of past promotional measures to take requisite corrective or new policy initiatives.

There are certain estimated priorities by Government with following weightage :

Interpretation of Data

We have interpreted above data from various primary and secondary sources a. One of the general objectives of the Indian Tourism Policy (2002) is to …’substantially increase the proportion of the urban resident leisure and pilgrimage tourism to rural areas….’. It proposes the development of tourist services in villages and rural regions located off the beaten tourist tracks. To this effect, in collaboration with the UNDP, it initiated a public rural tourism program geared towards all round, instantaneous village development: the Endogenous Tourism Project / Rural Tourism Scheme. The project was meant to be implemented in 31 villages across 20 states. Most of these villages harbored traditional artisans (weavers, potters, sculptors, block printers and the like) who were thought to attract tourists. Local or nearby NGOs were identified as the most important implementing agents in the otherwise ‘community-owned’ project.

To protect the environment, enhance host community heritage and enrich the visitor’s experience aˆ¦ The new tourism will be community-owned, culturally expressive and environmentally sustainable.

Initiatives for Boosting Sustainable Tourism:

aˆ? To develop audits, scoping projects and preliminary assessments of tourism

Development potential in regions;

aˆ? To identify tourism and heritage issues which need to be considered in management?

Regional or business planning;

aˆ? To develop regional heritage and tourism strategic plans and action plans;

aˆ? To assist in developing business plans for new or existing heritage tourism products;

aˆ? To foster more effective planning for infrastructure development at heritage places &

aˆ? To evaluate options and establish a stronger business case for an idea or proposal.

Guidelines influencing Sustainable tourism in India:

aˆ? Inclusive decision-making

aˆ? Sustainable development

aˆ? Tourism and heritage principles

aˆ? Appropriate tourism development.

Inclusive decision-making

Four key perspectives are involved in tourism and heritage – those of tourism operators, heritage managers, visitors and the community. They all have particular ideas, issues and interests. If all groups are to benefit, the perspectives of these groups need to be considered in making decisions for the future.

Sustainable development

Sustainable development needs to address economic, social and environmental issues. Many businesses now include social and environmental factors as part of their performance measurement.

Tourism and heritage principles

An important complementary publication to this framework is Successful Tourism at Heritage Places. It sets out principles, guidelines and case studies that illustrate success factors in tourism at natural and cultural heritage places.

The principles from Successful Tourism at Heritage Places underpin this framework and should be a starting point for discussions and collaboration. They are: 1. recognize the importance of heritage places

2. Look after heritage places

3. Develop mutually beneficial partnerships

4. Incorporate heritage issues into business planning

5. Invest in people and place

6. Market and promote products responsibly

7. Provide high-quality visitor experiences

8. Respect Indigenous rights and obligations.

Appropriate tourism development

Steps to Sustainable Tourism sets out an approach to help develop appropriate long-term solutions for tourism at places with natural and cultural heritage values. It also seeks ways to support growth in the tourism industry while ensuring that conservation needs are met.

Tourism will not be an option for some environments or heritage places where it is incompatible with the special values or management objectives of a place. Using the process in this guide will enable you to assess whether this is the case.

.
Conclusion

Sustainable tourism cannot be viewed in isolation as an end in itself, since so many elements of tourism are in fact interdependent and linked to other elements of living, doing business and community life. So, it should also be looked at, not in isolation, but within a ‘balanced’ framework of indicators. We should mainly aim to work within 4 elements – the Visitor, the Industry (Businesses/Economy), the ENVIRONMENT and lastly the Community to look at overall tourism development. So sustainable tourism development then becomes a function of each of these four principles or elements and relates to each of them and how they have a cause and effect on each other interdependently. Definitely, more work required within this area.

Sustainable tourism could be stated as ,

” The RIGHT VISITOR product and service

provided and offered within the RIGHT COMMUNITY

which produces the RIGHT ECONOMIC (industry) impact and value

in order to maintain and sustain the RIGHT ENVIRONMENT locally..”

The process of conducting research on the business environment within which the organization operates and on the organization itself, in order to formulate and implementation of strategy for future business operations can be mentioned as Strategic analysis of hospitality organization. To do the assessment can use number of tools to process of strategic analysis, including PEST (sometimes PESTLE) for analyze external environment and, SWOT analysis use for the internal environmental scanning, and Michael Porter’s five forces model use to assists to understand the competitive forces, the attractiveness and current position in the industry.

An effective way to know the past, present and future potentials regarding the industry development is analyzing the industry background as the part of strategic analysis. The External analysis can assess the factors affecting the industry to be existed including political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental which have great impacts to run the business and use PESTLE analysis.

In any industry which it is domestic or international, whether relating to products or services, the rules of competition are personified in five competitive forces of entry of new competitors, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry among the existing competitors. According to Porter, one of the crucial determinants of firm profitability is industrial attractiveness.

In this assignment, a strategic analysis of the Galadhari hotel which is in hospitality industry has been done through the combination of both theoretical and practical facts regarding this property including organizational background and industry background of this hospitality sector in Sri Lanka, an assessment of the forces affecting the external environment (the use of PESTLE analysis) and an assessment of the attractiveness of this industry (the use of Porter’s 5 forces) regarding the future strategic action to grab more hospitality market share.

Background of the industry and about Organization

By concerning about the Sri Lankan market of tourism there can be seen growth in the tourist market. All this euphoria gives rise to the doubt about whether Sri Lanka Tourism is well on the way to recovery and growth or not. For the last seven months that ended July this year (2010), arrivals are up almost 50% year-on-year (YOY) (341,991), with income also keeping pace at 69% growth (Quarter 2; US$ 244.5 million). The hotel and travel Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) index has been increased by almost 200% for 2009. Today tourism is running on everyone’s minds, and it is difficult to open a local newspaper without seeing at least one written article on tourism.

The reason for the dramatic improvement in Sri Lanka’s tourism data is the victory of war in May 2009. This would be a remarkable result when compared with other regional tourism destinations. Another reason for this improvement was the leader of the terrorist has killed and there is reason for cautious optimism that the social situation in Sri Lanka can improve rapidly. We can hope the company can take advantage of the ‘peace dividend’ by increasing the number of destinations the airline serves.

Hotel Galadhari is one of the leading five star luxury hotels in the Sri Lanka. The story of the Galadari Hotel, Colombo which opened its doors in 1984, is a splendid tale of continual improvement of product and highest standard of quality in hospitality over the past 25 years.

The vision & beliefs of the hotel is firmly grounded in extending a true personalized service to all our guests, laced with an unforgettable luxury hotel experience with the finest traditions of international hotel-keeping.

The Galadari Hotel, Colombo, meticulous about maintaining the privacy of its guests has drawn in many an elite personality from around the world such as heads of government, prime ministers of leading nations, royalty, well known sports & music personalities over the past two and half decades.

Situated in Colombo city with many a historical building within walking distance and a panoramic view of the magnificent Indian ocean, the Galadari Hotel offers a rich blend ofA service and quality in five star luxury living with 450 room super luxury hotel in Sri Lanka that overlooks the Indian Ocean and is adjacent to the Presidential Secretariat, Banks and the World Trade Center, with easy access to the shopping areas in Colombo. In hotel they are so many facilities are available, coffee shop lobby bar, chine’s restaurant, Scheherazade Arabic restaurant, pastry shop and garden terrace, karaoke, pub and also have health club and pool, body care and massage therapy ,bed-and-breakfast hospitality properties are available to accommodate the guests and the basic requirements of their comfortable stay.

Hospitality sector is a great source of income generation for the new investors.For instance, annual turnover (in2008) was Rs. 164 (million), operating profit (in2008) was Rs.13.65(million), growth in turnover (in 2009) was 25 percent, number of rooms is 450 rooms, average occupancy rate was 80 percent and growth in local hospitality sector is 15 percent. Now, it is easy to understand that how much revenue earning Galadhari hotel in its sector of hospitality.

Mission of Hotel Galadari

We are exceptional operators of contemporary 4 and 5 star hotels and create value in every encounter with our owners, guests and associates.

Vision

Exceptional and personalized service, exceeding expectations, and inspiring a connection to our brand in the experiences we provide.

Values

Exceptional Service – Company understand that the value can be created with every encounter and this is reflected in its superior standard of service.

Integrity – honest and straightforward in our interactions with hotel owners, guests, colleagues and the communities in which hotel operate

Respect – Hotel Galadari respect the objectives of our stakeholders, the values of its guests, and the cultural difference in the locations that it operate.

Teamwork and Passion – We bring our individual expertise, creativity and passion for industry as a Hotel Galadari team member.

Continuous Improvement – Hotel is innovative and utilizes best practices to continually improve its management techniques, and the quality of products and services.

Strengths and Weakness
Strengths
Visitors from Western Europe also prefer to stay in hotels in the southern coastal belt where the main attraction is the beaches. So Location of the Hotel Galadhari is strength to the organization to enhance their businesses.
There has also been a downturn in the arrival of Indians, who prefer Colombo hotels.
Colombo city hotels have been able to maintain higher occupancy levels than hotels on the southern coastal belt because of more business travelers, and special visitors such as those coming for conferences. Hence Galadhari also have more business opportunities in the Colombo city.
Since then the leisure sector has under-performed hugely, and Galadhari hotel has more facilities to spend the day more leisurely.
Well expertise work group has Galadhari to give satisfied service to their customers
Weaknesses
The location of the hotel is in the high security zone in Colombo which is Located in Galle Face Green promenade and with views over the Indian Ocean, this property offers a high level of service and security. Hence it could get difficulties to the tourists. Situated right next to the World Trade Center and the President’s Residence, the hotel enjoys the most secure part of the city.
The distance to hotel between airport is very far and gets more time to re ach hotel. It could cause to the business conferences which are held in the hotel. The main purpose of the established of Galadari Hotel is to attract the overseas seminars & conferences to the Sri Lanka. Because of the distance to Airport and hotel is too far and get more time to reach to the destination. And also the traffic on the roads is mainly impact to the time it takes to come to the hotel. Because of these reasons the main purpose has not been achieved.
Galadhari has only few room facilities and they have enough land to build new hotel rooms in their own land.
Hotels Galadhari has high gearing, high costs to maintain staff, and for refurbishment.
Factors affecting the external environment in hospitality

In strategic planning, external analysis of hospitality industry has been done with the use of PESTLE analysis and Porter’s 5 (five) forces in defining the strategy, making decisions on allocating resources to pursue the strategy.

Source: http://www.sltda.lk/sites/default/files/Statistics_book.pdf (Access: 15th September 2010)

Source: http://www.sltda.lk/sites/default/files/Statistics_book.pdf (Access: 15th September 2010)

PESTLE Analysis
(P)olitical Factors

In Sri Lanka it is socialist republic, state. The government is a mixture of the parliamentary and presidential system. Head of the state is president and current President is Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha and he is the chief of armed forces and head of government.

When the companies formulate and implement the strategies the political arena has a huge impact upon the regulation of businesses, and the spending power of consumers and other businesses. We have to concern about how stable is the political environment, influence of polices, laws that regulate or tax your business, What is the government’s position on marketing ethics, government’s policy on the economy, government view on culture and religion, government involvement in trading agreements.

State has main responsibility to facilitate to the tourists and funding to the tourism products development projects and do promotions to attract the tourists to the country. On the other hand government has to encourage local and foreign investors to invest their money to develop tourism products and liberate taxes.

To growth of the tourism infrastructure facilities are directly affect. So government has the main responsibility to develop and maintain infrastructure. Educated workforce in international standard is also important to give good and satisfactory service to the customers. Because of that government has make rules and regulations to standardize.

A change in government party is directly impact to the any industry in the country because their policies it will effect to run the business. When the government strict their security policies it highly impact to the Galadhari hotel. Because tourist who are coming to the hotel. It leads to waste time and may be getting bad image among the tourists.

The Tourism Act No 38 of 2005 came into effect in October 2007. With the flow of the new Tourism act, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Act No 10 of 1966, which was in effect for the past 41 years, was replaced.

In terms of the requirements contained in the new act, the Tourism Development Fund was officially constituted, with 2 main sources remitting finances to the fund. By way of 1/3 of the Airport Tax collections and 1% of the Turnover of all Sri Lanka Tourist Board registered establishments. The Act provided for the setting up of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, thereby replacing the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.

(E)conomic factors

In Sri Lanka it has open economy and the Gross Domestic Pproduct grew at an average annual rate of 5.5% in the country. In Sri Lanka service sector is strong in the economy and it indicate 58%, fro agriculture its’ 12.8% and from industry 29.2%.

Almost everyone talks about Sri Lanka tourism being the engine of growth and expects it to play a pivotal role in the economy and it has improved in 6% in this year.

Tourism give benefits to the economy as well as it are the cost to the economy. Tourism process also involves economic costs, including the direct costs incurred by tourism businesses, government costs for infrastructure to better serve tourists, congestion and related costs borne by individuals in the community.

Economic impacts are also become crucial factors in marketing and management decisions which are directly effecting. Communities therefore need to understand the relative importance of tourism to their region, state or community.

Tourism provides great opportunities for regional development particularly for regional areas undergoing structural change. Being a labor intensive industry, with the right motivation tourism can deliver great employment and training opportunities particularly for young people who like to be professionals in this field.

(S)ocial Factor

Sri Lanka being a multi-religious, multi-ethnic country with a population of 22 million plus’s Lankan culture is a rich blend of the interaction of diverse cultural patterns both indigenous and derived from, trade, religions which are Buddhism – 69%, Islam – 15%, hinduism – 8%, Christianity – 8%. The cultural patterns of Sri Lanka today show the lasting impact of a diverse range of cultures..

The overall culture is largely the result of the impact of the introduction of Buddhism, more than 2,300 years ago and Hinduism the second most prevalent religion in Sri Lanka. This does not erase the heavy influence of Hinduism, together with the lesser impact of Islam, and Christianity.

By concerning about the education background the literacy rate of 92%, and 83% of the total population having had secondary education in the country. Sri Lanka has one of the most literate populations amongst developing countries.

Tourists appreciate the hospitality of Sri Lankan People. When the hotel Galadhari provide the services like cabare dancing, supplying prostitutes are not suitable to the Sri Lankan culture.

The bad effects of the tourism can said that tourism has affected the values of our people, particularly our youth. It is true that some tourists engage in anti – social acts. Some of the tourists are drug addicts or perverts and corrupt our youth and they spread incurable diseases such as aids. But we should keep in mind that all the tourists are not black sheep.

(T)echnological Factors

Technological factors are also important fact which effect to the hotel industry in many ways which are comprises the utilization of the latest inventions and technologies facilitate the business activities which are digital telephone facilities, broadband Internet connection, Wi-Fi technology, multimedia projector, LCD screens, online reservation systems, property management software and online information exchange program (Point of Sale) etc.

Now a day’s technology is rapidly changing in the world day by day. As the five star hotel Galadhari should doubt to the new technology in the market. It will help the organization to have competitive advantages. Technology can used to reservation, online services like online booking, do the promotions.

The rapid development of technology is affecting the businesses in Sri Lanka and all over the world. Changes in the technology have changed the way businesses operate i.e. Internet booking for tickets and holidays.

Faster changing development in technology creates a need to react quickly for different businesses in order they want to maintain the competitive environment by providing the same innovative services, which their competitors are offering. Distribution of products by the use of technologies.

(L)egal Factor

When concerning about the legal factors include tourism act, discrimination law, consumer law, employment law and health and safety. These factors can affect how a hotel operates, its costs, and the demand for its products in tourist industry.

The Tourism Act No 38 of 2005 came into consequence in October 2007. With the flow of the new Tourism act, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Act No 10 of 1966, which was in achieve for the past more than forty years, was replaced. In conditions of the supplies controlled in the new act, the Tourism Development Fund was legally constituted, with two main sources remitting funds to the fund. By way of 1/3 of the Airport Tax collections and 1% of the earnings of all Sri Lanka Tourist Board registered establishments.

Attracting and promotion is handled by the Tourism Promotion Bureau. Tourism HRD functions and the Hotels School operations are undertaken by the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management. The Sri Lanka Convention Bureau was also restructured as a statutory body like other Institutions to be managed by an independent Board of Management

(E)nvironmental Factor

Hotel Galadhari is situated in the Colombo and in Colombo it hasn’t proper drainage disposal system and the hotel dispose its drainage to the sea. Because of that so many environmental issues occurred around that. When we promote tourism there are thousands and thousands of tourists unleashed annually in the country, without proper planning, there is bound to be serious environmental and sustainability issues. Such large-scale and fast track growth has to be carefully planned and managed within specific tourism zones to prevent environmental and cultural degradation.

Individual hotel developments will not suffice. Such well-planned, large-scale tourist resorts can be designed to encompass sound sustainable environmental practices (e.g., common self-contained sewage disposal facilities with recycling of water, solar lighting for resort public areas, no-build green belts within resorts, etc).

Such organized and well-managed, large-scale developments contained in several designated zones will help mitigate most of the possible negative fallout of the socio-cultural and environmental aspects. Building and subsequent maintenance should be under strict environmentally-sustainable guidelines.

Hotel industry directly affect to the environmental pollution in the country. As the five stars category hotel, Galadhari has the responsibility to protect our environment and also developments in the country and have to think about the pollution

Assessing the Attractiveness of the Hotel in the Industry
Threat of new entity

According to tourism act the new entrant has to abide by this regulation to establish a hotel as well as charges for the services. In the business arena, the number of competitors increases when any business organization makes good profit and has a good potentiality for future.

According to current situation, entry barriers are high and exit barriers are low, few new firms can enter into the industry and poorly performing firms can easily exit. After the war Sri Lankan government has opened the market to new investors to invest their money to build new hotels as the hotel industry is now booming in the country.

In that situation so many hotels are building in the north area and customers willing to go in those areas. New entities are use new technology and specialist knowledge to develop their business and it may be affect growth of the business of Galadhari hotel.

There are factors related with the threats of new entrants in the hotel industry in Sri Lanka which are as follows-

Easy credit facilities for new entrepreneurs in hospitality industry and Legal supports from the government for local entrepreneurs
Infrastructure development
Policies for foreign investors to establish world-class organization including tax exemptions, ownership, duty, tax law and remittance,
‘National Tourism Policy and Vision’ to boost up the tourism and hospitality industry,
Fewer numbers of competitors in the current marketplace. (Only 5 five-star hotels in Sri Lanka).
Higher profit margin
Threat of substitute products

As the hotel industry specifically targets on accommodation, entertainment and fooding facilities, the substitutes of these facilities may include other food industries (fast food and restaurants), entertainment (bar, discos, clubs etc.) and for accommodation facilities sharing with private establishment (visiting friends and relatives) and others related with accommodation facilities.

Every customer looks for high perceive value in their owned products. Substitute products are goods and services from outside a given industry that perform similar or the same function as a product that the industry produces. In this context, many organizations focus on their competitors rather than substitute products and the market share declines concurrently, therefore the market strategies should be flexible to cope with such threats.

In the hospitality industry, the substitutes may include various types of guest houses, inns, motels, private-owned guest houses, condominiums, small boutique hotels, bread-and-breakfast hotels and apartment hotels which might be the threats for a specific star-category hotel like Galadhari.

In this current marketplace, there are many substitutes of the star-category hotels in Colombo for accommodation – Jaj -Samudra, Gall face Hotel, Hilton, Mount Lavinia,.; for food – KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, BFC, Pizza Corner, Dominos Pizza etc.; for entertainment – night Clubs, many more which might distract the customers rather than the hospitality industry to have the products and services of a hotel.

Competitive Rivalry among existing players

In the conventional financial mock-up, contest between rival companies drives profits to zero and is not ideal and companies are not simple inactive price takers. Rather, companies struggle for a competitive benefit over their rivals. The strength of rivalry among firms varies across industries, and tactical analysts are paying attention in these differences.

In this current competitive period, the tough contest among business organizations increases when number of competitors are in the same marketplace based on their products categories, target markets, types of services, financial affordability, volume of the organization, profitability and potentiality of the market trends for long term business. In this case, price discount, special offers, lower profit margin and turn down in the market share are generally occurring between competitors.

In Colombo, the rivalry among competitors is really high as this hospitality is a booming sector in Sri Lanka and only few competitors in the five-star category hotels in Sri Lanka to serve the customers.

Moreover, the customers are trying to defend each other through products variation, service quality improvement, defining new target markets, exploring new products innovation and development and providing exclusive facilities to the guests.

The competitive rivalry is happening in hospitality industry in the Sri Lanka and it is also affect to the hotel like Galadhari. When the company implements their strategies they should have Varity in their products and services.

Bargaining power of suppliers

The suppliers can play one of the main roles in developing or declining the reflection of an organization .When the suppliers are more, the bargaining power of them generally goes down whereas fewer suppliers can demand more benefits from the organization.

Suppliers are those firms or individuals that provide contribution into the creation of an industry’s production on time. It could be in forms of resources and raw materials, services, employment, direct products and others obligatory stuff by the organization.

Now a day most of the services have out source in the companies. In the hotel industry, the suppliers are involved in various departments including rooms, food and beverages, IT, guest and travel bookings, security assurance, property management, transport, ensuring business facilities etc. The suppliers in case of hotel of Galadhari is including travel agents and tour operators for guest reservations as well as corporate clients, educational institutions for manpower supply, IT firms for property management software and IT solutions, local importers for international food and beverages supply, security agents for safety and security, local rent-a-car for special arrangement etc.

Bargaining power of customers

One of the main parties is customer in every organization. Customers mean consumers or intermediaries those who buy the production of an organization to have or resell it to someone else in the market. If there are various products and huge competition, customer bargaining power rises up and vice versa.

The bargaining power of customers depends on some factors like requirements of the customers, time and convenience to the desired destinations and thus, they can easily toggle into another product.

By considering the hotel industry in Sri Lanka, the bargaining power of customers are very high and they have enough options to toggle into another hotels by comparing in terms of costs, quality of service, product categories and special offers provided particularly for group bookings and long-term stay. Sometimes Galadhari hotel has rack rate of the hotel facilities.

In the pick seasons like December, the bargaining power of the customers becomes lower and lower. When in the tourism season the hotel has unbearable customers and their bargaining power also very high in this season.

7.0 Conclusion

The process of conducting research on the business environment within which the organization operates and on the organization itself, in order to formulate and implementation of strategy for future business operations can be mentioned as Strategic analysis of hospitality organization. To do the assessment can use number of tools to process of strategic analysis, including PEST (sometimes PESTLE) for analyze external environment and, SWOT analysis use for the internal environmental scanning, and Michael Porter’s five forces model use to assists to understand the competitive forces, the attractiveness and current position in the industry.

What is the largest and most visited resort in the world? Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida is the largest and most visited place in the world. The Walt Disney World Resort contains a variety of places to visit. Disney World offers four famous theme parks, two water parks, along with many other Disney themed attractions.

Walt Disney World has five golf courses total. Four of which are 18-hole courses. Those courses include, Disney’s Palm Golf Course, Disney’s Mangolia Golf Course, Bonnet Creek Golf Course, and Lake Buena Vista Course. Three of those courses are on the PGA Tour. Disney also offers one 9-hole course called Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course. The golf courses offer golf carts for guests to use. Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland are two of Disney’s miniature golf course.

Walt Disney’s water parks include Typhoon Lagoon, and Blizzard Beach. Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon has the largest outdoor water park in the world. Typhoon Lagoon’s mascot is called Lagoona Gator. The legend of this park is, a typhoon came and flung fishing supplies, surfing gear, and ships all around the park. In the middle of the park is a shrimp boat, “Miss Tilly.” The shrimp boat is on a mountain that gushes water out every half hour for a waterfall. This park offers raft rides, waterslides, a wave pool, and even a shark reef. Teens and adults can go snorkeling with stingrays and sharks at shark reef. Typhoon Lagoon offers rides for the whole family.

Such rides at Typhoon Lagoon include Crush N Gusher which is a roller coaster water slide. Also there are single person flume rides known as Keelhaul Falls and Storm Slides. Mayday Falls is a curvy fun inner tube ride. There is also Castaway Creek, which is an inner tube ride that goes all through the park. This park offers a lot of excitement for guests to have fun in.

Blizzard Beach is the other water park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It is one of the most unique water parks. The legend of this park is that huge snowstorms lead to the constructing of a ski resort that didn’t happen because the snow didn’t last long. As the resort was closing an alligator was spotted sliding down a flume. The ski resort was made into a water park with the alligator named Ice Gator as the mascot. This park has one of the largest free falling slides in the world. Many of the slides are from Mount Gushmore. Mount Gushmore is the fifth highest point in Florida. Blizzard Beach also has a ride called Teamboat Springs which is one of the longest family raft rides.

Walt Disney has four theme parks that are very well-known. Disney’s parks include, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. There are always parades or shows involving Disney characters for children and adults to enjoy. Disney characters are almost everywhere you look at the parks to take pictures with the guests. Every park has Disney related shops and restaurants.

Magic Kingdom is the most visited park in the world. The park is represented by Cinderella’s Castle. Magic Kingdom includes seven magical lands. The lands include, Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Mickey’s Toontown Fair. Magic Kingdom has many Disney movie themed rides for the whole family. This park contains some of the famous rides such as Splash Mountain.

Adventureland is themed to resemble jungles in Asia, Africa, Middle East, and South America. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is at this part of Magic Kingdom. At Adventureland take a magic carpet ride on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Also guests can find the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at this section of Magic Kingdom. Attractions such as Splash Mountain and the Country Bear Jamboree can be found in Frontierland. Frontierland is the more western part of the park. Tom Sawyer Island is a place that Walt Disney actually designed.

Liberty Square contains the Haunted Mansion and the Hall of Presidents. It is based on an American Revolutionary town. Guests can dance with Goofy and characters from Toy Story 2 at Goofy’s Country Dancin’ Jamboree. Main Street USA is the most popular area of Magic Kingdom. Many shopping areas and restaurants are found there. Cinderella’s Castle stands at the end of Main Street. The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is a major attraction for young girls to get made over into a princess at Cinderella’s Castle. Many of parades happen sporadically at this part of the park.

Fantasyland is based on a carnival theme. Fantasyland’s main attractions include, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, “it’s a small world,” Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Mad Tea Party, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Mickey’s PhilharMagic is popular here, it’s a 3-D adventure. Tomorrowland features the well-known ride, Space Mountain. Also guests can interact with Toy Story characters at Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

Mickey’s Toontown Fair is the last of the seven lands at Magic Kingdom. This part of the park is exciting because it contains places that belong to the characters. Guests can meet Tinker Bell and her fairy friends at Pixie Hollow. At Toon Park guests can interact with Chip and Dale. Guests can walk through Minne Mouse’s home in this section of Magic Kingdom. Mickey’s house is also at this part of the park. Donald’s Boat is another attraction here.

One of Disney’s other parks is Animal Kingdom. This is the newest park; it is also the largest Disney theme park in the world. Animal Kingdom allows animal encounters along with live entertainment. This park is themed around animals. The park contains 250 different types of animals making the park have more than 1,700 animals. Animal Kingdom has seven different areas which include, Oasis, Discovery Island, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Asia, and Dinoland.

The Oasis is the main entrance to Animal Kingdom. This is where guests can encounter with animals such as wallabies, spoons, ducks, and giant anteaters. Rainforest Cafe is a big attraction at Oasis. It is an animal themed restaurant that has a welcoming environment. The parks Tree of Life is found at Discovery Island. Discovery Island is a main part of Animal Kingdom because it connects to all of the parts of the park besides Rafiki’s Planet Watch. The parks largest shops and restaurants are located at Discovery Island. Another main attraction of the section of Animal Kingdom is, “It’s Tough to be a Bug.”

Mickey and Minnie can be found at Camp Minnie-Mickey. At this section of the park there is a theatre that features “The Festival of the Lion King.” Africa’s main attraction is the Kilimanjaro Safaris. Guests will be able to see giraffes, hippos, elephants, and wild animals on the safari. Guests take a Wildlife Express Train to learn about animal habitats on Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Around that area there is a small petting zoo for people to interact with the animals.

Another part of Animal Kingdom is Asia. Asia contains the Maharajah Jungle Trek that guests can go through forests and see tigers, fruit bats, and komodo dragons. There is a river rapid ride located in Asia. There is also a roller coaster through the Himalayas at Expedition Everest. Dinoland has a Bone yard for kids to play in along with carnival games and gift shops. There are family rides and a roller coaster in this area of the park. One can also find “Finding Nemo – The Musical” here.

Another Walt Disney Park is Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It is represented by The Sorcerer’s Hat, which is a symbol from the film Fantasia. This park is slightly different from the other parks because it is set up differently. It contains numerous amounts of buildings and streets. There is no defined layout. The park consists of six different areas that are, Hollywood Boulevard, Echo Lake, Streets of America, Animation Courtyard, Pixar Place, and Sunset Boulevard.

Hollywood Boulevard is Hollywood Studios main entrance. There are venues everywhere you look selling Disney items. Live entertainment is always happening at this part of the park. There is a replica of the Chinese Theater that contains The Great Movie Ride inside of it. The Great Movie Ride is a dark ride that features old movies such as The Wizard of Oz. Another part of Hollywood Studios is Echo Lake. It is a small oval shaped lagoon with attractions such as The American Idol Experience and Hall of Fame Plaza. Another attraction at Echo Lake is the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! Kids can interact with plants and toys at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure at Streets of America. This area of the park is where a lot of stunts are performed. Disney’s Toy Story Plant Pizza Arcade is at this area as well.

Animation Courtyard is where guests can meet Disney’s Pixar characters. Playhouse Disney and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid are live performances at Animation Courtyard. At the Pixar Place the attraction is Toy Story Midway Mania!, which contain all of the Toy Story characters. Guests are able to see animations in movies. Last but not least, Hollywood Studio’s Sunset Boulevard contains the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rock and Roll Roller Coaster. Sunset Boulevard also features Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage.

Walt Disney World’s final theme park is Epcot. Epcot’s icon is Spaceship Earth. This park is focused on international culture and technological innovation. This park only has two sections which are, World Showcase, and Future World. This park is twice the size of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Epcot has a variety of attractions from just a simple boat ride to fast thriller rides. Epcot has Kidcot stations which offer creations of one-of-a kind souvenirs.

World Showcase contains 11 pavilions that represent different countries. Every pavilion has shops and restaurants that resemble their culture. The pavilions include Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, The American Adventure, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada. An attraction at World Showcase is the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. The Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is in most pavilions. It is an electronic scavenger hunt using a type cell phone, presented by Verizon Wireless.

At the Germany pavilion characters from Snow White make appearances. In addition to Italy features Pinocchio characters. The Great American pavilion features all of the flags throughout the history of the United States. Guests take a tour through American history at this pavilion. The France pavilion shows a replica of the Eiffel Tower. There are shops that sell French items. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast make frequent appearances at the France pavilion. Characters from The Aristocats along with The Hunchback of Notre Dame also make appearances at France.

The United Kingdom has a Beatles tribute band known as The British Invasion who performs frequently there. In stores at this pavilion you are able to find Beatles souvenirs. Characters from Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, and Pirates of the Caribbean are usually at this part of World Showcase. Canada is a more outdoor pavilion. Characters from the Disney film, Brother Bear, appear in this pavilion.

The other section of Epcot is called Future World. Future World also has many pavilions. The pavilions of Future World are Spaceship Earth, Innoventions, Universe of Energy, Mission: SPACE, Test Track, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, The Land, and Imagination. The pavilions explore innovative technology. Each pavilion is sponsored by a corporation who helped fund its construction.

Spaceship Earth is one of the most known and recognizable structures that the Walt Disney World Resort has. It takes guests on a time machine experience that shows advancement in human communication. It has a timeline from how humans used to be, to how they are now. A German company called Siemens sponsors Spaceship Earth. Another pavilion in Future World is Innovations which deals with advancements in everyday life. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure, Club Cool, Segway Central, and SlapStick Studios are some of the exhibits this pavilion has to offer. Universe Energy itself was the attraction. It talked about battery powered cars and natural gas, petroleum, coal, and natural gas.

Mission: SPACE is a motion simulator ride; it gives off the feeling of an astronaut. Future World’s Test Track is sponsored by General Motors. Guests can actually drive the test cars around the track. The cars maximum speed is 64.8 miles per hour. Next to Disney’s Rock and Roll Roller Coaster, this is the fastest attraction Disney has made. The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a pavilion based on underwater discovery. It is the largest man-made underwater exhibit in the world. Attractions at this park include, Talk with Crush where kids can ask questions about the sea. The Land is a pavilion to show how we can use our land or destroy it. Nestle sponsors this part of Future World. The Circle of Life is performed here, from the film The Lion King. Eastman Kodak sponsors Imagination. An Attraction at Imagination is Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

The four parks are similar yet different. They each have different aspects and features about them. Each park has different icons and a different set up. They are alike because they all are Disney themed and have rides, shops, and food. The Disney parks are some of the most visited parks in the world.

After all of the parks are closed there is Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is opened to the public. Downtown Disney is an outdoor shopping, dining, entertaining area. It has three sections, Pleasure Island, Marketplace, and West Side. The Marketplace has a lot of shopping places that include, Lego Imagination Center, Once upon a Toy, and Goofy’s Candy Company. The Marketplace has the largest Disney character store in the world.

Disney’s West Side has many large stores and nice restaurants. Attractions such as Planet Hollywood, The House of Blues, and Wolfgang Puck Cafe can be found here. Outdoor beverages and food can be found at Pleasure Island. The Orlando Harley Davidson is located at Pleasure Island. Also there is a lot of dancing that goes on at this part of Downtown Disney. One of the main attractions at Downtown Disney is Disney Quest.

Disney Quest is an indoor interactive theme park. It offers five floors of fun entertainment. The genie from Aladdin is the parks unofficial mascot. On the first floor the attractions are a Virtual Jungle Cruise where guests may get wet while dodging dinosaurs, and Pirates of the Caribbean where guests search for gold. The second floor features Sid’s Create a Toy from Toy Story where guests can make a toy then later purchase it. Radio Disney Song Maker allows guests to make a song and later purchase it. In addition to Living Easels, guests can draw something on them and later buy it. Guests can try to find the genie and collect gems on Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride.

The third floor of Disney Quest contains Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blaster which is bumper cars and Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam which is a giant pinball game. The fourth floor is a comic adventure. The fifth floor resembles the fourth floor. Disney Quest also has games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and many other arcade games. They also have games like skee ball and air hockey. They also have photo booths and claw machines.

There are over 20 Disney themed hotels within the Walt Disney Resort. There are different categories of the hotels which include, moderate, deluxe, campgrounds, value, and club villas. Most of these hotels contain a pool, shops, variety of food, room service, arcades, and playgrounds. Disney hotels are fun themed such as Disney’s All Star Movie Resort has characters from 101 Dalmatians and Toy Story. Pop Century hotel has Play-Doh and Rubik’s Cube figures to show the hotels toy, catch phrase theme. All Star Sports Resort has large statues of sports like basketball or cheerleading to make guests feel the sport theme.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge has fun features like Pumbaa’s Fun & Games Arcade where guests can play new and classic games. Another feature this hotel has Hakuna Matata Playground where kids can play all day next to the flamingo habitat. At Disney’s campgrounds guests can go horse-back riding, fish, enjoy Mickey’s Backyard Barbeque, get involved with water activities, and sing with Chip and Dale at the fire. The Disney hotels are fun and have everything in them to accommodate guests the best they can.

The Walt Disney World Resort would not be here today if it wasn’t for Mr. Walt Disney himself. Walt Disney has inspired many of people. Walt Disney changed the lives of many people. He changed the entertainment business. He was a magical person. He has touched the hearts of children along with adults. Who knew that by starting out drawing cartoons that Disney would have came this far! He always had a dream of owning a theme park. Walt’s dream came true. Walt is popular all over the world. He loved history, and slowly introduced us to the future. He is a legend of the 20th century. He won seven Emmy Awards, fifty-nine Academy Award nominations, and twenty-six Oscars.

How did Walt get where he is today? Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901. He had three brothers and one sister. In Walt’s younger days he would sell paintings to local people to make extra cash. Instead of doing his school work, Walt would doodle sketches. He went to college to study art and photography. At night he attended a place to better his drawing abilities. Walt always had a thing for nature and wildlife. Walt was even involved in acting. He would sneak out at night just to go perform somewhere.

Walt’s father was somewhat stern at times. Walt’s mother and brother, Roy urged Walt to pursue his dreams. Walt was rejected because of young age from the military. He then went to France with the Red Cross. His ambulance had images of Disney cartoons on it. When Walt came back from France, he focused on comical art which led to animation. He produced short animations for local places. When Walt ran out of money, he packed up with The Alice Comedies and went to Hollywood. Walt married Lillian Bounds, an employee in 1925. They later had two daughters. He was not the typical Hollywood star. He didn’t care for socializing; the people that knew Walt were his family.

Soon after Lillian and Walt got married, Walt created Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse first made his appearance in Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie was the world’s first cartoon with sound. Walt produced the first colored cartoon known as, Flowers and Trees. Moving on, in 1937 Walt produced the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This film is a classic, and is still popular today. Right after Snow White came out, an unexpected death of Walt’s mother took place. This was one time Walt showed emotion.

Disney was hard at work and within five years he produced more full-length films such as, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. In 1955, Disney’s dream of the amusement park came true. Disneyland was opened. After it opened, Walt Disney expanded. More and more parks popped up. Walt Disney died of lung cancer December 15, 1966 right before the Walt Disney Resort was opened. Walt Disney has changed the world today. New Disney movies keep coming out. Walt Disney created something that will never end. He was a true hero.