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Varanasi

Varanasi, also commonly known as Banaras or Kashi is one of the holiest cities in India and is situated in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city is situated on the west bank of the river Ganga and is one of the oldest, continually inhabited city in the world.

Significance

Varanasi is believed to have been established by Lord Shiva about 5000 years ago and, in addition to being one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the city has long been a centre of religion and spiritualism. The city of Varanasi finds a mention in ancient Hindu religious texts and scriptures like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, Rigveda amongst others. It is holy shrine of Lord Kashi Vishwanath, a manifestation of Lord Shiva and was here that Gautam Buddha was born and Varanasi is perhaps one of the few holy cities that enjoys a revered position among devouts of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.

Attractions

Over the years, the city of Varanasi has earned several sobriquets, ‘the city of temples’, ‘the city of lights’ and the ‘city of learning’. No wonder then, Varanasi is home to several temples, however, most of these places of worship were destroyed by pillaging Muslim armies of Mahmud of Ghazni and Mohammad Ghori. Varanasi is also home to over one hundred ghats scattered along the banks of river Ganga.

The Kashi Vishwanath Temple: This temple was built in 1780 by Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar and encloses the holy Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva and is said that a view of this Jyotirlinga is makes for a very profound spiritual awakening. The temple is a magnificent piece of architecture and is adorned by ornate carvings. Intricate carvings can also be seen on the dome that is the roof of this temple.

Durga Temple: Is another temple of worship and is presided over by Goddess Durga. The temple is home to a large number of monkeys who can be found wandering around in the courtyard and the Durga kund, a small tank near the temple and is therefore, sometimes referred to as ‘Monkey Temple’. The temple built in the 18th century is a classic example of the Nagara style of architecture.

The Sankat Mochan Temple: The Sankat Mochan temple is dedicated to Lord Hanuman and is one of the popular temples in Varanasi. This temple, unfortunately, was also the site of a vicious terrorist attack but that failed to diminish the faith of the devotees who still throng to this temple in large numbers to pay obeisance to Hanuman.

Other Attractions

Varanasi is also home to over hundred ghats located along the banks of the Ganga. By day, these ghats witness frantic activity of devotees wanting to take a dip in the holy waters and by evening, these ghats turn into a magnificent spectacle of lights – it is here that the Ganga aarti is performed in the evening.

How to Reach

Varanasi has its own airport, the Babatpur airport, that is about 25 km from the city centre. The city is well connected by rail and road with other cities in India.

Tourism is a rapidly changing industry. Outline the key trends in tourism demand at the start of the 21th century and examine their impact on accommodation providers.

Tourism is a travel outside for the usual environment. People travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The 21th Century tourism has become a popular global leisure activity that will grow in new heights as it becomes more accessible to a larger cross section of the global population. The tourism industry is one of the most resilient and dynamic sectors of the economy and will result in commensurate economic opportunities for developed and emerging destinations around the world. A big number of challenges will be also created in attracting and serving increased tourism demand and in mitigating any potential negative externalities that will emerge as a result of tourism’s rapid growth. The tourist industries of the successful destinations will strike a sense of balance in developing by monitoring international trends, ensuring that the benefits of tourism are more than any potential negative impact and achieve a more fair distribution of tourism profits. Tourism is a profitable business and that is a good reason for countries to focus on honing their abilities in tourism. The 21th century improves that tourism is a rapidly changing industry.

In 2001 was a decrease of 0, 6% in international tourist arrivals, compared with 2000, and the decrease is continued for the first six months of the 2002 of 0, 2%. In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. International tourism receipts grew to 642 billion euro in 2008, which mean an increase in of 1.8%. The international demand for a travel suffered a slowdown that began in June 2008, as a result of the late 2000 recession. During the first eight months of 2008 the growth from 2007 to 2008 was only 3.7%. The markets of Asian and Pacific were affected. Europe stagnated during the summer, while the Americas performed better, reducing their expansion rate but keeping a 6% growth from January to August 2008. During the same period the Middle East continued its rapid growth reaching a 17% growth as compared to the same period in 2007. This slowdown on international tourism demand was also reflected in the air transport industry, with a negative growth in September 2008 and a 3.3% growth in passenger traffic through September. The hotel industry also reports a slowdown, as room occupancy continues to decline. During September and October the global economic situation deteriorated dramatically, as a result of the global financial crisis. For the remaining of 2008 the growth of international tourism is expected to slow even further continuing into 2009. The slowdown in demand growth has already hit the top spender countries. The long-haul travel is the most affected by the economical crisis. This negative trend intensified as international tourist arrivals fell by 8% during the first four months of 2009, and the decline was exacerbated in some regions due to the outbreak of the influenza AH1N1 virus.

During 21th century tourism industry is characterized by numerous issues and trends that present threats and opportunities. Many countries suffered from terrorist threats that have been increased. After the attacks in New York and Washington that followed by two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq and continued with terrorist attacks in the Bali (bombing 2002 and 2005), in London, Madrid, Bangkok and other destinations. The result of this terrorist attacks is to increase the need of people for safety and security. These procedures are creating inconvenience. Inconvenience we see at the airports with longer lines and in visa policies and standards that are stricter. Another issue of this century is that China growth into a large source markets in the Asia Pacific region. China has become a primary focus of the world’s tourism industry and the Chinese nationals have been increasingly visiting international destinations and this trend will continue to increase from now on. During this century new destinations are coming to the tourism market. India, Egypt, South Korea, Vietnam, New Zealand, South Africa, Eastern Europe and the Philippines have been recently launched. As a result competition to mainstay destinations, such as Australia, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, increases. The UNWTO’s Tourism 2020 Vision forecasts that international arrivals are expected to reach nearly 1.6 billion by the year 2020. The total tourist arrivals by region shows that by 2020 the top three receiving regions will be Europe (717 million tourists), East Asia and the Pacific (397 million) and Americas (282 million), followed by Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Regions like Europe and America are expected to show lower rates. Europe will achieve the highest level of arrivals, although there will be a decline from 60% in 1995 to 46% in 2020. It will be fast grow in the long-haul travel worldwide at 5.4% per year over the period 1995-2020, than intraregional travel, at 3.8%. In an attempt to increase the value and synergy for the tourist and the participating economies the emergence of sub-regional cooperative agreements is on the rise. In the long term prospects is also to increase the awareness and consciousness among travellers for the sustainable and green tourism.

For many countries tourism is vital. Greece, Thailand, Egypt, Fiji, Maldives are examples of these counties due to the large intake of money for businesses with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism.¶ These service industries include hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts. Even with problems related to the global economic slowdown, travel and tourism are already part of consumer behavior. That mean that people like to travel are still willing to travel. The European countries have observed increases in domestic tourism, more travel within the same region, increases in travel by road and rail, increases in the individual trips, more direct booking, and an increased use of low-cost airlines. Some changes are temporary but many of them are structural. The supply has two main elements, the destinations and the industry. The future of the destinations depends on their ability to adapt to demand. The effects are more visible in the industry. The tour operators and the accommodation providers have been hit harder by the weakness of the outbound markets, later booking, the tendency towards shorter length of stay, and cost-cutting on business trips. The industry has to adapt to these new facts. The hotels all over the world enjoyed a boom through mid 2007. The levels of the occupancy were high as the room rates and the levels of the travelers were strong. However, the global financial crisis put a damper on hotel occupancy that continued into 2008 and 2009. A big number of hotel construction projects have been cancelled. Travel and tourism operators best-positioned to suffer the least damage are those able to offer low-priced options. In order to avoid losing sales ¶during the periods of economic slowdown hotels and airlines have increasingly invested in low-cost brands. This economic downturn led to an increase of demand for low and mid-priced hotel and decreased the demand for luxury hotels. The travellers looking for economy travel accommodation. On the other hand the average daily room rates become higher because of the non-existed competition and the low number of chained hotel outlets.

http://www.ncsu.edu/tourismextension/documents/top10traveltrends.pdf

http://www.ensino.uevora.pt/tmp/cursos/PPT/TIC/aula_02_anexo2.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism

http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/7543-Tourism-Trends-by-Tourism-Control-Intelligence

http://www.tiac-aitc.ca/english/documents/advocacy/2009/2008StatisticsCompendiumFinal.pdf

Dark tourism has been defined as encompassing the visitation to any site associated with death, disaster and tragedy in the twentieth century for remembrance, education or entertainment. Furthermore Howie (2003) argues that visits to the sites of recent tragedies, as for example the site of the World Trade Center in New York destroyed by terrorist attacks in 2001, raise issues of both genuine compassion and morbid fascination. Urry (1991, taken from Theobald, 1994) also suggests that nostalgia, it would seem, knows no limits, to the virtual extent that the worse the experience the more appealing the attraction. The idea of dark side of tourism has also been identified by Dann and Seaton (2001) as incorporating what they call thanatourism, milking the macabre as a kind that pervades tourism in general.

As suggested by McCormick (2004) dark tourism is not a new phenomenon as it can be referred back to the twelfth century when the violent death of the British Canterbury in the town’s cathedral attracted many people to the site. Today’s sites such as Chernobyl, The World Trade Center, Auschwitz or even sites where famous people were killed such as John F Kennedy are all experiencing an increase in visitor’s number (Lennon and Foley, 2004). As an article by the Guardian (2004) suggest, the explosion that in 1986, ripped the roof off Chernobyl’s fourth reactor, causing the building’s walls to bend and hurling tons of radioactive waste into the air, is today a popular tourist site. For foreigners, Chernobyl is easily added to a long list of tourist attractions whose fame turns on tragedy or disaster, but for those that live in the affected area, it is a different story. As the Ukrainian tourist board’s executive director suggested: Chernobyl is not a historical place, it is a sleeping lion, and when a lion is sleeping you do not open the cage.

Other historical sites also include that of Auschwitz, a symbol of terror, genocide and the Holocaust. The number of registered visitors to this site are increasing and as the statistics show, the number of visitors of some countries, such as the USA, has doubled from 34404 to 62997 between 2003 and 2004 (Auschwitz, 2004), re-affirming the statement put forward by Lennon and Foley (2004) that dark tourism is on the increase.

More recently a destination that has been affected by the terrorist attacks and that has seen an increase in inbound tourism, has been the World Trade Center, or better known as Ground Zero. In 2002, the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York attracted 3.6 million visitors, while the observation deck from the intact towers used to attract an average of 1.8 million tourists per year (McCormick, 2004).

It must be noted that there are many more sites that have not been previously mentioned that are worth considering for future research to further understand the spread of dark tourism.

Having considered some of the sites that best represent the view of dark tourism, the essay will now briefly look at the reasons behind this form of tourism and an in-depth analysis of the implications on tourism management issues will follow.

Foley, Lennon and Maxwell (1997) suggest that many of the deaths and disasters that gave rise to heritage interpretation had received considerable coverage via global media, international news and film media. Young (1993, taken from Lennon and Foley, 2004) argues that there are elements of the ancient in dark tourism, in the visitation of these sites that are intended to maintain memory. People will be motivated by different things, perhaps they decide to visit these sites out of curiosity, pay their respect to those who have lost their lives or simply because they feel as if they are part of this (Di Sante, 2003).

For the purpose of this task, the essay will now consider the tourism management issues as a result of the widespread of dark tourism. As with any tourist site, the conservation and safeguard of these monuments, museums or any other site, is perhaps the most relevant of all. Although the increase of dark tourism may mean that more people are now aware of what has happened for example during the Nazism and perhaps in a way it limits these atrocities to be repeated, a number of important issues have also been identified. As suggested by Lennon (2004) if there are lots of people involved in these attractions, you need regulations. It promotes extreme sensitivities and a lot depends on the motivation of visitors, is it morbid curiosity or is there personal reasons? One of the tourism management issues identified is that of the long-term damage caused by visitors. Inevitably the high number of visitors received by sites such as Auschwitz, ground Zero, Chernobyl, will have an impact in the long term. Therefore it is important to impose a visitor number management to control how many visitors are coming through the site. The protection of these are vital if damage is to be avoid and protection is also needed to restrain vandals from leaving their mark on everything they visit (Yale, 2004).

As Yale (2004) also suggests weathering is also a major concern for those sites that are exposed to the elements, wind, rain, frost and sun, can be damaged unless shelter is provided or special arrangements made. Auschwitz camp is a perfect example for this. It is in the process of continual erosion; the growth of vegetation and foliage- coverage has to be managed and controlled. As Lennon and Foley (2004) further suggest, there should be management rather than restoration. This dark attraction has swelled visitor number and catalysed economic activity.

A very important issue also identified is that of culture management. Tourist must be given a code of conduct and be educated to behave in a certain way when visiting particular sites as to conform and integrate with the local community to avoid conflict. Tourist themselves have, or should have, an obligation to observe codes of behaviour and be aware of cultural norms in the destination they are visiting (Howie, 2003).

Some behaviour such as alcohol abuse, shouting, fighting should not be permitted as these might insult the local community and lack of respect needed in these tragedy sites. While at Auschwitz-Birkenau, groups of schoolchildren were taking photographs of each other, parents were photographing their children at the gates of Birkenau and indeed, school parties were sitting on the ruins of the crematorium eating sandwiches(Lennon and Foley, 2004).

Furthermore funds required to conserve sites will also be of consideration. The two options that will be available to raise funds would probably lie with government support and a visitor’s entrance fee.

It can be construed that the phenomenon of dark tourism is not a recent trend but its origins can be traced back to the twelfth century. Dark tourism has been defined as those visits to any site associated with death, disaster and tragedy in the twentieth century for remembrance, education or entertainment. It was noted that there are various reasons of why people decide to visit these particular sites; morbid curiosity, remembrance, the need to pay respects are just a few of these. The essay also looked at the more common cases of sites where dark tourism is more noticeable. Auschwitz, Chernobyl and the World Trade Center were taken into consideration while it was also noted that other sites such as the death site of John F Kennedy’s murder provoke people’s interests. It was also noted that the number of visitors, of a particular country, at certain sites such as Auschwitz had doubled between 2003 and 2004 re-affirming the statement that suggested that dark tourism is increasing.

Furthermore, the essay also determined that there are a number of tourism management issues involved with dark tourism; conservation and safeguard of these sites; weathering of those sites exposed to the elements, wind, rain, frost and sun, and that can be damaged unless shelter is provided or special arrangements made. It was also noted that Auschwitz is currently in the process of erosion, the overgrowth of vegetation for example is going out of hand and it really needs a management program more than a restoration program to keep it in perfect order. Vandalism was also noted as a tourism management issue to take into consideration. Finally it was noted that culture management is also very important and tourists must be educated to behave in a certain way when visiting particular sites to avoid conflict. Site managers should seek government funds or even impose a small entrance fee to be able to continue the conservation process.

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Bibliography

Auschwitz (2003) Memorial and Museum: Auschwitz- Birkenau, Avaialble from: http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/start/

Dann, G. M.S. and Seaton, A.V. (2001) Slavery, Contested Heritage and Thanatourism, Birmingham: The Haworth Hospitality Press

Di Sante, T. (2003) Why we’re drawn to the roots of terror, 06 Sep., The Times

Foley, M., Lennon, J. and Maxwell, G. (1997) Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Management: Issues in Strategy and Culture, London: Cassell

Howie, F. (2003) Managing the Tourist Destination, London: Continuum

Lennon, J. (2004) Seminar on dark tourism, 13 Aug., Issue 2627, Travel Trade Gazette in the Times, 20 Aug, p 4

Lennon, J. and Foley, M. (2004) Dark Tourism, London: Thomson

McCormick, M. (2004) Ground Zero and the phenomena of dark tourism, Available from: http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/north_america/new_york/ground_zero.php

The Guardian (2004) Postcard from Hell, 18 Oct, p1-4

Theobald, W. (1994) Global tourism: the next decade, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann

Urry, J. (1991) The Tourist Gaze, London: Sage

Yale, P. (2004) From Tourist Attractions to Heritage Tourism, 3^rd ed., Elm

Young, J.E. (1993) The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

Boniface, P. (2001)Dynamic tourism, Channel View Publications

Boniface, P. and Fowler, P.J. (1993) Heritage and Tourism in the global village, London: Routledge

Herbert, D.T. (1995) Heritage, Tourism and Society, Pinter

Uzzell, D. (1989) Heritage Interpretation, London: Belhaven Press

Yale, P. (1991) From Tourist Attractions to Heritage Tourism, Elm Publications

CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction

Tourism begins to bloom dramatically in the world and is the world’s largest industry and generator of jobs. With the advancements of technology, travelling from one place to another place became easier and that it has become essential to our life. Whenever one speaks of travel and tourism, images of relaxing by the sandy beach and strolling along the beautiful landscape came to mind. Travelling allows people to see the world, a world different from their comfort zone where they live. It gives them chances to explore the unknown and experience a completely new different culture, tradition and people. Travelling broadens one’s mind and provides life-changing experience.

Tourism is, without a doubt, one of the most important forces shaping our world (Cohen & Kennedy, 2000). The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited. A tourist destination can be defined as an amalgam of tourism products and services consumed under the same brand name offering customers and integrated experience, which is subjectively interpreted according to the customers’ travel itinerary, cultural background, purpose of visit, past experience and other related factors (Buhalis, 2000).

In a study of Caribbean charter yacht tourism, Lett (1983) found that vacations provide individuals with opportunities to satisfy needs which constraints back home leave unsatisfied. Tourists are a fundamental part which their involvement may be active or passive, but their presence influences what is delivered (Baker and Crompton, 2000). Visitor perceived quality of a destination, satisfaction with their experience and revisit intention are important for successful destination management. The information is essential for the managers to attract visitors by improving the quality and the performance of the destination.

Mazanec, Woeber, and Zins (2007) found that while destination competitiveness is usually interpreted as the destination’s ability to provide the visitors with a satisfying memorable experience and thereby increase the number of visitors and the destination’s revenue. The concept remains on a conceptual level (Zabkar, Brencic and Dmitrovis, 2010). Baloglu and McCleary (1999) showed that destination image will influence tourists in the process of choosing a destination, the subsequent evaluation of the trip and in their future intentions. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship among perceived quality of destination level, the satisfaction level and revisit intention of visitors using quantitative data collected from one of the tourist destinations in Malaysia, Tioman Island.

This chapter first provides an overview for this research, the background, problem statement, research objectives and the significance of this study. The main variables and hypotheses linking the influence of perceived quality on satisfaction and revisit intention will then be identified through a research framework.

1.2 Research Background

As tourism continues to grow at a steady rate across nations, it looks promising that the tourism industry will enrich the country’s economy. The importance of the tourist destination’s image is universally acknowledged, since it affects the individual’s subjective perception and consequent behaviour and destination choice (Chon, 1992). Anderson and Narus (1998) summarized that perceived value is the perceived worth in monetary units of the set of economic, technical, service, and social benefits received by a customer’s firm in exchange for the price paid for product’s offering, and taking into consideration, the available alternative of supplier’s offerings and price.

Oliver (1980) defines an individual’s perception of performance quality or level of satisfaction with an experience in terms of the magnitude of his or her disconfirmation. By relating perceptions of the former or experience to initial expectation, we can assess perceived quality and satisfaction. An extension of that, perceived quality may affect satisfaction in the similar way. For example, perceived quality measure as quality/performance ratio was repeated by many to predict customer loyalty which is a state motivated by satisfaction (Cronin, Brady, and Hult, 2000). Thus, it seems logical that there should be a link between visitor’s perceived quality, level of satisfaction and the revisit intention. It recognizes that satisfaction may be influenced by the social-psychological state a tourist brings to a site and by extraneous events that are beyond the provider’s control, as well as by the program or site attributes that suppliers can control (Baker and Crompton, 2000).

Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry (1985) distinguished between the two constructs by defining quality as a gestalt attitude toward a service which was acquired over a period of time after multiple experiences with it, whereas satisfaction was seen to relate to a specific service transaction. Revisit intention is an extension of satisfaction rather than an initiator of revisit decision making process (Um, Chon and Ro, 2006). Revisit intentions might be influenced by performance of a destination as a whole because of their initial stay while some intentions may be influenced mainly by promotional materials to recollect their memories and by information which are disseminated widely on new attractions. Tourists’ positive experiences provided by destinations could produce revisit intentions.

Ajzen (1991) summarizes that perceived behavioral control is added to the theory of reasoned actions as a determinant of intentions which direct experience and attitudinal confidence and attitude accessibility. Fazio and Williams (1986) justify the attitude-behaviour relationship. There are three key links in attitude theory which is the attitude-intention, subjective norm-intention, or intention-behavior. According to Bagozzi (1992), there are three theories of attitude which are the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behaviour, and the theory of trying.

Higher perceived quality and higher levels of satisfaction will result in higher visitor retention rate as suggested by Theory of Attitudes. This shows that if the perceived quality improves, it will increase the satisfaction which will lead to revisit intention. To increase visitors’ positive behavioral intentions, managers should set their priorities to provide high quality, satisfying experiences that visitors perceived to be a good value (Lee, Petrick, and Crompton, 2007). The satisfaction of the visitors is the result of a post-consumption or post-usage evaluation, containing both cognitive and affective elements (Oliver, 1997). It is interesting to test the attitude framework in tourism context.

1.3 Overview of Tourism in Malaysia

Malaysia is a developing country in South-East Asia. The country is separated by the South China Sea into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo or also known as the West Malaysia and the East Malaysia. Malaysia is a country that has Asia’s three major races such as Malay, Chinese and Indian. Besides that, there are various other ethnic groups in large numbers. Multiculturalism has not only made Malaysia a unique country but it has also made Malaysia famous for its exciting diversity of cultures, festivals, traditions, food and customs.

Malaysia’s climate is categorized as hot and humid all the year therefore Malaysia is famous for its natural rainforest and numerous beaches. Cool hideaways are found in the highlands that roll down to warm and sandy beaches. Thus, many tourist destinations have sprung up throughout the country like mushrooms growing after the rain. In an effort of making Malaysia’s economy less dependent on the exports of the country, the government has pushed to increase tourism in Malaysia. It is important to balance any decision to develop an area for tourism against the need to preserve fragile or threatened environments and cultures.

According to Munan (2002), tourism has become Malaysia’s third largest source of income from foreign exchange. In 1999, Malaysia launched a worldwide marketing campaign called “Malaysia, Truly Asia” which was largely successful in bringing in tourists. The extra revenue recently generated by tourism helped the country’s economy during the economic crisis. In research, there has been relatively less attention paid to tourist attractions compared to the transport, accommodation and tour operator components of the tourism sector (Wu and Wall, 2005). The tourism industry in Malaysia has encouraged the development of numerous integrated island resorts, promotion of the diverse cultures and also travelling opportunities to the tourists. As the tourists in Malaysia increase, this at the same time making the tourism industry the major contributor to the socio-economic development of the nation, and thus market Malaysia as a premier destination of excellence in the region.

Map of Malaysia

http://travelmalaysiaguide.com/images/Maps/malaysia-overview-map.jpg

Retrieved from http://travelmalaysiaguide.com/malaysia-maps/

According to the figure retrieved from the Tourism Malaysia website, the number of tourists’ arrival to Malaysia increases every year. As the number increased, it also increases the income generated from the tourism industry every year. While not many associate tourism with the country’s economy, it shows that tourism industry plays a huge role in the country’s economy.

http://www.tourism.gov.my/corporate/images/research/TM_factsfiguresChart_09.gif

Retrieved from http://www.tourism.gov.my/corporate/research.asp?page=facts_figures

1.3.1 Overview about Tioman Island

Malaysia’s hot and humid weather is an advantage to its country as it has many beautiful hideaways and one of the famous hideaways is Tioman Island. Tioman Island rises up above the waters of the South China Sea like a giant sleeping dragon. Tourists can easily assess Tioman Island by taking flight or ferry. As it was situated at the east coast, the monsoon season which falls between early November and late February forbid the local residents and visitors from getting near to the sea. The heavy downpour, rough sea and bad weather made it difficult to access or to perform any activities in Tioman Island.

As an enduring and tranquil island, Tioman Island display white sandy beaches and swaying palm trees, charming villages and friendly people. Lush tropical jungle covers about 12,000 hectares of the island and the waters around the island are filled with corals of all shapes which became the home to diversity of marine life. There are a few excellent beaches on Tioman and more resorts or hotels were built to accommodate the increasing tourists year by year. As government encourages the development of tourism, the natural Tioman Island was transformed into a tourist’s retreat for sunbathing, watersports, jungle trekking or just simply a hideaway from the hustle and bustle of life. In 2002, Tioman Island was granted at a duty free zone island and this caught the attention of many thus creating more opportunities for the tourists to visit Tioman Island.

Tioman Island has a few villages and the population in Tioman Island is estimated around 3000 people. Most of the locals are found in Kampung Tekek as it was the main village of Tioman Island. Tourism has improved the quality of life of local residents by creating employment opportunities to them with the establishments of resorts, chalets, restaurants and duty free shops (Ministry of Natural Resources, 2004). As Tioman Island faces competition from other island such as Redang Island, the numbers of visitors vary from year to year.

Map of Tioman Island

http://www.myoutdoor.com/tiomanisland/images/map.jpg

Retrieved from http://www.tioman.com.my/

1.4 Problem Statement

There have been inconsistencies in the definition and measurement of quality and customer satisfactions contribute to the mixed findings regarding relationships among quality, satisfaction, and performance (Choi and Eboch, 1998). Baker and Crompton (2000) found that there has been relatively little discussion of the distinction between the constructs of quality of performance and level of tourist satisfaction, nor has there been any assessment of their relative impact on subsequent behaviour. While Cole and Illum (2006) found that satisfaction fully mediates the impact of attribute-level service quality on behavioural intentions, Baker and Crompton (2000) and Chi and Qu (2008) established a partial mediation effect.

In contrast, Lee, Petrick, and Crompton (2007) found no mediation effect at all. As a theoretical construct, customer satisfaction is perceived to be problematic to define, especially in relation to perceived service quality (Cole and Illum, 2006). Evidence from other studies suggests that quality and customer satisfaction does not always lead to better performance and that results may even be negative (Ittner, Larcker, and Meyer, 2003). In the context of travel and tourism, a review of literature reveals an abundance of studies on tourist satisfaction. However, destination loyalty or revisit intention has not been thoroughly investigated (Oppermann, 2000). Not many studies focus on the interrelationships of perceived quality, satisfaction level, and revisit intention should be carried out to understand how perceived quality can influence the satisfaction level and also the revisit intentions. A recent study was done by Zabkar, Brencic and Dmitrovic (2010) based on four tourist destinations on those variables in Slovenia. To the best knowledge of researcher, no similar research was conducted based on Malaysia’s tourists’ destination. Thus, the present study closes the gap in the literature by looking at the relationships between perceived quality, satisfaction level and revisit intention.

1.5 Research Objectives

This study intends to find out the influence of perceived quality on satisfaction and revisit intention. There are a few objectives in this study, namely:

To understand tourists’ perceived quality on tourist experiences in Tioman Island

To understand tourists’ satisfaction level in Tioman Island

To find out if there is a relationship between perceived quality and satisfaction

To find out if they is a relationship between perceived quality and revisit intentions.

1.6 Significance of Study

The significance of this study will have strong managerial implications to attract tourists. This allows the management to have a better understanding of the role played by perceived quality of tourists and how it influence the satisfaction and also the revisit intention so that management is able to identify areas for improvement. Management will have a clearer view on how to improve on the perceived quality of performance and service to improve the level of satisfaction of tourists which eventually lead to tourists intending to visit the same destination again.

Understanding the tourists’ satisfaction level will also give the management the opportunity to concentrate on the major influencing factors that lead to visitor retention. They can obtain information that could be translated into marketing strategies. The management will be able to measure these important factors that may affect future strategic actions which will be an advantage to the management so they can compare satisfaction level on regular basis to assess the destination’s performance. If satisfaction level of tourists on a particular attributes is low, management can find ways to improve on their performance and services in order to increase the satisfaction level. If satisfaction level of tourists on a particular attributes matched to their expected result, the management can find ways to retain the visitors.

The management will have a clearer view about how perceived quality can influence the visitor retention rate. When retention rate increase, revenue will also increase thus lead to a good financial performance. This would also help the management to evaluate their performance and also improve the satisfaction level. Besides that, management can test Theory of Reasoned Action by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). Theory of Reasoned Action proposed that behavioural intention depends on the person’s attitude about the behavior and subjective norms. This study extends the theory into tourism context.

1.7 Theoretical Framework

This study assessed the influence of perceived quality on satisfaction and how satisfaction influenced revisit intention. Four demographic factors such as place of stay, age group, education level and gender were proposed to influence perceived quality. Perceived quality was hypothesized to influence satisfaction and also revisit intention. Level of satisfaction was then influence revisit intention. The relationships between perceived quality, satisfaction and revisit intention were reflected in this framework. The framework is depicted in Figure 1 below:

Satisfaction

H1

Place of Stay

H5 (+ve)

H2

Age

Perceived quality

H7 (+ve)

Academic Qualification

H3

H6 (+ve)

Revisit intention

Gender

H4

Figure 1: The research framework

1.8 A Summary of Hypotheses

Based on the framework, this study developed seven hypotheses for testing as below:

H1: There are mean perceived quality differences across place of stay.

H2: Age is related to perceived quality.

H3: Academic qualification is related to perceived quality.

H4: There are mean perceived quality differences between gender.

H5: Perceived quality is positively related to satisfaction

H6: Perceived quality is positively related to revisit intention

H7: Satisfaction is positively related to revisit intention

1.9 Conclusion

This chapter provides an introduction of this study. First, it defines the research background and the problems statements. It also explains the research objectives and the significance of this study. The structure of this study was also discussed. As mentioned earlier, this study will continue in Chapter 2 where we discussed more about the research framework and also the hypothesis.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
2.1 Introduction

The literature review offers the foundation on which the researcher justifies the research questions and constructs the research design. Through the several journal articles related to the research topic that have been reviewed and written in this chapter, it guides the researcher to collect information and analyze collected information. The present study explored the relationship between perceived quality, satisfaction and revisit intention. The literature relevant to this study will be discussed in this study. First, we review the concepts of perceived quality, satisfaction and revisit intention. Then the relationships between respondents’ background, perceived quality, satisfaction and revisit intentions are reviewed. The hypotheses on the relationships are then developed for testing.

2.2 Perceived quality

Perceived quality is usually at the heart of what the customers are buying. Typically, individuals respond to a set of attributes designed to measure their expected quality and then subsequently respond to the same battery of items with a score that reflects their perceptions of an organization’s performance on each attribute (Baker and Crompton, 2000). Most scholars agree that services are intangible because they are more like performances, not objects (Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman, 1985). Perceived quality is an important antecedent to satisfaction and behavioural intentions (Cronin et al., 2000). One service facet that impacts customer quality perceptions is the tangible cues in the physical environment (Bitner, 1992).

Generating high quality requires an understanding of what quality means to the customers. The nature of the relationship between a firm’s financial outcomes and its customers’ perceptions of quality were described as the issue of highest priority (Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman, 1996). By improving perceived quality of performance and service, this will increase the level of customer satisfaction and eventually lead to a better financial performance. Some studies have produced results consistent with the assumption that improving quality and customer satisfaction lead to better performance outcomes for the firm (Fornell, 1992). Customers are the most appropriate source of quality judgments and quality relative to competitors is the most relevant measure of perceived quality (Gale, 1994; Olsen, 2002). Thus, it is important to understand the little things that customers used as a basis for making a judgement of quality.

For assessing the service quality, the instrument most widely used is SERVQUAL, which was developed in the mid-1980s (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1988). SERVQUAL contains 22 pairs of Likert-type items. One half of these items are intended to measure consumers’ expected levels of service for a particular service industry. The other 22 matching items are intended to measure the perceived level of service provided by a particular organization.

SERVQUAL includes five dimensions of service quality such as tangibility, responsiveness, reliability, empathy and assurance. SERVQUAL measures the difference between perception and expectation. Tangibility measures the physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel; reliability measures the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately; responsiveness measures the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service; assurance measures the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence; and empathy measures the caring, individualized attention the firm provides for its customers (Hwang, Lee, and Chen, 2005).

2.2.1 Perceived quality in tourism

Visitors always developed an attitude based on their experience and performance of the destination. It has been widely acknowledged that destination image affects tourists’ subjective perception, consequent behaviour, and destination choice (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999). Most studies measured the quality of tourism products by using service product attributes. Cooper et al., (1993) grouped destination attributes into the “four A’s” framework which are Attractions, Access, Amenities, and Ancillary services which was latter further developed by Buhalis (2000) to the “six A’s” which are Attractions, Accessibility, Amenities, Available packages, Activities and Ancillary services.

Lee, Petrick, Crompton (2007) proposed that service quality operationalised as a set of attributes better predicts visitors’ behavioral intentions than an alternative model which defines quality as overall excellence or superiority. Gronroos (1984) suggests that services have two quality dimensions: technical quality which refers to the outcomes and functional quality which refers to the processes. Service qualities are defined as the difference between expected, perceived and delivered service qualities (Heskett et al., 1997).

Tourists’ expectations of specific levels of service quality in tourism partly stem from their own culture and prior socialisation, which can predispose them to interpret factors influencing tourism destination choice and destination experience from a distinctive perspective (Pikkemaat and Weiermair, 1999). However, when the purpose of research is to evaluate visitor experiences at a tourist destination rather than assessing the service quality offered by a specific service provider, the use of SERVQUAL has some drawbacks (Tribe and Snaith, 1998). SERVQUAL is based on evaluations of five service dimensions (reliability, assurance, empathy, responsiveness, and tangible assets) and by only relying solely on this instrument for quality assessment, some important factors encounter at the destination may be left out from the evaluation process.

2.3 Satisfaction

No matter what type of businesses, customers just want the same thing which is satisfaction. The importance of fulfilling customer satisfaction is that without customer’s purchases, companies can’t run their business. In other words, customer satisfaction is the foundation of a good business. Researchers generally agree that an essential element underlying customer satisfaction is an evaluation process (Back and Parks, 2003; Yi, 1990). Given the vital role of customer satisfaction, one should not be surprised that a great deal of research has been devoted to investigating the antecedents of satisfaction (Oliver, 1980).

Although the definitions of customer satisfaction vary in the literature, Hoyer and MacInnis (2001) said that satisfaction can be associated with feelings of acceptance, happiness, relief, excitement, and delight. It has also been defined as discrepancy between customer’s expectation and perception (Oliver, 1997). Defined as an evaluation of an emotion, reflecting the degree to which the customer believes the service provider evokes positive feelings by Cronin et al. (2000). Customer satisfaction has traditionally been regarded as a fundamental determinant of long-term consumer behavior (Oliver, 1980). Kotler (2000) defined satisfaction as a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations.

Customer satisfaction is a post hoc evaluation of consumption experience (Oliver, 1980). Past studies suggested that perceptions of service quality and value affect satisfaction, and satisfaction affects loyalty and post-behaviors (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). A customer satisfaction evaluation can be quite specific in nature. A specific subset of experience such as a single transaction and/or particular attribute but may also be cumulative, based on all previous experience with a good or service (Anderson & Fomell, 1993). Attribute satisfaction has significant, positive, and direct effects on overall satisfaction; and it capture a significant amount of variation in overall satisfaction (Oliver, 1993).

Om the other hand, satisfaction factors have been classified differently by others. Kano (1984) groups the satisfaction attributes of a product or service into three categories, depending on the different ways in which their performance can influence consumer satisfaction: basic factors are those that only lead to consumer dissatisfaction if they do not meet expectations, yet they do not increase consumer satisfaction if they are met; excitement factors are factors that increase a consumer’s satisfaction when offered, however they do not generate dissatisfaction when absent; finally, performance factors work in both directions, generating satisfaction when they work well and dissatisfaction when they do not.

2.3.1 Satisfaction on Tourism

Satisfaction research in tourism and recreation has indicated that tourists’ satisfaction with individual component of the destination leads to their satisfaction with the overall destination (Danaher & Arweiler, 1996; Hsu, 2003; Mayer, Johnson, Hu, & Chen, 1998; Ross & Iso-Ahola, 1991). Baker and Crompton (2000) define satisfaction as the tourist’s emotional state after experiencing the trip. Satisfaction can be used as a measure to evaluate the products and services offered at the destination (Schofield, 2000). Satisfaction can be evaluated using the theory of expectation or confirmation in which expectations and the actual destination outcome are compared (Oliver, 1980). Oh (2001) pointed out that surveys aimed at measuring tourist satisfaction show a bias towards positive ratings for many of the destination’s attributes.

2.4 Behavioral Intention

Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) hypothesize that individuals respond to an object or a number of things and explore the construct of attitude as a learned predisposition of humans. Repurchase intention can be described as the willingness of a customer to maintain the relationship with a particular service provider and to make his or her next purchase in the category from the service provider (Lam et al, 2004). In the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior, behavioral intentions signify motivational components of a behavior and represent the degree of conscious effort that a person will exert in order to perform a behavior (Ajzen, 1991). In other words, the positive feeling such as high quality perception or satisfaction level drives customer to intend to purchase, which then leads that individual to actually engage in buying. This means that behavioural intention is a good indicator of actual buying.

Bagozzi (1992) proposed that self-regulating processes, emotional reactions, and coping responses have a significant influence on behaviour. Behavioral intentions are explored in the cognitive-affective-conative framework (Oliver, 1999) which is justified by Bagozzi’s (1992) self regulatory mechanism model. In the 1970s and 1980s, achieving a high level of satisfaction was the ultimate goal of marketing strategies, but today behavioural intentions are considered a better predictor of performance (Chi & Qu, 2008). Brady et al’s. (2005) study, conducted in a multi-industry and multi-country setting, reinforces this result found that service quality, satisfaction and service value all directly affect behavioural intentions when assessed collectively. In terms of understanding individual consumer behavior, recent studies suggest that quality has important effects on consumer’s purchase intentions through the mediating role of value perceptions attached to products and services (Zeithaml, 1988). In conclusion, a satisfaction framework is not complete without including behavioural intention in it.

2.4.1 Revisit Intention on Tourism

Revisit intention refers to subjective judgments about the future or specific actions or behaviors that consumers may take towards attitude objects (Blackwel et al., 2005). In tourism, repeat visits have also been accepted as an important phenomenon at the level of the economy as a whole and for the individual attraction (Darnell and Johnson, 2001). A number of studies have confirmed a significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction and retention (Cronin et al., 2000).

In a study on Mediterranean tourism destinations, Baloglue and Erickson (1998) reported that most international travelers to one destination are more likely to switch to another destination for their next trip, but many of them hope to revisit the same destinations in the future. In a different study, Gyte and Phelps (1989) noted a type of British traveler showing resurgent intention of revisiting two destination areas in Spain. Through this study, they found that most visitors have the intention of returning in the future. Many destinations rely strongly on repeat visitation because it is less expensive to retain repeat tourists than to attract new ones (Um et al., 2006). Revisit intention might be one of the important tools for the management to gain competitive advantage.

2.5 Hypotheses Development

Based on the framework and literature review on the variables, a few hypotheses were developed to show the relationship between the variables. There are a total of seven hypotheses developed in this study. There are 4 factors that proposed t

Tirupati

Tirupati is one of the most important pilgrimage destination in India. The city is located in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh at the foothills of the Eastern Ghats. The city is famous for the Sri Venkateshwara temple as draws thousands of tourists and devotees every year.

Significance

The city of Tirupati seems to derive its name from the hallowed Tirumala hills which are allegedly the second oldest rock mountains in the world and find a mention in pre Christian Tamil religious scriptures.

The city, if history is to be believed, was an established centre of Vaishnavism, an ancient Hindu sect and the temple rites were formalized by the Vaishnavite saint Ramanujacharya in the 11th century AD and the city has stood the test of time despite the Muslim invasions of South India.

Attractions

Sri Venkateshwara Temple: The Sri Venkateshwara temple is central to Tirupati’s rise to fame as a revered religious destinations. Though the exact origins of the temple are shrouded in antiquity, it is generally accepted that the temple was an ongoing piece of work undertaken by successive dynasties for several hundred years. The Sri Venkateshwara temple holds the record for being the most visited and the richest place of worship in the world. The temple is located on the famed Tirumala hills and is also known as the Temple of Seven Hills. The presiding deity is Sri Venkateshwara, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and is also sometimes referred to as ‘Srinivasa’, the one in whom Sri or Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Vishnu’s consort, resides.

Kodanda Ramaswamy Temple: Is a magnificent piece of architecture, the white ornately carved ceiling is mounted on a brown base resplendent with delicately carved pillars. This temple is dedicated to Lord Ram, Sita and Ram’s brother, Lakshmana. A statue of Lord Hanuman, Lord Rama’s ardent and loyal follower sits besides Lord Rama’s feet.

Kapila Theertham: Is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati. This temple, at the entrance to a mountain cave, is said to have been the place where saint Kapila Maharishi lived and meditated to Lord Shiva. Devotees and passerbys are greeted by a rock carving of the celestial bull, Nandi.

Lord Krishna Temple: The Lord Krishna temple is a unique work of architecture with the towers coloured in gold and white. The temple is adorned with glass paintings depicting the life of Lord Krishna and the ceilings are resplendent with colourful paintings resembling Tanjore art.

How to Reach

You can get to Tirupati by boarding a flight from Hyderabad and Chennai. Tirupati also has a train station though your best bet would be disembarking at Renigunta, about 10 km away. Renigunta is well connected by rail with other cities in India. If you would like to travel by road, Tirupati is well connected by road to other cities by buses and other modes of road transport.

Introduction

In my report to CEO I am going to explain the importance of operational management and how environmental factors affect the operations management then various operational strategies. Explaining the layout of the Alton towers and what the strategic importance of operational management are further more capacity planning, inventory planning and quality control planning.

1.1. Operations management

Operations constitutes an essence role in all case by business enterprise, covering a broad chain of actions, not entirely making up, merely whole steps in the general supply/value chains. This let in procurement, stocktaking’s, adeptness’s, logistics, and statistical distribution. Operations management constitutes the management of the resourcefulness’s, techniques, and systems of rules accustomed translate input signal into end product to produce vendee rate. These courses of study concentrates on trading operations rules and methods utilized through systems contending globally although besides allowing a strong ecumenical masterminding direction ground.

1.2. Main focus of this leisure business

As it is obvious from the case study the main focus of the business is to provide there customer the magnificent surrounding, historic legacy, fun and flight of the imagination which suits all ages and tastes. It is clear from this statement is that there main focus of operation is the customer satisfaction and by doing this achieve the Alton tower strategic goals and objective of profit maximization and become market leader in theme park business.

To attract the visitor Alton tower new attractions like Oblivion, the Nemesis, Ugland and Energizer. Beside the ride and physical leisure for its customers it contain eating places like restaurants, shops where visitors can buy there desired product of the choice. Instead of shopping and eating Alton tower do organize and conduct exhibition and festival to attract more visitors. Alton tower do succeed in achieving there desired target as shown above in the case study there were over three million visitor in 1998 beside of attraction how Alton tower can gain this in providing their customer quality of services in lower price as Alton tower was charging Nineteen pound of the entrance which is not just entrance fee like other theme park do but this price include use of all rides for unlimited times. They do provide special discounts discount to elder or aged customers and organized parties.

For the purpose of offering the high quality of services to its customers Alton tower maintain team of 1800 staff who are performing their duties like operating rides caterers, cleaning and shop supervisors and security purposes.

Security department are one and only by the life-sustaining servicing in business sector alike these, Alton Towers could advance itself for a safe park to travel to along concentrating on it is safe record all over the yrs, and whatsoever safe certifications they have received. They could build safe a primary feature for whatever future rides, and promote these information.

Alton tower has spent 20 million on these new rides in order maintain attraction of the park between peoples which is part of its ten year development program me. Due to size of the park as it is on 800 acres it is not possible for the visitor to visit the whole park in one attempt therefore they take step to construct the hotel in the park in which they provide comfort services to the visitor where they can stay at night by pay the attractive price which is another step of achieving its strategic objective. Alton vary its fee accordingly in peak, off peak, week days and week ends times in which there was rush of visitors.

Alton tower can asses that how well they focus on their operations effectively by providing questionnaires to visitor and examine the level of their satisfaction and there opinions regarding how it can improve its services.

1.3. Environmental Factor Effecting Operations Management

The type of environment within which, the operation functions. The key environmental variables for operations managers are:

*Volume-refers to the number of times that an operation has to deliver a service or product.

The combination of specialization, standardization and high volume and high volume also usually opens up the possibility of using technology to perform the task

*Variation-describe the pattern of the volume demands. If there are many peaks and troughs in demand the situation is said to be one of high variation

*Variety-is the term applied to the number of different types of service or product demanded. High variety environment s require different services or products on a frequent basis, whereas low variety demands look for the same output for most of the time

There are several environmental factors that affect the business operation in an economy. They are classified into internal and external factors. The internal factors are those which relates to organization internal environment that can be under the control of the organization like its culture leadership and manufacturing processes. On the other side the external factors includes social environment, political, rivals, government bodies, rules and regulation issued by the regulating authorities like accountancy standard board etc.

Environmental issues in the case

The 1st issue that create environmental issue arise in 1924 when its operation was bought by Alton tower after that it was under the hold of army during the period of war. War destruction totally destroy the park as we are aware of the during and after war side effect on the local environment it was in poor condition when it handed over to Alton tower again for refurbishment it cause major effect to environment. As there is no way to mitigate the affect of such event as it arise such event are out of control of organisation, as its obvious during war period its impossible to protect any area and property. Therefore the one action is to control such events is in hands of government and their relation with other countries.

2nd impact was made by the technological era as the installation of new rides in park beside of customer and visitor attraction does have environmental issue as well like sound pollution, cutting trees and machinery waste pollution to environment. It can be mitigated by trying to preserve my natural resources like by instead of destroying they can be move them to alternative places which will overcome the overall impact to least level. Using such technology which was closer to sound reduction and produce minimum waste.

Finally, as Alton tower has invested potential amount of money for new ride. Mostly rides was indoor and few which are outside is due to its limitation to cover them as this will cost the Alton tower major cost on the other hand it will destroy the natural things as well. It would have social issue as well as the visitor came there to entertain themselves with naturalistic environment. Another weather issue as the park is closed between November and February. This factor is also out off control of Alton tower as it is weather that prevent the visitor to come there one way it to create as much indoor facilities that protect the visitor from the tightness of weather as this step will cause massive investment as well agree the visitor to come which will happen only by huge marketing policy and attractive packages like reduction in price which I think is not cost benefit strategy for Alton tower as this will increase its cost but reduction in profitability. But most indoor concerts can be organised there to attract the visitor to come and entertain themselves from it.

Task 2
2.1. Various operation strategies

At the mind of operations is the idea of transformation (output). Inputs are acquired, and the operations process converts them into outputs. Operations strategies in bare:

Operation implies driving matters finished. Operation management comprises significant because it’s causative dealing administration resourcefulness. Operations are an day-after-day action. Strategy constitutes course to accomplish organisation long-run targets. Operation strategies are referred on correcting of aims for operations by whole procedure. There’s accented relationship betwixt operations and functions.

There are all of the time hazards of dispute ‘tween operations and functions. Because commercializing objectives to fulfill clients demands and expect operations to offer diversity, intensity, speed and higher quality service. This will direct to lower effective servicing till an contingent operation strategy is designed to conciliate and associated on additional roles by administration. All procedure experiences it is strategically target also equally operational objectives. E.g. Commercializing functions strategically target aspirant selecting cost, advancement etc and operational side implies daily tactics inward providing service. Operations strategies let in administration set up strategy, localization strategy, man resource strategy, marketing strategy, hence all functions of organization has operations responsibility in addition to equally long-run.

2.2. Evaluate and analyse the operation strategies adopted by the business.

I am going to evaluate the operational strategies of Alton tower under following headings.

Product and services

Process and technology

Capacity and facility

Human resource

Quality

Product and services

Under this operation strategy I believe that Alto tower are offering the design there services according to need and understanding of the taste of the Visitor so they are fully fulfil the need of the users of those services. Alton tower has installed new rides in park like Oblivion, The Nemesis, Runway mine train and haunted house etc. These are the products that meet the international standards and provide its user adventure and thrill they are willing to obtain from it. Alton tower has invested 20 million which is part of ten year program in which they are planning to launch new products and services for their users. There are few age and height restriction for the visitor which on one hand is in best interest of the user but if we see it from the user point of view some of them was not satisfied with this discrimination. Not only ride if we look at other services like shops amusement parks, live entertainment and exhibitions these are all fall in the services that Alton Tower are offering to its Visitors to entertain them and meet the expectations. Therefore I think Alton tower are fully active in its product and services operational strategy.

Process and technology

Alton tower was offering there customer Professional services in each section like ride operators, caterers, cleaner, shop assistant, supervisors and security personnel’s. Professional and trained operator was handling the rides which include the speed and safety measures for the visitors. Therefore visitors consider themselves to be safe when they using the ride as the feel they are under safe hands. Services like catering and shop supervision providing to elderly visitor who was unable to take ride can entertain them selves from the services that meet the highest level of quality their priority was customised to visitor need. In each process Alton tower are using the latest technology in offering these services.

Capacity and facility

In 1998 Alton tower entertained over three million of the visitors and they are planning to increase this annual volume of visitor per year for this purpose they installed new rides as described before to attract more visitors toward Alton tower. As explained in case study during east bank holiday the visitor reaches to 40000 and through out summer this limit sustain to 30000. Alton tower has so much area which is left as for exploring that can be utilise for further activities. There fore Alton tower do pass this operation management strategy of capacity and facility in order to hold the capacity it has develop market and shop exhibition hall where they can facilitate the visitors.

Human resource

In order to fulfil this strategy objective Alton tower recurit1800 staff members and more as needed during the peak time. As their is limited explanations of human resource policy in case study however Alton tower need to provide training for operating new ride installed in the park before its opening and they need to have policy to treat each member of staff equally and paid standard for like paying them on hourly basis or monthly basis. Teams should be maintain to support each different areas of theme park and task should be assign to them and proper supervision held on them so that they are performing their tasks accordingly. Bonus and post employment benefit schemes should be launched so that employees consider there future safe and offer highest level of quality in their work.

Quality

In this business the quality is extremely important as ride need regular maintenance because it raise health and safety issues. It is Obvious from the case that Alton tower in maintaining quality in each business services.

2.3. Strategic importance of operations management

Each and every decision and strategy implementation was imposed from strategic level in every business. Therefore it is vital at strategic level to know whether there strategy was successful at operational level and it is the operation management responsibility to strictly implement instruction to achieve the desired targets. Operation management deal the day to day activities of the business therefore report on regular bases to strategic level the stage of completion on there strategy and if there are any problem arise at operational level that need careful consideration.

Task 3:
3.1. Factors affecting the design of product and services and benefit gained from good design

Operations managers have to consider factors like the nature of demand, the degree of vertical integration, flexibility, degree of automation, and quality level and degree of customer contact while making process design

Nature of Demand:

Organization need to produce products or design the services according the expectation of the customers. Schedule need to be made in order to produce product and services on time by take in to consideration the seasonality, growth in trend and demand of customers.

Influence of demand patterns –

The demand pattern of the product and services are varying due to following factors influence like seasonal factors. For example demand for ice cream rise during summer season and air conditioning etc.

Influence of price level –

Mostly customers demand more products at cheaper price, as they are price sensitive this will affect on the design of product and services.

Degree of vertical integration:

Vertical integration is degree in which determine the degree of product and services can produced internally. There are two types of integration:

Forward integration is expansion of organization product to different chains and different markets.

Backward integration organization tries to expand backward to source of supply.

Flexibility:

Organizations have to be flexible in order to increase or maintain their market share. In order to meet the flex demand of the customer’s organization need to be flexible in its operations. Flexibility can be broadly classified into: Product/service Flexibility and Volume Flexibility etc.

Degree of automation:

Despite the cost factor of implementing the automation operation management should focus on the automation for their production processes. This will reduce the labor cost and speed up the process of production. How ever the level of quality demand by the customers also impact upon the cost factors.

Benefit of good design

Below are 5 points to remember in order to assess the usefulness and potential success of a design. It can be adapted to specific design professions, even projects and used as a checklist.

Benefit of good design includes:

It should meet the desired objectives.

It meets the desired quality standards.

Customer is satisfied with the quality of service.

Automation increase the processing time and reduce the labor cost.

Customer is satisfied with the price of the product and services.

3.2. Discuss layout of Alton tower:
Facilities Available at Alton Towers Resort:

Through out the park 8 cash machines are installed which can be used by the customers for withdrawals of cash.

Gift Shops.

Push chair hire at Guest Services.

Wheelchairs take into service for disabled guests, available from Guest Services.

Lockers at Guest Services.

First Aid is between the Towers Restaurant and Sky ride Station.

Toilets are expediently situated in a multiplicity of spaces all the way through the park.

Restaurants, bars and cafes are as well situated right through the park.

3.3. Work measurement

Work measurement is concerned with the relationship between units of output and resource time. It provides the factor that converts units to time and vice versa.

According to Jack Greene view in the time study and work measurement.

Work measurement is the place to start, for any organization where people or machines contribute to output, customer service, or cost.

Work measurement also provides tools to manage your business better

• calculate actual capacity the operation can produce

• develop standard cost models for products and services

• justify equipment and automation acquisition

• meet the Sarbanes Oxley Act for financial understanding of costs

• adjudicate disagreements about workload, assignments

• analyze variance to find problems

• estimate potential benefit from changes beforehand

According to Institute of management services:

Work measurement is the process of establishing the time that a given task would take when performed by a qualified worker working at a defined level of performance.

There are a variety of ways in which work may be measured and a variety of techniques have been recognized. The essential practice, irrespective of the particular measurement technique being used, consists of three stages;

an analysis phase in which the job is separated into suitable, separate components, normally known as elements;

a measurement phase in which the exact measurement technique is used to establish the time required to complete each element of work;

a synthesis phase in which the different elemental times are added, together with appropriate allowances to construct the standard time for the complete job.

Task 4:
4.1. Capacity planning

In the case after the three million visitors in 1998 Alton tower took plan too increased this capacity for this purpose it had invested 20 million for extension of park, for this reason it installed new ride to attract the new visitors and in order to cope with the increased volume of visitor it constructed magical hotel where visitor can stay day and night during there visit and increased the number of shops and recruit additional staff to serve the visitor in efficient way.

For capacity planning demand need to be forecasted ahead in order to analyse that demand meet the capacity of the company product and services. Demand can be converted into capacity by inserting time requirement. Or following method of capacity planning can be used to support the demand. Level capacity plan: in which capacity remains same it will not alter with the change in demand. Chase demand plan: in this expand the capacity with the increase in volume of demand through increase the shift and no of staff to cope with this. Manage demand: demand will be managed to deal with the capacity.

In Alton tower case they have adopted chase demand plan for capacity planning as the increase the number of rides and shops and to handle the volume of demand they recruit the addition staff to fulfill the demand or volume of visitor.

4.2. Inventory planning Method
Economic order Quantity (EOQ)

The economic order quantity is the number of units that a company should order in an order to reduce the cost of inventory. Costs include cost of storage, cost of holding and cost of shortage. Benefit of EOQ is ongoing review of the inventory system it help to calculate the reorder level which help the business to determine what to order and how many time and who often to reorder to minimize the cost of inventory.

Just in Time (JIT)

Just in time is producing goods in required demand, in necessary quantity and in necessary Quality require by the customer. By doing this many business improve there return on assets. Cost includes Provide regular training to staff and establishing the policy so that they become flexible. Benefit of using JIT it reduce the operating cost, greater performance through put, higher quality, improved delivery and increase in flexibility.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

ERP provides business the control and visibility in operation to maximize the profitability and to fulfill the customer demand. ERP provides the business to manage there operation with dynamic forecast using formula based production. Benefits totally based on forecasting and inventory planning, easy to use, system is flexible, easy to understand, quick and reduce cost of operation.

4.3. Approaches for project management and quality control
The traditional Approach

In traditional approach it identifies the step that is going to be completed. It has five steps:

Initial stage

Planning and design stage

Production stage

Monitoring stage

Completion stage

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)

It is the method of planning that mainly focuses on resources like physical and human need to continue the project. Once the resources is final than project are plane and managed to ensure that resources that had planned are ready when critical chain starts and subordination other resources in the critical chain.

PRINCE 2

It is information that describes the justification for setting up and continuing a prince2 project. It provides the reason for the project. An outline business case should be in the project. PRINCE2 provide a method for organization project within a plainly clear frame. PRINCE2 describe actions to direct people and activities in a project, how to design and supervise the project, and what to do if the project has to be adjusted if it does not develop as planned.

Quality Control Approaches
Total quality management

This method is beyond the quality assurance under this approach business is concerned by creating the quality culture in the organization in which each employee is aware of quality demand to satisfied their customer. In this method every employee set out to satisfy the customer placing him at the heart of production process.

Quality circles

These are groups of employees who work on similar task or area of responsibility and sort out solutions for the problems to improve the quality of work. This team was head by the manager and supervisors which also improve the employee morale.

Benchmarking

In this method organization find out the leading competitor in the market who are performing at optimum level in there production and service areas, in order to benchmark its operation so that to stay level with the competitor.

5.1. Just in time:

The first most suitable strategy of Toyota is just in time inventory. It means manufacture automobiles simply when you get the order from client at real time. Toyota Company establishes just in time inventory idea and gives benefit to its respected clients by providing excellence automobiles. The main advantage of just in time is help to run the Toyota company’s manufacturing operations most easily and without wasting the raw material by estimating that what is required, when is required and how much amount is required in order to finish the given project. Basically, the main attitude behind just in time scheme of Toyota is removing wastes; decrease waste material and unreasonable requirements resulting in improved output.

Kanban System:

The Toyota Kanban system is one of the controlled developed inside the Toyota production system (the way we make things). The Toyota production system is exclusive and unmatched. The thinking after it and way of execution has been perfected after long years of test and mistakes. In a nutshell it is also a structure of construction based on the attitude of whole removal of waste that asks for highest in rationality in the way we create equipments. And it can be named as Toyota style production scheme or Toyota production structure. Only when the Toyota production system in its totality is acceptably conducted, can there be an efficient deployment of Kanban structure.

Jidoka system:

The word Jidoka appears under total production system of Toyota and it can be talked about as an individual aptitude and automation with a human stroke. The word Jidoka captivating its roots forms Sakichi Toyoda the creator of Toyota Group. The major advantage of Jidoka that excellence must be fabricated in the manufacturing procedure. And major purpose of Jidoka technology in Toyota manufacturing procedure is that device is automatically end when the construction is finished. It also has a purpose that device excellence or equipment problem happens, the device automatically discovers the difficulty at its own and stops, and it stops imperfect products from produced. And due to this simply those products are transported to next procedure which is fulfilling the criteria to transfer into next procedure and excellence of building products of Toyota enlarges with the passage of time without damaging the material.

What are manufacturing operations?

A manufacturer is an individual, an enterprise, or a body that produces something. Consequently, a produces process is a company or a plant where goods and commodities are prepared. Raw materials are used to produce these goods and are then twisted into complete goods prepared to be sold. A manufacture is an extremely significant factor in the selling procedure because without them, the products we require, utilize and enjoy would not be present.

What are service operations?

Service Industries comprise those industries that do not generate goods, but offer convinced services. The peculiarity of these industries is that frequently the utilization of the service takes place while it is in the generation. Typically, this segment comprises hospitality, publicity, banking, insurance, consultancy, logistics, etc.

Compare and Contrast the Manufacturing industry with Service industry:

Manufacturing and service business is frequently altering. Basically, in manufacturing business one can determine the presentation of the product. The presentation could be calculate by building efficient utilization of the product physically, and on the other hand in service industry its bit tough to determine the performance of one’s service, because one matter is that it is intangible and it cannot be calculated, but once possible view to measure the performance of service business by captivating the feedback by company’s reliable consumers. Productivity is more simply measured in manufacturing as compared to service. Services operations concerned more and through contact with customers rather than in manufacturing operations. Quality standards are simple to create in manufacturing whereas in service industry once quality is not easy to evaluate. Manufacturing operations can increase or decrease the finished goods record levels in respond to alter consumer demand pattern while service operations cannot increase or decrease the customer demand models. Services can also comprise support operations which are also shaped and stocker rather than developing operations. Online actions are finished in services operations which fits to consumer rather than in manufacturing operations.

Conclusion:

The goal of this report satisfy importance of operations management and I have experienced the role of operational management in vital in any organization operational management is responsible for implementing the strategic orders and their implementations. I build up the understanding the key factors affecting the product design and strategic importance of operation management. I build my understanding of different planning techniques for capacity, inventory and quality control. It has enabled me to set goals and take the actions that will lead to best and desired destination.

Introduction

What is Hospitality? People serving you popcorn when you entered a cinema, concierge in a five – star hotel and the museum tour guide have the common? They are all work in servicing which is under the house of hospitality industry. Do you know that hospitality industry is the largest industry throughout the world? It is the main source of income for majority countries. Hospitality is not just about a simple servicing, but it involves in showing respect for one’s guests, provide for their needs and wants, and treating each other as equals. Hospitality industry involved hotels, casinos, and resorts which provide comfort and a sort of guidance to guests. The term hospital, hospice and hostel are deriving from ‘hospitality’ and these establishments protect more of the connotation of personal care. It refers to a types of establishment where provide shelter and foods for people which is in needed or away from their home. Hospitality was founded by Bob Luitweiler in year 1949 and this establishment are responsible in setting up a building, provide secure, pleasant place for a temporary stay, cleaning and maintaining premises. Now days, customers expectation is high. Quality is perhaps the most variable feature in hospitality industry.

Answer for Question 1

Hospitality, a contemporaneous human exchange, which is voluntary entered into, and designed to intensify the mutual well being of the parties’ concerned through the provision of accommodation, and / or food, and / or drink.

Hospitality industry had a wide scope. According to the historians, the development of hospitality industry had been traced in a thousand of years and many cultures. A professional hospitality industry must always keep updating according to the needs and wants of the societies. Success in the hotel industry are always relies on catering to the needs of the targeted clientele. Besides, providing a wide variety of services and pleasantness desirable atmosphere will always drive the hospitality industry into a large, multi – faceted and diverse industry. The main component in hospitality industry is all about dealing with customers and lead to the satisfaction of the customers in every service provided since the yore days.

Hospitality industry has begun since 3000 B.C ago. The field of hospitality encompassing travel, tourism, restaurants, and recreation. There are some advantages and disadvantages for every business and staff. This happen same to hospitality industry. For your knowledge, hospitality industry is a very wide scope; it mainly concentrated in two largest establishments throughout the world. Example for these two establishments is stated in the figure belowaˆ¦

Lodging

What is lodging? It means the lodging segment of the hospitality industry example like hotels, inns, motels, resorts, chalet, and others more. In summary, lodging means any establishment which provides ‘a bed for a fee’ or embrace of rent and a reasonable allowance for utilities and use appliances and furniture. Basically a lodging establishment always included elements of entertainment, personal services, recreation and food service for wayfarer. Majority of lodging facilities in the world extend from tiny bed and breakfasts meal to the latest development, megaresorts. Niches between these ultimate include commercial hotels, city center hotels, resort hotels, suburban hotels, highways hotels/motels, airport hotels, economy properties, conference centers, all suite hotels, and casino hotels.

Essence of a successful set of business operations means the successful in exchange products or services for value. In a set of business, it’s a chain of supply with demand. Luxury hotels are selling their suite and other kind of facilities in the hotel to the guests which provide their demand. Supply and demand is the point where profits earn in a business. Product and services in a service industry like lodging, is a holistic concept. It consist of tangibles like hotel type and physical amenities and intangibilities like services provided by the lodging staff. Customer wants and needs are always changing and varied. As customer are becoming increasingly demanding, hotels must be designed and created to be more responsive and effective in order to achieve different travelers needs and wants.

Advantages

In 21st century, people have a necessity in staying at some city or town for an extended period of time. When a people are away from home, lodging is the only accommodation for them to have a stay. Many people are worried about how much they are going to spend for the accommodation. As a matter of fact, staying in a hotel got a couple of benefits. Privilege of day services such like room cleaning and laundry really put away the stress of the guests in doing the laundry them self after a tiring working day. Leisure places like gymnastic room or swimming pool are other attractions for customer to choosing in staying in a hotel. Since price is the first priority to the customer, hotel must be always updated to the latest promotions and events from the competitors.

Furthermore, localization played an important role in advantages in lodging. There are two types of location of a hotel which is more preferred by peoples. First of all is conference hotel which is located in a city or a conference area of a country. These hotels normally targeted more on businessman. The location of the hotel enables them to travel to the work place or meeting center easily. Secondly are vocational locations. Hotels which is located near a beautiful view example like beach resort or a hotel located in a tourism area are mostly targeted on family. These hotels are free from the peak working hour in a busy city, free from noise and air pollution is always the selection of a family vacation. Environment is another factor of advantages in lodging. Example like a hotel located on a beautiful waterfront enable the guest to enjoy the mesmerizing views from their room. It is an indeed to stay at one of these hotels for stressful or a busy businessman. Do you know that other than the view of a lodging, customers demand for quality entertainment too? Good entertainment example like a luxury pub, sea diving or even a luxury swimming pool will attracts more guests with stress release and entertainment seeker demand.

Disadvantages

Large hotels with thousands of rooms, modern leisure facilities and wide choice of dining options are always the advantages in lodging. But, this also causes disadvantages to the lodging. A waiting line in reception area always can be seen in large lodging. A large hotel requires good management. A failure management will just slow down the running process in a hotel daily. We can’t predict whether the guest will have a late check out and this causes the incoming guest to have a wait before they can check into their room.

Secondly, a large hotel sometimes will face the problem of insufficient staffs. In a luxury dining, due to the staff are insufficient, they are always run off their feet by the number of guests. Unfortunately, guests will be kept waiting when they need something while the staffs are busying in handling another guest. Example like you ask for a menu, you might be able to be waiting for the menus to be brought to you until your stomach start rumbling.

Food service

Food service is a large industry which deals with all the preparations of food outside the home. Example like establishing a restaurant, catering a wedding party, and running a cafeteria are all forms of food service. Normally these restaurants lay institutional food service in business, colleges, hospitals and remedial faculties.

A bunches amount of goods and services fall under the coverage of food service, example like establishment which transport food and equipment related to kitchen, silverware and so forth. Job opportunities had been wider up due to human energy is needed in this set of industry. Restaurateurs, waiters, dietitians and chefs are some example of worker needed in food service industry. Some people in this industry are sent for training so that they are qualified to work in this industry. High class luxury dining needs talent and qualified people to work in it. Colleges now days are offering hospitality courses.

In year 2008, there were 546,300 privately owned food service and drinking places around the United Sates. 47 percent of these establishment primarily serve patrons who order and pay before eating while 39 percent of establishment offer full – service restaurant; being served well and after consume their delicious cuisine only make a payment. Another 9 percent had been comprised by drinking places and special food service like caterers had comprised about 5 percent of all establishments in this industry. Food service can be defined as world’s most widespread and familiar industry.

Advantages

In food service industry, human energy is needed in a big amount. From the chef, assistant chef until waiter got quite a many positions. Here is where the job opportunities once again wider up. The requirements for these positions example like a cleaner in a dining or waiters do not need high education levels. People with a diploma or degree on hand can hold the position of a manager in a department. As there is getting more and more lodging and dining is developing, it is quite an opportunities for younger’s out there to get a bright future for themselves through hardworking.

Besides, food industry targeted people which are looking for foods when they are starving. This is why choosing a correct location will be the final judges on how well the set of business will go. A restaurant which located in a down town of course will grab some customers from the busy working life in the city. First it’s easy to find, save up the customer time, and even some time rusher people can just have a take away meal near a restaurant near his / her company.

In this highly competitive hospitality industry, a well and professional trained staff is essential to the key of success of any food service establishment. Besides, technology influences the food services industry in many ways by enhancing efficiency and productivity. Order are being taken down by electronic devices, patron seating are all contributing in an efficient fast serving

Disadvantages

Yes it is an advantage when the job opportunities are getting wider and a student which is just graduated will be easier to get a job in hospitality industry. But, a new staff with just a piece of diploma or degree and without any working experience will eventually affect the efficiency of service in any establishment. Some time in on – the – job training will be needed again before these new employees are able to handle the tasks and responsibilities in a restaurant.

Besides, location of a restaurant in down town is a good starting point in successful service industry. But, do you know it is very expensive for the rental for the shop which is located in down town? Shop lots in down town got limited quantities too, and competitors are many out there.

Another factor which leads to disadvantages in food service industry is about the working hour. Works in the food industry are always grueling and demanding. Working hours are often long and irregular and dealing with varied and complex situation. Besides, people also must highly attune to the need of customer satisfaction. However, wages are heavily based on the tips from customers, and employees may have a limited access to the benefits and protections from the government such as minimum wage laws.

Conclusion

In hospitality industry, good service is the top priority and is the primary focus in order to achieve customer satisfaction. Working in hospitality industry must always keep this in mind, ‘Customers do not buy service delivery but they buy experiences; they do not buy service quality but they buy memories; they do not buy foods and drinks but the buy meal experiences; they do not buy event or functions but they buy occasions. In hospitality industry, ‘we are the dreamers of dreams’. We are required to make the guest to feel that the host being hospitable through feelings of generosity which is a desire to please and a genuine regard for the guest as an individual. Remember, hospitality industries are always an honorable profession and we are the industry which mostly deals with customers’ needs and wants.

Question 2

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

Introduction

Travel and tourism is mainly for recreation, leisure or business purposes. Tourism is very important to the hospitality industry as it is the main support of the revenue in lodging. Tourism refers to the activities of persons travelling to and staying in a place outside for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purpose. Therefore, these people are considered to be tourists; on a visit that is temporary and short term. These organizations include restaurants, hotels, motels and resorts. There are two types of tourism which is domestic tourism and outbound tourism. Domestic tourism refers to people which take holidays or a few days trip in their own country. Example like a family is visit to another part of the country. Outbound tourism refers to people which travel away from home and visit to another country for leisure or business purpose. However, no matter what type of travel it is, these people will always ended up in staying in lodging. This is where the revenue of the hospitality industry started.

Answer for Question 2

Travel and tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. Tourists are generally classified in statistics according to the duration and purpose of their journey. Day trippers refers to tourists which is away from home just for a day and don’t need any accommodation. Visitors which need an accommodation can be classified by their length of stay, such as one night or more. These visitors may be classified as to whether they are touring for business or leisure purposes. People travel for leisure is because they are living in a hectic life style, they are seeking for a relaxation which is away from a busying life, and they need a rest and prestige. There are a few factors which affecting travel and tourism.

Growing Leisure

Leisure can be defined as the opposite meaning of idleness. People now days are busying in working, keeping themselves in a busy and hectic life style. But, as the world is neither changing, nor the policies in any organization is changing too. Most of the companies out there had been generous in providing their employees paid holidays and even some large organization are providing a three – day weekends. A more flexible arrangements has been added into people’s leisure time, and eventually, these liberal company policies had enable the employees to go for a vacation or travel to give themselves a break.

Income

In the 21st century, most of the women are working in order to maintain their family income. What does it mean by maintain the family income? It is more on referring if one spouse loses a job, that won’t causes elimination of all the family income. Besides, due to the education which is though is school or college, women had more motives in working outside. They seek for challenges, they seek for work which is professional and excitement and another reason why women choose to work after marriage is they want to give a more comfortable and satisfying life to her family. Everyone works in maintaining a comfortable life style. Of course, when you are busy in working, especially for a marriage person, after a tiring working day, they might still need to take care of their children at home in the night and some house works still need to be done. Eventually, leisure time for our own will be immolated. So, if there is a time for them to get away from this hectic life style, it is not surprising when they spend their money on the goods and services they demanded. Time will be a bounty for them. They won’t bother about the price for their travel, because it is not easy for them to get a rest in such pressure and hectic life style, good and quality travelling will always be their wise choice.

Push and Pull Factors

The travelling motives for people tend to categorize as escaping from and / or escaping to a particular destination. Push factor brings up the meaning of a person who travel to a place due to his / her response in what is missing. Pull factors brings up the meaning of attractiveness of a places and attract the people to visit to it. Push and pull factor can be classifies into nine motives to travel which seven of those are socio – psychological or known as push motives; the other two are defined as cultural or pull motives. Push motives are escapism, relaxation, retrogression, social inter – action, self – exploration and prestige while pull motives are innovation and education. There is also two main type of push and pull factors which is personal and interpersonal. Interpersonal is a result of social interaction. Personal rewards are self – determination, sense of competence or challenge.

Technology change

Technological changes within tourism included several different factors from medical advances to the innovative tourism. Better communication, transport like cruise ships and safety have emboldened new customers which demand easier, quicker and cheaper service, this demand can only be fulfill by the help of technology. Besides, new transportation also got an advance in time management. Shorter and efficient time period is just needed for a person to travel from a country to another side of the planet. Furthermore, through technological advances, online booking has been one of the biggest factors in affecting travel and tourism. Users are enabling to check for travelling packages from tour agencies websites and direct purchase it by just a few clicks at home without need to go to the agencies. With the association and sponsored from different tour agencies and organizations, ‘MATTA FAIR’ had been organized. ‘MATTA FAIR’ is an open public fair which offer supreme packages which can be afford by economical income family. Development in technology had leads more and more people are getting to travelling around the world rather than remain at their own country and stick in the hectic daily schedule.

Demographic

The topic ‘middle – aging of America’ which is a significant demographic change had proved that middle age generally indicated to higher income and a greater propensity to travel. The group of people with age around 35 to 44 is most likely to stay in accommodations or a longer outstation trip, whether is for leisure or business purpose.

Another significant demographic development for tourism is about the growing of the mature market which mean group of people with age over 55. This group of people got their mortgages paid and a large proportion of them have a ‘nest egg’ of savings and retirement benefits to withdrawn. This had enabled these groups of people to travel around the world and enjoy for the rest for their life. This people with age 55 – 65 years old as the first baby boomers which move into their mature years will be very excited and active in seeking a whole new experience which is deal with the travel and leisure moment in their life after being retired. And this is the reason they are able to have a long period vacation. Another group of aging people which is over the age of 85 normally suggest an expansion in assisted – living facilities.

Safety & Security

Safety and security have been identified as one of the global forces that would drive the tourism industry in a new millennium. Things that tourisms worried when they are staying in a hotel at any destination are all about the same which is:

Assault
Raping
Larceny
Robbery
Fire within premises

Protecting the lives of guests and workers, property and assets of the business from criminal actions includes security checks on existing design and technology. Lighting of the public and external areas, building access, key control, security of guestroom doors, and guarding of the property must be always keep updated and check by the maintenance department. All the employees should be trained to know about all the appropriate security procedures when there is an emergency happened example like a fire situation.

If the safety and security in a lodging establishment is good and well management, eventually guests which stay at the first time will get good impression from it and eventually will recognize it to their friends when they back to their country.

Conclusion

Travel and tourism is important to the hospitality industry. The most common reason why people go for travel is leisure, and sometimes followed by business. An attractive environment appeals to tourists, whether is natural or built, and the development of the industry in a locality will relate to the surrounding area. People are travelling by car more than any other means. Travel by air had been increase over the last 10 years. But, the fares begin to rise and this causes people taught that travelling is expensive. This is why some people just ignore travelling and keep themselves in busy working. Communications between air lines and tourism industry should make an agreement in order to bring up the tourism industry. Rising of fares will never give any help in bringing the tourism industry to a new millennium.

Europe is a continent which is bordered by the Arctic ocean to the north, to the west lies the Atlantic Ocean, the Caucasus mountains and the Caspian sea and Black sea forms the southeast boarders,the Ural mountains and the Ural River is positioned in east of Europe and to the south lies the Mediterranean Sea. Europe stands as the world’s second smallest continent in relation to its size .Population wise Europe is the second biggest continent after Asia. European history is very vast which begins from the Bronze Age with enormous cultural and economic achievements. Ancient Greeks marks the origin of western culture and the Roman Empire spanned the entire continent for several centuries. With the decline of the Roman Empire Europe entered a long period of stasis known as the Dark Ages, which came to end with the rise of Renaissance and New Monarchs, which began the period of exploration, discovery and increase in the scientific knowledge. A large colonial empire was built by the European nation at the 15th century, particularly France, Britain, Spain and Portugal with enormous holding in Asia, Africa and the Americas. With the rise of the Industrial Revolution in Europe at the 18th century, created greater general prosperity and equivalent increase in the population. With the end of World war two and till the end of cold war two major political and economical blocks divided the Europe which was the Capitalistic countries in the Western Europe and the Communist nations in the Eastern Europe. Presently geographic Europe comprises 45 countries.

The European climate remains temperate and mild, with cool summers and cold winters. Generally, if we compare different places on the same latitude with places on the same latitude in Europe, we would notice that places in Europe have a more favorable climate than places elsewhere in America, Asia or Africa. If we compare the average January temperatures of Berlin, Calgary and Irkutusk- lying in the Asian region of Russia, we would notice that the temperature in Berlin is about 8 and 22 degrees Celsius higher than temperatures in Calgary and Irkutusk respectively. The main reason for this climate winds from the Atlantic Ocean. Warm winds sweep the whole continent and keep the continent mildly warm. Ocean currents carrying warm waters from the Gulf of Mexico have a major role in this natural phenomenon. Since there is not mountain barrier in Europe, which is large enough to stop these winds from sweeping across the continent, and since most of the continent is within the range of 300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, these currents affect the climatic conditions of the whole continent. Therefore, Europe climate is quite the same throughout the continent. Northern Europe climate, naturally, has longer and cooler winters compared to the southern part of the continent. Winters are colder and longer in the East as compared to the west. Summers are shorter, but hotter in the East as we move towards the west.

As far as rainfall is concerned, most parts of Europe receive an annual rainfall of 20-60 inches, with the maximum of it happening towards the West of the mountains (around 80 inches in general). The areas receiving lighter rainfall include the Southern part of Spain, Kazakhstan and northern part of Scandinavia.

It is for a reason that Europe fetches the maximum number of tourists in a year- its warm people and great natural beauty, coupled with aesthetic modernity. It is a well known fact that almost each and every country that comes under the European region has major tourist hubs, which attract customers from all over the world. Not only people from other continents, but people from within Europe also travel to the various tourist destinations in Europe.

The tourism industry also plays a major role in the economic stability of the European nations, and this is the sole reason as to why the governments have spent a massive amount of time and money in keeping various tourist places in Europe clean and updated. The climatic conditions and the exceptionally well connected airline services make traveling in Europe, a piece of cake. The ancient medieval history, coupled with some great historic monuments, palaces, churches and alleys have made tourist places in Europe a hot favorite among tourists of all age groups, backgrounds and nationalities.

France attracts most of the tourist influx in Europe. From the Louvre’ and the Eiffel tower to the Notre dam Cathedral and the Champs ET Lysee, almost every tourist spot in France, especially in Paris, has become a symbolic of the most visited places of the world. The Arc of Triumph, the Garnier Opera and the Gallo-Roman amphitheatre are some of the other places that can be termed as some of the best tourist places in Europe.

Germany and Rome follow France closely when it comes to some of the most visited tourist places in Europe. Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf attract tourists from all over the world. Business travelers and educational tourists also frequent these places. The Colloseum and the Palazzo Barberini are two of the most famous tourist places in Europe, belonging to Rome.

Apart from historic tourist places in Europe, great natural places are also hot favorites among tourists. Regions around the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific top the list of such places. Be it the open landscapes of Hungary, the great mountains in Switzerland or the beautiful beaches of Spain- Europe has everything to sooth a lover of nature.

Apart from some great tourist places, the people, food, culture and the festival of Europe beckon one and all to this land, offering a perfect mix of traditions and rebellion.

Europe has a great diversity of food reflecting its linguistic-cultural mosaic. In this age of globalisation we are brought to eat food from more and more countries.

A yacht cruise offers the same experience of cruising in style and luxury and so much more. Most first-time and seasoned travelers however, think that the only way to explore the world’s oceans and seas is through a cruise ship. While this may be the most common way to travel around the world by water, cruising with a yacht is just as desirable.

Although both vessels are on the water, it’s the pampering and personal VIP treatment that sets yacht cruising apart from ship cruising. Luxury yachts are smaller and lighter than cruise liners, with lengths ranging from about 20 feet to lengths of over 200feet. Due to its size, luxury yachts take lesser people onboard. It is even possible to charter a yacht for a private cruising with family and friends. Whether it’s a mega yacht or a private yacht charter, travelers can be sure of a personalized service from the crew.

Luxury Amenities and Accommodations

Depending on its size, yachts could have accommodations for 2 or for 130 guests. Cabins are typically smaller than regular hotel rooms, but they are comfortable and well-furnished. Baths and showers, closets, tables, and telephone-passengers will find all the needed amenities to make their cabins their home on the sea.

Five-star gourmet and good food await passengers with their dining in a yacht cruise. Expect an onboard chef to prepare all the delectable cuisine that passengers will feast on during their trip. Private charters can have the extra special privilege of having the menu planned according to their liking.

After dinner, passengers can have drinks in the lounge and enjoy the entertainment prepared for them with their traveling companions. This is an excellent time to mingle and get to know the other passengers, especially when traveling with a larger group. By the time the trip is over, most passengers in a yacht cruise would have known each other by their names because of the number of guests and frequency of interaction, in contrast to ship liners.

When not anticipating a port stop or when not touring onshore, passengers can enjoy the luxurious amenities that the yacht has onboard. Survey the azure sea while enjoying a drink on the sundeck; take a dip in the jacuzzi or swimming pool; run a few kilometers on the treadmill or lift some weights in the gym; and have a relaxing time in the spa.

Attire Onboard

Casual and comfortable clothing, bathing suits, hats, and sunglasses are the rule in yacht cruises. Evening wear is optional for those who would want to dress up for dinner or when planning to have dinner in an excellent dinner on shore.

Destinations

A yacht cruise can take passengers to ports rarely visited by large cruise ships and virtually any destination accessible by water. The Mediterranean, Caribbean, Bahamas, North and Central America, Northern Europe, Africa, Arabia, and Asia are just a few of the beautiful countries and landscapes passengers can explore and enjoy through a yacht cruise.

On Shore Activities

Passengers have the freedom to do what they want when in port. Some of the passengers’ favorite activities include water-skiing, wave running, snorkeling, scuba diving, sunbathing and lounging on the beach, fishing, kayaking, windsurfing, sailing, and touring. Passengers can take the tours arranged by the yacht cruises or take their own tours. Most port attractions are located within short distances from the harbor, making it easy for cruise passengers to enjoy the scenes in security and comfort.

Affordability

While private chartered luxury yachts often sail the rich and famous, there is always a yacht cruise fit for everybody. The prices are basically scaled on the amenities-the rates increase as the size and amenities increase.

Even so, yacht cruises are the best vacation value. Travelers will know how much the

vacation will cost all in all even before they leave as the fare includes the state rooms, all meals, onboard activities and entertainment, and the transportation from port to port. Travelers would only have extra expenses on optional shore excursions, shopping, and personal services such as a massage.

It is said that a yacht cruise is like no vacation on earth. With the constantly changing landscape, VIP services, and the liberating feeling of being out in the sea, it seems that this adage is most certainly true.

+++++++++++++++

The Spring Break Cruise Experience

Winter is over, the snow has melted, and spring is coming. Goodbye to long dark weather and hello to warm sunny days! For students, this means a break from classes, exams, term papers, and homework. It’s spring break! What better way to spend this week-long holiday than to take a spring break cruise and party on multiple beaches, see new places, and meet other young cruise travelers.

Most students would think that cruises are just for the elderly, honeymooners, and families with young kids. Whilst many cruises are particularly designed for these groups, many ship companies also offer cruise vacations that are tailor-fitted for young adults and students looking to have a vacation away from schoolwork with fun parties and lots of sun.

The Ease of a Cruise

Most students would pick the usual spring break hot spots to visit like Daytona Beach, South Beach, Panama City Beach, or Cancun in Mexico. All these cities have lively nightlives, long stretch of beaches, and sunny weather, but they are often overdone and overcrowded with other spring break vacationers. A spring break cruise provides all of these and a whole lot more.

Cruises are the best vacation value. Every expense in a trip are paid in a single installment before the passengers leave the dock. This includes the cabins, lunches and dinners, onboard entertainment and activities, and of course, transportation from port to port. Passengers would only have additional expenses on shopping, personal services like a massage, and optional tours.

Taking a spring break cruise also saves time in planning for the itinerary, booking for hotels, and scheduling for flights. Everything is well provided for, even the transportation in shore excursions. All passengers have to do is show up for a totally carefree getaway.

Cruising is also a great way to experience and learn about different cultures without the research. Even though students are there to enjoy the cultural flare of different countries, they take home with them pieces of history, geography, or even ideals that could contribute in their view of the world.

Cruise Policies

There are certain rules and policies that have to be considered before going on a spring break cruise. Most cruise lines have strict policies governing the age requirement for sailing without a chaperone, for drinking, and for gambling onboard. Students should check on individual cruise lines for their updated policies and other details before making a reservation.

Most cruise lines have strict policies regarding age eligibility for cruising, ranging from Carnival’s requirement that all passengers in a cabin must be 21 or older, Celebrity’s rule that at least one passenger in a cabin should be 21 or older, and Disney’s more relaxed policy of allowing a passenger below 18 to stay in a room with someone 21 or older.

Most exceptions are made for underage married couples. They would be allowed to travel alone for as long they are both 18 and they have proof of their marriage. Young couples should check with the cruise liner regarding this policy before boarding.

The legal drinking age for all alcoholic beverages on all ships is 21. An exception may be ships that cater spring break cruises to international seas. For instance, Costa Cruises’ minimum drinking age is 21 for any cruise leaving from the US, but the drinking age is 18 on any ship leaving from a non-US port.

Policies for onboard gambling vary from ship to ship. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and NCL have set their age restriction from 18 and up, while Princess and Celebrity allow gaming for passengers aged 21. Students should take time to read their ship’s policies on gambling because prizes and winnings may not be awarded to underage guests.

Spring Break Destinations

The best spring break cruise destinations are those that are close to the US Port to allow less travel time to reach. In addition, there are destinations that are best known for their liberal culture and exotic nightlife that appeals to young cruise travelers. These areas include The Bahamas, Aruba, Key West, Cozumel, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Onboard Activities

Students don’t have to wait to be in port to start enjoying their vacation. Cruise ships, particularly the newest and largest ships afloat, offer myriad onboard activities. Some of these ships offer exciting amenities, such as mini golf courses, rock climbing walls, surf simulators, shopping malls, and sports facilities for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. Multiple dining options, bars and lounges, fitness centers, and spas are also part of onboard entertainment.

Affordability

A short weekend cruise would typically cost as little as $150 per passenger. However, a longer and a more elaborate cruise might cost as much as $2000. Students should carefully investigate their spring break cruise options in order to find the best that fits their budget.

Spring breaks are meant to be fun, liberating, and exciting-and the open seas offer just that. Step into a spring break cruise and sail away the stress of school and return fresh and rejuvenated, ready for the work ahead.

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The Gay Cruise Experience

A vacation is supposed to be a time for relaxation and a chance to get away from the stresses of reality. For couples, there is the added bonus of getting to know more about each other and be especially close to one another. However, for gay and lesbian couples, these affectionate gestures may not be as easy, particularly for those who prefer not to be under the prying eyes of other people. A gay cruise may just be the best vacation option for gay and lesbian couples yet.

Going Away on a Gay Cruise

Everybody goes away on vacation to relax, have a good time, indulge, and escape the realities of everyday life. A gay cruise attends to these desires with the same elements as vacations for straight people-first-rate accommodations, beautiful beaches, and exotic destinations. However, there’s a whole lot more than the vacation itself that attracts gay single and couples to embark on a gay cruise.

The most compelling of these reasons is the camaraderie that is easily formed and felt in gay cruises. There is an almost mystical experience in being around hundreds of other gay people that shares the same spirit, feelings, and aspirations. It is an indescribable feeling that is incomparable with any straight or mainstreamed vacation.

Many gay people also join gay cruises for the customized entertainment and activities featured in a gay cruise. Activities like pool games, dancing, cabaret entertainment, costume parties, and even bingo all have their certain flair unique to gay-specific activities.

Joining a gay cruise is also an excellent way to make new friends and meet new people. Choosing a gay vacation guarantees that everybody has at least one thing in common. It is not even unusual for some people to find a romantic partner in a gay cruise.

A gay cruise can also provide gay people the liberation that they could not ordinarily feel in their straight environment. Vacationing in a place surrounded by hundreds of like-minded people can be a liberating and amiable experience.

Types of Gay Cruise

Gay cruises are one of the most popular and most visible gay vacations, which cover a wide range of travel opportunities. Whether a traveler wants to play just a bit gay or all out gay, there’s a variety of gay cruise options to choose from.

For people who prefer to party and be around the company of an all-gay crowd, then they will find that the gay environment cruise will fit them to a tee. In a gay environment cruise, a tour company charters an entire cruise ship to create an exclusive all-gay/lesbian environment. These types of cruises have customized entertainment such as cabaret performances and activities like dancing and masquerade parties.

An organized gay group on a mainstreamed cruise may be ideal for gay singles or couples who don’t mind being afloat with other straight passengers. These types of cruises may set out a part of the ship for their own dining area, their own host, entertainment, and programming.

Gay singles and couples also have the option of going onboard a mainstream cruise where they have the chance of meeting like-minded people onboard. The majority of large mainstream cruises feature special parties for their gay and lesbian guests, often referred to as “Friends Of Dorothy” meet-and-greets.

There is also a cruise specially organized for gay families. R Family Vacations, the company that pioneered these gay family-oriented cruises, join children, single parents, gay parents, grandparents, and friends in mainstream cruises in groups of 300 or 400. The activities are designed for family bonding. The evening entertainment like Broadway shows however is mainly for the adults.

What to Expect in a Gay Cruise

Some people would describe their first gay cruise much like their first experience in a gay parade or their first time in a gay bar-the sheer pleasure and comfort of escaping a heterosexual environment is absolutely liberating.

Gay travelers can expect giddy, silly, and extroverted aspects in the cruise, such as costume parties and bingo with a gay twist, as well as relaxed, refined and some serious aspects of the gay cruise, such as financial planning seminars, lounging by the pool, and romantic dinners for two. Guests can participate in all of the activities or simply enjoy the trip by the pool or on the beach.

Onboard Attire

Casual clothes, swimsuit, hat, and sun glasses are the norm when dressing up for a cruise. Although of course, there are a couple of wardrobe opportunities, such as theme nights and parties guests would want to prepare for.

More than the luxury and the comfort, many gay singles and couples choose to embark on a gay cruise for the comfort and freedom it affords. For most of them, a gay cruise is a magical experience where even for just a few nights, the entire world turns into gay and they are fully free to be themselves, not caring about the pressures of the straight world.

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Traveling for Cheap: 4 Budget Cruise Options

Travelling cheap is the practical way to see and experience the world without compromising comfort and convenience. There are a number of budget cruise options to make your cruise vacation a memorable and enjoyable one.

Here are some helpful ways to go on a budget cruise:

Consider your interests

There are good selections of cruises to suit your interest. The Mediterranean is the best place for art and history enthusiasts. Meanwhile, fine sand and endless sunshine awaits you in Caribbean cruises. For the explorer in you, the Arctic or the Antarctic is the best place to be and for a more exotic locale, there are Asian and African cruises available. It is essential to consider your interests and preferences from sightseeing to food to match your budget, itinerary and preferences for your cruise vacation.

Familiarize yourself with cruising

When deciding to go onboard your cruise vacation, it is important to familiarize yourself with the variety of cruise vacations and destinations available. Have those fingers clicking the Internet to search and find all about cruise holidays. A number of information pertaining to the cruise lines are readily available, like:

Location and itinerary of each cruise which can range from a 7-day Caribbean cruise or a 14 or 21 day Arctic or Antarctic exploration or a Hawaiian cruise or a river cruise along the historic riverbanks of Europe.

Cruise lines vary with its clientele. The Cunard cruise line, for example, is geared towards the classic cruise experience, while the Disney cruise line is ideal for families.

Pricing, discounts and promotional fares

Inclusion of shore excursions, airport and port transfers

Cruise’s onboard activities and menus

Diligently researching on these matters will enable you to make the right decision in planning your cruise.

Research for the best cruise fares

Going on a cruise with a limited budget is not as complicated as it appears to be. Given your budgetary constraint, it is equally important to research cruise fares and the inclusion of other fees in your cruise vacation. The Internet is the convenient place to search the following:

Pricing, promotional fares and rates, group and family discounts. Most cruise lines and travel agents offer packages and discounts to cruise ship passengers depending on the season of the planned vacation. Oftentimes, discounts are given to pre-booking reservations.

Inquire about the additional shore excursions and other travel arrangements which may include airfare and shuttles. It is best to get a good deal for these to avoid any hassle. Ask if the fare is inclusive of these to make sure that the money you pay for the cruise is money well spent.

Plan in Advance

Planning your cruise in advance saves you time and money. Planning your stress free cruise means being particular from cruise line bookings and travel itinerary to packing the right clothes, to first aid kits, and having your proper documents like IDs and passports. These avoid further inconvenience on your part.

A well-planned cruise vacation leaves you stress free and all you have to do is relax and enjoy the scenery and the company you’re with.

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8 Perks of a Disney Cruise

Cruise ship vacation aboard the Disney Cruise is ideal for family. A Disney Cruise is always fun, fascinating and nostalgic. It is the perfect time for family bonding, activities and it brings back many happy childhood memories to the parents especially with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Cinderella and Snow White onboard.

Here are some perks of a Disney Cruise:

Quality family time

Disney is always synonymous to family. Aboard the Disney Cruise, parents and children will spend days of quality family time with the cruise’s line up of fun-filled activities. Spending time with the family is probably the most rewarding perks of the cruise. It gives the family the chance to get to know each other better and at the same time there are also opportunities for the children to meet other children onboard.

It bridges the generation gap

Taking a Disney cruise vacation bridges the generation gap between parents and their children. The common denominator is the loveable Disney characters where both parents and children can relate to.

World class entertainment

Disney is renowned for its magnificent productions and captivating stories. The following are sure to win the hearts of travelers:

The ala Broadway production of the well love Disney tales, complete with everybody’s favorite song and dance numbers, set amidst the elegantly furnished Disney Theater.

The cozy theater also hosts movie screenings of the beloved Disney movies throughout the years.

Meet and greet Disney characters at designated times during the cruise. This is the chance for everybody to hug, take pictures and even ask for an autograph of your favorite Disney character.

Family parties

The cruise also offers deck parties for the whole family to enjoy. Everybody can sing and dance to the themed parties. After the show, there is a spectacular display of fireworks which will leave you and the kids awestruck.

Activities for children

At Disney Cruise, children aboard the ship are classified according to their age groups and have their own set of facilities and activities under the help of the Disney counselors. This will also help the parents to enjoy the cruise’s for adult only facilities like: salon, lounges and nightclubs.

Delicious dining

Every member of the family is sure to be delighted with the hearty meals served in the ship. Dining options vary from the traditional Main dining to the alfresco dining at the designated deck. Adults can enjoy a romantic dinner in the ship’s adult exclusive dining. Cruise ship passengers are sure to enjoy the cruise’s Rotational Dining experience. This allows the guests to literally and figuratively rotate through the ship’s 3 varied restaurants coupled with personalized servers to help you with each meal.

Spacious Staterooms

The ship’s staterooms are custom made for families. It is spacious to accommodate the whole family and their luggage. Aside from these, the rooms offer breathtaking views and are fully equipped with the amenities of a hotel.

Amazing Adventures

Disney cruise has amazing adventures which will surely delight adults and kids. Its offshore excursion includes a fun-filled day at Disney’s exclusive Castaway Cay. The picturesque paradise is available to Bahamian and Caribbean cruises. There are a number of activities to be enjoyed ranging from water sports in the beach to nature hikes to glass bottom boat tours. The adults’ only beach has massages, yoga class and a bar. There is an open air barbeque dining and a wonderful gift shop for your souvenir.

These perks of a Disney Cruise is truly an enticing one, which will make you book for its next cruise and create more happy moments with your family.

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In this project I would like to take a look at the relationship between tourism and the people living in popular tourist locations; specifically the deep impact tourism has on local culture. This topic interests me as although I have never visited the global south myself, many of my friends and acquaintances travel there frequently for vacations. Tourism is sure to have many effects on these ‘destination’ type communities. I know that many of these destinations are in poorer areas of the world. Some significant effects that tourism has on these areas manifest themselves economically, socially and culturally. Though tourism may create jobs and stimulate the local economy there are some downsides to tourism and aspects of the influx of visitors that may be harmful to local cultures. In my research paper I will analyze the benefits that tourism has on local economies in relation to the social and cultural impact on the community. I hope to evaluate just how beneficial potentially short-term economic stimulus is in the face of potential harm to the economy in the long term, local people and local culture. I will discuss this topic globally but with a focus on Southeast Asia and specifically India. My paper will emphasize the important question: is vacationing in a ‘third world’ country potentially unethical? Or does the stimulus to a developing country’s economy justify the social and cultural implications of tourism and the development that tourism brings in the area. Looking at the ethical issues surrounding this will also be an important factor in determining whether the cultural impacts of tourism is acceptable or justifiable by the economic benefits. In my opinion, although tourism does support economic growth in many communities there is deep and irreversible cultural impact.

In ‘Tourism in Destination Communities’ Shalini Singh looks at an idea by Jafar Jafari the author of “Encyclopedia of Tourism”. Jafari created the consolidated platforms of tourism. One of Jafari’s four platforms is advocacy- that is to say that tourism is capable of economic good. Another platform, the cautionary platform, emphasizes the importance of noting the complex interactions at the local level. The other two platforms are “Adaptancy” (which is described as ‘pro community tourism’) and Knowledge based – which is a holistic treatment for community-based tourism (Jafari cited in Singh 2003). Singh and S.W. Boyd (26-30) discuss relationships between tourism and destination communities in terms of ‘win-win,’ ‘win-lose,’ ‘lose-win’ or ‘lose-lose’ paradigms (Carter and Lowman, 1944; Nepal, 2000). Examples of ‘win-win’ situations do exist and this indicates that tourism can indeed be economically beneficial to a destination community. The example given by Boyd and Singh is that of Ayers rock (Uluru) which is one of Australia’s most famous tourist attractions. Although Australia is not a country typically considered to be part of the global south I believe this example is relevant as the aboriginal communities in the area could easily be marginalized and exploited by tourism. The community however takes an active role by defining their relationship with tourism as having control and choice. (Mercer cited in S.W. Boyd and S. Singh: 1994:37). The community participates by providing educational services, which allows them to convey that the religious and cultural significance of Uluru is something to be respected. (Wells, cited in S.W. Boyd and S. Singh 1996:37). The local businesses in the area benefit and are owned by the people of the aboriginal community. This example is congruent to Jafari’s platforms of Advocacy and Adaptancy and it shows tourism in this scenario as ‘pro community’ and capable of economic good. As this situation is economically beneficial to this area, without compromising or de-valuing the local culture, it is an excellent means of development. Another example where the local community benefits is the ‘win-lose’ situation, a very salient example being Cuba. The community benefits economically, although mass tourism does not. This is achieved through policies and marketing that emphasizes quality tourism by restricting the number and type of tourists (high spenders, low numbers). The tourism is marketed for exclusivity and affluence and this is done through selective marketing and catering the services towards wealthier people. Cuba’s tourism industry’s markets strategically to target Canadian ‘snowbirds’ who also take long-term vacations in Florida (Peters 2002:4). Their vacationing for long periods of time in a US location and their ability to spend US currency indicates their affluence. Another strategy is the development of golf courses in the area. Miguel Figueras, a tourism ministry economist and advisor in Cuba, says that golf is a feature that can attract higher spending tourists (Peters 2002:5). Strategic tourism planning allows a country to tap into the wealth of the global north’s wealthiest tourists allowing maximum economic benefit without mass sharing of what they have to offer.

However there are many situations in which local economies lose. This is especially common in coastal-resort based tourism along the Mediterranean coast. These developments only offer short term economic gain and result in long term loss in terms of the community as well as the environment. Although tourism does create many jobs, including direct employment (jobs in hotels and restaurants), indirect employment (jobs not a result of direct tourist spending- such as laundries and banking), and induced employment (jobs created in the community as a result of increased income of members in the community) the majority of jobs are seasonal and part time (D. Ioannides 2003). In addition often much of the money spent by tourists leaves the country. The majority of the money spent by tourists on their vacations goes towards their travel costs and their accommodations. This means the money leaves the country and goes to airlines and transnational corporations who run hotel chains. This can result in a good portion of local people sharing their surroundings with tourists without ever actually seeing or experiencing any economic benefits themselves (Krotz 1996:215). Although tourist spending may add an influx of foreign currency to an economy, as well as create a bigger market in terms of demands for goods, which in theory can lower prices, it is important to consider that ‘while tourism receipts rise, agriculture’ output declines’ (James Mack, Tourism and the Economy). This is a result of fewer people working in the agricultural sector. In that case the net profit of tourism is actually less than it initially seems, once the loss from agriculture is taken into account.

Although some economic benefits resulting from tourism are apparent, there are definite burdens placed upon the destination community. A very prominent challenge is the resident’s view of visitors and their relationship with them, as outlined by M. Fagence (Tourism and Local Society and Culture). Residents have a negative attitude towards tourists if they do not see immediate and clear economic benefits of their presence, especially in the form of jobs and income. Contrary to James Mack’s theory that the tourists create a larger market for goods, thus lowering the prices, residents blame tourists for a rise in the price of goods. In a qualitative study by Neha Kala (2008) findings show that tourists are also seen as the cause of increased criminal activity and reduced moral standards by the host community. This is where we have to consider tourism beyond the impacts to the economy. In communities with rich traditional backgrounds some residents see the influence of visiting tourists as compromising to traditional values, as the affluent lifestyles of visitors can be appealing and seductive to the younger generations in the area. The influx of visitors brings the possibility of sometimes unwelcome social or cultural change. In Rajasthan traditional elders often scold children for speaking to tourists. (Joseph 2007:204). Locals see tourism as an exporter of Western lifestyle. (Kala: 2008) Across India, Western dress is popular amongst young males who wear jeans, shirts and baseball caps. (Joseph 2007:211). This is the result of many youth trying to emulate Western tourists (Kala: 2008). Some facets of Western lifestyle however not only replace traditional culture, but also are directly contradictory to them. A priest in Pushkar was quoted in India Today saying “The youth here find the openness in foreign girls too tempting”. (Joseph 2007:211) This problem is amplified if the host community does not recognize that the behaviour of most tourists are atypical to how they normally behave and that the behaviours displayed by tourists are reserved for times of recreation, and are not the tourist’s usual behaviour or even their usual moral standards.

Most concerning of M. Fagence’s findings are that residents blame tourists for reducing the significance of local culture by trivializing and making a commodity of it. In an article by Rosaleen Duffy this idea of culture as a commodity is expanded on. Duffy outlines how tourists are often looking for an ‘authentic cultural experience’; however what is considered authentic is nearly always defined by the tourist, resulting in the tourist not really looking for cultural understanding but to serve some other self-serving purpose. Tourists conceptualize their travel stories in a way that assists them in narrating their self-identity. Tourists travel as a means to escape, to broaden the mind, or for ‘self discovery’. An illustration of Duffy’s view that our society uses travel for self-defining and self-narrating purposes, as well as a means to ‘understand culture’ and for ‘self discovery’ is the popular movie Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts. In the movie, ‘Liz’ sets outs after her divorce to experience the culture in Italy, India and then Bali. The trailer includes many consecutive images of Liz eating ‘authentic Italian pizza’, praying in an old stony temple, touching a painted elephant, brightly coloured flowers being thrown at an Indian wedding, and biking through farmland past villagers carrying baskets on their heads. Liz in the movie is desperate to “marvel at something” and this is the very notion that Duffy presents in her research as motives that are ‘a felt need for respite from the exigencies of modern life, and/or as ‘authentic’ projects of self-discovery’. In her article, Duffy cites Urry (1994:236-238) who argues that tourism can be reduced to the consumption of signs, images and texts. Evidence that tourism is the consumption of pre-conceived images is in Hillary Brenhouse’s article (July 22nd, 2010- prior to the release of the movie) where she describes recent vacation packages marketed by luxury hotels and spas to recreate the transformative ‘Eat Pray Love’ journey. By defining an entire culture into consumable signs and images, tourists participate in the further manifestation of orientalism created by the tourism industry ‘reinforcing images that create a sense of “placelessness” and even timelessness’ (Dann, 1996b: 125, cited in Duffy).

A demonstration of tourists being consumers of discourses of placelessness and timelessness is the popular tourist destination Rajasthan, in India. The two most marketed marquees of Rajasthan are “Royal” and “Colourful”. (Henderson 2007:72). These are the two main features the tourists are looking to ‘consume’ when they visit. These discourses are prominent in the ‘naming’ of different locations of the province by tourists and tourism industry. Jaipur is referred to as the ‘Pink City’ and Jodhpur is known as the ‘Blue City’. Royalty links Rajasthan back to the past. Medieval India is romanticized and guests will experience an encounter with a royal past. In this way the ‘ Authentic Rajasthan experience’ is reduced to a few signs and symbols. The most prominent example of a marketing of ‘placelessness and timelessness’ is the “Chokhi Dhani” Resort. Located throughout the province of Rajasthan with a few locations elsewhere in western India, this resort is chaired by a NRI (Non-Resident Indian) stationed in Dubai. The Government of India heralds the chain of “Chokhi Dhanis” as “India’s most innovative Tourism Project” (official website). The resort is described as a ‘Five-star village resort” and includes fifty-five ‘Royal cottages’ and eight ‘Haveli suites’, Havelis being the traditional residences of local royalty. This ethnic village includes conference rooms, spa, fitness, and accepts all major credit cards. What we can conclude from this is that the desire of foreign tourists to experience a sense of ‘timelessness and placelessness’ is understood and capitalized on. Although this may be trivializing of local culture and history it is important to consider here that many locals are directly participating- and in a way heritage tourism gives them a type of ownership. The foreigner’s desire to see something that they preconceive as ‘authentic’ is understood and cashed in on. Most respondents of Kala’s study agreed that tourism encourages the mass production of ‘pseudo-traditional’ arts and that many non-traditional artisans are attracted to this work. This propagates tourists’ misconceptions because these ‘traditional arts’ often bought as souvenirs allow the tourist to physically carry the discourse home with them. In some ways however this type of activity increases a community’s sense of pride. The revitalization of some traditional arts such as dance and the propagation of traditional fairs are deemed to be a positive effect of tourism. An example of this is festival of Teej; tourist’s interest in the festival ensures that every year it continues to be extravagant. Tourists also have a positive effect on the up keeping of historical and religious heritage sites as a result of tourist interest in them. (Kala: 2008) A preserved site is the Ghats in Pushkar, a Hindu pilgrimage site. An increase in popularity of eastern spirituality in the Western world brings many tourists here. Although this creates some inconvenience for Hindu devotees, ownership is taken through religious rhetoric aimed at tourists. Many signs around the Ghats include instructions about how tourists should and should not behave in this place of religious significance. The local priests, similar to the aboriginal’s at Ulurru, define the significance of this site. However concerned the priests are for the sanctity of the area they are still willing to ‘commodify’ the religious experience and often perform simplified prayer service or ‘puja’ for western tourists at four times the price of a native pilgrim. (Joseph: 2007) Although this active role is taken by the locals, religious devotees, and the government, the culture and tradition here is still made available to a consumer for a price. The government protecting the area for the economic benefit can also be seen as the ultimate commodification. This puts a sticker price on the country’s religion, culture and history. Nothing indicates ownership more than putting a price on one’s belonging. Although many of these destinations are places of escape for tourists, and tourism may introduce some economic benefits to the local area. I believe that the degradation and trivialization of the local culture that ensues is not worth the price. It is however important to remember that as residents of the global north we are poor judges of what is truly beneficial to these regions.