The impact of change on the travel and tourism sector

The impact of change on the travel and tourism sector Analyze the impacts of issues and trends that drive change in the travel and tourism sector Due to the current trends and issues causing change in the travel and tourism sector, the businesses have to adapt to the changes and redesign their products and services. Many changes brought by globalization, technology, world political changes, economics changes and people attitude towards tourism have reshaped the industry altogether. The impacts of these trends and changed can be described below in the context of a major tourism brands. Due to the ageing of the population tourism, businesses are bound to hire older workers. Young people are more qualified and not willing to join the industry due to poor working conditions. Older people are less mobile and more demanding which will have impacts on wage rates and other costs to maintain staff. Lifestyles of the people have changed and their attitude towards tourism services has changed a great deal. People are more demanding and more price conscious now. Firms must cut costs and their profits in order to survive in a more competitive environment now. Technology have helped businesses cut down costs as it has enabled management to manage their resources efficiently and have reduced spare capacity. The increased use of telephone, 3G mobile and internet has helped consumers to access information regarding prices and value for money. This has resulted in a more intense competition. Hotels are responding to the situation by recruiting staff that have skills in information and communication technology. Outsourcing is a key phenomenon in the modern tourism industry. Different products esp. food is obtained from other producers and it’s hard to explain the origin of the food to consumers plus it puts an extra push on the costs involved. Globalization has not only benefited the tourism industry in terms of more revenue and clients but it has also been a sole reason for cheap skilled labor. Skilled labor from poorer regions can be attracted to the industry at relatively cheaper rates which would result in lower employment cost for hotels and catering industry. Globalization also provides this wonderful opportunity to exploit economies of scale. Globalization can cause homogenization in services which might not be good from the customer’s perspective but brand names do ensure higher product quality. Skills gap in the industry is adversely affecting the quality of services. Firms are in a position to charge prices of their own choice in such circumstances. However companies are finding a solution to the issue by providing on-job trainings or paying handsome wages to skillful workers and thus attracting more customers. However the wage rates are mostly affected by the local economic and industrial condition and educational level of the locality as well. Hotel industry is greatly affected by the changes in law as well over the last few years. There is a strong emphasis on working time regulations, minimum wage laws and other working conditions regulations. Laws banning smoking in public places and restaurants etc. are also have impacts in the tourism business. Hotels are now seeking cost effective labor and are more into application of technology. Government and other regulatory authorities are putting more and more pressure on catering firms now to take great care of hygiene and other food related issues. Greater awareness among the consumers related to diet and health have forced the catering businesses and restaurants to reduce the use of sugar and salt in their food. Due to the increased number of obesity cases, consumers are more conscious about the fats and calories rather than just taste. Customers want to know about the origin of the food as well. There is increased food labeling and more information is provided and displayed for the customers regarding the food and its ingredients. There is a great demand for food to be produced in a socially responsible way and this is helping in promoting good practices in the industry. The tourism industry faced a serious setback after the incident of 9/11. The US war on terror and the Iraq war changed the entire industry all together. Many incident s of attacks on tourists, kidnapping for ransom and other political gains were witnessed which created a sense of insecurity among the tourists. Many countries and regions were declared unsafe for tourists. Apart from US, many other cities in Europe and UK were also the victims of terrorism. Madrid and the London bombing somehow created this perception among the tourists that EU member states were the targets of the terrorists. The impact of this is likely to be long term as it will take a long time to restore the confidence of the tourists. Due to this lack of confidence the tourism industry has lost a lot of business and there is a serious decline in investment in this sector. Working conditions have deteriorated and level of employment is showing a downward trend. 4.2 Discuss the likely consequences of businesses failing to respond to market changes Many different businesses are facing many changes in the market. Such changes are economic, social, political and behavioral changes. Tourism industry is not an exception either. Over the last couple of decades the tourism industry has seen a tremendous amount of change and companies are always advised to adapt to these changes. Appropriate strategy and planning can make a company successful and make these changes as an opportunity rather than a threat. However, companies which are not being able to respond to these are likely to face many different failures and problems which are described below. Loss in Sales Revenues Companies which are unable to respond to changes in the market, they are most likely to lose customers and revenues. Due to increased competition and market forces, tourism businesses are bound to charge a low price and earn little profit margin so any failure to adapt to market changes are most likely to cause losses financially. Technology can save a great deal in this regard. Technology not only helps the industry to market their products but also helps in the reduction of labor costs. Different computer applications have made it possible to access and receive information and help in decision making process. A company is most likely to suffer a great deal if it’s unable to adapt to these technological changes. Loss of Competitive Edge As a famous saying goes â€Å"competition improves services†. Tourism industry is facing a strict competition and different businesses related to the industry are bound to cut down costs and still provide best quality services. By the proper change management strategy, businesses can obtain competitive edge over other competitors. The proper use of technology, hiring the skilled labor and other value added services can not only attract more customers but also be a cause of more market share. Failure to adapt to these trends and changes can be a reason of loss of competitive edge. Loss of Goodwill A business is most likely to damage its reputation in case of failure to adapt to changes and recent trends. A tourism business unable to provide valued services to its customers at reasonable price is surely going to lose its customers. Recent trends have shown that customers are most into green products and the hotels and catering industry are affected by this change a great deal. Hotels are expected to operate in an environment friendly manner and promote green practices. However if the businesses are unable to adapt to this, they are going to lose face in this changing market. Regulatory Issues Hotels, restaurants and catering businesses are bound to provide information regarding its products due to increased awareness among customers regarding food and its contents. Products labeling esp. in case of the catering industry has changed a great deal due to this trend. On the other hand there are now more regulations and laws related to the food industry. Use of some chemicals and other ingredients in the food products are banned. Smoking in restaurants and public places is not allowed. Similarly food businesses are properly inspected and regulated now. If restaurants and catering businesses do not take into account all these factors they might be facing some serious regulatory actions in many cases. There are some cases recently where the customers have sued the hotels and restaurants for food related issues. Government regulatory authorities also keep a check on this industry so any negligence in this aspect can be a cause of some serious consequences as well. Growth Issues A company will not be able to grow and expand its business if it is unable to adapt to changes and trends. Tourism businesses must hire human resource with good knowledge of the technology and customers service needs. Use of the technology and skillful labor helps in cutting down costs. Companies in tourism industry must also work in an environment social friendly manner because consumers are more aware and conscious now regarding environmental and social issues. They prefer to go for green products and thus can provide a competitive edge to the business. Failure to adapt to these changes and trends will result in decline in the revenue and thus growth will not be possible. References: http://www.tourismandmore.com/tidbits/confronting-change-in-the-tourism-industry/ http://www.tourismandmore.com/tidbits/why-tourism-industries-fail-part-1/

The Time Traveller by H G Wells. :: English Literature

The Time Traveller by H G Wells. 'Time Travel' For my English Coursework Wide Reading Assignment I have read two S F novels. Even though they were written over 50 years apart they are similar in some ways and different in others. Both the books were based around 'time travel'. The first was the Time Traveller by H G Wells. A scientist had discovered a way to travel through time and when he travels to the future he finds that civilisation has broken down. The other book I read was 'The Sound of thunder' by Ray Bradbury, this was about a group of people who travelled back in time to hunt and kill animals. I think that this shows how Bradbury perceives the way we use the technology we have. It does not seem to be for the benefit of all mankind just as a toy for those who can afford it. It could be used for so much more than hunting dinosaurs. Both authors deliberately make their characters two-dimensional. This may be because the stories are about time travel and civilisation rather than the individuals in the narrative. When Wells wrote his novel there were no telephones or aeroplanes, technology was not so advanced and the reading public would be sceptical about time travel His characters are professional men who will convince the reader that Wells' ideas are possible: QUOTE (the professional bit) It is strange that much of what Wells wrote has come true, even though people may have felt it was far fetched over 100 years ago. In 100 years from now perhaps those 'far fetched' stories of today may come true. It could be that people like Wells and Bradbury had a real insight into the future. Perhaps they saw the way civilisation was going in their own time. Bradbury is more contemporary than Wells and his vision, though fantastical in its own way does not seem so far fetched to a late 20th Century audience. Ray Bradbury generally just uses the character's surname in the story. This keeps a more macho feel to the 'hunting' activities and there are no women. The characters described are hunters: Quote (opening advert) There are several men who have paid their money to travel back to Jurassic times to hunt and kill the dinosaurs: Quote (rules) The tenor of the story remains masculine with the rules reinforced in a curt way: Quote (speaks to Eckles etc.) Bradbury's short story focuses more on the effects of time travel than Wells. In Bradbury's tale when the travellers go back to the past Eckles goes off the suspended path and stands on a butterfly causing great changes when they travel back to their own time.

Jane Adams Essay -- essays research papers

			Jane Addams 	Even as a little girl in the serene community of Cedarville, in northern Illinois, Jane Addams was "busy with the old question eternally suggested by the inequalities of the human lot."(Pg.47 Ch.1) There were not many inequalities in Cedarville, but even there were poverty and frustration: the war widows, the desolate old couple who had lost all five of their sons, the farmers who were victims of the postwar depression, and the newcomers who could never really get started. And when she visited the neighboring town, she was shocked by the appearance of the dwellings and, characteristically, wondered what could be done to make them less horrid. She could sympathize with the misfits and the victims of society for she herself felt very less than perfect as she describes; "an ugly, pigeon-toed little girl whose crooked back obliged her to walk with her head held very much upon one side,"(pg.44 ch.1). She was constantly afraid that she might embarrass the handso me father she adored. Her father John Adams was a successful businessman and politician who tried to pass on to his daughter his ideals of hard work, achievement, democracy, and equality. He taught her tolerance, generosity, and strong work ethics which were all traits of his Quaker faith. He encouraged her to pursue higher education but not at the cost of losing her femininity and the prospect of marriage and motherhood. John Addams was Cedarville's most re...

Kindergarten History Essay

The development of early childhood education in the United States has been spearheaded by the need for an emerging society to cope with social and economic challenges. There are at important reasons why early childhood education gained more acceptance through the years. As society opened up to accepting women as part of the workforce, working mothers demanded more institutions that can accept early education for their children. The desire of the government to make their citizens more globally competitive increased thereby supporting education from the very young levels of citizenry. Educators and leaders believed that poor communities have better chances of development if illiteracy is arrested the earliest possible time. And best reason why early childhood education has developed is the great response in children that all programs have been challenged to sustain. Caldwell shares her thoughts on how parents and teachers could sustain this excitement for learning innate in children. â€Å"Yes, it’s thrilling to be part of that excitement for learning. I think the first thing that adults have to do is respect it. Curiosity is an absolutely wonderful thing, yet sometimes parents and teachers find it annoying-the 50th â€Å"why† question of the day, for example. Parents want to pull out their hair and say, â€Å"Oh come on, we’ve talked about that enough. † So the most important thing for that excitement and curiosity is to reward it, to let children know that we are impressed that they are curious about something. † (Mabie, 2001) Kindergarten is an educational program for students aged three to seven. Programs usually last from half to full days. Educators believe that the kindergarten is a venue for developing early knowledge, skills and attitude of children that will help them get a jump start at formal education. The origins of early childhood education in the US can be found in Europe. Jean Fredrick Oberlin founded a school in 1767 in France. His wife, Madame Madeleine Oberlin taught children from two to three years old. The school focused on exercise and play and handicrafts. It was more popularly known as the â€Å"knitting† school. In 1837, Freidrich Froebel put up the first school to be called a â€Å"kindergarten† in Blankenburg, Germany. His school became the first school in the world to envision education primarily for children in the pre-schooling age. Froebel is known as the creator of Kindergarten. His concept involved theories of childhood teaching and teaching material development. He also wrote the first Syllabus of Education of Man that listed basic theories of childhood education that guided schools worldwide. Early Childhood School in the US started as early child health centers. They were patterned after the French ‘cribs’ in Paris in 1844 where governments put up these centers to care for children of mothers who had to work. Whether these centers were first found in Philadelphia or New York, where women had to work during the Civil Wars, it is important to note that these centers were focused on caring for these children rather than educating them. But due to the migration of Germans to America, the concepts of kindergarten soon landed on American soil through Margarethe Schurz. In 1856, she put up the first American kindergarten in Watertown, Wisconsin. The school used German as the medium of instruction. â€Å"The first English-speaking kindergarten was found in Boston in 1860 by Elizabeth Peabody. For many years, she traveled throughout the United States, speaking about the purpose of kindergartens and their benefits to children. She helped establish kindergartens wherever she went. The first public school kindergarten was established in 1873 in St. Louis. Susan Blow, the teacher, lectured and taught kindergarten education, continuing to be a champion of Froebelian kindergarten education throughout her life. † (Spodek, 1991) By the late 1920’s, the centers realized that besides keeping the children clean and fed, there was the opportunity to transform the venue to serve for educational needs. â€Å"The average poor child in 1860s St. Louis completed three years of school before being forced to begin work at age 10. Susan Elizabeth Blow addressed that problem by offering education to children earlier. Applying Friedrich Froebel’s theories, she opened the United States’ first successful public kindergarten at St. Louis’ Des Peres School in 1873. Blow taught children in the morning and teachers in the afternoon. By 1883 every St. Louis public school had a kindergarten, making the city a model for the nation. Devoting her life to early education, Susan Blow was instrumental in establishing kindergartens throughout America. † (Watson, 1997) Maria Montessori has been a household name in early childhood education because of the amount of work and research that Maria Montessori has brought into early childhood education. As a physician working in a psychiatric clinic in Rome, she discovered that it was possible to train mentally defective children in order for them to be safer and become part of a productive sector of society. Her success of handicapped children led into her to be hired to help non-handicapped children as well. Her practice and further research helped Montessori develop a curriculum for children that helped them maximize their full potentials in reading and learning. Montessori schools began to get established in the United States before the World War. Although crash in the economy led these Montessori schools to fade in the 1930s, there came a resurgence of Montessori institutions by the 1950s. Though the Montessori Method was very popular, it would be best to note that some Montessori associations are purist of the methods while others were not. Today, early childhood educators are serious and committed in developing the kindergarten in helping future citizens of the country in becoming productive and responsible citizens. References: Watson, Bruce. 1997. Kindergarten. http://www. geocities. com/Athens/Forum/7905/fblkind. html Mabie, Grant E. 2001. A life with young learners: an interview with Bettye M. Caldwell. The Educational Forum. http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_qa4013/is_200110/ai_n8999175 Spodex, Bernard. 1991. Foundations of Early Childhood Education. Allyn and Bacon. Boston.

Moral values, ethics and philosophy Essay

The dream of a child starts with a stereo type suggestion from parents that the baby will be a doctor – engineer. The baby has no other option to dream of being doctor or engineer. Our education system was framed by the British rulers to create civil servants to serve their purpose. They had created dreams of civil service. As a legacy of the British and the Pakistani system we inherited Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS). However, the glory of civil service has been fading gradually. Education system at home and abroad now aims at creating good executives. The present dream of the youngsters is to find jobs in mobile phone company. Considering the good market, the private entrepreneurs established a number of private universities where degrees are offered on Computer science, Engineering, Medical Science and Business Administration. These universities have less interest in social science. Philosophy is a less prioritised subject in the university and hardly any student is found having interest to study Philosophy. The people living in the 21st century have no time to waste in a very ancient field of study like philosophy. People now send their children to universities to groom them up as future executives in Multinational companies. Students are more interested to obtain professional degrees rather than education in social science. The new generation has different attitude towards life style, human relation, demand and satisfaction We can not live alone. The world is one family and living in this planet demands co-operation with others. Philosophy teaches the discipline of humanity. It defines how to think, how to reason, how to put together good arguments, how to analyse alternatives and action and evaluate its consequences. Human society creates ideas and thoughts; philosophy guides principle of human life. Without it, there can be no real government, no institution. It is philosophy that has created human ideologies, interpretations, and viewpoints. Philosophy is at the heart of every issue, at the center of every change within society, and within every radical movement human beings have created. Any tradition, any ideology, any religion has behind them a philosophy. The problem perhaps is that common people in today’s society do not like complicated thoughts, the moment they see an obstacle, they scream in rage, they want the simplistic philosophy of a society that consumes and moves and moves and never stops. The consumption loving practical people believe that there is no particular use for philosophy, because it deals with intangible ideas, which cannot be proved scientifically or verified objectively, and which have nothing to do with providing greater creature comforts or material progress. The teaching starts with parents telling what it is wrong to lie, cheat, and steal. These children grow up and enter into the real world with some knowledge of right and wrong. But ethics are learnt throughout our lives as we associate with others. In the work place, people learn responsibility, teamwork, punctuality, and communication skills. Doctors obtain a guarantee from patient indemnifying him of any accident during operation, lawyers appear for client but do not guarantee of winning. Auditors inspect books of accounts and certify correctness of transactions but there is no control over his sincerity to verify transaction. The society relies on their ethical standard and practice. Baby sitter even the mother look after baby and the quality and standard of care and service depend upon their own sincerity. Government can enforce setting up waste water treatment machine in industries to save the environment from pollution and there is hardly a method to ensure proper use of waste water treatment but the ethics can regulate the management to protect the universe from adverse effect of economic activities. In today’s society, laws and contracts are enforced to make sure that the business deals are fair. We live in a society wherein no device, rule or law can control certain things, actions and behaviours. The self-teaching and self regulation can address the situation.. Human being needs only knowledge, self training and self regulation to apply the test through any ethical standard. All will eventually confront moral problems with social, political, or legal dimensions in their roles as citizens, scholars, professionals, parents, members of their communities, and as human beings. The society has become open and requires a self administration and control. This self control is through values, morals and ethics. Society must develop values, morals and ethics. They all provide behavioral rules. Values are the rules by which we make decisions about right and wrong, should and shouldn’t, good and bad. Morals have a greater social element to values and tend to have a very broad acceptance. Morals are far more about good and bad than other values. Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality-that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc. Ethics develop feelings of right or wrong. Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts. In any society, most people accept standards that are, in fact, ethical. But standards of behavior in society can deviate from what is ethical. An entire society can become ethically corrupt. Nazi Germany is a good example of a morally corrupt society. Ethics has standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards include honesty, compassion, and loyalty. Democracy is a free will under certain guidance, norm and practice. Democracy can not function without ethics. Bangladesh is lacking democracy due to lack of ethical and moral practice of democracy. Members of different organisations take oath of allegiance and Invocation. They use to declare some ethical standard of business and profession. The declaration of quality of production of manufacturers is in the same line of self regulation and promise to practice. A good and successful professional should have the ethics, values and standards of profession and make their application a consistent feature in all aspects of work. This will include taking personal responsibility for actions and regularly reflecting on experiences to inform future actions and decision making. Human must both act and be seen to act ethically and with the utmost integrity. The professionals should uphold professional ethics, values and standards, behave with integrity and objectivity, and maintain professional competence, confidentiality, keeping up to date with all codes of conduct and professional standards, informing clients about the ethical standards that apply to professional activities, monitoring compliance with relevant legislation, standards and regulations and the law of the country. The workplace compliance of quality policy, citizen charter etc are part of ethics of profession which come from philosophy as the law can not reach workplace and inside mind and heart to control our thinking and action with others in the society. The codes of educational institutes, parents, colleagues at workplace and society at large even the service club and professional bodies teach us ethics and human dignity. It upholds the ethics of business and profession. The teaching of formal education and non formal education of philosophy is back bone of society and foundation of all knowledge. That is why the business and profession should be regulated by philosophy and not only law and regulation. The writer is pursuing PhD in Open University, Malaysia, and can be reached at email: shah@banglachemical.com

The Five Different Approaches to Motivation

The first being instincts which are the patterns of behavior that are biologically determined rather than learned. Fact: people and animals are born preprogrammed with sets of behavior's essential to survive. The second being the drive-reduction approach. It suggests that a lack of some basic biological requirement such as water produces the drive to obtain the water. The third being the arousal approach in which each person tries to maintain a certain level of stimulation and activity. The forth would be the incentive approach which it suggests that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals, or incentive. The fifth would be the cognitive approach and it suggests that motivation is a product of a person's thoughts, expectations, and goals-their cognitions. The one approach i chose would be the incentive approach. I feel that i am more motivated when there is some incentive involved because i know at the end of the day i am going to be rewarded for my assistance. For example: My boss wants me to do some work for him that might take two hours. The two hours would be over-time at twenty for dollars an hour. Fortunetly he say for the work, off the clock he would give me two sixty-five dollar tickets to the season opener for The Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The offer of the tickets gave me incentive to do the work and it only took me an hour and fifteen minutes to finish it.

Outsourcing, alliances, mergers Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Outsourcing, alliances, mergers - Research Paper Example This follows into the older model of competitive advantage for organizations; mergers and acquisitions. The paper concludes by evaluating the economics of each mode and understanding its need for businesses in the international arena. The confusion around globalization makes it harder to concretely define the term itself. In many cases, it is the prominent catchphrase for describing the process of international economic integration’ (Scholte, 2005, 16). In the context of the argument presented in this paper, globalization is viewed as an amalgamation of liberalization, universalization and westernization. Hence, it could be defined as the process of removing restrictions on movements between countries, creating a synthesis of cultures and spreading experiences to people in all corners of the world (Scholte, 2005). The birth of trade can be traced back to the time of the barter system – entities trading goods with one another, each valuing the other’s item equivalent to their own by a certain numerical degree, i.e. 1 is to 1, or 1 is to 10. With time, as trade expanded to larger volumes, the basic concept of valuation remained embedded in certain form. Inter-industry trade, where one country tends to export one good and import a wholly different type of good, is dominantly explained by comparative advantage. Prior to this concept, Adam Smith in 1766 proposed the theory of absolute advantage for international trade, where a country exports products that are produced cheaply compared to trading partners, and imports products produced more expensively. Hence, each country would hold absolute advantage in a product over the other. David Ricardo in 1817 brought about a different insight claiming international trade depends on opportunity costs (prices of one good expressed in terms of amount of other good needed to forego in order to purchase it) (Tayeb, 2000). Like other classical political economists, Ricardo’s