Category: Tourism

Introduction

Globally, it is known that fashion shows are ways of introducing clothing lines, which are exposed to the general public or the community at large. Basically, it is also the best way of triggering an interest among buyers by just placing the clothing line in boutiques or beauty shops.

An organizing manager planning for a fashion show event must always pay attention to the details that are involved. In addition, he must have a general knowledge and understanding of the fashion show whereabouts and the fashion the community in that specific area prefers.

How to organize for a fashion show event

Set date for the show

This is the first thing an organizing manager must always consider when planning for a fashion show event. The best way to do this is by choosing up to a maximum of three potential dates that appear convenient for audience to turn out in large numbers. Considerably, when selecting the date, the manager must ensure that there is enough time left before the show date.

As a manager, it is important to design a working budget which is composed of all necessary requirements to be used during the show. The manager must also select the venue where the occasion will take place early enough to be granted permission to access the venue at any time. It is always advisable that when selecting the venue, the organizing manager books at least two different venues.

This is because, incase the access to one bounces, there should be an alternative venue precisely to guarantee the success of the show (Braniac 2011). The organizing manager also has the duty of recruiting a team to ensure that the show is successful. Such a team can either be of a group of volunteers or hired workers to be paid based on the budget allocated.

Benefits and drawbacks of hosting fashion show at 02 arenas

The major benefit resulting from hosting of the fashion show among many other big events in 02 arenas is that the number of tickets sold generates huge income to the management of events. People visiting the show from all over the world pay a lot of money in foreign currency, hence boosting the economy of a country.

For example, the 02 arena of London that accommodates up to 20,000 people generates an awesome profit whenever an event is held. This primarily contributes to the successful development and advancements of the arena. As there are many sponsors who are willing to fund events, 02 arena benefit from renovations that are done without the management money.

Drawbacks

The most common challenge the 02 arena faces is the damage done on venue facilities by the large crowds of audience. Hosting such a crowd leaves so much destroyed by the excited audience cheers. On the other hand, security operations within the arena is also very challenging especially when considering the crowd management and the general safety of guests.

In a previous incident, according to daily mail online, a VIP guest was left fighting for his life after an unknown person among the audience stabbed him with a knife in the chest. Crowd violence is another challenge that is experienced whereby people use champagne bottles to fight one another leaving many injured or dead (Daily mail 2011). These are common incidents occurring when organizing for an event.

Critical evaluations

The nature and scope of festival studies

A summary of key issues raised by the author

This study is based on defining festival studies, whereby three main areas have been identified and fully discussed. The major objective of this research is to develop a framework of understanding and also create general knowledge about how to plan and organize festival event (Getz 2010).

According to the author, festival studies have also helped in development and improvement of global festivals. This is because it is becoming a fast growing field of studies in education centers like universities.

Discourses on the role, meaning and impacts of festivals in society and culture

According to the author, the term discourse means a conversation. It can also be referred to as a rule based dialogue among different parties (Getz 2010). It is clear that a festival study corresponds to anthropology and sociological studies. Moreover, it is clear that festival management and festival tourism are more recent and immature fields with few researchers.

This is because, the knowledge domains about this two sub-fields of event managements unfortunately came about and developed without any reference to the former classical line of theory (Getz 2010). The author also points out that there are beneficial outcomes after participating on a festival event. These include general learning, income generation and healthfulness.

Discourse on festival tourism

This is an important part of festival event tourism. The author has specifically focused on a few areas such consumer behaviors, market concept and moreover, and motivations for attending an organized festival (Getz 2010).

The author further has outlined the specific roles played by festivals in tourism. Such festivals contributes promotes tourism in a big way. They attract both local and international audience. Such tourist visit acts as a catalyst for local developmental reforms and also creating market for local products.

Discourse on festival management

This is the most recent or latest discourse to develop as far as research literature is concerned. Notable to mention is that, the literature pertaining event tourism is always considered to be of great help to festival managers globally. This is because it contains relevant information all the festival managers worldwide must know.

Such information include; how proper assessments are conducted and how important they are when it comes to strategic planning for an events. The author also insists that festival events manager must immerse themselves and gain knowledge in relevant fields of sociology and anthropology.

This is because, the two fields offer a classical approach and background information on culture and societies, which are part of festival event creativity (Getz 2010).

Main arguments

These are some of the evaluated themes the author strongly argues must be observed as far as festival tourism and tourist attraction is concerned.

Planning

Planning of how the festivals shall operate is another key consideration an event manager must always practice. Considering the strategic planning, most key consideration areas must contain measures and strategies to solve aspects such as whether the tourist potential can be improved, how the effects of climatic changes to the festivals can be avoided, health plans put forward for outdoor festivals, economic development and finally the risks and emergencies likely to occur (Getz 2010).

Marketing

According to the author, it is clear that several researches have worked on determining the festival market orientation. Unfortunately, the art festival never displays such concern for tourism. Moreover, they take on a product orientation that precisely tends to ignore the other customers commercial needs (Getz 2010).

Evaluation

It is a very strong topic on festival events organization. Although evaluation is never considered to be very important, it is a strong step that must always be implemented carefully. Evaluation can be applied when evaluating the effectiveness or the efficiency of the festival events operation or even when determining the investments progress.

Sponsorship, economy and financing

Based on this research, the economic and financing areas still remains underdeveloped. The issue of sponsorship is again categorized partly as a marketing topic and partly as relating to finances. Furthermore, many independent business and companies are ready to sponsor many event festivals.

This is because as traders, companies take festivals as an opportunity that they can use to market their products in a manner that many people will access (Getz 2010).

Finally, in my own opinion, after a systematic review throughout this research study, it is clear that festivals and festival tourism are just some of the events that need proper organization by an event manager. The three main discourses the author discussed are very clearly identifiable and are all related to the festival tourism and managements.

The strategic role of cultural and heritage tourism in the context of mega-events: the case of 2010 soccer World Cup

Summary of key issues

The author admits that South Africa is still experiencing the effects of hosting the 2010 world cup long after the events (Steyn 2007). Some of these effects are directed to the major sectors like economy, tourism industries, environment, people, infrastructure and the general countries developments.

It is evident that majority of the developed and developing countries are struggling and bidding to be allowed to host some of the world mega-events, as part of the strategy of improving economy (tourists attraction) and other benefits. Most countries that have hosted some of the world mega-events acknowledge that such events can trigger a long term effect among its citizens.

The major aims that the research is to again explore and focus on developing a model bearing key guidelines that indeed will help host countries to fully leverage both cultural and heritage tourism opportunities as far as mega-event is concerned.

The main arguments

Cultural and heritage tourism within a mega-event context

The author in this chapter provides basic theoretical background of two main components. These are mega-events and cultural and heritable tourism. The author clearly defines the roles and importance of cultural and heritable tourism management principles, global competitiveness of the sector and profiles of a cultural tourist (Steyn 2007).

The study also explains the advantages of hosting a mega-event and also the socio-cultural legacies exhibited as a result of hosting the events. As part of the objectives, the author further examines the major concept of cultural and heritage tourism as a separate entity corresponding to mega events.

The contribution of cultural and heritage tourism in a mega-event context

The author argues that countries hosting any mega-evens benefit abundantly and gain new knowledge from the events experience. As part of the experience that is gained from the past events, the host country will always try and improve on the mistakes which might have been committed.

Strategic planning process is very essential in ensuring that such defaulters are omitted and that success is achieved. In this chapter, the author focuses on examining the best practical studies carried out, which contributes in promoting both cultural and heritable tourism in the host countries (Steyn 2007).

Cultural and heritage tourism in South Africa

The author points out that South Africa is one of the countries that possess rich and diversified culture. Such cultural diversity has helped the country by boosting the economic and social developments to a higher level.

Significantly, more employment opportunities have been created and social cohesion between locals and international tourists strengthened. The main objective of this chapter is to determine the strategies that South Africa need to employ in order to keep its tourism industry booming.

Based on the study, several gaps that generally keep on dragging South Africa behind were identified. As far as tourism industry is concerned. It is documented that in South Africa there are no variety of tourists attraction sites and that accommodation that is available is very expensive and of poor quality.

Moreover, there are no proper advanced conference halls that can host any international conference or meetings. Finally, the country also needs to improve on diversification of museums, niche tour and also development of international heritage sites that will frequently attract international tourists (Steyn 2007).

Conclusion

This entire research paper strongly emphasizes on management of events and tends to clarify the roles of an organizing manager of any events. Furthermore it explains that events can be helpful and at the same time can bring both long term and short term disasters to the country.

References

Braniac 2011, How to plan a fashion show event. Web.

Daily mail 2011, 02 arena security review. Web.

Getz, D 2010, “The nature and scope of festival studies”. International journal of events management research Vol 5, no 1, pp. 1-21.

Steyn, T 2010, “The Strategic Role of Cultural and Heritage Tourism in the Context of Mega- Events: The Case of 2010 Soccer World Cup”, National research foundation. Web.

Introduction

In the current days, a number of factors continue to serve as impediments and opportunities for entrepreneurs when setting up businesses. More particularly, the upheavals that the entrepreneurs face when they attempt to establish businesses in the hospitality industry are increasing exponentially.

In this report, there is going to be exploring of various factors that may act as either opportunities or risks for entrepreneurs seeking to start businesses in the hospitality industry.

There is going to be examining of both external and internal factors that may affect an entrepreneur who wishes to set up a business in the hospitality industry. In the conclusion, some recommendations are going to be given that may serve to help overcome challenges that may be faced when setting up a business in the hospitality industry and capitalising on opportunities.

The business environment

The business environment impacts in a significant way on the growth of the SMES that are just coming up (Delmar and Wiklund, 2008). A larger number of the business organisations in the hospitality sector are SMEs. The definition for the business environment is given as the entire variables or factors, internal as well as external to the firm, which may have a continued victorious existence of the firm (Smit et al, 2007).

These factors, both internal and external, may either offer opportunities or challenges and risks to a business organisation (Shane & Cable, 2002; World Bank, 2006). An argument was presented in which it is pointed out that in order for an SME that is just coming up to expand, it is imperative for it to not just make the inside environment to be stronger but to as well make the outside environment to be strong as well (Beck & Demirguc-Kunt, 2006).

Internal environment

These refers to those factors in an organisation’s environment that are, to a large extent, under the control of the organisation (Phillips & Wade, 2008). One of these factors is access to finance. The firms in the hospitality industry, just like in any other industry, require financial resources so that they can be able to start trading and to finance business growth. As Cassar (2004) points out, lack of availability or access to finance can serve as a big constraint to business growth.

New SMEs can receive finances from the owner’s wealth, or from the external sources which may include friends and family members and this are informal sources. Finances can also be obtained from the lending institutions such as banks or from private equity organisations as well as venture capitalists which are formal sources of funding (Olawale & Garwe, 2010, p.731).

Another internal factor is management skills. It is pointed out that decision-making competencies involves having attitudes, skills as well as knowledge which make a contribution towards developing personal efficiency (Hellriegel et al, 2008, p.31).It was found out by Martin and Satines (2008, p.1) that not having management understanding as well as skills are major causes of the new firms failing.

Location is another factor that can be largely under the control of a firm. It is pointed out that where the business is located has an impact on market prospect and expansion opportunities of the business organisations that are just coming up (Olawale. & Garwe, 2010, p.731).

The geographical closeness to the critical suppliers or buyers creates a kind of better environmental scanning which makes it possible for the new businesses to identify opportunities in the market in a more easy way and be able to capitalise on them (Mahadea, 2008). According to Dahl and Sorenson (2007), this has an impact on the market potential of the new businesses.

Another factor that a firm should consider is “investment in technology and cost of production” (Olawale. & Garwe, 2010, p.731). Investing money in technology and ensuring that there is keeping up with IT is, on an increasing level, imperative for any firm.

The role that is played by technology is critical for the development of an SMEs that is just starting up (Wong, Ho & Autio, 2005). Technology does not just assist in developing of a “multi-pronged strategy”, it as well assists in the maximisation of the business opportunities”( Olawale. & Garwe, 2010, p.731).

The external environment

The political, legal and technical factors and Government Policy

The theories give a demonstration of the impossibility of separating the outside or external environment from the process of entrepreneurship (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.143). External environment concept is meant to encompass the influencing factors as well as elements that are external to the boundaries of the organisation which have an effect on the actions of the organisation.

It as well encompasses wide-ranging technological, economic, political-legal, and socio-cultural factors which offer wider context for the entrepreneurial development as well as growth (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.143).

For instance, evidence was found the outcome of the “government regulations, policies, and procedures as well as political and legal forces, attitudes, and public support for entrepreneurship” (Fogel, 2001, p.105). The external forces may have an effect on entrepreneurship through loan availability, physical facilities, technical assistance and information on the achievement of firms that are just starting up (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.143).

There has been advancing of a number of models which make an attempt to label and offer explanation of the several development stages of the entrepreneurial firms. The organisational lifecycle models as well as development stages give out information in regard to the kinds of problems that are faced by business organisations in the course time and give out a suggestion that every development stage is linked to particular problems (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007).

The researchers in the field of entrepreneurship have committed much effort to have the understanding of the relationship that exists between business environment, the strategy for the fresh venture, as well as performance (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007).

As on one hand there has been a discussion about these relationships in a theoretical as well as empirical way in the market economies, on the other hand, it is imperative to have consideration of the relationship that exists between business achievement and the business environment within transitional economies (Porter, 1989, p.51).

Several features of the business environment have been shown to have an influence of the performance of the new business enterprise (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144). Among the environmental influences which have been identified are the existence the factors like the accessibility to capital, other entrepreneurs, technically skilled labor, suppliers, clients, government motivation for setting up business, equipment, plant, supportive home culture, support services as well as desirable living conditions (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144).

Other studies undertaken in various nations show that entrepreneurs indicate that the nations can bring up the level of the chances of new business enterprise start-ups business expansion in several ways (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144). These encompass maintaining rules or regulations at a lower level, giving out tax breaks among other possible incentives, and availing financial resources to the start-up entrepreneurial ventures offering training as well as counseling services to them (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144).

There are also studies which show that entrepreneurs encounter a number of obstacles like not having adequate information about a number of business aspects, large taxes, inflation rates which are high, and not having financial support (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144). Such findings give a suggestion of a number of policy decisions for setting up businesses that are small in size.

The policy decisions may encompass offering business enterprise capital funds, offering incentives that are tax-based and government procurement programs, protecting propriety ideas as well as innovations, encouraging entrepreneurship through educating organisations, and bringing down the level of barriers to entry (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144).

Cultural Factors

Jordan (1997, p. 529) points out that, at the outset, various factors may act as challenges, when attempting to venture in hospitality industry. Cultural and gender considerations have been in the forefront in running business. While it is recognizable that the world has made strides in enhancing equal opportunities for both men and women, the latter are still challenged in the hospitality industry (Birley,1989, p. 35).

Women experience clash of roles in the workplace and at home which render them unable to manage such firms effectively. According to Kirby (2003, p. 121), it is difficult for women to strike a balance between work and home responsibilities.

Research has shown that European women who have ventured in the business sector devote a huge amount of time to the fulfillment of domestic roles. This represents three folds of men’s time that goes to performing domestic roles (Morrison & Thomas, 2004, pp. 23: Purcell1997, p. 123; Schein 1973, pp. 95-100).

It is pointed out that when women combine both domestic and work roles, it is an uphill task for them to begin entrepreneurial endeavors (Jackson, 2001, pp. 31-40). As such, it denies women entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain insightful experience of establishing a business in hospitality industry. This is not only a challenge in the short run, but it limits women from exploring other opportunities within the hospitality industry that may require such experience (Liff & Ward 2001, p. 31; Vianen & Fischer 2002, p. 327).

Demand Seasonality

The firms in the hospitality sector are normally affected by the cyclic demand fluctuations (Baum & Lundtorp, 2001, p.20). It is pointed out that the seasonality in tourism demand leads to having fluctuations in the tourism volumes in the course of the calendar year “and must be differentiated from longer-term business cycles and short-term changes related to weekly and daily travel patterns” (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.143).

Demand seasonality is normally brought about by natural or institutional forces with the pattern typically staying to be stable in the course of a large number of years (Carter & Rosa 1998, p.225). This seasonality predictability enables businesses as well as investors and lenders to engage in anticipating a large number of seasonal impacts (Zapalska & Brozik, 2007, p.144).

Small Businesses in the Central and Eastern Europe

It is pointed out that the small business organisations in such places as in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) face a number of uncertainties because of the ongoing lack of stability of the basic regulations of the market economy model, the environment profile continue to be of great importance (Johnson & Loveman, 1995, p.215).

It is also pointed out that there is increasing interest in carrying out the measurement of the failures as well as successes of the transition processes in the CEE countries. There have been a small number of studies that examine the family entrepreneurial business enterprises, especially the ones that operate in hospitality and tourism sector of an economy that is reforming (Butler, 2001, p.10).

There is need to have an all-inclusive investigation of entrepreneurship in the family enterprises in hospitality and tourism business which are operated in CEE. There is holding of a belief that the detailed and incorporated scrutiny of entrepreneurs as well as their business enterprise will offer more insights which can be helpful in the formulation of the public policy on the development of entrepreneurship.

Conclusion

Various factors have presented hospitality industry with challenges and opportunities. There are both external and internal factors. It is imperative for the new businesses in the hospitality industry to understand both the internal and external environment in order for them to be able to capitalize on the opportunities and to avoid risks. There is need for the government to come up with the appropriate policies and allow these businesses to operate efficiently and effectively.

Such other factors as the cultural one are supposed to be overcome. There is need to ensure that the managers have adequate experience and skills to run the business. There is also need to have a suitable location for the business to operate effectively and profitably. There is also need to understand demand seasonality in order to come up with the appropriate decisions to ensure successful operation of the businesses.

References

Beck T, & Demirguc-Kunt A, 2006, Small and Medium Size Enterprise: Access to Finance as a Growth Constraint. J. Bank. Fin. Vol. 30 no. 1, pp. 2931-2943.

Birley, S 1989, “Female entrepreneurs: are they really any different?” , Journal of Small Business Management, vol. 27 no. 1, pp. 32 – 37.

Butler, R., 2001, “Seasonality in tourism: issues and implications”. In: Baum, T., Lundtorp, S. (eds) Seasonality in tourism. Pergamon, Amsterdam, pp. 5-22.

Carter, S & Rosa, P 1998, “The financing of male- and female-owned businesses”, Entrepreneurship and Research Development, vol. 10 no. 3, pp. 225 – 241

Cassar G, 2004, “The Financing Of Business Start-Ups”. J. Bus. Venture Vol. 19, no.2, pp. 261-283.

Dahl MS, Sorenson O (2007). Home sweet Home? Social capital and location decisions. Web.

Delmar F, & Wiklund J., 2008, “The effect of Small Business Managers’ Growth and Motivation on Firm Growth,” Entrepreneurship Theory Pract. Vol. 32 no. 3, pp.437-453.

Hellriegel D, et al, 2008, Management. 2nd South Africa edition. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Fogel, G., 2001, “An analysis of entrepreneurial environment and enterprise development in Hungary”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 103-10.

Hellriegel D, et al, 2008, Management. 2nd South Africa edition.Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Johnson, S., Loveman, G., 1995, Starting over in Eastern Europe: entrepreneurship and economic renewal, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, pp. 212-220.

Jordan, F 1997, ‘An occupational hazard? Sex segregation in tourism employment’, Tourism Management, vol. 18 no. 8, pp. 525-534.

Kirby, D 2003, Entrepreneurship, McGraw-Hill Education, New York.

Liff, S & Ward, K 2001, “Distorted Views through the Glass Ceiling: The Construction of Women’s Understandings of Promotion and Senior Management Positions”, Gender, Work and Organization, vol. 8 no. 1, pp. 19-36.

Mahadea D, 2008, The Environmental Context for SME Entrepreneurship in Kwazulu-Natal, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.

Martin G, Staines H (2008). Managerial competencies in small firm. Web.

Morrison, A & Thomas, R 2004, SMEs in tourism: an international review, Association for Tourism and Leisure Education, London.

Olawale, F. & Garwe, D., 2010, “Obstacles to the growth of new SMEs in South Africa: A principal component analysis approach. African Journal of Business Management Vol. 4 no.5, pp. 729-738.

Phillips P.A, & Wade M.A, 2008, Performance Implications of Capital Structure; Evidence From Quoted U.K Organisations With Hotel Interests Service Industries J. vol. 24 no. 5, pp. 31-51.

Porter, M., 1989, Competitive Strategy, New York: Free Press.

Purcell, K 1997, Women’s employment in UK tourism: Gender roles and labor markets, Routledge, London.

Schein, V 1973, “The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics”, Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 57 no. 2, pp. 95-100.

Shane S, & Cable D, 2002, Network Ties, Reputation and the Financing of New Ventures, Manage. Sci. Vol. 48 n.3, pp.364-381.

Smit P.J, Cronje G.J, Brevis T, Vrba M.J., 2007, Management Principle: A Contemporary Edition for Africa. Juta and Co Ltd. Cape Town.

Vianen, A & Fischer, H 2002, “Illuminating the glass ceiling: the roles of organizational culture preferences”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, vol. 75: no. 2, pp. 315-337.

Wong P.K, Ho, Y.P, Autio E., 2005, “Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth: Evidence from GEM data”. Small Bus. Econ. Vol.24, no.3, pp. 335-350.

World Bank, 2006, World Development Indicator Database. Web.

Zapalska, A. M & Brozik, D., 2007, “Managing family businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry: the transitional economy of Poland”. Zb. rad. Ekon. fak. Rij. vol. 25 no. 1, pp.141-165.

Generally, the hospitality industry consists of numerous fields, which most popular are restaurants, transportation and tourism. It is not a secret that the success of the hospitality industry depends on disposable income. Tourism services as well as leisure ones are considered to be the sectors the hospitality industry includes.

The professionals from fast moving consumer good companies held the leading positions in the hospitality industry. The companies or the firms the professionals came from were famous for their innovations. That is why the companies’ strategic shift towards franchise can be explained so easy.

According to Michael Ottenbacher (2011, p. 1)

Hospitality firms develop innovations with specific objectives and goals in mind and have several approaches to measure performance accordingly.

However, no research in hospitality innovation has addressed the question of whether hospitality firms should have different approaches depending on their objectives for the individual innovation projects.

The topics of our investigation are considered to be the distinctive features of the hospitality industry and leisure one, the relevance of fast moving consumer good experience to the hospitality industry, the meaning of brand management in the hospitality industry and the required skills for the leading positions people are to hold.

As far as the hospitality industry is considered to be people-orientated business, the experience in FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies seems to be quite important. On the other hand, taking into account the parallels between the hospitality industry and the FMCG companies, one may point out that it is a dynamic relationship which is recognized to be an important issue for both sectors.

There are also some contradictions concerning the importance of the experience in the terms of marketing. Thus, there is an opinion that understanding of different cultures and the work of various international organizations seems to be much more important than branding experience.

From the outside the hospitality industry as well as leisure one seems to be a global; however, one is to take into account that there are numerous aspects which influence the industry fragmentation, i.e. various ownership structures as well as the real estate dimension.

The hospitality industry which includes hotels can operate with management structure which includes numerous constituents. Thus, a General Manager, middle managers and administration are the most important parts of a hotel management. The innovations they follow are numerous hospitality management studies or various certification programs which impact on the popularity of a hotel.

Moreover, there are various innovations which impact on the types of a hotel. Thus, the most widespread hotel types include: upscale luxury, full service, select service, limited service, extended stay, timeshare and destination clubs.

According to Flora Gailliard (2011, p.1), ‘Hospitality management involves the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of human and material resources within the lodging, restaurant, travel and tourism, institutional management, recreational management and meeting and convention planning industries.’

While discussing the innovations of the hospitality industry, one is to take into account that the hospitality sector is considered to be much more conservative than the sector of FMCG.

Consumer insight, innovation and marketing are all considered to be the burning issues. Thus, according to Spencer Stuart (2006, p.4), ‘a lack of strategic thinking about consumer expectations and behaviors is considered to be one of the biggest gaps.’

Using consumer data is recognized to be another step to understand the needs/requirements of the client.

Developing talent inside is considered to be one more important innovation of the hospitality industry. It is said that the hospitality industry could know more about persons’ development from FMCG studies/investigations.

Glenn Withiam (2011, p.1) is of the opinion that

One issue for the industry to resolve is its relationship with third-party websites, or online travel agents (OTAs). The OTAs have been instrumental in helping hotels sell distressed inventory, but at the same time, price transparency has presented a challenge for hotels that wish to restore prices to pre-recession levels.

References

Gailliard, F., 2011. ‘The Hospitality Industry’,The Black Collegian Onine. Web.

Ottenbacher, M., 2011. ‘Innovation Management in the Hospitality Industry: Different Strategies for Achieving Success’, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. Web.

Stuart, S., 2006. ‘Innovation and Brand Management in the Hospitality and Leisure Industry’. Web.

Withiam, G., 2011. ‘Cautious Optimism: CHRS Examines Hospitality Industry Trends’, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. Web.

The hospitality industry contributes greatly to the tourism sector because it acts as a source of tourist attraction for both local and foreign tourists. Social media denotes various technologically backed tools and amenities that facilitate easy communication and interaction through the internet.

Social media has a unique ability to share resources and data across a wide geographical proximity through the use of several (Andrews 2007) modes of transmission. This can be through images, text formats videos, and other multimedia data formats. There are diverse means through which social media is taking shape. In today’s world, technology seems to be undergoing change within short periods.

Thousands of applications and technical (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) inventions are being introduced to various fields all over the globe. This research study mainly touches on the current trends in global hospitality industry with regards to ethics.

Research shows that there are several dilemmas taking (Barrows & Powers, 2008) shape in various work settings. Conversely some of the most profound issues in business morality include corruption, extortion, facilitation recompenses, ecological complexities and human rights.

Furthermore sexual and cultural bias, cost disparity and destructive items add on the budding list of business ethics. I, therefore, contend that for hospitality business to thrive ahead of the non-service industry, they need to study their customers to comprehend destinations they prefer, nature of information is vital to them to establish how they want to be in touch with their business operations and uphold moral standards.

They will be required to employ the power of social media to develop a positive image to the global client. But simply putting up a Facebook (Andrews 2007) page is not adequate to the targeted population.

However, changes in political position and Legislation have greatly impacted hospitality industry both negatively and positively. If there are changes in the political structures or there is political instability in the source country, then the tourism industry of the country will be adversely affected.

In terms of legislation, if the source country introduces some travel advisories restricting its citizens from touring another country, the target country’s tourism industry will be negatively affected (Barrows & Powers, 2008).

On the other hand, the removal of political constraints between countries will promote the tourism industry of both countries, a fact which will benefit the resorts and other tourist destination in the region. Nevertheless, society’s values and habits have also had some impact on the well being of the industry.

The truth is, the hospitality sector will greatly benefit from efficient two-way informational cycle supported by such online masses to create and provide demand pushed preference for brands across various consumer classes.

These online facilities will enable industries with such statistics like the hotel sector to increase their productivity due to resultant advantages behind social media marketing. Largely, social media marketing is proving to be a formidable force in the global commerce, apparently, there are (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) much wider impacts expected within the operational realm of industries such as the hospitality one.

As the world continues to study the emerging trends of technology on various economic sectors, there is a drastic change of procedure brought about by social media applications (Curbmings et al. 1998) in most industries.

In the hospitality industry, new innovations have impacted heavily on most procedures involving customers and different service providers (Buhalis, 2003) as a result hospitality industry guests are now able to utilize reliable and instant service and brand information with minimal cost and time requirements.

References

Andrews, S., 2007. Introduction to Tourism and Hospitality Industry. India: Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited.

Barrows, C.W., & Powers, T., 2008. Introduction to the Hospitality Industry. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Cummings, P.R., Kwansa, F.A. and Sussman, M.B. (1998). The Role of the Hospitality Industry in the Lives of Individuals and Families. United States of America: Haworth Press, Inc.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

The concept of using tourism as a tool for bringing development in communities has elicited a lot of debate with some people doubting the viability of the approach. Malaysia is an example of countries that have succeed in using pro-poor based tourism to foster development in economical struggling communities (Azarya, 2004).

The state of Sarawak in the eastern part of Malaysia has embraced different forms of tourism such as research tourism, cultural tourism, adventure tourism and development conferencing in to bring economic empowerment in the community. The Bario community has interwoven tourism with both cultural and social aspects of the community to bring about development.

Tourism has continued to thrive in rural communities because it is easy for farmers in living in rural communities due to the entrepreneurial and independent capacity that they have.

Despite creating employment opportunities for the poor people in rural areas, tourism has brought other benefits such as the development of information and communication technologies have made information flow much more easier and efficient (Azarya, 2004).

This paper will highlight how tourism is an important development tool for community development using the Bario community in the Sarawak state of eastern Malaysia as our case study.

Tourism in Bario community has an interesting history and it actually started unexpectedly. Bario community is a rural community in the state of Sarawak whose governance is formal with a headman, a community and other opinion leaders (Belsky, 1999). The area has high peaks with a forested environment that is suitable for trekking tourism.

With increasing number of tourists visiting the region, the demand for transportation and accommodation increased forcing the rural farmers to accommodate paying guests in their homes. As the tourism industry continued to grow, the e-Bario project was initiated to bolster the development of infrastructure in the area.

The introduction of telephones and information technology opened many oportunities since information flow was made easier (Brohman, 1996). Since tourism was introduced in Bario in the late 1990s, the number of guest houses has now grown from one to almost twelve and trekking tourism still remains the most popular. Touring has become the major economic activity in Bario with new categories being introduced.

Apart from trekking tourism, there are other forms of tourism that have been introduced in the area so that visitors can have a variety of attractions (Bala, 2002). Adventure tourism is associated with travelling to remote and hostile places for adventure has also become popular in Bario.

Being a physical activity, adventure tourism fosters cultural interaction and at the same time enable visitors to fully explore nature. Mount Gunung Murud and Batu Lawi are the best for expeditions and the core of adventure tourism in Bario. The world Challenge Expeditions held in 1997 is one of the first major events that promoted adventure tourism in Bario and generated a lot of interest (Bala, 2002).

The other form of tourism that is popular in Bario is cultural tourism. This form of tourism enables visitors to participate in the cultural experiences of the local community. The diverse customs of traditional communities with a variety of unique cultural practices is a major attraction to visiting tourists (Harrison, 1959).

The indigenous cultural communities showcase their arts, food, cultural festivals and rituals which give the visitors a new experience.

The Bario & Kelabit Highlands Foods & and Cultural Festival which is a three day celebration was established in 2005 is held annually and has become the epitome of cultural tourism in the Bario community (Chambers, 2000). The festival has attracted quite a number of sponsors because of its role in preserving culture and promoting unity in the community.

Tourism research is another unique form of tourism that has also generated a lot of interest from the many visitors that visit the Bario community (Chambers, 2000). The leadership of the area realized that visiting researchers can actually contribute to the development of the community in one way or another.

Ethnographic and anthropological research has taken centre stage with visitors going further to scientific cultural and environmental inquiries. Tourism research is known to bring socio-economic development to the area under study and in the process helping in environmental conservation and culture preservation.

Marine research is another area of research that interests visiting researchers with the Sulawasi research project in Indonesia as a notable example. The Lelabit Highlands in Sarawak has continued to attract many researchers who come to both social and natural sciences (Chin et al, 2002).

The Bario community has trained research assistants who offer the necessary support to the visiting visitors. The potential benefits of research tourism has made it a major component in the development plans of the Bario community.

The Bario community is slowly trying to implement another form of tourism known as development conferencing (Azarya, 2004). The Bario Knowledge Fair organized in December 2007 that involved showcasing the impact of information and communication technologies in the region especially in the isolated indigenous communities.

The event attracted policy-makers, researchers and local residents who came with various presentations. The main focus of the Knowledge Fair to actually increase awareness in Information Communication Technologies in Bario (Azarya, 2004). The event brought economic benefits in the area and empowerment through their participation.

The idea of travelling to attend conferences and exhibitions has promoted tourism since the visiting people are also regarded as tourists (Cohen, 1988). The major problem affecting the growth of tourism in the Bario community is its isolation with road connections that are essential for the development of any community.

Eco-tourism is a form of tourism that has been widely exploited in the Kelabit Highlands in he state of Sarawak and has also been a pillar of economic development to the community (Crick, 1989).

The heart of Borneo initiative in the region was started for conservation purposes and has continued to receive a lot of support from the Government and the international community because of its potential to sustain development i9n the region. The area has continued to establish transboundary ecotourism initiatives by consolidating all cultural, social, political and ecological attractions in the region (Farell &Marion, 2001).

This has been made possible by extensive research conducted by the policy makers in the tourism industry with the research helping to bring out the challenges facing this form of tourism and at the same time come up with a comprehensive management plan that would ensure all the stakeholders enjoy the benefits of ecotourism in the region (Bala, 2002).

Eco-tourism faces some challenges and the policy researchers have recommended some adequate measures to in order to stabilize the industry.

Some of the research recommendations include forests and cultural sites conservation, improvement of tourism infrastructure, improvement of communication and accommodation facilities together with massive promotional efforts to showcase the available ecotourism attractions in the region (Bala, 2002).

Eco-tourism has been a major of tourism in Malaysia and has been growing in leaps and bounds in the last two decades (Azarya, 2004). Some community based organizations have sprung into action to try and help promote ecotourism in the country.

The most notable organizations include the Tourism Bureau of Kelabit Highlands, the Bari-Ba’ Kelalan Guide Association, LSM Tanah Tam and FORMADAT (Azarya, 2004). The future of ecotourism is in Malaysia is very bright despite the normal challenges that face the tourism sector such as poor infrastructure, communication problems and disagreements on how to share benefits.

In conclusion, the idea of encouraging communities to participate in tourism activities brings about many benefits to the community and the country as a whole. Indigenous tourism has enabled local farmers to improve their incomes through participation in small-scale tourism business.

Indigenous tourism enterprises such cultural villages and museums that showcase spiritual, cultural and environmental aspects of the community are the main highlights of community based tourism (Farrell & Marion, 2001). There are strategies that have been put in place so that he the tourism industry remains vibrant through the years.

References

Azarya, V. (2004). Globalization and international tourism in developing countries: Marginality as a commercial commodity. Current Sociology, 52(6), 949–967.

Bala, P. (2002). Changing borders and identities in the Kelabit highlands: Anthropological reflections on growing up in a Kelabit village near the international Border. New York, NY: University Malaysia Sarawak.

Belsky, J.M. (1999). Misrepresenting communities: The politics of community-based rural ecotourism in gales point manatee, Belize. Rural Sociology, 64(4), 641–666.

Brohman, J. (1996). New directions in tourism for third world development. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(1), 48–70.

Chambers, E. (2000). Native tours: The anthropology of travel and tourism. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Chin, C. L. et al. (2000). Ecotourism in Bako National Park, Borneo: Visitors’ perspectives on environmental impacts and their management. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 8(1), 20–35.

Cohen, E. (1988). Authenticity and commoditization in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 15(3), 371–386.

Crick, M. (1989). Representations of international tourism in the social sciences: Sun, sex, sights, savings and servility. Annual Review of Anthropology, 18, 307–344.

Farrell, T.A., & Marion, J.L. (2001). Identifying and assessing ecotourism visitor impacts at eight protected areas in Costa Rica and Belize. Environmental Conservation, 28(3), 215–225.

Harrison, T. (1959). World within: A Borneo story. Singapore: Oxford University Press.

Introduction and Rationale

The tourism industry is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries. The industry is growing fast courtesy of globalization and advanced technology among other factors. The Greek tourism is therefore part of the world’s larger tourism industry that is rapidly growing. The industry contributes a large portion to the Greek economy.

For instance, the inbound tourism industry that involves traveling and staying in places outside their usual environment plays a vital role in the Greek economy. The industry contributes to the Greek economy through various ways such as provision of employment and tourism revenues among other ways.

Various tourist attractions in Greece are distributed in various cities and islands. The Crete Island is one of the major islands of Greece that has numerous tourist attractions and hosts many tourists throughout the year. The island is populous and is well known for its tourist attractions such as the sub tropical climate that is characterized by archeological sites that attract tourists.

Other tourist attractions include attractive beaches that are used for surfing, canal and waterway system, nightlife and the closeness of the island to the hinterland. These tourist attractions are important in attracting tourists from both within Greece and outside Greece to the island. The revenue from tourism is important for the State Economy and the larger Greece GDP (Tourism Forecasting Committee 2006, p. 45).

In spite of the revenue collected from tourist attractions found in the Crete Island, the attractions are not well exploited in order to reap maximum benefits. This report examines the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies that could be used to maximize the benefits from tourism in the Crete Island of Greece.

The report outlines the IMC strategies and marketing strategies that could sell tourism to a new domestic target market, given that it is the highest tourism revenue earner for the island and the country.

The Greek Tourism Industry

The tourism industry in Greece has been growing over time. According to Instinct and Reason (2006, p. 113), the number of tourists fell by 1% in 2003. However, the number increased in 2004 to 4.77 and in to 5.45 in 2008.

The Greek tourism industry grew in 2009 due to the weaknesses of the Greek Dollar that increased the level of competitiveness of the industry compared to other world tourist destinations such as UK, Australia and New Zealand. Price competitiveness of the industry was affected by the Greek recession Dollar in 2010 and 2011 leading to reduced performance of the industry.

In addition, the global economic recession affected the tourism negatively in the same period because firms operating in the industry reduced their costs. According to Porter (1998), one quarter of the tourists arriving in Greece is businesspersons that travel for business reasons while the rest are leisure travelers.

As the strength of the Greek currency begun to wane towards the end of 2011, tourism activities in the country and specifically the Crete Island began to improve. The forecast tourist rivals for the country in 2011 were 5.7 million tourists while 2014 forecasts are 6.34 million tourists.

The expenditure in tourism fell in 2009 to US$28.87 billion from US$31.46 in 2008. In spite of the decrease, expenditure was to stabilize and keep increasing until 2014.

The tourist visiting Greek tourist sites are comprised of both domestic and international tourists. Majority of international tourists are from the Asia-Pacific region while other is from Europe and North America. Arrivals of tourists from these regions have continuously increased over time. The tourist number estimates by country have increased from 3 million tourists in 2001 to 3.7 million people in 2009.

The numbers are expected to keep growing to 4.5 million tourists by 2014. The major sources of international tourists for Greece include New Zealand, Japan, U.S. and UK. India is also increasingly becoming a vital market for Greek tourism industry given its economic indicators and demographics.

This is evident, as the Greek tourism ministry has launched tourism campaign in India using Qantas and Singapore Airlines. In spite of the progress, arrivals from India have reduced following latest attacks on Indian tourists in Greece. On the contrary, New Zealand has been the largest outbound Greek tourism with number of Greek visiting the country increasing immensely over years beginning from 2001 (Cannon 2007, p. 65).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The Crete Island has a large size that just enough for accommodating more tourists. The Crete Island boasts of its diversity in tourism products, attractions, accommodation, and tourist experiences. In addition, it has a lifestyle that is amazing for tourists to experience. The island has a high level of awareness and profile in international and domestic tourist destination in Greece.

The proximity of the Crete Island to Brisbane is an added advantage because tourists could easily access Brisbane or the Crete Island from Brisbane. A clean environment that includes the urban, coastal and forest landscapes characterizes Crete Island. These landscapes are positively related to tourism in the island.

Crete Island boasts of emerging sectors such as the education, health, and medicine, marine, film and multimedia sectors that encourage tourism in the island. The reputation of the Crete Island as a major tourist destination and the attractiveness of its hallmark events such as adventure parc, hot air balloon and birch Carroll and Cinemas among other events attract tourists.

The surrounding community found in the island supports tourism activities and development through various means. The iconic surf beaches and the sub-tropical climate that is sunny is a major tourist attraction to the island. The location of firms in the Crete Island in itself is strength for the Crete Island because it researches and promotes best tourist activities for the Crete Island.

The entrepreneurial culture of the island has led to the development of many excellent tourist resorts in the island providing accommodation and other important tourism activities for tourists. Therefore, the large size of tourism in the island is positively correlated to the number of tourists visiting the island.

Weaknesses

Crete Island is faced with several issues that form its weaknesses. To begin with, despite the island having wealthy and middles class society, majority are poor that are not able to meet their daily needs and therefore perceive the island as an island that is just surfers’ paradise that is too touristy.

This perception has affected domestic tourism especially from the region. In addition, it has led to an under-supply of cultural tourism products and experiences that are valued by international tourists touring the island.

The Crete Island has transportation issues because of road network from the NSW in the south and the congestion in the island Therefore, limited direct airlines services in spite of the proximity to Brisbane could affect the number of tourists in the Crete Island. The Crete Island faces disjointed approach to planning and management issues for tourism.

This weakness coupled with concentration on development of accommodation infrastructure has led to increased tourist accommodation and reduced other tourism-supporting infrastructure.

That the hinterland surrounding Crete Island is not aware of the potential of the Crete Island in terms of tourism experiences. Lastly, the reliance on fine weather experiences could affect the growth of other sectors of Crete Island’s economy.

Opportunities

Crete Island has many opportunities that could be exploited for the growth of tourism within the Crete Island. To begin with, the Crete Island has the opportunity of embracing new innovative tourism products and icons. For instance, the tourism sector could develop new culturally supporting tourism activities in order to encourage domestic tourism. The Crete Island has relied mainly on traditional form of tourism.

However, there is an opportunity to adopt ecotourism (nature-based tourism) especially to the coastal regions and the hinterland near the Crete Island. Nature based tourism is good for the Crete Island in terms of sustaining the environment.

The tourist resorts developed in the Crete Island have the opportunity of using integrated transport systems for tourist activities such as self-drives, public transport and provision of private operations for transport.

According to Johnstone-Donnet (2007, p. 16), the hinterland of Crete Island has not been exploited. Tourism in the Crete Island could exploit the hinterland by establishing scenic rimy linkages in the hinterland. The Crete Island has the opportunity of increasing the length of its airport runways in order to develop leisure-focused airlines and direct international air services in the Crete Island.

This could be achieved through a proactive events strategy that includes development of niche tourist market development. There exists an opportunity of developing tourism in the Crete Island using tourism retail experiences that are innovative.

Given that the tourism planning and issues management in the Crete Island has been up to date, tourism management could embrace destination management approach that helps in developing tourist destinations within the Crete Island. In addition, there is an opportunity to heighten the involvement of community support to tourism through awareness on the importance of tourism in the Crete Island.

Hingerty (2007, p. 10) posits that increased awareness on dining and food experiences within the Crete Island would boost domestic tourism. In addition, locals could be attracted to Crete Island tourism through increased link between culture and the lifestyle of people in Crete Island. These could be augmented by establishing culture and lifestyle oriented tourism in the Crete Island.

According to Noonan (2006), Crete Island has the opportunity of establishing a holiday seaport that accommodates cruise ships, boutique ships and leisure crafts among other vessels that could promote tourism in the Crete Island.

Upgrading the bypasses such as the Tugun, bypass and establishing pedestrian walkways could promote both domestic and international tourism in the Crete Island. Lastly, the development of more convention centers could encourage more business tourists to the Crete Island.

Threats

Threats are negative issues that could negatively affect tourism in Crete Island. According to Maurer et al. (2006, p. 71), the first threat to the tourism industry in Crete Island is the uncoordinated planning and development of tourism within the Crete Island.

Much of the development of tourism activities within the Crete Island are not well planned and coordinate and could affect future performance of the tourism industry in the Crete Island. Tourism activities in the Crete Island do not have disaster and crisis management plan. This is elaborated by the fact that the Crete Island relies much on good weather and climate conditions.

As the Crete Island grows, its population has increased and criminal activities have increased threatening tourism in the Crete Island. The global tourism industry is growing with many other tourist destinations posing increased competitiveness, therefore threatening the tourism industry in Crete Island.

For instance, New Zealand has increased its tourism competitiveness compared to Greece therefore increasing number of Greek tourists touring the country. Inadequate fresh water supply is a threat to the growth of the tourism industry in the Crete Island.

PESTEL Analysis

Political Factors

These significant factors affect the operation of the tourism industry in Greece. The factors are many as they include the trading policies, lobby groups in the domestic market, international pressure and policies of the government. Concerning policies of international trade, Greece maintains good trading policies with its neighbors with trades including tourism being in favorable condition.

Lobby and pressure group are vibrant in Greece and their pressure on corporate social and environmental responsibility is felt in the tourism industry as the industry struggles to meet environmental sustainability needs. Lobby groups are found within both Greece and international boundaries.

Political factors also include the good leadership provided by the Greek government that promotes tourism, peace and stability. Therefore, the political environment (factors) is vital for the success of the tourism industry in Greece.

Economic factors

The performance of the Greek economy is important in determining the performance of the tourism industry. The recession experienced in the economy especially in 2009 and 2010 affected tourism in Greece as the number of unemployment increased, firms performed poorly and tourists reduced.

The disposable income of many Greeks in some tourist destinations such as the Crete Island is low and therefore the low turn up of domestic tourists in such destinations. Economic cycles in the global economy too affect the unemployment rates in the international market thereby affecting tourists in Greece.

Social Factors

These factors too pose some threats while providing some opportunities to the tourism industry in Greece. Greeks are highly influenced by the media. Therefore, the media provides a great opportunity for the growth of the tourism industry in Greece especially if proper measures are undertaken to market the industry to the domestic market.

The demographics of the Greek population indicate that the country’s population is about 22.79 million people based on the country’s bureau of statistics. This large population provides a good opportunity for the growth of the domestic tourism in Greece.

Technological Factors

Technology has advanced and Greece has not been left behind in technology. The internet is largely used as a form of electronic marketing as mot firms including those operating in the tourism industry utilizing the media in marketing their products.

Tourists can now be booked in hotels and restaurants in tourist destinations using an electronic system. Moreover, they are able to choose best destinations online. However, the country has not exploited the technology opportunity to market and maximize other destinations with tourism potential such as Crete Island.

Environmental Factors

The tourism industry is largely affected by environmental factors since most of the features exist in their natural environments. Therefore, environment conservation and sustainability is vital for the growth of the tourism sector.

Internationally, global warming threatens natural species and environmental sustainability policies have been established to be enacted by all countries. In spite of these policies, they have moderate impacts on the tourism industry.

Stakeholder Analysis

The Greek tourism industry has many stakeholders that keep it growing strong. Stakeholders in the industry range from the Greek government, suppliers of various products and services in the industry, the public and tourists both domestic and international tourists. To begin with, the Greek government as a major stakeholder is an important player in the industry as it aims at developing the industry in order to increase its revenue base.

The government has various measures in place to protect wildlife and natural features that attract tourists. Moreover, its tourism ministry promotes tourism in the country through increased marketing abroad and online with various marketing and advertising modes being used such as the broadcast, print, electronic and audio media.

Other stakeholders are consumers of tourism services and products in Greece. Consumers of tourism services in the Greek market are rational in their choices. The choices made by the tourists are affected by many factors including the attractiveness of the tourist destinations in Greece, their levels of income, political stability and tastes and preferences among many other factors.

As indicated earlier, the number of tourists in Greece’s Crete Island is comprised of both local and international tourists. According to Collins et al. (2007, p. 66), the decisions of domestic consumers, which happen to be the target market in this paper has changed. The report comments that domestic tourists are concerned about the value they receive for their money.

Recent reports indicate that domestic tourists in Greece are resentful of the poor value of their money in the Greek tourism industry. The resentment is likely to increase especially if the tourism industry tries to promote Greek tourism industry without improving the tourism attractions (Travel Research Centre 2006, p. 171).

Tourists are usually concerned about the level of accommodation for tourists provided in the country. Domestic tourists view the level of accommodation as of low quality and inadequate. Locals feel that tourist activities are much focused on foreign tourism market than the local market.

Therefore, the attractiveness of the tourism sector to the domestic market could be further exploited with the improvement of tourism activities and features so that they meet the demands of the domestic tourists. This could be achieved by incorporating more cultural activities that reflect the local culture of domestic Greeks.

Competitor Analysis

The Greek domestic tourism industry is in strong competition with outside tourist destinations such as New Zealand and UK. This is experienced with a large substitution effect between domestic and international holidays. Greeks have become interested in the rest of the world because of globalization. They therefore prefer international tourism to domestic tourism.

According to Porter (1998), the number of domestic overnight trips declined at an average of 2% annually between 2001 and 2006 whereas the number of international trips increased by an average of 5% annually between the same period.

International tourist destinations provide Greeks with difference, diversity, experience and value for their money (Dunning 2006, p. 81). In addition, it is perceived that international holidays are more prestigious and exotic than a domestic holiday.

Basing on the preferences for a foreign trip compared to the domestic holiday, it is argued that foreign trips offers different food, cultural experiences, history, language and climatic differences. In addition, it offers diverse experiences, scenery and shopping. These factors are what make Greek tourists derive value for their money while increasing competitiveness of foreign tourist destinations compared to domestic tourism.

Product Analysis

The tourist attractions found in the Greek tourist attraction in Crete Island are many and vary. Crete Island is made of beautiful beaches that attract tourists especially when it is coupled with the sunny weather. Based on its geographical features, the Crete Island provides an adventure PARC for all tourists (domestic and international).

The outback spectacular show is usually held in April and attracts all tourists regardless of their backgrounds. The balloon hot air coast and the Birch Carroll & Coyle Crete Island cinemas are amazing to all tourists.

Gliding over Byron Bay, Cedar creek glow-worm, cedar creek winery and Couran Point Island Beach resort are but a few attractions that could leave tourists with a lasting experience. These among many other features are what make Crete Island one of the best tourist attractions in Greece.

Target Market

The target market for this IMC report is the domestic tourism market in Greece. The domestic tourism market is mainly attracted to the attractive tourism features such as overnight leisure market. The domestic tourism market for Greece is made up of the entire Greek population.

The age of the population includes all ages. However, preference is given to people aged 20 years and above with the segmentation involving demographic, geographic location of the tourists and the psychographic factors. Tourism activities are provided to suit all market segments for the domestic tourists (Kerin et al. 2003, p. 94).

Objectives for Greek Tourism

Short Term objectives

The short-term objective of the Greek tourism industry should be to market its neglected tourism cites such the Crete Island tourism in Crete Island. The marketing should focus on the domestic market in Greece.

Medium Term Objectives

The medium term strategies should be to market Greek tourism industry to both the local and international markets. The medium term of five years should see the industry increase its domestic and international tourists’ statistics.

Long-term objectives

Long-term visitor management should focus on increasing the capacity of the tourism industry. The long-term strategy should depend on the success of the short and medium term strategies as their success could determine the success of the long-term strategy.

The strategy of the industry in the long term is to establish enough accommodation and transport facilities for the tourism industry so that as the number of tourists increase, the transport system and accommodation increases.

Recommendations

IMC Strategies

These strategies should be used in the short term and medium term periods. The focus of the strategies is to market the tourist attractions in Crete Island. The initial step is to develop awareness of the Crete Island tourist destination to local/domestic market comprised of the entire Greek population.

The objective is to make the domestic tourism market aware of the tourism potential in the Crete Island. This include the availability of beautiful beaches, a wonderful climate, sanctuaries, creek glow-worm, gliding bay and adventure PARC among many other attractive features.

The creation of awareness among the Greek population concerning the potential of Crete Island as a tourist destination would begin by advertising the tourism potential to the public through the print media such as newspapers, tourism magazines and Greek tourism newsletters.

In addition, the Crete Island would be advertised in the tourism website of Greece among other online websites and blogs. Billboards and bulletin boards would also be created and situated in strategic locations throughout Greece. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2004, p. 206), the audio media should also not be left out as an advertising channel because it is more effective than the print media.

The other is the broadcast media that includes television broadcasts. Wedel and Kamakura (2000) point out that all adverts must have a given message to the customers. Consequently, all adverts and promotions of the tourism activities in Crete Island would have a specific message that is appealing to the public in Greece (Collins et al. 2007, p. 71).

After creating awareness, it is necessary to develop interest in the domestic Greek population, which is the target market. Developing interest would involve holding of several concerts of various tourist attractions found in Crete Island.

This would also include being present in shows, state fairs spring and summer break festivities among other events. Events would garner interest with colorful signs and banners including announcements by various artists.

After creation of interest, the market needs to evaluate whether the goals and objectives of the Crete Island tourism has been accomplished. Evaluation would be conducted by the ability of the domestic population to access the Crete Island tourist activities. The marketing mix would incorporate many concerts that would ensure that some locals participate in some events.

At the rate of 30%, the marketer would evaluate the interest of Greeks to tour Crete Island. Evaluation would be facilitated at the various promotion events providing some products to all participants (Mills 2002, p. 105).

After evaluation, the IMC director would encourage the locals to try out the activities being offered by the tourism industry in Crete Island. The IMC director could achieve this objective by providing locals with rebates such as AUS$100 off the price of tourism activities being offered in Crete Island. Price rebates would encourage domestic tourists to believe that they are being given a bargain.

Trade discounts in terms of the number of domestic tourists would also encourage locals to tour the Crete Island. After the establishment of products that link locals to their culture, the IMC director should have the goal of making the locals adopt domestic tourism of Crete Island.

This could include provision of coupons for second or further visits to the Crete Island. The tourism industry should offer various deals and packages for new and existing domestic tourists.

Creative Strategies for Communication in Crete Island

Tourism activities in Crete Island would be promoted too using direct marketing that would be accompanied by action orientation. Direct marketing of tourism activities in Crete Island would include a call to immediate action and an easy step to use response devices in order to sell or make a step towards selling of tourism activities in Greece. The IMC director would make specific offers to the public towards touring Crete Island.

This may include telling locals the available offers for domestic tourists and the requirements to obtain the offers such as the prices. The information provides is to the targeted market. The information provided must be measurable, personal, testable and flexible to allow all locals to make their varying offers.

Media Strategies

According to Kitchen and De Pelsmacker (2004, p. 62), IMC strategies encompass general advertising, marketing directly to the locals in Greece, sales promotions and public relations. No strategy is superior to the other because all strategies have an equal goal in an integrated marketing communication initiative.

Promotion of tourism in Crete Island would involve the utilization of various media channels in order to convey the message on attractions to tourists in the Crete Island. The first form of media that is very effective is the print media.

Under this mode, the IMC director would market the beautiful beaches, climatic conditions and creek among other attractions through newspapers, magazines and brochures among other forms of print media. Pictures and videos containing the necessary attractive features would be conveyed. The broadcast media could also be used to convey the same message.

TVs and radio could be used. In addition, public relations strategy could be used with public relations representative informing the locals on the benefits of domestic tourism while doing away with the perception that Crete Island is just for international tourists (Kotler & Armstrong 2004, p. 223).

Long-term strategies

In the long term, the Greek tourism industry should focus on improving infrastructure and accommodation in the Crete Island tourist destination. Currently, accommodation is enough. However, short and medium term strategies should increase the number of both domestic and international tourists thereby requiring improved facilities and accommodation in order to gain customer loyalty.

Conclusion

Tourism in Greece has been growing over time in spite of a few negative growth brought about by factors such as strengthening of the Greek currency. Crete Island is one of the tourist attraction sites in the country. It is endowed with many tourist attractions such as beautiful beaches, an attractive climate, cedar creek and an adventure PARC among other attractions.

Tourism in the Crete Island is made up of both local Greek nationals and international tourists. In spite of the large number of domestic tourists comprising the total number of tourists in the Crete Island, many other Greeks tour other international tourist destinations that compete with Greece such as the UK and New Zealand.

It is evident from this report that domestic tourism should be promoted in order to increase the number of revenue from tourism. The important IMC objectives are to increase the level of domestic tourism in Crete Island. The objectives could be achieved through various IMC strategies.

Media strategies and creative strategies to be used include the promotion, advertising and sale of tourist attractions in the Crete Island to the locals in Greece. This could involve the use of direct marketers and public relations personnel.

The limitation of this visitor management plan is that it focuses on managing tourists in the Crete Island only and does not focus on the entire Greece. Therefore, future visitor management plans could focus on other tourist destinations either in Greece or in other parts of the world.

List of References

Cannon, M 2007, Australian Association of Convention Bureaux, Transcript of evidence, vol. 115, pp. 65-66.

Collins, D et al., 2007, Changing consumer behavior: Impact on the Australian domestic tourism market, Tourism Research Australia, Canberra.

Dunning, J 2006, What is driving the declines in WA’s domestic market? Industry, Perth.

Hingerty, M 2007, Australian Tourism Export Council. Transcript of Evidence, vol. 1, pp. 16.

Instinct & Reason, 2006, Understanding the opportunities for the domestic market, presentation of research results by instinct and reason to tourism Australia, Instinct and Reason to Tourism Australia, Perth

Johnstone-Donnet, O 2007, Tourism and transport forum, Transcript of Evidence, vol. 15, pp. 16.

Kerin, R et al. 2003, Marketing, 7 Edn., McGraw-Hill Irwin, Boston.

Kitchen, P & De Pelsmacker, P 2004, Integrated marketing communications: A primer, Routledge, London.

Kotler, P & Armstrong, G 2004, Principles of marketing, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River.

Maurer, A et al. 2006, An assessment of the Australian domestic tourism market, Tourism Research Australia, Canberra.

Mills, G 2002, Retail pricing strategies and market power, Melbourne University Publishing, Melbourne.

Noonan, P 2006, Department of industry, tourism and resources, Transcript of Evidence, vol. 40, pp. 1-5.

Porter, M 1998, Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors, Simon and Schuster, New York.

Tourism Forecasting Committee, 2006, Forecast: The fourth release from the Tourism Forecasting Committee, Tourism Australia, Melbourne.

Travel Research Centre, 2006, Getting Australians to travel again: Domesticate, Tourism Research Australia, Perth.

Wedel, M & Kamakura, W 2000, Market segmentation: Conceptual and methodological foundations, Springer, New York.

Introduction

Tourism is among the world’s leading industry. Tourism is the short term movement of individuals to places that are outside their residences or places of work (Burkart and Medik, 1981). Who is a tourist?

A tourist is not the international person who has used air means of transport for a vacation, but a domestic or international person, irrespective of the means of transport, who has visited a place with certain reasons, such as health related, active sport, educational, cultural or business related trips.

Today’s competitive economy, prosperity in tourism is greatly determined by understanding tourist behavior and integrating them to marketing strategy. This enables reduction of negative impacts during their tour, stay and interactions between the tourist and hosts. Tourist behavior emerges from the social, cultural and environmental systems.

Balanced Critique

The essay lacks an introduction that would define tourism, numerous grammatical errors, lack in consistency of citation styles, and the brilliant ideas are either repeated over and over and lacks flow in his/her presentation. Although the first paragraph provides misconception of information, the author explains on the different reasons for travelling varying from education, trade and pleasure.

He/she outlines the benefits of tourism to include improvement of infrastructure, creation of employment, and social interaction among many others. He/she is also right to say that every traveler has expectations and always share their experiences with their loved ones. This implies that they play a great role in promoting tourism industry.

Therefore tourist’s satisfaction should be the first priority o every marketer and hence all their suggestions, comments and recommendation should be put into consideration. Second paragraph categorizes tourist based on their behavior. Those tourists who visit environmental related –nature biased-, they visit beaches, waterfalls, forest, (Swarbrookes, 1999).

Critique supported by examples

What attracts tourists who are nature biased are aspects such as greenery and beeches (Andrew, Bigne & Cooper, 2000). Ego –tourist travel to show how sophisticated and wealthy they are, popular stars would fall under this category, they only travel to popular destination, Ethical based tourists (Butcher, 2003), responsible tourist (Lea, 1993) and spiritual tourist.

Research in tourism marketing has improved dramatically in quality and depth, to reflect the growth of the field. Academics and marketers have grouped tourists together according to the characteristics they share. The importance of the grouping (typologies) embrace prediction of tourism trends, aid in product development and pricing of commodities (Swarbrooke& Horner, 2007, p5).

These typologies reflect individual’s interests. Four Typologies are identified, two of non institutionalized roles; grafter and explorer and two institutionalized namely; organized mass tourist and individual tourist. (Cohen, 1972). Typologies also describe market niches to promote and advertise the market accordingly.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is important to note that tourists’ behaviors are based on individual preferences and goals. These may include influences from families and friends, perceived risks and the environment. Their behavior could also be associated with the unpleasant challenges such as global inequity, distribute justice, poverty alleviation, fuel shortage and climate change.

Therefore, the status, role and behavior of tourists are being interrogated, that is their roles to the problems and their solution. Moreover, tourism should be sustained so that tourists can enjoy their vacation and respect the environment and culture. The main aim of tourism should be in bringing a positive impact to the society, industry, nation and the tourist themselves.

References

Andreu. L, Bigne.E & Cooper.C (2000). Projected and Perceived image of Spain as a tourist destination for British Travellers. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing 9(4), 47-67.

Cohen, E. (1972) ‘Toward a sociology of international tourism’, Social Research 39:164—82. – (1979) ‘A phenomenology of tourist experiences‘, Sociology 13: 179—202.

Butcher, J. (2003). The moralization of tourism; sun sand and saving the world. New York: Routledge Publishers.

Burkart and Medik, (1981). The journal of European history, volume 35, Issue 1

Lea, J.P (1993).Tourism development ethics in the Third World. Annals of Tourism Research 20 (4), 701-715.

Pizam, A., & Sussman, S. (1995). Does nationality affect tourist behavior? Annals of Tourism research 22(4), 901-917

Swarbrooke, J. (1999). Sustainable Tourism Management. Wallingford: CABI

Swarbrooke, J., and Horner, S. (2007) Consumer behavior in tourism. Oxford: Elsevier.

The process of globalization strongly affects hospitality institutions and spa resorts. In particular, it enables them to create extra value for their customers. This effect is achieved in several ways. First of all, modern hotels as well as spa can provide more efficient training to their employees (Dwyerr & Forsyth 2006, p. 470).

Judging from my own service encounters, I can tell that many hotels emphasize the fact that the members of their personnel were trained abroad. These people could learn the best practices adopted in the leading hotel chains throughout the world. Such international cooperation can increase customer’s satisfaction. Therefore, this approach enables to add more value to their services.

Secondly, globalization allows companies to better establish their brands in foreign countries. This is also a part of value creation. For example, there are many brands are recognized internationally, and the customers are ready to pay more to such organizations. In my, opinion in this way, hotels are able to increase the perceived value of their services.

Thirdly, one has to mention the forces of globalization, and especially the development of online technologies enabled companies to better advertise their services to foreign customers. Previously, they were hardly able to do it.

Thus, it is quite possible for me to say that hospitality organizations attempt to add extra value to their services, and they benefit from various aspects of globalization. At this point, it is necessary for me to show how spas attempt to distinguish themselves in this market.

It should be noted that spas already have extra value, because these resorts offer different forms of treatment to the visitors. Nonetheless, nowadays spa resorts have become very widespread. Many hotels offer spa therapy to their clients, and it is extremely difficult for any organization to gain competitive advantage.

This is why spa resorts have to develop new ways of attracting customers. One of them is the promotion of LGBT tourism. Many resorts organize events for such tourists and provide gay infrastructure, for example, restaurants, bars, and so forth (Robinson, Heitmann & Dieke 2011, p. 220).

This approach enables spa resorts and hotels to differentiate themselves among others and attract customers who were previously uninterested in their services. One should bear in mind that LGBT tourism is another manifestation of the globalization process. The thing is that the hotels, which have LGBT infrastructure, are visited by tourists from different countries.

Additionally, one should take into account that such practice is possible in a country in which there is little or no prejudice against LGBT community. Overall, I can say that in the future, the attention toward LGBT tourism will only increase, and more spas or hotels will attend to the needs of this population.

Finally, many spa resorts as well as some hotels attempt to diversify their services. For example, they provide aromatherapy, facials, massage, weight guidance, yoga training, and so forth. Thus, one can argue that such word as spa can hardly be reduced only to water baths. On the whole, I can argue that this variety of services is an essential part of value creation.

On the basis of this discussion, I can single out several strategies which help hotels and spas add extra value, namely, cross-border trading, brand development, and increased online advertisement. Secondly, these organizations try to target new customers, for example, LGBT communities. Finally, they try to widen the range of the services that they offer to the clients.

References

Dwyerr, L. & Forsyth, P. 2006. International handbook on the economics of tourism. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Robinson, P. Heitmann S., & Dieke, P. Research themes for tourism. London: CABI, 2011.

Introduction

Since the fifteenth century, tourism has emerged as a reliable sector in different economies across the world (Matt 2004). However, the economies that benefit from it most are those that posses unique features since, in any given country, the number of both domestic as well as foreign tourists visiting different places of interest is usually tremendous (Richards & Hall 2003).

In addition to this, the tourists, once they have visited the site, will always desire to visit that country again, this is contrary to the situations with countries where there are no such attractions. Nowadays, many efforts are advanced in an effort towards seeing sustainable tourism prevail (McGowan 2001, p. 55).

Sustainable tourism is a term commonly used to refer to tourism which goals are management of applicable resources, such as the aesthetic, social as well as the economic needs that are to be met, while maintaining various aspects, such as cultural integrity, systems for life support as well as biological diversification. According to scholars, tourism has to be developed in order to become sustainable (McGowan 2001, p. 57).

According to them, development of sustainable tourism is a process, and as such, it is intended to meet the present tourist’s needs as well as host communities, where the attractions exist, while still enhancing as well as safeguarding future goals. Many initiatives are to be established to change the nature of tourism (Swarbrooke 2009, p. 42).

However, despite this, the sustainable tourism practices have not yet spread across the industry because the stakeholders of tourism are still divided on how to improve the sustainability of tourist destinations (Antonio 2000, p. 12).

The purpose of this paper is to evidence the divisions that prevail among the stakeholders, with regard to the way the tourist destinations can be made sustainable, that hinders the spreading of sustainable tourism practices across the tourism industry (Goodwin 2000, p. 12).

Stakeholders

Stakeholders within this sector play a major role in ensuring that this form of tourism is successfully developed. A stakeholder can be a person or a group that can influence or even be influenced whenever a business goal is attained. To understand the underlying debate first, it is necessary for one to acknowledge who the stakeholders within the sustainable tourism industry are (Matheson & Wall 2002).

There exist various active non-governmental organizations that advocate and follow up to ensure that the right measures and policies are implemented towards achieving the effective development of sustainable tourism (Matheson & Wall 2002). As such, they play major roles which are spearheading practices associated with sustainable tourism development to conducting research, especially on issues that hinder the development of the given sphere (Jones 2005, p. 435).

Tourists

A tourist can be described as a person who leaves his geographic region temporarily with an aim of making a tour just for pleasure to see other countries and cultures (Twining-ward & Butler 2002). They are also significant stakeholders within the sustainable tourism industry. Due to them, there is a need for tourism, and sustainable tourism in particular.

Residents

These are the persons who reside in a particular area. The policies made concerning the tourism sites are capable of affecting them positively or negatively (Holden 2001, p. 32).

Local Government

This is usually a governmental wing, and as such, it is mandated with the responsibility of controlling the local resources. As such, rules, guidelines and policies that govern the attraction sites emanate from the local government (Hunter 2005, p. 7).

Inclusion as well as the participation of stakeholders in tourism industry is vital, especially as far as sustainable tourism development process is concerned (Twining-ward & Butler 2002).

Each stakeholder, especially the non-governmental organizations, holds different views on how tourism destinations can be made sustainable. These revolve around the practices involved which the stakeholders, according to their respective feelings, may see either favorable or even compromising. The best and ideal idea is to see that different perspectives are included as well as different groups that are involved are categorized (Dobson 2006, p. 401).

Divisions among Stakeholders

Usually, tourists as well as the host community find the sustainable tourism principles to be important as compared to other groups of stakeholders (W.T.O & U.N.E.P 2008). According to the recent researches, it is advanced that the tourists and the host communities have similar rankings with regard to the top priorities with regard to the ways in which destinations can be made sustainable. However, these two stakeholders hold differences when it comes to economic as well as planning principles.

According to many of these researches, tourists tend to develop tendencies whereby they find their own contributions to the improvement of the destination to be sustained as insignificant. This is indeed conflicting with the perceptions held by the host community. According to this category of stakeholders, they hold and maintain that to the local, regional or even national planning, the integration of tourism is the lowest priority that ought to be considered in establishing the best ways in which a destination can be made sustainable.

Tourism Concern (1998) further asserts that tourists have a tendency according to which they find the sustainability principles of great importance though this is a thing that the host community disregards.

Such important issues as reduction of wastes, wastewater and water and energy consumption as well as the impact of tourism on environmental and local communities are usually of less or no concern for the tourists (World Tourism Organization 2007). However, to the host community, these are the major aspects in the development of tourism sustainable destinations, and as such, it is a main conflict (Liu 2003, p. 459).

In some areas, especially in the developing world, tourism is usually not in the advanced levels and, therefore, can be identified as in the initial stage.

In such cases, some players or stakeholders in the tourism industry within that country, the local governments as well as some non-governmental investors, among them, gradually dawn on them that tourism is an important element, and as such, it can be a vehicle to drive the country to the desired levels of economic growth (Hall & Lew 1998). As such, pressure arises from some stakeholders in an effort of forcing the creation of a conductive atmosphere whereby investing into activities associated with tourism.

It may be found that while the local authorities as well as some of non-governmental organizations advocate for sustainable tourism destinations created through environmental accountability, some other stakeholders see this as not so significant (Gerken 2008, p. 45).

For instance, the residents desire to see a tourism destination become sustainable through the creation of jobs. If these are observed by other stakeholders, especially the local government, the residents usually demonstrate little or no opposition to the initiatives. On the other hand, if these interests are not observed, the host community as well as the local government argues to a point that even the sustainable destination establishment will not be achieved (Cohen 2002, p. 268).

Within the tourism industry, there are several stakeholders and each hold their own goal concerning the sustainable tourism development, and as such, they conflict with the present reality. The dominant issue that can be attributed to the rise of the need for the development of sustainable tourism was the unreliable system of revenue management within tourism destination leading to a massive leakage of revenues (Mowforth & Munt 2009).

This flaw, according to researchers, was brought about by the fact that most of the stakeholders within the tourism industry were not locals. The profits that tourism activities brought about were rarely reinvested within that region. Therefore, the profit generated from these tourism activities does not guarantee or even ensure income, employment or investment multiplier effect in a geographic region (Saarinen 2006, p. 1127).

The local government in any country is usually mandated with the responsibility of coming up with policies that best favour the tourism sector (Edgell 2006, p. 46). In an effort to establish sustainable tourism destinations, the local authority first imposes laws and observes the reaction of the public in regard to their experience with those enforcements (Hall & Lew 1998).

In the recent past, there have been situations when the local government comes up with laws that force to improve the tourism destinations. The non-governmental organizations may find the enforcements as not appealing and thereby conflicts arise (Ashley 2008, p. 92).

This usually comes to be so due to inadequate or no consultations. For instance, in India, the local authority in the region has recently established laws whereby the public, whether willing or unwilling, must be involved in cleaning up the major rivers.

When the river cleanup activities commenced, several non-governmental groups came up opposing the idea, which the Indian government saw as noble (Bramwell & Henry 2006). As such, these stakeholders argued that the local authority must have respected and abided to the rights of the people within India.

They further emphasized that it was not right for a government to force its citizens to perform acts without an accord or consideration of their will. According to Rogers, Jalal & Boyd (2008), Indian scholars and a human rights activists, a party has intentions of making someone perform an action for him/her, it is necessary to approach that person and seek his/her perception with reference to the action at hand (Lett 2009).

If the person being approached is not willing to undertake something, he/she should not put under duress or coerced to perform that action (Drita & Alkida 2009). As such, the Indian non-governmental organizations condemned the government urging it to find professionals to do river cleanups. According to them, such an activity is risky as it puts the lives of the Indian Citizens at risk of contracting diseases ,such as bilharzia as well as typhoid (Rogers, Jalal & Boyd 2008).

Such is an example of conflicting perspectives on the best practices that can lead to the establishment of sustainable tourism destination. The local government may see it ideal to engage the citizens but it might not go along well for other major players within the sector (Bramwell & Henry 2006). In the case study aforementioned, the practice that the Indian government initially saw noble was conflicting with the interests of other players within the sector, that is, the non-governmental organizations (Krippendorf 2006, p. 5).

According to Egri (2007, p. 407), the sustainable tourism stakeholders usually conflict in their views concerning the person who ought to make a decision or even influence a destination’s sustainability indicator.

This question revolves around specific stakeholders, which are the national, regional and local tourism planning authorities. Who should really decide? Further conflicting perceptions exist concerning the body that should be mandated with the responsibility of evaluating the sustainability indicators. With this regard, different agendas among stakeholders exist (Coccossis 2006).

According to a plethora of studies, it is identified that the host group, the residents, is not a single monolith having or holding out common aims as well as interests. The studies described see the presence of visitors as well as developments in the tourism sector to impact them in unpredictable ways (Drita & Alkida 2009).

The question that one can ask himself is whose interest or perspective should be given the first priority whether it should be the regional or the national government, the sociologist, the commerce groups, the environmentalists or the host residents, among other stakeholders.

According to some other stakeholders, the most adopted sustainability indicators are not constituted with predictive power. According to them, the current sustainability indicator tends to evaluate a tourism product once in a long while (Ritchie & Crouch 2003). In addition to this, they have no provision whereby there is a timely provision of timely and relevant information, which is essential, putting the evaluation of future effects into consideration (W.C.E.D 2007, p. 5).

For instance, the growth of the tourists’ arrival may be experiencing an increasing trend, thus indicating the popularity of a tourist destination (De Oliveira & JAP 2003). However, this does not at all help in evaluating whether the situation will indeed prevail in the future (Melucci 2005, p. 793).

Another conflicting perspective that arises among the sustainable tourism destination stakeholders is the issue concerning tourism as a scapegoat of shortcomings suffered by destinations (Butler 2006, p. 234).

According to the findings of several researches, it is indicated that such elements as prostitution, degradation of the environment or even changes in culture do not necessarily come out of tourism. According to them, the mass media as well as other social and economic developments are major conspirators and at times sole perpetrators (UNWTO 2009, p. 12).

In addition to this, the unavailability of a consensus with regard to what makes up a sustainable tourism product is another conflicting perspective for the sustainable tourism destination stakeholders. As such, this conflict revolves around the sustainability as well as the indicators for carrying capacity.

According to W.T.O and U.N.E.P (2008), the indicators used in the sustainable tourism in the modern days, for instance, the stay patterns as well as the tourists’ arrival, are not well established and, therefore, inadequate and ineffective. The author further asserts that some stakeholders hold out that there is vital for the product to be able to meet the needs as well as the expectations of the tourists (Johnson 2003, p. 12).

He further asserts that this is a one-dimensional approach, and it is a major conflict among major stakeholders since it does not take into account the product effects as well as the tourists with regards to the physical as well as the socio-cultural environments (‘The impacts of tourism in environment’ 2009, p. 3).

A category of stakeholders argue that, regardless of whether such impacts are adequately measured or not, there still exists some difficulty in the assignment of the weights to each and every type of impact (Adams 2001, p.23).

Another conflicting perception is that the ideas concerning sustainable tourism are flawed and, therefore, unattainable. According to some stakeholders, this situation has occurred due to the fact that the tourism industry is complex since it is attributable to a large number of structural characteristics.

In addition to this, this category of stakeholders further asserts that the tourism destination sustainability ideas are farces, which can never be attained. Tourism Concern (1998, p. 2) further asserts that tourists have a tendency according to which they find the sustainability principles as of great importance, and that is a thing that the host community around the tourism destinations disregards.

Such important issues as the reduction of wastes, wastewater and water consumption, energy consumption as well as the impact of tourism on environmental as well as local communities are usually of less or no concern for the tourists. However, to the host community, these are the major aspects in development of tourism sustainable destinations, and as such, it becomes a main conflict (Liu 2003, p. 465).

While many researchers have found out that different stakeholder had different perceptions concerning the way the tourist destinations could be made sustainable, there are those advances that assume that the sustainable tourism best practice is generally acceptable, and there are little or no differing views perceptions.

They argue that sustainable tourism has developed tremendously, and many countries have adopted the sector’s best practice just to see the sustainable tourism through. They further assert that the economies across the world have realized the benefits of sustainable tourism, and whenever conflicting perceptions arise, measures are immediately established thereby ensuring the stakeholders come into consensus.

Conclusion

From this analysis, it is clearly evident that divisions prevail among the stakeholders concerning the way the tourist destinations can be made sustainable, and, as such, they hinder the spreading of sustainable tourism practices across the tourism industry (Briguglio & Vella 2005). These divisions revolve around the concept of tourism sustainability.

In order for the tourism sustainability practice to become accepted across various boundaries globally, it is essential that the stakeholders in the sustainable tourism share similar perceptions, and knowledge and have the opportunity to understand the underlying issues that result in the divisions. As such, it may necessitate the provision of education opportunities to all the stakeholders concerning the main topics of interest within the sustainable tourism decision making process (Cooper, Fletcher, Gilbert & Wanhill 2008).

Once all the stakeholders within the sustainable tourism industry attain the same level of relevant knowledge, the most appropriate decisions will be made, and, as such, these final solutions are essential as they best make use of stakeholders’ collective wisdom (World Tourism Organization 2007).

Therefore, it is necessary that all the stakeholders come into a consensus if they want the best practices of the sustainable tourism to become acceptable across the globe. To sum everything up, unity in perceptions is the best drive forward (Swarbrooke 1999, p. 56).

References

Adams, W., (2001), Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World, Routledge, London.

Antonio, R. J., (2000), After Postmodernism: Reactionary Tribalism, American Journal of Sociology, vol.106, no. 2, pp. 40-87.

Ashley, C., (2008), Tourism, Communities and National Policy, Development Policy Review, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 19-98.

Bramwell, B. & Henry, I., (2006), A Framework for Understanding Development, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 155-165.

Briguglio, L. & Vella, L., (2005), The Competitiveness of the Maltese Conference on Sustainable Tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Web.

Butler, R., (2006), The Tourism Area Life Cycle. Volume 2: Conceptual and theoretical issues, Channel View Publications, Clevedon.

Coccossis, H., (2006), Tourism and Sustainability: Perspectives and Views, Tourism Management, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 98—110.

Cohen, E., (2002), Authenticity, equity and sustainability in tourism, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 267—276.

Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Gilbert, D. & Wanhill, S., (2008), Tourism: principles & practice, Longman, Harlow.

De Oliveira & JAP, (2003), Governmental Responses to Tourism Development: Three Brazilian case studies, Tourism Management, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 97—110.

Dobson, A., (2006), Environmental Sustainabilities: An Analysis and Typology, Environmental Politics, vol. 5 no. 3, p. 401.

Drita, K. & Alkida H., (2009), Comparisons of stakeholders’ perception towards the sustainable tourism development and its impacts in Shkodra Region (Albania), Tourism Management, vol. 20, pp. 351—360.

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In essence, there are many definitions of peace. In the context of this paper, peace is defined as insubstantial attribute which is hard to compute or otherwise quantify. Peace is usually defined as the nonexistence of war, random violence and actions of terrorism.

However, this characterization is narrow and, does not put into consideration the major causes of conflict and sustainability of worldwide peace, which is not a sufficient necessity for peace. When defined dynamically, peace calls for existence of justice and fairness in accordance to the rule of law (Richie, 2004, pp.669-675).

Sustenance of tourism has become an issue of equivalent significance in both developing and developed countries. This essay is designed for both. However, the sense of balance of concerns may differ between them.

The resolve of this paper is to provide administrations with leadership and structure for the growth of strategies that sustains tourism as a toolbox of mechanisms they can use in the implementation of those.

Over time, tourism has increasingly become a fundamental part of our lives with the tourism industry being said to be among the fastest growing global industries.

A report documented by the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Devel­opment (ITF-STD)-Marrakech (2009) documents that 903 Million tourist travelled in 2007 and the number increased in 2008 as well as 2009 in spite of the economic and financial hiccups that were faced in between that duration.

Additionally, the report further estimates that the number may sky-rocket to as high as 1.6 billion people by the year 2020.This is majorly based on the various forms of activities that people engage in tourism thus giving us an ample time for relaxation.

Lindsay (2003) additionally states that global tourism generates close to 3 trillion dollars while it importantly contributes to approximately 11% of the global Gross National Product which makes it the largest industry in the world.

Even more importantly, tourism has been a great income generating activity for not just individuals but also corporations and even governments (Dabour, 2003, pp.24-30). Recent studies also attest to the immense progress of the tourism industry in spite of the admitted presence of challenges and limitations in the industry.

Tourism occurs when people choose to move from one place to another visiting with friends and family purposely for play, business, study, work, service and, pilgrimage (Rodriguez & Cruz, 2007, pp.824-826).

Tourist destinations range from simple areas like recreation centers, parks, museums to hiking trails and resorts depending on the nature of tourism and the individuals or groups of people involved in it (Byrd & Cardenas, 2009; and Sharpley & Telfer, 2002, pp.5-10).

Whether someone travels short distances or miles alone, with family members, friends, strangers or colleagues; tourism mostly entail meetings and various interactions among various populations with varying age groups, spiritual traditions, ethnic backgrounds, ability, cultural heritages, interests and educational levels (Chavez, 1999).

Travelers or tourists can engage in new familiarities, gain information of other cultures, countries or regions learn the importance of loving the environment, developing new friendships and promoting peaceful relationships among people (Butler, 2006, pp.30-35).

Those who travel also contribute, through one way or another, to the commercial growth and improvement of the public and region when spending some substantial amount of money to provide a variety of basic needs like as food, clothing and shelter among many other essentials (Solberg & Preuss, 2007, pp.213-215; and Darowski et al., 2006).

Socioeconomic progress, especially when it helps in poverty alleviation, hugely promotes cultural peace since most people are satisfied. In other words, tourism helps in the creation of a peaceful environment in a myriad of ways. According to Bieger and Wittmer (2006, pp.42-44), the creation of a global society means that tourism businesses have the ability to operate globally and in a peaceful way.

The same authors also say that most people in the tourism business have been working together with stakeholders and shareholders from various regions to create policies leading to the eradication of violence, skirmishes and wars while concomitantly promoting sustainability, thus assuring the well-being of all participants locally and globally among the involved communities thus promoting peace in overall (Boberg & Cavinato, 1986; and Moss et al., 2003).

Learning and giving services towards the creation of peaceful environments are among the major goals of persons engaging in all dimension of the work which generate harmony through tourism, inclusive of those linked with learning institutions which teach the young to serve in the sports, hospitality, tourism, and recreation businesses (Holden, 2000, pp.247-250).

Faculties and students who have a stake in commitment to goals and purposes defined here have a distinctive prospect of instilling peaceful values throughout the students’ learning experiences (Koeman, 1985, and Grimble & Chan, 1995, pp.113-120).

Koeman furthers states that individuals who labor in the tourism trades enjoy the benefits and services of their business endeavors, have congregated over the recent times with stakeholders and shareholders in the tourism (such as governments, learning institutions, other business-oriented industries, community front-runners, religious and spiritual leaders, peace investigators and citizens) to discuss peace-related issues in tourism.

Resultantly, this has helped in increasing their understanding of peace in the tourism industry through the objection against violent practices (Gibson & Bentley, 2006, pp.63-70; and Hall, 2008, pp.10-20).

According to Knowles and Curtis (1999, pp.87-96), these proponents of peace through tourism in the current world have reportedly been increasingly united in seeking to promote a viable peace while reaping the joys and benefits related with mobility and recreation. Below are some of the methods that are normally used by these stakeholders and shareholders to proliferate peace in the tourism industry.

Firstly, this is normally done through honor spiritual customs, reclaiming of sanctified spaces, working together with others so as to foster development, protection and support and establishment of a peaceful tourism environment (McElroy, 2006, pp.61-70).

Secondly, there is the recognition and protection of various cultural spaces and customs (Hritz & Cecil, 2008). This helps in fostering multiplicity in the tourism industry, inspiring tourists to travel more and working with others for development, preservation, protection, and apt support for cruciaal heritage sites (Koeman, 1985).

Thirdly, it is done through decrease poverty by employing people from the local communities as a means of generating income, supporting the growth of local and small-businesses which eventually contribute to profits in the tourism industry as well poverty alleviation of the people thus helping them avoid unnecessary violent endeavors which reduce the promotion of peace (Darowski et al., 2006).

Fourthly, the aforementioned parties normally endeavor to eliminate situations that may lead to actions of non-peaceful tourism endeavors such as violence and war while teaching in conflict resolution, and working with community groups as well as governments to restore parts impaired by wars in the tourism industry (Lindsay, 2003).

Fifthly, the shareholders and stakeholders usually endeavor in promoting sustainable growth by scheduling growth plans with care for the environment in awareness, preserving rare animal and plant species while supporting impartial environmental ideologies and practices which help in facilitating peaceful coexistence in the industry.

Seventhly and lastly, the involved parties tend to strive in educating people about delicate ecosystems by encouraging ecotourism while promoting a peaceful environment by involving the native people in decision-making processes. Through such endeavors, ignorance is greatly dealt with while less resistance and wars are faced from the natives (UNWTO, 2011, pp.2-5).

Throughout the universe, people who work in almost all aspects of tourism and hospitality businesses are help in shaping the attitudes, values, and beliefs and ideals of a peaceful tourism environment(Dabour, 2003, pp.24-30).

Darbour further asserts that such people tend to endeavor in identifying solutions to dire social, political economic and environmental challenges in the world while striving to meet with other like-minded people to increase their knowledge about peace as a crucial aspect of the tourism industry.

These activities are only a few of the many endeavors that people currently engage in both at local and international levels so as to encourage the continuous growth of a peaceful tourism environment (Kim, 2010, p.1).

This viewpoint of peace also, according to Richie (2004, pp.670-675), somewhat refers to the state in which a human being is considered to be at peace with himself. Richie says that it additionally covers the concept of law and order. Richie further asserts that this conception of peace does not however exclude the aspect of violence since soldiers can have peace with themselves even in battlefields (pp.675-7680).

Moreover, there is the concept of peace in the tourism being the absence of some form of collective violence. To this regard, major emphasis is made on the violence amongst human groups, individuals and nations as well as racial and ethnic groups. This type of peace shall be referred to as negative peace (Leslie, 2007; & Leslie, 2005).

In arguing regarding collective violence; most authors seem to use this word in such a way that it does not cover infrequent homicide like un-patterned individual violence.

According to Dobson (1998, pp.129-135), it is the change from this kind of violence to the violent behavior across human frontiers that it becomes group violence which deviates from the essence of peace. It can thus be said that through organized violence, peace is believed not to exclude aspects such as violent behaviors (Middleton &Lickerish, 2007, pp.50-55).

Another concept of peace that is not sufficiently defined is peace considered as a synonym for good practices in the world especially in the cooperation and integration amongst people (Page & Connell, 2009, pp.30-35). Again, emphasis is usually made on the absence of violence. This type of peace shall be referred to as positive peace. Positive violence is apparently a widespread concept particularly in underprivileged groups.

Based on this viewpoint, the first and the second concepts would be easily and readily accepted in over privileged groups (Fairhurst et al., 2006, pp.315-320). According to Lim and Patterson (2008, pp.117-120), such groups are normally more interested in the existence of law, stability and order since acts of violence (through the lack of a peaceful environment) would have a direct impact on them.

A peaceful tourism environment, which is facilitated through is not- worthily rapidly relevance in the current business-oriented world with many policy-makers and organizations increasingly voicing their concerns towards the establishment of a peaceful tourism environment.

The UN World Tourism Organization, UN’s branch that specifically deals with international tourism endeavors, is among such entities and, over the recent times, this branch of UN has been able to do a lot in the creation of a peaceful tourism environment especially in war-prone countries (UNWTO, 2011, p.1).

The ideology that tourism promotes local and international promotes peace has been extensively deliberated among scholars (Chavez, 1999). Chavez further states that, although there is inadequate research showing the specific circumstances in which tourism can foster peace, there is a prevalent conviction that it pays to this far.

For example, travellers contribute to promotion of peacetime through tourism when they possess the compassionate attitude which considers the ‘other’ as a chance for emotional development, and meeting with the ‘other’ dealt with in a peaceful way (McElroy, 2006, pp.65-70).

According to Mehmetoglu (2004, pp.70-75), many scholars and macro-economists tend to support tourism as a influential force with the potential to reduce suspicion and tension in the tourism industry by having a positive impact in state politics, international relationships, regional businesses and world harmony.

In fact, a good number of these scholars have been able to propagate ideas that can help in fostering and developing peaceful relations between separate countries so as to help advancing the tourism industry.

However, empirical tests have not all the time supported peace through leisure industry thesis and some researchers have claimed that tourism can sometimes limit peace locally and internationally based on the many bureaucracies entailed in the industry (Chavez, 1999).

Whereas good relationships are often established in the tourism industry through engagement in various peaceful tourist activities; instances of bad blood amongst tourists with administrators or the locals have been reported in many countries and regions (Boberg & Cavinato, 1986, pp.12-15).

An example of such is the conflicts that often occur due to differences in religious and social beliefs amongst groups such as Christians and Muslims.

It is also hard to make the instance that tourism could avert conflict. The kind of theory used is one of a close analysis of contemporary social endeavors as the existence of justice.

This mainly reveals the development of the following four major themes: attention to good relationships with one’s personality and with other people as well; care for the communal benefits; safeguarding of global safety; and engagement in positive endeavors which promote, preserve, protect, and withstand a culture of goodwill; and finally, respect for human constitutional rights in regard to peaceful touristic endeavors.

In order to make the industry of tourism more sustainable and simply not about managing and controlling the adverse impacts of the industry; it must be understood that tourism is a crucial industry where local communities benefit, socially and economically, and this helps raise awareness as well as support the environment conservation (Wall, 1997, pp.483-485).

Moreover, in the tourism sector, economic progress and safety of the environmental should not be perceived as opposing forces. Instead, they should be followed progressively as aspirations that are mutually reinforcing actions and policies, which aim to strengthen benefits and help to reduce the costs in tourism sector (Toh et al., 2001, 426-432; and Swarbrooke, 1999, pp.30-40).

Furthermore, massive growth can be predicted in the tourism industry by the year 2020, provision of excellent chances for spreading affluence but present a lot of challenges and impending pressures to the local communities and the environment if mismanaged (Stuart & Nicoletta, 2006, pp.155-160). Climate change is acknowledged as a chiefly global issue with important repercussions for tourism (Selby, 2004, pp.67-69).

There is also an amassed admiration of the role of tourism when addressing world poverty since it reportedly fetches revenue to the poorest communities (Solberg & Preuss, 2007, p.213; Faulker, 2001, pp.135-140; and Fennell & Dowling, 2003, pp.33-40). Sustenance of tourism has become an issue of equivalent significance in both developing and developed countries. Below are some strategies that can be used in tourism sustainability.

Tourism and sustainability: This expresses the meaning of sustainability to tourism and why administrations require addressing it. This presents some key ideologies and programs for further sustainable tourism.

Policy inferences of a workable tourism plan: The twelve goals for additional practicable tourism issue as which are conversed in turn and strategy parts relevant to each of them identified.

Structures and policies for more workable tourism: It mainly entails the strategic creation of good governmental structures which can then be used in facilitating sustainable tourism practices needed to enhance progress. In doing so, careful consideration should be taken on the association between both international and local structures.

Influencing sustainable tourism: It majorly looks at the procedure of mounting tourism strategy that cherishes sustainability and recognizes some of the tactical choices which are eminently required.

Instruments for further sustainability of the tourism industry: An expansive explanation is given as a set of tools and how they can be relevantly used by governments. These include the usage of sustainable indicators, proper infrastructural provisions and planning, establishing proper regulations and legislations among others.

In recapitulation, both tourism and sustainable development are key subjects in today’s business-oriented world (Pradeep & Hu, 2009, pp.561-565). Gathering data on how to guide this document has been a result of looking at widespread practices by regimes everywhere in the world, in the advancement of strategies and application of mechanisms (Paraskevas & Arendell, 2007, pp.1560-1573).

Tourism is defined largely as travel-for-leisure which is supported by a multi-layered global service industry (Park & Boo, 2010, pp.95-100).

In conclusion, tourism has undoubtedly been an extremely multifaceted phenomenon where personalities and worldviews can be constantly represented, reconfirmed, consumed, modified and negotiated. It is important to acknowledge the positive impact of tourism as leading global industry.

However, for purposes of facilitating progress, it is imperative to maintain a realistic and non- glorifying attitude of its economic, socio-cultural, political and environmental, impacts (Chavez, 1999).

Scholars and other concerned parties have to ensure that the tourism stakeholders and shareholders are aware of the difference between the grandiloquence power of currently prevalent discourses (for example, peace-through-tourism, eco-tourism, and sustainable tourism among realities on the ground).

This research is clear indicator that, in the tourism industry, there is a lot of tension. These internal battles come on national, local, and global levels and, distinctively from culture; they also relate to race, social class, ethnicity, and gender (Page &Connell, 2009, pp.25-30). It is contradictory for an industry with conflict to claim to be privileged to foster a peaceful global tourism environment.

While not opposing the possibilities tourism has, it is therefore ethically advisable to address the many problems hindering peace the industry while striving to advance its strengths.

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