SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

EDITED BY

EUGENIA WICKENS  ALI BAKIR VASILIKI AVGELI

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

ISSUES, CHALLENGES & DEBATES

CONTENTS Editors Preface Keynote Abstracts Papers / Abstracts (in Alphabetical Order) List of Contributors Scientific Committee Co-Chairs Professor Eugenia Wickens, UK Professor Ali Bakir, UK Dr Vasiliki Avgeli, Crete Dr. Elham Alshaibani Dr. Alexandros Apostolakis Ass Prof. Karla Boluk Dr. Krzysztof Celuch Dr Mary Constantogou Dr Mustafa Daskin Dr Irini Dimou Dr. Vanessa GB Gowreesunkar Prof. Azilah Kasim Dr. Maria Konstantaki Prof Ramesh Raj Kunwar Ass Prof. Christina Koutra Dr Pedro Longart Prof. Korstanje Maximiliano Dr. Argiro Moudatsou Prof Ghazali Musa Prof Marina Novelli Ass Prof Gyan Nyaupane Prof. Jovan Popesku Dr. Ellen Quirke Prof. Ujjwal Satyal Dr Wendy Sealy Prof Tej Vir Singh Prof. Marios Soteriades Ass Prof Ray Sylvester Dr. Amitabh Upadhya Dr. George Xanthos Dr. Paradee Yasothornsrikul

Bucks New University, UK TEI of Crete, Greece University of Waterloo, Canada Warsaw School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Poland Hellenic Open University, Greece Sinop University, Turkey TEI of Crete, Greece Mauritius Institute of Education UUM, Malaysia Bucks New University, UK Tribhuvan University, Nepal NYIT, Abu Dhabi UK University of Palermo, Argentina EI of Crete, Greece Universiti Malaya, Malaysia University of Brighton, UK Arizona State University, USA Singidunum University, Serbia University of Reading, UK NATHM Academy, Nepal University of Chichester, UK Centre of Tourism Research & Development, Lucknow, India University of South Africa, South Africa Anderson University, USA Skyline University College, UAE TEI of Crete, Greece Mahasarakham University, Thailand

i

Editors’ Preface The ‘Sustainable Tourism Development: Issues, Challenges & Debates’ conference was organised by Bucks New University, UK, NATHM Academy, Nepal, TEI of Crete and held at Yak & Yeti, Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2017 attracted over sixty participants from twenty-seven countries. The Conference Proceedings comprise contributions from Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, USA, and several European countries. The conference offered paper sessions, three Keynote Addresses, two Panel Discussions, one Workshop, and several tours. The theme of ‘Sustainable Tourism Development’ was chosen because it recognises the growing interest amongst academics, policy-makers, and industry practitioners, in this important and rapidly developing subject area. The conference’s main aim was to provide a forum for discussing the latest issues and suggest solutions and strategies in the management of sustainable tourism in an era of climate change. Issues critical to the sustainability of tourism development were both presented and discussed. Participants presented papers from the perspective of theory and practice on the following related themes: • • • •

Development Planning Policy Marketing & Management

Given that there has been only minor editorial intervention, the papers and abstracts in the Conference Proceedings remain largely the work of the contributors. We would like to thank all contributors; without your interest in issues concerning the sustainable tourism development, the conference would not have taken place and would not have been so enjoyable and successful. We would also like to express our special thanks to members of the organising and scientific committees, our partners and sponsors. We sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this conference and that you will join us in expressing our thanks to the people of Nepal for their warm hospitality. Prof Eugenia Wickens Dr Ali Bakir Dr Vasiliki Avgeli

Conference Organising Committee

ii

Keynote Abstracts Mountaineering Tourism Ghazali MUSA Universiti Malaya, Malaysia Abstract Tourists visit mountains for various activities such as photography, skiing, trekking, appreciating mountain cultures and mountaineering. This keynote address focuses on mountaineering tourism, which is a form of sports and adventure ecotourism activity. It conceptualizes mountaineering tourism and discusses the main issues of concerns and their management considerations. Mountaineering tourism is defined as the activities of mountaineering tourists, their interplay with members of the climbing community and all associated stakeholders, together with associated impacts and management at the environmental and local community level” (Musa, Higham & Thompson-Carr, 2015). Adapting the sports conceptual framework from Weed and Bull (2004), mountaineering tourism is a complex interplay of ‘Activity’, ‘People’ and ‘Place’. ‘Activity’ relates to the geographical, historical and social development of mountaineering. ‘People’ focus on the internal aspects of those who (directly or indirectly) engage in mountaineering activities, which includes the motivation, personality, experience, satisfaction and behaviour of mountaineering tourists. ‘Place’ addresses unique destination contexts relating to the hosting of mountaineers to facilitate their climbs, impacts on the environment and the host community, together with management practices. Among crucial issues of ‘Activity’ are the competing needs of dedicated climbers and adventure tourists, the need for local guides, the commercial mountaineering and the role of The International Federation of Mountain Guides’ Associations (IFMGA). Mountaineers (People) differ in terms of gender, personality, motivation, skill, experience, behaviour and willingness to take risk, and these demand both the management of mountaineers and their commercial operation. Common consideration in the issues of ‘Place’ is tourism impacts, welfare of mountain community and health issues in the mountain region. We will propose the managerial considerations based on the three dimensions which are Activity, People and Place, of which the Place includes the management of mountain region and local community. Before making concluding remark, the future of mountaineering tourism will be highlighted. *Prof Ghazali Musa (PhD, MD), **James Higham (PhD), **Anna Carr-Thompson (PhD) *Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, MALAYSIA **Department of Tourism, University of Otago, New Zealand

Profile: Professor Ghazali Musa graduated with a medical degree from University of Malaya in 1991. He worked as a medical doctor for five years in Malaysia and received training in orthopedic rehabilitation in Singapore and the Netherlands. In 1997, he resigned from medical profession to study Tourism at University of Otago, New Zealand. He graduated with distinction in 1999 and was offered a PhD scholarship by the University. His diploma thesis examined scuba diving satisfaction in Sipadan Island. Ghazali completed his PhD study in 2002, with the thesis titled the health consequences of travel in high altitude environment: case iii

studies of Sagarmatha National Park (Nepal) and Tibet (China). He was a part-time lecturer at Otago University in 2002, and at University Malaya and Taylor’s University in Malaysia in 2003. In 2004, he started his current tourism career as a full-time lecturer at University Malaya. He became a full professor in 2012, and is currently the head for Business Strategy and Policy Department at University Malaya. He has over 100 publications which include 8 books, 18 book chapters and 50 refereed journal articles. 10 of his journal publications are in Tourism Management. Ghazali has supervised to completion 8 PhD students. Among his research areas are scuba diving tourism, mountaineering tourism, medical tourism and second home tourism. He is in the editorial boards of several international tourism journals, including Current Issues in Tourism, Annals of Leisure Research, International Journal of Tourism Cities, Asian Journal of Business and Accountancy, Current Issues in Asian Tourism, and International Journal of Tourism Science. Ghazali has passion in travelling and has travelled to over 100 countries. Among his greatest interests are swimming, scuba diving and mountaineering.

Travel Philanthropy and Sustainable Development: Critical Reflections On A Contested Relationship Marina NOVELLI University of Brighton, UK Abstract Travel philanthropy is not a new concept, which combines philanthropic principles with socialjustice-focused forms of tourism. Arising from frustration with the ineffectiveness of much conventional aid and traditional philanthropic giving, travel philanthropy is seen as a form of development assistance whereby funds, labour and/or other resources flow directly from the tourism industry into community development and conservation initiatives. As a westerner travelling into specific developing countries’ destinations, it is easy to be drawn into the desire of ‘helping the less fortunate’ or ‘doing things differently’ as philanthropist, volunteer or paid technical advisor on development matters. However, the reality is that we often fail to even understand our role as individuals travelling into unknown lands. Springing from the democratisation of charitable gift-giving, the growth of international travel and tourism and an increasing care about the socio-economic welfare of those living in less privileged conditions around the world, travel philanthropy exhibits characteristics from three broad philanthropic movements and approaches - traditional, modern and post-modern philanthropy. My keynote is draws upon my professional engagement as a critical pro-activist social scientist in and personal reflections on travel philanthropy and sustainable development. It is intended to further the debate towards a critical understanding of travel philanthropy as a broader contested practice.

Profile: Professor Marina Novelli is an expert in the field of international tourism policy, planning and development. She has advised on numerous international cooperation and research assignments funded by International Development Organisations (IDOs) such as: the World Bank, the UN, the EU, The Commonwealth Secretariat as well as National Ministries, Tourism Boards, Regional Development Agencies and Third Sector Organisations. Her international reputation is associated with the concept of niche tourism (Novelli, M. ed. (2005) Niche tourism: contemporary issues, trends and cases. Oxford: Elsevier) and with her iv

extensive applied research on tourism and development in Sub-Sahara Africa, also recently published in Novelli, M., (2016) Tourism and Development in sub-Sahara Africa: Contemporary Issues and Local Realities, Oxford: Routledge. At the University of Brighton (UK), she leads the research cluster on Policy, Practice and Development(https://www.brighton.ac.uk/cstl/research-areas/policy-practice-and development/index.aspx) of the Centre of Sport, Tourism and Leisure Studies (COSTALS), an affiliate member of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). She sees her mission as generating new knowledge on ways in which tourism can play a key role in sustainable development by stimulating local economies, conserving the environment, developing peoples and changing lives. She is returning to Nepal to share her research on ‘Travel Philanthropy and Sustainable Development – Critical reflections on a contested relationship', which was triggered by work conducted in Nepal in 2008 and evolved into a critical aspect of her on-going investigations into the role of tourism in sustainable development.

Sustainable Tourism Development in Developing Economies –Issues and Challenges Jovan POPESKU Singidunum University, Serbia Abstract The issue of the sustainable development, that is the effort to manage development in environmentally & socially sustainable way, is especially important for the developing economies that finished or will finish soon the transition from a centrally planned to market economy. These countries normally strongly support the tourism development in order to reach a number of economic and non-economic effects, particularly increased employment, more balanced regional development, and increased foreign tourism income. In this regards the key contradictions may be noticed between an intention to provide sustainable development and the other intention that will even sacrifice sustainable tourism development goals in order to achieve afore mentioned economic goals. Developing countries could be a real example of transformative power of tourism as a catalyst of peace, social justice and well-being in order to achieve societal transformation through tourism. According to the UNWTO latest data, international tourist traffic in developing countries is growing faster than the traffic in the developed countries. In 2016, the share of the developing countries in the global international tourist traffic was almost 45%. Tourism is one of the most important economic activities and one of the main sources of foreign exchange income in many developing countries. As announced by the UNWTO, in some countries tourism is the most viable and sustainable economic development option, with positive effects on reducing poverty. Tourism also has a number of negative effects. The common negative effects are negative impacts to biodiversity, cultural heritage and local societies, pollution of land, air and water, climate change, to name a few most visible. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to plan and manage tourism development following the sustainable tourism principles. One of the main issues for the tourism policy and policymaking is to promote tourism as a vehicle of economic growth in a sustainable way, in order to keep under control the increasing impacts that tourism has on the environment. In many developing countries lack of sustainable tourism development leads to the political instability, poor infrastructure, leakage of tourism revenues, excessive foreign ownership of tourism enterprises, high level of unskilled labour. v

One of the specific examples of sustainable tourism development in developing countries is Serbia, in its strive to increase its competitive position as a tourist destination. According to the World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitive Index (WEF TTCI), Serbia was positioned as 95th in the world among 141 countries and 35th in Europe among 37 countries, so Serbia’s overall competitiveness can be assessed as very low. Regarding the factors related to the sustainable tourism development Serbia was ranked as 72nd, while it was assessed very negative in regards to the natural resources – rank 135th. As categorised by the IUCN for the year 2015, the total of protected natural resources in Serbia covered 6.2% of its territory, while this percentage ranges among the main competitors in the region from 21.7% in the Check Republic to 37.3% in Slovakia. Key tourism development regions in Serbia, besides big cities, are mountain areas and the areas by the rivers, especially by the Danube, as the areas that can be attractive for the development of the different tourism forms. The character of the tourist resources in these regions requires that, besides economic and social dimensions, the tourism development should be based also on the spatial-environmental dimension. The possibility, type and intensity of the tourism development in these regions are essentially determined by their physical and geographical conditions and limitations. In this paper, there is an analysis of slightly different approach to tourism development in some tourist destinations in Serbia - Kopaonik Mountain as a national park, Old Mountain (Stara Planina) as a nature park and Viminacium archaeological site as a special purpose. This analysis will serve as a basis for underlining the orientation of Serbia as a developing economy towards the sustainable tourism development.

Profile: Jovan POPESKU is professor at Singidunum University, Department for Tourism and Hospitality Management, Belgrade, Serbia and coordinator of PH.D. Study program Tourism Management. He is teaching at undergraduate, master and Ph.D. studies. His field of research includes tourism marketing, tourism destination management and sustainable tourism management. He is experienced tourism development and marketing specialist, specialized for projects focusing on local and regional tourist destinations and specific tourism products (rural and ecotourism). His commitment to sustainable tourism development is especially expressed through his activities as President of Centre for Responsible and Sustainable Tourism Development, Belgrade, Serbia and cooperation with European and global organizations. He is author of three university textbooks and more than 80 journal articles and conference papers. He was co-author or leader of more than twenty domestic or international projects related to tourism destination management, tourism marketing and sustainable tourism development. He was the first CEO of National Tourism Organization of Serbia. Currently he is member of AIEST (International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism) as well as of GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) and member of the Managing Board of SEMA (Serbian Marketing Association).

vi

Papers /Abstracts (in Alphabetical Order) The Impact of Overcrowding on Authentic Tourist Experience at Iconic Sites: The Case of Nelson Mandela House-Museum in Soweto, South Africa ADINOLFI Maisa & IVANOVIC Milena 04 Sustainable Tourism Development in Sundarbans, Bangladesh (A World Heritage Site): Issues and Actions AMIN Mohammad Ruhual & JAHAN Nusrat 05 Tourism Impacts and Responses to Natural and Cultural Environment with two Examples in Turkish Mediterranean Landscapes ATİK Meryem, ORTAÇEŞME Veli & YILDIRIM Emrah 06 Transformative Effect of Community Based Tourism in the Employee, Service Providers and Local Community BANIYA Rojan, SHRESTHA Unita & KARN Mandeep 17 Erasing the Environmental Impact of Disposable Packaging: New SunlightDegradable and even Edible Bio-Plastics BARRETT Christopher J. 30 Tourist Satisfaction - A Case Study of Chitwan National Park BASNET Dinesh 31 Philanthro-WHAT? Voluntourism in an Ageing Population: A Discussion Paper BEETON Sue 32 Culinary Rural Homestays for Children in the Context of Cultural Experiences and Sustainable Tourism Development BUCZKOWSKA-GOŁĄBEK Karolina 33 Developing Institutional Resilience through Long-term Collaborative Planning CAMPBELL Brenda & NYAUPANE Gyan 34 Efficient Use of Data Resources Using the Example of Meetings and Events Industry Management in Poland in 2015 CELUCH Krzysztof 35 Challenges with RM Adoption in SMHEs CETIN Gurel, CIFCI Merve Aydogan, DINCER Fusun Istanbullu & KARAYILAN Eyup 36 Ecotourism in Costa Rica: An Alternative Model for Tourism CHAKRABARTY Arnab 47 Tourism and Maritime Spatial Planning: The case of the Aegean Sea islands CONSTANTOGLOU Mary & PAVLOGEORGATOS Gerasimos 48 Women's Mountaineering Tourism: An Empirical Investigation of its Theoretical Constraint Dimensions DORAN, Adele & LOW Tiffany 49 Why Tourism Eludes the Grasp of Stakeholders: Some Reflections on Sustainability GOWREESUNKAR Vanessa G. B., NAQVI Masood A. & SINGH Tej Vir 50 Examining Gastronomic Experiences Using Auto-Driven Photo- Elicitation GREGORASH Bill J 51

Page | 1

Sustainability for Tourism Health Destinations – Network Management as an Opportunity GRIESSER Philip Mapping 60 Years of Change in a Remote Mountain Village: A Case Study of Sustainable Development in Kagbeni VDC, Nepal GURUNG Laxmi Ameliorating Poverty for Village Women in Rural Nepal Through Tourism HILLMAN Wendy & RADEL Kylie Sustainable Astrotourism Tourism Development: A Social Ecological Systems Perspective HOBBINS Robert J & NYAUPANE Gyan P Cultural Creatives redefining sustainability: evidence from South Africa IVANOVIC Milena Sustainability as Attraction – How Mundane Places and Practices Become Tourist Attractions in Scandinavia JØRGENSEN Matias Thuen Sustainability in Hospitality Industry: A Study of Nagarkot, Nepal JOSHI Basant P. & KUNWAR Ramesh Raj Environmental Sustainability of Olympic Games: A Comparison of Initiatives in Developed and Developing Countries KONSTANTAKI Maria Hoteliers’ Sources of Bargaining Power in the Negotiations with Large Tour Operators: An Exploratory Study in Cyprus KOUTRA Christina Understanding South African Consumers’ Cuisine and Dining Preferences KRUGER Martinette & SAAYMAN Melville In-Depth Review of Micro-Economic Areas for Business Tourist’s Spending Patterns KUMAR Jeetesh, FUKEY Leena Nitin & GARG Anshul

Consumer Preferences for Hotel Brand and Brand Sustainability: Luxury Hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia KUMAR Jeetesh, GARG Anshul & SANGARAN Gopinath Re-understanding and Re-constructing Ecotourism: China’s Experience LI Hongbo Empowerment Through the Outdoors – How Can Outdoor Businesses Empower Women in Nepal? LINDVERT Marta Economic - Organizational Analysis of the Public Tourism Sector in Campania, Italy: Management, Tourism Business Model and Human Resources Issues MARINO Alfonso & PARISO Paolo Scientific Sustainable Tourism as a Learning Methodology MARTÍNEZ MUÑOZ Miriam & SUCH DEVESA María Jesús Scuba Diving and Sustainability: An Assessment of Online Travel Reviews NAIDOO Perunjodi, LI Jing & RAMSEOOK-MUNHURRUN Prabha

52

62 63

64 65

66 67

82

83 84

85

92 101

102

103 115 121 Page | 2

Prospects and Challenges of Ecotourısm in Nepal NEUPANE Prakash Chandra The Relationships among Destination Image, Perceived Quality, Tourist Satisfaction and Revisit intentions: A case of Maesa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai, Thailand NITITTANON Nonpawit, HUAN Tzung-Cheng & TSAI Chin-Fa Tourscape: A Sustainable Rural Tourism Development Approach NYAUPANE Gyan Exploring Waste Behaviour in Nature-Based Tourism: A Case Study from the Nepalese Himalaya POSCH Eva How Involvement and Economic Benefits Can Change Local Residents’ Attitudes of Nature Conservation and Tourism: Results from two Decades of Research in Karula National Park, Estonia REIMANN Mart & SLASTINOVSKI Marko Sustainable Rural Tourism Development Proposal at Mission Espada in San Antonio, Texas SATUMANE Anupam Dutt & DOGANER Sedef Collaborative Partnerships in Event Management Education: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly SEALY Wendy Ecotourism, a tool for Empowerment of the Local Community with Special Reference to Sikkim, India SHERPA Dawa Doma Tourists (Un)Ethical Judgments in Hong Kong TOLKACH Denis, PRATT Stephen & ZENG Christine Creative Sustainability and Tourism Destination Management: An Exploratory Analysis UPADHYA Amitabh How commercial tours follow Ecotours WATANABE Yasuhiro Challenging the Espoused Ideals of Volunteer Tourism: The Case of WWOOF in New Zealand WENGEL Yana, MCINTOSH Alison & COCKBURN-WOOTTEN Cheryl

122

133 148

149

161

162

163

174 193

194 195

207

Page | 3

The Impact of Overcrowding on Authentic Tourist Experience at Iconic Sites: The Case of Nelson Mandela House-Museum in Soweto, South Africa

ADINOLFI Maisa and IVANOVIC Milena

Abstract Long queues and overcrowded spaces are usually associated with the most famous iconic sites in every destination in the world. The original Nelson Mandela house in famous Vilakazi street in Soweto, the only street in the world to have housed two Nobel Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is one such iconic site in South Africa. Because of its small size, only 40m2, the physical Carrying Capacity, inside the house/museum is limited to 20 visitors at the time. Despite limited numbers, the Mandela House receives on average 400 visitors daily which over the weekends results in longer queuing time and congested space. The paper is set to explore the impacts of overcrowding on the authenticity of tourist experience of the house where Nelson Mandela once lived with his family. This is a mixed method study whereby the results of visitors’ survey consisting of 200 questionnaires are supplemented with participant observations and in-depth interviews with the visitors. The sample of 200 visitors is stratified into two equal groups, those who did not wait long (3 minutes and less) and those who waited 15 minutes and longer. More specifically, this paper is set to determine if the queuing time has an impact on the authenticity of tourist experience at iconic sites, and what difference, if any, is there between the two groups. In addition, the paper explores the impacts of overcrowding, especially noise and congestion, on the authentic tourist experience at the Mandela House as an iconic tourist site. Keywords: Queuing time, Crowding, Authentic Experience, Nelson Mandela House, South Africa

Page | 4

Sustainable Tourism Development in Sundarbans, Bangladesh (A World Heritage Site): Issues and Actions

AMIN Mohammad Ruhual and JAHAN Nusrat Abstract Efficient management of the visitor economy at any destination not only positively contributes to the visitors’ experience enhancement but also augments the opportunities available and guards the environment whilst ensuring the interest of the host community and businesses operating within it (Visit England, 2015). This study is an initiative to effectively develop and manage tourism at Sundarbans, Bangladesh, a world heritage site, using sustainable measures so that a high-quality visitor experience can be ensured and the impact of tourism on Sundarbans’ environment and on its host community can be managed. This study starts with a destination audit and conducts a situation analysis according to some indicators suggested by the UNWTO (2004) in their guidebook “Indicators for Sustainable Development of Tourism Destination”. Based on the destination audit, situation analysis, and in-depth interviews with the industry experts, a set of issues has been identified which Sundarbans is currently facing due to tourism. Since, each of the identified issues is different in terms of their significance and impacts; prioritization of these issues has been prepared to address them. Moreover, the UNWTO (2007, p. 2) stated that “Destination management calls for a coalition of many organizations and interests working towards a common goal”. Therefore, this study recommended a multi-level stakeholders approach to achieve the common goal ‘Sustainable Tourism Development in Sundarbans’. Finally, this study finishes with an action plan along with the key stakeholders and their contributory roles for ensuring the sustainable tourism development and management at Sundarbans, Bangladesh. Key words: Sustainable Tourism, Sustainable Tourism Development, Prioritization Matrix, Sundarbans

Page | 5

Tourism Impacts and Responses to Natural and Cultural Environment with two Examples in Turkish Mediterranean Landscapes

ATİK, Meryem ORTAÇEŞME Veli | YILDIRIM Emrah Abstract Landscape with natural and cultural characters provides source and media for tourism activities. Landscape and tourism are highly related; tourism draws attention to environmental and landscape diversity. However, if not well managed, tourism puts high pressure on landscape qualities and cause exploitation of landscapes. Tourism impacts and responses to natural and cultural environment with two examples in Turkish Mediterranean landscapes were discussed in this study. Impacts were reviewed with regard to lands use changes while social, economic, ecological, cultural and visual sustainability were interpreted as an alternative for a recovery. Kemer with respect to mass tourism and environmental impacts and Çıralı with respect small-scale tourism activities were compared regarding to how tourist preferences turn into a demand for the natural and cultural values when impacts of tourism over stated. Negative impacts together with economic vulnerability in Kemer showed that tourists adopt their activities for preserved natural and cultural environment in Çıralı case which encourage local tourism in a sustainable manner where pillars of sustainability are incorporated by local communities. Keywords: Tourism, landscape, tourism impacts, sustainable tourism, Antalya 1. Introduction Landscape is natural and cultural features in a particular area created by the interactions of man and nature which bring distinct characters to the scenery that appealing for people to visit and see. Landscape and tourism are highly related; tourism draws attention to environmental and landscape diversity. On the other hand, undesirable impacts of tourism inevitably alter biophysical and cultural character of the landscapes. When tourism occurs in environmentally fragile areas with high landscape quality, its impact on the environment is significant on ecological, visual and socio-cultural terms (Atik, Altan and Artar, 2010). Until the 1970’s, tourism has been accepted as a white industry neglecting its impacts (Bundesamt für Naturschutz, 1997). However, overcrowding, misuse of natural resources, construction of buildings and infrastructure and other activities associated with tourism, produce impacts on the environment (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1996). These impacts are most evident where mass tourism developments take place. Mass tourism depends heavily on nature and natural resources with crowds of visitors. Alternatively, sustainable tourism has been a positive approach intended to reduce the tensions of complex interactions between the tourism industry, visitors, the environment, and communities (Shaw, Williams and Dinan, 2004) while mass tourism consumes local environment and transforms cultural and social fabric for the economic viability. Benur and Bramwell (2015) state that diversified mass tourism is evident in many large coastal resorts around the Mediterranean including Turkey. Tourism developments in Turkey go back to 1960’s, when the country stepped into planning period. Since then, tourism is an important source of income for the national economy and demands for tourism exaggerated Page | 6

the pressures mainly on the coastal areas of high natural and visual value. Today, more than 35 million people are visiting Turkey where incomes from tourism fulfill 1/3 of the foreign exchange revenues. Incentives given for mass tourism market ended up by the replacement of natural, rural and agricultural areas with urban areas, large hotels, roads and ancillary facilities in the Mediterranean and Aegean costs of the country. Uras (2006) stated that the large number of government incentives issued for the tourism sector in the 1980s resulted in massive and rapid expansion of tourism facilities throughout the Mediterranean Turkey, while Bell et al. (2013) confirmed that tourism in Turkish Mediterranean Region has tended to mean mass tourism, where large hotels close to the beach offer all-inclusive packages for one or two weeks’ duration of sun, sea and sand. Mass tourism endorse alternative approaches in tourism market for small scale tourism initiatives that responses environment, culture and capacities of its destination. Lines of tourists searching for the individuality and locality encourage responsible and sustainable tourism practices. Recently, economic, political and regional conflicts particularly in the Mediterranean brought fragility to mass tourism destinations. Responsible and sustainable tourism now becomes beyond an option, but a guarantee for local stability. The aim of this study was to examine two different examples from Turkish Mediterranean; Kemer for mass tourism and Çıralı for sustainable tourism with responses to natural and cultural environment. Tourism impacts were examined with respect to lands use changes while social, economic, ecological, cultural and visual sustainability were interpreted as an alternative recovery. 2. Material and Method Material of the study covers two examples from South Antalya region in Turkish Mediterranean; Kemer district as a mass tourism destination and Çıralı district with smallscale tourism activities (Figure 1). The South Antalya Region was dedicated as the first integrated tourism site by the 1970s and has become the most attractive coastal tourism destination in the region with diverse natural and cultural characteristics.

Figure 1. Location of the study sites Both study sites contain a great diversity of natural and cultural landscapes. Kemer is enclosed by a natural harbor while Çıralı is located on a small pocket of a coastal plain. They are both surrounded by evergreen Mediterranean forests of Turkish pine ( Pinus brutia). Mediterranean Page | 7

climate with very hot summers and rainy, temperate winters dominantly extends tourism activities throughout the year. The main land use activity is tourism in Kemer, while tourism and agriculture play an important role in the local economy of Çıralı. Olimpos – Beydağları National Park strengthen the conservation issues in the region. The method of the study is twofold. First part of the study combines the examination of land use changes in Kemer and Çıralı as an evidence of tourism-induced impacts by using Google Earth satellite images belonging the years of 1995, 2002/2005 and 2016. Land use changes were interpreted by using ArcView 10.0 and quantified in GIS software. Second part of study incorporates impacts of changes brought by tourism and consequences with respect to sustainable tourism. Sustainability for tourism is based on the principles of the sustainable tourism defined by World Tourism Organization and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2005). Perspectives of sustainability were discussed according to Potschin and Haines-Young (2006), Gomez-Sal, Belmontes and Nicolau (2003), Atik and Altuntaş (2011) as social, economic, ecological, cultural and visual (Table 1). Table 1. Principles and perspectives of sustainability for tourism

Sustainability Principles Social Local control, social Economic Ecological Cultural Visual

equity, community wellbeing Economic viability, employment quality, local prosperity Biological diversity, environmental purity Cultural richness, visitor fulfillment Visual and physical integrity

Perspectives To sustain the identity of the society, enhance the life quality that compatible with cultural and social values. To maintain a development based on sustainable use of resources and to guarantee economic productivity for future generations. To preserve ecological sustainability in balance with ecological processes, biological diversity and natural resources. To help to protect cultural traditions, products and heritage. To preserve and maintain visual integrity between natural and built environment

3. Land Use Changes and Two Patterns of Tourism in Turkish Mediterranean Tourism has been an important pursuit in Turkey since 1960’s. Alipour (1996) specifies that Turkey has an exceptional wealth of tourism assets which compare favorably with those of competing countries in the Mediterranean region. Antalya is Turkey’s most popular and visited tourist destination (Bell et al., 2013) hosting nearly 15 million people with more than 2.000 accommodations (Antalya Valiliği, 2013). South Antalya and Kemer was the earliest site developed by 1970’s with a tourism plan which become a milestone for regional economy. In the beginning, protecting nature, controlling environmental impacts, offering leisure opportunities and income for locals were the pillars of this plan. However, due to increasing demands and Tourism Incentives Law which passed through Turkish Parliament in 1982, Page | 8

further plan revisions were carried out in 1988, 1990 and 1996 rising bed capacities from 52,000 to 65,000 which reached up to 78.000 beds already in the region (Table 2). Table 2. Tourist arrivals and touristic capacities in Antalya and Kemer (Atik, 2003; Turizm İl Müdürlüğü, 2005; Turizm İl Müdürlüğü, 2011; Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2017) Number of Arrivals

Antalya Kemer

2000

2005

2010

2015

4.254.147

8.236.761

13.636.385

Around 10.000.000

1.066.789

1.817.619

2.794.020

2.841.489

Touristic Capacities Hotels Beds

Hotels Beds

Hotels Beds

Antalya

518 149.603

943 303.614

2.246 489.173

Kemer

150 36.150

252 57.557

357 78.000

Hotels Beds

3.1. Kemer, Tourism-induced Impacts Kemer was a tiny village with 1,500 people in 1950’s and has become a tourism resort after the 1970s (Atik, 2003). By the revisions of Forestry Act No. 6831 (Turkish Environment Fund, 1999) the forests in Turkey were opened up to private ownership and tourism developments and Kemer is no exception to this. Land use changes between 1995, 2002 and 2016 in Kemer showed that biggest lost were in macchia and reed beds while the size of hotel accommodations were tripled and urban settlements grew more than 4 times in 21 years (Table 3, Figure 2). Kızılöz (2000) indicated that transformation of forests caused a loss in traditional land use patterns and local identities in Kemer. According to Uyar (2000) it was possible for small villages like Kemer to become municipal settlements during the planning process between 1974 and 1985 and this led to a high increase in urban expansion in the entire region. Ulubay, Torun and Avcı (2003) emphasized a 10% decrease in forest area in Kemer between 1963 and 1995, while built-up areas of holiday villages and hotels increased 30 times. Impacts that induced by tourism in Kemer were not only physical but also social. Tourism developments have shifted local people from agriculture to tourism. This adversely changed the life styles and customs of the local communities in the region and created displacement of cultural identities and traditions from local to westernized fashion. Economic viability in Kemer with the opportunities for employment and income attracted many people from outside both from Turkey and other countries to work and settle, which brought another wave of cultural change both to the region and communities.

Page | 9

Table 3. Land use changes in Kemer (Decare) Land Use Types

1995

2016

%

Open field

475,5

0,8

724,8 1,1

328,7

0,5

River bed

944,6

1,5

962,1 1,5

902,0

1,4

Urban settlement

1496,5

2,4

4034,6 6,4

6523,2

10,3

Rural settlement

2357,6

3,7

1953,9 3,1

1774,2

2,8

28,8

0,0

28,8 0,0

28,8

0,0

636,4

1,0

581,5 0,9

550,9

0,9

Macchia

2075,8

3,3

-

Citrus garden

9724,1

15,4

9944,5 15,7

7813,5

12,3

43048,8

68,0

42250,3 66,7

42207,7

66,7

Reed bed

1047,9

1,7

344,1 0,5

215,7

0,3

Hotels

1473,2

2,3

2484,4 3,9

2964,4

4,7

Beach Sand dune

Forest

%

2002

%

-

-

-

Figure 2. Land use changes in Kemer 3.2. Çıralı, Tourism as a Tool for Local Development Çıralı was a small wintering ground in the past for nomadic people in a natural setting. Based on agriculture with citrus groves and greenhouse production, it was typically a small coastal village established spontaneously on the outskirts of Olimpos Mountains, surrounded by pine forest, and laying along a small coastal plain. Agriculture was introduced to Çıralı in the form of Page | 10

cotton cultivation in the 1960’s, with greenhouses in the 1970s. It was 1980s that Çıralı has met tourism by means of individual backpackers and family visitors and evolved a responsible tourism site by local initiatives. Number of home-pensions increased steadily from 11 to 160 in 27 years (Table 4). Table 4. Number of pensions in Çıralı (KARE, 2000; Local Statistics, 2012 and 2016) Years

1989

Number of Pensions 11

1992

1995

2000

2012

2016

16

50

55

70

160

Relating to local characteristics, Çıralı is characterized by the forests of Turkish pine ( Pinus brutia) and macchia vegetation. Interesting landscape features are mountains, coasts, dunes, rivers, traditional land use patterns, historical sites of Chimera (Yanartaş) and Olimpos ancient city. A remnant of coastal forest of stone pine (Pinus pinea) and a coastal habitat of loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) are other important natural assets in Çıralı. Wild and protected nature and distinct rural life enriches cultural and natural characteristics of Çıralı. However, a key element that makes Çıralı unique is the appreciation of natural, social and cultural values but also identity of local traditions both by local communities and visitors. In Çıralı, most land use change occurred in reed beds on open coastal plain which were transferred into open and arable fields, pension and settlement grounds (Table 5 and Figure 3). Table 5. Land use changes in Çıralı (Decare) Land Use Types

1995

%

2005

%

2016

%

Open field

49,3

0,6

182,0

2,3

144,3

1,8

River bed

170,1

2,1

170,1

2,1

170,1

2,1

Stone pine

78,1

1,0

78,1

1,0

78,1

1,0

Rural settlement

640,3

8,1

1077,3

13,6

1011,5

12,8

Sand dunes

321,7

4,1

321,7

4,1

321,7

4,1

Macchia

284,8

3,6

32,1

0,4

31,8

0,4

Citrus garden

358,4

4,5

444,6

5,6

364,6

4,6

5163,5

65,2

5163,5

65,2

5163,5

65,2

848,9

10,7

353,7

4,5

232,6

2,9

1,2

361,8

4,6

-

35,0

0,4

Forest Reed bed Pension

-

-

91,9

Arable field

-

-

-

Page | 11

Figure 3. Land use changes in Çıralı

4. Principles for Sustainability as the Recovery of Impacts There is no doubt that tourism serves an important social function by providing a contrast with everyday preoccupation (Edington and Edington, 1986). With regards to sustainability, social function of tourism is more related with the well being of local communities and social justice. Cultural sustainability refers to an adaptation that communities accept and accommodate to their way of life and environment traditions which would eventually help to protect cultural traditions, products and heritage. Economic sustainability is to guarantee economic productivity for future generations and social sustainability targets at the developments that maintain the identity and life quality of the society, while ecological processes and biological diversity are crucial from sustainability perspectives (Table 5 and Figure 4). Most services are run from outside in Kemer by international and wider national companies based on centralized policies. Homogenizing regional landscapes with large tourism buildings cause loss of regional characteristics and decay landscape quality.

a Figure 4. Views from Kemer (a) and Çıralı (b)

b

Page | 12

Table 5. Perspectives of Sustainability for Kemer and Çıralı Sustainability Principles Perspectives Kemer Social Economic Ecological Cultural Visual Çıralı Social Economic Ecological Cultural Visual

Local control, social equity, community wellbeing, Economic viability, employment quality, local prosperity, Biological diversity, environmental purity Cultural richness, visitor fulfillment, Visual and physical integrity, Local control, social equity, community wellbeing, Economic viability, employment quality, local prosperity, Biological diversity, environmental purity Cultural richness, visitor fulfillment, Visual and physical integrity,

Centralized policies, High immigration, westernized life style, limited employment for local people Take over of big tourism companies and hotel chains, single market dependency Exploitation natural environment; sand dunes, macchia, reed beds, Introduction of unfamiliar customs, abandonment of local land use patterns, Depletion of visual quality by multistory buildings Local initiatives, community involvement Family run pensions, use of local products, generation of local employment, Protection of sand dunes, local endemics Protection of local traditions, cultural heritage Maintained harmony between low lying local buildings and nature

5. Conclusions Kemer with respect to mass tourism and environmental impacts and Çıralı with respect to small-scale tourism activities were discussed and compared in this study. Negative impacts together with economic vulnerability in Kemer showed that tourists adopt their activities for preserved natural and cultural environment in Çıralı case. Recent circumstances in the Turkish Mediterranean showed that mass tourism destinations are more prone to instability than local scale tourism sites. Tourist preferences turn into a demand for intact and safe environment together with natural and cultural values when the impacts of tourism over stated in the absence of stability and certainty both in economic and political agenda. Embodiment of sustainability in tourism is closely linked with the manifestation of principles to improve local economies and communities and to protect local environment through tourism. Presence and practice about engaged and active participation of local communities play an important role in sustainable tourism. Concrete form of sustainability and responsible approach to tourism were given by local community in Çıralı incorporating their way of life into the tourism activity. Pillars of sustainability are voiced and incorporated by local communities in Çıralı, while practice of mass tourism prioritized by governmental agencies and big chains of tourism companies in Kemer. Economic viability, local prosperity, community well being and social equity mutually encourage local people to sustain their active part in tourism incorporating cultural as well as natural values into tourism product. Both visitor fulfillment and community wellbeing are the pillars of the benchmarks for sustainability showing the satisfaction of the visitors and locals about the natural and cultural Page | 13

environment and services that offered during their holiday and developments in the holiday destination. Analyzing residents' perceptions toward tourism development in Kemer Region, Sinclair-Maragh et al. (2015) advised that tourism planners need to devise the most appropriate strategies geared at sustainable tourism development. The attraction of destinations for tourists normally depends on the destinations' physical, environmental and socio-cultural characteristics or attributes as primary tourism products (Jafari, 1982). This development strategy involves tourists being attracted to the destination in large numbers based on a single or just a few primary and small-scale tourism products. According to Bell et all (2013), tourism in Çıralı has gradually and uniquely developed by local people by opening pensions and smaller-scale accommodation which attracted smaller numbers but environmentally responsible tourists who wanted to avoid the mass-market experience. Rural areas in which landscape or nature are the only or one of the unique selling points (Goosen, 2011). Çıralı is a small village on a coastal pocket plain surrounded by native pine forests and protected areas. Agriculture in the locality has been practiced traditionally ensuring a viable economic operation. Local tourism products run by local farmers and cooperative arrangements in Çıralı have been a key attraction for visitors seeking an experience of locality with traditions, protected nature and typical native setting which in return provide long-term socio-economic benefits for the communities. Sustainable tourism should maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience for the tourists. Çıralı beach is a nesting habitat for loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and ecological monitoring of turtle breeding run by local initiatives support biological diversity and draw the attention of many visitors. Environmental purity generated by the protection of nature and local enterprises adds to the visitor fulfillment and distinct character for tourism market. Committed adaptation to tourism developments without undermining their lifestyles is fundamental for cultural sustainability which eventually promotes traditions and products of the region. The most visible example of a sustainable cooperation in Çıralı is between tourism and agriculture and tourism and conservation. Çıralı has been seen as a model for sustainable tourism for many other regions. Family run pensions, organic agriculture, authenticity of rural life as well as natural and historical settings are the key features of tourism in Çıralı. Ecological farming in an area of 26 hectares free from commercial agro-chemicals has been a useful tool in preventing building construction on arable fertile agricultural land. The number of certified eco-farmers increased up to 33. Tourism has significant contribution to the general economic recovery and is approached by all significant actors as one of the priority sectors (Barbu et al., 2013). This is evident for both cases of Kemer and Çıralı that tourism has brought economic viability. However, perspectives of sustainability differentiated profoundly for both cases. References Alipour, H. (1996). Tourism Development within Planning Paradigms: The Case of Turkey. Tourism Management, 17 (5), pp. 367-377. Antalya Valiliği (2013). Tedbirler; 27.05.2013 tarih ve 103215 sayılı Bakanlığımız yazısı. İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Available at: http://www.antalyakulturturizm.gov.tr/dosya/1301155/h/tedbirler100720137156.PDF [Accessed 27.05.2013]. Atik, M. (2003). Güney Antalya Bölgesindeki Turizm Gelişmelerinin Doğal Çevre Üzerine Etkileri ve Sürdürülebilir Turizm Olanakları. Çukurova Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü Peyzaj Mimarlığı Anabilim Dalı, Doktora Tezi No: 774, Adana.

Page | 14

Atik, M., Altan, T. and Artar, M. (2010). Land Use Changes in Relation with Coastal Tourism Developments in Turkish Mediterranean. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 19 (1), pp. 21-33. Atik, M. and Altuntaş, A. (2011). Visions for Sustainability in Landscape Architecture and Heritage Conservation: Three Examples from Turkish Mediterranean, Antalya. ICON-LA International Conference of Landscape Architecture Projects: from Theory to Technical Implementation. New Tendencies and Perspectives, 29 May–3 June, 2011 St.Petersburg – Russia, Book of Abstracts, pages 8-9. Barbu, C., Stefanescu, L., Ungureanu, L., Constantinescu, M.A., Nehulescu, M., Matei, I.V., Ghita, M. (2013). Natural and Anthropic Resources Used in Sustainable Tourism Development in Oltenia. Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology, 14(1), pp.303-313. Bell, B., Brinkhijsen, M., Atik, M., Pröbstl, U., Jiricka, A., Larden, M., Tratsela, M., Rodrıgues, F.M., Roe, M. and Alves, S. (2013). Sustainable Tourism, in "Antalya's Landscape": in Stiles R, Ortaçeşme V, Meers, S, Libbrecht H, Bell S, De Vries J, Eds., Mazowiecki Centrum Poligrafi, Marki, Poland, pp.145-181. Benur, A.M. and Bramwell, B. (2015). Tourism product development and product diversification in destinations. Tourism Management, 50, pp. 213-224. Beyhan, Ş.G., Ünügür, S.M.,2006. Turizm Yapılarında Kimlik Sorunu ve Belek-Kemer Örnekleme Çalışması. Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü Dergisi, 10-2, pp. 262-273. Bundesamt für Naturschutz, (1997). How much environment is travel going to cost us. Bundesamt Für Naturschutz, German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Kostantinstrasse 110, D-53176 Bonn. Ceballos-Lascurain, H. (1996). Tourism, Ecotourism, and Protected Areas. Island Press, p.301. Cirer-Costa, J.C. (2017). Turbulence in Mediterranean tourism. Tourism Management Perspectives, 22, pp. 27-33. Edington J.M. and Edington, M.A (1986). Ecology, Recreation and Tourism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.200. Gòmez-Sal, A., Belmontes, J.A. and Nicolau J.M. (2003). Assessing Landscape values: a proposal for a multidimentional conceptual model. Ecological Modeling, 168, pp. 319-341. Goosen, M. (2011). An innovative tool for understanding the dualistic relationship of landscape and tourism. In Melanie Smith, Leontine Onderwater, Landscape and Tourism: The Dualistic Relationship ATLAS Reflections 2011; pp. 25-35. Hernandez, J.M., Suarez-Vega, R. & Santana-Jimenez, Y. (2016). The inter-relationship between rural and mass tourism: The case of Catalonia, Spain. Tourism Management, 54, pp. 43-57. Jafari, J. (1982). The Tourism Market Basket of Goods and Services; The Components and Nature of Tourism. In T. Singh, J. Kaur, D. Singh, & S. Misra (Eds.), Studies in tourism, wildlife, parks, conservation (pp. 1e12). New Delhi: Metropolitan. Kare (2000). Çıralı Koruma Amaçlı İmar Planı Raporu. KARE Şehircilik – Mimarlık Hizmetleri Ltd.Şti., Antalya, 134 sayfa. Kızılöz, B. (2001). Kare Planlama, Varlık M. 177 Sok, No. 10/2, Antalya. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı (2017). Turizm İstatistikleri. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Yatırım ve işletmeler Genel Müdürlüğü. Available at http://www.ktbyatirimisletmeler.gov.tr/TR,9851/turizmistatistikleri.html [01.03.2017].

Newsome, D., Moore, S.A. and Dowling, R.K. (2013). Natural Area Tourism – Ecology, Impacts and Management. Channel View Publication, Bristol, UK, p. 457. Mathew, P.V., and Sreejesh S. (2017). Impact of responsible tourism on destination sustainability and quality of life of community in tourism destinations. Journal of Hospitality and Toursim Management, 31, pp. 83-89.

Page | 15

Potschin, M., Haines-Young, R. (2006). “Rio+10”, Sustainable Science and Landscape Ecology. Landscape and Urban Planning, 75, pp. 162-174. Shaw, G., Williams, A. and Dinan, C. (2004). Resort Europe: The Limits of Mass Tourism and the Rise of Sustainable Practices. AREA Studies - EUROPE Regional Sustainable Development Review. Sinclair-Maragh, G., Gürsoy D. and Vieregge, M. (2015). Residents' perceptions toward tourism development: A factor-cluster approach. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 4, pp. 36–45. Turizm İl Müdürlüğü (2005). Antalya İli Turizm İstatistikleri. Antalya İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Antalya. Turizm İl Müdürlüğü (2011). Antalya İli Turizm İstatistikleri. Antalya İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Antalya. Turkish Environment Fund, 1999. Turkish Legislation on Environment. Tunalı Hilmi Cad. 50/20 Kavaklıdere-Ankara, ISBN 975-7250-48-1. Ulubay, A., Torun A. and Avcı, M. (2003). The Impact of Urban Development to the Environment in Kemer. The International Colloquium Series on Land Use/Cover Change Science and Application presents: Studying Land Use Effects in Coastal Zones with Remote Sensing and GIS, August 13-16 Kemer, Antalya. UNEP (2005). Making Tourism More Sustainable A Guide for Policy Makers. United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Paris. Uras, A. (2006). Making Tourism More Sustainable: Processes and tools: Case study: Tourism development in Turkey: overview and examples. Workshop on Sustainable Tourism "Our Environment Our Life" Al Bayda, Libya, 28-29 November 2006. Uyar, F. (2001). Kare Planlama, Varlık M. 177 Sok, No. 10/2, Antalya.

Page | 16

Transformative Effect of Community Based Tourism in the Employee, Service Providers and Local Community BANIYA Rojan, SHRESTHA Unita & KARN Mandeep Abstract Despite good intentions, questions have been raised regarding the failure of community-based tourism to deliver (Goodwin, 2006). Due to lack of financial viability community-based tourism did not succeed in Latin America (Mitchell & Muckosy, 2008) and they reported “ the most likely outcome for a CBT initiative is collapse after funding dries up.” Thus, a CBT necessarily has not been transformative to people, community and society, this study will analyze three CBT program incorporated in Nepal. Firstly, it will test whether CBT can have transformative effect based on respondent’s experience, then secondly, it will identify the reasons behind success/failure of CBT and thirdly based on the outcomes it will create an advocacy for CBT. Ultimately, as shared by Rosenbaum et all “TSR is a call for service research that relates to and

advocates for personal and collective well-being of consumers and, more broadly, citizens and the entire global ecosystem.” This is an attempt to contribute to TSR movement. This research links transformative service and community-based tourism together, which has future implication. Clearly, in developing countries, many attempts are brought in by national and international community to uplift livelihood of the places. CBT is one of such activities. The research focuses primarily in three communities based tourism endeavors at various locations. All these three places have implemented community-based tourism. Although the research is conducted at three different locations of Nepal, we are confident that this study’s findings will generalized globally to other similar programs. Keywords: Community Based Tourism, Trans-formative Effect, Community Well Being, Individual Well Being, Quality of Life Introduction With much of the focus of past researches of top journals being on organizational bottom line, recently criticism has arose for scholarly acts not giving enough attention to more meaningful things like quality of life, well being etc. (Mick et al., 2012). In his presidential address, David Mick (2006) called for consumer research to be more than ‘for profitability’ rather

“investigations that are framed by a fundamental problem or opportunity, and that strive to respect, uphold, and improve life in relation to the myriad conditions, demands, potentialities, and effects of consumption.” Since then many scholars have taken transformative consumer research as a movement for betterment. The service marketing area could not remain unaffected by this change. Evidently, our life and our wellbeing as individuals, employees, families, and communities revolves around services we consume on daily basis, thus with same notion of transformative consumer research, came in existence transformative service and its subsequent research, conceptualized by Rosenbaum et al. in 2011. Now transformative service research (TSR) has taken shape that without any confirm for academic discipline, it seeks out to understand the relationship between service and well being; more specifically focusing on creating “uplifting changes” at improving lives at all levels (Anderson & Ostrom, 2015). This study seeks to understand the transformative effect of Community Based Tourism (CBT) on service providers, locals and employees working for it. There are several endeavors to enhance Page | 17

the livelihood of rural communities of developing countries and one of the tried methods is community-based tourism. It is a reasonable argument that the local resources leading to tourism should firstly benefit the involved being, family and community. With two direct fundamentals i.e. community participations and locals being direct beneficiaries, community based tourism has been popular over past three decades. (Goodwin & Santilli, 2009). In terms of the final outcome, Brohman, in 1996 shared “Community-based tourism development

would seek to strengthen institutions designed to enhance local participation and promote the economic, social and cultural well-being of the popular majority.” It might not be wrong to say that community based tourism is actually a transformative by this definition, however the challenges with it are paramount. The experiences have varied across the places over the success of community-based tourism. The research focuses primarily on two communities based tourism endeavors at two different locations. These two places have implemented community-based tourism. Firstly, it will test the impact of CBT, both positive and negative in terms of parameters like enhancement of quality of life, improvement of cultural heritage etc. Then it checks whether CBT can create transformative effect or not to service provider, its employees and locality experience. Although the research is conducted at two different locations of Nepal, this study’s findings can be generalized globally to other similar programs. In addition, the positive results concerning community based tourism will likely result in more of such programs initiation and will find prominent place in the society to uplift individuals as well as community. Literature Review In (Wood & Jones, 2008) words, “CBT projects are small or medium sized ventures that have

the potential to create a list of positive social and economic development impacts in rural area, where other types of development may be inadequate”. It suggests CBT as a unique concept with the ability to bring positive change and or impact in a place where other sorts of activities may be insufficient. Whereas (Nature, 2015) talks about community based tourism as a form of tourism where the local community controls and engages in its CBT development and management programs, and a major chunk of the benefits remain within the community itself. Such form of tourism provides natural, value-packed travel services that use local accommodation, food, music, art, crafts and traditions. It delivers best travel experience that supports sustainable development as well. CBT provide the national and international travelers genuine visit inside homes, village, and heritages and the earning generated is directly provided to the family those visitors stay with and buy services from. In context of Nepal where rural society is predominant with rich ethnic and cultural diversity, community based rural tourism and homestays are included in CBT concepts. They are part of ecotourism and offers prospect for cultural immersion. Sirubari Village is a model village that hosted the idea of community based village tourism in Nepal and the Gurung indigenous people are main inhabitant of the village (Thakur, 2013). Recently, the concept of CBT has grown in popularity and is practiced widely in different ways in different parts of Nepal. There lacks consistent implementation of CBT projects around Nepal. (Magar, 2016) talks about CBT concept as built on the principle of living a local life in an authentic and grass-root way, providing immediate benefits to the people in the community itself. Travelers visit the homes of the community or other locally managed accommodation as part of CBT, buy locally-made products and use local tour operators to get the tour of various activities in the place. In doing so, travelers get to contribute to sustainable economies as well as experience Nepal being part of local communities. Page | 18

Transformative Service Research & Transformative Effect Traditional service marketing research only identifies solution to the problems faced by management. Service being very substantial part of people lives, ‘Transformative Service Research’ (TSR) is one of the emerging concepts of Service Industry. Conceptualized by Anderson (2010), TSR is regarded as any research that aims to figure out relationship between service industry and wellbeing without focusing on academic discipline. Rising above the bottom line, TSR inspires researchers to explore such issues as social justice, consumer agency, and ecological stability and expands on contemporary concepts such as sustainability, green marketing, and the triple bottom line, emphasizing corporate responsibility for economic, social, and environmental outcomes of business practices (Ostrom et al., 2010). Furthermore, it demands for the development of new measures of the effects of service on individuals and societies. The dynamic nature of services offers substantial transformative potential because of the direct and often dialogic interaction between the service provider and the consumer (Anderson et al., 2011). Community based tourism as we looked from transformative service lens, attempt to deliver the same. However, we focus on the transformative effect of CBT on local community, service provider and employees working for it. As promoted by transformative service research, the transformation comes from the outcome where the participants could feel the sense of well being due to the engagement. The community-based tourism is designed to uplift the service provider, employees and the local community. These well being factors can be financial well being, community attachment, finding community best place to raise family, feeling about meaning of life and subjective well being. Community Based Tourism in Nepal Tourism development in Nepal has been envisaged as a development tool in stimulating tourism growth as well as in reducing rural poverty. In context of Nepal, it is evident that poverty is widespread; its acuteness is even higher in the rural/ mountain areas. In many impending areas, tourism is accepted as a medium to employ local community in the higher yield areas by linking to commercial process, and marketing chain beyond borders (Pandey, 2003). Recognizing this advantage, the government of Nepal has given utmost precedence to promoting CBT and it has also been apparent that this kind of tourism can play a momentous role in the development (Pandey, 2013). With a clear understanding that, this is employmentgenerating industry, it is expected to solve not only the unemployment problems but also impact the overall wellbeing of the people and community. With these objectives in mind, the government in collaboration with both private sectors and local community has worked to develop community-based sustainable rural tourism with wider objectives of local upliftment and well being (Pandey 1996, 2003). Nepal’s Seventh Plan (1985-90) signifies the principal attempt to frame a distinct tourism program with a long-term forthcoming for equitable socio-economic distribution. Subsequently, this developed as one of the major intentions of the Eighth Plan (1992-97) and the Ninth Plan (1997-2002). Despite a well-intentioned plan, the ninth plan could not succeed to reach considerable constituent of the rural community, notably the impecunious of the poor and estranged groups. In reply to this, the then government attempted to deal with poverty through concurrent strategies: broad-based economic growth; social sector upgradation; and a Page | 19

set of aimed programs with both Tenth Plan (2002-2007) and Interim Plan (2008- 2010), giving a good emphasis to poorest of the poor and marginalized population. Moreover, in the new Tourism Policy 2008 and Tourism Vision 2020, the government formulated new directives to manage the issues of severe poverty, high unemployment, and economic and social penury and have planned a long-term perspective and twenty-year growth goals (HMG, 1997, 2002, 2003 and GON 2007, 2009). Consequently, to address the issues, the CBT took a momentum in a planned approach making it a relatively new paradigm for the Nepali tourism industry. Comprehending the benefits of tourism at community level, both the governmental and nongovernmental organizations put their efforts in rural communities stressing on various ecotourism related activities which in fact provided noble frontier in the Nepali tourism history by strengthening local people to be part of community-based tourism intended to reduce poverty from rural areas (Pandey, 2013). It is indicative that community based tourism is actually a transformative by this definition, however the challenges with it is paramount. And the experiences have varied across the places over the success of community-based tourism (Tasci et al, 2013). Theoretical Aspects/Conceptual Framework Fig 1 Community Well Being • • •

Community Based Tourism

Positive Impact Negative Impact Engagement and Empowerment of Local Community

Individual Well Being • • • • •

Satisfaction with Community Community Attachment Financial Well Being Meaning of Life Psychological Need

The framework explores the positive and negative impact of CBT in community in various parameters (e.g. tourist inflow, income increment, better schools, job increment, less migration of youth). Also, further it checks where CBT brings engagement and empowerment to local community or not. At the individual level, the study explores, whether CBT promotes individual well being for service providers and employees working for CBT in form of satisfaction with the community, community attachment, financial well being, meaning of life and psychological need. In totality, the study checks whether CBT creates transformative effects in the life of the community, service providers and employees involved in it.

Page | 20

Research Methodology Research Questions The research questions this study addressed following questions: 1) What are the positive and negative impacts of CBT in the local community? Does the CBT promote engagement and empowerment in the local community? 2) Does CBT enhance satisfaction with the local community? 3) Does the community based tourism impact on the individual wellbeing as part of transformative effect (community attachment, sense of financial wellbeing, meaning of life and psychological needs)? Sample and Procedure Community based tourism, wherever implemented in Nepal was the population for the study. This study used area based sampling method. After identifying the areas in Nepal, which implemented CBT, two places, Chitlang and Namobuddha were selected based on convenience. From these two places, three service providers and six people working on these communitybased tourism locations involved in tourism business were randomly identified. Qualitative interviews were conducted with these participants of CBT. Along with the interview, for specific wellbeing measures (like financial well being, meaning of life, community attachment, satisfaction) standard and validated questionnaires were used to capture the emotions of the respondents. The study setting is non-contrived and the service providers and employee participants were the units of analysis. Trained interviewers conducted interviews. This study is a single cross-sectional study. Measures The qualitative interview questionnaire was developed based on the literature review and the objective of the study. As the questionnaires were prepared, there were pre-tested with expert and participants to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire. The validated standard scales used were: ➢ Financial Well Being (CFPB Financial Well Being Scale) ➢ Purpose of Life and Subjective Well Being (Steger’s Meaning in Life, Ryan and Deci Basic Psychological Needs Scale ➢ Community Attachment and Satisfaction (Gene L. Theodori, 2001) ➢ Results: CBT Service Provider’s Details and Activities CBT Service Provider 1: Namo Buddha Resort Short Introduction & CBT Activities Namo Buddha Resort is the first CBT provider in the area that provides quality services to the tourist visiting the resort. It opened in the year 2007, however from business point of view, it was officially started in the year 2010. The inflow of tourist was 3375 in 2013, 2606 in 2014 and 2074 in 2015. The resort is mainly targeted for the foreign expats that are the loyal customers of the resort and visit often to the place. The resort has yearly income of Rs.18-20 million. CBT Service Provider 2: Local resort of Namobuddha Namo Buddha Resort only targeted international tourists and was considered costly for average Nepalese Traveler. There was no resort in Namobuddha targeting Nepalese Traveler. Page | 21

Hence a local resort started three months ago especially for Nepalese Traveler who wanted to spend some time at Namobuddha. The resort was located near to Namobuddha monastery and currently has seven rooms while alongside a fishpond and some cottages were being built. There was no clear information available from staff of resort about operations and earnings of resort. As per staff of resort, it has only been able to serve five customers per month since its inception. CBT Service Provider 3 – Chitlang Organic Village Resort It is the second CBT provider in Chitlang. It was started in 2010 by Mr. Debendra Nepal with support of his friends and has successfully completed 4 years adding more CBT providers and home stay to its service. The resort has monthly earning of NPR100, 000.00 from the CBT service. Travel agency is the source of income for the owner apart from CBT service. The resort provides additional services like village walk, cultural program and villager’s interaction program for tourist. Community Well Being Assessment of Positive Impact of CBT Based on the interview with the three CBT service providers in Namo Buddha and Chitlang, the outcome is tabulated: CBT Service Provider

1

2 3

Maintain and strengthen the quality of life in local communities Yes

Yes, to some extent Yes, a lot

CBT Service Provider 1

Support or inspiration to be part of CBT Realizing the cultural importance of the place

2

More tourist inflow, road development

Enhance the historical heritage, culture, traditions etc.

Enhance quality of landscape

Supported the conservation of natural areas, wildlife

Local cultural activities (like Jhankari and traditional dance) have been appreciated by tourist Yes (Same as provider 1)

Some level

No

No

No

Many heritages renovated People are aware and communicate with archaeological department Activities done

Not yet

Not yet

Range of services provided Cultural program Village walk

Changes seen

Organic production and supply of vegetables Skills development training

Organic production of vegetables Fishing

Cultural program Celebrate local

More tourist inflow Increase in local agro activities Schools got better Increment in no of jobs Promotion of the place Increment in no of jobs Income Page | 22

3

Support by friends

Agro activities, Micro industry practice

tradition Village walk Cultural program Interaction program

increased More tourist inflow Promotion of the place Income increased Less migration to capita city and abroad

Table 1

Positive Impact of CBT in Namo Buddha and Chitlang Both at Namo Buddha and Chitlang, CBT promoted more inflow of tourists in the community. A significant increment in local employment was witnessed in Namo Buddha, as 80% of the resort staffs were from local community promoting jobs like local tour guide, local carpenter and construction workers. Chitlang has promotion of local place, increment in income and also decrement in migration of local residents. Also, another encouraging fact is CBT has increased local entrepreneurial activity, where in Namo Buddha 10 vegetables farm supplying to the resort organic vegetables, rainwater recharge points, local homestays, local lodges and guest house, small resort, local shops. Further, Namo Buddha saw increment in increment of job skills training- housekeeping, organic gardening, cooking and service training to employed people and increase in development activities- local schools, road construction, picnic spots. In Chitlang too, local vegetables, fruits and cheese were promoted, and also tourists visited local villages during walk and generously donating gifts, money and ideas for improvements. Thus, CBT has brought tremendous positive impact in local economy and well-being. Looking at other aspect, CBT has empowered women through job opportunity, enhanced local participation and involvement in tourism related activities in Namo Buddha. Also for local heritage, it has promoted monastery and stupa. In terms of local cultural heritage, the Tamang culture and tradition has been promoted, overall the Namo Buddha CBT providers feel that the introduction of CBT has enhanced the standard of living and quality of life, and has also led to decline of youth migration to Arabic countries. Chitlang CBT provider expressed similar experience with enhancement in standard of living and decline of youth migration to Arabic countries. In overall, CBT has been able to create social impact in both Namo Buddha and Chitlang. In both places Namo Buddha and Chitlang it seems, the CBT has not contributed in maintain and enhance the quality of landscapes and avoid the physical and visual degradation of environment. Also, it has not played significant role in supporting the conservation of natural areas, habitats and wildlife, and minimize damage to them. Both of these are serious issue. CBT has been able to create significant economic and social impact, whereas when it comes to conservation and landscape, it has not contributed. There can be several reasons for this, first the CBT provider are not aware, or there is lack of proper mechanism to link CBT providers with these activities or there is adequate policy in place. Both require serious attention by concerned authorities. Page | 23

Negative Impact of CBT in Namo Buddha and Chitlang The CBT service providers expressed some negative aspects of CBT as well. First, the CBT is creating garbage, which are not managed properly or rather no attention has been provided to these waste creations due to high inflow of tourists. Another factor pointed out is lack of proper understanding about CBT among local communities often leading to misunderstanding and local communities feel disturbed by all these CBT activities. One cannot deny the effect of CBT on local environment as well as negative outcomes of CBT, nevertheless all of these negative aspects are manageable, and, they demand serious attention by CBT provider and concerned authority. Engagement and Empowerment of Local Community Despite the earlier results show that there are significant social and economic activity being promoted by CBT, yet, the engagement of local community in overall planning decision making about the management and future development of tourism in the area is not significant. The service provider feels this has not been attained by CBT. This is rather a concern as the whole essence of CBT is to practice community-based development, for which necessary programs, structures and systems need to be installed to motivate maximum engagement of local community the management of local tourism. Individual Well Being In order to understand the impact of CBT on local people, questions were asked to express their views regarding their observation before CBT was initiated in their place and after CBT was established in their local area. A. Satisfaction All the five interview participants found their local community as right place to raise their family, however they have not witnessed significant improvement in medical and health care services. The local schools more of less remain same. However, they seem to be satisfied with the youth programs and opportunity for senior citizens to earn an adequate income. They did not observe any improvement in local shopping facilities and recreation facilities and program. So the infrastructural development has not taken place. However all of them were satisfied with the overall physical appearance of the community. This shows, that CBT has contributed in some areas like family raising environment, income generation for all and overall outlook of the place. But, CBT has not been able to bring change in areas like medical and health, local school local shopping facilities, recreation facilities and program. B. Community Attachment The community attachment was found to be extremely strong. Some of responses were “It’s our ancestors place we cannot imagine leaving it for any reason”. “I was born here and I spent most part of my life here itself. I will be very sad if I have to leave this place”. “Though I would be able to make more money than here if I leave this place but how can someone leave their ancestors for sake of money”. All of them expressed they will be very sorry to leave. Based on their expression the attachment is more due to their ancestors’ relationship and being their Page | 24

birthplace, rather than from CBT activities. Irrespective it is encouraging for CBT programs, which local people are attached to their community and migration is not their preferred choice. If CBT could provide opportunities, local people will choose to remain in their local community. Another encouraging thing is all the local people were highly interested in their community activities and programs, they were curious to know what is going on. This is a positive sign. C. Financial Well Being In order to assess the impact on financial well being of both local people engaged in CBT and CBT service providers, questions were asked to express their opinion regarding their experience after being engaged in the CBT. When asked about financial well-being, there are mixed answers, but all the answers are above average score. Financial Well Being

On Scale 1 to 5

I could handle a major unexpected expense

2.75

I am securing my financial future

2.75

Because of my money situation, I feel like I will never have the things I want in life

2.88

I can enjoy life because of the way I’m managing my money

3.75

Table 2

As shown in the table above, people are able to enjoy life by managing their money, which is a positive outlook. Other measures are also good and above average. Also, the CBT service providers are happier with their financial well-being. D. Purpose of Life and Subjective Well Being Both the CBT service provider and employees in CBT were asked questions about their view about their meaning of life after being associated with the community-based tourism. The results are as shown below:

Meaning of Life My life has a clear sense of purpose I have a good sense of what makes my life meaningful I have discovered a satisfying life purpose

Mean (Scale 1 to 5) 2.88 2.75 3.00 2.88

Table 3 The result shows that the CBT is keeping people positive, the in upper side of the mid-point, that indicates the score is above average, thus the participants have positive outlook towards the life.

Page | 25

Furthermore, questions were asked regarding the psychological needs to the CBT service providers and employees. As they were asked to rate, the results are shown below: Autonomy I feel like I am free to decide for myself how to live my life I generally feel free to express my ideas and opinions I feel like I am pretty much be myself in daily situations Competence People I know tell me I am competent at what I do Most days I feel a sense of accomplishment from what I do I often feel very capable Relatedness I get along with people I come into contact with I consider the people I regularly interact with to be my friends People in my life care about me

Mean (Scale 1 to 5) 3.25 3.25 2.88 3.13 3.38 3.13 2.75 3.08 3.25 2.75 3.38 3.13

Table 4

In all three constructs, autonomy, competence and relatedness, the respondents have given score higher than average, which is positive. Thus, getting engaged in the CBT has fulfilled psychological needs of both the service providers and employees working in CBT. Discussion The study has explored the transformative effect of community-based tourism in the local tourism. The study shows that CBT has been quite successful in stimulating local economy in terms of tourist in flow, enhance the historical heritage, culture, traditions etc., promoting local tradition, generating income promoting local entrepreneurship and produces. The economic impact of CBT is found to be significant. Other researches show that the impact of tourism is measured by taking into considering two vital elements (Nyaupane et al., 2006): firstly, the level of engagement and control of locals in tourism; and secondly, the number and the profile of tourists visiting the designated area. In these two factors, the first one is not found to be effective in two CBT under study, but the second one has been quite successful. Furthermore, tourism can have very positive consequences, such as promoting the preservation of local culture, the re-establishment of partially lost cultural constituents and the assembly of pride in the past (Al-Oun and Al-Hamoud, 2008). All these are visible in from the study of two CBTs in question. The study shows in the CBTs taken consideration, that local empowerment and engagement in the overall planning and development of tourism is not high. At the same time in the negative impact, people feel disturbed by CBT. This is consistent with findings by Irandu (2004), which pointed to the fact that reaction towards tourists is impacted by the involvement in the tourism development affair, and the extent to which the community endowed with the economic benefits of tourism. And those communities that are dependent on tourists are likely to show lesser amount of exasperation. There are some other theories about attitudes of community Page | 26

attitudes towards local tourism (Dogan, 1989; Ap & Crompton, 1993), which also show a continuum from acceptance to resistance. The same is seen in our study, and this is one way to reduce the local resistance to community tourism. This study shows that the CBT has not been able to get local participation, which is not rare. Other researchers have also revealed restraint to engagement of the local community, such as absence of knowledge and resources, and the fact that the local community have difficulty operate as one group (Koch, 1997; Tosun, 2000; Scheyvens, 2002). Similar problem also persists here in terms of broader and deeper local participation. In the two studied CBTs, the engagement an empowerment of the local community is lacking, which is common issue. Thus, in some way this needs to be rectified. The study shows that the people involved in CBT have better individual wellbeing. They are satisfied with their life and exhibit better community attachment. In terms of financial wellbeing and psychological needs, CBT seems to fulfill these requirements. Thus, all the ratings expressed by the participants are more than average. The results reported are consistent with previous research findings (Kim, 2002). In line with this finding, Crotts and Holland (1993) synopsized that tourism has an affirmative influence on the quality of life of rural populations. In another study, Perdue, Long and Gustke (1991) also examined the relationship between tourism and quality of life of local citizen. They summed up that tourism has an influence on various factors that enhances the quality of life for locals like type of employment generation, educational cost and quality and health services provision. Similar outcome are registered by the two CBTs taken in account by this study. Therefore, this study concludes that tourism has the positive effect on quality of life (well-being). In totality, it can be concluded that, though two CBTs studied here has rooms for improvements in terms of implementation and coverage of impact, it certainly has created positive impact on both community and individual well being. Their establishment and promotion can be set as priority by tourism governing body. However, in the implementation part, proper mechanism, scope of coverage, local engagement and empowerment should be ensured for best results. Limitation and Suggestions for Future Research This study has several limitations that need to be addressed in future research. First, all the study variables were captured by asking questions, and therefore interviewer’s bias cannot be ruled out. Second, the small sample drawn from only two CBT implemented places restrict the representativeness of the sample. Nonetheless, the findings of this study are in line with the findings of the studies carried out in different cultural contexts settings. Findings of this study suggest several avenues for further research. In this study, sample was drawn from two places so future study can be conducted in larger population for the better generalizability. In addition, future studies could examine influence of CBT on service consumer. Future studies could also examine the moderating effect of other variables like policy intervention, private participation etc. on the relationship. References Al-Oun, S., & Al-Homoud, M. (2008). The potential for developing community-based tourism among the Bedouins in the Badia of Jordan. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 3(1), 36-54. Page | 27

Anderson, Laurel, Amy L. Ostrom, and Mary Jo Bitner (2011), “Surrounded by Services: A New Lens for Examining the Influence of Services as Social Structures on Wellbeing,” working paper, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. Anderson, L., Ostrom, A.L (2015). Transformative Service Research Advancing Our Knowledge About Service and Well Being. Journal of Service Research, 18(3), 243-249. Ap, J., & Crompton, J. L. (1993). Residents' strategies for responding to tourism impacts. Journal of travel research, 32(1), 47-50. Brohman, J, (1996) New Directions in Tourism for the Third World, Annals of Tourism Research, 23(1):48-70:60 Crotts, J. C., & Holland, S. M. (1993). Objective indicators of the impact of rural tourism development in the state of Florida. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1(2), 112-120. Dogan, H.Z. (1989). Forms of Adjustment: So- ciocultural Impacts of Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research., 16(2), 216-136. Goodwin, Harold dan Rosa Santilli. 2009. Community-Based Tourism: A Success? ICRT Occasional Paper 11. http://www.andamandiscoveries.com. 20 Februari 2013. Goodwin H (2006) Community-based tourism: Failing to Deliver? ID21 Insights, Issue #62 Kim, K. (2002). The effects of tourism impacts upon quality of life of residents in the community (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). Koch, E. (1997). A vision of tourism for the New Southern Africa: Why tourism matters. Action for Southern Africa's People-First Tourism Campaign. Magar, T. T. (2016, august). Enjoy a Community based tourism holiday in Nepal. Retrieved from nepalhiking.com: http://www.nepalhiking.com/blog/enjoy-a-community-based-tourismholiday-in-nepal Mick, David Glenn, Simone Pettigrew, Cornelia Pechmann, and Julie L. Ozanne (2012), ‘‘Origins, Qualities, and Envisionments of Transformative Consumer Research,’’ in Transformative Consumer Research: For Personal and Collective Well-Being, David Glen Mick, Simone Pettigrew, Cornelia Pechmann, and Julie L. Ozanne, eds. New York: Routledge, 3-24. Mick, D. G. (2006). Meaning and mattering through transformative consumer research. Advances in Consumer Research, 33(1), 1-4. Mitchell J & Muckosy P (2008) A misguided quest: Community-based tourism in Latin America ODI Opinion 102 Nature, W.-w. f. (2015). What is CBT? Retrieved from cbtkyrgyzstan.kg. Nyaupane, G. P., Morais, D. B., & Dowler, L. (2006). The role of community involvement and number/type of visitors on tourism impacts: A controlled comparison of Annapurna, Nepal and Northwest Yunnan, China. Tourism management, 27(6), 1373-1385. Ostrom, Amy L., Mary Jo Bitner, Stephen W. Brown, Kevin A. Burkhard, Michael Goul, Vicki Smith-Daniels, Haluk Demirkan, and Elliot Rabinovich (2010), “Moving Forward and Making a Difference: Research Priorities for the Science of Service,” Journal of Service Research, 13 (1), 4-36. Pandey, R.J. (1996), Rural tourism: A special concept, The Kathmandu Post, Vol. IV, No. 167. Pandey, R.J. (2003), Rural Tourism Embraces Sustainability and the Poor, Sustainability: The Lasting Fuel for Sustainable Development – Nepal, 2003. Pandey, R. J. (2013). Capacity Building and Human Resource Development Initiatives: Community Based Tourism Development in Nepal. Nepal Tourism and Development Review, 1(1), 83-101. Perdue, R. R., Long, P. T., & Kang, Y. S. (1999). Boomtown tourism and resident quality of life: The marketing of gaming to host community residents. Journal of Business Research, 44(3), 165-177. Rosenbaum, M.S., Corus, C., Ostrom, A.L., Anderson, L., Fisk, R.P., Gallan, A.S. Giraldon, M., Page | 28

Mendes, M., Mulders, M., Rayburn, S.W., Shirahada, K. and Williams, J.D. (2011), “Conceptualization and aspirations of transformative service research”, The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 19 pp. 1-6. Thakur, M. R. K. (2013). Community Based Village Tourism in Nepal: A Case Study of Sirubari Village, Nepal (Doctoral dissertation, The Global Open University). Tasci, A. D., Semrad, K. J., & Yilmaz, S. S. (2013). Community Basted Tourism: Finding the equilibrium in the COMCEC context. COMCEC Coordination Office. Tosun, C. (2000). Limits to community participation in the tourism development process in developing countries. Tourism management, 21(6), 613-633.

Page | 29

Erasing the Environmental Impact of Disposable Packaging: New Sunlight-Degradable and even Edible Bio-Plastics BARRETT Christopher J.

Abstract

Recent advances in Green Materials Science should be of interest to the Sustainable Tourism Industry, in the form of providing cost-effective bio-sourced alternatives to artificial plastics. Indeed, traditional disposable plastics have now become a global environmental concern due to their overuse, non-degradability, and toxicity. Especially vulnerable are many fragile ecosystems often specifically targeted by eco-tourism, such as high altitude, remote, and Arctic destinations (Kumar et al., 2014). This presentation will highlight recent successes from various Sustainable Materials Science and Engineering efforts towards providing low- or nonimpact plastics alternatives (Daley, 2016). These encouraging examples are part of a larger network of local efforts, which could readily be implemented in many tourism environments, partnered with local Universities (Zhong, 2016). A general strategy to develop local production and implementation partnerships will be discussed. Specifically, at McGill University in Canada, as a working collaboration between our School of Environment, Center for Green Chemistry, and Materials Engineering Facility, we have recently developed a bio-inspired, sunlight-degradable plastics alternative (Barrett, 2016). Constructed from completely bio-sourced natural starting materials, these new ‘soft-bonded’ materials can be easily and cheaply fabricated locally, to replace many of the current artificial plastics used for packaging, food transport, preparation, and consumption containers, vessels, and utensils. Containing light-responsive ‘structural linking’ units, when exposed to sunlight after use they mechanically (not chemically) degrade quickly and completely from the ‘inside out’, returning the polymer material starting components ‘reversibly’ back to their initial water-soluble form, out of sight and environmental harm.

Keywords: Environmental impact, Plastics-alternatives, Sunlight-degradable packaging, Edible cutlery

Page | 30

Tourist Satisfaction - A Case Study of Chitwan National Park

BASNET Dinesh

Abstract

Tourist overall satisfaction with their experiences was examined in terms of its relationships to visitor’s satisfaction with various site attributes, to visitor’s perceived importance of interpretive programs to learning, and how it is affected by visitor’s age, gender (male or female) and visitation pattern. The research is based on the responses of 141 tourists visited to Chitwan National Park through Sauraha, a gateway to Chitwan National Park. The analysis revealed that visitor’s satisfaction with the site attributes has the strongest effect on their overall satisfaction with their experiences. Destinations variables or attributes such as weather and scenery, behaviour recreational activities, hospitality and service, culture and festival found to be positively correlated to overall experience satisfaction, when other variable are taken into consideration, its effect on overall satisfaction was found to be statistically significant. Looking at all these variables at a glance, most of the attributes found very strong which had influenced tourists for visiting Chitwan National Park. According to the findings, behaviour of the local people and tour guide found one of the influencing attribute where most of the tourists were happy with the services and hospitality provided by tour guide and local people in Sauraha. And finally, in the same section the overall satisfaction was also examined. From the section, it has found that the majority of the tourists were satisfied with Chitwan National Park during the survey. This positive result suggests that once tourists are satisfied there are more possibilities of tourists coming to Chitwan National park in future. Therefore, the more emphasis should be given just to meet tourist’s expectation and fulfil their needs hence tourists get satisfaction in the destination. Kewwords: Satisfaction, Tourist, Visitor, Weather, Scenery, destination, hospitality, service

Page | 31

Philanthro-WHAT? Voluntourism in an Ageing Population: A Discussion Paper BEETON Sue

Abstract

Voluntourism has become a popular catchphrase these days, especially with young people on gap years helping out in developing countries or working with scientists on projects, while others may build a home for a family in need. Many of these projects require a high level of time and physical commitment that is not always possible. As we get older, we may have less time due to extended family and other commitments, but also more money to direct towards philanthropic enterprises. So, we start to seek other ways of combining tourism and volunteering, morphing into what I experience as tourism driven by philanthropy, or philanthrotourism. There are many examples of such forms of tourism, so in order to understand and study them, a typography of this particular form of philanthropy is being developed based on autoethnographic research. I’ve envisaged this as a continuum of engagement and personal growth, presenting case studies to illuminate and differentiate them. A Typography of the Philanthrotourist On a continuum of ‘engagement’ and personal growth, from Removed/Formal to Engaged/Informal. 1. Removed/Formal Raising money for a charity and then paying full price to go on a tourism adventure that has nothing to do with the activity of fund raising. 2. Organised involvement Participants pay a premium for the trip with funds used to pay for professionals to undertake programs during the tour. 3. Incidental Being encouraged to provide funds after learning through the tourism activity. 4. Engaged/Informal Individual funding a need they see when travelling Conclusion By understanding the nature of philanthrotourism, the tourism and charitable sectors can work towards maximizing this growing sector.

Page | 32

Culinary Rural Homestays for Children in the Context of Cultural Experiences and Sustainable Tourism Development BUCZKOWSKA-GOŁĄBEK Karolina Abstract One of the trends of modern tourism is “growing interest in authentic tourism experiences, and their links to cultural authenticity, as well as to both natural and human heritage conservation” (Bramwell, 2015). Another trend is the tourists’ fascination with culinary aspects of the visited places as well as cherishing or finding authentic food recipes and traditions. Tourist frequently search for them in the countryside which, in turn, fosters the development of farm tourism (known also as agritourism or agrotourism). The best way to encounter culinary heritage is through, so called, homestays, explained as “a form of accommodation where guests stay with families in their own home. Guests may eat with hosts and experience some of the actions and rhythms of their lives” (Cater, 2015:264), also those connected with preparing and serving food as well as with growing and breeding food products. The subject of cultural, culinary and rural tourism (including rural homestays) has been widely described in the literature, yet very little attention has been paid to children at pre-school and early-school age in its context. Those children participate in these forms of tourism with their parents, and are very receptive to the content and experience deriving from this encounter. Due to the above, I have set myself two research goals to achieve through the article. First of all, I will analyze, in case study from Poland, to what extent children can be – thanks to cultural experiences based on rural homestays, which they gained during their trips – cultural (culinary) tourists. Furthermore, I will deliberate how such form of gaining cultural experience can translate into the phenomenon of sustainability in tourism in the future. Keywords: Food/culinary tourism, Homestays, Rural tourism, Children, Cultural experiences, sustainable tourism

Page | 33

Developing Institutional Resilience through Long-term Collaborative Planning CAMPBELL Brenda & NYAUPANE Gyan

Abstract: Land management agencies are affected by changing social and ecological systems which can be highly unpredictable. Long-term planning initiatives are imperative for a sustainable future; however, many governmental institutions struggle to deploy the necessary long-term systems adaptations which are necessary for resilient systems to thrive. External factors, such as shortterm political cycles and economic gains, environmental changes, and changing social values and attitudes, can lead to short-term stable system (STSS) perspectives on resilience which can be incompatible with long-term planning goals. In the United States, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers more than 247.3 million acres of public lands, one-eighth of the landmass of the country, located mostly in the western part of the country. Public lands provide numerous social and ecological benefits; economic, environmental services, biodiversity conservation, health and wellness, and contribute significantly to a sense of place for many inhabitants of the western United States. Managing America’s public lands for longterm sustainability goals is an incredible challenge amidst current political systems within the United States. This paper discusses and analyses the efficacy of a collaborative long-term adaptive sustainable planning effort of the NorthStar 2025 project, undertaken by the Arizona BLM. The project aimed to develop resilient policies by identifying various drivers of change and devising strategies to ensure long-term success (Nyaupane, Campbell, Machokoto, and Poudel, 2017) for the land management institution. Research was conducted utilizing an employee survey, extensive literature review, and two scenario planning workshops to explore and identify a wide range of trends that will impact BLM in 2025 and beyond. This paper discusses the findings and their implications for the BLM and other land management agencies’ endeavors in long-term future sustainable planning. Furthermore, this paper builds upon research to understand and analyze the agency’s ability to adapt to changes over time using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Ostrom, 2010).

Keywords: Long-term planning, Scenario planning, Institutional Analysis and development framework, Protected area management, Institutional resilience

Page | 34

Efficient Use of Data Resources Using the Example of Meetings and Events Industry Management in Poland in 2015 CELUCH Krzysztof

Abstract

The main objective is to present results, which determine the number, size of meetings and events, which are held in Poland in 2015 and present their economic value. In addition, the research presents the profile of participants, characteristics of meetings and material concerning the importance of meeting industry in shaping competitive position of world and Polish cities. The research presents the image of 33980 meetings and events of quantitative and qualitative characteristics and analysis of cities and regions for more than 7 min attendees. The contribution of the meetings industry to a state economy, estimated based on the data, is 15771.3 million PLN of value added generated in the hotel base and in gastronomy. The contribution to creation of jobs is 30312 employees in the hotel base and in gastronomic services, characterized by much smaller productivity than jobs in the hotel base. In addition, more than 150 associations meetings are confirmed till 2021 in Poland.

Key words: Meetings industry, events, Poland, Data, Destination, Impact, Management

Page | 35

Challenges with RM Adoption in SMHEs

CETIN Gurel, CIFCI Merve Aydogan, DINCER Fusun Istanbullu & KARAYILAN Eyup Abstract Revenue management (RM) is a strategic tool used by tourism industry to balance demand and inventory at optimum prices. RM is also becoming increasingly important for hospitality organizations with significant improvements on profits. Yet, RM is a complicated strategy, demanding various skills, abilities, technology and integration of different variables in the process offering the right prices, for the right customers, at the right time. Because of various inherent characteristics (e.g. capacity), internal (e.g. inadequate staff) and external challenges (e.g. changes in distribution channels), SMHEs (Small and Medium Sized Hospitality Enterprises) are not able to fully benefit from RM as their larger contestants. This creates problems as to competitiveness of SMHEs. Most local independent hotels are SMHEs, and they make a significant part of the industry. SMHEs also make destination development more sustainable. Thus for the survival of these hotels, their empowerment to compete with large, branded chain hotels is critical. Adoption of more efficient RM strategies is one of the tools that might be used to empower SMHEs. The purpose of this study is to explore revenue management challenges for SMHEs through in depth interviews conducted with SMHEs’ executives and managers of service companies that sell RM systems. After classification of the RM challenges faced by SMHEs, using content analysis of the transcribed data the study also aims to offer various solutions for RM challenges and suggest implications for a more competitive SMHE industry. Keywords: Tourism, SMHE, Revenue Management, Information Communication Technologies (ICT)

1. Introduction RM is recognized as a viable tool to improve revenues by 5-25% in hospitality. Introduced in 80’s in hotel industry (Choi & Kimes, 2002), RM emerged for the need of controlling prices and maximizing profits when selling critically limited and perishable inventory. Changing prices based on demand was also applied before 2000s but these were simple off-season and peak demand set rates that were usually identified months in advance (Donaghy et. al., 1995) With the advancements in technology and competitive environment especially branded chain hotels realized that they can make more by applying a dynamic pricing strategy. These systems are able to analyze and compare a wealth o data and use complex pricing methods. RM refers to producing and selling the goods and services at optimum levels in order to produce the maximum ROI and offering a better value for the customer (Kimes and Wirtz, 2003). RM is also referred to as yield management and described as a process that aims to maximize revenues for perishable services which have fluctuating demand (Lee-Ross & Johns, 1997). Realizing the benefits of RM, most hotels created departments to manage these systems and decide on the optimum level of prices. In the future technology is expected to play much more significant role in forthcoming RM practices (Kimes, 2010). Currently these systems are created based on the needs of the large hotels and requirements of SMHEs are neglected. Different than large hotels, an SMHE (Small and Medium Sized Hospitality Enterprise) is defined as “small independent hotels usually run Page | 36

by local small entrepreneurs with limited investment capabilities” (Cetin et. al. 2016b). SMHEs have much less staff and room numbers compared to large hotels (Buhalis and Main, 1998). They have also different organizational structure, financial resources, management strategies (Funch et al. 2010), HR skills, service culture (Siguaw et al. 2000). SMHEs also lack expert knowledge on marketing and pricing (Barros & Mascarenhas, 2005). SMHEs, as small independent companies, can usually afford basic technologies customized for their needs. Yet, RM is still expensive and too complicated for SMHEs to handle. Their limited budget and lack of expertise require user friendly, basic, affordable specific technological solutions of RM. RM research in hospitality is concentrated on large hotels focusing mostly on econometric models, consumer responses to dynamic prices, decision making processes, algorithms used for RM forecasting and pricing models. Yet, studies focusing on challenges faced by SMHEs are scant. This study aims to bridge the gap between RM challenges in hospitality and characteristics of SMHEs. Exploring challenges of RM for SMHEs might support developing more suitable RM solutions and tactics for SMHEs. 2. Literature View RM in Hotels Hotels are considered to be more suitable for RM applications as they have various products and facilities (e.g. room size, location, amenities, and supplementary services) (Solnet et. al. 2016), they also have different customers willing to pay different rates. Thus, hotels have a wider possibility to set different rates based on the product, availability and price elasticity of the specific customer. Because the experience SMHEs offer is differentiated usually with local touch and social experiences, and customers that choose SMHEs have other considerations than price, most of SMHEs are able to charge higher rates than their larger contestants although they lack many of the physical facilities (e.g. SPA, gym, business center, play room, pool etc.) and large rooms that are available in larger hotels (Cetin & Walls, 2016). The characteristics of organizations which are appropriate for RM are argued by Kimes (1989) and Wirtz et al. (2003). According to them, hotels (particularly SMHEs) may be one of the most suitable organizations for RM. Because SMHEs have relatively limited capacity (e.g. number of rooms is smaller than large hotels), perishable inventory (e.g. the impact of an unsold room on revenues are greater) and a wide variety of room types (e.g. SMHE facilities do not usually standard rooms because they are not normally designed as hotels but conversions). Because of close customer interaction SMHEs are able to predict customer behaviors, determine their requirements and understand their price sensitivity better than large hotels. SMHEs have micro-segmented markets and are able to apply RM strategies based on different WTPs. Thus, RM is more suitable for SMHEs than large hotels.

Challenges of RM in Hotels Despite its benefits, there are some obstacles that make RM implications in hotels difficult such as uncertainties about visitor arrivals to a destination, determining elasticity of hotel room demand, number of no-shows and competitor pricing (Tse & Poon, 2011). In addition to micro environmental complexities there are also some macro factors affecting RM effectiveness in hospitality. Political unrest, terrorism, international and domestic political unrest, natural

Page | 37

disasters and volatile economy causes market fluctuations and makes RM complicated. Therefore, RM expertize, ICT and effective forecasting becomes important (Ortega, 2016). Erdem and Jiang (2016) discuss, the amount of online distribution channels, increasing volume of sharing economy and difficulty of balancing short term tactical RM and long term strategic CRM (customer relationship management) are the emerging challenges of RM in hotels. Noone et. al. (2003) also argue that traditional RM systems ignore CRM considering short-term revenues and neglect the life time value and influence of word of mouth in hospitality. Dynamic pricing might be perceived as unfair and might result in dissatisfaction. Particularly, for SMHEs serving a relatively loyal customer base who have previous knowledge about prices; fairness perceptions become more important. According to Wirtz et al. (2003), customers may be aware of price differences making them think the organization treats them unfair and consequently their loyalty can be affected. There are however various strategies that can be implemented to change price perceptions. Choi and Mattila (2005) for example suggest informing customers about the reasoning for price differences may minimize perceived unfairness. Overbooking as a result of RM might also create dissatisfaction. Hotels predict a number of rooms to be cancelled and resell a percentage of their rooms in order to maximize the utility of their inventory. Obviously, an incorrect overbooking is risky and has its costs in the form of oversale and undersale (Baker & Collier, 1999). However, in SMHEs which have a large volume of repeat guests, and a limited number of rooms; overbooking is more likely to cause dissatisfaction, complaints and finally loss of customer in addition to these existing costs (Lee-Ross & Johns, 1997). Clear communication (which is easier in SMHEs) and positioning of length of stay usage restrictions to overcome overbooking conflicts are also suggested. Similarly, Hwang & Wen (2009) discuss that market characteristics should be examined and yield must be calculated well to balance RM profit and CRM. It might be costlier to turn down a loyal customer staying for a week with a larger life time value than denying a two-night stay. RM requires expert knowledge, market intelligence and extensive time to analyze market which generally are not available in most SMHEs. Large hotels usually have dedicated RM departments employing revenue analyists assisted by various software to determine the optimum prices. In SMHEs the number of staff is limited and they have various different responsibilities besides their main duty. For example, a receptionist might also work as a concierge, an accountant, an operator and as a reservationist at the same time. Therefore, RM expertise is harder to accumulate and there are also problems with spare time left for RM analysis and decision making in SMHEs (Cetin et. al. 2016a). SMHEs might as well outsource RM. But with tight budgets this is not usually perceived as a viable option. Lee-Ross & Johns (1997) suggest that close communication between departments, RM training and employee empowerment may be solutions for development of RM expertise in SMHEs. Another major complication is the emerging number and variety of distribution systems. Allocations supplied to intermediaries sometimes leads to an invisible supply. Third parties do not always present accurate information about hotels. Tompson and Failmezger (2005) found that availability information shown on the online channels do not always match with the actual availability. Extending release periods and offering last room availability to these channels also create challenges and affect accuracy of forecasts. The more varied the distribution channels the more combination of rate category and length of stay to calculate and more combination leads less reliable forecasts (Choi & Kimes, 2002). Thus, managing allocations and availability across various channels becomes a real challenge for SMHEs considering their small inventory and limited technology adoption. Page | 38

Free cancellation policy encouraged by OTAs also leads to unpredicted demand. OTAs use sales volume, commission rates, rate parity, last room availability and relaxed cancellation policies to list the suppliers. Because the position on OTA list is a significant determinant of channel performance, these are imposed to hotels although some of these rules are displayed as optional (Cetin et al., 2016b). To conclude, RM in hospitality operate in a very dynamic environment and new types of challenges are emerging; softwares, systems, channels, business models and competitive environment are changing rapidly. Therefore, SMHEs like other hotels need to be on alert to keep pace with technology and market trends to survive (Cetin et. al. 2016b). To be able to do this, distinctive problems of RM for SMHEs need to be discussed. 3. Methodology This study aims to explore specific challenges of managing revenue in SMHEs. Because of the dynamic structure of RM, an exploratory approach is considered more suitable for the study. A semi-structured interview was designed as a data collection instrument. The main inquiry was the challenges SMHEs face in managing their revenue. Specific questions concerning pricing, distribution, and hospitality related software were also asked. Data was collected from both SMHE executives and hospitality software developers for hospitality industry. A total of 23 hotel executives and three software companies offering ICT solutions for hospitality industry in Istanbul were interviewed1. Istanbul was chosen as the research site as SMHEs make a major part of the hospitality industry and it is a suitable destination for RM strategies (e.g. fluctuating demand, competitive environment). Participants were recruited based on a list of SMHEs acquired from Association of Small Hotels; a snowball technique was also used to recruit both SMHE executives and RM software suppliers. Interviews were conducted between May-Dec. 2016 in respondents’ offices by appointment. All interviews were electronically recorded and transcribed after each interview. After the authors read transcriptions several times to make sense of the data, they coded frequent challenges individually. Each author than discussed their categorizations both based on research notes and existing body of knowledge and a consensus is reached at the end of the third discussion. The final version of the challenges is displayed in figure 1. These commercial ecotours are for spring season and onward of 2017, which means the planning of them were done approximately in the last six month. These six months, the figure by the Japan Ecotourism Society, as seen in Table 1, were available. Out of the six destinations taken up by HIS, five destinations of Kagoshima, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Yamanashi/Shizuoka (Mt. Fuji) are destinations that are ranked at the top of ecotours list by the Society. This can be a positive background to believe that the tour operator tried to plan the ecotours to destinations that have been popular by other ecotours.

1

The hotel interviewees are coded as H1 to H23 while software company interviewees are coded as S1 to S3.

Page | 39

Micro Environment al Challenges

RM Challenges for SMHEs Internal Challenges

Macro Environmental Challenges

Figure 1: RM Challenges for SMHEs

4. Findings Concerning the profile of respondent organizations; only eight out of 23 hotels are older than 10 years. Average room number is 25 and average number of employees is 15 for hotels. Regarding hospitality software companies; they are also considerably new in the market, yet they have around 160 SMHE customers. Respondents of both SMHEs and software companies would also be considered experienced with an average of 14 years tourism industry experience. These findings are detailed in table 1.

Page | 40

Table 1 Descriptive profile of respondents Hotels

Respondents

Code

# of Rooms

H1

25

Years Opened 2008

H2

16

2009

H3

37

H4

# of Emp. 28

ADR (Euro) 109

Ag e 34

Position

9

60

43

G.M.

20

2009

15

70

26

G.M.

6

28

2011

23

78

31

Sales Man.

H5

12

2015

3

100

25

FO Man.

H6

21

2010

9

75

32

GM/Owner

10

H7

14

2015

10

70

30

FO Man.

10

H8

26

1993

12

140

35

G.M.

10

H9

22

2004

11

70

37

Sales Man.

20

H10

23

1991

17

70

39

FO Man.

20

H11

15

1972

14

70

35

Owner

10

H12

11

2010

12

170

30

FO Man.

8

H13

24

1991

11

172

36

G.M.

14

H14

21

2013

6

60

30

G.M.

12

H15

45

2010

45

120

33

G.M.

13

H16

39

1987

12

80

39

GM/Owner

19

H17

22

2015

20

70

28

FO Man.

5

H18

24

2010

11

70

40

FO Man.

7

H19

40

2005

20

153

46

G.M.

27

H20

43

2010

22

150

40

Sales Man.

18

H21

15

2014

8

90

44

G.M.

24

H22

20

2013

9

104

32

G.M.

10

H23

22

2006

10

80

40

G.M.

20

Software Companies Product Type

S1 S2

S3

PMS, Channel Manager, Channel Manager, Book Engine, Revenue Management, Web Design Channel Manager, Book Engine, Web Design

FO Man.

Experien ce 14

14 6

Respondents Years Opened

# of Emp.

Ag e

Position

Experien ce

40

Owner

10

2006

30

% of SMHE Custom er 75

2015

10

5

39

Owner

22

2006

8

80

28

Owner

10

Page | 41

Based on the content analysis of interview data almost all SMHE executives apply some sort of dynamic pricing. Yet these price changes are usually simple, involving limited data collection and analysis if any. A majority of executives mentioned that they only have high season and low season rates, which was still considered as RM. Results also indicate that none of SMHEs use a RM software. SMHE executives usually prefer to set prices manually and they forecast demand based on their personal experiences and monitoring competition on online distribution channels. Most of respondents agreed on SMHEs have some specific challenges of RM in addition to common challenges of hotels. These were grouped under; organizational challenges, micro- and macroenvironmental challenges. Organizational Challenges Organizational issues peculiar for SMHEs were listed as physical design of the facility, limited budgets, HR and software related issues. Most SMHEs work with local companies for technological solutions and RM systems mostly require integration with other systems (e.g. Property Management Systems, Booking Engine, Channel Managers). Yet, local companies were considered to be insufficient in integrating their systems. H2 explain this as “ the global firms

generally have integration with each other. But local service providers are usually not be able to reach all global systems. This causes integration problems and errors in reservations, allocations and prices”. On the software side S3 explained this problem as “once you sell a product to a SMHE owner, you are expected to develop other software and advise for all ICT related problems as well. But we wish is to focus on one product to make the best”. RM requires skilled employees to make optimal strategic and tactical decisions besides technological knowledge. The quantity and quality of HR was also perceived as a challenge for SMHEs. This was best described by S2 as “RM is both science and art. Technological solutions

can not always give best result for hotels without reliable data input and expertize to reflect on the information.” Considering high costs of staff, hiring an extra RM expert is not perceived rational by SMHE executives. Beside the limited number of staff, skills and knowledge, and employee turnover is another challenge for SMHEs to have sustainable RM performance. RM is a professional and complex process and SMHEs need to have a great amount data in order to forecast and calculate prices. Because of its labor-intensive nature SMHEs usually store little data to historically analyze possible demand. Physical facility was also perceived among challenges for effective RM. SMHEs have limited number of rooms which makes their variable costs higher. Because SMHEs were not designed as hotels and usually converted buildings, old mansions, traditional houses they also have a more diverse inventory than large hotels. Having rooms with different characteristics also make RM challenging as most systems and OTAs do not accommodate the variety of room types SMHEs posses. H17 surmises; “There are no standard rooms here, we have a 17 room and 12 room types.” Micro Environmental Challenges Various micro environmental challenges affecting RM were also identified such as competitors, online distribution channels and software integration problems. The importance of online Page | 42

travel agencies (OTAs) and the dependency they create have been subject to various studies. Anderson (2009) discussed the billboard affect and ability to reach a larger potential market as advantages of OTAs, yet there are also discussions about the rate parity, last room availability, free cancellation, commission rates OTAs impose on SMHEs (Cetin et al., 2016). Segmentation opportunities on OTA reservations is also limited and SMHEs ability to target specific markets is reduced. For example, H7 mentioned “you do not have chance to choose your customer on

online channels. ... Not all cultures are compatible and some of these markets are undesirable for us.” Commission rates of online channels are another challenge for SMHEs. The higher commission offered by SMHEs, the higher they would be listed on OTAs. Yet commissions also create some costs and affect revenues. S2 describe this problem as “you sell your product from the low

price by using expensive channels. The share of direct reservations we receive are decreasing and to fight for a better place on OTAs, everyone increases their commissions.” Another respondent stated that “…you serve the customer but online channels get the money. (H23)” to describe unfair revenue distribution between hotel and channels. Major key performance indicators were also mentioned as occupancy and ADR. Hence costs associated with commissions is rarely a concern. Competitor actions are also perceived to undermine RM efforts, particularly competing with large hotels create various challenges for SMHEs. Large chain hotels have amenities and various profit centers in their facilities other than rooms. They are able to offer rooms as a cost leader and expect revenues from additional services such as F&B, SPA and so on. However, SMHEs usually do not have these additional facilities to generate revenue and their variable costs are higher. Thus, they are not able to compete with large hotels on room prices. SMHEs have also problems with benchmark activities and market intelligence about their competitors. They have difficulties to position themselves in the market due to their unique structure. H23 explained the importance of category of competitors by stating “…competitors in the

environment of your hotel are generally chosen according to location. But that is not really accurate. The category is more important. Even if a hotel is your neighbor next door, it does not necessarily be your competitor.” Macro Environmental Challenges Various macro environmental factors that are far beyond the control of SMHEs were also mentioned as obstacles that affect RM. Terror, political incidences and various other crises have serious impacts on tourism industry. Because of high variable costs and limited financial power to stand the impacts of long term crises, SMHEs are considered to be more vulnerable to these unexpected events. S1 stated “nobody knows what to expect from tomorrow. Especially

last two years, in Turkey, the terror attacks, attempted military coup, political issues affected tourism industry and particularly SMHEs.” Unstable market conditions affect accuracy of forecasts which in turn affect SMHEs’ revenues. Long-term investments are continuously postponed, as most SMHE owners are individual local small-scale investors. Financial institutions also refrain from supplying them credits during crises. S1 claimed that “...when a bomb explodes, whole tourism industry loses equilibrium. Organizations are pushed to change plans....”. In the course of this study for example, one planned interview was cancelled because the specific hotel went out of business and only eight Page | 43

out of 23 SMHEs interviewed in this study are older than 10 years. This might also indicate how hard it is to stand on external challenges for SMHEs. Another major external factor was mentioned as legislative issues and absence of regulations on unregistered usually peer to peer accommodation alternatives. The rise of sharing economy also affects revenues particularly for SMHEs. Peer to peer accommodation service is considered to be more similar to SMHEs than large hotels. Because of local touch and social interactions, a growing volume of tourists choose to stay at these rooms. H12 surmised “There

are two thousand alternatives listed in Istanbul in OTA websites and most of these are not registered and there is no legislation on these rooms. They do not pay taxes and fees, they do not employ anyone and we are supposed compete with them…” Conclusions This study offers a typology of RM challenges faced by SMHEs. Based on content analysis of participant responses these challenges were classified under organizational, micro- and macroenvironmental challenges. Concerning organizational challenges participants mentioned such issues as the physical structure of the facility, HR, limited inventory and financial limitations. Micro-environmental factors included competition and distribution channels whereas macroenvironmental factors were listed as fluctuating demand, increased supply and legislative issues. Recognizing RM challenges and responding to these SMHEs might improve their revenues and their competitive position against large hotels. Physical limitations, variety of rooms in the facility, HR related challenges, limited financial resources, competitive market intelligence, managing a complex set of online distribution channels might be tackled by technology solutions. Software companies would focus offering SMHE customized software those allow uploading a number of different room types on related systems. SMHEs do not also need to have an extensive system that is able to process transactions for hundreds of rooms, thus these systems might also be designed in a way that might be more affordable to SMHEs. Because most SMHE staff have limited systems knowledge software might be designed more user friendly. Integration of various systems including PMSs (Property Management Systems), BEs (Booking Engines) and CMs (Channel Managers) with each other and with external systems such as Online Travel Agencies, Global Distribution Systems, and benchmark systems would also result in a more efficient operation and reduce the amount of time needed to manage inventory, set and distribute prices among channels, follow-up competition and forecasting. Thus, a closer cooperation with software companies, customization, training and technical support might create solutions for most of the RM related SMHE problems. Considering the amount of unregistered and unregulated competition usually faced by SMHEs from peer to peer accommodation sites; identifying these by legislative bodies emerge as a problem. ICTs might also be of help to identify them through crawlers on various OTA and peer to peer accommodation websites. This way governments would be able to regulate these markets and prevent unfair competition. Creating an awareness among SMHEs on the importance of RM and providing training would also make them understand the virtues and benefits of dynamic pricing and cope with various crises more competently. Besides the increased commissions, rate parity, last room availability and relaxed cancellation rules imposed by OTAs, challenges with segmenting the customers booking from online channels also emerge as a problem affecting RM. Raguseo et. al. (2016) also suggest that Page | 44

SMHEs can bolster their sales and profitability and capture more economic value by increasing their visibility on distribution channels rather than choosing to distribute their rooms on a larger number of online agencies. Thus because of limited inventory and target market differences selective number of online channels might be suggested for SMHEs. Free cancellation and best available rate policies are other challenges for SMHEs. Abrate and Viglia (2016) discuss that free cancellation policy requires an effective forecasting and pricing depending on booking time this is particularly challenging for SMHEs because of limited capacity. Moreover, best available rate prevents SMHEs to offer better prices on direct channels (e.g. brand.com) which are less costly. Dependency on OTAs can be minimized through a better direct reservation performance. In order to do this, web sites should be designed attractive and user-friendly (Demirciftci et. al. 2010). Search engine optimization and loyalty (e.g. upgrades for direct future reservations) strategies might also be used to increase the share of direct reservations. The commission rates also emerge as another problem caused by dependency on OTAs. Large hotels are able to cope with increased commissions. Yet, OTAs share in SMHE booking reaches up to 90% which creates a large burden considering up to 50% commissions of the room rate (Cetin et al. 2016b). Guo et al. (2013) also suggest that optimal commission rates should be increased only after a through consideration of room capacity, average room rate and expected number of tourists purchasing from traditional channels. One solution suggested by (S1) to minimize the costs associated with commissions is to sell on Room Only rather than BB so that a lower commission would be possible. To conclude to be able to survive against their large contestants, SMHEs need to take advantage of their unique characteristics and make a better use of RM. Customizing hospitality related ICT and their integration to operations would solve various RM related obstacles that are faced by SMHEs. This study identified various challenges of RM in SMHEs. Future studies measuring the importance of these challenges might also provide interesting results.

References Abrate, G. and Viglia, G. (2016). Strategic and tactical price decisions in hotel revenue management. Tourism Management, 55, 123-132. Baker, T.K. and Collier, D.A. (1999). A Comparative Revenue Analysis of Hotel Yield Management Heuristics. Decision Sciences, 30 (1), pp. 239-263. Barros, C.P. and Mascarenhas, M.J. (2005). Technical and allocative efficiency in a chain of small hotels. Hospitality Management, 24, 415-436. Buhalis, D. and Main, H. (1998). Information technology in peripheral small and medium hospitality enterprises: strategic analysis and critical factors. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag, 10 (5), pp. 198-202. Cetin, G., Aydogan Cifci, M., Istanbullu Dincer, F. and Funchs, M. (2016). Coping with reintermediation: The case of SMHEs. Information Technology & Tourism, 16 (4), pp. 375-392. Cetin, G., Demirciftci, T. and Bilgihan, A. (2016a). Meeting revenue management challenges: Knowledge, skills and abilities. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 57, pp.132142. Cetin, G., & Walls, A. (2016). Understanding the customer experiences from the perspective of guests and hotel managers: Empirical findings from luxury hotels in Istanbul, Turkey. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(4), 395-424. Choi, S. and Kimes, S. E. (2002). Electronic distribution channels’ effect on hotel revenue management, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 23-31. Page | 45

Choi, S. and Mattila, A.S. (2005). Impact of Information on Customer Fairness Perceptions of Hotel Revenue Management, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 46 (4), 444-451. Demirciftci, T., Cobanoglu, C., Beldona, S. and Cummings P.S. (2010). Room Rate Parity Analysis Across Different Hotel Distribution Channels in the U.S, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 19 (4), 295-308. Donaghy, K., McMahon, U. and McDowell, D. (1995). Implementing yield management: lessons from the hotel sector, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 9 (2), pp. 50-54. Erdem, M. and Jiang, L. (2016). An overview of hotel revenue management research and emerging key patterns in the third millennium. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 7 (3) pp. 300-312. Guo, X., Ling, L., Dong, Y. and Liang, L. (2013). Cooperation contract in tourism supply chains: The optimal pricing strategy of hotels for cooperative third party strategic websites. Annals of Tourism Research, 41, 20-41. Hwang, J. and Wen, L. (2009). The effect of perceived fairness toward hotel overbooking and compensation practices on customer loyalty, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 21 (6), pp. 659-675. Kimes, S.E. (1989). Yield management: a tool for capacity-constrained service firms, Journal of Operations Management, 8 (4), pp. 348-363. Kimes, S.E. (2010). The future of hotel revenue management, Cornell Hospitality Report, 10 (14), 6-15. Kimes, S.E. and Wirtz, J. (2003). Has Revenue Management Become Acceptable? Findings from an International Study on the Perceived Fairness of Rate Fences. Journal of Service Research, 6 (2), pp. 125-135. Lee-Ross, D. and Johns, N. (1997). Yield management in hospitality SMEs, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 9 (2), pp. 66-69. Noone, B. M., Kimes, S. E., and Renaghan, L. M. (2003). Integrating customer relationship management and revenue management: A hotel perspective. Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management, 2, pp. 7-21. Ortega, B. (2016). Revenue management systems and hotel performance in the economic downturn, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28 (4) pp. 658-680. Raguseo, E., Neirotti, P., and Paolucci, E. (2017). How small hotels can drive value their way in infomediation. The case of “Italian hotels vs. OTAs and TripAdvisor”, Information & Management, In press. Siguaw J.A., Enz C.A. and Namasivayam, K. (2000). Adoption of information technology in US hotels: strategically driven objectives. J Travel Res, 39 (2), pp. 192-201. Solnet, D., Boztug, Y. and Dolnicar, S. (2016). An untapped gold mine? Exploring the potential of market basket analysis to grow hotel revenue. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 56, 119-125. Tse, T.S.M. and Poon, Y.T. (2012). Revenue management: resolving a revenue optimization paradox. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 24 (4), pp. 507-521.;

Page | 46

Ecotourism in Costa Rica: An Alternative Model for Tourism CHAKRABARTY Arnab

Abstract Eco-tourism is defined as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the lives of local people” (Hunt et.al, 2015). Over the years, it has been accepted that conserving nature is the most plausible way to offer employment, generate income as well as preserve the natural hotspots for the future generations (McKeone, 2011). Some scholars like (Vivanco, 2001) suggest that preserving the ‘exotic eye catchers’ of a biodiversity hotspot is what differentiates between eco-tourism and commercial tourism. For many scholars, commercial tourism is responsible for depletion of the environment and natural resources, in addition to eroding the pristine beauty of a region. On the other hand, eco-tourism aims at preserving the key hotspots as well as allow access to tourists to these places without hampering the environment. However, another important theme that is often ignored, needs to be evaluated. The impact of eco-tourism on welfare of the local population and rendering social justice especially in the neoliberal era (Braun et.al, 2015). It is believed that although ecotourism can be a laudable alternative model, it also plays into the hand of capitalism especially in the neoliberal era and causes massive erosion of the natural beauty as well as the biodiversity in the region (Horton, 2009). In this regard, this paper will seek to understand the debates on eco-tourism and the impact on Costa Rica, which has made a name for itself in the world as a cynosure for eco-tourism.

Keywords: Ecotourism, Responsible travel, Environrment, Impacts, Costa Rica

Page | 47

Tourism and Maritime Spatial Planning: The case of the Aegean Sea islands. CONSTANTOGLOU Mary & PAVLOGEORGATOS Gerasimos

Abstract Tourism is without a doubt one of the most important forces shaping our world. Greece is a relatively small European country with an important landscape and seascape diversity. It is the country with the most extended coastline among all other Mediterranean countries. The Greek total area is about 131,957sq.km, and the total length of its coastline amounts to approximately 15,000km. This coastline is almost equally divided between the mainland and the islands. Indeed, 7,700km of coastal zone corresponds to the country’s 3,053 islands, though it should be taken into account that only 114 islands are inhabited. The Greek coastal area is of crucial importance because it covers 26.2% of the total area of the country, 38% of the total population and 90% of the entire tourism activity. Islands total area is 24,772.71 sq.km (approximately 18,7% of the country’s total area) while population of the islands amounts 1.632.955 inhabitants (15,1% of the total population). Maritime Spatial Planning is a crosscutting policy making tool that enables governments and stakeholders to apply an integrated and coordinated approach based on the ecosystem. This approach will contribute to promoting sustainable development of the maritime and coastal areas and the sustainable use of their resources. Main scope of this paper is to examine tourism development in the Greek insular area based on the basic principles of Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Maritime Spatial Planning with the use of Geographical Information Systems. Keywords: Sustainable Tourism Development, Maritime Spatial Planning, Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Geographical Information Systems.

Page | 48

Women's Mountaineering Tourism: An Empirical Investigation of its Theoretical Constraint Dimensions DORAN, Adele & LOW Tiffany

Abstract: Both participation in recreational mountaineering and the demand for mountaineering holidays continues to grow in the UK. Whilst accurate figures on the gender split of participation in such activities are difficult to obtain, evidence suggests that participation rates in mountaineering activities are higher for men than women, in both recreational and tourism contexts. This is reflected both in membership rates to the British Mountaineering Council where 25% of members are reported to be female, and in the demand for mountaineering holidays, where one UK operator reports that 27% of their customers are female. Despite the apparent under-representation of women in mountaineering, there has been little research to understand women’s constraints to participation in such activities. Earlier work has provided some insights, albeit nearly two decades ago (see Carr 1997). Subsequently, research, whilst only limited, has focused on women’s experience of adventure tourism more broadly. This current study presents an empirical investigation of women's constraints on participation in mountaineering tourism. Survey responses from 314 female mountaineers were collected and four constraint dimensions were identified using confirmatory factor analysis. Three of these dimensions: 'intra-personal', 'inter-personal (socio-cultural)' and 'structural' constraints support similar findings in the extant literature, both in a general sense and in the adventure literature more specifically. The identification of a fourth dimension relating to 'family' constraints represents a new contribution to the literature and an additional barrier to women's participation in mountaineering tourism. Keywords: Mountaineering tourism, Women’s constraints on participation, Family constraints.

Page | 49

Why Tourism Eludes the Grasp of Stakeholders: Some Reflections on Sustainability GOWREESUNKAR Vanessa G. B., NAQVI Masood A. and SINGH Tej Vir

Abstract Few businesses are subjected to negative criticism as tourism does. In early stages, it was considered a passport to development, later around the last quarter of 20th century, it touched the zenith, bringing in its wake, myriad negative consequences that it consumes places, cultures, creates anomie, acculturation, degrades the environment and suffers from leakages. Tourism destroys tourism become a bye-word. Serious thinkers came forward with two mantras of redemption: Ecological Tourism and Sustainable Development (SD). Both models were a promise of conservation of resources, and assured well-being of the local community and of the visitors. Both were the outcomes of the world’s best brains; they asked for the parsimonious use of finite resources, promote localism, and act in line with the laws of nature with sustainable policy. Ecotourism fell prey to human greed and green washed many splendid ecosystems and SD got entangled with definitional irk. This paper reviews the tourism scenario critically and indicate possible barriers that hamper the fruition of the concept of sustainability. Critics of SD argue that, it needs new knowledge to operate effectively. It does not have strong database on the present world tourism situation, let alone future generation. SD is based on the science of ecology, we may have theoretical knowledge, but the deeper understanding of overall ecosphere is wanting. ‘Evenmoreism’ is the bitter enemy of SD such as anthropocentrism, resourcism, modernism. The myth of endless growth that promotes overconsumerism, over production, ineffective policy and poor governance are some of the drivers of unsustainability. One of the sad facts is that most stakeholders are averse to tourism research that relegates them to archaic methods. For attaining sustainable development, stakeholders have to foster a culture of sustainability. The paper illustrates the factors responsible for unsustainability with the help of a case study which demonstrates ‘how a sustainable resort declines without effective policy and guidelines. Keywords: Sustainable developent, Endless growth, Stakeholders, Policy and guidelines

Page | 50

Examining Gastronomic Experiences Using Auto-Driven Photo- Elicitation GREGORASH Bill J

Abstract I am currently conducting research in gastronomic experiences in a commercial context. All of the participants for the interviews and focus groups who are eligible to take part in this study will be asked to submit one photograph prior to the interview or focus group. The photo has to be related to a past personal gastronomic/food experience in a digital format that they wished to share with me (researcher) and others (for focus groups). The content of the photos submitted by all participants in this study are not part of the data for analysis. The content of the photos has personal meaning that drives the narratives from the participants and the only interest to this study is the story told. The photos are only a ‘prop’ to help the participants recollect their memory and any analysis of how I interpret the photo by me is not an objective of this study. All participants’ sign a release as part of the ‘informed consent’ process should their photo be included in published literature providing they are not previously copyrighted if they were sourced on-line. The photo stipulation was kept simple with few restrictions that allowed for ease of submission. This paper introduces the reader to photo-elicitation and variations that can be used as a research methodology useful for studies that explore understandings with consumers in hospitality and tourism. Included is the personal experience of the author who used photo- elicitation to research how memories are made within gastronomic events. Keywords: Gastronomic/ food experiences, Commercial context, Focus groups and photoElicitation research

Page | 51

Sustainability for Tourism Health Destinations – Network Management as an Opportunity

GRIESSER Philip Abstract As a key success factor for health tourism destinations, a networking between the individual health industry providers must be sustainably developed and implemented target group focused. Anyhow, at the interface between medicine and tourism – at an international context, there are sometimes major problems in the implementation of an adequate network management. This applies both to regional networks (vertical cooperation along the service chain line) as well as for thematic networks (horizontal cooperation, usually to improve marketing and sales or exchanges of experience) (EU 2015, p.4ff). On the other hand, any kind of touristic service provider needs to evaluate its actions regarding the concept of carrying capacity. Carrying capacity defines the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time without causing destruction of the physical, economic, sociocultural environment and an unacceptable decrease of quality of visitor satisfaction (UNWTO 2011). The analysed focus in this chapter is based on two different types of carrying capacity: Physical-ecological (environmental) and aesthetic/psychological, questioning firstly how many tourists can visit the site without causing damage to the environment and secondly questioning how many tourists can visit the resort and its natural landscapes before they feel crowded. Consequently, this document evinces strategies for tourism health destinations, exemplified at a case study, at the German health resort `Lanserh of Tegernsee`, inaugurated in 2014 – focusing on the two mentioned types of the concept of carrying capacity within the development of a sustainable Network Management. Keywords: Sustainability, Networking, Tourism Health Destination, Environment, Carrying Capacity Introduction “We are using more natural resources than the Earth can replenish” (WWF 2013). According to this statement the concept of `Carrying Capacity`, first developed in the 1940s, is defined as “…the maximum population size that an environment can support at a particular time with no degradation to the habitat” (Cochrane 2012: p.35.). More variables need to be taken into account in a tourism context; after all, human behaviour is not as predictable as population size. The above definition of carrying capacity is therefore adjusted to be the maximum number of people that may visit a tourist destination at the same time without causing destruction of the physical, economic, sociocultural environment and an unacceptable decrease of quality of visitor satisfaction (UNWTO 2011). This chapter applies these ideas to network management in health tourism destinations. This involves consideration of the current relevant research as well as of the `Principles of Responsible Tourism`, thus providing a basis for discussion of further implications for adequate network management. As a key success factor for health tourism destinations, networking between the individual health industry providers must be developed sustainably (in this context referring to the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the Page | 52

environment's ability to meet present and future needs) and implemented target group focused (Hodges et al 2012: p.42ff.). In order to obtain the concept of Carrying Capacity, at the interface between medicine and tourism – in an international context - there are sometimes major problems in the implementation of an adequate network management. This applies both to regional networks (vertical cooperation along the service chain line) as well as to thematic networks (horizontal cooperation, usually to improve marketing and sales or exchanges of experience) (EU 2015: p.4ff.). The primary task for the responsible destination manager is to develop a common vision with the involvement of key partners regarding the development of objectives and fields of action. Especially the integration and analysis of relevant cooperative enterprises within the health tourism service chain is hereby of immense importance. On the other hand, any kind of touristic service provider needs to evaluate its carrying capacity. Thus, by referring to the above stated definition of carrying capacity, in what sense can the resulting problem be defined: Who decides `How many is `too many´? Herewith, as being analyzed in the course of this study, the concept of responsible tourism focuses on one major stakeholder. However, for operating successfully in the market, due to the ever-evolving health tourism market and the high level of competition, the definition and analysis of customer needs and wants plays a decisive role. The high requirements of the medical and therapeutic quality must also be fulfilled by the hospitality industry. The focus of this chapter is therefore on two types of carrying capacity: Physical- ecological (environmental) and aesthetic/ psychological, considering firstly how many tourists can visit the site without causing damage to the environment and, secondly, how many tourists can visit the resort and its natural landscapes before they feel crowded. Consequently, this document evinces strategies to sustainably include visitor management approaches for tourism health destinations. The focus is based on the two mentioned types of the concept of carrying capacity, within the development of a networking management (organization and implementation) in tourism health destinations, exemplified at a case study, at the German health resort `Lanserhof Tegernsee`, inaugurated in 2014 in Marienstein (Bavaria, Germany). This study is structured as follows: after introducing the subject and the general issues area, the case study (site `Lanserhof Tegernsee`) is presented, including relevant elements of the `Responsible Tourism Approach` and finally indications according to the latest findings according to network management in tourism health destinations are presented and summarized in the last paragraph. Case study This study has been conducted on behalf of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee`. Thereby, as far as the exemplifying health destination is supposed to meet the possibilities of an improved visitor management and community engagement, the selection process is identified by different variables in reference to the following objectives of the ‘‘Caring for the Earth” concept (IUCN, UNEP and WWF 1991). It is stated in this context that tourism associated with protected areas must function as a tool to advance mountain scenery objectives for maintaining the integrity and biodiversity of ecosystems and to raise the public awareness of landscape issues. In reference to this statement and as a result, the parameter of major importance is whether the exemplifying case study accomplishes a general infrastructure applicable for all year-long visitor access in order to be able to evaluate a valuable ecosystem and visitor management form. However, concerning the international success of the mentioned site and emphasizing its current status for visitors: three awards have been received by the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` at the European Hotel Design Awards 2014 and for the first time in the history of the RELAX Guide, a new wellness hotel was awarded with four stars and selected as the best wellness Page | 53

hotel in Germany by this hotel guide. In addition, in the year 2015, the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` was awarded 1st prize in the category ‘Best Medical Resort’ for the fourth time in succession at the European Health & Spa Awards in Zell am See, Austria. Anyhow, the analyses focus on the question how the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` health tourism destination considers managing the tourism it attracts and forming tourism to meet local needs. In this case, responsible tourism is defined as tourism that promotes responsibility to the environment through its sustainable use; responsibility to involve local communities in the tourism industry; responsibility for the safety and the security of the visitors and responsible government, employees, employers, unions and local communities. In addition, this strategy proposes Responsible Tourism as the key guiding principle for tourism development. Responsible tourism implies a proactive approach by tourism industry partners to develop the market and to manage the tourism industry in a responsible manner, so as to create a competitive advantage (WWF 2003: p.3f.). The `Lanserhof Tegernsee` accomplishes this approach within the concept of `proactive health`: The health destination, surrounded by forest and the affiliated golf course, is a relatively unique construction of a generic `hotel`, which carries out a growing trend: Mind and body should not only be cured when they seem affected, but be prophylactically improved to resist the loads and stress of everyday life: The 1st Global Spa Economy Report, prepared by the Stanford Research Institute, defines this phenomena as “proactive health" that is being incorporated by the organization: Alpine Wellness (Stanford Research Institute 2013: p.2.). Following this approach, Alpine Wellness and the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` intensify their cooperation activities. The Alpine Wellness brand is managed by the Alpine Wellness International (AWI) GmbH. It includes hotels and resorts in Bavaria (Germany), Austria and Switzerland. The aim of the initiative is to develop a quality product based on Alpine character and resources, such as altitude, climate, Alpine materials in the architecture and interior furnishings, alpine cuisine, and the rediscovery of Alpine healing formulae. There are several sub - brands of Alpine Wellness, which include: Alpine Relaxing (e.g., nature, landscape, hay baths, saunas); Alpine Fitness (e.g., outdoor activities); Alpine Health (e.g., treatments for allergies, asthma, burn - out, spinal problems); and Alpine Character (e.g. , architecture, furnishings, decor, cuisine). The criteria for becoming and remaining a member of this quality cluster are based on: altitude (1,200m or more), views of mountains and nature, peacefulness, low pollution, cuisine (e.g. nutritious, regional or local, seasonal), exercise and relaxation (e.g. cycling, running, meditation), Alpine-specific knowledge (e.g. healing, customs, traditions), and local treatments (e.g. hay baths, massage with local oils/creams, farmhouse sauna) (Alpine Wellness International GmbH 2011). In this case, responsible tourism implies tourism industry responsibility to the environment through the promotion of balanced and sustainable tourism and focus on the development of environmentally based tourism activities (Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) 1996). The approach of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` is based on the portfolio of the Lans Med Concept, consisting of diagnostic, therapeutic and cosmetic services which meet the current needs and wants of tourists according to the latest studies in this field of research (FUR (institute for scientific research): 2014). The LANS Med Concept intends to represent a coordinated combination of top international medicine, traditional naturopathy, accepted nature-based therapies and the latest scientific know-how in an authentic holiday atmosphere. The value proposition is based on the findings of the Austrian physician and pioneer in medicine, F.X. Mayr: detoxification, purification and detoxing of the body are in the focus of the therapy. Page | 54

“Finally, only a detoxified body is ever capable to regenerate and respond to different treatments.” (Mayr 2013: p.1.). The Lans Med Concept is an intelligent symbiosis of state of the art modern medicine, natural healing, recognised therapy processes, modern scientific know-how and the relaxing ambience of a luxury hotel. This combination enables guests to regenerate physically and spiritually and to release themselves of unnecessary burdens and stress. (Lanserhof Tegernsee 2013: p.3-4.). In accordance with the holistic concept of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee`, the architecture is designed regarding health concerning and sustainable standards. A building biologist supported the project at all time in order to ensure the quality and the health flawless use of the materials used. Their selection was made according to the criteria of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). Mostly natural and naturalized materials such as larch wood facade, which dates from sustainable and certified sources, are used. Also in the interior, special attention is paid to the high quality and health-promoting effect of the materials. Much White and wood dominate the treatment and lounges and support the contemplative impression. A holistic design is being selected which underlines the prevention and regeneration approach of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` (German Sustainable Building Council 2014). According to these facts, the following section analyses the issues in reference to a `Responsible Tourism Approach` and following the `Triple Bottom Line Approach` of sustainability. Environmental, social and economic issues Tourism is one of the biggest and fastest-growing sectors in the global economy and has significant economic, developmental and environmental effects, both positive and negative. If undertaken responsibly, tourism can be socially, culturally and economically disruptive. As a result, the WWF (2010) reveals responsible tourism as tourism that satisfies tourists, maintains or enhances the destination environment, and benefits the destination residents – and the contribution of trade and liberalization in achieving responsible tourism. In this case the investment climate of the recently built `Lanserhof Tegernsee` might be considered as relatively positive. However, within a petition for a referendum in Waakirchen am Tegernsee, the majority of the community members agreed to the construction of the Health Hotel `Lanserhof Tegernsee` on the Golf Resort Margarethenhof. Almost 70 percent of citizens consider the 50- million-euro investment as reasonable (Gemeinde Waakirchen 2013: p.1.). The extensive comments of the opponents Initiative and the federal nature protection (Bundesnaturschutz – BN), however were rejected by the majority. However, just the BN had listed a total of 18 points against the project - among them the objection of the “related land use in open countryside". As part of the change in the land use plan and the Statute for the projectspecific development plan, the `council meeting `Lanserhof Tegernsee` had to read out a total of 94 pages with notes and comments. The opponents emphasized negative effects such as the "soil sealing in the size of about 10 ha" or the conservation of the yellow-bellied toads, common toads or the Dark burnet (Bundesnaturschutz 2013: p.2ff.). Taking those issues into account, the issues concerning the implementation of a responsible and sustainable health tourism approach are described as follows. Economic issues: As being indicated above, the community plays an important role (should be the decisive Page | 55

component for answering the question: `who decides how many is too many`) by deciding whether or not such an immense investment might be done or not. In this case, Goodwin (2011) clearly points out that according to a responsible tourism approach, the challenge is to ensure that tourism is used by the destinations towards making it firstly a better place to live in and secondly, a better place to visit. As emphasized at the first international conference on Responsible Tourism in destinations at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2003 referring to the objectives set out in the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism (2002), tourism needs to be formed to meet local needs. Increased community knowledge of tourism-related procedures by means of implemented educational services needs to be considered as a valuable implication in this case. As far as up to present, no educational service institution can be indicated at the `Lanserhof Tegernsee`, the reception area/entrance might be worth considering in this particular case. In this context, a reasonable approach is to engage, respectively invite, internationally known researchers. On the one hand, they are able to educate community members (and also employees in tourism-related themes) and on the other hand, they are benefited by receiving the allowance to conduct the up to present insufficient scientific research at the site. Research activities might have a significant positive influence on the tourism industry, especially by means of responsible geotourism or/and health tourism. Every stakeholder in the industry, using the concept of responsible tourism, needs to outline explicitly the responsible value of the particular form of tourism or product the responsibility is taken for. In this case, responsible tourism is not a particular product range. All forms of tourism might be managed responsibly when measured by a whole range of criteria across the triple bottom line agenda of economic, socio-cultural and environmental responsibility. Environmental issues: Furthermore, in reference to the visitor and community member environmental education, the implementation of an interpretation centre in an interactive form, illustrating the particular fauna and flora surrounding the site and the potentially exercising activities need to be considered. However, the BN strongly rejects the construction project in the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` Municipality Waakirchen. From their point of view, the land use related to the planned project is irresponsible for the ecosystem of the landscape especially for the reason that in the district of Miesbach numerous suitable plots within already built-up areas might have been available. According to the Environmental Report and from the perspective of the BN, the intended change of use of the landscape due to soil sealing in the size of about 10 ha and the undoubted effect on the landscape scenery, results in significantly negative environmental impacts. Commercial intentions may not be invoked against those facts. The implementation of the planned measures for the construction of the site might cause a massive threat to the biotopes surrounding the concerning area of the site. Conclusively, the BN emphasizes that due to the high-quality nature and species features of the area and according to population ecological considerations, the development of the site is strictly rejected (Bundesnaturschutz Bayern 2011) Social issues: In reference to the development of a more democratic tourism administration, political restructuring needs to take place. The overall objective is characterized, indicated by the IUCN (2010) by the development of social equity for the local residents within the stakeholder Page | 56

construct, including equity issues, livelihoods, poverty reduction, rights and participation in decision-making, governance and access and benefits of the sustainable use of genetic resources. The WWF (2003) additionally states that responsible tourism should respect the rights and wishes of the locals and provide opportunities for the wider community to actively participate in decision-making and consultations on tourism planning and management issues. Responsible business practices thus have the ability to improve the lives of people in the destinations and their environment. It might also improve the living standards of local people (WWF 2004: p.4-5). There are two major reasons for this movement: In this case, the understandings of the particular social values of the concerning culture, the guests of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` are visiting, need to be facilitated for tourists. In this context, the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` administration board needs to adopt a responsible business agenda, ensuring the legal rights of the community members in reference to their inclusion into the decision-making process. The first step is to ensure that all the employees facilitate the prerequisites of the tourist having the opportunity to understand the genuine culture of the local residents of the area, which will conclusively increase the respect for local cultures such as traditions, religions and built heritage (Goodwin 2001: p.7.). In this case, a study by Godwin and Francis (2003) revealed that three in four British tourists agree that their trip should include visits to experience local culture and foods. Indications (interpretation centre) As interpreted in this abstract, as a reasonable management approach according to the principles of responsible tourism for the creation of a network, the implementation of an interpretation, respectively visitors centre is definitely worth considering. Such a centre combines the entire above mentioned economic, environmental and social implications, as described in the following. As a result, the mentioned interpretation centre might also function as a place for interactive discussions and for the exchange of experiences between the concerning stakeholders in order to enable the tourists to be involved in the relationship by stating their complaint and conclusively maintaining the relationship. In reference to the local community, the interpretation centre reveals the social-economic opportunity to work, the opportunity to be environmentally educated and the opportunity to be socially included into the network management process of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee`. On the other hand, tourists/guests might benefit from the centre in terms of also being educated about the existing ecosystem and the cultural and historical values. And as a result, guests might also be socially included into the communication process of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` in reference to personal conversations with local residents and the health resort employees. Conclusively, the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` administration and local and regional, national and international authorities might use this establishment as a forum for communication processes and procedures concerning the issues raised by the local residents. In this context, the interpretation centre also functions as the determinant for the market access by emphasizing present media and communication processes. In addition, the centre should provide the latest news regarding responsible tourism development in health destinations and the concerning networking management (registration to receive tourism development concerning newsletters, for instance: Responsible Tourism News (responsibletourismpartnership.org) and International Commission for the Protection of the Alps (CIPRA International) (cipra.org). Further, if established interactively, such a Page | 57

centre has the ability to showcase work effort in means of social, environmental and economic variables (IUCN 2012: p.1.). By referring to this previous statement of the IUCN (2012), Alden (1997) outlined the significant importance of such an establishment by arguing that within this centre, a conservation message needs to be transmitted. According to the various interpretations of the above outlined discussion, the conclusion can be drawn that also globalisation issues need to be taken into account whilst defining issues for the health tourism destinations `Lanserhof Tegernsee`. Giddens (1990: p.3.) defines globalisation as “…the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring far away and vice versa.” In this case, the growth in intra-regional and international tourism is characterised as a major contributor to globalisation. Conceptualizing responsible tourism in this context implies to respect and appreciate the natural and cultural diversity of the earth. In line with this, this discussion clearly points into the same direction, indicating that the relation in-between all involved stakeholders is the most significant influencing factor. In addition, the study reveals the significant importance of emotions. In this case, Baucon (2009) emphasizes that within the establishment of an interpretation centre, interpretative tools might fail to awaken the visitor’s emotions. As a result, a portable multimedia system, displaying a range of media (texts, audio, pictures and animations), provides the visitor with the essential information on where they are and what they are viewing. Furthermore, by referring to this multimedia system, the emphasis is on geotourism combined with health tourism research. Conclusion The success factors in terms of the creation of networks are versatile. A primary task is to develop a common vision in which development objectives and areas of action need to be defined with the involvement of all the relevant key partners. Herewith, the integration and analysis of relevant cooperative enterprises within the health tourism service chain is of immense importance. The `Lanserhof Tegernsee` needs to evaluate, whether a concrete specialization is guaranteed in health-related areas and in guest relation, and can furthermore also be implemented in a target-oriented and sustainable procedure. In this case, a detailed evaluation of the appropriate hotel property is indispensable. The definition of the `DNA` from a hotel property provides thereby relevant information such as: What is the individual core of the property, which operator concept exists, what makes the property special and unique and what is conclusively the importance of the property for different groups? The determination of the `real estate DNA` is furthermore also a crucial factor if external financing for example for health tourism services/ products are mandatory and credit inquiries need to be placed as a result. Also, the cooperation with nationally and internationally active investors is of increasing importance. The initial position may be defined thus Germany's number of aging brand hotels require a new acting type of enterprising investors. In this case, the tendency can be monitored that increasingly foreign investors operate at the German hotel market (total transaction volume well over EUR 900 million - as of end of 2015: about 60% of total sales operated by foreign investors (Jones Lang LaSalle: 2016): Foreign investors seek for secure valuable assets in this process as security purchases and want to be financially proactive in "financially strong (safe) countries" such as Germany. Increasingly, European and German Hotel special funds with specific hotel expertise and low risk aversion may be defined as investors, so called institutional investors and `High Net Worth Individuals` (HNWI). Page | 58

To subsequently establish a network culture with the defined partners within the network, taking joint target agreements functions as the next step. A key role has transparency and commitment: the commitment to jointly develop an adequate quality control by means of implementation plans. In this case, the hotel management is defined by a comparatively greater responsibility, since the specific hotel companies are normally set up very laborintensive - due to the range of usually several services such as accommodation or even gastronomic and event-related services - and, consequently present a relatively large risk potential for variations in quality within the network. The success of the entire network can only be guaranteed as far as all partners implement sustainably and a holistically homogeneous quality. In addition, a hotel company (in more intensive manner than the other providers) depends of guests (tourists) and is not being able counting on nights spent by residents and / or day-trippers. Thereby on the one hand the internal communication within individual providers (such as hotel companies, private clinics, sports and fitness facilities, doctors, nutritionists, etc.) need to be optimized and on the other hand, the network between the holistic health tourism network. Berg (2014) emphasizes that joint information and communication activities, including the creation of a corporate design within a `Brand Placement` to compete together on the market can thus form the basic condition for the necessary interactive flow of information (both internally and externally). The afore mentioned information and communication activities, however, require a consistent management, control and moderation: a network management based in an adequate surrounding/institution, such as the presented `Interpretation Centre`. The resulting definition of a point of contact refers on the one hand to each individual provider within the network chain, and on the other hand to the network itself. The network should thereby operate - integrated in task-appropriated organizational structures - as a "central institution of trust". In this case, Network management includes the adoption of the corresponding tasks by promoters (joint sales and marketing activities), key players (regional, if possible but also nationally recognized personalities from the private sector and public life) and disseminators (health tourism industry in the broader sense, such as pharmaceutical care facilities). Due to the increasing competition and the ever-changing competitive situation, an adequate networking and its management is increasingly important. Although Germany has a favourable position within Europe (position number 1 of the destinations for medical tourism with a turnover of about 1 billion euros thus a variety of global health destinations invest in the health tourism infrastructure. For example, Thailand strives to be the number one in Asia yet in 2014, 2.5 million tourists from the overall number of 22.4 million tourists, according to the Department of Health Services, travelled for medical treatment into the kingdom at the Mekong. The significance of these figures is particularly marked by comparing these figures with the figures from Germany: 235,000 medical tourists in 2014 according to the latest studies of the Central German Tourism Board (Medical Journal 2015: p.8.). In the worldwide medical tourism destination competition - in addition to Thailand and Japan - especially the Philippines and also the South American area with Colombia need to be considered, which are pushing on the international market through intensified marketing activities. These results, and considering the implementation of an interpretation centre at the `Lanserhof Tegernsee`, might be derived to an interpretative institution by the following means. Newsome et al (2010) reasonably emphasize in this case that traditional interpretive tools, such as field guides (books, and pamphlets), interpretive panels and museums and Page | 59

visitors centres, all provide interesting multimedia experiences and prepare, respectively encourage, tourists to the outdoor activities. However, as far as an interpretation centre is not only supposed to simply transmit a message for the conservation of the nature, the interpretation centre might also function as a place for provocation, in this particular case as a forum for discussing the raised complaints (Tilden 1975: p.176.). In reference to the local community, the creation of an interpretation centre within the discussed relevance of a network, reveals the social-economic opportunity to work, the opportunity to be environmentally educated and the opportunity to be socially included into the management process of the `Lanserhof Tegernsee`. On the other hand, tourists might benefit from the centre in terms of also being educated about the existing ecosystem and the cultural and historical values. And as a result, visitors might also be socially included into the communication process of the site in reference to personal conversations with local residents and the `Lanserhof Tegernsee` health resort employees. As indicated in this study, network management by means of responsible tourism functions best when all the involved stakeholders acknowledge and adopt sustainable processes in, firstly, an economic sense, secondly, an environmental and, thirdly, a social sense. The most important prerequisites for network management - that also benefit the study and research of visitor management in an international context, applicable for worldwide tourism related sites, are the provision of transparency in daily tourism-related procedures and processes, the willingness to financially benefit the destination of the visit (to a certain degree), the knowledge of various aspects of visitor’s attributes and the recognition of local community values. In order to develop this process, the implementation of an interpretation establishment, respectively a method to increase the overall stakeholder knowledge of tourism-related concerns is needed.

References Alden, D. (1997): Recreational user management of parks: An Ecological Framework. Ecological Economics, 23, pp. 235-236. Alpine Wellness International GmbH (2011): Lanserhof Tegernsee, URL: http://www.alpinewellness.com/, [accessed 16.11.2016] Baucon, A. (2009): Terragaze Mobile. A GPS-powered geological guide: information depending on where you are, in: de Carvalho, C.N. and Rodrugues, J. (eds.), New Challenges with Geotourism, Indanha-a-Nova, Portugal, pp. 56-59. Berg, W. (2014): Gesundheits- und Wellnesstourismus, Munich, p. 48. Bundesnaturschutz Bayern (2013): Positioning Paper, Lanserhof Tegernsee, Munich, pp.2. Centre on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development - (CESD) (2005): Consumer Demand and Operator Support for Socially and Environmentally Responsible Tourism, Washington, US, p. 4f. Cochrane, J., Font, X. (2013): Integrating Sustainability into Business: An Implementation Guide for Responsible Tourism Coordinators, United Nations Environment Programme, Paris, France, p. 35. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) (1996): White Paper Development and Promotion of Tourism South Africa DEAT, Pretoria, South Africa p. 1f. European Union - EU (2015): European Funds for Regional Development, Guideline for Product Development within Tourism Health Destination, Brussel, p.4ff. FUR (Forschungsgemeinschaft Urlaub und Reisen) (2014): Reiseanalyse RA 2015, Kiel, Page | 60

Germany, pp. 2-10. Gemeinde Waakirchen (Community Waakirchen) (2013): Positioning Paper 13/4, p.1. German Sustainable Building Council (2013): Working Manual 13, p. 4. Giddens A. (1990): The consequences of Modernity, Policy Press, Standord, UK, p. 3. Goodwin, H. (2001): Responsible Tourism and the Market, Association of Independent Tour Operators Responsible Tourism Guidelines, UK, p. 7f. Goodwin, H. (2011): Taking Responsibility for Tourism, Responsible Tourism Management, Oxford, UK, pp. 107-151. Hodges et al (2012): Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism, Understanding the Dynamics of the Global Market for Health Services, UK, p. 41f. International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN (2010): Darwin´s inspiration for his theory on Evolution, Fact sheet, Gland, Switzerland, p. 1f. International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN (2012): Building green standards, Factsheet of the new IUCN Convention Centre, Gland, Switzerland, p. 1. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) (1991): Caring for the earth, policy paper, A strategy for sustainable living, Gland, Switzerland, p. 2f. Jones Lang LaSalle, (2016): Tourism Monitoring Report, Stuttgart p. 2f. Lanserhof Tegernsee (2013): Press Release 4, pp. 3-4. Lanserhof Tegernsee (2014): Press Release 8, p. 4. Lanserhof Tegernsee (2015): Press Release 13, p 1. Medical Journal (2015): Health Tourism, Bonn, p 8. Newsome, D., Dowling, R.K. (eds.) (2010): Geotourism: The Tourism of Geology and Landscape, Goodfellow Publishers Ltd., Oxford, UK, pp. 3 – 237. Stanford Research Institute (2014): Positioning Paper, San Francisco, US, p. 2. Strauf, S., Scherer R., Bezzel, M. (1997): Neue Qualifikationen zur Förderung eines nachhaltigen Tourismus in Schutzgebieten, EURES Institut für regionale Studien in Europa, Freiburg, Germany, p. 3f. Tilden, F. (1957): Interpreting Our Heritage, University of North Carolina Press: 3rd edition (December 1977), p. 176. United Nations World Tourism Organisation - UNWTO (2011): Sustainable Tourism, Eliminating Poverty, URL: www.unwto.org/step/about/en/step.php?op=1, [accessed 05.12.2016]. World Wide Fund for Nature - WWF (2003): Tourism Policy Position Paper, WWF UK, p. 3f. World Wide Fund for Nature - WWF (2004): How effective are protected areas, Gland, Switzerland, pp. 4-5. World Wide Fund for Nature - WWF (2010): UK Policy, Position Statement for Travel on Tourism, London, UK, p. 5f. World Wide Fund for Nature – WWF (2013): The diversity of life on Earth is not simply something to marvel over – it’s vital for our own health and livelihoods, URL: http://wwf.panda.org/, [accessed 26.11.2016].

Page | 61

Mapping 60 Years of Change in a Remote Mountain Village: A Case Study of Sustainable Development in Kagbeni VDC, Nepal GURUNG Laxmi Abstract Nepal is a landlocked country, where agriculture contributes about 36% to GDP (MOAC, 2011). Notwithstanding the dominance of agriculture, Nepal has immense tourism potential, with eight of the ten highest mountains in the world, including Mt. Everest which, along with a cool climate is a major pull factor that draws thousands of tourists from all over the world (HMG, 2008). Linking tourism and agriculture in order to promote sustainable development has been a major focus of the Government of Nepal over several decades. With perhaps as much as onethird of trekking costs spent on food, creating linkages between tourism and agriculture holds great potential as a mechanism for sustainable development in rural areas. To date, however, the effectiveness of these efforts has not been studied. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to explore sustainable rural development in Kagbeni VDC, a remote mountain village in Nepal. Using thirty oral history interviews, this study examined how livelihoods in Kagbeni VDC have been affected by the introduction of tourism since 1950, and in what ways tourism development has been linked to agriculture. The results map the evolution of the linkages between tourism and agriculture over 60 years of five distinct development periods. The central conclusion in this study is that, because of the positive interaction between tourists and local villagers, and aided by Government of Nepal inputs, tourism and agriculture in Kagbeni VDC have become strongly linked. The process of arriving at this stage has been long, marked by trial and error, and characterised by mutual learning involving both tourists and the locals. The study demonstrates that, under the right conditions and given sufficient time, these two sectors can establish strong, mutually beneficial linkages. Keywords: Tourism, Agriculture, Sustainable development, Nepal

Page | 62

Ameliorating Poverty for Village Women in Rural Nepal Through Tourism HILLMAN Wendy & RADEL Kylie Abstract The owner of an all-women’s trekking tourism company in Nepal was interviewed regarding women’s empowerment in the tourist sector in Nepal. The research was undertaken in order to identify approaches to ameliorate poverty for women living in rural and remote Nepal. Throughout rural Nepal, women have traditionally been marginalised, undertaking home duties and childcare responsibilities; whilst simultaneously working in the fields (KC, 2012). Many impoverished and marginalised Nepali women have been empowered and ‘lifted out of poverty’ through the implementation of training and instruction programs designed to prepare them with skills to participate in the tourist industry in Nepal. The participant narrated stories of women’s moves from a lowly status in their home and village to levels of responsible positions in tourism and, in some cases, of running their own businesses. Opportunities for women now exist to train, practice and become workers and managers in the tourist industry. Training through female only owned companies is available to women who wish to engage with this approach. Avenues for self-employment, a steady income, positive gender role modelling and options in education are now open to these women (Satyal, 2000; Upadhyay, Pradhan & Grandon, 2011; Archarya & Halpenny, 2013). The research shows that through a grassroots approach to educating and informing women, avenues for self-improvement, selfadvancement and growth through the development of local tourism are advancing the women, their villages and the country. But, as Nepal is still an emerging economy, there is a long way to go. Keywords: Nepal, gender, tourism, grounded theory, poverty, women

Page | 63

Sustainable Astrotourism Development: A Social-Ecological Systems Perspective HOBBINS Robert J. & NYAUPANE Gyan P.

Abstract Artificial lighting is growing at an average rate of six-percent per year globally (Hölker et al., 2010). Ninety-nine percent of the United States and European Union population and eightythree percent of the world’s population now live in areas above the threshold considered light polluted (Falchi et al., 2016). The growth in artificial lighting has created a desire to escape starless urban skies to pursue astrotourism activities. Astrotourism is an emerging tourism phenomenon that uses night skies for astronomy-related knowledge and leisure pursuit (Fayos- Solá, Marín, & Jafari, 2014). Parks worldwide are developing interpretive programs and reimagining their park design to support the growing interest in astrotourism (Simon & Babcock, 1999). Sustainable astrotourism development requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex social-ecological systems (SES) in which night skies are embedded. Manuel-Navarrete (2015) argues that it is the subjective processes through which human agents steer social- ecological systems. Mental models are one method of eliciting these subjective processes and cognitive structures (Johnson-Laird, 1983; Jones et al., 2011). This study fills a critical gap in the literature by eliciting and analysing the mental models of night skies from a SES perspective. Twenty-one mental models were elicited in fall of 2016 from a diverse group of stakeholders. One-hundred and seventy-six unique concepts were identified and analyzed using Social Network Analysis to determine their importance and relationships within the SES. The most prominent factors were determined and a new conceptual model was created to inform decision- making for sustainable astrotourism development.

Page | 64

Cultural Creatives redefining sustainability: evidence from South Africa IVANOVIC Milena Abstract As our civilization is reaching a tipping point environmentally, socially, culturally, economically and intellectually, the evidence reveals a new planetary transformation based on holistic, integrated ways of thinking and living known as transmodernity. In the forefront of transmodernity is the world’s dominant subculture of Cultural Creatives. They account for 15% of the world’s population or more than one billion environmentally conscious consumers concerned with a survival of humanity. They embrace two key dimensions of transmodern value system: the outer or green and socially responsible values, and inner personal development values, including spirituality and new lifestyles. Cultural Creatives reject materialism and demand self-reflective lifestyle, environmental sustainability, women’s rights, civil rights and social justice. Above all they demand authenticity in every sphere of their lives, from politics, to travel. In tourism, they equate authentic with being real - a place has real authentic building with real people and real history. This new demand for authenticity gave rise to a transmodern tourism expected to instigate personal transformation and enlightenment and reinforce a sense of being true to one authentic-Self. This exploratory quantitative study is based on the non-probability convenience sampling method using questionnaires as the main research instrument for data collection at selected tourist sites in Johannesburg. The aim of this study is to first, establish the prevalence of Cultural Creatives amongst international tourists visiting South Africa, and second, to describe the main characteristics of Cultural Creatives’ demand for authentic experiences and sustainability as part of transmodern tourism. Keywords: Transmodernity, Cultural Creatives, Authenticity, Sustainability, Transmodern Tourism.

Page | 65

Sustainability as Attraction – How Mundane Places and Practices Become Tourist Attractions in Scandinavia JØRGENSEN Matias Thuen

Abstract In tourism literature, sustainability has been inherently linked to the sustainable consumption and development of tourism products and to ways that tourists may sustainably engage with destinations. Little attention has been paid to the ways in which sustainable features, which were not initially intended for tourism, may act as tourist attractions in their own right. This working paper approaches sustainability in tourism from this angle. It investigates how features such as clean and unspoiled environments, as well as practices, structures or lifestyles that are perceived as sustainable, may become or be utilized as tourist attractions. Specifically, the paper presents the preliminary findings of a qualitative study on Chinese tourism to Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland). The interviewees include fourteen Chinese tourists, who had recently travelled to Scandinavia; as well as sixteen company representatives and six tour guides, who are all engaged in Chinese tourism to Scandinavia. The study demonstrates how sustainable practices and environments play a major role as motivators to visit Scandinavia and as tangible or intangible attractions during the visit. Based on the study, it is suggested that managing and marketing sustainable features as attractions may create additional sustainable benefits. First, as it increases the chances of attracting tourists with interest in sustainability, who may be prone to sustainable travel in general. Second, as the income generated from tourists visiting to experience sustainable features may generate incentive for additional sustainable investments in the local destination. Keywords: Chinese tourism, Scandinavia, Motivators, Sustainability as attraction

Page | 66

Sustainability in Hospitality Industry: A Study of Negarkot, Nepal JOSHI Basant P. & KUNWAR Ramesh Raj

Abstract: Sustainability is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland report, 1987). Hotel industry today, being one of the important components of Hospitality Industry has been practicing the sustainability efforts by incorporating economic, environmental and social factors as outlined by the sustainability theory of John Elkington (1994), universally known as “triple bottom line”. To make it more realistic, hoteliers are intensifying their scope of sustainability by integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach in their daily operations. However, a major challenge today is the people component to materialize all these practices and efforts. Attitude, resistance to change, irregular work hours, high physical and emotional work load, perception of employees, etc. are the key factors to overcome for attaining real green team bass tracks and sustainable innovations in hospitality industry. This paper will analyze an overview of the condition of sustainability efforts made by hotels in Nagarkot, Nepal. Nagarkot is one of the important niche tourism destinations having more than 50 numbers of hotels, lodges and eco-resorts, and it is about 32 km. north east of capital city Kathmandu. It is an eco-friendly tourism destination famous for nature loving vacationers. Keywords: Green team, Green buildings, Eco-resorts, Greenhouse gases Sustainability and sustainable development Before describing sustainability, it is indispensible to understand the history as to how the sustainable development, sustainable tourism and sustainability came into life in the field of development and academia. Though the term “sustainable” came out in 1987, through Brundtland Report, the history of sustainability can be traced back to 1960s. The conception of environmentalism gave birth to this thought in 1970s (Bramwell & Lane 1993, Hardy Beeton & Pearson 2002, Liu 2003, p. 460, in Kunwar 2017, p. 264) and in 1980s (IUCN 1980, Liu 2003) and finally it was recognized in late 1980s and in the beginning of 1990s. Dixon & Fallon (1989) cited by Basiago (1999) also stated that the principle of ‘sustainable development’ derives from the discipline of economics that has been evolving for almost two centuries. It was then a debate about whether earth’s limited natural resources will continue to provide life support for humanity’s growing population. It was Krippendorf’s seminal book The Holiday Makers (1984) (France 2006, p.11: in Kunwar 2017b, p. 270) that introduced some of the important inherent ideas in tourism. After three years; in 1987, the “Brundtland Commission” released its final report, “Our Common Future”. It famously defines sustainable development as: “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Page | 67

As cited by Kunwar (2017b), sustainable development enhanced to carry out the concept of sustainable tourism development in 1992 founded by Rio Conference in agenda 21. So far as sustainable tourism is concerned, it is defined as a model form of economic development that is designed to improve the quality of life of the host community, provide a high quality of experience for the visitors and both of these maintain and depend on the quality of the environment. Wayne et al. (2006) defined sustainability as a process that helps to create a vibrant economy and a high quality of life, while respecting the need to sustain natural resources and protect the environment. It expresses the principle that future generations should live in a world that the present generation has enjoyed but not diminished. The concept sustainable development is attributed by three pillars commonly known as social, economic and environmental. This is as an agent which reinforces the key development objectives of alleviating poverty, generating employment, redistributing income, empowering people and conserving environment and natural resources. This reveals that how sustainable development is important in developing countries. In course of studying sustainable development, it is John Elkington who first coined the term “the triple bottom line” in 1994 to these three pillars of sustainable development. His argument was that companies should be preparing three different (and quite separate) bottom lines: The traditional measure of corporate profit called the profit and loss account, company’s people account and company’s planet account. The triple bottom line (TBL) thus consists of three Ps: profit, people and planet. It aims to measure the financial, social and environmental performance of the corporation over a period of time. Only a company that produces a TBL is taking account of the full cost involved in doing business (The Economist, Nov. 2009). Los Angeles Times (1996), as cited by Basiago (1999, p.1), states about what United Nations Population Fund reported in the year 2006 that more than half of the world’s projected 6.6 billion people will be living in urban areas. This raises the prospect of crowded, violent and unhealthy cities threatened by the escalation of social conflict and intolerable environmental degradation, and the collapse of basic services. Allan 1998 has also defined sustainability as an ideal end-state like democracy; it is a lofty goal whose perfect realization eludes us. For this reason, there will always be competing definitions of sustainability. We know these definitions will always include the well-being of people, nature, our economy, and our social institutions working together effectively over the long term. In this study, researchers are very much influenced by what Mahatma Gandhi has quoted “The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed” (Houdre 2008). This quotation has given a very clear message to the world to be accountable towards the earth from which we obtain everything we need.

Sustainability and climate change Climate change has become a challenge to the world and it sustainable development. It has threatened to drag back the lives of millions of people in the grinding poverty line. At the same time, we do not yet have any universal guidelines available to avert this crisis and create Page | 68

opportunities for better life of people worldwide. Climate change is not only the issue today; it entails uncertainties in the future for policy makers trying to shape the future of the world (World Bank news and speeches 2014). International Panel on Climate change (IPCC) 4th assessment report 2007 states that here is a dual relationship between sustainable development and climate change. Climate change keeps influence over key natural and human living conditions and thereby is a basis of social and economic development. Similarly society’s priorities on sustainable development influence both the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change and vulnerability. Hospitality and hotel industry Kunwar’s (2017a), latest reviewed article on hospitality shows that the question on hospitality has been upraised by many scholars of hospitality and tourism (Burgess 1982, King 1995, Jones 1996a, Brotherton 2013, Brotherton 1999, Ottenbahcher, Harrington & Parsa 2009, Selwyn 2013).More recently, Jones (1996a, p.6-7) has suggested that, “there is certainly no commonly shared paradigm of what we mean by ‘hospitality…..reference to the research literature would indicate that there has been little or no discussion of what we mean by hospitality… I would propose that the idea of hospitality research exists more in form than in substance.” Also, Taylor & Edgar (1996, p.218, 215), in reflecting on the current state of development of hospitality research, have pointed out: “An essential first step is to decide what the scope of hospitality research should be (and) if academic research in hospitality is to develop satisfactorily it is our view that is must do so within a coherent framework” (Kunwar 2017a.) Chang et al., (2013) defined hospitality as an act of kindness in welcoming and looking after the basic needs of customers or strangers, mainly in relation to food, drink and accommodation. A contemporary explanation of hospitality refers to the relationship process between a customer and a host. When we talk about the hospitality industry, we are referring to the companies or organizations which provide food and/or drink and/or accommodation to people who are “away from home”. However, this definition of the hospitality industry only satisfies most situations. This study is based on the hotel hospitality in commercial domain; therefore, the whole study has been confined to the hotels, hospitality, hospitality provisions and hospitality management including sustainability in hospitality. Though there are various types of hotels in the world, this study focuses only on the green hotels, eco hotels, sustainable hotels and or highperformance hotels where sustainable responsible tourist behavior are highly expected by the academicians those who are studying on sustainability in hospitality industry. Though the typological meaning of hospitality, according to Brotherton (1999) and Bell (2009), is “holi trinity” (food, drink and accommodation), recently, Kunwar (2017a, pp. 92100) has identified more than 23 types of hospitality christened with the aid of different adjectives used by different scholars. This clearly shows that the history of finding the typology of hospitality has a route back to 1982 with the origin of the term “open hospitality” by Burgess (1982). In this study, the present researchers have focused on hotel hospitality, the term coined by Ryan (1991; in Kunwar, 2017a). Kunwar (2017) recently coined two very important types of hospitality namely persuasive hospitality and imposed hospitality during the panel discussion in an International Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development held in Page | 69

Kathmandu, Nepal (24-28 April 2017) which Nepalese people experienced before and during the Maoist movement (1996-2006). The persuasive hospitality refers to people (hosts) who are intrinsically oriented to welcome the strangers as a tradition. When Maoist movement started in 1996, the nature of hospitality was malformed into the imposed hospitality in both rural and urban areas where the gorillas compelled the host to prepare food for up to maximum fifty people which was experienced by many house holders during the movement. The term imposed hospitality refers to the host compelling to provide unintentional hospitality to the gorillas with the fear of torture or death. Such type of transformation brought tremendous changes in Nepalese social tradition which instantly affected even in the commercial hospitality. When peace agreement was made in 2006, movement was completely stopped but still it is difficult to take over the same persuasive hospitality offered as a tradition before. However, Nepal is making efforts to recuperate the same persuasive hospitality which is Nepal’s age-old tradition and identity. Looking at the definition of Lashley (2000), there are three domains of hospitality famously known as social, private and commercial hospitality. This study carried out on the basis of “hotel hospitality” (Ryan 1991; in Kunwar 2017) under the “commercial domain” (Lashley 2000). Green hotels, eco hotels, sustainable hotels and high-performance hotels In the recent years, the term sustainable hotels have been interchangeably used as green hotels, eco hotels and high-performance hotels. Diener et al. (2008, p.5) tries to give new terminology for sustainability. He states: “Let us eliminate the phrase "green construction" from our lexicon. Let us talk instead of smart building, high efficiency building, high performance building, or simply the future of building. Certainly, that is not going to happen immediately. Michael (2008, p.1) says: “There is no standard definition for green beyond its attachment to an eco-friendly business. Given the many building industry guidelines and the proprietary systems, some hotel companies self-developed, being green can range from encouraging guests to reuse towels, to waste recycling, using wind electricity, to cooking with organic foods, to reducing carbon emissions, to installing rooftop solar panels. Compliance with various benchmarks can result in applying a green label.” Thus, it is perceived that these terms are interchangeably and alternatively used to give a message to primarily to the guests that the hotels practice sustainability in any of its forms. Hospitality industry and sustainability Ryan (1991) as cited in Kunwar (2017a) has noted that the tourists are stranger and bring with them the threat of social, cultural and environmental damage. The tourist is not, however, simply a stranger but a temporary stranger… they are guests, but an impersonal guest”. The consequences of this impersonality for hotel hospitality have been characterized by Wood (1994c) cited in Brotherton (2007) in terms of the mechanisms that hotels use to control their stranger-guests. The hospitality industry has increased steadily, growing by 17% between 2004 and 2014. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2015, it is estimated that there are 700,000 hotels in the world employing about 15.2 million people. The global hospitality market is generating revenue worth $830 billion. Looking at this figure, sustainability in hotel industry is one of the most important subsets of sustainable tourism development. Although sustainability Page | 70

in hospitality industry is very important, very few scholars of hospitality studies have given attention on this issue. However, some of the eminent scholars of hospitality industry have studied on international leading hotels of the world as a cosmopolitan hotel study, which could not be compared with the small hotels run in the least developing countries. In fact, this kind of study is very important particularly in less developed countries like Nepal. In course of studying sustainability in hospitality industry, Fotiadis (2015) and his comparative study of sustainability in small and medium hotels in Taiwan and Greece has become impetus for this kind of study in Nagarkot, Nepal. Economic sustainability in hotels Social and environmental sustainability are interdependent with the economic health of the organization. Thus, it is imperative that the economic health of the organization should be the first priority along with the other operational activities. A story of Scandic Hotel by Cuenlla states that in 1992, the Scandic Hotel U.S. was about to declare bankruptcy. Between 1990 and 1992, the hotel chain reported a loss of approximately US $ 50 million. A new CEO, Ronald Nilsson, was hired to improve the operations and bring it back to profitable and sustainable. In the beginning, Nilsson’s prime agenda was to make the hotel environmentally sustainable however he realized that this goal is not possible unless the economic health of the hotel gets improved. Looking at this Nilsson decentralized the company, giving more power of decision to managers and front-line employees. He realized that if Scandic was to be truly customer focused, employees needed to be empowered to make the right decisions and act accordingly. Such a strategy required a great psychological and cultural change. It would not have been possible to accomplish this goal if it weren’t for Nilsson’s leadership who believed to make the hotel financially sustainable (Cuenlla 2002). Houdré (2008) believes that profitability is the key to sustainability which can be achieved by following the strict ethics, grow revenue and save on costs, thus creating higher shareholder values. Michael et al. (2008 p.13) states: "The negative environmental impact of an individual hotel is significant". A hotel's operations require generating inputs and outputs that involve water, energy chemical, food, sewage, and solid waste”. Michael et al. (2008) present some interesting facts about the U.S. hotel industry, which spends about $3.7 billion on energy. Out of which the electricity use is of 60%-70% of the total utility costs (electricity, water, fuel and gas). Guest lighting is about 30%-40% of the hotel's electricity consumption. A typical hotel uses 218 gallons (1 gallon = 3.78 liters) of water per day per occupied room. Houdré (2011) in an advisory board meeting presented that the hotels create a lot of waste and hence have a highly visible position in the community. A typical hotel releases 160 and 200 kg of CO2 per m2 of room floor area. Average energy consumption is 55 kwh per guest per night… Regarding waste, the average for a normal hotel is 1kg to 1.5kg waste per guest per night. A case study of the Scandic hotels figures for 2012 were: (i) unsorted waste: 0.5 kg per guest per night (ii) energy consumption: 45.9 kwh per guest per night (iii) water consumption: 201.9 liters per guest per night (4) fossil carbon dioxide: 1.9 kg per guest per night (Cuenllas 2012) Burns et al. (2015) states about some best practices going on in the world of hotel industry. Given that the electricity consumption in a hotel account for 60-70% of the total energy cost, the 10% reduction in the energy cost results the same amount by increasing an average room Page | 71

rate by $1.35. Again, reducing the water consumption by7% results in saving of the $135,000 to $218,000 in natural gas bills per year used to heat water. Solar energy can be a best way to cut down the cost while using the “green” energy. Solar energy implementation can save in average 25% of the energy that a hotel needs to operate. This accounts for saving 155kwh of electricity per year. Although this practice has not been widely adopted, switching to an air-towater heat pump from a conventional heating system (typically, heat from electronic sources or a condensing boiler) can save 50 percent of the energy used and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12,000 kg. Where natural gas is available, hotels can replace electricity with gas as a source of energy for the laundry and catering services, reducing the hotel’s environmental impact. After receiving two consecutive awards in 2005 and 2006, Marriott International hotel worldwide improved in energy management and helped to save $6 million and at the same time reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 70,000 tons. The program included the installation of 450,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), conversion of all outdoor signage to LED and fiber optic lighting, and implementation of energy and water efficient laundry systems. Through its reduction in energy consumption, Marriott’s efforts represent a 2 percent greenhouse gas reduction per room. In 2004, the historic Willard InterContinental in Washington, DC, installed CFLs in common areas and guest rooms. According to hotel management, guest complaints of lighting quality have decreased. As a result of this upgrade, which paid for the initial investment in less than six months, the hotel is saving one million kilowatt hours and more than $100,000 annually. Fifty-three hotels installed building automation in 2013, and realized nearly $200,000 in savings by year-end (Marriott 2014) Environmental sustainability in hotels Rio conference (1992) encouraged the hospitality industry to take environmental initiatives such as the first environmental certificate programs and initiatives to build so called green buildings. In the 2000’s environmental issues were incorporated in the wider concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Goldstein & Primlani, 2012). Even though hoteliers are considering the social aspects of their operations these are less developed than the environmental aspects (Van Rheede & Blomme 2012). Basiago (1999 p. 155) stated that "‘Environmental sustainability’ requires maintaining natural capital as both a provider of economic inputs called ‘sources’ and an absorber called ‘sinks’ of economic outputs called ‘wastes’ (Daly 1973 & 1974; World Bank 1986; Pearce & Redclift1988; Pearce et al. 1990a & 1990b). Bruns-Smith et al. (2015 p. 2) states that Hilton hotels worldwide had set a goal of reducing waste by 20 percent and water use by 10 percent by the end of 2013. Hilton exceeded those goals, reducing waste by 24.9 percent and water reductions by 10.2 percent. Thus, decreasing water and energy use can cut utility costs for a hotel while also showing its commitment to corporate stewardship and decreasing its drain on the surrounding environment. Marriot sustainability report (2014) states that Marriott has been operating with responsible management of resources from the establishment and established a formal program to reduce water and energy use. With the rise in unpredictable weather patterns, and global warming conditions, Marriott stresses on natural capital and resources, air and water quality issues. Marriott has further goals of reducing water consumption by 20% by 2020. Empowering hotel Page | 72

development partners to build green hotels educate and encourage guests and the associates for conservation and preservation of the resources and innovatively controlling the resources including the rainforest protection and water conservation. Social sustainability in hotels Comparing to economic sustainability and environmental sustainability, social sustainability has not been understood and is least defined. It has less attention in public writings however it is an important pillar of overall sustainable development. Kenzie (2004) defines social sustainability as the formal and informal processes; systems; structures; and relationships actively support the capacity of current and future generations to create healthy and socially sustainable communities are equitable, diverse, connected and democratic, and provide a good quality of life. Bukhari K.S. et al. (2012) says: ‘Social capital’ and ‘community infrastructure’ building is another important construct of social sustainability in hospitality industry, which by the results we see lie below in comparison to ‘engaged governance’ and ‘social justice & equity’ as these are the basic services, which one organization provide and make available in retort to the demands of communities. They enhance the quality of life by building networking, norms, trust, health measures, education, transportation, and rural development. Over all, these elements need to be further focused and developed in the selected organizations”. Houdré, (2008) states that Taj Hotels Group one of the multi-billion dollar subsidiaries of Tata group has a long history of serving women, artisans and the education of the children. Employees and the corporate officers actively participate on various social activities via the 30% of total profit after tax of the company. Taj hotels believe in what Mahatma Gandhi has said about earth, “The Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed. Taj hotels involve in sustainable development via corporate governance, employee relations, environmental protection, and community services via Tata Council for Community initiatives that embraces social development, environmental management, biodiversity restoration and employee volunteering. In 2008 Taj announced its newest program, EARTH (Environment Awareness & Renewal at Taj Hotels), a project which reiterates the conscious effort of one of Asia’s largest and finest group of hotels to commit to energy conservation. Marriott international hotel with 4000 hotels worldwide in 80 different countries have been innovatively working on to make it understand that conservation and community engagement is more than a moral imperative. Marriot also believes that socially responsible business makes a good business sense, builds customer preference and loyalty. It also believes that the travellers also care about the hotels that advocate the issues which have the global importance. It has taken initiatives in preserving the Amazon rain forest, providing job readiness training to underserved youth, advocating for secure and easy visa policies into the US (Marriot 2014). Willard Intercontinental hotel, USA involved in international causes, reinforcing the reality that the U.S. is a generous and caring country. Helping children internationally means supporting such diverse causes as access to clean water in Africa and offering aid to victims of the Asian tsunami (Hourde 2008)

Page | 73

Research methodology This paper is an outcome of the study carried out in as many as 30 hotels and eco resorts in Nagarkot with their 100 in-house guests and about 100 staff with the aid of structured questionnaire as well as unstructured questions. Ten students of Asian Institute of Technology and Management for about a week time were taken to Nagarkot along with the researcher with structured questionnaire format and a set of logical questions for the general managers, owners, staff, local stakeholders and also the guests. About 70 study materials including journal articles, magazines, write-ups of some eminent personalities, books, some soft copies of earticles were consulted for this study. Hotel industry in Nepal After the advent of the democracy in Nepal, the hotel industry started developing in a noble pace. According to Hotel Associan of Nepal (HAN), the first hotel opened in Nepal was “Nepal Hotel” in Patan Jawalakhel in 1951 to 1952 closed within the same year owing to the management problems. Mr. Boris Lisanevich Russian nationality arrived in Nepal with his Denish wife Inger in 1951 and established “Royal Hotel” in “Seto Durbar” or “Dip Bahadur Bhawan” in Kathmandu. In 1952 “Parash Hotel” and in 1954 “Snow View Hotel” was opened. In 1956 hotel “Coronation” was opened in Bagbazar was first purposely built hotel in Nepal (HAN 2017) Hotel Shankar a four-star property was opened in 1964, Hotel Annapurna, a five-star deluxe hotel in 1965, Hotel Soaltee Oberoi in 1966, Blue Star Hotel in 1968, Hotel Crystal in 1972, Hotel Yak and Yeti in 1973, Hotel Radisson in 1998 and hotel Hyatt Regency in 2000. Currently there are eight five star hotels and about twenty-four star hotels in Nepal. A total of 2500 hotels are registered in Hotel Association of Nepal and about 350,000 people are employed by these hotels (HAN 2016). After a recent forecast of opening of few new airports around the country, is expected to have 20 more five star hotels, 40 four star and about 70 three star hotels by 2020. This is however a very small volume in comparison to a global volume of 700,000 hotels in the world. For small country like this, it is regarded as a positive growth. Hotel industry in Nepal has 10% turnover rate, has a 3.5% contribution to the national GDP and has an everemerging demand of 30,000 people every year. Rai (2012) states that Nagarkot having about 50 tourist class hotels, lodges and eco-resorts is one of the important niche tourism destinations which is about 32 km north west of the capital city Kathmandu. After an access to Nagarkot was paved via Bhaktapur Highway in the year 1969, the tourists started visiting the Nagarkot steadily. The need of hotels and lodges was then felt. The total number of Hotels and lodges in Nagarkot were seven in 1984, nine in 1988, eleven in 1990, fourteen in 1993, eighteen in 1995 (Pradhan (1997, p. 97; 2008, p.170) giving rise to more than 100 hotels and lodges till date. It is an eco-friendly destination famous for nature loving vacationers. Nagarkot is situated at about 7,200 feet and is known for its beautiful views of sunrise over the eastern Himalayas. Nagarkot as a country side capital is very much a resort village, where people come to escape the sweltering heat of the city and stay overnight. The overall capacity of all the establishments is 603 rooms and 1288 beds. The average expenditure of an individual tourist per stay is $75. The 32 establishments employed 453 staff members, of which 88% are males and 12% females. On an average, Page | 74

females are paid 2.9% less than their male co-workers. During the peak months, 40% of total expenditure on purchase of food items is spent in periphery 3, 45% in periphery 2 and 15% in periphery 1. For slack months, the share of purchase is 35%, 51% and 14% for periphery 1, 2 and 3, respectively (Rai 2012). The recent earthquake in Nepal in 2015 impacted enormously in hotel industry in Nagarkot. There is a question of sustainability in the construction of the buildings in Nagarkot. The total population of Nagarkot before the 2015 earthquake was 2442. A total of 3 people died and 14 were injured because of the quake. 1 female and 2 males died in the quake. Out of 524 houses, 125 houses were concrete based houses and 399 houses were mud based. In overall more than 451 were fully damaged, 39 houses were partially damaged and 34 houses were listed as ordinary damage. 60 big hotels and 150 restaurants have been affected. The damage resulted a loss of approx. $10 million (Nrs. 1 billion) (Tuladhar 2016) Findings and discussions In an economic sustainability analysis, it is seen that the hoteliers in Nagarkot are aware of guest participation in sustainability exercise. 33% of the total hotels requested their guests to control the use of water and reuse towels and 70% guests accepted the request. This is somehow is similar with what Bruns-Smith et al. (2015) found in their study in top 100 resorts in USA where about 20 environmentally sustainable resorts have towel and linen re-use program in place and 80% of the customers happily participated. Guests are also requested to use electricity wisely in terms of using electrical appliances such as heating, lighting, ventilations, air-conditions and televisions, etc. Some hotels also engage their guests in community services. Majority of visitors like the organic design of the hotels they are staying. It indicates that the designs of the hotels at Nagarkot are eco-friendly and have sustainability components installed. Hotels in Nagarkot reflect Nepali culture and ethnicity but majority of hotels are modernized to harmonize the needs for a modern traveler. It is also found that the majority of guests are willing to spend more on eco and environment friendly hotel. This is true according to Trip Advisor Global Survey (2006), as cited in Diener (2008, p.15), outlined as 34% of the guests are willing to pay more for environmental friendly hotels. It is observed that the guests also want to be the part of the hotel and contribute something to the society, locals, environment, community and nature. We figured out that the half of the employees are engaged in any particular hotel for less than a year while only 2% employees are engaged in a particular hotel for more than 15 years. It also shows that most of the employees are temporary and aren’t familiar to their workplace which might also result lack of loyalty and easy acceptance to the development programs like sustainability. Majority of employees believe controlling expense is the key to cost control like avoiding unwanted cost, recycling and reusing methods, controlling food waste and managing energy, electricity and saving fuels are the fundamentals in controlling cost. It was also found that owners are the most concerned stakeholders in the hotels about the costs and profitability but because of awareness issues and some training and development condemns, it is difficult to get what is expected from the operations. The survey clearly shows that majority of the employees haven’t received any training program on sustainability yet. It Page | 75

clearly indicates the practice of sustainability is not well executed in Nagarkot till date. Employees and hoteliers aren’t well aware about the sustainability trainings while few employees have received training on the sustainability and yet needs to be implemented. We asked employees on what conditions will they be happy to participate in training and development programs in sustainability issues apart from another skills training? Surprisingly, the data showed that 60% of the employees will take part because they want to acquire knowledge about the subject and only 20% will take part if the hotels share them the direct enticement from the gains (bonus, incentives, etc.) by implementing the sustainability programs. The rest will be happy to take part in the sustainability training program if their hotel gains more profit. When asked about what are the tools the hotel owners and managers apply to control the cost of the hotel, most of them said they used LED bulbs instead of florescent and incandescent. We also got other answers like effective use of raw materials, use of local products, etc. While inspecting on the food cost that the hotels incur in monthly basis, it is seen that the hotels are able to maintain their food cost percentage in between 20-32%, which is an ideal figure (Tilly 2014). It is found that out of as many 40 books and journals referred for his study, none of the scholars precisely talked about food cost and its relationship with economic sustainability. Out of total food and beverage revenue, 28%-32% goes in food cost and if controlled properly, 1% reduction in food cost can save as much as 10% saving in electricity cost of the hotel.

Fig.1. An overview of sustainable practices of hotels in Nagarkot, Nepal

Guest preference to pay…

Guest liking of the organic…

Guest participation in…

Formation of green team

Tree plantations

Community cleaning…

Staff motivation and…

Use of local products

Towel re-use program

Green Certifications

Faucet aerators

Dual flush toilets

Use of green cleaning…

In-house vegetable farming

Rainwater harvesting

Sustainability training to…

In-house compost…

Use of solar energy as an…

Use of LED technology

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

General awareness of…

Sustainable practices in Nagarkot, Nepal

% IN PRACTICE

In figure 1, it is seen that 40% of the total hotels surveyed are managing the waste in a way of converting it to compost for flower gardens and for farming vegetables for their own use. Page | 76

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. It is an alternative to "conventional" waste disposal that can save material and help lower greenhouse gas emissions. Recycling can prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, thereby reducing: energy usage, air pollution, and water pollution. We found a part response for each category about 50% said yes and the remaining 50% said no. From a survey on source of water in the hotels it is seen that most of them use spring water. 63% of respondents admit that they use spring water for their daily use because of the ample availability of natural springs in the area. Only 33% of respondent they have a rain water harvesting system in practice. On the other hands 67% they don’t know the benefit of harvesting system. From the above data 53% respondent said that no one in the hotel is to deputize to look sustainability concept. Remaining the 16% are owners themselves. Sustainability is a balancing act hence needs a participatory act. Sustainability has become a far-reaching field, covering a range of environmental and social issues. We found an overwhelming response of in-house vegetable farming. 79% respondent said that they have their own in-house vegetable farms for the guests and production is organic in nature. It is also found that some of them are considering the organic farming in the near future. 95% of hotels use chemical products for cleaning purposes and rest of the used herbal soap. The reason is because of non-availability of the green products though the hotels want to use.70% respondents have not been able to use because of non-availability of the products. Whereas 20% of them said the green cleaning products are not much affordable.

Page | 77

Fig. 2. An overview of sustainable components of hotel industry in the world. Staff

Train,motivate and empower

Community

Corporate Social Responsibility

Social factors Motivate, encourage and empower

Share Holders

Guests

Sutinability in Hospitality

Water quality

Environmental factors

Wastage management Air quality

Prioritize, participate and pride Grey water harvesting

Recycle, reuse and reduce Improve, recycle

Noise Wastage control

Control, observe and ignore Recycle, reuse and reduce Grey Water harvesting for irrigation Rain water harvesting

Water control

Low flow shower heads Faucet aeraton Water efficient appliences Dual flush toilets

Economic factors

Towel re-use Linen re-use

Energy control

Thermostats LED bulbs Window glazing and covering for solar gain Insulation of window and walls Energy efficient laundry Low energy refrigerators Smart stripes to reduce energy costs Solar/turbine

Figure 2 is an outcome of the study and understanding of the sustainability components in hotel industry in a nutshell. It is believed that this diagram will be helpful for the scholars and researchers to have a quick understanding of what is expected out of being sustainable hotel industry.

Page | 78

Conclusion The origin of sustainability may date back to 100 years ago from an idea known as spaceship earth (George 1879/2009, in Alhaddi 2015, 6). Sustainability practice is a healthy and longterm practice in today for a secured tomorrow. Hotels in the world are practicing sustainability knowingly or unknowingly incorporating around 40%-50% of the sustainability components in their daily operations. A study in a small cluster of hotels like Nagarkot, Nepal outlines that sustainability should be a global practice from cosmopolitan to provincial to the last resorts in a global world of hotels. Here the term cosmopolitan hotels refer to the hotels located in the diverse multicultural cities; provincial refers to a small countryside hotel industry and the last resort represents the hotels which are located both in humans and non-human habitations. Be it green, eco, and high performance or sustainable the universally accepted components to achieve real time sustainable goal of any hospitality business is reliant on three key elements namely: economic health, social health and environmental health components. It is the difference of revenue and cost factors which determines the thickness of hotel’s economic sustainability in which the social and environmental sustainability practices can cultivate. However, it is important that all three components should work simultaneously to give a perfect balance. The recent article on environmentally sustainable tourist behavior by Juvan and Dolnicar (2016) suggests continuing the work on different environmental tourist behavior dimension one of the dimensions of sustainability and this study encourages the future researchers to study about the environmentally sustainable behavior of the tourists in the host country to bring a complete balance towards the holistic sustainable of the hotel industry. In this study, we precisely found that peace is what we need to be more sustainable otherwise tourism will be fickle industry (Kunwar, 2017). Butler (1980) conceptualized destination development resort lifecycle which goes in different stages: Exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, rejuvenation or decline. Hotel industry in Nagarkot has been identified at the development stage and need to have the strategies to keep it ahead with much sustainability practices.

References Astonishing

facts

about

hotel

industry

(2016).

Retrieved

from

https://soegjobs.com/2016/07/12/16-astonishing-facts-hospitality-industry/.

Alladdhi H. (2015) Tripple bottom line and sustainability: A literature review. Business and management studies 1, (2). Basiago AD. (1999) Economic, social, and environmental sustainability in development theory and urban planning practice. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, U.S. Bell D. (2009) Tourism and hospitality. The Sage Handbook of Tourism Studies. Sage, London. Brazdauskas M. & Gaigalaite L. (2015) Sustainable hotels as learning organization: Innovative approaches towards employee training. Journal of Creativity and Business Innovation 1, 99106.

Page | 79

Brotherton, B. (1999) Towards a definite View of the Nature of Hospitality and Hospitality Management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 11 (4), 165173. Bruns-Smith A., Choy V., Chong H., & Verma R. (2015) Environmental sustainability in the hospitality industry, Best practices, guest participation, and customer satisfaction. Cornell Hospitality Report 15(3), 6-16. Bukhari K.S., Bhati M.I., Awan H.M., Wahid A. (2012) Globalization and Sustainability: Strengthening the “Social” in sustainable development. Intec, Shanghai, China. Burgees, J. (1982). Perspectives on gift exchange and hospitable behavior, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 1 (1), 49-57. Butler, R.W. (1980) The concept of tourist area cycle of evolution: Implications for management of resources. Canadian Geography, 24 (1) 5-12. Chan B. (2013) Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism: Hospitality Studies. The Hongkong Ploytechnic University: Murry A., School of Hotel and Tourism management, Wan Chai, Hongkong. Chung L.H. and Parker, L. D. (2010) Managing social and environmental action and accountability in the hospitality industry: A Singapore perspective. Accounting Forum 34 (1) 46-53. Cuenllas (2008) Scandic hotels a role model of sustainability. Retrieved from: http://ihra.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/scandic-sustainability-case.study_.pdf. Dean T. J. & Mc. Mullen J. S. (2007) Towards a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: Reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action. Journal of Business Venturing 22 (1), 50-76. Diener L. M., Parekh A. & Pitera J. (2008) High Performance Hospitality. University of Michigan. USA. Dixon, John A. and Louise A. Fallon. 1989. The Concept of Sustainability: Origins, Extensions and Usefulness for Policy. Society and Natural Resources 2, 73-84. Ellington J. (1997) Cannibals with Forks: The Tipple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Oxford. Capstone. Enz C. A. & Siguaw J. A. (1999) Best hotel environment practices. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 40 (5), 72-7. Fotiadis A. & Vassiliadis C. (2015) Comparative study of sustainable development in small and medium tourism and hotel industry from Greece and Tiawan. Enlightening tourism. A path making journal. I-Shou University, Taiwan. Geyer R. & Jackson T. (2004) Supply loops and their constraints: The industrial ecology of Recycling and refuse. California Management Review 46 (2), 55-73. Goldstein N. J., Cialdini R.B. & Griskevicius V. (2008) A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of Consumer Research 35(3), 472-82 Goldstein A. & Primlani V. (2012) Current Trends and Opportunities in Hotel Sustainability. HVS sustainability services. Retrieved from: https://www.hvs.com/content/3218.pdf. Houdré H. (2008) Sustainable Development in Hotel Industry. Cornell Hospitality Industry perspective 1 (2), 6-20. Juvan E. and Dolnicar (2006) Measuring environmentally sustainable tourist behavior. Annals of Tourism Research. 59, 30-40 Kasavana M L (2008) Green Hospitaity. The School of Hospitality business. Michigan State University. USA Kenzie S. (2004) Social sustainability: Towards some definitions. Hawke research institute. University of South Australia. Magill Page | 80

Kunwar R.R. (2017a) What is Hospitality. The Gaze: Journal of Tourism and Hospitality ?, 8, 55115 Kunwar R. R. (2017b) Tourists and Tourism; Revised and Enlarged Edition. Gangasen Kunwar.Kathmandu. Lashley, C. (2000) Towards a Theoretical Understanding. In Lashley, C. and Morrison, A. (eds.) In search of Hospitality Theoretical Perspectives and Debates. Oxford, Butterworth Heinemann. Liu, Z. (2003) Sustainable Tourism Development: A Critique. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 11 (6) 459-475. Marriott corporate headquarter (2014) Mariott sustainability report. Social responsibility and community engagement. Maryland, USA Pradhan K.M. (1997, p. 97) Planning tourism in Nepal. Bikash Publishing House. New Delhi. Pradhan K. M. (2008) Micro and macro perspective of tourism in Nepal. Benchmark education support, Kathmandu. Rai S. (2012) Tourism and its impact on local economy of Nagarkot. Nepal Tourism development review 2, 155-159 Rachel K. (2014) Moscow, Climate Change is a challenge for sustainable development. Russian Federation. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2014 Scanlon N.L. (2007) An analysis and assessment of environmental operating practices in hotel and resort properties. International Journal of Hospitality Management 27 (1), 126-33 Tilly B. (2014) Restaurant benchmarks. Retrieved from: http://www.bakertilly.com/uploads/restaurant-benchmarking.pdf. Taylor, S. and Edgar, D. (1996) The emperor’s new clothes? International Journal of Hospitality Management 15(3), 211-227. Tuladhar S. (2016) Impact of the great earthquake -2015 on hospitality industry of Nepal: Journal of tourism and hospitality 7, 88-115. The economist (2009) Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/node/14301663 Walley N. & Whitehead (1994) It’s not easy being green. Harvard Business Review 72 (3), 4652. Withiam G (2013) Hotel & Restaurant Strategy: Key elements of Success (Electronic Article). Cornell Hospitality Round Table Proceedings 5 (3), 6-20. Report: Climate© 2014 Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LL Change 2007

Page | 81

Environmental Sustainability of Olympic Games: A Comparison of Initiatives in Developed and Developing Countries KONSTANTAKI Maria Abstract Sustainability has been coined ‘one of the most successful concepts in tourism and event studies that has experienced exponential growth since the mid-1980s’ (Hall, 2010). Despite its emergence as a popular concept, sustainability is a complex issue that has been poorly understood by stakeholders, polcy makers and organisers of mega-sport events, such as the Olympic Games. Lohman and Dredge (2012) have noted that even though humans are a fundamental part of the natural environment, leading policy makers such as the International Olympic Committee, have created policies that solely consider impacts to the physical environment (i.e. transportation and pollution) while ommiting other equally significant environmental impacts such as community displacement (Porter et al., 2009), use of facilities after the event (Hiller, 2006) and uneven distribution of benefits within the host community (Gaffney, 2010). This paper will review the issues surrounding environmental sustainability of mega-sports events such as the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. A historical account of movements to improve sustainability, such as the Olympic Charter (IOC, 2007), the International Standards Organisation (ISO, 2010) and the Sustainable Sourcing Code (LOCOG, 2012) will be presented amongst others. The paper will particularly focus on comparing sustainability policies and strategies between developed and developing countries where Olympic Games have been held or are to be held in the near future.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability, Mega sport events, Olympic Games, Policy making Developed & developing countries

Page | 82

Hoteliers’ Sources of Bargaining Power in the Negotiations with Large Tour Operators: An Exploratory Study in Cyprus KOUTRA Christina

Abstract

Large European vertically integrated tour operators have grown into large ‘power houses’ within the industry, allowing them to control price, product, tourism flow and direct tourism demand. This power allows the tour operators to exert pressure on accommodation providers/hoteliers during negotiation processes whether contractual or not. This action is often unfavourable to the latter since it restricts their profitability, performance and competitiveness. The power of large European tour operators has been identified by various studies. However, there is a lack of research that explicitly examines the antecedents of bargaining power of buyers (tour operators) and suppliers (hoteliers) experiencing asymmetric bargaining power. Understanding the bargaining power of each party is considered as a crucial element of a negotiation process, particularly for the lower power party to be able to achieve a more beneficial outcome. Hence, drawing on power relations and supply management literature, the purpose is to explore bargaining power interactions and discover the sources and constraints that influence the parties bargaining power. In turn, offer critical information to hospitality business to improve their bargaining ability. A grounded theory methodology is utilised to explore these issues by interviewing hoteliers’ (owner/managers) due to their experience and constant contact with the tour operators. The findings indicate inadequate tangible product and low goodwill is a constraint to the hotel’s bargaining power since it reduces the desirability of the hotel as perceived by the tour operators. Furthermore, insufficient cooperation between hoteliers hinders the hotel’s bargaining power in relation to the tour operator. The study sheds a new light on the power asymmetries that exist within the tourism/hospitality context and in turn assists hoteliers to improve their bargaining power with the tour operators.

Keywords: Accommodation providers, Hotels, Bargaining power, Resources, Tour operators, Negotiations, Cyprus.

Page | 83

Understanding South African Consumers’ Cuisine and Dining Preferences KRUGER Martinette & SAAYMAN Melville

Abstract In Maslow’s hierarchy of need, food is one of the most fundamental physiological needs. All consumers have to eat, and thus engage in some form of retail and dining. However, understanding consumers’ cuisine and dining preferences is complicated as various factors play a role. These factors include among others dietary requirements, religious beliefs and culture. Additional influential factors are consumers’ dining preferences i.e. preferred type of restaurant, frequency of dining and attendance and participation in cuisine related events and activities. Limited research has, unfortunately, to date analyzed South African consumers based on the mentioned factors. Without this knowledge, retails and dining establishments fail to meet the needs of the consumers. Amidst strife competition among retailers and restaurants as well as consumers having less disposable income to spend on dining, analyzing the needs of consumers becomes vital as it influences the sustainability of the food service industry. The purpose of this research is therefore to fill the gap in the current literature by taking the previously mentioned factors into account and segment South African consumers based on their cuisine and dining preferences. A visitor survey was conducted in 2016 at Decorex Johannesburg, one of Africa’s largest and premier décor, design and lifestyle expos. Three hundred and eighty-five (385) questionnaires were administered and included in the analysis. The results of the research will be beneficial to the foodservice industry in South Africa as this industry influences a variety of other industries including tourism. The information can also assist entrepreneurs, restaurant owners and producers in the industry to base their products and services on the needs of the consumers.

Keywords: Dining Preferences, Cuisine Preferences, Market Segmentation, South Africa

Page | 84

In-Depth Review of Micro-Economic Areas for Business Tourist’s Spending Patterns KUMAR Jeetesh, FUKEY, Leena Nitin & GARG Anshul Abstract Most of the prior researchers used tourists’ arrivals to look into international tourism demand, as tourism is not a single product, it includes a bunch of goods and services purchased by tourists. Buying behavior and power vary tourist to tourist due to differing in their demographics, length of stay, accommodation used, mode of travel, the purpose of visit, accompanying a person or alone and many more features (Kumar & Hussain, 2014). All these differences lead toward expenditure variations. Hence, tourist’s arrival is not an actual factor to look into international tourism demand and it does not show the actual spending pattern of tourists. Literature has proved that business tourists always spend more than leisure tourists. Almost 14% of international tourists were business tourists, which is 535 million worldwide for the year 2015 (UNWTO, 2015). Tourist expenditure is an essential measure of international tourism demand. The researcher has summarized number of studies to review several variables that could affect tourism demand and expenditure. In total 31 studies were reviewed, to look after sample size, modeling and also for dependent and independent variables. Therefore, business tourist’s expenditure is an important measure of international tourism demand. The aim of the paper is to review several tourism/ business tourism expenditure studies focusing especially micro areas of the expenditure, to extract the model specification, sample size, dependent and independent variables. The study concludes that micro-economic modeling should be in focus and given priority for tourism demand and the factors affecting business tourist expenditure including psychological and destination-related factors. Keywords: Business tourists, Expenditure, Destination-related Factors, Micro-economic analysis, Psychological factors. Introduction Most of the previous studies took tourists arrivals to look into international tourism demand, as tourism is not a single product, it includes a bunch of goods and services purchased by tourists. Buying behavior and power vary tourist to tourist due to differing in their demographics, length of stay, accommodation used, mode of travel, the purpose of visit, accompanying a person or alone and many more features (Song & Witt, 2000; Kumar & Hussain, 2014; Song & Li, 2008). All these differences lead toward expenditure variations. Hence, tourist’s arrival is not an actual factor to look into international tourism demand and it does not show the actual spending pattern of tourists. Many of the researchers have proved that business tourists always spend more than leisure tourists. As per one study by National statistics international passenger survey in 2000 at the United Kingdom, 851,000 conference delegates brought £ 591 million to the UK; per visit spending was £ 694. Where an average leisure visitor spends £ 507 and business tourists spend £ 554. Similarly, exhibition visitors spend £ 151, which is three times higher than an average all type of visitors (Business Tourism Partnership, 2003; Hussain, Ari Ragavan, Kumar, & Nayve, 2014). If we look at the total number of international tourists since last 1990 almost 15 % of the tourists were traveling for the business purposes. Almost 14% of international tourists were a business tourist, which is 145 million worldwide in the year 2012 and 139.3 million in the year 2011 (UNWTO, 2013). Page | 85

It is very much important to understand the tourists’ expenditure because tourism is the most crucial and economic driven practice. Also, utilization of tourism is at the focal point of the financial estimation of tourism and the financial effects of tourism (Mihalic, 2002). Exploration of tourism demand has been dominatingly at the large scale financial level that utilizations amassed information including, total arrivals and expenditure in particular destination (Lim, 2006). This identifies with a high level of fluctuation in cross-sectional data, which makes displaying an individual's interest for an item more mind boggling and less precise than demonstrating the interest for a gathering of individuals. Accumulation tends to normal out individual characteristics and therefore, as the level of collection increments, both the unwavering quality and exactness of the model move forward. All things considered, contemplates utilizing very collected information are less significant to tourism arranging and strategy making than those in view of information of a lower level of accumulation (Smith, 1995). This review of micro-economic tourism demand studies has identified several that used expenditure as the measurement of an individual’s demand for tourism. The following sections present these studies in terms of sample size, modeling method, as well as the dependent and independent variables used. Even though macro and micro economic studies serve different purposes, micro-econometric models have three advantages over macro-econometric models (Alegre & Pou, 2004). Firstly, the models do not stray too far from theoretical economic consumer models. Secondly, they allow for the control of participation bias, which is introduced when the analysis is based on aggregated data. Thirdly, they acknowledge the diversity and heterogeneity of consumer behaviors that are ignored in studies using highly aggregated data. Figure 1 shows a summary of number empirical studies on international tourism demand has been undertaken to explain the possible factors that influence tourist flows worldwide. Tourism Demand Studies

Macro-economic tourism demand studies

Time Series

Micro-economic tourism demand studies Univariate Analysis Multivariate Analysis

Modelling Individual’s Choice

Cross Sectional Single Equation Panel

Modelling Individual’s Experience

System of Equations Modelling Tourism Price

Figure 1. Tourism Demand Studies Types

Page | 86

Therefore, business tourist’s expenditure is an important measure of international tourism demand. The aim of the paper is to review several tourism/ business tourism expenditure studies focusing especially micro areas of the expenditure, to extract the model specification, sample size, dependent and independent variables. The study concludes that micro-economic modeling should be in focus and given priority for tourism demand and the factors affecting business tourist expenditure including psychological and destination-related factors. Review of the Literature Tourism Demand and Type of Products The tourism demand can be observed at a macro or micro-economic level. For macro-economic level study analysis required aggregated demand, includes time series or cross-sectional analysis. (Hanke, Wichern, & Reitsch, 2001). Further, for time series analysis, research required big sample size (Lim, 1997). Cross-sectional analysis is to collect data at a single point in time across a number of units to compare tourism demand across regions/ countries at one point in time instead of overtime periods. There are twelve (12) sub-sectors, which helps to design tourism related products acknowledged by UNWTO (UNWTO, 2006). Sub-sectors are Hotels, Second Home, restaurants, railways passenger transport services, road passenger transport services, air passenger transport services, water passenger transport services, transport supporting services, transport equipment rental travel agencies, cultural services, and sporting / recreational activities. All the sub-sector can be categorized in three types of products as follow;

Tourism Characteristic Products are the products whose consumption goes down significantly once tourists are not visiting the destination in good quantity.

Tourism Connected Products are the products known as tourism related in the country but not on a worldwide basis. Tourism Specific Products: are also known as tourism related products and they are the combination of tourism characteristic and tourism connects products. Micro-economic Analysis of Business Tourists’ Expenditure As business tourism is an expenditure compelled economic activity, therefore it is very important to understand the patterns of business tourist spending. Through expenditure, we can measure the economic impact of business tourism on the economy and particular destination (Kumar & Hussain, 2014b). The findings of the (Lim, 2006) supports that there have been so many studies focusing macro-economic level and there is a need for more microeconometric studies in this area. Even though macro and micro-economic studies oblige different purposes (Alegre & Pou, 2004). Very few studies micro-economic tourism demand studies have used expenditure as the measurement of demand for tourism. Sample Size and Modelling Methods For micro-economic analysis of business tourist’s expenditure, it is very important to have the proper sample size, previously several studies conducted on the same subject carried out with different sample size. The majority of the studies have less than 1500 observations. Studies Page | 87

used survey data collected by researcher or tourism bureau for other purposes and the sample sizes reported sometimes refer to the total number of questionnaires received rather than the number of cases used in modeling (Moisy, Yuan & McCool, 1990). Multiple regression models were found very common model used in most of the micro-economic analysis literature. The researcher can have separate exploration for individual or joint effects of two or more than two individual variables on business tourist’s expenditure (Nicolau & Más, 2005). Dependent Variable - Expenditure While doing micro-economic analysis, business tourist’s spending could be taken as dependent variable. There are several categories of expenditure, it could vary from 4 to 20. Kumar and Hussain (2014b) mentioned that increase in a number of categories will lead to an accurate estimation of economic impacts, as accurate expenditure data can increase the validity and reliability of the economic estimates. There are several items under dependent variable – expenditure for business tourists including ‘registration fees’, ‘cost of international airline’, ‘cost of domestic airline’, ‘cost of hotel/accommodation and other lodging services’, ‘cost of local/cultural tours’, ‘spending on local transportation’, ‘spending on food and beverages’, ‘spending on shopping’, ‘spending on leisure activities’ and ‘other spending’ to identify the total average expenditure per tourist per event. Surveys with 20 expenditure categories normally have a small sample size so cannot be used specifically in the analysis but can be used to cumulative to come up with new categories with reasonable sample size (Moisy, Yuan & McCool, 1990). Literature has proved that studies with 7 expenditure categories represent almost 85% of all expenditure being occurred in the economy. To measure the business tourist’s spending in different areas during their business trip, it is very important to know the area where tourists wish to spend because sometimes tourists can spend unknowingly which does not come under economic impact research (Hussain, Ari Ragavan, Kumar, & Nayve, 2014). Independent Variable - Destination and Psychological Demand is triggered through push or pull factors (endogenously, exogenously) (Laesser & Crouch, 2006). Psychological variables include tourist estimation and evaluation of trip, psychological characteristics, trip motives, and taste. Downward and Lumsdon (2000) measured tourist’s taste by the importance of the factors attracting them to the destination and the motives for visiting the destination. Destination-related variables include travel activities offered at the destination also influence travel expenditures after controlling for income (Jang, Cai, Marrison, & O’Leary, 2005). Tourist product quality has reflected some extent in its price and price factor explicates that why the particular destination is preferred over another offering same quality product with affordable price (Mangion et al., 2005). Researchers, therefore, have tried to capture product characteristics by price effect. At the macro level, product characteristics also can affect the price and overall organizational revenue (Papatheodorou, 2002). We can’t assume the quality of product from price only and also perspective demand can’t be changed with actual spending by tourists. In the macro analysis, the researcher can measure the quality of tourist product by tourists’ evaluation for the trip or product. Also, it is confirmed that tourists’ mindset also can affect their expenditure (Chhabra et al., 2002). Facilities and activities available for the tourists at destination also influence travel expenditure. A number of studies have concluded that the level of expenditure is associated with certain tourist activities at the destination (Jang et al., 2005). Other studies (Laesser & Crouch, 2006; Mehmetoglu, 2007; Pouta et al., 2006) Page | 88

Independent Variable – Economic With regards to an economic variable, income and rice are the two most important factors for tourism – business tourism. Economic theory suggests that when an individual’s income increases, his/her demand for travel is also likely to increase. In general, tourism demand is income elastic although business, luxury, and VFR travel demand are relatively less incomeelastic than leisure tourism demand (Bull, 1995). While reviewing several studies, the researcher has found out that majority of studies has included income as an independent variable, where income is summative of household income, gross annual income, the total income of the visiting party, disposable income, total household expenditures, and wage rate, etc. For economic analysis – modeling it is important to keep income as a continuous variable instead of a categorical variable. But in an actual majority of respondents avoid confirming their actual income which results into less response rate. Therefore, it is advisable to collect income as a categorical variable (Downward & Lumsdon, 2003). Price is also another crucial determinant of tourism expenditure, demand never get changed with any other factor but demand increases while prices go down (Tribe, 2005). Literature also illustrates that perception also has effects on spending, one who perceive the destination to be expensive tend to spend more money than others (Aguilo Perez & Juaneda Sampol, 2000). Independent Variable - Demographic Besides economic factors, it is important to look into a social demographic variable for microeconomic analysis. Brief literature shows that set of social demographic features such as age, gender, marital status, occupation, income, education, nationality affects the business tourist’s expenditure. Therefore, it is necessary to have behavioral patterns along with spending patterns of tourists while conducting the micro-economic analysis. Agarwal & Yochum (2000) mentioned in their research that gender is not a substantial determinant of spending, Henthorne (2000), Jang et al. (2004) mentioned that mainly male spend more than females. Where Mak et al. (1977) stated that single tourist spends more than a tourist who is married. Cannon and Ford (2002), Wang et al. (2006) confirmed that expenditure and marital status were unrelated. Conclusions As business tourism has grown into an important economic sector in many places. For sustainability and ongoing contribution of this business tourism, it is important to have a consistent look into the demand for business tourism at the micro or macro level. At both levels, the demand is affected by a large number of economic, social and psychological factors. Demand for tourism can be analyzed at either macro or micro level. At both levels, the demand is affected by a large number of economic, social, political and psychological factors. Compared to studies at the macro level, micro-economic models have the advantage of being closer to theoretical economic consumer models and they can also include the diversity and heterogeneity of consumer behavior that is canceled out when aggregate information is used. Current research reviewed 20+ tourism related studies on modeling tourist expenditure, which results in following conclusion and the recommendations for future research. The mainly macro level analysis was conducted to look after the international travel demand and the tourist’s expenditure, which requires total tourist’s arrival and expenditure. Even tough, in particular, destination tourists are different from each other in term so expenditure, Page | 89

consumption, and behavior and also spending patterns. Therefore, researchers can look after expenditure at the micro level and utilize modeling techniques instead of multiple regression. Current research has prescribed review on tourist’s expenditure including, sample size, models, and the variables used. Research also confirms that destination and psychological, economic – income and demographic characteristics are commonly used variables for economic analysis. It has been seen that tourist’s expenditure related studies at the micro level are very common in the western world, on another hand Asian market, especially Asia pacific region is lacking in term of literature regarding tourist’s expenditure and its impacts on a particular destination. Also, consumption and spending pattern of tourists in these developing nations/ destinations will be highly valuable for the destinations in terms of continuous product development and suitability.

References Agarwal, V. B., & Yochum, G. R. (2000). Determinants of Tourist Spending. In: A. G. Woodside, G. I. Crouch, J.A. Mazanec, M. Oppermann & M. Y. Sakai (Eds.), Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, Vol. 1. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing, pp. 311-330. Aguilo Perez, E. & Juaneda Sampol, C. (2000) Tourist Expenditure for Mass Tourism Markets. Annals of Tourism Research. 27 (3), 624-637. Alegre, J. & Pou, L. (2004) Micro-Economic Determinants of the Probability of Tourism Consumption. Tourism Economics. 10 (2), 125-144. Bull, A. (1995) The Economics of Travel and Tourism. 2nd ed. Melbourne, Longman Australia Pty Ltd. Business Tourism Partnership. (2003) Business Tourism Briefing: An Overview of the UK’s Business Tourism Industry. London, BTP. Cannon, T. F. & Ford, J. (2002) Relationship of Demographic and Trip Characteristics to Visitor Spending: An Analysis of Sports Travel Visitors across Time. Tourism Economics. 8 (3), 263271. Chhabra, D., Sills, E. & Rea, P. (2002) Tourist Expenditures at Heritage Festivals. Event Management. 7 (4), 221-230. Downward, P. & Lumsdon, L. (2003) Beyond the Demand for Day-Visits: An Analysis of Visitor Spending. Tourism Economics. 9 (1), 67-76. Hanke, J. E., Wichern, D. W. & Reitsch, A. G. (2001) Business Forecasting. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall. Henthorne, T. L. (2000) An Analysis of Expenditures by Cruise Ship Passengers in Jamaica. Journal of Travel Research. 38 (3), 246-250. Hussain, K., Ari Ragavan, N., Kumar, J. & Nayve Jr, R.M. (2014) Micro-Impacts and Benefits of Business Tourism in Malaysia: A Case Study of Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Asia-Pacific Journal of Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism. 3 (1), 107–130. Jang, S. C. S., Bai, B., Hong, G. S. & O'Leary, J. T. (2004) Understanding Travel Expenditure Patterns: A Study of Japanese Pleasure Travellers to the United States by Income Level. Tourism Management. 25 (3), 331-341. Jang, S., Cai, L. A., Morrison, A. M. & O'Leary, J. T. (2005) The Effect of Travel Activities and Seasons on Expenditure. International Journal of Tourism Research. 7 (6), 335-346.

Page | 90

Kumar, J. & Hussain, K. (2014) A Review of Assessing the Economic Impact of Business Tourism: Issues and Approaches. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems. 7 (2), 49-55. Kumar, J. & Hussain, K. (2014b) Evaluating Tourism’s Economic Effects: Comparison of Different Approaches. Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 144, 360-365. Laesser, C. & Crouch, G. I. (2006) Segmenting Markets by Travel Expenditure Patterns: the Case of International Visitors to Australia. Journal of Travel Research. 44 (4), 397-406. Lim, C. (1997) Review of International Tourism Demand Models. Annals of Tourism Research. 24 (4), 835-849. Lim, C. (2006). A Survey of Tourism Demand Modelling Practice: Issues and Implications. In: L. Dwyer, & P. Forsyth (Eds.), International Handbook on the Economics of Tourism. Cheltenham. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 45-72. Mak, J., Moncur, J. & Yonamine, D. (1977) Determinants of Visitor Expenditures and Visitor Lengths of Stay: A Cross-Section Analysis of US Visitors to Hawaii. Journal of Travel Research. 15 (3), 5-8. Mangion, M-L., Durbarry, R. & Sinclair, M. T. (2005) Tourism Competitiveness: Price and Quality. Tourism Economics. 11 (1), 45-68. Mihalic, T. (2002). Tourism and Economic Development Issues. In: R. Sharpley & D. J. Telfer (Eds.), Tourism and development: Concepts and Issues. Clevedon, UK: Channel View Publications, pp. 81-111. Moisey, N., Yuan, M., & McCool, S. (1990). Estimates of Economic Impact of Non-Resident Travellers to Montana: A Technical Report. Research Report 11. Missoula: University of Montana, Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research, School of Forestry Nicolau, J. L. & Más, F. J. (2005) Heckit Modelling of Tourist Expenditure: Evidence from Spain. International Journal of Service Industry Management. 16 (3), 271-293. Papatheodorou, A. (2002) Exploring Competitiveness in Mediterranean Resorts. Tourism Economics. 8 (2), 133-150. Smith, S. L. J. (1995) Tourism Analysis: A Handbook. 2nd ed. Essex, England, Longman Group Limited. Song, H. & Li, G. (2008) Tourism Demand Modelling and Forecasting – A Review of Recent Research. Tourism Management. 29 (2), 203-220. Song, H. & Witt, S. F. (2000) Tourism Demand Modelling and Forecasting: Modern Econometric Approaches. New York, Pergamon. Tribe, J. (2005) The Economics of Recreation, Leisure, and Tourism. 3rd ed. Oxford, Elsevier. UNWTO (2013) Tourism Highlights: Facts and Figures. Madrid, United Nation World Tourism Organization. UNWTO. (2006) Measuring the Economic Importance of the Meeting Industry: Developing a Tourism Satellite Account Extension. Madrid, United Nation World Tourism Organization. UNWTO. (2015) Tourism Highlights: Facts and Figures. Madrid, United Nation World Tourism Organization. Wang, Y., Rompf, P., Severt, D. & Peerapatdit, N. (2006) Examining and Identifying the Determinants of Travel Expenditure Patterns. International Journal of Tourism Research. 8 (5), 333-346.

Page | 91

Consumer Preferences for Hotel Brand and Brand Sustainability: Luxury Hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia KUMAR Jeetesh, GARG Anshul, SANGARAN Gopinath Abstract: The economic prominence of the Tourism industry is very huge which cannot be underestimated. Travel & Tourism is set for a milestone year as the industry’s contribution to the worldwide economy during the year 2016 exceeded $7.2 trillion to world GDP, representing 9.8% of global GDP and created 284 million jobs. Tourism in Malaysia has grown from RM 32 billion in 2005 to RM 69 billion in 2015 with 16.4 million arrivals in 2005 to 25.7 million arrivals in 2015, placing Malaysia currently at 12th position in international tourist arrivals. Current research has focused on branding process of luxury international brand hotels and also to find out actual influencing factors which create issues regarding brand loyalty for local hotels. A dual research approach was used and data was collected from six (6) luxury Five-star hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by using purposive sampling technique. In total 117 responses were found to be useful for quantitative and for qualitative approach 13 one to one interviews were conducted with sales/ marketing/ public relation manager and brand managers of the hotels to capture the industrial perspective. The findings show that brand preferences, brand equity and brand value of the luxury hotels in Kuala Lumpur will effectively contribute to enhancing the brand sustainability of these hotels. Gaining an understanding of these preferences and analyzing the drawbacks would lead to the higher growth of these properties and pave way for advanced sustainable operations. Keywords: Consumer preferences, Brand, equity, Sustainability, Luxury hotels, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Introduction The economic prominence of the tourism industry is very huge which cannot be underestimated. Travel & tourism is set for a milestone year as the industry’s contribution to the worldwide economy during the year 2016 exceeded $7.2 trillion to world GDP, representing 9.8% of global GDP and created 284 million jobs (WTTC, Economic Impact Analysis, 2017). The comprehensive travel & tourism industry has boosted by 3.1% in 2016, slightly faster than the global economic growth rate, predicted to rise by 4.2% pa, from 20162026 (WTTC, 2016b). The overall contribution by travel & tourism industry to the global economy in 2015 was US$7.3 trillion, which equates to 9.8% of total GDP, 1 in 11 jobs (WTTC, 2016b) 4.3% of investment and 6.1% of exports and is expected to grow 6.2% by 2016 (WTTC, 2016b). Thus, the sector is an important driver of growth and prosperity, and, particularly within developing countries, it can also play a role in poverty reduction. According to United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2016), international tourist arrivals grew by 5% in 2015 to 1186 million, up from 1134 million in 2014 and international tourism receipts reached a record US$1,260 billion worldwide in 2015, this represents an increase of 4.4% over 2014 (UNWTO, Tourism Highlights, 2016 Edition, 2016) mirroring the growth in international arrivals. While international tourist arrivals in Asia and the Pacific reached a historic high of Page | 92

303 million, recording 24 million more international tourist arrivals in 2016, an increase of 8%, as compared to the year 2015 (UNWTO, 2017), international tourism receipts reached US$418 billion, an increase of 4% as compared to the previous year (UNWTO, 2016). In the case of Malaysia, tourism has grown from RM 32 billion in 2005 to RM 69 billion in 2015 with 16.4 million arrivals in 2005 to 25.7 million arrivals in 2015 (Tourism Malaysia, 2015), placing Malaysia currently at 12th position in international tourist arrivals (Sal Amanca, 2015). “Despite global economic and sectoral challenges, the tourism sector improved its position from fifth in 2014 to third highest Gross National Income (GNI) contributor for 2015” (PEMANDU, 2016, p.167). The government of Malaysia has involved the tourism industry as one of the 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) which will lead the country’s transformation into a high-income nation by 2020 (PEMANDU, 2016, p.12). Twelve Entry Point Projects (EPPs) across five main themes - affordable luxury; family fun; events, entertainment, spas, and sports; business tourism and nature adventure - have been introduced to attract 36 million tourists and earn RM168 billion in tourist receipts by 2020. According to the Performance Management Delivery Unit, the EPPs are expected to provide an incremental GNI contribution of RM66.7 billion and create 37,900 new job vacancies by 2020 through direct, indirect and induced employment (Aliman, Hashim, Mohd Wahid, & Harudin, 2016). Despite this strong historical growth, the tourism sector is predominantly dependent on the growth in the number of arrivals rather than on yield per tourist. According to a Malaysian government report in the Economic Transformation Programme (2010), its chapter on tourism (p. 321) noted that although mass tourism arrivals would also contribute to tourism income but its yield per tourist in Malaysia is relatively low at RM 2,260 compared to RM 3,106 in Singapore and RM 3,785 in Thailand. It further explained that the reasons for this trend are the lower average length of stay, lower daily spending, and dependence on arrivals from short haul markets. The Tourism industry works hand in hand with the Service sectors this including the Hospitality industry where lodging is one of the major contributors. Kuala Lumpur is one of the Federal cities of Malaysia, which attracts a big number of tourists every year. The city has top notch hotel brands functioning smoothly and providing superior services to the guests. They are seen constantly struggling to better their standards and enhance their brand value. “ Based on Ministry of Tourism and Culture data - from August 2016 - there are now 103 fivestar hotels with an aggregate room count of 35,096; 150 four-star hotels with 35,826 rooms; and 285 three-star hotels with 46,408 rooms” (Staff, 2016). Where both local and foreign companies invest their resources in serving the travelers and garnering maximum business possible. Due to the large availability of luxury international brands in Malaysia, local brands are facing issues with regards to promotion and to reach the target market, also a huge competition is available on almost same price and quality levels. Therefore, the purpose of current research is to get knowledge of branding process of luxury international brand hotels and also to find out actual influencing factors which create issues regarding brand loyalty for local hotels.

Page | 93

Literature Review Brand Concept-Image Management The proposed framework termed Brand Concept Management (BCM) is defined formally as the planning, implementation, and control of a brand concept throughout the life of the brand. A brand concept is a firm chosen the meaning of the brand derived from basic consumer needs which could be expressed in functional, symbolic or experiential forms. A concept selected prior to its market entry sets fixed boundaries on the scope of positioning strategies, and hence directly influences its perceived brand image/position in the minds of the consumers (Keller, 1998). A brand image has a moderating effect on the relationship between Product Life Cycle (PLC) strategies and the product sales. Positioning strategies are generally implemented to communicate the brand image and differentiate the brand from its competitors to achieve a position externally, but it provides scarce guidance in maintaining a consistent image over time (Aker & Biel, 1993, p. 71). A brand concept developed from external and internal environmental considerations and managed over several concept management stages enables the firm to devise a strategic plan for developing, maintaining, and controlling the brand image (Keller, 1993, p. 3). Management of the image is a process of selecting a general brand concept and then introducing, elaborating, and fortifying the concept over time. When the value of the brand concept changes, the firm could either change the brand concept and reposition the brand or remove the brand from the market and introduce a new brand whose concept is consistent with the market trends (Park, Jaworski, & Maclnnis, 1986; Kapferer, 1997). “ A Historical Evaluation” stresses on the inclusion of the "brand manager system" which refers to a type of organizational structure in which brands or products are assigned to managers who are responsible for their performance. Brand managers act as the central coordinators of all marketing activities for their respective brands and are solely responsible for developing and implementing the business plans (Low & Fullerton, 1994). Brand and Corporate Relationship – Brand Building The Hospitality industry highlights the rise of the internet and social media sites for information that has transformed into a boon for customers and also for companies to build their brands. This electronic data can be combined with information gathered through conventional research methods to assist in the effective brand management and to ensure that the brand is meeting customers’ needs and is able to develop a loyal base (Myers & Shocker, 1981; Keller, 1993). To a great degree, hospitality customers are seeking experiences, and brand should provide those experiences, or, more specifically, create the framework that allows guests to have the experience they seek. The internet and social media provide new tools and information to solidify the brand and also provides the customer with valuable information that helps brand managers to offset the emerging buying trend and improve their brand’s status (Dev & Withiam, 2011). Hotel Brand Strategy The brand’s value is based on potential guests’ awareness of the brand, their perception of its quality, and overall customer satisfaction. Consumers are typically willing to pay a price premium for brands they view as being high in quality (O´Neill, &, Xiao, 2006). A concurrent study undertaken by the authors in the article, “Hotel Brand Strategy” found that brand affiliation, name recognition, and reputation for high-quality service together can contribute as Page | 94

much as 20 to 25 percent of the concerned value of a successfully operating hotel. As customers’ loyalty grows, the brand owner/s can capitalize on the brand’s value through price premiums, decreased price elasticity, increased market share, and more rapid brand expansion. They also share inputs on how companies with successful brands benefit in the financial marketplace by improving shareholders’ value (Olsen, Chung, Graf, Lee, & Madanoglu, 2005). The brand-extension strategy works for the hotel industry in part because guests choose different types of hotels depending on their purpose of travel, and a brand extension with a familiar name allows consumers who depend on trusted brands to economize on time and search costs (O'Neill & Mattila, 2010). Brand Loyalty The positive effects of a high degree of brand loyalty and classification levels of customers have also been mentioned. The authors have also contributed to the richness of the topic by emphasizing on the guidelines required to manage and assess brand loyalty measures in the hospitality sector. The review is useful for both managerial and scientific perspective as it provides a theoretical framework for future research (Barsky, & Nash, 2002). Brand Loyalty is viewed as the reflection of a brand’s strength as it is an essential output of what the brand awareness and brand image of a hotel can generate. It is both an input and an end result of brand equity as it is influenced by the dimensions of brand equity, which is brand knowledge and the assets and liabilities linked to a brand. The customers were classified based on their actual brand loyalty using the Brown48 model where there are four categories to identify the various types of buyers that show loyalty towards a particular brand, a) hardcore loyalists b) split loyalists c) shifting loyalists and d) switchers. A successful market strategy must be based on enhancing brand loyalty and all dimensions that aid to achieve this must be inter-connected (Moisescu & Vu, 2011). Guest Satisfaction and Effects on Hotel Branding Literature shows that there are two most crucial components that affect the branding of a hotel, either positively or negatively – Guest satisfaction and effects of room revenue on hotel branding. The guests today require consistency and quality at an optimum price and lodging operations have directed efforts to provide guest satisfaction and branding they seek (Naylor, & Kleiser, 2002). Brand names act as a short-hand for communicating information about the company and its offerings. The researchers have identified the relationship between branding strategies and the revenue indicators of Average daily rate and Occupancy percentages. Research conducted by O'Neill and Mattila (2010) concluded that hotels with higher guest satisfaction levels achieved greater revenues per room.

Brand Preferences and Purchase Intent It is confirmed that brands with higher advertising yielded higher brand equity. The higher equity paved way for the greater brand preference by the consumer which led to their intentions to purchase the better marketed and advertised product (Cobb-Walgren, Ruble, & Donthu, 1995). As such, the consumer behavior of individuals is directed towards enhancing their self-concept through the consumption of goods as symbols (Sirgy, 1982). Self-image has been considered a multidimensional construct, with various forms of the self, such as actual, ideal and social (among others). It is the actual and ideal self-image that has received the most attention and been shown to have the most significant effect on product evaluations (Sirgy, Page | 95

1986; Graeff, 1997). Sirgy et al. (1997) have also provided evidence of self- and product-userimage congruency as being able to explain and predict consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions. Also, Dolich (1969) found congruence between self and product brand image to be positively related to the strength of preference for brands. The perceptions within the user imageries often form a basis from which a brand personality develops (Plummer, 1985). Assessing Markets and Marking Issues Literature reveals several common marketing issues faced by corporate brands, top level management and marketing professionals in effectively marketing their products and services to the target clientele (Naylor, & Kleiser, 2002). Various macro marketing issues and marketing strategies have been critically examined in “Marketing Issues” to deduce the significance of these applications on the society and the contributions made by these guidelines to improve the marketing impacts of these companies (Stauss, & Bruhn, 2008). The tasks of top management to manage their corporate portfolio of businesses to achieve the goals have been reviewed to formulate suitable market combinations as per different resource requirements and profit opportunities. The Marketing Mix model which is widely applied in every sector and industry is the foundation of the core marketing concepts has been suggested as the basis to improve a company’s marketing position and provide a competitive advantage (Coulson, Wind, & Claycamp, 1980). Future for Hotel Branding The brand performance of hotels, their performance measuring tools and the brand extensions that allow hotels to establish themselves in the market effectively Keller and Lehmann (2006) illustrated more on concepts of brand management, also categorized several techniques for strategically managing a hotel brand (Cai, & Hobson, 2004). Today branding is increasingly being conducted on a global landscape and is synonymous with image building and diversifying to the maximum extent plausible. The ‘Choice Model’ involves understanding the utility of the product or service and it influences the consumer choice to understand the impact of brands (Daun, & Klinger, 2006). The brand acts as the catalyst through which the words and actions of a company, its competitors, and the environment, in general, are converted into an emotional connect with the loyal target market. From the above review of literature and discussion, the following hypotheses were generated;

H1: Brand marketing leads to higher brand equity of the hotel. H2: Higher brand awareness leads to higher brand equity of the hotel. H3: Guests negative experience leads to the negative branding of the hotel. H4: Guests negative experience leads to lower brand equity of the hotel. Research Design While keeping the purpose of the study in mind, the Dual methodology was applied. Six (6) luxury Five-star hotels were selected in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. By using a purposive sampling technique, the Quantitative approach was implied with hotel guests with five points Likert scale survey questionnaires to capture consumer perspective. The instrument was consisting two sections, first with demographic questions and other with having questions related to the purpose of the stay, duration of stay, how often guest stay in the hotel, factors affecting guest stay, brand preferences, guest experience and also suggestions were asked from Page | 96

the hotel guests. In total 123 responses were collected, where only 117 found to be useful. A qualitative approach was used, and one to one interviews were conducted with 13 sales/ marketing/ public relation manager and brand managers of the hotels to capture industrial perspective. An open-ended questionnaire was prepared to contain questions related to the importance of brand sustainability, branding strategy of the hotel and performance measure scale in the hotel. The reliability and validity of both instruments were tested by using SPSS applications and also questionnaire was given to academic and industry expert for review. Four main questions are listed below; • •

What are the key strategies used in branding the hotel distinctively from competitors? What methodology is followed to effectively promote the numerous hotel brands and sub-brands? • What are the various challenges encountered while marketing and creating a USP for the brand? • How can a hotel enhance and capitalize its brand sustainability? Findings and Discussion For quantitative data, it was found out that male respondents (76) were in majority as compare to female respondents (41), with regards to age group, the majority of the respondents were in age group of 30-39 years (93) followed by 40-49 years (17). For nationality, interestingly UK (57) was on top followed by Singapore (22), India (11) and less than 10 respondents (each country) were from USA, Pakistan, and Australia. More than 100 respondents traveled to Kuala Lumpur for MICE related activities. Interestingly it was found out that 58.7% of the respondents stayed 2 to 3 times at an average per month and 22.8% of the respondents stayed 4 to 5 times a month at the various luxury hotels across the city. There were several factor respondents considered before choosing the hotel including loyalty programs offered by luxury hotels was on the top followed by location and meal packages, room tariff rates, quality of service and the brand value of the hotel chain. Thus, H1 and H2 are accepted. It was found out that 48.6% of the respondents do not give any feedback regarding their stay in the luxury hotels, 51.4% of the respondents always give their feedback and suggestions for better improvements, which can ornamental their stay experience. For the question regarding brand preference alterations in the occurrence of a negative experience during their stay and the further consequences of shifting to another hotel in the following visits thereafter. The majority of the respondents (52.1%) voted in favor and agreed to a new hotel establishment in case of an unpleasant incident at the previous hotel. This strengthened the belief of guests switching to alternate properties if they are unsatisfied with their stay experience. Where 23.7% of the respondents disagreed with the statement and reiterated their belief to continue staying in the same hotel despite the drawbacks, due to their affiliated loyalty with the respective brands. And 24.2 % of respondents remained neutral to the proposed question and did not support either of the statements. Therefore, H3 and H4 are accepted. The managers at Hilton, PJ and Grand Millennium emphasized more on the contextual analysis undertaken by the luxury hotels in terms of location, latest trends in hospitality industry technological advancements and revenue generated in the previous quarters. These parameters determine the alterations in the branding strategies and the mechanism used to develop them. The strategies that are developed these companies focus on their theme and Page | 97

Unique Selling Point (USP) offerings. At Hilton, PJ, the strategies are driven by their commitment towards environmental sustainability and green initiatives. For Grand Millennium service quality and unmatchable stay and meal experience are the core of strategies. Grand Hyatt maximizes on its décor and ambiance while Novotel and Mandarin Oriental tiers on its royal legacy. All the hotels formulate their strategies keeping a competitive advantage in mind and they have been quite successfully at it also. It has made each luxury hotel achieve an individual segment base that is distinct from their counterparts. Well, PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) analysis is also important and should be considered while selecting the branding strategies. Careful investigation of the external environment could help in creating robust strategies that provide an unparalleled growth in the market and also help generate higher profit shares. For Hotel Istana, existing customer base is relatively very high and hence they do not concentrate much on the detailed marketing of the brands but more on the events that take place every day. Also, all their brands are fairly well recognized in the hotel industry from the luxury to star category. Shangri-La does not have sister entity and has few branches in Malaysia, their marketing efforts are highly concentrated towards their foreign guests. Ritz Carlton uses the marketing value of Marriott International as the parent company and their lineage of luxury service experience offered globally. Marketing for the luxury hotel brand and allied brands can be achieved through innovative means of advertisements on travel websites, online travel agencies, positive word of mouth, and reviews on trip-advisor and through the efforts of the sales and marketing teams. These techniques would create higher marketing of the hotel in the minds of the potential guests. Almost all the managers concluded with same opinions of not experiencing serious challenges as all the brands are already well established in the market. They all have distinct unique selling point (USPs) that highlights their company’s policies, be it sustainable environment management, truly unmatched luxury, supreme dining, and entertainment experience or intricate personalization of services. They do experience challenges in maintaining those propositions time to time as the trends in the industry are ever changing and the needs of the customers are highly dynamic and unpredictable. Other common challenges they face pertain to growing number of hotel brands and increasing competition, alternate options amongst the guests to try newer avenues and rising costs of inventory and resources. In researcher’s opinion, while creating a USP for a hotel ensures higher brand recall which indirectly leads to higher brand awareness and brand equity in the customer mindset. It must be in relation to the vision and mission of the hotel company and must stand out as a distinctive attribute to uphold the hotel’s integrity and guest base always. It was also found out that, for brand managers, the biggest task is to search for innovative ways to enhance this sustainability and retain the existing business repeatedly. Shangri-La, a new entrant on the block is surviving on low occupancy at present but has made a mark for itself steadily. The chain’s rankings in World’s Top 10 Chains and the largest room inventory tag have given them sufficient publicity to create a strong foothold in the hotel industry in Kuala Lumpur. The personnel at Istana hotel explicated about capitalizing on brand sustainability through their eco-friendly initiatives, non-negotiable beliefs in community work and the need to provide luxurious services responsibly. This has been their motto to deliver sustainability in all their endeavors. To build a bright sustainable future for all hotels in Kuala Lumpur, seeking solutions on customer requirements’ anticipation, strong loyalty programs with multiple redemptions, launching creative measures that attract customer attention and judicious usage of available resources are the key pre-requisites.

Page | 98

Conclusion Brand preferences, brand equity and brand value of the luxury hotels in Kuala Lumpur will effectively contribute to enhancing the brand sustainability of luxury hotels. Gaining an understanding of these preferences and analyzing the drawbacks would lead to the higher growth of these properties and pave way for advanced sustainable operations. Sustainability of a hotel can be increased through higher marketing of the hotel services amongst the target clientele, the creation of a niche Unique Selling Point (USP) to gain a competitive advantage and capitalizing on the existent customer base to ensure higher guest retention. Just like other studies, current research faced time constraint, only six hotels were selected and few responses were received from an industry perspective. With regards to avenues for future research, the concept of brand management is enormous and there are numerous components which could be researched upon. The various variables of brand awareness, brand presence, brand essence, and brand architecture are some crucial tools on which further studies could be conducted to analyze their effect on hotels performing better and earning higher revenues. Also, a study on brand sustainability and brand enhancement could be conducted in luxury hotels across various cities of the country.

References Aliman, N. K., Hashim, S. M., Mohd Wahid, S. D. & Harudin, S. (2016) Tourists’ Satisfaction with a Destination: An Investigation on Visitors to Langkawi Island. International Journal of Marketing Studies. 8 (3), 173-188. Barsky, J. & Nash, L. (2002) Evoking Emotions: Affective Keys to Hotel Loyalty. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 43 (1), 39–46. Cai, L.A. & Hobson, J.S.P. (2004) Making Hotel Brands Work in a Competitive Environment. Journal of Vacation Marketing. 10 (3), 197–208. Cobb-Walgren, C., Ruble, C. A. & Donthu, N. (1995) Brand Equity, Brand Preference and Purchase Intent. Journal of Advertising. 24 (3), 25-40. Coulson, J., Wind, J. & Claycamp, H. (1980) Marketing Issues. Journal of Marketing. 44 (3), 116117. Daun, W. & Klinger, R. (2006) How Premium Hotel Brands Struggle to Communicate their Value Proposition. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 14 (3), 246-252. Dev, C.S. & Withiam, G. (2011) Fresh Thinking about the Box. Cornell Hospitality Roundtable Proceedings. June, 6–16. Dolich, I. J. (1969) Congruence Relationships between Self-Images and Product Brands. Journal of Marketing Research. 6 (1), 80-84. Graeff, T. (1997) Consumption Situations and the Effects of Brand Image on Consumers’ Brand Evaluations. Psychology and Marketing. 14 (1), 49-70. Kapferer, J.N. (2008) The New Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining Brand Equity Long Term. London, Kogan Page. Keller, K. L. & Lehmann, D. (2006) Branding: Research Findings and Future Priorities. Marketing Science. 25 (6), 740-759. Keller, K.L. (1993) Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Marketing. 57 (January), 1-22. Keller, K.L. (1998) Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity. USA, Prentice-Hall. Page | 99

Low, G. S. & Fullerton, R. A. (1994) Brands, Brand Management, the Brand Manager System: A Critical-Historical Evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research. 31 (2), 173-190. Moisescu, O. I. & Vu, D. A. (2011) A Conceptual review on Building, Managing and Assessing Brand Loyalty. Review of Economic studies and Research Virgil Madgearu. 4 (1), 67-87. Myers, J. H. & Shocker, A. D. (1981) The Nature of Product-Related Attributes. Research in Marketing. 5 (5), 211-236. Naylor, G. & Kleiser, S.B. (2002) Exploring the Differences in Perceptions of Satisfaction across Lifestyle Segments. Journal of Vacation Marketing September. 8 (4), 343-351. O´Neill, J.W. & Xiao, Q. (2006) The Role of Brand Affiliation in Hotel Market Value. Cornell Hotel and Administration Quarterly. 47 (13), 210–223. Olsen, M.D., Chung, Y., Graf, N., Lee, K. & Madanoglu, M. (2005) Branding: Myth and Reality in the Hotel Industry. Journal of Retail & Leisure Property. 4 (2), 146–162. O'Neill, J. W. & Mattila, A. S. (2010) Hotel Brand Strategy. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. 5 (1), 27-34. Park, W., Jaworski, B. J. & Maclnnis, D. C. (1986) Strategic Brand Concept-Image. Journal of Marketing. 50 (4), 135-145. PEMANDU. (2016). National Transformation Programme Annual Report 2015. Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU) [online] Available at: http://www.pemandu.gov.my/assets/publications/annualreports/ENG_PEMANDU_NTP_AR2015_2604 16.pdf [Accessed 23 December 2016].

Plummer, J. T. (1985) How Personality Makes a Difference. Journal of Advertising Research. 24 (6), 27-31. Salamanca, A. (2015, November 21). 25 Most Visited Countries in the World [online]. Available at: http://list25.com/25-most-visited-countries-in-the-world/ [Accessed 23 December 2016]. Sirgy, M. J. (1982) Self-Concept in Consumer Behavior: A Critical Review. Journal of Consumer Research. 9 (3), 287-300. Sirgy, M. J. (1986) A Quality‐of‐Life Theory Derived from Maslow's Developmental Perspective. American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 45 (3), 329-342. Sirgy, M.J., Grewal, D., Mangleburg, T.F., Park, J., Chon, K., Claiborne, C.B., Johar, J.S. & Berkman, H. (1997) Assessing the Predictability Validity of 2 Methods of Measuring Self-Image Congruence. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 25 (3), 229-241. Staff, M. (2016, October 27). Business Travel Guide: Kuala Lumpur [online]. Available at: http://www.asiaoutlookmag.com/news/business-travel-guide-kuala-lumpur [Accessed 24 December 2016]. Tourism Malaysia. (2015) Facts and Figures Overview. Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia. UNWTO Tourism Highlights. (2016) UNWTO Tourism Highlights, 2016 Edition. Madrid, UNWTO. UNWTO. (2017, January 17). Sustained Growth in International Tourism despite Challenges [online]. Available at: http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/press-release/2017-01-17/sustained-growthinternational-tourism-despite-challenges [Accessed 24 December 2016]. WTTC. (2016a) Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2016 World. World Travel and Tourism Council. WTTC. (2016b) Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2016 Annual Update Summary. World Travel and Tourism Council. WTTC. (2017). Economic Impact Analysis. World Travel and Tourism Council.

Page | 100

Re-understanding and Re-constructing Ecotourism: China’s Experience LI Hongbo

Abstract The concept of ecotourism has been introduced into China since the early 1990s, once it became a quite important focus of tourism concerned aspects of life such as academic section, tourism industry and governments of different levels. In China, ecotourism has been through a not easy way during the past more than 20 years, which can be divided into three stages: introduction and cognition stage; debating and practice stage and reconstruction and innovation stage. Today, ecotourism development has been to a turning point, which is moving from the end of the second stage to the third one. In the future, the most important issue we are facing and handling is ecotourism’s localization. Therefore, this paper proposes the following perspectives: 1 re-understanding ecotourism in China; 2 the functions of traditional and natural Chinese culture in ecotourism development; 3 redesigning the ecotourism pattern in China; 4 “defunctionalization”and “purizaion” of ecotourism in China.

Keywords: Ecotourism development, Stages, Localization, Culture, China

Page | 101

Empowerment Through the Outdoors – How Can Outdoor Businesses Empower Women in Nepal? LINDVERT Marta Abstract: Even though there are positive signs regarding gender equality worldwide, the process is still very slow in many areas. This is a major problem, especially for poor countries, as it is well known that increased gender equality has large multiplier effects on other areas of development. The empowering of women is possibly the most important linkage across all other development goals, as it has strong bearings on poverty reduction, growth and human development. It is also widely accepted that entrepreneurship is central for economic development. On a macro-level, it functions as a driver for structural changes and on microlevel, it can help to lift individuals out of poverty, giving them preconditions for a better life. In Nepal, numerous outdoor businesses operate within trekking, climbing, mountain biking, rafting and other adventure sports. The sector is important for the overall development of the country, and primarily targeting foreign tourists. A fairly new phenomenon is that a few of these actors also target Nepali women. The aim with this research is to investigate how outdoor oriented tourist businesses can empower women in Nepal, both by employing female guides and by targeting women as clients. A set of interviews have been conducted, with entrepreneurs who are operating in the outdoor sector and who are also working to empower women. Preliminary results indicate a significant positive impact in the lives of women who get involved in these businesses. At the same time, they risk social stigmatization as they threaten traditional gender roles.

Key words: Women, Empowerment, Outdoor businesses, Sustainable development, Nepal

Page | 102

Economic - Organizational Analysis of the Public Tourism Sector in Campania, Italy: Management, Tourism Business Model and Human Resources Issues MARINO Alfonso & PARISO Paolo

Abstract The Italian public tourism sector in general, and the Campania Region’s sector in particular offer ample chance for experimentation. The abundance of natural, historical and cultural heritage resources, the employment percentage, the organizational bottlenecks (for i.e. From Linear economy to Circular economy in tourist sector) and the high incidence of political decision makers summarize the sector’s distinctive features. Campania is second only to Lazio for tourist attractiveness and number of people employed and yet exhibits a negative trend of 28% in term of revenue mostly connected to the organizational problems and the weak organization culture. A competitiveness enhancing reform related to professional skills, management capabilities and training needs is initiated and the SWOT analysis highlights the shift in the logic informing the system from bureaucratic to competitive. The reform is started and has yielded the first results but the process is still in progress.

1.Introduction In section one, the development of organization theories and their impact and evolution in Italy are outlined. Several social scientists from English speaking countries became organization theorists as well. Organization theory was introduced into the American universities and companies and informed organizational practice in that country. Developments in France were very similar, whereas in Italy the disciplines were mostly imported by Italian professionals and scholars educated abroad, and remained academically and politically marginal until recently. The attention that Italian public institutions started to pay to organization and its theories attests to the need for a different approach in upgrading public sectors and subsectors. The Italian public tourism sector in general and Campania’s in particular, which are illustrated in sections two and three respectively, offer fertile ground for experimentation. Considering the natural, historical and cultural heritage resources, the number of people employed, the organizational bottlenecks and the high incidence of political decision makers the potential of the sector is all but negligible. These traits are reflected and somewhat amplified in Campania. The attractiveness of the region is considerable, its sector workforce (20,367 units) is second only to Lazio and consists for 70% of female university graduates with a degree in the humanities or law and an average on the job experience of 20 years. The revenue exhibits a negative trend of 28% (tab 1) for the most part ascribable to the many organizational bottlenecks and weak organization culture. All of the factors and their interconnectedness need careful consideration due to the complexity of service management. The new decision makers have initiated a competitiveness oriented reform and the SWOT analysis (tables 2 and 3) highlights the shift in the logic informing the system from bureaucratic to competitive as shown in section four. The first positive results have begun to emerge but the process of change is still in progress as described in the concluding section. Page | 103

2. Organization theories and their introduction and development in Italy. In English speaking counties, scholars like, (Merton, 1949), (Blau, 1971), (Scott, 1964), (Selzinick, 1953). (March 1965), (Etzioni, 1964) became eminent organization theorists as well. The process of diversification of organization theory into strands started in the 1960s thanks to the contributions of (Gouldner, 1954), (Thompson, 1967), and (Perrow, 1969,1988,1992) in the USA, (Woodward, 1975) in the UK, and Crozier and Touraine in France. Works, like “Handbook of organizations” by (March 1965), “Reading Sociology of Organization” by (Grusky and Miller, 1981) and “Administrative Behavior” by (Simon, 1947), represent fundamental milestones in the evolution of the discipline, and after half a century they are still widely consulted. Thus, organization theory made its way into the major American universities. It acquired the identity of an empirical science by combining theory and practice and played an important role in that “Society of organizations “, as (Presthus, 1971) defined it. Organization theory as a discipline also had a robust academic life in the UK like other engineering, economic and psychological disciplines Just to mention one French example, (Crozier, 1969) successfully developed his work on state bureaucracy from the tradition of Weber’s organization theory (1945) and from the industrial and labor organization field inaugurated in France by Friedman and Touraine. Crozier greatly influenced the organizational policies of the French Public Administration. In Italy, a number of correlated reasons determined a totally different evolution and outcome of the study and application of organization theory. Some contributing factors can be found in the high homogeneity of the labor market, the perception that organization theory was a discipline to be imported, and the bias concerning its status as a critical but complementary discipline to other hard disciplines like engineering and economics. The latter claim proved completely misconceived and unfounded in light of the fruitful collaboration between (March and Cyert, 1963) and (March and Simon, 1958). The main reason, however, is that the institutionalization of the discipline, the establishment of university chairs, the implementation of research programs and publications in scientific journals, remained marginal in the design of economic organizations and therefore had little or no impact on the decisions and actions of governments, entrepreneurs and trade unions. Barley (2008) carried out an empirical study in which he concluded that the practitioners (professionals, consultants and managers) influenced organization science more than the latter affected the application of the discipline. There was no such dialectic in the Italian context. In Italy, organization theories were influenced by industrial relations and the prejudice of academic and governmental institutions. The dawn of the new century marked a turning point when the long economic crisis and the generation turnover of the ruling class sparked a serious interest in the discipline. The change was long overdue and the need for it has been perceived more than ever before, since the 2010 economic. The change is important in terms of its potential for influencing how the national, regional and municipal governments approach issues pertaining to the development of vast areas of the country where it is possible to produce and redistribute wealth avoiding the mistakes of the past.

Page | 104

3.The public tourism sector in Italy The natural, archeological and cultural heritage resources of the country are outstanding. The national figures, concerning the operative sites available to the tourists of the private and public sector combined, can be synthesized as follows: a) 3.607 Museums; b) 802 Monuments; c) 330 Archaeological Sites. More than 50% of the total is owned and managed by the public sector. If the number of tourists is considered by place typology (DIT 2014), art cities are second only to the seaside resorts: a) 38% seaside; b) 30% Cities of artistic and historical interest; c) 15% mountain resorts; d) 8% lake resorts e) 4% hill and various resorts. Annually, the three most visited public sector attractions are: a) the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum, 4,777,969 visitors, 30,423,950 revenues; b) Excavations of Pompeii (Campania) 2,233,496 visitors, 16,369,854 revenues; c) Uffizi Gallery, (Florence, Tuscany) 1,554,256 visitors, 1,530,346 revenues. The region with the most visited museums, monuments and archaeological sites and the highest number of sector employees is Lazio and the second for number of visits and of sector employees is Campania (see Graphic 1). However, the excavations of Pompeii, which are the most important archeological site in Campania and one of the most visited sites in all of Italy, have recently had a 12% drop in the number of visitors. Graphic 1. Occupied by region Source: Ministry of Heritage and Culture, MiBAC, 2015

The total number of employees (MiBAC 2014) is 20,367; more than 50% have an employment contract for a predetermined period of time or an atypical form of contract; their mean age is Page | 105

51, only 17% of employees are aged between 19 – and 29, and 51% are women. Only 3% of the university graduates employed hold high level management positions, very few compared to those in maintenance and restoration and many jobs are outsourced to external private companies. In Campania workers in the sector are about 17% of the national total. 4. The public tourism sector in Campania In terms of tourist visits and sector workforce Campania is second only to Lazio which includes the capital, Rome. The main statistical data concerning the public sector in Campania is given in table 1. Table 1: The main statistical data concerning the public sector in Campania

Territory Area Km2 Resident population Provinces Municipalities Density of inhabitants per Km2 Mobility Airports Railway km State motorways km Highways km Ports

Accommodation 13.595.34 5.831.461 5 551 428,15

2 1.252 1.285 383 10

Beds Public sector beds as % of total (%)

198.234 5,7

Presence of payingtourists (BCS) Total presences 5.368.280 5.368.280 Foreign (%) 40,6 Main nationalities of inbound tourists USA - UK – D Average stay (days) 2,1 Presence variation - 11% 2015/2010 6.699.820 Total in the south 28.602.605 Total in Italy

Gross revenue (BCS) State cultural heritage 31.362.067 (Euro) 34.038.022 Total in the South -28% Variation 2015/2010 135.508.666 Total in Italy Data elaborated from source: MiBac 2015

Sector revenue (BCS) Variation 2015/ 2010 Variation 2015/2010 -

15% foreign 13% domestic

The data show that there are 551 municipalities, more than 50 % of which, have a resident population of under 5.000 units. The complexity of the tourist sector and its management is also due to the coexistence of private operators and public agencies in a context where the public agencies represent only 5.7 % of the accommodation facilities and receptive structures but offer most of the rail transportation whereas the private operators control the road and water-way transportation which together amount to 48% of the total of people employed in transportation in Campania. The number of visits to the state cultural heritage (more than 90% of the available sites) (BCS) highlights the importance of Campania in the south and in Italy but Page | 106

it also shows a decrease in foreign (USA, UK, Germany) tourist presence -15% and domestic 13% and a 28% revenue loss.

Figure 1 Map of Campania with tourist references

For more details refer to the interactive site http://www.cir.campania.beniculturali.it/mappa-deiluoghi-della-cultura

Campania has a very favorable climate and a wealth of natural resources. The numbers from 1 to 20 in figure 1 mark the main points of interest excluding Naples, the region’s capital. The morphology favors the coastal area where most of the plains are situated. The coast presents four gulfs including the gulf of Naples, which provides an excellent view of the only active volcano in continental Europe even though secondary volcanic phenomena like hot springs are still present in certain Neapolitan areas like the Phlegrean Fields. The islands, Ischia, Procida and Capri are quite near and easily accessible, via boat or hydrofoil from different parts of the coast but mainly the port of Naples. There are many UNESCO2 sites throughout the region including the recent addition of Naples’s historical city center. However, tourists who distribute wealth whilst visiting the region also require quality services during their stay. In certain cases, such as Pompeii and Capri the natural and cultural attractiveness is complemented by quality services which are also the product of management, professional skills and personnel training. Of the 3559-people employed in the sector, more than 70% are women with a university degree in law or the humanities and 20 years of on the job experience. Therefore, most are well equipped to tackle the legal and bureaucratic aspects of their work but totally unprepared for the management of service provision. This is also an effect of the lack of training and certain recruitment policies In fact, when employee selection was not based political considerations, assessment criteria of the candidates did not include knowledge of business administration, management, organization theory or skills and abilities related to service provision. The work model of reference for these employees was based on bureaucratic principles and management by rules and therefore suited to the complex and dynamic system in which they were called to operate. This kind of management culture and 2

http://www.campania.beniculturali.it/index.php/siti-unesco

Page | 107

behavior needs to be overcome if Cpts ‘s performance is to be geared to improved results. A new reference model (Cooper, Fletcher, Gilbert, Wanhill, 2008) which focuses on management by objectives and by learning, should be adopted. It should also be more customer centered, in the sense that managers at all levels should act as interpreters of stakeholders’ demands (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003) continuously articulating their vision and adapting the view to the organization (Davis 1966). As mentioned before the majority of the sector work force consists of women, whereas of the 200 top managers 180 are men, 60% of which with little or no experience of service provision or sector knowledge. This is the result of the predominance of political considerations over technical-organizational ones in personnel management and hiring which influences organizational behavior (Simon 1947) Furthermore, training and courses on the organization of the sector, on service provision and on client approach have either not been offered at all (for the last 9 years) or considered optional at the employees’ discretion. These two factors have ensured the weak presence of organizational and professional skills in the sector, which is one of the causes that determined in the long term the 28% revenue loss mentioned in table one. Other contributing factors were poor maintenance of the Pompeii3 site, and the promotion of Naples through a 6 hours cruise thus neglecting all the other cities and sites in the region (fig 1). Political decision makers have started to change their perspective and to avoid basing their decisions on political criteria only. The new, younger generation of decision makers, who have different educational backgrounds and a certain theoretical knowledge or professional experience of organization theory, started a new trend around mid - 2000 with the implementation of organizational changes and market oriented decisions. The Campania4 public tourism sector SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) analysis below synthesizes the resources and offer in table2 and the sector in table 3 Table 2: SWOT analysis tourism resources in Campania Strength -Presence of 5 Unesco sites -Diversified offer (culture, sea, food and beverage, spas) -International attractors: Pompeii, Capri -Inernational Exhibiton and fair facility, Naples -Favorable climate

Opportunities - Availability of structural funds for projects - Need to enhance and promote vast areas - Improve port system - New decision makers

Weakness -Poor service organization -Normative based operating procedures -High incidence of politics -Poor maintance or neglect of sites -High level of pollution -Crime -Insufficient offer of accommodation and beds bassa offerta di posti letto Threats -Negative media impact ( on poor maintenance in Pompeii) -Degradation of culture organization of resources -Environmental degradation of protected areas -Difficulty in implementing organizational and cultural innovation

3

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/03/us-italy-pompeii-idUSBREA210FP20140303 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10671333/Heavy-rains-bring-down-Pompeiiwall.html http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/03/02/wall-in-ancient-pompeii-collapses-after-heavy-rain/ 4

Rapporto sul Turismo in Campania 2015, a cura di Doxa, Mercury Editore

Page | 108

Table 3: SWOT analysis Tourism Sector in Campania Strength - Youngster accommodation - Food and beverage Tours - Cultural visitsi Opportunities

Weakness -Concentration of offer in certain areas, Naples and Salerno -Inadequate value for money Threats

-Acquisition of certified brands of typical and -Presence of investments from illegal revenuei protected productsi -Long term emergencies as in waste disposal -Acquisition of cultural eventsi issues and relative negative media impact

The analysis shows that the sector exhibits a propensity to change and shift the logic informing the system from bureaucratic to competitive so that the region’s natural opportunities, heritage and personnel potential are more efficiently exploited. 5. From bureaucratic logic to competitive logic In recent years the younger political decision makers have shown an increasing interest in the application of organization theory to the public sector in general and to Cpts in particular. Organization theory provides an approach that is more cost conscious and more likely to develop corporate culture as a steering instrument (Cooper, Fletcher, Fyhall, Glibert, Wanhill 2008). The first measure that is being implemented to improve the sector consists in enhancing its competitiveness, complemented by other reforms aimed at increasing the autonomy and flexibility of the regional administrations. Campania, like all other regions, includes sites that are of “high national interest” which are managed jointly by local and central government and other sites that are under the remit of the local governments only. This is important in that the local governments have no managerial expertise, specific knowledge of the field or solid financial bases. Furthermore, the central government, despite its mistakes, devised a system that served the whole nation. Cpts is under the economic and managerial control of the local administrations. Its revenues have to be employed to finance its operations but local budgets have always needed to be integrated with state funds. Over the last five years Cpts would not have been able to cover production and personnel costs without such integration. On the other hand, productivity and incentives alone (Murphy and Murphy, 2004) cannot ensure better quality service, the final output of the organization. The problem is not exclusively an economic one. Management capabilities (Cooper, Fletcher, Fyall, Gilbert, Wanhill, 2008) oriented to norms must take into account how the service demand has evolved and also the difficulties that have arisen over the last few years. Management as a series of symbols, values and languages, but also as a way of tackling problems which require learning and the ability to adapt and relate to evolving contexts is a pre-requirement of top management empowerment. Despite the efforts, to date, there has been no empirical indication that the new requests of the environment of reference have been catered to or that a new service culture oriented towards results has been achieved. Service supply is above all the result of a social interaction in which the needs of the personnel and the demand of the users are met. Until very recently a bureaucratic logic informed service provision management and governments addressed the issues by producing normative tools (Cortes, 2008) which have Page | 109

failed to meet employees and users expectations. The challenge in general and for Cpts in particular is to foster competitive (figure 3) culture and to lighten the system of its bureaucratic (figure 2) burden. The main features of bureaucratic culture are illustrated in figure 2: a) Management is essentially normative based and managers are older with no knowledge of the sector or of service provision; b) The role of politics and politicians is central in the decision-making process and illegal phenomena are present; c) Budgeting is inefficient not only in terms of quantity but also in expenditure modality, control, integration and coordination. These features consolidated the bureaucratic culture which over the last 5 years brought about the revenue decrease mentioned in table 1. The SWOT analysis shows how a lack of intervention connected to managerial skills and sector reorganization and training needs contributed to the weaknesses of the Cpts Fig 2 Bureaucratic culture Laws

Bureaucratic logic

Public budget

Political assets

What can change the logic for Cpts? The first step is to open the system as shown in figure 3. An open system entails: a) Paying more attention to the market; b) Changing the human resources culture; c) Paying more attention to service supply and its quality. Figure 3 Competitive culture Market

culture of service as change process Human Resources

Service

Paying more attention to the market means ensuring the circulation of information, customer knowledge, market segments and in general information about the idea of travel and its business (Amposta, 2009). The second step is to improve management culture (Schein, 1985) Page | 110

and forge better connections between Cpts and its customers. And last but not least is enhancing service quality. The lack of quality monitoring systems resulted in a lack of attention to customer care and to quality issues. Obviously, monitoring is only the tip of the iceberg. If it is accepted that a service is a social interaction and that the nature of the relationship between organization and customer is of a specific nature, it follows that Cpts must change its operational mode to one better suited to its undertaking. This line of reasoning is based on the concept that service (comfort, accuracy, noise, security) is just as important as climate. Is it possible to create an organization that listens to its staff? The first step is to open the system, its culture and actions. After, step by step, it will be possible to endow the system with elements of service management, so that it will be linked not only to the economic perspective (Dodds and Butler, 2010) but also to the social legitimation of the service. An open the system means improving the economic performance of the company, but also enhancing the value of the service and the behaviors of human resources. Service supply pertains to the management of organizations whose core business is to set up an intangible process that is delivered to the public. In contrast to most manufacturing organizations, tourist services are typically produced in the presence of the customers, often with considerable participation by the customer and interaction with organizational members. Also in contrast to manufacturing, tourist service delivery requires extensive coordination between the front office and back office, a service culture (Gooldner & Ritchie, 2006) on the part of the front-line workers, and ability to manage customer expectations regarding each stage of the service (Mowforth, Munt, 2009). The evaluation of the results of service supply involves above all the use of variables concerning the quality of service and not only variables of efficiency. In this context, considerable attention must be dedicated to the setting of the monitoring system. The evaluation of service quality can refer to the relation between expected service and supplied service, and how the organization perceives the supplied service. In the light of these introductory statements, the operative indicators refer to the characteristics of the service as they are perceived by the user and the front-office at the right moment. At this point, a useful methodological instrument is a user's cycle Norman (1984). The analysis by means of user's cycle shows the principal critical problems of the service supply. Cpts needs to reinterpret its traditional historical technical service and transform it into a value excellence formula. The tourist experience (Swarbrooke, 2005) must be reinterpreted as a culture – economic experience and even into a relationship experience where the value of Cpts is the focus (WTO, 2014). The necessity of taking into account of all these factors is due to the fact that a service management is a complex and sensitive operation in which many functions and factors are closely interconnected. If service management does not achieve rapid and clear changes in attitudes and behavior at all company levels, there is a great risk that Cpts will lose its historical pre-eminent position to more agile competitive systems as shown in figure 3. 6. Campania Tourism business model In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the use of management theory within the Italian Tourist Sectors. This interest has two aspects: first, an interest in the application of management theory in the tourist sector. This takes the form of importing ideas and methods developed in and for the private sector. The assumption is that the private sector is superior to the public sector in specific ways: private sector organizations are more cost-consciousness, more inclined to implement modern personnel management and more capable of developing corporate culture as a steering instrument. Such a debate considers facets like incentives for productivity and particularly the necessity to create in the tourist sector some reliable measures of management efficiency. The second aspect is an interest in the use of management Page | 111

theory in the study of the tourist sector. Here the aim is somewhat different: do theories and concepts from management theory help us to understand the tourist sector better? What should be the extent and nature of tourist sector? How do we change the role of the tourist sector? From 2000 the public sector in Italy has become less important than previously, the policy objectives are now: • Reducing the budget of public tourist sector; • Reducing government involvement in the public tourist sector; • Easing problems of public sector pay determination; • Encouraging employee share ownership. This debate about the difference between public and private tourist sector is not new. Many of the early writers stressed privatization in their discussion of planning and extensive public tourist sector controls. Equally, many of the problems of regulation have long been recognized. Such a debate raises many issues, including: • • •

The characteristics of the task the public tourist sector are supposed to carry out; The normative foundation of their work and; The authorities, political bodies and other units they have to deal with.

These three elements are referred to as the task context, the “normative context and the organizational context. 7. Conclusions Starting from an outline of how organization theories were introduced in Italy this paper highlights that they remained academically and politically marginal until recently around the mid - 2000 when political decision makers began to show a serious interest in them. Italy has a great need for organization and its theories. The Italian public tourism sectors in general and Cpts in particular offer ample opportunity for experimentation. The sector, in fact, has outstanding natural and cultural heritage resources but also many organizational bottlenecks and high incidence of political decision makers. These features are reflected and somewhat amplified in Campania the second Italian region for attractiveness, tourist visits and sector employment. Its workforce consists for 70% in female employees with a university degree in the humanities or law, the sector exhibits a 28% negative trend in terms of revenue mostly due to organizational problems and weak organization culture. The new decision makers have initiated e a competitiveness enhancing reform and the SWOT analysis shows the transition from a bureaucratic to a competitive logic. The change involves professional skills, management capabilities and training needs. The first positive results are beginning to emerge thanks to the organization theories approach and the implementation of the relative practices which have not been consolidated yet. The challenging process of change from bureaucratic to competitive is still in progress and the outcome uncertain but it is important to study and promote the study of organization theory. This attention to organization and its theories may trigger change in the academia but also in the way national, regional and municipal governments approach the development problems of vast areas in Italy where it is possible to produce and distribute wealth avoiding the mistakes of the past.

Page | 112

References Amposta, J.B. (2009), Looking for environmental excellence in tourist destinations. Tourismos, Vol. 4, No.2, pp.91-106. Barley S.R., Gordon W.M., Debra c. G. (2008), Cultures of culture: Academics, practitioners and the pragmatics of normative control, Studi Organizzativi, n.2, Franco Angeli. Blau P.M., (1971), The Structure of the Organization, Basic Books. Cortés-J. I. (2008), Which type of tourism matters to the regional economic growth? The cases of Spain and Italy. International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 10, pp.127-139. Cooper, C. Fletcher, J. Fyall, A. Gilbert, D. Wanhill, S. (2008), Tourism Principles and Practice, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall. Crozier M. (1969), Il fenomeno burocratico, Etas – Kompass. Cyert R.M., March J.G. (1963), A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Davis L.E. (1966), The design of jobs, Industrial Relations, n. 6. Department of Italian Tourist (DIT- 2014) data collection 2014 Dodds, R. & Butler, R. (2010), Barriers to implementing sustainable tourism policy in mass tourism destinations. Tourismos, Vol. 5, No.1, pp.35-54. Etzioni A. (1964), Modern Organizations, Prentice Hall. Gouldner A. (1954), Patterns of industrial bureaucracy, The Free press. Goeldner, C. & Ritchie, J. (2006), Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies. Tenth Edition, Hoboken, Wiley. Grusky O., Miller G.A. (1981), The Sociology of Organizations: Basic Studies. Second Edition. Edited by. New York: Free Press. March J. G. (1965), Handbook of Organizations. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally. March J.G., Simon H.A. (1958), Teoria dell’organizzazione, Etas. Merton R.K. (1949), Social Theory and Social Structure, Free Press. Marino A., (2005), “Editorial”, International journal of services technology and management, 6, (2): 6 – 9 Ministry of Heritage and Culture, MiBAC, data collection 2015 Murphy, P.E. (1985), Tourism: A community approach. London, Methuen. Murphy, P.E. & Murphy, A.E. (2004), Strategic management for tourism communities: Bridging the gaps. Clevedon, Aspects of Tourism Series Channel view Publications. Mowforth, M. Munt, I. (2009), Tourism and Sustainability. Third Edition, Routledge, New York Norman R., (1984), La gestione strategica dei servizi, Etas, Bologna Perrow C. (1969), Organizational Analysis: a sociological view, Tavistock Publications, London. Perrow C. (1988), Le organizzazioni complesse. Un saggio critico, Franco Angeli. Perrow C. (1992), Small-firms network, in Eccles R., Nohria N., “Networks and Organizations”, Harvard Business University Press, Cambridge. Presthus R. (1971), La società dell’organizzazione, Rizzoli Ritchie, J. R. B. and Crouch, G. (2003), The Competitive Destination: A Sustainable Tourism Perspective. Wallingford: CABI Publishers. Rapporto sull’Economia della Cultura in Italia (2014), Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, MiBAC Simon A.H. (1947), Administrative behavior, Wiley, NY Schein E. (1985), Organization Culture and Leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Scott R. W. (1994), Le organizzazioni, Il Mulino. Selznick P. (1953), TVA and the Grass Roots, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Swarbrooke, J. (1999), Sustainable Tourism Management. CABI Publishing, New York. Page | 113

Thompson J.D. (1967), Organizations in action, McGraw-Hill. Wahab, S. Cooper, C. (2005), Tourism in the Age of Globalization. Routledge, New York Weber M. (1945), Economia e società, Edizioni di Comunità, 1968 Woodward J. (1975), Organizzazione industriale. Teoria e pratica, Rosenberg & Sellier. WTO (World Tourism Organization) (2014) International Tourism Challenged by Deteriorating World Economy.

Page | 114

Scientific Sustainable Tourism as a Learning Methodology MARTÍNEZ MUÑOZ Miriam & SUCH DEVESA María Jesús

Abstract In the new world tourist sector context, the scientific sustainable tourism occupies an important place. The population needs from a scientific culture the complexity to bring near and to be understood and the contemporary reality as a whole, to acquire skills that allow him to be unrolled in the daily life and to relate to his environment. The aim of this article is to stimulate this type of tourism, to create a space that allows the exchange, the spreading and the communication of scientific knowledge, in which the actors - utterers are the tourists. On the one hand, the professionals' investigative action is promoted, which aim is to acquire knowledge and to publish results. On the other hand, the worry of the students who reveal the need to realize tourist activities where they could develop the scientific skills out of the classroom and the application of the scientific disciplines in their environment. A group of students, in the visit to the cultural axis of Guadalajara, could have applied the geometry in the Towers of the city, the golden proportion in the pictures and music of the diverse chapels and churches and to know the geology and the impacts identify in the riverbank in its way through Guadalajara. These scientific tourists have assimilated the mathematical, chemical and artistic concepts in a scientific sustainable route out of the classroom. On having finished every raised route, a survey is gathered on the methodology of learning based on the scientific tourism as well as the possible improvements.

1.

Introduction

We live in a society in which science plays a fundamental role in the production process and in daily life. It would be difficult to understand the modern world without having an understanding of the role that these production processes play. People need scientific understanding to be able to assimilate the complex and globalized state of contemporary society in order to be able to acquire the skills which will allow them to be deal with their daily lives and to interact with their environment [2]. Putting this idea into practice is carried out with the following goals in mind: - to promote the diffusion of science - to open the borders of Guadalajara and its province for research purposes - to take a participative approach with the local authorities and the University for the development of scientific tourism, improving the networks of the transference of knowledge. It is about sustainable scientific tourism with touristic activities which respect the environmental, cultural and societal elements, as well as the values of a community, where the visitors have a truly participative visit, thus permitting the enjoyment of a positive exchange of experiences among residents and visitors, where the all the benefits of the activity are shared in an equitable manner with the communities [1]. It is important to promote the use of the natural, artistic and architectural resources to disseminate science, promote the development of touristic and educational activities linking them to all the scientific disciplines (Pythagoras

Page | 115

Theorem, geometry, the Divine Proportion, properties of light, chemical reactions, flora and fauna) In a privileged geographical setting in the center of Spain and at the Northeast of CastillaLaMancha, Guadalajara and its province offer the traveler an infinite variety of entertainment options which include cultural, rural and scientific tourism. The province of Guadalajara stands out as a tourist destination which has everything, from its famous rural villages and their “black architecture” (black slate stone houses)-to natural parks such as the Parque de Hayedo de Tejera Negra, as well as unequaled historical conservation areas in several of its towns and in its capital. 2.

Methodology

Our multidisciplinary project (“Urban and Rural Scientific Remains”) is aimed at cultivating a taste for tourism and science. Its goal is to create a space which allows for the exchange, dissemination and the communication of scientific knowledge, where the discoverers are the tourists. The preservation of the nature and the environmental values form an important part of the actions stimulated with this methodology. The methodology used for the design of itineraries consists on three parts: Previous Work: it consists of deciding all the itineraries we want to be designed and what tour we will follow depending on what should be interested in showing. This phase is realized by a previous recognition of the area and by the collaboration of the corresponding professionals. Later, and to be able to realize correctly the fieldwork, there is done a planning and distribution of the functions of every member of the group, so the tasks are not repeated during the fieldwork. Field work: it consists of moving in the area and of following the tour that before has been established as offer of itinerary, at the same time as there are gathered information (photographs heights by means of GPS, …) that later will be in use as base of the description of the proposed tours. These descriptions will complement each other with all the information gathered during the production of the inventory of the resources and tourist services. Later Work: it consists of making a summary of all the information obtained to elaborate the description of the itineraries. From here a detailed description of the tour is done and shows itself in a map. The itineraries that have been designed are thought bearing in mind the incorporation of the resources and tourist inventoried services and bearing his current situation in mind. • Creation of a Web App with the scientific challenges that we propose. The following are three possible scientific routes in the city of Guadalajara and in the province of Guadalajara 1. The Honey Route • • • •

The Apiculture (bee-keeping) classroom of Azuqueca The Center for Apiculture and Farmland Research of Marchamalo The Apicultural Observatory in Mantiel Pollinating beehives in the protected natural park Alto Tajo. Page | 116

Challenge: Are bees intelligent? Why do they make hexagonal honeycombs? 2. Mathematical Monumental Tourism • • • •

Puerta de Bejanque. How tall is it? You’ll find the answer with the help of the Pythagorean theorem. Torreón del Alamín. What is its geometry? Calculate the Area? Torreón de Alvar Fáñez. What is its geometry? Its area? Puente árabe. What is it hiding? Interpretation of geology.

3. Route of the Energies. • • •

Hydraulic Head office and Museum of Bolarque's Electricity Coppersmiths' Wind farm Nuclear power station of Thresher

Challenge: Of the raw materials that are in use for obtaining the electricity there are some of them that has limited duration, on the other hand, there are others that do not become exhausted. Which are renewable and which not? Other possible itineraries which can be considered are: Route of El Cid: scientific mysteries in the Middle Ages Sweet and fragrant Trip to The Alcarria Physics class along the Green Route 4.

Learning Methodology

The complex current society presents us, in general, a student who has lost, without knowing it, the illusion for the knowledge and the culture, which flees of any type of tie, obligation, responsibility and which does not strain the necessary thing. Definitively, there have got lost the traditional values of the learning and of this form, the student do not take advantage in its entirety of a series of years in those who should have progressed and given good results more, assimilating many more knowledge [3]. Along the history, Mathematics has been the key in the human development for being one of the engines of the technological innovation (materials, sources of energy, communications, new devices, etc.). In addition, Mathematics is nowadays in a stage of wide projection to discipline and there exist several very active fields of investigation in which it is interdriven by other disciplines as the Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Art, Environment, Computer science, etc. One could have demonstrated, from the application of different tests in the educational centers, that the students present few assimilation of the basic concepts of mathematics due to the fact that in the majority of cases the concepts remain in a theoretical explanation, in the classroom, and rarely there is applied in a daily context what does that the Mathematics, and in general the sciences, one sees as a complex discipline removed from the reality, which generates a disinterest for its study [4]. The factors that have more influence in the comprehension of the concepts are associated directly with the methodologies used by the teachers to teach them, in the classroom, Page | 117

especially for those in which the students do not establish a clear link between the concepts that he studies and the reality that they observe in his daily life. For this reason, every time they are more the teachers who look for new tools to use in the classroom and to manage to motivate the students in order that they obtain the assimilation of the basic concepts of the subject. To the educational modern system there appears the challenge of forming highly qualified persons, and with mental flexibility to adapt to the changes that there causes the introduction of new technologies. Of here it stems, the importance of having a few guaranteed knowledge that it supplies the basic subjects, one of which, Mathematics. Provided that the study of diverse mathematical concepts moves away in many cases for the pupils of the concrete application of the phenomena of the daily life, with this project there is claimed that the pupils acquire the basic skills of this subject by the application in tourism. A methodology of education is a question itself to use learning that allows to the students to understand the subject of mathematics by the scientific challenges in the monuments of the city and province, in a more visual way. With the scientific tourism, not only the professionals can investigate and realize their publications, but also students can acquire mathematical skills out of the classroom, and see its application in the daily life. A map is provided to all tourists who visit a city a by the points and routes of interest. A map is an educational resource that allows us to work different concepts: orientation, cardinal points, altitude and latitude, scale, distances, equivalences of units of length... They are mathematical concepts that can be developed in a different way with the students. 5.

WEB APP

An application will be developed that could be downloaded both in the PC and in the mobile. The web platform chosen must be able to communicate the PC with the mobile device. A servant Web and a servant will need of app mobiles enabled for Push Messages. Initially, one will present a map with the urban routes for the city and the rural routes for the provincial one. The user will be able to see the different scientific points of visiting in each of the routes and the challenges. On having finished each of the routes will be able to be answered each of the questions and a survey to value the application. A database of scientific knowledge will be created, with tourist and scientific information. A prototype with one of the scientific route is presented. This prototype has been developed with ArcGIS. It is a geographic information system (GIS) for working with maps and geographic information. It is used for: creating and using maps; compiling geographic data; analyzing mapped information; sharing and discovering geographic information; using maps and geographic information in a range of applications; and managing geographic information in a database. The system provides an infrastructure for making maps and geographic information available throughout an organization, across a community, and openly on the Web. Page | 118

Figure 1. Mathematical-Monumental Route (above)

Figure 2. Honey Route (above)

6.

Conclusions

The main aim of the scientific tourism is to announce places they have relation with any of the sciences or of the scientific prominent figures who have formed a part of his history and which legacy continues in force. The science always has appeared as something removed for the great public. For this reason, the idea of joining these concepts has been born in order to get people join the rest with the knowledge. Hereby we can say that the scientific tourism is an activity dedicated to people who have the interest to go beyond and who seek to increase his knowledge. It is a question of a new trend that it is in full emerging inside the developed countries that are interested in Page | 119

involving of form more direct and entertained to the majority of persons with the knowledge of the natural world. Nevertheless, for the present time only one possesses holding a permit visit in which a manager indicates the most showy local aspects and plays with historical references of place the one that is. The visitor can complement his time of leisure with the visit to didactic museums, centers of investigation and of interpretation, which realizes industrial tourism and which is interested in geological or natural spaces. As for the experience that a tourist can know, we can emphasize that this one changes in every stage of the cycle of the programs of scientific tourism. During the "explorations" the visitor discovers in a rather sports and adventurous way a new territory and new topics in company of scientists and specialists, taking part actively in obtaining information that allow to structure new expositions. On having taken part of an investigation in process, the "tourist" is protagonist and participant of all the activities of field, is a volunteer and collaborator of a scientist or leader of a thematic program. Besides their time and knowledge, it can contribute economic resources to support the development of the researcher project, allows in a certain measure to assure its continuity. Finally, when the scientific and cultural knowledge has been systematized and that elaborate tourist programs on the basis of them the tourist manages to be rather a "consumer" of experiences and experiences elaborated and that is ready to buy. The scientist has to take active part in the interpretation, spreading and transfer of the knowledge for the public in general. When the tourists are pupils who realize visits cultures and scientific by means of the center of studies, is observed that the scientific challenges and mathematical competitions that they can develop allow them to acquire in a simpler way the concepts demanded in class.

Bibliography Dann, G.M.S., Nash, D. Y PEARCE, P. (1988): «Methodology in tourism research». Annals of Tourism Research, n15, pp. 1-28. Durà, A.; Oliveras, X. Y Villanueva, M. Drucker P. (1992) Managing for the Future. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Goeldner, Charles R. 2001 Tourism education: North American Experiences. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism 1(1):97-107 World Tourism Organization (WTO) (2009). World Tourism Barometer, Volume 7, Number 1, January, 45 pp.

Page | 120

Scuba Diving and Sustainability: An Assessment of Online Travel Reviews NAIDOO Perunjodi, LI Jing & RAMSEOOK-MUNHURRUN Prabha

Abstract Scuba diving is a popular activity in small island destinations which is on the rise. However, it is particularly important to preserve the physical environment for small island developing states due to their unique biodiversity and fragile ecosystems. Scuba diving tourism in island destinations is provided mainly by dive operators who are responsible to deliver the whole scuba diving experience to tourists. However, despite the importance of sustainability for the tourism industry, it is unclear to which extent dive operators contribute to maintain or promote the importance of the marine environment in scuba diving. Studies are increasingly showing that sustainability is an important feature considered by consumers. However, information is sparse regarding the extent to which sustainability is an important feature for customers when evaluating the scuba diving experience. The study builds specifically on the case of Mauritius and examines user generated contents as this form of communication is very often perceived to be more trustworthy than official tourism websites or mass-media advertising. Online travel reviews have become a popular forum for tourists to share their travel experiences and every product or service can be reviewed and evaluated online by its consumers. This study aims to (1) verifying how the concept of scuba diving is presented through tourists’ online reviews; (2) gain an insight into customers’ perceptions of sustainability in the scuba diving experience. In this study, 3000 text reviews from the Tripadvisor website were selected for analysis. This study relies on a qualitative-explorative research methodology in order to understand if and how the online testimonials of holiday experiences portray sustainable scuba diving. The analysis of sustainability in the scuba diving experience and the innovative design of this study, based on textual analysis of free elicited data, are the main contributions of this paper.

Page | 121

Prospects and Challenges of Ecotourısm in Nepal NEUPANE Prakash Chandra Abstract Every aspect of nature has been associated today with one or another form of tourism. Tourism has not only been the issue of economic significance it has some ecological attachment too. Nepal has been gifted by nature with natural beauties and landscapes. Unity amongst the social, political and religious diversities is the Nepalese speciality. The development authority has excitedly facilitated the concerned parties at planning level and come up with varieties of opportunities to draw a road map for economic growth. This report has emphasised to highlight the numerous issues relevant to both economic and ecological ground in Nepalese perspective, being a country of profound potentials of economic tourism. This report presents a quick highlight of major tourism potentials of the country and brings the related prospects and the inherent challenges of developing ecotourism into further discussion. This study, hopefully, will enhance the theoretical knowledge on ecotourism and will finalize a way forward on how to tap the tourism for the economic upliftment of the country through its application in a more practical and ecofriendly way. Ecotourism need not to be confused with adventure sports or even snow skiing, amusement parks etc. The better policy, active local participation and equitable sharing of benefits can mark the success of ecotourism in country like ours where there is abundance of natural resources and rich cultural heritage. Therefore, ecotourism can be the only substantial tool to make travel responsible to environmental conservation and livelihood enhancement in future. Key words: Ecological, Diversities, Planning, Economic, Inherent, Ecotourism, Ecofriendly, Adventure, Heritage, Livelihood

Back ground Nepal has been gifted by nature in terms of her natural beauties and landscapes. Unity amongst the social, political and religious diversities is the Nepalese speciality. Geographical diversities obviously pose threats and challenges to the development prospects as well as projects. Nepal is probably one of the most enthralling and beautiful countries in the world. Tourists visit Nepal to experience the world's famous Himalayan peaks, exclusive architecture reserved in ancient towns and warm welcome of ev er smiling people. It holds abundant possibilities of developing tourist as we have great deal of unique geographical features and cultural charms as if it were widely scattered everywhere in the country. With its amazing natural landscapes and rich cultural heritage, Nepal has a comparative advantage in terms of ecotourism development. Further, as trekkers in Nepal are inexorably attracted to landscape and biodiversity, and nature tourists for wandering through the mountains, Nepal presents an excellent example of a destination where ecotourism overlaps with adventure tourism and the two are often identical. Nepal occupies a very small part of the northern globe but possesses a fantastic climatic range from tropical in the south to the Page | 122

tundra and alpine in the north. Thousands of plants and animals are completely endemic to Nepal. While many countries build various kinds of reservoirs and pools, to bring in visitors and beautify their country, we naturally have them. (Joshi, 2016) Concept of Ecotourism Ecotourism is the widely discussed subject and section of tourism these days. As there is an issue of tourism, there comes an urge of ecotourism right away. It is, basically, a newer concept of developing and promoting tourism lending hands together towards numerous ecological and environmental aspects. Ecotourism business model rely on community participation to funnel tourism related income directly into the communities which provides positive and sustainable economic development. It must be done profitably and in a professional manner but in harmony with nature. Ecotourism is sustainable tourism that focuses on preserving and protecting the natural system. The high number of tourist visiting our nature always exerts pressure on the place leaving the excessive amount of solid wastes in the mountain trails and foothills, waning culture in some places and vanishing of aboriginal communities etc. It is imperative to have a close relation between the local people, policy makers, and tour operators. These days, many travel agencies are turning environment-friendly and going green. Some are putting a ban on plastics, bringing back wastes, and making their packages more environmentally-friendly thereby reducing carbon footprint. (Joshi, 2016) Ecotourism typically involves travel to destinations where flora, fauna, and cultural heritage are the primary attractions. This low-impact, typically small-scale tourism supports conservation through education by offering tourists insight into the impact of human beings on the environment and fostering a greater appreciation of natural habitats. By improving the well-being of the local people, the communities have an implicit interest to develop the natural areas attractive to tourists. And ecotourism may even promote the environment through straight financial contributions toward conservation. It has been given various names to it such as sustainable tourism, green tourism, or even responsible tourism but in essence these all are about utilising the environmental and ecological facilities to sustain and flourish the overall tourism sector. Eco-tourism is a logical component of eco-development. It is a complex and multidisciplinary phenomenon and has a tremendous role to play in the interpretation of nature and natural resources, as well as in the understanding of human history and its interaction with the rural environment and the diffusion of environmental knowledge and awareness (Chauhan, 2004, pp.165) Ecotourism, nature tourism, and sustainable tourism are often used interchangeably, even though these are different forms of tourism. For example, the term ecotourism is not as widely used in Europe as elsewhere in the world. The term sustainable tourism is preferred, and is applied by the EU as a concept, approach, and form of organization (Blangy and Vautier, 2001) The ecotourism society defines ecotourism as ‘responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people’. The term 'ecotourism' is defined as travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with specific objectives such as studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery with its flora and fauna, as well as any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas (Lascurain, Page | 123

1987). By this definition, nature-oriented tourism implies a scientific, aesthetic or philosophical approach to travel, although the ecologically motivated tourist need not be a professional scientist, artist or philosopher. The main feature of such tourism is that the person who practices ecotourism has the opportunity of immersing himself/herself in nature in a manner generally not available in the urban environment Ecotourism is assessed from various perspectives. According to Scace (1993) nature travel is an experience that contributes to conservation of the environment while maintaining and enhancing the integrity of the natural and socio-cultural elements. He presents it as a new tourism strategy that balances development and economic gains by stimulating local economies. It is seen as a new force that can benefit both nature and developing destinations (Ross and Wall, 1999; Sullivan, 1989 cited in Scace, 1993), while it is also expected to be simply a travel to enjoy and appreciate nature (Filion et al., 1994). Ecotourism is also seen as an interfacing of conservation concerns and tourism interests, setting free the synergy required to jointly preserve the quality of the environment while protecting nature and promoting tourism. It is a timely strategy that is vital to the maintenance of healthy ecosystems along with economic benefits to any host-area communities. Therefore, ecotourism has been viewed as a new tourism strategy that balances development and economic gains by benefiting both nature and destination areas (Farrell and Runyan, 1991). "It promotes a code of ethics in relation to other species that grants rights of continued existence to those species; it promotes non-destructive, aesthetic, spiritual values. And it actually does something for wildlife in so far as it provides humans with an economic and moral incentive to set aside and maintain space (habitat) for wildlife and it discourages harassment" (Gauthier, 1993). 'Ecotourism' is now seen as a model of development in which natural areas are planned as part of the tourism economic base, and biological resources and ecological processes are clearly linked to social and economic sectors. It is also expected to be a natural fit to protect biological diversity and find non-consumptive uses of natural resources which still show up on the national balance sheet" (Kutay, 1989). Ecotourism differs from other forms of tourism particularly due to the opportunity for observation and learning it provides to tourists and its contribution to cultural conservation and long term sustainability of communities and natural resources. Therefore, it is a form of sustainable tourism that benefits the community, environment and local economy. This may be achieved through various means such as employment for local people or programs where tourists contribute money or labour to community activities such as tree planting or conservation of local monuments or sites (SNV, 2003). Ever since the term was coined in the mid 1980s, “ecotourism” has been of special interest to policy and decision-makers, academics, and the business communities both at local and international levels (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1996). Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, who is credited for introducing the term ecotourism defined it as “travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific objective of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas” (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1987). Ecotourism is defined by some as travel restricted to relatively undisturbed or protected natural areas. This is basically because of the ecotourists' focus on experiencing natural areas. Page | 124

Such areas provide "best guarantee for encountering sustained natural features and attractions" (Lascurain, 1990). Secondly, ecotourism is often considered as travel to developing countries to relatively undisturbed natural areas for study, enjoyment or volunteer assistance. It is also concerned with the flora, fauna, geology and ecosystem of an area – as well as the people who live nearby, their needs, their culture and relationship to the land ( Swanson 1992 cited in Wearing and Neil, 1999). Thirdly, ecotourism is conservation-led. As a segment of the tourism industry, ecotourism has emerged as a result of "increasing global concern for disappearing cultures and ecosystems" (Kutay, 1990 cited in Wearing and Neil, 1999). "Ecotourism also includes such essential elements as travel to natural tourist spots where all concerned parties have a responsibility towards the environment, or the ecological system i.e., a form of travel without substantially disturbing the `integrity' of nature. It gives tourists the opportunity to appreciate, learn and gain quality tourism experiences, while raising their environmental awareness. Finally, it is a form of travel which feeds returns back to nature, and the neighbouring local communities, either directly or indirectly" ( Chettamart and

Emphandhu, 1994) Except for tourism in urban areas such as Kathmandu and Pokhara valleys, tourism in Nepal mostly involves travelling to natural and less-developed areas for adventure and to experience varying socio-cultural and environmental settings. As such, the bulk of tourism in Nepal embraces strong elements of 'ecotourism' or 'nature tourism'. Therefore, the nature of tourism that is being practiced in Nepal makes it 'ecotourism' (Gurung, 1995).

Research Problem: Tourism has been the trendy word in Nepal today and there are numerous discussions and presentation of it. In this proposed study, it will cover the following issues. What are the potential opportunities in tourism and more specifically in eco-tourism In Nepal? The key areas of this study will remain as follows: 1) To examine the existing potentials of eco- tourism in Nepal 2) To briefly analyze the problems of eco tourism promotion Nepal 3) To suggest and recommend to the upcoming tourism entrepreneurs to concretise their efforts so as the industry could be developed from new direction.

Initiatives in Ecotourism Development in Nepal Nepal has taken various efforts to develop ecotourism as one of the key vehicles for in environmental conservation and poverty alleviation. There are several national and international organizations like Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) mainly involved in developing ecotourism and other international agencies like World conservation Union/ International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD) have also been persistently supporting the development of ecotourism in Nepal.(Carlsson 2001 andThapa,2002) Nepal enacted the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act in 1973. DNPWC is a central agency, to work with a network of 9 National Parks, 3 Wild life reserves, 3 conservation areas and one hunting reserve together with 11 buffer zones around National

Page | 125

parks occupying a total area of 28,999 km2 or 19.70 percent of the total land of the country (DNPWC, 2008). The need of ecotourism was realized noticeably as the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act was activated in 1973 and e various natural Protected Areas were established for the conservation of ecosystem and development in community and other sector through an in an integrated approach. Furthermore various laws and by-laws were formulated to better speed up the ecotourism promotion in Nepal. Eco tourism was one of the prime agendas of whether development of ecotourism or at least to keep the development efforts environment friendly so as tourist industry could draw more revenue keeping the tourists happier in terms of safer and secure environment. Enactment of the promulgated laws seems to be problem to some extent but better progress has been experienced in recent days. Prospect of Ecotourism in Nepal Ecotourism is very burning issue and one of the fastest growing sectors in current world tourism industry. Especially in many developing countries like Nepal are trying to use ecotourism as a tool to achieve sustainable development. Lots of agencies in Nepal are adopting eco-tourism practices in recent years. They promote local products; provide job opportunities to local people through shops, hotels or as porters. They are promoting eco tourism is by encouraging participants to bring eco-friendly and sustainable products with them on tour such as water bottles, phosphate free soaps, re-useable bags, re-chargeable batteries, educating tour participants about the local people, cultures and communities, and hiring local guides, among others. Nepal has abundance of opportunities of ecotourism industry. But its effective practice and implementation is not promising due to lack of commitment of governmental policy and planning strategy with combination of integrated conservation and development. Thus to run ecotourism project properly, principles and theories of ecotourism must be considered a major base while make its policy and planning. Policy must be integrative, collaborative and comprehensive to achieve real outcome of ecotourism by realizing importance of environmental, social and economic imperatives. Ecotourism is a positive way toward a sustainable development in remote regions where people do not have source of income generation other than small land holding. The consequence of sole dependence on agriculture is that many men leave their villages or entire families migrate to cities in search of livelihood, leaving the dignity of their mountain lives, cultures, traditions and the pristine beauty of their surroundings to lead a tedious life in unhealthy conditions in a city. People in mountain areas are aware that their continued income stream comes from protection of their environment. This awareness has made them conscious of their surroundings and encouraged them to preserve environment at the grassroots level. They realize that without the conservation of environment and preservation of culture, tradition, flora and fauna, number of foreign tourists will go down. The impact of tourism is multiple. Local artisans get a thrust to continue their craft as the demand for their local handcraft produces rises with the rise in tourist arrival. This helps revitalize conventional handicraft products. It will create alternative source of income generation. It also provides them employment round the year especially to women which Page | 126

helps in their empowerment. Rural infrastructure is improved and will even improve the quality of life of local communities. It leads to the pride of the region and a conservation of their surrounding and their natural resources. Ecotourism can be used to support community based natural resources management and livelihood diversification. It can expedite economic development and preserve protected areas by creating local jobs, providing a sense of community ownership, and bringing in revenue that can be used to manage protected areas in a sustainable way. If local communities directly benefit from the use of their land, water, forests and other natural resources, they can take part in conservation efforts and their sustainability. The main important tourist centers are Kathmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur, P o k h a r a , L u m b i n i , M a n a n g , J o m s o m , D h u l i k h e l , H e l a m b u , G o s a i n k u n d a , and Nagarkot and so on. There are many famous temples, stupas, holy centers and durbar squares in various zone of Nepal. Among them kumari temple is one of the famous living goddess's temple. The temples from Kathmandu valley are well known for their greater religious and cultural values along with their artistic designs carved and painted in their walls, windows and doors as well to represent the various cultures, values and historical events. Several culture and architecture are represented by the laces of early kings which would ever glorify us. Furthermore, Nepal is a country where land route follower tourist feels tremendous relief to be here and find peaceful surrounding and good environment. Perhaps, it may be due to friendly Nepalese people a n d hospitable by nature, the tourist will have no difficulty in adjusting in general. These all are great attraction to tourist. Major Tourist Activities in Nepal Nepal is known as playground of Asia for the tourists as they can enjoy their worthy stay here in Nepal getting involved into plenty of leisure and entertaining activities like sightseeing , assimilation in cultural events, trekking, visiting religious and cultural sites, rafting, Bungee Jumping etc.Besides these activities, Nepal is even famous for many other activities like rock climbing, mountain biking, jungle safaris, paragliding, hot air ballooning, mountain flights, visiting museums, shopping indigenous products, meditation, etc. These activities are more or less related with ecotourism in the form of nature, wildlife and culture based tourism. However the proper management of all activities is always remain major consideration for effective practice of ecotourism in Nepal. Nepalese tourism sector always seems busy in Nepal despite numerous political and social changes and almost all of the tourism destinations are natural, whether they are wildlife safari, or natural trails. The protected areas have also been very effective in promoting nature tourism. Our jungles are full of life, full of flora and fauna, and many different kinds of birds. The ultimate aim of tourism should be attaining mental and physical happiness by approaching wide-ranging environments, life style, cuisine, culture causing minimal damages to the visiting populace and contributing to the economic, mental, physical characteristic of them. Thus, ecotourism can promote both the visitors as well as the host community.

Page | 127

Economic prospects Economic prospects are associated to the fact that how the benefits are linked with monetary values leading to the raised economic status of the community. The economic impacts in Nepal can generally be evaluated in terms of foreign exchange earnings and employment, and as a vehicle for regional growth. Source of Foreign Exchange Tourism widely helps create multitude employment generation and contribution to the national economy. Trekking is documented as a major part of this industry. It involves people walking alone or in group or accompanied by trekking support staff and staying in either local houses or tents. This type of tourism activity is able to spread tourism benefits to areas that are only accessible on foot. (Kunwar, 1997) Increase Employment Tourism can generate plenty of jobs opportunities through hotels, restaurants, taxis, souvenir sales, local guides and indirectly through the supply of goods and services needed by tourism industry. Regional Development Tourism can be used as an instrument for regional growth for the growth of country like Nepal persisting regional inequality in terms of development. The splendid growth of Pokhara is a good example of how tourism can contribute to economic growth. Settlements along the trekking routes in ACA have received tourism benefits (Pradhan, 2000), which have contributed to development of the Annapurna region. Community Development It has massive potential to alleviate poverty from the country. Besides its limited potential to carry exchange and investment directly to the local level, it can make significant contribution to rural development, agricultural transformation, community enrichment and social empowerment, particularly for women (Shrestha and Walinga, 2003). The induced infrastructural improvements such as better water and sewerage systems, electricity and telephone can improve the quality of life for residents as well as facilitate tourism. There are several such examples in ACA (Pradhan, 2000).

Social Prospects of Ecotourism Tourism can bring about both positive and negative socio-cultural changes. For instance, the Sherpas in the well-known tourism destination of Khumbu are involved with the cash economy as a result of tourism and have therefore become more westernized. But, they have apparently not lost the essence of their cultural identity and have even developed an enhanced sense of ethnic pride because of the value placed on their services and culture by tourists ( Weaver, 2001). Environmental Prospects of Ecotourism Trekking and mountaineering tourism can have environmental impacts. The concerns are over the magnitude of such impacts. Although ecotourists are motivated to preserve the environment, there can be many negative impacts (Shrestha and Walinga, 2003). Some of these are mentioned below:

Page | 128

Ecotourists often go to environmentally fragile areas, such as the Himalayas. Visits may occur during sensitive periods such as during breeding or hatching periods. Visits by ecotourists eventually may lead to mass tourism at the site, such that the ultimate impact is much greater than the initial impact. Visits may cause off-site impacts, such as the consumption of airplane fuel. The impacts of all these factors can take several forms such as water pollution, visual pollution (pollution of natural beauty due to construction of buildings in a haphazard manner), land use pollution and ecological disruption. For instance, although the valley between Pisang and Manang is broad and there is enough room for further expansion of settlements, all the new constructions are being built only along the trekking route spoiling the natural beauty of the route (Schmeltzer, 2000). Challenges of Ecotourism in Nepal Besides various benefits of tourism, tourism also has some adverse effects such as unwanted pressure on natural resources, environmental pollution, loss of natural habitats and deterioration of natural vista, depletion of water resources, cultural erosion, and increases use of drugs and growth of criminal activities. So tourism needs to be developed while embracing the twin goals of local development and environmental conservation. In this point, ecotourism could be a tool to curb or check the adverse effects of the mass tourism. The tourism industry in Nepal also eventually has adopted the principles of ecotourism as its key issues in developing responsible and advantageous tourism in the country. Ecotourism being a new dimension has got several challenges and adversities in Nepalese context. Economic leakages and distortions mislead and hamper the society and ecotourism activities as a whole. As a result people don’t tend to devote much of their time and money to new concepts of tourism which is still to be tested for its success. With the increase in number of tourists, there are high chances of over exploitation of resources, disturbances to wildlife, and poaching of wildlife. Many natural ecosystems are converted into buildings, lawns, roads and parking places. Some of the challenges can be enlisted as follows: 1. Value for money: We do not have scientific way of offering services to the tourists and thus sometimes they complain of having insufficient services out of their paid amount. If we do not offer right value of money to them, we cannot make their stay longer in Nepal. 2. Disaster Risk Reduction: Ecotourism activities comprise of one or another risks and disasters while being involved into them. As the activities are intended to keep tourists happy and enjoying, there should be enough efforts to minimize the risks. In rafting, bungee jumping and other forms of adventure tourism, potential risks need to be mitigated. Doing this, we can extend the staying period of the tourists in Nepal. 3. Male dominated society: Our social configuration is unequal and thus it has high degree of male dominance. Women who need to be involved in tourism activities would have poor access in their income and decision. By this, there is a growing trend of frustration among women to engage in tourism activities and thus lagging behind. 4. Up gradation of tourism products: We have been offering traditional tourism products since long. Interest, taste and nature of the modern days tourists are getting changed and diversed. So, we have to address their concerns while developing various tourism products and packages 5. Development of Ecotourism as a principal source income generation: There is flow of tourists more in one particular season than in other. So, most of the people can’t sustain Page | 129

their livelihood only from ecotourism. Entire income generated by tourism does not go to local people; most of the money goes back to importing manufactured goods to meet the standard of wealthy tourists. In spite of increase in number of tourists the profit gained by local market and local people is very less. The other hindrances like social tension and disruptions are fuelled by the political instability. These problems pose a threat to generate spontaneous support of local people to launch and implement development activities in their locality. Debate and Dıscussıon Much effort is being put to promote ecotourism. Ecotourism does not just mean travelling to natural process, but also requires the development of the local people. Most of the places in Nepal have their own specialty, for example apples of Mustang and cheese from the Himalayas, among others. All these products are also being promoted to uplift the local life. Some laws relating to ecotourism has also been formulated. But how well it is implemented is still a question. Involvement of local people is very vital to promote eco-tourism. Potential impact can be prevented through the knowledge and understanding of the place that tourism can bring in the concerned societies. There is a strong need of exploring many beautiful places in Nepal.

(Joshi, 2016) The chances of ecotourism practitioners all over the world over to come together and interact together to solve their management problems should be made frequently and more effectively through various organisations. It should be planned region wise, country wise as well as globally, both at micro level and macro level during these interactions. The numerous problems arising during the ecotourism development and management should be brought to the notice of all the concerned and serious discussion and interactions followed, will be of great help to all. The experiences at micro level lead to answers to the questions of macro level. Those in favour of ecotourism consider it as the only hope to save endangered species, ecosystems and culture. The debate however is not of a choice between mass and ecotourism, but is rather about the arguments made in favour of ecotourism that it protects biodiversity and provides benefits to local communities. Thus ecotourism should be the role model in popularizing the responsible tourism and fair trade in tourism. Ecotourism should help the visitors for a learning experience of a diverse environment, atmosphere causing least damages to Mother Nature and its various components. Recommendations: Local community should be aware about the prospective of their home to attract tourists, or for selling local produces. If they understand the concept of sustainability before starting any business, it helps prevent the excessive use of resources. It is imperative for the locals to be made aware about the environmental issues like preventing deforestation, or pollution for the sake of tourism promotion. Efforts should be made to improve the promotion and marketing of the of ecotourism potentials. Developing and creating diversified livelihood, promoting the development of Page | 130

ecotourism, encouraging benefit sharing and conservation of natural resources of the park and giving the ownership sense of the local people over the natural resources of the park are very necessary for sustainable use of ecotourism resources. Increasing the awareness of local communities towards ecotourism or nature tourism is very important. More emphasis should be given on the local community members not directly involved in tourism would also be a valuable source to determine whether the supposedly little negative impact on the communities or on the environment. Awareness campaign on environmental protection, wildlife conservation and management should be done among the local people. The better policy, active local participation and equitable sharing of benefits can mark the success of ecotourism in country like ours where there is abundance of natural resources and rich cultural heritage. Therefore, ecotourism can be the only substantial tool to make travel responsible to environmental conservation and livelihood enhancement in future. 1. To reduce unpleasant impact of tourism, new potential destinations should be explored in public participation. 2. Regular process of research on flora, fauna, culture and other socio economic aspects should be carried out. 3. The findings should be used as training materials to train nature guides, tour operators, and visitors. 4. Innovative ideas and action plans need to be developed to better use the protective areas as laboratory for students to learn about the nature and its conservation. 5. Ecotourism projects should be focused towards educating school children and local about the importance of nature and culture, and economic benefits can be exerted from them. 6. Capacity building trainings and orientation should be carried out for the local people to help them run ecotourism entrepreneurship with active participation in tourism planning, implementation and policy formulation.

References: Blangy, S. and Vautier, S. (2001) Europe, in Weaver, D. (ed.) the Encyclopaedia of Ecotourism, Wallingford: CAB International, pp. 155–72. ... Boo, E., 1990, Ecotourism: The Potentials and Pitfalls, Vol. 1 and 2, WWF, Washington, D.C. Chauhan, Y.S. (2004), Eco-Tourism in Nepal,Kalinga Publication, Delhi, India Gurung, C. P., 1995, Ecotourism: Nepal's Experience, Rodney, J. and Ahmad, A. (eds), Proceedings of the Eighth International Snow Leopard Symposium, 12-16 November 1995, Islamabad. Lascurain, C. H., 1990, Tourism, Ecotourism and Protected Areas: National Parks and Protected Areas, Paper presented at the 34th Working Session of the Commission of National Parks and Protected Areas, Perth, Australia. Scarce, R. C., 1993, An Ecotourism Perspective, Nelson, J. G., Butler, R. and Wall, G., (eds.), Tourism and Sustainable Development: Monitoring, Sharma, H. B., Gautam, R. P., Vaidya, S., 2000, (Ed), District Planning, Managing, Heritage Resource Centre, Waterloo. Demographic Profile of Nepal, Information Sector Research and Study Centre, Kathmandu. Shrestha, S. and Walinga, M., 2003, Ecotourism: Planning and Management (Second Draft), Institute of Forestry, Pokhara. Page | 131

Weaver, D. B., 2001, Ecotourism in the Less Developed World, Cab International, UK. Schmelzer, R.M., 2000, The Influence of Tourism on Manang District in the Annapurna Region, West Nepal, Thapa, R. P. and Baaden J., (eds), Nepal: Myths and Realities, Book Faith India, Delhi. Chettamart, S. and Emphandhu, D., 1994, the Tourism Industry and Sustainable Development in Thailand, Quarterly Environmental Journal (of the Thailand Environmental Institute), Vol. 2, No. 4, pp: 39-45. Pradhan, H., 2001, Sustainable Mountain Development through Ecotourism, PhD Dissertation, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Kutay, K., 1989, the New Ethic in Adventure Travel, the Environmental Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp: 33-35. Joshi, A.,2016, ‘Talking tourism’ Image Nepal, I-monthly Joshi, A.,2016, ‘Ecotourism and Sustainability in Nepal’Image Nepal,Bi monthly Kunwar, R. R., 1997, Tourism and Development: Science and Industry Interface, Laxmi Kunwar, Kathmandu. What is ecotourism? www.ecotourism.org (last accessed: 05/03/2017) SNV, 2003, Sustainable Tourism Development in Nepal, Vietnam and Lao PDR: Experience of SNV and Partner Organizations, SNV - Netherlands Development Organization. ‘ECOTOURISM IN NEPAL’ [online] Available at: http://ecoholidayasia.com/ecotourism-nepal (Accessed : 5 March,2017)

Page | 132

The Relationships Among Destination Image, Perceived Quality, Tourist Satisfaction and Revisit intentions: A Case of Maesa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai, Thailand NITITTANON Nonpawit, HUAN Tzung-Cheng & TSAI Chin-Fa

Abstract Previous tourism studies have examined the structural relationships among image, quality, satisfaction and revisit intention. This study aims to examine the linkage among these variables. The structural relationships among the variables are examined using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach in Measa Elephant Camp, ChiangMai Thailand. The results showed that destination image significantly influenced perceived quality, tourist satisfaction, and revisit intentions. In addition, perceived quality significantly affected tourist satisfaction and revisit intentions. Lastly, there was a significant relationship between tourist satisfaction and revisit intentions. Keywords: Destination image, Perceived quality, Tourist satisfaction, Revisit intention.

Introduction Kotler, Bowen, and Makens's research (1996) on purchase behavior proposed the relationships among image, quality, satisfaction and post -purchase behavior. Kotler et al. (1996) indicated that (1) image would positively affect customers’ percept ion for product’s or service’s quality; (2) perceived quality would in turn determine the satisfaction of consumers. In effect, Bigné, Sánchez, and Sánchez (2001) have empirically investigated the structural interrelationships among image, quality, satisfaction, and behavioral variables in the context of tourism, leisure and recreation. Based on this, in this study the proposed causal relationships among image, tourists’ satisfaction, perceived quality and revisit intentions were developed from theory and examined empirically, taking Mae-Sa Elephant Camp in Chiangmai Thailand as research locale. The objectives of this study are follows: (1) To analyze the effect of destination image on perceived quality. (2) To analyze the effect of destination image on tourist satisfaction. (3) To analyze the effect of perceived quality on tourist satisfaction. (4) To justify the effect of perceived quality on revisit intentions. (5) To justify the effect of tourist satisfaction on revisit intentions. Literature Review Destination Image Destination image is a complex construct and is multifaceted, including a variety of elements that are related to cognitive image, affective aspect and overall image (Baloglu et al., 1999; Bigné et al., 2001; Pike & Ryan, 2004). Since des tination image is defined by many authors as the sum of all beliefs, impressions, ideas, and Page | 133

perceptions people hold of a place (Crompton, 1979; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991; Hunt, 1975; Kotler, Haider and Rein, 1993; Phelps, 1986), it is logical to assume th at it exerts some influence on tourists’ behavior (Bigné et al., 2001; Cooper, Fletcher, Gilbert & Wanhill, 1993). Chi, Chua, Othman and Karim (2013) indicated that numerous studies have examined the effect of image on quality, satisfaction and post purchase behavior. Perceived Quality The concept of perceived quality as a comparison between expectations and the performance perceived by the consumer has gained broad acceptance in marketing literature (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985, 1988). In this particular paper, perceived quality refer to the tourists’ evaluation of their holiday experience. Tourism image exercises a positive influence on perceived quality and satisfaction, because it molds the expectations that the individual forms before the visit, and these variables depend on the comparison of such expectations with experience (Font, 1997; Phelps, 1986), as suggested by Gronroos (1984). In this way, image would affect how customers perceive quality. Perceived quality will in turn determine the satisfaction of consumers (Fornell, Johnson, Anderson, Cha, & Bryant, 1996), because the latter is the result of the assessment by the customer of the perceived quality (Anderson et al., 1994; Gnoth, 1994; Kotler et al., 1996). Tourist Satisfaction Previously, Kozak et al. (2000), tourist satisfaction is important to successful destination marketing because it affects the choice of destination, the consumption of products and services, and the decision to return. In the field of marketing, previous studies have also confirmed that satisfaction has a positive effect on post -purchase behaviour or revisit intentions (Anderson & Sullivan, 1990; Bigné et al., 2001; Bowen, 2001; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Fornell, 1992; Keaveney, 1995; Kozak, 2001a; Kozak et al., 2000; Oliver, 1980; Oliver & Swan, 1989). Revisit Intention Destination revisit intention has been viewed as an important research topic both in academia and the tourism industry (Jang & Feng, 2007). In the field of tourism, several researchers have demonstrated that the image of a destination positively affected both the intention to return and the recommendations to others (Bigné et al., 2001; Court et al., 1997). In the analysis of consumers' post -purchase behaviour, the variables 'intention to return to the destination' and 'willingness to recommend it' have been two of the indicators most used for measuring such behaviour (Boulding et al., 1993; Swanson & Davis, 2003; Zeithaml et al., 1996). Research Methodology The Building of Research Framework and Hypotheses This study refers to the model of “Image–Quality–Satisfaction–Post-purchase behavior”, which was proposed by Kotler et al. (1996). The theoretical framework of this research is shown in figure 1.

Page | 134

Perceived Quality H1

H4

Revisit Destination

Intentions

H3

Image

Tourist H2

Satisfaction

H5

Figure 1 The Theoretical Model of the Study

Consequences of Destination Image According to Kotler et al.’s (1996) model, image positively affects quality. Destination image also exerts a positive effect on perceived quality and satisfaction, because it shapes tourists’ pre-trip expectations. These variables depend on a comparison of these expectations with actual experience (Font, 1997; Phelps, 1986; Grönroos, 1984). Based on these arguments, the following three hypotheses are proposed: H1: Destination image has a positive influence on perceived quality. H2: Destination image has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction. Consequences of Perceived Quality In this paper as mentioned earlier, the following sequence could be established: image→quality→satisfaction→post-purchase behavior (Kotler et al., 1996). In the tourism industry, Appiah-Adu, Fyall and Singh (2000), Heung and Cheng (2000) and Kozak and Rimmaington (2000) also proposed that perceived quality is an antecedent of satisfaction. Also, the research by Bigné et al. (2001) and Lee, Lee & Lee (2005) also ascertained that greater trip quality could lead to greater satisfaction. Boulding et al. (1993) also asserted that service quality positively affects import behavioral outcomes such loyalty and positive word -of-mouth. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed: H3: Perceived quality has a positive influence on tourist satisfaction. H4: Perceived quality has a positive influence on revisit intentions. Consequences of Tourist Satisfaction The relationship between satisfaction and tourists’ behavior has been well established in recent tourism and marketing studies. Previous studies have Page | 135

confirmed that satisfaction has a positive influence on post -purchase/post-visiting behavior or revisit intentions (Anderson & Sullivan, 1990; Bigné et al., 2001; Bowen, 2001; Cronin & Taylor, 1992; Fornell,1992; Keaveney,1995; Kozak,2001;Kozak et al.,2000; Oliver,1980; Oliver & Swan, 1989). Based on these arguments, the following is proposed: H5: Tourist satisfaction has a positive influence on revisit intentions. Questionnaire Design and Operationalization of Constructs The questionnaire consisted of five sections: destination image, perceived quality, tourist satisfaction, revisit intentions, and basic information of the respondents. For the constructs considered, measures were borrowed and modified from previous studies. The measurement of destination image with 20 attributes was extracted from previous studies (e.g., Baloglu & Mangaloglu, 2001; Baloglu et al., 1999; Chaudhary, 2000; Chen & Kerstetter, 1999; Echtner & Ritchie, 1993; Fakeye et al., 1991). All of the items were measured on 5-point Likert-type scales, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) to increase ease of response. Table 1 Scales of Operational Definitions and Literature Sources used to construct the Questionnaire. Constructs, operational definitions and literature sources used Destination image: The tourist’s subjective perception of the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. Borrowed from the work of Chen and Tsai (2007)

Items 1. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is safe and secure environment to visit. 2. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is comfort of build/man-made environment. 3. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is clean and tidy environment. 4. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp has a popular and reputation. 5. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is beauty scenery. 6. There is a wide variety of activities types (e.g. Elephant show, elephant nursery, riding elephant, bamboo rafting) 7. There is a wide variety of shop facilities. 8. There is offering some activities and entertainment for kids. 9. There is interesting museums/exhibits (e.g. Art gallery, Elephant museums). 10. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is special and talent with Elephant painting. 11. The way of elephant’s life and Mahout’s

Page | 136

customs are distinctive 12. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp’s staff is friendly and helpful towards the guest. 13. There are good service and enough staffs. 14. Mae-Sa Elephant Camp’s staff is attention with any problem and tourism demand. Perceived quality: The tourist’s overall evaluation of the tourism quality in association with experience of the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. Modified from the work of Tam (2004)

Tourist satisfaction: The extent of overall pleasure or contentment felt by the tourist, resulting from experience of the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. Based on the work of Oliver (1980)

1. The overall tourism quality in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is the best. 2. The overall tourism quality in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is high. 3. The overall tourism quality in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp is higher than that in other similar places.

1. My choice to visit Mae-Sa Elephant Camp was a wise one. 2. I am always delighted with the attractions, services and products in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. 3. Overall, I am satisfied with Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. 4. I believe that I did the right thing when I chose to make my holiday in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp.

Revisit intentions: The tourist’s judgment of the likelihood of revisiting or the willingness to recommend Mae-Sa Elephant Camp to others.

1. I am willing to revisit Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. 2. I am willing to recommend Mae-Sa Elephant Camp to others.

Borrowed and modified from the works of Boulding et al. (1993) and Keaveney (1995)

Pilot runs of the questionnaire were conducted to 40 visitors in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp. Each of the constructs is defined as follows: Destination image: the tourist’s subjective perception of the destination reality. Perceived quality: the tourist’s overall evaluation of the standard of the services and products in association with the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp experience. Tourist satisfaction: the extent of overall pleasure or contentment felt by the tourist, resulting from the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp’s experience. Revisit intentions: the tourist’s judgment about the likeliness to revisit the same destination or the willingness to recommend the destination to others. Page | 137

Sample design and data collection The research locale of this study is Mae-Sa Elephant Camp which is located in Mae Rim district of Chiang Mai Province where is the first Thai Elephant Camp that has been the standard ISO 9001 version 2008. For the taking care, training and develop the skills of an elephant which has over 70 elephants are under well fed. These make Elephant Camps, be a leadership and expertise in the care of the elephants, elephant reproduction as well as to promote sustainable tourism in area of Chiang Mai Province.

The visitors who were visiting Mae-Sa Elephant Camp in Chiangmai, Thailand at the time of the survey were considered to be the sampling framework. Questionnaires were distributed and collected by research interviewer between June and July of 2015 (about 2 months). Research interviewer asked visitors to complete the questionnaire when every the third foreigner visitor was ready to leave the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp Of 350 questionnaires distributed to visitors, 350 complete questionnaires were collected. Of these, 330 were valid. Data Analysis Basic Information for Respondents The basic information of the respondents was described as follows: The great majority of the respondent were aged from 25-34 (49.4%, n = 163) with a slight majority of males 39.4% (n = 130) and females tourist 60.6% (n = 200). The respondents were not married 61.5% (n = 203) and married 38.5% (n = 127). Most tourist were from China 59.1% (n = 195), United States of America 10.9% (n = 36) and Japan 9.7% (n = 32). In all, 86.3% (n = 285) had a college degree or higher qualification. Student 26.4% (n = 87), commerce industry 24.2% (n = 80), self-employment 19.7% (n = 65), industry 12.4% (n = 41) with an equal of service industry and military/government 5.8% (n = 19) and 5.5% (n = 18) were the main divisions of occupation for respondents. The great majority of the respondents had a yearly income less than US$60,000 84.8% (n = 273). The respondents were first-time to visited 86.7% (n = 286) and repeat visit 13.3% (n = 44) in Mae-Sa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Approximately 30.9% (n = 102) of the respondents were recognized the Mae-Sa Elephant Camp from internet, television and radio, 21.8% (n = 72) tourism authority of Thailand, 18.2% (n = 60) family and friend, 15.8% (n = 52) school, institute and agency tour, 13.0% (n = 43) brochure and newspaper. According to the reason for visited Mae-Sa Elephant Camp survey results, 60.9% (n = 201) relaxation, 30.6% (n = 101) sight-seeing. More than half of the respondents were come to visited on Saturday and Sunday 57.3% (n = 189) and 42.7% (n = 141) on Monday-Friday. The majority of respondents were visited with friends 47.3% (n = 156), 30.3% (n = 100) family and 13.9% (n = 46) tour group. The fact that survey respondents were mostly interested the activities at Mae-Sa Elephant Camp, Elephant show 38.2% (n = 126) with an equal of riding elephant 38.2% (n = 126) and 13.3% (n = 44) feed the elephant. The participants were spent money, approximately 35.8% (n = 118) are the great majority to spend 501-1,000 Baht, 26.7% (n = 88) 1,001-1,500 Baht, 20.9% (n = 69) more than 1,500 Baht and 16.7% (n = 55) not over 500 Baht. In addition, 81.2% (n = 268) of the participants wanted to revisit. Indeed, the sample population is well-educated, wealthy and Mae-Sa Elephant Camp have a strongly with the prominent point (Elephant Show, Riding Elephant) making them excellent potential prospects for revisiting intention. Page | 138

Explanatory Factor Analysis In this study, a multi-attribute approach was employed to measure destination image. Destination image was measured using a 14-item scale. Employing the principal components factor analysis, three factors with an eigenvalue greater than one explained 59.375% of the variance of destination image scale. The varimax rotated factor pattern implies that the first factor concerns” service and elephant image” (5 items, variance explained 36.293). The second factor relates to “safe and comfortable environment” (4 items, variance explained 13.073). The third factor consists of characteristics of the” entertainment and leisure” (3 items, variance explained 10.010). The arithmetic means of the three mult i-item factors were used to build the construct destination image for subsequent analysis. Reliability Analysis A Cronbach alpha test was used to determine the internal consistency for each of these four constructs and each dimension of destination image . The results of the Cronbach alpha test for the different constructs were as follows: destination image 0.836, perceived quality 0.827, tourist satisfaction 0.891, revisit intentions 0.817. Besides, the results of the Cronbach alpha test for the three sub -dimensions making up the destination image scale were: 0.768 in the service and elephant image sub dimension, 0.752 in the safe and comfortable environment sub -dimension, and 0.754 in the entertainment and leisure sub-dimension. Out of the seven constructs and sub-dimensions, seven constructs and subdimensions were above the cut-off criterion of 0.7 recommended by Nunnally (1978). Therefore, it suggests that all constructs and sub -dimensions were well above the ‘criterion-in-use’ and thus acceptably reliable. Structure Model The proposed conceptual model in Fig. 1 was tested by using the four constructs: namely destination image, perceived quality, tourist satisfaction, and revisit intentions. Employing the covariance matrix among 12 measurement items as input, the SEM analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between each pair of constructs as hypothesized. The results of SEM analysis were depicted in Fig. 2. The overall model indicates that χ2 is 52.530 with 48 degrees of freedom (d.f.) (p = 0. 303 > 0.05). Technically, the p-value should be greater than 0.05, i.e., statistically insignificant. Besides, the ratio of χ2 over d.f. has been recommended as another goodness of fit. A common level of the χ2/d.f. ratio is below 3. The χ2/d.f. ratio of the model is 1.094 (i.e., 52.530/48), indicating an acceptable fit. Furthermore, other indicators of goodness of fit are GFI = 0.975, AGFI= 0.959, PNFI = 0.711, PGFI = 0.600, NFI = 0.977, RFI = 0.969, CFI= 0.998, RMSEA = 0.017, IFI = 0.998, and PGFI = 0.600, suggesting that the hypothesized model could fits the empirical data well.

Page | 139

Standardized regression coefficient with its t-value in parenthesis ***p

< 0.001 Significant relationship Figure 2 the Estimated Structural Model

Within the overall model, the estimates of the structural coefficients provide the basis for testing the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that destination image significantly influenced perceived quality (γ = 0.834; t = 10.601), tourist satisfaction (γ= 0.899; t = 5.172), and revisit intentions (γ = 0.276; t = 3.977). In addition, perceived quality significantly affected tourist satisfaction (β = 0.276; t = 3.977) and revisit intentions (β= 0.508; t = 5.109). Lastly, there was a significant relationship between tourist satisfaction and revisit intentions (β= 0.516; t = 2.746). As shown in Figure 2, out of six hypotheses (H1 to H6), six hypotheses are supported.

Conclusion and Recommendation The model in this study including destination image, tourist’s satisfaction, perceived quality and revisit intention, fits the empirical data well. The results of this study show that destination image is a significant predictor of perceived quality, tourist satisfaction and revisit intention. The results are consist ent with those of Bigné et al. (2001) and Kotler et al. (1996). Regarding the cognitive path: “destination image → perceived quality → tourist satisfaction → revisit intentions”, suggested by the review of the literature, the analysis of the interrelationship also confirms this sequence. Finally, this study provides an interesting basis for empirical research on the relationships among destination image, tourist satisfaction, perceived quality and revisit intentions for the elephant camp. Certainly, refinements in conceptualization and measurement are possible and desirable. Page | 140

Managerial Implications The finding of this research is hopefully useful to improve the visitors’ revisit intentions. Hence, endeavours to build or improve the image of a destination facilitate loyal visitors revisiting or recommending behaviours. Consequently, tourism destinations managers must take a special care of the image which can communicate visitors’ perceived quality and satisfaction. These will affect visitors’ revisit intentions. The studies are hopefully useful to develop the tourism destination not only in Chiang Mai but also in another province in Thailand. Limitations In this study, there are some limitations appear especially the number of limitations, which are also opportunities for future research. First, this study is useful to use a wide variety of tourism attractions in future studies. Second, results may not be generalized to every tourism industry and similar composite models should be considered. Third, the destinations for distributing the survey only at the Mae Sa Elephant Camp, Chiang Mai. Finally, this study provides an interesting starting point for empirical research on the relationship among destination image, perceived quality, tourist satisfaction and revisit intentions in the Elephant Camp. For the future studies, researchers may consider more knowledge on the independent variable and its effect on tourists’ revisit intentions.

References Aaker, D. A. and Jacobson, R. (1994). “The financial information content of perceived quality.”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 31, May, pp. 191-201. Alcañiz, E., Garcia, I., Blas, S., (2005). “Relationships among residents’ image, evaluation of the stay and post-purchase behavior.” Journal of Vacation Marketing,11 (4), 291-302. Alhemoud, A. M., and E. g. Armstrong (1996). “Image of Tourism Attractions in Kuwait.” Journal of Travel Research, 34 (4): 76-80. Anderson, E. W., & Sullivan, M. W. (1990). “The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction for Firms.” Marketing Science, 12(2), 125-145. Anderson, E. W., Fornell C & Lehmannn DR, (1994). “Customer Satisfaction, Market Share, and Profitability: Findings from Sweden.” Journal of Marketing, 58(July): 53-66 Anderson, J.C. and B.W. Gerbing, “Structural Equation Modling in Practice: A Review and Recommended Two-Step Approach,” Psychological Bulletin, vol.103, (1988): 411-423. Appiah-Adu, K., Fyall, A., & Singh, S. (2000). “Marketing culture and customer retention in the tourism industry.” The Service Industries Journal, 20(2): 95-113. Ashworth, G. & Goodall, B. (1988). “Tourist images: Marketing considerations.” In B. Goodall & G. Ashworth (Eds.). Marketing in the tourism industry. The promotion of destination regions (pp.213-238), London: Croom-Helm. Baker, D. A., Crompton, J.L. (2000). “Quality, satisfaction and behavioural variables.” Annals of Tourism Research, 27 (3), 785-804. Baloglu, S., & Mangaloglu, M. (2001). “Tourism destination images of Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Italy as perceived by US-based tour operators and travel agents.” Tourism Management, 1: 19. Baloglu, S., & McCleary, K. W. (1999). “A model of destination image formation.” Annals of Tourism Research, 35(4): 868-897. Page | 141

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). “The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51: 1173-1182. Beerli, A., Martin, J. D. (2004). “Tourists’ characteristics and the perceived image of tourist destinations: a quantitative analysis – a case study of Lanzarote, Spain.” Tourism Management, 25: 623-636. Belk, Russell W. (1988. “Possessions and the Extended Self.” Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (September): 139-68. Bigné, J. E, Sanchez, M.I., Sanchez, J. (2001). “Destination image, evaluation variables and after purchase behaviour: inter-relationship.” Tourism Management, 22: 607-616. Bitner, M.J. and Hubbert, A.R. (1994). “Encounter satisfaction versus overall satisfaction versus service quality: the consumer’s voice.” in Rust, R.T. and Oliver, R.L. (Eds), Service Quality: New Directions in Theory and Practice, Sage Publications, Bojanic, D. C. (1996). “Consumer perceptions of price, value and satisfaction in the hotel industry: An exploratory study.” Journal of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing, 4(1): 5–22.. Bojanic, D. C. and Rosen, L. D. (1994). “Measuring Service Quality in Restaurants: An Application of the SERVQUAL Instrument.” Hospitality Research Journal, 18(1): 3-14. Boomsma, A. (1982). “The robustness of LISREL against small sample size in factor analysis models.” In H. Wold & K. Jöreskog (Eds.), Systems under indirect observation (pp. 149-173). New York: Elsevier North-Holland. Boulding, W., Kalra, A., Staelm, R. and Zeithaml, V. A. (1993). “A Dynamic Process Model of Service Quality: From Expectations to Behavioral Intentions.” Journal of Marketing Research, 30(1): 7-27. Bowen, D. (2001). “Research on tourist satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Overcoming the limitations of a positivist and quantitative approach.” Journal of Vacation Marketing, 7(1): 3140. Bowen, D. (2001). “Antecedents of Consumer Satisfaction and Dis-satisfaction (CS/D) on LongHaul Inclusive Tours: A Reality Check on Theoretical Considerations.” Tourism Management, 22:49–61. Bricker, K. S., & Kerstetter, D. L. (2000). “Level of specialization and place attachment: An exploratory study of whitewater recreationists.” Leisure Sciences, 22(4): 233–257. Brocato, E. D. (2006). Place attachment: an investigation of environments and outcomes in service context. Doctoral Thesis, The University of Texas at Arlington. Castro, C. B., Armario, E. M., Ruiz, D. M. (2007). “The influence of market heterogeneity on the relationship between a destination’s image and tourists’ future behavior.” Tourism Manage, 28(1): 175-187. Chaudhary, R.P. (2000). “Forest conservation and environmental management in Nepal: a review.” Biodiversity and Conservation, 9: 1235–1260. Chen, C. F. & Tsai, D. C. (2007), “How destination and evaluative factors affect behavioral intentions?” Tourism Management, 28(4): 1115-1122. Chen, C.F & Tsai, D. G., (2007). “How destination image and evaluative factors affect behavioral intentions?” Tourism Management, 28(4): 1115-1122. Chen, P., & Kerstetter, D. (1999). “International students’ image of rural Pennsylvania as a travel destination.” Journal of Travel Research, 37: 256–266. Chi, C. G.-Q., B. L. Chua, M. Othman, and S. A. Karim (2013). “Investigating the structural relationship between food image, food satisfaction, culinary quality and behavioral intentions: the case of Malaysia.” International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 14(2): 99120. Chi, C., & Qu, H. (2008). “Examining the structural relationships of destination image, tourist Page | 142

satisfaction and destination loyalty: an integrated approach.” Tourism Management, 29: 624636. Chiou, J. S., C. Droge, and S. Hanvanich (2002). “Does Customer Knowledge Affect How Loyalty Is Formed?” Journal of Service Research, 5(2): 113-24. Chon, K.(1990). “The Role of destination image in tourism: A review and discussion.” The Tourist Review, 45(2): 2-9. Chon, K.(1992). “Self-Image/destination-image congruity.” Annals of Tourism Research, 19: 360-363. Cole, S.T., Crompton, J.L., & Willson, V.L. (2002). “An empirical investigation of the relationships between service quality, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions among visitors to awildlife refuge.” Journal of Leisure Research, 34(1): 1–24. Cooper, C., Fletcher. J., Gilbert, D. and Wanhill, S. (1993). Tourism: Principles and Practice, London: Pitman (Chapters 20) Court, B. and R. A. Lupton (1997). “Customer Portfolio Development: Modeling Destination Adopters, Inactives and Rejecters.” Journal of Travel Research, 36(1): 35-43. Crompton, J. L., (1979). “Motivations for pleasure vacation.” Annals of Tourism Research, 6(4): 408-424. Cronin, J. J., Brady, M. K., & Hult, G. T. M. (2000). “Assessing the effects of quality, value and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments.” Journal of Retailing, 76(2): 193–218. Dabholkar, Pratibha A. (1994). “Incorporating Choice into an Attitudinal Framework: Analyzing Models of Mental Comparison Processes.” Journal of Consumer Research, 21 (June): 100-118. Dichter, E. (1985). “What's in an Image.” Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2 (1): 75-81. Echtner, C. M. & Ritchie, J. R. B. (1991). “The meaning and measurement of destination and the influence of geographical location upon that image.” Journal of Travel Research, 14(4): 18-23. Echtner, C. M., & Ritchie, J. R. (1993). “The measurement of destination image: An empirical assessment.” Journal of Travel Research, 31(3): 3-13. Fakeye, P. C., and J. L. Crompton (1991). “Image Differences between Prospective, First-Time, and Repeat Visitors to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.” Journal of Travel Research, 30 (2): 10-15. Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Font, X. (1997). “Managing the tourist destination’s image.” Journal of Vacation Marketing, 3(2): 123-131. Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). “Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error.” Journal of Marketing Research, 48: 39–50. Fornell, C., Johnson, M., Anderson, E., Cha, J., & Bryant, B. (1996). “The American customer satisfaction index: Nature, purpose, findings.” Journal of Marketing, 60: 7–18. Fornell, Claes, (1992). “A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer: The Swedish Experience.” Journal of Marketing, 56(1): 6-21. Fournier, Susan, (1998). “Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research.” Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (March): 343-373. Gallarza, M.G., Saura, I.G., & García, H.C., (2002). “Destination Image: Towards a Conceptual Framework.” Annals of Tourism Research, 29(1): 56–72. George, B., & Alexandru, N. (2005). “Holiday attachment: The construct and its measurement.” Anfiteatru Economic, 18, 24–38. Gnoth, J. (1994). Expectations and Satisfaction in Tourism: An Exploratory Study into Measuring Satisfaction. Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of Marketing, University of Otago, New Zealand. Go, F., & Zhang, W. (1997). “Applying importance–performance analysis to Beijing as an Page | 143

international meeting destination.” Journal of Travel Research, 35(4): 42–49. Grönroos, C. (1984). “Strategic management and marketing in the service sector.” Bromley Chartwell-Brat. Hair, J.F. Jr., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., Black, W.C., Multivariate Data Analysis (5th ed.), Englewood Cliffs, NJ：Prentice-Hall, 1998. Heung, V. C. S, & Cheng, E. (2000). “Assessing tourists’ satisfaction with shopping in the Hong Kong special administrative regions of China.” Journal of Travel Research, 38 (4): 396-404. Hidalgo M.C. and Hernández B. (2001). “Place Attachment: Conceptual And Emperical Questions.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21(3): 273-281 Hui, T., Wan, D., Ho, A., (2007). “Tourists' satisfaction, recommendations and revisiting Singapore.” Tourism Management, 28(4): 965-975. Hunt, H. K. (1977). “CS/D: overview and future research directions.” in Hunt, H.K. (Ed.), Conceptualization and Measurement of Consumer Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA, pp. 455-88. Hunt, J. D. (1975). “Image as a factor in tourism development.” Journal of Travel Research, 13(3): 1-7. Jacoby, J. and Chestnut, R.W., (1978). Brand Loyalty: Measurement and Management (John Wiley & Sons, New York). Jang, S.-C. (S.) and Feng, R. (2007). “Temporal destination revisit intention: The effects of novelty seeking and satisfaction.” Tourism Management, 28: 580–590. Jorgensen B, and Stedman, R. (2006). “A comparative analysis of predictors of sense of place dimensions: Attachment to, dependence on, and identification with lakeshore properties.” Journal of Environmental Management, 79(3): 316-327. Keaveney, S., 1995. “Customer switching behaviour in service industries: An exploratory study.” Journal of Marketing, 59(2): 71-82. Kotler, P, Haider, DH & Rein, IJ (1993). Marketing places: Attracting investment, industry, and tourism to cities, states, and nations, Free Press, New York. Kotler, P., Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (1996). Marketing for hospitality and tourism. Prentice Hall: New Jersey. Kozak, M. (2001). “Repeaters’ Behavior at two Distinct Destinations.” Annals of Tourism Research, 28:784–807. Kozak, M., and M. Rimmington (2000). “Tourist Satisfaction with Mallorca, Spain, as an Offseason Holiday Destination.” Journal of Travel Research, 38:260–269. Kyle, G. T., & Johnson, C. Y. (2008). “Understanding cultural variation in place meaning.” In L.E. Kruger, T.E. Hall, & M.C. Stiefel (Eds.), Understanding concepts of place inrecreation research and management (pp. 109–134) (PNW-GTR-744). Portland, OR: USDA Forest Service Technical Report, Pacific Northwest Research Station. Kyle, G. T., Absher, J. D., & Graefe, A. R. (2003). “The moderating role of place attachment on the relationship between attitudes toward fees and spending preferences.” Leisure Sciences, 25(1): 33–50. Kyle, G., Graefe, A., Manning, R., & Bacon, J. (2004a). “Effect of activity involvement and place attachment on recreationists’ perceptions of setting density.” Journal of Leisure Research, 36(2): 209–231. Lavidge, Robert J. and Gary A. Steiner. (1961). “A model for predictive measurements of advertising effectiveness.” Journal of Marketing, 25(October): 59 -62. Lawson, F. and Baud-Bovy, Manuel (1977). Tourism and Recreation Development. London: Architectural Press. Pp. 74-86. (GV182.3.B338) Lee, C. C. (2001). “Predicting Tourist Attachment to Destinations.” Annals of Tourism Research, 28(1): 229–32. Page | 144

Lee, C. C., Backman, K. & Backman, S. (1997). “Understanding Antecedents of Repeat Visitation and Tourists' Loyalty to a Resort Destination.” paper presented to Travel and Tourism Research Association Annual Conference, Boulder, CO: TTRA. Lee, C., Lee, Y., & Lee, B. (2005). “Korea’s destination image formed by the 2002 world cup.” Annals of Tourism Research, 32(4): 839–858. Lee, J. (2003). Examining the antecedents of loyalty in a forest setting: relationships among service quality, satisfaction, activity involvement, place attachment, and destination loyalty. Unpublished Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University. Lee, T.H. (2007). “Ecotourism behavioural model of national forest recreation areas in Taiwan.” International Forestry Review, 9(3): 771–785. Lin, W.-B. (2009). “A Study of Relations between Service Quality Differences, Post-Purchase Behavior Intentions with Personality Traits and Service Recovery Strategy as Intervening Variables.” International Journal of Commerce and Management, 19(2):137-157. Lovelock, C. and Wright, L. (1999). Principles of Service Marketing and Management. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs. Lutz, R. J. (1991). “The role of attitude theory in marketing.” In H.H. Kassarjian, & T.S. Robertson (Eds), Perspectives in Consumer Behavior (4th ed.) (pp. 317-339). Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall. Malär, L., Harley Krohmer, Wayne D . Hoyer, Bettina Nyffenegger (2011). “Emotional Brand Attachment and Brand Personality: The Relative Importance of the Actual and the Ideal Self.” Journal of Marketing, 75(4): 35-52. Middelton, V. T. C. (1994). Marketing for Travel and Tourism. 2nd edn. Butterworth-Heinemann, London .104-112 Milman, A. & Pizam, A. (1995). “The role of awareness and familiarity with a destination: The central Florida case.” Journal of Travel Research, 33(3): 21-27. Moore, R. L., & Graefe, A. R. (1994). “Attachments to recreation settings: The case of rail-trail users.” Leisure Sciences, 16(1): 17–31. Morwitz, V.G. &. Schmittlein D.C. (1992). “Using Segmentation to Improve Sales Forecasts Based on Purchase Intent: Which “Intenders” Actually Buy?” Journal of Marketing Research, 29: 391405. Moutinho, L. (1987). “Consumer behaviour in Tourism.” European Journal of Marketing, 21(10): 5-44. Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill. Oh, H. (1999). “Service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer value: A holistic perspective.” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 18: 67-82. Oh, H., & Parks, S. C. (1997). “Customer satisfaction and service quality: a critical review of the literature and research implications for the hospitality industry.” Hospitality Research Journal, 20(3): 35–64. Oliver, R. and J. E. Swan. (1989). Consumer perceptions of interpersonal equity and satisfaction in transactions: a field survey approach. Journal of Marketing, 53(April): 21-35. Oliver, R. L. (1981). “Measurement and evaluation of satisfaction processes in retail setting.” Journal of Retailing, 57(3): 25-48. Oliver, R. L. (1999). “Whence Consumer Loyalty?” Journal of Marketing, 63: 33-44. Oliver, R. L. (1980). “A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions.” Journal of Marketing Research, 17(Nov): 460-469. Oliver, Richard L. (1997). Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Palda, K. S. (1966). “The Hypothesis of a Hierarchy of Effects: A Partial Evaluation.” Journal of Marketing Research, 3(February): 13-25. Page | 145

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. & Berry, L. L, (1985). “A conceptual model of service quality and its implication for future research.” Journal of Marketing, 49(Fall): 41-50. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A. & Berry, L. L. (1988). “SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality.” Journal of Retailing, 64(1): 12-40. Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L. and Zeithaml, V. A. (1991). “Understanding customer expectations of service.” Sloan Management Review, 32(1): 39-48. Park, C. W., Macinnis, D. J., Priester, J., Eisingerich, A. B., & Iacobucci, D., (2010). “Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers.” Journal of Marketing, 74(November): 1-17. Pedersen, P. E., & Nysveen, H. (2001). “Shopbot banking: an exploratory study of customer loyalty effects.’ The International Journal of Bank Marketing, 19(4/5): 146–155. Petrick, J. F. (2004). “The roles of quality, perceived value and satisfaction in predicting cruise passengers’ behavioral intentions.” Journal of Travel Research, 42(4): 397–407. Phelps, A. (1986). “Holiday destination image - The problem of assessment: An example developed in Menorca.” Tourism Management, 7(3): 168-180. Pike, S., and Ryan, C. (2004). “Destination positioning analysis through a comparison of cognitive, affective and conative perceptions.” Journal of Travel Research, 42(4): 333-342. Proshansky, H. M. (1978). “The city and self-identity.” Environment and Behaviour, 10: 147– 169. Proshansky, H. M., Fabian, A. K., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). “Place identity: physical world and socialization of the self.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3: 57–83. Ray, M. L., (1973). “Marketing communication and the hierarchy of effects.” In: Clarke, P. (Ed.), New models for mass communication research. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA, pp. 147– 176. Rust, R., P. Danaher, and S. Varki (1999). Comparative Service Quality and Business Outcomes. Working Paper, Center for Service Marketing. Nashville: Vanderbilt University. Saleh, F. & Ryan, C. (1992). “Client perceptions of hotels, a multi-attribute approach.” Tourism Management, 13(2): 162-168. Schreyer, R., Jacob, G., & White, R. (1981). “Environmental meaning as a determinant of spatial behavior in recreation.” In Proceedings of the applied geography conferences (Vol. 4; pp. 294– 300). Binghampton, NY: SUNY Binghampton. Seaton, A.V. and Bennett, M. M., (1996). The marketing of tourism products: concepts, issues and cases. London : International Thomson Business. Shamai, S. (1991). “Sense of place: An empirical measurement.” Geoforum, 22(3): 347-358. Simpson, M. P., and Siguaw, J. (2008). “Destination Word-of-Mouth: The Role of Traveller Type, Residents, and Identity Salience.” Journal of Travel Research, 47(2): 167-182. Stabler, M. J. (1988). “The Image of Destination Regions: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects.” In Goodall, B. and Ashworth, G. (Eds.) Marketing in the Tourism Industry: The Promotion of Destination Regions. London. Routledge: 133-159. Stedman, R. (2003). “Is It Really Just a Social Construction? The Contribution of the Physical Environment to Sense of Place.” Society & Natural Resources, 16(8): 671-685. Stokols, D., & Shumaker, S. A. (1981). “People and places: A transactional view of settings.” In J. Harvey (Ed.), Cognition, social behavior, and the environment (pp. 441–488). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Swanson, S. R. and Davis, J. C. (2003). “The Relationship of Differential Loci with Perceived Quality and Behavioural Intentions.” Journal of Service Marketing, 17(2): 202-19. Tam, J. L. M. (2000). “The effects of service quality, perceived value and customer satisfaction on behavioral intentions.” Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, 6(4): 31–43. Tam, J. L. M. (2004). “Customer satisfaction, service quality and perceived value: an integrative Page | 146

model.” Journal of Marketing Management, 20(7): 897-917. Telisman-Kosuta, N. (1989). “Tourist destination image.” In S. Witt & L. Moutinho (Eds.). Tourism marketing and management handbook (pp. 557-561). New York: Prentice Hall. Tian-Cole, S., Crompton, J. L. & Wilson, V. A. (2002). “An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships between Service Quality, Satisfaction and Behavioural Intentions among Visitors to a Wildlife Refuge.” Journal of Leisure Research, 34(1): 1–24. Woodside AG, Lysonski S (1989). “A General Model of Traveler Destination Choice.” Journal of Travel Research, 27(4): 8-14. Yoon, Y., Uysal, M., (2005). “An examination of the effects of motivation and satisfaction on destination loyalty: a structural model.” Tourism Management, 26(1): 45-56. Yuksel A., Yuksel F., and Bilim Y. (2010). “Destination attachment: Effects on customer satisfaction and cognitive, affective and conative loyalty”. Tourism Management, 31(2): 274284. Yuksel, A. (2001). “Managing Customer Satisfaction and Retention: A case of a Tourist Destination, Turkey.” Journal of Vacation Marketing, 7(2): 153-68. Zeithaml V. A. (1988). “Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality and Value: A Mean-end Model and Synthesis of Evidence.” Journal of Marketing, 52(3): 2-22. Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L.L. and Parasuraman, A. (1996). “The Behavioral Consequences of Service Quality.” Journal of Marketing, 60(2): 31-46. Zeithaml, V.A. (2003). Services Marketing – Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm, India, Tata McGraw Hill.

Page | 147

Tourscape: A Sustainable Rural Tourism Development Approach NYAUPANE Gyan

Abstract Tourism is a complex system that constitutes two major components, demand and supply, and the interactions between them. The complexity is even greater if the scale of a tourism destination is larger. However, small and isolated rural communities could be inefficient in terms of attracting visitors, supplying goods and services to tourists, and managing resources. Regional planners and tourism scholars therefore argue that tourism at the region scale is more comprehensive than at the site and community level. This paper applies the landscapelevel ecosystem approach in a rural tourism context, which can be termed as “tourscape.” The paper argues that tourscape can be helpful to achieve the tourism goals through clustering of attractions, promoting community cooperation instead of unhealthy competition, developing community resilience to prevent and adapt to unintended, undesirable consequences, and reducing leakages. This study was conducted in southern Utah and northern Arizona, USA. The epistemological foundation of this paper is based upon the social constructivist paradigm, which emphasizes the understanding of local knowledge, values, culture and context in valuing local residents’ views. Data for this study were collected through five phases of the appreciative inquiry process (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005; Nyaupane & Poudel, 2012), including preliminary field visits, asset mapping, 70 appreciative interviews, eight appreciative inquiry mini sessions, and an appreciative inquiry summit. The study identified unique tourism assets of each community and unifying characteristics of the region, which help develop and market tourism in the region. The findings of this study instigated a regional level forum to support the communities in co-creating a regional vision, actions and strategies.

Page | 148

Exploring waste behaviour in nature-based tourism: A case study from the Nepalese Himalaya POSCH Eva

Abstract Since Nepal first opened its borders to foreigners in the 1950s, tourism has grown exponentially. The high influx of tourists has brought many positive impacts to the country. However, the dramatic growth of the tourism industry has increased pressures on the environment. Generation of solid waste is one of the major environmental issues in mountain areas with high concentrations of tourism. That is the case in Sagarmatha National Park in the Everest region – one of the most popular destinations for nature-based tourism. While tourism impacts on the natural environment have been intensely studied, intended waste behaviour and environmental concern of the demand side have gained scientific attention only recently. The main purpose of this paper is to explore different types of tourists based on their environmental attitudes and behavioural waste tendencies. An extensive survey of tourists in Sagarmatha National Park was conducted during the spring season of 2013 (n=335), followed by statistical analysis such as principal component and cluster analysis. While the study is embedded within the broader arena of social science, it makes several noteworthy contributions to environment-behaviour research and tourism studies. The obtained results regarding segment specific differences in visitors’ environmental attitudes and behaviours, may contribute to the improvement of the rapidly growing waste issues in mountain regions. Key Words: Mountain regions, Consumer behaviour, Tourism segmentation, Environmental behaviour, Sustainable development, Waste management

Introduction The Himalayas of Nepal, with their unique landscape and fascinating peaks, attract people from all over the world. Ever since Nepal first opened its borders to foreigners in the 1950s, tourism has grown exponentially. The high influx of tourists, mostly drawn to nature-based activities, has generated positive and negative impacts for the country. Local people and work-related migrants have benefitted from economic development, international exposure, and crosscultural exchange; however, dramatic expansion of the tourism industry has increased pressures on the environment including continuous trail degradation, soil erosion, deforestation and land-use changes (Nepal, 2003a). In popular tourist destinations, the generation of solid waste is another major threat to environmental sustainability and as the numbers of tourists increase each year, so does the accumulation of solid waste (Manfredi et al., 2010; Salerno et al., 2010a). Several studies deal with tourism impacts on the natural environment in the Himalayas (cf. Byers, 2005; Nepal, 2003b; Salerno et al., 2010a; Salerno et al., 2013; Stevens, 2003; Spoon, 2011a, 2011b; Pawson et al., 1984; Bajracharya et al., 2010; Daconto and Sherpa, 2010). A few focus on solid waste issues in the Himalayas using a naturalscience based approach (cf. Salerno et al., 2013; Basnet, 1993; Bortoleto et al., 2012; Manfredi et al., 2010; Kuniyal, 2002; Kuniyal et al., 1998; Kuniyal, 2005a, 2005b; Kuniyal et al., 2003; Guzzella et al., 2011; Pokhrel and Viraraghavan, 2005; Zuser et al., 2011; Posch et al., 2015).

Page | 149

However, far too little attention has been paid to the demand side of nature-based tourism and their handling of waste. The following study attempts to address these shortcomings being guided by the following research questions: - Which types of nature-based tourists can be distinguished regarding their intended waste practices and environmental concern? - Which sociodemographic and travel-related characteristics determine different types? To achieve these research aims, the study used data from a quantitative survey conducted in April/May 2013 in Nepal. Based on a literature review, several items related to environmental concern and consumer behaviour were chosen and used for factor analysis to subsequently develop a tourist typology. The tourists were then profiled regarding specific sociodemographic attributes (such as age, gender, level of education) and travel-related characteristics (including overnight stays, size of travel party, travel arrangements). Literature Review & Theoretical Background Concepts Relating to Environmental Behaviour and Awareness Theoretical frameworks are useful in explaining people’s behaviour and providing valuable insights for planning interventions (Timlett and Williams, 2011). Amid the number of concepts, I have chosen two theoretical approaches to form the basis for this research: the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Norm-Activation Model (NAM). Both social-psychological theories were developed in the 1960s and are most frequently used to explain how individuals behave, particularly where environmental problems exist (Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002). Unlike economic theories, which declare that an individual’s actions are rational choices, socialpsychological behavioural models acknowledge the context of the actor’s environment and the importance of social factors (Timlett and Williams, 2011). The TPB has a long history to explore psychological determinants of pro-environmental behaviour (Ajzen, 1991, 2011). According to the TPB, behavioural intentions are determined by attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control. The term ‘environmental attitudes’ is often used interchangeably with other concepts, such as environmental concern, awareness or value (Barr, 2007). According to a definition provided by Zelezny and Schultz, environmental attitudes refer to “psychological factors that lead people to act in pro-environmental ways” (2000, p. 367). According to Jiménez Sánchez and Lafuente, an environmentally conscious person is “someone who engages in a wide range of proenvironmental behaviours as well as holding certain values and attitudes that different theories have associated to this type of conduct” (2010, p. 732). Pro-environmental attitudes do not necessarily lead to behaviours and many studies discuss the ambiguity surrounding the usefulness of environmental attitudes as predictors of ecological behaviour. While Heberlein claims that “environmental attitudes are fundamentally important, widely discussed, frequently measured, and poorly understood” (2012, p. 241), several studies acknowledge the powerful role of environmental attitudes in understanding environmental behaviour (cf. Kaiser et al., 1999a; Kaiser et al., 1999b; Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002; Eilam and Trop, 2012). Perceived behavioural control is defined as one’s perceived ease, difficulty or perception about the existence of factors that facilitate or hinder the performance of certain behaviours (Ajzen, 1991). Perceived behaviour control has strong similarities to the concept of self-efficacy and is often used interchangeably (Kaiser et al., 1999b). The NAM focuses on moral obligations of Page | 150

behaviour and emphasizes the relationship between personal and social norms, awareness of consequences, and the feeling of responsibility (Schwartz, 1977). Personal norms are influenced by the feeling of responsibility and the awareness of consequences meaning that an individual who feels morally obliged to act accordingly to the behaviour in question is more likely to act if he or she believes in the consequences of the action. This increases if the person feels personally responsible for the consequences of the given behaviour (Bortoleto et al., 2012). Both theories – TPB and NAM – are built on the concept of subjective norms and several studies show that behaviour is strongly influenced by social norms (Godfrey et al., 2012; Hunecke et al., 2001). While NAM refers to social norms, TPB characterizes the same external normative expectations as subjective norm (Hunecke et al., 2001). Subjective norms refer to social pressures, expectations and moral principles and can be defined as an individual's perception of whether people think that certain behaviours should be performed (Kaiser et al., 1999a). The feeling of responsibility is shaped by values and attitudes and is influenced by perceived behaviour control (Darnton et al., 2004; Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002). It can be described as “personal responsibility for the development and/or elimination of environmental problems” (Dembkowski, 1998:62). Several authors point out that the feeling of responsibility appears to be promising in predicting environmental behaviours (cf. Kaiser et al., 1999a; Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002; Hunecke et al., 2001; Ittiravivongs, 2012). Despite empirical support of the TPB and NAM, critical questions have been raised concerning the usefulness of these theories when it comes to improve the understanding of environmental behaviour. Therefore, this paper will not discuss the interrelation and correlation of the psychological factors but rather focus on segmentation of nature-based tourists based on items related to environmental awareness and intended waste behaviour. Tourist segmentations and typologies aim to summarize certain characteristics in order to illustrate latent patterns. In doing so, segmentation analysis (such as latent class and cluster analysis) can identify homogeneous groups of people across different characteristics. This might be especially useful for the development of policies and planning interventions to better understand the heterogeneity of different groups (Aldrich et al., 2007). According to previous studies, socioeconomic characteristics such as gender or the level of education particularly influence environmental attitudes and behaviours (Barr, 2007; Kaiser et al., 1999a). Methodology Study Site Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (SNPBZ) is among the most popular nature-based tourism destinations in Nepal (MCTCA, 2014, 2015). The National Park, a protected area since the 1970s, is located in the north-eastern part of Nepal and includes some of the world’s highest mountains (Fig. 1). In the late 1960s, when mountaineering started to flourish in Nepal, tourist numbers began to increase rapidly because of improved access, promotion, and publicity (Stevens, 1993). After the first airport was constructed in Lukla, access was much easier and the tourism economy grew exponentially – from a mere twenty trekkers in 1964 to more than 35,000 in 2014 Page | 151

(MCTCA, 2015). Today, nature-based tourism is the main source of income and employment in the region (Nepal, 2003a; Spoon, 2011b). While the standard of living has improved quickly, the expanding tourism industry has simultaneously led to environmental issues in the fragile alpine environment. Significant amounts of solid waste are being generated due to the high import of packaged consumer goods and are now posing serious threats to the fragile biodiversity, ecosystem, and people of SNPBZ (Byers, 2005; Stevens, 2003; Stevens, 1993). Solid waste ranges from food packages, wrappers, bottles, glass and metals to hazardous waste items such as batteries, medical supplies and light bulbs. According to Manfredi et al. (2010), these items are divided into burnable (85%) and non-burnable waste (15%) and treated as such. Considering the seasonal fluctuations of the tourism industry, the accumulated waste amounts up to 4,6t/day during the tourist season and only 2t/day during the off season (Manfredi et al., 2010). Plastic items and PET bottles belong to the most problematic waste type in the SNPBZ (compromising 21, 4% of the collected waste) (Zuser et al., 2011). While classified burnable waste is either burned in incinerators or open landfill sites to reduce volume, non-burnable waste is dumped and buried at landfill sites. The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a non-profit organization established in the early 1990s, and other local community initiatives are responsible for the collection, separation and treatment of solid waste (Dhakal, 2009). The waste management system in SNPBZ is still rudimentary, with limited resources and capacities, leading to improper handling of waste. Classified non-burnable waste items are often dumped in open landfill sites, posing a serious hazard to environmental and human health (Posch et al., 2015). The potentially harmful effects of these disposal practices include surface and groundwater pollution, soil contamination and air pollution (Basnet, 1993; Manfredi et al., 2010; Salerno et al., 2010a; Pokhrel and Viraraghavan, 2005; Guzzella et al., 2011; Zuser et al., 2011). Burnable waste items generate significant emissions of heavy metals and hazardous organic compounds due to poor incineration practices (Salerno et al., 2010b).

Page | 152

Figure 1: Overview of Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone (Map courtesy of ICIMOD, first published in Posch et al., 2015)

Research Design A quantitative survey was conducted with trekking tourists in Lukla in April and May 2013 (n=335) using a standardized questionnaire. Trekking is the most popular nature-based tourism activity in Nepal (MCTCA, 2014, 2015). Lukla is the gateway and entry point for most tourists to the Everest region as it is connected by regular air service and hosts several lodges and tourist facilities. It was chosen as study site as tourists often spend several days in Lukla. The questionnaire was completed in an average time of 10 minutes and contained several sections. In the first section the environmental dimensions (concern, knowledge, intended waste behaviour) were examined. All items were measured using a 5-point Likert-scale stating how much a study participants agreed with each of the opinions and statements. The second part collected socioeconomic data of the respondents. The questionnaire was available in English for tourists over the age of 15. To test the comprehensibility of the questionnaire, a pre-test was carried out in Austria. Subsequently, a factor analysis (principal component analysis) was conducted to detect underlying constructs and to simplify data interpretation. The factor mean scores were then clustered: first using a Page | 153

single linkage method to detect outliers, followed by a hierarchical cluster analysis applying Wards minimum variance method with squared Euclidean distance. In order to test the validity of the cluster analysis, a multiple discriminant analysis was conducted. Finally, the sociodemographic characteristics of the clusters were compared using cross-tabulations and oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA), where applicable. The data were statistically analysed and interpreted using the statistical software SPSS 21.0. Results The purpose of this paper is to identify different segments of consumers and whether and in which way tourists differ in their self-assessments of environmental concern and intended waste behaviour. 15 items were entered into a factor analysis using principal component analysis to reveal underlying concepts and dimensions which the items cover. Items with loadings/factor scores below 0.5 and low communalities were removed. This led to a solution of 14 variables representing three underlying factors with high internal consistency: general environmental concern, intended waste behaviour, and a third underlying construct named personal responsibility (Table 1). Based on these three concepts, the cluster analysis was conducted. The elbow criterion pointed to a three-cluster solution. Subsequently, a discriminant analysis was conducted to validate the cluster solutions. The discriminant function achieved a high degree of classification accuracy: 90.4% of all cases were classified correctly. In the following, the three different tourist types are presented (Table 2). The “concerned but inactive” form the largest group (n=161, 48.1%). Although they appear to have a high feeling of perceived personal responsibility, their responsibility does not translate into action. While they agree strongly that their consumer behaviour is influencing the waste situation in SNPBZ, they are not likely to form active waste behaviour intentions. Although they have a high feeling of responsibility, their general environmental concern is the lowest among the other groups. The second type is called “disengaged” (n=63) and forms the smallest segment (18.8% of all respondents). This group is concerned about the environment; they agree that there is need to conserve resources for future generations. They also strongly consent that there is need to conserve resources for future generations and that environmental conservation should be more important. Still, this concern about the environment does not extend to their perceived personal responsibility and even less to their intended waste behaviour in SNPBZ. This is mirrored in their stated waste behaviour: they are neither likely to avoid buying bottled water, but look for alternative drinking sources nor are willing to support a ban of plastic bottles in SNPBZ. The third cluster is labelled “concerned and active” (n=111, 33.1%) and scored highest for being concerned about the environment. Compared to the other groups, this type translates his concern into action regarding waste behaviour. Correspondingly, they prefer local products and safe drinking water from springs instead of buying water bottles and package intensive products in SNPBZ. They are also the segment that most strongly agrees that they recycle waste in their home country and that they often talk with friends about environmental issues.

Page | 154

Table 1: Overview of items loading on each factor and internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha α) Items I avoid package intensive products (cans) and prefer local products in SNPBZ. I support a ban of plastic bottles in SNPBZ. I would prefer safe drinking water from springs instead buying water bottles in SNPBZ. I do not buy bottled water, but look for alternative drinking sources in SNPBZ. I buy things that are produced with as little package as possible in SNPBZ. I prefer paper bags to plastic bags for shopping. Most people I know contribute to help the environment. I’m well informed about environmental issues. I like people to think of me as being environmentally friendly. I often talk with friends about environmental issues. Environmental conservation should be more important. There is need to conserve resources for future generations. My consumer behaviour is influencing the waste situation in SNPBZ. I support a higher entrance fee to improve waste management in SNPBZ. It's my personal responsibility to manage waste properly in SNPBZ.

Cronbach's Alpha 0,768 0,762

0,773

0,72

(intended waste behaviour)

0,707 0,523 0,49

item removed

0,402 0,748 0,681 0,676 0,61 0,558 0,532

0,764 (general env. concern) 0,754

0,559

0,657

(personal responsibility )

0,634

The cluster types differed not only in their environmental concern, perceived personal responsibility and intended waste behaviour. The three segments also vary sociodemographically: Significant differences were found concerning age, gender and level of education (Table 3). The “concerned but inactive” contain more men than women and the share of people with lower education or an undergraduate degree are the highest among all clusters. With an average of 35 years, this is the youngest cluster. The “disengaged” have the highest percentage of men (63.5%) and an average of 40 years. The “concerned and active” have the highest percentage of females (56.8%) and the greatest share of people with an under- or postgraduate degree. This segment is most active about their intended waste behaviour in SNPBZ and is willing to give up some conveniences. Travel-related characteristics such as overnight stays or trekking arrangements did not differ significantly between the three groups. However, there is a significant difference with the perceived level of information and content with the provided information about waste management in SNPBZ (Table 4). The “disengaged” are most satisfied with the information provided to visitors about waste management. In contrast, the “concerned and active” are eager to receive more information about waste management and rate the provided information about waste management in SNPBZ the poorest compared to the other two groups. Also, they disagree most that adequate information about waste management in SNPBZ is provided to visitors.

Page | 155

Table 2: Cluster solutions and rescaled mean scores for intended waste behaviour, general environmental concern and personal responsibility (5=strongly disagree/very poor; 1=strongly agree/very good) Type 1: the concerned and active Mean SE 1,77 0,08 1,52 0,06 2,07 0,09

intended waste behaviour general env. Concern personal responsibility

Type 3: the concerned but inactive Mean SE 2,46 0,09 2,33 0,07 2,02 0,07

Type 2: the disengaged Mean SE 3,26 0,14 2,00 0,08 2,81 0,14

Table 3: Statistically significant socio-demographics

Gender* Female Male Level of Education* Lower Education Undergraduate Postgraduate Age* 55 *p