What is a societal problem you believe needs to be addressed?

Although there are numerous societal problems that needs immediate attention but one problem which I feel needs most of the attention is society morality conflict. I would further elaborate my statement by saying that the people living in the society have become immoral and they indulge themselves in those kinds of acts that are not only immoral but they are unethical as well. Abortion is one major part of the moral conflicts between the societies as there are some people who are against it while some think that it is a human right. However, I would say that killing the baby without any valid reason or justification is not ethical. Moreover, the people are getting more and more prone to drugs and drinking and this not only harms the health of the individuals who consume drugs but it also leaves a negative impact on the society. Prostitution is also seen on a rise as the men are unsatisfied with their life partners and this is one quick way for the women to make money despite of the fact that this is not a moral practice. One more conflict in the society is occurring between the people who believe in God and the people who follow atheism. Atheists are the people who do not believe in any gods and this gives a negative connotation because most of the people in the society worship gods. Due to the rise in unemployment and the people being unable to support their living, they are left with two options; either they tend to commit suicide or they indulge in unethical acts that affect the society in a negative way and these have become a major evil for the society and the people.

Consequentiality and Deontology

CRG 520 ASSIGMENT THE MOVIE REVIEW ISTANBUL AKU DATANG PREPARED BY: NAME: NURUL HASIKIN BINTI NGAH MATRIC NO: 2011646112 GROUP: AC2204A Istanbul Aku Datang is a movie about a sweet and naive blogger named Dian who travels to Istanbul in plan to make her boyfriend, Azad, a medical student, to propose to her. She enrols in language course in the same university as Azad and in the period of three months, she hopes that her plan on convincing her boyfriend to propose her will be success.Due to the unexpected circumstance that come to her way, Dian have to move out from Azad’s house and rent out another apartment without knowing that the apartment is already tenant. Despite of being cheating and runs out of money, Dian tries out her very best to clear the situation and build a good relationship with the rightful tenant of the house, Harris who is a quirky and shy artist while tries to hide from her boyfriend the truth that she is sharing the apartment with a guy. The stakeholders i n this movie are Dian, Azad and Harris. Dian’s stakes is to ensure that Azad will be her husband.Azad’s stakes is to keep Dian as her girlfriend but not telling her that he got someone else while Harris’s stakes is to stay in the apartment without have to share it with Dian. The main villain in this movie is Azad while the hero and heroine are Dian and Harris respectively. The ethical dilemma of the villain Azad is whether to being honest and tells the truth to Dian that he already have another girlfriend. The ethical dilemma of the hero, Harris is whether to let Dian stay with him with the fact that Dian have been cheated and got no money left to rent another house.The ethical dilemma of the heroine, Dian is whether to being honest to tell Azad that she is actually sharing the same apartment with Harris. Ethical or Moral Issues The ethical or moral issue in the movie is about honesty. The main villain in this movie is not being honest since he is cheating behin d his girlfriend, Dian who is actually very loyal towards him. His egoism have avoid him from telling the truth to Dian and makes excuses to make sure Dian do not stay with him maybe because he is afraid that Dian will knows that he is not being loyal.Dian also do not being honest because she is not explaining the truth is she is sharing a place to stay with Harris. The other ethical issue is sympathy. This issue could be seen by the character of Harris who feels sympathy towards Dian, who get cheated by Saleem. So, he let Dian stays with him even though he do not likes her at first because of some misunderstandings. Harris also feels sympathy towards Dian when Dian knows that Azad is cheating with another woman. He keeps her accompanies and tries to make her happy. The third issue is trustworthiness.This issue could be seen by the character of another Villain which is Saleem. Saleem is the person who cheats Dian to rent out the apartment that already being rented by Harris. He did this for his self-interest to get money easily Consequentalist Point of View Consequentialism is the class of  normative ethical theories  holding that the consequences  of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right act is one that will produce a good outcome, or consequence.From a consequentialist point of view, the action of Azad who cheating behind his girlfriend is unethical because at the end we can see that because of that action they finally broke up. Furthermore, the consequence of his action causing Dian to feel very sad and broke her pride after an embarrassing fight with his another girlfriend. The action of Saleem is also wrong or unethical because the consequence of his action cause Dian to be in such a harsh situation where she have no money left to rent out another apartment after knowing that the apartment that Saleem rent to her already have a tenant.Deont ology Point of View Deontological ethics  is the  normative ethical  position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. Deontology derives the rightness or wrongness of one's conduct from the character of the behaviour itself rather than the outcomes of the conduct. From the deontology point of view, the action of Dian who do not tells Azad that she is sharing the same apartment with Harris is a right action. She did that because she does not want Azad to misunderstand her.Besides, she also wants to please Azad that she already gets a safe place to stay. Plus, she has to do that because she is cheated and it’s not like she is willingly staying with a stranger especially a male. The action of Harris who let someone’s girlfriend stays with him and helps her to hides the matter from her boyfriend is also a right action. This is his action is based on sympathizes and she just want to help her who is helpless that time. Golden RuleThe Golden Rule is an ethical code  or  morality that essentially states either the positive form of Golden Rule or the negative form Golden Rule. Positive form of Golden Rule states that one should treat others as one would like others to treat him while negative form of Golden Rule states that one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated. If I were in Azad’s shoes I would not at the first place cheating behind Dian. This is because Azad was very angry and frustrated when she thought that Dian was cheating with Harris.In that case, I should have being loyal and faithful so that Dian will also do the same things to me because I believe if I cheat her, she must be very angry and sad too. Plus, Dian is very loyal and honest to me so there is no such thing that she is being unfaithful. As the villain, I think Azad would be very remorse because he had lied to Dian since Dian finally not choosing him as her future husband. Even though Di an wants to give him second chance Dian finally realised that she actually should have choose Harris who seems to be more honest.As for Saleem, he also must feels guilt for cheating on Dian’s money. He also must be very shame when the real landlord brought him to meet Dian and Harris to explain the truth and return the money back to Dian for justice. Lessons From the movie Istanbul Aku Datang, I have learnt that to build a good relationship with others, we must be very honest about our feeling. If we are honest and sincere in our relationship, the other could feel our sincerity. This is what happens between Dian and Harris. How Harris could ever win over Dian’s heart in a short time if it is not because of his honesty and sincerity.By the time, when he at first let Dian gives Azad the second chance because he is altruistic and want to see Dian happy, he realised that Dian will be happier if Dian with him. So, he runs after Dian and though his eyes, Dian could see the s incerity and causing her to choose Harris instead of Azad. In conclusion, honesty is the best policy. The second thing that I have learnt is we should not take advantages over someone else’s problem for our own self-interest. This is because at the of the day we will get the punishment, either sooner or later because I believe that what goes around comes around. Consequentiality and Deontology CRG 520 ASSIGMENT THE MOVIE REVIEW ISTANBUL AKU DATANG PREPARED BY: NAME: NURUL HASIKIN BINTI NGAH MATRIC NO: 2011646112 GROUP: AC2204A Istanbul Aku Datang is a movie about a sweet and naive blogger named Dian who travels to Istanbul in plan to make her boyfriend, Azad, a medical student, to propose to her. She enrols in language course in the same university as Azad and in the period of three months, she hopes that her plan on convincing her boyfriend to propose her will be success.Due to the unexpected circumstance that come to her way, Dian have to move out from Azad’s house and rent out another apartment without knowing that the apartment is already tenant. Despite of being cheating and runs out of money, Dian tries out her very best to clear the situation and build a good relationship with the rightful tenant of the house, Harris who is a quirky and shy artist while tries to hide from her boyfriend the truth that she is sharing the apartment with a guy. The stakeholders i n this movie are Dian, Azad and Harris. Dian’s stakes is to ensure that Azad will be her husband.Azad’s stakes is to keep Dian as her girlfriend but not telling her that he got someone else while Harris’s stakes is to stay in the apartment without have to share it with Dian. The main villain in this movie is Azad while the hero and heroine are Dian and Harris respectively. The ethical dilemma of the villain Azad is whether to being honest and tells the truth to Dian that he already have another girlfriend. The ethical dilemma of the hero, Harris is whether to let Dian stay with him with the fact that Dian have been cheated and got no money left to rent another house.The ethical dilemma of the heroine, Dian is whether to being honest to tell Azad that she is actually sharing the same apartment with Harris. Ethical or Moral Issues The ethical or moral issue in the movie is about honesty. The main villain in this movie is not being honest since he is cheating behin d his girlfriend, Dian who is actually very loyal towards him. His egoism have avoid him from telling the truth to Dian and makes excuses to make sure Dian do not stay with him maybe because he is afraid that Dian will knows that he is not being loyal.Dian also do not being honest because she is not explaining the truth is she is sharing a place to stay with Harris. The other ethical issue is sympathy. This issue could be seen by the character of Harris who feels sympathy towards Dian, who get cheated by Saleem. So, he let Dian stays with him even though he do not likes her at first because of some misunderstandings. Harris also feels sympathy towards Dian when Dian knows that Azad is cheating with another woman. He keeps her accompanies and tries to make her happy. The third issue is trustworthiness.This issue could be seen by the character of another Villain which is Saleem. Saleem is the person who cheats Dian to rent out the apartment that already being rented by Harris. He did this for his self-interest to get money easily Consequentalist Point of View Consequentialism is the class of  normative ethical theories  holding that the consequences  of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct. Thus, from a consequentialist standpoint, a morally right act is one that will produce a good outcome, or consequence.From a consequentialist point of view, the action of Azad who cheating behind his girlfriend is unethical because at the end we can see that because of that action they finally broke up. Furthermore, the consequence of his action causing Dian to feel very sad and broke her pride after an embarrassing fight with his another girlfriend. The action of Saleem is also wrong or unethical because the consequence of his action cause Dian to be in such a harsh situation where she have no money left to rent out another apartment after knowing that the apartment that Saleem rent to her already have a tenant.Deont ology Point of View Deontological ethics  is the  normative ethical  position that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. Deontology derives the rightness or wrongness of one's conduct from the character of the behaviour itself rather than the outcomes of the conduct. From the deontology point of view, the action of Dian who do not tells Azad that she is sharing the same apartment with Harris is a right action. She did that because she does not want Azad to misunderstand her.Besides, she also wants to please Azad that she already gets a safe place to stay. Plus, she has to do that because she is cheated and it’s not like she is willingly staying with a stranger especially a male. The action of Harris who let someone’s girlfriend stays with him and helps her to hides the matter from her boyfriend is also a right action. This is his action is based on sympathizes and she just want to help her who is helpless that time. Golden RuleThe Golden Rule is an ethical code  or  morality that essentially states either the positive form of Golden Rule or the negative form Golden Rule. Positive form of Golden Rule states that one should treat others as one would like others to treat him while negative form of Golden Rule states that one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated. If I were in Azad’s shoes I would not at the first place cheating behind Dian. This is because Azad was very angry and frustrated when she thought that Dian was cheating with Harris.In that case, I should have being loyal and faithful so that Dian will also do the same things to me because I believe if I cheat her, she must be very angry and sad too. Plus, Dian is very loyal and honest to me so there is no such thing that she is being unfaithful. As the villain, I think Azad would be very remorse because he had lied to Dian since Dian finally not choosing him as her future husband. Even though Di an wants to give him second chance Dian finally realised that she actually should have choose Harris who seems to be more honest.As for Saleem, he also must feels guilt for cheating on Dian’s money. He also must be very shame when the real landlord brought him to meet Dian and Harris to explain the truth and return the money back to Dian for justice. Lessons From the movie Istanbul Aku Datang, I have learnt that to build a good relationship with others, we must be very honest about our feeling. If we are honest and sincere in our relationship, the other could feel our sincerity. This is what happens between Dian and Harris. How Harris could ever win over Dian’s heart in a short time if it is not because of his honesty and sincerity.By the time, when he at first let Dian gives Azad the second chance because he is altruistic and want to see Dian happy, he realised that Dian will be happier if Dian with him. So, he runs after Dian and though his eyes, Dian could see the s incerity and causing her to choose Harris instead of Azad. In conclusion, honesty is the best policy. The second thing that I have learnt is we should not take advantages over someone else’s problem for our own self-interest. This is because at the of the day we will get the punishment, either sooner or later because I believe that what goes around comes around.

Developing Hospitality Tourism Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Developing Hospitality Tourism - Case Study Example And while the competitors made fun of Arison by offering "Mardi Gras on the Rock" drinks aboard their ships, Carnival added two more former liners to its fleet. In 1981 the company's first newbuild, Tropicale, entered service, which was the beginning of a story of a tremendous and unparalleled success: from 1981 to late 2001, Carnival put into service 18 new ships, with five more on order until 2004. Today the world's largest cruise line, Carnival offers the well-known and extremely popular "Fun Ship" concept with colourful interiors and non-stop action around the clock. Once considered to be the "party boat" cruise line for the 20-something crowd, Carnival has been undergoing an image overhaul in recent years. Carnival's newer ships reflect a main-stream dcor that is less glitzy than the older ships. However, Carnival's "Fun Ship" moniker lives on and there is plenty of fun to be had. On this cruise line, one will find something for every one of all ages. There is a great kids program "Camp Carnival" makes Carnival Cruisesa favourite for families on travel. Carnival also puts a lot of work into their entertainment style on board. The Las Vegas-style shows produced by Carnival's ... You are sure to find many lounges and bars on a Carnival Cruises ship with a variety of quality musical acts. In fact, it is safe to say that boredom will never be experienced on a Carnival ship, unless choosing to be. While the quality of food on Carnival has improved over the past few years, the portions and number of dinner courses have been reduced. Nevertheless, the options for dining are numerous and will satiate every appetite on a Carnival Cruise. Generally, the food is average to good with one exception; the new Spirit class ships have an upscale restaurant that got the Best Award for Alternate Dining in the Cruise Lines Competition within the industry. A. Issues with product portfolio As a segment of the travel industry, ship transportation is considered one of the oldest forms of travel, yet cruise ships are considered to be the "new kid on the travel block." In a real sense cruise ship companies are more in the entertainment business than in pure transportation. Whereas ships still provide "destination to destination" travel, cruise ships are veritable "floating hotels" featuring recreation and sports facilities, aerobic dance classes, and visits to ports of call. Because of the vast ports catering to cruise ships today, this paper focused its study on the changes of cruise ships and services in the ports of the United States and Canada and the tourists market that helped shaped the cruise services in the area. This thrust in the cruise ship style of service which caters to entertainment primarily and to travel secondly, makes it safe to assume that cruise services with Carnival Cruise Lines is highly profitable because: - Only a few people benefit from cruise ship tourism. Those that have

Wave Overtopping and Coastal Structures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Wave Overtopping and Coastal Structures - Essay Example Nevertheless, the other formulae, listed hereafter, also still merit some consideration and they have been used in this part of the paper, in conjunction with that of Shao, 2006. The motive this time is to use wave and structural data other than that of Shao, 2006, to investigate what wave parameters pose the maximum threats to coastal structures with given parameters. This, it is sincerely believed, will allow future researchers to better prepare for dangerous and possible wave overtopping real-time events. It is significant that overtopping discharge and, in essence, individual overtopping volume in effect, are highly sensitive to even very small changes in seawall geometry, local bathemetry and wave climate (Wallingford, 1999). The strategy this paper adopts to investigate influence of wave parameters on seawall efficiencies is simple. A number of variant sets of parameters are used to test mean overtopping discharge possibilities. ... The strategy this paper adopts to investigate influence of wave parameters on seawall efficiencies is simple. A number of variant sets of parameters are used to test mean overtopping discharge possibilities. Mean Overtopping Discharge: 1. An initial seawall slope of 1:5 is taken with wall height (taken as the wall freeboard for crest above still water level) = 1m and wall length () = 5.6m. The significant wave height () is kept at 0.85m, while the wavelength is assumed to be 4.25m. The wave period (), though, is varied to 1.2s. With this configuration, the Wallingford overtopping volume model is applied. It is also assumed that there are 10 waves in a series. = .2888 (Equation valid as per Wallingford, Box 3.1, p. 10, 1999; for 0.05

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Report - Essay Example The relevant costs of computing for Machine A in this scenario are therefore, purchasing price, less the discount allowed, then adding the delivery charge, installation charge and testing charge. Minor spare parts and service contract quotations are irrelevant in computation of the cost of the machinery. ii. IAS 16 provides for methods of depreciation on fixed assets. Under the straight line method, Machine B has an annual depreciation of 60,000 per year since it had an expected or useful life of 10 years. Since its acquisition date on June 2009 through to its revaluation in 2012, it had a carrying amount of 420,000 which is gained after deducting the accumulated depreciation through the first 3 years of its expected life. On a straight line basis and a remaining expected life of 4 years, the depreciation for Machine B is expected to be at 105,000 per year. The scope provides for a revision of the asset’s depreciation method, if the expected economic benefit to be consumed off it by the entity changes appropriately. iii. IAS 40 sets out the guidelines under which assets should be treated and the criterion for the treatment of investment property and also disclosures requirement in their reporting. Investment property is that which is held not for resale but for an economic benefit of the organization. It is that where future economic benefit is expected from. Under IAS 40, the company or organization is allowed to either use the fair or the cost model policy of accounting for these items. In fair value representation, the property (investment) is revalued where it is recognized as â€Å"an asset that could be exchanged between knowledgeable and willing parties in an arm’s length transaction† (Willey, 2011).   Since Building Y is an investment property, the revalued amount of 2million as at 31st December is the actual cost of the building at the end of this year. The increment in its value of 1 million should be treated as an income in the income statement for year 2011. Additionally, the buildings were revalued again and the investment property increased to 2.5 million. This should be treated by taking it as an income in the income statement at the value of 500,000, while reflecting the value of Building Y as 2.5 million at the end of year 2012. In the case of building Y, the scope provides the value of a fixed asset (such as Building X) to be treated on the fair value. In this case, the value should therefore be expressed on the current value less the depreciation. Revaluation amount should be computed and the current value is the amount shown on the balance sheet as the current value, while the gain in revaluation is shown on the credit of the balance sheet as a revaluation reserve. The revalued amount was done on the last day of the financial year and therefore be reflected on the following year 2012 as 2.5million. (b) Certain criteria should be followed when reporting these compilations of the costs of the asset s, their depreciation amounts and their revaluation treatments. The scope provides for a detailed schedule that should be followed in the presentation of these analyses and as well, their reporting should be detailed and reported accordingly. The relevance in comparing the costing of Machine A and Machine B, as well as the treatment of Building X an Building Y best explains the financial reporting of these different circumstances of each of the two different genres of fixed assets of an entity. i. Machine A is purchased at a discounted

Slavery and Paternalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Slavery and Paternalism - Essay Example The official system was also not a choice for slaves to rely on for aid as they had no official rights. Douglass stated his story when he was a slave. He declares many horrible acts committed by the slaveholders in Talbot County (his birthplace). Douglass declares that in Talbot County slaying or punishing a slave is not considered as unusual or offensive. He further explains the story of a slaveholder who kills two of his slaves and despite of his declaration of the two murders neither anyone put him in jail, nor taken any action against him. Douglass gave some more examples of such horrible deaths of slaves for their minor mistakes. He stated the story of his own cousin who was beaten harshly by a lady with an oak stick just because he fell asleep while watching the lady's child. Such harsh and horrible behavior and dreadful murder of a slave needed to be noticed and forwarded for some solution but this horrifying murder did not seem enough to take action against the lady. One more declaration was that an old slave of Colonel Lloyd was shot just because he encroached mistakenly onto private land. The killer visited Colonel Lloyd to clarify what occurred and the entire issue settled down. Douglass declares quiet repulsively and regretfully that 1"it was worth a half-cent to kill a 'nigger,' and a half-cent to bury one." Chapter 4, pg. 69 Douglass disagrees with the statement that the slaveholders take care of their slaves from their birth till their death and he also refused that slaves have any kind of freedom. As he declares, 2"The whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it is of but little consequence to my purpose whilst the fact remains, in all its glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law established, that the children of slave women shall in all cases follow the condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slave the double relation of master and father." Chapter 1, pg. 49 Douglass stated the whole period of his slavery in pain and did not like the rules that were just in favor of the slaveholders. He wanted to escape from this disgraceful and terrible County where the slaves were not even considered as human beings. He hated the behaviors of slaveholders with their slaves. The statement of Douglass further points toward the cruelty and fear of the white men (slaveholders). 3"A single word from the white men was enough-against all our wishes, prayers, and entreaties-to sunder forever the dearest friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties known to human beings." Chapter 8, pg. 90 To support his argument he gave many examples of murders committed by the masters and their cruelty even as a result of the minor mistakes. Colonel Lloyd had a lot of slaves that he does not recognize them all and they do not all recognize him. It is stated that one day as Colonel Lloyd was on a trip; he meets up a slave and inquires him about his master. As the slave answers that he belongs to Colonel Lloyd, he inquires the slave if his master takes care of him. The slave, unaware of

Freemium bsiness model Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Freemium bsiness model - Essay Example A number of companies that have applied the use of freemium business model in their operations have experienced high profits. It is axiomatic to argue that when a free service is launched in the market, it will be easy to get many customers. The marginal cost which is incurred is usually very low when this model is used, besides, one user can invite other users who might be interested. In marketing, it is very important to apply network effects, because the moment one person appreciates a product, it will be very easy to attract others. For example, a phone can only be useful when you can use it to call another person. Companies therefore introduce free basic products to attract many users to it (Schlie, 2011). Web Notes is one of the companies that applied the freemium business model. It is a start up that has created technology to make researchers and professionals work much easier. This company has ridden the freemium to a financial success with almost double in their revenue from the little initial investment of $35,000. They advanced a PDF annotation capabilities that has got an amount tagged to it. They offer two paid options to users’ i.e. pro subscription and multi-colour annotation that entails coaching and sharing notes through RSS feeds. The premium version, which is charged at $300 annually, supports administration and monitoring, and Web Notes is swimming in the oceans of success because of its freemium business model (Wrox, 2011). Despite the successes of Web Notes, this model brought with it some challenges, one of which is getting lots of users, who must be returning users, because they must stick around to love the product. The model also takes a long time to be profitable because users can take longer to appreciate it and convert value of the product. For Web Notes, it took almost two years to start realizing profit when they introduced paid

Major essay Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Major essay - Term Paper Example He is essentially good, nut he, or his ancestors, have broken a moral law – a law of the gods or the state. Shakespeare’s versatility is expressed through his great works which both involved tragedies and comedies. These included his finest comedies such as Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night and As You like It; his great Roman historical plays such as Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra; and the tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello. In his tragedies, specifically Othello, end in the protagonist being overcome by forces which he opposed or tried to oppose. The protagonist or the tragic hero is a member of the royalty, or occupies a noble position, who has admirable personal qualities. The tragic hero is essentially good, but he, or his ancestors, has broken a moral law – a law of the gods or the state. In this Shakespeare play, we see the tragic hero struggling to avoid the consequences of transgression, but readers will know that his eventual defeat is inevitable, that he cannot avoid the punishment that will come as a consequence of what he has done. The tragic hero has a fatal defect, a â€Å"tragic flaw† which also leads to his downfall. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is excessively ambitious. The â€Å"flaw† in his character impels the tragic hero into actions which bring about his destruction. Although tragedy leaves readers with a sense of loss because the hero in Shakespeare’s plays have shown the readers how noble and good they are and yet have been destroyed or defeated, readers feel a certain kind of satisfaction because they have demonstrated the value of human nature and have shown readers how noble and great a man can be. Readers feel proud of such a man as the tragic hero, readers also feel humbled by the thought that they may not be able to be as heroic as the he was. Despite commercial consideration and censorship, the achievements of early

Sand mandala by tibetan buddhist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sand mandala by tibetan buddhist - Essay Example tive energy in the environment, the sand gathered from a mandala ceremony can be used in person or animals that are dying or stick a portion of the sand on the crown – top of the head (You Tube b). Ceremonies using different musical instruments to make a monotone sound and chanting are necessary as it enables the participants to experience peace of mind and deep concentration before and after the creation of sand mandala. The monotone sound also enables the monks and other participants to meditate in silence together (You Tube b). On the other hand, the process of pouring the sand into a creek is being done in order to allow the sand to flow with the water. This process symbolizes the spreading blessings, love and compassion to all human beings. Having read and observed how sand mandala is being performed is a very good experienced. Based on my personal observation and experiences about sand mandala, I have learned that the eight different parts of the center of the mandala symbolizes the eight noble paths of Tibetan Buddhism which includes: (1) right understanding; (2) right thought; (3) right speech; (4) right action; (5) right livelihood; (6) right effort; (7) right mindfulness; and (8) right concentration regardless of the art design of the mandala (Rahula, p. 45). These eight highlighted characteristics are actually the key factors that can bring us inner happiness, contentment in life, and freedom from anger. With the use of right speech, right action, and right livelihood, we can easily avoid actions that can cause harm to other people. For example: Being careful with the words we use when we speak to other people combined with choosing a morally acceptable occupation can lessen the chance that we can cause emotional pain to another person (Bodhi, p. 41). Therefore, there is a higher chance that we will receive good karma in our next life. Likewise, having the opportunity to personally experience how sand mandala is being conducted also made me able to

Human Resource Management Between the Different Levels of Employees Essay

Human Resource Management Between the Different Levels of Employees - Essay Example According to the stated scenario of Premier technologies, it can be identified that the organization is witnessing significant challenges regarding the continuous drop in the performances of each individual. With due consideration to the performance level of the organization for the past few years, it was identified that the people equity scores started declining after an initial rise. With this concern, certain issues might persist regarding the organization’s current position. Therefore, the major reason for declining performances of the employees can be identified by critically analyzing the importance of effective human resource management within the organization (the University of Mumbai, n.d.). The major functions of human resource management can be categorized into two divisions: (a) Managerial Functions and (b) Operational Functions. (a) Managerial Functions The managerial functions with regard to an effective human resource management in an organization includes plann ing, organizing, directing and controlling the overall tasks, objectives as well as employees. The planning function of the human resource department involves identifying appropriate individuals for each task. Therefore, the personnel manager of Premier Technologies needs to take into deliberation certain considerations concerning the tasks after identifying appropriate people(s) in order to prevent future obstacles within the organizational processes... e employees through procurement, development as well as providing compensation to the person which is supposed to be required for achieving the organization’s overall objectives. Moreover, maintaining an effective industrial relation with the employees, keeping the performance record of each worker as well as planning and evaluating various activities in order to boost the existing efforts of the workforce (the University of Mumbai, n.d.). Scenario 2 The alignment of the workforce and the communication gap between the managerial hierarchies and operational teams within the organization can be identified as grave factors affecting the performances of the employees. The nine major drivers triggering the communication gap between the different levels of employees are organizational structure, ineffective corporate governance policies, decision making process, lack of leadership and motivational skills, performance appraisal activities, unproductive working environment, ineffectiv e training process, conflict management among the workers as well as controlling individual attitudes and behaviors (McKinnon, 2003). Organizational Structure: The organizational structure and design of the major hierarchies within the organization can be considered as one of the major elements in order to achieve a significant growth. Structuring an effective design of the organizational structure is a vital role that involves ability, skills, and experience to handle each individual and performance of their roles within the organization. Therefore, the organizational structure for Premier technologies should involve a tall structure in order to raise the performance as well as command greater control on the employees (McKinnon, 2003).

Sweeney Todd Analysis Essay Example for Free

Sweeney Todd Analysis Essay The stage was quite large with a multi-level set. B) The set was dimly lit before the show and eerie music was playing to create a spooky atmosphere. C) Before the show, I could tell that there was going to be a lot of shady actions taking place due to the appearance of the dingy street setting. D) Sweeney Todd took place on a proscenium stage, where the audience was looking in upon the scene as if a wall were missing. E) The space seemed to have adequately met the needs for the production, because the set was very tall and involved several methods of moving from level to level. SCENERY: A) The set consisted of several run-down store fronts with very dim lighting and an early 20th century London feel. The top level of the set held the barber shop near stage right, and a bedroom balcony at stage left. The bottom level housed the bakery and the basement of the bakery, which included a glowing fire oven. B) The age and nature of the buildings hinted at the setting and time of the story. The implied shadiness of the set foreshadowed about the nature of the characters. C) The colors of the set involved many shades of grey and brown, with the inclusion of red lighting at times. D) The designer was very successful in the set design, because it was easy to visualize the intended setting due to the use of area lighting. When a portion of the set was not involved in the scene, it was blacked out making it easier to focus on the scene at hand. E) I felt that the bright red lighting shining from the oven was very symbolic, in that it went hand-in-hand with a shrill sound effect that was played every time a character was killed. The lighting and the sounds symbolized Sweeney Todd’s revenge. COSTUMES: A) The beggar woman’s costume portrayed that she was homeless due to the dirty rags that made up her dress. The style of clothing (length and material of the dress) hinted at the time as well. Pirelli’s costume was very flamboyant which matched his over confident and swindling personality. His personality was often only skin deep, and his costume played perfectly with the front he was putting on. B) The dingy colors of the beggar woman’s clothes fit the homeless role well and also played well with the concept of keeping her identity secret until the end of the show. Her clothes did not make her stand out on stage. Pirelli, on the other hand, wore bright red with ruffles, making him seem bright and villainous at the same time. C) The designer did very well with the costumes, because they fit the characters’ personalities. For example, Mrs. Lovett was a very bold and outspoken woman, therefore her large, fluffy dress represented her well. LIGHTING: A) The lighting was kept seemingly dim throughout the show, which upheld the dreary, somber atmosphere in the scenes. B) The lighting seemed to portray night more often than day, as it only seemed to brighten when the focus was on Johanna. Red lighting was used to show when a character was killed and dumped into the oven. C) The most obvious use of lighting to portray emotion was the red, fire-like light that would emerge from the oven when a character was killed. Also, when Sweeney Todd was intended to appear as a man thirsty for revenge, he was encompassed in fog and the light created shadows on his face. ACTING: A-B) Sweeney Todd was excellent in my opinion. He wore a grey shirt with brown pants and suspenders. His body language was high-strung and motivated but also haggard and aged at the same time. The beggar woman was played with great success as well. The show progressed without much attention being brought upon her until her identity was revealed to Todd and the audience. She wore a bonnet and a dirty dress, and she was usually somewhat crouched to make her seem unimportant. Both of these characters performed well in singing their musical numbers as well. C) The scene where Anthony was serenading Johanna as she sat on the balcony served as an impressive portrayal of the connection between them. Johanna’s singing was very high-pitched. Needless to say it was hard not to notice the significance of this scene. I also enjoyed the murder scenes, simply because of the operational barber’s chair that doubled as a trap door leading to the downstairs oven. D) Every actor gave stellar performances in my opinion. E) The whole team had great chemistry and the show progressed without a hitch. The opening scene involved most, if not all, of the characters singing and moving in unison, and it was virtually seamless. DIRECTING: A) The director was trying to show the audience how revenge can drive a person to do some very crazy things, and the result was a success. B) Everything about the show conglomerated together successfully to create the setting and the emotional atmosphere. The overall uneasy, creepiness was constructed and supported well by the lighting, costumes, and scenery. C) Only the love scenes between Anthony and Johanna strayed away from the eeriness of the story, but even then the audience could sense possible turmoil to come. D) The movement and timing was excellent throughout the show. With bodies dropping down trap doors and synchronized group movements, the blocking was much without flaw. TEXT: A-B) The plot is out of chronological order because it starts with the townspeople burying Todd. He then arises to tell his tale, which consists of the judge ruining his life by exiling him. The plot of Todd’s story involves him meeting Mrs. Lovett and working to seek revenge on the judge and anybody else who stands in the way. The playwright is emphasizing the power that the motivation of revenge can have on a person. C) The conflict entails the judge having custody of Todd’s daughter, Johanna, and Todd’s efforts to retrieve her and kill the judge. D) Sweeney Todd eventually kills the judge, the beggar woman, and Mrs. Lovett, and then he is killed by Toby. This leaves Johanna to be with Anthony. E) As an editor, the only thing I would change about the show would be the length of the musical numbers throughout the show. They seemed longer than necessary and I felt as though some important information was unnecessarily presented in lyrics instead of straight dialogue.

Sulas Wines Essay Example for Free

Sulas Wines Essay Question 1: The Indian wine industry presents some interesting characteristics that can be analysed using the Porter’s five forces framework to understand to what extent it is a profitable one, and why it is attractive or not. Let us get started with Rivalry: here it is important to differentiate between the Indian and the global market. In fact, at the time the case was written, the Indian market was expanding so rapidly (25/30% per year) that business opportunities were flourishing and all the existing participants could easily sell their products without the need to attack others’ customer base. However, if we broaden our point of view to the global industry, rivalry is way fiercer and exports are likely to be a less profitable business than the domestic one. Overall, LOW/MODERATE. Buyers’ power: in this industry, it is incredibly difficult to â€Å"lock in† a solid customer base made of individual consumers that face virtually zero switching costs and have different tastes for wine. Additionally, wholesalers and retailers can exert significant pressure on wine producers for what concerns shelf space and wine selection. Therefore, it seems that buyers’ power is HIGH compared to producers’, thus lowering profitability. Suppliers’ power: if we think in terms of the raw materials needed to produce wine, i. e. grapes and juice, we can state that, being them commodities, these are subject to the seasonal fluctuations in price, quantity and availability typical of agricultural products. In periods of excess supply, high quality grapes could be purchased for lower prices and vice versa. Also, regulatory changes in 2001 reduced both sales taxes and the costs of imported bottling items, thus increasing profitability. However, India has a major issue that turns out to be of crucial importance to farmers and producers, i. e. he lack of stable electricity supply; this could in principle give some bargaining power to suppliers of diesel and generators. Thus, suppliers’ power is LOW/MODERATE. Threat of substitutes: although the Indian government has recently granted several concessions and liberalizations for both sale and consumption of wine, the threat of substitutes is still HIGH, especially for cultural reasons whereby whiskey, for instance, is traditionally preferred by the majority of Indians to wine. However, given the rapid expansion of the industry, there seems to be more than a hope that this mind-set will change in the near future. Barriers to entry: wine is definitely no easy business to start. There are several reasons to justify this point; first of all, as Sula’s case clearly shows, it takes time to obtain the various licenses; also, the knowledge and know-how required are extremely sophisticated and specific; additionally, wineries are capital intensive businesses and the initial investment to set them up is substantial. However, as we can see from the case, the Indian wine industry has benefited from governmental liberalizations that have encouraged many new wineries to enter the business. We can conclude that BTE are MODERATE/HIGH. The Porter analysis provides us with a moderately profitable scenario, in which it is not easy to start a successful business unless the exact skills and capabilities needed are present. In the following answer, these resources will be analysed in the context of Sula’s activity. Question 2: The biggest challenge that Samant faced when he returned to India to produce wine was that of changing the â€Å"alcoholic tastes† of consumers. To do so, he had to rely upon a strategy that would leverage on the core resources and competencies he had brought back from California. Also helped by a specialized consultant friend, Samant meticulously configured his piece if land in order to exploit the good potential of its location; additionally, he successfully realized that an unconventional growing/harvesting schedule had to be adopted if they wanted to take advantage of the seasonal characteristics of the weather, such as monsoons. He managed to earn a solid and valuable reputation, refusing to bribe officers to obtain the necessary licenses and took care of promoting its products, through marketing campaigns and wine tasting events, in the attempt of changing Indians’ culture towards wine. For what concerns the type of wines to start production with, Samant successfully identified those that could best accompany the spicy flavours of the Indian cuisine and, subsequently, he diversified the firm’s portfolio by introducing more varieties of white and red wines. Finally, he has secured the unique and valuable expertise of some of the brightest players in the financial sector, who have enthusiastically joined him in the firm’s activities. This combination of factors have allowed Samant to put Sula’s Vineyards in a very comfortable position to exploit the huge growth that everyone expects from he Indian wine market; right now, the firm seems to have a competitive advantage to further develop in the near future, if the right strategy will be pursued. Question 3: Looking at the numbers, Sula has been extremely profitable in 2007, with net profits that increased more than six fold since the year before; also, sticking to market forecasts, it seems that an explosive growth has just begun in India, an opportunity that should definitely be exploited. Now that the business is well established and generates a steady stream of revenues, Samant may consider to raise additional debt to finance the long-term challenge of producing premium red wines in a separate winery, something that, if successful, would give Sula’s business a major boost both in sales and in reputation. In the meantime, revenues from national sales would provide the capital necessary to feed the already existing business. Moreover, it could also be worth it to â€Å"attack† the global market with initially lower prices to gain some market share also in Europe and in the U. S. at first, relationships with touristic targets such as hotels and restaurants would be established and, if this strategy worked out, then Sula would face an ever-growing demand for its products, at least for the next 10 years, that could be met by working together with other local producers of premium wine. The idea of a â€Å"consortium† of Maharashtra firms could be attractive for many reasons, among which a significant increase in bargaining power towards the government when it comes to requesting the necessary improvements of regional infrastructures, such as roads, electricity supplies, etc.

Motivational Theories for Travel and Tourism

Motivational Theories for Travel and Tourism Abstract The purposes of this dissertation are to demonstrate how the motivational theories in travel and tourism can be used as a foundation for research into ceasing participation in organized leisure activities, and to discuss methodological implications that emerge from such an approach. The research problem is the identification of three motivational factors that mostly influence the choice of leisure activity in the Lebanese tourism sector. The dissertation will rely heavily on literature review and primary research that used university students and a focus group of industry professionals in Lebanon. The theoretical background of this study is structured according to Iso-Ahola’s motivational theory. Iso-Ahola’s theory asserts that personal escape, personal seeking, interpersonal escape, and interpersonal seeking motivate tourism and recreation. This dissertation operationalizes and empirically tests Iso-Ahola’s theory for similar tourism and recreation experiences. The motivation dimensions are monitored using scenario-based data for sporting events, beaches, amusement parks, and natural parks. The first investigation used confirmatory factor analysis to explore the efficacy of six competing motivational structures. Three of these competing models achieved superior and similar fit statistics, with one model incorporating the most parsimonious structure. This model gave equal and direct salience to each of the four motivations. The second investigation examined the differences in motivation levels for tourism and recreation experiences. Tourism experiences exhibited higher levels of motivation, particularly for the personal seeking and personal escape dimensions. The third investigation found no relationship between the number of recent domestic and international vacations and tourism motivations among the subjects. Chapter I Introduction This dissertation seeks to explore the rationale for, and difficulties of operationalizing, the measurement of tourists’ satisfaction with their experiences in particular destinations. It suggests that the on-going systematic measurement of satisfaction with destinations is a valuable exercise that will have tangible benefits, but acknowledges the difficulties of doing this in a meaningful manner. The principal argument presented is that the measurement of tourists’ satisfaction with a particular destination involves more than simply measuring the level of satisfaction with the services delivered by individual enterprises. There needs to be a much broader, more encompassing means of measuring satisfaction, one that relates closely to the motivations which tourists have for visiting the destination in the first place. The tourism industry consists of a number of different sectors including the travel, hospitality and visitor services sector. Within each of these sectors there are a number of individual enterprises that provide a range of services to people who are traveling away from their home environment. This travel could be for a variety of reasons including for pleasure, to visit friends and relatives, to work on a short term basis, to attend conferences, to participate in business activities, or any of a number of specific reasons. While the industry distinguishes between the various groups according to their purpose for travel, convention has it that all these short-term travelers are defined as ‘tourists† Likewise, the industry distinguishes between various ‘markets’ according to their place of origin (international, domestic, intra-state, interstate, etc). These distinctions are not relevant to this paper which is concerned with all these forms of tourism. Tourists visit destinations and engage in various activities while there. These destinations can be classified in various ways and at various scales of analysis. For example, Lebanon could be regarded as a destination for international visitors while Beirut could be one for people from northern Lebanon. At a different scale, a city or even a region could be regarded as a destination. This paper is concerned with all these levels. It is not concerned with individual enterprises which exist within certain destinations. As noted below, there appears to be adequate analysis of tourism satisfaction at the individual enterprise level. What is missing is a broader view that looks at the way tourists respond to the totality of their experiences in a particular destination irrespective of the particular activities that they engage in. I am going to provide an explanation of the Lebanese tourism economy because this market is the model that this dissertation uses as the benchmark for testing Iso-Ahola’s motivational theory. I have chosen this country due to its reputation of being the jewel of the Middle East and one of the most desired destinations in the region. The understanding of the characteristics of this market will play a critical role in laying the foundations for the research and would allow to increase the integrity and reliability of this research. Moreover, the market is highly concentrated and the geographic area is small; this aspect would play a paramount role in diminishing sources of error; and in case of their occurrence it would be easier to isolate and rectify. In addition, being my home country; I view studying this market as a personal passion which would allow me to present with a high â€Å"motivational† level. I will start by providing a review of the state of Lebanese tourism and highlight the trends, review precious research findings, and pinpoint the market characteristics. Tourism in the Lebanese Economy Over the last decade the tourism industry has emerged as a significant sector of the Lebanese economy generating approximately $5 billion in income, employing 1 in 9 Lebanese and contributing about $1.5 billion in export earnings. While approximately 55% of tourism activity involves domestic travel, the fastest growing sector is in-bound travel. This has been increasing significantly over the last decade with Lebanon receiving 1.1 million visits in 2004. Despite the recent downturn in the economies of major source countries, and the unstable political landscape visitor arrivals to Lebanon are expected to grow at an average annual rate of between 5.7 and 7.8 per cent to reach between 1.4 and 1.7 million visitors in 2010. Being a relatively new industry characterized by growth, the focus has been on marketing, visitor numbers, and length of stay, expenditure patterns and other measures of consumption. As the industry has begun to mature in the last five or so years; there has been an increasing interest in such things as quality of service, accreditation procedures, and measurement of client satisfaction. The issues discussed in this paper should be seen as part of this maturation process in which the industry is looking to achieve long-term sustainable growth that generates benefits for the industry, the clients and the community as a whole. Methodology of Research Collecting data in marketing research often involves several different strategies, such as interviewing and analyzing documents (Merriam, 1998). Using multiple sources of information is useful in our research since we have doubts that a single source of information will provide a complete and comprehensive understanding of the research problem, so in our research we use multiple sources of information. Basically, there are two forms of data: primary and secondary data. While writing the dissertation, I will use several different sources when collecting data in order to increase the validity of the collected data. Secondary data is the data that has been previously collected and published. The secondary data used in the beginning of our research, originated from various sources. In the preparatory period, we have started by studying literature related to relationship tourism marketing, tourism buying and motivational behavior and motivational marketing concepts in order to get deeper insight into and understanding of the researched area. The other sources used for collection of our secondary data were: newspaper and magazine articles, course materials, on-line sources (Internet databases) and tourism companies’ materials (internal and external). The methodology used for primary research will be depicted at greater length in the third chapter. Current Measurement of Tourist’s Satisfaction Levels Despite the large body of literature available on satisfaction research in general, only a few academic studies have focused directly on customer satisfaction amongst tourists. Of these, an even more limited number have been undertaken in Lebanon. The major studies include Fick and Ritchie (1991), Reisinger and Waryszak (1994), Arnold and Price (1993), Crompton and Love (1995), Geva and Goldman (1991), Maddox (1985) and Ryan (1995). Because of the limited material available in the academic literature, a preliminary survey of organizations that may have investigated tourist satisfaction was undertaken. Given the broad focus of the paper and the limited space, no attempt was made to look at individual tourism enterprises measuring the satisfaction level of clients as part of their on-going quality assurance program. The most common example of this is the questionnaire that is left in individual hotel rooms. These vary from single response questions to sophisticated instruments designed to elicit quite detailed responses from guests. Most of these are diagnostic in the sense that they are aimed at identifying specific measures that can be taken to improve the service. Some specifically enquire about customer’s perceptions of the service’s value for money. In some instances, particularly amongst 5 star hotel chains, these are used for benchmarking or as performance indicators. Because of this decision to exclude individual enterprises, the preliminary survey focused on the following organizations: Academic departments of Lebanese universities State tourist offices Non-government tourist industry organizations and associations The search found a range of studies has been completed most of which are primarily data-gathering research exercises rather than conceptual studies. The prime studies are described in appendix I. It is clear that some work has been done in this area by a smattering of agencies each of which approaches it from a quite different perspective. Despite acknowledgement of the potential value of the data, current efforts are not coordinated resulting in a lack of comparability that makes it impossible to identify trends and monitor changes in a systematic fashion. More importantly, the diversity of approaches demonstrates a need for substantial conceptual work on the nature of tourist satisfaction in general and the measurement of tourist satisfaction with destinations in particular. What is required is further exploration into the application of concepts and ideas drawn from the broader consumer literature to the specific challenge of measuring the satisfaction of tourists with particular destinations. This may require a quite different approach to that adopted for other services. Why measure satisfaction at the level of the destination? There are a number of reasons why it would be appropriate to look at extending the measurement of tourist satisfaction to the more global level of the tourist destination. It is critical to understand the underlying motivational factors in order to be able to get a clearer barometer for the measurement of satisfaction of tourists. Without pre-empting the nature of this measurement, these reasons include: Millions of dollars are spent each year on destination marketing by national and state tourism offices, airlines and regional tourism bodies. This includes detailed surveys of potential markets as well as extensive advertising and promotional campaigns in source countries. While there is considerable research into the impact of the promotional effort through awareness studies, tracking studies, etc, these all concentrate on the inputs (i.e. has the campaign reached its target audience?). What is missing is an understanding of the client’s reaction to the product offering, in particularly whether it meets the needs of the target market. This would become an integral part of the understanding what the market(s) is/are seeking. Peak organizations in the tourism industry recognize the need to encourage both new and repeat business. The latter can best be achieved by ensuring that our current offerings are satisfying the needs, expectations and desires of current tourists and their propensity to recommend the destination to others. The measure could become a barometer of the ‘health’ of the industry for strategic planning purposes. The tourism industry itself is grappling with the issue of service quality and recognizes that this is the key to long term success. At present its focus is on establishing accreditation mechanisms to ensure that individual firms conform to appropriate standards. Monitoring tourists’ satisfaction at the more global level would provide a valuable framework for this and enable comparison between the efforts of the individual enterprise and those of the industry as a whole. Government agencies are now recognizing the value of assessing the success of their programs in terms of outcomes rather than inputs. As Lebanese government agencies move in this direction the need for the systematic collection of the type of data proposed will increase. In the case of tourism, this is particularly relevant to national, state and regional tourism development bodies responsible for destination marketing. Using the level of satisfaction experienced by visitors to their destination as a measure of success would transfer the focus away from the efforts of the organization towards their achievements. Governments of all persuasions are looking critically at their financial commitments and questioning whether they should continue the traditionally high level of support. If the industry can demonstrate a relationship between the level of support and the satisfaction of visitors to their destination then the argument for continued support would be strengthened greatly. This would complement other measures such as visitor numbers, expenditure, etc. With an appropriate measurement instrument it could be possible for individual sectors of the industry to be compared with other sectors. In an industry where the success of the whole depends on the contribution of each part, this information will help to identify those sectors that need to improve. Recent developments in consumer protection have extended into the area of satisfaction. The 1993 European Union Directive on Travel has required member states to implement laws giving tourists the right to obtain compensation from packaged tour operators in the event that they are ‘dissatisfied’ with their holiday. This applies in all destinations, including Lebanon. The results of the proposed survey will help to focus the attention of the industry on this issue and provide data on how the industry is going and what needs to be improved. Perspectives on Measuring Tourists’ Satisfaction with a Destination Measuring tourists’ satisfaction with a destination is conceptually different from measuring satisfaction at the transaction specific level. Moreover, it is contended that while satisfaction at the destination level is influenced by the various transactions that occur at that destination, an individual’s level of satisfaction is influenced by much broader, global factors, some of which are beyond the capacity of the tourism industry to affect. The purpose of this section is to outline some ideas that should be taken into account when developing a method to measure satisfaction at this relatively abstract level. Johnson, Anderson et al., (1995) have distinguished between two different general conceptualizations of satisfaction: transaction-specific satisfaction and cumulative satisfaction. The former is concerned with â€Å"satisfaction as an individual, transaction-specific measure or evaluation of a particular product or service experience† (Johnson, Anderson et al. 1995). Cumulative satisfaction, on the other hand, is â€Å"a cumulative, abstract construct that describes customer’s total consumption experience with a product or service† (Johnson, Anderson et al., 1995). As a customer’s overall evaluation of the purchase or consumption experience, cumulative satisfaction is the most relevant conceptualization when the focus is on the tourist’s evaluation of their overall experience at a destination. This is sometimes referred to as market-level satisfaction. The literature suggests that satisfaction measurement must be treated differently at these two levels of abstraction. Moreover, when considering consumer satisfaction with their consumption experiences, a major distinction has been made between the consumption of goods and services (Lovelock, 1991). Measures of satisfaction are not the same for these different consumption experiences, largely because of the role of the consumer in the service encounter. It could also be argued that tourism is a ‘special’ service in that, like recreation or education, it is largely self-produced (Williams, 1988). The individual plays a central role in determining the experiences achieved and the benefits derived. The ‘special’ nature of tourism can be understood by adopting the behavioral perspective first developed within the recreation and leisure literature. This literature demonstrates the value of perceiving recreation as activity that creates experiences which, in turn, result in benefits for the individual (Driver and Tocher, 1970; Mannel and Iso-Ahola, 1987). This created a focus on the factors which determine the quality of those experiences and the benefits derived. Measurement of satisfaction has therefore involved an assessment of whether the experiences have resulted in the desired benefits sought by the individual. In his seminal paper (Wagar 1966) suggested that the quality of recreation experience depends upon how well desired outcomes are realized. Satisfaction is therefore more a function of the needs and interests of the individual than the attributes and characteristics of the service provided. These ideas have gradually become the basis of the conceptualization of the tourist experience and informed much of the work about tourist motivations and expectations (Crompton and Love, 1995; Ryan, 1995). Therefore tourist experiences can be regarded as the result of an active endeavor by the individual to create a situation in which to achieve satisfaction. It is this active involvement of the individual in the creation of his or her personal experiences that needs to be acknowledged. In a similar vein, the early recreation literature also recognized the implications of this approach for the assessment of recreation service quality. It was recognized that â€Å"the quality of the experiences can be influenced by input factors provided by managers . . . but to a considerable extent the quality of experiences depends upon choices made by recreationists and how they use the many factors of production† (Brown, 1988: 413). In other words, the satisfaction levels experienced by recreationists are recognized as being a function of a number of different variables including those brought by the recreationist him/herself which are beyond the influence of the service provider. Drawing on the consumer literature, it is too easy to assume that the outcomes of the tourist activity are solely the creation of the tourist operators/industry. However, it is perhaps more enlightening to adopt a ‘transactional perspective’ outlined in the recreation literature. Here, the tourist â€Å"actively creates the recreation(tourist) experience, through a transaction with the physical and social setting, including what the recreationist (tourist) brings to the process in terms of history, perceptions, companions, skills, equipment, identities, hopes and dreams† (Williams, 1988). With this perspective, more emphasis is placed on the behavior of the individual and their role in creating the experience. Not all the responsibility for creating high levels of satisfaction rests with the service deliverer. With this in mind, (Crompton and Love, 1995) make a distinction between quality of opportunity and quality of experience. â€Å"Quality of opportunity is defined as qualities of the attributes of a service that are under the control of a supplier. Evaluation is concerned with judgments about the performance of the leisure opportunity supplier. . . . In contrast, quality of experience involves not only the attributes provided by a supplier, but also attributes brought to the opportunity by the visitor or recreationist. . Quality of experience is a psychological outcome or emotional response. . Satisfaction is measured by how well leisure activities are perceived to fulfill the basic needs and motives that stimulated the idea to participate in the activity (Crompton and Love, 1995:12)†. When the objective is to measure satisfaction with a holiday in a particular destination, it will be important to note this distinction and ensure that both aspects are included in the assessment. We have been reasonably good at assessing tourists’ perceptions of the quality of opportunity but largely ignored the question of quality of experience. A further perspective that could be of relevance here is that of Herzberg (1966). While his work mainly focused on the workplace, his theory of motivation has relevance to the expenditure of discretionary time such as going on a holiday. Herzberg (1966) suggests that all aspects of an experience can be classified as either a motivational or a hygienic factor. Motivational factors are those that positively encourage people to do something. For example, a desire to make new friends may motivate people to go on an organized tour rather than travel alone. On the other hand, hygienic factors are those things which would not encourage one to travel, but their absence would discourage such travel. A good example is the availability of clean drinking water. Having this available is unlikely to motivate someone to travel, while its absence could cause someone to not choose a particular destination. According to Roger James Associates (1996) â€Å"the absence of motivational factors does not lead to ‘dissatisfaction’ but rather to ‘unsatisfaction’ a sense of emptiness rather than a sense of anger or disappointment. On the other hand, the absence of a hygienic factor will lead to dissatisfaction. The presence of such a factor will not lead to ‘satisfaction’ but rather to ‘satisficing’, that is, a passive (albeit benign) feeling† (Roger James Associates, 1996 : 34). If we adopt this framework it could be suggested that we have tended to focus on the hygienic factors which are represented by the measurement of how well the services (hotels, airports, travel companies, etc) are provided. These are important because without these being done well, the customer would be very dissatisfied. However, we have not also measured the motivational factors. These are akin to the experience factors how well the destination facilitates the satisfaction of personal needs. The best way of ensuring that we are providing this is to understand the client’s needs, etc and to develop product that is relevant to these. In turn, this is linked to the benefits to be derived from the experience thus creating satisfaction. The work by Arnold and Price (1993) confirms the role that needs and desires play in the consumer’s evaluation of a particular experience. They present very clear evidence that the satisfaction of participants in this recreational (or possibly tourist?) activity is related to the extent to which the experience enhances their individual cultural script and are â€Å"interpreted within the broader narrative context of the consumer’s life† (Arnould and Price, 1993). They suggest that â€Å"satisfaction with river rafting . . . does not seem to be embodied in attributes of the experience such as amounts of time spent freezing in wet clothes, uncomfortable toilet facilities, bad food or any summary index of specific attributes of the trip† (Arnould and Price, 1993). These general thoughts appear to be in line with the fundamentals of the marketing concept most commonly described as â€Å"satisfying the needs and desires of the consumer† (Keith, 1960 :38) and the whole notion of benefit segmentation which suggests that purchases are selected on the basis of the benefits derived by consumers (Haley, 1968). It is also consistent with the recent work of Spreng and his associates which emphasizes the role that desires, as opposed to expectations, plays in determining satisfaction within the disconfirmation framework (Spreng, Mackenzie et al., 1996). Proposed Path Space does not permit an exhaustive examination of the extensive literature outlining the various models used as the basis for measuring customer satisfaction and gauging the behavioral aspects (see Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al., 1994). However, a review of this literature has uncovered a model that could be developed to provide a satisfactory method of evaluating tourists’ satisfaction at the level of the destination and their motivational map. This model has been developed by Iso-Ahola and has become the basis of extensive work at the national and international level. The index provided by the Iso-Ahola model provides a cumulative evaluation of a sector’s market offering coupled with individual evaluation of a specific transaction. Called the ‘Customer Satisfaction Index/Barometer’, it has been introduced in: Sweden, Germany and the United States of America (Fornell, Johnson et al, 1996). Taiwan and New Zealand are also in the process of introducing a similar national satisfaction indicator. While much work still needs to be done, the framework provided by Iso-Ahola model provides a good starting point. It should be possible to make the necessary changes required to produce a useful index that will contribute to the on-going development of this important industry. Chapter II Literature Review It is imperative to start with a review of literature that addressed motivation in the travel and tourism industry. By adopting this approach we will be able to present a much more comprehensive and inclusive approach to understanding the theories of motivation in the travel and tourism industry; and thus, we will be able to lay the foundations of clear parameters that can help scholars and decision makers measure the satisfaction of tourists and the underlying motivational factors. This part of the paper is dedicated to reviewing the literature that currently assesses the main theories of motivation. These theories span across a wide spectrum; therefore we will tackle the various theories of travel motivation in the first part and then we will focus our discussions on Iso-Ahola’s motivational theory. The main theories of travel motivation Knowledge of peoples travel motivations and its association with destination selection plays a critical role in predicting future travel patterns. The essay talks about the various theories propounded by the theorists and analyses their practical benefits for the tourism industry. Tourist motivation can be defined as the global integrating network of biological and cultural forces which gives value and direction to travel choices, behavior and experience. (Pearce, Morrison Rutledge, 1998) as cited by Allan R. Rhodes Espinoza. According to Seaton (1997) motivation is a state of arousal of a drive or need which impels people to activity in pursuit of goals. Once the goals have been achieved the need subsides and the individual returns to the equilibrium-but only briefly because new motives arise as the last one is satisfied. Krippendorf (1987), as cited in Seaton (1997) suggests that the motivation of the individual person to travel, to look outside for what he cannot find inside have been largely created by society and shaped by everyday life. People who live in cities, for example, are motivated to travel as tourists to wilderness areas because they need to escape from an artificial, monotonous environment. (Dann Matley, 1976) as cited in Mansfeld 1992). Grays travel-motivation theory, as noted by Mansfeld (1992), gives us two motives about why people go to natural settings. The first motive is the desire to go from a known to an unknown place, called in Grays theory wanderlust. Secondly, a place which can provide the traveler with specific facilities that do not exist in his or her own place of residence, referred in Grays theory as sun lust (Mansfeld, 1992). It is a common practice to consider traveler or tourist types as potential market segments for travel and tourism marketing (Smith, 1989 as cited in Theobald, 1996).Some of the motives which determine their travel choices are recreation, pleasure, new experiences, cultural interest, shopping. Any reader of literature of tourism motivation cannot help being struck by the similarity in findings by many researchers. The adjectives and categorizations of tourists based upon motivations may differ in number, but recurrent themes emerge. For example the need to escape from everyday surroundings for the purpose of relaxation, and discovering new things, places and people are often alluded to. According to Crompton (1979), as cited in Bello Etzel (1985), the need for relaxation, exploration, social interaction and enhancement of kinship relationships act as dominant push motives in the vacation decision. Reversely, pull motives are aroused by the destination and include factors like scenic attractions, historical sites. Push factors are thought to establish the desire for travel and pull factors are thought to explain actual destination choice. Seaton (1997) suggests that the push factors include avoidance of work, cultural/social pressures at home. The pull factors include seeking leisure /play, freedom and escape. Maslow (1943) identified two motivational types: tension-reducing motives; arousal-seeking motives. According to Maslow, there are five needs forming a hierarchy, progressing from the lower to the higher needs. Maslow argued that if the lower needs [physiological {hunger, thirst, rest}, safety {security}, belonging and love {affection, giving and receiving love}] are fulfilled the individual would be motivated by needs of the next level of the hierarchy [esteem {self-esteem and esteem for others}, self-actualization {personal self-fulfillment}]. Cooper et al(2005) criticizes Maslows theory saying that why and how Maslow selected the basic five needs remain unclear, although Page(2003) feels that it has relevance in understanding how human action is understandable and predictable compared to research which argues that human behavior is essentially irrational and unpredictable. Cooper et al (2005) also questions the arrangement of the needs. Though Cooper et al (2005) criticizes much about Maslows theory, he feels that tourism industry has borrowed a lot from Maslow because he provides a convenient set of containers that can be relatively labeled. Hudman (1980) as cited in Davidson and Maitland (1997) argue that Maslows (1943) hierarchy of needs provides a useful framework for understanding psychological motivational factors in tourism. Thus, for example, although the apparent purpose of a trip may be to visit friends and relatives, the underlying psychological motivation may be a need for belonging Motivational Theories for Travel and Tourism Motivational Theories for Travel and Tourism Abstract The purposes of this dissertation are to demonstrate how the motivational theories in travel and tourism can be used as a foundation for research into ceasing participation in organized leisure activities, and to discuss methodological implications that emerge from such an approach. The research problem is the identification of three motivational factors that mostly influence the choice of leisure activity in the Lebanese tourism sector. The dissertation will rely heavily on literature review and primary research that used university students and a focus group of industry professionals in Lebanon. The theoretical background of this study is structured according to Iso-Ahola’s motivational theory. Iso-Ahola’s theory asserts that personal escape, personal seeking, interpersonal escape, and interpersonal seeking motivate tourism and recreation. This dissertation operationalizes and empirically tests Iso-Ahola’s theory for similar tourism and recreation experiences. The motivation dimensions are monitored using scenario-based data for sporting events, beaches, amusement parks, and natural parks. The first investigation used confirmatory factor analysis to explore the efficacy of six competing motivational structures. Three of these competing models achieved superior and similar fit statistics, with one model incorporating the most parsimonious structure. This model gave equal and direct salience to each of the four motivations. The second investigation examined the differences in motivation levels for tourism and recreation experiences. Tourism experiences exhibited higher levels of motivation, particularly for the personal seeking and personal escape dimensions. The third investigation found no relationship between the number of recent domestic and international vacations and tourism motivations among the subjects. Chapter I Introduction This dissertation seeks to explore the rationale for, and difficulties of operationalizing, the measurement of tourists’ satisfaction with their experiences in particular destinations. It suggests that the on-going systematic measurement of satisfaction with destinations is a valuable exercise that will have tangible benefits, but acknowledges the difficulties of doing this in a meaningful manner. The principal argument presented is that the measurement of tourists’ satisfaction with a particular destination involves more than simply measuring the level of satisfaction with the services delivered by individual enterprises. There needs to be a much broader, more encompassing means of measuring satisfaction, one that relates closely to the motivations which tourists have for visiting the destination in the first place. The tourism industry consists of a number of different sectors including the travel, hospitality and visitor services sector. Within each of these sectors there are a number of individual enterprises that provide a range of services to people who are traveling away from their home environment. This travel could be for a variety of reasons including for pleasure, to visit friends and relatives, to work on a short term basis, to attend conferences, to participate in business activities, or any of a number of specific reasons. While the industry distinguishes between the various groups according to their purpose for travel, convention has it that all these short-term travelers are defined as ‘tourists† Likewise, the industry distinguishes between various ‘markets’ according to their place of origin (international, domestic, intra-state, interstate, etc). These distinctions are not relevant to this paper which is concerned with all these forms of tourism. Tourists visit destinations and engage in various activities while there. These destinations can be classified in various ways and at various scales of analysis. For example, Lebanon could be regarded as a destination for international visitors while Beirut could be one for people from northern Lebanon. At a different scale, a city or even a region could be regarded as a destination. This paper is concerned with all these levels. It is not concerned with individual enterprises which exist within certain destinations. As noted below, there appears to be adequate analysis of tourism satisfaction at the individual enterprise level. What is missing is a broader view that looks at the way tourists respond to the totality of their experiences in a particular destination irrespective of the particular activities that they engage in. I am going to provide an explanation of the Lebanese tourism economy because this market is the model that this dissertation uses as the benchmark for testing Iso-Ahola’s motivational theory. I have chosen this country due to its reputation of being the jewel of the Middle East and one of the most desired destinations in the region. The understanding of the characteristics of this market will play a critical role in laying the foundations for the research and would allow to increase the integrity and reliability of this research. Moreover, the market is highly concentrated and the geographic area is small; this aspect would play a paramount role in diminishing sources of error; and in case of their occurrence it would be easier to isolate and rectify. In addition, being my home country; I view studying this market as a personal passion which would allow me to present with a high â€Å"motivational† level. I will start by providing a review of the state of Lebanese tourism and highlight the trends, review precious research findings, and pinpoint the market characteristics. Tourism in the Lebanese Economy Over the last decade the tourism industry has emerged as a significant sector of the Lebanese economy generating approximately $5 billion in income, employing 1 in 9 Lebanese and contributing about $1.5 billion in export earnings. While approximately 55% of tourism activity involves domestic travel, the fastest growing sector is in-bound travel. This has been increasing significantly over the last decade with Lebanon receiving 1.1 million visits in 2004. Despite the recent downturn in the economies of major source countries, and the unstable political landscape visitor arrivals to Lebanon are expected to grow at an average annual rate of between 5.7 and 7.8 per cent to reach between 1.4 and 1.7 million visitors in 2010. Being a relatively new industry characterized by growth, the focus has been on marketing, visitor numbers, and length of stay, expenditure patterns and other measures of consumption. As the industry has begun to mature in the last five or so years; there has been an increasing interest in such things as quality of service, accreditation procedures, and measurement of client satisfaction. The issues discussed in this paper should be seen as part of this maturation process in which the industry is looking to achieve long-term sustainable growth that generates benefits for the industry, the clients and the community as a whole. Methodology of Research Collecting data in marketing research often involves several different strategies, such as interviewing and analyzing documents (Merriam, 1998). Using multiple sources of information is useful in our research since we have doubts that a single source of information will provide a complete and comprehensive understanding of the research problem, so in our research we use multiple sources of information. Basically, there are two forms of data: primary and secondary data. While writing the dissertation, I will use several different sources when collecting data in order to increase the validity of the collected data. Secondary data is the data that has been previously collected and published. The secondary data used in the beginning of our research, originated from various sources. In the preparatory period, we have started by studying literature related to relationship tourism marketing, tourism buying and motivational behavior and motivational marketing concepts in order to get deeper insight into and understanding of the researched area. The other sources used for collection of our secondary data were: newspaper and magazine articles, course materials, on-line sources (Internet databases) and tourism companies’ materials (internal and external). The methodology used for primary research will be depicted at greater length in the third chapter. Current Measurement of Tourist’s Satisfaction Levels Despite the large body of literature available on satisfaction research in general, only a few academic studies have focused directly on customer satisfaction amongst tourists. Of these, an even more limited number have been undertaken in Lebanon. The major studies include Fick and Ritchie (1991), Reisinger and Waryszak (1994), Arnold and Price (1993), Crompton and Love (1995), Geva and Goldman (1991), Maddox (1985) and Ryan (1995). Because of the limited material available in the academic literature, a preliminary survey of organizations that may have investigated tourist satisfaction was undertaken. Given the broad focus of the paper and the limited space, no attempt was made to look at individual tourism enterprises measuring the satisfaction level of clients as part of their on-going quality assurance program. The most common example of this is the questionnaire that is left in individual hotel rooms. These vary from single response questions to sophisticated instruments designed to elicit quite detailed responses from guests. Most of these are diagnostic in the sense that they are aimed at identifying specific measures that can be taken to improve the service. Some specifically enquire about customer’s perceptions of the service’s value for money. In some instances, particularly amongst 5 star hotel chains, these are used for benchmarking or as performance indicators. Because of this decision to exclude individual enterprises, the preliminary survey focused on the following organizations: Academic departments of Lebanese universities State tourist offices Non-government tourist industry organizations and associations The search found a range of studies has been completed most of which are primarily data-gathering research exercises rather than conceptual studies. The prime studies are described in appendix I. It is clear that some work has been done in this area by a smattering of agencies each of which approaches it from a quite different perspective. Despite acknowledgement of the potential value of the data, current efforts are not coordinated resulting in a lack of comparability that makes it impossible to identify trends and monitor changes in a systematic fashion. More importantly, the diversity of approaches demonstrates a need for substantial conceptual work on the nature of tourist satisfaction in general and the measurement of tourist satisfaction with destinations in particular. What is required is further exploration into the application of concepts and ideas drawn from the broader consumer literature to the specific challenge of measuring the satisfaction of tourists with particular destinations. This may require a quite different approach to that adopted for other services. Why measure satisfaction at the level of the destination? There are a number of reasons why it would be appropriate to look at extending the measurement of tourist satisfaction to the more global level of the tourist destination. It is critical to understand the underlying motivational factors in order to be able to get a clearer barometer for the measurement of satisfaction of tourists. Without pre-empting the nature of this measurement, these reasons include: Millions of dollars are spent each year on destination marketing by national and state tourism offices, airlines and regional tourism bodies. This includes detailed surveys of potential markets as well as extensive advertising and promotional campaigns in source countries. While there is considerable research into the impact of the promotional effort through awareness studies, tracking studies, etc, these all concentrate on the inputs (i.e. has the campaign reached its target audience?). What is missing is an understanding of the client’s reaction to the product offering, in particularly whether it meets the needs of the target market. This would become an integral part of the understanding what the market(s) is/are seeking. Peak organizations in the tourism industry recognize the need to encourage both new and repeat business. The latter can best be achieved by ensuring that our current offerings are satisfying the needs, expectations and desires of current tourists and their propensity to recommend the destination to others. The measure could become a barometer of the ‘health’ of the industry for strategic planning purposes. The tourism industry itself is grappling with the issue of service quality and recognizes that this is the key to long term success. At present its focus is on establishing accreditation mechanisms to ensure that individual firms conform to appropriate standards. Monitoring tourists’ satisfaction at the more global level would provide a valuable framework for this and enable comparison between the efforts of the individual enterprise and those of the industry as a whole. Government agencies are now recognizing the value of assessing the success of their programs in terms of outcomes rather than inputs. As Lebanese government agencies move in this direction the need for the systematic collection of the type of data proposed will increase. In the case of tourism, this is particularly relevant to national, state and regional tourism development bodies responsible for destination marketing. Using the level of satisfaction experienced by visitors to their destination as a measure of success would transfer the focus away from the efforts of the organization towards their achievements. Governments of all persuasions are looking critically at their financial commitments and questioning whether they should continue the traditionally high level of support. If the industry can demonstrate a relationship between the level of support and the satisfaction of visitors to their destination then the argument for continued support would be strengthened greatly. This would complement other measures such as visitor numbers, expenditure, etc. With an appropriate measurement instrument it could be possible for individual sectors of the industry to be compared with other sectors. In an industry where the success of the whole depends on the contribution of each part, this information will help to identify those sectors that need to improve. Recent developments in consumer protection have extended into the area of satisfaction. The 1993 European Union Directive on Travel has required member states to implement laws giving tourists the right to obtain compensation from packaged tour operators in the event that they are ‘dissatisfied’ with their holiday. This applies in all destinations, including Lebanon. The results of the proposed survey will help to focus the attention of the industry on this issue and provide data on how the industry is going and what needs to be improved. Perspectives on Measuring Tourists’ Satisfaction with a Destination Measuring tourists’ satisfaction with a destination is conceptually different from measuring satisfaction at the transaction specific level. Moreover, it is contended that while satisfaction at the destination level is influenced by the various transactions that occur at that destination, an individual’s level of satisfaction is influenced by much broader, global factors, some of which are beyond the capacity of the tourism industry to affect. The purpose of this section is to outline some ideas that should be taken into account when developing a method to measure satisfaction at this relatively abstract level. Johnson, Anderson et al., (1995) have distinguished between two different general conceptualizations of satisfaction: transaction-specific satisfaction and cumulative satisfaction. The former is concerned with â€Å"satisfaction as an individual, transaction-specific measure or evaluation of a particular product or service experience† (Johnson, Anderson et al. 1995). Cumulative satisfaction, on the other hand, is â€Å"a cumulative, abstract construct that describes customer’s total consumption experience with a product or service† (Johnson, Anderson et al., 1995). As a customer’s overall evaluation of the purchase or consumption experience, cumulative satisfaction is the most relevant conceptualization when the focus is on the tourist’s evaluation of their overall experience at a destination. This is sometimes referred to as market-level satisfaction. The literature suggests that satisfaction measurement must be treated differently at these two levels of abstraction. Moreover, when considering consumer satisfaction with their consumption experiences, a major distinction has been made between the consumption of goods and services (Lovelock, 1991). Measures of satisfaction are not the same for these different consumption experiences, largely because of the role of the consumer in the service encounter. It could also be argued that tourism is a ‘special’ service in that, like recreation or education, it is largely self-produced (Williams, 1988). The individual plays a central role in determining the experiences achieved and the benefits derived. The ‘special’ nature of tourism can be understood by adopting the behavioral perspective first developed within the recreation and leisure literature. This literature demonstrates the value of perceiving recreation as activity that creates experiences which, in turn, result in benefits for the individual (Driver and Tocher, 1970; Mannel and Iso-Ahola, 1987). This created a focus on the factors which determine the quality of those experiences and the benefits derived. Measurement of satisfaction has therefore involved an assessment of whether the experiences have resulted in the desired benefits sought by the individual. In his seminal paper (Wagar 1966) suggested that the quality of recreation experience depends upon how well desired outcomes are realized. Satisfaction is therefore more a function of the needs and interests of the individual than the attributes and characteristics of the service provided. These ideas have gradually become the basis of the conceptualization of the tourist experience and informed much of the work about tourist motivations and expectations (Crompton and Love, 1995; Ryan, 1995). Therefore tourist experiences can be regarded as the result of an active endeavor by the individual to create a situation in which to achieve satisfaction. It is this active involvement of the individual in the creation of his or her personal experiences that needs to be acknowledged. In a similar vein, the early recreation literature also recognized the implications of this approach for the assessment of recreation service quality. It was recognized that â€Å"the quality of the experiences can be influenced by input factors provided by managers . . . but to a considerable extent the quality of experiences depends upon choices made by recreationists and how they use the many factors of production† (Brown, 1988: 413). In other words, the satisfaction levels experienced by recreationists are recognized as being a function of a number of different variables including those brought by the recreationist him/herself which are beyond the influence of the service provider. Drawing on the consumer literature, it is too easy to assume that the outcomes of the tourist activity are solely the creation of the tourist operators/industry. However, it is perhaps more enlightening to adopt a ‘transactional perspective’ outlined in the recreation literature. Here, the tourist â€Å"actively creates the recreation(tourist) experience, through a transaction with the physical and social setting, including what the recreationist (tourist) brings to the process in terms of history, perceptions, companions, skills, equipment, identities, hopes and dreams† (Williams, 1988). With this perspective, more emphasis is placed on the behavior of the individual and their role in creating the experience. Not all the responsibility for creating high levels of satisfaction rests with the service deliverer. With this in mind, (Crompton and Love, 1995) make a distinction between quality of opportunity and quality of experience. â€Å"Quality of opportunity is defined as qualities of the attributes of a service that are under the control of a supplier. Evaluation is concerned with judgments about the performance of the leisure opportunity supplier. . . . In contrast, quality of experience involves not only the attributes provided by a supplier, but also attributes brought to the opportunity by the visitor or recreationist. . Quality of experience is a psychological outcome or emotional response. . Satisfaction is measured by how well leisure activities are perceived to fulfill the basic needs and motives that stimulated the idea to participate in the activity (Crompton and Love, 1995:12)†. When the objective is to measure satisfaction with a holiday in a particular destination, it will be important to note this distinction and ensure that both aspects are included in the assessment. We have been reasonably good at assessing tourists’ perceptions of the quality of opportunity but largely ignored the question of quality of experience. A further perspective that could be of relevance here is that of Herzberg (1966). While his work mainly focused on the workplace, his theory of motivation has relevance to the expenditure of discretionary time such as going on a holiday. Herzberg (1966) suggests that all aspects of an experience can be classified as either a motivational or a hygienic factor. Motivational factors are those that positively encourage people to do something. For example, a desire to make new friends may motivate people to go on an organized tour rather than travel alone. On the other hand, hygienic factors are those things which would not encourage one to travel, but their absence would discourage such travel. A good example is the availability of clean drinking water. Having this available is unlikely to motivate someone to travel, while its absence could cause someone to not choose a particular destination. According to Roger James Associates (1996) â€Å"the absence of motivational factors does not lead to ‘dissatisfaction’ but rather to ‘unsatisfaction’ a sense of emptiness rather than a sense of anger or disappointment. On the other hand, the absence of a hygienic factor will lead to dissatisfaction. The presence of such a factor will not lead to ‘satisfaction’ but rather to ‘satisficing’, that is, a passive (albeit benign) feeling† (Roger James Associates, 1996 : 34). If we adopt this framework it could be suggested that we have tended to focus on the hygienic factors which are represented by the measurement of how well the services (hotels, airports, travel companies, etc) are provided. These are important because without these being done well, the customer would be very dissatisfied. However, we have not also measured the motivational factors. These are akin to the experience factors how well the destination facilitates the satisfaction of personal needs. The best way of ensuring that we are providing this is to understand the client’s needs, etc and to develop product that is relevant to these. In turn, this is linked to the benefits to be derived from the experience thus creating satisfaction. The work by Arnold and Price (1993) confirms the role that needs and desires play in the consumer’s evaluation of a particular experience. They present very clear evidence that the satisfaction of participants in this recreational (or possibly tourist?) activity is related to the extent to which the experience enhances their individual cultural script and are â€Å"interpreted within the broader narrative context of the consumer’s life† (Arnould and Price, 1993). They suggest that â€Å"satisfaction with river rafting . . . does not seem to be embodied in attributes of the experience such as amounts of time spent freezing in wet clothes, uncomfortable toilet facilities, bad food or any summary index of specific attributes of the trip† (Arnould and Price, 1993). These general thoughts appear to be in line with the fundamentals of the marketing concept most commonly described as â€Å"satisfying the needs and desires of the consumer† (Keith, 1960 :38) and the whole notion of benefit segmentation which suggests that purchases are selected on the basis of the benefits derived by consumers (Haley, 1968). It is also consistent with the recent work of Spreng and his associates which emphasizes the role that desires, as opposed to expectations, plays in determining satisfaction within the disconfirmation framework (Spreng, Mackenzie et al., 1996). Proposed Path Space does not permit an exhaustive examination of the extensive literature outlining the various models used as the basis for measuring customer satisfaction and gauging the behavioral aspects (see Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al., 1994). However, a review of this literature has uncovered a model that could be developed to provide a satisfactory method of evaluating tourists’ satisfaction at the level of the destination and their motivational map. This model has been developed by Iso-Ahola and has become the basis of extensive work at the national and international level. The index provided by the Iso-Ahola model provides a cumulative evaluation of a sector’s market offering coupled with individual evaluation of a specific transaction. Called the ‘Customer Satisfaction Index/Barometer’, it has been introduced in: Sweden, Germany and the United States of America (Fornell, Johnson et al, 1996). Taiwan and New Zealand are also in the process of introducing a similar national satisfaction indicator. While much work still needs to be done, the framework provided by Iso-Ahola model provides a good starting point. It should be possible to make the necessary changes required to produce a useful index that will contribute to the on-going development of this important industry. Chapter II Literature Review It is imperative to start with a review of literature that addressed motivation in the travel and tourism industry. By adopting this approach we will be able to present a much more comprehensive and inclusive approach to understanding the theories of motivation in the travel and tourism industry; and thus, we will be able to lay the foundations of clear parameters that can help scholars and decision makers measure the satisfaction of tourists and the underlying motivational factors. This part of the paper is dedicated to reviewing the literature that currently assesses the main theories of motivation. These theories span across a wide spectrum; therefore we will tackle the various theories of travel motivation in the first part and then we will focus our discussions on Iso-Ahola’s motivational theory. The main theories of travel motivation Knowledge of peoples travel motivations and its association with destination selection plays a critical role in predicting future travel patterns. The essay talks about the various theories propounded by the theorists and analyses their practical benefits for the tourism industry. Tourist motivation can be defined as the global integrating network of biological and cultural forces which gives value and direction to travel choices, behavior and experience. (Pearce, Morrison Rutledge, 1998) as cited by Allan R. Rhodes Espinoza. According to Seaton (1997) motivation is a state of arousal of a drive or need which impels people to activity in pursuit of goals. Once the goals have been achieved the need subsides and the individual returns to the equilibrium-but only briefly because new motives arise as the last one is satisfied. Krippendorf (1987), as cited in Seaton (1997) suggests that the motivation of the individual person to travel, to look outside for what he cannot find inside have been largely created by society and shaped by everyday life. People who live in cities, for example, are motivated to travel as tourists to wilderness areas because they need to escape from an artificial, monotonous environment. (Dann Matley, 1976) as cited in Mansfeld 1992). Grays travel-motivation theory, as noted by Mansfeld (1992), gives us two motives about why people go to natural settings. The first motive is the desire to go from a known to an unknown place, called in Grays theory wanderlust. Secondly, a place which can provide the traveler with specific facilities that do not exist in his or her own place of residence, referred in Grays theory as sun lust (Mansfeld, 1992). It is a common practice to consider traveler or tourist types as potential market segments for travel and tourism marketing (Smith, 1989 as cited in Theobald, 1996).Some of the motives which determine their travel choices are recreation, pleasure, new experiences, cultural interest, shopping. Any reader of literature of tourism motivation cannot help being struck by the similarity in findings by many researchers. The adjectives and categorizations of tourists based upon motivations may differ in number, but recurrent themes emerge. For example the need to escape from everyday surroundings for the purpose of relaxation, and discovering new things, places and people are often alluded to. According to Crompton (1979), as cited in Bello Etzel (1985), the need for relaxation, exploration, social interaction and enhancement of kinship relationships act as dominant push motives in the vacation decision. Reversely, pull motives are aroused by the destination and include factors like scenic attractions, historical sites. Push factors are thought to establish the desire for travel and pull factors are thought to explain actual destination choice. Seaton (1997) suggests that the push factors include avoidance of work, cultural/social pressures at home. The pull factors include seeking leisure /play, freedom and escape. Maslow (1943) identified two motivational types: tension-reducing motives; arousal-seeking motives. According to Maslow, there are five needs forming a hierarchy, progressing from the lower to the higher needs. Maslow argued that if the lower needs [physiological {hunger, thirst, rest}, safety {security}, belonging and love {affection, giving and receiving love}] are fulfilled the individual would be motivated by needs of the next level of the hierarchy [esteem {self-esteem and esteem for others}, self-actualization {personal self-fulfillment}]. Cooper et al(2005) criticizes Maslows theory saying that why and how Maslow selected the basic five needs remain unclear, although Page(2003) feels that it has relevance in understanding how human action is understandable and predictable compared to research which argues that human behavior is essentially irrational and unpredictable. Cooper et al (2005) also questions the arrangement of the needs. Though Cooper et al (2005) criticizes much about Maslows theory, he feels that tourism industry has borrowed a lot from Maslow because he provides a convenient set of containers that can be relatively labeled. Hudman (1980) as cited in Davidson and Maitland (1997) argue that Maslows (1943) hierarchy of needs provides a useful framework for understanding psychological motivational factors in tourism. Thus, for example, although the apparent purpose of a trip may be to visit friends and relatives, the underlying psychological motivation may be a need for belonging